possibly now in England be not only destructive to many thousands but very disadvantagious to the King and Kingdome to the Trade and Commerce of the Nation by opening a little Wicket of Royal Clemency only to some few and shutting the great Gate to many whose tender and unsatisfied or scrupulous Consciences do as much expect need and deserve it as those that have it in petty matters while all others scruples are driven to discontent and despair by denial of all indulgence to them in greater scruples There are but these four wayes of treating any party that dissents from the publick establishment of Religion and its Lawes in any Church and Kingdom 1. Either to impoverish imprison banish and destroy all Dissenters as the King of Castile did the Moores of Granada which is a very rough barbarous unwelcome and unchristian way disallowed by all wise men of all perswasions Or Secondly by rational convincing them of their errors which is a work of time and dexterity not to be done on the sudden no more then bodily cures without a miracle though very worthy to bear a part in the Discipline of the Church which should require of every one a reason why they differ from or forsake the established Religion and treat them according as their perswasion passion or pertinacy shall appeare to the Conservators of Religion Or Thirdly by changing established Laws for their sake which is not for the Piety Prudence Honour and Safety of a Nation and Church when it judgeth its Constitutions to be religious righteous and convenient Or Fourthly by way of discreet connivance and charitable indulgence so farre as the civil peace of the Nation will bear until Reason and Religion of whose prevalency wise and good men never despair have by calme and charitable methods recovered people from the error of their wayes by the sacred Doctrine and good examples of those who conforme to the established Lawes in Church and State This being first done will render Dissenters unexcusable and justifie any severity which shall be inflicted upon the extravagancies of those opinions and actions which do any way perturb the publick peace or affront the established Religion And in this particular case of the Quakers who refuse all legal Oathes upon scruples of Conscience and so threaten either to subvert our Laws or to obstruct all judicial proceedings pleading for their disobedience to mans Laws the express command of Christ and his Apostle Saint James no sober man can think by meer penalties to reduce them to a conformity with our Laws or to stop the spreading of their Opinions untill it be plainly shewed that it is not true Religion but onely Superstition in them a fear where no fear is a being righteous over-much by a mistake of Christs meaning a wresting of those Scriptures by their own unlearnedness and unstableness to their own destruction as well as to the publick perturbation Noble Sir this great work for so it is to convince weak and wilful men of the error of their wayes I have undertaken in this little Treatise by Gods blessing not unseasonably I hope as to our times nor unsuitably as to my profession If I may be happy to do any of them good who possibly may erre in this with no evil mind by redeeming them from their mistakes and so from the penalties of the Law I shall more rejoyce in that success then those Souldiers did who among the Ancients were rewarded with Civick Garlands for preserving any of their Countrey-men and fellow-Citizens which Honour you know the Roman valour esteemed more then any victorious Laurels for destroying their Enemies And in this charitable endeavour prospered by Gods grace I shall the more seriously triumph because I believe it most agreable as to my Saviours preoept and primitive examples of Christian Bishops so to your generous Soule whereby this piece may probably be fortified with the approbation of so pieus and judicious a person whose single suffrage is to me more valuable then the sequacious and vulgar votes of thousands whose empty brains and clamorous mouths like hollow places where Echo hides her self do commonly receive and report things not as the Truth is in them but as the noise and cry is lowdest I know you are as much above plebeian censures as titular Honours traditional Philosophy and popular Religion being every way judiciously devoted to God and his Truth full of Loyalty to the King and Laws also of sober Conformity to the established Religion of this Church whose royal Law is that of Charity the bond of perfection and centre of Peace In all which respects you deserve and have the love and honour of all worthy Persons and particularly of him who may without vanity own this as an instance of some worth in him that he is SIR Your most affectionate Friend and humble Servant JOH EXON March 20 1661. A DISCOURSE Concerning Publick Oaths and the Lawfulness of Swearing in Judicial Proceedings c. FInding lately in the most Honourable House of Peers that a Law was likely to pass in order to punish with great Penalties those English Subjects who under the name of Quakers shall refuse to take as other legal Oaths so those which are usually required in Judicial proceedings thereby to prevent either the alteration of the good Laws and Customs of England according to private mens fancies or the obstructions and violations of publick Justice the free course of which as that of the Blood and Spirits to the Natural is the preservation of the Life and Health the Peace and Honour the Happiness and very Being of the Body Politick which by the Laws and ancient Customs of this Kingdom of England cannot be duly administred but by those forms of solemn and religious Oaths in the Name of the true God which are the highest Obligations to Truth and Justice upon them that swear also the greatest satisfactions or assurances that can be given to others for the belief of what is so attested and for acquiescency in what is so decided I was hereupon bold thus far humbly to intercede with that Honourable House in the behalf of those poor people who are likely to fall under the Penalties of that Law That however I might consent to the passing of that Bill out of that justice and charity which I owe to the publick peace and welfare to which all private Parties Interests and Charities must submit yet I craved so far a respite for some time as to the execution of those Penalties upon any of them as Offenders until some such rational and religious course were taken as might best inform those men of the lawfulness by God's as well as Man's Law of imposing and taking such publick Oaths That so answering first their Scruples and fairly removing their difficulties either they might be brought to a chearful Obedience in that particular or else be left without excuse before God and man while the truth of the Law was justified against
to choak that good seed of Religion which is sown by the publick Ministry and fenced by legal Authority As I would have that Religion only setled in its Doctrinals Devotionals Discipline and Government which is by publick consent according to the word of God and Catholick prudence judged to be the best for Truth Sanctity Order Decency which blessed be God is in England so I would have It and It only to enjoy all publick countenance and encouragements by the injunction and protection of the Laws by the favour and example of the Prince by publick maintenance and honour by the use of publick Churches and Oratories To the Preachers and professors of this publick Offices and Employments of honour and authority foraign and domestick ecclesiastical civil and military should be chiefly appropriated of these advantages dissenters should be generally deprived because they are the proper honoraries of those who most serve the publick Peace by their due observance of the Religion and Laws established from which whoso openly vaâ—ies and dissents layes the foundations as of distraction and division so of destruction and confusion With these outward advantages added to that internal power of truth holiness which are in the established Religion it may as I think not only be happily suppoâ—ted but easily prevaile in a short time by Gods blessing against all factious and feeble oppositions unless the scandal negligence levity and luxury of its Ministers Bishops Presbyters and Professors overthrow it by casting such immoral disgraces upon it as make people dissbelieve and abhorre both it and them as was in the case of Eli's Sons But I confesse I would not have this legal and avowed Religion of the Nation so rigorous sharp and severe as Sarah to Hagar by the suddain over-awing or violent overlaying of all other different perswasions in peaceable men as not to let them breath in the same common Air or not to enjoy their lives civil liberties and estates with their dissenting consciences in all modest privacy and safety I abhorre as much as I dread all racks and tortures of mens souls or those cruel no less then curious scrutinies of mens consciences which covet first like God to search mens hearts and then like the Devil delight to torment them in their Estates and Liberties only because they are not so wise or apprehensive as themselves but as honest perhaps and sincere in the sight of God True I think that some little pecuniary mulct as one or two Shillings to the poor for every Lords dayes absence from the publick Church or Assembly may be justly laid as a mark of publick dislike upon Dissenters and Separaters from the established Religion not for their private difference in judgment which possibly is not their fault but for their publick deformity in practise to the scandal of the established Religion and to the endangering of the publick welfare whose strength and stability consist in unity and this in uniformity to the setled rule and in conformity to outward practise yet still no Inquisition to be made into free mens Consciences nor any great penalty laid upon them for their perswasions further then their words and actions do discover their Principles Opinions Correspondencies and Adherencies to be contrary and dangerous to the publick Peace Order and Justice which all are founded in and flourish by our setled Laws and Religion Thus permitting sober men not a declared toleration or publick profession by way of open rivalry to the established Religion but only such an arbitrary connivence and conditional indulgence as gives them no trouble for their private and untroublesome Opinions while they are kept in their breasts and closets or in their private houses and families to which all dissenters ought in reason to be confined on the Lords day without any convention of strangers to them though perhaps on the week-day they may have their meetings allowed yet so as to be kept within parochial bounds or to such a number of persons and families as shall be thought safe But for Dissenters to have multitudinous Conventicles as it were musterings of their forces when where and as many as they please cannot be safe for thereby they not onely affront the established Religion but confirm each other in their opinions yea and as Charcoals in heaps they more kindle and enflame each other by their numbers to such proud animosities and rebellious confidences as may hope to set up their Faction supream not only in the repute of Religion but in civil power which is the ambitious aim of all parties except that which is purely Christian wholly resolved into suffering principles All others we see whether Papists or Presbyterians or Anabaptists or Independents affect summam Imperii as Diotrephes to have the preeminence as Lucifer and Antichrist to exalt themselves above all and therefore they must by wise and vigilant power as well as by good preaching living be kept as fire within the hearth of their private opinions and parties left they prevaile by popular Arts against the publick established Religion which is the Palladium or Conservator of civil peace and prosperity and never to be rashly changed or rudely contemned while it is authorised The great Charity to which includes even a charity to all those which differ from its present settlement who commonly are more miserable in the riotous mutations which their folly and rudeness affects then in those sober restrictions of which they are so impatient that from different perswasions they break out to petulant oppositions by Tongue and Pen thence they are betrayed to seditious projects and at last these must be brought forth in tumultuary and violent actions which are so intolerable that the very first sparks of their insolent and seditious Expressions especially in Pulpits and Presses ought by great penalties to be suppressed there being nothing more unreasonable then for any man rudely to blaspheme and reproach that Religion which his Prince and Countrey professe unless he be so impudent as many are to blaspheme that also which himselfe owneth as the true Religion with them This tenderness moderation and indulgence I bear only to humble modest and innocent dissenters upon the account of Christian Charity which ought in all things becoming humanity to exceed all other men as Tertullian well observes To which Christian Charity of mine towards sober dissenters besides the confidence I have of Truth and its prevalency perhaps my native temper and candor may contribute something which abhors after the genius of Primitive Christians all severity or rigors only upon the score of Religion farther then is necessary for the cure of offenders and the conservation of the publick Peace I know the roughness or smoothness of mens educations and complexions like Esaus and â—acob's have much influence upon their opinions and conversations yea and upon their consciences too If this may seem to some too great a facility and gentleness in me yet it is an error on the right hand
Samosatenians Anabaptists Familists Presbyterians and Independents give occasion and confidence to common people to run to Tumults and Commottons under pretence of setting up God and Christ and the Spirit by the way of new Powers new Lights and new Models in Church and State Of which rare Fancies we have had of late so many Tragical Experiments in England under other Names Notions and Pretensions Certainly it will become the publick care and wisdom as not easily to permit the rise and spreading of any novel humors and wayes contrary to the good Constitutions and well-tried Laws of this Church and Kingdom so never to trust them though never so soft and seemingly innocent at first Hornes as in other Creatures grow out of mens heads and hands too as their Bones and Smews grow stronger as their strength and members increase Nothing but truly Christian and Evangelical Principles which are in the good and old way do secure Kings or sufficiently bind Subjects to their good behaviour Though Factions at first may seem but as a Cloud of an hand-breadth yet they will in time grow big and black covering the whole face of Heaven and pouring down showres of Civil troubles upon any Church and Nation if they be not dispelled by Authority Let them go never so soft and silently at first as Cats and Lions do on their Paws yet they have all of them sharp Fangs hidden and reserved Talons till they find a fit prey and opportunity for their designs then you shall see what cruel Clawes they have We see not only the greater Hornets of rigid Presbyterians but the lesser Wasps of Independents and the Gad-flies or muskeetos of Anabaptists with other Insects after their pious buzzing at first used their stings at last and in their season both jointly and severally they sought to sting to death this Church and Kingdom though at first like Serpents in Winter they seemed very tame and meek as to their principles and practises There is a Wolf under the Sheeps clothing of all Novelizing Humorists All of them did either begin or continue or increase our late Miseries and will renew them by their emulations and ambitions from which the miraculous mercies of God have delivered us The only advantage which these our late Tragedies can afford us is to learn wisdom by them to govern our hearts and affections with greater evenness and exactness also to look to the Peace of Church State with all possible circumspection and vigilancy never to trust the most innocent smiles and harmless simplicities of any Innovators dissenters and repugners against well-setled Laws and ancient Constitutions no way contrary to Reason or Scripture For my part though I have pity and charity for these silly Quakers as they may now appear wrapped up in a kind of clownish garb and ignorant plainness yet I should forfeit my prudence much to trust their Hands because I find the Tongues and Pens of some of them are full of bitterness scorn and reproch arguing much pride and presumption in their spirits not beseeming truly mortified Christians and least of all such as are for the most part but mean people for birth or breeding for reason and understanding as well as estates And for the pretended Inspirations or inward Lights of which they vapour I never yet saw any beams or effects of them that might give the least cause to think of them above other poor men who live by the more sure and sufficient light of the Scriptures and our Laws which raise them to much a higher pitch of knowledge and prudence sanctity and due obedience then ever yet I observed in any of this way who seem very much infected with affectation and self-conceit I never conversed with any of their persons and for their Writings private or publick in which I suppose they shew their best abilities I must profess there appears to me so nothing of an excellent or extraordinary spirit in them that there is much of silliness and never well-catechised ignorance â—et off with great confidence an odd way of folly dressed up with some Scripture-phrases like Sepulchres painted with sweet flowers and fair colours but void of any true life and beauty within either as convincing of sin and error or as vindicating any truth or necessary point of duty and morality They generally seem a busie petulant and pragmatick sort of people measuring themselves by themselves admiring each other even in their most ridiculous affectations and falsities a kind of Dreamers at once deceiving and being deceived doting and glorying in their rude and contemptuous carriage toward all men that do not either favour or flatter them in their rusticity and petulancy which hath in it a great seed of pride and ambition Nor do they seem wholly void of other evil principles which look very like Covetousness and Injustice while they deny to Ministers of the Gospel never so able and faithful that maintenance by Tithes which by the Laws of the Land are as much due to them as any mans Estate and by no Law of Christ forbidden but rather allowed yea ordained and proportioned by the Lord under the Gospel by a paritie of justice and gratitude in way of homage to Christ and of due wages and hire to Gods labourers as the livelihood of those that serve God and his Church in holy ministrations Nor is it a small insolence in them to endeavour in an age of so much light and learning to obtrude yea oppose the rudeness and silliness of their covetous and crude fancies against the Prudence Justice and Piety of this Church and Kingdom But my design in this place is not to ravel into all the pettie Opinions Enthusiastick Raptures and odd practises of the Quakers nor will I here severely perstringe them because I have a great pity for them upon a threefold account First because I perceive them to be so very unlearned and unstable people ever learning but never coming to any solid knowledge of Truth or any great improvement in Christian gifts men of low parts and small capacities as to any point of true wisdom or understanding in things Humane or Divine tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine easily seduced with specious pretensions and strange notions even to Raptures and Enthusiasmes which are presented to them as rare novelties by some that are Masters of that Art and Agitators for that Party for what design private or publick forraign or domestick God knows Some suspect Jesuitick Arts to be among them Indeed they seem so far to conspire with the craftiest Lotolists as they bear a most implacable hatred against the Church of England and under religious pretensions they may in time undermine the civil Peace as other Factions formerly have done The way to make them better Subjects is to make them wiser men and seberer Christians by some publick care to have them better instructed as well as justly restrained My Second ground of pity
Speratus the Martyr about the same time denied to swear so because he knew not what the Genius of the Emperor meant Tertullian tells us in the second Century That Christians would not swear by the Genius or Daemon or Fortune of Cesar but by the health or safety of the Emperor they did because they understood by that God and the Lord Christ And when other Christians did in publick cases swear being required by Authority yet the Bishops of the Church were not put to swear as Basilius a Bishop pleaded for his priviledge when in the Council of Chalcedon he was required to give Oath the sanctity of his Life and honour of his Order being assurance sufficient for his truth The Christian Souldiers as Vegetius tells us took Oath in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit to obey their Commanders not to desert their Colours and to dye for the common welfare which was called Sacramentum militare both before and after Christianity had prevailed in the Empire And hence the name Sacrament came to be applied to Christian Mysteries which are special and solemn dedications of them to the true God and Saviour In the Nicene Council Arrius with an Oath renounced his heretical Opinion So in the Ephesine Council it was ordered that Nestorius should abjure all heterodox and profane Doctrines In the Sixth Synod of Constantinople Gregorius the Librarian made Oath tactis Evangeliis upon the Bible that he left the Books in the Library such as he found them without any blotting out or inserting which Oath I wish the Romish Expurgators had taken and kept as to their Edition of ancient Church-Authors Fathers and others Athanasius who seems and is very zealous against profane and popular swearing yet in his Apology to Constantius purges himself by Oath from the calumnies cast upon him by impudent persons citing for his defence the example of S. Paul Nor is it any news to read of Christian Kings and Magistrates requiring and Subjects giving their Faith by Oath in matters civil sacred and solemn when the form of Oathes were such as consisted with the truth of Christian Religion and the honour of the true God Nor did any Canons of the Church ever forbid such Swearing Indeed while Christians lived in persecution without any protection from the civil Indicatories there can be no examples of their Swearing after the heathenish manner But when Christianity and Christians came to be wrapped up in the Imperial Laws and defended by the Supream powers and were enabled to vindicate their civil rights in judicial proceeding they did not think that unlawful which God had of old commanded which hath a moral that is an eternal good end in it as an act of trust and appeal of agnition and veneration toward God of justice and satisfaction to man also of private and publick charity as the School-men truly observe for the ending of controversies and taking away of jealousies Only due circumstances were strictly required according to the word of God in judgment righteousness and truth Yea we read of old some condemned by the orthodox part of the Church as S. Austin and others tell us for this error among others that they denied all swearing to be lawful So did the Samosatâ—nians and some Pelagians in Syracuse so the Massilians and Euchites so in S. Bernard's days some of the Albigenses and of later dayes some Anabaptists and now the Quakers whether out of policy and art or simplicity and ignorance God knows It were as needless as endless in respect of the Quakers satisfaction who do not value them to produce the consonant judgements of Modern Writers of the Reformed Churches or the Romanists and the most eminent Divines among them which may easily be seen in the Harmony of their Confessions or in their particular Tracts in this Subject Swearing All agreeing as in just severity against false idle and profane Oathes against all perjury intentional and eventual So they do all assent to the moral good in a judicious and solemn swearing with due circumstances upon just occasions by lawful Call of Authority in cases honest and true especially to end controversies to secure Princes and preserve the common wellfare in Iustice and Peace Nor do they think that by any positive Law of Christ all swearing is become now unlawful to Christians among whom the same end use necessity and sanctity of Oaths may be and still are to be had which was once lawful to the Jewes and used in all Nations but only that kind of evil swearing which then was become customary and thought either not sinful or venial This is and ever was forbidden as by the Law of God of old so by the renewed vigor and force of it which Christ restored after it had been so much depraved by the Pharisaical presumption and popular profaneness which imposed rigors where God had laid none and affected liberties where God had given none Agreeably all eminent Writers of the Greek and Roman Church among the learnedest Papists Lutherans and Calvinists Canonists and Casâ—ists as well as those in these British Churches do assert the Authority of lawful Magistrates to require and impose religious Oathes and the duty of Subjects to obey both God and them in taking them as becomes Christians with due reverence to the Majesty of God and with fitting obedience to these commands of Superiours who have their power from God and are to use it to his Glory Nor do they disallow even private and spontaneous attestations of God in weighty matters as to quench the fire of jealousie or to purge away an unjust infamy or to give some such security as justice and charity may require for our own and others goods as a sober Heathen tells us to the just condemnation of Christians who in trivial affairs venture to prostitute the sacredness of an Oath And thus I have with greater prolixity then I intended my wonted fault and Apology endeavoured to vindicate the Divine and true sense of our Saviours words First to remove the crying sin of Swearing vainly rashly irreverently profanely falsly in small or great matters Next to shew the moral end and religious use of Oathes lawful for matter and form and particularly those required in Judicial proceedings according to the Laws and Customes of England both Ecclesiastical and Civil or common agreeable to the word of God and the judgement of the best Christians in all Ages Having herein no design but to give Testimony to that Truth which I believe to justifie the sanctity of our Lawes to serve His Majesty and to do the duty of a good Subject a good Christian a good Minister of Christ and a good Bishop of this Church dispelling the needless scruples and superstitious fears of these poor people called Quakers shewing them their safe liberty to obey and how to escape the Penalties for disobeying the Laws and obstructing Justice by refusing
and nearest the medium both of humanity as a man and of charity as a Christian measuring all Policies by Christs golden Rule To do as I would be done unto Secondly In point of State-Policy also or methods of true Government I do conceive that meer plagiary counsels and punitive courses are never likely to obtain the main End which is to stop the contagion of errors and to extirpate those depraved opinions which are justly thought to be the spawn of dangerous actions For unless the generality of credulous people who are spectators of those that differ and suffer for their opinions and consciences do also see so much light of Reason and clear Religion as may justifie the severity of the Laws executed upon those offenders who profess Conscience for their Disobedience and Scripture for their Consciences it is most certain that the spectators of their sufferings will very much soften to a compassion for them and by sympathizing with their persons in affliction they will by degrees symbolize with their opinions easily running as metal that is melted into the same mold at length the populacy if not fortified by pregnant demonstrations of Truth against those spreading errors and their Pseudo-Martyrs will mightily cry up their Piety admire their Courage magnifie their Constancy At last they will conclude those sufferers to have some special support or diviner Spirit above ordinary men because they seem to be so much above the ordinary passions of fear and hope self-love and preservation which prospect of patience Justin Martyr tells us was the first occasion of his examining the Doctrine of Christians that he might see on what ground so fixed a constancy grew which shewed a Divine security midst humane infirmity By such popular pity and applause not only sufferers will be confirmed in their pertinacy but their spectators also will dayly encrease and multiply as the shootes of Trees do by the lopping off their branches especially if the lives and actions of such dissenters and sufferers be morally just and civilly innocent For nothing sooner discovers and blasts such cross opinions and withers the glory of their factious spectators then vile injurious and insolent demeanor either in words or deeds such as all men confess to deserve the Gaole and Gibbet This indeed as in the mad pranks of John of Leyden and his Anabaptistick crew in Germany and so in our Hacket and other Disciplinarians in England in the late presumption of the Presbyterian Reformations and Independent Confusions full of Perjury Sacrilâ—dge Treason and innocent Blood This I say will as the barking of Trees round presently bring any Opinionists and Factionists to publick scorn and hatred as it did those Papists who heretofore in the Marian Persecutions in the horrid Powder-Plot and in the late Irish Rebellion full of perfidy and cruelty have so blemished the repute of that Catholick cause as it can never be redeemed from just jealousies but by actions of extraordinary Loyalty Meekness and Humanity besides the renouncing of some opinions But where harmlesness of life sets a glosse on Opiniont and Errors thereby grow more lusty and rank as ill weeds in good ground there meer robust power or punitive severity can no more pull them up then a strong arm doth thorns and bushes when they are deeply rooted breaking off the stem or top of them but leaving the roots still in the ground which will spring again and spread farther Here nothing is so effectual to do execution upon errors as clear demonstrations of Reason and Religion which reaching mens Consciences by the proper methods of conviction do like a sharp Spade and Mattock fetch up the very roots and fibres of evil opinions to the utter extirpation of such noxious plants in a short time except where knavery and hypocrisie do husband Opinions to the best advantage of secular ends and interests of reputation profit or power After this charitable method and temper were those many learned Works and elaborate Tracts of the Ancient Fathers of the Church Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian Saint Austin Prosper Cyril Hilary Optatus Saint Jerom and others written conforme to the Canons and Decrees of Ecclesiastical Councils guided by the Word and Spirit of God and seasonably applied by their skilful and charitable hands to cure the maladies and stop the Gangrenes of such pestilent opinions as sprang up in their dayes from Hereticks Schismaticks and Fanaticks Nor did those holy men at any time so despise the meannesse of any Christians outward condition or the fatuity of their opinions as not to set a great value on their souls for which Christ had died ever applying first the sword of the Spirit the Word of Truth in meekness of wisedom before they craved the assistance or incouraged the severity of the secular Sword from Christian Emperours and Magistrates using all rational and religious means untill they found that depraved opinions put men upon desperate actions as in those of the Novatians Donatists and Arrians also of the Manichees Euchites and Circumcellians a primitive kind of Quakers who by a specious constancy in praying and affectation of suffering so seduced the vulgar people that the numbers of their devout idle and hungry associates at length gave them confidence to make a prey and spoile of other mens goods estates and lives too till by armed Forces they were repressed and by just Laws prohibited in Honorius and other Emperors times Then indeed Charity to the publick peace and welfare must be preferred before any pity charity forbearance or indulgence to private persons parties and opinions which growing rude and insolent in their words or deeds sufficiently discover they are not upon the pure account of Conscience or principles of true Christian Religion which is as farre as Heaven from Hell or Christ from Belial from teaching or impelling men to any actings or approvings of private sinnes and immoralities much more from publick conspirings and practisings of Factions Schisms Sedition and Rebellion in Churches and Kingdomes for which Christ never gave any Commission to his Disciples nor the least countenance but on the contrary most eminent precepts and examples of humility meekness and patience under any sufferings for conscience sake sufficient for ever to confute the most specious pretensions of any who violently carry on their private Opinions and pretended Reformations against the will and power of lawful Magistrates and settled Churches I do judge it both Piety Charity and Policy to establish the rule of publick Religion by Lâ—wes for uniformity in Doctrine Devotion Discipline and Decency accompanied as with Rewards and Priviledges to the Conformers so with some moderate pecuniary Penalties on Dissenters according to mens estates and influences but I confess I am not for heavy mulcts and rigorous exactions which shal imprison banish impoverish or destroy modest Dissenters and their families onely for the variety of their judgment when their civil actions are otherwise moral just and inoffensive This severity would in some Countries and