of the question with some more mature thoughts and peculiar notion which affording me a ground work for further disquisition hath given me both the rise and ability to carry the point on to a full Determination And this Gentleman I count hath given too little to the Magistrate on the other hand in the matters of Religion but hath gone to make it up with giving him too much in Moral and Civil matters I must be forced to tell this to my ordinary Reader who else would perhaps hardly believe that it is I who stand for Liberty of Conscience that grant the Magistrate his due power in things Sacred as well as Civil and it is he is not tender enough of it when denying him what is his due the use of his Sword or power in things Religious he hath left him without a rule or bounds to his commands in other matters If I appear to drive on my purpose in this and other of my Books more dryly and scantily then in a Subject or Subjects so capacious might be expectted let not the Judicious Reader impute that to me as a fault which is a thing so much to be wished in the writings of others that I do single out the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the main thing altogether which is to be sought and I do by no means deflect from it leaving whatsoever else the matter may lead to as more copious and where none of the knot lyes to the Volums of others Sect. 8. The first of these Books then is A Discourse of Ecclesiastical Polity the design whereof as to the substance consists in the giving a Superiority to the Magistrate over the Conscience that in all doubtful or disputable cases viz. in all matters in their nature indifferent he means according to his Scope in all matters now in difference between the Conformist and Non-Conformist a man must account according to that Authors opinion that if he act against the dictates of his conscience out of obedience to the lawful Magistrates commands he does but as a Christian and is justifyed by him in the doing A Doctrine that I take to be not only new and Heterodox but dangerous to Religion and the opening a door to the pleasing of man and seeking preseâ—ment above keeping a good conscience before God In things apparently and intrinsecally evil he grants that the Magistrate is not to be obeyed But how can this stand on its foundation if conscience had not certainly an authority over the commands of the Magistrate and the authority of the Magistrate not over conscience as he speaks There need no more proof that conscience must have the superiority in every thing then to yeild it in any thing seeing it is the conscience of every particular person is the judge to him of what God has forbidden and the command of God must take place of the command of men in all things alike whatsoever If this eminently accomplished young Divine then be not too proud to take it kindly I would help him out here according to the best that I think can be done There is the conscience of the universality and of particular persons When he says the Magistrates Authority is over the conscience let us understand his meaning to be onely as to the conscience of such particulars which in some sense may be granted while he passes any Law upon the account that it is according to the consciences of the Generality notwithstanding it proves against theirs And then whereas he speaks often to this purpose that the conscience being in doubt a man should in all matters indifferent make the Law or will of the Magistrate his rule Let us understand him favourably that he means onely when a man is satisfied in the main of the thing that it is lawful and there remains only some scruples that are fit to be shaken off in which case Divines I think do ordinarily advise it to be safest to obey the Law But this is to be known also that the conscience is not to be accounted doubtful in this case but satisfied and troubled only as the Travellour is with the Scrupuli the gravel in his Shooe which he throws out and walks on whereas if his feet be really wounded and he does so he may be undone That this may be the better relished I will entreat this person to take good heed onely to a certain Book which is another such a one as his and came out then and I suppose he likes well a Book entituled Toleration discussed where he may read these passages for his instruction Am I to believe every thing to be indifferent which the Magistrate tells me is so though it be wicked No he answers Sect. 21. You are bound there by a Superiour Law and to your self you are Judge Again I am so far in another place from advising you to renounce your reason that on the contrary I would have you absolutely guided and concluded by it and only to obey for quiets sake so far as you can possibly obey in conscience Again The Magistrate is a publick Minister and his Commission reaches not to particular consciences On the other side there is as little reason for any ones private opinion to operate on a publick Law So that if I mistake not we are upon accord thus far That every particular is to look to one and the King to the whole Again The King is accountable to God for the welfare of his people and you are accountable to God for the good of your little particular If you cannot obey the Law do not but abide the penalty And finally when he hath balanced all the interest he can for the Law with this alone of Conscience he hath the same cloze And yet I say stick to your conscience I do cite these passages with pleasure to see a reverence to conscience in the heart of the Gentleman who wrot that Book and that meerly out of conviction when the Divine who wrot this Discourse of Ecclesiastical polity hath so carried it as if in the whole matters which are now in agitation between all parties in the Nation the Magistrates Authority alone should satisfie every body When the Dictates of a private conscience says he happen to thwart the determinations of the publick Laws they in that case loose their binding power with several passages to that purpose which is certainly a fair beginning as is intimated for the making the Rulers favour and a mans own advancement very quickly all his Religion The Magistrate then which I offer as what himself and this Gentleman intends in the passing any Law the matter whereof is against any of his Subjects consciences is to be conceived to go by a Judgement on the Generality and those Laws to be supposed according to conscience because they are according to his own and those of the generality when else they could not be passed without sinning against God In the mean time every particular man for himself is
such where the Superiour commands what he ought I will express it if you will in other words When the Superiour commands any thing which he ought we are obliged for conscience sake and the fifth Commandment requires us to do the thing or else we break that command because this thing bears in it the authority of both Commanders when he commands any thing which he ought not we are obliged for wrath's sake and the fifth Commandment requires only that we do not resist so that if we resist not we give that honour and pay that duty to the Magistrate which we owe in this case If we suffer with submission or obey rather then suffer or avoid both the grievance and suffering with prudence neither bringing contempt on his Authority or inducing our Brethren to sin we are to account that we answer the intent of this Commandment I must add still that this is as much too as the Magistrate himself need desire in the Earth seeing if he be strict upon it and the thing be not sinful he may take any body do what he please upon this account As for our Prefacer it must be yet a greater reproof to his undertaking that in this endeavour of his to set up an Authority in the Magistrate over the Conscience in all matters External he is certainly fallen in with Mr Hobs whom yet to avoid the odium he is fain himself to confute For when that more considerable person according to his principles of Government makes all men by nature before they come into society to be in a state of War that gives every man right to every thing which right upon their agreement into a Common-wealth is given up he counts into the hands of the Soveraign to determine Propriety so that his will thenceforth becomes the measure of right and wrong to the Community he proceeds so far upon the conceit as to condemn these two positions That every man is judge of good and evil Doctrine That whatsoever a man does against his conscience is sin See his Leviathan C. 29. Now let us compare this ingenuously as we ought seeing else it is so bad with other places in his Book That Subjects owe to Soveraigns simple obedience in all things wherein their obedience is not repugnant to the Laws of God I have proved C. 31. Again It is manifest enough that when a man receiveth two contrary commands and knows that one of them is Gods he ought to obey that and not the other though it be the command of his lawful Soveraign or his Father C. 43. It does appear then when the Ecclesiastical Polititian does confine the authority he gives the Magistrate over the conscience to external and indifferent things allowing the authority of the conscience over the Magistrates in things intrinsecally sinful and expresly forbidden by God he does but the same which Mr. Hobs does also if you compare them equally taking one place with another But herein are they wicked companions both that they should once offer to take away from reasonable Agents a judgement of private discretion in any concernment of conscience whatsoever One may easily indeed perceive what the Contents of this young mans papers do amount unto He dare not take off all obligations of good and evil from mens consciences antecedent to humane Laws as Hobs in that one place though otherwhere as it seems he intended not so far hath done because this were not only the way to ruine Religion but his name and to bring all Government also to ruine which he engages to assert But he would take off all obligations from mens consciences in the whole business of Conformity antecedent to the will of the Parliament and Bishops so as their Acts must be the rule of good and evil to us as to these matters He does tell us indeed of a liberty to our Judgments and to our Faith but when he will allow us to judge and believe of these things as we do and would yet have us account that the publick conscience the Laws and not the private dictates of our own must govern our outward actions it does bring to my mind one passage more in his Friend What if a Soveraign forbids his Subjects to believe in Christ I answer says Mr. Hobs it is no effect because belief or unbelief never follow mans Commands But what if we be commanded to confess with our Tongues It is an external thing and no more then any other gesture whereby we signifie our obedience and a Christian holding firmly in his heart the Faith of Christ hath the same liberty herein with Naaman Leviathan C. 42. There are no passages but this and that one before cited that in my reading over that Book I observed to be so extream bad as folks ordinarily talk but this I noted for a Devilish Doctrine seeing it is offered thus indefinitely for it is directly contrary to all the Holy Martyrs belief and practise and the express institution of our Lord that he that confesses him before men he will acknowledge and he that denieth him he will deny before his Heavenly Father Yet if any will be so kind to the old Gentleman as I have been before to produce some passages otherwhere that may confine hâ—s meaning here to such compliances of the Tongue and Knee only as are required in the impositions of Vniformity and no other but such then shall the old Leviathan and the young Leviathan agree very throughly in their opinion And why the young one should fall upon his Sire so foully as he hath done whom above all men being alone of his side he should have rather endeavoured to excuse unless out of shew onely and for a coulour or out of invenility and vanity he shall for me have the Tripos or be the eighth man who can give me a good reason I perceive indeed that two points and both of which I have had long in my thoughts are harled together through the skein of this Prefacers Discourse that is the Magistrates Authority in Religion and the Obligation of human Laws It will be expedient for me to dispatch the one quite out of my hands being already done in another Book to be at liberty to attend the other presently altogether By what hath been then laid down it may appear that the right and relation of a Subject to his Soveraign may be held good when yet there are it may be some of his Laws not obeyed Some Laws there are which a man must rather suffer or dye then obey as the Roman Emperors commanding Sacrifice to their Gods Some we are to obey out of conscience such are all the wholesome Laws of a mans Countrey Some there are that we obey out of prudence rather then suffer which yet we do not judge our selves bound to obey for fear of sin or of Gods displeasure The great question then arises what is that rule according to which the Laws of men are to be measured that we may
11. There is one thing yet seems wanting I do speak here to one branch of the main position as false while in things Religious though they could not be known but by Revelation and the world could be governed without them I affirm the Magistrate hath authority and may use his Sword as he may in other matters that is provided they be not against mens Consciences But as to the other branch in things Civil and and Moral which men may know by natural light and in which the Government is more concern'd I have not said whether it be true or false I will proceed therefore and declare that as the Position laid down at first or the worthy maintainer of it goes too low in denying the Magistrate the use of his sword in Religious things which is to be granted I count herein as in other matters to wit upon supposition of both to be not against but according to their Consciences So does he go too high in yielding it in Civils without the same limitation whereof we must be still as tender as of our Eye or of our Salvation I do think also of the two the last is the more dangerous extremity I argue then If the Magistrate may not use force or the temporal Sword in Religious affairs because such things are of that nature as the Conscience is like to be concer'd in them and if it be against their Conscience it is unlawful then when the Conscience likewise is concern'd in Civil things he may not use the Sword neither For if the ground be good in the one it must be good in the other if it will not hold in both it may be denied in either Again the things perhaps are Civil things but the man or men makes a Conscience of them and so the case must be the same to them as if it were in Religion To make a conscience of a thing is to look upon it as commanded or forbidden of God and to go about to perform or avoid it upon that account But to do or leave a thing undone upon the account of the command or prohibition of God is an act of Religion Consequently though the thing be Civil yet so long as a person or persons make a consciscience of it it is all one to them I say as if the things were religious and the authority of the Magistrate can be no more in the one than the other I will propose some instances Doeg accuses the Priests to Saul He hears their cause condemns them as Traytors commands his Servants to do execution upon them they refuse the execution It is against their Consciences Saul here hath no authority over those Servants in this case either to command them to act or to punish them for not acting against their Consciences If they obey him they sin against God Saul might urge here the thing was of Civil concern and if all should do as they did that is question the Judges sentence and refuse to execute it upon pretence of conscience the Government could not stand yet this wont serve they must not act against their Consciences for all that If he falls upon them for it they must bear it but it will be tyranny over them and injury to Heaven the superiority of whose authority over his being the thing in effect they asserted by that refusal You may say this is an instance indeed in Civil things wherein the Magistrate had not authority and consequently when Civil things are imposed against a mans Conscience the case is the same as in Religious But you will add the Consciences of these men was in the right and you would have some instance in Civil things where the Conscience is erroneous I will offer you therefore other instances A Garrison under Scanderbeg is besieged by the Turks it has but one Well in it a Traytor throws in a dead Carrion The Soldiers are under a superstition that the water hereupon is unclean and that they cannot drink it without sin Rather than do so they yield the place otherwise impregnable This instance I once used elsewhere on another occasion let me offer you one more authentick out of the Machabees The Jews are of the general perswasion that they may not fight on the Sabbath Their enemies come upon them on that day on purpose rather than act against their Consciences they suffer themselves all to be slain I will ask now upon this perswasion of these men that the doing these necessary things as drinking that water and defending themselves was sin whether the Captains of those Soldiers could command them to drink or to fight and force them to it Nothing can be pleaded of more moment in any case The whole Government and their lives depend on it and the light of nature might teach them that necessity should take place of their superstition Nevertheless until they had consulted the thing and their Consciences were satisfied of the lawfulness of it that is until they came to find out the substance of what Christ afterward revealed That man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath for man There was no Captain or Governour I suppose could have power to command them or force them in the case I will descend to an instance frequent in the present Nation It is a Civil thing for any of the King's Courts to grant a Writ for a man to come and give his testimony by Oath to any Cause that is before them I will suppose now that some and that many have received the impression that it is unlawful for them to Swear at all and thereupon they refuse to Swear It may be urged in this case what a civilly evil opinion this is which is both destructive to the Government in the Administration and injurious to particular persons who may be undone in their Estates for want of such an Oath Nevertheless there are many of the Quakers ready to go to prison themselves and lose all their own Estates and we may suppose their Lives rather than they will be induced to swear I ask What will you say now to this case Hath the Magistrate power over these mens Consciences If he hath he may command them to judg otherwise than they do and punish them that they act according to this judgment And if he can command and use his Sword upon them to make them swear he may to make them come to Church and if he was a Papist Magistrate to come to Mass and if a heathen Magistrate to sacrifice to Idols If he have not power over their Consciences and to command them to have other judgments then must he let them alone as generally our Justices have done or challenge an authority to make men act against their Consciences which is to use the power which he hath from God against him If you think there is here some difference between such cases as these and that of the Machabees before it matters little But if you make none between
doing or does a thing which is evil or destructive to the Government and common good though it be according to his own Conscience or judgment but what he ought to do I think the Magistrate may punish him with comfort and may restrain him more comfortably from what he would do but I do not think he may punish him with any such content for not doing that which yet were good so long as it is against his Conscience My reason I give is this Because in the one the man does what God would not have him in the other he does what God would have God would not have him do evil because of his erroneous Conscience but that he should lay down his error and do good but God will have every man so regard his Conscience though erroneous that he must not do any thing against it for any fear or advantage in the world Again as for what cause I will ask For what end could you punish him Is it for the most ordinary end of punishment the parties amendment that is the making the man do what he now leaves undone I answer Then your distinction here becomes void when you say you would not force him to any thing against his Conscience but you can punish him for the Magistrates forcing a man to any thing against his Conscience is to punish him for not doing the thing to make him do it Or is it only for example sake to others If so Then must these others be either such as the thing is also against their Consciences and then I say you are no more to punish one man to enforce others thereby to do against their Consciences than to force himself to act against it Or these others must be such as it is not against their Consciences though against his and in such a case if their be indeed a punishment can be inflicted so as will not be inductive either to the man himself or others to do the thing which is against their Consciences but will only induce others who can do it according to theirs to the doing I am not careful though it be executed upon any yet cannot say steadily that you may execute it because the very nature of punishment is such as unless it be for a fault and that wich deserves it there is no other end without this can justifie the infliction of it You see at last still unto what all will be reduced Things are or things are not against mens Consciences And there is a forcing positively or negatively Understand these terms as I have unfolded my self and so judg of the weight or insufficiency of my Undertaking SECT 14. I remember in the life of Josephus when some of the Trachonites came in for rescue to the Jews where himself was Governor and the Jews would thereupon constrain them to be circumcised or else let them not abide with them he would not permit that injurious zeal alledging That every man ought according to his own mind and not by mans compulsion to serve God In our English story to suit this when Ethelbert the first Prince that received Christianity of the Sexon Heptarchy was converted by Austine sent hither by Gregory and many thereupon came into the Church it is said He specially embraced those that came in but compelled none for he had learned that the faith and service of Christ ought to be voluntary and not of constraint It helpeth much to establish the publick Tranquility says the Imperial Edict of Constantine and Licinius for every man to have liberty to use and choose what kind of worshipping himself pleases And for that intent is this done of us to have no man enforced to one Religion more than another A Prince who would draw his Subjects divided into Sects and Factions to his Religion should not in my opinion use force says Bodin Which he enhaunses more particularly from the example of Theodosius toward the Arrians John Barclay not William that wrote adversus Monarchomachos hath a Discourse on purpose to this effect about the Calvinists as it is thought under the name of the Hyperephanians in one Chapter of his Argenis It was observed by the Popes Councel says Guiccardine that the prosecution of Luther since it was not accompanied with their own Reformation did encrease his Reputation and that it had been a less evil to dissemble the knowledg of such a matter which would perhaps have dissolved of its self than by blowing at the brand to make the fire burn the more There may be some Notes conferred with this out of Davilah upon the deliberations of the Politick Katharine Regent of France about the Pacification in her Son Henry the Thirds time I will rest in one after Henry the Fourth succeeded That great Prince thought good to declare himself Catholick but gets that same Edict for Liberty to the Hugonats to be renewed and passed the Parliament of Paris By which means endeavouring to remove suspition from their minds and confirming them by good usage together with some gifts and promises to the chief Heads he insensibly took away says the Historian the pulse and strength of that Party so that those that are versed in the Kingdom believe that a few years of such sweet poyson if he had not been disabled in this course through want of money would have extinguished that Faction which so many years of desperate War had not with the effusion of so much blood been able to weaken Violent courses says my Lord Cook are like hot waters that may do good in an extreamity but the use of them doth spoil the stomack and it will require them stronger and stronger and by little and little they will lessen the operation They that love this Commonwealth says Judg Jenkins will use means together with the restitution of the King to procure an Act of Oblivion and tender Consciences a just and reasonable satisfaction else we must all perish first or last I will crown the rest of these Testimonies with that experienced advice of our late King to his Son our now consenting Soveraign Beware of exasperating any Faction by the crosness and asperity of some mens passions humours or private opinions employed by you grounded only upon the differences in lesser matters which are but the skirts and suburbs of Religion wherein a charitable Connivance and Christian Toleration often dissipates their strength whom a rougher opposition fortifies and puts their despised and oppressed party into such combinations as may most enable them to get a full revenge on those they count their Persecutors who are commonly assisted by that vulgar commiseration which attends all that are said to suffer under the notion of Religion I set down these passages which my self occasionally have noted I may add many more out of others It is not like in the three first Centuries of the Church that any thing is to be found in the Christian Writings for the use of the Sword in Religion while themselves
many men of sober spirits thought themselves bound to go that way which would most tend to the advancement of Religion And this is the true state of their cause which though I my self in my judgement for my university Oaths sake was otherwise inclined I do humbly offer in Justice for their Apology Onely I must add this that the occasion which happened once that was the Kings own deposing his power of dissolving the Parliament at that time being like never to be again there is no hurt at all in it If after this these men will yet press us further I will return that the state of the case being quite altered the King brought in again and with universal consent into the old constitution here is a wonderful kind of thing fallen out that the Fanatick or Anti-Episcopial party of the Nation are really turning to be the Royalist who are for Prorogative Supremacy in Ecclesiasticals when the Bishops party who have made it hitherto a proverb that without them no King are the men bandy against it for the maintenance of these Acts of Parliament And thus much shall suffice as to the first thing offered by the Prefacer about Popery and the Kings Declaration Sect. 3. I come then now to the other thing that requires our notice which is a matter indeed of great moment and therefore intended by me for the main task of my present engagement and that is his asserting an authority in the Magistrate over the conscience of his Subjects in matters of Religion So he hath expressed it and made it the subject of two other Books and insists upon it still in this Preface I am willing therefore to enter into a dissertation with him about the point for it will be worthy not only of our two labours but of another learned pious studious and worthy Knight who was the Author of the Papers entituled Liberty of Conscience and whom I shall purposely engage with the Prefacer that if it be possible we may all three together will we nill we beat out the right determination of the business As for the Prefacer I must needs say that I take him to be a man of fewer years and quicker parts and of a more flourishing Pen than to be fit at least of himself for the undertaking any such point as this is For either a man must be of a patient complexion that can read over all that is written by others about the subject and then give us the Compendium according to his judgment or he must be able by fixing long upon one thing and inculcating the thoughts of it upon the mind to frame his own notion in such a fore-casting of it through the whole train of its consequences to the end as to make it hold together which is not the work unius Diei or unius liturae to use the expression of the Bishop offer'd to my hand I know that the happiness of the first conceit does much but it is not the nimbleness of the Pen and a torrent of words does the rest Nay rather it is this volubility of the tongue which is Truth 's great Harlot while the handsomness of the expression will be ready still to allure away the judgment from that closer attendance to the dry notion that Controversal points or Cases of Conscience do require which should not therefore be writ in the style of this age For the language particularly of this person I cannot but compare methinks to a like present fashion in the Garments of Women the superfluity of whose dimensions may perhaps make their bodies look more stately but it will trip their heels up besides the cumbersomness if they take not heed to themselves or some other come after to keep them from falling Well! the business this notable eloquent Gentleman hath to do in this Preface is for ought I see really only to abuse the Non-Conformists and so fasten upon them some charge if he could tell what against whom in reference to their loyalty or duty to the Government But the charge being founded at the bottom only upon his first Book or the cause he hath there managed the best way to answer all his partiâ—ulars wil be to let them quite alone without raking the Dunghill up and to touch only in general upon the foundation There are two passages then I will cite out of this Preface for there are no more I count of that nature which I make my concern All their exceptions relate either to the Power in it self or to the matters of the Command The first are directly levell'd against the very being of Authority and Magistrates of what kind soever according to their general pretences must not dare to put any restraint upon their subjects consciences lest they invade the Divine Prerogative overthrow the fundamental liberties of human nature and undo honest men for their loyalty to God and their Religion Now if this right be claimed without limitation then the consequence is unavoidable That subjects may when ever they please cross with the authority of their Governours upon any pretence that can wear the name of Religion But this being grosly absurd the necessity of a Soveraign power in matters of Religion is granted and all Arguments that prove it in general necessary to Peace and Government are allowed or at least are not contradicted for what ever admits an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction howsoever bounded and limited admits it and that is enough to the first assertion of a supream Authority over the Conscience in matters of Religion Again after eighteen pages farther And they are exhorted above all things to keep their Consciences i.e. themselves free from the usurpation of all human Laws that is in effect they are forbidden to make any conscience of subjection to Princes for it is only Conscience that is capable of the obligation of Laws so that if they be exempt the whole man is at liberty By these two passages it does appear to me that this Ecclesiastical Politician from the beginning of his setting out to the end does run all along in that confusion as it will be hard to bring him to sorts But it shall suffice me to offer two distinctions which alone as I hope may serve to do this work both of drawing him out of his darkness and convincing others thereby of the injury of his accusations Distinguish we then first between the Authority of the Magistrate over his Subjects in matters of Religion and an Authority over the Conscience in any matters whatsoever It is manifest in the very expression of his Title and the customary language of his first Book and of this Preface That he does confound Conscience with the Matters of Religion whereas there are matters of Religion wherein the Conscience may not be concerned and matters wherein the Conscience may be concerned they be no Ecclesiastical matters The second distinction then is between Subjection which refers to the Authority residing in the Magistrate himself and
we should If he could have distinguished these two things he might have spared most of his labour There is a Book entituled The Obligation of human Laws discussed which I Printed a year since I must desire my Reader to get it and bind it together if he can with this for they are of two subjects that do enterfare very much The authority of the Magistrate in the matters of God discussed was the entended Title of this but I could not Print it till this Preface now hath given me the occasion I use the expression of Scripture in the matters of God because I would include all matters wherein the conscience is concerned as well as Ecclesiastical matters Now I have in that Book laid down this distinction with one more as the ground work of my determination of that point and I have need to say a little more to prevent some cavil which may be raised by this person upon my reproof which I must also give him for the next words he uses viz. 'T is conscience onely says he that is capable of the Obligation of human Laws so that if that be exempt the whole man is at liberty I wonder at the Man for this I do hate this pride methinks for being indocible and perverse no less then for being ugly Pride is an overweening conceit of ones self with the contempt of others There is nothing more visible than this filthy pride in this young man and that Author who wrote the Friendly Debate but only with this difference that I judg this the more ingenuous or open the other the more cankered and sly I pray God forgive them both with all my heart It is a base piece of immorality I am sure in either that when they have to do with any such person as Dr Owen of years so much elder than themselves and who are not without some reputation at least with other persons to use such contemptuous disdainful scorning language as they do altogether which arising so manifestly too from the conceit and confidence alone they have of themselves does declare them two such Sons of the morning such a couple of proud Despisers that until they do shew some repentance and acknowledgment for their fault they do deserve really to be excommunicated out of the good thoughts of all men that most deservedly otherwise do honor them never so much Well! This man cannot it seems understand how he should be obliged at all unless he be obliged in Conscience He cannot discern belike between an obligation simpliciter the obligation of conscience He cannot discern that the conscience which judges of our duty only in relation to God is bound only by a Divine obligation and that a Divine obligation may be distinguished from an Human obligation Is it not indeed strange that a man of such quick parts hath yet so little solid judgment Is it not one thing thinks he to be bound to an action because it is Gods will and for fear of Hell or Divine punishments and another to be bound to it out of fear only of the Law and to escape suffering Does not the Apostle when he tells us We must be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake imply this distinction that there is an obligation then only for wrath sake and an obligation out of conscience And cannot this exceeding fine witted man by any means discern this And will not he nor the Debater learn though it be never so ingenuous for them to come here to some acknowledgment that themselves as well as others may be able to live in this World under Laws with peace to their souls I do profess sincerely that of all the Books that ever yet I wrot I am most pleased in my heart with that Book I now mentioned as being a subject so needful for all persons though it be the worst printed I will supply some little I want in it in this place It is this If this Author were a man of as much judgment as wit he would not have laid down himself so rawly and excepted at the thing but at the terms of the distinction which I have used with other Divines For when Doctor Taylor speaks of the Bodies being bound and I have said the outward man in distinction to the Conscience it must be confessed that these terms are taken from custom and that it does fare with them as it does usually with other School-terms that they will not strictly hold the examination The Law of man which binds the subject for wrath sake only does so bind him to the external act as the will to that act must be included for to bind him in the Body without the Will were to put him in Fetters but it is no human obligation This I have said in my Book and I add here when I say we distinguish not the Will from the outward Man in the Obligation of human Laws it must be conceived that the will is guided still by the understanding and is supposed by some to be nothing else but the last practical act of it I distinguish not then the outward man from the inward so far as the inward acts are necessary to that which is external when I distinguish both from the conscience There is the understanding N.B. that I shall suffer if I do not such a thing and therefore I will do it is one thing and the understanding that I sin if I do it not and therefore I will do it is another The one is that our Divines mean by this term of the outward man still and the other is the conscience You may ask how comes it to pass that when there goes all this to an act the Magistrate commands so that the subject in his will and understanding so far as to do the thing is obliged we do yet call it but the outward man or forum exterius and can distinguish it with all that from the conscience I answer we call this the outward man upon this account because it is the external acts only that are subject to the Magistrates Government or can be required for themselves and the acts of the will and understanding are not required but indirectly in relation only to these external acts therefore I say do we well call all this still but the outward Man and this is distinguished plainly from the conscience because a man may know that such a thing is not required of God and that God will not punish him though he does not do it when yet he does know that it is prudent for him rather then suffer and therefore wills it In the one there is the external act with the will and understanding so far as that act is concerned but so long as my understanding is that it is not Gods will but mans will that I perform such a thing may be said to be done out of understanding and will as well as by the outward man but not out of conscience It is
know the kind and the degrees of their obligation This rule I have advanced in my former Book and I say that in matters of Religion the Word of God is the Rule in Morals the Law of Nature in Politicals God hath appointed a Rule also as sure and that is the common good The Laws of the Magistrates as the Sermons of Ministers do carry Gods Authority and oblige the consciences of the people so far and so much and no further or more then they are commensurate with their Rule in the one of the Word in the other I say of the common good But who shall be judge whether a Law be for the good of the publick or no I have made it my business to speak to this at large in that Book Every man must have a judgement of private discretion to compare the matters which are enjoyned him with the Rule in respect to his own actions or else he acts as a Bruite or howsoever he acts he cannot act out of conscience Conscience lyes in this very point my knowledge of this or that to have the authority of God but no human law hath any authority of his any further then it agrees with his Rule Note here I do not resolve my obedience but my obedience out of conscience into my private judgement whether the Law be or be not for the common good And here I must say no more because I refer you thither where this is made my proper work and I find nothing remaine after what you have here and there that is wanting in my mind but the satisfying two Objections as to the main Determination The one of them is this If the common good be Gods rule in Politicals then how may any Law which is not for the common good be obeyed We may not obey any command of man against Gods rule in Morality and in Religion I answer if a thing be notoriously against the Common good so as to be destructive to it we must suffer rather then obey such a command for this very reason as we dare not go against Gods Word because it is our rule and Gods rule must be obeyed and not Mans. But if a thing be but a little against the common good or no more then that the dammage to the publick by my obeying will not be so considerable as my own suffering then is it for the common good that I obey rather then suffer And I observe my rule still For though some things in themselves be against the common good yet may my obeying them commanded be for the common good And this is to be laid down and supposed that in all ordinary and common matters it is better for all in general or more for the common good to obey then to resist or suffer It is for my good and the common good I will suppose that I let the thing alone if I can help it but if I must suffer if I do it not the thing must be of great moment or detriment to the publick or else it is for the good of most in general that we obey It is certainly best if a Master commands any thing that will hurt the affairs of his House that it be let alone if the Boy or Man can escape without his anger or beating and it is better the thing be done that hurts him a little then that I suffer what hurts me more This is yet most certain that a Coercive power is the hedge of all Order in any State or Family which so long as that is kept whole it is safe and so far as that is infringed and that only it verges to ruine The other may be offered thus The common good is not the end alone of Government but the honour of the Magistrate and the Glory of God are ends also which are served by our obedience and therefore we are bound in conscience to the Laws unless they be against the Law of God whether they be for the common good or not I answer the foundation of this supposition is upon a great mistake in Policy which is that all Societies are formed by Contract between the Governor and Governed wherein both parties have their interests to secure which lays the leven of Civil Wars Whereas if it be placed in the mutual agreement of the people themselves in choosing their Governour and kind of Government as they judge best for their general advantage this supposing it agreed at first to be absolute secures it for ever being set up and answers the end of the institution He is the Minister of God to us for good I do not like therefore the making any more then one end of Polity as of Medicine and Theology The honour of the Ruler is but part of the bonum commune and is to be distinguished from it no more then the wealth of the Citizens The good of one is the good of both And as I like not the making Gods Glory and Mans Salvation two ends of Divinity for perplexities that have risen from thence so do I account that the glorifying God in the common good of the pars imperans pars subdita which both make up the Common-wealth to be one end of Politicks and the Glorifying God in mans Salvations to be the one end of Religion Let every Art Science and Profession be distinguished by its proper Object and End I must say then after this the Magistrate is honoured in our subjection always in obedience when his commands are for the common good for conscience sake when they are not in our obedience onely for fear and rather then resist or in taking heed of any contempt or provocation of him if we leave his commands undone So I conclude If any receive the information I have brought him let him give God the thanks if any receive it not the the wrong will be to himself he shall do me no hurt Sect. 7. And thus am I glad that I have had opportunity to say all I had need and desire in reference to the subject of my other Book which the Prefacer hath mingled with the subject of this I shall now apply my self wholly to the present Theme The Magistrates Authority in things Sacred I will begin as it were to discourse of it afresh as if I had yet said nothing of it and there are two Books come out some few years since which do seem to me to offer something both in their kind very remarkable on the subject The one of them owes its birth to the Author of this Preface who hath another also to the same effect which I shall only name again in my way having been too long engaged with him already as being in an extream on the one hand while he gives not only a power to the Magistrate in the Religious matters which is well but a power over the conscience in Religious matters The other has a person of honour and a worthy Student for its Author who hath proposed a state
them but say the Commanders of those Jews and those Soldiers might have compelled them in those cases I say if any of them could they ought and they should not have been said then to dye in their innocency I say again if they might then can a Magistrate command and force a man to act against his conscience then can he command him to sin then can he command what God has forbidden then must man be above God The earth it self methinks can as soon be moved as this foundation SECT 12. What shall we say then to these things Shall we complain that God Almighty hath put in man such a sturdy thing as Conscience is which makes him so often to become refractory to the commandments of his Superiors whensoever they do but require any thing against it No there is good reason God should maintain to himself an Authority above any mortal in the earth and that his name should be glorified by his servants in the confession of it to be world Or shall we complain of Government desiring to be rid of it as that which is so uneasie to our Consciences that we cannot hardly serve God but we must disobey man and incur danger about it Shall we rise up therefore in rebellion and acquit our selves God forbid It is the will of Heaven who hath put into the heart of man an awe to his invisible being as our supream Lord to constitute the Magistrate to bear his Image and representation in the earth that in his person himself may be honoured so long as we obey only with subordination to his will and the common good which is the end of his appointment If neither of these what then Shall we be e'en content in this state of corruption and imperfection when the Fall hath brought so much difficulty upon all things else as well as Government to offer the best composition we can between the duty the Magistrate owes to God and his people and the obedience the people owe to him and their consciences so that we may not put off any truth which stands irrefragable by the pleading inconvenience when these inconveniences are by prudence to be prevented and if we do it but as well as we can that is as the state of mans corruption or human frailty and infirmity will allow it suffices and the rest must be born Shall we agree upon this if we shall I have but a little more to say hereunto and I have done The Office of the Magistrate is to make the Laws and to see to the execution In all things as well Religious I have said as Civil which are for the peoples good he may pass and execute any Laws so long as they be agreeable to the Word of God and mens Consciences but he can command or inforce nothing which is against mens Consciences This is delivered already Those things now which are against mens Consciences let us consider in the last place which hath been intimated also from one or two occasions before are either such as are against the Vniversality or against so many of their Consciences as the Magistrate is to take Cognizance of them or against the Consciences only of so few as is not meet for him to take cognizance of them In the first case he is not to pass such a Law I count upon any terms if he do he sins against his Charge and he hath no authority to sin himself or cause any to sin In the second we may suppose that the Consciences of a few particular persons only are not sufficient to put an obstruction to any law really good for the Community but it is to be accounted for the universalities sake to be according to the subjects Consciences and not against them But when I have said thus as to the passing of the Law I must say also that in the execution of such Laws I hold that even those particular persons ought to be regarded In order hereunto There are some that pretend conscience of a thing when indeed they make none of it Understand not this so as if all that could not give a reason sufficient for what they hold did not make a conscience of it which hath cause a great prejudice and false reckoning of this business but when they believe not the thing really in their heart to be so as they pretend When men pretend they make a Conscience of a thing and indeed do not I would have the Magistrate above all men to execute the Law upon such supposing they judg that Law righteous and make them an example If you will say But how shall a Magistrate know this seeing no man can judg of anothers heart I acknowledge readily this is a difficulty and the chief thing which requires the Magistrates prudence and faithfulness Yet this I say That every man for all that being judg of his own acts and the punishing of forbearing a person being what the Magistrate does he must go and can but go according to his judgment He uses the Mediums as a wise man does and lawfully may take his conjecture the tree is known by his fruit and it is not necessary it should be certain but only that it be certain he so judges and if he be convinced in his Soul and indeed judges the mans profession only to be pretence it is his own judgment and nothing else can determine him Although where the person is serious in what he declares and not under any publick note of perfidiousness the rule of Charity which hopeth all things and believeth all things and thinketh no evil must encline him to the best construction When men do truly make the conscience they pretend let the Justice take heed and see that he likewise reverence Conscience no less than they do If the penalty be such only as the man is like to endure it without scruple rather than do that which is against his Conscience the Magistrate may be the bolder in executing that Law upon him But if it be such as he is like rather to do the thing against his Conscience than suffer it I would not be that Magistrate who should put such a Law in execution upon any In the mean time every particular man for himself is to look to his Conscience as his Judg in the business of his Soul and account that authority void to him whatsoever it be that commands any thing contrary to what that dictates And the supream Authority is to conceive that those that act under it will use prudence upon that account Which prudence I fear me really in this case can hardly be Christian but it must come to this That either they must totally forbear and not so much as threaten prosecution of the Law upon such a person or else perswade him first to resolution to bear the penalty and not do the thing against his conscience They must in effect say thus to the man If this thing be against your Conscience we advise you not
occasion in reference to the Donatists to consult with his Brethren about this matter he tells us the result they came to was this Non esse petendum ab Imperatoribus ut ipsant haeresim juberent omnino non esse poenam constituendo eis qui in illa esse voluissent sed hoc potius constituerent ut eorum furiosas violentias Catholici non paterentur That is they would not have their Legats desire of the Emperour to pass any such Law that no man should be suffered to be Donatists or that if they were they should be punished only for being of that opinion But that the violences they offered against the Orthodox might be repressed and particularly that the mulct which by a Law of Theodosius was laid on Heretical Preachers might be inflicted on these men that were disturbers Indeed the Emperour afterwards hearing of the fury of their Circumcellioes passed some Laws more severe than Augustine would have desired against all the Sect And that Father it must be acknowledged in many places of his several Books does seem to rejoyce much in the great success they found by them insomuch as I will not omit one or two of his expressions Multi qualem causam haeresis haberet nunquam antea cogitaverunt mox ubi caeperunt advertere nihil in ea dignum invenire propter quod tanta damna paterentur sine ulla difficultate Catholici facti sunt Docuit enim eos sollicitudo quos negligentes securitas fecerat Again Non vel tot sunt illi homines qui sua voluntate pereunt quot liberantur per istas leges ab illa pestifera pernicie Fundi pagi viri castella municipia civitates De correptione Donatistarum ad Bonifacium By this little and by all the rest we may see what a difference there is and ought to be of judgment according to diversity of states and circumstances in this business It is certainly true on both sides On the one that Laws and Punishments are ordinarily the direct means to suppress any evil that is growing and consequently any party sect or opinion that the Ruler shall think fit to suppress On the other that Persecution is the most quick and active course to engage the hearts and spirits of the believing and zealous in their way which is Religious and wherein they judg that God still must be obeyed before man above any other even of Preferment it self that could be invented to do it And consequently when we have stated the Magistrates power whereby we come to see what he may strictly do in these matters we must leave him at the last to prudential considerations still whether he had best to exert that power or no and what is best in the exerting of it according to the condition of this people For my own part I am here in Genere demonstrativo not in Genere deliberativo And I may debate with that Gentleman in the one unto whose Arguments I would refer to chuse of any in the other There are two Rules in the Preamble of the Statute primo Mariae The one is that the state of a King standeth more assured by the love of his Subjects than in the dread and fear of Laws The other is That Laws justly made without extream punishment are more often and for the most part better obeyed than those that are made with that extremity Unto which the before named Lord Chief Justice Sir Edward Cook subjoyns this sentence Mitius imperanti melius paretur I will close up all with that gracious end of one Speech of the present Lord Keeper to the Parliament If any just grievances shall have happened his Majesty will be as willing and ready to redress them as you to have them presented to him And his Majesty doubts not but you will give healing and moderate Counsels and imprint that known truth in the hearts of his Subjects That there is no distinct interest between the King and his people but the good of one is the good of both FINIS ERRATA PAg. 26. lin 12. for then read that p. 28. l. 11. r. we shall perhaps p. 59. l. 14. r. allowed to plead p. 66. l. 17. for preferred r. preserved