by all such Malefactors themselves I know not if one of a hundred thousand can be excepted and the punishment of such is justifiable as all generally acknowledge but to kill sober honest good Men meerly for their Conscience is quite contrary to the Doctrine of Christ as has been elsewhere upon other occasions largely demonstrated This being premised I shall briefly apply the same to the several sorts of Christians that thence may be observed whose Principles do most exactly agree with and lead to that Universal Love and Charity so much in words commended by all and for the want of which every sort take so much liberty to judge and condemn each other There are many other particulars by which the several Sects may be tryed in this respect but these two fore-mentioned being the principal I shall chiefly insist upon them in this present application To begin then with the Papists there is nothing more commonly acknowledged and assented to among them then that Maxim Extra Ecclesiam nulla Salus without the Church there is no Salvation which Maxim in a sence I confess to be true as shall hereafter appear but according as it is understood among them it does utterly destroy this Universal Love and Charity for by this Church without which there is no Salvation they precisely understand the Church of Rome reckoning that whosoever are not of her Fellowship are not saved and this must needs necessarily follow upon their Principles seeing they make the Ceremonial Imbodying in this Church so necessarity to Salvation that they exclude from it the very Children begotten and brought forth by their own Members unless formally received by the Sprinkling or Baptisme of Water And Albeit they have a certain place more tolerable than Hell for these Unbaptized Infants yet hence is manifest how small their Charity is and how much it is confined to their particular Ceremonies and forms since if they think Children born among them for want of this Circumstance are excluded from Heaven Albeit never guilty of actual Transgression they must needs judge that such as both want it and also are guilty of many sins as they believe all men are who are come to age especially such as are not in the Church go without remedy to Hell Secondly All Dissenters and Seperatists from the Church Infidels Turks and Heriticks which in short are all that profess not fellowship and Communion with the Church of Rome and own her not as their Mother are in a most solemn manner yearly Excommunicated by the Pope and it were a most gross inconsistency to suppose that such as are so Cursed and Excommunicated and given over to the Devil by the Father and chief Bishop of the Church can in the judgment of the Members be saved especially while they think he is approved of God and led by an Infallible Spirit in his so Excommunicating them And lastly To suppose any such Universal Love or Charity as extending to Persons either without the compass of their own Society or dissenting and separating from them so as to reckon them in a capacity or possibility of Salvation were to destroy and overturn the very Bassis and Foundation of the Roman Church which stands in acknowledging the Superiority and Precedency of Peter and his Successors and in believing that Infallibility is annexed thereunto Now such as are not of the Roman Society cannot do this and those that do not thus are such to whom the Church of Rome can have no Charity but must look upon them as without the Church and consequently as uncapable of Salvation while there abiding If it be objected that the Church of Rome professeth Charity to the Greek Armenian and Ethiopian Churches Albeit vastly differing in many things from them I Answer that whatsoever Charity the Church of Rome either doth or ever hath professed to any of these shall be found to be always upon a supposed acknowledgment made by them to the See of Rome as the Mother-Church and Apostolick Seat from thence seeking the Confirmation and Authority of their Patriarches at least as the Romanists have sought to make the World believe how true is not my present business to enquire and all these differences of Ceremonies that are betwixt them are only approved by the Romanists as such which are indulged to them by the Pope who pretends out of a Fatherly care and compassion to yield these things unto them which if it be true is done by him rather to uphold the shew of his Authority and because distance of place and other incommodities hinders him from pressing more upon them since in places nearer hand and where fitter opportunities hath been presented he hath shewn himself very Zealous and Violent to bring all to a ready obedience to the least of his Commands as by many examples could be largely proved yet some are of the mind that all these Stories and pretended acknowledgments of Patriarchs to the Romish Sea are but the meer effects of the Policy of that Court to uphold their Grandure and nothing better but pretty Comedies to amuse the Vulgar and Credulous and augment their Reverence towards the Pope and his Clergy but what-ever be in this it is abundantly manifest that there can be nothing more contrary to this Universal Love and Charity than Romish Principles and that no man of that Religion without deserting his Principles can pretend to it As to the other Principle of Persecution how much it is Preached and practised in the Church of Rome will need no great Probation Those that are acquainted with or have heard of the Spanish Inquisition of the many Inhumain Butcheries and Massacres committed both in France and the Netherlands upon Men meerly for the matter of their Consciences the many Plots Consultations Combinings and Wars contrived fomented and carryed on by the Bishops of Rome themselves and the chief of their Clergy yielding large and voluntary Contributions thereto for to ruin and root out the Dissenters from the Romish Society after Luther appeared cannot but see how natural and consequential it is to Romish Principles so to do And thence also observe how contrary and opposite these things are to Universal Love and Charity and how much they act the Hypocrite when they pretend Christian Charity to any that differ from them And this manifestly appears in these two which none of them that has understanding to know or honesty to confess their Principles can deny I might also add a third which Albeit by some Popish Doctors in some Nations it be denyed yet is no less firmly believed and contended for by other eminent Persons among them especially Bellarmine and approved by the Pope himself to wit the Popes power to depose Princes in case of Heresie and give their Kingdoms to others allowing them upon that account to fight against them and accounting their so purchaseing of them lawful Small offences heretofore would have provoked to this Sentence as appeared in the example of Hildebrand and others
really conduceth to the salvation of their souls and so far as they are capable thereof may and ought to be shewed towards them III. That therefore the good in all ought to be commended encouraged and loved and no true Good either denyed rejected or despised because of any Errors peculiar to respective Sects IV. That the Evil either in Opinion or practice ought neither to be spared encouraged nor fomented under any pretence of Love whatsoever These I shall not enlarge nor yet offer to prove studying to avoyd prolixity because I presume they will be readily granted and assented to by all That then which principally comes under consideration is to consider and examine which of all the several sorts of Christians at this day do most truly observe these rules and shew forth most of the true Love and Zeal of God in their way and principles avoyding that which is contrary thereunto wherein that I may proceed clearly there are some things previous to be warily and seriously weighed as First when I speak of the Charity of the several sorts of Christians I speak of such as are settled in their in respective Principles as perswading themselves certainly in the truths and soundness of them so that their Love and Charity is really to such as they judge and believe are wrong seeming to have Charity to all and be affraid to judge them from an unsettledness in ones self as not knowing which is right or which is wrong is a Vertue of necessity and not of choyce and proceedeth no ways from the Love of God neither has any resemblance thereunto for God loveth and Compassionates Sinners and such as are out of the way not as being ignorant or doubting whether they be such but as really knowing them It were indeed the height of madness and folly for these unsettled uncertain and stragling souls to take the liberty to judge others for being wrong while they profess they know not yet who is right and who is wrong being only sure of this that themselves are not come to rights for they could not in so doing but be Self-condemned not but I believe that the condition of such if they be truly forbearing and ready to embrace the good when seen by them is both more tollerable to others and safe for themselves than those that are hardily confident in a wrong belief from thence forwardly judging others But this I mention for the sake of certain men of loose and uncertain principles who being really Conscious to themselves of their own unsettledness finding themselves at a loss as concerning many of the controverted Principles of the Christian Religion which is right and which wrong and not finding a ready way to come to any certain determination therein and being perhaps unwilling to undergoe the trouble and difficulty of such a serious search and enquiry as well as desirous to avoyd these troublesome circumstances or other inconveniences which may seem to them necessarily to accompany their imbodying themselves with any particular People or Fellowship and therefore find it more easie to satisfie and please themselves with some general notions of practical Truths commonly acknowledged by all and therefore cover themselves by condemning that heat asperity and severe censuring that is among the several sorts of Christians one towards another as not consistent with nor suitable to that Love which ought to be in all Christians whereas poor Men they mind not how much they fall in this Crime and that in a degree far more reprovable than those they thus accuse For First Are not they found guilty of the want of this Christian Love and Charity that do judge and condemn all these several sorts of Christians as defective in this so principal and necessary a Christian Vertue whereby they do indirectly shut them out from being Christians or Disciples of Jesus for if they judged it an Error inconsistent with Christian Love and Charity to condemn or accuse one another for difference in Opinion why are they found themselves so guilty of it for since in this censuring and condemning of one another among the several sorts of Christians is practised by them as their duty and a necessary consequence of their Doctrine why should these judge them for it if they say they condemn them for it Because they believe it to be a wrong Principle shall not others be allowed the like liberty to condemn Principles they likewise believe to be wrong one of two then must of necessity hold either that wrong Doctrines or Opinions may be justly reproved confuted and condemned without breach of Christian Love and Charity and therefore the so doing amongst the several sorts of Christians upon their own respective Principles in it self simply considered not evil or reproveable and therefore these men wrong in judging it so or it is an evil and inconsistent with Christian Love and Charity to condemn any sort of Christians for their Doctrines and Opinions and if so these men fall fouly in this Crime that do accuse all others for this judging of Principles and yet themselves judge them for their Principles herein And Secondly Their envy in this is of an higher degree by their own Sentence then those others thus judged by them because the others proceed upon a certain belief and firm perswasion that they are in the right and those they condemn wrong and so proceed rationally consequential to their own Principles but these Men Albeit they be Conscious to themselves that they are not come to a determination of what is right and what wrong and remain yet in doubt for want of a clear Understanding what to approve and what to condemn do never the-less most irrationally and inconsequentially to their own affirmations reprove censure and condemn all others as destitute of or at least defective in a vertue and quality so necessary and essential to all Christian Societies to whom therefore may be fitly applyed the saying of the Patriarch Jacob to his First-born Ruben Unstable as water thou shalt not excel Gen. 49. 4. And that of the Apostle Paul to the Romans Rom. 2. 11. As also that other saying of the same Apostle to the Galatians For if I Build again the things that I destroyed I make my self a Transgressor Gal. 2. 18. 2dly To make a judgment of the several sorts of Christians we must fetch it not from the practices of particular Persons but from their respective principles by enquiring how far they naturally lead to or draw from this Universal Love because that it cannot be denyed but that among all and every sort of the several Sects of Christians there are men of divers and sundry humours and complexions some more hot violent and froward who prosecute what they judge right with great Zeal hast and fury others of more calme meek and loving dispositions who though they be not less desirous to advance their way yet do it in a more complacent affable and deliberate manner Some there are that
are naturally of a careless indifferent Gallio-like temper in such things and therefore behave more forbearingly and civilly towards such as dissent from them not because of any Vertue but because such things do not much trouble or touch them Neither then of these Vertues as they are incident to particular Persons are so justly chargeable upon a Sect or People as from thence to make a positive judgment of their Universal Charity or not seeing these are not the consequences of their Principles or that which necessary comes from them as relating to this or that Society but the meer product of their natural and private humours how far any particular or singular Persons among the several Sects have attained to the performance of that true Love and Zeal formerly described I shall not determine neither does it necessarily belong to this Question for if any should be found to do any thing which were so far from being the consequence of their Principles as to be quite contrary their Brethren would not suffer their Principles from thence to be improved so neither can the excellency of any singular Persons while not proceeding upon their Principles approve them as justifiable in this respect As for instance where it is the Universal Principle and general practice of a Sect to persecute even to the utmost those that differ from them as in the Church of Rome should there be found one or two or a very few of a more moderate spirit that should profess an aversion from such sort of severity and also practice it in their station according to their Capacity who would ascribe this moderation and Charity to the Church of Rome would take his measures but badly and on the other hand where it is the Universal Principle and general practices of a People not at all to persecute for the matter of Conscience should any private Persons of that Society be carryed by their fury and heat to the practice of any such thing though directly contrary to their Principles who would charge this upon the whole People and thence measure them would make also a bad consequence Nevertheless I shall not deny but some Principles are so pernitious and so strait and narrow that they seem by a certain Malignity generally to influence all their followers as shall after be observed But I shall now proceed to the fore-mentioned Examination SECT IV. An Examination of the Principles of several sorts of the so called Christans compared with this Universal Love and found defective As 1. of Papists 2. of Protestants in general 3. of Socinians AS there are two ways chiefly whereby a People or Society do signifie their Charity or Love towards others that differ from them so by these two also is signified their contrary Principles and practice The first is by a favourable and Charitable judgment of the condition of Mens Souls Albeit of different and contrary principles from them in supposing or at least not absolutely denying but that they may even upon their own Principles if faithful thereto obtain Peace with God and Life Eternal The Second is by a Friendly and Neighbourly deportment towards Mens Persons in not seeking to ruin and destroy them whether in Life Liberty or Estate Albeit their judgment concerning God and things Spiritual in the Nature and Manner of the exercise of their Worship be both contrary and different where the defect of any of these two is there of necessity must be wanting Universal Love and Charity for thou that hast bound up and tyed the means of Salvation to thy Principles and Doctrines so as to exclude from Salvation all that differ from thee or contradict thee has certainly declared thy Charity exceeds not the limits of thy own form and that the best Opinion and highest esteem thou hast of any that differ from thee for any vertues or excellencies that may appear to be in them resolves at last in no better then this Conclusion For all this they must be Damned neither will it serve to prove the Universal Charity of any People in this respect that some of them may Problematically affirm that Salvation may be possible to some such Dissenters living in remote parts who are excluded from the benefit of all means of knowing their Principles making this possibility only as an effect of Gods Omnipotency and so purely miraculous alledging they will not deny but God in a miraculous and extraordinary way may bring some to Heaven for this shews no Charity at all either in the Principle or People but is only a meer seeming acknowledgment of God's Omnipotency from a sight of the gross absurdity that would follow from affirming otherwise Those only can be esteemed Charitable in point of Doctrine and truly to commend the Love of God whose Principle is of that extent as naturally to take in within the compass of it both such as have not arrived to their discoveries and who are also different in judgment from them and that without any extraordinary and miraculous conveyance as being the common means and order of Salvation appointed by God for all and truly reaching all Moreover in the second place far less canst thou pretend to have Charity for me that wilt rob me of my Life Goods or Liberty because I cannot jump with thee in my judgment in Religious matters to say thou dost it for good and out of the Love thou bearest to my soul is an Argument too ridiculous to be answered unless that the so doing did infallably produce always a change in judgment the very contrary whereof experience has abundantly shewn and to this day doth shew seeing such severities do oftner confirm men in their Principles then drive them from them and then by thy own confession thou dost not only destroy my body but my soul also and cannot avoid thinking upon thy own Principle but I must be Damned if I persist in my judgment which for thee to be the very immediate occasion and Author of is certainly the greatest act of Malice and Envy that can be imagined seeing thou dost what in thee lyeth through the heat of thy Zeal and Fury to cut me off from obtaining that place of Repentance which for ought thou knowest it might please God to afford me were not my days thus shortned by thee To alledge the example of putting to Death Murderers and other such Profligate Malefactors which is allowably done by the general judgment of almost all Christians from thence urging that as this is not accounted a breach of Christian Charity so neither the other will no way serve the purpose nor yet be a sufficient cover for this kind of Unchristian cruelty because the Crimes for which these are thus punished are such as are not justified as matters of Conscience or Conscientiously practised which are unanimously Condemned not only by the consent of all Christians but of all men as being destructive to the very Nature of Man-kind and to all humane Society and 't is confessed even