thou not only judge but persecute in these things for which we are to be accountable to the tribunal of Christ only our Lord and lawgiver 1 Cor. 7.23 ye are bought with a price be not made the servants of men some trivial price belike and for some frivolous pretences paid in their opinion if bought and by him redeemd who is God from what was once the service of God we shall be enthrald again and forc'd by men to what now is but the service of men Gal. 4.31 with 5.1 we are not children of the bondwoman c. stand fast therfore c. Col. 2.8 beware least any man spoil you c. after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ Solid reasons wherof are continu'd through the whole chapter v. 10. ye are complete in him which is the head of all principalitie and power not completed therfore or made the more religious by those ordinances of civil power from which Christ thi◠head hath dischargd us blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us which was contrarie to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his cross v. 14 blotting out ordinances written by God himself much more those so boldly written over again by men ordinances which were against us that is against our frailtie much more those which are against our conscience Let no man therfore judge you in respect of c. v. 16. Gal. 4.3 c. even so we when we were children were in bondage under the rudiments of the world but when the fullness of time was come God sent forth his son c. to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons c. Wherfore thou art no more a servant but a son c. But now c. how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly rudiments wherunto ye desire again to be in bondage ye observe dayes c. Hence it planely appeers that if we be not free we are not sons but still servants unadopted and if we turn again to those weak and beggarly rudiments we are not free yea though willingly and with a misguided conscience we desire to be in bondage to them how much more then if unwillingly and against our conscience Ill was our condition chang'd from legal to euangelical and small advantage gotten by the gospel if for the spirit of adoption to freedom promisd us we receive again the spirit of bondage to fear if our fear which was then servile towards God only must be now servile in religion towards men strange also and preposterous fear if when and wherin it hath attaind by the redemption of our Saviour to be filial only towards God it must be now servile towards the magistrate Who by subjecting us to his punishment in these things brings back into religion that law of terror and satisfaction belonging now only to civil crimes and thereby in effect abolishes the gospel by establishing again the law to a far worse yoke of servitude upon us then before It will therfore not misbecome the meanest Christian to put in minde Christian magistrates and so much the more freely by how much the more they desire to be thought Christian for they will be thereby as they ought to be in these things the more our brethren and the less our lords that they meddle not rashly with Christian libertie the birthright and outward testimonie of our adoption least while they little think it nay think they do God service they themselves like the sons of that bondwoman be found persecuting them who are freeborne of the spirit and by a sacrilege of not the least aggravation bereaving them of that sacred libertie which our Saviour with his own blood purchas'd for them A fourth reason why the magistrate ought not to use force in religion I bring from the consideration of all those ends which he can likely pretend to the interposing of his force therin and those hardly can be other then first the glorie of God next either the spiritual good of them whom he forces or the temporal punishment of their scandal to others As for the promoting of Gods glory none I think will say that his glorie ought to be promoted in religious things by unwarrantable means much less by means contrarie to what he hath commanded That outward force is such and that Gods glory in the whole administration of the gospel according to his own will and councel ought to be fulfilld by weakness at least so refuted not by force or if by force inward and spiritual not outward and corporeal is already prov'd at large That outward force cannot tend to the good of him who is forc'd in religion is unquestionable For in religion whatever we do under the gospel we ought to be therof perswaded without scruple and are justified by the faith we have not by the work we do Rom. 14.5 Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind The other reason which follows necessarily is obvious Gal. 2.16 and in many other places of St. Paul as the groundwork and foundation of the whole gospel that we are justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law if not by the works of Gods law how then by the injunctions of mans law Surely force cannot work perswasion which is faith cannot therfore justifie nor pacifie the conscience and that which justifies not in the gospel condemns is not only not good but sinfull to do Rom. 14.23 Whatsoever is not of faith is sin It concerns the magistrate then to take heed how he forces in religion conscientious men 〈◊〉 least by compelling them to do that wherof they cannot be perswaded that wherin they cannot finde themselves justified but by thir own consciences condemnd instead of aiming at thir spiritual good he force them to do evil and while he thinks himself Asa Iosia Nehemia he be found Ieroboam who causd Israel to sin and thereby draw upon his own head all those sins and shipwracks of implicit faith and conformitie which he hath forc'd and all the wounds given to those little ones whom to offend he will finde worse one day then that violent drowning mentioned Matt. 18.6 Lastly as a preface to force it is the usual pretence That although tender consciences shall be tolerated yet scandals thereby given shall not be unpunishd prophane and licentious men shall not be encourag'd to neglect the performance of religious and holy duties by color of any law giving libertie to tender consciences By which contrivance the way lies ready open to them heerafter who may be so minded to take away by little and little that liberty which Christ and his gospel not any magistrate hath right to give though this kinde of his giving be but to give with one hand and take away with the other which is a deluding not a giving As for scandals if any man be offended at the conscientious liberty of another it is a
kingdoms are maintaind all by force onely and yet disproves not that a Christian common-wealth may defend it self against outward force in the cause of religion as well as in any other though Christ himself coming purposely to dye for us would not be so defended 1 Cor. 1.27 God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty Then surely he hath not chosen the force of this world to subdue conscience and conscientious men who in this world are counted weakest but rather conscience as being weakest to subdue and regulate force his adversarie not his aide or instrument in governing the church 2 Cor. 10.3 4 5 6. for though we walk in the flesh we do not warre after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mightie through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and everie high thing that exalts it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivitie everie thought to the obedience of Christ and having in a readiness to aveng all disobedience It is evident by the first and second verses of this chapter that the apostle here speaks of that spiritual power by which Christ governs his church how all sufficient it is how powerful to reach the conscience and the inward man with whom it chiefly deals and whom no power els can deal with In comparison of which as it is here thus magnificently describ'd how uneffectual and weak is outward force with all her boistrous tooles to the shame of those Christians and especially those churchmen who to the exercising of church discipline never cease calling on the civil magistrate to interpose his fleshlie force an argument that all true ministerial and spiritual power is dead within them who think the gospel which both began and spread over the whole world for above three hundred years under heathen and persecuting emperors cannot stand or continue supported by the same divine presence and protection to the worlds end much easier under the defensive favor onely of a Christian magistrate unless it be enacted and settled as they call it by the state a statute or a state-religion and understand not that the church it self cannot much less the state settle or impose one tittle of religion upon our obedience implicit but can only recommend or propound it to our free and conscientious examination unless they mean to set the state higher then the church in religion and with a grosse contradiction give to the state in thir settling petition that command of our implicit beleef which they deny in thir setled confession both to the state and to the church Let them cease then to importune and interrupt the magistrate from attending to his own charge in civil and moral things the settling of things just things honest the defence of things religious settled by the churches within themselves and the repressing of thir contraries determinable by the common light of nature which is not to constrain or to repress religion probable by scripture but the violaters and persecuters therof of all which things he hath anough and more then anough to do left yet undon for which the land groans and justice goes to wrack the while let him also forbear force where he hath no right to judge for the conscience is not his province least a worse woe arrive him for worse offending then was denounc'd by our Saviour Matt. 23.23 against the Pharises ye have forc'd the conscience which was not to be forc'd but judgment and mercy ye have not executed this ye should have don and the other let alone And since it is the councel and set purpose of God in the gospel by spiritual means which are counted weak to overcom all power which resists him let them not go about to do that by worldly strength which he hath decreed to do by those means which the world counts weakness least they be again obnoxious to that saying which in another place is also written of the Pharises Luke 7.30 that they frustrated the councel of God The main plea is and urgd with much vehemence to thir imitation that the kings of Iuda as I touchd before and especially Iosia both judgd and us'd force in religion 2 Chr. 34.33 he made all that were present in Israel to serve the Lord thir God an argument if it be well weighed worse then that us'd by the false prophet Shemaia to the high priest that in imitation of Iehojada he ought to put Ieremie in the stocks Ier. 29.24 26 c. for which he receivd his due denouncement from God But to this besides I return a three-fold answer first that the state of religion under the gospel is far differing from what it was under the law then was the state of rigor childhood bondage and works to all which force was not unbefitting now is the state of grace manhood freedom and faith to all which belongs willingness and reason not force the law was then written on tables of stone and to be performd according to the letter willingly or unwillingly the gospel our new covnant upon the heart of every beleever to be interpreted only by the sense of charitie and inward perswasion the law had no distinct government or governors of church and commonwealth but the Priests and Levites judg'd in all causes not ecclesiastical only but civil Deut. 17.8 c. which under the gospel is forbidden to all church-ministers as a thing which Christ thir master in his ministerie disclam'd Luke 12.14 as a thing beneathe them 1 Cor. 6.4 and by many of our statutes as to them who have a peculiar and far differing government of thir own If not why different the governors why not church-ministers in state-affairs as well as state-ministers in church-affairs If church and state shall be made one flesh again as under the law let it be withall considerd that God who then joind them hath now severd them that which he so ordaining was then a lawfull conjunction to such on either side as join again what he hath severd would be nothing now but thir own presumptuous fornication Secondly the kings of Iuda and those magistrates under the law might have recours as I said before to divine inspiration which our magistrates under the gospel have not more then to the same spirit which those whom they force have oft times in greater measure then themselves and so instead of forcing the Christian they force the Holy Ghost and against that wise forewarning of Gamaliel fight against God Thirdly those kings and magistrates us'd force in such things only as were undoubtedly known and forbidden in the law of Moses idolatrie and direct apostacie from that national and strict enjoind worship of God wherof the corporal punishment was by himself expressly set down but magistrates under the gospel our free elective and rational worship are most commonly busiest to force those things which in the gospel are either left free nay somtimes
2 Cor. 10. of which anon and think weakly that the church of God cannot long subsist but in a bodilie fear for want of other prooff will needs wrest that place of S. Paul Rom. 13. to set up civil inquisition and give power to the magistrate both of civil judgment and punishment in causes ecclesiastical But let us see with what strength of argument Let every soul be subject to the higher powers First how prove they that the apostle means other powers then such as they to whom he writes were then under who medld not at all in ecclesiastical causes unless as tyrants and persecuters and from them I hope they will not derive either the right of magistrates to judge in spiritual things or the dutie of such our obedience How prove they next that he intitles them here to spiritual causes from whom he witheld as much as in him lay the judging of civil 1 Cor. 6.1 c. If he himself appeald to Cesar it was to judge his innocence not his religion For rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil then are they not a terror to conscience which is the rule or judge of good works grounded on the scripture But heresie they say is reck'nd among evil works Gal. 5.20 as if all evil works were to be punishd by the magistrate wherof this place thir own citation reck'ns up besides heresie a sufficient number to confute them uncleanness wantonness enmitie strife emulations animosities contentions envyings all which are far more manifest to be judgd by him then heresie as they define it and yet I suppose they will not subject these evil works nor many more such like to his cognisance and punishment Wilt thou then not be affraid of the power do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same This shews that religious matters are not here meant wherin from the power here spoken of they could have no praise For he is the minister of God to thee for good true but in that office and to that end and by those means which in this place must be cleerly found if from this place they intend to argue And how for thy good by forcing oppressing and insnaring thy conscience Many are the ministers of God and thir offices no less different then many none more different then state and church-government Who seeks to govern both must needs be worse then any lord prelat or church-pluralist for he in his own facultie and profession the other not in his own and for the most part not throughly understood makes himself supream lord or pope of the church as far as his civil jurisdiction stretches and all the ministers of God therin his ministers or his curates rather in the function onely not in the government while he himself assumes to rule by civil power things to be rul'd only by spiritual when as this very chapter v. 6 appointing him his peculiar office which requires utmost attendance forbids him this worse then church-plurality from that full and waightie charge wherin alone he is the minister of God attending continually on this very thing To little purpose will they here instance Moses who did all by immediate divine direction no nor yet Asa Iehosaphat or Iosia who both might when they pleasd receive answer from God and had a commonwealth by him deliverd them incorporated with a national church exercis'd more in bodily then in spiritual worship so as that the church might be calld a commonwealth and the whole commonwealth a church nothing of which can be said of Christianitie deliverd without the help of magistrates yea in the midst of thir opposition how little then with any reference to them or mention of them save onely of our obedience to thir civil laws as they countnance good and deterr evil which is the proper work of the magistrate following in the same verse and shews distinctly wherin he is the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath on him that doth evil But we must first know who it is that doth evil the heretic they say among the first Let it be known then certainly who is a heretic and that he who holds opinions in religion professdly from tradition or his own inventions and not from Scipture but rather against it is the only heretic and yet though such not alwaies punishable by the magistrate unless he do evil against a a civil Law properly so calld hath been already prov'd without need of repetition But if thou do that which is evil be affraid To do by scripture and the gospel according to conscience is not to do evil if we therof ought not to be affraid he ought not by his judging to give cause causes therfore of Religion are not here meant For he beareth not the sword in vain Yes altogether in vain if it smite he knows not what if that for heresie which not the church it self much less he can determine absolutely to be so if truth for error being himself so often fallible he bears the sword not in vain only but unjustly and to evil Be subject not only for wrath but for conscience sake how for conscience sake against conscience By all these reasons it appeers planely that the apostle in this place gives no judgment or coercive power to magistrates neither to those then nor these now in matters of religion and exhorts us no otherwise then he exhorted those Romans It hath now twice befaln me to assert through Gods assistance this most wrested and vexd place of scripture heretofore against Salmasius and regal tyranie over the state now against Erastus and state-tyranie over the church If from such uncertain or rather such improbable grounds as these they endue magistracie with spiritual judgment they may as well invest him in the same spiritual kinde with power of utmost punishment excommunication and then turn spiritual into corporal as no worse authors did then Chrysostom Ierom and Austin whom Erasmus and others in thir notes on the New Testament have cited to interpret that cutting off which S. Paul wishd to them who had brought back the Galatians to circumcision no less then the amercement of thir whole virilitie and Grotius addes that this concising punishment of circumcisers became a penal law therupon among the Visigothes a dangerous example of beginning in the spirit to end so in the flesh wheras that cutting off much likelier seems meant a cutting off from the church not unusually so termd in scripture and a zealous imprecation not a command But I have mentiond this passage to shew how absurd they often prove who have not learnd to distinguish rightly between civil power and ecclesiastical How many persecutions then imprisonments banishments penalties and stripes how much bloodshed have the forcers of conscience to answer for and protestants rather then papists For the papist judging by his principles punishes them who beleeve not as the church beleevs though against the scripture but the protestant
teaching every one to beleeve the scripture though against the church counts heretical and persecutes against his own principles them who in any particular so beleeve as he in general teaches them them who most honor and beleeve divine scripture but not against it any humane interpretation though universal them who interpret scripture only to themselves which by his own position none but they to themselves can interpret them who use the scripture no otherwise by his own doctrine to thir edification then he himself uses it to thir punishing and so whom his doctrine acknowledges a true beleever his discipline persecutes as a heretic The papist exacts our beleef as to the church due above scripture and by the church which is the whole people of God understands the pope the general councels prelatical only and the surnam'd fathers but the forcing protestant though he deny such beleef to any church whatsoever yet takes it to himself and his teachers of far less autoritie then to be calld the church and above scripture beleevd which renders his practise both contrarie to his beleef and far worse then that beleef which he condemns in the papist By all which well considerd the more he professes to be a true protestant the more he hath to answer for his persecuting then a papist No protestant therfore of what sect soever following scripture only which is the common sect wherin they all agree and the granted rule of everie mans conscience to himself ought by the common doctrine of protestants to be forc'd or molested for religion But as for poperie and idolatrie why they also may not hence plead to be tolerated I have much less to say Their religion the more considerd the less can be acknowledgd a religion but a Roman principalitie rather endevouring to keep up her old universal dominion under a new name and meer shaddow of a catholic religion being indeed more rightly nam'd a catholic heresie against the scripture supported mainly by a civil and except in Rome by a forein power justly therfore to be suspected not tolerated by the magistrate of another countrey Besides of an implicit faith which they profess the conscience also becoms implicit and so by voluntarie servitude to mans law forfets her Christian libertie Who then can plead for such a conscience as being implicitly enthrald to man instead of God almost becoms no conscience as the will not free becoms no will Nevertheless if they ought not to be tolerated it is for just reason of state more then of religion which they who force though professing to be protestants deserve as little to be tolerated themselves being no less guiltie of poperie in the most popish point Lastly for idolatrie who knows it not to be evidently against all scripture both of the Old and New Testament and therfore a true heresie or rather an impietie wherin a right conscience can have naught to do and the works therof so manifest that a magistrate can hardly err in prohibiting and quite removing at least the publick and scandalous use therof From the riddance of these objections I proceed yet to another reason why it is unlawfull for the civil magistrate to use force in matters of religion which is because to judge in those things though we should grant him able which is prov'd he is not yet as a civil magistrate he hath no right Christ hath a government of his own sufficient of it self to all his ends and purposes in governing his church but much different from that of the civil magistrate and the difference in this verie thing principally consists that it governs not by outward force and that for two reasons First because it deals only with the inward man and his actions which are all spiritual and to outward force not lyable secondly to shew us the divine excellence of his spiritual kingdom able without worldly force to subdue all the powers and kingdoms of this world which are upheld by outward force only That the inward man is nothing els but the inward part of man his understanding and his will and that his actions thence proceeding yet not simply thence but from the work of divine grace upon them are the whole matter of religion under the gospel will appeer planely by considering what that religion is whence we shall perceive yet more planely that it cannot be forc'd What euangelic religion is is told in two words faith and charitie or beleef and practise That both these flow either the one from the understanding the other from the will or both jointly from both once indeed naturally free but now only as they are regenerat and wrought on by divine grace is in part evident to common sense and principles unquestiond the rest by scripture concerning our beleef Mat. 16.17 flesh and blood hath not reveald it unto thee but my father which is in heaven concerning our practise as it is religious and not meerly civil Gal. 5.22 23 and other places declare it to be the fruit of the spirit only Nay our whole practical dutie in religion is containd in charitie or the love of God and our neighbour no way to be forc'd yet the fulfilling of the whole law that is to say our whole practise in religion If then both our beleef and practise which comprehend our whole religion flow from the faculties of the inward man free and unconstrainable of themselves by nature and our practise not only from faculties endu'd with freedom but from love and charitie besides incapable of force and all these things by transgression lost but renewd and regenerated in us by the power and gift of God alone how can such religion as this admit of force from man or force be any way appli'd to such religion especially under the free offer of grace in the gospel but it must forthwith frustrate and make of no effect both the religion and the gospel And that to compell outward profession which they will say perhaps ought to be compelld though inward religion cannot is to compell hypocrisie not to advance religion shall yet though of it self cleer anough be ere the conclusion further manifest The other reason why Christ rejects outward force in the goverment of his church is as I said before to shew us the divine excellence of his spiritual kingdom able without worldly force to subdue all the powers and kingdoms of this world which are upheld by outward force only by which to uphold religion otherwise then to defend the religious from outward violence is no service to Christ or his kingdom but rather a disparagement and degrades it from a divine and spiritual kingdom to a kingdom of this world which he denies it to be because it needs not force to confirm it Ioh. 18.36 if my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight that I should not be deliverd to the Iewes This proves the kingdom of Christ not governd by outward force as being none of this world whose