Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	king_n	power_n	regal_a	4,712	5	11.5491	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30026	De Christiana libertate, or, Liberty of conscience upon it's [sic] true and proper grounds asserted & vindicated and the mischief of impositions amongst the people called Quakers made manifest : in two parts : the first proving that no prince nor state ought by force to compel men to any part of the doctrine, worship, or discipline of the Gospel, by a nameless, yet an approved author [i.e. Sir Charles Wolseley], &c. : the second shewing the inconsistency betwixt the church-government erected by G. Fox, &c., and that in the primitive times ... : to which is added, A word of advice to the Pencilvanians / by Francis Bugg.	Bugg, Francis, 1640-1724?; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714. Liberty of conscience upon its true and proper grounds asserted and vindicated.; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714. Liberty of conscience the magistrates interest.	1682 (1682)	Wing B5370; ESTC R14734	148,791	384

Gospel not mighty through God but mighty through the Magistrates power and wholly to alter the nature of the Gospel and all its Institutions 't is to arm the Church with Weapons Christ never gave her and to make her a Military rather than a Spiritual Society Thirdly Suppose but this truth That all Churches even the purest are in the execution of Christs Laws fallible and lyable to mistake this Doctrine hath a marvellous tendency to bring the Magistrate under great transgression and each Christian under a possibility of such bondage as the Gospel no where imposes on him If a man be unjustly cast out of a Church and the Magistrate proceeds against him he executes an evil Sentence and does it blindfold being by this Doctrine an Officer no way competent nor in any capacity to make a judgment of the truth or error of it and so cannot possibly escape a greater sin A Christian unduly cast out of a Church hath this security against such a proceeding that Christ will never ratifie it upon his Conscience but by this manner of execution he is sure whether the Sentence be right or no to fall under as heavy an outward suffering as the Magistrates Sword can inflict upon him And by this means it will come to pass that men shall be more dangerously concerned in their Lives and Estates by being in the Church than by being Members of any Society whatsoever The third Extream in this matter lies amongst those who say That the Magistrate hath nothing at all to do about Religion This lies very wide from truth and cannot in such a general Position be made good if we consider First That every man in the World as he is a Creature and a Subject to the great God is bound in his station and in Gods way to promote his honour and endeavour that his Will may be done in the World it would be strange that the Magistrate who is his chief Officer should be no way concerned to see the Laws which God gives the World put in execution by the Persons and in the manner he hath appointed it 't is not to be imagined that he that hath the complicated relation of a Christian and a Magistrate to others should have no care relative to their Spiritual good 't were to say the Magistrate must not do that which every man else in the World is bound to do Secondly God never since the world began trusted any with the care of mens bodies but he entrusted them likewise with some care of their Souls If we look over all the Natural and Moral Relations in the world such as Parents Masters General of Armies we shall ever find it so Men are to be ruled over as Creatures that have immortal Souls to be chiefly cared for and they are to be ruled over as such who have a special relation to God and a homage to pay him above all the rest of the world a rule over men without some respect to this would denominate mankind into Brutes Thirdly To say the Magistrate hath nothing to do about Religion is to deny what hath been practised by the Light of Nature before the Law was practised under the Law suitable to that dispensation and both commanded and commended and is to be practised under the Gospel suitable to this dispensation and is foretold as a blessing so to be and in fact hath been so ever since there hath been a Magistrate Christian in the world Having thus considered these hurtful Extreams about the Magistrates Power the last thing to come under consideration will be the due bounds of a Magistrates Power under the Gospel that is How far a Magistrate being Christian may improvedly exercise his natural power for the advantage and benefit of the Gospel and wherein he stands bounded and obliged not to proceed The preserving a right state whereof through the torrent of these Extreams will be of singular moment to the matter in hand We have seen that the power of a Heathen and a Christian Magistrate differs nothing at all in kind A Heathen Magistrate hath the same right and is bound to do as much in Religion as a Christian only the one having more knowledge of God and his Mind is bound improvedly to exercise his power accordingly the first thing a Christian Magistrate stands bound to do for the good of Religion is to afford the Churches all negative good that is to remove all Oppression from them and all things that do any way hinder them to enjoy the Institutions of Christ he is to give them rest that they may be edified and walk in the comforts of the Holy Ghost and lead quiet and peaceable Lives in all godliness and honesty This as 't is a special blessing the Church does not often enjoy so 't is one chief part of that benefit it receives by Christian Rulers And this the Light of Nature will easily guide a Magistrate to do for any Religion of the truth of which he is perswaded In the Affirmative he is not only to see that the Gospel be preached and all under him fully instructed in the truths thereof to unite all Christians and as much as in him lies preserve peace in the Church to encourage those he finds most zealous constant and sincere in the profession of the Gospel and by his own example to lead forth his Subjects in all sound Orthodox Profession and Practice But to comprehend all in one he is to endeavour in a Gospel-way to see all the Laws of Christ put in execution and as much as in him lies see his Will done in the World he is so far from being bound to execute only what the Church will have him that he is to over-see their proceedings and to take care as Christs chief Officer in the World that all things in the Church be duly and according to Christs appointment administred The Apostles words are general and full Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers Wheresoever the highest power is it must needs be so unless you will have a highest and a highest which will breed inevitable confusion the Civil power bidding a man do one thing and the Ecclesiastical another it hath ever in fact been so but under the Roman Church where the Emperors were made believe that 't was the highest piece of Religion voluntarily to yield up their Power to the Church and submit to her direction for the use of it which at first they confessed was inherent in the Emperors and not in the Church Before the Law not only the Power but the Exercise of the Priesthood it self naturally fell into the Magistrate 'T was so in Noah in Abraham and in Melchizedeck who was a King and a Priest 'T was so in Moses the Regal and Sacerdotal power were both in him till they were by God divided between him and Aaron ever since which time the exercises of Magistracy and Ministry have been and are to be distinct 'T was so likewise amongst

that power Where will he find a Rule in the Gospel to bear with some kind of Heresies and not with others He must not make submitting to a civil Penalty to compensate for an Heresie unless Christ had appointed that as the punishment of it that 's a selling of sin and making a bargain for iniquity for his own advantage and profit That therefore which the Magistrate under the Gospel may not do and without him I am sure the Church cannot do in which negative restraint upon him all Liberty of Conscience is comprehended and the Freedom Christ hath so dearly and fully purchased comprised and which is chiefly intended to be made good by this discourse shall be declared in this following Position which is That no Prince nor State ought by force to compel men to any part of the Doctrine Worship or Discipline of the Gospel The proof of which shall lie in the Reasons following First 'T is a thing against the light of nature so to do and if the Magistrates Power be grounded in the light of nature then to do a thing against that light of nature must needs be very Heterogeneal and wholly out of his compass it must needs be against the common Light and Reason of mankind to force me to be believe a thing wholly out of the compass of my knowledge and capacity and which nature reveals not to me Such are all Gospel Truths they are not like the matters of the moral Law but they are things purely supernatural and of divine Revelation such things as from the beginning of the world eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor never entred into any mans heart to conceive of these things the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man with all the endowments of nature discerneth not because they are spiritually discerned No man can call Jesus the Christ but by the holy Ghost Will you punish a man for not having the holy Ghost that is no way in his power to get but is like the Wind that bloweth where and when it lists 'T is a strange contradiction to our common reason to force men about things wholly unknown to them and out of their own power If Force should be used at any time it should be to bring men from Paganism to Christianity for without that we cannot be saved but when once Christians we may be saved under different apprehensions and yet we may not force a man to be a Christian 1st because 't is unlawful and 2dly because 't is impossible 'T is not lawful because 't is not Christs way of making Christians nor a means by him appointed for that purpose 2dly 'T is impossible because force upon men will never beget or change Principles or Opinions And as we should not force men at the first to the Gospel because till God reveals it we are wholly ignorant of it so we should not force men that are under the Gospel to any thing they believe not for they are as great strangers still to every farther attainment of knowledge in the Gospel till God please to reveal it as they were at first to the whole and therefore the Apostle calls us to patience in these things one with another till God please to reveal himself The light of nature must needs condemn that practice for another to force me about such things wherein my own eternal good or ill is only concerned where it is not to be imagined that I can have any aim but my own Salvation and can hurt none by my belief but my self When I have used rational suitable means to inform another I ought to acquiesce it being not a supposition to be made that a man would willingly design that which he knows will be his own ruin and which will hurt no body but himself He that forceth me to a Religion makes me hate it and makes me think there wants reason and other evidence to evince it Nature abhors compulsion in Religious things as a spiritual rape upon the Conscience No man by the light of nature was ever angry with another for not quitting his Conscience till his judgment was suitably informed because every man finds it an impossibility in himself so to do That which some say That though we may not force men to believe yet men may be forced to the outward means of believing is very little to the purpose for if by outward means they mean a bare outward act distinct from any Religious Worship no doubt Superiors may command it but if they mean any Religious means if the means be such as my Conscience is not satisfied in I ought not to be forced to it if it be such as I am satisfied in force is altogether needless and it belongs not to this Discourse Secondly To use force in Religion is wholly unlawful in any hand whatever because 't is no means appointed by Christ to bring about any Gospel end For the Magistrate to enforce the Laws of the Gospel by temporal power or compel men into the Gospel by such a power is to act without the least Precept or President and to induce an Engine to execute the Gospel contrary to the nature of Christs Kingdom which is not of this world and contrary to the nature of all Gospel institutions The Magistrate as he should be careful to see the Gospel put in execution so in the manner Christ in his wisdom hath appointed for the doing of it which is by his own Institutions and his own invisible power operating and working with them The great Rule of the Gospel is a rule of the Spirit in the hand of Christ as Mediator and 't is a Rule in the hearts and spirits of men and to set up a Rule by any humane power over any part of the Gospel is highly to derogate from that mediatory dominion of Christ nay to use force is not only to act without but against the declared mind of Christ Does not Paul positively deliver this That the Weapons of the Gospel are not carnal but spiritual and mighty through God 'T is not Faggots and Halters but spiritual means by which men are both to be brought in and cast out of the Gospel Church 'T is hearing and not forcing by which Faith is wrought The sword of the Spirit is the weapon by which Christ does all yea by which he will destroy Antichrist the greatest Gospel-enemy the world hath produced Among all the arguments that are brought to prove the Compulsatory Power of the Magistrate under the Gospel the greatest weight is laid upon the Practice of the Kings of Israel and Judah and what they did under the Law in compelling men to the Worship of God then established In the due consideration whereof we shall find the truth in hand no way invalidated and that what was then done by the Kings of Israel and Judah cannot reasonably be made a Rule to Magistrates now under the Gospel and that the Analogy will no way hold may be made

appear both from the different station and posture those Kings were in from all Magistrates now and also from the different condition of the Church then and now and many circumstances peculiarly relating to both First The worship and policy of the Jews being in it self typical and representive of what was to come hereafter their Government was likewise so and in their Kings very eminently that David and Soloman did very plainly in the type represent the Kingly Dominion of Christ none will deny and 't is as plain that the very Throne of David it self upon which the succeeding Kings of Judah sate was likewise so there being that Prophesie long before That the Scepter should not depart from Judah until Shiloh came and therefore the Power David and Solomon and the succeeding Kings of Judah for amongst the Kings of Israel after Solomon we find not one concerned for the true Worship of God who were of the lineage of David exercised had a peculiarity in it that is not applicable to any Magistrate now Secondly God was pleased in those times upon all eminent occasions of reformation in his Worship and proceedings of that nature to send Prophets to declare his positive mind and to put an end to all doubts that could be about such things nay some of the Kings themselves were Prophets immediately inspired and did not only take care of the Worship established by Moses but did themselves by divine Authority bring in things of a new Institution into the Worship of God this David did and Solomon in bringing Musick into the Temple and setling the courses of the Priests and were divinely inspired to write part of the holy Scriptures No Magistrates now can pretend to any such power in themselves nor have they any such extraordinary direction to guide them but are punctualy obliged to whatever Christ hath revealed in the Gospel and therefore in this respect the Analogy no way holds good Thirdly The state of the Jewish Church and Common-wealth was such as wholly differed them from all others since that was a Church and a State in the very constitution of them mixed together none could be brought into one but he was a member of the other nor could a man be cast out of the Church but he was thereby cast out of the State to be out-lawed and excommunicated was there amongst the Jews the same thing Grotius expresseth it well At that time saith he the Wisdom in Divine and Humane Law was not divided and he proves it by this As the Magistrate did intermeddle in Church Affairs so the Priest did intermeddle in Cvil things For saith he the Priest was a Judge and did not only give Judgment in Sacred but in Civil Affairs being the best Interpreter of the whole Law And saith the same Grotius further That the Priest had Magistracy This alone may be proved in Deut. 17.8 That he is to dye who obeys not the Command of the Priest 'T is most clear also That Eli was chief Priest in Israel and chief Judge in Shiloe 'T is not any way to be avoided but that the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power lay then interchangeably mixed and with as equal reason may we bring Magistracy into the Ministerial Power of the Gospel from what the Priests then exercised and their example as to bring such a power in Religion into the Magistrates under the Gospel from the parallel of what those Kings did then Besides the Magistratical power was so absolutely necessary to the Jewish Church-Policy so mixed that it could not be upheld without it the very Municipal Law of the Nation was their Religion He that was chief in the State must needs be Head of the Church They were a Holy People living in a Holy Land appointed to Worship in one Holy City and in one Holy place of that City and to offer upon one Altar in that Holy place The Church of the Gospel is totally of another nature perfectly distinct from the civil State can well subsist without a relation to it and is no way intermixed in its Concerns with it And therefore to say all Magistrates now must do as those did that governed such a mixed complicated Church and State in one carries no proportion at all of reason or equity in it more then if a man should argue from a Par ratio that what Moses did at first amongst the Jews who was King in Jeshuron that Kings may now do amongst Christians under the Gospel Lastly What was then done was by Gods command and was in a way suitable to the frame and state of the Church the Jews were imbodied in and lay chiefly in bringing men from Idolatry to the Worship of the true God for in differences between Sect and Sect amongst themselves there was nothing that we find done at any time they continued till our Saviours time and putting such a kind of Worship in execution as lay in outward carnal Services and was in every minute particular exactly set down and determined First The state of the Gospel-Church now is wholly differing from what that was and is setled upon clear other grounds and principles Secondly Here is no command in the Gospel for the Magistrate to do any thing of that nature Thirdly Let it be granted as truth that in parity of reason because Magistrates were appointed to take care of Religion then they are to do so still it must of necessity be granted also that they must do it by the means appointed by Christ under the Gospel as they did heretofore by those God appointed under the Law It is an Inference very infirm That because the Kings of Israel and Judah compelled men by Gods own appointment to acknowledge the true God and forsake Idolatry therefore Magistrates now may not only without but against Christs commands and the whole tenor of the New Testament compel men to the Spiritual Belief and Worship of the Gospel The truth is the civil Power of the Magistrate is no means of Christs appointing for the carrying on of the Gospel the Gospel in the very nature of it carries an Antipathy in it to all outward force Instead of all the temporal promises and corporal punishments under the Law Christ makes this Declaration He that believes shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned That 's the Language of the Gospel Christ sets Hell and Wrath to come before men and by his Spirit working upon and convincing the Conscience works more admirable effects upon men that way than all the outward punishments in the World could ever bring about The Word of Christ is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged Sword and can divide between the Soul and the Spirit the Joynts and the Marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the Heart We have in the Hebrews a very perfect account of Gods dealing with men under the Law and now under the Gospel and the plain difference in the manner of the one and

De Christiana Libertate OR Liberty of Conscience Upon it's true and proper grounds ASSERTED VINDICATED And the Mischief of Impositions amongst the People called Quakers Made Manifest In Two Parts The First Proving That no Prince nor State ought by Force to Compel Men to any part of the Doctrine Worship or Discipline of the Gospel By a Nameless yet an Approved Author c. The Second Shewing the Inconsistency betwixt the Church-Government Erected by G. Fox c. and that in the Primitive Times being Historically Treated on To which is added A Word of Advice to the Pencilvanians By Francis Bugg Mat. 15.9 But in vain do they Worship me teaching for Doctrine the Commandments and Traditons of Men. London Printed for the Author and are to be sold by Enoch Presser at the Rose and Crown in Swithins Alley at the East End of the Royal Exchange 1682. AN EPISTLE Dedicatory TO H. N. Knight Honoured Friend WHereas accidentally or rather as I hope the Event will shew providentially I met with a small Tract Wrote many years since but by whom I know not there being no name to it Entituled Liberty of Conscience Asserted and Vindicated c. being the 1st Part of this Treatise and having found it upon perusing such an Eminent Piece upon that Subject at least in my apprehension that I thought my self oblieged to Publish the same both for the Information of the Magistracy and such with whom the Execution of the Penal Statutes is left and committed and also in favour of the Nonconformists in general even of all Perswasions amongst Protestant Dissenters who desire to live a quiet and peaceable Life under the Government who for Conscience sake cannot Conform to the Established Rules Orders Cannons and Constitutions and other Ceremonies of Prelatical Institution for Worship and Discipline and yet do and desire to live a peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty under the Government in both which respects if diligently read and perused I am perswaded it will be of good Service and Information And when I came to a Resolution to Publish the same I thought it my Duty to Dedicate it to thy self of whose Moderation I have had many years Experience of thy Christian Charity towards such as differ from thee in some Points of Religious Matters of which I can produce many Witnesses to wit all my Friends in the County of Suffolk who lately stood Convict of Recusancy in the Exchequer wherein thou didst not act the Part of the Proud Pharisee who Salute their Brethren only nor yet of the Priest who can without any sense of Pitty easily pass by without taking any notice of the Suffering of others nay often times are the Cause of their Sufferings But like the Merciful and Sympathizing Samaritan took notice of our threatned Ruine and prevented it c. I am not unsensible that many yea very many are against Liberty of Conscience and especially those of the Spirituality so called as a Thing intollerable and unsufferable and not for the Kings Interest and their Arguments for Force and Compulsion and Corporal Punishments to be inflicted on the Nonconformists are not a few insomuch as that they too much resemble proud Haman who in his Address to King Ahasuerus cryed out in great Enmity and said There is a certain People scattered abroad and dispersed amongst the People in all the Provinces of thy Kingdom and their Laws are divers from all People neither keep they the Kings Laws Therefore it is not for the Kings profit to suffer them c. As in Esther the 3d. and the 8th And for a full Replication to all their Arguments Either against Liberty of Conscience and the free Exercise of it in Matters purely Spiritual and a Christian Forbearance and mutual Condiscention to such as differ from them in some Ceremonies other Notions in Church-Discipline and Order AND FOR Corporal Punishment Impositions and Antichristian Force upon Conscientious Dissenters for some Differences in Matters of Oppinion I refer them to the First Part of this Treatise wherein in my Apprehension the Answer lyes ready to all their Alligations Thus having discharged my Duty to my Country in general and to thee in particular I conclude and rest a Lover of Peace desiring the Continuance of it in this World and that which is to come both for my self Neighbours and as many as persue it And Remain thy Friend in what I may or can Mildenhall the 25th of the 12th Mo. 1681. F. B. Liberty of Conscience Upon it true and proper Grounds Asserted and Vindicated The First Part. AMongst all the endowments bestowed upon the Sons of men nothing is to have a higher price and value put upon it than that we call Conscience because of the immediate reference it hath to the pleasing or displeasing of the great God and those more noble concerns of a better life and also the irresistible Influence it hath upon our selves to determine our well or ill being here CONSCIENCE is an Ability in the Understanding of man by a Reflect Act to judge of himself in all he does as to his acceptance or rejection with God this is the inward Rule he hath to walk by And 't is but reasonable to believe mankind bound to steer their course by what upon the utmost improvement of their understandings they know and believe best The proper seat of Conscience is in the Understanding and is no other thing but this Reflect Act of our knowledge back upon our selves dictating to us God's liking or disliking what we do as good or evil This ability is more or less according to the suitable light God affords to our understanding either inwardly or outwardly whether natural or divine and is indeed to each man the Rule of all other Rules God is pleased to govern him by for whether it be by natural Light or divine Revelation still the utmost bounds of his Conformity lies in the knowledge and conception he hath of it and of his duty in reference unto it So that the information of the understanding is still the guide of the Conscience for when we become once convinced that this or that is Gods will my understanding reflects back to my self and tells me This is my Duty in reference to it and so comes in upon each man the obligation of that we call Conscience which is indeed so unavoidable a Reflection suitable to the conviction and impression the understanding lies under that no man hath power in himself if he would to escape it Conscientiam non esse judicium theoreticum quo verum à falso simpliciter discernitur sed puncticum quo particulariter illa cognitio applicatur ab homine ad illud quod ipsi vel bonum vel malum est ut sit interna Regula dirigens voluntatem Ames de cas Consci That there was at first in Adam a clear and perfect knowledge of God and of himself is not to be doubted and that there was this

the Heathens Homer tells us of Princes and Heroes that Sacrificed and performed the Worship to the gods In Rome 't was manifestly so the first Roman Kings did the like Since Magistracy and Ministry has been distinctly exercised still the Inspection and Regulation of Religion and the Officers Ecclesiastical have been in the Magistrate Under the Law 't was plainly so Under the Gospel so soon as there was a Christian Magistrate that could exercise such a Power we find it so The right was the same in the Heathen powers which happily was the ground of Paul's Appeal unto Caesar though they could not then exercise it There is nothing more plain than that there may be a Right where there is not an Ability to exercise it Constantine and the Christian Emperors after him till the Church of Rome had cheated them into subjection took upon them the care and over-sight of all Religious things and to see all Christs Laws executed Constantine used to call himself The general Bishop to take care that all things were duly performed in the Church Amongst our selves we reap the Advantage of our Kings and Princes care and concern in that enjoyment we have of the Protestant Religion This shews the great weakness on the one hand of such who say the Magistrate hath nothing to do with Religion and the perfect mistake of those on the other hand who would have the Magistrate wholly Subordinate to the Church and the third extream in those who would place the Magistrate in so supream a Power as upon the matter to do what he pleaseth will be sufficiently enervated if we consider That as the Magistrate is to see that executed that Christ hath appointed in Religion so he is to bring in nothing of his own he is punctually tyed up neither to add nor diminish neither in the matter nor the manner his business is to see Laws executed not to make Laws nor change Laws Christ has no where granted any such Commission either to the Magistrate or any else upon Earth and therefore we come to a right state of the Magistrates Power when we consider him as Gods chief Officer in the World directed by the Light of Nature as well as otherwise to see that which God reveals to be his Will put in execution And that which comes particularly to the present matter in hand That he doth it under the Gospel in the manner Christ hath appointed The manner Christ hath appointed being as positively obliging as the matter and therefore the Temporal Sword when 't is used by Magistrates in the concerns of the Gospel is the Dead Fly that corrupts all their otherwise very laudable endeavours Nor need it seem strange that a Magistrate should have the care and over-sight of that wherein he is not to use the Temporal power as he is to endeavour to see that done by others under the Gospel as the Administration of the Sacraments and the like which he is not to do in his own person so he is to see that done by the Spiritual means Christ hath appointed for it which he is by no means to force the doing of by the Temporal power He that thinks the Magistrate cannot be useful to the Church without the Temporal power may with as good reason say That all other powers in the Church are useless where there is not the Temporal Sword to execute them All Societies of men are under the Regulation of the highest power but yet may act and ought to do so by distinct and proper wayes and by means suitable to each A Colledge of Physitians in a State are under the Regulament of the highest Power and yet it were very absurd to force them to give Physick as a thing in it self both unnatural and unreasonable The case is much more so in the Church nor can any instance fully reach it because the Church is a distinct thing of it self and hath Powers proper and peculiar to it in which it is so compleat that it can subsist without the Magistrate as it did in the primitive times The Civil and Ecclesiastical Power are things perfectly in themselves distinct and ought in their exercise to be kept so The highest Power governs men as men by the temporal Sword but as Christians by the spiritual and by seeing all things done in Religion by those spiritual means Christ hath appointed all which means he may make use of though exercised by other hands than his own and still in a subordination to him as Christ's chief Officer in the World who hath the Charge incumbant upon him to see all that Christ hath commanded duely put in execution But the Magistrate himself with the Power proper to him which is the temporal is not immediately to act any thing in the Church what he does is in a collateral way that were to bring a new Officer into the Church and a Power new and forreign to execute the Gospel contrary to the nature and totally destructive to the being of it The Magistrate hath wayes such as Christ thought sufficient to promote the good of Religion and propagate the growth of the Gospel without drawing the civil Sword which will make no more impression in spiritual concerns than it will do upon a Ghost that hath no real body In the execution of those he ought to acquiesce but if not content therewith he will use the civil Power to force men to believe and worship according to his Light and will take Offenders in the Church and punish them by his temporal Power what is this but to lord it over Gods Heritage and to make the Gospel Church and being a Member of it a thing of greater outward carnal fear bondage and subjection to men than ever the Law was This use of the temporal Power is the sting that wounds all liberty of Conscience and totally overthrows it If the Magistrate where I live be an Arrian a Socinian or in any such Error while he enforceth this but in a Gospel way and in Christs way of enforcing Truth only by instruction and perswasion this doth not mortally wound me this does not Petere jugulum of my liberty to keep to the Truth but if he come to establish it by the civil Power and by that suppress all else as Error my liberty in a differing perswasion is totally gone The admitting the Magistrate to use the temporal Power in executing his judgment about Religion hurries every man out of the world that is not of his mind for whatsoever will make a man an Heretick will bring a man to the Stake and every Opinion that is not the Magistrate's must needs make a man so If Christ hath enjoyned the temporal Power to be used it must have its utmost effect not only upon Hereticks within but much more upon those that are Infidels without the Church If the Magistrate be appointed to use such a power he must not tolerate any thing upon any terms nor exempt it from the lash of

Instance in that Law about putting Idolaters to Death where if we consider the circumstances attending it we shall find it impossible nay unlawful now to be executed Whosoever tempted another to Idolatry was not to be conceal'd but the Person tempted was obliged to kill him himself whether he were his Brother Son Wife or whatever Relation it were In the 13th of Deut. vers 9. Thou shalt surely kill him thy hand shall be first upon him and then the hand of all the People and they shall stone him And afterwards we find there whole Cities of Idolaters are to be raced to the ground and their Children and Cattel utterly destroyed These are Laws that cannot be now executed under the Gospel nay they are forbidden for we are bid to walk in Wisdom to those that are without to do good to all men and to give no offence neither to Jew nor Gentile Nay Believing Husbands and Wives are bid to live with their Unbelieving Relations in hopes to convert them Who can avoid seeing that these Punishments as well as Promises were relative to that People and that state of things to preserve them from the rest of the World and expired with the distinction of Jew and Gentile Thus I have endeavour'd to oppose the Magistrates using the civil Power to force Religion under the Gospel First because 't is against the Light of Nature And secondly 't is not only without but against the Command of the Gospel so to do Famous is that saying of Tertullian to Scapula It appertaineth unto the Authority of the Law of Man and Nature that every man Worship as he thinketh good and one mans Religion doth not hurt nor profit another Neither is it any piece of Religion to inforce Religion which must be undertaken by a mans own accord and not through Violence So thought Turtullian antiently So saith Lactantius Who shall inforce me either to believe what I will not or not to believe what I will So saith Cassdor Religion cannot be forced And Bernard hath an excellent saying to the same purpose Faith is to be planted by Perswasion not obtruded by Violence Bede tells us That here in England so soon as King Ethelbert was converted by Austin the Monk he made a Law That none should be compelled to Religion having understood that Christ's Service ought to be voluntary and not compelled A third Reason against using Force Compulsion about things under the Gospel is Because 't is not adequate to the Malady for if the meaning be to make a man forsake Error and imbrace the Truth 't is no Remedy suitable to the Disease nor will it ever reach such a Distemper or effect such a Cure The Disease lies in the Soul and in the Understanding the compelling and punishing the Body will never help it the end will be wholly lost A man can never be forced to alter or imbrace an Opinion he may deny it or conceal it But if he had a desire through fear or other slavish considerations to do it yet he cannot and so a man is compelled to an impossibility This usually makes Hypocrites and at last Atheists but never makes a right Convert So the Souls of men this way are endangered the Devils Interest promoted but neither the Salvation of Souls nor the Honour of God by enlarging Truth any way furthered He that useth no other Medium but force to me makes a Lyon and a Mastiff-Dog as capable of converting me and giving Laws to my Understanding as he We are bid to restore Persons fallen into Error by a Spirit of Meekness considering our selves lest we also be tempted So Paul to Timothy The Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men in Meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give Repentance No man ever yet did any good to himself or others by forcing a man against the Law of his own Light and Reason How many that through fear and oppression have gone against their Light have repented openly to the shame and disgrace of those who violently obtruded Principles upon them contrary to what was natively and properly their own Take amongst many one famous instance recorded by Socrates in his Ecclesiastical History The Emperor Valens by threats and menaces to confiscate and banish him made Elusius Bishop of Cyzicum turn Arrian and approve the Decrees of the Council of Arminium The effect of it was Elusius presently fell into horror of Conscience openly at Cyzicum recanting what he had done crying out of the Emperors unjust cruelty and made all men loath such a proceeding A late Author undertakes to justifie the use of Force in Religion from the Opinion of Saint Austine whose Opinion at first as is well known was That it was no way lawful to use Force to men of differing Opinions in Religion The retraction of that and the change of his mind was occasioned by a particular accident at Hippo and it may be if we consult all circumstances we shall find his last Opinion had more need of a retractation than his first and yet at last he is very positive against all capital punishment his words are Nullis tamen bonis 'T is a thing says he that pleaseth no good man that any Heretick should be put to death We may see by this how men do curtail and enlarge these things according to their interests and particular affections and set bounds at their own pleasure some are for one kind of temporal severity and some for another and so when we leave the Scriptures that give no direction for any we lose our selves and wander as the fancies and interests of men lead us But the Authors words are these Though Force saith he will not remove the Error yet it may prevent its spreading though it doth not take away the Cause yet it hinders most of the mischievous Effects The mischievous effects of an Opinion is considered as it relates to a man himself who is possessed with it and as it relates to others who may be by him infected with it Force doth in no wise hinder the spreading of an Opinion for if a man be punished for declaring to others what he thinks is right and he thinks himself bound in Conscience to declare others are more easily taken and by his Sufferings made more pleased with his Notion and sooner become his Proselites In the other case he that forceth me to deny my Opinion sins in doing it but I sin likewise if I comply with him for such mischievous effects as relate to the Person himself possessed with an Opinion hinders them not at all unless you can convert him by it for it either confirms him in one Error or leads him into a worse If he stand it out and suffer he will be the more rooted in his perswasion by it and be apt to think want of Arguments brings men to Club-Law If he comply against his Light he runs then into an apparent and

such Faction and give it a plausible pretence to justifie it self upon whereas a Liberty granted in matters of Conscience will either wholly win such men to a due and hearty Obedience as finding themselves in a posture they cannot expect to mend or else will lay them open to such apparent justice for punishment and bring them under such a general contempt as shall leave them stript of all pretensions and render them wholly inconsiderable 'T is marvellous prudence to separate between Conscience and Faction which can never be but by a Liberty of the one that so they may distinctly punish the other He that hath liberty granted to worship God according to his Conscience and yet is not satisfied but continues troublesom makes every body ready to be his Executioner and makes that discovery which could never have been made before that Faction was his end and Conscience but the pretended means such men will not only lie open to the States just severity but to the hatred of all men who do generally dislike ill actions most when they come from men of the best pretensions Punish men for their Religion because you judge them Factious and mix all together and you fall into this double Error Either you punish men for Faction that deserve it not and so besides a piece of Injustice do what you can to make those Enemies who are not nor would not be so or else those that are so you give them the pretence of Conscience to justifie themselves in whatever sufferings comes upon them When people differing from the publick Religion meet to worship God and are seized and punished for so doing the Magistrate saith He punisheth for Faction they say They suffer for Religion And all People who see the actual punishment inflicted for things relating to Conscience and Religion will be sure to believe and pitty them and be ready to condemn the State A due Separation as 't is best to be made so 't will only by a Liberty given be obtained He that intends nothing but to give God the Homage of his Conscience will have freedom to do it and he that under that has other ends and aims will be justly punished for it But for a State to imbibe a general belief that all who differ from the State-Religion are factious to the civil Power and not to be suffered and so to punish them as such and if they be not so to tempt them thereby to be so is to do an act of injustice to them and to forfeit their own prudence towards themselves For the Errors you may suppose men possessed withal as an eager Persecution is apt to make the Professors of them think them more than ordinary Truths and themselves some great men in maintaining them so it makes others seek after that when driven into a Corner which were it in the open Streets no man would regard He that preaches and writes under restraint that restraint begets him readers and hearers that would else pass through the World with very little notice taken of him things difficult and hard to come by carry some weight in mens expectancy Foolish and absurd Opinions are only put to Nurse by Persecution and by that made to have something in the concerns and fears of others which has indeed nothing in it self The hiding men by a keen pursuit after them in the profession of such things keeps them alive whereas if they were openly preached written and discoursed of the folly of them would appear such as not only others but the men themselves would be ashamed and a weary of them Besides punishing men for Religion where there are several parties lays a Foundation of endless troubles and perpetual feuds for that ill Opinion and anger which makes one party when prevaling to suppress and punish the rest propagates still the same anger and dislike in the parties punished and begets by such provocation a certain resolution to retort the same again and a readiness to embrace all opportunities to effect it whereas that party that once gives liberty to the rest buries all those Evils and unites all in the common union of their own interest and security 'T will be impossible to find out a way for men of differing Judgments in Religion to live together and enjoy the common advantages which as men they may afford one to another unless they exercise an Indulgence to each other in that variety they stand in as Christians Where there are many differences and a State denyes any Liberty but strictly imposeth the State-Religion upon all the case always falls out to be that the earnest desire of that we call Liberty of Conscience lies glowing in the Embers of mens discontent and is a thing in it self so popular a thing of so great evidence of Reason when it may be discoursed upon equal terms and so much the concern of every man but the present Imposer that 't is very apt to kindle and flame out and upon any strait or emergency of State either by Forreign War or Domestick Division to make such an Earthquake as may endanger the whole 'T is most prudent in a State to give Liberty when there is least power to demand it those may be gained by giving it that may prove dangerous in forcing it To force and pen men up in such things is wholly unnatural and will like Wind penned up in the Earth or the Sea shut up by Banks break out at one time or another with the greater violence Liberty in Religion was never yet denyed in a Protestant State but it had first or last a mischievous effect To instruct men in Protestant Principles and then to put a Yoke of Vniformity upon them hath no more proportion in it than to educate a man at Geneva that is to live at Rome and to breed him a Calvinist whom you intend for a Papist Were there no other reason to make a Prince or a State out of love with punishing men for Religion and matters of that nature this were sufficient to consider such punishment ever falls upon the most honest of his Subjects in every differing party men of loose jugling principles and unsound hearts will be sure to escape the Net only the sincere plain-hearted man that cannot dissemble is caught 't was the device against Daniel heretofore they knew in the matters of his God 't was easie to deal with him because in those he would not upon any terms dissemble This has Three ill Effects always attending it First It disobliges the best sort of men in every party whom the State should most cherish and engage whatever is said to the contrary those that are the truest Subjects to the Great King will be also found the best to his Vice-gerents here 'T is a strange Heterodox kind of policy to make all the honest sincere men in a Nation of every party but that one the State adheres to the object of the States displeasure and to make Laws that can

R. that it was the Advice of such an Eminent Friend as it was of Party with G. F. Viz. Let not this Spirit be reasoned with enter not into Proposals and Articles with it but feed it with Judgment that is Gods Decree Which gives me occasion to write to you at this time to DESIRE then not to require as R. R. says a Letter from you whether you will Advise and Consent to the Racing out the said Orders which prohibit Marriage to the manner of the Publication of the Parties Intention and whether you will advise and consent to the Racing out the Record against J.A. for his Nonconformity to the said ORDERS or else maintain and prove them Apostolical and agreeable to the Way and Manner of the Apostles and Primitive Christians Proceedings by answering my Queries sent to G. W. c. But if you refuse to do either That is to say To race out the said Orders for Marriage on Record and the Record against J. A. or else maintain and prove them Apostolical Then I do hereby let you know that I purpose if the Lord will to bear a publick Testimony against your Innovations Usurpations Directories Orders Decrees Cannons and Constitutions But on the contrary mark my Terms of Submission If you shall race out the said Orders and Record against J. A. or shew mark I pray you your Advice and Consent by Letter to me to the Friends belonging to our Quarterly-Meeting to and for the racing out the said Orders for Marriage and Record against J.A. for his Nonconformity to them so that it be done effectually OR mark the reasonableness of my Proposals prove them Apostolical by answering my Queries sent to G. W. or otherwise as aforesaid Then I do hereby promise to forbear such publick Testimony whether by Printing or otherwise and to wait in hopes that Things which are amiss may be mended And why you refuse this Request which would tend to the gladning the Hearts of many I know not Christ said to the lofty Professors in his Day If you Believe me not yet Believe me for my Works Sake And I say though you may slight me yet for the Reason sake that I offer for Liberty of Conscience as an Expedient for Reconciliation and for the Peace of the Church and that Liberty of Conscience in the Free Exercise of it where neither Christ nor his Apostles have set a Limit may be enjoyed and preserved from Violence and Usurpation Have some Regard to what I say It is not unknown to you how our Practice hath been sometimes to the King and his Council sometimes to the King and Parliament for Liberty of Conscience and the Free Exercise of it and that we might be exempted from the Penalties assigned for our Nonconformity to the Rites and Ceremonys of Prelatical Institutions Established by the Laws of the Land This hath been still is and ought to be our Practice WELL THEN How comes it then 〈…〉 pass that we should be such humble Suiters for Liberty of Conscience and now such severe Imposers on each others Consciences and to such Orders as G. W's Learned Friend R. R. in his Perplext Vnlearned and Ill-compos'd Ingredients p. 11. 12. had no better way to vindicate than by two Proofs The one from the Popes Nunnery a Place I do not like at all and I pray God preserve me in that Faith and Practice which may be defended by the Holy Scriptures and Primitive Christians Example that so I need not be put to that Shift and Extremity as to go to the Popes Nunnery to defend the same but as W. P. elsewhere saith though to his own Confutation in that he handed the Grant and Confirmation mentioned in the Second Chapter Errour is only upheld by Errour and so he may see in time The next Proof of his is That in the Jews Apostacy to Idolatry the Women wove Hangings And that as the First Implyes some Womens Service amongst the Primitive Christians So the last shews that Women did some Service in the Temple Oh profound Learning And if this way of Reasoning was pursued What Heathenish Practices and Popish Superstitions may not be Introduced But says he These are * * Note Imperfect Footsteps Imperfect Footsteps And I think as Impertinently Quoted and if R.R. hath no better Logick he need not be admired by G. W. in Print for his great Learning nor perhaps had not only he hath found out some History or Popish Author which says There were Deaconesses as well as Deacons Which was helpful to G.W. in his Preaching and Disputing for Womens-Meetings lately in Huntington-Shire and elsewhere where he took too much upon him and behaved himself more like a Lordly Bishop or Popish Prelate than an humble Minister of Christ and by me at this time is and stands Impeached as an Enemy to Christian-Liberty a Vsurper over the Conscience the which I stand ready publickly to assert maintain and vindicate And as you have in your Solicitations for Liberty of Conscience shewed our King at the latter End of the Treatise of Oaths the Example of the Grave of Nassau and the Prince of Orange and divers others who in their time gave Liberty so may I and with great reason too set the Example of our King before your view who though he hath not granted all you ask yet hath done much more comparatively than you will do for your Brethren and that in a twofold manner that is to say First In that about eight or nine Years since by his Letters Pattent was graciously pleased to Release many of us out of Prison who lay under the Sentence of Premunire Secondly By racing out the Exchequer Records where many of us stood convict of Recusancy and thereby out of his Princely Clemency set us free from the Censures issuable thereupon These Things are manifest Why then will you not bear with a little Nonconformity to one Ceremony and that such an one too for which there is neither Precept nor President in all the Holy Scriptures Why will you not learn of the King who raced out and made void the Judges Sentences which were severe enough and blotted out the Exchequer Records that so you may thereby give us some ground to believe that if you were in Power to Inflict Corporal Punishment for our Non-conformity to your Church-Government YOU WOULD NOT c. Oh that you would consider these Things in a Christian Spirit which would lead you To do to others as you would that others should do unto you So desiring your speedy Answer I rest your Friend who cannot sow Pillows under your Arm-holes Milden-hall The 12th of the 9th Month 1681. F. Bugg Thus it is left with the Reader to Judge what Imperiousnes is herein manifested considering my former Endeavours and Patience therein for nigh four Years The next is a Letter sent by a dozen Friends that belong to our particular Meeting And then after some Remarks upon their Procedure I shall conclude this