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
se bene gesserint and for employing men and dispensing favours to them let all Parties with a due subjection lie under the Prerogative and Soveraignty of his pleasure Two things are with much earnestness usually Objected against the Grant of Liberty First That it is unbecoming the Zeal and Concern a Magistrate should have for the Truth of Religion to give Liberty to any thing but what he thinks to be so and that such a Lukewarmness as Liberty to several Opinions supposeth does no way become him Secondly That giving Liberty to men of several Opinions is the way to Propagate and Encrease them and is of great danger to a State For the First It is very fit that the Magistrate should espouse what he thinks to be the Truth and keep himself to the strict Practice of it and use all lawful means to possess others with it let him use all the means Christ and the Apostles used to convince and convert men but let him not lay Violent hands upon mens Persons because he cannot satisfie their Understandings That 's Zeal without Knowledge and Religion without a Rule either in Reason or Divinity That is to run into so wide an Extream from Laodecean Lukewarmness as to become like Paul before his Conversion who saith of himself That he was Mad Persecuting the Church To say A Magistrate is Lukewarm in Religion because he will not Force men to his Opinion is to say He is Lukewarm because he will not do a thing that Christ hath no where required of him and to do a thing that is to no purpose to do for that very end for which it is done Tolerating men has no more in it than not Forcing men 'T is only a Negative Favour there is nothing Affirmative in it A Magistrate will never be charged with Lukewarmness in Religion that makes use of all Gospel means to promote Truth and that he may do and yet never violate the due Liberty of any mans Conscience If we consult the Antient Practice of the first Christian Magistrates we shall find it plain That Liberty of Conscience was given by the Christian Emperors Constantine did it fully Eusebius in his Life time tells us That he made a Decree in these words Vt parem cum Fidelibus ij qui errant pacis quietis fruitionem gaudentes accipiant 'T is true he banished Arrius but let any man consult the Ecclesiastical History and he shall find Arrius so Factious and Base a Person that there needed no part of his Opinion to be the cause of his Exile Gratian the Emperor made likewise a Decree for Liberty in Religion The Jews had granted by all the Emperors the same Rights with other Christians Jovinian and Valentinian most Noble Princes suffered Christians of several Perswasions to enjoy their Liberty Of this Grotius in his Book De Imp. Sum. Potes Circ Sac. Cap. 8. takes particular notice adding these words and saith which is more to be Noted The Emperor did not only permit Jmpunity to Disagreeing Sects but often made Laws to order their Assemblies Liberty therefore in Religion is not either so new or so strange a thing or so great a Monster as men would make it State-Religions are not always Infallibly true Truth sometimes keeps men from embracing them it doth so in many parts of Christendom and in that case a Negative Restraint upon the Magistrates compulsion is the only shelter of Truth The Wisdom of Christ who hath forbid the use of the Temporal power under the Gospel about Religion hath left things best For if a Magistrate be in the right he may promote Truth as far as in the nature of the thing and by Christ's appointment it can be promoted If he be not in the right where the Temporal Power does not interpose men are secured in the profession of Truth and not hazarded in refusing a publick Error He that would have the Magistrate force all men to his Religion will himself be burnt by his own Principles when he comes into a Country where the State-Religion differs from him To say He is in the right and the State that does it in the wrong is a miserable begging the Question If one Magistrate be to do it all are to do it and there can be no other Rule of Truth and Error in that case but what they think so If a Magistrate be once admitted to punish with Death what is really and truly in it self an Heresie he may and must by the same Rule so punish every thing he thinks so Where shall the Definition of Heresie terminate And who shall set the Magistrate bounds in such a case Mis-information Passion or some sinister Interest can only lead men into such Principles which tend to nothing but to make Religion disturb the peace and quiet of all Mankind and as one saith well To bring Christians to a Butchery one of another and to make a meer Shambles of Christendom For the Second Objection That giving Liberty to several Parties Encreaseth them and makes them dangerous to a State First 'T is very fit that wheresoever you will suppose Errors to be sprung up all the means Christ hath appointed for that end should be used to suppress them and reclaim men from them Let their Mouthes be stopped with sound Doctrine and spiritual Censures the only Question is about the use of the temporal Power in such things And Experience tells us That since the World began to this day Principles and Opinions in the Mind were never extinguished by the punishing the Body That old Saying verifies it Sanguis Martyrum Semem Ecclesiae Nay there is nothing under the Sun to promote an Opinion in Religion like making men suffer for it The Constancy and Courage of men in suffering for an Opinion will sooner perswade men to it than all the Discourses and Sermons in the World If the Magistrate take a Violent course to root out all different Opinions in Religion such as the Emperors heretofore when Heathen took with the Christians and the Popish States where they are able do at this day with the Protestants besides the Cruelty of it with which he will besmear himself he will miss of his end and find a Succession of those Principles in others rising out of the Ashes of those Destroys as it used to be said heretofore by the Martyrs Quoties morimur toties nascimur If he take a mild and more gentle way of Persecution he only exasperates them and then leaves them arm'd with all possible Discontent to hurt him Consider the giving Liberty under these two Heads First The giving of it to several Opinions and Parties where they are already actually existing And Secondly The giving Liberty so as will occasion and produce such Parties and Opinions For the First Where there are several Parties in Religion already in being and diffused all over a Nation as the case is with us there is no way to secure them but to indulge them for they are
never delegated to any substitute upon Earth nor was there since the World began a judgment entrusted in any hands over the Consciences of men nor was it indeed under a possibility to be since no man nor men with the existence of humane Power could ever come to know the state of another mans Conscience nor the manifold Circumstances only open to a divine Eye relating to it and therefore does Paul himself to the Corinthians wholly disclaim the exercise of such a Power The simple actings therefore of Conscience abstractedly considered are not capable of a forcible impression from without nor need any man fear the loss of liberty of Conscience in that sense of it nor reckon himself under an obligation to any indulgence for it since a donation of it from any will with no more reality afford it to me than a restraint from them will any way actually take it from me That which will as most proper and genuine to the present enquiry proposed come under consideration will be How far the products and effects of Conscience in mens actings in pursuance of it are to be indulged and how far restrained and this will all come under two Heads First How far men are to be suffered to do or not to do those things which they say they are in Conscience obliged to do Secondly How far men are to be urged by commands to do such things which they say they are in Conscience obliged not to do That a punctual clear Answer to these Questions will be a Travel of great peril undertaken none that have any way versed themselves in such Controversies will deny and therefore the better to secure our progress herein it will be necessary chiefly and principally to reflect upon the Magistrate and the Power he is entrusted withal this method will carry its own evidence sufficiently with it If we consider the power that mankind hath over each other is exercised by him and that the success of this notion and the influence both of freedom and restraint depends solely upon him and that the power of Princes and Magistrates do actually bind and loose in matters of this nature I say if we consider this we shall soon make a discovery that finding out what the Magistrate may do and what he may not do in Religious affairs will give us a determination of this matter In the prosecution of this these several things shall be attempted First To make it evident that Magistracy is an Institution grounded upon the Light of nature and how far he may and ought to proceed by that both negatively and positively in these things Secondly That a Magistrate by becoming Christian receives no addition of Power to what he had before only stands bound to an improved exercise of his Power suitable to the light he then receives Thirdly To discover some eminent mistaken extreams about the Magistrates Power in Religion which have miserably involved us And Lastly To shew how far the Magistrate under the Gospel should and ought to act about Religion and wherein he is not to interpose his Power the right stating whereof is the true and solid Foundation upon which all true Liberty of Conscience is built For the first of these That Magistracy and Government is an Institution grounded upon the Light of Nature is easie enough to be made appear the first rise of it being in Families where it was wholly natural and paternal and therefore it is that the first Commandment wherein all subjection to Superiors is commanded is comprehended under the Obedience of Children required to their Parents that being the first Magistratical Power exercised That first Power and Authority God gave Adam upon the Fall over the woman being a distinguishing Power between the two Sexes and not properly any Magistratical Power relating to a Community After there came to be several divided Families in the World they found a necessity of a Power that might have a larger and farther extent than that in each Family which could be no otherwise grounded than by a joynt and common consent God having not by particular designation appointed any to rule over the World and no one Family could claim a right to rule over another nor could the first born in any family exercise any Power or extend his Dominion farther than that particular Family The reason whereof seems plain because that paternal Power which is originally in a family is not successive there is no succession of that power Parents have over their Children and Masters have over their Servants which is the ground of Family-Government farther than those relations still reach Hence it is the Power a Parent might exercise in his Family as a Father and a Master he cannot exercise upon any of his Kindred or other collateral Relations in any degree further and therefore that kind of Dominion must needs rest circumscribed within the bounds of each particular Family and that more extensive Government of many Families together was by a joynt-coalition and agreement of them dictated by the Light of Nature for general good there being scarce any thing a more necessary direction of Nature for mans own Preservation and Good since his Fall than to associate himself in a Community under one common Government How the Light of Nature did at the first operate upon men to convince them of a necessity to joyn together in a subjection to Superiors and how greatly their interest lay in such a subjection relative to such a publick Dominion we may some-what discover if we consider First That the Earth was at the first the Gift of the great Creator to the Sons of Adam and what every man first possessed was his own and whatever he could by his labour produce from it the same Law that is to this day to the first Discoverers of any unpossessed part of the World Now the only way to preserve men in such a Propriety and to make good that first Law of Gods donation was to have by common consent a publick power to take care of it and restrain the violence and exorbitant injustice that would otherwise have filled the World Secondly When private differences came to arise between man and man between cause and cause it would prove imposible to end any strife while each man would be a Judge in his own case and therefore it was found impracticable for men to live without a third Judgment which did necessarily point them to a Magistrate Thirdly Man was not only a sociable Creature in himself made to live in society and prompted by particular inclination to it but each man came to see men had common Concerns one with another and Interests of a publick nature beyond the bounds of their own particular Families there could be no way found out to capacitate them to enjoy those common advantages they might afford each to other but by imbodying themselves together and creating a publick Relation each to other in one joynt-society the very being of
which must needs lie in having one to rule over it and to exercise that publick care requisite to its preservation to which no mans private power or concern either could or ought to lead him Lastly The sensible good each Family found in that Paternal Regiment exercised within it self might well induce them to fall into that more general and to unite themselves under one Political Father in whose care and protection they might live secured These and many other necessary inforcements upon the common sense and experience of men induced the power of commanding and the reason of obeying That God that afforded to each Creature a capacity large enough for its own preservation did not leave Man without sufficient light to discover this great Engine of his safety and happiness Well may we then look upon the power of Magistracy as the greatest and most transcendant of all humane things and pay the due tribute of all Reverence and Obedience to it as being the Soveraign Power of God exercised in a way of Vicegerency amongst men and that wherein the peace and quiet of mankind is most necessarily included The Law and Light of Nature having thus from the beginning placed the Magistrate in his Throne the same also did lead and guide him to the exercise of his Power by bringing him under this obligation to do whatsoever should be found necessary to the good of mankind both in their private and publick capacity and restrain whatsoever is destructive to it this as it brings Princes and Magistrates to a tye of duty so is the donation of this Power exceeding large and ample The First thing in which the power of the Magistrate is naturally exerted is in his own preservation wherein his Power is Paramount to all pretensions whatsoever As in Nature each mans supream Law lies in self-preservation who is bid to love his Neighbour but as himself So politically in Magistracy the preservation of it self in its Power and Prerogative and the exercises thereof is the first thing 't is led to look after he is to preserve himself in order to that preservation he is to afford to others 'T were very absurd to suppose a Magistrate bound to tolerate any thing destructive to his being no pretence of Conscience is here to be suffered 't is a practice against the Law of Nature 't is to pretend Conscience to annihilate mankind God hath not nor will not promulge Laws to interfere one with another nor will he ever reveal any thing against the standing Law of Nature it being the remains of mans excellent creation at first but what shall heighten and improve it to a further perfection Herein therefore Princes and States are sufficiently secured by a power inherent in their very being that no abused pretensions of a Liberty for Conscience can ever invade or disturb them Secondly The extent of the Magistrates power reacheth to a total suppression of all moral evil and encouragement of all moral good and that for these Reasons First moral evil is an abomination to every mans Conscience and therefore ought to be much more so to the Magistrate who hath the only power of suppressing and punishing it Secondly moral evil and vice is most injurious to mankind and destructive to that well-being and quiet the Magistrate is bound to provide for Thirdly It brings down sensible and visible Judgments upon Persons and Societies with a voice easie enough to be heard by any natural ear and therefore the Magistrate by the very Light of Nature is loudly enough called upon to suppress it This we have clear enough set down in the 13th of the Romans where the Magistrate is said to be a terrour to evil-doers and a praise to them that do well the Magistrates power is there fully asserted but it seems to be but the same power he had before his Commission seems only to be renewed with the same power he had from the beginning that the Apostle there speaks nothing of the power of Magistrates beyond what the Light of Nature gives them seems to be very clear in two things First in that he instanceth in the present Roman power that then was and Secondly because he sets down nothing that the Magistrate is to do but what the Light and Law of Nature doth directly guide him unto That the Apostle speaks of Magistracy in general is plain and that he speaks of it in the present instance of the then Roman Power is as plain now if all that belongs to the Magistracy in the abstract had not been compleat in the Roman power as to the right of it the instance had been no way proportionate nor right The Apostle writing to Rome no doubt intended to declare the Principles of the Gospel to be such as taught all subjection to the Emperor he says The Powers that be are ordained of God speaking in the present sense of those that then were and he says For this cause pay you Tribute that is the present Tax you pay the Roman Emperor is upon this very account so that he carries on the instance of Magistracy all along in the Roman Heathen power Secondly he speaks of nothing to be done by the Magistrate but what the Light of nature dictates and what was the duty of the Emperor then to do to execute wrath upon him that doth evil and to encourage those that do well wherein he is a Minister of God to us for very much good By this we see then this farther power of restraint in the Magistrate in his natural constitution that being to suppress all moral evil and encourage virtue he is bound not to suffer upon any false pretensions of Conscience whatsoever any practices that discourage the one or fall within the guilt of the other These forementioned and unquestionable generals do contain in them the negative and positive execution of the Magistates natural power in things purely moral and political How far he is by the Light of Nature obliged about the Religious concerns of his Subjects and wherein the Light of Nature lays an Arrest upon him not to proceed that so the due liberty of each mans Conscience may be secured will come under a more pertinent consideration in a following part of this discourse We see by these things the Magistrate negatively impowered in an ample manner in his first constitution over all things relating to the moral and political good of mankind The Light of Nature excludes all such Principles from the least toleration which make men cease to be true Subjects to the State or good Common-wealths-men in relation to others Liberty of Conscience is best secur'd by disclaiming such who neither by natural or divine Law can make any just pretence to it 'T is only to be given in things divine and supernatural such as neither destroy nor disturb the civil and political Interests and Rights of men The second thing proposed about the Magistrate will have no hardship to make appear That a Magistrate
by becoming Christian hath no addition of power to what he had before Magistracy is the same and as legitimated amongst Heathens as Christians A Magistrate when Christian exercises the power he had before otherwise but receives no addition of power to his Office Christ in the Gospel hath made no alteration in Magistratical Power nor hath he given any addition to it when exercised by Christian hands but a Magistrate when Christian is bound to exert his power in a way suitable to the light he then hath He that hath no other than the light of nature hath as much power about Religion as if he were Christian and is to take as much care of the Souls of his Subjects suitable to that Light as any Christian Magistrate is to do suitable to his The power a Parent hath over his Child a Master over his Servant a Prince over his Subjects is no more when they become Christian than it was before only that power must be otherwise exercised according to that improvement of light Christianity brings with it All natural and moral Power was the same from the beginning though God was not pleased to set that power distinctly in a Law written till long after the light of nature gave a plentiful information about these things The duty of all such relations in the performance mutually of them amongst men is greatly furthered by the Light of the Gospel but the duty is still the same several things do evidently evince this general Truth 1st All natural and moral Relations belong to men as men only so considered and not as Chrstians and are fully compleat and perfect amongst mankind both in the power of the one and the duty of the other without any reference to any Perswasion in Religion or other Qualification whatever 2dly It appears from hence because whatsoever the Gospel reveals to be the duty of such relations each to other we find practised by the light and law of nature from the beginning these things being of absolute necessity to uphold the frame and policy of mankind God had naturally endowed them with a sufficient discovery of his mind about them 3dly It appears to be so because Christians are obliged by the Laws of the Gospel to give the same obedience and perform the same duties in these Relations to Unbelievers that they are to Believers the Gospel speaks of these things without distinction Subjects are commanded to obey Heathen Magistrates in all things lawful and we are to obey Christian no farther Servants are commanded with the utmost duty of Servants to obey unbelieving Masters and so Wives to be subject to unbelieving Husbands all which declares these Relations perfectly inherent in mankind as such and no way relative to any other Qualification whatsoever These two preliminary considerations of the Magistrate 1st That he has his original in the light and law of Nature 2dly That his power and being is thereby perfect and compleat and that Christianity gives no addition of Power to such an Office will much further the right stating the chief and last thing proposed How far a Christian Magistrate under the Gospel is impowered negatively and positively in these things Before I proceed to which I shall come to the third thing intended which is To shew how some eminent Mistakes about the Magistrates Power in Religious things have involved us into very destructive and pernicious Extremities A Prospect of which may be had in these three things into which the various writings and discourses of that subject have chiefly issued themselves First Some do make the Magistrate the sole Judge of all Spiritual matters ascribe to him the power of setling what Government he pleases in the Church appointing Officers in it determining all differences in Religious things suppressing by his power all Errors and Heresies and superceding all matters that appertain to the Gospel A second sort with an equal warmth affirm the Magistrates Power in Religious things but say 'T is never to be exercised but in a perfect subservency to the Church and that whatsoever the Church determines he is bound to execute by the temporal Sword as the great Law of Christ A third sort as wide of the Truth as either of the other say positively The Magistrate hath nothing at all to do in Religious concerns that he is a meer civil Officer to take care of mens civil Interests and hath nothing to do with things of a spiritual nature That all these Principles have produced hurtful effects and that the truth lies distant from them all will be found in a distinct consideration of them The first does little less than revive in the Magistrate now much of that power Christ himself and the Apostles by his delegation exercised at first in setling the Gospel Church and unless it can be punctually made appear where in the Gospel Christ hath substituted the Magistrate to exercise such a dominion over his House it will soberly be found a dangerous Intrenchment upon his Kingly Office 't is one thing to take care of the execution of what Christ hath already setled and another to make Laws and Customs about those things This opinion as it is by many late Writers maintained dissolves all Ecclesiastical Regiment and annexeth the Government of the Church to the civil Power or indeed drowns the Church into the State or at least mixes them as much or more than they were mixed together under the Judaical policy What ever Government the Magistrate settles cannot be Ecclesiastical but Civil if it be Forreign to what is already divinely appointed if it be not then it s not the setling but the executing of what is already setled unless you will say that Christ entrusted him to settle the Ecclesiastical Government of his Church and that will seem not a little strange that the Magistrate who is no spiritual Officer set in the Church nor cannot himself administer in executing the least thing within it should have such a supream Power over it Either Christ and the Apostles did settle a Government in the Church or they did not if they did the Magistrate as well as others is obliged by it if they did not but that 't is left to the Magistrate he has a greater power at least in the exercise of it than ever they had For if we suppose they had power to settle a Government but did not think fit to exert that power but left it to the Magistrate his power in the execution of it is greater than theirs 'T is much that the infallible Wisdom of Christ and his Apostles could not better find out an order for the Gospel Church than to leave it to the mercy of every Magistrates discretion and 't is equally to be wondred at that an Officer of such necessary importance to the Church as to settle the Government of it should be wanting when the Gospel was first planted and every thing ordinary and extraordinary belonging to it was presented to accompany
the Glorious Presence of Christ upon Earth and which might any way contribute to rear up the Fabrick of the New-Testament Church 'T is much that such an Officer of so absolute concernment as this Opinion makes him should not be in the Christian World for three hundred years together If we will seek the meaning of this providential disposal of things may we not soberly think it to be that the Gospel was a thing wholly founded upon Spiritual Power was compleat therein and needed not any Temporal power to contribute to its perfection This impowering the Magistrate with a Superlative Authority in setling what relates to the Government of the Church supposeth this That the Scripture hath revealed no Truth that is binding in this matter but this That what the Magistrate pleaseth to settle in every place that is right and this I am sure the Scripture hath no where revealed and so we are like to have as many distinct Governments as there are States and distinct Kindgdoms in the World 't is strange those that are for exact Uniformity in any one Church should lay a foundation of such confused multiplicity in the Church Universal Either we must suppose Christ was not faithful to reveal all that concerned the Government of the Gospel-Church which God intrusted him with or else that it was the Will of God there should be no more revealed but that all should be transiently left to the Magistrate To say the first were but to urge Blasphemy for Reason if the second 't is to impower an Officer in such a necessary and weighty matter whose very being in the Church with an ability to do it had a futurity of three hundred years to come During all which time if Christ and the Apostles setled no Government in the Church and there being no Christian Magistrate that could settle any How could the Church then come lawfully to have any If it be said Where there is no Christian Magistrate every Church may use their own discretion then 't is plain the Government of the Church under the Gospel hath no other bottom than what every Magistrate and every particular Church pleaseth and so not only Magistrates but Churches and indeed all the World may be their own Carvers in this weighty matter 'T is very hard to be credited that the Government of the Church which does so greatly relate to the preservation of the Truth of Doctrine in it should be left to such floating uncertainties Besides this Position makes all that part of the Gospel which lies in Precept and President about the Rule of the Church and what was by the Apostles then practised and commanded to be of no use to us nor obligation upon us farther then the Magistrate pleaseth 't is to give him a dominion over that part of the Scriptures and opens a door to make him as some have fully done Lord over the whole New-Testament Two things are usually said to prop up this Power in the Magistrate First That there is nothing positively determined in the Gospel about these things because the Gospel being to take place throughout the whole world no one frame or Model of Government could be composed that would conveniently fit all Persons and Places where the Gospel might come to be received and setled and therefore the Wisdom of Christ hath left things of that nature wholly undetermined This is a thing taken for granted and wholly without any Divine Ground to warrant it and is in the reason of the thing it self insufficient for we find nothing in command or practice by the Apostles in setling the Christian Churches but what will agree with any Nation or People in the World He that will say That the Order of the Gospel as we there find it practised and required will not agree to any place may with as much reason if not more say That the receiving of the Gospel it self in the general belief of it will not agree to that place These things make it evident that the Order and Discipline we find setled in the Gospel-Churches in the Apostles time must needs fit every place and people and can do no hurt any where 1st It highly intends to heighten and compleat the duty incumbent on all Moral and Natural Relations that which Christ hath appointed to preserve order among Christians as Christians will never hinder but farther it amongst men as men 2dly The power upon which Christ's Rule setled in his Church is founded is wholly Spiritual it can never do any Violence to mankind nor clash with any humane power because that is the Boundery of it 3dly The thing designed and attained by the Order of the Gospel-Church is no more than to preserve men in a regular capacity to enjoy all Christs Institutions and therefore he that will say This Order will not sute any Nation must say in effect None of Christs Institutions will agree to that Nation 4thly There is nothing in Christs Government of his Church that is properly relative to the Political Government of a State or does any way determine the form of it but it may be equally exercised under any Government whatsoever The Religious policy of the Jews did highly relate to the State and was commixed with it and the same Government of that Church could not have been without a sutable conformity of the State to it and so could not well reach beyond that Nation and peculiar Country and People But the Gospel-Church and the Rule of it is grounded upon quite other terms and hath its first Principle in that saying of our Saviour Where ever two or three are met together in my Name there am I in the midst of them And there is no place nor people under the Sun but where with much advantage the order of the Gospel as well as the Gospel it self may be introduced A Second thing made to prop up this power in the Magistrate is Because of the wonderful difficulty we find in the New-Testament about matters of this nature This I acknowledge should put us upon much enquiry and great indulgence to each other but I cannot yield it a good reason to establish a visible Judge to settle a Civil Pope for at last upon the same grounds it will be found out that the Scripture in Doctrinals is obscure too and so the Magistrate must be likewise an Umpire in those things and finally in all Were once all these Carnal Interests and Political Concerns that are now twisted into the Government of the Church laid by it would be found a thing very feasible to deduce from Scripture Precept and Example limitted to no particular case in the reason of it a systeme of Ecclesiastical Rule sufficient for the obtaining all the holy and good ends designed by the Gospel and compleating men in a Spiritual Society as an Organical-Church and if a Church can be so constituted which is a thing in it self of no harship if men would be contented with the simplicity of
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
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
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
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
forcing men to perform Gospel-Duties in Hypocrisie Moral Actions are positively good and evil in their own nature Gospel-Duties performed are only so as they are circumstantiated And therefore the two Instances of Ahab and the Ninevites will no way fit this matter What was done by the Ninevites for ought appears was well done with all the circumstances that should make it to be so for our Saviour saith They repented at the Preaching of Jonah What Ahab did will be clearly differenced in two things First it was a voluntary action And Secondly it was only a Moral action 'T was voluntary for it arose from the dictates of his own Conscience upon what the Prophet Elijah said to him And Secondly it was purely a Moral act his Humiliation was no other He himself was an Hypocrite and his Service was hypocritical and abominable in the sight of God yet the outward act of his Humiliation was in it self good and God rewards it with an outward blessing That men may be compelled about actions Morally good and evil is out of doubt and that God does likewise with outward blessings and judgments reward and punish Moral good and evil is also plain But herein lies the difference of forceing men in things Moral and things Divine In things Moral the action in it self however circumstantiated is positively good or evil Things of Divine Institution are quite otherwise there the manner of the performance makes the action good or evil He that sacrificeth an Ox is as if he killed a man he that killeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck Where the manner of performing the command is not observed as well as the bare outward act of performance And so in all Gospel Duties the Institutions of Christ as Baptism the Lords Supper and the rest the actions themselves in those things are not simply good nay they are accidentally evil unless they have all the due circumstances attending them the goodness of those things depends wholly upon Institution and there the manner as well as the matter must be punctually observed Nay the manner of doing such things determines the matter of them for if they be performed in their due manner the Action is good if not the Action it self is sinful Having thus far endeavoured to establish this Truth That the exercise of force by the hand of the civil Power is ho means appointed by Christ either for setling or regulating the Churches of the New-Testament and is a thing in its own nature altogether unreasonable so to be And that Princes and Magistrates under the Gospel should imploy their care to see the Laws of Christ's Kingdom put in execution in the way and manner he himself hath appointed and ought to rest themselves satisfied therewith as that which his infinite Wisdom hath provided and to leave things that are purely Gospel-offences to Gospel-punishments as most adaequate and proper knowing well that if after such punishments inflicted Errors and Heresies shall continue in the Church Christ will over-rule the Being of them for holy ends and purposes acccording to that of Paul There must be Heresies that those that are approved may be made manifest which though it be no good ground to indulge Heresie from any punishment Christ hath appointed for it yet 't is a very good ground to satisfie our selves upon after all Christs means used and to stop us from all violent and irregular proceedings when we consider That Christ will extract good out of such evil and turn such things to his own Glory and the good of such as are sincere I say having endeavoured the proof of these things that the plainest Truths of the Gospel ought not to be enforced upon men much less those more doubtful and obscure concerning Discipline and Order of the obscurity of which there needs no other evidence than that the holiest wisest and most impartial men have in all Ages differed about them How may we lament over the present Imposition of the Ceremonies now enjoyned amongst us in England which are no part of Divine Truth nor any of Christs Institutions but things perfectly Humane in their creation and yet are enforced by the civil Power upon the practice and Consciences of men If Christ did not appoint his own Laws to be inforced upon the Church but to be received and executed by the influence and operating power of the Holy Ghost concurring with them How little pleased will he be to have Laws and Rules made by others to be so inforced If it be neither reasonable nor warrantable for a Magistrate to inforce the Truths of the Gospel in his own sense of them How much less is it so to enjoyn things in the Worship of God wholly framed by men and of their devising Those as being Divine are in their own nature infallible and certainly true These as being Humane are lyable to all Error and Mistake How unmerciful a thing is it and how unlike the Primitive Christians to make such Ceremonies a Rule of the Churches Communion which used to be nothing but the Creed That a man now only out of Conscience to God and without a just imputation of either Faction or Folly or any other designed end may very well become a Non-Conformist to these present imposed Ceremonies hath been often evinced These things may afford us some prospect into those grounds upon which Liberty of Conscience ought to be asserted and also the due and natural bounds of it When men discoursing of this Subject are enumerating what parties may be tolerated and what not What Fundamentals are necessary to be believed to make a man a capable Subject of this Liberty and how far the punishment is to be inflicted upon men for matters of this Nature are to proceed and where to be terminated they do but lose themselves and come to be involved with inextricable inconveniences and do usually little more then discover their own particular inclinations and interests and at last often end in this Determination That none are fit to be Indulged but such as are punctually of their own belief and perswasion The general Laws of Nature and the general Laws of the Gospel are the best Umpire in this Case As the first renders it a thing unreasonable so the other makes it unlawful to tolerate any thing upon any pretence against the common Light and the common Interest and natural good of mankind And so on the other hand 't is equally as unreasonable and as unlawful to force men about things wholly Supernatural and purely Spiritual and so are all the matters of the Gospel which lie seated in mens Belief and Perswasion in reference to their own Eternal Condition and as they have no proper relation to Humane Concerns so they are in Aliena republica and are only cognizable there and only to be dealt with by such Spiritual means and punishments as Christ in the Gospel hath appointed for that end Hear the Opinion of the Learned Alsted on this subject at
the Gospel and Christs wisdom in these things as that Church will be most pure as having nothing of humane make in it so it will perfectly annihilate all those pretended necessities for the interposition of humane Authority about such things If the Magistrate hath likewise a farther power to suppress all Errors and Heresies and to establish by force the Orthodox Truth the Rule of which must needs be what he thinks to be so this will inevitably follow that there can be never any such thing as Liberty of Conscience in any case or upon any terms in the world under a Christian Magistrate he sins if he suffer to tolerate any thing but what he thinks punctually right If he be the proper Judge entrusted first to judge and then to execute his Judgment with the Temporal Power all Liberty to whosoever is not of his mind is perfectly gone This is no other than to make the Magistrate's Power a meer Inquisition And by this means a Christian Magistrate will prove a marvellous hurt to much of the Church where he governs for unless you will suppose all the Truth and all sound Christians to be included in what he establishes for Orthodox if there be any Truth or true Professors of Christianity amongst all the other Opinions he persecutes they are sure to be sufferers and it will ever fall out that all those that are not of the Magistrates Opinion had better live under one of Gallio's temper than under a Magistrate so practising These large positions about the Magistrates Power have no visible ground for themselves in the Gospel and when 't is said the reason of it is because there was no Christian Magistrate till long after and so little mention is made of his Authority in these things there is nothing said that can be any way satisfactory because what Power soever any shall exercise in or over the Gospel Church to the end of the world must have its rise and derivation from what was then established by Christ and his Apostles However they are sure of a popular acceptance 1. Because they bring us to a visible Judge and a humane certainty which most men had rather be at than a laborious inquiry after divine Truth in the way God hath revealed it in the Scriptures And 2. Because they are positions that land us in a very safe harbour and free us from any danger of suffering about those things he that thinks it his duty to be alwayes of the Magistrates Religion is so secured in that duty that no Religion can possibly ever hurt him and whoever thinks the Magistrate is Gods substitute to determine all matters of Religion as he pleaseth must needs think it a duty to be of his mind The second Extream about the Magistrates Power is in asserting the Magistrate to have ample concerns about Religion and a power sufficient entrusted to him but the manner in which it is to be exercised is in a punctual suberviency to the Church that is they are to determine and he is to execute they are to be his eye and he is to be their hand As the first Extream debaseth the Church and all Ecclesiastical power under the Magistrates feet and makes him the sole Lord of all so this in another extream makes the Magistrate a Slave to the Church this is an unreasonable Imposition upon him and gives him less liberty than each private Christian ought to have to oblige him to put a civil Sanction and execute by his Authority whatever the Church decrees whether he judge it to be right or no this is only to make him a Sword-bearer to the Clergy This is the great Engine by which the Church of Rome has inslaved so much of the World Antichrist could never have been setled in his Throne if Kingdoms had not thus given up their power to him How shamefully upon this pretence that the Civil power must be subject to the Ecclesiastical have the Popes of Rome brought Kings and Emperors not only to employ their power as they pleased but to suffer all the scorns and indignities from them imaginable The story of what Hildebrand did to the Emperor Henry and many others do abundantly shew this The truth is the carnal Conjunction of the Temporal Power with the Spiritual is that which has made all Ecclesiastical Regiment odious and unsavoury in the nostrils of the world in all Ages and hath had no other effect but to enable the Clergy under a pretext of the power of the Gospel to trample by the power of the World mankind under their Feet That the Civil Magistrate ought not to employ his power in such a sub-ordination let these things be considered First This is to suppose either an insufficiency in that Spiritual Power which Christ did at first leave in his Church or else that he fails in that Promise of being with them to the end of the World and continuing his Presence to make his Laws effectual for the end they are intended Christ hath appointed the means of Converting men to the Gospel to be the preaching of it to them If you will compel men by the Civil power to become Converts it plainly intimates we judge Christs way insufficient and use the other as what we judge a better As Christ hath appointed Preaching the Gospel as the great means to bring men into the Church so he hath appointed Excommunication as the great means to cast offenders out of the Church and force is as unreasonable in the one as in the other The outward advantages a man has by becoming a Christian lies in the enjoyment of all Christs Institutions and the punishment of all Gospel-crimes lies in being cast out from those priviledges and undergoing the weight that Christ shall lay upon the Conscience thereby When a person is excommunicated to deliver him over to the Temporal power to be corporally punished must either be because we think Christs punishment in that case not enough or else because our own animosity prompts us to go farther Chrysost Serm. de Anathem hath a pious and prudent saying Dogmata impia quae ab Hereticis profecta sunt arguere Anathematizare opertet hominibus autem parcendum pro salute eorum orandum that is We must confute and pronounce Anathema to the wicked opinions of Hereticks but we must spare their Persons and pray for their Salvation Secondly This way alters the manner of Christs rule under the Gospel which is in the Spirits and Consciences of men 'T is much of Christs glory to rule his Subjects under the Gospel by a Spiritual power 't is that power makes a man a Christian 't is that power in all Gospel Institutions that keeps men in their due obedience unto Christ and 't is that power carries the sting of the punishment when men are cast out of the Church 't is indeed that power does all under the Gospel and to bring in the Temporal Sword is to make the weapons of the