Selected quad for the lemma: opinion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
opinion_n	church_n	faith_n	infallibility_n	646	5	11.2982	5	true

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

limited Form to walk by as it seems as if it was designed by the Projector thereof by the Event for we had so long disputed against the Holy Scripture being a Rule that we never thought that instead thereof we had been introducing a Rule of our own making neither did we once conceive it to be the product of a London Consult as afterwards we found it was when it came to be imposed as a Rule to be indispensably obeyed under the Penalty of being Recorded out of the Unity But when J. A. came to be concerned in taking a Wife and perceiving the ill tendency such Records might produce in after times and being willing to maintain Christian-Liberty and like the Apostle would not be brought under the Power of any thing that might prove a Yoke to his Brethren he would neither touch nor tast nor in the least conform to it whereupon many Contests arose and strong Debates about it some crying out That he must own his Condemnation for not Marrying according to the Order of Friends others said nay but what Evil hath he done What Commandment of God or Precept of Christ hath he broken others said If we let him alone others will take Example by him and then the Orders will not be regarded And amidst these Controversies it was put to the Vote Whether he should be condemned by publick Sensure or not Whereupon Samuel Cater and about nineteen Friends more they being the major part Voted That he should be recorded out of the Vnity Which accordingly was done a Copy whereof followeth c. At a Quarterly-Meeting in Hadenham the 4th day of the 7th Month Anno 1678. We at this Quarterly Meeting having the Business of John Ansloe his taking his VVife contrary to the Order of Friends brought before us and Friends having several times spoke to him about it and he not giving Friends satisfaction we do testifie that we have no Union with him in this his so doing This unrighteous and unchristian Precedure was testified against at the same time by Edward Love Thomas Wright Francis Bugg Phillip Taylor and some few others which told them That all Vnrighteousness was Sin and Sin was the Transgression of the Law and if they could make it appear that he had committed Sin in disobeying their Order we were ready to hear them Edward Love told them they had exceeded the Deeds of the Wicked But notwithstanding they being the Major part and the Poll over they resolved to pass that Sentence on him above recited although they then did confess that they had nothing against him save his not taking his Wife according to the Order of Friends Whereupon soon after Francis Bugg wrote a Letter to Samuel Cater a Copy whereof here followeth Viz. Friend I Having since our last Quarterly-Meeting weighed and pondered the Recording of J. A. and upon a deliberate Consideration thereof do find it not Apostolical nor agreeable with our Profession at least in my Apprehension but that it rather seems to be the Product or Fruit of that Spirit which doth Apostatize and draw back into the old compelling Path where Dominion is exercised over the Faith and Perswasion of others which is not a Doing to others as we would that others should do unto us It is true I do think that publishing our Intentions of Marriage is very meet and for my part if it were my concern I know not but that I should do it as desired But that mine or any other Man or Mens approbation herein should be an absolute Rule for others under the Penalty of being Recorded to Perpetuity I know no reason at all for 't is my Judgment That no Imposition ought to be upon Mens Consciences by any but the Lord for the Apostle in his Day said Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Conscience and did not go about to force People to conform to such Things that they were not perswaded of in their own Consciences and whatsoever People or Church though they claim Infallibility that teach a contrary Doctrine unto this we have good reason to suspect it to he that hasty driving and over driving Spirit that would force a Faith where God hath not given it Even like the Church of Rome c. This is my Judgment and Opinion the which I am very free to communicate to thee or any one as not being ashamed thereof and if upon thy serious consideration thou seest Cause to race out the said Record lest it prove an ill President to Posterity as well as great Injustice to the Party concerned then I desire thee peaceably and quietly to joyn in the racing of it out again forasmuch as thou hadst a chief Hand in the obtaining of it through the Influence thou hadst upon the Meeting and doubtless caused them to err But if thou shalt stand to maintain it or justifie it then it will stand thee upon to appear at the next Quarterly-Meeting there to vindicate it by sound Arguments for many are offended at it and burthened with it and by the same Spirit that opposed the Papists Antichristian-Impositions it will be opposed and withstood And this I thought good to let thee know for divers Reasons partly because thou mayst consider of it and not be surprised and partly because thou mayst not do as several Bishops and Teachers have done who as soon as they have broached any Heresie as ever more they were the Original Cause thereof and kindled a flame amongst the People then they slank away and seldom or never manfully maintained the same as Socrates Scholastious Evsebius and Evagrius Scholasticus and divers other Historians make mention of in the Church-History Thus in a few Words I have cleared my Mind thus far and rest a Lover of all such as serve our Lord Jesus Christ purely for for his Name-Sake F. Bugg The 22d of the 9th Month 1678. But although Samuel had the recited Letter time enough yet he did not appear at the next Quarterly-Meeting but I being there did endeavour what I could to have raced it out as well as some other Friends but we could not then I desired that some one of them who was for its continuance would prove it Apostolical but none would adventure to take that Task upon them whereupon I entred my Protestation in Writing and several Friends put their Hands to it on the backside the substance of it followeth the which I left among them c. F. B. his Protestation FOrasmuch as that on the 4th of the 7th Month last past J. A. a Minicter of the Gospel was by S.C. and divers others they being the Major part by Vote adjudged and that in his absense Condemned and Recorded out of the Unity for not observing the prescribed Rule and Order of Friends in taking his Wife and none of you will adventure to prove the said Rule Apostolical nor the Proceedings against J. A. according to Gospel Order And thereupon I Francis Bugg do offer to prove

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

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

and Ratiocination and give every man freedom of debate and counted it a noble thing in the Bereans to examine the Scriptures Whether the things they preached were so or no. After all means used every man was left to his own Light Paul professeth he was not Lord over any mans Faith The truth is that part of the Soul where Faith and Conscience is seated cannot be reached by any compulsion and therefore force reaching but to outward practice there can be no other end of it but to make us suffer or else practice contrary to what we believe Sixthly Forcing men to a Religion which is wholly supernatural and imposing Principles upon them which are out of the compass of Moral Light as all Gospel-Principles are supposeth a perfect infallibility in the Imposers and the thing imposed or else 't is strangely unreasonable to force men against their own Light to be guided by ours unless we are sure we cannot mistake is a strange absurdity There is some excuse for being guided by a mistake of our own if it be the best light we have but there is no excuse for being guided by a mistake of another mans Three sorts of men there have been in the world eminent for Imposition in Religion and common discretion taught them that the necessary support of such Imposition must be a pretended Infallibility in themselves their Doctrines Such were the Jewish Rabbies of old who had so deluded the People that Luther tells us The Jews thought they were bound to believe what their Rabbies taught though they should say The Right hand was the Left and the Left the Right Such also was Mahomet and the Mufties who impose all upon the ground of Infallibility Mahomet at the first laying this down as a Maxim That there was to be no debate nor discourse of what he prescribed and his Mufties subdue the People by carrying on the same ever since Grotius gives a very full account of this in his Book of the Truth of Christian Religion Sect. 3. Famous for Imposition are the Popes and Priests of the Roman Church and they with the Hammer of Infallibility beat down all Opposition That 's a refuge never fails to justifie things against Scripture Reason and common Senses of man That the arrogant assumption of Infallibility since the time of Christ and his Apostles is nothing else but a political Cheat upon the World God by his Providence in fact as well as otherwise hath made it clear to us since those who pretend to it have as often contradicted each other and erred even in the Opinions each of other as any People in the World God in his just Judgment leaving those that pretend to be so much above all men to appear as weak and as depraved men as any the world has But Imposition where Infallibility is not pretended nor claimed must needs be but weakly underset He that imposeth a Religion upon me intends I should take his Light instead of my own Imposing a Religion upon me supposeth a duty in me of perfect subjection or else 't is ridiculous and signifies nothing Admitting a man to use his own Light in judging destroys the being of Imposition in Religion upon any tolerable grounds of Reason and no body is to be obeyed in whatever they command but those that are infallible Whoever it be the Church or the Magistrate that confesseth himself fallible must needs admit a possibility of mistake and so gives ground unquestionable to reason and consider what is offered to me and to what purpose will that be but farther to ensnare me if I must necessarily obey and unless I discover the weakness and mistake of what is put upon me I may refuse it Amongst the Protestant Churches where Infallibility is not claimed and this Doctrine taught That if any man command any thing sinful of which every mans Conscience is likewise acknowledged the Judge we are to suffer passively and not obey actively There can be no other success of Imposition but to make me suffer for being an honest man and following the Light of my own Conscience for if the thing enforced be according to my own judgment forcing me to it is needless if it be not I am bound by Principles acknowledged by all not to obey and so the event must needs be my suffering in performing my Duty Nay suppose further that the thing enjoyned be Infallible in its own nature and the Person enjoyning it be so in that very act yet till I am convinced in my reason of both those they are to me as if they were not so and I shall never upon that account yield implicit obedience and when I am convinced of such an Infallibility my own Reason without any other motive forceth me into subjection as that which is best for me No man can or ought to command me to alter my Judgment and Conscience guided by the best Light I have till he can shew me that as I am fallible so he is infallible and that he is so in that act of imposing a Religion upon me my own light is more safe to me than any other mans that is not so intrusted and is but equally fallible with my self though in knowledge never so far above me He that owns he may be mistaken as well as I and yet would have me obey what he commands against what I believe would at the same time make me both a sinner and a fool a sinner to God and a fool to my own Reason a sinner to depart from my own Conscience by which God expects I should be guided and by which I shall hereafter be judged and a fool to eat by another mans taste and to part with my own Reason without any assurance of being guided by a better A Magistrate imposeth Uniformity in Religion acknowledgeth himself not infallible but that he may be under mistakes acknowledgeth likewise that no man is bound to obey him actually in any thing sinful acknowledgeth that the Judgment of what is sinful lies in every mans own Conscience as to his particular actings and that every mans Conscience though erroneous is to be followed till better informed Take the coherence of these things which are all granted Truths amongst us and the result will be twofold 1st That a man that cannot in Conscience conform to such an imposed Uniformity as thinking it sinful is punished for doing what is acknowledged to be his duty 2dly there can never be any other end in forcing Uniformity where such Principles are taken for granted but to bring such men into suffering who resolve to keep their Integrity Seventhly Every man in the World is to be a Judge for himself in all matters of the Gospel Religion and so ought not to be forced to believe or practise any thing he is not convinced of To what end is preaching or discoursing to men but that they may judge of what is said A man being obliged to answer for himself he must needs

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

by their Number outgrown the Political part of Persecution For the Second Consideration of Liberty the giving it so as will naturally produce several Principles and Opinions in men he that would prevent that must give no Liberty to the Protestant Religion must not let the Bible be read by the Vulgar There is no way to keep out several Opinions in Religion but an implicit ignorant Subjection to an imposed Infallibility and to do as the Turks do who will not have any Learning or Discourse amongst them of Religion for that very Reason because they will have no Religion but Mahomet nor no Learning but the Alcoran Such Policy to Murder mens Souls is hatcht in Hell The Art of Printing was at the first thought dangerous because it was looked on as a thing like to introduce several Opinions in Religion Cardinal Woolsey in a Letter of his to the Pope hath this Passage about it That his Holiness could not be ignorant what divers Effects the New Invention of Printing had produced for as it had brought in and restored Books and Learning so together it hath been the occasion of these Sects and Schisms which daily appear in the World but chiefly in Germany where men begin now to call in question the present Faith and Tenents of the Church and to examine how far Religion is departed from its Primitive Institution And that which particularly was most to be lamented they had exhorted the Lay and Ordinary men to read the Scriptures and to Pray in their Vulgar Tongue That if this were suffered besides all other dangers the common People at last might come to believe that there was not so much use of the Clergy for if men were perswaded once they could make their own way to God and that Prayers in their native and ordinary Language might pierce Heaven as well as in Latin How much would the Authority of the Mass fall How Prejudicial might this prove unto all our Ecclesiastical Orders Lord Herberts History of Hen. 8. Liberty of Conscience lies as naturally necessary to a Protestant State as Imposition to a Popish State he must be a good Artist that can find a right middle way between these two 'T is the Glory of Protestant-States to have much of the Knowledge of God amongst them and that variety of mens Opinions about some less weighty and more obscure matters of Religion as it much tends to a discovery of the Truth of them so it no way breaks the Bond of Protestant Union where men generally agree in the same Rule of Religion and in all the chief and necessary Fundamentals of Salvation Liberty of Conscience in such States as it is their true and genuine Interest and without which they will but deny themselves those advantages they might otherwise arrive at so with the forementioned Boundaries can never prove hurtful or dangerous there being always a just distinction to be made between those who desire only to serve God and such who pretend that to become injurious to men And thus we have seen that not only Religion but Reason not only Duty but Interest do invocate Princes and States in this particular To whom it may fitly be said in the words of the Psalmist Be wise now therefore O ye Kings and be instructed O ye Judges of the Earth FINIS De Christiana Libertate Or the Mischief of Impositions amongst the People called Quakers Made Manifest Shewing The Inconsistency betwixt the Church Discipline Order and Government erected by G. Fox and those of Party with him and that in the Primitive Times Being Historically treated on WITH A Word of Advice to the Pencilvanians And is the First Part of Naked Truth By FRANCIS BUGG GAL. 6.12 As many as desire to make a fair shew in the Flesh they constrain you to be Circumcised c. GAL. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not again intangled in the Yoak of Bondage GAL. 5.2 Touch not taste not handle not c. London Printed for the Author 1682. An EPISTLE Dedicated to the Noble BEREANS Of this Age. HAving by the Book prefixed laid before the Magistrates and others concerned a clear Demonstration and many weighty Arguments for Liberty of Conscience to all Protestant Dissenters who desire to live a peaceable Life under the Government I am now come to treat on the Religious Differences amongst us the People called Quakers and therein to vindicate the Christian-Quakers who retain their Primitive Principles and defend their Plea for Liberty of Conscience from the Calumny and Reproach which the Innovators have put upon both it and the Pleaders thereof as if the Tendency thereof was to introduce Loosness Ranterism or the like sort of Abominations all which we detest and deny And in the Introduction to the Accus c. they have Sentenced William Rogers to be no Quaker by which they mean no Christian for if I may be in their account a true Christian and yet no Quaker then what damage is it to be no Quaker So that as the Baptists and others about the Year 72. by their Dialogues and otherwise rendred us no Christians because our Creed lay not litterally in their 8th Article of Faith So doth the Apostate and Innovator endeavour to Unchristian the true Christian-Quaker And the two principal Reasons that can be alledged against us are First our Nonsubmission and Nonconformity to the New Order of the Women Erected by G. Fox and Confirmed by a London Yearly-Meeting And Secondly That their way of compelling and Antichristian way of Proceeding to bring to and force a Uniformity is by us slighted and contemned and published in Justification of our Plea for the Liberty of the exercise of our Conscience in Matters Spiritual I say these two are the grand Reasons for which they render us no Quakers as I said consequently in their Esteem no Christians Whereupon we the Caluminated Abettors of the Cause of Truth can do no less than call to you the BEREANS of our Age not to believe every wandring Book that is put forth against us but read and examine the Matter and before you pass Judgment see what we can say for our selves in Defence of our Christian-Plea for Liberty of Conscience and for which Reason I choose to Dedicate the Ensuing Tract in the first Place to you expecting your Impartial Examination c. For as William Penn very well says in his Epistle to you the Noble and Examining BEREANS who usually hear both Sides in the Front of the Book Entituled the Christian-Quaker and his Divine Testimony Vindicated c. So we find it Experimentally viz. The Insatiable Thirst of men after Religious or Civil Empire hath filled almost every Age with Contest There is something in Man that prompts to Religion and such as stand not in the TRADITIONS of Men nor any meer Formality But Man that he may not loose the Honour of a Share with an unwarrantable Activity so Adulterates by

Demonstration that Force and Imposition on Consciences is an Antichristian Practice and that an undisturbed Liberty of the Exercise of Conscience in Matters Spiritual is every Christians just Priviledge and Right where People live peaceably under the Outward Government which is one main thing intended by this Discourse as well as to discover that Hypocritical and two-fac'd Practice Viz. Of pleading to the Magistrate for Liberty of Conscience and at the same time are using and exercising all Force Rule Dominion and Authority they are capable to inflict upon their Discenting Brethren who cannot fall down and cry Hosannah to every Likeness lest the Accepting and Conforming to one needless Ceremony should be ground of Incouragement to the Ruling Party to Introduce another and so a numberless number until at length Rome may if possible be out done c. Zanchy in his Epi. to Q. Eliz. L. 1. C. 241 Non propter Vestes totum Corpus Ecclesiae Perdere Not to destroy the Body of the Church for Garments sake not to disturb the Peace of the Church by urging Indifferent Things Col. 245. c. VVilliam Tindall in his Answer to Sir Thomas Moor p. 258. of his Works thus saith But they which maliciously maintain Opinions against the Scripture or such as make no Matter unto the Scripture and Salvation that is in Christ whether they be true or no and for the Blind-Zeal of them make Sects breaking the Unity of Christs Church for whose sake they ought to suffer all things and rise against their Neighbour whom they ought to love as themselves Such Men I say are fallen from Christ and make an Idol of their Opinion Now this is a plain Conclusion that both they that trust in their own Works and they also that put Confidence in their own Opinions be fallen from Christ and Err from the way of Faith And saith he p. 174. Some Men will say The Pope hindeth them not they bind themselves I answer He that bindeth himself to the Pope and had rather have his Life and Soul Ruled by the Popes Will than by the Will of God and by the Popes Word than by the Word of God is a Fool and he that had rather be bound than free is not wise and he that will not abide in the Freedom wherein Christ hath set us is also mad And the reason that G. W's Learned Friend R. R. in his Post-script to the Babylonish-Opposer p. 15. He would seem to insinuate that this William Tindal yields the Women such Authority as may countenance the Proceedings of Womens-Meetings amongst us as Set up by G. F. and those of Party with him Viz. Once a Month about the tenth Hour distinct and apart from the Men to whose Assembly when so convened all that intend Marriage must go before them and present their intentions and stay a compleat Month and then go both of them before the said Womens-Meetings met as aforesaid to ask their Licence as in the Second and Third Chapters are at large set forth And if any will not so submit to their Authority and conform to their Jurisdiction then to Record them out of the Vnity c. I say lest his Insinuations should have such an Influence upon any of his credulous Readers and thereby be deluded I have traced him and in the Reading of William Tindals Works I have found him out and shall for the right Information of the Reader relate his Judgment in his own Words p. 252. Women be no meet Vessels to Rule or to Preach for both are forbidden them yet hath God indued them with his Spirit at sundry times Do not our Women Christen and Administer the Sacrament of Baptism in time of need might they not by as good Reason Preach also if necessity required if a Woman was driven into some Island where Christ was never Preached might she not there Preach Him if she had the Gift thereto Notwithstanding though God be under no Law and necessity Lawless yet be we under a Law and ought to preferr the Men before the Women and Age before Youth as nigh as we can for it is against the Law of Nature that Young-Men should Rule and as uncomly that Women should Rule the Men. And Pag. 313. Tells us what was the Service of Women in these words To be a Servant unto the poor People to dress their Meat wash their Cloaths to make their Beds and so forth and to wash Strangers Feet that come out of one Congregation unto another about Business and to do all manner of Service of Love unto their poor Brethren and Sisters c. I think I need not comment upon the difference in all respects betwixt what this worthy Man intended as by his words are manifest betwixt the Womens Services in those times and the usurped Authority and unlimited Power and Rule that G. F. and others have placed in the Womens-Meetings as that none must be permitted or suffered to Marry except they Conform c. So that the Quotation of R. R. this Learned Champion is as impertinent to his intended Purpose as the Quotations of G. F. in his little withdrawn and for Reasons enough Entituled A Book of Incouragement to all Womens-Meetings c. Which by W. R. is very fully answered in his Christian-Quaker Distinguished c. So that I need not further paraphrase thereupon but return to what was before me to wit to shew Testimonies against Imposing Conformity to the Traditions of Men c. Object But perhaps some may say There is being but a few of you in comparison of the Multitude that will not Conform for they can out Vote you three to one so that we are apt to think God will not suffer so many to Err or any more a Vniversal Apostacy Answ I will answer this Objection in the words of William Tindal because this notable Champion R. R. who for his Learning is admired by his Reverend Friend G. W. hath him in some Estimation c. See his Work p. 268. where he saith The Turks being in number five times more than we acknowledge One God and believe many things of God moved Only by the Authority of their Elders And the presuming that God will not let such a multitude Err so long time and yet they have Erred and been faithless these 800 years and the Jews believe this Day as much as ever the Carnal sort of them ever believed Moved also by the Authority of their Elders ONLY and think it is impossible for them to Err being Abrahams Seed and being the Children of them to whom the Promises of all that we believe was made and yet they have Erred and been faithless this 1500 years and we of like Blindness believe ONLY by the Authority of our Elders And of like Pride think that we cannot Err being such a multitude and yet we see how God in the Old-Testament did let the great multitude Err reserving always a little Flock to call the other back again and to