really but an open tendring that Scandal to his Brethren in his sort which Christ and his Apostle St. Paul hath so forewarned us to take heed of which is the inducing the Tender and Conscientious to do those things whereof they are unsatisfied and so to sin in the doing have so much confidence as he now seems to have in what he has done For if the black Ox shall come to tread once on this young man's foot and he grow graver or if it shall please the Lord to touch his presumptuous soul with the sense and horror of that one text or some other That it were better that a Milstone were hung about his neck and he thrown into the Sea then that one of Christ's little ones who are now tender of their Consciences should do what he hath advised it may be I say the poor man may have reason to change his Conclusion to pray to Gods above all men that his Book take no effect and taking little joy what Pilate did to with-draw the breath of his Defiance and to wish that What he hath written were unwritten Reader there is an Answer come fresh out to the Friendly Debate which is yet wholly unseen to me There is also a little Book of a subject very rarely before offered to the Publick entituled The Childrens-Petition and Remonstrance to the Parliament presented belike to both Houses on Wednesday last which appears to me of such concern to posterity that I cannot but take this spare place between these Papers to give notice of it as fit to be furthered upon that account by all who are lovers of Purity and ingenuous Virtue The Dissertation THe Discourse of Ecclesiastical Polity came to my hand within two or three days after it came abroad I kept it by me about just a week and then carried the preceding Animadversions to the Press to come out with the first sheet But how many weeks it may be ere they be printed I know not In the mean while I think good to prepare two or three more in regard of one subject which is so necessary to be adjoyned that it lies at the bottom of all our business That is Concerning the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Religious Affairs I must confess I have some Papers by me besides those against the Friendly Debate which are not controversal and contentious but healing and tending to peace The Original Design whereof was for Moderation on both sides to wit For Condescention on the part of Authority towards Tender Consciences and for submission on the part of the Subject so far as every one can to what is established I shall leave those Papers perhaps but the more entire in their proper matter and yet supply my self here out of some former years thoughts for this present occasion Indeed the power of the Supreme Magistrate in things Religious is a business of great Concern and assured Difficulty That the Church is to be govern'd by those Officers whom God hath set in it appears reasonable That such are Apostles Pastors and Teachers unto whom the Keys are committed and not the Sword cannot be denied That when there is no formal power then at all in the Magistrate over the Church of Christ there is some Superintendent inspection nevertheless belonging to him as Episcopus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ecclesiastical Affairs the Example of the good Kings in the Old Testament and Constantine under the times of the New and the Confessions of all Churches will allow That in the exercise of this external objective power which he hath in the Church he is not to be a blind Executor onely of the Bishops will in putting a Sanction on their Canons and enforcing the observance without having the Book of the Law delivered to him and consequently a Judgement of Discretion whether they be agreeable to the Rule of Gods Word and condition of his People the consonant Judgement of Protestants will assert on all hands Now then when the Magistrate hath something to do and not all to do in these Affairs how or how far this Authority of his is to be maintained or stated that it intrench not on the Liberty of Conscience which is due to his Christian Subjects as peculiar and sacred to God is the Attempt I perceive of some late Papers bearing that Title The Arguments whereof especially as to the Nations Interest I have already praised The state of the Question I judge also to be tendered with much Ingenuity and Reason but when they come to the very point where I expect their notion fixt that I might set my foot upon it and stand fast I find the ground methinks sinking away from its Foundation Let us consult Common Places on that head De Magistrata and we shall find these are made two Questions by Divines Whether the Magistrate is to TAKE CARE of Religion Whether he is to COMPEL HIS SVBJECTS to it And when the former is granted generally from that Text Deut. 17 18. and that Tenet That he is Custos utrinsque Tabutae the latter is denied yet with Caution Distinguish say they between Cogere ad fidem and iâ—terdicere exercitio in heterodoxia Posterius ad evitandum corruptionem scandala competit Magistratui Distinguish again of a Commonwealth or Kingdom free or not free from divers Religions Ibi cavendae hic tolerandae sed cum conditione ne publica Religionis exercitia heterodoxis facile concedantur By this little we see a door open for Christian Prudence to be let in to the decision of these matters which being guided by the Light of Universal Nature and the General Rules of Scripture must needs make very much way for variety of Judgement and Practise in the Case To state these matters then a little which our purpose requires The Civil Magistrate says the Apostle is the Minister of God for our good The Souls good is the best good Ea est optima Respublica with Aristotle Ex cujus instituto quisque optimè beatissime vivat As Religion makes Folks beâ—â— Subjects and best men it makes them most happy having the Promises of this Life with a better The institution of the Magistrate upon this Account appears to be for this End That the People may lead peaceable Lives under him in all Godliness as well as Honesty It is not consequently for us here to imagine that the Magistrates Authority does extend onely to Civil Things but to take a care of Sacred also and to see the Will of God to be executed in both Imâ—â—â—atores sacra saecularia ex aequo curant sin ad singula veniatur fatendum est angustius esse jus imperii circa sacra quam circa profana bac una ratione quod Lex divina de sacris plura constituat libertati eximat quam de caeteris rebus To this purpose we must know that Actions or Things quae subjacont humano imperio are either such as are determined and necessary being
ad humanum modum non si onus injungant quod à ratione natura plane abhorreat If you ask at last How this Sheet comes out thus alone without the rest against this Debate with it I must say What shall a man do when the Press is become so like the Hedge-hog's Den that when they have one door open still for themselves they will be sure to stop the other where the least wind can but blow upon them FINIS The Animadversions HAving written out the foregoing sheet and left it at the Press there is that Book newly come forth entituled A Discourse of Ecclesiastical Polity wherein the Authority of the Civil Magistrate over the Conscience of Subjects in matters of Religion is asserted containing eight Chapters which require this fresh labour The first is Of the necessity of an Ecclesiastical Power or Soveraignty over Conscience wherein he supposing a competition between the Power of Princes and the Consciences of the Subject gives a superiority to the Power of the Prince above Conscience The very Title of this Book as the flourishing stile does shew him a young man that writ it The Conscience of man is a judgment on his actions in relation to God that is a judging whether that which he is about to do is agreeable or not to his will and it is impossible that any mortal can have an authority over that judgment that the subject should do any thing against it That the Commands of the Magistrate for the peoples good do by vertue of the general Institution and fifth Commandment bind the Conscience so that if they are bound to the King by the Law of Nature or Word of God before this adds a new Obligation and if they be not this brings one on them will be confest I think by the most judicious and sober in this point but that the Authority of the Magistrate must take place of the Authority of Conscience when they stand in competition is a determination I suppose that is strange and unheard-of in the Orthodox VVorld Every single person sayes the Author is subject to two supream powers the Laws of his Prince and the Dictates of his Conscience and therefore if the supream power of the Prince must give place to that of the Conscience it ceases upon that score to be supream because there is a superiour authority that can countermand all its laws and constitutions And who is there that understands himself that does not know the sense of this spoken in modest and right terms as it ought is what is most true and what all are to assert The Supremacy of the King I hope is over the Subject as to their Persons and their Causes not over their Consciences If we were to conceive indeed of men that they might chuse what Consciences themselves pleased and then plead them against the Magistrate as the face of his words do carry it that which he sayes here would have reason and of all Villains the ill-meaning not the well-meaning Zealot as he speaks would be the most dangerous But when the Conscience that man hath is no other then what God hath placed in him and he hath no power himself over it which is and must and will be whether he will or no conclusive with him according to the Light of Nature and the Word of God there is no danger to the Migistrate though some of his Commands sometimes may not actively be obeyed in yielding that authority which is due unto Conscience And how indeed shall a man be subject to the Magistrate for Conscience sake if the command of Conscience had not in it a superiour and more prevalent Power than his It would be for his own sake and not for Conscience sake if his authority were greater than it I remember being discoursing with some about the Title of this Book presently after I had it a little Boy about ten years of age being carried belike to a Play that week which being never at one before had made some impressions in his mind Why Mother sayes he to her standing by Lacy hath confuted this Book for he acting the Tyrant said in the Play That Conscience was a greater King than he I will take this note from hence It is pity that Religion should be brought as it were on the Stage and made Comical in the Friendly Debate and that the Stage should speak more truly and tenderly of Conscience than this Book of Ecclesiastical Polity His Second Chapter is a more particular account of the Magistrates Power in the Affairs of Religion the extent whereof he endeavours to shew to be the same with his power over the Conscience in matters of Morality But this Person hath received no long information into his understanding I believe of these matters for he may be pleased to know that some perhaps of the best that have wrote on this subject will grant him freely that the Magistrate hath the same Power in matters that are Religious as in those that are Moral when there is none will say that that power is over the Conscience in either This very daring as accomplished young person too presuming on his own parts must be acquainted therefore That it is one thing to grant the King his Authority in matters Ecclesiastical as well as Civil and another to grant him any Authority over the Conscience in the least thing in the world If the Magistrate command any matter of Morality or of Religion or of Civil Affairs which are good for the People that which is commanded does oblige as well in the one as in the other But if it be evil which he commands that is if it be against the Word of God in Religion against vertue and honesty in Morals against the common good in Civils such things are to be forborn though Commanded and what or who can be judge if it be so but a man 's own Conscience And how irrational consequently as well as presumptuous are such kind of speeches That Princes may with less hazard give liberty to mens Vices and Debaucheries than to their Consciences unless the acts of men were to be bruitish and performed without judgment His Third Chapter is of the subject-matter of the Magistrates Power that is not the inward acts of the mind but the outward actions from whence he would state the Liberty of the Conscience to lye altogether in the freedom of a man's thoughts judgment or opinion and that Religious worship which is internal when as for his outward actions or practises in the Service of God as of all things else he would have men not so shy of granting the Magistrate power to use still his own language over their Consciences But this really is short of what here is to be said that is a few first thoughts taken into the Pen and written away glibly For though this distinction of the inward and outward acts of men is one thing requisite to the determining the Point in hand
as you will read in the intended Dissertation following yet is not that enough alone to state this business seeing it is about those acts altogether which the Laws and Penalties of the Magistrate do reach we are to make our inquisition If this Person then let me say were but able by the ready Tongue and Wit he hath to prove That is the outward acts of man only are subject to the Magistrate so a man's inward acts only and heart-worship were subject to Conscience which he fain methinks would be nibling at then had he decided the business very dexterously at this one stroke yet not thanks to himself for it But when there is no man but in his outward acts and all duty as in his inward both is bound and must be say all he can to follow the dictates of his Conscience and that alwayes so far at least as upon no terms whatsoever to go against it the main difficulty of this Determination is quite left untouched by him and humbly to be assayed in that which is to follow His Fourth Chapter is Of the Nature of all actions intrinsecally evil and their exemption from the Authority of humane Laws against Mr. Hobs. When any thing sayes he that is apparently and intrinsecally evil is the matter of an humane Law whether it be of a Civil or Ecclesiastical Concern here God is to be obeyed rather than man And in all such actions disobedience is so far from being a sin that it becomes an in dispensable duty Thus much is said well and as others say But when he adds in his Contents The reason hereof is not because men are in any thing free from the Supream Authority in Earth but because they are subject to a Superiour in Heaven This is spoken like a Child that hath look'd on what he delivers but once before he delivers it For the very immediate principal true Reason is indeed because the Supreme Magistrate and Subordinate hath no power in such things Their Authority they have is from God and that is not to command what he hath forbid but to be his Ministers that is to rule only for his Glory and the Peoples Good This appears by what is said in the first sheet already and what also will follow And the want of the knowledge of this hath been a Foundation-stone of stumbling to many in their decisions about these matters It follows in the Chapter that the taking off all obligations from mens Consciences antecedent to humane Laws does open the way to the ruine of all Religion and consequently all Government This he makes out clearly and hath well confuted as I judge Mr Hobbs's Hypothesis of Government But in the mean while I wonder this Author should not see that what he sayes in the main does return upon himself For if nothing which is apparently or intrinsecally evil can be commanded by man because of the Authority of God then nothing for the same reason whatsoever it be which is sin or is forbidden at all by Him can be commanded seeing else that reason were not good As Divines from that saying We must not do evil that good may come of it do unanimously agree that the least evil hereupon must not be committed for the obtaining the greatest good So will they from the saying That we must obey God rather than man conclude as largely That wheresoever the Will of God and the Magistrates stands in competition let the matter be external or internal intrinsecally or positively evil apparently or an appearance only of evil while a man himself is convinced in his Conscience it is evil it must not be done And what becomes then of the substance of this Discourse about the Power of the Magistrate over mens Consciences And what a weak Argument of any in the world hath he chosen to bottom his main Work upon which is the same Mr Hobbs whom he confutes I suppose does bottom his to wit an Argument only from Convenience The magistrate must have a Power over his Subjects Consciences because they will else be ungovernable while they obey their own Consciences rather than him By which reason he might say That therefore his Power in External things and which concern Goverment should be above Gods and the Scriptures because otherwise the Subject will not obey him when the Word or God requires contrary to his Edicts Certainly to argue that the People must give the King power over their Consciences in all things now in difference about Religion because else they cannot be governed by him is all one as to argue That when the Prince is wicked an Atheist an Idolator an Heathen the People must have no Consciences at all That person that goes about to loosen the authority of Conscience with the people and set up a power in any Mortal above that to rule them by does but do the same thing in a lower degree as Mr. Hobbs does and must be liable proportionably to the same Consequences And is it not pity when a man is so stoutly confuting Mr. Hobbs that he in the mean while should become a young Leviathan himself who gives the world occasion too to fear what he may grow to But whatsoever dimensions he may have as to his parts his strength hitherto is but little Those Subjects that will but heartily obey their Prince so much as they can that is so far as their Consciences will let them they obey him enough and are as governable as God Almighty would have them If this man would have more he does but find fault with his Maker and with humane Nature as if he did not know how best to make man fit for Government which is for none but one of the light young men and foolish of Israel to do As incommodum non soluit I assume Ex commodo non valet Argumentum His fifth Chapter is concerning Toleration as it arises from Atheistical Principles Those that are indifferent in their Religion or have no Religion cannot be concerned much with what others hold It is against reason and a kind of madness that such should be vehement for persecution There are Arguments therefore which are used by this sort of men from Policy for Liberty of all Opinions which this person endeavours to prevent or remove and does offer some of his own against Toleration But this Subject hath been lately so much canvased and there are arguments drawn up so fully and clearly with so much weight and prudence from the Interest of Religion and from the Interest of our State in those two Books or two parts entituled Liberty of Conscience and the last especially that it will scarcely admit of any thing more to be said of it If it will it is the fixing a right state hereof onely in the Mind that will be I think both the best way to confirm it and to preponderate the Arguments against it It pleased his Majesty in one of his Speeches to commend a Union of his Protestant
this purpose are we to stand fast in our Liberty and not to be the Servants of Men. But if a thing be held necessary onely as commanded we are to distinguish of that necessity and of those things Things that are commanded we suppose them to concern Religion are either for Edification or not And this necessity is either in regard of Conscience or the outward Man If things commanded be for Edification or if we are convinced they are so then is there truly a necessity in regard of Conscience or an obligation on the Conscience to obey them as authorized from God If they are not tending to edifie or we in our Consciences so judge in sincerity then are they to be look'd on as not necessary in point of Conscience because the authority that the Superiour hath in such things is onely for Edification According to the Power given us of God for Edification And consequently they being not I say edifiing things those particular Commands have none of Gods Authority as I have said in my first sheet on another occasion before where what is wanting here may be supplied and cannot be obligatory in Conscience so as to be said upon that account necessary to be done Nevertheless there is a necessity in regard of the Outward Man that remains which is that rather than resist the Magistrate we must suffer and rather than suffer we are forced to chuse to do the thing And herein then are we I account beholding to that Liberty that the Lord Jesus Christ hath purchased that we may obey in indifferent things and are not put upon the necessity of suffering altogether His Seventh Chapter is of the nature and obligation of Scandal and the absurdity as he speaks of pretending it against the Commands of Authority wherein there are several things according to the fluent ability of the Author among which there is not wanting that perhaps which should be said but there is wanting a sensible judgement of the Case it self unto which what he sayes should be applied For notwithstanding all this he hath here about Scandal I do not find that really he yet knows or at least but at adventure what that Scandal is or wherein the Point of it lyes that pierceth the Conscientious in the business of Conformity that when there are some things which some of them otherwise might do as lawful according to their own Consciences they dare not but for bear them for the Conscience sake of others Conscience I say not thy own but of the others I will desire this Person to read or to read better that little Tract of Scandal writ by Dr. Hammond who will shew him wherein the Apostle to the Romans and to the Corinthians does place the matter of Scandal and the result will come to this That no man upon any terms may ever do that thing whereof he is satisfied himself of the lawfulness of it so long as he hath reason to be perswaded that by his example he shall induce others to do the same who being unsatisfied in their Consciences about it shall sin in the doing And if he sin against the Brethren and wound their weak Consciences he sins against Christ. This is the Case of Scandal with the Nonconformist A man may not sin against Christ for the Magistrates command But for some men to Conform will be to do thus Ergo. By this little may appear the insufficiency and impertinency of those things which this man and others do commoly offer for satisfaction in the case of Scandal The matters wherein Scandal is concern'd says he are only indifferent things but nothing that is not antecedently sinful remains so after the commands of Authority This expression sure can hardly hold sense but as for the meaning I Answer The doing the least indifferent matter in any particular whatsoever which is Scandal in the Apostles sense is antecedently evil and consequently this great Answer comes to nothing Again We encounter Scandal with Scandal sayes he The complying with Authority offends only the weak Brethren or a few of them but the refusing offends the whole Church and Magistrate I Answer The refusing is not doing that which the Apostle means when he gives us such a charge about Scandal according to Dr. Hammond's true interpretation thereof in that Tract nor what Christ means when he speaks so dreadfully of offending any of his little Ones in the Gospel Consequently this Answer comes to nothing likewise I will add It is better that a man offend the whole world with that offence which consists only in displeasure then to offend any one the least Christian in that sense wherein the Apostle and Christ forbids Scandal I know I have not framed my words here in such a style as to make them pungent but I have spoken to the matter which I chuse rather His Last Chapter is of a tender doubtful and unsatisfied Conscience wherein he endeavours to prove by that one Topick still from convenience and inconvenience and then to perswade us hereupon That in all doubtful and disputable Cases we should take the Commands of Authority for the Supreme Rule of Conscience and that to act against our own Scruples out of obedience thereunto is godliness and vertue A strange Chapter There is nothing hardly more manifest and uncontroulable in Practical Divinity than that a Christian may not do any thing with a Conscience unsatisfied of the lawfulness of what he does but that he is first to be perswaded thereof in his mind before he does it The Scripture is most express for this That in things indifferent he that esteems them unclean to him they are unclean He that acts not in Faith that is with a perswasion that the thing he does is lawful and will not displease God does sin And he that eateth and doubteth is damned if he eat I wonder therefore with what heart this Person here can use his Parts and Oratory in this Argument which is to prevail on People that by all means they would be contented and not be so shy or make any such matter as they are apt to do of it to be damned To do any thing against a mans Conscience how indifferent soever is to do that in the doing whereof a man is damned that is does commit a deadly sin But if I make the Command of Authority my supream Rule in indifferent things when Authority commands any thing against my Conscience I must act against my Conscience in that thing Consequently this Author hath bestowed this Chapter to perswade men to damnation I must confess the Man hath such a pretty glib and voluble expression that if he will speak friendly of any known sin or smoothly of Hell he may prevail no doubt with many to venture on both who really believe them nothing But if any indeed do believe his Religion true and contained in these Scriptures I must advise him for his life not to hearken to this young man's counsel but that fixing
lead unto darkness To these two Questions therefore I answer in the stead of those Papers As to the former I doubt not but men may and ought to be restrained oftentimes in many things unto which they think themselves to be obliged and my ground for it is given As to the latter I humbly do apprehend that in that point alone the Liberty which these said Papers have so ingeniously contended for is to be placed and so far an that comes to the Arguments they have tendred are prevailing It is not because a man's acts barely are Religious that I plead an exemption from the Magistrate as is still said but because of his Conscience Whether the acts be Religious Moral or Civil the man makes a Conscience of them and the Sword cannot reach to the inward-man or to the Conscience It does not me dole we know with mens inward acts at all and it cannot reach I say to compel outward acts against the Conscience because that were to use the Sword against God and the Magistrate is the Minister of God But it may reach to hinder or restrain outward acts which some men are about doing or think they ought to do according to their Consciences because their Conscience or judgment may deceive them And either the thing ought a or to be done or it may not be fit to be done If it be fit for themselves it may not in regard of others or the publick utility unto which they are to give place Let me yet use a few more words I crave pardon I have used so many for while words are onely to make the mind known I may express my self ill but no words are enough though multiplied till that be done Where the Conscience is erroneous I say Gods will lies in both these things That a man should not do against his Conscience because it is his Conscience and that he should not do according to his Conscience because it is erroneous but that he should lay down his Error and so act And this is the meaning of that which Divines do say That such a Conscience does ligare non obligare The Magistrate accordingly may not compel him to that which is positive to act against his Conscience but to that which is negative to wit not to act according to it Put a case in this point as high as you can any Suppose a man who is otherwise a very consciencious man hath imbibed such ill-shapen Fifth-Monarchy-Principles that he cannot own the present Powers that are over him and so dare not do any thing in the doing whereof he shall own them what shall the most tender Magistrate do with such men unless as we do with Wolves and wild Creatures that is lock them up that they may do no hurt I answer The Magistrate I think cannot compel this Fifth-Monarchy-man to any such actual owning of his Authority or to any such act whereby he owns him that does go against his Conscience he cannot compel a man to own the true God or Christ contrary to his Light but if he act according to his Conscience in disowning the Powers speaking against them resisting or rebelling he may be punished too justly upon the same reason because though it be Gods will a man should never act against his Conscience yet it is Gods will too that he should not act according to it when it is erroneous and wicked and for so doing he is punished The sum is The Magistrate may not many times use his Sword in the Positives when he may in the Negatives of his Commands or Laws which he exerts and enforces as Gods Minister for the putting the Divine Will in execution And after this I am very glad methinks to find the Testimony of two such persons as I do to this Determination Suspenso pede hic incedendum ut illi lpsi qui Divinae humanaeque ordinationi resistunt non tam cogantur benefacere quam malefacere prohibeantur Quae duo in hot ipso argumento Magustinus olim Con. Petil. l. 2. c. 83. provide distinxiâ— Grotius de Imp. Cir. sac c. 6. s 10. To draw then to an end In things agreeable to common Light and the natural Good of Mankind this coercive power of the Magistrate lies open In things Religious whether indifferent or necessary the use of the same Power appears justifiable upon the supposition that they are not against the Consciences of those on whom they are imposed as the service of the true God we are to suppose was not against any of the Jews Consciences or at least in their account was not when the good Kings in the time of the Law compelled them to it but if the Magistrate be inform'd that any thing either is in its nature or becomes grievous to the Consciences of his People the case is alter'd He may apply other Remedies as a Christian but as a Magistrate he may not upon the account declared compel any body to that the doing whereof is sin to him and so against Gods will that he should do it I will adde Power in the Root which in my Papers that lie by is made out is nothing else but Gods will that such a man should command But in these things which God hath prohibited it is not his will that any should command and much less use coercion also Consequently if the Magistrate command a thing against my Conscience that Command at least to me is void and without power Gods Vicegerent within me my Conscience makes his external Voice to cease So far as his power goes then we may grant it to be coercive but in things against the Conscience he indeed hath not any who must say hereof what Paul said of the Truth I can do nothing against it but for it and according to it I remember in the Life of Josephus when some of the Trachonites came in for rescue to the Jews where himself was Governour and the Jews would thereupon constrain them to be circumcized or else let them not abide with them he would not permit that injurious Zeal alledging That every man ought according to his own Mind and not by mans compulsion to serve God In our English Story to suit this when Ethelbert the first Prince that received Christianity of the Saxon Heptarchy was converted by Austin sent hither by Gregory and many thereupon came into the Church it is said He specially embraced those that came in but compelled none for he had learned that the Faith and Service of Christ ought to be voluntary and not of constraint It helpeth much to establish the publick Tranquility says the Imperial Edict of Constantine and Licinius for every man to have liberty to use and chuse what kind of worshipping himself pleases And for that intent is this done of us to have no man inforced to one Religion more than another A Prince who would draw his subjects divided into sects and factions to his Religion should not in my Opinion use Force says
A Case of Conscience Whether a Nonconformist who hath not taken the Oxford Oath may come to live at London or at any Corporate-Town or within five miles of it and yet be a good Christian Stated briefly and published In reference to what is offered to the contrary in a Book intituled A Friendly Debate betwixt a Conformist and a Nonconformist Together with Animadversions on a new Book entituled Ecclesiastical Polity the general Heads and Substance whereof are taken under consideration AS ALSO A Peaceable Dissertation By way of Composition with some late Papers entituled Liberty of Conscience in order to the determining the Magistrates Power in matters of Religion London Printed in the Year 1669. The Case BEing importuned to make some Animadversions on the Friendly Debate I had finished several sheets and intended but two or three more when I was certified that an Answer was in the Press and prevented me which together with the unliklihood of getting an Imprimatur for it when I had done hath given me a supersedeas at present to what remains and made me think what I cannot do in the whole may be effected perhaps in parts I shall begin therefore upon this Point which seems to me the most material of any in that Book to be considered both in regard of the loss the most are at what to Answer and the necessity of their satisfaction seeing if they act not in Faith in what they do they cannot acquit themselves from sin How can that man be a Minister of Christ who is disobedient to his Soveraign And that even in those things wherein Christ and his Laws are not concerned The Law of the Land forbids the Nonconformist to live in London or within five miles of it But that is not repugnant to the Command of Christ and therefore he is not a good Subject and consequently not a good Christian much less such a Minister of Christ as he ought to be By this one passage in that Book I do take my conjecture of the Author to be a Person happy in his Expression and ingenuous in his Disposition rather than deep in the things he delivers or studious and reflective on those more Removes than one he ought to see who will play such a Game as this with all his fellows at once that are in the Ministry of a contrary party To bind the observation of all human Laws not sinful in the fact upon the Conscience without distinction is the doing he does not know what An unmerciful determination which being passed too upon that particular Oxford Act hath drawn from the rest this Animadversion as it lyes there out of my Papers I am sorry that any Person of so much candour latitude and ingenuity as I believe the Writer of this Book to have should be so unkind to his Brethren so unconscionably untender to express the thing as it is as to account That no man who transgresses an Act of Parliament such as for the Nonconformist to come within five miles of London can be a good Christian Alas how precise are some men as to the Law of the Land who are yet so angry at others for being strict to the Laws of God But does this Reverend Person indeed think that every transgression of a Statute of the Realm is no less than a deadly sin Or dare he wilfully judge here any otherwise than himself would be judged What then if a man shall-live and die in the breach of many Statutes which he knows and yet thinks nothing of it must such a one be certainly damned What if a man should live and die in a Cottage of his own erecting that hath not four Acres of Ground to it Or may a man live and die in a wilful known sin without Repentance and be saved Too rigorous were it sayes Mr. Hooker that understood himself here no doubt a little better that the breach of every Law should be so held a Mean there is between these extremities if so be we could find it out I must confess I have not read any to my remembrance that have ventured on the chalking out this Mean that I should gather satisfaction from it so that I must content my self with my own Sentiments which I shall readily deliver being glad at my heart if I can unloose any burden which many that are tender may be apt to bind on their Consciences when some that tye the same would be loth to touch them with their little fingers The Magistrate I account with the Apostle is the Minister of God for the Peoples good If he command in order to that end I think his Commands ought to be obeyed not only for fear of his Sword but for Conscience sake But if he command any thing for the Peoples hurt or that which evidently is not for their good I think his Command if the matter be not sin is yet to be obeyed for Wrath sake and so not to be contemned but I think not any obligation lyes on the Conscience if it can be avoided without contempt or scandal that it should be done We must distinguish here between the authority that resides in the Person and the authority of this or that his particular Command I do apprehend that when any Command or Law does require that which is Morally or Civilly evil every such Command or Law is really divested of authority and so may be left undone without breach on a man's Conscience yet if a man be brought to question about it he must suffer because the authority which resides still in the Person must be submitted to as to the Ordinance of God He must not resist that is express and rather than resist he must suffer whereas if he could avoid it without resistance he was not bound in good earnest either to do or suffer Where we are not obliged ad agendum ad patiendum sayes Grotius tum demum ubi poena evitari nisi vi opposita non potest De Imp. sum pot circa sac p. 98. The reason of this at the bottom lyes here and is firm Power in the Magistrate or Civil power which is the ground of subjection does not lye in might strength or force but in right Potestas say Political writers is jus imperandi This right in the nature of the thing must arise from the Grant or Will of the supream Lord which is God without whose Will or that Grant or Charter which is an act of his will no Power can be derived from any Now that grant or will of God which constitutes any to Rule or to be his Minister being for the Peoples weale He is the Minisâ—â—â—â—f God for our weale sayes the text it must follow that whatsoever 〈◊〉 not indeed for the Peoples weale the Magistrate is not to command because it is God's will be commands only for their weale And if he do command any matter that is otherwise that Command hath no Authority as to the Conscience at all as being without the
warrant of God's will This is such Doctrine which is plain bottom'd and irrefragable He is the Minister of God for thy good saith St. Paul otherwise he is not God's Minister and hath to other purposes none of God's power Dr. Taylor in his Cases l. 3. p. 35. Quod necessariam non habet conjunctionem cum fine publici commodi non potest praecipi lege humana sayes Suarez from the Schools One difficulty onely there is which is this Who shall judge whether a Law be for the peoples Weal or not I answer The Magistrate must judge as to the making the Law and we must judge as to our obedience to it My Reason I give as readily Because God hath made every man the Judge of his own Actions and consequently of all the Circumstances whether they are agreeable or not agreeable to his will for his forbearance or doing of them So that it is not according to the resolution of any others Conscience but of his own or the Judgement of Private Discretion he shall be justified or not justified in his walking before him Let a Law then be promulgated wherein a man is concerned I thus determine If he deal uprightly that is as a Christian to use industriously this persons word and in his Conscience does judge that the Law is good I mean good for the general whether their spiritual or temporal good I do apprehend he is obliged in Conscience to the obeying that Law at least so far as his particular obedience is conducive to that good though the keeping of it otherwise be to his own disadvantage or private loss If he judges it not good I do suppose he may do well in prudence to be wasy and do perhaps as others do and not run himself into harm's way But really if he observes it not he is to make no Conscience of it as if the thing offended God whether he does it or leaves it undone And here is that very Mean indeed it self for ought I know quod desideratur To wit That the Laws or Commands of the Magistrate even in political and indifferent things does no less than bind the Conscience when he is the Executioner of Gods-Will But though the outward man out of the case of sin may be bound if you will the Conscience cannot be obliged and ought to be still kept free when he is the Executioner onely of his own Humans Laws says the fore-mentioned excellent Doctor and Bishop bind the Conscience of the Subjects but yet give place to just and charitable Causes Whi 〈…〉 competent and sufficient is not expresly and minutely declared but 〈◊〉 to be defined by the moderation and prudence of a good man I know not how this Author may receive this from whom I expect more ingenuity than from many others that is to yield to second considerations But methinks if he had not thought at first when he wrote of any thing besides he might at least have considered that there be Laws which of themselves grow out of date and that it is not Time so much that brings on them their decay as the apprehension of them to be unreasonable unfit or unprofitable to the Land When a Law therefore is by general tasit allowance and practise of the Nation had no longer in regard it is to be accounted as virtually obsolete and so it binds not There was a Law made this Parliament about Carts and Waggons for the better keeping the High-wayes which being found quickly inconvenient to the Waggoners and unanswerable we may suppose to the End it was scarce a Month or two but they heard no more of it I will put a Case now of Conscience to this Person Suppose a man whose living consists in his Waggon and unless he puts more Horses in his Team in his coming up to London than this Law will allow he must give off his Trade or be undone I ask What shall this fellow do By the Doctrine of this Book for ought I can see he can be no good Subject and consequently no good Christian if he goes on I will ask again What thinks the Author of those that die and are buried in the iniquity of Linnen Whether the Women generally of this Nation who cannot abide to have the dead wrapt in Flannel but being used so much to controul their Husbands at home will not be ruled by both Houses to do any otherwise herein than what they think is handsomest for all them are in capacity without their amendment in this point to be saved For my own part I think verily the latter of these Laws being intended tending directly to the particular good of the Nation it ought in Conscience to have been kept yet seeing the very humour only of the Women hath discountenanc'd it so that in the general usage it is annull'd I dare not say that any man does sin that observes it not I dare not say that Wife can be no good Christian that buries her Husband in his shirt As for the Act it self of Oxford I cannot pass methinks without the observation of God's providence toward that great Person who in his Speech that Session so industriously declared himself the Designer Since the Parliament at Oxford it hath been visible sayes he that my credit hath been very little He who had contrived the Banishment of others from their houses by that Act leaves this passage in his Letter at his own departure out of the Realm But though he might be forgetful in his prosperity and unsensible of those inconveniencies which he was bringing those into who had done nothing against him Yet do not thou O God for all he hath done against thee deprive him in his adversity of the favour of thy House nor forget to bring his soul out of trouble when thou shalt first have brought it in with the sense of what has been amiss in such doings For the Oath imposed as the condition of the Nonconformists lawful coming to this City or any other Corporation by that Oxford Act there are the Nonconformists Exceptions against it proposed in that Book entituled A Defence of the Proposition If the Author of this Debate or that ingenious Person who they say is writing something about Ecclesiastical Policy for the justifying present Impositions or that worthy Person his associate who is particularly engaged to it can Answer them let them try This I must say that I suppose the chief of those things which stick in good earnest upon the sober Nonconformist and which others do not or dare not speak out are there offered against that Oath and against Vniformity If they shall set down the words fairly and candidly and answer them satisfactorily they shall do well But if they do not after this notice the world shall account indeed they cannot and what they say otherwise must signifie nothing I will conclude with Grotius and return to my Theme Leges humanae vim obligandi tum demum habent si latae sint
commanded or forbidden of God or such as are indifferent being left undetermined by him In Things or Actions which God hath forbidden or commanded that is which he hath determined to wit either by the Law of Nature or Divine positive Institution the Duty of the Magistrate does lie in removing Obstacles administring Helps and withdrawing Occasions of the sin but his Power precisely does lie in super-adding a new Obligation to that of Gods and by the sanction and infliction of punishments to inforce unto the Duty And so is he a Keeper onely of the two Tables having no Right of changing a Tittle of Gods Will. In things left indifferent and not determined by God that is in things which are neither written in the mind of Man nor Gods Word Haec sive sacra sivè profana sint determinare in alteram partem Jus est summae potestatis The Magistrate hath Power here and Liberty Liberty to determine and Power thereby to change such things into lawful and unlawful according as he requires or prohibits them for the spiritual or temporal good of his people and the effects of that Command or Prohibition are Obligation and Coercion This premised the ingenuous Papers before mentioned after they have endeavoured to shew the extremity of three Opinions about the Magistrates power in Religions Things In some that make him the sole Judge of all Matters Spiritual and Temporal In others that affirm the like power but to be exercised in Spirituals in a perfect subserviency to the Church In a third that make him have nothing to do but in Civil Matters onely wherein if that Truth rather which lies contained in those extream Opinions as omne falsum in nititur vero should be discovered instead of their bare rejection and laid well together the most mature account of the Magistrate in reference to this point were I think to be given they bring the whole to this issue That the Magistrate is the great Office◠〈◊〉 Minister as the Apostle calls him of God upon Earth to see his Will which in Religion they count if I misapprehend them not is what alone he hath revealed to be put in execution And then for the rescuing that liberty they would assert and keep for the Conscience they put in That under the Gospel the Magistrate must do this in the manner also that Christ hath appointed and so not by the temporal Sword This is to profess a great matter and momentous Truth but in the fulness of the Authors own pious and weighty Conceptions he hath left his Reader at a perfect loss of the true account when we are brought as it were too almost within ken of it I must humbly crave pardon therefore if I bring a few of my dryer thoughts here to minister to his abundance The Office it self of the Magistrate is to bear the Sword and by that to act or effect what it his to do Where a Person hath no power of Coercion he acts not as a Magistrate but as another man as an eminent Member only of the Society and he that sayes He may not use the temporal Sword in the concerns of the Gospel does upon the matter say That quâ Magistrate he hath nothing to do at all in Religion which is an acknowledged Errour What the Will of God then is we are orderly to enquire here which the Magistrate is to see done It is the Will of God that People should be Converted that they should Believe Repent and be saved And it is his Will that the Gospel be preached and his Ordinances attended to that end It is not to be thought I suppose the Office of the Magistrate concerns both these alike without distinction If men are not converted and believe not he cannot make them do that But if the Minister neglects his duty of Preaching Catechising Administring the Sacraments or Censures which Christ commands in order thereunto the Magistrate may punish him because herein he hath power when he cannot administer the Ordinances and Excommunicate any himself wherein he hath none committed to him Aliud enins est imperium circa sacra aliud sacra functio If the People likewise be loose and prophane and upon that account come not to Church but neglect God he may punish them for their not coming which I hope is in the concerns of the Gospel although if they abstain only upon doubt scruple or reason of Conscience there is difference in the matter There are therefore the inward or the outward acts of men When the Magistrate is said to be the Minister of God and consequently to see his Will performed it must be understood not simply and indefinitely but restrictè secundum quid in reference to mens outward acts and the inward as they are concern'd only in the outward Neither must we confound the distinctions of sacred and civil actions with inward and outward in this place The power of the Magistrate may extend to both in the one but does not in the other The inward acts of men are not within his Cognizance and so not under his Jurisdiction The Government of the Church accordingly is internal and external The internal government of it belongs to Christ It is he alone can rule mens hearts The Magistrate can but look to the outward acts and his kingdom is when Christ's is not of this world This external rule again of the Church or Church-affairs must be distinguished into two sorts It is one sort belongs to the Pastor and Church-guides and another to the Magistrate For instance the Magistrate cannot be said properly to make Cinons sayes Bramhal of Schism being prescribed under pain of Excommunication and yet can they have no obligation Grotius shews on the Subjects but by Empire only The one is then Ecclesia regimen externum formale the other Externum objectivum The one is directive swasory declarative The other Juris constitutivum imperatory coercive This I take to be certain that into whatsoever the Rule of the Magistrate extends his Sword must What he may command he may compel that is he may punish if the command be not fulfilled and where he cannot compel he cannot command I speak as to the standing Power not the Exercise wherein prudence is to direct It is true the pious Magistrate is to desire and endeavour the salvation of his People He is to seek their good and the spiritual good is beyond their temporal But he is to do this I hope in his sphere according to his place as far only as he can that is as far as his Sword will go His Sword will not reach the inward man If it would he might he should use it no doubt to do them good But seeing it will not he is to see then that the spiritual Sword be applied the Word preached and the Ministers office executed and how is he to see to that to cause on enforce that and the People to attend thereunto but by the authority of his
Sword To say or think then because the Salvation of mens Souls is wrought by God's grace not by outward force that is because the Gospel is the power of God to that end and the Weapons are spiritual not carnal that is able to do this Therefore the Magistrate is not to use his Sword in Religious affairs is though in some sense true and what in that truth may be spoken in the gross obnoxious to mistake through the want of consideriug what the matter materia circa quam of humane Empire is which is the outward acts of men only those Religious acts I say as well as Secular that are outward and the not distinguishing in the government of the Church aright between that which Christ hath committed to the Magistrate and what he keeps in his own hands and executes by his own officers That which is therefore rather to be said to build Uniformly on the same bottom I suppose is this The Magistrate in that Author's notion is God's chief Officer to see his revealed Will in the world and as a Christian Magistrate let me say to see his will in the Church to be performed This I take it understanding it as to mens outward acts and without an exclusive meaning of his determining power in indifferent things is very well Now it is the will of God that every man alwayes in what he acts though he is not alwayes to act whether in things Religious or Civil should do according to his Conscience so far for certain as never to do against it which he requires of him under those terms that he shall sin certainly if he does This is God's will by the light of Nature by the rule of Scripture and universal Consent The Conscience either is in the Right and then it is as God to us it must be obeyed we must do according to it we ought not to be disturbed by man Or it is in an Error and then we must not go against it even when we are bound to be informed otherwise and lay down that Error It is the duty consequently of the Magistrate to see that his Subjects be not put upon any thing that is against their Consciences and that they serve God when it is fit according to them If a man goes against his Conscience I say he sins against God which it is his will he should not do and how does that man see the will of God to be executed who compels men to that the contrary whereof is his Will There is no need here to put any difference between those things that do not differ in this point Let the Magistrate under the Gospel have the same power with those allowing a variety only in their Judicials under the Law And whether things are Religious or Secular if God hath left them free and neither prescribed nor forbidden them let such be equally at the Magistrates determination with this difference alone that God hath determined more things certainly if not all things but Circumstances only in Religion and so exempted them from humane arbitriment then he hath done in Civil matters Let the Magistrate know farther That in whatsoever he may Command his Power is coercive and his Sword may be used I speak as to the Quod licet not quid convenit to cause his own and much more God's Will to be done There is nothing of all this does hurt that Liberty I state and establish for the Conscience whose safeguard I place not in any distinction in reference to the Magistrates power between things Sacred and Civil or between what might or ought to be done under the Law and may not under the Gospel but in the most holy Anchor of God's supream Authority and determination which over-rules the Magistrate who derives from and must not go against his Will nor can command or compel to that which he hath made to be sin as the doing any thing against Conscience is Duo sunt genera actnum imperil qui ar jus imperantis non pertinent Deo vetita jubers Deo jussa vetare And unto this is there nothing moreover that I know of to be added or replied but only to decide well as is intimated from Divines at the first between Restraint and Constraint if I may so speak it being one thing I mean how far the Magistrate may proceed in restraining men of wild Principles that they act nor according to their Conscience mis-inflamed and another in constraining them to do things which are against their Conscience That the Magistrate may proceed in the one that is to restraint upon good reason it appears from hence because that although God does require every man to act in whatsoever he does according to his Conscience yet he requires not that in every thing which is according to his Conscience he should act His Conscience may be erroneous or the thing not expedient if lawful to be done Again the Magistrates Conscience and his are two He may think he is bound in Conscience to act suppose in preaching Seditious or seducing Doctrine yet if upon restraint he acts not his Conscience cannot accuse him of sin because he cannot help it and the Magistrates restraining him is according as he believes good and thereupon he does it Now here is nothing contrary to his office the execution of God's Will whose Minister he is for the man I say does not break his Will though his Will be if he act he should act according to his Conscience because that besides the thing perhaps is not to be done he is under restraint and so excused even to himself by the necessity and the Magistrate does perform his Will as he judges in restraining him because of the evil that would follow if he should suffer him But now in the case of Constraint I mean in the constraining any to do that which is against their Conscience that is manifestly against the office or work of the Magistrate who being to see God's Will performed does hereby directly endeavour that his Will be not performed His Will is that the man should never act against his Conscience whatsoever comes of it and he is forcing him hereunto Here then are there two Questions in those Papers mentioned proposed to the life as the sum of what could be desired if they had but been directly answered when proposed The one is How far men must be suffered to do those things which they say they are in Conscience obliged to do The other is How far they may be commanded and enforced to do such things which they indeed believe and say they are in Conscience abliged not to do The substance of these Questions I perceive that excelling Gentleman takes to be one and so they are passed off into his main entendment But as the putting a difference I accounted before as to some things which in relation to what is asserted admits none So must the confounding that here wherein the difference being put is so much to purpose needs