the Heathens Homer tells us of Princes and Heroes that Sacrificed and performed the Worship to the gods In Rome 't was manifestly so the first Roman Kings did the like Since Magistracy and Ministry has been distinctly exercised still the Inspection and Regulation of Religion and the Officers Ecclesiastical have been in the Magistrate Under the Law 't was plainly so Under the Gospel so soon as there was a Christian Magistrate that could exercise such a Power we find it so The right was the same in the Heathen powers which happily was the ground of Paul's Appeal unto Caesar though they could not then exercise it There is nothing more plain than that there may be a Right where there is not an Ability to exercise it Constantine and the Christian Emperors after him till the Church of Rome had cheated them into subjection took upon them the care and over-sight of all Religious things and to see all Christs Laws executed Constantine used to call himself The general Bishop to take care that all things were duly performed in the Church Amongst our selves we reap the Advantage of our Kings and Princes care and concern in that enjoyment we have of the Protestant Religion This shews the great weakness on the one hand of such who say the Magistrate hath nothing to do with Religion and the perfect mistake of those on the other hand who would have the Magistrate wholly Subordinate to the Church and the third extream in those who would place the Magistrate in so supream a Power as upon the matter to do what he pleaseth will be sufficiently enervated if we consider That as the Magistrate is to see that executed that Christ hath appointed in Religion so he is to bring in nothing of his own he is punctually tyed up neither to add nor diminish neither in the matter nor the manner his business is to see Laws executed not to make Laws nor change Laws Christ has no where granted any such Commission either to the Magistrate or any else upon Earth and therefore we come to a right state of the Magistrates Power when we consider him as Gods chief Officer in the World directed by the Light of Nature as well as otherwise to see that which God reveals to be his Will put in execution And that which comes particularly to the present matter in hand That he doth it under the Gospel in the manner Christ hath appointed The manner Christ hath appointed being as positively obliging as the matter and therefore the Temporal Sword when 't is used by Magistrates in the concerns of the Gospel is the Dead Fly that corrupts all their otherwise very laudable endeavours Nor need it seem strange that a Magistrate should have the care and over-sight of that wherein he is not to use the Temporal power as he is to endeavour to see that done by others under the Gospel as the Administration of the Sacraments and the like which he is not to do in his own person so he is to see that done by the Spiritual means Christ hath appointed for it which he is by no means to force the doing of by the Temporal power He that thinks the Magistrate cannot be useful to the Church without the Temporal power may with as good reason say That all other powers in the Church are useless where there is not the Temporal Sword to execute them All Societies of men are under the Regulation of the highest power but yet may act and ought to do so by distinct and proper wayes and by means suitable to each A Colledge of Physitians in a State are under the Regulament of the highest Power and yet it were very absurd to force them to give Physick as a thing in it self both unnatural and unreasonable The case is much more so in the Church nor can any instance fully reach it because the Church is a distinct thing of it self and hath Powers proper and peculiar to it in which it is so compleat that it can subsist without the Magistrate as it did in the primitive times The Civil and Ecclesiastical Power are things perfectly in themselves distinct and ought in their exercise to be kept so The highest Power governs men as men by the temporal Sword but as Christians by the spiritual and by seeing all things done in Religion by those spiritual means Christ hath appointed all which means he may make use of though exercised by other hands than his own and still in a subordination to him as Christ's chief Officer in the World who hath the Charge incumbant upon him to see all that Christ hath commanded duely put in execution But the Magistrate himself with the Power proper to him which is the temporal is not immediately to act any thing in the Church what he does is in a collateral way that were to bring a new Officer into the Church and a Power new and forreign to execute the Gospel contrary to the nature and totally destructive to the being of it The Magistrate hath wayes such as Christ thought sufficient to promote the good of Religion and propagate the growth of the Gospel without drawing the civil Sword which will make no more impression in spiritual concerns than it will do upon a Ghost that hath no real body In the execution of those he ought to acquiesce but if not content therewith he will use the civil Power to force men to believe and worship according to his Light and will take Offenders in the Church and punish them by his temporal Power what is this but to lord it over Gods Heritage and to make the Gospel Church and being a Member of it a thing of greater outward carnal fear bondage and subjection to men than ever the Law was This use of the temporal Power is the sting that wounds all liberty of Conscience and totally overthrows it If the Magistrate where I live be an Arrian a Socinian or in any such Error while he enforceth this but in a Gospel way and in Christs way of enforcing Truth only by instruction and perswasion this doth not mortally wound me this does not Petere jugulum of my liberty to keep to the Truth but if he come to establish it by the civil Power and by that suppress all else as Error my liberty in a differing perswasion is totally gone The admitting the Magistrate to use the temporal Power in executing his judgment about Religion hurries every man out of the world that is not of his mind for whatsoever will make a man an Heretick will bring a man to the Stake and every Opinion that is not the Magistrate's must needs make a man so If Christ hath enjoyned the temporal Power to be used it must have its utmost effect not only upon Hereticks within but much more upon those that are Infidels without the Church If the Magistrate be appointed to use such a power he must not tolerate any thing upon any terms nor exempt it from the lash of
c. got the Keys only in that little Cabinet of Council Ellis Hooks his Chamber Viz. The Second-days Meeting in London What Have they got a Pattent for all Gospel Priviledges Is all Power lookt up Viz. In the Church I mean a Yearly Meeting a Second-days Meeting a Quarterly-Meeting I mean a Meeting of Men and a Meeting of Women apart from the Men. Must we give up all our Concerns both Spiritual and Temporal to the Judgment of the Mens and Womens-Meetings as they say in Barbadoes What Shall we not manifest the Mischief of Impositions Shall they Preach False Doctrine and teach for Doctrine the Traditions of Men and shall we be afraid to reprove them Vnmask and discover them for fear of a few Invecttives No but we will slight them as honest Bennet did the Papists Curse and still hold maintain and assert Christian-Liberty which we in the Beginning pleaded for and admitted the same to each other in Things which God by his Servants the Prophets and Apostles had not set a Limit believing that as the Kingdom of Heaven stood not in Meats or in Drinks nor Carnal Ordinances so did it not come by Outward Observation but that as many as fear God and keep his Holy Commandments are fenced and secured from hurt by Threats and Censures of Men. For in a steady Belief of Christs Word and in confidence of his Power and Protection let all truly Conscientious Christians trust who said Mat. 5.6.7 Chapters which contain his excellent Sermon on the Mount That as many as hear these Sayings of Mine and do them he it is that built on a Rock And yet no Womens Meetings set up by Him or so much as counselled to in the manner G. F. and the New Zealots have devised And he that hears my Sayings and doth them not it is he that will find himself uppn a Sandy Foundation Although he conforms never so exastly to G. Fox his new Model of Government Here is the distinction made by Christ who is Head of the true Spiritual Church His Mystical Body made up of Living Members universally scattered in all Countries Languages Professions and People who fearing God and being faithful to that Discovery they have of him are and I believe shall be accepted of him And the largest Commission that ever Christ gave his Desciples and Apostles was Mat. 28.18 19 20. Where he said Go teach all Nations Baptizing c. bidding them observe whatever I have commanded you Mark have commanded He did not commit the Peoples Observation to what the Apostles should command no no neither did Paul desire to assume it but said Follow us as we follow Christ c. But what I have commanded you that bid them observe for all Power is committed to me and I will have the Government of my Chozen People and since they have such an Esteem of this my visible Appearance by reason of the Miracles and Wonders I do I have told them that it is expedient for me to go away and then he that 's with them shall be in them in a more large manner as they wait for my Appearance in their Hearts And as many as have regard to the Commands of Christ and live in Subjection to Christ their Head they are in Unity tho they may disobey what George Fox hath prescribed for he is not the Prophet that we are to hear in all things no no Christ Jesus is he Blessed and Magnified be his most Holy and Powerful Name for ever Saith my Soul Amen Now forasmuch as there is a Possibility through the Assistance of Christs Holy Spirit which is given by Measure to us to enable us to observe and do those his most excellent Sayings which is as Athanasius saith in his Apology the Perfection of a Christian I would ask Whether he may be capable to be in Vnity with the Church Body and Spouse of Christ although he may not observe George Fox his Orders VIZ. Not submit to the new Order of the Women But if George Fox and his Party shall stiffly stand to it That the Women-Meeting is of Divine Institution and therefore no Conformity no Unity I then would ask them Whether Christ was deficient either in his delivering himself to that Honoured Auditory or in his Memory And if in either then in which did his Deficiency consist And who did he constitute in his room to supply that Defect Which no Christian can admit that there was any Defect c. Whether a visible Head namely George Fox or some other to whom we should have an Eye at whose Mouth we should receive the Law in these Gospel Times If you say No as you dare not say otherwise then I make this reply not at all granting a Deficiency in Christ Jesus That then his Spirit or a Manifestation of it is given to every man to profit withal By which Rule I have my proper Gift and to my own Master I shall stand or fall Who art thou then that Judgest another Mans Servant Is not thy Name and Appearance Antichrist what Pretence so ever thou may'st have I know thou cryest up Holy Orders Good Orders Church Government with abundance of fair Pretences and Specious Shews as if thou wert the very Spouse of Christ and intendedst some special Reformation But alas thou art Jezabel that painted Harlot who art gone a Whoring from thy Husband decking and priding thy self with his Jewels Ornamenns fitting like a QVEEN and saying I AM AND THERE IS NONE BESIDES ME. But Blessed be the Lord the Light hath discovered thee and made thee manifest wherefore return and repent that thy Backslidings may be healed And this is my Desire for you all who begun in the Spirit decrying all Lifeless Forms and Traditions of Men Outward Rules and Directories Imposition and Compulsion Formality and Idolatry But Alas the Scale is turned the Scheme is changed for these Things which you formerly testified against you are now found in the Practise of Building again the Things you once destroyed thereby making your selves Transgressors c. I shall conclude this Preface in the Words of William Penn elsewhere c. Having thus Historically Introduced my Discourse not out of ill will to any God knows but in perfect Love to all that the very truth of Things may be brought to Light in order to a more clear Understanding of that Controversy which is now on foot c. This with much Sincerity I do dedesire that Truth may Triumph over Formality and Conviction be the ground of our Conformity Francis Bugg Milden-hall the 11th of the 1st Month. 1681. CHAP. I. Treats of Principles of Truth Received and Believed in the Beginning with an Epistle about Marriage and other Things not as a Form to walk by but as Advice suitable to the Nature and Tendency of the Testimony of Truth Received and Believed c. THat in the Beginning the Inshining Light of Christ Jesus by his Heavenly Spiritual Appearance in the Hearts and Souls 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
never delegated to any substitute upon Earth nor was there since the World began a judgment entrusted in any hands over the Consciences of men nor was it indeed under a possibility to be since no man nor men with the existence of humane Power could ever come to know the state of another mans Conscience nor the manifold Circumstances only open to a divine Eye relating to it and therefore does Paul himself to the Corinthians wholly disclaim the exercise of such a Power The simple actings therefore of Conscience abstractedly considered are not capable of a forcible impression from without nor need any man fear the loss of liberty of Conscience in that sense of it nor reckon himself under an obligation to any indulgence for it since a donation of it from any will with no more reality afford it to me than a restraint from them will any way actually take it from me That which will as most proper and genuine to the present enquiry proposed come under consideration will be How far the products and effects of Conscience in mens actings in pursuance of it are to be indulged and how far restrained and this will all come under two Heads First How far men are to be suffered to do or not to do those things which they say they are in Conscience obliged to do Secondly How far men are to be urged by commands to do such things which they say they are in Conscience obliged not to do That a punctual clear Answer to these Questions will be a Travel of great peril undertaken none that have any way versed themselves in such Controversies will deny and therefore the better to secure our progress herein it will be necessary chiefly and principally to reflect upon the Magistrate and the Power he is entrusted withal this method will carry its own evidence sufficiently with it If we consider the power that mankind hath over each other is exercised by him and that the success of this notion and the influence both of freedom and restraint depends solely upon him and that the power of Princes and Magistrates do actually bind and loose in matters of this nature I say if we consider this we shall soon make a discovery that finding out what the Magistrate may do and what he may not do in Religious affairs will give us a determination of this matter In the prosecution of this these several things shall be attempted First To make it evident that Magistracy is an Institution grounded upon the Light of nature and how far he may and ought to proceed by that both negatively and positively in these things Secondly That a Magistrate by becoming Christian receives no addition of Power to what he had before only stands bound to an improved exercise of his Power suitable to the light he then receives Thirdly To discover some eminent mistaken extreams about the Magistrates Power in Religion which have miserably involved us And Lastly To shew how far the Magistrate under the Gospel should and ought to act about Religion and wherein he is not to interpose his Power the right stating whereof is the true and solid Foundation upon which all true Liberty of Conscience is built For the first of these That Magistracy and Government is an Institution grounded upon the Light of Nature is easie enough to be made appear the first rise of it being in Families where it was wholly natural and paternal and therefore it is that the first Commandment wherein all subjection to Superiors is commanded is comprehended under the Obedience of Children required to their Parents that being the first Magistratical Power exercised That first Power and Authority God gave Adam upon the Fall over the woman being a distinguishing Power between the two Sexes and not properly any Magistratical Power relating to a Community After there came to be several divided Families in the World they found a necessity of a Power that might have a larger and farther extent than that in each Family which could be no otherwise grounded than by a joynt and common consent God having not by particular designation appointed any to rule over the World and no one Family could claim a right to rule over another nor could the first born in any family exercise any Power or extend his Dominion farther than that particular Family The reason whereof seems plain because that paternal Power which is originally in a family is not successive there is no succession of that power Parents have over their Children and Masters have over their Servants which is the ground of Family-Government farther than those relations still reach Hence it is the Power a Parent might exercise in his Family as a Father and a Master he cannot exercise upon any of his Kindred or other collateral Relations in any degree further and therefore that kind of Dominion must needs rest circumscribed within the bounds of each particular Family and that more extensive Government of many Families together was by a joynt-coalition and agreement of them dictated by the Light of Nature for general good there being scarce any thing a more necessary direction of Nature for mans own Preservation and Good since his Fall than to associate himself in a Community under one common Government How the Light of Nature did at the first operate upon men to convince them of a necessity to joyn together in a subjection to Superiors and how greatly their interest lay in such a subjection relative to such a publick Dominion we may some-what discover if we consider First That the Earth was at the first the Gift of the great Creator to the Sons of Adam and what every man first possessed was his own and whatever he could by his labour produce from it the same Law that is to this day to the first Discoverers of any unpossessed part of the World Now the only way to preserve men in such a Propriety and to make good that first Law of Gods donation was to have by common consent a publick power to take care of it and restrain the violence and exorbitant injustice that would otherwise have filled the World Secondly When private differences came to arise between man and man between cause and cause it would prove imposible to end any strife while each man would be a Judge in his own case and therefore it was found impracticable for men to live without a third Judgment which did necessarily point them to a Magistrate Thirdly Man was not only a sociable Creature in himself made to live in society and prompted by particular inclination to it but each man came to see men had common Concerns one with another and Interests of a publick nature beyond the bounds of their own particular Families there could be no way found out to capacitate them to enjoy those common advantages they might afford each to other but by imbodying themselves together and creating a publick Relation each to other in one joynt-society the very being of
which must needs lie in having one to rule over it and to exercise that publick care requisite to its preservation to which no mans private power or concern either could or ought to lead him Lastly The sensible good each Family found in that Paternal Regiment exercised within it self might well induce them to fall into that more general and to unite themselves under one Political Father in whose care and protection they might live secured These and many other necessary inforcements upon the common sense and experience of men induced the power of commanding and the reason of obeying That God that afforded to each Creature a capacity large enough for its own preservation did not leave Man without sufficient light to discover this great Engine of his safety and happiness Well may we then look upon the power of Magistracy as the greatest and most transcendant of all humane things and pay the due tribute of all Reverence and Obedience to it as being the Soveraign Power of God exercised in a way of Vicegerency amongst men and that wherein the peace and quiet of mankind is most necessarily included The Law and Light of Nature having thus from the beginning placed the Magistrate in his Throne the same also did lead and guide him to the exercise of his Power by bringing him under this obligation to do whatsoever should be found necessary to the good of mankind both in their private and publick capacity and restrain whatsoever is destructive to it this as it brings Princes and Magistrates to a tye of duty so is the donation of this Power exceeding large and ample The First thing in which the power of the Magistrate is naturally exerted is in his own preservation wherein his Power is Paramount to all pretensions whatsoever As in Nature each mans supream Law lies in self-preservation who is bid to love his Neighbour but as himself So politically in Magistracy the preservation of it self in its Power and Prerogative and the exercises thereof is the first thing 't is led to look after he is to preserve himself in order to that preservation he is to afford to others 'T were very absurd to suppose a Magistrate bound to tolerate any thing destructive to his being no pretence of Conscience is here to be suffered 't is a practice against the Law of Nature 't is to pretend Conscience to annihilate mankind God hath not nor will not promulge Laws to interfere one with another nor will he ever reveal any thing against the standing Law of Nature it being the remains of mans excellent creation at first but what shall heighten and improve it to a further perfection Herein therefore Princes and States are sufficiently secured by a power inherent in their very being that no abused pretensions of a Liberty for Conscience can ever invade or disturb them Secondly The extent of the Magistrates power reacheth to a total suppression of all moral evil and encouragement of all moral good and that for these Reasons First moral evil is an abomination to every mans Conscience and therefore ought to be much more so to the Magistrate who hath the only power of suppressing and punishing it Secondly moral evil and vice is most injurious to mankind and destructive to that well-being and quiet the Magistrate is bound to provide for Thirdly It brings down sensible and visible Judgments upon Persons and Societies with a voice easie enough to be heard by any natural ear and therefore the Magistrate by the very Light of Nature is loudly enough called upon to suppress it This we have clear enough set down in the 13th of the Romans where the Magistrate is said to be a terrour to evil-doers and a praise to them that do well the Magistrates power is there fully asserted but it seems to be but the same power he had before his Commission seems only to be renewed with the same power he had from the beginning that the Apostle there speaks nothing of the power of Magistrates beyond what the Light of Nature gives them seems to be very clear in two things First in that he instanceth in the present Roman power that then was and Secondly because he sets down nothing that the Magistrate is to do but what the Light and Law of Nature doth directly guide him unto That the Apostle speaks of Magistracy in general is plain and that he speaks of it in the present instance of the then Roman Power is as plain now if all that belongs to the Magistracy in the abstract had not been compleat in the Roman power as to the right of it the instance had been no way proportionate nor right The Apostle writing to Rome no doubt intended to declare the Principles of the Gospel to be such as taught all subjection to the Emperor he says The Powers that be are ordained of God speaking in the present sense of those that then were and he says For this cause pay you Tribute that is the present Tax you pay the Roman Emperor is upon this very account so that he carries on the instance of Magistracy all along in the Roman Heathen power Secondly he speaks of nothing to be done by the Magistrate but what the Light of nature dictates and what was the duty of the Emperor then to do to execute wrath upon him that doth evil and to encourage those that do well wherein he is a Minister of God to us for very much good By this we see then this farther power of restraint in the Magistrate in his natural constitution that being to suppress all moral evil and encourage virtue he is bound not to suffer upon any false pretensions of Conscience whatsoever any practices that discourage the one or fall within the guilt of the other These forementioned and unquestionable generals do contain in them the negative and positive execution of the Magistates natural power in things purely moral and political How far he is by the Light of Nature obliged about the Religious concerns of his Subjects and wherein the Light of Nature lays an Arrest upon him not to proceed that so the due liberty of each mans Conscience may be secured will come under a more pertinent consideration in a following part of this discourse We see by these things the Magistrate negatively impowered in an ample manner in his first constitution over all things relating to the moral and political good of mankind The Light of Nature excludes all such Principles from the least toleration which make men cease to be true Subjects to the State or good Common-wealths-men in relation to others Liberty of Conscience is best secur'd by disclaiming such who neither by natural or divine Law can make any just pretence to it 'T is only to be given in things divine and supernatural such as neither destroy nor disturb the civil and political Interests and Rights of men The second thing proposed about the Magistrate will have no hardship to make appear That a Magistrate
by becoming Christian hath no addition of power to what he had before Magistracy is the same and as legitimated amongst Heathens as Christians A Magistrate when Christian exercises the power he had before otherwise but receives no addition of power to his Office Christ in the Gospel hath made no alteration in Magistratical Power nor hath he given any addition to it when exercised by Christian hands but a Magistrate when Christian is bound to exert his power in a way suitable to the light he then hath He that hath no other than the light of nature hath as much power about Religion as if he were Christian and is to take as much care of the Souls of his Subjects suitable to that Light as any Christian Magistrate is to do suitable to his The power a Parent hath over his Child a Master over his Servant a Prince over his Subjects is no more when they become Christian than it was before only that power must be otherwise exercised according to that improvement of light Christianity brings with it All natural and moral Power was the same from the beginning though God was not pleased to set that power distinctly in a Law written till long after the light of nature gave a plentiful information about these things The duty of all such relations in the performance mutually of them amongst men is greatly furthered by the Light of the Gospel but the duty is still the same several things do evidently evince this general Truth 1st All natural and moral Relations belong to men as men only so considered and not as Chrstians and are fully compleat and perfect amongst mankind both in the power of the one and the duty of the other without any reference to any Perswasion in Religion or other Qualification whatever 2dly It appears from hence because whatsoever the Gospel reveals to be the duty of such relations each to other we find practised by the light and law of nature from the beginning these things being of absolute necessity to uphold the frame and policy of mankind God had naturally endowed them with a sufficient discovery of his mind about them 3dly It appears to be so because Christians are obliged by the Laws of the Gospel to give the same obedience and perform the same duties in these Relations to Unbelievers that they are to Believers the Gospel speaks of these things without distinction Subjects are commanded to obey Heathen Magistrates in all things lawful and we are to obey Christian no farther Servants are commanded with the utmost duty of Servants to obey unbelieving Masters and so Wives to be subject to unbelieving Husbands all which declares these Relations perfectly inherent in mankind as such and no way relative to any other Qualification whatsoever These two preliminary considerations of the Magistrate 1st That he has his original in the light and law of Nature 2dly That his power and being is thereby perfect and compleat and that Christianity gives no addition of Power to such an Office will much further the right stating the chief and last thing proposed How far a Christian Magistrate under the Gospel is impowered negatively and positively in these things Before I proceed to which I shall come to the third thing intended which is To shew how some eminent Mistakes about the Magistrates Power in Religious things have involved us into very destructive and pernicious Extremities A Prospect of which may be had in these three things into which the various writings and discourses of that subject have chiefly issued themselves First Some do make the Magistrate the sole Judge of all Spiritual matters ascribe to him the power of setling what Government he pleases in the Church appointing Officers in it determining all differences in Religious things suppressing by his power all Errors and Heresies and superceding all matters that appertain to the Gospel A second sort with an equal warmth affirm the Magistrates Power in Religious things but say 'T is never to be exercised but in a perfect subservency to the Church and that whatsoever the Church determines he is bound to execute by the temporal Sword as the great Law of Christ A third sort as wide of the Truth as either of the other say positively The Magistrate hath nothing at all to do in Religious concerns that he is a meer civil Officer to take care of mens civil Interests and hath nothing to do with things of a spiritual nature That all these Principles have produced hurtful effects and that the truth lies distant from them all will be found in a distinct consideration of them The first does little less than revive in the Magistrate now much of that power Christ himself and the Apostles by his delegation exercised at first in setling the Gospel Church and unless it can be punctually made appear where in the Gospel Christ hath substituted the Magistrate to exercise such a dominion over his House it will soberly be found a dangerous Intrenchment upon his Kingly Office 't is one thing to take care of the execution of what Christ hath already setled and another to make Laws and Customs about those things This opinion as it is by many late Writers maintained dissolves all Ecclesiastical Regiment and annexeth the Government of the Church to the civil Power or indeed drowns the Church into the State or at least mixes them as much or more than they were mixed together under the Judaical policy What ever Government the Magistrate settles cannot be Ecclesiastical but Civil if it be Forreign to what is already divinely appointed if it be not then it s not the setling but the executing of what is already setled unless you will say that Christ entrusted him to settle the Ecclesiastical Government of his Church and that will seem not a little strange that the Magistrate who is no spiritual Officer set in the Church nor cannot himself administer in executing the least thing within it should have such a supream Power over it Either Christ and the Apostles did settle a Government in the Church or they did not if they did the Magistrate as well as others is obliged by it if they did not but that 't is left to the Magistrate he has a greater power at least in the exercise of it than ever they had For if we suppose they had power to settle a Government but did not think fit to exert that power but left it to the Magistrate his power in the execution of it is greater than theirs 'T is much that the infallible Wisdom of Christ and his Apostles could not better find out an order for the Gospel Church than to leave it to the mercy of every Magistrates discretion and 't is equally to be wondred at that an Officer of such necessary importance to the Church as to settle the Government of it should be wanting when the Gospel was first planted and every thing ordinary and extraordinary belonging to it was presented to accompany
the Glorious Presence of Christ upon Earth and which might any way contribute to rear up the Fabrick of the New-Testament Church 'T is much that such an Officer of so absolute concernment as this Opinion makes him should not be in the Christian World for three hundred years together If we will seek the meaning of this providential disposal of things may we not soberly think it to be that the Gospel was a thing wholly founded upon Spiritual Power was compleat therein and needed not any Temporal power to contribute to its perfection This impowering the Magistrate with a Superlative Authority in setling what relates to the Government of the Church supposeth this That the Scripture hath revealed no Truth that is binding in this matter but this That what the Magistrate pleaseth to settle in every place that is right and this I am sure the Scripture hath no where revealed and so we are like to have as many distinct Governments as there are States and distinct Kindgdoms in the World 't is strange those that are for exact Uniformity in any one Church should lay a foundation of such confused multiplicity in the Church Universal Either we must suppose Christ was not faithful to reveal all that concerned the Government of the Gospel-Church which God intrusted him with or else that it was the Will of God there should be no more revealed but that all should be transiently left to the Magistrate To say the first were but to urge Blasphemy for Reason if the second 't is to impower an Officer in such a necessary and weighty matter whose very being in the Church with an ability to do it had a futurity of three hundred years to come During all which time if Christ and the Apostles setled no Government in the Church and there being no Christian Magistrate that could settle any How could the Church then come lawfully to have any If it be said Where there is no Christian Magistrate every Church may use their own discretion then 't is plain the Government of the Church under the Gospel hath no other bottom than what every Magistrate and every particular Church pleaseth and so not only Magistrates but Churches and indeed all the World may be their own Carvers in this weighty matter 'T is very hard to be credited that the Government of the Church which does so greatly relate to the preservation of the Truth of Doctrine in it should be left to such floating uncertainties Besides this Position makes all that part of the Gospel which lies in Precept and President about the Rule of the Church and what was by the Apostles then practised and commanded to be of no use to us nor obligation upon us farther then the Magistrate pleaseth 't is to give him a dominion over that part of the Scriptures and opens a door to make him as some have fully done Lord over the whole New-Testament Two things are usually said to prop up this Power in the Magistrate First That there is nothing positively determined in the Gospel about these things because the Gospel being to take place throughout the whole world no one frame or Model of Government could be composed that would conveniently fit all Persons and Places where the Gospel might come to be received and setled and therefore the Wisdom of Christ hath left things of that nature wholly undetermined This is a thing taken for granted and wholly without any Divine Ground to warrant it and is in the reason of the thing it self insufficient for we find nothing in command or practice by the Apostles in setling the Christian Churches but what will agree with any Nation or People in the World He that will say That the Order of the Gospel as we there find it practised and required will not agree to any place may with as much reason if not more say That the receiving of the Gospel it self in the general belief of it will not agree to that place These things make it evident that the Order and Discipline we find setled in the Gospel-Churches in the Apostles time must needs fit every place and people and can do no hurt any where 1st It highly intends to heighten and compleat the duty incumbent on all Moral and Natural Relations that which Christ hath appointed to preserve order among Christians as Christians will never hinder but farther it amongst men as men 2dly The power upon which Christ's Rule setled in his Church is founded is wholly Spiritual it can never do any Violence to mankind nor clash with any humane power because that is the Boundery of it 3dly The thing designed and attained by the Order of the Gospel-Church is no more than to preserve men in a regular capacity to enjoy all Christs Institutions and therefore he that will say This Order will not sute any Nation must say in effect None of Christs Institutions will agree to that Nation 4thly There is nothing in Christs Government of his Church that is properly relative to the Political Government of a State or does any way determine the form of it but it may be equally exercised under any Government whatsoever The Religious policy of the Jews did highly relate to the State and was commixed with it and the same Government of that Church could not have been without a sutable conformity of the State to it and so could not well reach beyond that Nation and peculiar Country and People But the Gospel-Church and the Rule of it is grounded upon quite other terms and hath its first Principle in that saying of our Saviour Where ever two or three are met together in my Name there am I in the midst of them And there is no place nor people under the Sun but where with much advantage the order of the Gospel as well as the Gospel it self may be introduced A Second thing made to prop up this power in the Magistrate is Because of the wonderful difficulty we find in the New-Testament about matters of this nature This I acknowledge should put us upon much enquiry and great indulgence to each other but I cannot yield it a good reason to establish a visible Judge to settle a Civil Pope for at last upon the same grounds it will be found out that the Scripture in Doctrinals is obscure too and so the Magistrate must be likewise an Umpire in those things and finally in all Were once all these Carnal Interests and Political Concerns that are now twisted into the Government of the Church laid by it would be found a thing very feasible to deduce from Scripture Precept and Example limitted to no particular case in the reason of it a systeme of Ecclesiastical Rule sufficient for the obtaining all the holy and good ends designed by the Gospel and compleating men in a Spiritual Society as an Organical-Church and if a Church can be so constituted which is a thing in it self of no harship if men would be contented with the simplicity of
Gospel not mighty through God but mighty through the Magistrates power and wholly to alter the nature of the Gospel and all its Institutions 't is to arm the Church with Weapons Christ never gave her and to make her a Military rather than a Spiritual Society Thirdly Suppose but this truth That all Churches even the purest are in the execution of Christs Laws fallible and lyable to mistake this Doctrine hath a marvellous tendency to bring the Magistrate under great transgression and each Christian under a possibility of such bondage as the Gospel no where imposes on him If a man be unjustly cast out of a Church and the Magistrate proceeds against him he executes an evil Sentence and does it blindfold being by this Doctrine an Officer no way competent nor in any capacity to make a judgment of the truth or error of it and so cannot possibly escape a greater sin A Christian unduly cast out of a Church hath this security against such a proceeding that Christ will never ratifie it upon his Conscience but by this manner of execution he is sure whether the Sentence be right or no to fall under as heavy an outward suffering as the Magistrates Sword can inflict upon him And by this means it will come to pass that men shall be more dangerously concerned in their Lives and Estates by being in the Church than by being Members of any Society whatsoever The third Extream in this matter lies amongst those who say That the Magistrate hath nothing at all to do about Religion This lies very wide from truth and cannot in such a general Position be made good if we consider First That every man in the World as he is a Creature and a Subject to the great God is bound in his station and in Gods way to promote his honour and endeavour that his Will may be done in the World it would be strange that the Magistrate who is his chief Officer should be no way concerned to see the Laws which God gives the World put in execution by the Persons and in the manner he hath appointed it 't is not to be imagined that he that hath the complicated relation of a Christian and a Magistrate to others should have no care relative to their Spiritual good 't were to say the Magistrate must not do that which every man else in the World is bound to do Secondly God never since the world began trusted any with the care of mens bodies but he entrusted them likewise with some care of their Souls If we look over all the Natural and Moral Relations in the world such as Parents Masters General of Armies we shall ever find it so Men are to be ruled over as Creatures that have immortal Souls to be chiefly cared for and they are to be ruled over as such who have a special relation to God and a homage to pay him above all the rest of the world a rule over men without some respect to this would denominate mankind into Brutes Thirdly To say the Magistrate hath nothing to do about Religion is to deny what hath been practised by the Light of Nature before the Law was practised under the Law suitable to that dispensation and both commanded and commended and is to be practised under the Gospel suitable to this dispensation and is foretold as a blessing so to be and in fact hath been so ever since there hath been a Magistrate Christian in the world Having thus considered these hurtful Extreams about the Magistrates Power the last thing to come under consideration will be the due bounds of a Magistrates Power under the Gospel that is How far a Magistrate being Christian may improvedly exercise his natural power for the advantage and benefit of the Gospel and wherein he stands bounded and obliged not to proceed The preserving a right state whereof through the torrent of these Extreams will be of singular moment to the matter in hand We have seen that the power of a Heathen and a Christian Magistrate differs nothing at all in kind A Heathen Magistrate hath the same right and is bound to do as much in Religion as a Christian only the one having more knowledge of God and his Mind is bound improvedly to exercise his power accordingly the first thing a Christian Magistrate stands bound to do for the good of Religion is to afford the Churches all negative good that is to remove all Oppression from them and all things that do any way hinder them to enjoy the Institutions of Christ he is to give them rest that they may be edified and walk in the comforts of the Holy Ghost and lead quiet and peaceable Lives in all godliness and honesty This as 't is a special blessing the Church does not often enjoy so 't is one chief part of that benefit it receives by Christian Rulers And this the Light of Nature will easily guide a Magistrate to do for any Religion of the truth of which he is perswaded In the Affirmative he is not only to see that the Gospel be preached and all under him fully instructed in the truths thereof to unite all Christians and as much as in him lies preserve peace in the Church to encourage those he finds most zealous constant and sincere in the profession of the Gospel and by his own example to lead forth his Subjects in all sound Orthodox Profession and Practice But to comprehend all in one he is to endeavour in a Gospel-way to see all the Laws of Christ put in execution and as much as in him lies see his Will done in the World he is so far from being bound to execute only what the Church will have him that he is to over-see their proceedings and to take care as Christs chief Officer in the World that all things in the Church be duly and according to Christs appointment administred The Apostles words are general and full Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers Wheresoever the highest power is it must needs be so unless you will have a highest and a highest which will breed inevitable confusion the Civil power bidding a man do one thing and the Ecclesiastical another it hath ever in fact been so but under the Roman Church where the Emperors were made believe that 't was the highest piece of Religion voluntarily to yield up their Power to the Church and submit to her direction for the use of it which at first they confessed was inherent in the Emperors and not in the Church Before the Law not only the Power but the Exercise of the Priesthood it self naturally fell into the Magistrate 'T was so in Noah in Abraham and in Melchizedeck who was a King and a Priest 'T was so in Moses the Regal and Sacerdotal power were both in him till they were by God divided between him and Aaron ever since which time the exercises of Magistracy and Ministry have been and are to be distinct 'T was so likewise amongst
appear both from the different station and posture those Kings were in from all Magistrates now and also from the different condition of the Church then and now and many circumstances peculiarly relating to both First The worship and policy of the Jews being in it self typical and representive of what was to come hereafter their Government was likewise so and in their Kings very eminently that David and Soloman did very plainly in the type represent the Kingly Dominion of Christ none will deny and 't is as plain that the very Throne of David it self upon which the succeeding Kings of Judah sate was likewise so there being that Prophesie long before That the Scepter should not depart from Judah until Shiloh came and therefore the Power David and Solomon and the succeeding Kings of Judah for amongst the Kings of Israel after Solomon we find not one concerned for the true Worship of God who were of the lineage of David exercised had a peculiarity in it that is not applicable to any Magistrate now Secondly God was pleased in those times upon all eminent occasions of reformation in his Worship and proceedings of that nature to send Prophets to declare his positive mind and to put an end to all doubts that could be about such things nay some of the Kings themselves were Prophets immediately inspired and did not only take care of the Worship established by Moses but did themselves by divine Authority bring in things of a new Institution into the Worship of God this David did and Solomon in bringing Musick into the Temple and setling the courses of the Priests and were divinely inspired to write part of the holy Scriptures No Magistrates now can pretend to any such power in themselves nor have they any such extraordinary direction to guide them but are punctualy obliged to whatever Christ hath revealed in the Gospel and therefore in this respect the Analogy no way holds good Thirdly The state of the Jewish Church and Common-wealth was such as wholly differed them from all others since that was a Church and a State in the very constitution of them mixed together none could be brought into one but he was a member of the other nor could a man be cast out of the Church but he was thereby cast out of the State to be out-lawed and excommunicated was there amongst the Jews the same thing Grotius expresseth it well At that time saith he the Wisdom in Divine and Humane Law was not divided and he proves it by this As the Magistrate did intermeddle in Church Affairs so the Priest did intermeddle in Cvil things For saith he the Priest was a Judge and did not only give Judgment in Sacred but in Civil Affairs being the best Interpreter of the whole Law And saith the same Grotius further That the Priest had Magistracy This alone may be proved in Deut. 17.8 That he is to dye who obeys not the Command of the Priest 'T is most clear also That Eli was chief Priest in Israel and chief Judge in Shiloe 'T is not any way to be avoided but that the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power lay then interchangeably mixed and with as equal reason may we bring Magistracy into the Ministerial Power of the Gospel from what the Priests then exercised and their example as to bring such a power in Religion into the Magistrates under the Gospel from the parallel of what those Kings did then Besides the Magistratical power was so absolutely necessary to the Jewish Church-Policy so mixed that it could not be upheld without it the very Municipal Law of the Nation was their Religion He that was chief in the State must needs be Head of the Church They were a Holy People living in a Holy Land appointed to Worship in one Holy City and in one Holy place of that City and to offer upon one Altar in that Holy place The Church of the Gospel is totally of another nature perfectly distinct from the civil State can well subsist without a relation to it and is no way intermixed in its Concerns with it And therefore to say all Magistrates now must do as those did that governed such a mixed complicated Church and State in one carries no proportion at all of reason or equity in it more then if a man should argue from a Par ratio that what Moses did at first amongst the Jews who was King in Jeshuron that Kings may now do amongst Christians under the Gospel Lastly What was then done was by Gods command and was in a way suitable to the frame and state of the Church the Jews were imbodied in and lay chiefly in bringing men from Idolatry to the Worship of the true God for in differences between Sect and Sect amongst themselves there was nothing that we find done at any time they continued till our Saviours time and putting such a kind of Worship in execution as lay in outward carnal Services and was in every minute particular exactly set down and determined First The state of the Gospel-Church now is wholly differing from what that was and is setled upon clear other grounds and principles Secondly Here is no command in the Gospel for the Magistrate to do any thing of that nature Thirdly Let it be granted as truth that in parity of reason because Magistrates were appointed to take care of Religion then they are to do so still it must of necessity be granted also that they must do it by the means appointed by Christ under the Gospel as they did heretofore by those God appointed under the Law It is an Inference very infirm That because the Kings of Israel and Judah compelled men by Gods own appointment to acknowledge the true God and forsake Idolatry therefore Magistrates now may not only without but against Christs commands and the whole tenor of the New Testament compel men to the Spiritual Belief and Worship of the Gospel The truth is the civil Power of the Magistrate is no means of Christs appointing for the carrying on of the Gospel the Gospel in the very nature of it carries an Antipathy in it to all outward force Instead of all the temporal promises and corporal punishments under the Law Christ makes this Declaration He that believes shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned That 's the Language of the Gospel Christ sets Hell and Wrath to come before men and by his Spirit working upon and convincing the Conscience works more admirable effects upon men that way than all the outward punishments in the World could ever bring about The Word of Christ is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged Sword and can divide between the Soul and the Spirit the Joynts and the Marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the Heart We have in the Hebrews a very perfect account of Gods dealing with men under the Law and now under the Gospel and the plain difference in the manner of the one and
certain evil that way But the Author proceeds and tells us In a little time it will remove the cause of the Error That is to say Forcing men if you do it long enough will convert them and the reason he gives is this Because Paul ranks his Heresies amongst the works of the Flesh and it is not seated so solely in the mind but that it hath often no sublimer motives then other sensual transgressions and as outward considerations are sometimes the cause so they may be the cure of it That ever any man did change an Opinion first or last by being forced since the World began is without instance and impossible in the nature of the thing to be One says well You may as well cure a man of the Cholick by brushing his Cout or fill a mans Belly with a Syllogisme These things do not communicate in matter and so neither in action or passion But Heresie is a work of the Flesh so is every mistake of the Soul Heresie is a work of the Soul rather in mis-believing than mis-doing 't is a thing in Opinion rather than Fact The Apostle in Galatians 5. where Heresie is reckoned amongst the works of the flesh does not put the distinction between works of the flesh as things outwardly acted opposite to what is inwardly believed but by the flesh he means the corrupt and carnal mind opposite to the Spirit of God for he says plainly in the Verse before The Flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh By the Flesh there he means the corrupt state of man in Soul and Body so that Heresie may be a work of the flesh and yet purely seated in the mind Every corruption in the mind is a work of the flesh and yet as 't is there only is in some sence a thing spiritual and speculative But saith he Outward considerations are sometimes the cause of an Opinion and may be sometimes the cure of it If outward considerations suitable to a conviction of my understanding have wrought upon my understanding and made me really believe a thing there is then no proportion at all of reason to say That force because 't is an outward thing wholly incapable of working upon my understanding may make me as well disbelieve it And if those outward considerations he means have not really convinced me then 't is not my Opinion Either outward considerations are the ground of such Opinions or they are not if they be they will best discover themselves in their effects such causes are best so known and only so known and those effects will be obvious if they be evil to a due punishment if they be not the cause of them 't is first a superlative want of Charity to make our selves evil Judges of other mens hearts and then an eminent piece of injustice to punish men upon such a false supposition He that will take upon him to judge the grounds of any mans Principles which he knows not may make any Opinion have what Original he pleaseth 'T is a most absurd thing to believe any man for outward respects should suffer all reproach and persecution You may as well say all the Martyrs suffered only to set up a Pillar and get themselves a Name 't is obvious enough to any impartial eye those outward considerations are more probably to be mens temptations that go another way Fourthly No man under the Gospel ought to be compelâ—ed to believe or practice any thing and if not to believe then not to practice for the practice ought to correspond with and be but the counter-part of the belief 't is strangely unreasonable to require uniformity in the practice where there is variety and difference in the Judgment 't is to bid a man go directly against his Light 't is miserable to rend a man into two pieces his Conscience in one part and his outward man and practice in another part God arrests him and draws him in a way suitable to his rational Soul one way and men by means wholly contrary another Who think we has the greatest right and whether is it better to obey God or man in such a case Those that thus impose upon men do what in them lies to ruin them eternally I say 't is not reasonable to compel men to believe or practice for practice should suppose belief because God tells so very often He only accepts a willing Service in his Worship and abhors all other God detests the smell of a Sacrifice where the heart is not where the heart is far from him and 't is impossible it should be near him where a man is compelled directly against his own judgment How much does the beauty of the Gospel lie in this that Gods People are made by him a willing People and that God hath his Creature wholly in his Service Such are the Converts of the Gospel where every man is in his rational Soul so satisfied enlightned and convinced that he does all freely 'T is a severe thing to enjoyn me by penal Laws to worship God in a way I neither like nor he accepts which he does not though it be what he has appointed for the matter if I come not in the manner he has likewise appointed to it I shall neither please him nor advantage my own Soul This was the case of the Jews when God hated their solemn Assemblies and said Incense was an abomination to him 'T is usually false worship that needs force 't was Jeroboam that upon Politick grounds began to force a Religion and 't is said of him He made Israel to sin by compelling them to Dan and Bethel If men intend to make Converts to God they must not do more for him than he does for himself he never violates the liberty of the rational Soul but approves things to the understanding if they under this pretext intend to make Proselites to their own power 't is very sinful Fifthly The practice of Christ and the Apostles positively contradicts this course they could have commanded what power they had pleased if that had been the way of setling the Gospel in the world Christ would have no Fire come down from Heaven but that of the Holy Ghost nor no Sword used in the Church but that of the Spirit he bids them Teach all Nations Baptizing them c. that is his way of initiating men into the Church Not as the Spainards Convert the Indians who leave them no choice but to be Baptized or Murthered Men are first to be enlightned and then led into conformable practice Paul prays for men That the Eyes of their understandings might be enlightned And our Saviour when he preached called for an eye and an ear to hear and discern his Doctrine 'T is no matter for either where force is the Medium This deserves to be very well weighed that the Apostles never urged the Truths of the Gospel in their infallible Ministry of them upon farther or other terms than Perswasion
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
the said Record either openly by dispute or publickly by Writing to be contrary to Christs Doctrine and Example and contrary to the Apostles Doctrine and Example and contrary to the Doctrine and Example of Francis Howgil Richard Hubthorn and divers other Friends Testimonies in Print and not only so but Antichrictian and Romish and thereupon do hereby enter my Protestation against the said Record and every part thereof Witness my Hand the 4th of the 10th Month 1678. Francis Bugg All which desire of their proving their Proceedings Apostolical and debating the Matter both by me and others they denyed and utterly refused But I marvail the less since I now understand by the Preface to the Book of W. R. In Five Parts Entituled The Christian-Quaker Distinguished c. That it is the Advice of such an Eminent Man of Party with G. F. that we should not be reasoned with a notable way but methinks very Singular yea so Singular that there is no Profession of People that I know of now extant in England that will refuse to be reasoned with except only the Papists and they are so infallibly sure that upon that Foot they do not doubt nor scruple their Faith and Belief for they Believe as the Church Believes and G. W. says in his Apost Incendi c. p. 16. That the true Church is in the true Faith that is in God and we must either Believe thus as the True Church Believes or else it were but folly and Hypocrisy to profess our selves to be of the True Church Indeed the first part of George his Assertion is true for the Church of God which is made up of faithful Members amongst Episcopalians Presbyterians Independents and Baptists or under any other Denomination whatsoever in any County City Language or People that fear God and work Righteousness these all have their Faith in God but that those with respect to Degrees Growths or Measures do differ and are of different Perswasions in many Points and thereupon ought to bear and forbear Judging one another is manifest as also from the Practise of the Primitive Christians as W. R. and T.C. have fully manifested which not only thwarts G. W's Answer to the four Positions mentioned in the 15th and 16th pages of the said Book But the whole Rubrick Laws and Cannons Ecclesiastical of G. F. and other Innovators who are so infallibly sure of the way and that all that differ from them are in the wrong that as I said they have no will to reason things to debate things but too much like the Papists would have things taken upon trust Implicitely Believe as the Church Believes Practice as the Church Practices and in all Points yield obedience to her Decrees without any Examination Scruple or Doubt Or else why should that Abetter of the Cause of G. F. advise as followeth Viz. Let not this Spirit be reasoned with Enter not into Proposals and Articles with it but feed it with Judgment that is Gods Decree Mark the Nature and Tendency of this Advice for should the Apostles have thus Preached to the Boreans What Liberty had been left for their Search and their further Examination nay Christ himself reasoned in the Synagogue of the Jews and the Apostles did the like nay when any Difference arose amongst themselves a free Debate was admitted which amongst us hath been both by Advice and Practice stiffly denyed as I shall yet more manifest Six Queries propounded by F. B. the 12th Month 1678. Some Qveries propounded to such amongst us as endeavour to impose a Uniformity and Conformity to such Rights and Ceremonies as have ho Foundation in Scripture and to such a Church Discipline as neither the Prophets Christ Jesus nor his Holy Apostles Primitive Christians Saints or Martyrs in any Age or Generation either Commanded or Practised and do expect your Answer according to Scripture for the Scripture testifies of Christ and of his Example and the Apostles who wrote Scripture had the Mind of Christ and his Mind is not variable so let your Answer accord with Scripture And whereas you pretend you are for Holy Orders and good Government in the Church maintain the same by Scripture Proof otherwise we shall look upon your Pretentions altogether vain and your plea no better than that which is commonly used by the Persecuting Papists and degenerated Protestants who when we bid them prove the Use of their Ceremonies and other Observations by plain Scripture they say They need not for the Apostle said Let things be done decently and in order And the Church seeing a Decency in the Vse of these Things She hath a Power committed to Her to impose them on Her Members and by Vertue of Her Authority She commands the strict Observation of them under pain of Her Displeasure and if any will not yield obedience to Her Decretal Orders when once approved on by a General-Council or Synodical-Assembly or question her Authority She hath a Power to Excommunicate and cut off such as Heriticks or Gain-sayers or Men of Opposite Spirits c. Thus says ROME and thus say the Episcopalians thus say all Imposers who have no Authority from Christ Jesus for their un-scriptural Traditions that it begins to be so with us is plain manifest and for a particular Instance view the Case of J. A. who was both judged and Condemned and Recorded out of the Unity at a Quarterly-Meeting or General Council held at Hadenham in the Isle of Ely the 4th of the 7th Month 1678. And in as much as you seem to make G. F. the Author of your Errours it stands him upon finally to reject and to bear a publick Testimony against your New Strange and Dangerous Innovations and Babylonish Inventions and to shew that he hath no Hand in the Introducing and promoting the same WHEREFORE answer these things following that so your Minds Intents and Purposes may be fully and clearly manifest and upon what Bottom you stand and who gave you your Power and whence you derive your Authority and in whose Name you compel a Conformity to your New Invenetd Orders and Rules under Pain of Condemnation QUERY I. Whether Christ Jesus the true God and Eternal Life in whom the Fulness of the Godhead dwelt Bodily be the Head of the True Church OR Whether George Fox who is but a Man unto whom the Spirit is given but by Measure be Head thereof Answer QUERY II. If you say that Christ is the Head thereof as I hope you will not dare to say otherwise then I further Query Whether Christ be not Lawgiver to his Church Answer QUERY III. If you say That Christ is and of right ought to be both Head and Lawgiver to his Church as I presume you will not say otherwise Then I further Query Whether we who profess our selves to be Disciples Followers of Christ ought not to follow and obey the Example Practice Precepts Commands Prescriptions and Exhortations of Christ Jesus our Lord and Master
who is both Head and Lawgiver to his Church which are frequently laid down in Scripture by the four Evangelists and other his Prophets and Apostles Rather than the Practice Precepts Commands Prescriptions and Exhortations of G. F. or any other Mortal Man QUERY IV. If you say That the Commands Precepts Prescriptions and Exhortations of Christ Jesus ought Rather and in the first place to be obeyed as I hope you will not dare to say otherwise Then I further Query Whether Christ or any of his Apostles commanded that a Womens-Meeting should be set up Monthly distinct and apart from the Men and a Power committed to them to hear examine and determine Matters relating to the Government of the Church as now practised by many of us and that if any did not subject themselves to the Skill Prudence and Approbation of such Women-Governours and Government of the Church that they should be Judged and Condemned and Recorded out of the Vnity OR hath Christ or any of his Apostles left a Precise or particular Command that when any are intended to joyn in Marriage that first and before the Accomplishment thereof they the said Couple should always twice go to a Mans-Meeting and Womens-Meeting they being distinct and apart from each other for so they must be or else not according to G. F. his Orders and then all is in vain to publish their Intention of Marriage and when so done to stay a compleat Month and then go again to the said Meeting Viz. first to the Womens-Meeting for they have the Preheminence in our New Church Procedure and then to the Mens-Meeting they being distinct as I observed before which is a MAIN PRINCIPLE in this New Frame of Church-Government to ask and receive their Approbation and Licence to Marry and this to be done under pain of the Church's Censure which peradventure may be to Record them out of the Vnity If there be such a particular or general Command pray shew it us Or Whether did not Christ leave his People to their Liberty and Freedom How and in what manner they perform and compleat the Outward Ceremony provided they come together Chast and Clean as becomes the Gospel and the Professors of it QUERY V. If you say That Christ nor his Apostles left neither Command Example nor President for Womens-Meetings a part from the Men to be set up Monthly any way to intermeddle with the Government of the Church as that you must confess how angry soever you may be at the Discovery of these hidden Mysteries then I do further query of you the said Imposers Where had you your Power And from whence had you your Authority to Institute and ordain such a Way of Government in the Church by Women or otherwise containing such Rites and Ceremonies as have no President in Scripture And in whose Name do you compel to a Vniformity and Conformity thereunto And whether is not Christs Doctrine and Commands laid down in Scripture of more Authority than the Commands Institutions and Prescriptions of G. F Which if you grant they be as I know in words you dare not deny whatever you think Then I still further Query of you Directory-Makers What is the Reason and what doth it mean That neither Mathew Mark Luke nor John nor any one Chapter of any of those Books are Recorded in our Great Book of Records first and before the Epistle of G. F. as that which is more Powerful more Binding and of much more Authority Answer these Things QUERY VI. Whether were not the Bereans commended in that they searched the Scriptures to see whether Pauls Testimony accorded therewith yea and accounted more Noble than they of Thessalonica who were not so Inquisitive And is it not more commendable to search the Scriptures to see whether the Institutions Orders Cannons Degrees Traditions and Ceremonies of G. F. and other Innovators of Party with him Together with the Compelling a Vniformity and Conformity thereunto which hath occasioned so much Division Discord Strife and Contention since their Arrival be according to Scripture yea or Nay Seeing it is written Try all Things And if upon a diligent Search they be found directly contrary to Scripture and the Practice Doctrine and Example of Christ Jesus and his Holy Apostles Saints and Martyrs in all Ages Then I further Query Whether they ought not to be opposed withstood and testified against by all those that have a certain Sight thereof Alledging constantly according to Scripture That every one should be fully perswaded in his own Mind and if any be otherwise or contrary Minded they ought to be let alone until it pleases God to reveal and make manifest his Will unto them For what is not of Faith is Sin as saith the Apostle So answer these Things touching the Point of Church-Government for your Practice brings you into Suspition and you must come to Tryal as others have done before you F. B. The Twelfth Month 1678. To these Queries there were some Testimonies of Friends added which for Brevity sake I here omit likewise the Letter wherein I inclosed them to S. Cater I also at present omit for some Reasons And to this day I never had any Answer to the said Queries whereby I perceive what Effect the Advice given by a Publick Preacher of Party with G. F. hath taken Viz. Let not this Spirit be reasoned with enter not into Proposals and Articles with it but feed it with Judgment that is Gods DECREE Which Advice when compared with this kind of Doctrine frequently published as W. R. avers in his Preface to the Christian-Quaker Distinguished c. Viz. Let us exclude the Reasoning the VVisdom and the Jealousie and let us have an Eye to the Brethren I say when I compare them and many other like Exhortations it is the less marvel that they should refuse any Answer especially considering that if they should answer there is no way to evade being discovered and Errour loves Obscurity for its Habitation is Darkness and Ignorance is the Mother of its Devotion and Conformity the Monstrous Womb that produc't it and when attended with the Secular Power supports all its deformed Parts with great Admiration crying Who is able to make War with the Beast c. I shall add one Query which J. A. put forth to which I never heard that he had any Answer and by that the Reader may understand his Sense about the Proceedings of our Quarterly-Meeting against him and then I purpose to conclude this Chapter c. A Question propounded to S. Cater and others of the Isle of Ely and elsewhere who force a Conformity to Church-Discipline and say Without Conformity no Unity The Question is What is Conformity A very short Question and easily answered it may be S. C. and others may say It is to the Spirit but not mean so but intend the Wills and Edicts of Men as in Example the late Proceedings against J. A. concerning taking his Wife who in every particular
bid you observe any particular Thing or Duty that Christ Commanded do it with a Reverend Regard but if they begin once to extol their Written Traditions above the Holy-Scriptures you will have good and warrantable ground to testifie against their Innovations and if for this they call you Hereticks or Schismaticks answer them in the words of St. Augustine Errare possum Hereticus esse non possum In an Errour I may be but an Heretick I cannot be for there are three things necessary for just Proof of Heresie First That it be an Errour that I hold Secondly That it be an Errour against the Truth of Gods Word for otherwise every Errour maketh not a Man a Heretick And Thirdly That it be stoutly and wilfully maintained otherwise an Errour against Gods Truth without wilful Maintenance is not Heresy There is the Sixth Branch of the Grant and Confirmation mentioned in the Second Chapter about Sufferings which as Stated is not warrantable which for brevity sake I pass by until an Opportunity offer it self and then I may unriddle the meaning and perhaps discover the Effects thereof Effectually And thus I rest your Friend Milden-hall the 9th of the 1st Month 1682. F. B THE Post-script AS it was the manner of the Pharisees to propound Insnaring Questions to Christ Jesus in the Day of his Flesh tempting him endeavouring to entangle him in his Talk when otherwise they were not able to Confute him Even so hath it been the manner of some amongst us to come to me since I sent the forgoing in Manuscript to the Press Questioning me in order to insnare or intangle me in my Talk instead of proving their Proceedings Apostolical and their Force and Compulsion in their Church Procedure warrantable WHEREFORE my further Advice to the Reader is To frequent the Holy Scriptures and read them diligently as also the Works of R. Hubberthorn F. Howgil other Antient Friends and the foregoing Tract and then see and consider whether there be not Violence done to our first Principles of Union whereby Tyranny instead of Order is introduced For it is a Protestant Principle to read all Authors to search out the Truth of Things in Controversy to endeavour after a right Understanding to prove all things and hold fast that which is good and hereby will Implicit Faith and Blind Obedience be excluded Knowledge increased and true Conviction become the ground of our Conformity and the Bereans Example become our daily Practice But it is a Popish Principle To believe as the Church believes barely because She so believes to take all for granted our Leaders say without any further Examination to read no Books but what are Licenced and approved on by this General Council or that Second-Days Meeting to Pin my Faith on their Sleeves to see with their Eyes instead of my own Oh this Implicit Faith this Blind Obedience this Idolizing the Wisdom and Conduct of the Multitude and refusing the use of our own Reason Sense and Understanding is no less than the Product of a Popish Principle and ought to be avoided Object But some may object and say That although things be thus which being upon Record cannot without great Impudence be denyed yet to publish them we think very hard measure c. Answ If no private meanes had been used then indeed this Objection had been of some weight but in regard so many private Endeavours have been used for four Years together and all avail nothing it is but just and equal as for Example Let any of the Hearers be found guilty of Misdemeanors although no other Crimes than the Leaders and Teachers themselves are guilty of it is usual to go to such and admonish them if they persist in the Evil then admonish them again and if after all private Meanes they will not be reclaimed then it hath been usual to give out Papers of Condemnation against them that the World may see we do not own them in their evil Practices c. Even so it is but just and reasonable that if our Leaders and Church-Governours as they count themselves who pretend to see for the Body shall Erect such a way of Church-Government and Discipline as neither Christ nor his blessed Apostles never commanded nor Practised and bring in and set up other Traditions than the Apostles delivered and then compel according to that little Power they have a Uniformity and Conformity to them then it is but just to call these Leaders to account and admonish them again and again and shew them their Errour and the Mischief of their Impositions and if after all private Endeavours for three or four Year together these Church-Governours will not be reclaimed nor in any wise perswaded to make void such Edicts such vain Traditions and useless Ceremonies nor yet be content that as many as have freedom to use them may and that others that are otherwise minded may be let alone and left to their Christian-Liberty whether to Conform or not Conform then it is but just to bear a Publick Testimony against them their Impositions their Prescribed Rules and Cannons their Written Orders their Antichristian way of Church-Procedure that the World may know we do not own them and that G.F. G. W. and those of Party with them have been call'd to account have been admonished again and again Is fully manifest by what is set forth in this Treatise together with what is written by W.R. in his Book Entituled The Christian-Quaker Distinguished In Five Parts c. Milden-Hall the 22. of the 3d. Mon. 1682. F. Bugg The Labouring-Mans Caveat Concerning Womens-Meetings TAKE heed beware of Novelty And of Female Authority That they into the Church ben't brought And thereby such Divisions wrought Through Craft of the Old Enemy Who is profound in Subtilty As may cause Bitterness to Spring Which is a very hurtful Thing And more thereby's defil'd within Than Women can wash clean again But rather take the Good Old Way As God Commanded Paul doth say That Women in subjection be And not usurp Authority Nor in the Church permitted speak Whereby they should good Order break Except to Pray or Prophesy By Power given from on High Otherwise they 'l Confusion make And cause the Hearts of Friends to ake But rather all with one Accord Let Male and Female Serve the Lord That as Partakers of one Grace They meet together in one Place And not distinct as George doth say At the Tenth Hour of the Day Nor yet devided one from th' other Lest that Division breeds another But as the Children of one Father Brethren and Sisters both may gather Together in one Place to see What may to others needful be And helping their necessity May serve each other in Unity And Mens Invented Novelties With Womanish Formalities What ' ere defiles may out be swept And all Things sweet and clean be kept Who first convinc't us by his Light To lead us on may have his Right And following Him as Children Dear