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
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 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
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
that power Where will he find a Rule in the Gospel to bear with some kind of Heresies and not with others He must not make submitting to a civil Penalty to compensate for an Heresie unless Christ had appointed that as the punishment of it that 's a selling of sin and making a bargain for iniquity for his own advantage and profit That therefore which the Magistrate under the Gospel may not do and without him I am sure the Church cannot do in which negative restraint upon him all Liberty of Conscience is comprehended and the Freedom Christ hath so dearly and fully purchased comprised and which is chiefly intended to be made good by this discourse shall be declared in this following Position which is That no Prince nor State ought by force to compel men to any part of the Doctrine Worship or Discipline of the Gospel The proof of which shall lie in the Reasons following First 'T is a thing against the light of nature so to do and if the Magistrates Power be grounded in the light of nature then to do a thing against that light of nature must needs be very Heterogeneal and wholly out of his compass it must needs be against the common Light and Reason of mankind to force me to be believe a thing wholly out of the compass of my knowledge and capacity and which nature reveals not to me Such are all Gospel Truths they are not like the matters of the moral Law but they are things purely supernatural and of divine Revelation such things as from the beginning of the world eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor never entred into any mans heart to conceive of these things the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man with all the endowments of nature discerneth not because they are spiritually discerned No man can call Jesus the Christ but by the holy Ghost Will you punish a man for not having the holy Ghost that is no way in his power to get but is like the Wind that bloweth where and when it lists 'T is a strange contradiction to our common reason to force men about things wholly unknown to them and out of their own power If Force should be used at any time it should be to bring men from Paganism to Christianity for without that we cannot be saved but when once Christians we may be saved under different apprehensions and yet we may not force a man to be a Christian 1st because 't is unlawful and 2dly because 't is impossible 'T is not lawful because 't is not Christs way of making Christians nor a means by him appointed for that purpose 2dly 'T is impossible because force upon men will never beget or change Principles or Opinions And as we should not force men at the first to the Gospel because till God reveals it we are wholly ignorant of it so we should not force men that are under the Gospel to any thing they believe not for they are as great strangers still to every farther attainment of knowledge in the Gospel till God please to reveal it as they were at first to the whole and therefore the Apostle calls us to patience in these things one with another till God please to reveal himself The light of nature must needs condemn that practice for another to force me about such things wherein my own eternal good or ill is only concerned where it is not to be imagined that I can have any aim but my own Salvation and can hurt none by my belief but my self When I have used rational suitable means to inform another I ought to acquiesce it being not a supposition to be made that a man would willingly design that which he knows will be his own ruin and which will hurt no body but himself He that forceth me to a Religion makes me hate it and makes me think there wants reason and other evidence to evince it Nature abhors compulsion in Religious things as a spiritual rape upon the Conscience No man by the light of nature was ever angry with another for not quitting his Conscience till his judgment was suitably informed because every man finds it an impossibility in himself so to do That which some say That though we may not force men to believe yet men may be forced to the outward means of believing is very little to the purpose for if by outward means they mean a bare outward act distinct from any Religious Worship no doubt Superiors may command it but if they mean any Religious means if the means be such as my Conscience is not satisfied in I ought not to be forced to it if it be such as I am satisfied in force is altogether needless and it belongs not to this Discourse Secondly To use force in Religion is wholly unlawful in any hand whatever because 't is no means appointed by Christ to bring about any Gospel end For the Magistrate to enforce the Laws of the Gospel by temporal power or compel men into the Gospel by such a power is to act without the least Precept or President and to induce an Engine to execute the Gospel contrary to the nature of Christs Kingdom which is not of this world and contrary to the nature of all Gospel institutions The Magistrate as he should be careful to see the Gospel put in execution so in the manner Christ in his wisdom hath appointed for the doing of it which is by his own Institutions and his own invisible power operating and working with them The great Rule of the Gospel is a rule of the Spirit in the hand of Christ as Mediator and 't is a Rule in the hearts and spirits of men and to set up a Rule by any humane power over any part of the Gospel is highly to derogate from that mediatory dominion of Christ nay to use force is not only to act without but against the declared mind of Christ Does not Paul positively deliver this That the Weapons of the Gospel are not carnal but spiritual and mighty through God 'T is not Faggots and Halters but spiritual means by which men are both to be brought in and cast out of the Gospel Church 'T is hearing and not forcing by which Faith is wrought The sword of the Spirit is the weapon by which Christ does all yea by which he will destroy Antichrist the greatest Gospel-enemy the world hath produced Among all the arguments that are brought to prove the Compulsatory Power of the Magistrate under the Gospel the greatest weight is laid upon the Practice of the Kings of Israel and Judah and what they did under the Law in compelling men to the Worship of God then established In the due consideration whereof we shall find the truth in hand no way invalidated and that what was then done by the Kings of Israel and Judah cannot reasonably be made a Rule to Magistrates now under the Gospel and that the Analogy will no way hold may be made
appear both from the different station and posture those Kings were in from all Magistrates now and also from the different condition of the Church then and now and many circumstances peculiarly relating to both First The worship and policy of the Jews being in it self typical and representive of what was to come hereafter their Government was likewise so and in their Kings very eminently that David and Soloman did very plainly in the type represent the Kingly Dominion of Christ none will deny and 't is as plain that the very Throne of David it self upon which the succeeding Kings of Judah sate was likewise so there being that Prophesie long before That the Scepter should not depart from Judah until Shiloh came and therefore the Power David and Solomon and the succeeding Kings of Judah for amongst the Kings of Israel after Solomon we find not one concerned for the true Worship of God who were of the lineage of David exercised had a peculiarity in it that is not applicable to any Magistrate now Secondly God was pleased in those times upon all eminent occasions of reformation in his Worship and proceedings of that nature to send Prophets to declare his positive mind and to put an end to all doubts that could be about such things nay some of the Kings themselves were Prophets immediately inspired and did not only take care of the Worship established by Moses but did themselves by divine Authority bring in things of a new Institution into the Worship of God this David did and Solomon in bringing Musick into the Temple and setling the courses of the Priests and were divinely inspired to write part of the holy Scriptures No Magistrates now can pretend to any such power in themselves nor have they any such extraordinary direction to guide them but are punctualy obliged to whatever Christ hath revealed in the Gospel and therefore in this respect the Analogy no way holds good Thirdly The state of the Jewish Church and Common-wealth was such as wholly differed them from all others since that was a Church and a State in the very constitution of them mixed together none could be brought into one but he was a member of the other nor could a man be cast out of the Church but he was thereby cast out of the State to be out-lawed and excommunicated was there amongst the Jews the same thing Grotius expresseth it well At that time saith he the Wisdom in Divine and Humane Law was not divided and he proves it by this As the Magistrate did intermeddle in Church Affairs so the Priest did intermeddle in Cvil things For saith he the Priest was a Judge and did not only give Judgment in Sacred but in Civil Affairs being the best Interpreter of the whole Law And saith the same Grotius further That the Priest had Magistracy This alone may be proved in Deut. 17.8 That he is to dye who obeys not the Command of the Priest 'T is most clear also That Eli was chief Priest in Israel and chief Judge in Shiloe 'T is not any way to be avoided but that the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power lay then interchangeably mixed and with as equal reason may we bring Magistracy into the Ministerial Power of the Gospel from what the Priests then exercised and their example as to bring such a power in Religion into the Magistrates under the Gospel from the parallel of what those Kings did then Besides the Magistratical power was so absolutely necessary to the Jewish Church-Policy so mixed that it could not be upheld without it the very Municipal Law of the Nation was their Religion He that was chief in the State must needs be Head of the Church They were a Holy People living in a Holy Land appointed to Worship in one Holy City and in one Holy place of that City and to offer upon one Altar in that Holy place The Church of the Gospel is totally of another nature perfectly distinct from the civil State can well subsist without a relation to it and is no way intermixed in its Concerns with it And therefore to say all Magistrates now must do as those did that governed such a mixed complicated Church and State in one carries no proportion at all of reason or equity in it more then if a man should argue from a Par ratio that what Moses did at first amongst the Jews who was King in Jeshuron that Kings may now do amongst Christians under the Gospel Lastly What was then done was by Gods command and was in a way suitable to the frame and state of the Church the Jews were imbodied in and lay chiefly in bringing men from Idolatry to the Worship of the true God for in differences between Sect and Sect amongst themselves there was nothing that we find done at any time they continued till our Saviours time and putting such a kind of Worship in execution as lay in outward carnal Services and was in every minute particular exactly set down and determined First The state of the Gospel-Church now is wholly differing from what that was and is setled upon clear other grounds and principles Secondly Here is no command in the Gospel for the Magistrate to do any thing of that nature Thirdly Let it be granted as truth that in parity of reason because Magistrates were appointed to take care of Religion then they are to do so still it must of necessity be granted also that they must do it by the means appointed by Christ under the Gospel as they did heretofore by those God appointed under the Law It is an Inference very infirm That because the Kings of Israel and Judah compelled men by Gods own appointment to acknowledge the true God and forsake Idolatry therefore Magistrates now may not only without but against Christs commands and the whole tenor of the New Testament compel men to the Spiritual Belief and Worship of the Gospel The truth is the civil Power of the Magistrate is no means of Christs appointing for the carrying on of the Gospel the Gospel in the very nature of it carries an Antipathy in it to all outward force Instead of all the temporal promises and corporal punishments under the Law Christ makes this Declaration He that believes shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned That 's the Language of the Gospel Christ sets Hell and Wrath to come before men and by his Spirit working upon and convincing the Conscience works more admirable effects upon men that way than all the outward punishments in the World could ever bring about The Word of Christ is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged Sword and can divide between the Soul and the Spirit the Joynts and the Marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the Heart We have in the Hebrews a very perfect account of Gods dealing with men under the Law and now under the Gospel and the plain difference in the manner of the one and
such Faction and give it a plausible pretence to justifie it self upon whereas a Liberty granted in matters of Conscience will either wholly win such men to a due and hearty Obedience as finding themselves in a posture they cannot expect to mend or else will lay them open to such apparent justice for punishment and bring them under such a general contempt as shall leave them stript of all pretensions and render them wholly inconsiderable 'T is marvellous prudence to separate between Conscience and Faction which can never be but by a Liberty of the one that so they may distinctly punish the other He that hath liberty granted to worship God according to his Conscience and yet is not satisfied but continues troublesom makes every body ready to be his Executioner and makes that discovery which could never have been made before that Faction was his end and Conscience but the pretended means such men will not only lie open to the States just severity but to the hatred of all men who do generally dislike ill actions most when they come from men of the best pretensions Punish men for their Religion because you judge them Factious and mix all together and you fall into this double Error Either you punish men for Faction that deserve it not and so besides a piece of Injustice do what you can to make those Enemies who are not nor would not be so or else those that are so you give them the pretence of Conscience to justifie themselves in whatever sufferings comes upon them When people differing from the publick Religion meet to worship God and are seized and punished for so doing the Magistrate saith He punisheth for Faction they say They suffer for Religion And all People who see the actual punishment inflicted for things relating to Conscience and Religion will be sure to believe and pitty them and be ready to condemn the State A due Separation as 't is best to be made so 't will only by a Liberty given be obtained He that intends nothing but to give God the Homage of his Conscience will have freedom to do it and he that under that has other ends and aims will be justly punished for it But for a State to imbibe a general belief that all who differ from the State-Religion are factious to the civil Power and not to be suffered and so to punish them as such and if they be not so to tempt them thereby to be so is to do an act of injustice to them and to forfeit their own prudence towards themselves For the Errors you may suppose men possessed withal as an eager Persecution is apt to make the Professors of them think them more than ordinary Truths and themselves some great men in maintaining them so it makes others seek after that when driven into a Corner which were it in the open Streets no man would regard He that preaches and writes under restraint that restraint begets him readers and hearers that would else pass through the World with very little notice taken of him things difficult and hard to come by carry some weight in mens expectancy Foolish and absurd Opinions are only put to Nurse by Persecution and by that made to have something in the concerns and fears of others which has indeed nothing in it self The hiding men by a keen pursuit after them in the profession of such things keeps them alive whereas if they were openly preached written and discoursed of the folly of them would appear such as not only others but the men themselves would be ashamed and a weary of them Besides punishing men for Religion where there are several parties lays a Foundation of endless troubles and perpetual feuds for that ill Opinion and anger which makes one party when prevaling to suppress and punish the rest propagates still the same anger and dislike in the parties punished and begets by such provocation a certain resolution to retort the same again and a readiness to embrace all opportunities to effect it whereas that party that once gives liberty to the rest buries all those Evils and unites all in the common union of their own interest and security 'T will be impossible to find out a way for men of differing Judgments in Religion to live together and enjoy the common advantages which as men they may afford one to another unless they exercise an Indulgence to each other in that variety they stand in as Christians Where there are many differences and a State denyes any Liberty but strictly imposeth the State-Religion upon all the case always falls out to be that the earnest desire of that we call Liberty of Conscience lies glowing in the Embers of mens discontent and is a thing in it self so popular a thing of so great evidence of Reason when it may be discoursed upon equal terms and so much the concern of every man but the present Imposer that 't is very apt to kindle and flame out and upon any strait or emergency of State either by Forreign War or Domestick Division to make such an Earthquake as may endanger the whole 'T is most prudent in a State to give Liberty when there is least power to demand it those may be gained by giving it that may prove dangerous in forcing it To force and pen men up in such things is wholly unnatural and will like Wind penned up in the Earth or the Sea shut up by Banks break out at one time or another with the greater violence Liberty in Religion was never yet denyed in a Protestant State but it had first or last a mischievous effect To instruct men in Protestant Principles and then to put a Yoke of Vniformity upon them hath no more proportion in it than to educate a man at Geneva that is to live at Rome and to breed him a Calvinist whom you intend for a Papist Were there no other reason to make a Prince or a State out of love with punishing men for Religion and matters of that nature this were sufficient to consider such punishment ever falls upon the most honest of his Subjects in every differing party men of loose jugling principles and unsound hearts will be sure to escape the Net only the sincere plain-hearted man that cannot dissemble is caught 't was the device against Daniel heretofore they knew in the matters of his God 't was easie to deal with him because in those he would not upon any terms dissemble This has Three ill Effects always attending it First It disobliges the best sort of men in every party whom the State should most cherish and engage whatever is said to the contrary those that are the truest Subjects to the Great King will be also found the best to his Vice-gerents here 'T is a strange Heterodox kind of policy to make all the honest sincere men in a Nation of every party but that one the State adheres to the object of the States displeasure and to make Laws that can