men altogether unletter'd men called from mending nets to preach the Gospell If this were so That God according to his good pleasure without any consideration of study or height of parts chose simple unlearned unstudied men to be Prophets and Apostles and Teachers then why should any thinke he hath so confined or entailed his free Spirit or vocation of men upon great parts and studies that he may not if he please call the like unstudied simple men from the Plough or Fisher-boat or Stall or Shop-board to be Ministers of his Gospel and Teachers of his people now My Brethren you see I have not prevaricated or diminished ought of the strength of the Argument which is urged in favour of Lay-mens preaching In answer to which laying aside all partiality to my selfe and prejudice against them I shall with the same spirit of meekness and Candour with which Saint Paul here in this Text bespoke his Corinthians beseech you who heare me this day to observe and weigh and consider well this which I shall say for a Reply First Far far be it from me so to flatter the place of my Education or so to biass my beleef by any false ovevarluing of humane Industry or great parts that I should pinion as it were or put limits to the power of the Almighty Or should be so irreligiously bold as to gain-say that piece of his Gospell which compares his holy Spirit to the Wind which bloweth where it listeth If they who thus pretend to a private Inspiration doe meane that whatever God did in the times heretofore he is able to doe now I shall easily grant it And here in the presence of you all confesse my selfe to be of their opinion Nor shall I make any doubt or scruple at all to say that if we looke upon what God is able to doe by the same power by which he was able to raise up Children to Abraham out of stones or to speake yet more neerly to the Argument in hand by the same power that hee was able to make a Herd-man a Prophet or a Fisher-man an Apostle he is able in our times also if he please to make the meanest Tradesman one of the greatest Luminaries of his Church Since to an Omnipotent Agent whose gifts are meerly Arbitrary and depend wholly upon the pleasure of his owne will the greatest endowments of men and the least are alike easie But though he be able to doe this and in the ancient times of the Scripture have imparted his Gifts without respect of Persons yet whether he now will or whether in our times hee doth still thus extraordinarily raise up Teachers to himselfe is extreamly to be doubted For here with all the Christian gentleness and reason which may possibly conduce to the clearing of this doubt were I to argue this Controversie with one of those men who invade our function and from gathering of Sycamore fruit step up into the Pulpit I would onely aske him this question What Commission he hath thus to usurp upon our Office Or who signed him his patent Since the Apostle tells us in the fifth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrewes at the fourth Verse A place well worth your marking my Brethren That no man taketh this honour of a Priest to himselfe But he who is called of God as was Aaron I know his common answer will bee that God hath called him to this Office by the secret Instinct and Motion of his Holy Spirit But then he must not take it ill if I yet farther aske him by what signes or markes or testimonies or tokens he can either maâ—… it reasonably appeare to himselfe or others that God hath dealt with him as he dealt with some of the Prophets or Apostles called him from his Trade by such a motion of his Spirit Elisha we know made Iron swim and knew mens Closet-discourses in a farre Countrey which was a sure and certaine signe that God had called him to be a Prophet The Apostles also we know wrought many of Christs miracles which was a most infallible signe that God had chosen them to be Apostles If any of these men who derive their warrant from the same sacred spring can make Iron swim or like Elisha remaining here in their owne Israel can tell us what the King of Syria saies in his Bed-chamber Or if like Saint Peter they can cure fevers and diseases by their bare shadowes passing over them Or if like the rest of the Apostles having never before knowne Letters they can of a sudden speake all Languages the Controversie is at an end It would bee a very great sinne against the Spirit of God to deny that hee is in them of a Truth But if all the proofe and signe they can give us that they have him be onely a strong perswasion of themselves Nay if by an infallible Illumination they could assure themselves that they have him yet as many as have not the like infallible Illumination to assure them so too will not be guilty of an unpardonable offence if they suspect they have him not For here I must once more repeat my former Question and aske by what effects or signes of the Spirit men shall know them to be called By what will some man say why Doe you not heare them preach expound Scripture unfold Prophecies interpret Parables nay plucke the veile and cloud from the Booke of Mysteries it selfe the very Revelation Can any of you great Schollers with all your study of Philosophers Fathers Councells Schoole-men Historians Oratours Poets either hold your Congregations longer or send them away more edified And will you yet ask Questions Or doubt of the certainty of their vocation I must not dissemble with you if I could meet with an unlearned Handicraft-man who without study can doe this to the same height and measure of Truth as those unjustly-cryed downe learned and well-studied men doe I should begin to alter my opinion And should reckon him as hee deserves in the number of the inspired But alas my Brethren as I am not come hither to disparage the guifts of the Holy Ghost in what person soever I finde them or to perswade that Scripture rightly expounded is not one and the same from the mouth of a Priest or an inspired Lay-man so this I must freely say to you That as many of those strange Teachers as I have heard have expounded Scripture indeed and have ventured upon some of the hardest places of the Prophets But then if all my studies of the Bible assisted with all those holy uncorrupted learned helps which might enable mee to understand it aright have not deceived me their expositions and Sermons how passionately delivered or how long soever are evident proofes to mee that they have not the Spirit If they had they would never certainely expound Scripture so directly contrary to his meaning Or make the writings of the Prophets or Apostles weare only that present shape not which the holy Ghost hath
Chapter of his first Epistle at the first verse where as if he had prophecyed of our times he sayes Beloved beleeve not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the world In which words you have two of the best Rules assigned you to go by that can possibly be prescribed for the settlement of minds First be not too credulous Doe not presently beleeve every man that sayes he hath the Spirit nor suffer your selves to be tost and carried about with every wind of doctrine For that is not the way to be all of one but of as many severall minds as the art or cunning of severall Teachers shall please to work upon you I am perswaded this easinesse of belief this credulity or as the Apostle calls it this admiration this overvaluing of some mens persons hath been one of the great parents of our present dissentions whilst some weak but yet well-minded people building their judgment meerly upon the outward appearances of men have mistaken the zeal and strict life of their Preacher for his sufficiency And taking their Logicke from the precisenesse of his behaviour have framed these charitable but false conclusions to themselves He is a man of a composed countenance of a reserved speech of a grave carriage and of a devout elocution therefore surely he is a holy man And because he is a holy man therefore whatever hee saies shall be to us Oracle as coming from the mouth of one so much in the favour of God that it is impossible he should deceive us or speak that which is not right My Brethren I have no designe or purpose to bring Holinesse into contempt nor can I bee so injurious to piety or a good life where ever I find it as to expose it to the scorne of the licentious by not giving it its due I am so farre also from lending encouragement to the lives of vitious Teachers Teachers who are the shame of their Mother and the scandall of their Flock that I could wish that every Congregation in England were furnished with such an exemplary Minister that his life as well as preaching might be Sermon to the people Nay give me leave I beseech you to extend my charity yet one degree farther I am so farre from disliking holinesse either in Preacher or people that I wish we all made but one united Kingdome of Priests Or if you will have me expresse my selfe in the words of one of the holiest and meekest men of the earth I could wish that all the Lords People were Prophets But then you must give me leave to say too That holinesse and strictnesse and austerity of life are no infallible signes that the Preacher may not erre Nor hath God so annext the understanding of his Word to the unstudied unlearned piety or sober carriage of the Expounder that he that is most zealous shall still bee most in the right As long as that saying of S. Paul remaines upon record That we hold this treasure this knowledge of Gods Will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in earthen vessells As long as the Preacher how holy soever he be is so much one of the people as to dwell in a fraile weake Tabernacle of clay Lastly as long as men are men they will bee liable to mens infirmities And as the learned scandalous Preacher may be sometimes in the right so it is possible that the ignorant zealous holy Preacher may be often in the wrong How to know this and how to distinguish them therefore you are to make use of the next Rule prescribed to you by Saint Iohn that is when you heare an Exposition or a Sermon or a new Doctrine preached to you not rashly without distinction or choice to consent to it till you have past the impartiall sentence of a cleare judgement on it compared and weighed Sermon with Sermon and Preacher with Preacher called every Doctrine every Proofe every confident Assertion to the touch-stone and measured it by some plaine evident place of Scripture and examined whether the Holy Ghost or his owne vaine popular ambition have for that time inspired the speaker or whether his Sermon have had some dissembled secular end or Gods glory for its marke And this Saint Iohn calls â—…ying of the spirits which is then done when as I said before you reduce what you heare spoken by the Preacher to the infallible Rule of Truth the Word of God and make that well considered the scales to weigh his Doctrine in Does hee preach charity and banish strife from his Pulpit Does he not flatter Vice though he find it clothed in Purple nor speak neglectfully of Vertue though he finde it clothed in rags Does he strive to plant the feare and love of God in his Auditory the forgivenesse of their enemies and pity towards the poore Dares he arraigne a publique sinne though never so fortunate or speak in defence of afflicted Innocence though over-borne by oppression Dares he maintaine his Christian courage in Tyrannicall doubtfull times And dares he call prosperous Sedition but a more successefull mischiefe Lastly does he preach such Christian Truths for which some holy men have died and to which he himselfe would not be affraid to fall a sacrifice This this man is to be hearkned to this man is fit to bee obeyed And this man speaking the same things which God himselfe doth in the Scripture whatever his gifts of pleasing or not pleasing sick fastidious delicate fancies be is thus at least to be thought of That though he speake not by the Spirit as a thing entailed upon him yet for that time the Spirit speaks by him which ought to be all one to you On the contrary does the Preachers Sanctity and Religion consist meerly in the devout composure of his looks and carriage Does he strive to preach downe Learning or does he call Study a humane folly Does he choose his Text out of the Bible and make the Sermon out of his Fancy Does he reprove Adultery but preach up discord Is he passionate against Superstition but milde and calme towards Sacriledge Does hee inveigh and raile at Popery and at the same time imitate the worst of Papists Jesuits urge Texts for the Rebellion of Subjects against their Prince and quote Scripture for the deposing and Butchery of Kings Does hee startle at a dumb picture in a Church-window and at the same time preach all good order and right Discipline out of the Church Does an Oath provoke his zeale yet does he count lying in the godly no sin Lastly does hee preach separation upon weake untemper'd grounds Or does labour to divide the minds which hee should strive to reconcile Let him bring what demurenesse or composure of countenance he please into the Pulpit Let him if he please joyne sanctity of deportment to earnestnesse of zeale Let him never so devoutly bewaile the calamities of his Country which
he hath helpt to make miserable Or let him weepe never so passionately over the Congregation which he hath broken into factions In short how seemingly holy how precise how unprophane soever his behaviour bee though the Scripture doe so continually over-flow in his mouth that hee will neither eat nor drinke nor speake nor scarce sleep but in that phrase yet as long as he thus forgets his Charity thus Preaches strife thus Division I shall so farre mistrust whether he have the Spirit that I shall not doubt to reckon him in the number of those false Prophets which S. Iohn sayes are gone out into the world The Conclusion then of this Sermon shall be this Men and brethren I have with all the sincerity and plainnesse which might benefit your soules preacht Truth and Concord and mutuall Charity to you I have also for some yeeres not been so sleepy an Observer but that I have perceived some of you who have thought your selves more Religious then the rest to be guilty of the I might say Crime but I will rather say of the mis-guided Zeale of these Corinthians here in my Text. There have been certaine Divisions and I know not what separations among you I have farther observed that certaine false causlesse prejudices and aspersions have been raised upon our University which to the grief of this famous Nursery of Gods Church at home and the reproach of it abroad are still kept waking against us by some of you as if Conscience and Religion as well as Learning and Gifts had so far forsaken us that all the Schools of the Prophets cannot afford you a set of able vertuous men fit to be the Lecturers to this soule-famisht Parish How we should deserve to be thus mistaken by you or why you should under-value those able Teachers which you have already or refuse to take your supply from so many Colledges which here stand present and ready to afford you choyce or why you should supplicate to the great Councell of this Kingdome in pitty to your soules to send you Godly Teachers which perhaps is but a well-meaning Petition from you but certainly 't is agreat scandall and Libell against us I know not But whatever the mysterious cause be I am confident that unlesse they will sleep over their infamy and reproach it will alwayes be in the power of our despised University-Divines to make it appeare even to those whom you intend to petition That this is but a zealous errour in you And that they are as able to edifie you certainly as he whose occupation it was to repaire the old shooes of the Prophets I should shame some of you too much who were the Disciples of that Apostle if I should discribe him to you by a larger character Instead therefore of a farther vindication of the reproach throwne upon us that which I shall say of more neere concernment to you is this If I have in the progresse of this Sermon ript open any wounds among you it hath not been with a purpose to enlarge or make them bleed but to powre wine and Oyle into them and to heale and close them up Next If I have cleared any of your sights or inabled you at length to discerne that the reason why the mote in your brothers eye seemed so big was because an over-scrupulous zeale had placed a beame in your owne and that in contributing to the ruine of one of the purest Religions in the world the reason why you have swallowed so many monstrous Camels hath been because at first you made scruple and strained at gnats I have what I intended Which was to let you see that to divide and separate your selves from the communion of our Church if it had been guilty of a mole or two is as unreasonable as if you should quarrell the Moon out of her Orb or think her unworthy of the skies because she wears a spot or two writ on a glorious ball of light Lastly if I have said any thing in the reproof of discord or the praise of charity which may re-unite your minds and make you all men of the same heart and beliefe as well as of the same Citie and Corporation I shall thinke I have done the work and businesse of a just Divider of the Word of God towards you and of a faithfull Servant and Steward towards my heavenly Master Whose blessing of peace be upon you all together with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost To which glorious Trinity be ascribed all Honor Praise Dominion and Power for ever AMEN FINIS A SERMON AGAINST FALSE PROPHETS PREACHED In St. MARIES CHVRCH In OXFORD shortly after the Surrender of that Garrison By IASPER MAINE D. D. and one of the Students of Christ-Church OXON IER 23. 16. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts Hearken not unto the words of the Prophets that prophesie unto you They make you vaine they speak a vision of their owne heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. Printed in the Yeare M D C XLVII A SERMON AGAINST FALSE PROPHETS EZEK 22. 28. Her Prophets have daubed them with untempered Morter seeing vanity and divining lyes unto them saying Thus saith the Lord God when the Lord hath not spoken THE PREFACE THat which the best Orator said of Oratorie put to the worst use Nihil est tam horridum tam incultum quod non splendesent oratione That there is nothing so deformed or rude which may not be made amiable by Speech hath alwayes been verified of Religion too No one thing hath in all Ages been more abused to paint and disguise foule actions It hath been made the Art to cozen people with their owne Devotions and to make them in the meane time think sacredly of their seducers Conspiracies and Insurrections drest in these colours have been called holy Associations and Leagues And the Ambitious to worke the more securely on the credulity of the simple have not onely presented evill to them growing on the Tree of Good but have proceeded thus much farther in the fallacy that they have still made forbidden fruits seem pleasant to the eye And the false colours under which they have seemed pleasant have alwayes been taken from Religion Thus in these Heathen States where they first made their owne gods and then worshipt them never plot was hatcht to disturbe the Common-wealth but the writings of some Sybill or other were entitled to that plot And never any designe was laid to destroy the Roman Empire but some Augur or Priest was taken in whose part 't was to make the Entrailes and Liver of his sacrifice give credit to the ambition of the designe And thus among the Iewes some ambitious men the better to gild over their proceedings still entitled God to them Who as if he had been one of those Tutelar changeable Deities which used to be enticed and called over from one side to another they still entertained the people that they who
obtaine pardon for them I doe professe that I cannot thinke the Sun in all his heavenly course for so many yeares beheld a Church more blest with purity of Religion for the Doctrines of it or better establisht for the Government and Discipline of it then ours was And therefore if I were presently to enter into dispute with the greatest Patriarch among these Prophets who even against the Testimony of sense it selfe will yet perversely strive to prove that our Church stood in such need of Reformation that the growing Superstitions of it could not possibly be expiated but by so much Civill Warre I should not doubt with modesty enough to prove back again to him that all such weak irrationall Arguments as have onely his zeale for their Logick are not onely composed of untempered Morter But that in seeing those spots and blemishes in our Church which no good Protestants else could ever see 't will be no unreasonable inference to conclude him in the number of those erroneous Prophets here in the Text. Who to the great Scandall and abuse of their Office and Function did not onely palliate and gild over the publique sins of their times but did it like Prophets and saw Vanity too Which is the next part of the Text And is next to succeed in your attentions If the Philâ—…sophers rule be true that things admit of definitions according to their essences and that the nearer they approach to nothing the nearer they dâ—…aw to no Description to goe about to give you an exact definition of a thing impossible to be defined or to endeavour to describe a thing to you which hath been so much disputed whether it be a thing were to be like those Prophets here in the Text first to see Vanity my selfe and then to perswade you that there is a Reality and Substance in it Yet to let you see by the best lights I can what is here meant by Vanity I will joyne an inspired to a Heathen Philosopher Solomon whose whole Book of Ecclesiastes is but a Tract of Vanity as we may gather from the instances there set downe places vanity in mutability and change And because all things of this lower world consist in vicissitude change so farre that as Seneca said of Rivers Bis in idem flumen non descendimus we cannot step twice into the same stream so we may say of most Sublunarie things whose very beings do so resemble streams ut vix idem bis conspiciamus that we can scarce behold some things twice that wisest among the sonnes of men whose Philosophy was as spacious as there were things in nature to bee knowne calls all things under the Sunne vanity because all things under the Sunne are so lyable to inconstancy and change that they fleet away and vanish whilst they are considered and hasten to their decay whilst we are in the Contemplation of them Aristotle desines vanity to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every thing which hath not some reasonable end or purpose belonging to it For this reason he calls emptinesse and vacuity vanity Because there is so little use of it in nature that to expell it things have an inclination placed in them to performe actions against their kinde Earth to shut out a vacuity is taught to flie up like fire and fire to destroy emptinesse is taught to fall downe like earth And for this reason another Philosopher hath said that colours had there not been made eyes to see them and sounds had there not beene eares made to heare them had been vanities and to no purpose And what they said of sounds and colours we may say of all things else not onely all things under the Sun but the Sun it selfe who is the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eye of the world without another eye to behold him or to know him to be so had been one of Aristotles vanities As then in Nature those things have deserved the name of vanities which either have no reasonable end or purpose belonging to them or else are altogether subject to Mutability and change so 't is in policy and Religion too To doe things by weake unreasonable inconstant principles principles altogether unable to support and upold the weight and structure of publique businesse built upon them or to doe things with no true substantiall solid usefull but a meere imaginary good end belonging to them As for example to alter the whole frame and Government of a State not that things may be mended but that they may run in another course then they did before or to change the universally received Government of a Church meerely for change sake and that things may be new not that they may bee better is a vanity of which I know not whether these Prophets here in the Text were guilty but when I consider the unreasonable changes already procured and the yet farther endlesse changes as unreasonably still pursued by the Prophets of our times I finde so much vacuity and emptinesse in their desires so much interested zeale and so little dis-interested reason so much novelty mistaken for reformation and withall so much confusion preferred before so much decency and order that I cannot but apply the Wise mans Ingemination to them and call their proceedings Vanity of vanities For if we may call weak groundlesse improbable surmises and conjectures vanities have not these Prophets dealt with the mindes of vuâ—…gar people as Melancholy men use to deale with the clouds raised monstrous formes and shapes to fright them where no feare was Have they not presented strange visions to them Idolatrie in a Church window Superstition in a white Surplice Masse in our Common-prayer Booke and Antichrist in our Bishops Have they not also to make things seem hideous in the State cast them into strange fantasticall Chymera figures And have they not like the fabulous walking Spirits wee read of created imaginary Apparitions to the people from such things flight unsolid melting Bodies as Ayre And for all this if you enquire upon what true stable principle or ground either taken from reason which is now preacht to be a saecular prophane heathen thing or from Scripture which is now made to submit to the more unerring rule of fancy they have proceeded or what hath been the true cause of their so vaine imaginations you will finde that contrary to all the rules of right judgement either common to men or Christians they have been guided meerely by that Causa per accidens that fallible erroneous accidentall cause which hath alwayes been the mother of mistakes Socrate ambulante coruscavit Because it lightned when Socrates took the Ayre one in the company thought that his walking was the occasion of the flash this certainly was a very vaine and foolish inference yet not more vaine and foolish then theirs who have â—…right people to conclude that all pictures in Church-windowes are â—…dols because some out of a misguided devotion have worshipt â—…hem or that
Sir the Gospell at that very time when the 〈◊〉 of it was accompanied with Miracles obtained not alwaies that successe which the saving Doctrine of it deserved The Iewes saies S. Paul 1. Cor. 1. 22. Require a signe that is they would believe it no farther then they saw Miracle for it And the Greekes That is the learned Gentiles seek after wisdome that is They would believe no more of it then could be proved to them by Demonstration Nay notwithstanding all those great Miracles which were wrought by Christ and his Apostles after him S. Paul tels us at the 23. verse of that Chapter that the vilenesse of Christs death did so diminish the Authority of his Doctrine though confirmed by Miracles that the Preaching of Him crucified was a stumbling block to the Iewes and Foolishnesse to the Greekes Next Sir As Christ hath no where commanded that men should be compelled to receive the Gospell by any Terrors or Inflâ—…ctions of Temporall punishments so I finde that all such endeavours are very unsutable to his practise You know what his answer was to his two zealous Disciples who would have called for fire from heaven to consume those Samaritans who would not receive him ye know not saith he of what spirit ye are of The sonne of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Which Answer of hiâ—… was like the Commission which he gave to his Apostles when he sent them forth to Preach the Gospell of verall Citties which extended no farther then thâ—…s If they will not receive you shake off the dust of your feet against them for a Testimony that you have been there Agâ—…eable to this pâ—…actise of Christ is â—…hat Canon whicâ—… pâ—…st in the Councell of Toledo which sâ—…ies praecipit sanâ—…ta Synodus Neminâ—… deinceps ad credendum vim inferre 'T is ordered by this holy Synod that no man be henceforth compâ—…lled to believe the Gospell A Canon which I wish the mâ—… of the Countrey where 't was made had worne in their Ensignes when they made Wâ—…e upon the Indians And agreeable to this Canon is the saying of Tertullian Lex nova non se vindicat ultore gladio The new Law allowes not it's Apostles to revenge the contempt of it by the Sword And agreeable to this saying of Tertullian is thâ—… 〈◊〉 in Procopius where one tellâ—… Iustinian the Emperâ—…or that in striving to force the Samaritans to be 〈◊〉 by the Sword he made himselfe successor to the two over zealous Apostles who because they would not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Master would have destroy'd them by fire Thâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…ing â—…o to deale freely Sir both with you and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I read the writings of some of our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wâ—…o think all others Infidells who are not of thâ—… 〈◊〉 And whose usuall language 't is towards all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from them in Poynts though in themâ—… indâ—…fferent and no way necessary to Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make Covenants raise Armies stâ—…p them 〈◊〉 â—…ir Estates and compell them to come in 〈◊〉 thinks a 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Alcoran is before meâ—… anâ—… the Preachers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…christian Doctrines 〈◊〉 they walke our English streets in the shape of Assembly Protestant Divines seem to me to be a Constantinople Colledge of Mahomets Priests To speak yet mâ—…re plâ—…ly tâ—… yâ—…u Sir I am so farâ—…e from thinking it a peece of Christian Doctrine to Preach that ' tiâ—… lawfull if it may not be done by perswasion to take from men the Liberty even of their erring Conscience that the new Army which shall be raised which I hope never to see for the prosecution and advancement of such an End however they may be Scots or English-men by their Birth will seem to me an Army of 〈◊〉 and to come into the field with Scymitars by their sides and Tulipants and Turbants on their Heads How farre Defensive Armes may be taken up for Religion cannot well be resolved without a Distinction I conceive Sir that if such a warre fall out between Two Independent Nations That which makes the Assâ—…ylants to be in the wrong will necessarily make the Defendants to be in the Right which is as I have proved to you a want of rightfull power to plant Religion by the Sword For in all such Resistances not only They who fight to preserve a true but They who fight because they would not be compelled to part with a false Religion which they beleeve to be a true are innocentâ—…like â—…like The Reason is which I have intimated to you before because All Religion being built up on Faith and Faith being only Opinion built upon Autority and Opinion built upon Autority having so much of the Liberty 〈◊〉 mens wills in it that they may chuse how farre they will or will not beleeve that Autority No man hath Rightâ—…o â—…o take the Liberty of another mans will from him or to prescribe to him what he shall or shall no beleeve though in all outward things hit other have sold his Liberty to him and made his Will his Subject where both parties therefore are Independent and One no way Subiect to the Other Religion it selfe though for the propagation of it selfe cannot warrant the One to invade the Others Freedome But 't is permiâ—…ted to the Invaded by both the Lawes of God that of Nature and Scripture too unlesse they be guilty of some preceedent Injury which is to be repayred by Satisfaction not seconded by Resistance to repell Force with Force And 〈◊〉 the Army now in Conduct under Sir Thomas Fairefax be of this perswasion thus stated I shall not think it any slander from the Mouth of a Presbiterian who thinks otherwise to be called an Independent If a Prince who is confessedly a Prince and hath Supreme power make Warre upon his Subjects for the propagation of Religion the Nature of the Defence is much alter'd For though such a Warre whether made for the Imposition of a false Religion or a true be as uniust as if 't were made upon a forreigne Nation yet this injustice in the Prince cannot warrant the taking up of Armes against Him in the Subject Because bâ—…ng the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Supreme within his owâ—… Kingdome As 〈◊〉 power concerning the publick secular Governmentâ—…f â—…f 〈◊〉 it selfe iâ—…to Him so doth the ordering of the Outward exercise of Religion too In both Cases he is the Iudge of Controversies Not so unerring or Infallible as that all his Determinations must be received for Oracles or that his Subjects are so obliged to be of his Religion that if the Prince be an Idolater a Mahumetan or Papist 't would be disobedience in them not to be so too But let his Religion be what it will let him be a Ieroboam or one of such an unreasonable Idolatry as to command his people to worship Calves and Burn Incense to Gods scarce fit to be made the Sacrifice Though he be not to be