Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A25451
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Animadversions upon Mijn Heer Fagels letter concerning our penal laws and tests with remarks upon that subject, occasioned by the publishing of that letter.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing A3204; ESTC R37289
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44,038
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32
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do Wherein His Majesty proposes a due regard to be had to the Consciences of His Subjects in reserence to their Religion when they are required to acknowledge that Duty which they owe to their Civil Soveraign And this is so much the rather worthy imitation in Civil Constitutions because it is after the Example of God in reference to Religious Constitutions That no particular Persons may be Condemned of such Crimes as are charged upon the Church in general Terms whereof they are Members if so be they have kept and can purge themselves from the Crimes objected This appears plainly by such Transactions as relate to the Church as well under the Law as in the days of the Apostles when many Corrupt Doctrines and Practices were crept in amongst them These Churches and some particular Persons in their Communion were treated in different manner by the Prophets and Apostles And though the Churches in general or the Ruling part of them have been severely reprehended and threatned to be punished of God except they repented for teaching or permitting such Corrupt Doctrines and Practices yet such of their Communion who kept themselves pure have alwaies been distinguished from such as were Corrupt For instance In the general Defection from the Purity of GOD's Worship in the Reign of King Jeroboam some good thing is noted to be in his Son. What greater Corruption and Persecution of God's Servants than in the Reign of King Ahab Yet even then Seven Thousand that had not bowed their Knee to Baal though kept so obscure as to any open Witness bearing to the true Worship of God that the Prophet Elijah reckoned himself to be alone and Obadiah the Governour of the King's House signalized for his fear of GOD and secretly nourishing great numbers of his Prophets The Last of the Prophets as he is placed in the Scripture Records before the Incarnation of Christ reproves the Priests whose Lips should keep Knowledge for departing out of the way causing many to stumble at the Law and corrupting the Covenant of Levi Judah and Israel for committing abominations yet takes notice that there were some who feared the Lord and thought on His Name for whom a Book of Remembrance was written that there might be a future discerning by men between the Righteous and the Wicked In the daies of our Saviour upon Earth the Doctors of the Law Scribes and Pharisees had made void the Commands of God by their Traditions multiplying outward Coremonies under a shew of Sanctity and being inwardly unclean and full of Hypocrisie The Question is put among themselves Which of the Rulers or Pharisees have believed on Him Yet upon a Scrutiny we find Joseph an honourable Counsellor Nicodemus a Pharisee and Ruler and many among the Chief Rulers who believed on our Lord-Among the Seven Churches of Asia mentioned in the Apocalyps the Church of Thiatira is in goneral commended for her Charity Service Faith Patience and Works And the last to be more than the first yet the Angel of that Church is reproved for suffering salse Doctrines and Fornications to be taught and committed amongst them And such as did so and all that committed Adultery with them are threatned by the Lord with great Tribulations and Death except they repent But the rest of her Communion who did not know the depths of Satan which others Taught had none other burthen laid on them but that which they had to hold fast till the Lord came And when Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth is threatned with a sudden approaching and utter destruction there is mention of a Voice from Heaven to God's People saying Come out of her my People that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues If the state of the Seven Churches in Asia when these Epistles were directed to them respectively be compared one with the other great difference will appear as to their then present condition for the better or the worse in the Accompt of God. But there is no intimation of any Power given to the best of these Churches to Unchurch the worst so long as the Lord by His long-suffering Dispensations of Providence would continue them in the state of a Christian Church as to the outward form much less may any private Person presume by his Censures to Unchurch any Christian Church which was right in its first Constitution because that some ordinances which ought to be kept are therein wanting or that many Corruptions which ought to have been kept out are crept in amongst them Nor do I esteem it any disadvantage to the Truth that the same name which was once deservedly given to a Church because Right in its Constitution should be given also to such as continue in Succession though they vary in many points of Doctrines whilst they retain the same Essential form of a Church Nor that it includes any approbation of their Declension from the Truth any more than the terming of Jerusalem the Holy City did so when they had made void the Law by their Traditions And to all their other abominations had added a Conspiracy with the Gentiles to condemn and crucifie our Saviour But on the contrary it may be a ground for Reproof and a means of Conviction also That any Persons stile themselves or are stiled by others to be of such a Church as according to the Scripture-Records thereof was originally right in its Doctrine and Constitution if in any thing they deviate from the Truth there once profest But that which is evident to our present purpose from all these instances is That as on the one hand it is no excuse before GOD for any Persons to follow the Doctrines Commands or Examples of his Rulers in the Church or the Church in general when they deviate in Doctrine or Practice from the waies of God. So on the other hand no such universal Censure of any Church visible can be justified which condemns every individual Member thereof as guilty of the Crimes objected in general against the Society without leaving any room for such of them as can and are willing to clear themselves from the Crimes objected And if the Crimes objected against the generality of such as are in Communion with the Church of Rome or any other Church or Sect of Christians be that they teach or receive such Doctrines as are inconsistent with their Fidelity and Allegiance to their Civil Soveraigns The Question to be considered is Whether it be not more Just and Equal after the Example of King James the First to use such methods proper to the present season as he did formerly as may discriminate the Dutiful from the Disobedient in Civil things rather than any other methods which tend to Condemn all without distinction for the faults of many And if such a method were introduced and equal countenance given to all sorts of Christians as they may deserve it from their Superiours in
conducing to the Security Peace and Welfare of the Civil Government being the immediate Concern thereof And all such things as respect meerly the Natural and Civil Rights of Men are to be moderated and judged by such as have the Government and Judgment of them in right of their Natural or Civil Stations and if wrong Judgment proceed in any particular Case yet it may be submitted to A Priviledge which might be insisted on may be waved A precept obeyed without any offence to GOD for Religion is no otherwise concerned in Things of this Kind than as it obliges to give due obedience to the Higher Powers and teaches to exercise self denyal so that a quiet Submission to an unequal Decree may be not only without Sin but well pleasing to God but in reference to Acts of Divine Worship especially such as relate to the Doctrine and Duties of Christian Religion they are to be performed in Faith and according to that measure of Faith and Knowledge which every Person who performs any such part of Worship hath attained of the revealed Will of the Invisible GOD who is the Object of such Faith and Worship In this respect the Divine Rule which is our Guide in Religion directs us to walk by it Phil. 3. according to our present Attainments till we arrive at a further degree of Faith and Knowledge Opinions in Religion are subject to vary in one and the same Person as he by his own search and instruction from others is convinced of any Truth which he before conceived to be an Error or of any Error which he before embraced as a Truth And in this respect no Human Law establishing a stated perpetual form of Religious Worship which doth neither directly nor of due consequence relate to the Civil Rights of Soveraign or Subject or to the general or invariable Laws of Nature can be the adequate Rule of every Mans Faith or Religious Worship in a whole Nation because tho it should command what is lawful in it self yet if it be not apprehended to be so in the Mind and Conscience of him who is required to Obey it cannot be by him performed in Faith without which its impossible therein to please God And if any Religious Act either for matter or manner be forbidden by a Human Law and not forbidden by the Law of God or common Reason of Mankind respecting either Divine Worship or necessary Human Policies which is apprehended by a particular Subject to be commanded of God if he forbear to do it because of such a human Prohibition that can be no excuse for him before God. And as it is with him who is to Obey so is it also with respect to the Legislators who make those Religious Laws The Divine Laws which respect the essential parts of the Worship of God are in themselves invariable and not to be changed by any human Authority but when any Persons who have the Soveraign Power make any Laws respecting Religion it s presumed they are made according to the present measure of the Legislators understanding of the Will of God therein And if we look back to what hath happened in this kind among our selves in former as well as in this last Age we may find that the Mutations herein made by Statute Laws and Ordinances has demonstrated a change in the Minds of our Legislators every succeeding Variation carrying in it self an evidence of an Error or Defect apprehended in the former Establishment The Rules relating to Christian Worship which are given in the Scriptures are Constant and Permanent always one and same and divers of these do not only admit and approve of great variety in several matters relating to the Worship of God but forbid the Rulers of the Church or any Church in general to impose an Uniformity upon the individual Members of their Communion In the Church at Rome Re mans 14. such as were Strong might dispute among themselves doubtful or mysterious Foints in matters of Religion but such as were Weak were not to be summoned to or determined by the Resolutions of the Strong One that was weak in Faith would eat Hearbs and drink no Wine another that was strong believed he might eat all things and drink Wine each of these are left to their Liberty and forbid to impose their Latitude or Scruples one upon another one Man esteemed one Day above another and regarded it to the Lord another Man esteemed every Day alike and did not regard it to the Lord. And the Rule in their Case is plain and positive every Man was to be a Rule to himself to do therein or forbear as he was perswaded in his own Mind for whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin They were all forbid to judge one another and every Man herein left to give an account of himself to God and not to Judge set at Nought or give an Offence to his Brother In the Church at Corinth 1 Cor. 14. a Latitude was allowed to the respective Members to Preach and Pray in different Languages and Forms so as they were each of them performed with the Spirit and Understanding and by Interpretation to the Unlearned all to Edification The Church were not to forbid any of their Members speaking with Tongues but to see to it that all things might be done to Edifying Decently and in Order The Apostles Advice was in some Cases To abstain from Marriage but not to forbid Marrying And his general Behaviour among and towards the Jews in observing some Rites in esteem with them in one manner among the Gentiles in another manner quite different becoming all things to all Men that he might gain some To them that were under the Law as being under the Law himself To them that were without the Law as being himself without the Law. And yet in all this variety of his Behaviour in Religious Matters and Religious Societies and Conversation not without a Law to God but under a Law to Christ So that if any Church by its Cannons tye all the Members thereof under pain of Censures to such an Unlformity in Worship as tends to abridg any individual Members thereof that Liberty which is granted by the Apostle in any of these Particulars they therein vary from the invariable Rules of our Lord and if the Churches or Ecclesiastical Rulers within themselves might not impose any such terms of Communion as might destroy this Liberty nor bring any of their Members under any Ecclesiastical Censures or Judgments for taking a liberty to Dissent from the rest in not observing a Day to the Lord when others would do it or for Worshipping in other Manner and Form then the generality of the Church would do so as the Church were not thereby interrupted in their publick Worship Certainly by a Parity of Reason this Christian Liberty should not be infringed by any Human Laws inflicting temporal Penalties for Non-conformity to the Days and Modes of Worship prescribed by such Laws when it is