of their Parishionall Churches but onely the falsenesse of the Power from whence their Ministery is derived to wit from Episcopall Ordination But the Examiner is much mistaken if he take us to conceive or if he himselfe conceive that the Power of the Ministeriall calling is derived from Ordination whether Episcopall or Presbyteriall or Congregationall The Power of the Ministeriall Calling is derived chiefly from Christ furnishing his servants with Gifts fit for the Calling and nextly from the Church or Congregation who observing such whom the Lord hath gifted doe elect and call them forth to come and helpe them For from that ground Paul and Silas to use the words of the Text assuredly gathered that the Lord had called them to preach the Gospel to the Macedonians Acts 16.9 10. to wit because a man of Macedonia in the name of the rest had called unto them to come into Macedonia and helpe them Pastor and flock are Relatives and Relatives doe consist ex mutuâ alterius affectione Their mutuall acceptance of one another is the essentiall cause of their Relation Ordination is but adjunctum consummans as Dr. Ames rightly observeth of the Ministers Calling the Relation between him and the people was truly wrought before As the Coronation of the Prince is not that which giveth the Essency of his Princely Calling but Election by the People where the Government is Elective so neither is Ordination that which giveth Essence to the Ministers Calling but the peoples choice Ordination by Imposition of Episcopall hands doth pollute an Adjunct of the Ministers calling to wit the solemnitie of it but doth not destroy the essence or nature of it much lesse derive a false power to it to evacuate the true The third Falshood which the Examiner chargeth upon the English-Parish-Churches is the False worship And truly whatsoever hath been corrupt in their worship whether Prescript Liturgies or undue Honour put upon Saints or Angels in denominating Dayes or Temples after them and such times and places dedicated to God which he never required and what ever other Devices of like nature I had rather bewaile before the Lord then excuse or justifie before men And I should thinke it had been a better service to God and his Churches and a greater comfort to the soule of the Examiner to have expressed particularly what the false worship had been which he beareth witnesse against and to have cleared wherein their falshood lyeth rather then to have rested in condemning all false worships in overly Generalities and especially at such a time when through mercy the State is set upon Reformation and calleth for light He that shall cry out against all false wayes in Travels by Land and exclaime against all Rocks and Quick-sands by Sea and give no particular notice where they lye what helpe doth he afford to the carefull Passenger or Marriner either by Land or Sea When Trumpets give such an uncertain and obscure sound who shall prepare themselves to avoyd the danger on the one hand or on the other But for the present two things would I say touching the point in hand 1. It is not every corruption in worship that denominateth the worship to be false worship It was doubtlesse a corrupt worship to Sacrifice in the High Places yet God doth not call it a false worship but rather seemeth to accept it as done to himselfe 2 Kings 33.17 False worship to speake properly is as good as no worship nor is the God of Truth wont to accept that which is false But there may be many aberrations in the manner of worship when yet both the object of the worship is the true God and the substance of the worship is true worship and God may accept that which is Truth from an honest and true heart and passe by many aberrations as infirmities and not reject all as falsities The second thing I would say is That whatsoever we have discerned to be corrupt or irregular in the worship of God we have beleeved it to be our duty both to judge our selves for it before the Lord and to reforme it in our practise If any shall discover any further failings in our worship or in the worship of those Churches whom wee communicate with I hope the Lord will not shut our eyes against the light The fourth Falshood which the Examiner chargeth upon the English-Churches is false Government which if he meane the Government of the Parishes by the godly Ministers with whom our people communicate in hearing that Government is chiefly administred by the publick Preaching of the Gospel and by private admonition Which he that shall challenge it to be a false Government though it may be defective in some Directions verily the spirit of Truth and Grace in those who are governed and led by it from darknesse to light from the Power of Satan unto God from a state of Grace to assured hopes of eternall Glory in Christ Jesus will convince all such slanderous tongues of notorious falshood But if he speake of the Nationall-Church-Government we must confesse the Truth there indeed Truth is fallen and falshood hath prevailed much For whether we speake of the Hands by which that Government hath been administred or of the Ecclesiasticall Courts in which it is administred or of the Rule according to which it is administred or of the End for which it is administred All of them are forsaken of Truth and can challenge no warrant of Truth but falsly The Hands by which that Government hath been administred are the Prelacy and their Servitors who though they have of late challenged Institution by Divine Right yet the claime is utterly false The Divine Authoritie hath none to attend upon Rule and Government in the Church but such as are inferior to Pastors and Teachers in Congregations who labour in Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5.17 Diocesan Bishops in the dayes of the Gospel are like Kings in Israel in the dayes of the Judges both of them wanting Divine Institution What a pity is it that some men eminent for Piety and Preaching and others for learning and moderation should come to be as Jothams Parable speaketh advanced over their Brethren and so leave their fatnesse and sweetnesse and fruitfulnesse wherewith they had been wont to serve both God and man The Ecclesiasticall Courts in which that Government is administred are like the Courts of the High Priests and Pharisees which Solomon by a spirit of Prophecy styleth Dens of Lyons Mountaines of Leopards Cant. 4.8 And those who have had to doe with them have found them Markets of the sinnes of the People the Cages of uncleannesse the forgers of Extortion the Tabernacles of Bribery The Rule according to which the Government is administred is not the word of God which alone is able to make a Church-Governour perfect to every good worke 2 Tim. 1.17 but in stead thereof the Canon Law the Decretalls of Antichrist and most unworthily and falsly applyed to the Government of
of the City State and Jurisdiction Discusser 3. From this Toleration of persons holding but lesser errors I observe the unmercifulnesse of such Doctrines and Hearts that he that is sleightly and but a little hurt shall be suffered meanes vouchsafed for his cure but the deep-wounded sinner the Leprous and Vlcerous c. must not be suffered untill peradventure God may give them Repentance c. Defender And why doth he not aswell observe the unmercifulnesse of such States and Lawes as suffer petty theives and liars to live in their Townes Cities but will not suffer willful murtherers violent robbers to live amongst them such as are tainted with lesser Errors and it may be whet them upon others they are but as petty theives and lyars but such as after conviction doe goe on to subvert the Foundation of Christian Religion and to subvert and destroy the soules of Gods People and stoutly robb them both of the meanes of Grace here and of the inheritance of glory hereafter they are worse then willfull murderers or violent robbers The Holy Ghost speaketh of false Teachers as bringing in damnable Heresies 2 Pet. 2.1 as overthrowing the faith of some 2 Tim. 2.18 as subverting their soules Acts 15.24 making merchandize of Gods People 2 Pet. 2.3 which being so me thinkes such as do more mischiefe are lesse tolerable then they that doe lesse It is true they that are more deeply wounded-sinners are more to be pittied suppose the depth of their wounds reach none but themselves but if they be infectious and Leprous and have Plague sores running upon them and thinke it their glory to infect others It is no want of mercy and charity to set such at a distance It is a mercilesse mercy to pitty such as are incureably contagious and mischeivous and not to pitty many scores or hundreds of the soules of such as will be infected and destroyed by the toleration of the other CHAP. 17. A Reply to his seventeenth Chapter touching the holding forth of Error with a boisterous and arrogant Spirit Discusser It is said by the Answerer He that holdeth forth Error with a boisterous and arrogant spirit to the disturbance of the Civill Peace he ought to be punished To this I have spoken too confessing that if any man commit ought of those things which Paul was accused of Acts 25.11 He ought not to be spared yea he ought not in such cases to refuse to die Defender I would not say That every man that holdeth forth Error in a a boisterous and arrogant spirit to the disturbance of Civill Peace ought to be punished with death This is too Bloudy a Tenet unlesse the boisterous Arrogancy were such as did disturbe the Civill Peace to the destruction of the lives and soules of men Discusser But if the matter be of a Spirituall and Divine nature I have written before in many cases and might in many more that the worship which a State professeth may be contradicted and preached against and yet no breach of Civill Peace c. Defender There is no Error that can be a matter of divine nature though it may be spirituall no such Points as are of a divine nature fall within the compasse of this dispute of persecution The many cases which the Discusser before wrote of are all of them allowed but none of them concerne holding forth of Errors which is the Point in hand Yet true it is that if a man hold forth Truth in some boisterous and arrogant way not with the Armour of the Spirit but with the Arme of flesh He may in so doing disturbe the Civill Peace and for such disturbance be justly punished according to the quality of the disturbance raised by him It is easily graunted what the Discusser further avoucheth that they doe break the Cities or Kingdomes Peace who cry out for Prisons and Swords against such who crosse their Judgements or Practise in Religion to wit unlesse their Religion be of God and the crossing of it be such as destroyeth and subverteth the Religion of God But when he saith such onely breake the Cities or Kingdomes Peace as call for Prisons and Swords against Hereticks It is too vast an Hyperbole as if Murderers Seditious Persons Rebells Traytors were none of them such as did breake the Cities or Kingdomes Peace at all but they onely who are too sharpe against corruptions in Religion It is also further easiely graunted which he alledgeth that many complaine most who are most in fault themselves as Josephs Mistresse of him The Lord helpe the Discusser to reflect upon his own way CHAP. 18. A Reply to his Eighteenth Chapter Examining the first Argument for Toleration from Mat. 13.30 38. Discusser First Mat. 13.30 38. Christ Commaundeth to let alone the Tares to grow up together with the wheat untill the Harvest Vnto which he Answereth That Tares are not Bryars and Thornes but partly Hypocrites like unto the Godly but indeed carnall as the Tares are like to the wheat but are not wheat or partly such corrupt Doctrines and Practises as are indeed unsound but yet such as come very neere the Truth as Tares doe to the wheat and so neere that good men may be taken with them and so the Persons in whom they grow cannot be rooted out but good wheat will be rooted out with them In such a case Christ calleth for Peaceable Toleration not for poenall Prosecution according to the third Conclusion But alas here is no evidence or demonstration of the Spirit nor argument from the place it selfe or from the Scriptures of Truth to prove such an Interpretation Defender Ans The Letter to which the Answer was given gave no reason of his exposition and who ever required more reason of an Answerer then of a Replyer 2. The Exposition I gave was consistent with that which the Letter gave Tares and wheat saith he some understand to be those that walke in the Truth and those that walke in lyes now when I say the tares are Hypocrites and some kind of corrupt Doctrines and Practises and such as walke in them are not these coincident with such as walke in lyes what need had I to give a reason of the exposition which he himselfe to whom the Answer was written acknowledgeth Discusser But those three Persons Doctrines and Practises are as a threefold cord and so a threefold strong snare to catch the feet of some or other Defender What hurt doe they get by being caught Hypocrites and corrupt Doctrines and Practises if they be found like unto good Christians or sound truthes what hurt doe they catch when I say such are to be tolerated to the end of the world But to prevent his feare of a threefold cord I shall easily acknowledge that which I meant that by Tares are meant such kinde of evill persons as are like unto the good whether they be Hipocrites men of unsound heartes or men of unsound Doctrines and Practises yet such as come neere the
ignorant and scandalous persons drunkards whoremongers despisers and persecutors of them that are good Prophane swearers that have not so much as a forme of godlinesse but doe utterly deny and deride the power of it Answ This is indeed just matter of mourning and lamentation to all the Saints of Christ and may be also in due order just warrant of some degree of separation from them as from a corrupt Church It cannot but offend and deeply grieve the spirit of a Christian to sit downe at the Lords Table and drinke the bloud of the Lord with such who may be ready the next day to spill the bloud of sincere Communicants as Puritan Round-Heads But whilest the Saints of Christ continue amongst them the mixt fellowship of ignorant and prophane persons doth not evacuate or disanull their Church estate The store of malignant and noysome humours in the body yea the deadnesse and rottennesse of many members in the body though they may make the body an unsound and corrupt body yet they doe not make the body no body When the Prophet Isaiah complained that in the Church of Judah from the soale of the foote to the crowne of the head there was no soundnesse in it but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores yet whilest there was a Remnant amongst them of faithfull Saints they were not yet no Church they were not yet Sodome and Gomorrha though but for that Remnant they had been as Sodome and like unto Gomorrha Isa 1.6 with 9. Say not though Hierusalem and Judah were at that time degenerate yet they had been at first an holy Nation a faithfull Citie Isa 1.21 and so had a true constitution which the Churches of England never had For 1. I might answer That though in regard of some prime members Hierusalem was counted a faithfull Citie and the Nation Holy by Priviledge of their Covenant yet for the body of the people Hierusalem was alwayes a City of the provocation of Gods wrath from the day they built it Jer. 32.31 32. And for the body of the Nation Moses charged them Yee have alwayes been rebellious against the Lord since the day that I knew you Deut. 9.7.24 And Stephen protesteth against them They had alwayes wont to resist the Holy Ghost they and their fathers Act. 7.51 2. I doe not understand but that according to Scripture those corruptions which doe not destroy a Church constituted the same do not destroy the constitution of a Church The Church is constituted and continued by the same Grace 3. The estate of the Churches of England was not corrupt in their first constitution Baronius himselfe confesseth that England received the Gospel ten yeares before Rome and that from the Ministery of the Apostles and Apostolick men who doubtlesse constituted the English Churches not after the manner of Rome which was then Pagan but after the Apostolick Rules and Patternes This may suffice touching the matter of the English Churches Now touching the second thing objected which was from the efficient cause of their constitution It is said they were gathered not by the preaching of the Gospel by which Churches should be planted and constituted but by the Proclamation of Princes Answ 1. The efficient cause of a Church is a thing without the Church and so no essentiall cause of the Constitution of a Church The Proclamation of King Hezekiah and of the Princes drew on multitudes of Apostate Israelites to the Communion of the Church at Hierusalem and many of them in much pollution yet neither their own pollution nor the Proclamation of the King and Princes did evacuate their Church-estate but encourage them rather in their Church-worke 2 Chron. 30.5 to 9. and verses 11 12.17 18 19 20. It was no pollution to the second Temple at Hierusalem that it was built by the encouragement of the Proclamation of Cyrus Ezra 1. Answ 2. Wheresoever there be visible Saints gathered into a Church they were first gathered by the Ministery of the Gospel For Proclamations cannot make Saints but the word of the Gospel onely If any hypocrites or time-servers doe for feare joyne themselves with the Saints in such a worke though their fellowship may weaken and blemish the worke yet it doth not destroy it Thus much touching the constitution of their Parishionall Churches Now touching their Nationall Constitution it standeth partly in their Nationall Officers Archbishops Bishops and their Servitors partly in their Nationall Synods and convocations and partly also in their Nationall Ecclesiasticall Courts The Examiner is not ignorant that by the Grace of Christ we have withdrawen our selves and our Churches also from this Nationall Constitution and from all Communion with them If it be said But we still keepe Communion with the Parish-Churches in hearing the Word there who doe subject themselves to these Nationall Officers Convocations and Courts Answ 1. Though the Parish-Churches were lately subject to them it was a burden which as they did discerne the iniquitie thereof they groaned under and now by the mightie Power of the gracious Redemption of the Lord Jesus they have shaken off through the helpe of the Honorable and Religious Prudence and Piety of the Parliament 2. Though those Nationall Courts in their Officers did for many yeares tread downe the Parish-Churches yet they did not extinguish their Church-estate The Text is plaine The Gentiles that is men of Gentile-like prophanenesse and malignitie and iniquitie who had the keeping of the Church-Courts they did tread downe the Holy City Rev. 11.2 Tread downe I say but not destroy the Holy City Yea though the Translation reade it They did tread it downe or Tread it under-foote yet the Originall word may be rendred somewhat more mildly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may expresse their walking upon it or else the Peripateticks were a more violent sect then either their Principles or their Practise did declare them I come now to speake of the second Falshood which the Examiner chargeth upon the English Churches which was the falsenesse of their Ministery which wherein it lyeth he should have done well to have told us for himselfe disliketh it in me to wander in Generalities But for our selves we are farre from that supercilious and Pharisaicall arrogancy as to condemne such for false Ministers in whom we finde Truth of Godlinesse Truth of Ministeriall Gifts Truth of Election and acceptance unto Office by true Churches of Christ Truth of sound wholesome and soule-saving Doctrine and Truth of holy and exemplary Conversation And such are all the Ministers whom either the members of our Churches affect to Heare or our Churches doe allow them ordinarily for to Heare And when I say Truth I speake it not in opposition to Eminency for sundry of them excell in Eminency of sundry of these things but in opposition to the falshood which the Examiner objecteth I know not what exception lyeth against their Ministery to argue it of falshood save what hath been excepted and answered already touching the constitution
yeild obedience to such Doctrines and worships as are by men Invented and Appointed As the three famous Jewes were cast into the fiery Furnace in a non-conformity to the whole conforming world before the Golden Image Dan. 3.21 c. Defender Thus a man may find a knot in a Bulrush yea thus a man that were disposed might find fault with the Comforts of God for not being full and Compleate with the Affirmative Comforts because they doe not expresse the Negative and with the Negative because they doe not expresse the Affirmative He that maketh it persecution for cause of Conscience when a man is punished for professing such Doctrine which he beleiveth in Conscience to be the truth he maketh it a Pari Persecution for cause of Conscience when a man is punished for Renouncing such Doctrines which he beleiveth in Conscience to be Erroneous And he that maketh it Persecution for cause of Conscience when a man is punished for practising such a worke which he beleives in conscience to be a Religious duty He maketh it no lesse Persecution for cause of Conscience when a man is punished for not practising such a worke which he beleiveth in Conscience to be a sin CHAP. 4. A Reply to his fourth Chapter touching the distinction of Doctrines Some fundamentall others circumstantiall and lesse Principall IN points of Doctrine I said in my Answer to the Prisoners Letter some are Fundamentall without right beleife whereof a man cannot be saved others are circumstantiall and lesse Principall wherein one man may differ from another in judgement without prejudice of salvation on either part Discusser To this distinction He saith Truth dare not subscribe for then thousands ten thousands should everlastingly be condemned yea the whole Generation of the Righteous who since the falling away have and doe erre fundamently concerning the true matter Constitution Gathering Governing of the Church And yet farre be it from any pious Breast to Imagine that they are not saved c. Defender Fundamentall Doctrines are of two sorts Some hold forth the foundation of Christian Religion as the Doctrines of salvation by Christ and of faith in his Name Repentance from dead workes Resurrection from the dead and the like Others concerne the Foundation of the Church as the matter and forme of it and the proper Adjuncts accompaning the same The Apostle speaketh of both these sorts of Foundations together Heb. 6.1.2 I speake of the former sort of these onely namely the Foundation or fundamentall points of Christian Religion which who so subverteth and Renounceth he renounceth also his owne salvation The other sort I looke at as lesse principall in comparison of these though some of them have a fundamentall vse in Church order It was pertinent to the Question propounded in the Prisoners Letter to expresse how farre I allowed Toleration even in such fundamentall Errors as subverted the Foundation of Christian Religion And in other Errors lesse dangerous such as neither subverted Religion nor Salvation It would easily be conceived that Toleration might more easily be allowed How farre New English Churches partake with the Old English Parish Churches in any of the Ordinances of God and upon what ground hath been declared in the Reply to the Answer of the other Letter Where also it hath been cleared how farre off the Churches here have been from persecuting or oppressing any of their Brethren for presenting light to them about this point which may prevent and still the lamentation of peace in the beginning of this fith Chapter CHAP. 5. A Reply to his fifth Chapter Concerning a distinction of Points of Practise IN Answer to the Prisoners Letter I said in points of Practise some concerne the weightier Duties of the Law as what God we worship and with what kinde of Worship whether it be such as if it be right Fellowship with God is held If false Fellowship with God is lost Discusser It is worth the Inquiry what kinde of worship he intendeth whether in generall acceptation the Rightnesse or Corruptnesse of the Church or the Ministery of the Church or the Ministrations of the Word Prayer Seales c. And because it pleaseth the Spirit of God to make the Ministery one of the foundations of Christian Religion Heb. 6.1.2 and also to make the Ministery of the Word and Prayer in the Church to be two speciall workes even of the Apostles themselves Acts 6.2 I shall desire it may well be considered in the feare of God 1. Concerning the Ministery of the Word If their new Ministery and ordination be true then the former was false And if false then will it not follow according to this distinction that fellowship with God was lost 2. Concerning Prayer the New English Ministers have disclaimed and written against that Worship of God by Common or set formes of Prayer which yet themselves practised in England And though they were faithfully admonished for vseing the Common Prayer yet at that time they satisfied their hearts with the practise of the Author of the Councell of Trent c. But now I aske whether or no fellowship with God in such Prayers was lost c. 3. Gods People may live and die in such kinde of worship notwithstanding light presented to them able to convince yet not reaching to a conviction and to forsakeing of such wayes which is Contrary to his Conclusion That Fundamentalls are so cleare that a man cannot but be convinced in Conscience after once or twice Admonition And therefore such a person not being convinced he is condemned of himselfe and may be persecuted for sinning against his Conscience 4. I Observe here that Mr. Cotton herein measureth to others that which himselfe when he lived in such practises would not have had measured to himselfe As 1. That it might have been affirmed of him that in such practises he did sin against his Conscience having sufficient light shinning about him 2. That he should or might have been cut off by death or Banishment as an Hereticke sinning against his Conscience c. Defender 1. It needs no inquiry what worship I meanes whether Church and Minister or Ministrations of the Word Prayer Seales c. For I meane none of these as they are dispenced in the Churches of England Though there have been corruptions in the order and dispensations of these things amongst them especially in the times when we lived there yet neither their Churches nor Ministry nor Ministrations were such or so false that fellowship with God could not be held of them not onely inwardly and secretly but also outwardly and visibly not onely in inward conversion and conviction but also in outward and visible Reformation according to light received Take my words as I wrote them and as he relateth them and my meaning is plaine enough I speake of such worship which if false fellowship with God is lost which cannot truly be avouched of any part of the Worship of God in England It is not truly said
to death and in him Jesus as Jesus 4. Let Tyrants and Persecutours professe what they will that they doe not persecute Jesus as Jesus but under some other pretence yet that varieth not the Truth nor impeacheth the wisedome of this Position That it is not lawfull to persecute any for Conscience rightly informed or to persecute any for professing the Truth of Christ Discusser One thing I see apparently in the Lords overruling of the pen of this Answerer viz. a secret whispering from Heaven to him That yet he hath never left the Tents of such who thinke they doe God good service in killing the Lord Jesus in his servants and yet say if we had been in the dayes of our Fathers in Queen Maryes dayes we would never have consented to such Persecution c. Defender Verily this is a strange sight indeed and which all sober minds may well wonder at to see apparently That he who layeth downe this for a Position That it is not lawfull to persecute any for Conscience rightly informed hath had a secret whispering from Heaven that himselfe never yet left the Tents of Persecutors Surely it must needs be a strange and strong sight even the fight of such as make themselves equall with God that can see a man hath not left the Tents of Persecutors that is the Communion with Persecutors when he openly professeth it to be utterly unlawfull to Persecute any for the Truths sake It is true God may see that in a mans heart which is contrary to the Profession of his mouth and Pen. And so may this Discusser see as much if he be equall with God But yet herein I dare be bold to say he exalteth himselfe not onely equall with God but above God to see one contradictory in another which God himselfe cannot see It is contradictory to Persecution to beleive it unlawfull to persecute any for the Truths sake He then that can see yea see apparently that out of the Faith Profession of this truth that it is unlawfull to persecute any for the Truth he that can see I say fellowship with persecution in the faith or Profession of the unlawfulnes of Persecution verily he can see darknesse in light evill in good Falshood in Truth which God himselfe Such is the perfection of his Truth cannot doe Discusser Let me also add a second So farre as the Answerer by Preaching for Persecution hath been a guide to others in persecuting any of the Servants of Christ witnessing to his Truth so farre his own mouth and hands shall judge I hope not his person but his actions that the Lord Jesus hath suffered by him Defender If any Doctrine Preached by me have Guided any to persecute any of the Servants of Christ for witnessing to any Truth of Christ then I confesse I must lay my hand upon my mouth and acknowledge that the Lord Jesus hath suffered by me But if the Disousser can never be able to produce any such Doctrine broached by me that hath guided any to persecute any of Gods Servants for witnessing to any Truth of his as I trust in the grace of Christ he shall never be able then the Discusser may know and the Lord help his spirit to know it that his own mouth and hands shal one day judge if not his person yet his actions that the Lord Jesus hath suffered in his poore Servants even bitter persecutions by his unjust slanders CHAP. 12. A Reply to his twelueth Chapter Entring upon the Discussion of the unlawfulnes to Persecute an Erroneous and blinde Conscience Discusser The second Conclusion lay'd downe by the Answerer is It is not lawfull to persecute an Erroneous and blinde Conscience Even in Fundamentall and weighty Points till after Admonition once or twice Tit. 3.10 11. And then such Consciences may be persecuted because the Word of God is so cleare in Fundamentall and weighty Points that such a person cannot but sinne against his Conscience and so being condemned of himselfe that is of his Conscience he may be persecuted for sinning against his own Conscience Defender They are the words of the Discusser not mine That such as erre in Fundamentall and weighty Points after once or twice Admonition such Consciences are then to be persecuted No my words will cleare themselves if they be truly related even as himselfe hath printed them Thus they stand Secondly For an erroneous and blinde Conscience even in Fundamentall and weighty Points It is not lawfull to persecute any till after Admonition once or twice And so the Apostle directeth Tit. 3.10 and giveth the reason That in Fundamentall principall Points of Doctrine and worship The Word of God in such things is so cleare that he cannot but be convinced in conscience of the dangerous Error of his way after once or twice Admonition wisely and faithfully dispenced And then if any one persist It is not out of Conscience but against his Conscience as the Apostle saith ver 11. He is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himselfe that is of his owne Conscience so that if such a man after such Admonition shall still persist in the Error of his way and be therefore punished He is not persecuted for cause of Conscience but for sinning against his Conscience Where though I say That it is not lawfull to persecute any though erring in Fundamental and weighty Points till after once or twice admonition I doe not therefore say as the Discusser reporteth me that after once or twice admonition then such Consciences may be persecuted But that if such a man after such Admonition shall still persist in the Error of his way and be therefore punished He is not persecuted for cause of Conscience but for sinning against his own Conscience Object But he that sayeth It is not lawfull to persecute any Heretick till after once or twice admonition He doth as much as say that after once or twice admonition It is then lawfull to persecute any Heretick Ans Not so neither neither every Heretick nor in every Court Not in every Court or Judicature But the same Church that followed an Heretick with once or twice admonition was further to pursue him if he remaine obstinate with excommunication my words doe expresse two things 1. That an Heretick till after once or twice admonition may not be pursued no not with the Church-censure of Excommunication but after once or twice admonition It was then lawfull for the Church to proceed to his Excommunication 2. My words hold forth this also That if such an Heretick so convinced and admonished be afterwards punished by any Censure whether of Church or Court It cannot be said he is punished for his Conscience but for sinning against his Conscience But it was no part of my words or meaning to say that every Heretick though erring in some Fundamentall and weighty Points and for the same excommunicated shall forth with be punished by the Civill Magistrate unlesse it doe afterwards appeare that he
Truth CHAP. 19. A Reply to his nineteenth Chapter Discusser That the Lord intendeth not Doctrines or Practises in this Parable It is cleare For 1. The Lord Jesus expresly interpreteth the good seed to be Persons those the children of the Kingdome The Tares also to signify men and those the children of the wicked one ver 38. Defender If the Discusser had cast his eye a little lower he might have found that Christ interpreteth the Tares not onely to be Persons but things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things that offend as well as those that doe iniquity ver 41. But I shall not stick upon that at all let the Tares be Persons whether Hypocrites like unto true Christians or holders forth of scandalous and corrupt Doctrines and Practises like unto sound Discusser 2. Such corrupt Doctrines and Practises are not to be tolerated now as those Jewish observations were for a while Rom. 14. nor so long till the end of the world For can we think that though the Lord tendered the tender conscience of the Jews in the observation of the difference of meates and drinks which were sometimes his owne Ordinances that therefore Persons must be now tolerated in the Church for I speake not of the Civill State in superstitious forbearing and forbidding of flesh in Popish Lents and superstitious Fridayes c. Defender Who can tell what this Discusser would have The Tares he would have to be Persons not corrupt Doctrines and Practises And yet when he commeth to prove that corrupt Doctrines and Practises are not to be tolerated he proveth it from the unlawfulnesse of tolerating corrupt persons for can we thinke saith he that persons must be now tolerated in the Church in the superstitious forbearing or forbidding of flesh in Popish Lents and Fridayes Such is the inconstancy of the spirits of men whose hearts are not stayed and steered by the Spirit of Truth that sometimes Tares must not be corrupt Doctrines and Practises but persons because Tares and so persons must be tolerated till the Harvest not so corrupt Doctrines and Practises And yet all the reason given why corrupt Doctrines and Practises must not be tolerated is this because Persons that hold them forth must not be tolerated CHAP. 20. A Reply to his twentieth Chapter what is meant by Tares Discusser The Originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying all those weeds which spring up with the Corne as cockle darnell Tares c. seemeth to imply such a kinde of people as are commonly and generally knowne to be manifestly differing from and opposite to the true Worshipers of God c. Defender 1. It is not true that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifyeth all those weeds that grow up with the Corne. For they be a speciall weed growing up cheifely amongst the wheat but when it commeth to the earing it groweth more like to Barley yet having a narrower leafe fatter and rougher and a leaner seed in a prickly barke bearing a purple flower as Dioscorides testifyeth Now this is farre from a description of all sorts of weeds that grow up with Corne. 2. Neither is it true that Tares are commonly and generally known assoone as they appeare For Hierom who for a time lived in Jury testifyeth that Inter triticum et zizania quod nos appellamus lolium quamdiu herba est et nondum culmus venit ad spicam grandis similitudo est et in discernendo aut nulla aut perdifficilis distantia Comment Mat. Cap. 13. Yea the Text it selfe though the Discusser deny it holdeth forth as much For the servants of the Husbandman in whose Feild the Tares were sowen by the enemy did not discerne the tares from the wheat till the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit for then it was and not till then that the Tares appeared to be Tares Mat. 13.26 what though the Text holdeth forth no such time wherein the servants doubted or suspected what they were It is like enough they did not suspect them at all by reason of the grandis similitudo the great likenesse that was between them whilest they were both in the blade Which still maketh good the Exposition that Tares are not bryars and thornes but so like to the wheat that till they come to earing the one cannot be discerned from the other Discusser The one appeared as soone as the other and when the wheat put forth its blade and fruite the Tares were as early they put forth themselves and appeared also 2. There is such a dissimilitude and unlikenesse between them that as soone as Tares and wheat sprung up to blade and fruite every husbandman could tell which is wheat and which is Tares Defender It s true the Tares put forth their blade assoone as did the wheat and appeared above ground one as early as the other but they were so like one to an other that the husbandmen could not tell which was wheat and which Tares till the blade was growen up and they both brought forth their fruite And though when they both brought forth their fruite there was no apparent dimissilitude yet still it is evident that at first the dimssilitude did not appeare The Tares may therefore still stand for Hypocrites who are so like at first unto good Christians that they cannot easily be discerned one from another till in processe of time the difference of the fruite discover them Discusser But when was it that the House-holder gave charge to let them alone was it not after they appeared and were knowne to be Tares which should imply by this interpretation of the Answerer that when men are discovered and knowne to be Hypocrites yet still such a generation of Hypocrites in the Church must be let alone and tolerated untill the Harvest or end of the world which is contrary to all Piety order and safety in the Church of the Lord Jesus as doubtlesse the Answerer will graunt Defender If the Answerer know his owne minde as well as the Discusser doubtlesse the Answerer will not graunt that it is contrary to all piety and order and safety that hypocrites knowne hypocrites be tolerated in the Church till the end of the world For though it be against the safety of the Church when the Officers or body of the Church prove hypocrites for that threatneth a dis-churching Rev. 2.5 yet till the fruits of hypocrisie grow notoriously scandalous and ripe for Church-Censure it is not contrary to all piety and order safety to suffer them but rather more safety to suffer them least some of Gods own Saints true wheat who for a time may degenerate and bring forth like fruit with the Tares be plucked up with them If foolish Virgins be cast out of the Church the wise Virgins may be sometime found sleeping as well as they Mat. 25.5 CHAP. 21. A Reply to his Chap. 21. VVhat is meant by the world and more of the Tares Discusser 2. The Tares cannot signifie hypocrites in the Church for
that they will doe it without some excitement from the Angells no more then the Angells powred out their vialls till they were stirred up by a great voice out of the Temple Revelations 16.1 It is an evasion as groundlesse as the former that Elijahs stirring up of Ahab to kill all the Preists and Prophets of Baal was figurative For all Figures in the old Testament have their Accomplishment â—n the New Now evident it is Ahab an Apostate Idolater was no Type of Christ nor was Israel after their Apostacy a Type of the true Church of Christ A Tabernacle it was but not a Tabernacle of Christ Aholah but not Aholibah To make this act in Israel a Type of Christs act in Christian State or Church is to make darknesse a type of light Ceremoniall Lawes were generally Typicall not so Moses his Judicialls especially those which had in them morall equity It is Morall equity That Blasphemers and Apostate Idolaters seducing others to Idolatry should be put to death Levit. 24.16 Deut. 13.5 Ahab forfited his owne life because he did not put Benhadad to death for his blasphemy 1 Kings 20.23 28. and ver 42. yet Benhadad was no Israelite nor was his blasphemy bleched out in the Land of Israel but the externall equity of that Judiciall Law of Moses was of morall force and bindeth all Princes to expresse that zeale and indignation both against blasphemy in such as fall under their just power which Ahab neglected and against seduction to Idolatry which Ahab executed or else Elijah or some others by his consent But before I leave this dispute touching the meaning of those words Let them alone let me add another Interpretation which I see doth rather more satisfie others and it may wel stand Let them alone is not a word of precept by way of Ordinance But a word of permission by way of Providence God in his Providence will permit some or other Tares ever to be found in his Church to the last Judgement Which yet he would not have his servants offended at For them he will pluck up by his Angells at the last Harvest CHAP. 28. A Reply to his 28th Chapter VVhich is a Recaptulation of what Points the Discusser supposeth He hath proved in opening this Parable Defender The Discusser in this Chapter is onely a Rehearser of what he conceiveth himselfe to have evidently demonstrated to the Conscience from Chap. eighteene to this Chapter twentieight Five Points Negatively and Five Points Affirmatively But because what he rehearseth hath been reversed in the Reply to those severall Chapters I will not Actum Agere nor Dictum dicere CHAP. 29. A Reply to his twentininth Chapter Discussing the Text in Matth. 15.14 Letter The second Scripture brought against such Persecution for Cause of Conscience is Matth 15.14 where the Disciples being troubled at the Pharises cariage towards the Lord Jesus and his Doctrine and relating how they were offended at him The Lord Jesus commaundeth his Disciples to Let them alone and giveth this Reason that the blinde lead the blinde and both should fall into the ditch Answ of the Letter Christ speaketh not there to publick Officers whether in Church or Common-wealth but to his private Disciples concerning the Pharises over whom they had no power And the command he giveth to Let them alone is spoken in regard of troubling themselves or regarding the offence which they tooke at the wholesome Doctrine of the Gospel As who should say Though they be offended at this wholesome saying of mine yet doe not you feare their feare nor be troubled at their offence which they take at my Doctrine not out of sound Judgement but out of blindnesse But this maketh nothing to the cause in hand Discusser To passe by this Assertion of the privacy of the Apostles in that the Lord Jesus commanded to Let them alone that is not onely to be offended themselves but not to meddle with them It appeareth it was no Ordinance of God nor of Christ for his Disciples to have gone further and have complained to and excited the Civill Magistrate to his duty Which if it had been an Ordinance of God and Christ either for the vindicating of Christs Doctrine or the recovering of the Pharises or the preserving of others from infection the Lord Jesus would never have commanded them to omitt that which should have tended to these holy ends Defender Reply 1. To passe by the Assertion of the Privacy of the Apostles It is not an Act of courtesie and loathnesse to strive but out of defect of just pretence to make any colourable exception against it For though the Apostles were called to a publique Ministery Math. 10. yet it seemeth not as then to a constant office but to a transient Administration pro illa vice for that time Their constant calling required to attend continually upon Christs Ministry to prepare and ripen them for the publique constant office which they were to be called to after Christs Resurrection Acts 1.21 22. Besides in that transient Administration they were not sent to the Scribes and Pharises who were no bitter then Wolves and Foxes but to the lost sheepe of the House of Israel Matth. 10.6 And therefore the Apostles not being sent to the Scribes and Pharises they had no power over them but stood as private men to them Reply 2. And as they had no calling nor power to correct or censure them themselves so neither had they a calling to excite the civill Magistrate against them For first it was no just cause for the civill Magistrate to punish the Pharises for that they tooke unjust offence against Christs wholesome doctrine For neither was the doctrine it selfe a fundamentall truth nor was their offence against it a fundamentall errour though it was dangerous Besides the civill Magistrates had no Law established about doctrines or offences of that nature And therefore they could take no judiciall cognizance of any complaint presented to them about the same Moreover our Saviour who sent forth his Apostles to preach to the lost sheepe of the house of Israel gave them a charge of caution to beware how they medled with Scribes and Pharises Behold saith he I send you forth as sheepe among wolves Be ye therefore wise as serpents innocent as doves Beware of men c. Mat. 10.16 17. The Apostles therefore having received this caution could not meddle with the Scribes and Pharises but trespasse against this rule of serpentine prudence as much as for a flocke of lambes to complaine to a kennell of wolves of the wolves out-rage Yea Christ himselfe was sparing to reprove them himselfe though called to a publicke Ministery till the last yeare of his Ministery when his houre was comming of departure out of the world as knowing they would not be able to beare it and their exasperation might have been some hinderance to the free passage of his Ministery before his houre was come CHAP. 30. A Reply to his Chap. 30.
Jesus onely Defender Reply 1. But he that corrupteth a soule with a corrupt religion or worship layeth a spreading leaven which corrupteth the State The Idolatry began in the House of Micah corrupted Laish Judges chap. 17. and chap. 18. And that was the beginning of sinne to the Daughter of Zion Micah 1.13 And that Apostacy was the captivity of the Land As in the New-Testament the worship of Images was the advancement of the Turkes and the ruine of Christian States Rev. 9.14 to 21. When therefore the corruption or destruction of soules is a destruction also of lives liberties estates of men lex talionis calleth for not onely soule for soule but life for life Reply 2. False Prophets in the Old-Testament did but corrupt the soules of some and it may be did not corrupt them neither but attempted it onely And yet amongst Gods people where lex talionis was much attended the Law was Thine eye shall not spare him Deut. 13. The reason of which execution is not fetched from any typicall holinesse of the Land but from the dangerous wickednesse of the attempt to thrust away a soule from God which is a greater injury then to deprive a man of bodily life Discusser But dead men cannot die nor be infected Naturall men the civill State the world are dead in sinne c. Defender Reply 1. Dead men may be made worse by corrupt Teachers two-fold more the children of hell then before Matth. 23.15 And therefore such as so corrupt them are worthy in a way of due proceeding of a two-fold death Reply 2. Such as professe the truth of the Doctrine and Worship of Christ they live a kind of spirituall life though not such as accompanieth salvation Else how are false Teachers and such as are led by them said to be twice dead plucked up by the roots Jude ver 12. And therefore it is not true that such as being in a naturall state are dead in sinne annot be infected nor die againe Discusser As in the common infection of the plague so in the infection of heresie none can be strucke deadly but whom God hath thereunto ordained c. Defender Reply 1. No more can any man be murthered but whom God hath ordained thereunto But it is a prophane sacriledge to excuse or alleviate the punishment of sinne by Gods eternall predestination Was the sinne of Herod or the Jewes or of Pontius Pilate any whit the lesse because they did nothing against Christ but what the hand of God and his Counsell had fore-determined to be done Acts 4.29 Sure it is Christ aggravateth the sinne of Judas and of the High-Priests and Elders of the Jewes by this Argument that Pilate could doe nothing against him but as it was given him from above Therefore saith he he that delivered me to thee hath the greater sinne John 19.11 Reply 2. The Discusser himselfe acknowledgeth That though in a common plague or infection none are smitten or die but such as are ordained thereunto yet it is not onely every mans duty but the common duty of the Magistrates to prevent infection and to preserve the common health of the place by removing infectious persons into solitary tabernacles Discusser True but the meanes God hath appointed for preservation from spirituall infection and perdition are spirituall such as God directeth to Rev. 2. Tit. 3.10 11. Rom. 16.17 But the Lord Jesus never appointed the civill sword for either Antidote or Remedy as an addition to those Spirituals The Remedy which God preseribed to the Angell of the Church of Pergamus It were a Babylonish confusion to interpret it as sent to the Governour of the City of Pergamus Defender Subordinata and so Coordinata non pugnant It is true Christ hath appointed spirituall meanes for the avoiding and preventing the infection of heresies so hath he also for the preventing and avoiding all offences in Church-members But that hindreth not the lawfull and necessary use of a civill sword for the punishment of some such offences as are subject to Church-censure If indeed the Ordinances of Christ in the Church doe prevaile to the avoiding and healing of heresies there is no need of the civill sword for that end But it often falleth out otherwise as 1. That when the Church hath cast out an Heretick yet he still remaineth obstinate and proceedeth to seduce and destroy the faith of some it may be of many as did Hymeneus and Philetus 2 Tim. 2.17 18. If the Magistrates sword doe here rust in the scabberd such leaven may leaven the whole Masse of a City or Countrey As by this meanes Arrianisme leavened the world by the indulgence of Constantius Ingemuit Orbis Christianus miratus est factum se esse Arrianum 2. It may be the Heretick was never any member of the Church and then though the Church may lay in some Antidotes and Purges to preserve or recover their Members yet how shall they succour such as are not subject to their censures Or how shall they prevent the spreading of this noisome leprofie in private Conventicles But the Lord Jesus never appointed the civill sword for an Antidote or Remedy in such a case Answ It is evident the civill sword was appointed for a remedy in this case Deut. 13. And appointed it was by that Angell of Gods presence whom God promised to send with his people as being unwilling to goe along with them himselfe Exod. 33.2 3. And that Angell was Christ whom they tempted in the wildernesse 1 Cor. 10.9 And therefore it cannot truely be said that the Lord Jesus never appointed the civill sword for a remedy in such a case For he did expressely appoint it in the Old-Testament nor did he ever abrogate it in the New The reason of the Law which is the life of the Law is of eternall force and equity in all Ages Thou shult surely kill him because be hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God Deut. 13.9 10. This reason is of morall that is of universall and perpetuall equity to put to death any Apostate seducing Idolater or Heretick who seeketh to thrust away the soules of Gods people from the Lord their God If Magistrates be the Ministers of God in the New-Testament as Paul calleth them Rom. 13.4 And Ministers of God to execute vengeance on him that doeth evill surely either this is no evill to seeke to thrust away Gods people from him or the Magistrate beareth not the sword in vaine to execute vengeance on such an evill doer Yea but such an evill is evill onely to the inner man not to the civill State Answ But if a man imagine evill against the Lord it is a destructive evill to a whole City yea to a Pagan City and God will visit such an evill with such an affliction as shall be no lesse then utter destruction to such a City It shall not rise up the second time Nahum 1.9.11 Discusser But the eivill Magistrate hath his charge of the bodies
doe in vaine goe about from this place to establish their Sacrilegious Tyranny by giving Lawes without the word and beside the word to bind Conscience Therefore Civill Magistrates of whom this whole Discourse is shall exercise a sacrilegious Tyranny over the Conscience and in vaine goe about to establish it from this place when from the word of God they establish true Religion and goe about to punish the Fundamentall subverters of the same But how farre off Calvins Judgement was to restraine Civill Magistrates from medling in matters of Religion let him interpret himselfe in his own words in his opuscula in his Answer to Servetus who was put to Death for his Heresies at Geneva by his procurement Hoe uno saith he contentus sum Christi adventû nec mutatum esse Ordinem Politicum nec de Magistratuum officio quicquam Detractum A gedùm quod Paulus docet Rom. 13.4 Non frustra ah ipsis Gladium gestari an ad speciem unam restringi debet Fatentur isti quibuscum nunc Discepto ad alia crimina plectenda Judices diviniâ—ùs esse amatos moâ—◠â Religione abstineani ut libera ipsis tacentibus Impietas lasciviat verirm reclamat innumeris locis Spiritus Sanctus c. This one thing saith he sufficeth me that by the coming of Christ neither was the State of Civill Government changed nor any thing taken away from the Magistrates Office Goe to then that which Paul teacheth Rom. 13.4 that he beareth not the Sword in vaine ought it to be restrained unto one kind onely they themselves confesse with whom I have to deale the Magistrates are armed of God to punish other crimes so that they abstaine from matter of Religion that so ungodlynesse may runne riot by their connivance But the Holy Ghost crieth out against this in many places c. Discusser Againe Calvin speaking of sulfilling the Law by Love writeth thus on the same place Paul hath not respect vnto the whole Law he speaketh onely of those duties which the Law commandeth us towards our neighbours And after Paul only mentioneth the second Table c. And that he repeateth Love is the fulfilling of the Law understand it as before of that part of the Law which concerneth humane Society for the former Table of the Law which is of the worship of God is not here touched So Beza upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if there be any other Commandement it is summed up in this thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy selfe the whole Law saith he commandeth nothing but the love of God and our Neighbour but since the Apostle in this place discourseth of the mutuall Duties of men one to another I thinke this Terme Law ought to be restrained to the second Table Defender And so think I too yet without the least prejudice to the cause in hand For if the Question be of the dutyes which Subjects owe to Magistrates they pertaine to the second Table or if the Question be of the vertu eof love one to another That it is the fulfilling of the whole Law It is meant cheifely of the second Table though withall it be true the second Table cannot be fulfilled without fulfilling of the first Table also These things are out of controversie But what is all this to the point in hand The Apostle in calling love the fulfilling of the Law speaketh of the Law of the second Table Ergo the Magistrate who is spoken of in the same chapter hath no power to punish the crimes against the first Table or thus further in the 13. of the Romans the Apostle speaketh of the Duties of Subjects to Magistrates which is a Duty of the second Table therefore Magistrates have no power to punish their Subjects for crimes against the first Table The Discusser might as well argue that the duties of Subjects to Magistrates are duties of the second Table therefore it is not the Dutie of Subjects to pray for their Magistrates which is a Duty of the first Table The Truth is though Prayer be a Duty of the first Table yet to pray for Magistrates is a Duty of the second Table In like sort though Idolatry and Blasphemy and Heresie be sinnes against the first Table yet to punish these with civill penalties is a Duty of the second Table For let it be considered in the feare of God are not all Duties of Righteousnesse to man commanded in the second Table as well as all Duties of Holinesse to God commanded in the first Table If so I demand againe whether it be not a Duty of Righteousnesse belonging to the people of God to enjoy the free passage of Religion Truth of Doctrine Holinesse of worship Purity of Church-Government I demand yet further if it be not an injurious dealing to the people of God to disturb the Truth of Doctrine with Heresie the holinesse of worship with Idolatry the Purity of Government with Tyranny If all these be granted then it unavoydably followeth that all these wayes of unrighteousnesse are justly punishable by the second Table Let not therefore the Discusser please himselfe in deluding himselfe and the world that Beza and Calvine did absolutely denie the 13. of the Romans to concerne any matter of the first Table For though the Duties of Loyalty to Magistrates and of love to all concerne the second Table yet it was neither the word nor Judgement of Calvine or Beza so to interpret Rom. 13. As to exempt Magistrates from Power of punishing Heresie and Idolatry Calvines Interpretation of Rom. 13.4 and his Argument from thence against Servetus is declared above in this chapter Heare now how Beza interpreteth the same Text in his Booke entituled De Haereticis â Magistratu puniendis Testatur Paulus Magistratum esse Dei Ministrum qui Gladium gerat ad eas ulciscendas qui malè agunt Rom. 13.4 Quamobrem alterutrum necesse est si in Haereticos Magistratus jus nullum habet vel ipsos malè non agere quod Refutatione indigere non puto vel quod in genere Paulus ait ad certum maleficiorum genus revocandum eorum videlicet quae corporalia peccata vocant de quo malificiorum discrimine copiosius ut spero posteà suo loco Disseram That is Paul witnesseth saith he that the Magistrate is Gods Minister who beareth the Sword to take vengeance on them that doe evill Rom. 13.4 wherefore one of these two must needs be If Magistrates should have no just power over Hereticks either that Hereticks are not evill doers which is so grosse that I thinke it needs no Refutation or else that Pauls speech is to be restrained to a certaine sort of evill deeds to wit such as they call corporall sinnes of which distinction of evill deeds I shall dispute more largely I hope in his due place hereafter So Beza CHAP. 48. A Reply to his Chap. 48. Discusser THe higher powers in this Rom. 13. were amongst others the Roman Emperours and subordinate Magistrates
which Abraham the Father of the faithfull and God the Judge of all the Earth thought equall Gen. 18.25 that the Righteous should not be as the wicked nor that Truth and Fidelity should suffer as Heresie and Apostacy Discusser Yea but it is not confidence of being in the Truth which they judge the Papists and others are not in no nor the Truth it selfe that can priviledge them to persecute others and to exempt themselves from persecution for three Considerations First because it is against the nature of true sheep to persecute or hunt the Beasts of the Forrest no not the Wolves who have persecuted themselves Defender It is a feeble kind of reasoning from a similitude in some things to presse a resemblance in every thing Sheep doe fitly resemble Christians in many proprieties but he that shall therefore presse them to be like in all shall not suffer a Magistrate if he be a sheep of Christ to punish Robbers Adulterers Murderers why for it is against the Nature of true sheep to persecute any Beasts of the Forrest Besides I demand whether Paul was a sheep or a Wolfe when he smote Elymas with blindnesse If he were a Wolfe how is he then said to be filled with the Holy Ghost Acts 13.9 If he were a sheep why did he strike such a Beast of the Forrest ver 10 11. Furthermore when the Wolfe runneth ravenously upon the sheep is it against the nature of the true sheep to run to their Shepheard And is it then against the Nature of the true Shepheard to send forth his Dogs to worry such a Wolfe without incurring the reproach of a persecutor Discusser Secondly if it be a Duty and charge upon all Magistrates in all parts of the world to judge and persecute in and for spirituall Causes then either they are no Magistrates who are not able to judge in such cases or else they must judge according to their Consciences whether Pagan Turkish or Antichristian Defender This hath been againe and againe Answered above though it be the Duty of all Magistrates in the world to judge and punish Blasphemers Idolaters and Seducers yet not in sensu composite whilst they are ignorant of the Truth and cannot judge of such causes but in sensu diviso they are bound to be wise and instructed in the knowledge and worship of Christ Psal 2.10.11 12. and then to judge accordingly But in the meane time it doth not follow that they are no Magistrates who are not able to doe all the Duties of a Magistrate Neither will it follow that they must judge according to their Consciences when their Consciences are blind and erroneous Pagan Turkish Antichristian Let them first cast Beames out of their owne eyes and then they will better discerne between Beame and motes in other men Discusser Thirdly the Experience of our Fathers errours and of our owne mistakes and ignorance the sense of our owne weaknesses and blindnesse in the depths of the Prophecies and mysteries of the Kingdome of Christ and the great professed Expectation of the Light to come which wee are not now able to comprehend may abate the edge and sheath up the Sword of Persecution against any especially such as differ not from them in Doctrines of Repentance or Faith or Holynesse of heart and life but onely in the way and manner of the Administration of Jesus Christ Defender I say as Augustine sometime said in another case Nunquid negandum quod certum est quia comprehendi non potest quod occultum est There are depths of sundry Prophecies which we yet comprehend not but shall we therefore be alwayes babes and ignorant of the Fundamentall Principles of Christian Religion yea and suffer them to be shaken and ruined because there are some Prophesies and Mysteries which wee yet understand not shall the expectation of greater Light so dazle our eyes before wee see it that we cannot be able to see what wee doe see It is not Light but darknesse that cloudeth the Light already revealed Nor is it darknesse onely but blacknesse of darknesse that putteth Light for darknesse and darknesse for Light and would have both tolerated to live together in the same Hemispheare because some blinde Christians cannot yet tell which is whether It is true the Experience of former Errours and sense of present weaknesses may justly abate the edge and sheath up the Sword of persecution against any that differ onely in errours of weakenesse and differ not in Doctrines of Faith Repentance and Holinesse of heart and life Yea wee willingly grant more then the Discusser requireth in such a case For though there should bee some Difference in Doctrines of faith or Repentance or Holinesse Yet wee should not approve the unsheathing of the Sword against such unlesse the Doctrine were fundamentally subversive to faith or Repentance or Holinesse and that obstinately maintained against light and conviction and broached and dispersed to the Infection and Seduction of others If the Difference be only in the way and manner of Administration of Christ Iesus and that Difference held forth in a Christian and Peaceable way God forbid a staffe should be shaken against such much lesse a Sword unsheathed CHAP. 72. A Reply to his Chap. 75th Discussing a Testimony of Augustine Discusser TO begin with Augustine They murther saith Hee Soules and themselves are afflicted in Body They put men to everlasting Death and yet they complaine when themselves are put to a temporall Death This Rhetoricall perswasion of humane wisdome seemeth very reasonable in the Eye of flesh and bloud but one Scripture more prevaileth with faithfull and obedient soules then thousands of plausible and Eloquent speeches Defender Neither this Testimony nor the rest of those Ancients that follow were alledged to prevaile with the Faith of any further then Light of Scripture might shine forth in them but onely to counterpoyse the Testimonies of the Ancients alledged in the Letter against the Truth And the Discusser in his entrance into this chapter is forced to acknowledge that the cause wee maintaine hath more number of Votes and I may adde weight of Voters then the contrary Tenent onely he putteth it off with this evasion that Antichrist is too hard for Christ at Votes and Numbers Which yet is the more to be marvelled at that when the cause is about the Toleration of Hereticks and Antichristians that Antichrist should procure more Votes against Antichristians and Christ to procure any Votes though fewer for them And it is but another evasion whereby he here putteth off Augustines speech as if it were but a Rhetoricall evasion Whereas indeed the weight of the speech lyeth not in the Rhetorick which is little or none but in the Logick in an Argument taken from the Excellency of the soule above the body and thence inferring the equity of killing the bodies of such as kill the soules of Gods people and the iniquity of such as think this unequall But to weaken the force of
fall to the Lawes and Governments of the Countries where they inhabite And therefore all the dangerous consequences which the Discusser gathereth from my speech but indeed not my speech but his owne as if I should drive the world out of the world or turne the world upside downe or leave it to men that have not Gods feare to judge who feare God and who not and the rest that follow they are all of them consequences without an Anticedent or an Anticedent without exsistence in any speech of mine but onely in his owne imagination Neither hath it any better ground that passionate exclamation of his with which he endeth this Chapter Heare saith he O Heavens and give eare O Earth yea let the Heavens be astonished and the Earth tremble at such an Answer What Answer thinke you might this be that might provoke not the Discusser onely but the Heavens and earth to such attention admiration trembling astonishment The Answer forsooth is that which he calleth a wonderfull Answer which the Ministers of New-England gave to the third Question sent to them by some Ministers of Old-England to wit that although they confessed them to be such persons whom they approved of farre above themselves yea who were in their hearts to live and die together yet if they or other godly people with them comming over to them should differ in Church-Constitution they then could not approve their civill Cohabitation with them and consequently could not advise their Magistrates to suffer them to injoy a civill being within their jurisdiction Now sure if there were any such Answer to be found in that Booke sounding to such a purpose I my selfe should joyne with him in the like exclamation and wonderment But when I came to search for that speech and neither finde it in the Answer which he quoteth to the third Question nor in that which I rather thinke he meant the 31. I cannot but admire and adore the righteous Judgement of God who having left the Discusser in this Booke and some other to write against the Truth in point of Doctrine hath herein left him to breake forth in his owne hand-writing into notorious impudent falshood in matter of fact which any man that readeth that Booke cannot but discerne in this Allegation The Answer is too large for me to transcribe but who so will may reade it and when he compareth the Answer in that Booke with the Answer in this he may well wonder with what heart and forhead the Discusser could so expresse it CHAP. 76. A Reply to his 79. Chap. Discusser Yea but say they they doubt not if those Ministers of Old-England should come over to them and were here with them they should agree For say they either you will come to us or shew us light to come to you for wee are but weake men and dreame not of perfection in this life Alas who knoweth not what lamentable differences have been betweene the same Ministers of the Church of England c. Let none now thinke that the passage to New-England by Sea or the nature of the Countrie can doe what onely the Key of David can doe to wit open and shut the Consciences of men Defender I did not thinke that any man in Old-England or New had been so ignorant or uncharitable as to think the Pen-man of the Answer to these Questions had conceived that either the voyage by Sea or the change of the aire from Old England to New could change the judgements or Consciences of men Nature could tell Coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare Currunt But yet no Christian man is ignorant that mutual conference between Godly ingenuous and selfe-denying Christians is a notable meanes sanctified of God for the instruction edification one of another till wee all come to be of one minde in the Lord. Else how shall therebe mutuall convictions without mutuall conferences It is the Key of David onely that can open and shut the Consciences of men but that Key ordinarily doth it in the dispensation of Ordinances whereof Conference is one Discusser Besides how can this be a faithfull and upright acknowledgement of their weaknesse and imperfection when they Preach Print and practise such violence to the soules and bodyes of others And by their Rules and grounds ought to proceed to the killing of those whom they judge so deare unto them and in respect of godlynesse farre above themselves Defender This violence to the souls bodyes of men is often charged upon us by the Discusser But he hath not yet given us an instance of any one soule or body which hath undergone this violence from us Si Accusasse fufficiat quis innocens exit It is no new practise to be an Accuser of the Brethren neither is their any slaunder so false or scurrilous but findeth ready yea and greedy intertainment even of many professors especially such whose best Religion lyeth in the observing and censuring the wayes of others How welcome to such are evill reports of them that dare not allow themselves in any knowne evill This acknowledgement of our weaknesse and imperfection would then truly appeare to be neither faithfull nor upright if wee Preached or practised violence against such in comparison of whom we acknowledge our own weaknesse and imperfection Meane while we may well stand and wonder what rules and Grounds of ours those be by which wee ought to proceed even to the killing of those whom wee judge so deare unto us and in respect of Godlynesse far above us Are any of them whom wee so respect such as subvert the Foundation of the Christian Faith and persist therein obstinately after conviction are any of them presumptuous Blasphemers of the great Name of God Or Idolaters themselves and Seducers of others to Idolatry CHAP. 77. A Reply to his Chap. 80. Discusser VVHat though they say the Godly will not persist in Heresie or turbulent Schisme when they are convinced thereof in Conscience If the civill Court and Magistrates must judge and those civill Courts are as lawfull consisting of naturall men as of Godly persons then what consequences will follow I have before mentioned Defender Mentioned indeed but not proved I hope by the helpe of Christ the inconsequence of them hath been cleared Discusser And I adde according to this Conclusion it must follow that if the most godly persons yeeld not to once or twice Admonition as is mainteyned by the Answerer they must necessarily be esteemed obstinate persons for if they were godly they would yeeld Defender Here againe the Discusser misreporteth my words For I did not say that if persons be godly they would yeeld to once or twice Admonition and if they did not yeeld to once or twice Admonition they must necessarily be esteemed obstinate persons But my words were The godly will not persist in Heresie or turbulent Schisme when they are convinced in Conscience of the sinfulnesse thereof Here is then a three-fold wresting of my
words accordingly so much false dealing For 1. Admonition is one thing Conviction in their owne Conscience is another For though Admonition ought not to be dispensed till after conviction yet it may fall out that the Church through mistake proceedeth to Admonition before the Offender be convinced in his own Conscience of the sinfulnesse of his way 2. He carrieth my words as if they who yeeld not to once or twice Admonition must needs be esteemed obstinate persons whereas I onely say they will not persist in Heresie that is in obstinacy of Fundamentall Error nor in turbulent Schisme when they are convinced in Conscience of the sinfulnesse thereof 3. He propoundeth my words generally as if I had said that godly persons in whatsovever Error they hold if they yeeld not to once or twice Admonition they must needs be esteemed obstinate whereas I spake not of every Error but of persisting in Heresie and turbulent Schisme But you may see how farre the love of an Error and desire of contention will transport the minde and spirit The two stories that he telleth upon this occasion in his next words because he nameth neither time nor persons nor occasions of the speeches which he representeth as odious a short Answer will serve to them 1. I have too much experience of the Discussers mistakes of permanent Printed words and therefore am affraid to credit every report of transient words spoken without further Testimony 2. The words might be spoken by some persons concerning others upon such occasions as I will by no meanes excuse or justifie but they might be spoken upon such weights as might justly hold weight in the Ballance of the Sanctuary The latter part of my Answer which he saith cometh not neere the Question I now understand so much by the Discusser but it did not so appeare to me by the Author of the Letter Discusser Mr. Cotton concludeth with a consident perswasion of having removed the grounds of that great Error viz. that persons are not to be persecuted for cause of Conscience Defender How hard a thing is it to write against the Truth and yet to speake with a lip of Truth Compare the words of my conclusion with the Discussers relation or representation thereof The words of my conclusion were these Thus much I thought needfull to be spoken for the avoyding of the grounds of your Error 1. Then let him speake what words of mine doe expresse the confidence of my perswasion It is true I belâ—ive and therefore speake what I have written but wherein did I blow up my beleife to a confident perswasion I thank God I doubt not of the truth of what I have written but it is one thing what I conceive in my minde another thing what I thinke meet to expresse 2. I doe not say in this conclusion that I have removed the grounds of his Error but that I have spoken so much for that end but whether I have done it or no according to the helpe of Christ received I leave others to judge 3. The name of a great Error is foisted in by himselfe ad exaggerandam gloriationis invidiam et indignitatem but though the Error be indeed great yet I did not so stile it when I spake of mine owne endeavour to remove the grounds of it 4. It is an evident falshood that I should conclude This to be that great Error That persons are not to be persecuted for cause of Conscience For it is that which in stating the Question I did in expresse termes deny that any was to be persecuted for cause of Conscience no not an Heretick no not in a Church-way much lesse in a civill way till being convinced in his owne Conscience of his wickednesse he do stand out therein not only against the Truth but against the light of his owne Conscience that so it may appeare he is not persecuted for cause of Conscience but punished for sinning against his Conscience Onely this I now further adde which I know not whether I had not occasion to speake to in this Discourse hitherto unlesse in a touch that sometime it may be an aggravation of sinne both in judgement and practise that a man holdeth it or committeth it in Conscience But that is onely in case when a man hath been wonted to sin so oft against his light and against the cleare Principles of Truth and godlinesse that it may appeare the just curse of God hath given him up to a reprobate-blinded-minde and seared Conscience But of that wee have not had occasion to dispute in this Discourse Discusser But I beleive it shall appeare That the charge of Error Reboundeth backc even such an Error as may be called the Bloudy-Tenent Defender I hope It hath by this time appeared in the former dispute through the blessing of Christ That that which he calleth the Bloudy-Tenent is washed white in the bloud of the Lambe and tendeth both to the ends for which the Prince of peace dyed viz. To the saving of his sheep from devouring to the dissolving of the cursed works of Satan to the maintenance of his Truth and to the preservation of sacred and civill peace both in Churches and Common-wealth CHAP. 78. A Reply to his Chap. 81. Defender TO the last Chapter of the Discusser I thinke it not worth the while to speake any thing it consisting cheifly of the Discussers selfe-applauses and vaine-glorious Triumphs As that he knoweth That the God the Spirit and Prince the Angells of peace and that all the true awaked sonnes of peace will call the Truth be meaneth this Doctrine of Toleration held forth by himselfe blessed That the contemplations thereof are sweet and pretious but Ob how sweet the actions and Fruitions That these lips of Truth to wit distilling in his Pen drop as the honey Combe Honey and milke are under her Tongue and oh that these drops these streames might flow without interruption Onely one passage of his glorious boasting I may not let passe without some Animad version because the Name of Christ is interested in it and dishonoured by it Discusser Were I saith he beleived in this That Christ is not delighted with the bloud of men but shed his owne bloud for his bloudyest enemies That by the word of Christ No man for gainsaying Christ or joyning with his enemy Antichrist should be molested with the Civill sword were this foundation laid and the Magna Charta of highest Liberties and good security given on all hands for the preservation of it How soone would every Brow and House be stuck with Olive Branches Whether this be not to Conclude with confident perswasion the same and farre greater then that which he noted in me even now I matter not Let him reserve conclusions with confident perswasions to himselfe alone Had he ground from the eternall word of Truth for such confidence It would never trouble me nor hurt him But this is not pleasing to Christ nor to the Spirit of his
wisdome and Truth that the Disousser should publish the delights of Christ in a confussed way without distinguishing things that differ and so not dividing the Word aright It is true that Christ delighteth not in the bloud of men but shed his owne for his bloudiest enemies and gainsayers to wit whilst they gainsaying him and bloudily persecute him or his out of ignorance In this case indeed he prayeth for them and dieth for them Father forgive them they know not what they doe Luk. 23.34 whilest wee were enemies Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 10. But to say that Christ delighteth not in the bloud of men who after the acknowledgement of his Truth doe tread the bloud of his Covenant under foote and wittingly and willingly reject him from reigning over them To hold it forth that Christ delighteth not in the bloud of such men or that he would not have such molested by the civill Sword who gainsay Christ known and professed and joyn with his enemy Antichrist in blaspheming and persecuting Christ and his Saints This the Discusser can never make good to be the word of Christ It is indeed to publish the glad Tidings of the Gospel not to the humble and meeke Lambes of Christ but to the seed of the Serpent to sow pillowes under all elbowes to make the hearts of the righteous sad whom God would not make sad and to strengthen the hands of the wicked in their Apostacy from the truth and malignity against it Christ hath pronounced it upon earth and ratifyed it in Heaven Those mine enemies that would not that I should reigne over them bring them hither and slay them before my face Luk. 19.27 Are these the words of him that delighteth not in the bloud of his bloudyest enemies and gainsayers when the Lord Jesus sendeth forth his servants to powre out bloudy vengeance upon Antichristian emissaries and openeth the hearts mouthes of his Saints to praise him for thus judging Rev. 16.4 7 Is this to proclaime a Magna-Charta of highest libertyes even to his gainsayers and to such as joyn with his enemy Antichrist Time was when Jehu justly demanded What peace what hast thou to doe with peace so long as the whor domes of thy Mother Jezebel and her witcherafts are so many 2 Kings 9.22 And are the times now so farre changed that the Sword of Jebu shall proclaime peace to Jezebel and peace to all that call her mother and peace to her whoredomes and peace to her witchcrafts and then to blesse our selves with a glorious expectation That soone shall every Brow and house be stucke with O live branches The Lord keepe us from being bewitched with the Whores cup lest whilst wee seeme to detest and reject her with open face of profession wee doe not bring her in by a back doore of Toleration and so come at last to drink deepely of the cup of the Lords wrath and be filled with the cup of her plagues Amen CHAP. 79. Touching the Modell of Church and civill Power composed by Mr. Cotton and the Ministers of New-England and sent to the Church of Salem c. Examined by the Discusser and Answered THis Title or Inscription which the Examiner setteth up of this Modell holdeth forth to the world a double falshood 1. That the Modell was composed by Mr. Cotton and other Ministers of New-England This is one falshood What other Ministers of New-England did in it themselves know But for Mr. Cotton I know that he was none of them that composed it 2. That this Modell was sent to the Church of Salem if he meane sent by those Ministers as the following words imply for the confirmation of their Doctrine that is another falshood The Ministers themselves that composed the Modell doe deny it Howsoever the Modell came to Salem the Ministers say it was not sent by them But see when men are left of God openly and boldly to write against the truth in matter of Doctrin how readily and freely they can write and speake falshood in matter of fact It is therefore lesse marvell that in Answer to the preface of the Modell he breaketh forth into such vast hyperboles That the Modell awakeneth Meses from his unknowne Grave and denyeth Jesus yet to have seen the earth A speech as devoid of reason as of truth The observation of Moses Lawes doth not awaken Moses out of his grave nor is there any reason it should The validity of Lawes doth not in reason depend upon the life or resurrection of the Lawgiver the Examiner himselfe I suppose would not doubt but the Lawes of Moses were of force to the Israelites in the Land of Canaan when yet Moses was dead and buried before their entrance into the Land Neither did their observation of them awaken Moses out of his grave but argued his Lawes to be in force as well after his death as whilst he was yet living If it be said That Christ at his coming in the flesh when he was buried himselfe buried also the Lawes of Moses with him in his grave Then the Examiner should not have said that the Modell raised up Moses out of his grave but that it raised up Christ out of his grave If it be said againe the Examiner saith It denyed Christ to have seen the earth which was of as ill consequence Be it so but yet still this maketh nothing to the rasing up of Moses out of his grave I Answer further Neither doth it at all deny Christ to have seen the earth For Christ came not to destroy the Law of Moses Mat. 5.17 Neither the Morall Law for in the sequele of that Chapter he doth at large expound it and establish it No nor did he come to destroy the judiciall Lawes such of them as are of Morall equity Or else the Conscience of the civill Magistrate could never doe any act of civill justice out of faith because he should have no word of God to be the ground of his action if the Lawes of judgement in the Old-Testament were abrogated and none extant in the New As for the exception which the Examiner taketh against the Preface It is as easily avoided as Objected If saith he the civill Magistrate even the highest being a Member of the Church be subject to Church-Censure how can this stand with their common Tenent that he must keepe the first Table Reforme the Church be Judge and Governor in all causes as well ecclesiasticall as Civill Secondly how can a Magistrate both sit on the Bench and stand at the Bar of Christ Jesus Is it not as impossible as to reconcile east and west together Yea is not the Text in Isa 49 23. Lamentably wrested to prove both these Reply One Answer may easily remove both Exceptions And that one Text doth expresly hold forth both these Points which the Examiner conceiveth to be so irreconcilable For if Princes be nursing Fathers to the Church as that Text speaketh then they are to provide that the children of
the Church be not nursed with poison in stead of milke And in so doing they keepe the first Table Reforme the Church judge in causes Ecclesiasticall Againe If the the same Princes shall bow down to the Church with their faces towards the earth and lick the dust of her feet as the same Text expresseth then they being members of the Church shall be subject also to Church-Censure In one word Princes sit on the Bench over the Church in the offensive Government of the Church yet may themselves being members of the Church be subject to Church-Censure in the offensive Government of themselves against the Rules of the Gospel The Examiner himselfe contesseth that in severall respects He that is a governor may be also a Subject Behold here are severall respects to wit severall objects of Judicature In the Mal-Administration of the Church the Magistrate sitteth as Judge and Governor in the Mal-Administration of a Church-Member-Magistrate contrary to the expresse rules of the Gospel he is subject to the power of Christ in the Church If it be said nay rather The Church is subject to the Magistrate in civill causes and the Magistrate is subject to the Church in spirituall causes I Answer That easeth not the difficulty no more then the other For suppose the Magistrate a Church member live in Incest breake forth into murder and notorious oppression these are all civill causes belonging to the second Table If the Magistrate sit as Judge and supreme Governor in this case then must the Church tolerate him herein to the dishonour of the great Name of Christ to the leavening of the Church and to the perdition of his soule If it be granted that in such a case though civill the Church is bound to deale faithfully with the Magistrate and not to suffer sinne upon him let the like power be granted to the Magistrate to deale faithfully with the Church in the notorious transgressions of the first Table as is granted to the Church to deale with the Magistrate in the notorious transgressions of the second Table and the controversie is ended If any further matter be claimed in making the Supreme Magistrate the Supreme Judge and Governor in all causes aswell Ecclesiasticall as civill I doe not understand that the Ministers or Churches of Christ are called to acknowledge such a meaning Sure I am the Interpretation of that high stile which godly learned Reynolds made of it in the 10. Chap. of his Conference with Hart It was accepted of the State in the dayes of Queene Elizabeth And the same Interpretation if no more be intended by that stile doth well stand with our defence But wherefore doe I put my Sicle into the Harvest of my Brethren my Brethren who penned that Modell are richly furnished by Christ with ability to defend it I therefore leave it to them whom it cheifly concerneth to maintaine the Truth which themselves have witnessed in that Modell And the Lord Jesus Christ himself the God of Truth who came into the world that he might beare witnesse to the Truth be pleased to beare witnesse from Heaven to his owne Truth and bl … that peace a fraudulent and false peace which the Examiner proclaimeth to all the wayes of falshood in Religion to Heresie in Doctrine to Idolatry in worship to blasphemy of the great Name of God to Pollution and prophanation of all his holy Ordiannces Amen Even So Come Lord Jesus A REPLY TO Mr. VVILLIAMS his EXAMINATION And Answer of the Letters sent to him by JOHN COTTON SUch a Letter to such a purpose I doe remember I wrote unto Mr. Williams about halfe a score yeares agoe But whether this printed Letter be a true Copie thereof or no I doe not know for the Letter being sent so long since and no Copie of it that I can finde reserved by me I can own it no further then I finde the matter and style expressing the judgement which I then had of his cause of Separation and the affection I bare unto his person And for ought I see the Letter doth not unfitly expresse both But how it came to be put in print I cannot imagine Sure I am it was without my privitie and when I heard of it it was to me unwelcome Newes as knowing the truth and weight of Plinies speech Aliud est scribere uni aliud omnibus There be who thinke it was published by Mr. Williams himselfe or by some of his friends who had the Copie from him Which latter might be the more probable because himselfe denieth the publishing of it and it sticketh in my mind that I received many yeares agoe a refutation of it in a brotherly and ingenuous way from a stranger to me but one as I heare well affected to him Mr. Sabine Staresmore To whom I had long agoe returned an Answer but that he did not direct me where my Letter might find him But I doe not suspect Mr. Staresmore nor Mr. Williams himselfe to have published it but rather some other unadvised Christian who having gotten a copie of the Letter tooke more libertie then God alloweth to draw forth a private Admonition to publick notice in a disorderly way But howsoever it was upon the publishing of this Letter Mr. Williams hath taken occasion as is observed by some who are acquainted with the Spirit of the man first to rise up against me the meanest of many in the examining and resuting of that Letter And then as if one Mordecai were too small a morsell to stand forth against all the Churches and Elders in New-England in his Bloudy Tenent And then as if New-England were but an handfull from thence to rise up against the choisest Ornaments of two populous Nations England and Scotland the reverend Assembly of Divines together with the reverend Brethren of the Apology and above them all to addresse himselfe according to his high thoughts to propound Quaeries of high concernment as he calleth them to the High and Honourable Court of Parliament So a Bird of prey affecting to soare aloft getteth first upon the top of a molehill and from thence taketh his rise from Pale to Tree till he have surmounted the highest Mountaines In this apprehension of him they are the more confirmed as having discerned the like frame of Spirit in his former walking amongst us Time was when of all Christian Churches the Churches of New-England were accounted and professed by him to be the most pure and of all the Churches in New-England Salem where himselfe was Teacher to be the most pure But when the Churches of New-England tooke just offence at sundry of his proceedings he first renounced communion with them all and because the Church of Salem refused to joyne with him in such a groundlesse Censure he then renounced communion with Salem also And then fell off from his Ministery and then from all Church-fellowship and then from his Baptisme and was himselfe baptized againe and then from the Lords Supper and
against him was an act of Persecution 3. Nor did I ever see cause to doubt but that in some cases such as this of his was Banishment is a lawfull and just punishment if it be in proper speech a punishment at all in such a Countrey as this is where the Jurisdiction whence a man is banished is but small and the Countrey round about it large and fruitfull where a man may make his choice of variety of more pleasant and profitable seats then he leaveth behinde him In which respect Banishment in this Countrey is not counted so much a confinement as an enlargement where a man doth not so much loose civill comforts as change them And as for spirituall liberties liberty of Church Ordinances they were a burden and bondage to his spirit here And therefore he cast them off before they left him neither doth he to this day look at it as a way of God for any Christian man to look after the Ordinances of God in a Church-estate at all As conceiving that the Apostasie of Antichrist hath so farre corrupted all that there can be no recovery out of that Apostasie till Christ shall send forth new Apostles to plant Churches anew But as for the true cause why I medled not in his civill Censure it was chiefly because Civill Censures belong unto another Kingdome then that which we are called to administer Civill Censures are not the weapons of our warfare and partly also because I was carried as still I am with a compassion of his Person and likewise of his wife a woman as then of a meek and modest spirit who a long time suffered in spirit as I was informed for his offensive course which occasioned him for a season to withdraw communion in spirituall duties even from her also till at length he drew her to partake with him in the errour of his way But Mr. Williams affirmeth That in Letters past between him and me he proved and exprest that if he had perished in that sorrowfull winters flight onely the bloud of Christ could have washed me from the guilt of his Answ That he did expresse such a thing in some Letters to me as I doe not remember it so neither will I deny it but that he proved it I may as safely deny it as he boldly affirme it Could he then have given any such proofes doubtlesse he would not have concealed them now when he undertaketh to cleare to the world the pretended innocency of himselfe and the supposed iniquitie of his supposed Persecutors How precious the bloud of Christ is to me and how needfull I blesse the Lord my soule knoweth but that I needed it to wash away the guilt of any injurious proceedings against the bloud of Mr. Williams I speake it in holy confidence I never discerned it to this day The proofes which he alledgeth in the sequell for my hand in his Banishment I shall God willing cleare them anon in due place Meane while what answers I made to him concerning the same in other Letters he wisely concealeth but contenteth himselfe to tell us that my finall Answer was That had he perished in his flight his bloud had been upon his own head It was his sinne to procure it and his sorrow to suffer it If this was my finall Answer it seemeth I gave him other former Answers what they were I have now forgotten but I suppose had they been insufficient or impertinent I should have heard of them But what is amisse in this finall Answer The margent noteth it as an unmercifull speech of a mercifull man But when it shall please the Father of mercies of soften the heart of Mr. Williams and to give him an heart and eare to hearken unto the wholesome Counsell of his true friends he will at length see the speech was truly mercifull as well as the man that spake it When a Fountaine is opened to Hierusalem for sinne and for uncleannesse the Prophets who have deceived the people shall at length see and acknowledge their errour and being demanded the cause of the wounds in their hands They shall answer each of them for himselfe thus was I wounded in the house of my Friends Zach. 13.1 with verses 4 5 6. An heart softened with the Bloud of Christ will judge the wounds of his friends faithfull Prov. 27.6 I meane such reproofes for sinne which though they may seeme to wound yet wound to heale David thought such smiting to be a kindnesse yea an excellent Oyle which doth not breake the head but heale the heart Psal 141.5 There is one thing more in his Epistle to the Reader which calleth for Answer It cannot now saith he be justly offensive that finding this Letter publick by whose procurement I know not I now present to publick view my formerly intended Answer Answ It had not been offensive to me that he did present his Answer to publick view if he found my Letter publick without his own or his friends procurement especially if his Answer had been returned in words of truth and faithfulnesse Which how farre they fall short of I hope by the help of Christ will appeare in the sequell Meane while I feare it is justly offensive to the Spirit of Grace and Love That whereas he judged me to allow my selfe and others to rest securely in the Doctrine and Practise of bloudy Persecution that all this while even for the space of nine or ten yeares he suffered me to sleep so long so quietly under the guilt of such a crying sinne Nay it may seeme by his own words if he had not found my Letter publick it may be doubted whether ever I should have heard any further word from him hereabouts at all If I had been esteemed as a Brother sinne should not have been suffered to lie so long upon a Brother Levit. 19.17 If an enemy yet the very Oxe or Asse of an enemy is not to be suffered to lye so long groveling under his burden Deut. 22.4 But when he addeth in the next sentence That he rejoyceth in the goodnesse and wisedome of him who is the Father of lights and mercies in ordering the season of his own present opportunitie of Answer I confesse we on the contrary have cause to admire and adore the wisdome and dreadfull Justice of God herein That seeing Mr. Williams hath been now as a branch cut off from the Church of Salem these many yeares he should bring forth no spirituall good fruits in due season and that which he bringeth forth now at the last is bitter and wild fruit and that in such a season when the Spirit of Error is let loose to deceive so many thousand soules of our English Nation So that now their hearts are become as Tinder ready to catch and kindle at every sparke of false light Even so O Father because thy good pleasure is such to let loose this Spirit of Error in the mouth of this Backslider in the very houre and power of darknesse
those words Come out of Babel my People locall separation be intended yet when he addeth Lest yee be partakers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her sinnes I beleeve spirituall separation is much more required and locall separation as a meanes the better to attaine that end of spirituall separation from partaking in her sinnes Which may also cleare the meaning of the Text and the fraud of the Examiner For the words are not as he alledgeth them Come out of Babel my people Partake not of her sinnes For so the latter part might be an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or explanation of the former Coming out of Babel might be all one with Partake not of her sinnes But the words of the Text be Come out of her my People that yee be not partaker of her sinnes Which plainly argueth that coming out of Babel locally is a meanes to prevent partaking in her sinnes spiritually It is true which he saith The Lord Jesus hath broken downe all difference of Places Joh. 4. and all difference of Persons Acts 10. To wit in regard of ceremoniall pollution or ceremoniall holinesse But if he thinke there is no difference between one Citie or Countrey more then another in morall pollutions of Idolatry superstition unrighteousnesse and uncleannesse he maketh himselfe a greater stranger both to the Word and to the world then I did thinke he had been The two causes of Gods Indignation against England which he suggesteth are worthy due consideration and attention I would rather say Amen to them then weaken the weight of them Onely I should so assent to the latter as not to moove for a Toleration of all Dissenters Dissenters in Fundamentalls and that out of obstinacy against conscience and Seducers to the perdition of soules and to the disturbance of Civill and Church-Peace but onely of such Dissenters as vary either in matters of lesse weight or of fundamentall yet not out of wilfull obstinacy but out of tendernesse of Conscience As for the Controversie which the Examiner saith He hath with me Whether false worship be not onely locall but a spirituall Guilt and not onely a Guilt but also an Habit c. I doe acknowledge no such controversie between us I wholly consent with him in the Point Onely I doe not beleeve all that to be either a Guilt or an Habit of false worship which he doth imagine but in his termes I accord TO CHAP. XVI HIs 16th Chapter is taken up in Examining and Answering the Exposition which my Letter gave of that Text formerly alledged 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16. Of which I said 1. That the Text onely requireth Coming out from Idolaters in the fellowship of their Idolatry No Marriages were they to make with them No Feasts were they to hold with them in the Idolls Temples No intimate Familiaritie were they to maintaine with them Nor any Fellowship were they to keepe with them in the unfruitfull workes of Darknesse And this is all which the place requireth But what maketh all this to proove that we may not receive such Persons to Church-fellowship as our selves confesse to be godly and who doe professedly bewaile and renounce all knowne sinne and would renounce more if they knew more Although it may be they doe not see the utmost skirts of all that pollution they have sometimes been defiled with as the Patriarchs saw not the pollution of their Polygamy In Answer to this the Examiner telleth us 1. That if the regenerate and prepenting English did come thus farre forth it would availe much to the sanctifying of the Name of the Lord Jesus to the pacifying of his jealousie c. Reply But this is no Answer at all unlesse he did assume that our repenting English did not come thus farre forth Therefore he giveth for another Answer that which is indeed but a part of this That according to the former Distinction of Godly Persons who possibly may live in ungodly practises especially of false worship And then according to Mr. Cottons Interpretation they come not forth Reply That former Distinction hath been considered above and weighed but hath been found impertinent to the case in hand The Examiner neither doth nor ever will make it good That the Godly persons amongst us doe live in any ungodly practises of false worship Nor doe they take his Affirmation without any mention of Scripture-ground for a sufficient conviction But saith he if there be any voyce of Christ in the mouths of his witnesses against these sinnes they are not then of ignorance but negligence and spirituall hardnesse against the wayes of Gods seare Isai 63. c. Reply If there be saith he any voyce of Christ in the mouths of his witnesses against these sinnes c. If there be he doth not say there be And if there were how doth it appeare that their voyce is the voyce of Christ or that they be the witnesses of Christ in whose mouths this voyce is How easie had it been for the Examiner if he himselfe knew any such voyce of Christ in the mouths of any of his witnesses against these sinnes of false worship which our godly Brethren doe live in to have alledged the same and the word of Christ which might have been witnesse to the voyce of those witnesses But these Ifs and Overtures will neither convince nor edifie others nor justifie himselfe Besides what if there be some witnesses have testified against the false worship in England and against the hearing of those Ministers by reason of that false worship What if the Godly Persons of whom he speaketh here are not so ignorant but they know what those witnesses have said nor so negligent but they have duly considered and pondered the same and weighing it in the Ballance of the Scriptures have found it too light Is it spirituall hardnesse to choose rather to feare God and his Word then to feare the false Interpretations and Applications of it by the spirit of Error The word of the Lord wee reverence and acknowledge Come not yee to Gilgall neither goe yee up to Bethaven But doe wee come to Gilgall or goe up to Bethaven when we heare the word of the Lord from the godly Preachers in the Parishes in England If such alledgements of Scripture may goe for the voyce of Christ in the mouths of his witnesses we shall soone forget the Counsell of Solomon Cease my Sonne to heare the Instruction which causeth to erre from the words of knowledge Pro. 19.27 The Apostle John hath long since directed us Hereby know we the spirit of Truth and the spirit of Error He that knoweth God heareth us that is the Apostles and those that preach their Doctrine He that is not of God heareth us not 1 Joh. 4.6 But for another Answer the Examiner proceedeth Moreover saith he the Question is not of the utmost skirts of pollution but the substance of a true and false Bed of worship Cant. 1.16 In respect of coming out of the false before the entrance
knowne and secret and the faith of the godly party is more able to sanctifie the corrupt and uncleane sort to their Communion then the corruption of the uncleane sort is able to corrupt the Minister and Worship and Church-estate of all To CHAP. XXVIII IN this last Chapter of his though he doe repeate some passages of the close of my Letter yet I doe not discerne how his Answer is fitted at all to those passages Neverthelesse because he is pleased to gather from those passages That I have not duly considered sundry particulars I am willing to take up the consideration of them for a Conclusion The first particular is The necessitie of Separation between the garden of the Church and the wildernesse of the world As the Church of the Jewes under the old Testament was separate from the world so ought the Church of the New Testament to be Reply 1. Of this particular I have considered not in a confused generalitie as he delivereth it but in a distinct apprehension thus The world is taken in Scripture more wayes then one and so is separation The world is taken sometimes for the frame of heaven and earth and all the hosts of them man and beast c. as when God is said to have made the world Act. 17.24 Sometimes for the state of the world as when Christ is said to have redeemed us from this present evill world Gal. 1.4 Sometimes for the Civill Government of this world as when the Apostle exhorteth the Romans not to conforme their Church-bodies according to the platforme of the Romane Monarchy into Oecumenicall Nationall Provinciall Diocesan Bodies Rom. 12.2 Sometime for the wicked of the world as when it is said The world loveth his own Joh. 15.19 And the whole world lyeth in wickednesse 1 Joh. 5.19 Sometimes likewise for the corruption that is in the world 2 Pet. 1.4 The lusts of the world 1 Joh. 2.16 In like manner there be more wayes of Separation then one As first there is a separation in affection Love not the world 1 Joh. 2.16 Jam. 4.4 Secondly there is a separation in habitation which is part of the meaning of Isai 52.11 Revel 18.4 Thirdly there is a separation of Communion 2 Cor. 6.14 to 17th Besides there be diversities likewise of Communion for there is a Civill Communion and there is a religious Communion And of either sort there is a confederate Communion And there is a Communion without confederacy And of confederate Communion there is a confederacy in matters of common civilitie and there is a confederacy in matters of more intimate friendship societie and familiaritie To apply these different considerations of the world and of Separations according to the due and right apprehension thereof in the word of truth First It is lawfull to have civill peace and loving correspondency with neighbours in the world yea even with Idolaters and Infidels so as not onely to trade with them but to feast with them yea and to succour them in their distresses Rom. 12.18 1 Cor. 10.27 Luk. 10.34 Secondly It is lawfull to make leagues of peace with all men in the world even with Idolaters and Infidels to wit for free commerce for trade and inoffensive neighbourhood Gen. 31.44 to 53. Judg. 4.17 Thirdly It is lawfull for the Subjects of the same State to enter into confederacy amongst themselves and with their Princes to submit to the same Civill Government and Lawes and to assist one another in mutuall defence against a common enemy 2 Sam. 5.3 Eccles 8.3 But on the other side this consideration I have had of Separation from the world which the Examiner may consider whether it be due or no. First That from the world as taken for the creatures of the world we are to separate in affection to wit from the inordinate love thereof Jam. 4.4 Secondly From the world as taken for the carnall malignant estate of it we are to separate both in our affection and in our conversation Gal. 1.4 Phil. 3.20 Thirdly From the world as taken for the Civill Government of it we are to separate our Church-bodies and the government thereof in frame and constitution Rom. 12.1 2. Fourthly From the world as taken for the Cities and Countreys thereof which are fit to pollute us with their prevalent pollutions we are to separate in our habitations which is part of the meaning of Isai 52.11 Rev. 18.4 Fiftly From the world as taken for the corruptions and lusts thereof their evill examples corrupt worship Idolatries superstitions vaine fashions and the worldly persons addicted to these things we are to separate both in affection and in Communion whether we speake of religious Communion or of Civill Confederate Communion in matters of intimate friendship society and familiaritie As we may not partake in Idolatrous feasts or worship nor enter into marriage-Covenant with Idolaters 2 Cor. 6.14 to 17. Nor may we confederate with them in leagues of amitie to have friends and enemies in common 1 Kings 20.4 nor to have partnership in trade and commerce 2 Chron. 20.35 36 37. Sixtly There is yet another separation whereby the Church and people of God doe separate from the scandalous offenders of their own body 2 Thes 3.6 1 Cor. 5.11 This though it be in a speciall manner aymed at here by the Examiner yet is it by him most improperly and confusedly called separation from the world The Apostle doth most expresly contradistinguish these the one from the other I wrote unto you saith he in an Epistle not to company with fornicators yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with Idolaters for then must yee needs goe out of the world But if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an Idolater with such an one no not to eate 1 Cor. 5.9 10 11. As who should say a fornicator or Idolatrous brother of the Church is one thing a fornicator and Idolater of the world is another from a fornicator or Idolatrous brother you are to be separate from a fornicator or Idolater of the world in some kinde you need not to separate In as much therefore as the Churches of England doe not separate sundry notorious scandalous persons from their Church-Communion though it be a leavening corruption yet their sinne is not want of Separation from the world but want of purification of the Church In the meane time they are separated from the world of Pagans and Infidels as the Church of Israel notwithstanding their toleration of all sorts of offenders Idolaters murderers adulterers they were yet separated from Pagans by profession of a different Religion and the ordinances thereof The second particular which the Examiner saith Mr. Cotton hath not duely considered is That all the grounds and principles leading to oppose Bishops Ceremonies Common Prayer prostitution of the Ordinances of brist to the ungodly and the true practise of Christs own Ordinances doe necessarily conclude a
THE BLOUDY TENENT WASHED And made white in the bloud of the Lambe being discussed and discharged of bloud-guiltinesse by just Defence WHEREIN The great Questions of this present time are handled viz. How farre Liberty of Conscience ought to be given to those that truly feare God And how farre restrained to turbulent and pestilent persons that not onely raze the foundation of Godlinesse but disturb the Civill Peace where they live Also how farre the Magistrate may proceed in the duties of the first Table And that all Magistrates ought to study the word and will of God that they may frame their Government according to it DISCUSSED As they are alledged from divers Scriptures out of the Old and New Testament Wherein also the practise of Princes is debated together with the Judgement of Ancient and late Writers of most precious esteeme Whereunto is added a Reply to Mr. WILLIAMS Answer to Mr. COTTONS Letter BY JOHN COTTON Batchelor in Divinity and Teacher of the Church of Christ at Boston in New-England LONDON Printed by Matthew Symmons for Hannah Allen at the Crowne in Popes-Head-Alley 1647. THE BLOODY TENET WASHED AND MADE WHITE IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMBE OR The Bloody Tenet discust and discharg'd of bloud-guiltinesse by Just defence CHAP. I. THE Bloody Tenet I meane the booke stiled by that name tending to discusse an holy wholesome truth of God slanderously stiled the Bloudy Tenet was put forth against the Royall Law of the love of the Gospel Mr. Williams sent me about a dozen yeares agoe as I remember a letter penned as he wrote by a Prisoner in Newgate touching persecution for Conscience sake and intreated my judgement of it for the satisfaction of his friend I wa not willing to deny him any office of Christian love and gave him my poore judgement in a private letter This private letter of mine he hath published in Print after so many yeares and there with a Resuration of it If my letter was Orthodoxall and tending to satisfaction and edification why did he refute it If corrupt and erronious especially if bloudy why did he publish it The letter and so the error contained in it if it was an error it was private and so private that I know no man that hath a coppy of it no not my selfe who penned it for ought I could find but himselfe onely if I did offend him by the writing of such an error to him though by himselfe intreated to expresse my judgement let him remember he pleadeth for libertie of conscience I wrote my conscience and the truth of God according to my conscience in the sight of God Why should he punish me with open pennance and expose me as much as in him lieth before the world to open shame as a man of bloud for the liberty of my conscience How will it stand with his owne principles to plead for liberty of conscience and yet to punish it Besides let him remember if I did offend him with such an error it was but a private offence and the rule of the Gospel required he should first have convinced and admonished me privately of it and so have proceeded upon my contumacy at length to have told the Church before he had published it to the world But such as seeke for new Apostles must seeke also for new Gospel before this manner of dealing can be justified by the Gospel of Christ That booke of his therefore being thus begun against the rule of the Gospel no marvell if it swarve from the truth of the Gospel all a long He that setteth forth out of his way in the first entrance of his journey no marvell if he wander all the day after CHAP. 2. Of the title he prefixeth to my answere of the prisoners letter IN printing my answer to the prisoners Letter he prefixeth thititle The answer of Mr. John Cotton of Boston in New-Englands professedly maintaining Persecution for cause of Conscience This Title trespasseth not onely against the Creator of Christian love which is wont to take even doubtfull things in the fairest sense but even against the Law of truth For in the whole purport of my Answer to the Letter both in stating the Question and in answering Objections I expresly professe 1. That no man is to be persecuted at all much lesse for Conscience sake because all persecution is oppression for Righteousnesse sake 2. I Professe further That none is to be punishâ—d for his Conscience sake though Erroneous unlesse his Errors be Fundamentall or seditiously and turbulently promoted and that after due conviction of Conscience That it may appeare he is not punished for his Conscience but for sinning against his Conscience Thus whilest he pleadeth for Liberty of Conscience he taketh Liberty to his Conscience openly to publish That I do professedly maintaine Persecution for cause of Conscience When I doe in expresse tearmes professedly Renounce it This Liberty of Conscience setteth the Conscience at Liberty Calumniandi audacter Object But it may be by consequence I doe maintaine Persecution for cause of Conscience though in expresse tearmes I professedly Renounce it Ans 1. What if such a thing might be inferr'd by consequence mens judgements and professions are not to be taken up from every unwary consequence against their owne positive and expresse Declarations and Professions It is iustly taxed in Bellarmine as a slanderous Calumny that he bringeth in Luther Calvine Martyr Bucer makeing God the Authour of sinne which all of them in expresse tearmes doe auoyde yet he would fasten such a blasphemous Tenet upon them forsooth by consequences In like sort by the like consequences is the Bloudy Tenet fastened upon me When the eyes are bloud-shotten or looke through a red glasse all things about them will appeare red and bloudy But if this Tenet have any appearance of blood in it It is because it is washed in the Bloud of the Lambe and sealed with his bloud And then though it may seeme Bloudy to men of corrupt mindes destitute of the truth as Paul seemed to such to be a Pestilent fellow yet to faithful and upright soules such things as are washed in the Bloud of the Lambe are wont to come forth white as did the followers of the Lambe who washed their Robes white in the Bloud of the Lambe Rev 7.14 CHAP. 3. A reply to the third Chapter of the Bloudy Tenet discust what is a cause of Conscience in generall IN stateing of the Question I propounded some distinctions for clearing of the Point The 1. was this in mine Answer to the Letter of the Prisoner By Persecution for cause of Conscience I conceive you meane either for professing some point of Doctrine which you beleive in Conscience to be the Truth or for practising some worke which you beleive in Conscience to be a Religious duty Discusser This distinction is not full and compleate For besides both these a man may be persecuted for cause of Conscience because he dare not be constrained to