in Controversie by when the truth of this Text is questionable upon the same grounds that the truth of the Scriptures in general is Again When they say that the Testimony of the Church is the Ground of this our Faith they tell us that by the Church they mean the Church of Rome and that She onely is the True Church We reply that there are a many Societies of Christians in the World that hold no Communion with the Church of Rome and Each of these calls it self a True Church and therefore how shall we know that they are none of them so but that the Church of Rome alone is They tell us that this Church alone hath the Notes and Characters of the True Church We ask again how it doth appear that those Notes and Characters they give are true and genuine and if they are that their Church onely hath them Here they are forced to fly again to the Scriptures and produce us some which they would have us believe are very pertinent to the purpose though none but those who see by their Light are able to discern any such matter But whether they be to the purpose or no is no part now of our Enquiry but this is that which we shew from hence how still they are intangled in their own Net and Run round in a Circle Yet once again these People would perswade us that there is no knowing the Scriptures to be of Divine Authority but by the Testimony of their Church whenas 't is impossible to know that there is any such thing in being as a Church but by the Scriptures And thus you see what prime Christians these Romanists are what Worthy Catholicks If there were no better Champions than these for the Authority of the Scriptures or the Truth of Christianity Atheists and Infidels long since would have filled all Places As it is well known how they abound in the Popish Countries and most of all in Italy and of all Italy most in Rome And but for Old Mother Ignorance whom they have a marvellous Fondness for as well they may their Holy Mother the Church would by this time have had but a very small number of Children or Friends But I would this had been the worst on 't as alas it is not For Multitudes among them being well aware that they are merely imposed on and being Acquainted with no better than an Implicit Faith and thinking that no more is to be said for Christianity than they learn from them shake off both their Popish and Christian Faith together But we must not let that forementioned Text wholly pass on which is laid such mighty Stress for the proving of the Infallibility of the Roman Church which gives her such a plausible Pretence for the Enslaving of Mens Minds and Understandings The whole Verse runs thus with the Verse foregoing Thâ—â—e things write I unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the living God the Pillar and Ground of Truth According to Episcopius his reading of these latter words it is not the Church that is here called the Pillar and Ground of Truth but God manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit c. in the next Verse For he makes that 15. Verse to conclude with living God Verses and Pointings being arbitrary and The Pillar and Ground of Truth to begin the next Verse thus The Pillar and Ground of Truth and without controversie the great Mystery of Godliness is God manifested in the flesh c. But there is no need of using any artifice to make these words unserviceable to the design of proving the Infallibility of the Church of Rome for all that can be gathered from them is no more than this That the Church is the support of that Truth which is necessary to Salvation viz. the Doctrine of the Gospel That which preserveth it in the world is the Churches constant profession of it and standing up for it That is this is the External and Visible means whereby this Truth is kept from perishing and being lost Or according to Grotius The Church doth uphold and lift up the Truth it causeth it not to slip out of mens minds and also to be beheld far and near For the Testimony of many good men who all say that they received these Doctrines and Precepts from the Apostles must needs have great force and efficacy upon those who are not obstinate and contumacious So that First This Great man seems to understand by the Church in this place onely that which was most Ancient But Secondly There is no reason at all to understand by the Church here onely the Church Representative but the whole Body of Christians must necessarily be meant It being called the House of God but the Apostles Bishops and Pastors are called the Builders of the House and Governours never the House it self And besides the Church which is here called the Pillar and Ground of Truth is that over part of which Timothy presided That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God c. that is as a Bishop and Pastor in it Thirdly If it should be understood of the Church Representative 't is however intolerable impudence to make it onely the Roman But Fourthly This Text makes nothing to the purpose of Infallibility in the Church of Rome's sence understand by the Church of the living God which Church you please especially if you do not limit it to the First Age As is plain from what hath been said and it needs no more words to make it plainer Now how can we have greater assurance that the Church of Rome is an Arrant Impostor than this one thing gives us viz. That She will not allow us the Liberty of judging for our selves The Great Apostle S. Paul allowed this Liberty to the Corinthians in those words I speak as unto wise men judge â—e what I say 1 Cor. 10. 15. And dare they say that he overshot himself in that saying or passed a mere Complement upon the Corinthians 'T will not be at all strange if they do considering how many worse things several of them have said of this Apostle But I say this Church will not permit us to see with our own Eyes but we must take the whole of our Religion upon trust that is upon her bare word pin our whole Faith upon her Sleeve and receive the most Fundamental Articles upon her Warrant and Authority Nay though she would seem to give us leave to use our Reason in the choice of our Church yet neither doth she this really but what she gives with one hand takes away again with the other in that she will not suffer us to judge of the sence of Scripture and consequently not of those Texts whereby she pretends to prove her self the onely true Church For if we be
besides her Authority She will have your Assent to their being of Divine Authority to depend wholly upon her Testimony Notwithstanding that God Almighty hath vouchsafed to the World marvellously full and plentiful Evidence thereof and such as is adapted to the capacities of all those who have the use of Reason but never once mentioned this as a part of that Evidence and therefore much less can it be thought the Whole How infinitely ill hath this Corrupt Church deserved at the hands of all Christians although this were the onely Abuse she had put upon them For to say nothing of her Horrible Pride and Uncharitableness in making the truth of the Scriptures dependent on her Testimony that her Pretence supposing her making her self the onely true Church this is the greatest injury imaginable to Christianity nor can she take a surer course than this to make all men Infidels And that upon these two Accounts First This Pretence of hers is immediately founded upon a Precarious and most Evidently false Principle viz. That of her Infallibility I dare appeal to those of her own Sons who have studied the Controversie whether there was ever a more shamefully baffled Cause in the World than this is Whether by their Infallible Church they mean with the Iesuits the Pope alone or with others the Pope with his General Council that is a pack of Bishops and Priests of his own Faction As the Psalmist saith If the Foundations be destroyed what shall the Righteous do So if this be the Foundation of our Christian Faith and that be proved to be a Rotten Foundation as nothing was ever proved if this be not then what shall we Christians do We must then acknowledge our selves a Generation of most Credulous Fools and that our Faith is vain If the Foundation be tottering the whole Superstructure must fall to the Ground But so fond is this Unsatiably Covetous and Ambitious Church of her Great Diana Infallibility by the Pretence whereof she hath raised her self to such a Height and Grandeur that she is well content if that must fall that our Saviour and his Apostles both the Old and New Testament should fall with it And she hath done all that lies in her to make it necessary that those who shall have the wisdom to reject her Ridiculous Doctrine of Infallibility should at the self-same time renounce Christianity If Popery were Chargeable with no other Crime as it is with innumerable others and many of them intolerable I say were it Chargeable with no other Crime but the making our Belief of the Authority of the Books of Scripture to be founded on the Infallibility of the Romish Faction we ought to be as zealous for the Preventing its Reestablishment in this Nation from whence it hath happily been twice Expelled as we are desirous to Preserve the Christian Religion Secondly The Romish Churche's making her Authority the sole Foundation of our Belief of the Scriptures makes the Testimony of the Spirit to the Truth of Christianity in our Saviour when on â—arth and in the Apostles and others in the Primitive Ages to be now perfectly Insignificant I think it makes them to be so as to the Church Representative for she pretends to her Infallibility and consequently to her Infallible Assurance of the Truth of Christianity as an immediâ—te Gift of the Holy Ghost therefore what need hath she of the Testimony of Miracles But as to Private Christians I can by no means understand in what stead they stand them for if the Churches Authority be necessary to their believing the truth of the Scriptures and therefore to their believing that there were those Miracles really wrought which the Writings of the Apostles tell us of then why may they not without any more ado make her Authority the immediate ground of their Assent to the truth of Christianity It is said that the truth of the Matters of Fact are not knowable at this distance such as whether there were such Persons as our Saviour and his Apostles whether they performed such Miracles and the Apostles wrote such Books c. but by the Tradition of the Church because no such Matters are to be known at any considerable distance but by Tradition To this it is Answered that it is one thing to believe the Matters of Fact upon the Churche's Tradition and another to believe them upon her Authority founded upon her Infallibility Now this latter we reject but adhere to the former as a Ground of our belief of those things But then by the Tradition of the Church we are far from meaning that of Rome onely We mean the Catholick Church or the whole Collective Body of Christians throughout the World from the Apostles times down to this present Age of which the Roman Church is but a Part and therefore does Impudently in appropriating Catholicism to her self and that a very Vitiated Part too and that Church Representative an exceedingly small Part. And we receive the Tradition of the Catholick Church as a Ground as I said of believing these Matters not as tâ—e Ground because we take in another Tradition viz. that of those who are out of the Church and Enemies to Christianity the Iews especially In short we believe those and the like matters of Fact upon the same ground that we believe all other wherein Religion is not concerned but there are Circumstances which give the Tradition of Christian matters of Fact a mighty Advantage above other Traditions as unquestionable Assurance as these give men when they are General and Uninterrupted But 't is well known to all who are not strangers to the Popish Writers what lamentable work they make in proving the Testimony of the Church to be the foundation of our Faith concerning the Authority of the Scriptures This Proof they fetch out of the Scriptures themselves and their main Text for this purpose and for the Infallibility of their Church is those words of S. Paul 1 Tim. 3. 15. where he calls the Church the Pillar and Ground of Truth But what a manifest Circle is this We ask them how it appears that the Scriptures are the Word of God They answer it appears from the Testimony of the Church We ask again how it appears that the Testimony of the Church is true They reply it appears from the Scriptures And so they prove the Authority of the Scriptures by the Testimony of the Church and then wheel about again and prove the Authority of the Church by the Testimony of the Scriptures But again We can either be certain of the truth of these words of S. Paul setting aside the Authority of the Church or we cannot be Certain If we can be Certain why then not of the truth of the whole Scripture as well as of this single Text If we cannot be certain of the truth of this Text without the consideration of the Churche's Authority what Folly or rather Knavery is it to make this Text an Argument to prove the thing
but a very small number compared with those for whom he did not die and those for whom he died shall be undoubtedly saved and those for whom he died not shall be undoubtedly damned then I cannot see how the wisest man on Earth can answer this Plea of a wicked man for persisting impenitently in his wickedness viz. If Christ died for me I shall be saved and he will most assuredly at his own time which to be sure is the best bring me over to the obedience of his Precepts by his Omnipotent grace if that be necessary in order to my Salvation But if he died not for me then let me do what I can it will signifie nothing my state is unalterable So that I run no hazard in being careless and neglectful of the concerns of my Soul on supposition of my having an interest in the death of Christ nor is my case one jot the better for my diligence in using the means of Salvation according to my power on supposition of the contrary Now how can we think that the Gospel doth contain such mighty Arguments to perswade us to work out our own Salvation whilest it leaves us utterly unable to answer this Plea that Careless People may and do many of them make for their Carelesness And therefore it highly concerns us to beware of that Doctrine which makes Christ to die but for some Certain Persons as not only most false but as very dangerous The truth is this Doctrine could never gain any considerable Credit in any Church in the World for the first fifteen hundred years 'T was broached with the other concomitant Doctrines by one Lucidus a Presbyter in France about the year of our Lord 500 of which the Pelagian Heresie was the occasion but quickly condemned by two Councils one at Arles the other at Lions About 300 years after it was with the other revived by Godscalcus a person of ill Fame but condemned again by a Council at Mentz But the Doctrine we are defending was Asserted as a Point never doubted of by the Fathers of the first 300 years And is as expresly Asserted in the most Ancient Confessions of the Reformed Churches beyond Sea and also in the Articles Homilies and Catechism of our own Church And those three Holy Martyrs Arch-Bishop Cranmer Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper who will be acknowledged by our Adversaries in this Point to be most Orthodox men have as plainly and fully given their testimony thereunto as we can desire Arch-Bishop Cranmer in the Preface to his Book against Gardiner hath these words that Christ made a Sacrifice and Oblation of his body upon the Cross which was a full Redemption Satisfaction and Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World Bishop Latimer in his Sermon on the first Sunday after the Epiphany tells us that Iesus is an Hebrew word which signifieth in our English Tongue a Saviour and Redeemer of all Mankind born into the World And he hath this passage in his Sermon on the Gospel for the twenty first Sunday after Trinity P. 2. of Fol. 208. which would be horribly offensive to many now adays viz. That Christ shed as much bloud for Judas as he did for Peter Peter believed it and therefore was saved Judas would not believe and therefore he was condemned the fault being in him only and in no body else Bishop Hooper in his Preface to his Exposition of the Ten Commandments saith That as the Sin of Adam without priviledge or exemption extended and appertained unto all and every of Adams Posterity so did this promise of Grace generally appertain as well to every and singular of Adams posterity as to Adam As it is more plainly expressed where God promiseth to bless in the seed of Abraham all the people of the World And that these Good men did not hold Contradictions but as they undoubtedly believed that Christ died for all so they also rejected that Doctrine of the Divine Decrees which is inconsistent therewith is plain from the following passages Bishop Latimer saith in his Fourth Sermon on the Third Sunday after the Epiphany That if the most part be damned the fault is not in God but in themselves for Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would that all men should be saved but they themselves procure their own damnation and despise the Passion of Christ by their own wicked and inordinate living Here we may learn to keep us from all curious and dangerous Questions when we hear that some be chosen and some be damned Let us have good hope that we shall be among the chosen and live after this hope c. Think that God hath chosen those that believe in Christ and that Christ is the Book of life c. So we need not to go about to trouble our selves with curious questions of the Predestination of God But let us rather endeavour our selves that we may be in Christ for when we be in him then are we well and then we may be sure that we are ordained to everlasting life But you will say how shall I know that I am in the Book of life How shall I try my self to be elect of God to everlasting life I answer First we may know that we may one time be in the book and another time come out again as it appeareth by David See more that follows to the same purpose Fol. 310. Again in his Sermon on Septuag Fol. 214. saith he God's Salvation is sufficient to save all Mankind But we are so wicked of our selves that we refuse the same and we will not take it when 't is offered to us and therefore he saith Pauci verò electi Few are chosen that is few have pleasure and delight in it for the most part are weary of it cannot abide it for there are some that hear it but they will abide no danger c. Such men are cause of their own Damnation for God would have them saved but they refuse it like Judas the Traitor whom Christ would have had to be saved but he refused his Salvation he refused to follow the Doctrine of his Master Christ. And Bishop Hooper is very full and particular to this purpose in his forecited Preface Saith he Cain was no more excluded from the promise of Christ till he excluded himself than Abel Saul than David Judas than Peter Esau than Jacob Concerning which two Brethren in the sentence of God given to Rebecca there was no mention at all that Esau should be disinherited of Eternal Life but that he should be inferior to his Brother Jacob in this world which Prophecy was fulfilled in their Posterity and not the Persons themselves God is said by the Prophet to have hated Esau not because he was disinherited of Eternal Life but in laying his mountains and his heritage waste for the Dragons of the Wilderness Mal. 1. 3. That Threatning of God against Esau if he had not of wilful malice excluded himself from the Promise
to the Will of God to have Granted or Denied to us as shall seem most agreeable to His infinite Wisdom the Good things of this present Life and hungering and thirsting desires after Righteousness after those Divine Dispositions and Qualifications which are necessary to our being made meet for the Kingdom of Heaven In such things as these doth consist the Soul and Spirit of Prayer These are the Absolutely necessary and Essential ingredients thereof But Fourthly As for Words they are but a circumstantial part of Prayer and no farther necessary than as they tend to the more quickening our Affections exciting our Desires inlivening our Sense of the forementioned Objects and keeping our Minds fixed and intent And in publick Prayer or Prayer with others they are necessary to enable others to joyn with us But the Omniscient God understands the sense of our Souls the temper of our Spirits and the desires of our Hearts though no words be used for the expressing of them And always measures our Prayers by those not at all by these I say not at all by Words because if they flow from an honest Heart and a good disposition of Mind they cannot be so faulty as to make a Prayer unacceptable And therefore it is the same thing to God whether a good Sense and good Desires be from time to time expressed by the same or by variety of Words and Phrases And he who is affected as he ought to be in the use of a Form who hath such Desires and such a Sense as he ought to have as thousands of good Christians have hath as much the true Spirit of Prayer and as much of it too as he can have who hath the most notable Faculty at varying his Expressions And he who hath this Faculty but wants that Sense and those good Dispositions is notwithstanding utterly destitute of the Spirit of Prayer But it is incomparably most fit that there should be a Liturgy or Forms prescribed for the publick Worship of God for Prayer and Praising of God in the Church and for the celebration of the Holy Sacraments with the other Offices because the publick Worship of God ought always to be performed with the greatest Gravity and Solemnity possible But such a performance of Divine Worship can never be secured where Ministers are wholly left to their own Liberty and permitted to put up all the Confessions Petitions and Thanksgivings of the Congregation and to perform all the Offices in their own Arbitrary and Extemporary Expressions For though some Ministers who take this Liberty may pray excellently well when their heads are clear and they are in a good Temper yet I doubt there are very few who have always that Presence of Mind that Composedness of Thoughts and Constancy of Temper as not to be forced sometimes to use many Tautologies and indecent expressions But however the Church is never like to be provided with such Ministers as shall be able for the most part of them to keep themselves from great confusion in their conceived Prayers from bald and absurd phrases and from Nauseating their Auditory with repetitions of the same things fulâ—om sayings or lamentable misapplications of Texts of Scripture through over-much modesty or other infelicities of Temper in some and in others through ignorance or weakness of Natural parts either slowness of Invention or want of Judgment And besides there is this necessity of having a Liturgy that without one there is no rational way of perswading strangers to hold Communion with us Except we can shew them something which is acknowledged by common Agreement for a Form and Method of Divine Worship we cannot satisfie them what publick Service we perform to God it will then be so various that is as not alike in all places so neither at all times in the same places But to complete my Answer to the Question in hand Fifthly The affecting us with a profound Sense of the Majesty and Glorious perfections of the God we pray to and of our own Vileness and Unworthiness And a Submissive frame of Mind to the Divine Will Ardent Breathings after more of the Divine Image and Likeness And a lively Faith in the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God which are as I said the Substantial and Essential parts of Prayer all these we heartily and thankfully acknowledge to be the Gifts of the Spirit We own them to be so otherwise than all other good things which are every of them expressions of the Divine Bounty and consequently Gifts of the Spirit as He is one of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity But we profess to owe them to the more special operations and influences of the Holy Ghost And for the working and encrease of these all good Christians do daily crave the Spirits assistance Now I need not say that to endeavour to put a restraint upon the exercise of such Gifts as these is a most wicked invasion and violation of our Christian Liberty according to our own Notion of it But what we have discoursed concerning Prayer gives me occasion to add something of Preaching too and to shew also how far an ability for that performance is to be ascribed to the Holy Spirit or called one of his Gifts And consequently we may from hence be satisfied whether a Preacher of the Gospel is inâ—â—tled to such a Liberty in reference to Preaching as may not be limited by Auâ—hority or upon no accounts taken wholâ— from him without putting an affront upon the Holy Spirit First It is out of doubt that no man 〈◊〉 hath the Gift of Preaching in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power in the sence that S. Paul and his fellow-fellow-Apostles had it For by the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power is meant those extraordinary Gifts of Speaking with Tongues Prophecy and Miracles accompanying their Preaching whereby they demonstrated the truth of the Doctrine preached by them And so Origen understands it in his Book against Celâ—us Secondly There is not the least ground to believe that any man hath now the Gift of Preaching by Inspiration or from the immediate Revelation of the Spirit Nor do any seriously pretend to it but wild Enthusiasts Brain-sick Melancholy and Hot-headed people who take their own Fancies and Whims and the products of an ungoverned imagination for Inspirations I say none but those who plainly discover themselves to be such do seriously pretend to this Gift because there have been and still are a company of Knaves in the World as is manifest by their actings who for the carrying on their corrupt and naughty designs pretend to that which they are conscious to themselves they have nothing of But sober and honest Preachers of the Gospel do profess to deliver nothing to their people but what they conceive to be long ago revealed But what they acknowledge they have with study and pains gathered from the Holy Scriptures either immediately or by plain consequence wherein are contained all things necessary
to be believed and practised by us in order to Salvation and which without any Additions are able to make us wise to Salvation as S. Paul assures us and are a complete Rule of Faith and Practice And that Preacher who shall offer to require his Auditors assent to any thing not delivered either in express terms or by plain consequence in the Writings of the Old or New Testament doth impudently impose upon their belief except he be able to work real Miracles for the convincing of them He takes more upon him than either the Apostles or our Saviour himself who did still appeal to the works the Supernatural works he did to attest the truth of the Doctrine he delivered I would such impudent imposers were onely to be found among the Romanists who are all so and the most impudent that ever appeared upon the stage of the World but alas they are too too common also among professed haters of Popery Thirdly And as to the sence of the more difficult places of Scripture no sober Preacher pretends to come to the knowledge thereof by the immediate illumination of the Spirit but such a one acknowledgeth he doth it in the general by the exercise of his Reason And particularly by considering the proper signification of Words and Phrases in the Original Languages by comparing Scripture with Scripture by searching into the Ancient Customs which give great light to a great number of Texts and without the knowledge of which they are not to be understood by enquiring after the judgment of those who lived nearest to the Times of the Apostles c. And after all they submit their Expositions of such Texts to the judgments of their Hearers I mean such of them as are capable of judging As for others Oportet discentes credere It becomes Learners to give credit to their Teachers And Credendum est peritis in suâ Arte. But Fourthly We do piously and by the Authority of Scripture believe that the Spirit is ready to assist us in our Reasonings and Enquiries and whatsoever particular good means we use for the understanding of Scripture when He is humbly and devoutly sought to by us and when without the least prejudice partiality ill design or sinister respect but for the best of Ends and from the pure love of Truth we make Enquiry Thus even Private Christians are assisted in the searches and enquiries which they are able to make For God hath promised that The Meek he will guide in judgment and the Meek he will teach his way Fifthly In composing also of profitable Discourses as we implore so we have the Divine Assistance but we see no ground to believe that we have it in any other manner than in other good works of what nature soever But as for the ready Faculty of Discoursing from a Pulpit and popular speaking to a Congregation we have no reason to believe it a Gift of the Spirit any more than the Lawyers strange readiness in pleading at the Bar. And a volubility of speech upon any subject whatsoever heat of Fancy and nimbleness of Wit and Invention are as much to be attributed to the Holy Spirit as such a Faculty And hence we may gather that a Preacher of the Gospel can plead no such Liberty as is wholly exempted from Restraints by Authority But one that is known to have never so good a Talent at Preaching may be forbidden the exercise of it till he hath submitted to a lawful Ordination such as was in use in the Churches of Christ for Fifteen hundred years together And when Ordained he may lawfully have bounds set him as to the places where he shall exercise his Ministry in publick and as to the times when And he may be forbidden to meddle with such Arguments as are above the reach of his Peoples Understandings or are not like to conduce to their Edification and much more to broach dangerous Doctrines that is such as are so in the judgment of his Governours And for his Disobedience and other Misdemeanours he is as liable to be suspended or totally deprived of his Ministerial Office as are any other Officers I do but touch upon and give light glances at these things because my present subject will not give me leave to discourse largely upon them which would be too great a digression from its proper business CHAP. XV. A Third False Notion of Christian Liberty viz. that which makes Liberty of Conscience a Branch of it Two things premised 1. That Conscience is not so sacred a thing as to be uncapable of being obliged by Humane Laws 2. That no man can properly be deprived of the true Liberty of his Conscience by any Power on Earth That what is contended for is more properly Liberty of Practice than of Conscience The Author's Opinion in reference to this Liberty delivered in Ten Propositions That whatsoever Liberty of this nature may be insisted on as our Right it is not Christian Liberty but Natural Liberty THirdly and Lastly I proceed to that Notion of Christian Liberty which makes Liberty of Conscience a Branch of it But before I deliver my Opinion about this weighty point which hath occasioned as great Feuds and sharp Contests as any whatsoever I shall premise two things First That Conscience is not so Sacred a thing as to be uncapable of being Obliged by Humane Laws Secondly That no man can properly be deprived of the true Liberty of his Conscience by any Power on Earth First That Conscience is not so Sacred a thing as to be uncapable of being Obliged by Humane Laws This is sufficiently clear from what is discoursed in the Thirteenth Chapter But it is said by many that God is the onely Lord of Conscience and therefore it is the highest presumption for Men to go about to bind it by their Laws It is the sole Prerogative of the Deity to search the Heart and try the Reins of the Children of men Conscience is too inward and secret a thing to fall under Mans cognizance and therefore what have any of our Fellow-Creatures to do to give Laws to our Consciences In Answer hereunto We have already seen what S. Paul's sense is about this matter that he saith We must needs be Subject or Obedient and that not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake So that the Apostle was far from thinking that the obligation of Humane Authority is founded in mere Prudence not at all in Conscience But no man in his Wits will say that the Laws of Men do oblige Conscience as the Laws of God do Those cannot do it immediately as these do but onely by virtue of the Divine Authority S. Paul saith Rom. 13. 1. Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers I think I shall not be over-critical in saying that is every Conscience for what follows proves the obligation of Conscience to subjection and is an Answer to the foresaid Objection against it viz. For there is no Power but
many thousands of good Christians And it is well known that their principles are such as that they cannot be true to them and not think themselves bound in Conscience to Stab and Poison Burn and Massacre all without exception whom they call Hereticks whensoever an opportunity is put into their hands S. Paul as cruel a persecutor of Christians as he was before his Conversion did then think not onely that he did what was lawful but that he did his duty too For saith he Acts 26. 9. I verily thought with my self or I was verily perswaded in my Conscience that I ought to do many things contrary the Name of Jesus of Nazareth Among which things he reckoneth in the two following verses Shutting up many of the Saints in Prison and giving his voice against them to be put to death and compelling them to Blaspheme No man is able to imagine what dismal Effects Superstition and Enthusiasm may have upon the Mind and Conscience So that this will be easily granted me by men of any Sobriety that that which they call Liberty of Conscience must be limited by Governours if they will have any concern for the Honour of God the Welfare of Religion the Safety of the Community and the Preservation of Government it being impossible that there should be any such thing as Government if all shall be exempt from Punishment who shall plead Conscience for their Disobedience nay though they should be known to plead it never so truly Now it being so evident that Conscience may and must be restrained in its Liberty we clearly gain one point by it and that no small one viz. That Liberty of Conscience is not to be necessarily allowed under the notion of Liberty of Conscience For this Liberty as such is not an inviolable Right if it be not to be claimed in all cases without exception Secondly As to that which we call the other Extreme of over-great Severity in Restraining this Liberty no man surely will question but that there may be an erring on this hand also But how to steer betwixt Scylla and Charybdis these two extremes is I think one of the greatest difficulties And requires a conjunction of the greatest Prudence with as great Goodness But as to what measures in the general are to be taken we will adventure modestly to suggest our Thoughts in the Propositions that follow Prop. 2. No such Liberty of Conscience for so for fashions-sake wee 'l call it is by any means to be allowed as is apparently injurious to the Community and such a Liberty as can have no ill publick influence in the Church or State both may and ought to be granted The welfare of the Community with respect to both its Civil and Spiritual Interests is the business and design of Government and the welfare of particular persons as they are parts of the Community Therefore not to grant to particular persons as much Liberty of what nature soever as is consistent with the general Good or Well-being of the Whole is to hold the Reins too strait and to be over-severe and Arbitrary But it must be left to the iudgment of our Governours what measure and proportion of Liberty may be safely vouchsafed with respect to the Interest of the Community both because they are to be presumed the fittest Judges of this affair and because it is wholly inconsistent with Government for every private person to be his own Judge But as I need not add Governours are obliged as they will answer it to their Judge not to be hasty in making a judgment but to do it with the greatest wariness and deliberation because their being mistaken in this point may happen to be of very evil and mischievous consequence Prop. 3. It is a very plain case that men ought to have the Liberty of enjoying their Opinions to themselves without their being extorted by penalties from them This follows from the foregoing proposition and if that be true this can't be false For if such a Liberty ought to be granted as hath no ill Aspect upon the Community then no Body should be compelled to discover his Opinions because whilest they are kept within a mans own Breast they can do no hurt to other Folk and if they discover themselves by Overt-Acts as the Lawyers speak there is no need of using violent means for the Extorting of them Which is the cruel practice of the Roman Church and our own Nation knew it by sad experience in the Reign of Queen Mary How many excellently good Christians were then Sentenced to the Stake for their mere Refusing to Subscribe to their as wicked as false Doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Altar Prop. 4. To make Sanguinary Laws against mere Dissenting from the publick Establishment that is when Dissenting from it is not accompanied with a Factious Schismatical and Seditious opposition to it is without controversie Antichristian Tyranny Of all the indefensible practices of the now mentioned Church there is none that makes the Title of Antichrist more due to her than her prosecuting with Fire and Faggot and all manner of Cruelties men who are guilty of no other crime but that of renouncing Communion with her in her gross Corruptions But suppose her Terms of Communion were as agreeable as they are contrary to the Word of God yet would her putting men to death for their bare not submitting to those terms speak her to be utterly destitute of the true Christian Spirit And to deserve that Reprehension which her mild and gentle Master gave to his Disciples for desiring him to call for Fire from Heaven to destroy the Samaritans for refusing to receive him viz. Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of for the Son of man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them And if our Saviour was so offended with those Disciples for making that motion though He knew 't was not made deliberately but in a sudden fit of passion and that kindled too by the quick resentment they had of an high affront that was put upon his Sacred person how highly must it needs provoke him to see Christians destroying their Brethren in cool bloud and that not for so hainous a crime as Renouncing his Religion but for not being Christians of their Mode and Form Which possibly considering all their circumstances particularly their Education the prejudices of which it is the most difficult thing in the world one of them to overcome their Parts Complexions c. may be more their misfortune than their fault Besides Sanguinary Penalties or the using of extreme Rigour of any kind to compel men to come over to our way of Religion are the most improper means to effect that end that of Lactantius being as great a Truth in all Ages as it was in his and the two foregoing when the Church was subject to the Heathen Persecutors viz. Religion is a thing to which no man can be forced the Will is perswaded by