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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A54117 Caution humbly offer'd about passing the bill against blasphemy Penn, William, 1644-1718. 1698 (1698) Wing P1264; Wing C1564A; ESTC R220481 4,106 9

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CAUTION Humbly Offer'd ABOUT Passing the Bill against Blasphemy THE Caution requisite in the Consideration of the Bill against Blasphemy is this that the Word may be so well Distinguish'd and Explained that it may not prove in Practice a greater Snare and Suffering to Good Men than a Restraint upon Ill Ones For if it be left Ambiguous so that it may Affect Religious as well as Lewd and Wicked People it will like the Trojan Horse carry an Army in the Belly of it to serve the Spleen or Pride of every Party in their turn of Government to Oppress the Rest Charity forbids me to think the Gentlemen whose Zeal is Imploy'd to Promote the Success of this Bill have any such unfair Latitudes in their Design and therefore I shall First say What Blasphemy is in it self Secondly How Blasphemy is Cognoscible to the Civil Authority and how far It may fall within Its Province to Consider and Suppress Blasphemy then in it self is certainly a Speaking Evilly of God But what that Evil Speaking is and how to Distinguish and Explain it to the Magistrates Purpose will be the Narrow and Pinch of the Question I Grant a Man that shall Seriously Prosess some Erroneous Opinion concerning God upon a weak Judgment or a mistaken Education that Contradicts the Express Text of Holy Scripture may be said to hold a Blasphemous Opinion just as such may be said to take God's Name in vain that Pray to Him and yet hate to be Reformed by Him And is God Charges Blasphemy on them that say they are Jews and are not but of the Synagogue of Satan Which whether it was Error or Hypocrisie It does not appear to be of such a Nature as is Punishable by the Civil Magistrate I therefore Distinguish and Say That Blasphemy as it falls under the Notice of Civil Power is not an Humble and Serious Mistake of the Text but a Presumptuous and Despiteful Expression or Opinion about the Nature and Being of God An Irreligious and Scornful Treating of the Divine Majesty in his Nature and Attributes and not an Incongruous Speculation or Erroneous Notion from an Unsound Judgment or a Misguided Conscience For what is true of an Heretick and is his Characteristick is also true of a Blasphemer that is not a Mistaken but a Guilty Man Not a Conscientious but an Irreligious Person One that is Condemned in himself who Dares the Divinity and Proudly Acts against Knowledge and so Conscious to himself of his own Evil and Error Thus the Apostle to Titus A Man that is an Heretick after the first and second Admonition Reject Knowing that he that is such is Subverted and Sinneth being Condemned of himself And such a Self-condemned Sinner is the Blasphemer proper for the Magistrates Cognizance Not Considering well of this one word Heretick in the Apostles sence viz. One Self-Condemned or Condemned of Himself has fill'd the World with Blood and Misery through many Generations Whereas had St. Paul's Definition and Direction been understood and follow'd Mistaken Men had been Pittied and Informed and not Persecuted and Killed for Gods sake while the Impious Contemners and Blasphemers of God and Religion had met with their Deserts from the Civil Magistrates But I will readily confess that a Person never so Serious in his Mistake concerning God may very well be Disowned by the Church he is a Member of because the contrary Sentiment might be one of the Terms of Communion and no Wrong done But Therefore to say Take him Goaler though otherwise a Vertuous Peaceable and Charitable Man is a Method not to be Justified by True Christianity especially when that which is required to be Believed is the Comment and not the Text which alone should be Sacred and Controuling in point of Doctrine among Christians And to say True 't would be too hard a Task to defend the Imposition of a Doctrine not delivered in the Terms of Scripture which is the Great Creed of Christians when the Party to Believe does not refuse to give his Faith in the Terms thereof For after all Truth loses no Ground by fair Concessions and I know not how we can well deny that Comments are a sort of Begging of the Question which have not a Voice from Heaven to Confirm them I perceive the Bill is Fram'd in favour of the Christian Religion and of the Trinity as a main Pillar of it But after all I believe our Good Lives will best Recommend and Maintain It. Framing of Creeds hath cost former Ages so very Dear by the Distraction of Churches and the Destruction of People that it were great pitty fresh occasions should be given to Revive a Controversie so well laid This Quarrel alone had so besmeared the Face of Christianity with Blood in the first Ages of the Church that it lost to Christians that Reverence with the Gentiles their Piety and Charity had before rais'd to themselves and their Profession And whatever we may think nothing else can Repair our Breaches and Restore to us Paths to Dwell in There are several sorts of Creeds I know as the Athanasian Nicean Sabellian and in short the Real and Nominal Trinitarians But since none can be so orthodox as that deliver'd to us in Gods Book why should we press the point further Who can Determine with equal Authority to that of the Holy Ghost Who can express His mind Apter Or how can we frame a better General to Center In At least to maintain Charity by If our sentiments of the Intention of the Text are not the same I speak this with great respect to the secular Authority For it is certain that the several Churches or Religious Societies that may hold these several Modes of Trinity have that Power over their own Members by the Common Rules of Fellowship that as to such Points as are the Terms of Communion They may Respectively deal with any of them that may forsake their usual Belief so far as refusing them any further Communion But for the Civil Authority at this time of Day to Interpose and Penally Impose any one of them unless it were the sacred Text to which all Parties Refer and Submit looks something hard And when we consider the Divided State of the Nation the Learning and Freedom of Spirit that is now among the People and the Liberty of Conscience they are in the Possession of I must acknowledge I cannot see the Prudence of it But to make Property a Sacrifice for mistakes about Religion if yet it be a mistake and to make it So by the vote of Civil Authority that indeed may Conclude but not Convince for that pretends not to an Infallible Spirit of Decision as to Truth and Error has certainly a Difficulty in it not easily overcome Since to me it seems to shake those Fundamental Laws by which Property is Declared and Desended For it is hard to apprehend how Faith is the Foundation of Property Nor is this all for if this Bill Pass to