de Polycarp Mart. swearing by the Emperor and his Genius for not ‖ Omnes Dei cultores sacrificare vel mori cogebat Martyrium Ignat. sacrificing to Idols and the Emperors * Epist ad Trajan l. 10. 97. Statue And the Albigenses for not worshipping of Saints and Angels and the Host as the Papists call their Breaden God or thirdly For worshipping of him in an undue manner whether it be positively so as the Primitive Christians were persecuted by the Jews for not worshipping of God according to their manner after it was abrogated or naturally so as the Protestants are persecuted for not worshipping of him according to the corrupt manner of the Papists which is polluted with the worship of Creatures and with many Sacrilegious Idolatrous and truly superstitious Rites and Ceremonies which utterly deprave and defile the Religious offices to which they belong Or secondly upon a positive account for worshipping the true God as Daniel was persecuted for worshipping of God as afore-time after the decree of Darius was made not to ask any petition of God or man for thirty days except of the King So likewise with respect to matters of Justice and Charity a man is also persecuted upon two accounts either for not doing of something which is unjust or uncharitable as the Egyptian Midwives were in danger of being persecuted by Pharaoh for not murdering the Hebrew Infants and many of the Primitive * Clem. ad Cor. Epist c. 54. p. 114 Edit Oxon 1677. Rom. 16.4 Christians for not betraying or delivering up their Brethren into the hands of the persecutors or for doing some just or charitable action which ought to have been done as many of the Primitive Christians and Protestants have been persecuted for harbouring and relieving their distressed Brethren and many of his Majestie 's loyal Subjects for harbouring relieving and assisting of him These are all the cases for which a man ordinarily speaking can be persecuted it must be for matters of Faith or matters of Practice for matters of Divine worship which belong to the first or matters of Justice and Charity which belong to the second Table of the Law All righteousness or matters of Religion for which a man can be truly persecuted are reducible I say to Faith or Practice and all matters of Faith are either such as are necessary to be known that they are revealed and they are but few or that are necessary to be believed when they are known and they may be very many and all matters of practice in short are such as God hath made it either absolutely necessary or in such circumstances for man to do or not to do But if men will believe things to be Articles of Faith which God never made so and also make rules for matters of Christian practice and Communion which God never made if they will believe false or impious or uncertain Doctrines to be certain and true and set up new notions which Primitive and Virgin Christianity never understood or professed and revive old Errors and Heresies which were condemned by the Catholick Church In a word if they will impose upon their own and other mens Consciences and teach for Doctrines of God the Traditions or Inventions of private men let them suffer never so much or be never so much perswaded in their own Consciences of the truth of them yet they cannot be persecuted for them though when they are honestly minded with their erroneous Consciences and their errors do not tend to the publick disturbance nor thwart the common fundamentals of Christianity they may be too severely used I say men that coine new Doctrines and Rules and Precepts for Christian Practice and Communion which God never made let them suffer never so much from Authority in the defence of them yet they are not persecuted but rightfully punished and suffer not as Christians but as Criminals and though God will be merciful to their mistakes when they proceed not from an ill mind and pardon their ignorance when it is not wilful and affected yet they can neither suffer as Confessors nor Martyrs nor shall they receive the promised reward for their sufferings in the world to come No! whosoever is truly persecuted must suffer for Doctrines and Laws which God hath given us for the common principles of Christianity not for private fancies and inventions and therefore when you hear men cry out of persecution consider for what Scriptural Truth for what Article of the Creed for what * Because I have here made mention of the common principles of Christianity which I call Catholick principles I shall here explain my self in the words of the most Learned Dr. Beverege who hath deserved so well of the Church Catholick in his Prooemium before his Codex Canonum Vindicatus Si praegrande hoc omnium cujusque seculi Christianorum corpus quod Catholica sive universa Ecclesia vulgo appellatur ut ubique semper constitutum attenti perlustremus certa quaedam quasi communia in eo deprehendemus principia quae totum percurrunt omnesque illius partes sibi invicem capiti connectunt Equibus primum illudque è quo catera oriuntur est Sacram Scripturam sive vetus novúmque Testamentum Divinitùs esse inspiratam Verum enimvero haec sacra Scriptura etiamsi in iis quae ad cujusque salutem absolutè sunt necessaria praeceptis clarissima sit omnibus manifesta quantum tamen ad doctrinam spectat externam Ecclesiae disciplinam ea pro ipsâ suâ altitudine non uno codémque sensu ab omnibus accipitur ut observavit olim Vincent Lirinensis ex haereticis schismaticis satis supérque constat qui nempe singuli pravas suas opiniones praxésque è sacris Scripturis suo modo interpretatis cliciunt In hujusmodi itaque rebus si non errandi nec offendendi certi esse velimus imprimis procul omni dubio cavendum est nè privatis nostris aliorum opinionibus aut conjecturis pertinaces nimis adhaereamus sed nobiscum potiùs recolamus quid universa Ecclesia vel maxima saltem pars Christianorum de istis senserint in cá acquiescamus sententiá in quam Christiani per omnia secula consenserunt quemadmodum enim omni in re consensus omnium vox naeturae est ut ait Cicero sic etiam in hujusmodi rebus consensus omnium Christianorum vox Evangelii meritò habeatur Multa autem sunt quae licet in sacris Scripturis expresse ac definitè non legantur communi tamen omnium Christianorum consensione ex iis eruantur Ex. gr Tres distinctas in sacrosanctá Trinitate Personas venerandas esse Patrem Filium Spiritum Sanctum hósque singulos verum esse Deum tamen unum tantummodo esse Deum Christum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse verè Deum ac verè hominem in unâ eâdemque personâ Hac similia quamvis totidem verbis ac
much as they please they are not persecuted but justly punished for disobedience to the Supream Power They suffer not for God's sake but their own they suffer not as Martyrs and Confessors but as Malefactors This consideration made S. Peter in his First Epistle general distinguish so carefully between suffering as a Malefactor and suffering as a Christian Chap. 4. 14 15. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are you But let none of you suffer as * Oraet Lucii Mart. ad Vrbicium Praefect Just M. Apol. 1. a Murderer or as a Thief or as an evil-doer or as a busie-body in things that belong not unto him yet if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but glorifie God on this behalf In the 2d Chap. 13. ver he charged them to submit themselves to every Ordinance of man whether it were to the Emperor or his subordinate Magistrates for the Lords sake as free indeed in a spiritual sence from many yokes but not to use their Christian freedom as a cloak for their malignity but as the servants of God Then from Subjects he proceeds to the Servants or Slaves who you may be sure suffered much from Jewish and Heathen Masters upon the account of the Christian Religion and he tells them that it was * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cod. Alex. acceptable to God if a man for conscience towards God endured grief suffering wrongfully And in the 3d. Chap. after he had charged all Christians as being the best way to avoid sufferings to refrain their tongues to eschew evil to do good and seek peace Who is he saith he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good but if notwithstanding all this you chance to suffer for righteousness-sake happy are ye and be not afraid of their terror neither be troubled and lastly in the 4th Chap. he resumes the argument again in the words which I cited above concluding that they that so suffered according to the will of God should commit the keeping of their Souls unto him as unto a faithful Creator Accordingly there 's scarce any one place of the New Testament where sufferings or persecution are mentioned but it is with respect to the Christian Religion as Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil of you falsely for my sake Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospels the same shall save it Verily verily I say unto you that there is no man that hath left Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or c. for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time with persecutions and in the world to come Eternal Life From which places it is evident that Persecution consists in suffering for Christ's sake or for the sake of the Christian Religion or any truth of it or for obeying God in any particular of it after the same manner that the Prophets or holy men of old used to suffer under the Law or Jewish Oeconomy as our Saviour said Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you c. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Accordingly Acts 5.41 't is said that the Apostles departed from the presence of the Counsel where they were beaten rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer for his Name To put all this together Persecution from the Civil Magistrate for to that I chiefly restrain my Discourse consists in inflicting or suffering any sort of evil or to any degree for righteousness-sake for Religions sake for Christ's sake for the Gospels sake for Christ's Name sake for Christianities sake in a word to suffer as the Prophets and Apostles did of old who in all their sufferings were reduced to this sad necessity of disobeying God or the Civil Authority as Peter and the other Apostles answered and said to the Sanhedrim the second time when they commanded them to preach no more in the Name of Jesus We ought to obey God rather than man The general notion of Persecution and of Christian persecution withal being thus stated we may easily perceive that a man can be persecuted but upon two accounts for matters of professed Faith or principles or matters of practice Upon the former account a man is truly Persecuted when he is prosecuted for teaching or professing any Truth or true Doctrine which he is bound by God to teach or profess or for disowning or denying any Error or false Doctrine which he is bound by God to disown or deny I have made this distinction between owning of true and disowning of false Doctrines with respect to the several ways in which men are wont to express their minds in affirmative or negative propositions although both ways of speaking virtually and really are the same thing As he that asserts Jesus to be Christ doth virtually deny this blasphemous proposition Jesus is not Christ and he that denieth this blasphemous proposition Jesus is not Christ doth virtually assert that Jesus is Christ Thus in all things the affirming of Truth is a virtual denying of the opposite Error and the denying of the opposite Error an affirming of the contrary Truth and great is the number of Martyrs who have been truly Persecuted upon these accounts So Socrates was persecuted to death by the Laws and Magistrates of Athens for asserting the true God or denying the false He asserted that there was but one God and Father of all who made Heaven and Earth that the Gods whom the Athenians worshipped were dumb Idols the work of mens hands For this reason Justin Martyr represents him in part as a * Apol. 1. p. 48. Christian and among those whom ‖ Apol. 2. p. 55. wicked men by the instinct of the Devil persecuted for righteousness-sake He died a Martyr for Natural Religion in the defence of a Doctrine which God had taught him by the Light of Nature was not only true but such a truth as was his duty to propagate and maintain So likewise the Primitive Christian professors were persecuted both by the Jews and Gentiles for teaching and professing the Doctrines of the Christian Religion and for denying the obligation or validity of the Law of Moses and the Pagan Idols to be true Gods So much for Persecution upon matters of Faith or Principles and Persecution for matters of Practice is likewise twofold for matters of Divine worship which concern the First Table or for matters of Justice and Charity which concern the Second With respect to the former a man is Persecuted either upon a negative account for not denying of God or secondly for not worshipping a false God in opposition to him as the three Children in Daniel were persecuted for not worshipping the Golden Image of Nebuchadnezzar the Primitive Christians for not * Eccl. Smyrn Epist
himself in Conclus Apol. pro Hieronymo which by the importunity of the Agents of the general Assembly he was prevailed with to leave out with great numbers more to be seen in Dr. Fern against Champney Bancrofts Survey ch 8. Mason's defence of the Ordination c. Dr. Durell of the Reformed Churches and the posthumous piece of Bishop Morton published by Sir Hen. Yelverton Lastly see Mr. de Langle and Mr. Claude's Letters at the end of the most worthy and most learned Dean of Pauls his Vnreasonableness of Separation which the late Agent at Charenton did in vain endeavour to make them retract though they have not Bishops yet their and other Reformed Writers have approved the Office and protested that they would if they could have retained them and desired that their rejecting of them might be imputed to necessity and not to their choice They have generally declared that they will submit to their own Bishops if they will Reform and some of them for want of Episcopal Government which they believe to be of Apostolical Institution have thought their own Churches deficient and in that respect not so perfect as ours They are formed into a National Church and are for National Churches detest Sovereign Independent Communions and their Ministers officiate in a distinct habit and are so far from disliking or undervaluing Liturgies that they Pray Baptize and Administer the holy Communion in Liturgical Forms They silence and suspend Ministers in their Consistories and Synods They would have had Church-Musick Organs I mean if they might and would condemn all those as guilty of Schism who only under the infinite pretence of purer Ordinances and purer Worship would set up private Congregations and erect private Altars in opposition to the publick and then teach the People that the Magistrate hath nothing to do in Ecclesiastical matters but that they ought to repair to those Congregations where they find they can profit most No! they dissent not upon such thin and absurd pretences as these but for the same reasons that their noble Ancestors the Albigenses and our Ancestors since them dissented from the Church of Rome They do not only pretend Conscience and say their Consciences tell them that such and such things are unlawful but they produce the Rules and Precepts and Doctrines of the Gospel which those Doctrines which they cannot profess and those things which they cannot practise plainly contradict The reasons of their Non-conformity do not vary as time serves but they are the same that they were from the beginning and they are not such as would overthrow all Communions and destroy all the Churches that are or can be in the world In a word they dissent and disobey in the defence of the Gospel and of the plain and undoubted gospel-Gospel-truths They are the most noble essential and integral parts of Christianity which they adhere to and it is not so much a Christian as a Pagano-Christian a most corrupt tyrannical and Idolatrous Church to which they refuse to conform As Rome is mystical Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth So the Gallican-Church is a Province belonging to the mystical Babylon a Daughter of that Mother of Harlots full of Fornication and also drunk with the bloud of the Saints Her Kings have all committed Fornication with her but these are come out of her that they might not be partaker of her Sins This is their hard case they are reduced to a necessity of sinning or suffering and therefore their sufferings are truly and properly Persecutions for they suffer for Righteousness-sake and the Gospels-sake and according to the will of God 'T is for Conscience towards God that they endure grief for a good Conscience as the Apostle speaks which is opposed to an evil Conscience defiled with sinful principles and sin A good Conscience in the Scriptures is otherwise called a pure Conscience 1 Tim. 3.9 2 Tim. 1.3 and it is compared to a body washed with water Hebr. 10.22 1 Pet. 3.21 because it is devoid of all sinful prejudice and corrupt affections which pervert men's understandings and render them indocile and are able to make them call black white and white black The same is called in the Parable of the Sower an honest and good heart because it receives the Truth with all readiness and impartially searcheth the Scriptures whether things be so or no and in what person soever this sort of Conscience is he would be glad to obey his Sovereign and be of the established Communion because he knows these are indispensable duties when they can be done without denying Gospel-doctrines or breaking Gospel-Laws Such ingenuous Souls will be ready to hear and ready to give an answer to every man that shall ask them a reason of their doings with meekness and fear and when they suffer for doing good as our French Brethren and fellow-members now do they are made partakers of Christ's suffering in this world and shall be made partakers with him in everlasting Glory among Martyrs and Confessors in the world to come III. Having now shewn first what Persecution is and secondly That our French Brethren are Persecuted I proceed in the Third place to shew to what a degree they are Persecuted and how deplorable their sufferings are and how uneasie and dangerous it is for them to continue in their Native Country where they are treated more like Slaves than Subjects and daily vexed with Julian Edicts and Decrees For they are deprived of the ancient Liberties which were granted unto them by former Princes the Father and Grandfather of this present King Many of their * Sedan the Colledge of Roche-foucaut and that of Châtilion Universities are dissolved and more than half their Temples razed contrary to the Faith of Oaths and Edicts and against the common right of Prescription of Three and Fourscore years They are not allowed to erect Free-Schools for the Education of their own Children nor Hospitals for the maintenance of their own Poor nor can they have the benefit of any already Erected without turning to the Popish Religion The Lords of Mannors among them who formerly had right to keep Ministers and set up the Reformed Worship in their own Houses and call their Neighbours and Tenants unto it by the sound of a Bell are now in a most Arbitrary manner deprived of that priviledge And in the Cities where they are most numerous Colledges of Jesuits or Houses of Mission for propagating the Faith are erected into which undutiful Children or Servants under a pretence of turning Catholicks may retreat when they please and in the greatest of those Cities where perhaps Ten School-Masters could hardly teach all their Children the late Laws allow them but one and their unjust Magistrates commonly none They are forbidden to set up the Fleurs de Luces in their Churches because they must not bear any marks of Royal favour and as a further token of Royal displeasure and contempt their chief