vain and foolish to talk of Moderation or extream For had our Ancestors held only to that kind of trial and accommodating differences either in State or Church we had had neither Justice nor Religion to strive or contend about at present or at least that far from the true For first Judaism may be said to be a Mean between Mahometism and Christianism Popery a Mean between Judaism and Socinianism Again the Reformation a Mean between Papism and Socinianism and the English Reformation a Mean between Popery and Puritanism And if we must be forced to farther Moderation still Independency will be found a Mean between Presbyterism and Episcopal Government as Presbyterism is a Mean between Episcopacy and Independency and Independency a Mean between Presbytery and Anabaptism and Anabaptism a Mean between Independency and Quakerism and so on till the wit of Man shall be able to invent no more Extreams which whether that will ever be I know not Now would I demand if it were lawful Which of all these is truly eligible for the Mean sake and when that shall be pitched on and chosen Upon what account and ground Must it not be rather because of some special Vertue proper to it as coming neerer to that we constitute and propound to our selves as a certain Rule and Principle than for that it stands between two Extreams which is common also to that Religion which we reject For 't is evident by Antiquity that by the fair face of Mediocrity the Arians under Constantius the Emperor prospered to the cousenage of the simpler and overthrow of the wiser Catholicks But how well Hilary thought of this method of Pacification and quieting stirs in the Church Hilarius contra Constant. these his words to Constantius plainly testifie Haec ille pater tuus humanarum mortium docuit vincere sine contumacia jugulare sine gladio persequi sine infamia odir sine suspicione mentiri sine intelligentia profiteri fine fide blandiri sine bonitate agere quod velis nec manifestare quae velis i. e. This your Father the mortal Enemy to man taught you to Conquer without Fierceness to Stab without a Sword to make Profession and yet have no Faith to flatter without goodness to obtain your will and yet not to discover your will Thus he And this certainly and generally do they who contend for Moderation after so many and great Instances as may already be given of their condescensions and concessions from whom still boldly and afresh more Moderation is exacted as if nothing had been done to seek their Peace and good Opinion whose immodesty and immoderateness will not suffer them to rest so long as they have any hope left them to obtain their Ends under the specious pretext of Moderation For if what and as often as they demand be granted upon that account they must of necessity in time and that not long exhaust and quite destroy them insensibly If they be not gratified in this so fair and Popular request then will they shrewdly endanger their Reputation and Interest by bringing them under the Odium and Infamy with the Multitude for Persons in Extreams and who will yield nothing for Peace and Unitie's sake But for my own particular I had rather be Robbed than Cheated and suffer the same loss by open violence and aggressions than by fair frauds by which I must believe at the same time I am dealt Friendly and Equally with It being then in the Power of any single Person and much more of a Faction to make a Church or more truly to denominate it Extream and Immoderate when ever they please to run far enough from it by their roving Inventions and Innovations When will there be any rest or stability from such accusers if such a Church shall presently be obliged by the Sacred Bonds of Charity Unity and Peace to leave its ground and follow them at lest in part and to relinquish its Possession and Right lest by the foresaid Engine of shew and pretence of Moderation it be turned out of doors Surely God must be trusted in such Cases if there were no other reason as there are many and weighty besides the necessity of discouraging such Attempts which would never be wanting when such success is hoped for upon such general and weak though plausible Pleas. It is wont to be said that all this may be true for it is not fit all Pretenders and Opinions should be Tolerated or yielded to but this makes nothing against the Sober Godly and Consciencious Party who can do somewhat in order to a Reconciliation and keep close to the Rule of the Scripture I do observe that the best Arms even such men have to prevaile with are very frequent and large praises of themselves and profuse self-commendation which hath had wonderful great success For if you demand an Argument and some competent Proof that they are so Consciencious or how possibly they can be said to be so who have been so enormous in Sins of a Party and not Personal Sins you shall find shameful tergiversation or more shameful Justification of such Practises as in our estimation no Sober Honest or truly Consciencious man can be subject to and much less defend And as touching the great Regard pretended to be had to the Word of God we see no cause to take them at their Word or that they should measure and judge their own Last It is a stronger and more reasonable Proof that they have not the Scriptures on their side than any they can bring that they have That all indifferent standers by give it against them I mean the Tradition and Practise of the best and ancientest Churches Neither will the Doctrine of Christian Liberty relieve these if better understood than vulgarly it is For not to make a set Dispute of that Subject at present two general Errors may be noted which have evil Influence upon men First That Christian Liberty is only Negative being completed in a freedom from Judaical Servitude or Bondage under Moses his Law or not doing what was indispensably Imposed by that Law on that People and not in any thing Positive or a Licence to act more than it was free or Lawful for them Though I do not find that it was by Moses his Law made utterly Unlawful for that People to Act any thing besides what was Commanded expressely by it It is plain that in process of time they did contrive many things Extrinsecally related to the Worship of God Neither are such their Ordinances any where reprehended in Scripture but such are often which are contrary to their Law or justle out the orders of God and his precepts and these are the places brought so against Human Inventions subservient to God's command very ignorantly or peevishly But however Liberty of Christians extendeth as well to the Affirmative as Negative part that is to do those things which are not prohibited any ways by God's Word as well as not to
peace in better than a just War Who sees not from hence most plainly that nothing but every thing will satisfie these men And do they not hold that an unjust peace whereby they are kept in quiet without their discipline and is not that a just War which is made for its sake More a great deal all know might be added against them from their own mouths and hands he that still doubts may look into that Treatise called Evangelium Armatum which though an imperfect and indeed an abortive piece in comparison of what was due to such a subject yet doth sufficiently declare their tempers and constitutions to be against all mediocrity or compounding of Differences I have not touched any thing therein nor is that famous Mr. Love the Presbyterian Martyr there mentioned as I remember or at least not his Ranting and Railings at the attempted or pretended accommodation to be made by the Presbyterian Faction at Vxbridg with the King nor his Sermon at Windsor where in the flame of his zeal for the Cause he exhorted the people to sell their Bibles and buy Muskets to fight against the King and being as he supposed lead to it by his Text spake thus That if God should go before the King's Party He should be the greatest sinner upon Earth which passage so exorbitant being heard and excepted against by one of the Church of England he was called to account for speaking irreverently of Mr. Love before the Governour of Windsor Castle but publickly affirming and proving the same to be as he reported by appeal to many Auditors of his then present who could not deny they heard the words he was rebuked for not making the best construction of what godly men taught The same Mr. Love so pacifick and charitable a spirit are they acted by mounting the Scaffold at the Execution of the most Reverend Arch-Bishop of Canterbury put to death to satiate the Scots appetite and such as symbolize with them after Prelatical blood with greatest exsultation springing at the sight utter'd these words Art thou come Little Will I am glad to see thee here and hope to see the rest of the Bishops here e're long And that most innocent blood being shed on the Stage at his beheading he took out his Handkerchief and â—â—ained it therewith and the Murther being over he rode with it to Vxbridg and drawing it forth in the presence of divers persons spake thus most triumphantly Here is the blood of that proud Prelate I hope for more of their bloods e're long Which Mr. A. F. Commissary to the Earl of Essex hearing said to some then present and divers elsewhere afterwards before his death that he could not believe such a bloody man would die in his bed And so by the strange and just hand of Providence it came to pass himself suffered in the very same manner that he had rejoyced to see in others But yet because he made use of the King's name to advance his Presbytery from Scoâ—land into England this must be set on the score as an high instance to prove what good Subjects Presbyterians can be when their Discipline requires it But passing simple authorities and testimonies of Puritans against themselves pleading for Toleration we may come to a further double self-condemnation of them And to this end I might insert here what hath been so lately reprinted and published of the Presbyterian Brethren of Sion-Colledg A Letter of the Ministers of London from Sion-Colledg to the Synod of Divines against Toleration â—rinted or Ministers of the City of London to their Brethren of the Synod then at Westminster against Toleration of Independents Which is so pregnant and cutting a way of arguing against them that I know not what possibly can be urged more justly and reasonably by us or less answered by them For I think they will blush who have not forsworn it to say we have any greater or better grounds to tolerate them than they the Independents For my part I could never understand they had any Authority over these or the separation of Independents from Presbytery was ever any more a Schism than the Presbyterians opposition to or separation from the Independents For though both of them I mean some of both Parties might be said in some sense to be of a Church neither of them were ever a true Church as bungled and patched together by their novel imaginations Yet such was the jealousie and emulation of Presbyterians that they would be no means have any co-ordinate Faction with their own suffered I had once therefore determined to the end that all the World and especially themselves might stand convicted of the unreasonableness of their demands and expectations at present to give the sum of their arguments but considering how small a Treatise that is and how lately it is come forth I shall presume that it is already well known And I shall only give the sum of Mr. Edwards Reasons famous for his Pieces called the Gangreen wherein he argues strenuously against the Toleration of Independents then Edwards his Reasons against Toleration Anno 1641. and of his own Party now To prove this then more methodically and strongly he lays these two general grounds against Toleration First says he Apostolical Practice is against this Secondly It causes men to run into the Violation of the constant practise and example of the Church during all the time of the Apostles and puts Churches upon practises that are absurd and unreasonable and prejudicial to the good of Souls That Government that is not of Divine Institution is not to be received But the Independent doth so faith Mr. Edwards and we much more justly But the Presbyterian doth so Pag. 3.4 And we prove it by Mr. Edwards his words following They force men to have Ministers and Officers without being Ordained contrary to the practice of the Churches all along the New Testament as Act. 6. v. 6. Act. 4.23 No man being Ordained Officer of the Church without Ordination Let them produce one Instance if they can Thus Mr. Edwards Now Mr. Edwards being dead I in his stead challenge any yea all the Presbyterians to give one Instance thorow all the Old or New-Testament or the whole Church of God for 1500 years since the Incarnation that a naked Presbyter or Priest ever Ordained or if by highest Usurpation they did attempt such a thing at any time such Ordination was ever accepted or held good by the Church But I desire they would find some better ground to prove this than the Identity of Bishop and Presbyter anciently For First this is no less doubted of than that they would prove by it Secondly If because St. Hierome is thought to have been of that Opinion as some take his words we should suppose and not grant that they were so once it proves nothing now when it is most certain they are not so nor have been so for many hundred years And therefore men and women
under Persecution and moving pitty and compassion in those that would hear them Et maximè Episcopi Clerici horrenda dura perpessi quae commemorare longum est quando quorundam oculi extincti c Augustin Epist 5. Vide Epistol 166. of their hard measure and of the unreasonableness of the Civil Powers interposing in such matters which ought to be free were themselves most Cruel and Violent against others and especially the Bishops and Clergy men suffered horrible things which were tedious to rehearse putting out the Eyes of some and they cutt off the Hand and Tongue of one Bishop and some they slew right-out I say nothing of the cruel Slaughters saith he and Plundring of Houses by Nightinvasions and Burnings and that not only of Private Houses but Churches also into which Flames there wanted not some who cast in the Books of God Do not these words of Austine come somewhat near a description of our late furious and wicked zeal And what Possidonius in the Life of St. Austine Possidonius in vita August ca 9. Vide ca. 10. etiam addeth of this nature against that Holy Bishop calleth to our minds afresh the Perfecution of the Tongue against our Bishops The Donatists saith he railed at Austine called him Seducer of Souls both Publickly and Privately and said That he ought to be slain as a Wolfe to their Flock and that without doubt all their Sins should be forgiven them Augustin Epistol 68. who could bring this to pass And in another Epistle of St. Augustine is the Inhumanity of those pure Zelots the Circumcellians a branch of the Donatists against such as differed in Opinion from them described concluding In quibus omnibus illi non deponunt facta Latronum honorem sibi exigunt Matyrum i. e In all which they cease not to act the parts of Assasins and yet require the honour of Martyrs And so infinitely Devillish and Malicious was their humour that when they could not destroy the Orthodox by Butchering them they would needs terrifie them by Murthering themselves and so as Austin hath Quidam eorum miserabili instinctu Deo Homiuibus ingrati si suis caedibus nos vastare non â—ossunt â—uo nos exitio terrere credunt aut laetitiam suam quarentes de mortibus nostris aut tristitiam nostram de mortibus suis August Epist 61. either Solacing themselves in the destruction of us or sadding us by their own Deaths And such in some degree do our daies afford who because they cannot have their Will-worship will put themselves into such an untractable and brutish posture that if you let them alone they have their ends if you attempt to bring them to Justice they will create great hatred to their Adversaries by parting with their Lives rather than stir upon fair or necessary means or motives To conclude Legimus vidimus quotid◠éque comprobamus Quando persecutio contra Ecclesiam oritur multo pejores persecutores Judaeos Haereticos quà m Ethnicos Hieronymus in Obad. v. 10. It is the observation of St. Hierome We have read we have seen we have daily found it true that when ever Persecution hath arose in the Church the Jewes and Hereticks were alwaies more grievous Persecutors of the Christians than were the Gentiles CHAP. V. A Continuation of the former Subject and particularly of putting Hereticks and Schismaticks to Death IN man may be said to be a Twofold Life Natural and Civil The First is an Union of the Natural parts of a man which being dissevered death follows understanding here the principal which are either simply Essential as the Soul and Body or such as are therefore called Vital because being corrupted or taken away a separation of the more Essential parts do immediately follow Mans Civil Life is that wereby he being a member of the Civil Body separated from that as all Integral parts of a Body Natural lofe that life of common Influence and Protection Hence it is that some Civil Lawyers do interpret Capital Punishment so often denounced against Hereticks in the Civil Law of the later Death as doth Huckleman and some others The Imperial Constitutions which absolutely inflict Capital Punishment on Hereticks Constitutiones Imp. Simpliciâ—er capitis poenam instigenâ—es Haereticis non de Naturali sed de Civili Capite asserit Wessembeck in Vara. num 6. Huckelmanus Illustr Difput 34. Thes 14. lit 6. God li. 1. T it 5. God li. 1 Tiâ— 5 Sect. 4. Volumus esse publicum crimen c. are not to be understood of Natural but Civil Death as Transportation and such like But I make no doubt but this is too favourable and forced an Exposition as he that shall observe the Practice the best comment on the Law must confess For when the Code saith Manichaei undique expelluntur capite puniuntur And immediately before Manichaeo in loco Romano degere deprehenso caput ampuatur i. e. The Manichees are to be expell'd and punisht Capitally The Manichee that shall be found in the Roman Territory shall have his Head cut off cannot be meant of Civil Head I confess the most common punishments are such as we read in the same Title against the Manichees and Donatists made by Honortus and Theodosius Emperors viz. 1. We decree it a Publick Offence because an Offence against Divine Religion is an injurie to all wherefore we Persecute such with the Confiscation of all their Goods 2. We will likewise that they be Defeated of all Liberality and Succession coming to them by any Title whatever 3. Furthermore we leave such no Power to give or buy or sell or make bargains being convict 4. Inquiry ought to be made at his Death For if it be Lawful in matters of Treason to tax the memory of the dead not undeservedly ought there here also to pass a judgment 5. Therfore his last Writing is to be Null whether by Will or Codicil or any other way he hath made his Testament if found to be a Manichee 6. Neither do we suffer his Sons to Inherit unless they forsake their Fathers Errours For we allow Pardon to the Penitent 7. We like well that they feel the sting of our Authority who shall entertain them in their Houses by a culpable providing for them 8. And we Will that their Servants be faultless if avoiding such Sacrilegious Masters they pass into the Catholick Church by a more Faithful Service Thus far the Imperial Edict of Theodosius whereby we may easily discern how severe the Ancients were in chastising Hereticks and the several kinds of Punishments devised against them But the great question is Whether it be just to punish Hereticks with Corporal Death according to the Judgment of the Ancient Church The first instance of such severity is that of Priscillianus who was put to Death for his Heresie about which I find the Fathers themselves divided Hierome against Ctesiphon seems not only to approve of
both imposing hands upon their Pastor among Independents if the Ordination of these be condemned by Presbyterians the Presbyterians Ordination may altogether be of no account among us After this Mr. Edwards proceeds to prove particularly Edwards ibid. That Toleration is not to be allowed And First from the Vanity and Impertinency of the texts of Scripture brought to prove it For though saith he the Scripture speaks much for Tolerating and bearing one with another in many things both in matters of Opinion and Practise as these places telâ—ifie Rom. 14. 1 2 3 5 13 14 v. Rom. 15.1 2 7. Ephes 4 23. Philip. 3. v. 15 16. Yet when differences come either to Heresie or Schism and Points to be maintaind by men so as to trouble and disturb the Church then the Scriptures are express against their Toleration and sufferance requiring them who have Power to hinder it as may be seen Revel 2.20 Titus 1. v. 10. Tit. 3.10 Galat. 5. v. 10 12. and so on And are not the differences now among us come already to Schismatical and Seditious Divisions amongst us are they then any longer to be Tolerated Or were these and the following Reasons only intended for the use of Presbytery but must lose all their vertue and validity when that is the Case against which they make directly Secondly he at the same time answers a Principal argument now in great use and confirms his Thesis thus The Toleration desired will not help to heal the Schisms and Rents of this Church but will much foment and encrease them For whilest some Congregations and they accounted of note both for Ministers and People will not submit to the Reformation and Government setled by Law this will breed in the Peoples minds many thoughts ex natura rei that this Church is not setled according to the word of God and is unlawful c. Reasons hereof follow 3. This Toleration will not only breed Divisions and Schisms disturbing the Peace of Churches and Towns by setting them who are of different Families and more remote Relations one against another but it will undoubtedly cause much Disturbance Discontents and Divisions between the nearest Relations of Husbands and Wives Fathers and Children Brothers and Sisters Masters and Servants the Husband being of one Church and the Wise of another c. 4. There will be great danger of continual Divisions Distractions and Disputes among us not only from the Different Form of Government and Worship in their Churches and ours but from other Doctrines and Practises held by some of them for the present 5. The most eminent Ministers of this Kingdom for grace parts and labours can have little assurance of the continuance of their Flocks to them if such a Toleration be granted For they will draw away their People and admit them into their Churches and even gather and encrease their Churches out of the labours of the best Ministers c. 6. It will be undoubtedly a means and way of their infinite Multiplication and Encrease even to encrease them thirty Fold 7. The prime and Fundamental Principles of this Independent and likewise Presbyterian way upon which they erect their Church-way are very prejudicial and dangerous and unsufferable to this Kingdom 8. These Independents and much more Presbyterian men where they have power would not give a Toleration for any other Ecclesiastical Government or Churches but in their own way They would not suffer men of other Opinions in Doctrine and Government to live within the â—ounds of their Patent though at the farthest bounds but have Banished them c. 9. A Toleration may be demanded upon the same grounds for all the rigid Brownists of the Kingdom and for all Anabaptists Familists and other Sectaries who profess 't is Conscience in them And thus you have the Heads of the Presbyterian Reasons in the Words of Mr. Edwards which if they may not be more strongly turned against themselves now moving for Toleration I must profess my self to understand neither Them nor their Logick nor the English Tongue And if men will still persist in their unseasonable unreasonable and unconscionable demands against all these so irrefragable Arguments to the contrary we have nothing left but our Prayers Tears and Confusion which our notorious Flagrant Sins have brought upon us And if Authority deserts us with such advantages on our sides as nothing on Earth can minister greater nor any siqual Judg require better we shall easily see from whence this Judgment comes and why not for any wrong in this Case done to our Antagonists viz. because we have sinned and are come down wonderfully I might here conclude all but that as I have disputed against them out of their own mouths and books so I judg it not Impertinent to show the insufficiency of their reasons from their answers or such as they are not wont to question unless when they are to express And having by the way answered some already one or two may suffice to be here touched CHAP. VIII Certain Exceptions which may be made by Puritans against what hath been delivered answered VVE have already prevented the vulgar and general Refuges made by ignorant and undiscerning men against the way of our Church and in behalf of their Discipline taken from the mis-understanding of Tyranny Extreams Moderation and Christian Liberty with which Notions Seducers are wont to make a great show amongst well-affected but ill-advised People We have likewise even now answered that which they offer to the People plausibly in most of their late books though heretoforewe could never wring a syllable from them to that purpose from the great benefit of the Peace of the Church out of Mr. Cartwright and Mr. Edwards And that Objection is likewise removed by Mr. Perkins most clearly which urges us that Conscience is Free and cannot be forced So that there appears not much to remain behind alledged by them deserving further answer Yet two or three things we shall add out of them to the former and so end And First I fore see it may be Excepted that our discourse generally runs against grievous Hereticks where we shew the Judgment and Practise of the ancient Church against them which will not hold against those of our days and Church who are no Hereticks To which I thus answer First That according to the sense of the Code the Laws made against Hereticks do comprehend Schismaticks and such as differ from the Church in lesser and lighter matters Haereticerum autem vocabulo continentur latis adversus eos sanctionibus succumbere debent qui vel levi argumento a judicio Catholicae Religionis tramite deetcti fuerint deviare i. e. Vnder the name of Hereticks are comprehended and ought to be punished by the Sanctions made aegainst them all such as are found to swerve in a light matter from the judgment and path of Catholick Religion Secondly They themselves as appears plainly by Mr. Edwards his Reasons will no more suffer
Schismaticks no not their brethren the Independents whom they dare not call Here ticks and who had deserved so well at their hands which as yet they never did at ours than Hereticks 3ly The practise of the ancient Church as in part we have shewed did aswaies persecute Schismaticks as well as Hereticks 4ly The Pseas and Excuse of our Dissenters are not so allowable in the principle point of Heresie as are most Hereticks For there being two Essential parts of Heresie generally received A Formal part consisting in the pravity of the mind and disposition of the heart and obstinacy of the will And a Material part consisting in the Errour it self maintained Men of our Age and Countrey have more of the Formality of Hereticks than they who are direct Hereticks Forasmuch as an Heretick erring in Articles of Faith may be truly said and allowed to make a conscience of what he though Erroniously believes for being matters of Faith they are proper Objects of Conscience whose Sphere is good and Evil. But they who do not differ not dissent as they say in Matters of Faith from the Church but yet keep themselves at a distance from the Authority of the same may indeed whether we will or no call their dissenting by the name of Conscience but it is well known in reason or propriety of speech it cannot be so termed when there not so much as appears Good or Evil in the thing it self And therefore it must of necessity be Resolution not to agree or yield and that is nothing else but obstmacy as their own justifications do imply when being demanded why they cannot in Conscience comply They to my knowledge answer They cannot do it Fifthly As Mr. Edwards said against the Independents we may say against the Presbyterians viz. That we know not the bottom of their Reformation nor where it will end nor what it doth hold notwithstanding their published Confessions and Catechisms Larger or Lesser there being infinite Points which like obstructions to a man travailing by Mapps when they shall come to put in practice will arise unexpectedly And besides Mr. Cartwright whom they follow as their Modern Apostle tells us in their stead Cartwright's Reply to Bishop Whitgift pag. 5. Cortain of the things we stand upon are such that if every hair of our head were a life we ought to afford them for the defence of them Again in the same Treatise he reproveth Bishop Whitgift for distinguishing between matters of Faith and necessary to Salvation Id. pag. 14. And Reply to the Answer pag. 1. and Ceremonies Orders and Discipline of the Church as though saith he matters of Discipline and kind of Government were not matters necessary to Salvation and of Faith Are these men understood or to be trusted when they say they demand only such things as we may easily grant Will they lay down their lives for them Secondly They profess that they are ready to come up to us if we would grant certain light matters But with what truth and sincerity let their Actions all along speak which aimed at nothing less than the ruin and absolute dissolution of our Church And let Thomas Cartwright in the next place tell us in these words Id. Reply pag. 102. Indeed it were more safe for us to conform our indiffâ—rent Ceremonies to the Turks which are far off than to the Papists which are so near And we well know how altogether Popish we are in our Ceremonies according to their opinion And we being as near their Discipline as they are to our Ceremonies and Government may we not as well say Indeed it were more safe for us to conform our indifferent Ceremonies to the Heathens than to the Disciplinarians which are so near And thus ye see how according to their principles we are like to come to a good agreement and an happy composure as when they would smooth over the matter they dissemblingly speak calling small and new Acquifiâ—ions Moderation Thirdly They say that Indifferent things ought to remain so and they ought not to be obliged any further than Christ and the Scripture binds them The first part of this argument is as false dangerous and pernicious to all Churches and all Ecclesiastical Authority as the wit of man can invent any thing and is quite contrary to Scriptures which require obedience as likewise themselves do being in power to Superiors And therefore to deny Superiors that wherein only their power is seen and exercised is to take away what the Scripture grants them Now to the second part Christ and the Scripture oblige men to be subject in such cases to men Calvinus Adversus Anaba pag. 27.2 in â—â—tavo And Calvin expressly saith Improbare quod nunquam improbavit Deus nimiae est homâ—ni inquam mortali temeritatis arrogantia Hoe autem perpetuò teneamus usurpari c. i. e. To condemn that which God never Condemned is too great rashness and arrogance for Mortal man But let us hold to this constantly that the autority of God is usurped when that which he hath permitted is condemned And show where God hath not permitted any one of our Rites or Ceremonies And if ye cannor as we are sure you cannot How do ye not take Gods Office out of his hands in condemning that he hath not being all Private men and of no authority over us To this let us add Mr. Perkins speaking thus Perkins on Galat. 2. v. 3. Things are not called Indifferent because we may use them indifferently or not use them when we will and how we will but because in themselves or in their own nature they are neither good nor evil and we may again not use them well or ill Furthermore there are two things which Restrain the use of things Indifferent The Law of Charity and the Laws of Men c. ANd the same Author in another place saith Perkins Cases of Conscience Lib. 1. Chap. 5. Actions Indifferent in the case of Offence or Edification cease to be Indifferent and come under some Commandment of the Moral Law In which St. Paul saith If eating Flesh will Offend c. Thus he Now eating Flesh doth offend at some times and that not equals of whom St. Paul speaks but Superiours And a man would think that a Sincere Conscience ought to have greater regard to these than to other persons Calvin Institut Lib. 3. Cap. 9. And yet we find true what Calvin laught at in his daies thus You may see some who imagine their Liberty cannot hold unless by eating Flesh on Fridays they stand possessed of it Lastly because they see their own acts to testifie so expresly against Toleration in raising and acting one of the most sad and unjust Tragedies that ever England felt and groaned under and this principally to introduce a strange Worship contrary to the Laws and Consciences of so many Thousands and their Superiours it not being possible to shake this off them some of them