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{PART II}

Penn’s Argument for Religious Liberty

3.

THE Great CASE of Liberty of Conscience Once more briefly Debated and Defended, by the Authority of Reason, Scripture, and Antiquity: Which may serve the Place of a General Reply to such late Discourses; as have Oppos’d a Toleration (1670) The Author W. P.

Whatsoever ye would that Men should do to you, do ye even so to them: Mat. 7. 12.

Render unto Caesar, the Things that are Caesar’s; and to God, the Things that are God’s. Mark 12. 17.

To the Supream Authority of England.

TOLERATION (for these Ten Years past) has not been more the Cry of some, than PERSECUTION has been the Practice of others, though not on Grounds equally Rational.

The present Cause of this Address, is to solicite a Conversion of that Power to our Relief, which hitherto has been imploy’d to our Depression; that after this large Experience of our Innocency, and long since expir’d Apprenticeship of Cruel Sufferings, you will be pleas’d to cancel all our Bonds, and give us a Possession of those Freedoms, to which we are entituled by English Birthright.

This has been often promised to us, and we as earnestly have expected the Performance; but to this Time we labour under the unspeakable Pressure of Nasty Prisons, and daily Confiscation of our Goods, to the apparent Ruin of intire Families.

We would not attribute the whole of this Severity to Malice, since not a little share may justly be ascribed to Mis-intelligence.

For ’tis the Infelicity of Governours to see and hear by the Eyes and Ears of other Men; which is equally unhappy for the People.

And we are bold to say, that Suppositions and meer Conjectures, have been the best Measures, that most have taken of Us, and of our Principles; for whilst there have been none more inoffensive, we have been mark’t for Capital Offenders.

’Tis hard that we should always lie under this undeserved Imputation; and which is worse, be Persecuted as such, without the Liberty of a just Defence.

In short, if you are apprehensive, that our Principles are inconsistent with the Civil Government, grant us a free Conference about the Points in Question, and let us know, what are those Laws, essential to Preservation, that our Opinions carry an Opposition to? And if upon a due enquiry we are found so Heterodox, as represented, it will be then but time enough to inflict these heavy Penalties upon us.

And as this Medium seems the fairest, and most reasonable; so can you never do your selves greater Justice, either in the Vindication of your Proceedings against us, if we be Criminal; or if Innocent, in dis-ingaging your Service of such, as have been Authors of so much Mis-information.

But could we once obtain the Favour of such Debate we doubt not to evince a clear Consistency of our Life and Doctrine with the English Government; and that an indulging of Dissenters in the Sense defended, is not only most Christian and Rational, but Prudent also. And the Contrary (how plausibly soever insinuated) the most injurious to the Peace, and destructive of that discreet Ballance, which the Best and Wisest States, have ever carefully Observ’d.

But if this fair and equal Offer, find not a Place with you, on which to rest it’s Foot; much less that it should bring us back the Olive Branch of TOLERATION; we heartily embrace and bless the Providence of God; and in his Strength resolve, by Patience, to outweary Persecution, and by our constant Sufferings, seek to obtain a Victory, more Glorious, than any our Adversaries can atchieve by all their Cruelties.

Vincit qui patitur.1
From a Prisoner for Conscience-Sake,

Newgate, the 7th of the 12th
Month, call’d February, 1670.

W. P.

The PREFACE.

WERE some as Christian, as they boast themselves to be, ’twould save us all the Labour we bestow in rendring Persecution so Unchristian, as it most truly is: Nay were they those Men of Reason they Character themselves, and what the Civil Law stiles good Citizens, it had been needless for us to tell them, that neither can any external Coercive Power convince the Understanding of the poorest Idiot, nor Fines and Prisons be judg’d fit and adequate Penalties for Faults purely intellectual; as well as that they are destructive of all Civil Government.

But we need not run so far as beyond the Seas, to fetch the Sense of the Codes, Institutes, and Digests, out of the Corpus Civile, to adjudge such Practices incongruous with the good of Civil Society; since our own good, old, admirable Laws of England, have made such excellent Provision for it’s Inhabitants, that if they were but thought as fit to be executed by this present Age, as they were rightly judg’d necessary to be made by our careful Ancestors: We know how great a Stroak they would give such as venture to lead away our Property in Triumph (as our just Forfeiture) for only Worshipping our God in a differing Way, from that which is more generally Profest and Establisht.

And indeed it is most truly lamentable, That above others (who have been found in so Un-natural and Antichristian an Imployment) those, that by their own frequent Practices and Voluminous Apologies, have defended a Separation (from the Papacy) should now become such earnest Persecutors for it, not considering, that the Enaction of such Laws, as restrain Persons from the free Exercise of their Consciences, in Matters of Religion, is but a knotting Whip-cord to lash their own Posterity; whom they can never promise to be conformed to a National Religion. Nay, since Mankind is subject to such Mutability, they can’t ensure themselves, from being taken by some Perswasions, that are esteem’d Heterodox, and consequently catch themselves in Snares of their own providing. And for Men thus liable to change, (and no ways certain of their own Belief to be the most infallible,) as by their multiply’d Concessions may appear, to enact any Religion, or prohibit Persons from the free Exercise of theirs, sounds harsh in the Ears of all modest and unbya’st Men. We are bold to say our Protestant Ancestors thought of nothing less, than to be succeeded by Persons Vain glorious of their Reformation, and yet Adversaries to Liberty of Conscience; for to People in their Wits, it seems a Paradox.

Not that we are so ignorant, as to think it is within the Reach of Humane Power to fetter Conscience, or to restrain it’s Liberty strictly taken: But that plain English, of Liberty of Conscience, we would be understood to mean, is this; namely, The Free and Uninterrupted Exercise of our Consciences, in that Way of Worship, we are most clearly perswaded, God requires us to serve Him in (without endangering our undoubted Birthright of English Freedoms) which being Matter of FAITH; we Sin if we omit, and they can’t do less, that shall endeavour it.

To tell us, we are Obstinate and Enemies to Government, are but those Groundless Phrases, the first Reformers were not a little pestered with; but as they said, so say we, The being call’d this, or that, does not conclude us so; and hitherto we have not been detected of that Fact, which only justifies such Criminations.

But however free we can approve our selves of Actions prejudicial to the Civil Government; ’tis most certain we have not suffered a little, as Criminals, and therefore have been far from being free from Sufferings; indeed, in some respect, Horrid Plunders: Widows have lost their Cows, Orphans their Beds, and Labourers their Tools. A Tragedy so sad, that methinks it should oblige them to do in England, as they did at Athens; when they had sacrificed their Divine Socrates to the sottish Fury of their lewd and Comical Multitude, they so regretted their hasty Murder, that not only the Memorial of Socrates was most venerable with them, but his Enemies they esteemed so much theirs, that none would Trade or hold the least Commerce with them; for which some turned their own Executioners, and without any other Warrant than their own Guilt, hang’d themselves. How near a-kin the wretched mercenary Informers of our Age are to those, the great Resemblance that is betwixt their Actions manifestly shews.

And we are bold to say, the grand Fomenters of Persecution, are no better Friends to the English State, than were Anytus and Aristophanes of old to that of Athens, the Case being so nearly the same, as that they did not more bitterly envy the Reputation of Socrates amongst the Athenians for his grave and Religious Lectures (thereby giving the Youth a Diversion from frequenting their Plays) than some now emulate the true Dissenter, for his Pious Life, and great Industry.2

And as that famous Common-wealth was noted to decline, and the most observing Persons of it dated its decay from that illegal and ingrateful Carriage towards Socrates (witness their dreadful Plagues, with other multiply’d Disasters). So it is not less worthy Observation, that Heaven hath not been wholly wanting to scourge this Land, for, as well their Cruelty to the Conscientious, as their other multiply’d Provocations.

And when we seriously consider the dreadful Judgments that now impend the Nation (by Reason of the Robbery, Violence, unwonted Oppression, that almost every where, have not only been committed, upon the Poor, the Widow, and the Fatherless; but most tenaciously justified, and the Actors manifestly encourag’d) in meer Pity, and Concern, for the Everlasting Welfare of such as have not quite sinn’d away their Visitation (for some have) we once more bring to publick View, our Reasons against Persecution, backt with the plainest Instances, both of Scripture and Antiquity. If but one may be perswaded, to desist from making any farther Progress in such an Anti-protestant, and truly Anti-christian Path, as that of persecuting Honest and Virtuous Englishmen, for only worshipping the God that made them, in the Way they judge most acceptable with him.

But if those, who ought to think themselves oblig’d to weigh these Affairs with the greatest Deliberation, will obstinately close their Eyes, to these last Remonstrances; and slightly over-look the pinching Case of so many thousand Families, that are by these Severities expos’d for Prey, to the unsatiable Appetites of a Villanous Crew of broken Informers (daubing themselves with that deluding Apprehension of pleasing God, or at least of profiting the Country; whilst they greatly displease the one, and evidently ruin the other as certain as ever the Lord God Almighty destroyed Sodom, and lay’d waste Gomorrah, by the consuming Flames of His just Indignations); will he hasten to make desolate this wanton Land, and not leave an Hiding Place for the Oppressor.3

Let no man therefore think himself too big to be admonish’d, nor put too slight a Value upon the Lives, Liberties, and Properties, of so many Thousand Free-born English Families, Embark’t in that one Concern of Liberty of Conscience. It will become him better to reflect upon his own Mortality, and not forget his Breath is in his Nostrils, and that every Action of his Life the Everlasting God will bring to Judgment, and him for them.

CHAP. I.

That Imposition, Restraint, and Persecution for Conscience-Sake, highly Invade the Divine Prerogative, and Divest the Almighty of a Right, due to none beside Himself, and that in five eminent Particulars.

THE great Case of Liberty of Conscience so often Debated and Defended (however dissatisfactorily to such as have so little Conscience as to Persecute for it) is once more brought to publick View, by a late Act against Dissenters, and Bill, or an additional one, that we all hop’d the Wisdom of our Rulers had long since laid aside, as what was fitter to be passed into an Act of perpetual Oblivion.4 The Kingdoms are alarm’d at this Procedure, and Thousands greatly at a Stand, wondring what should be the Meaning of such hasty Resolutions, that seem as fatal as they were unexpected: Some ask what Wrong they have done; others, what Peace they have broken; and all, what Plots they have form’d, to prejudice the present Government, or occasions given, to hatch new Jealousies of them and their Proceedings, being not conscious to themselves of Guilt in any such Respect.

For mine own Part, I publickly confess my self to be a very hearty Dissenter from the establish’t Worship of these Nations, as believing Protestants to have much degenerated from their first Principles, and as owning the poor despised Quakers, in Life and Doctrine, to have espoused the Cause of God, and to be the undoubted Followers of Jesus Christ, in his most Holy, Straight and Narrow Way that leads to the Eternal Rest. In all which I know no Treason, nor any Principle that would urge me to a Thought injurious to the Civil Peace. If any be defective in this particular, ’tis equal, both Individuals and whole Societies should answer for their own Defaults, but we are clear.

However, all conclude that Union very Ominous, and Unhappy, which makes the first Discovery of it self, by a John Baptist’s Head in a Charger,5 They mean that Feast some are design’d to make upon the Liberties and Properties of Free-born Englishmen, since to have the Intail of those undoubted hereditary Rights cut off (for Matters purely relative of another World) is a severe beheading in the Law; which must be obvious to all, but such as measure the Justice of Things only by that Proportion they bear with their own Interest.

A Sort of Men that seek themselves, though at the apparent Loss of whole Societies, like to that barbarous Fancy of old, which had rather that Rome should burn, than it be without the Satisfaction of a Bon-fire: And sad it is, when Men have so far stupified their Understandings with the strong doses of their private Interest, as to become insensible of the Publick’s. Certainly such an Over-fondness for self, or that strong Inclination, to raise themselves in the Ruin of what does not so much oppose them, as that they will believe so, because they would be persecuting, is a malignant Enemy to that Tranquillity, which, all Dissenting Parties seem to believe, would be the Consequence of a Toleration.

In short we say, there can be but two Ends in Persecution, the one to satisfie (which none can ever do) the insatiable Appetites of a decimating Clergy (whose best Arguments are Fines and Imprisonments) and the other, as thinking therein they do God good Service; but ’tis so hateful a Thing upon any Account, that we shall make it appear by this ensuing Discourse, to be a declared Enemy to God, Religion, and the Good of humane Society.

The whole will be small, since it is but an Epitome of no larger a Tract than fourteen Sheets; yet divides it self into the same Particulars, every of which we shall defend against Imposition, Restraint, and Persecution, though not with that Scope of Reason (nor consequently Pleasure to the Readers) being by other contingent Disappointments, limited to a narrow Stint.

The Terms explained, and the Question stated.

First, By Liberty of Conscience, we understand not only a meer Liberty of the Mind, in believing or disbelieving this or that Principle or Doctrine, but the Exercise of our selves in a visible Way of Worship, upon our believing it to be indispensibly required at our Hands, that if we neglect it for Fear or Favour of any Mortal Man, we Sin, and incur Divine Wrath: Yet we would be so understood to extend and justifie the Lawfulness of our so meeting to worship God, as not to contrive, or abet any Contrivance destructive of the Government and Laws of the Land, tending to Matters of an external Nature, directly, or indirectly; but so far only, as it may refer to religious Matters, and a Life to come, and consequently wholly independent of the secular Affairs of this, wherein we are suppos’d to Trangress.

Secondly, By Imposition, Restraint, and Persecution, we don’t only mean, the strict Requiring of us to believe this to be true, or that to be false; and upon Refusal, to incur the Penalties enacted in such Cases; but by those Terms we mean thus much, any coercive Lett or Hindrance to us, from meeting together to perform those Religious Exercises which are according to our Faith and Perswasion.

The Question stated.

For Proof of the aforesaid Terms thus given, we singly state the Question thus,

Whether Imposition, Restraint, and Persecution, upon Persons for Exercising such a Liberty of Conscience, as is before expressed, and so circumstantiated, be not to impeach the Honour of God, the Meekness of the Christian Religion, the Authority of Scripture, the Priviledge of Nature, the Principles of common Reason, the Well-being of Government, and Apprehensions of the greatest Personages of former and latter Ages.

First, Then we say that Imposition, Restraint, and Persecution, for Matters relating to Conscience, directly invade the Divine Prerogative, and Divest the Almighty of a Due, proper to none besides himself. And this we prove by these five Particulars.

1. First, If we do allow the Honour of our Creation, due to God only, and that no other besides himself has endow’d us with those excellent Gifts of Understanding, Reason, Judgment, and Faith, and consequently that he only is the Object as well as Author, both of our Faith, Worship, and Service, then whosoever shall interpose their Authority to enact Faith and Worship, in a Way that seems not to us congruous with what he has discover’d to us to be Faith and Worship (whose alone Property it is to do it) or to restrain us from what we are perswaded is our indispensible Duty, they evidently usurp this Authority and invade his incommunicable Right of Government over Conscience: For the Inspiration of the Almighty gives Understanding: And Faith is the Gift of God, says the Divine Writ.6

Secondly. Such magisterial Determinations carry an evident Claim to that Infallibility, which Protestants have been hitherto so jealous of owning, that to avoid the Papists, they have denied it to all, but God himself.

Either they have forsook their old Plea, or if not, we desire to know when, and where, they were invested with that divine Excellency, and whether Imposition, Restraint, and Persecution, were deem’d by God ever the Fruits of his Spirit: However, that it self was not sufficient; for unless it appear as well to us, that they have it, as to them who have it, we cannot believe it upon any convincing Evidence, but by Tradition only; an Anti-Protestant Way of Believing.

Thirdly, It enthrones Man as King over Conscience, the alone just Claim and Priviledge of his Creator, whose Thoughts are not as Men’s Thoughts but has reserv’d to himself, that Empire from all the Caesars on Earth; for if Men in Reference to Souls, and Bodies, things appertaining to this and t’other World, shall be subject to their Fellow-Creatures, what follows? but that Caesar (however he got it) has all, God’s Share, and his own too; and being Lord of both, Both are Caesar’s and not God’s.7

Fourthly, It defeats God’s Work of Grace, and the invisible Operation of his Eternal Spirit, which can alone beget Faith, and is only to be obey’d, in and about Religion and Worship, and attributes Men’s Conformity to outward Force and Corporal Punishments. A Faith subject to as many Revolutions as the Powers that enact it.

Fifthly and Lastly, Such Persons assume the Judgment of the great Tribunal unto themselves; for to whomsoever Men are imposedly or restrictively subject and accountable in Matters of Faith, Worship and Conscience; in them alone must the Power of Judgment reside; but it is equally true that God shall judge all by Jesus Christ, and that no Man is so accountable to his fellow Creatures, as to be imposed upon, restrain’d, or persecuted for any Matter of Conscience whatever.

Thus and in many more particulars are Men accustomed to intrench upon Divine Property, to gratifie particular Interests in the World (and at best) through a Misguided Apprehension to imagine they do God good Service, that where they cannot give Faith, They will use Force, which kind of Sacrifice is nothing less unreasonable than the other is abominable: God will not give his Honour to another, and to him only that searches the Heart and tries the Reins, it is our Duty to ascribe the Gifts of Understanding and Faith, without which none can please God.

CHAP. II.

They overturn the Christian Religion; 1. In the Nature of it, which is Meekness; 2. In the Practice of it, which is Suffering; 3. In the Promotion of it, since all further Discoveries are prohibited; 4. In the Rewards of it, which are Eternal.

THE next great Evil which attends External Force in Matters of Faith and Worship, is no less than the Overthrow of the whole Christian Religion, and this we will briefly evidence in these four particulars 1. That there can be nothing more remote from the Nature. 2. The Practice. 3. The Promotion. 4. The Rewards of it.

1. First, it is the Priviledge of the Christian Faith above the dark Suggestions of ancient and modern Superstitious Traditions, to carry with it a most Self-evidencing Verity, which ever was sufficient to proselyte Believers, without the weak Auxiliaries of external Power; The Son of God, and great Example of the World,8 was so far from calling his Father’s Omnipotency in Legions of Angels to his Defence, that he at once repeal’d all Acts of Force, and defin’d to us the Nature of his Religion in this one great Saying of his, MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD.9 It was spiritual, not carnal, accompanied with Weapons, as heavenly as it’s own Nature, and design’d for the Good and Salvation of the Soul, and not the Injury and Destruction of the Body: No Goals, Fines, Exiles, &c. but sound Reason, clear Truth and a strict Life. In short, the Christian Religion intreats all, but compels none.

Secondly, That Restraint and Persecution overturn the Practice of it; I need go no farther than the allowed Martyrologies of several Ages, of which the Scriptures claim a Share; begin with Abel, go down to Moses, so to the Prophets, and then to the Meek Example of Jesus Christ himself; How patiently devoted was he, to undergo the Contradictions of Men? and so far from persecuting any, that he would not so much as revile his Persecutors, but prayed for them;10 thus lived his Apostles and the true Christians, of the first three Hundred Years: Nor are the famous Stories of our first Reformers silent in the Matter; witness the Christian Practices of the Waldenses, Lollards, Hussites, Lutherans, and our noble Martyrs, who as became the true Followers of Jesus Christ, enacted and confirm’d their Religion, with their own Blood, and not with the Blood of their Opposers.

Thirdly, Restraint and Persecution obstruct the Promotion of the Christian Religion, for if such as restrain, confess themselves, miserable Sinners, and altogether imperfect, it either follows, that they never desire to be better, or that they should encourage such as may be capable of farther informing and reforming them; they condemn the Papists for encoffening the Scriptures and their Worship, in an unknown Tongue, and yet are guilty themselves of the same kind of Fact.

Fourthly; They prevent many of eternal Rewards, for where any are Religious for Fear, and that of Men, ’tis slavish, and the Recompence of such Religion is Condemnation, not Peace: besides ’tis Man that is served, who having no Power but what is Temporary, his Reward must needs be so too; he that imposes a Duty, or restrains from one, must reward; but because no Man can Reward for such Duties, no Man can or ought to impose them, or restrain from them, so that we conclude Imposition, Restraint and Persecution, are destructive of the Christian Religion, in the Nature, Practice, Promotion and Rewards of it, which are Eternal.

CHAP. III.

They oppose the plainest Testimonies of Divine Writ that can be, which condemn all Force upon Conscience.

WE FARTHER say, that Imposition, Restraint and Persecution are repugnant to the plain Testimonies and Precepts of the Scriptures.

1.The Inspiration of the Almighty gives Understanding, Job 32. 8.

If no Man can believe before he understands, and no Man can understand before he is inspir’d of God, then are the Impositions of Men excluded as unreasonable, and their Persecutions for non-Obedience as inhuman.

2.Wo unto them that take Counsel, but not of me, Isa. 30. 1.

3.Wo unto them that make a Man an Offender for a Word, and lay a Snare for him that reproves in the Gate, and turn aside the Just for a Thing of Nought, Isa. 29. 15. 21.

4.Let the Wheat and the Tares grow together, until the Time of the Harvest, or End of the World. Matt. 13. 27, 28, 29.

5.And Jesus called them unto him, and said ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles, exercise Dominion over them, and they that are great exercise Authority upon them, but it shall not be so amongst you. Matt. 20. 25, 26.

6.And Jesus said unto them, Render unto Caesar the Things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the Things that are God’s. Luke 20. 25.

7.When his Disciples saw this (that there were Non-conformists then as well as now) they said, wilt thou that we command Fire to come down from Heaven and consume them, as Elias did; but he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what Spirit ye are of; for the Son of Man is not come to destroy Men’s Lives but to save them, Luke 9. 54, 55, 56.

8.Howbeit, when the Spirit of Truth is come, he shall lead you into all Truth, John 16. 8. 13.

9.But now the Anointing which ye have received of him, abides in you, and you need not that any Man teach you, (much less impose upon any, or restrain them from what any are perswaded it leads to) but as the same Anointing teaches you of all Things, and is Truth and is no Lye, 1 John 2. 27.

10.Dearly Beloved, avenge not your selves, but rather give Place unto Wrath (much less should any be Wrathful that are called Christians, where no Occasion is given) therefore if thine Enemy Hunger feed him, and if he Thirst, give him Drink; Recompence no Man Evil for Evil, Rom. 12. 19, 20, 21.

11.For though we walk in the Flesh (that is in the Body or visible World) we do not war after the Flesh, for the Weapons of our Warfare are not Carnal. 2 Cor. 10. 3. (but Fines and Imprisonments are, and such use not the Apostle’s Weapons that employ those) for a Bishop, 1 Tim. 3. 3. (saith Paul) must be of good Behaviour, apt to teach, no Striker, but be gentle unto all Men, Patient, in Meekness instructing (not Persecuting) those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them Repentance to the Acknowledging of the Truth, 2 Tim. 2. 24, 25.

12. Lastly, We shall subjoyn one Passage more, and then no more of this particular; Whatsoever ye would that Men should do you, do ye even so to them. Mat. 7. 12. Luke 6. 31.

Now upon the whole we seriously ask, Whether any should be imposed upon, or restrain’d, in Matters of Faith and Worship? Whether such Practices become the Gospel, or are suitable to Christ’s meek Precepts and suffering Doctrine? And lastly, Whether those, who are herein guilty, do to us, as they would be done unto by others.

What if any were once severe to you; many are unconcerned in that, who are yet liable to the Lash, as if they were not. But if you once thought the Imposition of a Directory Unreasonable, and a Restraint from your Way of Worship, Unchristian, can you believe that Liberty of Conscience is changed, because the Parties, in Point of Power, are?11 or that the same Reasons do not yet remain in Vindication of an Indulgence for others, that were once employed by you, for your selves? Surely such Conjectures would argue gross Weakness.

To conclude, whether Persecutors at any Time read the Scriptures, we know not; but certain we are, such Practice, as little of them as may be, who with so much Delight reject them, and think it no small Accession to the Discovery of their Loyalty, to lead us and our Properties in Triumph after them.

CHAP. IV.

They are Enemies to the Priviledge of Nature; 1. as rendring some more, and Others less than Men; 2. As subverting the Universal Good that is God’s Gift to Men; 3. As destroying all natural Affection. Next, they are Enemies to the noble Principle of Reason, as appears in eight great Instances.

WE FARTHER say, That Imposition, Restraint, and Persecution, are also destructive of the great Priviledge of Nature and Principle of Reason: Of Nature in three Instances:

1. First, If God Almighty has made of one Blood all Nations, as himself has declar’d,12 and that he has given them both Senses Corporal and Intellectual, to discern Things and their Differences, so as to assert or deny from Evidences and Reasons proper to each; then Where any Enacts the Belief or Disbelief of any Thing upon the rest, or restrains any from the Exercise of their Faith to them indispensible, such exalts himself beyond his Bounds; Enslaves his Fellow Creatures, invades their Right of Liberty, and so perverts the whole Order of Nature.

Secondly, Mankind is hereby robbed of the Use and benefit of that Instinct of a Deity, which is so natural to him, that he can be no more without it, and be, than he can be without the most essential Part of himself; For to what serves that Divine Principle in the Universality of Mankind, if Men be restricted by the Prescriptions of some Individuals? But if the excellent Nature of it inclines Men to God, not Man; if the Power of Accusing and Excusing be committed to it; if the troubled Thoughts and sad Reflections of Forlorn and Dying Men make their Tendency that Way only, (as being hopeless of all other Relief and Succour from any external Power or Command) What shall we say, but that such as invalidate the Authority of this Heavenly Instinct, (as Imposition and Restraint evidently do) destroy Nature, or that Priviledge which Men are born with, and to.

Thirdly, All natural Affection is destroy’d; for those who have so little tenderness, as to persecute Men, that cannot for Conscience sake yield them Compliance, manifestly act injuriously to their Fellow Creatures, and consequently are Enemies to Nature; For Nature being one in all, such as ruin those who are equally intituled with themselves to Nature, ruin it in them, as in Liberty, Property, &c. And so bring the State of Nature to the State of War, the great Leviathan of the Times, as ignorantly, as Boldly, does assert.13

But Secondly, we also prove them destructive of the noble Principle of Reason, and that in these eight Particulars.

1. In that those who impose, or restrain, are uncertain of the Truth, and Justifiableness of their Actions in either of these, their own Discourses and Confessions are pregnant Instances, where they tell us, that they do not pretend to be infallible, only they humbly conceive ’tis thus, or it is not. Since then they are uncertain and fallible, how can they impose upon, or restrain others whom they are so far from assuring, as they are not able to do so much for themselves? what is this, but to impose an uncertain Faith, upon certain Penalties?

3. As he that acts doubtfully is damned, so Faith in all Acts of Religion is necessary: Now in Order to believe, we must first Will; to Will, we must Judge; to Judge any Thing, we must first Understand; if then we cannot be said to understand any Thing against our Understanding; no more can we Judge, Will, or Believe against our Understanding: and if the Doubter be damned, what must he be that conforms directly against his Judgment and Belief, and they likewise that require it from him? In short, that Man cannot be said to have any Religion, that takes it by another Man’s Choice, not his own.

4. Where Men are limited in Matters of Religion, there the Rewards which are entail’d on the free Acts of Men, are quite overthrown; and such as supersede that Grand Charter of Liberty of Conscience, frustrate all Hopes of Recompence, by rendring the Actions of Men unavoidable: But those think perhaps, they do not destroy all Freedom, because they use so much of their own.

5. Fifthly; They subvert all True Religion; for where Men believe not because it is True, but because they are required to do so, there they will unbelieve, not because ’tis False, but so commanded by their Superiors, whose Authority their Interest and Security oblige them rather to obey, than dispute.

6. Sixthly, They delude, or rather compel People out of their Eternal Rewards; for where Men are commanded to act in reference to Religion, and can neither be secur’d of their Religion, nor yet sav’d Harmless from Punishment, that so acting and believing, dispriviledges them for ever of that Recompence which is provided for the Faithful.

7. Seventhly, Men have their Liberty and Choice in External Matters; they are not compelled to Marry this Person, to Converse with that, to Buy here, to Eat there, nor to Sleep yonder; yet if Men had Power to impose or restrain in any Thing, one would think it should be in such exteriour Matters; but that this Liberty should be unquestion’d, and that of the Mind destroy’d, issues here. That it does not Unbrute us; but Unman us; for, take away Understanding, Reason, Judgment, and Faith, and like Nebuchadnezzar, let us go Graze with the Beasts of the Field.14

8. Eighthly and Lastly, That which most of all blackens the Business, is PERSECUTION; for though it is very unreasonable to require Faith, where Men cannot chuse but doubt, yet after all, to punish them for Disobedience, is Cruelty in the Abstract, for we demand, Shall Men Suffer for not doing what they cannot do? Must they be Persecuted here if they do not go against their Consciences, and punished hereafter if they do? But neither is this all; for that Part that is yet most unreasonable, and that gives the clearest Sight of Persecution, is still behind, namely, The Monstrous Arguments they have to Convince an Heretick with: Not those of Old, as Spiritual as the Christian Religion, which were to admonish, warn, and finally to reject;15 but such as were imploy’d by the persecuting Jews and Heathens against the great Example of the World, and such as follow’d him, and by the inhuman Papists against our first Reformers, as Clubs, Staves, Stocks, Pillories, Prisons, Dungeons, Exiles, &c. In a Word, Ruin to whole Families, as if it were not so much their Design to Convince the Soul, as to Destroy the Body.

To conclude: There ought to be an Adequation and Resemblance betwixt all Ends, and the Means to them, but in this Case there can be none imaginable: The End is the Conformity of our Judgments and Understandings to the Acts of such as require it, the Means are Fines and Imprisonments (and Bloody Knocks to boot.)

Now, what Proportion or Assimulation these bear, let the Sober judge: The Understanding can never be convinc’d, nor properly submit, but by such Arguments, as are Rational, Perswasive, and suitable to its own Nature; something that can resolve it’s Doubts, answer it’s Objections, enervate it’s Propositions, but to imagine those barbarous Newgate Instruments of Clubs, Fines, Prisons, &c. with that whole Troop of external and dumb Materials of Force, should be fit Arguments to convince the Understanding, scatter it’s Scruples, and finally, convert it to their Religion, is altogether irrational, cruel, and impossible. Force may make an Hypocrite; ’tis Faith grounded upon Knowledge, and Consent that makes a Christian. And to conclude, as we can never betray the Honour of our Conformity (only due to Truth) by a base and timorous Hypocrisie to any external Violence under Heaven, so must we needs say, Unreasonable are those Imposers, who secure not the Imposed or Restrained from what may occur to them, upon their Account; and most inhuman are those Persecutors that punish Men for not obeying them, though to their utter Ruin.

CHAP. V.

They carry a Contradiction to Government: 1. In the Nature of it, which is Justice. 2. In the Execution of it, which is Prudence. 3. In the End of it, which is Fidelity. Seven Common, but Grand Objections, fairly stated, and briefly answered.

WE NEXT urge, That Force in Matters relating to Conscience, carries a plain Contradiction to Government in the Nature, Execution, and End of it.

By Government we understand, An External Order of Justice, or the right and prudent Disciplining of any Society, by Just Laws, either in the Relaxation, or Execution of them.

First, It carries a Contradiction to Government in the Nature of it, which is Justice, and that in three Respects.

1. It is the First Lesson, that Great Synteresis,16 so much renowned by Philosophers and Civilians, learns Mankind, To do as they would be done to; since he that gives what he would not take, or takes what he would not give, only shews Care for himself, but neither Kindness nor Justice for another.

2.The Just Nature of Government lies in a fair and equal Retribution; but what can be more unequal, than that Men should be rated more than their Proportion, to answer the Necessities of Government, and yet that they should not only receive No Protection from it, but by it be disseiz’d of their dear Liberty and Properties; we say to be compell’d to pay that Power, that exerts it self to ruin those that pay it, or that any should be requir’d to enrich those, that ruin them, is hard, and unequal, and therefore contrary to the Just Nature of Government. If we must be Contributaries to the Maintenance of it, we are entituled to a Protection from it.

3.It is the Justice of Government to proportion Penalties to the Crime committed. Now granting our Dissent to be a Fault, yet the Infliction of a Corporal or External Punishment, for a meer Mental Error (and that not voluntary) is Unreasonable and Inadequate, as well as against particular Directions of the Scriptures, Tit. iii. 9, 10, 11. For as Corporal Penalties cannot convince the Understanding; so neither can they be commensurate Punishments for Faults purely Intellectual: And for the Government of this World to intermeddle with what belongs to the Government of another, and which can have no ill Aspect or Influence upon it, shews more of Invasion than Right and Justice.

Secondly, It carries a Contradiction to Government in the Execution of it, which is Prudence, and that in these Instances.

1. The State of the Case is this, That there is no Republick so great, no Empire so vast, but the Laws of them are Resolvable into these Two Series or Heads, Of Laws Fundamental, which are Indispensible and Immutable: And Laws Superficial, which are Temporary and Alterable: And as it is Justice and Prudence to be punctual in the Execution of the former, so by Circumstances it may be neither, to Execute the latter, they being suited to the present Conveniency and Emergency of State; as the Prohibiting of Cattle out of Ireland, was judg’d of Advantage to the Farmers of England, yet a Murrain would make it the Good of the Whole, that the Law should be broke, or at least the Execution of it suspended. That the Law of Restraint in Point of Conscience is of this Number, we may farther manifest, and the Imprudence of thinking otherwise: For, first, if the Saying were as True as ’tis False, No Bishop, no King, (which admits of Various Readings; As no Decimating Clergy, or no Persecution, no King,) we should be as silent, as some would have us; but the Confidence of their Assertion, and the Impolicy of such as believe it, makes us to say, That a greater Injury cannot be done to the present Government. For if such Laws and Establishments are Fundamental, they are as immutable as Mankind it self; but that they are as alterable, as the Conjectures and Opinions of Governours have been, is evident; Since the same Fundamental Indispensible Laws and Policy of these Kingdoms have still remain’d, through all Variety of opposite Ruling Opinions and Judgments, and disjoyn’d from them all. Therefore to admit such a Fixation to Temporary Laws, must needs be highly imprudent, and Destructive of the Essential Parts of the Government of these Countries.

2. That since there has been a Time of Connivance, and that with no ill Success to Publick Affairs, it cannot be Prudence to discontinue it, unless it was Imprudence before to give it, and such little deserve it that think so.

3.Dissenters not being Conscious to themselves of any Just Forfeiture of that Favour, are as well griev’d in their Resentments of this Alteration, as the contrary did oblige them to very Grateful Acknowledgments.

4. This must be done to gratifie all, or the greatest Part, or but some few only; it is a Demonstration all are not pleased with it; that the greatest Number is not, the empty publick Auditories will speak: In short, how should either be, when Six Parties are sacrificed to the Seventh; that this cannot be Prudence, Common Maxims and Observations prove.

5. It strikes fatally at Protestant Sincerity; for will the Papists say, Did Protestants exclaim against us for Persecutors, and are they now the Men themselves? Was it an Instance of Weakness in our Religion, and is’t become a Demonstration of Strength in theirs? Have they transmuted it from Anti-christian in us, to Christian in themselves? Let Persecutors answer.

6.It is not only an Example, but an Incentive to the Romanists, to Persecute the Reformed Religion abroad; for when they see their Actions (once void of all Excuse) now defended by the Example of Protestants, that once accus’d them, (but now themselves) doubtless they will revive their Cruelty.

7.It overturns the very Ground of the Protestants Retreat from Rome; for if Men must be Restrain’d upon pretended Prudential Considerations, from the Exercise of their Conscience in England; why not the same in France, Holland, Germany, Constantinople, &c. where Matters of State may equally be pleaded? This makes Religion, State-Policy; and Faith and Worship, subservient to the Humours and Interests of Superiors: Such Doctrine would have prevented our Ancestor’s Retreat; and we wish it be not the Beginning of a Back-march; for some think it shrewdly to be suspected, where Religion is suited to the Government, and Conscience to it’s Conveniency.

8.Vice is encourag’d; for if Licentious Persons see Men of Virtue molested for Assembling with a Religious Purpose to Reverence and Worship God, and that are otherwise most serviceable to the Common-Wealth, they may and will inferr, it is better for them to be as they are, since not to be Demure, as they call it, is Half Way to that Kind of Accomplishment, which procures Preferment.

9. For such Persons as are so poor Spirited as to truckle under such Restraints; What Conquest is there over them? that before were Conscientious Men, and now Hypocrites; who so forward to be aveng’d of them, that brought this Guilt upon them, as they themselves? And how can the Imposers be secure of their Friendship, whom they have taught to change with the Times?

10. Such Laws are so far from benefitting the Country, that the Execution of them will be the assured Ruin of it, in the Revenues, and consequently in the Power of it; For where there is a Decay of Families, there will be of Trade; so of Wealth, and in the End of Strength and Power; and if both Kinds of Relief fail, Men, the Prop of Republicks; Money, the Stay of Monarchies; this, as requiring Mercenaries; that, as needing Freemen; farewel the Interest of England; ’Tis true, the Priests get (though that’s but for a Time) but the King and People lose; as the Event will shew.

11. It ever was the Prudence of Wise Magistrates to oblige their People; but what comes shorter of it than Persecution? What’s dearer to them than the Liberty of their Conscience? What cannot they better spare than it? Their Peace consists in the Enjoyment of it: And he that by Compliance has lost it, carries his Penalty with him, and is his own Prison. Surely such Practices must render the Government uneasie, and beget a great Disrespect to the Governours, in the Hearts of the People.

12. But that which concludes our Prudential Part, shall be this, That after all their Pains and Good Will to stretch Men to their Measure, they never will be able to accomplish their End: And if he be an unwise Man, that provides Means where he designs no End, how near is he Kin to him that proposes an End inobtainable. Experience has told us, 1. How Invective it has made the Impos’d on. 2. What Distractions have insued such Attempts. 3. What Reproach has follow’d to the Christian Religion, when the Professors of it have us’d a Coercive Power upon Conscience. And lastly, That Force never yet made either a Good Christian, or a Good Subject.

Thirdly and Lastly, Since the Proceedings we argue against, are prov’d so Destructive to the Justice and Prudence of Government, we ought the less to wonder that they should hold the same Malignity against the End of it, which is Felicity, since the Wonder would be to find it otherwise; and this is evident from these three Considerations.

1.Peace (the End of War and Government, and it’s great Happiness too) has been, is, and yet will be broken by the frequent Tumultuary Disturbances, that ensue the Disquieting our Meetings, and the Estreating Fines upon our Goods and Estates. And what these Things may issue in, concerneth the Civil Magistrate to consider.

2.Plenty, (another great End of Government) will be converted into Poverty by the Destruction of so many Thousand Families as refuse Compliance and Conformity, and that not only to the Sufferers, but influentially to all the Rest; a Demonstration of which we have in all those Places where the late Act has been any Thing considerably put in Execution. Besides, how great Provocation such Incharity and Cruel Usage, as stripping Widows, Fatherless, and Poor of their very Necessaries for human Life, meerly upon an Account of Faith or Worship, must needs be to the Just and Righteous Lord of Heaven and Earth; Scriptures, and Plenty of other Histories plainly shew us.

3.Unity, (not the least, but greatest End of Government) is lost for by seeking an Unity of Opinion (by the Ways intended) the Unity requisite to uphold us, as a Civil Society, will be quite destroy’d. And such as relinquish that, to get the other (besides that they are Unwise) will infallibly lose both in the End.

In short, We say, that ’tis unreasonable we should not be entertain’d as Men, because some think we are not as Good Christians as they pretend to wish us; or that we should be depriv’d of our Liberties and Properties, who never broke the Laws that gave them to us: What can be harder, than to take that from us by a Law, which the great Indulgence and Solicitude of our Ancestors took so much Pains to intail upon us by Law; An. 18 Ed. 3. Stat. 3. also Stat. 20 Ed. 3. Cap. 1. again Petition of Right, An. 3. Car. and more fully in Magna Charta; further peruse 37 Ed. 5. Cap. 8. 28. 42 Ed. 3. Cap. 3. 28 Hen. Cap. 7.

And we are perswaded, that no Temporary Subsequential Law whatever to our Fundamental Rights, (as this of Force on Conscience is) can invalid so essential a Part of the Government, as English Liberty and Property: Nor that it’s in the Power of any on Earth, to deprive us of them, till we have first done it our selves, by such Enormous Facts, as those very Laws prohibit, and make our Forfeiture of that Benefit we should otherwise receive by them; for these being such Cardinal and Fundamental Points of English Law-Doctrine, individually, and by the collective Body of the People agreed to; and on which as the most solid Basis, our Secondary Legislative Power, as well as Executive is built; it seems most rational that the Superstructure cannot quarrel or invalidate it’s own Foundation, without manifestly endangering it’s own Security, the Effect is ever less noble than the Cause, the Gift than the Giver, and the Superstructure than the Foundation.

The single Question to be resolved in the Case, briefly will be this, Whether any Visible Authority (being founded in its primitive Institution upon those Fundamental Laws, that inviolably preserve the People in all their just Rights and Priviledges) may invalidate all, or any of the said Laws, without an implicit shaking of it’s own Foundation, and a clear Overthrow of it’s own Constitution of Government, and so reduce them to their Statu quo prius, or first Principles: The Resolution is every Man’s, at his own Pleasure. Read Hen. 3. 9. 14. 29. 25 Ed. 3. Cook’s Instit. 2. 19. 50, 51.

Those who intend us no Share or Interest in the Laws of England, as they relate to civil Matters, unless we correspond with them in Points of Faith and Worship, must do two Things: First, It will lie heavy on their Parts to prove, That the Ancient Compact and Original of our Laws carries that Proviso with it; else we are manifestly disseized of our Free-Customs.

Secondly, They are to prove the Reasonableness of such Proceedings to our Understandings, that we may not be concluded by a Law, we know not how to understand; for if I take the Matter rightly (as I think I do) we must not Buy, or Sell unless of this or that Perswasion in Religion; not considering Civil Society was in the World before the Protestant Profession; Men, as such, and in Affairs peculiarly relative of them, in an External and Civil Capacity, have subsisted many Ages, under great Variety of Religious Apprehensions, and therefore not so dependent on them as to receive any Variation or Revolution with them. What shall we say then? but that some will not that we should Live, Breath, and Commerce as Men, because we are not such model’d Christians as they coercively would have us; they might with as much Justice and Reputation to themselves forbid us to look or see unless our Eyes were Grey, Black, Brown, Blue, or some one Colour best suiting theirs: For not to be able to give us Faith, or save our Consciences harmless, and yet to persecute us for refusing Conformity, is intolerable hard Measure.

In short, That coercive Way of bringing all Men to their Height of Perswasion, must either arise from Exorbitant Zeal and Superstition; or from a Consciousness of Error and Defect, which is unwilling any Thing more sincere and reformed should take Place; being of that Cardinal’s Mind, who therefore would not hearken to a Reformation, at the sitting of the Counsel of Trent; because he would not so far approve the Reformers Judgment (for having once condescended to their Apprehensions, he thought ’twould forever inslave them to their Sense) though otherwise he saw as much as any Man, the Grand Necessity of a Reformation, both of the Roman Doctrine and Conversation.17

Some Grand Objections in the Way must be Considered.

Objection 1.But you are a People that meet with Designs to Disaffect the People, and to ruin the Government.

Answer. A Surmise is no Certainty, neither is A may-be, or Conjecture, any Proof: That from the first we have behaved our selves inoffensively is a Demonstration; that our Meetings are open, where all may hear our Matter, and have Liberty to object or discuss any Point, is notorious. Ignorant Calumnies are Sandy Foundations to build so high a Charge upon. Let us fairly be heard in a publick Conference, how far we can justifie our Principles from being deservedly suspected of Sedition or Disloyalty, and not over run us with meer Suppositions. We declare our Readiness to obey the Ordinance of Man, which is only relative of Human or Civil Matters, and not Points of Faith, or Practice in Worship: But if Accusations must stand for Proofs, we shall take it for granted, that we must stand for Criminals; but our Satisfaction will be, that we shall not deserve it otherwise than as Prejudice seeks to traduce us.

Object. 2.But you strike at the Doctrine, at least the Discipline of the Church, and consequently are Hereticks.

Answ. This Story is as old as the Reformation; If we must be objected against out of pure Reputation, let it be in some other Matter than what the Papists objected against the first Protestants; otherwise you do but hit your selves in aiming at us? To say you were in the Right, but we are in the Wrong, is but a meer begging of the Question; for doubtless the Papists said the same to you, and all that you can say to us: Your best Plea was, Conscience upon Principles, the most evident and rational to you: Do not we the like? What if you think our Reasons thick, and our Ground of Separation mistaken? Did not the Papists harbour the same Thoughts of you? You perswaded as few of them, as we of you: Were you therefore in the Wrong? No more are we: It was not what they thought of you, or enacted against you, that concluded you: And why should your Apprehensions conclude us? If you have the Way of giving Faith beyond what they had, and have the Faculty of Perswasion, evidence as much; but if you are as destitute of both, as they were to you; why should Fines and Prisons, once us’d by them against you, and by you exclaimed against, as Unchristian Ways of reclaiming Hereticks (supposing your selves to be such) be employ’d by you as Rational, Christian, and Convincing upon us? To say we deserve them more, is to suppose your selves in the Right, and us in the Wrong, which proves nothing. Besides, the Question is not barely this, whether Hereticks or no Hereticks; but whether an Heretick should be Persecuted into a disclaiming of his Error; your old Arguments run thus, as I well remember.

1.Error is a Mistake in the Understanding.

2.This is for Want of a better Illumination.

3.This Error can never be dislodged, but by Reason and Perswasion, as what are most suitable to the Intellect of Man.

4.Fines, Goals, Exiles, Gibbets, &c. are no convincing Arguments to the most erring Understanding in the World, being slavish and brutish.

5.This Way of Force makes, instead of an honest Dissenter, but an Hypocritical Conformist; than whom nothing is more detestable to God and Man.

This being the Protestants Plea, we are not to be disliked by Protestants, for following their own avow’d Maxims and Axioms of Conscience in Defence of it’s own Liberty.

In short, either allow Separation upon the single Principle of, My Conscience owns this, or disowns that; or never dwell in that Building, which knew no better Foundation, (indeed good enough) but, accusing your Forefathers of Schism, and Heresie, return to the Romish Church. What short of this can any say to an Anti-liberty-of-Conscience-Protestant.

Object. 3.But at this Rate ye may pretend to Cut our Throats, and do all Manner of savage Acts.

Ans. Though the Objection be frequent, yet it is as foully ridiculous. We are pleading only for such a Liberty of Conscience, as preserves the Nation in Peace, Trade, and Commerce; and would not exempt any Man, or Party of Men, from not keeping those excellent Laws, that tend to Sober, Just, and Industrious Living. It is a Jesuitical Moral, To Kill a Man before he is Born: First, to suspect him of an Evil Design, and then kill him to prevent it.

Object. 4.But do not you see what has been the End of this Separation? Wars, and Revolutions, and Danger to Government; witness our late Troubles.

Ans. We see none of all this, but are able to make it appear, that the true Cause of all that perplext Disturbance, which was amongst the Homoousians and Arrians of old, and among us of latter Years (as well as what has modernly attended our Neighbouring Countries) took its first rise from a Narrowness of Spirit, in not Tolerating others to live the Freemen God made them, in External Matters upon the Earth, meerly upon some Difference in Religion.

And were there once but an Hearty Toleration establisht, ’twould be a Demonstration of the Truth of this Assertion. On this Ground, Empire stands safe; on the other, it seems more uncertain.

But these are only the popular Devices of some to traduce honest Men, and their Principles; whose lazy Life, and intolerable Advice become question’d, by a Toleration of People better inclin’d.

Object. 5.But what need you take this Pains to prove Liberty of Conscience Reasonable and Necessary, when none questions it; all that is required is, That you meet but four more than your own Families; and can you not be contented with that? Your Disobedience to a Law, so favourable, brings suffering upon you.

Ans. Here is no Need of answering the former Part of the Objection; ’Tis too apparent throughout the Land, that Liberty of Conscience, as we have stated it, has been severely prosecuted, and therefore not so frankly injoyned: The latter Part, I answer thus, If the Words Lawful or Unlawful, may bear their Signification from the Nature of the Things they stand for, then we conceive that a Meeting of Four Thousand is no more Unlawful, than a Meeting of Four; for Number singly consider’d criminates no Assembly: But the Reason of their assembling; the Posture in which; and the Matter transacted, with the Consequences thereof.

Now if those Things are taken for granted, to be Things dispensible (as appears by the Allowance of Four besides every Family) certainly the Number can never render it Unlawful; so that the Question will be this, Whether if Four met to worship God, be an Allowable Meeting, Four thousand met with the same Design be not an allowable Meeting?

It is so plain a Case, that the Matter in Question resolves it.

Object. 6.But the Law forbids it.

Answ. If the enacting any Thing can make it lawful, we have done; but if an Act so made by the Papists against Protestants, was never esteem’d so by a true Protestant; and if the Nature of the Matter will not bear it; and lastly, that we are as much commanded by God to meet Four Thousand, as Four; we must desire to be excused, if we forbear not the assembling of our selves together, as the Manner of some is.

Object. 7.But the Reason of the Prohibition of the Number is (for you see they allow all that can be said to Four Thousand to be said to the Family and Four) that Tumults may arise, and Plots may be made, and the like Inconveniencies happen to the Government.

Ans. Great Assemblies are so far from being injurious, that they are the most inoffensive; for, First, They are open, exposed to the View of all, which of all Things Plotters are the shyest of; but how fair an Opportunity ’twere, for Men so principled, to do it in those allowed Meetings of but Four besides the Family, is easie to guess, when we consider, that few make the best and closest Council; and next, that such an Assembly is the most private and clandestine, and so fitted for Mischief and Surprize.

Secondly, Such Assemblies, are not only publick and large, but they are frequented, as well by those that are not of their Way, as by their own; from whence it follows, that we have the greatest Reason to be cautious and wise in our Behaviour, since the more there be at our Meetings, the more Witnesses are against us, if we should say or act any Thing that may be prejudicial to the Government.

Lastly, For these several Years none could ever observe such an ill use made of that Freedom, or such wicked Designs to follow such Assemblies; and therefore it is high Incharity to proceed so severely upon meer Suppositions.

To this we shall add several Authorities and Testimonies for farther Confirmation of our Sense of the Matter, and to let Imposers see, that we are not the only Persons, who have impleaded Persecution, and justified Liberty of Conscience, as Christian and Rational.

CHAP. VI.

They reflect upon the Sense and Practice of the Wisest, Greatest, and best States, and Persons of Ancient and Modern Times; as of the Jews, Romans, AEgyptians, Germans, French, Hollanders, nay Turks and Persians too. And Cato, Livy, Tacitus, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Jovianus, Chaucer, Dominicus Soto, Malvetzey, Grotius, Rawleigh, Doctor and Student, French and Dutch Protestants in England, Dr. Hammond, Dr. Taylor, A nameless but great Person, Lactantius, Hilary, Jerom, Chrysostom, Polish and Bohemian Kings, King James, and King Charles the First.

A BRIEF Collection of the Sense and Practice of the Greatest, Wisest, and Learned’st Common-Wealths, Kingdoms, and particular Persons of their Times, concerning Force upon Conscience.

First, Though the Jews above all People had the most to say for Imposition and Restraint within their own Dominions, having their Religion instituted by so many signal Proofs of Divine Original, it being deliver’d to them by the Hand of God himself, yet such was their Indulgence to Dissenters, that if they held the common receiv’d Noachical Principles tending to the Acknowledgment of One God, and a Just Life, they had the Free Exercise of their distinct Modes or Ways of Worship, which were numerous. Of this their own Rabbies are Witnesses, and Grotius out of them.18

2. The Romans themselves, as strict as they were, not only had Thirty Thousand Gods (if Varro may be credited) but almost every Family of any note, had its distinct Sacra, or peculiar Way of Worship.19

3. It was the Sense of that grave, exemplary Common Wealth’s-Man, Cato, in Salust, that among other Things which ruin any Government, Want of Freedom of Speech, or Men’s being obliged to humour Times, is a great one; which we find made good by the Florentine Republick, as Guiccardine relates.20

4.Livy tells us, It was a Wonder that Hannibal’s Army, consisting of divers Nations, divers Humours, differing Habits, contrary Religions, various Languages, should live Thirteen Years from their own Country under his Command without so much as once mutining, either against their General, or among themselves.21 But what Livy relates for a Wonder, that ingenious Marquess, Virgilio Malvetzy gives the Reason of, namely, that the Difference of their Opinion, Tongues, and Customs, was the Reason of their Preservation and Conquest; For, said he, ’Twas impossible so many contrary Spirits should Combine, and if any should have done it, ’twas in the General’s Power to make the greater Party by his equal Hand; they owing him more of Reverence, than they did of Affection to one another: This, says he, some impute to Hannibal, but how great soever he was, I give it to the Variety of Humours in the Army. For (adds he) Rome’s Army was ever less given to Mutining when joyned with the Provincial Auxiliaries, than when intirely Roman; thus much and more, in his publick Discourses upon Cornelius Tacitus.22

5. The same, best Statist of his Time, C. Tacitus, tells us in the Case of Cremtius, That it had been the Interest of Tiberius not to have punished him, in as much as Curiosity is begotten by Restriction of Liberty to Write or Speak, which never mist of Proselytes.23

6.Just. Martyr. I will forbear to quote, in less than this, two whole Apologies, dedicated to Adrian and Antoninus Pius, as I take it.24

7.Tertullian ad Scapulam, that Learned and Judicious Apologist, plainly tells us, That ’tis not the Property of Religion to Compel or Persecute for Religion, she should be accepted for her Self, not for Force; that being a poor and beggarly one, that has no better Arguments to Convince; and a manifest Evidence of her Superstition and Falshood.25

8. Of this we take the nine Month’s Reign of the Emperor Jovianus to be an excellent Demonstration, whose great Wisdom, and admirable Prudence in granting Toleration (expresly saying, He would have none molested for the Exercise of their Religion) Calm’d the impetuous Storms of Dissention betwixt the Homoousians and Arrians; and reduc’d the whole Empire, before agitated with all Kind of Commotions during the Reigns of Constantine, Constantius, and Julian, to a wonderful Serenity and Peace, as Socrates Scholasticus affirms.26

9. That little Kingdom of AEgypt had no less than Forty Thousand Persons retir’d to their private and separate Ways of Worship, as Eusebius out of Philo Judeus, and Josephus relates.27

10. And here let me bring in honest Chaucer, whose Matter (and not his Poetry) heartily affects me: ’Twas in a Time when Priests were as rich, and lofty, as they are now, and Causes of Evil alike.28

- (a) THE Time was once, and may return again,
- (for oft may happen that hath been beforn)
- when Shepherds had none Inheritance,
- ne of Land, nor Fee in Sufferance,
- But what might arise of the bare Sheep,
- (were it more or less) which they did keep,
- Well ywis was it with Shepherds tho’:
- nought having, nought fear’d they to forgo,
- For PAN (God) himself was their Inheritance,
- and little them serv’d for their Maintenance,
- The Shepherd’s God so well them guided,
- that of nought were they unprovided;
- (b)Butter enough, Honey, Milk, and Whay,
- and their Flock Fleeces them to array.
- But Tract of Time and long Prosperity,
- (that Nurse of Vice, this of Insolency)
- Lulled the Shepherds in such Security,
- that not content with Loyal Obeysance,
- Some gan to gap for greedy Governance,
- and match themselves with mighty Potentates.
- (c) Lovers of Lordships and Troublers of States;
- then gan Shepherds Swains to look aloft,
- And leave to live hard, and learn to lig soft,
- though under colour of Shepherds same while
- There crept in Wolves full of Fraud and Guile,
- that often devour’d their own Sheep,
- And often the Shepherd that did them keep,
- (d)This was the first Source of the Shepherds Sorrow.
- that nor will be quit, with bale, nor borrow.

11. Who knows not that our first Reformers were great Champions for Liberty of Conscience, as Wickliff in his Remonstrance to the Parliament. The Albigenses to Lewis the 11th and 12th of France. Luther to the several Diets under Frederick and Charles the Fifth; Calvin to Francis the First, and many of our English Martyrs, as the poor Plowman’s Famous Complaint, in Fox’s Martyrology, &c.29

12. The present Affairs of Germany, plainly tell us, that Toleration is the Preservation of their States; the contrary having formerly, almost quite wasted them.

13. The same in France: who can be so ignorant of their Story, as not to know that the timely Indulgence of Henry the fourth; and the discreet Toleration of Richlieu and Mazarin, saved that Kingdom from being ruin’d both by the Spaniards; and one another.

14.Holland, than which, what Place is there so improved in Wealth, Trade and Power, chiefly owes it to her Indulgence, in Matters of Faith and Worship.

15. Among the very Mahumetans of Turky, and Persia, what Variety of Opinions, yet what Unity and Concord is there? We mean in Matters of a Civil Importance.

16. It Was the Opinion of that great Master of the Sentences, Dominicus a Soto, that every Man had a natural Right, to instruct others in Things that are good: And he may teach the Gospel-Truths also, but cannot compel any to believe them, he may explain them, and to this, (says he) every Man has a Right, as in his 4 Sent. Dist. 5. Art. 10. Pag. 115. 7.30

17.Strifes about Religion, said Judicious and learned Grotius, are the most pernicious and destructive, where Provision is not made for Dissenters: the contrary most happy; As in Muscovy; he farther says upon the Occasion of Campanella, that not a rigid but easy Government suits best with the Northern People; he often pleads the Relaxation of temporary Laws, to be reasonable and necessary. As in the Case of the Curatij and Horatij, and Fabius Vitulanus; and others stinted to Time and Place, as the Jewish Laws, &c. Polit. Maxims, P. 12, 18. 78, 98.31

18. The famous Rawleigh tell us, that the Way for Magistrates to govern well, and Gain the Esteem of their People, is to govern by Piety, Justice, Wisdom, and a Gentle and Moderate Carriage towards them; And that Disturbance attends those States, where Men are raised, or depress’d by Parties. See his Observations and Maxims of State.32

19. If I mistake not, the French and Dutch Protestants enjoy their separate Ways of Worship in London, if not in other Parts of these Lands, without Molestation; we do the like in remote Countreys, but not in our own.

20. This must needs be the Meaning of the learned Doctor, to his Inquisitive Student, in their judicious Dialogue, about the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdoms, when he says, That such Laws as have not their Foundation in Nature, Justice and Reason, are void ipso facto. And whether Persecution or Restraint upon Conscience, be congruous with either, Let the impartial Judge. lib. 1. chap. 6.33

21.Doctor Hammond himself, and the grand Patron of the English Church, was so far from urging the Legality of Restriction, in Matters relating to Conscience, that he Writ, Argued, and left upon his Dying-Bed, his Sense to the Contrary: As the Author of his Life might have been pleased to observe, but that Interest stood in the Way, The Doctor exhorting his Party, not to seek to displace those, then in the University; or to Persecute them for any Matter of Religious Difference.34

22. That a Person, of no less Ability, in the Irish Protestant Church did the same. I mean D. Jer. Taylor, his whole Discourse of Liberty of Prophecy, is a most pregnant Demonstration.35

23. It was the Saying of a Person once, too great to be named now, That Liberty of Conscience is every Man’s natural Right, and he who is deprived of it, is a Slave in the midst of the greatest Liberty: And since every Man should do as he would be done to, such only don’t deserve to have it, that won’t give it.

24.Lactantius reflects upon Persecutors thus, If you will with Blood, with Evil, and with Torments defend your Worship, it shall not thereby be defended, but polluted, lib. 5. cap. 20.36

25.Hilary against Auxentius, saith, The Christian Church does not persecute, but is persecuted.37

26.Jerom, thus, Heresie must be cut off, with the Sword of the Spirit; Proaem. Lib. 4.38

27.Chrysostom saith, That it is not the Manner of the Children of God, to persecute about their Religion, but an evident Token of Antichrist,—Relig. Uris. Pag. 192.39

28.Stephen King of Poland, declared his Mind in the Point controverted, thus, I am King of Men, not of Conscience; a Commander of Bodies, not of Souls.

29. The King of Bohemia, was of Opinion, That Men’s Consciences ought in no Sort, to be violated, urged, or constrained.

30. And lastly, let me add (as what is, or should be now of more Force) the Sense of King James, and Charles the first, Men fam’d for their great natural Abilities, and acquired Learning; that no Man ought to be punished for his Religion, nor disturb’d for his Conscience; In that it is the Duty of every Man to give what he would receive. “It is a sure Rule in Divinity, said King James, that God never loves to plant his Church by Violence, and Bloodshed.40And in his Exposition on Revel. 20. he saith, That PERSECUTION is the Note of a false Church.41 And in the last King’s Advice to the present King, he says. Take Heed of abetting any Factions; your partial Adhering to ANY ONE SIDE, gains you not so great Advantages in some Men’s Hearts, (who are prone to be of their King’s Religion) as it loseth you in others, who think themselves, and their Profession, first despised, then persecuted by you.”

Again, “Beware of exasperating any Factions, by the Crossness, and Asperity of some Men’s Passions, Humors, or private Opinions imployed by you grounded only upon their Difference, in lesser Matters, which are but the Skirts, and Suburbs of Religion. Wherein a Charitable Connivence, and Christian Toleration, often dissipates their Strength, whom rougher Opposition fortifies; and puts the despised and Oppressed Party, into such Combinations; as may most enable them to get a full Revenge, on those they count their Persecutors, who are commonly assisted by that vulgar Commiseration, which attends all that are said to suffer under the Notion of Religion.

“Always keep up SOLID PIETY, and those Fundamental Truths (which mend both Hearts and Lives of Men) with Impartial Favour and Justice. Your Prerogative is best shown and exercised in Remitting, rather than Exacting the Rigour of Laws; there being nothing worse than Legal Tyranny.”42

Now upon the whole, we ask, what can be more equal, what more reasonable than Liberty of Conscience; so correspondent with the Reverence due to God, and Respect to the Nature, Practice, Promotion, and Rewards of the Christian Religion; the Sense of divine Writ; the great Priviledge of Nature, and noble Principle of Reason; the Justice, Prudence, and Felicity of Government; And lastly, to the Judgment and Authority of a whole Cloud of Famous Witnesses, whose Harmony in Opinion, as much detects the Unreasonableness, and Incharity of Persecutors, as their Savage Cruelties imply an high Contempt of so solid Determinations; of which Number I cannot forbear the Mention of two, whose Actions are so near of Kin to one another, and both to Inhumanity, as the same Thing can be to it self.

The first is a great Lord of Buckinghamshire, but so hearty a Persecutor of the poor Quakers, that rather than they should peaceably enjoy the Liberty of Worshipping God, (and to supply the County-Defect of Informers) he has encouraged a pair of such Wretches, that it had been a Disgrace for the meanest Farmer to converse with; one having been Prisoner in Ailsbury, for Theft, & said to have been burnt in the Hand; and the other of a Complexion not much less Scandalous and Immoral.

To give an undeniable Testimony of their Merit, once for all, I shall briefly relate a most notorious Piece of Perjury. They suspecting a Religious Assembly, to be at a certain Place in the same County, came; and finding one in reality, repaired to one they call, Sir Tho Clayton, and a Justice, where they depos’d, That not only a Meeting was at such an House, but one Tho. Zachery and his Wife were there, who at the same Time, as at the Tryal upon Indictment for Perjury at Ailsbury, was proved by sufficient Witnesses from London, were then at that City, yet fined not only for being there, but for the Speaker also, though none spoke that Day.

Upon the Prosecution of these Men, as perjured Men, and by the Law dispriviledged of all Employ, and never to be credited more in Evidence; several Delays were made, much Time spent, and not a little Pains bestowed, all in Hopes of an Exemplary Success, which proved so, but the wrong Way, for the very last Sessions, when the Matter should have received an absolute Decision, and the Attendants have been dismist (especially on the Score of the Witnesses, that came from London the second Time, upon no other Account) a Letter was reported to have been writ from the aforesaid Lord, in Favour of these Informers, to this Purpose, That since Sir Tho. Clayton was not present, the Business could not well be determined, but if the Court would undertake the Ending of it, he besought them to be favourable to those HONEST MEN, if this be true as said, ’tis a most aggravated Shame to Nobility: what! to protect them from the Lash of the Law, who went about to destroy Truth the Life of it: ’Tis a Dishonour to the Government, a Scandal to the County, and a manifest Injury to an inoffensive and useful Inhabitant.

’Tother is as well known by his Cruelty, as by his Name, and he scarce deserves another; However, he is understood by that of the Reading Knight Arrant, and always in Armour for the Devil; a Man whose Life seems to be whole BONNER revived: Hogestrant, the Popish Inquisitor, could not hate Martin Luther more, than he does a poor Dissenter; and wants but as much Power, as he has Will, to hang more than he has imprisoned. The Laws made against Papists, he inflicts upon the Quakers; and makes it Crime enough for a Premunire, to have an Estate to lose.

The single Question is not, were you at such a Meeting? which the Act intends, But will you swear, which it intends not, and Women escape him as little for this, as those of his own Tribe do for SOME THINGS ELSE: but what of all Things, most aggravates the Man’s Impiety, is the making a devilish Snare of a Christian Duty; since such as have come to visit the Imprisoned, have been imprisoned themselves for their Charity; so that with him it seems a Current Maxim, that those must not come to see Prisoners, and not be such themselves, who will not take the Oath of Allegiance to do it.

To relate the whole Tragedy, would render him as Bad, as the Discourse Big; and the latter not less voluminous, than the former Odious. But three Things I shall observe.

First, That he has crouded 72 Persons (of those called Quakers) Men and Women, immodestly into Jail, not suffering them to enjoy common Conveniences. And for his Diversion, and the Punishment of little Children, he pours cold Water down their Necks.

Secondly, His Imprisonments are almost perpetual. First, he premunires them, without any just Cause of Suspicion, then imprisons them; and lastly Plunders them, and that by a Law enacted against Romanists; which, if all be true, that is said, is more his Concern than theirs, If without offence, it may be supposed he has any Religion at all.

Thirdly, Some have been there about eight Years, and should be eighteen more, were he as sure to live (being more than 70) and enjoy his Power, as doubtless he hopes to die before those good Laws over-take him, that would make an Example of such an Oppressor; in short, Wives, Widows, Poor and Fatherless, are all Fish for his Net; and whether over or under Age; he casts none away, but seems to make it his Priviledge to correct Law, by out-doing it. When we have said all we can (and we can never say too much, if enough) he is still his own best Character.

Such are the Passions, Follies, and Prejudices, Men devoted to a Spirit of Imposition, and Persecution, are attended with.

Non enim possumus quae vidimus, & audivimus non loqui.43

In short, What Religious, what wise, what prudent, what good natured Person would be a Persecutor; certainly it’s an Office only fit for those who being void of all Reason, to evidence the Verity of their own Religion, fancy it to be true, from that strong Propensity and greedy Inclination they find in themselves to persecute the contrary; A Weakness of so ill a Consequence to all civil Societies, that the Admission of it ever was, and ever will prove their utter Ruin, as well as their great Infelicity who pursue it.

And though we could not more effectually express our Revenge, than by leaving such Persons to the Scope of their own Humours; Yet being taught to love and pray for our Persecutors, we heartily wish their better Information, that (if it be possible) they may act more suitably to the good Pleasure of the eternal just God, and beneficially to these Nations.

To conclude, Liberty of Conscience (as thus stated and defended) we ask as our undoubted Right by the Law of God, of Nature, and of our own Country: it has been often promised, we have long waited for it, we have writ much, and suffered in it’s Defence, and have made many true Complaints, but found little or no Redress.

However, we take the righteous Holy God to record, against all Objections, that are ignorantly or designedly rais’d against us. That.

1st. We hold no Principle destructive of the English Government.

2d. That we plead for no such Dissenter (if such an one there be.)

3d. That we desire the Temporal and Eternal Happiness of all Persons (in Submission to the divine Will of God) heartily forgiving our cruel Persecutors:

4thly, and lastly, We shall engage, by God’s Assistance, to lead peaceable, just and industrious Lives, amongst Men, to the Good and Example of all. But if after all we have said, this short Discourse should not be credited, nor answered in any of it’s sober Reasons, and Requests; but Sufferings should be the present Lot of our Inheritance from this Generation, be it known to them all THAT MEET WE MUST, and MEET we cannot but encourage all to do (whatever Hardship we sustain) in God’s Name and Authority, who is Lord of Hosts and King of Kings; at the Revelation of whose Righteous Judgments, and glorious Tribunal, Mortal Men shall render an Account of the Deeds done in the Body; and whatever the Apprehensions of such may be, concerning this Discourse, ’twas writ in Love and from a true Sense of the present State of Things: and TIME, and the EVENT will vindicate it from Untruth. In the mean while, ’tis Matter of great Satisfaction to the Author, that he has so plainly cleared his Conscience, in pleading for the Liberty of other Men’s, and publickly born his honest Testimony for God, not out of Season to his POOR COUNTRY.

POSTSCRIPT.

A few brief Observations upon the late Act, and the usual Terms of Acts of this Nature.

That which we have to say, relates, either to the Terms of the Act, or the Application of them to us.

As to the Terms of the Act, they are these, Seditious Conventicles, Seditious Sectaries, and Meetings under Colour or Pretence of Religion, P. 1,

1. SEDITIOUS, from Sedition, imports as much as Turbulent, Contentious, Factious, which sows Strife, and Debate, and hazards the Civil Peace of the Government.

2. Conventicle, is a diminutive private Assembly, designing and contriving Evil to particular Persons, or the Government in general, See Lamb. p. 173.44 In Tertullian’s Sense, It is an Assembly of immodest and unclean Persons; at least it was so taken in those Days, and objected against the Christians as their Practice, whom he defends. Ter. Apol.45

3. Sectaries, must be such as disjoin or dis-member themselves from the Body of Truth, and confess to a strange and untrue Opinion. If any Subject of this Realm being Sixteen Years of Age, or upwards, shall be present at any Assembly, or Conventicle, on pretence of Religion, &c. which can signify no more than thus much, That true it is some may meet and assemble to Worship God, and upon a religious Account, that are Dissenters, such we censure not, but those who under Colour or Pretence of any Exercise of Religion conspire, &c. they are to be suspected and prosecuted. This being the true Explanation of the Terms of the Act, we proceed to shew how unreasonably they are applied to us.

1. Words are but so many intelligible Marks, and Characters set and employ’d to inform us of each other’s Conceptions, and therein of the Nature of those Things they stand for: Now because we take the Act to mean what it speaks, and that the Law concludes no Man guilty upon Conjectures, but from the Detection of some Fault; we affirm our selves altogether unconcern’d in that Word Seditious, because it was never our Practice in Words or Actions to disturb the Government; or suggest Principles that might hatch Conspiracies, or feed the Vulgar with Disaffection to their Rulers; but before the King’s Coming in, at his Coming in, and ever since, notwithstanding our frequent Suffering, we have made it our Business to heal Animosities, preach Forgiveness and Charity amongst Men, and that they would by an hearty Repentance turn to God, rather than hunt after Revenge upon one another; therefore we assert we have not done one thing that may be prov’d Seditious in the Sense above mention’d.

2. That we are Strangers to Conventicles is most evident, for where the Parts that render it such, are wanting, there can be no Conventicle; but that they are in our Assemblies, appears;

First, Because our Meetings are not Small. 2. Neither are they Private or Clandestine; but in the View of all People. Nor are they riotous, licentious, or otherwise immodest, or immoral; but on purpose to dissuade Persons from such Impieties; so that we are clear in the Interpretation of the Law, 13 H. 5. cap. 8. 19. and 19 H. 7. cap. 13. and in the Sense of the famous Father Tertullian.

3.Sectaries, is a Word, that whosoever has but Confidence enough to conceit himself in the Right, by Consequence wants none to suppose the contrary in the wrong, and so to call him a Sectary; but this is but a meer begging of the Question; For to say those are Sectaries does not conclude them such, nor does the Act speak so plainly of Dissenters: But granting it did, yet they must be Seditious Ones, or else all will be in vain; where we may observe, that purely to be a Sectary is not what the Act strikes at, but to be a Seditious One: For a Man may differ in Judgment about Matters of Faith, from the National Religion, and yet correspond with the Government in Matters Civil; so that ACT upon the whole aims not at Sectaries simply, but they must be such as are Enemies to the Civil Constitution to be rendred Seditious Ones, from which we have sufficiently clear’d ourselves.

4.That we meet under Colour and Pretence, and not really to worship God; we deny, and none can prove. ’Twere high Incharity to affirm positively, This, or that People meet only under a Colour of Religion; yet unless the Act had so express’d it self, we conceive their Authority lame and imperfect that Persecute us by it. It will help but little to say, The King, Lords and Commons, by the following Words, in other Manner than according to the Liturgy of the Church of England, meant, that such meet under a Pretence that did not conform to that Worship; since the precedent Words say, under Colour or Pretence of any Exercise of Religion in other Manner, &c. So that they are only struck at, who are not sincere Dissenters, but that are such, with Design to carry on another End.

Obj. But may some say, ’Tis granted, you have very evidently evaded the Force of the Act, so far as relates to these recited Expressions; but what if a Bill be ready, for an Explanatory and Supplementary Act to the former, wherein this Scope for Argument will not be found, because your Meetings will be absolutely adjudged Seditious, Riotous, and Unlawful.

To which we Answer, That as the granting of the first, which none reasonably can deny, is a manifest Impeachment of such as have violently prosecuted People for being present at Religious Assemblies (almost to their utter Undoing) so shall we as easily answer the second, which amounts to the Force of an Objection, and briefly thus.

First, It is not more impossible for Mankind to preserve their Society without Speech, than it is absolutely requisite that the Speech be regular and certain. For, if what we call a Man, a Lion, a Whale to Day, we should call a Woman, a Dog, a Sprat to Morrow; there would be such Uncertainty and Confusion, as it would be altogether impossible to preserve Speech or Language intelligible.

Secondly, It is not in the Power of all the Men in the World to reconcile an absolute Contradiction, to convert the Nature of Light into that of Darkness, nor to enact a Thing to be that which it is not; but that Those endeavour to do, who think of making our Religious Meetings Routs and Riots; for first they offer Violence to our common Propriety of Language, it being the first time that ever a Religious and Peaceable Assembly would be enacted a Rout or Riot: Nature, Reason, the Law of the Land, and common Practice, and Observation, give a clear contrary Definition of a Rout and Riot.

Secondly, They endeavour to reconcile Contradictions; for they would have a Thing that, which by Nature it cannot be; for that which is Peaceable cannot be Riotous, and what is Religious can never be Seditious. For any to say, our Meetings are not Religious, is not only a poor Evasion, but great Incharity; for that is properly a Religious Assembly where Persons are congregated with a real Purpose of worshipping God, by Prayer, or otherwise, let the Persons met be esteem’d Doctrinally Orthodox, or not. Can any be so Ignorant, or so Malicious, as to believe we do not Assemble to Worship God, to the best of our Understanding? If they think otherwise, they must, and do assume unto themselves a Power beyond the Arrogancy of the POPE himself, that never yet adventur’d to tell Man his Thoughts, nor the Purposes and Intents of his Heart, which he, or they must do, that definitively judge our Assemblies, void of Sword or Staff, Drum or Musket, Tumult or Violence, and circumstantiated with all the Tokens of Christian Devotion, a Rout or a Riot. And truly, If Protestants deny the Legality of those Acts or Edicts, which were contriv’d and executed in order to their Suppression, by the respective Kings and Parliaments that own’d the Romish Faith and Authority, where they either did or do live, let them not think it strange, if we on the same Terms (namely, Scruple of Conscience) refuse Compliance with their Laws of Restraint. And as the first Reformers were no whit daunted at the Black Characters the Romanists fastened on them, neither thought their Assemblies in a way of profest Separation, the more unlawful, for their representing them such; no more are we surpriz’d or scar’d at the ugly Phrases, daily cast upon us by a Sort of Men, that either do not know us, or would not that others should: For we are not so easily to be Brav’d, Menac’d, or Persecuted out of our Sense, Reason, and Priviledge.

They say, LOSERS have leave to Speak, at least, we take it; none being greater Losers, than such as for Dissenting from National Institutions in Point of Faith or Worship, are depriv’d of their Common Rights and Freedoms, and hindred as much as may be, from reverencing the God that made them, in that Way which to them seems most acceptable to him.

To Conclude, we say, and by it let our Intentions in our whole Discourse be measur’d, that we have not defended any Dissenters, whose Quarrel or Dissent is rather Civil and Political, than Religious and Conscientious; for both we really think such unworthy of Protection from the English Government, who seek the Ruin of it; and that such as are Contributors to the Preservation of it, (though Dissenters in Point of Faith or Worship) are unquestionably intituled to a Protection from IT.

4.

ONE Project for the Good of Englandthat is, Our Civil Union is our Civil Safety Humbly Dedicated to the Great Council,The Parliament of ENGLAND (1679)

RELIGION, as it is the noblest End of Man’s Life, so it were the best Bond of Human Society, provided Men did not err in the Meaning of that excellent Word. Scripture interprets it to be Loving God above all, and our Neighbours as our selves;1 but Practice teacheth us, that too many meerly resolve it into Opinion and Form; in which, not the Text, but the Comment too often prevails; whence it comes to pass, that those Bodies of Men, who have but one Common Civil Interest, are miserably distracted in Favour of their adopted Notions, upon which they are impatient to bestow an Earthly Crown. And this is the Reason of that Mischief and Uncertainty that attend Government. No sooner one Opinion prevails upon another, (though all hold the Text to be sacred) but Human Society is shaken, and the Civil Government must receive and suffer a Revolution; insomuch, that when we consider the Fury and Unnaturalness of some People for Religion, (which shews they have none that’s True, Religion making Men most Natural as well as Divine) we have Reason to bewail the Mis-understanding as well as Mis-living of that venerable Word.

But since ’tis so hard to disabuse Men of their wrong Apprehensions of Religion, and the true Nature and Life of it, and consequently as yet too early in the Day to fix such a Religion upon which Mankind will readily agree as a common Basis for Civil Society, we must recur to some lower but true, Principle for the Present, and I think there will be no Difficulty of Succeeding.

’Tis this, That Civil Interest is the Foundation and End of Civil Government, and where it is not maintained entire, the Government must needs decline. The Word INTEREST has a good and bad Acceptation; when it is taken in an ill Sense, it signifies a Pursuit of Advantage without Regard to Truth or Justice; which I mean not: The good Signification of the Word, and which I mean, is a Legal Endeavour to keep Rights, or augment honest Profits, whether it be in a private Person or a Society. By GOVERNMENT, I understand a Just and Equal Constitution, where Might is not Right, but Laws rule, and not the Wills or Power of Men; for that were plain Tyranny.

This Government must have a Supreme Authority in it self to Determine, and not be superseded or controuled by any other Power, for then it would not be a Government, but a Subjection, which is a plain Contradiction.

Having thus explained the Terms of the Principle I have laid down, I repeat it, viz. That Civil Interest is the Foundation and End of Civil Government, and prove it thus: The Good of the Whole is the Rise and End of Government; but the Good of the Whole must needs be the Interest of the Whole, and consequently the Interest of the Whole, is the Reason and End of Government. None can stumble at the Word Good, for every Man may easily and safely interpret that to himself, since he must needs believe, ’tis Good for him to be preserv’d in an undisturb’d Possession of his Civil Rights, according to the Free and Just Laws of the Land, and the Construction he makes for himself will serve his Neighbour, and so the whole Society.

But as the Good of the People is properly the Civil Interest of the People, and that, the Reason and End of Government; so is the Maintenance of that Civil Interest entire, the Preservation of Government. For where People are sure of their Own, and are protected from Violence or Injury, they cheerfully yield their Obedience, and pay their Contribution to the Support of that Government. But on the contrary, where Men are insecure of their Civil Rights, nay, where they are daily violated, and themselves in Danger of Ruin, and that for no Sin committed against the Nature of Civil Interest, (to preserve which, Government was instituted) we ought to suppose their Affections will flag, that they will grow dead-hearted, and that what they pay or do, may go against the Grain: And to say true, such Unkindness is ready to tempt them to believe they should not of Right contribute to the Maintenance of such Governments as yield them no Security or Civil Protection. Which unhappy Flaw in the Civil Interest, proves an untoward Crack in the Government; Men not being cordially devoted to the Prosperity of that Government that is exercised in their Destruction; and how far that Fraction upon the Common Interest of the People may affect the Government I cannot tell, but to be sure it is insecure to any Government, to have the People (it’s Strength) divided, as they will be, where their Interest is so disjointed by the Government; One Protected, the Other Expos’d. Wherefore, Wise Governments have ever taken Care to preserve their People, as knowing they do thereby preserve their own Interest, and that how Numerous their People, so large their Interest. For not only Solomon has told us, That the Honour of a Prince is in the Multitude of his People,2 but Experience teaches, that Plenty of People is the Riches and Strength of a Wise and Good Government; as that is, where Vice is corrected and Virtue encouraged, and All taken in and secured in Civils, that have the same Civil Interest with the Government.

But as the Good and Interest of the Whole is the Rise and End of Government, so must it suppose, that the Whole (which takes in all Parties) concurs in seeking the Good of the Government; for the Reason of the Government will not suffer it to protect those that are Enemies to it’s Constitution and Safety; for so it would admit of something dangerous to the Society, for the Security of which, Government was at first Instituted.

It will follow, that those that own another Temporal Power superior to the Government they properly belong to, make themselves Subjects not of the Government they are born under, but to that Authority which they avow to be superior to the Government of their own Country, and consequently Men of another Interest, because ’tis their Interest to pursue the Advantages of that Power they acknowledge to be sovereign; But those that own, embrace and obey the Government of their own Country as their temporal supreme Authority, and whose Interest is one and the same with that of their own proper Government, ought to be valued and protected by that Government.

The Principle thus far lies General, I will now bring it to our own Case.

ENGLAND is a Country Populous and Protestant, and though under some Dissents within it self, yet the Civil Interest is the same, and in some Sense the Religious too. For, first, all English Protestants, whether Conformists or Nonconformists agree in this, that they only owe Allegiance and Subjection unto the Civil Government of England, and offer any Security in their Power to give of their Truth in this Matter. And in the next Place, they do not only consequentially disclaim the Pope’s Supremacy, and all Adhesion to Foreign Authority under any Pretence, but therewith deny and oppose the Romish Religion, as it stands degenerated from Scripture, and the first and purest Ages of the Church; which makes up a great Negative Union.

And it cannot be unknown to Men read in the Reasons of the Reformation, that a Protestation made by the German Reformers against the Imperial Edicts of Charles the Fifth, imposing Romish Traditions, gave Beginning to the Word Protestant.3

In short, It is the Interest of the Ruling, or Church-Protestants of England, that the Pope should have no Claim or Power in England. It is also the Interest of the Dissenting Protestants, that the Pope should have no Claim or Power here in England, because they are subject to the same Mischiefs and Sufferings in their Civil and Religious Rights that the Church-Protestants are liable to; if then both are like to lose by Pope and Foreign Authority, their Interest must needs be one against Pope and Foreign Authority; and if they have but one Interest, it will follow, that the Church-Protestant cannot prejudice the Dissenting-Protestant, but he must weaken and destroy his own Interest.

The Civil Interest of English Protestants being thus the same, and their Religious Interest too, so far as concerns a Negative to the Usurpation and Error of Rome; I do humbly ask, if it be the Interest of the Government, to expose those to Misery that have no other Civil Interest than THAT of the Government? Or if it be just or equal that the Weaker should be prosecuted by the more powerful Protestants, whose Interest is positively the same in Civils, and in Religion Negatively? One would think ’twere reasonable that they should not suffer by Protestants, who if Popery have a Day, are likely to suffer with them, and that upon the same Principles. Experience tells us, That the wisest Architects lay their Foundations broad and strong, and raise their Squares and Structure by the most exact Rules of Art, that the Fabrick may be secure against the Violence of Storms; but if People must be destroy’d by those of the same Interest, truly that Interest will stand but Totteringly, and every Breath of Opposition will be ready to shake it.

’Twas the Inconfutable Answer Christ made to the Blasphemers of that Power by which he wrought Miracles; A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand: what he said then, let me on another Occasion say now, an Interest divided against it self must fall.4

I know some Men will take Fire at this, and by crying The CHURCH, The CHURCH, hope to silence all Arguments of this Nature; But they must excuse me, if I pay no Manner of Regard to their Zeal, and hold their Devotion both Ignorant and Dangerous at this Time. It is not the Way to fill the Church, to destroy the People. A Church without People is a Contradiction, especially when the Scripture tells us, that ’tis the People that makes the Church.

And ’tis not without an Appearance of Reason that some good and wise Men are apprehensive, that the greatest Sticklers for persecuting Protestant Dissenters in Favour of the Church of England, are Men addicted and devoted to the Church of Rome, or at least animated by such as are; who, despairing of doing any great Feats, if known, hide themselves under these Pretences; but the Meaning of it is to debilitate the Protestant Cause in general, by exciting the Church of England, to destroy all other Protestant Interests in these Kingdoms, that so nothing may remain for Popery to conflict with but the few Zealous Abettors of that Church.

And that this may not look disingenuous, or like a Trick of mine, I will enforce it by a Demonstration. It is plain Fact, that the Church of Rome hath ever since the Reformation practised the Restoration of her Religion and Power in these Kingdoms. It is as evident that Religion is with her a Word for Civil Interest, that is, that she may have the Rule over Men both Body and Soul. For ’tis Government she aims at, to have the Reins of Power in her Hand, to give Law and wield the Scepter.

To do this she must either have a greater Interest than the Protestants that are now in Possession, or else divide their Interest, and so weaken them by themselves, and make them Instruments to her Ends. That her own Force is Inconsiderable is clear: She has nothing within Doors to give her Hope but the Discord of Protestants. It follows then that she must of Necessity bestir her self, and use her Arts to enflame the Reckoning among Protestants, and carry their Dissents about Religious Matters to a Division in the Civil Interest. And it is the more to be fear’d, because whatever she has been to others, she has been ever true to her self.

If this then be the only Domestick Expedient left her, we are sure she will use it: and if so, it must needs be of great Importance with all Protestants to let fall their private Animosities, and take all possible Care that their Dissents about Faith or Worship, (which regard the other World) divide not their Affection and Judgment about the Common and Civil Interest of their Country: because if that be kept entire, it equally frustrates the Designs of Rome, as if you were of one Religion. For since, as I said before, Religion, with the great Men of that Church, is nothing else but a softer Word for Civil Empire, preserve you but your Civil Interest from Fraction, and you are in that Sense of one Religion too; and that such an one, as you need not fear the Temptation of Smithfield, if you will but be true to it.5

This being the Case, I would take Leave to ask the Zealous Gentlemen of the English Church, If Conformity to the Fashion of their Worship be dearer to them than England’s Interest and the Cause of Protestancy? If their Love to Church-Government be greater than to the Church and her Religion, and to their Country and her Laws? Or, lastly, Whether in Case they are sincere in their Allegations for the Church, (which, I confess ingenuously, I am apt to suspect) it is to be supposed that the present Church-men (Conformists I mean) are better able of themselves to secure Protestancy and our Civil Interest against the Attempts of Rome, than in Conjunction with the Civil Interest of all Protestant Dissenters? If they say, yes, I would have them at the same Time, for the same Reason, to give it under their Hands, that ’tis a standing Rule in Arithmetick, that ONE is more than SIX, and that hitherto we have been all mistaken in the Art of Numbers.

Being brought to this Pinch, I conceive they must say, that they had rather deliver up their Church to the Power and Designs of Popery, than suffer Dissenters to live freely among them, though Protestants, of one Negative Religion, and of the same Civil Interest; or else hasten to break those Bonds that are laid upon Dissenters of truly tender (and by Experience) of peaceable Consciences; and by Law establish the free Exercise of their Worship to Almighty God, that the Fears, Jealousies, Disaffection and Distraction, that now affect the one common Interest of Protestants, may be removed; for it seems impossible to preserve a distinct Interest from both. But to which of these they may incline, I must not determine; and yet I hope, they will not be of the Mind of a late Monk of Cullen, that in his publick Exercise exhorted the Civil Magistrates to chuse to have their City Poor and Catholick, that is Popish, rather than Great and Opulent by the Admission of trading Hereticks; but if they should, may our Magistrates have at least their Prudence; for the Culleners gave him the Hearing, but were as true to their Interest, as the Monk to his Superstition.

Under Favour, the Civil Government is greatly concern’d to discountenance such Biggotry; for it Thins the People, Lessens Trade, Creates Jealousies, and Endangers the Peace and Wealth of the Whole. And, with Submission, of what should the Civil Magistrate be more tender, than of suffering the Civil Interest of a Great People to be disturb’d and narrow’d for the Humour of any one Party of them? for since the Civil Interest lies as large, as the People of that Interest, the People must be preserv’d in order to preserve that Common Interest. Other Notions ever did divide and weaken Empire, and in the End they have rarely miss’d to pull the Old House about their Ears, that have govern’d themselves by such disproportionable Measures: By all Means, interest the Affections of the People in the Prosperity of the Government, by making the Government a SECURITY to their particular Rights and Properties.

I ask, if more Custom comes not to the King, and more Trade to the Kingdom, by encouraging the Labour and Traffick of an Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Independent, Quaker and Anabaptist, than by an Episcopalian only? If this be true, why should the rest be render’d uncapable of Trade, yea, of Living? What Schism or Heresy is there in the Labour and Commerce of the Anabaptist, Quaker, Independent and Presbyterian, more than in the Labour and Traffick of the Episcopalian?

I beseech you give me Leave, Is there ever a Church-man in England, that in Distress would refuse the Courtesy of one of these Dissenters? If one of them should happen to fall into a Pond or Ditch, would he deny to be helped out by a Dissenter’s Hand? Is it to be supposed, he would in such a Pickle be Stomachful, and chuse to lie there, and be Smother’d or Drown’d, rather than owe Aid to the Good-will of a poor Phanatick? Or if his House were on Fire, may we think that he would have it rather burnt to the Ground than acknowledge it’s Preservation to a Non-conformist? Would not the Act be Orthodox, whatever were the Man? So in Case of being Sick, Imprison’d, Beset, Benighted, out of the Way, far from Kindred or Acquaintance, with an hundred other Cases that may happen daily, can we think, that such Men would ask Questions for Conscience Sake, or charge Schism upon the Relief given them? No, no; Self will always be true to it’s Interest, let Superstition mutter what it will.

But since the Industry, Rents and Taxes of the Dissenters are as currant as their Neighbours, who loses by such narrowness more than England, than the Government and the Magistracy? For till it be the Interest of the Farmer to destroy his Flock, to Starve the Horse he rides, and the Cow that gives him Milk, it cannot be the Interest of England to let a great Part of her Sober and Useful Inhabitants be destroy’d about Things that concern another World. And ’tis to be hoped, that the Wisdom and Charity of our Governors will better guide them both to their own real Interest and their People’s Preservation, which are inseparable; that so they may not Starve them for Religion, that are as willing, as able, to work for the Good of King and Country.

I beseech you, let Nature speak, who is so much a better Friend to Human Society, than False or Froward Opinion, that she often rectifies the Mistakes of a Prejudiced Education, that we may say, how Kind, how Gentle, how Helpful does she teach us to be to each other, till that Make-bate OPINION (falsly called Religion) begins the Jangle, and Foments to Hatred.

All the Productions of Nature are by Love, and shall Religion propagate by Force? If we consider the poor Hen, she will teach us Humanity. Nature does not only learn her to hatch, but to be tender over her Feeble Chickens, that they may not be a Prey to the Kite. All the Seeds and Plants that grow for the Use and Nourishment of Man, are produced by the kind and warm Influences of the Sun. Nothing but Kindness keeps up Human Race: Men and Women don’t get Children in Spite, but Affection. ’Tis wonderful to think by what friendly and gentle Ways Nature produces, and Matures the Creatures of the World; and that Religion should teach us to be Froward and Cruel, is Lamentable: This were to make her the Enemy instead of the Restorer of Nature. But I think, we may without Offence say, That since True Religion gives Men Greater Mildness and Goodness than they had before, that Religion which teaches them less, must needs be False. What shall we say then, but that even Nature is a truer Guide to Peace, and better informs us to preserve Civil Interest, than False Religion, and consequently, that we ought to be true to the Natural and Just Principles of Society, and not suffer one of them to be violated for Humour or Opinion.

Let us go together as far as our Way lies, and preserve our Unity in those Principles, which maintain our Civil Society. This is our Common and our Just Interest, all Protestant Dissenters agree in this, and it is both Wise and Righteous to admit no Fraction upon this Pact, no Violence upon this Concord. For the Consequence of permitting any Thing to break in upon the Principles of Human Society, that is Foreign to the Nature of it, will distract and weaken that Society.

We know, that in all Plantations the Wisdom of Planters is well aware of this: and let us but consider, that the same Ways that plant Countries, must be kept to for preserving the Plantation, else ’twill quickly be Depopulated.

That Country which is false to it’s first Principles of Government, and mistakes or divides it’s Common and Popular Interest, must unavoidably decay. And let me say, That had there been this Freedom granted Eighteen Years ago,6Protestancy had been too potent for the Enemies of it; nor had there been those Divisions for Popery to make it’s Advantage by; at least, not in the Civil Interest of the Nation. And where that has been preserv’d entire, it has been never able to prevail: Witness the careful Government of Holland, where the Preservation of their Civil Interest from Fraction hath secured them against the Growth of Popery, though it be almost tolerated by them: So powerful are the Effects of an United Civil Interest in Government. Now because the Civil Interest of this Nation is the Preservation of the Free and Legal Government of it from all Subjection to Foreign Claim, and that the several Sorts of Protestants are united, as in the Common Protestancy, that is, a General Renunciation of Rome, so in the Maintenance of this Civil Government as a Common Security, (for it strikes at both their Rights, Civil and Sacred; their Conscience, Religion and Law, to admit any Foreign Jurisdiction here) it must follow, that had these several, as well English as Protestant Parties, been timely encouraged to this United Civil Interest, they had secured the Government from this Danger by rendring it too formidable for the Attempt.

But there is a two fold Mistake that I think fit to remove. First, That the Difference betwixt Protestants and their Dissenters is generally manag’d, as if it were Civil. Secondly, The Difference betwixt Papist and Protestant is carried on, as if it were chiefly Religious.

To the First, I say, ’Tis plausible, but false; it is an Artifice of ill Men to enflame the Government against good People, to make base Ends by other Mens Ruin; whereas they that dissent, are at a Ne plus ultra on the Behalf of the English Government, as well as themselves. They neither acknowledge nor submit to any other Authority. They hold the one common Civil Head, and not only acquiesce in the Distribution of Justice by Law; but embrace it as the best Part of their Patrimony. So that the Difference between Protestants and their Dissenters is purely Religious, and mostly about Church-Government, and some Forms of Worship, apprehended to be not so pure and Apostolical as could be desired; and here it is, that Tenderness should be exercis’d, if in any Case in the World, or St. Paul is Mistaken.7

But as to the Second, under Correction, the Case is alter’d, for though it be mostly manag’d on the Side of Religion, The great Point is meerly Civil, and should never be otherwise admitted or understood. For want of this Caution Protestants suffer themselves to be drawn into tedious Controversies about Religion, and give occasion to the Professors and Favourers of that Way to exclaim against them, as Persecutors for Religion, who had reprobated such Severity in the Papists to their Ancestors (a most plausible and very often a successful Plea) when in reality the Difference is not so much Religious as Civil. Not but that there is a vast Contrariety in Doctrine and Worship too; but this barely should not be the Cause of our so great Distance, and that Provision the Laws make against them; but rather that Fundamental inconsistency they carry with them to the Security of the English Government and Constitution unto which they belong, by acknowledging a Foreign Jurisdiction in these Kingdoms. So that drawing into Question and Danger the Constitution and Government, to which Scripture, and Nature, and Civil Pact, oblige their Fidelity and Obedience, there seems a Discharge upon the Civil Government from any farther Care of their Protection, that make it a Piece of Conscience to seek it’s Ruin and which is worse, a Principle, not to be informed of better Things, for even here not Reason or Law, but the Pope must be Judge.

This being the Brief and modest State of the Case, I must return to my first great Principle, That Civil Interest is the Foundation and End of Civil Government: and that how much Men desert the Interest of a Kingdom, so much they Wound and Subvert the Government of it. I appeal to all Wise and Considerate Men of the Truth of this by the present Posture of Affairs and their proper Cause.

To come then to our Point, Shall English Men by English Men, and Protestants by Protestants, be Free or Opprest? This is, Whether shall we receive as English-men and Protestants, those that have no other Civil Interest than that which is purely English, and who sincerely profess and embrace the same Protestation, for which the Ancient Reformers were stiled Protestants, or for the Sake of Humour or Base Ends disown them and expose them and their Families to utter Misery?

I would hope better of our great Church-Men’s Charity and Prudence; but if they should be so unhappy as to keep to their old Measures, and still play the Gawdy, but empty, Name of Church against the Civil Interest and Religion of the Nation, they will shew themselves deserted of God, and then how long it will be, before they will be seen and left of all sober Men, let them Judge. For to speak freely, after all this Light that is now in the World, no Ignorance can excuse such Zeal, nor will wise Men believe it to be either, but a Trick to weaken Protestancy, that her declared Enemy may with less hazard gain the Chair. And there is not so much reason to fear Profest Roman Catholicks, as those Gentlemen, who valuing themselves by their respects to the Church and Tenderness of it’s Independent Honour, have the Opportunity with less Suspicion of letting in Popery at the Back door. These are Men that pay off the Phanatick in the Name of the Church, but for the good of the Pope, to whose Account those Endeavours must be placed.

But it will go a great Way to our Deliverance, if we are not Careless to observe the Secret Workings of those that have vow’d our Misery, and of them, such as are in Masquerade, and wear the Guise of Friends, are most Dangerous: But some Men are Pur-blind, they can see Danger as near as their Nose, but in a Difficulty, that is not a Foot from them, they are Presumptive, Rusty and not to be govern’d. Could some Church-men but see the Irreparable Mischiefs that will attend them (if sincere to their present Profession) unless prevented by a Modest and Christian condescension to Dissenting Protestant Christians, they would never suffer themselves to be Mis-guided by Stiff and Rigid Principles at this Time of Day.

If Christianity, that most Meek and Self-denying Religion, cannot prevail upon them, methinks the Power of Interest, and that Self-interest too, should have some Success, for in those Cases they use not to be obstinate.

But I expect it should be told me, That this is the Way to Ruin the Church, and let in an Anarchy in Religion: Cujus contrarium verum.8 I am glad to obviate this, before I leave you, seeing the Contrary is most true; for it leaves the Church and Church-men as they are, with this Distinction, that whereas now Conformity is Coercive, which is Popish, it will be then Perswasive, which is Christian. And there may be some hopes, when the Parsons, destitute of the Magistrates Sword, shall of necessity enforce their Religion by good Doctrine and Holy Living; nor ought they to murmur, for that which satisfied Christ and his Apostles should satisfy them: His Kingdom is not of this World,9 therefore they should not Fight for him, if they would be his Servants and the Children of his Kingdom, Christ, and not Civil Force, is the Rock his Church is built upon. Nor indeed has any Thing so Tarnisht the Cause of Protestancy, as the Professors of it betaking themselves to Worldly Arms to propagate their Religion. David could not wear Saul’s Armour,10 and true Protestants cannot use Popish Weapons, Imposition and Persecution. In short; ’Tis the very Interest of the Church of England, to preserve the civil Interest entire, or else Popery will endanger all; but that cannot be unless all of that Civil Interest be preserved; therefore Protestant Dissenters should be indulg’d.

But some will say, There is a Difference even among Dissenters; Some will give a Security to the Civil Government by taking the Oaths, others will not, and be it through Tenderness, how do we know, but Papists will shrow’d themselves under the Wings of such Dissenters, and so in Tolerating Protestant Dissenters to fortify Protestancy, in reality Popery will be hereby shelter’d incognito.

I answer, First, That such Oaths are little or no Security to any Government, and though they may give some Allay to the Jealousy of Governours, they never had the Effect desired. For neither in private Cases, nor yet in Publick Transactions have Men adher’d to their Oaths, but their Interest. He that is a Knave, was never made Honest by an Oath: Nor is it an Oath, but Honesty, that keeps Honest Men such. Read Story and consult our Modern Times, tell me what Government stood the firmer or longer for them? Men may take them for their own Advantage, or to avoid Loss and Punishment: But the Question is, What real Benefit, or Security comes thereby to the Government? It is certain they have often ensnared a Good Man, but never caught one Knave yet: We ought not to put so great a Value upon Oaths, as to render the Security of our Government so low and hazardous.

God’s Providence and the Wisdom of our Ancestors have found out a better Test for us to rest upon, and that is, our Common Interest, and the Laws of the Land DULY executed: These are the Security of our Government.

For Example, a Man Swears he will not Plot, yet Plots; pray what Security is this Oath to the Government? But though ’tis evident, that this be no Security; that Law which Hangs him for Plotting, is an unquestionable one. So that ’tis not for wise Governours, by Swearing Men to the Government to think to secure it; but all having agreed to the Laws, by which they are to be governed, let any Man break them at his Peril. Wherefore good Laws, and a Just Execution of them, and not Oaths, are the Natural and Real Security of a Government.

But next, though some may scruple the Oaths, ’tis not for the Sake of the Matter so much as Form, which you know is not the Case of Roman Catholicks, (pray distinguish) and those very Persons, whoever they be of Protestant Dissenters, I dare say, they will very cheerfully promise their Allegiance on the same Penalties, and subscribe any Renunciation of Pope and Foreign Authority, which the Art of Man can Pen; nor should it be hard for you to believe they should subscribe what they have always liv’d.

To that Part of the Objection, which mentions the danger of Papists concealing themselves under the Character of Protestant Dissenters; under Favour I say, it is most reasonable to believe, that those who will deny their Faith upon Record, as those that subscribe your Declaration do, will swallow the Oaths too; for the Declaration flatly denies the Religion, but the Oaths only the Pope’s Supremacy, which even some of themselves pretend to reject.11 Therefore those that can sincerely subscribe the Declaration cannot be Papists.

If it be yet objected, that Papists may have Dispensations to subscribe the Test, or a Pardon, when they have done it; I answer, they may as well have Dispensations to take the Oaths, or Pardons when they have taken them, and these last six Months prove as much. There is no Fence against this Flail. At this rate they may as well be Protestants, as Protestant-Dissenters; Ministers or Bishops in Churches, as Speakers or Preachers in Meeting-houses: This Objection only shows the Weakness of both Oaths and Declaration for the Purpose intended, and not, that they can hide themselves more under one People than another. For they that can have a Dispensation or Pardon for one Act, can have it for another; especially when the Matter of the Declaration is of a more general weight to them, than that of the Oath; all which confirms my former Judgment of the Insecurity of such Oaths to any Government.

Give me leave then upon this to ask you, if you will bring a certain Ruin upon any Protestant Dissenters for the Sake of such an uncertain Security to your selves? for this is the Question; I beseech you to weigh it as becomes wise and good Men: shall they be Reprobated for tenderly refusing, what being perform’d, cannot save or secure you?

Consider, you have no Reason to believe, but those that are allow’d to subscribe the Declaration, or that will be pardon’d when they have done it, may be allow’d to take the Oaths, or will be pardon’d or absolv’d, when they have taken them: but you are certain on the other Side, that the Imposing of the Oaths will be a great Snare to many Protestant-Dissenters, that love the Government, and renounce both Pope and Popery; They will be ruin’d; which to me is of the Nature of an Argument for those People: For their not taking the Oaths, proves plainly, they have no Dispensations nor hopes of Absolution, and therefore no Papists; shall they then lie under the Severities intended against Papists, who have none of their Dispensations or Absolutions to deliver them from them? This is (with Submission but in plain Terms) to make the Case of the Kingdom worse; for it destroys those who are not Guilty, and whom, I believe, you would not destroy.

Having brought the Matter to this, I shall first offer you a new Test; Next, the Ways of taking it, with most Aggravation against the Party rejecting or breaking it; And lastly, how you may secure your selves from Papists disguising themselves among Protestant-Dissenters; that so nothing may remain a Remora12 in the Way, that shall not be removed, to leave you a plain and even Path to Peace and Safety.

The New TEST.

I A. B. do solemnly and in good Conscience, in the Sight of God and Men, acknowledge and declare, that King Charles the second is Lawful King of this Realm, and all the Dominions thereunto belonging. And that neither the Pope nor See of Rome, nor any else by their Authority have Right in any Case to Depose the King, or Dispose of his Kingdom, or upon any Score whatever to absolve his Subjects of their Obedience, or to give leave to any of them to Plot or Conspire the Hurt of the King’s Person, his State or People; and that all such Pretences and Power are False, Pernicious and Damnable.

And I do farther sincerely profess, and in good Conscience declare, that I do not believe, that the Pope is Christ’s Vicar, or Peter’s Lawful Successor, or that He or the See of Rome, severally or joyntly, are the Rule of Faith or Judge of Controversy, or that they can absolve Sins: Nor do I believe, there is a Purgatory after Death; or that Saints should be pray’d to, or Images in any Sense be worship’d. Nor do I believe, that there is any Transubstantiation in the Lord’s Supper, or Elements of Bread and Wine, at or after the Consecration thereof by any Person whatsoever. But I do firmly believe, that the Present Communion of the Roman-Catholick Church is both Superstitious and Idolatrous. And all this I do acknowledge, intend, profess and declare without any Equivocation, or reserv’d, or other Sense, than the plain and usual Signification of these Words, according to the real Intention of the Law-makers, and the common Acceptation of all true Protestants.13

This is the Test I offer; large in Matter, because comprehensive of Oaths and Test too, yet brief in Words.

The next Thing is the Ways of taking it with most Aggravation upon the Refusers or Violaters of it.

1. That in all Cities and great Towns, Notice be given by the Magistrates thereof to the Inhabitants of every Ward or Parish to appear on such a Day, be it New-Years-Day or Ash-Wednesday rather (when the Pope Curses all Protestants) at their Publick Hall, or other Places of Commerce, where the Magistrates shall first openly Read, Subscribe, and Seal the Test. Then that it be read again by the proper Officer of the Place to the People, and that those that take it, Do Audibly Pronounce the Words after him that reads it; and when they have so done, that they Subscribe and Seal it. That such Subscriptions be Register’d, and Copies of each Parish’s Subscription, transmitted to the Parish, and affixt upon some publick Place for all that will to see.

2. That in the Countries, the Parishes of each Hundred or Rape,14 may be likewise Summon’d to appear upon the Day aforesaid, at the Head Market-Town in the said Hundred or Rape, and, that the Justices of the Peace within that Part of the Country, shall first Read, Subscribe, and Seal the said Test, in View of the People, and then that the People Say, Subscribe, and Seal the Test, as is before exprest. Which being done, let the said Subscriptions be collected into One Volumn, and kept in the County Court as a Book of Record; and that to each Parish, be transmitted a Copy of the said Parish’s Subscription, to be affixt upon some Publick Place within the said Parish, for all to see.

Lastly, Let this be done Annually, that is, upon every New-Years-Day, or Ash-Wednesday, as a Perpetual Testimony of the People’s Affection to the King and Government, and their Abhorrence of the Practices of Rome.

The Abuse of this Discrimination should be very Penal; For ’tis a Great Lye upon a Man’s own Conscience, and a Cheat put upon the Government: Your Wisdom can best proportion and direct the Punishment; but it can scarcely be too severe, as our Business stands.

But as in Case of such Hypocrisie, a severe Penalty should be inflicted, so pray let Provision be made, that if any Person so subscribing, should be afterwards call’d by the Name of Jesuit or Papist, without very good Proof, it should be deem’d and punish’d in open Sessions, for a Slander and Breach of Peace, yet so, as that the Penalty may be remitted at the Request of the Abused Party.

I should think that this Business, carefully done, might render needless my Answer to the last Objection, viz. Which Way shall we be able to prevent Papists from passing for Protestant Dissenters, that so the Security propounded to the Government, be not baffled by Disguise? For no Papist can subscribe this, but he will Lye in the Face of the Government and Country, and that Yearly, and upon Record too; which is Ten Times more than a Transient Oath, mutter’d with One Word spoken, and another dropt. However, that we may carry it as far as Human Prudence can go,—

I yet offer Two Expedients:

First, That upon Jealousie of any Person’s being a Papist, or Popishly Inclined, who is known to frequent the Assemblies of Protestant Dissenters, Four of that Party, of most Note and Integrity, unto which he pretends to adhere, should be Summoned to appear before those Justices of the Peace, unto whom the Complaint is made, to testifie their Knowledge of the Person suspected, his Education, Principles, and Manner of Life; which Way of Inspection, as it goes as far as Man can reach, so can it scarcely fail; for those Persons will not only discover their own Hypocrisie if they conceal him, but expose themselves and their Friends to Ruin. So that to say True, The Government has the Interest and Security of an Entire Party, for the Discovery of every such suspected Person.

But if this will not do, then

Secondly, Be you pleased to refer the Discrimination of suspected Persons, to the Good Old Way of the Government, that is, The Enquiry and Judgment of Twelve Men of the Neighbourhood; to wit, A Jury, provided always, that they be such as have taken, or will themselves take the Test; else, that they may be Excepted against by the Party suspected.

Indeed a Good Expedient may be made out of both, for the First may be the Evidence to the Last, and I think you will hardly fail of your Ends.

I shall conclude with this Request, First, to Almighty God, that He would please to make us truly and deeply sensible of His present Mercies to us, and to Reform our Hearts and Lives to improve them thankfully. And, Secondly, to you, that we may be Loving, Humble and Diligent, one to, and for another; for as from such Amendments we may dare promise great and sudden Felicity to England, so if Loosness in Life, and Bitterness in Religion be not speedily Reprehended and Reform’d, and the Common Civil Interest maintained entire, God will, I justly fear, Repent He has begun to do us Good, Adjourn the Day of our Deliverance to that of our Repentance and Moderation, and Overcast these Happy Dawnings of His Favour, by a thick and dismal Cloud of Confusion and Misery: Which GOD Avert!

These Things that I have written, are no Wild Guesses, or May-Be’s, but the Disease and Cure, the Danger and Safety of England; in treating of which, that God that made the World knows, I have not gratified any private Spleen or Interest (for I am sorry at the Occasion) but singly and conscientiously intended His Honour, and the Lasting Good of England, to which all Personal and Party Considerations ought ever to submit.

Amicus Plato, Amicus Aristoteles, sed magis Amica Veritas. i.e. Anglia:15
Your own Faithful and Most Affectionate

Philanglus.

5.

AN Address to Protestants of All Perswasions More Especially the Magistracy and Clergy, for thePromotion ofVirtueandCharity (1679)

In Two Parts. By W. P. a Protestant.

2 Pet. 1. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Giving all Diligence, add to your Faith, Virtue; and to Virtue, Knowledge; and to Knowledge, Temperance; and to Temperance, Patience; and to Patience, Godliness; and to Godliness, Brotherly Kindness; and to Brotherly Kindness, Charity. For if these Things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these Things, is blind, and cannot see far off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old Sins.

the FIRST PART.

Sect. 8.

An Address to the Civil Magistrate for Redress.

HAVING thus ended my Reflections upon the Five Great Crying Sins of the Kingdom,1 and my Reproof of the Actors and Promoters of them; give me Leave to make my Humble and Christian Address to you that are in Authority. And in the First Place, I beseech you to remember, that tho’ ye are as Gods on Earth, yet ye shall dye like Men: That ye are encompass’d with like Passions, and are subject to Sin. Such therefore of you, as may be concerned in any of these Enormities (to what ever Degree of Guilt it be) I beg you in the Name of God to search your selves, and to be just to your own Souls. O! let the Mercies and Providences of God constrain you to Unfeigned Repentance! Turn to the Lord, Love Righteousness, Hate Oppression, and he will turn to you, and love you and bless you.

In the next Place, be pleased to consider your Commission, and examine the Extent of your Authority, you will find that God and the Government have impower’d you to punish these Impieties: And it is so far from being a Crime, that it is your Duty. This is not troubling Men for Faith, nor perplexing People for Tenderness of Conscience; for there can be no Pretence of Conscience to be Drunk, to Whore, to be Voluptuous, to Game, Swear, Curse, Blaspheme and Profane; no such Matter. These are Sins against Nature; and against Government, as well as against the Written Laws of God. They lay the Ax to the Root of Human Society, and are the Common Enemies of Mankind. ’Twas to prevent these Enormities, that Government was instituted; and shall Government indulge that which it is instituted to Correct? This were to render Magistracy Useless, and the Bearing of the Sword Vain: There would be then no such Thing in Government as A Terror to Evil-Doers;2 but every one would do that which he thought Right in his own Eyes. God Almighty defend us from this Sort of Anarchy.

There are three great Reasons, which enforce my Supplication. The First is, The Preservation of the Government, which by such Improvidence and Debauchery, is like to be greatly weakned, if not destroyed. The Industry, Wealth, Health and Authority of the Nation, are deeply concern’d in the Speedy and exemplary Punishment of these Extravagancies. This is the Voice of Interest, for the Common Good of the whole Society; Rulers and Ruled.

But there is an higher Voice, unto which Christian Men ought to have Regard, and that is the Voice of God, who requires us to fear him and obey his Righteous Commandments, at the Peril of making him our Enemy, whom we should make our common Friend and Protector: For upon his Goodness, depends our very Natural and Civil Comforts. So that it is our Interest to be good; and it is none of the least Arguments for Religion, that the Piety and Practice of it is the Peace and Prosperity of Government; and consequently, that Vice the Enemy of Religion, is, at the same Time, the Enemy of Humane Society. What then should be more concern’d for the Preservation of Virtue, than Government; that in it’s abstract and true Sense is not only founded upon Virtue, but without the Preservation of Virtue, it is impossible to maintain the best Constitution that can be made? And however some particular Men may prosper, that are Wicked, and several private good Men miscarry in the Things of this World, in which Sense Things may be said to happen alike to all, to the Righteous as to the Wicked, yet I dare boldly affirm, and challenge any Man to the Truth thereof, that in the many Volumes of the History of all the Ages and Kingdoms of the World, there is not one Instance to be found, where the Hand of God was against a Righteous Nation, or where the Hand of God was not against an Unrighteous Nation first or last? Nor where a just Government perish’t, or an unjust Government long prospered? Kingdoms are rarely as short lived as Men, yet they also have a Time to die: But as Temperance giveth Health to Men, so Virtue gives Time to Kingdoms; and as Vice brings Men betimes to their Grave, so Nations to their Ruin.

’Tis the Reason given by God himself, for the Destruction of the old World. We have that Example before our Eyes; that a whole World has perisht for it’s Sin, it’s Forgetfulness of God and their Duty to him; one Family only excepted. Gen. 6. That is the Reason which God renders for casting out the People of those Countries, that he gave into the Hands of the Children of Israel; they were full of Uncleanness, Adulteries, Fornication, and other Impieties. And though he is Soveraign Lord of the World, and may dispose of the Kingdoms therein, as pleaseth him (for he that gives can take away; and he that builds, can cast down; and Mankind is but a Tenant at Will, to receive or surrender at his Lord’s Good Pleasure) yet he useth not that Prerogative to justifie his Gift of those Countries to the Jews; but at the End of his Prohibition of Unlawful Marriages and Lusts, he charges them in these Words; defile not your selves in any of these Things: for in all these the Nations are defiled, which I cast out before you; And the Land is defiled: therefore do I visit the Iniquity thereof upon it; and the Land it self, vomiteth out her Inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my Statutes and Judgments, and shall not commit any of these Abominations, neither any of your own Nation, nor any Stranger, that sojourneth among you; that the Land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the Nations that were before you.3

So Saul’s Disobedience was his Destruction, and his Sin made Way for David’s Title. Saul died (saith the Sacred Story) for his Transgression: This made the Philistines Conquerors; his own Sin beat him and kill’d him.4Saul died for his Transgression; then if he had not sinned, he had lived; he had beaten his Enemies and kept the Kingdom? yes, the Place implies it. This then should deter Men, but Kings especially, who have so much to lose here, and so much to answer for hereafter. But what was Saul’s Sin? It was, First, Not keeping but disobeying the Word of the Lord, both as it came by the Mouth of Samuel, God’s Prophet, and as it spoke the Mind of God to him in his own Conscience (for Moses had said before that the Word of God was nigh, in the Heart, and in God’s Name commanded the Children of Israel to obey and do it.)5 In short, he refused the Counsel of God, and God for his Counsellor: For in the next Place, he betakes himself to one that had a Familiar Spirit for Advice, saith the Story: He enquired not of the Lord, therefore he slew him and turned the Kingdom unto David.6 There are too many People troubled with Familiar Spirits; it were well, if they were less Familiar with them: Had Saul trusted in God, he needed not to have been driven to that Strait. He that was made King by God’s Appointment, and endued with a Good Spirit, so basely to degenerate, as to run to a Witch for Counsel, could not but miscarry. To this Darkness and Extremity Iniquity will bring Men: And truly, a Wo follows all such Persons; answerable to that Expression of God by the Prophet; Wo unto them that take Counsel, and not of me.7 When Saul (saith the Place) was little in his own Eyes, God honour’d him; he made him Head and King of the Tribes of Israel:8 But when Saul grew Proud, God deserted him, and for his Disobedience destroyed him. And what befel the Family of Saul, in some After-Ages befell both Kings and People, and worse: For their Land was invaded, first by the AEgyptians, then by the Chaldeans and Babylonians: Their Temple was rifled, their Treasure taken, and their Kings, Princes, Nobles, Artificers, and Mighty Men of Valour, yea all, save the poorest of the People, were kill’d or carried away Captive, by the King of Babylon. The Reason rendred is this: Because the Kings did that which was Evil in the Sight of God, and stiffned their Necks, and hardned their Hearts from turning unto the Lord God of Israel; and because the Chief of the Priests and of the People transgressed very much after the Abominations of the Heathen.9 And when God sent his Messengers to reprove and warn them, and that out of his Great Compassion, they wickedly mocked his Messengers, despised his Words, and mis-used his Prophets, till his Wrath came upon them, and over-threw them.

I will here end my Instances out of Sacred Story; and let us now briefly consider, what the Histories of other Places will tell us; that we may observe some Proportion of Agreement in the Providence of God throughout the World.

The first Empire had Nimrod’s Strength, and the Wisdom of the Chaldeans to establish it; and whilst their Prudence and Sobriety lasted, they prospered. No sooner came Voluptuousness, than the Empire decayed; and was at last by the base Effeminacies of Sardanapalus, in whom that Race ended, transfer’d to another Family.10 It was the Policy of an Assyrian King, in Order to subdue the Strength of Babylon, then under good Discipline, not to invade it with Force, but to debauch it. Wherefore he sent in Players, Musicians, Cooks, Harlots, &c. and by those Means introducing Corruption of Manners, there was little more to do, than to take it. Nebuchadnezzar by his Virtue and Industry, seen in the Siege of Tyre, and in many Enterprises, recover’d and enlarg’d the Empire; and it seems his Discipline (those Times considered) was so excellent, that it was praised in Scripture. But when he grew Proud and Foolish, forgetting that Providence that had shown it self so kind to him, he became a Beast, and grased amongst Beasts; till God, whom he had forgotten, had restored him the Heart of a Man and his Throne together.11

He, dying left Evil-Merodach Heir to his Crown, not his Conduct, nor the Heart to consider what God had done by him: In his Time Pride and Luxury encreased, but came not to it’s full Pitch, till the Reign of Belshazzar, who did not only as Nebuchadnezzar, live, but dye a Beast.12 In him we have the exact Example of a Dissolute and Miserable Prince: He thought to fence himself against Heaven and Earth; dissolved in Pleasures, he worshipped no other God; his Story may make us well conclude, that God and Man desert those, that desert themselves, and neglect the Means of their own Preservation. The City was taken before he knew it, and the Sword almost in his Bowels, before he believed it: His Sensuality had wrapt him in such a Desperate Security. But he fell not by the Hand of one like himself; for God who had determined the End, prepared the Means. Cyrus and his Persians were the Men: The People were poor, inhabiting a barren Country; but hardy and of Sober Manners. Cyrus God had endued with Excellent Natural Qualities, cultivated (as Story tells us) by the Care of four of the most temperate, just and Wise Persons of those Times. This was he, whom God honour’d with the Name of his Shepherd, and who was the Executioner of his Vengeance upon the Assyrians. While he reigned, all was well; but after he and his virtuous Companions deceased, their Children fell into the Vices of the Assyrians; and though they reigned from the Indus to the Hellespont, they soon became the Conquest of the Greeks.

Never was there a greater Instance given of the Weakness of Pomp and Luxury, than in the Resistance made at Thermopolae, where Three Hundred Virtuous Spartans encounter’d the Vast Army of Xerxes, consisting of no less than Seventeen Hundred Thousand Men. In short, the Defeats of Salamine and Platea, the Expeditions of Xenophon with Cyrus the Younger, almost into Babylon, and the Wars of Agesilaus into Asia, made it evident, that Greece wanted only Union and an Head, to make her self Mistress of that Vast Empire.13

At last comes Alexander of Macedon, with the best Disciplin’d People that was then known: The Dispute was short, where Steel was against Gold, Sobriety against Luxury, and Men against Men that were turn’d Women. Thus, the Persians prepar’d by their own Vices, God deliver’d into the Hands of the Greeks, who as much excelled them in their Virtue, as they were short of their Dominion and Wealth. But this lasted not long; for Alexander, who died young, surviv’d his Virtue and Reputation, by falling into those Vices of the Nations, God had given him Power to trample under Foot; insomuch that he, who was before Generous, became Barbarous and Tyrannical. Egypt, Asia, and Macedon, held up their Heads a while; but not resisting the Torrent of Lewdness, that came upon them, suffer’d themselves to be over-whelm’d with Misery and Confusion.

Nor has this Calamity been peculiar to Monarchies; for several Republicks have fallen by the same Mischief. That of Lacedaemon or Sparta, so Severe in her Constitution, and so Remarkable for the Virtue of her People, and that for many Ages, at last growing slack in the Execution of her Laws, and suffering Corruption insensibly to creep into her Manners, she became no more Considerable, but Weak and Contemptible.

The same may be said of Athens, the Great School of Learning, and of all the Republicks of Greece, most Famous for her Virtue and Philosophy, when that Word was understood not of Vain Disputing, but of Pious Living: She no sooner fell into Luxury, but Confusion and Revolutions made her as Inconsiderable, as she had been Great.

Rome, as she was the Greatest Common-Wealth, so the greatest Example of Gentiles in Virtue and Vice, in Happiness and in Misery: Her Virtue and Greatness are Commemorated by Austin the Father, and the latter made the Effect of the former. God (saith he) gave the Romans the Government of the World, as a Reward for their Virtue.14 Their Manners were so Good, and their Policy so Plain and Just, that nothing could stand before them. And truly, they seem’d to have been employ’d by God to punish the Impious, and to instruct the Barbarous Nations: And so very Jealous was she of the Education of her Youth, that she would not suffer them to converse with the Luxurious Greeks. But Carelessness, with Length of Time, over-coming the Remarkable Sobriety of her Manners, who before seemed invincible, she falls into equal, if not greater Miseries, than those that went before her, though she had not only Warning enough from their Example, but from Hannibal’s Army, and her great Enemy: For one Winter’s Quarter of Hannibal and his Army, in the Luxurious City of Capua, prov’d a greater Overthrow to them, than all the Roman Consuls and Armies had given them. They that had been Victors in so many Battles, turn’d Slaves at last to Dancers, Buffoons, Cooks and Harlots; so as from that Time they never did any Thing suitable to the Reputation gain’d by their former Actions; but fell without much Difficulty into the Roman Hands.15 Nay, not long before, Rome her self encountred one of the greatest Dangers, that ever had befallen her, by the Corruption of her own People, in the same Place, by the like Means: And though this Defection was recover’d by those that remain’d entire in their Manners, yet after the Overthrow of Antiochus, Mithridates, Tigranes, that the Riches and Vices of Asia came with a full Stream upon them, the very Heart of the City became infected; and the Lewd Asiaticks had this Revenge in their own Fall, that they ruin’d, by their Vices, those they were no Ways able to resist by their Force; like the Story of the Dying Centaur.16 Thus Pride, Avarice and Luxury having prepared Rome for Destruction, it soon followed. Virtue now grew intolerable in Rome, where Vice dared not for Ages to show it’s Face. The Worthiest Men were cut off by Proscriptions, Battels or Murders, as if she resolved Ipsam Virtutem exscindere:17 She destroyed her own Citizens, and sent for Strangers to protect her, which ruin’d her. Which proves, that the Kingdom or State, that, under God, doth not subsist by it’s own Strength, Prudence and Virtue, cannot stand: For the Goths, Hunns, and others, despised to serve those, whom they excelled in Power and Virtue, and instead of Guarding, took their Dominion from them. And truly, it might rather be called a Journey, than a Military Expedition, to go and pillage Rome; so weak had her Vices made her. Thus she that was feared by all Nations, became the Prey of all Nations about her. So ended that once Potent and Virtuous Common-Wealth.

The Vandals in Africk soon became Effeminate and Lewd, which brought upon themselves speedy Ruin. The Goths set up a Powerful Kingdom in Spain and Part of France, and by the Sobriety of their Manners, it flourished near Four Hundred Years; but it’s End was not unlike the rest. Two corrupt Princes, Vuitza, and Roderic, by their dissolute Example, debauch’d the People, insomuch that Men ran an Hazard to be Virtuous: This made their Destruction easie to those whom God sent against them; which were the Moors, occasion’d by the last of these Kings dishonouring Count Juliano’s Daughter. In the Time of his Calamity, in vain did he expect the Aid of those that had been the Flatterers, and the Companions of his Vices: His Security (the Effect of his Luxury) was his Ruin. For whilst he thought he had no Body to subdue, but his own People, by abusing them, he Cut off his own Arms, and made himself an easie Prey to his Real Enemies: And so he perisht with his Posterity, that had been the Cause of the Mischief, which befel that Great Kingdom. However, so it came to pass, that the Remainder of the Goths mixing with the Ancient Spaniards (to that Day distinct) recovered the Liberty and Reputation of the Kingdom by an Entire Reformation of Manners, and a Virtue in Conversation as Admirable, as the Vices, by which their Fathers had fallen, were Abominable. But the present impoverisht State of Spain can tell us, they have not continued that Virtuous Conduct of their Ancestors; the Increase of their Vices having decayed their Strength, and lessened their People and their Commerce.

But why should we overlook our own Country? that, whether we consider the Invasion of the Romans, Saxons, or Normans, it is certain the Neglect of Virtue and Good Discipline, and the present Inhabitants giving themselves up to Ease and Pleasure, was the Cause (if Gildas the Brittain, and Andrew Horn may be credited) of their Overthrow: For as the first bitterly inveighed against the Looseness of the Brittains, threatning them with all those Miseries that afterwards followed; so the last tells us, that the Brittains having forgotten God, and being overwhelm’d with Luxury and Vice, it pleased God to give the Land to a poor People of the Northern Parts of Germany, called Saxons, that were of plain and honest Manners.18 God is unchangeable in the Course of his Providence, as to these Things: The like Causes produce the like Effects, as every Tree doth naturally produce it’s own Fruits. ’Tis true, God is not careless of the World; He feeds the young Ravens, clothes the Lillies, takes Care of Sparrows, and of us, so as not an Hair of our Heads falls to the Ground without his Providence;19 but if Men despise his Law, hate to be Reformed, spend their Time and Estate in Luxury, and persist to work Wickedness, he will visit them in his Wrath, and consume them in his sore Displeasure. To conclude, Wars, Bloodshed, Fires, Plunders, Wastings, Ravishments, Slavery, and the like, are the Miseries that follow Immoralities, the Common Mischiefs of Irreligion, the Neglect of Good Discipline and Government.

Nothing weakens Kingdoms like Vice; it does not only displease Heaven, but disable them. All we have said, proves it: But, above all, the Iniquity and Voluptuousness of the Jews, God’s chosen, who from being the most Prudent, Pious and Victorious People, made themselves a Prey to all their Neighbours. Their Vice had prepared them to be the Conquest of the First Pretender; and thus from Freemen they became Slaves. Is God asleep, or does he change? Shall not the same Sins have the like Punishment? At least, shall they not be punisht? Can we believe there is a God, and not believe, that he is the Rewarder, as of the Deeds of Private Men, so of the Works of Government? Ought we to think him Careful of the Lesser, and Careless of the Greater? This were to suppose he minded Sparrows more than Men, and that he took more Notice of private Persons than of States. But let not our Superiors deceive themselves, neither put the Evil Day afar off; they are greatly accountable to God for these Kingdoms. If every poor Soul must account for the Employment of the small Talent he has received from God, can we think, that those High Stewards of God, the Great Governors of the World, that so often account with all others, must never come to a Reckoning themselves? Yes, there is a Final Sessions, a General Assize, and a Great Term once for all, where he will Judge among the Judges, who is Righteous in all his Ways. There Private Men will answer only for themselves, but Rulers for the People, as well as for themselves. The Disparity that is here, will be observed there, and the Greatness of such Persons, as shall be then found Tardy, will be so far from extenuating their Guilt, that it will fling Weight in the Scale against them. Therefore give me Leave, I do beseech you, to be earnest in my humble Address to you; Why should ye not, when none are so much concern’d in the Good Intention of it? Thus much for the First Reason of my Supplication.

the SECOND PART.

Sect. 1.

Five Capital Evils that relate to the Ecclesiastical State of these Kingdoms.

HAVING finish’d the First Part of my Address relating to the Immoralities of the Times, and left it with the Civil Magistrate, as, in Conscience, I found my self oblig’d to do, whose peculiar Charge it is, and, I earnestly and humbly desire and pray, that it may be his great Care effectually to rebuke them, I shall betake my self to the Second Part of this Address, that more immediately concerns us as Profess’d Christians and Protestants. But before I begin, I desire to premise, and do with much Sincerity declare, that I intend not the Reproach of any Person or Party: I am weary with seeing so much of it in the World: It gains nothing, that is worth keeping; but often hardens, what ’tis our Duty to endeavour to soften and win. But if, without Offence, I may speak the Truth, that which, to the best of my Understanding, tends to the present Settlement and future Felicity of my poor Country, I shall, by God’s Help, deliver my self with the Modesty, Plainness and Integrity, that becomes a Christian, a Protestant, and an Englishman.

Those Capital Sins and Errors that relate to the Ecclesiastical State or Church-Capacity of these Kingdoms, and which are so inconsistent with Christian Religion and Purest Protestancy, and that, above all, displease Almighty God, are,

First, Making Opinions Articles of Faith, at least giving them the Reputation of Faith, and making them the Bond of Christian Society.

Secondly, Mistaking the Nature of True Faith, and taking that for Faith which is not Gospel-Faith.

Thirdly, Debasing the true Value of Morality under Pretence of Higher Things, mistaking much of the End of Christ’s Coming.

Fourthly, Preferring Human Authority above Reason and Truth.

Fifthly, Propagating Faith by Force, and Imposing Religion by Worldly Compulsion.

These I take to be the Church-Evils, that have too much and too long prevail’d even in these Parts of the Reformed World: And though the Roman Church hath chiefly transcended other Societies in these Errors, and may, in a Sense, be said to be the Mother of them, She, from whom they took Birth, by whom they were brought forth and have been propagated in Christendom, yet there hath not been that Integrity to the Nature of Christianity, and First Reason of Reformation from the Papacy in our own Country, as had been and is our Duty to conserve.

Sect. 2.

Of Opinions passing for Faith.

FIRST, That Opinions pass for Faith, and are made Articles of Faith, and are enjoyn’d to be embrac’d as the Bond of Communion.

That this is so, let us take the most impartial View we can, and we shall find it to be true, both of the National and many other Select Societies. That I may be understood in the Signification of the Word Opinions, I explain it thus: “Opinions are all those Propositions or Conclusions made by Men Doctrines of Faith and Articles of Communion, which either are not Expresly laid down in Scripture, or not so evidently Deduceable from Scripture, as to leave no Occasion of Doubt of the Truth of them in their Minds who sincerely and reverently believe the Text: Or, lastly, such as have no new or Credible Revelation to vouch them.”

That this is our Case, let the several Confessions of Faith published by almost every Party in England be perused, and you will find such Propositions translated into Doctrines of Faith and Articles of Communion, as are, first, not only not express’d in Scripture, but, perhaps not well deduceable from Scripture: And if one Party may be but believ’d against another, we can want no Evidence to prove what we say. And, in the next Place, such as are, though not express’d, yet it may be, deduceable as to the Matter of them, are either carried so high, spun so fine, or so disguised by barbarous School-Terms, that they are rather a Bone of Contention, than a Bond of Concord to Religious Societies. Yet this has been the Unhappiness even of this Kingdom after all the Light of Reformation, which God hath graciously sent amongst us, Men are to be received or rejected for denying or owning of such Propositions. Wilt thou be a Presbyterian? Embrace and keep the Covenant, subscribe the Westminster-Confession and Directory: And so on to the End of every Society, that grounds Communion upon Conformity to such Propositions and Articles of Faith.

What a Stir have we had in England about the Word Ἐπίσκοπος He that says it signifies an Higher Office than Πρεσβύτερος shall have no Part or Fellowship with us: On t’other Hand, they that will debase Episcopos to Presbuteros,20 and turn Levellers or Degraders of Episcopal Dignity, shall be excommunicated, silenc’d, punish’t. Is not this plain Fact? can any deny it, that love Truth more than a Party? The Fire kindled by this Contention, hath warm’d the Hands of Violence: It had been well, if Men had entertained Equal Zeal against Impiety, and been but half as much Enemies to Sin, as they have been against one another on such Accounts.

If we look a little back, we shall find, that the Debate of Free-Will and unconditional Reprobation filled this Kingdom with Uncharitableness and Division. In the Arch-Episcopacy of Abbot (reputed in himself a good Man) whosoever held, that Christ so died for all Men, that all Men might be saved, (if they would accept the Means) and that none were absolutely decreed to Eternal Reprobation, was reputed an Heretick, and Excommunicated as an Enemy to the Free-Grace of God, which, it seems, at that Time of Day, lay in being narrow.

In the Reign of Arch-Bishop Laud the Tide turned: And those that held an absolute Election, and Reprobation, without Regard had to the Good or Evil Actions of Men, and asserted, that Christ only died for the Elect, and not for all, must be discountenanced, displaced and pointed at as Men out of Fashion, though at the same Time Conscientious, Sober and (at worst) mistaken; and to be pitied rather than persecuted; and informed, not destroyed.

This Controversie begat the Synod of Dort: He that reads the Epistles of that Judicious Man J. Hales of Eaton Colledge, upon the Matter and Conduct of that Assembly, will find Cause of being sad at Heart; too many of them talking of Religion without the Spirit of it.21Men, perhaps, learned in Books, but few of the Sticklers gave any great Testimony of their Proficiency in that Science, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easie to be entreated.22 This Flame kindled between Arminius and Episcopius, &c. for the Remonstrants, and Gomarus, Sibrandus, &c. for the Predestinarians, distracted Holland not a little, and had an ill Influence upon the Affairs of England, at least so far, as concerned the Church. But the mournfullest Part of that History is the ill Usage, Martinius Crocius, the Bishop of Landaff, and others had; who, though they were acknowledg’d to be sound in the Faith of those Things, which generally followed the Judgment of Calvin, as to the main Points controverted, yet if at any Time they appeared moderate in their Behaviour, gentle in their Words, and for Accomodation in some particulars, with the Remonstrants or Free-Willers; Gomarus and his Followers, not observing the Gravity due to the Assembly, the Rules of Debate, and least of all the Meekness of Christian Communion, fell foul of their Brethren, reproached their Tenderness, and began to fix Treachery upon their sober Endeavours of Accommodation; as if they intended to execute as well as maintain their Reprobation, and blow up their Friends rather than not destroy their Adversaries.

But if we will rise higher in our Enquiry, and view the Mischiefs of earlier Times, flowing from this Practice, the Fourth and Fifth Centuries after Christ will furnish us with Instances enough. We cannot possibly forget the heavy Life some Men made about the Observation of Easter-Day, as if their Eternal Happiness had been in Jeopardy: For so far were they degenerated from the Love and Meekness of Christianity, that about keeping of a Day, which perhaps was no Part, but to be sure, no Essential Part of the Christian Religion, they fell to Pieces; reproach’t, revil’d, hated, and Persecuted one another. A Day was more to them than Christ, who was the Lord and End of Days; and Victory over Brethren, sweeter than the Peace and Concord of the Church, the great Command of Jesus, whom they called Lord.23

But the remarkable and tragical Story of Alexander Bishop of Alexandria and Arius his Priest, in their known Debate about the Nature and Existence of the Son of God, with the lamentable Consequence thereof, (as all Writers upon that Subject have related) witnesseth to the Truth of what I say. The Bishop’s Curiosity, and the Strictness of Arius; the Presumption of the one to expound beyond the Evidence and Simplicity of the Text, and the captious Humour of the other, that would not bate the Bishop any Thing for his Age, or Rank he held in the Church, but Logically exacted the utmost Farthing of the Reckoning from his old Pastor, first began the Fray: Which as it became the Perplexity of Church and State some Ages, so it raged to Blood; and those that had been persecuted like Sheep by the Heathen not long before, turned Wolves against each other, and made Sport for the Infidels, doing their Work to their own Destruction. Nay, so much more Christian was Themistius the Philosopher, that he in his Oration, called CONSUL, commended the Emperour Jovianus for his Moderation, and advised him to give that Liberty of Conscience, which profest Christians, refused to allow each other; who seemed to think, they never did God better Service, than in Sacrificing one another for Religion, even as soon as ever they had escaped the Heathen’s Shambles.24

Did we duly reflect upon the unnatural Heats, Divisions and Excommunications among them, the many Councils that were called, the strong and tedious Debates held, the Translations of Sees, the Anathemas, the Banishments, Wars, Sackings, Fires and Blood-shed that followed this unnatural Division, that sprang from so nice a Controversie, one would verily believe no less, than that Religion it self had been in utmost Hazard; that Judaism or Paganism were over-running Christianity; and not, that all this Stir had been made about an Iota. For the whole Question was, whether Homousia, or Homoiousia should be received for Faith? In which the Difference is but the single Letter, I: Certainly, we must do Violence to our Understanding, if we can think that these Men were Followers of that Jesus that loved his Enemies and gave his Blood for the World, who hated their Brethren and shed one another’s Blood for Opinions: The Heathen Philosophers, never were so barbarous to one another, but maintained a better Understanding and Behaviour in their Differences.

But how easily might all these Confusions have been prevented; if their Faith about Christ had been delivered in the Words of Scripture; since all Sides pretend to believe the Text? And why should any Man presume to be wiser, or plainer in Matters of Faith, than the Holy Ghost? ’Tis strange, that God and Christ should be wanting to express or discover their own Mind; or that the Words used by the Holy Ghost, should have that Shortness, Ambiguity or Obliquity in them, that our frail Capacities should be needed to make them more easie, proper and intelligible. But that we should scarcely deliver any one Article of Faith in Scripture-Terms, and yet make such Acts the Rule and Bond of Christian Communion, is, in my Judgment, an Offence hainous against God and Holy Scripture, and very injurious to Christian Charity and Fellowship. Who can express any Man’s Mind so fully, as himself? And shall we allow that Liberty to our selves, and refuse it to God? The Scriptures came not in old Time (said the Apostle Peter) by the Will of Man; but holy Men of God spake, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.25 Who can speak better, or express the Mind of the Holy Ghost plainer, than the Holy Ghost? The Scripture is the great Record of Truth, That which all these Parties in Controversie agree to be the declared Mind and Will of God, and they unanimously say, it ought to be believed, and profest as such. If this be true, in what Language can we so safely and properly declare our Belief of those Truths, as in the very Language of the Scripture?

And I cannot see how those Persons can be excused in the Day of Gods Judgment, who make Men Heterodox or Heretical, for refusing to subscribe their Articles of Faith that are not in Scripture-Terms, who in the same Time offer to declare their Belief of God, Christ, Spirit, Man’s Lapse or Fall, Repentance, Sanctification, Justification, Salvation, Resurrection, and Eternal Recompence in the Language of Holy Scripture? I must say, it is preposterous and a Contradiction, that those who desire to deliver their Faith of Truth, in the Language of Truth, shall not be reputed true Believers, nor their Faith admitted. This were to say, that therefore their Faith is not to be received, because it is declared in the Language of that very Truth, which is the Object of that Faith, for which it ought to be received, and which is, on all Hands, concluded to be our Duty to believe. It seems then we must not express our Belief of God in his Words, but our own; nor is the Scripture a Creed plain or proper enough to declare a true Believer, or an Orthodox Christian, without our Glosses.

Are not Things come to a sad pass, that to refuse any other Terms than those the Holy Ghost has given us, and which are confest to be the Rule or Form of sound Words, is to expose a Man to the Censure of being unsound in the Faith and unfit for Christian-Communion? Will nothing do but Man’s Comment instead of God’s Text? His Consequences and Conclusions in the Room of Sacred Revelation? I cannot see how any Man can be obliged to receive, or believe revealed Truths in any other Language, than that of the Revelation it self; especially if those that vary the Expression, have not the same Spirit to lead them in doing so, or that it appears not to me that they have the Guidance of that Holy Spirit. If the Holy Ghost had left Doubts in Scripture, which is yet irreverent to believe, I see not how Men can resolve them; it is the Work of that Spirit. And since Men are so apt to err, Doubts are better left in Scripture, than made or left by us. But it is to cross that Order of Prudence and Wisdom among Men, who chuse to conform their Expressions to the Thing they believe. If an honest Man hath related a Story to me, of something he hath seen, and I am to declare my Faith about it, if I believe the Fact, I will chuse to deliver it in the Terms of the Relator, as being nearest to the Truth.

Suppose a Father dying, makes his Last Will and Testament, and, as he thinks, so plain, that there can be no Mistake made by the Executors, but what is wilful: If they, instead of proving this Will, and acting according to the Plainness of it, turn Commentators, make more Difficulties than they find, and perplex the whole Matter, to the Children and Legatees, and send them to the Law for Right; will we not esteem such Executors ill Men, and justifie those Persons concern’d in their Refusal of their Paraphrase? God hath at sundry Times and in diverse Manners, by his Prophets, his Beloved Son and his Apostles, delivered to the World a Declaration of his blessed Will;26 but some have claim’d and taken to themselves the Keeping, Explanation and Use of it, so as those that chuse to be concluded by the Letter and Text of Christ’s Testament in it’s most important Points, expose themselves to great Prejudice for so doing; for they are Excommunicated from all other Share in it, than the Punishment of the Breakers of it, which is part of their Anathema, who, of all others, are most guilty of adding or diminishing, by undertaking to determine, for others as well as themselves, the Mind and Intention of the holy Ghost in it.

But if it be True, as True it is, that few have writ of the Divine Authority of Scripture, who do not affirm that the very Penmen of it were not only inspired by the Holy Ghost, but so extraordinarily acted by him, as that they were wholly asleep to their own Will, Desires or Affections, like People taken out of themselves, and purely Passive, as Clay in the Hand of the Potter, to the Revelation, Will, and Motion of the Spirit;27 and for this End, that nothing deliver’d by them, might have the least Possibility of Mistake, Error, or Imperfection, but be a Compleat Declaration of the Will of God to Men; I cannot see which Way such Men can excuse themselves from Great Presumption, that will, notwithstanding, have the Wording of Creeds of Communion, and reject that Declaration of Faith as insufficient, which is deliver’d in the very Terms of the Holy Ghost; and deny those Persons to be Members of Christ’s Church, that in Conscience refuse to subscribe any other Draught than that the Lord has given them.

Two Things oppose themselves to this Practice: The Glory of God, and the Honour of the Scripture; in that it naturally draws People from the Regard due to God and the Scripture, and begets too much Respect for Men and their Tradition. This was the Difficulty Christ met with, and complained of in his Time; they had set up so many Rabbies to learn them Religion, that the Lord of the True Religion could hardly find Place amongst them. And what did they do? They taught for Doctrines the Traditions of Men:28 They gave their own and their Predecessors Apprehensions, Constructions, and Paraphrases upon Scripture, for the Mind and Will of God, the Rule of the People’s Faith. They were near at this Pass in the Church of Corinth, when they cryed out, I am for Paul, I am for Apollos, and I am for Cephas, though they had not the same Temptation.29

And that which followed then, ever will follow in the like Case, and that is Distraction; which is the contrary to the Second Thing that opposeth it self to this Practice, and that is the Concord of Christians. For the Sake of Peace consider it: Lo here and Lo there always followed; one of this Mind, and another of that: As many Sects as Great Men to make and Head them. This was the Case of the Jews; and yet I do not hear, that they devoured one another about their Opinions and Commentaries upon Scripture; but the Christians have done both; Divided and Persecuted too. First, they have divided, and that mostly upon the Score of Opinions about Religion. They have not been contented with the Expressions of the Holy Ghost; they liked their own better. And when they were set up in the Room of Scripture, and in the Name of Scripture, Submission was required upon Pain of Worldly Punishments. This dissatisfied Curiosity, this Unwarrantable, what shall I say? This Wanton Search has cost Christendom dear, and poor England dearest of any Part of it.

I design not to grate upon any, or to revive old Stories, or search old Wounds, or give the least Just Occasion of Displeasure to those that are in present Power; yet I must needs say, that Opinion on one Side or t’other, has been the Cause of much of that Discord, Animosity and Confusion that have troubled this Kingdom. And it seems to have been the great Stratagem of Satan, to prevent the spreading of the Glorious Gospel of Salvation in the World, by taking Men off from the Serious Pursuit of Piety and Charity, Humility, and Holy Living, Peace, and Concord: And, under Pretence of more raised Apprehensions, and sublime Knowledge of Religion, to put them upon introducing Curious and Doubtful Questions, that have given Occasion, first for Contention, and That, for Persecution. This was no more uncondemned, than unforeseen of the Apostle Paul, who exhorted his beloved Son Timothy, 1 Tim. 6. 3, 4, 5. To avoid those that doted about Questions, those Men that would be thought Skilful, Inquisitive Searchers after Truth, such as love to exercise their Faculties, and improve their Talents; but let us hear his Judgment, Of which (says he) cometh Strife, Railing, Surmises, perverse Disputings of Men of Corrupt Minds. And the Truth is, none else love such Disputings: They, who seek a Daily Victory over the World, the Flesh and the Devil, and press fervently after Fellowship with God, and that Consolation that ensues such an Employment of their Time, have very little to lose upon Contention about Words. I could wish I were able to say, that Vain Controversie were not our Case! But this is not all, the Apostle does expressly tell Timothy, That if any Man consent not to Wholsom Words, even the Words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Doctrine that is according to Godliness, he is Proud, knowing nothing, but doting about Questions, &c.30 They were such as used Philosophy, and Vain Deceit, as he writes to the Colossians, Col. ii. 8. Beware, says he, lest any Man spoil you through Philosophy and Vain Deceit, that is, drawn them away from the Simplicity of the Gospel, and the Wholsome Words of Christ, after the Traditions of Men, after the Rudiments of the World, and not after Christ. He used no Humane Wisdom, yet he spake Wisdom, but it was in a Mystery, tho’ to the humble Disciples of Jesus nothing was plainer; but it was a Mystery to the Wise Men of this World.31 And truly, they that are not unacquainted with the more degenerate Ages of the Greek Philosophers, how Philosophy, once taken for the Love of Virtue and Self-Denial, which they esteem’d Truest Wisdom, and was begun by Men of ordinary Rank, but great Example of Life, became little else, than an Art of Wrangling upon a Multitude of idle Questions, and so they entertain’d the Apostle Paul at Athens,32 may very well guess which Way Apostacy entred among Christians; especially, when we consider, that in the third and fourth Centuries, the Heathen-Philosophers had the Education of Christian Youth, and that no Man had any Reputation among the Christian Doctors, who were not well initiated in the Philosophy, Rhetorick, and Poetry of the Gentiles. Which made for Impurity of Language, and laid a Foundation for great Feuds in the Church: Christ and his Doctrine must be prov’d by Aristotle and his Philosophy. Yes, Aristotle must explain Scripture, and by Degrees methodize the loose Parts of it, and reduce them to Formal Propositions and Axioms; and by the Help of such Philosophers, the poor Fisher-Men were taught to speak Metaphysically, and grew Polite in the Sense of Athens, who, to say True, were neither Guilty of using nor understanding it. But as the first Rules of Philosophy were few and plain, and consisted in Virtuous Living, so the Christian Religion was deliver’d with much Brevity, yet much Plainness; suited to the Capacity of the Young, the Ignorant, and the Poor; to inform their Understandings, subdue their Affections, and convert their Souls to God, as well as Persons of more Age, Knowledge, and Ability.

And truly, when we consider the Smallness of the Writings of the Evangelists, the Shortness of Christ’s Sermons, the Fewness of the Epistles writ by the Apostles, and the many and great Volumes of Commentators and Criticks since, we may justly say, The Text is almost lost in the Comment, and Truth hid, rather than revealed in those Heaps of Fallible Apprehensions. Where by the Way, let me say, That the Voluminousness of the Books is no small Token of the Unclearness of the Writers; for the more evident and better digested any Matter is, the more easie and short it will be in expressing. But after the Christians had declin’d the Simplicity of their own Religion, and grew Curious and Wanton, loving God above All, their Neighbours as themselves, and keeping the Plain Commandments of Christ, that relate to Good Life, became but Ordinary and Homely Things: Their Easiness rendred them Contemptible: They gave but little Pleasure to Speculative Minds; they had nothing in them above Ordinary Capacities; and it seemed hard, that Men of Inquisitive and Rais’d Spirits, should sit down with the Lesson of Rusticks and Peasants: Philosophers did not do so; and they would be like other Nations. ’Twas not enough now to know There was a GOD, and that He was but One, Just and Good, the Observer of their Actions, and the Rewarder of their Deeds, and that therefore they should serve him; but they must be distinctly inform’d of his Nature, and all his Attributes, his Purposes and his Decrees, and the Suitableness of them all to the Line and Plummet of their Understanding: So that God was to be, what their Conclusions would allow him to be; that yet knew not themselves. Nor did it satisfie that there was a Christ, that this Christ was the Son of God, that God so loved Mankind, as beholding them in a Way of Destruction, he sent his Son to proclaim Pardon upon True Repentance, and offer’d a General Reconciliation to as many as received and embrac’d his Testimony; and that to that End He laid down his Life a Ransom, Rose and Ascended, and gave his Good Spirit to lead his Followers after his Example, in the Way of Truth and Holiness: But they must search into the Secret of this Relation, how, and after what Manner he is the Son of God? His Nature, Power and Person must be discuss’d: They will be satisfied in this, before they can find in their Hearts to believe in him. Next, Whether he be the Cause, or the Effect of God’s Love? What was that Price he paid, and Ransom he gave? And how he died for us? If Properly and Strictly, or Tropically and Elegantly, to satisfie the Justice of God? And whether God could, or could not have Saved Man another Way? If this Mercy were offer’d to all, or but some? And whether Acceptance and Repentance be with the Consent of the Creature, or by an irresistible Grace? What Body he Rose and Ascended with? And what Bodies we shall have in the Resurrection, in Nature, Stature, and Proportion? Lastly, What this Spirit is, that comes from Christ? If it comes from God also? Whether it be God, or an Inferior Minister? How it Exists? If a Person, in what Relation, Degree, or Dignity it stands to the Father and Son? With Abundance more of this Unreasonable Strain, flowing from the Curious, Ungovern’d, and Restless Minds of Men. No Man would be used by his Servant as they treat God. He must wait our Leisure, before we will believe, receive, and obey him: His Message is obscure, we don’t understand it; he must gratifie our Curiosity; we desire to be better satisfied with it before we believe or deliver it; it comes not presently up to Men’s Understandings; ’tis too obscurely exprest; we will explain it, and deliver it with more Caution, Clearness and Success, than it is delivered to us. Thus God’s Revelation hath been scan’d, and his Precepts examin’d, before Licens’d by his Creature: Man would be Wiser than God; more wary then the Holy Ghost. Our Lord, it should seem, understood not what Kind of Creature Man was; he wanted his Wisdom to admonish him of the Danger; or haply he thought not upon that Corruption, which should befall Mankind in these Latter Ages of the World, which might require the Abilities of Men to supply the Wants and Defects left by the Holy Ghost, in the Wording of the Scripture.—I wrong not this Practice; I render it not more Odious than it is: It is an inexcusable Piece of Presumption, that which debases the External Testimony of God, and draws Men off from that which is Eternal too. It introduces the Traditions of Men, in the Room of God’s Records, and setteth up their Judgment and Results for the Rule of Christian Faith, and Canons of Christ’s Church. This is one of those Things, that made Rome so hateful, and her Yoke intolerable to our Predecessors: Pretended Deductions from Scripture, put in the Room of Scripture, with a Superfedeas to all Dissent upon never so Just a Ground of Dissatisfaction.

I beseech you Protestants, by the Mercies of GOD, and Love of JESUS CHRIST, ratified to you in his Most Precious Blood, Flee Rome at Home; Look to the Enemies of your own House! Have a Care of this Presumption; carry it not too high; lay not Stress, where God has laid none, neither use His Royal Stamp to Authorize your Apprehensions in the Name of his Institutions.

I do not say, that Men are never to express their Minds upon any Place of Scripture to Edification: There is a Christian Liberty not to be denied; but never to lay down Articles of Faith, which ever ought to be in the Very Language of Holy Writ, to avoid Temptation and Strife. You see, how the contrary Method hath been the Great Make-Bate in all Ages, and the Imposition of such Opinion, the Privilege of Hypocrites, but the Snare of many Honest Minds; to be sure the sad Occasion of Feuds and miserable Divisions. It was plainly seen, that by the many Disputes that rose from hence, Men’s Wits were confounded with their Matters, Truth was lost, and Brotherhood was destroyed. Thus the Devil acted the Part both of Opponent and Defendant, and managed the Passions of both Parties to his End, which was Discord. And but too many were ready to perswade themselves, from the Miscarriages on both Sides, That nothing Certain could be concluded about Religion; for it so fell out, that whilst Men were perpetually wrangling and brawling about some one Opinion of Religion, the most important Points of Faith and Life were little regarded, Unity broken, Amity destroyed, and those Wounds made, that were never closed but with the Extinction of one Party: Not a Good Samaritan being to be found to heal and close them.33 Now it was that a Godly Man was distinguish’d from an Ungodly by this, let his Life have been almost what it would, that he seem’d to maintain the Opinions in Vogue, and to abhor the Doctrine, which, in some One or Two Points, might be reputed Heretical, or Schismatical.

O that we could but see how many, and how Great Defeats Satan hath given to the Work of God in the Hearts of Men! What Desolations he hath made by this one Evil, Controversie; begot of Opinion, and used for it; and how few have contended for the Faith, as it was once deliver’d to the Saints!34 He must be a Man of Brass, that could refrain from Weeping at these Calamities. And truly I must desire to take Leave sometimes to bewail this Broken Condition of Christendom, and to bestow my Tears in Secret upon these Common Ruins: And I beseech God Almighty, with a Soul sensibly touch’t with the Mischiefs that naturally flow from this Practice, to awaken you to a most speedy and serious Consideration of your present Standing, and Amendment of your Miscarriage in this and all other Points that may concern your Good, and his Glory. Put away Wrath! Away with Clamours! Away with Arrogance and Impatience! Let that Holy Spirit of God, which we in common profess to be the Christian’s Guide, have the ordering of our Understandings in Spiritual Things, lest Ignorance should mistake, Interest wrest, or Prejudice pervert the Sense of God’s Book. For as too many are Ignorant of the Divine Truth through their own Concupiscence, and Vile Affections, that carry them away to the Desire of other Things, and therefore easily mistake about Nice or Obscure Matters; so there are not a few, who come to search the Scriptures with Pre-possess’d Minds, that are sorry to meet with a Contradiction to their own Judgment, instead of being glad to find the Truth, and who use their Wits to rack out another Sense than that which is Genuine; which Sort of Men use the Scripture for it’s Authority, and not it’s Sense, or Truth.

All this While, the Head is set at Work, not the Heart, and that which Christ most insisted upon, is least concerned in this Sort of Faith and Christianity; and that is, Keeping His Commandments.35 For ’tis Opinion, not Obedience; Notion, and not Regeneration, that such Men pursue. This Kind of Religion leaveth them as bad as it finds them, and worse; for they have something more to be proud of. Here is a Creed indeed, but of what? The Conclusions of Men, and what to do? To prove they believe in Christ, who, it seems, never made them. It had been happy for the World, that there had been no other Creeds, than what He and His Apostles gave and left. And it is not the least Argument against their being needful to Christian Communion, that Christ and His Apostles did not think so, who were not wanting to declare the Whole Counsel of God to the Church.

To conclude: If you desire Peace, love Truth, seek Piety, and hate Hypocrisie, lay by all those Things called Articles of Faith, and Canons of the Church, that are not to be found in express Terms in Scripture, or so plainly Authorized by Scripture, as may, with Ease, be discerned by every Honest and Conscientious Person. And in the Room of those numerous and disputed Opinions, made the Bond of External Communion, let some Plain, General and Necessary Truths be laid down in Scripture Terms, and let them be few; which leads me to the next Point, and that is FAITH, which is generally mistaken in the very Nature of it.

Sect. 3.

OfFaith,and Mistakes about it.

THE Second Mischief that is amongst us, is the Misunderstanding of the Nature of FAITH; whence it comes to pass, that Men take that for Faith, which is not; and sit down in a Security pernicious to their Eternal Happiness. I shall briefly say something of what is not Faith, before I speak of that, which appears to me to be Truly and Scripturally such.

The Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ is not only not believing Men’s Opinions and Determinations from the Sacred Text, of which I have so freely deliver’d my self, but it is not meerly the Belief even of the Things contain’d in Scripture, to be True: For this the Devils and Hypocrites do, and yet are very Bad Believers: They refuse not the Authority of Scripture: The Devil made Use of it to Christ himself; but he would have the explaining and applying of it:36 And since he could not hinder the Divine Inspiration, if he may but be allow’d the Exposition, he hopes to secure his Kingdom. Since then the Verity and Authority of both History and Doctrine may be believ’d by the Devil and Hypocrites, that are false to their own Faith and Knowledge, we cannot without great Injustice to the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the Faith of all His Followers, allow, That a meer Belief of the Verity and Authority of the History and Doctrine of Scripture, is that True and Precious Faith, which was the Saint’s Victory over the World.

Faith then, in the Sense of the Holy Ghost, is by the Holy Ghost thus defined: viz. The Evidence of Things not seen and the Substance of Things hoped for.37 This is General and runs through all Ages; being received of all Sorts of Christians as a true Definition of Faith: But with leave, I shall express it thus: True Faith in God is entirely believing and trusting in God, confiding in his Goodness, resigning up to his Will, obeying his Commands, and relying upon his Conduct and Mercies, respecting this Life and that which is to come. For a Man cannot be said to believe in God, that believes not what he says and requires: And no Man can be said to do that, who does not obey it, and conform to it; for that is believing in God, to do as he says. This is in Scripture called the Gift of God;38 and well it may, for it is Supernatural: It crosses the Pride, Confidence and Lust of Man: It grows out of the Seed of Love, sown by God in the Heart, at least it works by Love:39 And this distinguishes it from the Faith of Ill Men and Devils, that though they do believe, they don’t Love God above all, but something else instead of God, and are full of Pride, Anger, Cruelty and all Manner of Wickedness. But this Faith that works by Love, that Divine Love which God plants in the Heart, it draws and inclines Man, and gives him Power to forsake all that displeaseth God: And every such Believer becomes an Enoch, Translated, that is, Changed from the Fashion of this World, the Earthly Image, the Corrupt Nature; and is renewed in the Likeness of the Son of God, and walks with God.40The Just shall live by Faith:41 They have in all Ages liv’d by this Faith; that is, been sustain’d, supported, preserved: The Devil within nor the World without could never conquer them. They walked not by Sight, but by Faith, and had Regard to the Eternal Recompence: No Visible Things prevailed with them to depart from the Invisible God, to quench their Love, or slacken their Obedience to him; the great Testimony of their Faith in Him.

This Holy Faith excludes no Age of the World; the Just Men, the Cornelius’s in every Generation have had some Degree of it: It was more especially the Faith of the simpler Ages of the World, such as those in which the Patriarchs lived, who having not an outward Law, became a Law to themselves, and did the Things contained in the Law; for they believed in God, and, through Faith, obtained a good Report.42 But because that it hath pleased God, in order to Man’s Recovery from that grievous Lapse Disobedience hath cast him into, at sundry Times and in divers Manners to appear to the Sons of Men, first by his Prophets, and last of all by his Son;43 and that these several Manifestations have had something peculiar to them, and very remarkable in them, so that they claim a Place in our Creed; It will not be amiss, that we briefly consider them.

The first was that of the Prophets, in which Moses preceded, by whom the Law came to the Jews, but Grace and Truth to mankind by Jesus Christ.44 The first brought Condemnation, the last Salvation; the one Judgment, the other Mercy; which was glad Tidings indeed. The one did fore-run the other, as in Order of Time, so in Nature of Dispensation: The Law was the Gospel begun, the Gospel was the Law fulfilled or finisht: They cannot be parted.

The Decalogue or Ten Commandments were little more than what had been known and practised before; for it seem’d but an Epitome and Transcript of the Law writ in Man’s Heart by the Finger of God: This is confest on all Hands and in all Ages since, as the Writings of ancient Gentiles as well as Jews and Christians tell us. This therefore must needs be a Part of our Creed; for it relates to that Righteousness which is Indispensible and Immutable: The other Part of their Constitution that was peculiar to their Politick, Typical and Mutable State, the Gospel is either unconcerned in it, or else ended it by the bringing in of a better Hope and a more enduring Substance. But Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ:45Grace is opposed to the Condemnation of the Law, and Truth to Shadows. This is the most excellent Dispensation; it is ours, and it becomes us to weigh well our Interest in it. Take it in other Words of the Holy Ghost. God, who at sundry Times and in divers Manners spake in Times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last Days spoken to us by his Son. God so loved the World, that (after all the World’s Provocations by Omissions and Commissions) he gave his only begotten Son into the World, that the World through him might be saved.46

And here Two Things present themselves to our Consideration: First, the Person, who he was? What his Authority? Secondly, his Message, his Doctrine, what he taught? Which though never so reasonable in it self, depended very much, in it’s Entertainment among the People, upon the Truth of his Mission and Authority, that he was no Impostor, but came from God, and was the promised Messiah. This was done two Ways; by Revelation and by Miracles. By Revelation, to such as were as well prepared and inclined, as honest Peter, the Woman of Samaria, and those that were mov’d to believe him from the Authority in which he spake, so unlike that of the Formal Scribes.47 By Miracles, to those that being blinded by Ignorance or Prejudice, needed to have their Senses struck with such Supernatural Evidences, from many of whom this Witness came, that he was the Messiah, the Christ and Son of God.

In fine, all was done within the Compass of that People, among whom he daily conversed, that was needful to prove he was from God, and had God’s Message to declare to the World. In so much that when some of his Disciples were not so firm in their Belief of his Authority, as he deserved at their Hands, he calls his own Works to prove his Commission and convict them of Incredulity: If ye will not believe, that the Father is in me, that he doth these Works by me; believe me for the very Works sake, Thus he argueth with the Jews: Say ye of him the Father hath sanctified and sent into the World, thou Blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the Works of my Father, believe me not (this is reasonable; he that shall Judge the World, offers to be tryed himself; he goes on) But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the Works, that ye may know and believe, that the Father is in me.48 And he laid the Sin of the Jews upon this Foot, viz. That they rejected him, after he had made Proof of his Divine Mission by such extraordinary Works, As no Men among them all could do: which, to give them their Due, they do not deny, but shamefully pervert and foolishly abuse, by attributing them to the Power of the Devil. To which Malice and Slander he returned this inconfutable Answer; A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand: What! cast out Devils by the Prince of Devils? ’Tis a Contradiction, and very Madness it self.49

I have nothing to do now with Atheists, or those that call themselves Theists; but such as own themselves Christians; and shall therefore keep to my Task, namely; What of the Christian Dispensation is so Peculiar and Important, as to challenge of Right the Name of Creed or Faith? I say then, That the Belief of Jesus of Nazareth to be the Promised Messiah, the Son and Christ of God, come and sent from God to restore and save Mankind, is the first and was then the only requisite Article of Faith, without any large Confessions, or an Heap of Principles or Opinions resolv’d upon after Curious and Tedious Debates by Councils and Synods: And this may be proved both by Example and Doctrine.

It is evident from Example, as in the Case of Peter, who for having believed in his Heart and confess’d with his Mouth, That Jesus was the Christ and Son of God, obtained that Signal Blessing, Mat. 16. This made Nathaniel a Disciple; Rabbi, said he, Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. It was the like Confession, that made Amends for Thomas’s Incredulity, when he was sensibly assured of the Resurrection of Jesus, My Lord and my God! This was also the Substance of Martha’s Confession of Faith to Jesus, when he said to her, I am the Resurrection and the Life; he that believeth in me shall never die: believest thou this? She answer’d, Yea Lord, I believe, that thou art the Christ the Son of God, which should come into the World? She answered him not as to that Particular of the Resurrection, but in General, That he was the Christ, the Messiah, that was to come into the World, and that sufficed. ’Twas a Confession not unlike to this, that the Blind Man made, to whom Christ gave Sight, when Jesus said to him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Lord, said he, I do believe; and he worshipped him. What shall we say of the Centurion, preferred by Christ himself before any in Israel, though a Gentile? Or of the Faith of the Woman and Inhabitants of Samaria, that he was the Messiah? Or of that Importunate Woman that cry’d to Jesus, To cast a Devil out of her possest Daughter, and would not be put off, to whom Christ said, O Woman, great is thy Faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt? To which let me add the Faith of the People, that brought the Man sick of the Palsy to Christ, who uncover’d the Roof to let him down to be toucht; the Faith of Jairus the Ruler; and of that Good Woman, who pressed through the Crowd to touch the Hem of Christ’s Garment, to whom Jesus said, Be of good Comfort, Daughter, thy Faith has made thee whole: Also the Two Blind Men, that followed him out of the Ruler’s House, crying, Thou Son of David, have Mercy on us; who, when Jesus had said, Believe ye that I am able to do this? Answer’d, Yea, Lord; upon which he touch’d their Eyes and said, According to your Faith be it unto you: Also the Blind Man near Jericho; The Leprous Samaritan that Christ cleansed; and that notable Passage of the Woman that kissed his Feet and anointed his Head; to whom he pronounced this happy Sentence; Thy Faith hath saved thee, go in Peace.50

I will conclude this with that famous Instance of the Thief upon the Cross, who neither knew nor had Time to make a large Confession like the Creeds of these Days: but it seems he said enough; Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily, I say unto thee, to Day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.51 By which it is easy to learn that t’was the Heart, not the Mouth; the Sincerity, not the Words, that made the Confession Valid.

Nor was this only, in the Days of Christ, the Effect of his Gracious Dispensation or peculiar Indulgence, for after-times afford us the like Instances. This was the main Bent of Peter’s Sermon; and when the Three Thousand believed that he whom the Jews had crucified, was both Lord and Christ, and repented of their Sins, and gladly received his Word, they are said to have been in a State of Salvation. Thus Cornelius and his Houshold and Kindred, so soon as Peter declared Jesus to be the Messiah, and that they had believed, the Holy Ghost fell upon them; and they were received into the Christian Communion. But the Story of the Eunuch is very pat to our Purpose: As he rid in his Chariot, he was reading these Words out of the Prophet Isaiah, viz. That he was led as a Sheep to the Slaughter, and like a Lamb dumb before the Shearers, so opened he not his Mouth. In his Humiliation his Judgment was taken away; and who shall declare his Generation? for his Life is taken from the Earth. Philip join’d to him and ask’d him, If he understood what he read? He desir’d Philip to interpret the Mind of the Prophet, whether he spoke of himself or another? Philip upon the Place preached to him Jesus: The Eunuch was so well perswaded by the Apostle, that coming to a Water, he said, What doth hinder me to be Baptized? Philip answered him, If thou believest with all thine Heart, thou may’st: To this the Eunuch reply’d, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Upon which he was baptized; and ’tis said, He went away Rejoycing; which indeed he might well do, that felt the Comfort of his Faith, the Remission of his Sin and the Joys of the Holy Ghost, which always follow true Faith in Christ.52

I will conclude these Examples with a Passage in the Acts, of Paul at Thessalonica; ’tis this: Paul, as his Manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath-days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures; opening and alledging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the Dead; and that this Jesus (said he) whom I preach unto you, is Christ. And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks a great Multitude, and of the Chief Women not a few.53 Thus we may plainly see, that they were baptiz’d into the Faith of Jesus, and not into Numerous Opinions; and that this one Confession, from true Faith in the Heart, was the Ground and Principle of their Church-Fellowship. Then God’s Church was at Peace; she thrive; there were then no Snares of Words made to catch Men of Conscience with. Then not many Words, but much Integrity; now much Talk, and little Truth: Many Articles, but O ye of little Faith!

Nor was this only the Judgment and Practice of that Time out of Condescension to Weakness, and Charity to Ignorance; for both Christ Jesus himself and his Apostles (those blessed Messengers of Holy Truth) have doctrinally laid it down, as the Great Test to Christians; that which should distinguish them from Infidels, and justly intitle them to his Discipleship, and Christian Communion one with another. Let us read a little farther: Then said they to Jesus, what shall we do, that we might work the Works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the Work of God, that ye Believe on him, whom God hath sent. Verily, Verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, hath Everlasting Life. And upon another Occasion, to the Jews, he said, For if ye believe not, that I am he, ye shall die in your Sins. It must follow then, that if they did believe him to be the Messiah, the Anointed of God to Salvation, they should be saved. Most plain is that Answer of the Apostle to the Goaler, when he came trembling to them and said, Sirs, What must I do to be saved? Believe (said they) on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. The Apostle Paul confirms this in his Epistle to the Romans, when he says, If thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine Heart, that God hath raised him from the Dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the Heart Man believeth unto Righteousness, and with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salvation: For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him, shall not be ashamed. For there is no Difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all, that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord, shall be saved.54 This was the Word of Faith which they preached; and he testify’d, that it was nigh in the Heart, as Moses had done before him.55 And, saith the Apostle John, on this Occasion, Who is a Lyar, but he that denieth, that Jesus is the Christ?—Hereby know ye the Spirit of God; every Spirit that confesseth (or every one that in Heart or Spirit confesseth) that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh, is of God. Again, says he, Whosoever shall confess, that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God: Yet once more he affirms, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God.56 But this is more than an Historical Belief, a true Sound and hearty Perswasion: A Faith that influenceth the whole Man into a suitable Conformity to the Nature, Example and Doctrine of the object of that Faith.

I will conclude these Doctrinal Testimonies out of Scripture, with a conclusive Passage the Apostle John useth towards the End of his Evangelical History of Jesus Christ: And many other Signs truly did Jesus in the Presence of his Disciples, which are not written in this Book; but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have Life in his Name.57 In which Place two Things are remarkable; First, That whatever Things are written of Jesus, are written to this End, that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ. Secondly, That those that sincerely believe, shall through him obtain Eternal Life. Certainly then, if this be true, their Incharity and Presumption must be great who have taken other Measures, and set another Rule of Christianity, than Jesus and his Apostles gave. This sincere Confession contented Christ and his Apostles; but it will not satisfy those that yet pretend to believe them: It was enough then for a Miracle and Salvation too, but it goes for little or nothing now. A Man may sincerely believe this, and be stigmatiz’d for a Schismatick, an Heretick, an Excommunicate: but I may say, as Christ did to the Jews in another Case, From the Beginning it was not so.58

But here I expect to be assaulted with this Objection: If this be all that is necessary to be believ’d to Salvation, Of what Use is the rest of Scripture?

I Answer, Of Great Use, as the Apostle himself teaches us; All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God, and is profitable for Doctrine, for Reproof, for Correction, for Instruction in Righteousness, that the Man of God may be perfect, throughly furnish’d unto all good Works.59 It concerns the whole Life and Conversation of a Man; but every Passage in it is not therefore fit to be such an Article of Faith, as upon which Christian-Communion ought or ought not to be maintained. For though it be all equally true, it is not all equally important: There is a great Difference between the Truth and Weight of a Thing. For Example: It is as true that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate, as that he suffered; and that he was pierced, as that he died; and that he did eat after his Resurrection, as that he rose from the Dead at all; but no Person of common Understanding will conclude an equal Weight or Concernment in these Things, because they are equally true: The Death of Christ was of much greater Value than the Manner of it; his Resurrection, than any Circumstance of his Appearance after he was risen. The Question is not whether all the Truths contain’d in Scripture are not to be believ’d; but whether those Truths are equally Important? And whether the Belief with the Heart and Confession with the Mouth that Jesus is the Christ and Son of God,60be not as sufficient now to entitle a Man to Communion here and Salvation hereafter, as in those Times? against which nothing can be, of Weight, objected.

If it be said, that this Contradicts the Judgment and Practice of many great and good Men.

I Answer, I can’t help that. If they have been tempted, out of their own Curiosity or the Corruption of Times, to depart from the Ancient Paths, the Foot-steps of purest Antiquity and best Examples, let their Pretences have been what they will, it was Presumption: And it was Just with God, that Error and Confusion should be the Consequence of those Adventures; nor has it ever fail’d to follow them.

Lastly, if it be alledg’d, That this will take in all Parties, yea, that Schismaticks and Hereticks will creep in under this General Confession, since few of them will refuse to make it.

I do say, ’Twould be an Happy Day. What Man, loves God and Christ, seeks Peace and Concord, that would not rejoyce if all our Animosities and Vexations about Matters of Religion were buried in this one Confession of Jesus, the great Author and Lord of the Christian Religion, so often lost in pretending to contest for it? View the Parties on Foot in Christendom among those called Protestants, observe their Differences well, and how they are generally maintain’d, and you will tell me that they are rent and divided about their own Comments, Consequences and Conclusions: Not the Text, but the Meaning; and that too, which perhaps is not in it self essential to Salvation, as the Dispute betwixt the Lutherans and Calvinists, the Arminians and Predestinarians, and the like. Is it not lamentable to think that those who pretend to be Christians, and Reformed ones also, should divide with the Winds and fight, as pro Aris & Focis,61 for such Things, as either are not expresly to be found in Scripture, or if there, yet never appointed or intended by Christ or his Apostles for Articles of Communion. Should they then erect their Communion on another Bottom, or break it for deviating from any other Doctrines than what they in so many Words have deliver’d to us for Necessary?

If we consider the Matter well, I fear it will be found that the Occasion of Disturbance in the Church of Christ hath in most Ages been found to lie on the Side of those who have had the greatest Sway in it. Very pertinent to our present Purpose is that Passage of J. Hales of Eaton in his Tract concerning Schism:62

It hath, saith he, been the Common Disease of Christians from the Beginning, not to content themselves with that Measure of Faith, which God and Scriptures have expresly afforded us; but out of a Vain Desire to know more than is Revealed, they have attempted to discuss Things, of which we can have no Light neither from Reason nor Revelation. Neither have they rested here, but upon Pretence of Church-Authority, which is NONE, or Tradition, which for the most Part is but FIGMENT, they have peremptorily concluded and confidently imposed upon others a Necessity of Entertaining Conclusions of that Nature; and to strengthen themselves have broken out into Divisions and Factions, opposing Man to Man, Synod to Synod, till the Peace of the Church vanished without all Possibility of Recall. Hence arose those Ancient and many Separations amongst Christians, Arianism, Eutychianism, Nestorianism, Photinianism, Sabellianism; and many more both Ancient and in our Time.

And as he hath told us one great Occasion of the Disease, so he offers what follows for the Cure:

And were Liturgies (says he) and Publick Forms of Service so framed, as that they admitted not of particular and private Fancies, but contained only such Things, as in which all Christians do agree, Schisms on Opinion were utterly vanished: Whereas to load our Publick Forms with the Private Fancies upon which we differ, is the most soveraign Way to perpetuate Schism unto the World’s End.—Remove from them, whatsoever is scandalous to any Party, and leave nothing, but what all agree on; and the Event shall be that the Publick Service and Honour of God shall no ways suffer. For to charge Churches and Liturgies with Things unnecessary, was the First Beginning of all Superstition—If the spiritual Guides and Fathers of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with Superfluities, and not over-rigid, either in reviving obsolete Customs, or imposing New, there were far less Danger of Schism or Superstition—Mean while wheresoever false or suspected Opinions are made a Piece of the Church Liturgy, he that separates is not a Schismatick: For it is alike Unlawful to make Profession of known or suspected Falshoods, as to put in Practice Unlawful or Suspected Actions.

He farther tells us in his Sermon of Dealing with Erring Christians, That it is the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace, and not the Identity (or Oneness) of Conceit, which the Holy Ghost requires at the Hands of Christians—

A better Way my Conceit cannot reach unto, than that we should be willing to think, that these Things, which with some Shew of Probability we deduce from Scripture, are at the best but our Opinions. For this Peremptory Manner of setting down our Conclusions under this high Commanding Form of Necessary Truths, is generally one of the greatest Causes, which keeps the Churches this Day so far asunder; when as a Gracious Receiving of each other by mutual Forbearance, in this kind, might peradventure, in Time, bring them nearer together.63

Thus much of this Great Man concerning Schism, the Cause and Cure of it? And for the Notion of Hereticks he will help us altogether as well: For though they are generally taken for such who err in Judgment about Doctrines and Articles of Faith, yet if this Man may have any Credit, and perhaps none of his Profession has deserv’d more, he tells us, that “Heresie is an Act of the Will, not of Reason, and is indeed a Lye, not a Mistake: else (says he) how could that known Speech of Austin go for true, Errare possum, Haereticus esse nolo: I may err, but I am unwilling to be an Heretick.” And indeed this is no other than what Holy Scripture teacheth; 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.64 Which is as much as to say, that no Body is an Heretick, but he that gives the Lye to his own Conscience and is Self-condemned: Which is not the Case of Men meerly mistaken, or who only err in Judgment. And therefore the Term of Hereticks is as Untruly as Uncharitably flung upon those that conscientiously dissent, either in Point of Discipline or Doctrine, from any Society of Christians; and it is not hard to observe that those who have most merited that Character, have most liberally bestow’d it.

But to show you that neither true Schismatick, who is One that unnecessarily and unwarrantably separates from that Part of the Visible Church of which he was once a Member, nor true Heretick who is a Wilful Subverter of True or an Introducer of false Doctrines, a Self-condemned Person, can ever shelter himself under this Common Confession of Christianity, sincerely made: Let us consider, that who-ever so declares Jesus to be the Messiah and Anointed Saviour of God to Men, must be supposed to believe all that of him, with Respect to which he is so called. Now that for which he is so denominated, is that which God sent him to do: The Reason and End of his coming he could best tell, who hath told us thus; I am come, that ye may have Life, and that ye may have it more abundantly.65 The World was dead in Trespasses and Sins, the Guilt and Defilement of Transgression had kill’d the Soul as to Spiritual Life and Motion; and from under this powerful Death he came to redeem the Soul unto Life: In short, to restore Man from that fearful Degeneracy his Disobedience to God had reduced him unto.

The Way he took to accomplish this Blessed Work was First, To preach Repentance and the Approach of the Kingdom of God, which is his Rule and Authority in the Hearts of Men, and that brings to the Second Thing to be believed, namely.——

What he Taught?

First, His Doctrine led Men to Repentance: Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at Hand.66 No Man could receive the Kingdom of God, whilst he lived under the Kingdom and Power of Satan: so that to Repent is not only to bring their Deeds to the Light, which Christ exhorteth Men to; but to forsake that upon Examination, which appears to be Evil. Wherefore I conclude, that such as have not been acquainted with this Holy Repentance, do not sincerely believe, neither can rightly confess Jesus to be the Christ the Son of God, the Saviour of the World. Therefore saith the Apostle, Let him that nameth the Name of the Lord, depart from Iniquity;67 plainly implying that those do rather Prophane than Confess the Name of the Lord, who do not Depart from their Iniquities. And, saith the Apostle in another Place, No Man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost,68 Which opens to us the Nature of the True Confession we ought to make, and which, being truly made in a Scripture Sense, makes us Christians in a right Christian Acception; to wit, That the True Confession of Jesus to be both Lord and Christ, is from such a Belief in the Heart as is accompany’d with the embracing and practising of his Holy Doctrine: such a Faith is the Work of the Holy Ghost, and those that do not so Confess him or call upon him, that is, by Virtue of the overshadowing of this Divine Spirit and Power, are not truly Christians, true Worshippers, or Believers and Disciples of our Lord Jesus.

Furthermore, they that receive Christ receive his Kingdom, his Power and Authority in their Souls; whereby the strong Man that kept the House becomes bound, and his Goods spoil’d by this stronger Man, the Lord’s Christ; who is come from Heaven to dwell in us and be the Hope of our Glory; for so he was preached to the Gentiles. This Kingdom, the Apostle tells us, stands in Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost; and Christ tells us, where it is to be set up? The Kingdom of God is within you, saith the King himself; and where should the King be, but in his own Kingdom?69 They are blessed that feel him to Rule, and that live under the Swaying of his Righteous Scepter: for when this Righteous One Rules the Earth, the Sons of Men rejoyce.

So that no Man can truly Confess and rightly believe Jesus to be the Christ and Son of God, who does not receive him to be his King to rule his Heart and Affections. For can a Man be said to believe in one that he will not receive? but To as many as received Christ of old, gave he Power to become the Sons of God; which were born, not of Blood, nor of the Will of the Flesh, nor of the Will of Man, but of God.70 What is this Will of God? Paul answers the Question: The Will of God is your Sanctification;71 for this Christ came into the World. So that those that believe and receive Christ, he is made to them Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption;72 that is, he has saved them from their Sins, both Guilt and Defilement, and sanctified them from their Corruptions: They live now by the Grace of God, that teaches them to be of a Sober, Righteous, Godlike Life. Ye shall know them by their Fruits, saith Christ of the Pharisees;73 so shall Men know them, that sincerely believe and confess Christ, by their sanctified Manners and blameless Conversations. And Wo from the true and just God to them that make other Distinctions! for God has made no other; there will be but Goats and Sheep at the Last Day;74 Holy and Unholy; Just and Unjust. Therefore let that be our Distinction, which ever was and will be God’s Distinction; for all other Measures are the Effects of the Passions and Presumptions of Men. But because it may be expected, that I should fix upon some few General Heads of Christian Doctrine from the Mouth of Christ and his Apostles, as requisite to Christian Communion, I should proceed to mention what Christ eminently taught.

He that reads his Sermon upon the Mount will find in the Entrance, how many States and Conditions Christ Blessed; The Poor in Spirit, The Mourners, The Meek, They that hunger after Righteousness; The Merciful, The Pure in Heart, and the Peace-makers; which indeed comprehend the whole of Christianity.75

By Mourners we understand true Penitents, Men of Unfeigned Repentance; which leads them not only to confess but forsake their Sins. This Godly Sorrow Strips Men of all false Rests and Comforts, makes them Poor in Spirit, Empty of themselves, wanting the Comfort of the Light, Life and Power of Jesus to support and sustain them; yet as they stedfastly walk in that Measure they have, the Atonement of the Blood is felt, and it cleanseth them from all Unrighteousness, which makes them Pure in Heart. And in this Condition no Food will serve their Turn but Righteousness; after this they Hunger and Thirst more than for the Bread that perisheth. They are full of Meekness and Mercy, Making Peace and Promoting Concord where-ever they come: For being themselves reconciled to God, they endeavour to reconcile all Men unto God and one unto another: Submitting all Worldly Considerations to this incomparable Peace, that passeth all human Understanding.

In short, let us bring it Home to our Consciences, and deal faithfully with our selves. Do we know this Holy Mourning? This Godly Sorrow? Are we Poor in Spirit indeed? Not Self-conceited but Humble, Meek and Lowly in Heart, like him that bid us do so? Do we Hunger after the Kingdom of God and Righteousness of it? And are our Hearts purified by the Precious Faith of the Son of God that is a working, cleansing and conquering Faith? In fine, Are we Merciful? Tender Hearted? Lovers of Peace more than Lovers of our selves? Persecuted, rather than Persecutors? Such as receive Stripes for Christ’s Sake, and not those that beat our Fellow-Servants? No Man has True Faith in Christ Jesus, that is not acquainted with these Blessed Qualifications. This is Christ’s Doctrine; and to believe in him, is to obey it, and be like him.

The great Intention of this Sermon,76 is to press People to a more Excellent Righteousness than that of the Scribes and Pharisees. For, saith Jesus to the Multitude, Except your Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no Case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

(1.) He taught, not only that Killing, but Anger without a very Just Cause, is Unlawful to his Disciples, his Followers.

(2.) He prefers Concord above Devotion; Mercy before Sacrifice: He that will not use his utmost Endeavour to be reconciled to his Brother, shall find no Place for his Prayers with him that can only make them Effectual. And every Man is this Brother.

(3.) He not only forbids Adultery, which the Law forbids, but Lust. The Ax of his Doctrine is laid to the Root of the Tree; it reaches to the First Seeds of Things, to the innermost and most hidden Conceptions of the Mind because he has brought his Light near, and searches the innermost Parts of the Belly with his Divine Candle.

(4.) From keeping and performing Legal Vows, to Not Swearing at all: And indeed, what Use can there be of any Swearing, where Men’s Yea is Yea, and their Nay, Nay. There their Speech, their Answers, on all Occasions, should be, at the most, but Yea, Yea; or Nay, Nay.

(5.) He taught not to resist Evil, but to suffer Loss, rather than enter into Contention: His Divine Wisdom did fore-see how much easier it would be to overcome the Violent Passions of Men by Patience, than Controversie. And he that justly considers the Unruliness of some Men’s Dispositions, their Heats and Prejudices, will find, that it is not always a Real Injury, or Loss, but some Passion, Revenge, or base Interest, that puts them upon Clamours, and Suits of Law.

(6.) He taught us the highest Complacency and Charity: If any Man compel thee to go a Mile, go with him Twain. Be of an easie and ready Mind to Do Good; to all Friendly Offices be easily perswaded; and therein rather exceed, than fall short of any one’s Entreaty, or Necessity.

(7.) He taught as Great Liberality and Bounty, To give to him that asks, and from him that would borrow, not to turn away. In short, to be Stewards of our External Substance for the Good of Mankind, according to our respective Abilities; not grudging, knowing whose it is, nor disbelieving, as knowing him who is both Able and Bountiful.

(8.) He advances the Doctrine of Loving Friends, to the Degree of Loving Enemies. Ye have heard, said Jesus, that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour, and shalt hate thine Enemy; but I say unto you, Love your Enemies, bless them that Curse you, do Good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you. Surely then, where no Anger dwells, no Revenge can grow; and if we must Love Enemies, there is no Man left to be hated. This is the Doctrine of that Jesus that laid down his Life for all; and this is the End for which he preached it, That (says he) ye may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven; for he maketh his Sun to Rise on the Evil and the Good, and sendeth Rain on the Just and on the Unjust. It is as much as if Christ had said, No Man can be like God, who does not Love his Enemies, and cannot Do Good to All. Consequently, He that does Love Enemies, and is ready to Do Good unto All, he is like God the Father that is in Heaven, who is Love.

(9.) Christ teaches us to avoid Ostentation in our Charity: Take Heed that ye do not your Alms before Men, to be seen of them.

(10.) He teaches us the Duty of Prayer, and what: Not in the Corners of the Street, nor in the Synagogues to be seen of Men; but in the Closet, in the Secret of the Heart, betwixt God and the Soul. O Heavenly Precepts! He knew our Natures, our Weakness, and how to meet with it, and mend it. A Blessed Physician indeed! Let us receive Him, for He is sure, and He is Free.

(11.) He forbids Hoarding, and Laying up of Money in Bank; but presses Our Treasuring up Wealth in Heaven; and the Reason is this, That the One is Corruptible, and the other is Incorruptible.

(12.) He teaches Dependence upon the Providence of God; calling the Distrustful, O ye of Little Faith. Which of you (says he) by taking Thought, can add One Cubit to his Stature? Therefore take no Thought, saying, What shall we Eat, or what shall we Drink, or wherewith shall we be Clothed? For after all these Things the Gentiles seek; for your Heavenly Father knoweth, that you have Need of all these Things. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and all these Things shall be added to you.

(13.) He sets up a Discrimination or Distinction between False and True Prophets; those that are his Disciples, from Counterfeits. Ye shall know them, said Christ, by their Fruits: Do Men gather Grapes of Thorns, or Figs of Thistles? Even so every Good Tree bringeth forth Good Fruit, but a Corrupt Tree bringeth forth Evil Fruit. A Good Tree cannot bring forth Evil Fruit, neither can a Corrupt Tree bring forth Good Fruit: Wherefore by their Fruits ye shall know them. This was the Distinction given by Christ to His Followers; the Tree was not accounted a Good Tree by the Leaves, but the Fruits; not by a meer Opinion, but Holy Living. The Faith in that Day, was an Entire Resignation and Dependence upon God, and not a Subscription to Verbal Propositions and Articles, though never so True: That was the Work of After-times, more Corrupt and Superstitious Ages, that laid more Stress upon Consent, ay, the very Show of it, than Holiness, without which no Man shall ever see the Lord. But—

(14.) Lastly, Christ preaches the General Judgment. Many will say to me in that Day, [What Day? the Last Day, or Day of Account, and Final Reckoning with Mankind:] Lord, Lord, have we not Prophesied in thy Name, and in thy Name Cast out Devils, and done many Wonderful Works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, Depart from me, ye that work Iniquity. Not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven. Therefore whosoever heareth these Sayings of mine, and doth them, I will liken him unto a Wise Man, which built his House upon a Rock, and the Rain descended, and the Floods came, and the Winds blew, and beat upon that House, and it fell not, for it was builded upon a Rock. And every one that heareth these Sayings of mine, and doth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish Man, which built his House upon the Sand: And the Rain descended, and the Floods came, and the Winds blew, and beat upon that House, and it fell, and great was the Fall of it. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these Sayings, the People were astonished at his Doctrine; for he taught them as one having Authority, and not as the Scribes.

By all which it is most plain, that as Christ is the Rock, on which True Christians build, so none can be said truly to build upon this Rock, but those that keep his Sayings, that do his Commandments, that obey his Doctrine. Wherefore that Faith of Jesus to be the Son and Christ of God, must be such a Faith, as does the Will of the Heavenly Father, and keepeth these Sayings of Christ.

There are Two Places, in which Christ seems to sum up his blessed Doctrine: One is this, Therefore all Things, whatsoever ye would that Men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets; Which (by the Way) Christ came not to destroy, but to fulfil. But the other Passage seems to be more full, the first relating only to our Dealings with Men; this Second Passage comprehending our Duty both to God and Men, viz. Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul, and with all thy Mind; this is the first and great Commandment: and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self. On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.77

This is the Sum and Perfection of the Christian Religion, the great Commandment of Christ, and the certain Token of Discipleship, A new Commandment (said Christ) I give unto you, that ye Love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another: By this shall all Men know, that ye are my Disciples, if ye have love one to another. Again Christ speaks to his Disciples; If ye keep my Commandments, ye shall abide in my Love, even as I have kept my Father’s Commandments, and abide in his Love: And this is my Commandment, that ye Love one another as I have loved you. Yea, once more: Ye are my Friends, if ye do, whatsoever I command you, that you Love one another. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest my self to him: but he that loveth me not, keepeth not my Sayings.78 So that only those are Friends and Disciples of Christ Jesus that do his Sayings and keep his Commandments; and the Great Commandment of all is Love; for upon this one Commandment do all the rest depend.

And indeed the Reason is very obvious, since he that loves God above all, will leave all for God: Not one of his Commandments shall be slighted: And he that loves his Neighbour will much more love the Houshold of Faith.79 Well may such be True Christians, when their Faith in Christ works by Love, by the Power of this Divine Power: He that dwells in this Love, dwells in God, (if John say True) for he is Love.80And in this he recommended his Love unto us, that he sent his Only Begotten Son,—that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have Everlasting Life. Also herein did Christ manifest his Love, in laying down his Life for us. This is my Commandment, said Christ, that ye Love one another, as I have loved you; and greater Love hath no Man than this, that a Man lay down his Life for his Friends; ye are my Friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Indeed he gave his Life for the World, and offered up One Common Sacrifice for Mankind: And by this One Offering up of himself, once for all, he hath for ever perfected, that is, Quitted and discharged, and taken into Favour, them that are sanctified; who have received the Spirit of Grace and Sanctification in their Hearts; for such as resist it, receive not the Benefit of that Sacrifice, but Damnation to themselves.81

This Holy Offering up of Himself by the Eternal Spirit, is a great Part of His Messiahship; for therein he hath both confirmed His Blessed Message of Remission of Sins, and Life Everlasting, to as many as truly believe in His Name, and hath given Himself a Propitiation for all that have sinned, and thereby come short of the Glory of God: Insomuch that God is said by the Apostle Paul, to be Just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation, through Faith in his Blood, to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins that are past, through the Forbearance of God.82

Unto which I shall join His Mediatorship or Advocacy, link’d together both by the Apostle of the Gentiles, and the Beloved Disciple John: The first in these Words; For there is One God, and One Mediator between God and Men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a Ransom for all, to be Testified in due Time. The Apostle John expresseth it thus: My little Children, these Things write I unto you, that you Sin not; and if any Man sinneth, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous; he is the Propitiation for our Sins, and not for ours only, but also for the Sins of the whole World.83 So that to be brief, the Christian Creed, so far as it is Declaratory, lies eminently in a Confession of these Particulars: Of the Divine Authority of the New, as well of the Old Testament Writings, and particularly of these Great, General, and Obvious Truths therein expressed, to wit, Of God, and Christ, his Miracles, Doctrine, Death, Resurrection, Advocateship or Mediation, the Gift of his Light, Spirit or Grace: Of Faith, and Repentance from Dead Works unto Remission of Sins, keeping his Commandments, and lastly, Of Eternal Recompence.—Less, once, than all this, would have done; and it does not shew the Age more Christian, but more Curious, indeed more Infidel, to be sure more Captious and Froward, That there is this Stir made about External Creeds of Communion: For Distrust of Brethren, and Incredulity among Christians, are no small Signs of their Decay of Faith towards God: From the Beginning it was not so.

But it may be here objected, How shall we know that such a Declaration of Faith is Sincere? I answer, By recurring to that Evidence which God shall give us.84 They that can Try Spirits under the Most Sheep-like-Clothing, have the most immediate and certain Proof, and such an One there is by the Savour and Relish the Spirit of God gives, to them that have it, of the Spirits of Men: But let it suffice, that Christ hath told us, By their Fruits ye shall know them. If any Man, says Christ, will come after me, let him take up his Cross and follow me: And in another Place he tells us thus: My Sheep hear my Voice, and I know them, and they follow me; that is, they are led by my Spirit, they live my Life, they obey my Doctrine, they are of my own Nature. And the Apostle Peter assures us, That True Faith purifies the Heart, and no Impurity can flow from a Pure Heart.85 You may know this Faith by that Way, by which Abraham’s Faith was known to be True, to wit, Obedience. He believed God, that is, He obeyed God; he submitted to the Will of God, and relied upon his Goodness: As if he had said, and he said it doubtless to himself, He that gave me my Son by a Miracle, can work another to save him: To God all Things are possible.86 It is called by the Apostle Paul, The Spirit of Faith; something more near and inward, than any External Articles and Declaration of Faith: That from whence all True Confessions and Good Works came; which made the Apostle Paul thus to say, We give Thanks to God always for you all, making Mention of you in our Prayers, remembring without ceasing, your Work of Faith.87

’Twas this true Faith, that brings forth Works of Righteousness, by which Abel offered to God, Enoch was translated, Noah was saved. It is said of him, that he became the Heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith. By this Faith Abraham left his own Country, and obeyed the Voice of God. By Faith Moses was preserved from his Childhood; and when he came to Years, refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh’s Daughter; By Faith he forsook AEgypt, and passed the Red Sea. By Faith the Walls of Jericho fell down, and Rahab was saved. By Faith Gideon, Barak, Sampson, Jephtha, David, Samuel, and the Prophets, subdued Kingdoms, wrought Righteousness, obtained Promises, stopped the Mouths of Lyons, quenched the Violence of Fire, escaped the Edge of the Sword, with much more, too large to be utter’d here.88

This is that Faith, which the Apostle James magnifies against all false Faiths: Faith (says he) if it has not Works, is dead. A Man may say, Thou hast Faith, and I have Works; shew me thy Faith without thy Works, and I will shew thee my Faith by my Works. And as if he had fore-seen the Pother made by the Men of Creeds and Articles, he speaks on this wise; Thou believest that there is one God, thou dost well; the Devils also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain Man, that Faith without Works, is dead? Was not Abraham our Father, justified by Works, when he had offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar? Seest thou how Faith wrought with his Works? and by Works was Faith made perfect.—And he was called the Friend of God.89 Very notable and informing is that Expression of his, The Devils also believe and tremble; and as if he had said, the Devil believes as well as you, and trembles too, which is more. This shows there is a Faith that is not the true Faith, and that not with Relation to the Matters believed, but the Spirit of the Mind in believing; For the Devils believe the Truth, literally, but their Faith works not by Love, no more than their Knowledge by Obedience, and therefore it does them no Good, and is not the true Faith. O that Christendom would lay this very one Thing to Heart! But I must proceed.

The Exhortation of the Apostle Peter is a farther and plain Discrimination of true Faith; And besides this, giving all Diligence, add to your Faith Virtue, and to Virtue Knowledge, and to Knowledge Temperance, and to Temperance Patience, and to Patience Godliness, and to Godliness Brotherly Kindness, and to Brotherly Kindness Charity. For if these Things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful, in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these Things is blind, and cannot see far off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old Sins:90 As if he had said, they have forgot where they begun, that think they can be Christians without a Life of Holiness.

I will seal up these Scripture-Testimonies of Faith, with that Account which is given us by the Apostle John, For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the World: And this is the Victory, that overcometh the World, even our Faith. Who is he that overcometh the World, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?91 So that the Belief in the Son of God, must have this Evidence to prove it a true Belief in God’s Account, that by it Men are born of God and overcome the World: Wherefore their Faith is false whom the World overcomes: I am not of this World, saith Christ Jesus;92 neither can that Faith be, that is rightly called the Faith of the Son of God.

There are three Passages left us upon Record by this Beloved Disciple of Jesus of great Weight and Importance to us: When he had discoursed of the Propitiation and Advocateship of Christ, he does immediately add; And hereby do we know, that we know him, if we keep his Commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his Commandments, is a Lyar and the Truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his Word, in him verily is the Love of God perfected: Hereby know we, that we are in him.93He that saith, he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

The Second Passage very pertinent to this Matter, is in the next Chapter; My little Children, let us not love in Word, neither in Tongue, but in Deed and in Truth. And hereby we know that we are of the Truth, and shall assure our Hearts before him: For if our Heart condemn us, God is greater than our Heart, and knoweth all Things. Beloved; if our Heart condemn us not, then have we Confidence towards God: And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his Commandments, and do those Things that are pleasing in his Sight. And this is his Commandment, that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us Commandment.94

The Third and last Passage, which I shall mention on this Account, is in his fourth Chapter of the same Epistle, viz. And we have seen and do testifie, that the Father sent the Son, to be the Saviour of the World. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the Love God hath to us. God is Love; and he that dwelleth in Love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein our Love is made perfect, that we may have Boldness in the Day of Judgment, because, as he is, so are we in this World.95 So that keeping God’s Word, and Commandments, and our Consciences from accusing us, and our being like to Christ in this World, is our loving of God as we ought to love him.

These are the Holy Fruits of all those that love God, and believe in Christ, that are the Family of the Faithful, regenerated and redeemed from the Earth: Where-ever two or three of them, are met together, Christ is in the Midst of them; they neither ask nor hope in Vain.96 With this Character let us take a View of all Persons and Societies of Christians throughout the World, not forgetting our selves: Let us hereby try their Faith and Religion, and our own; if it be of God the Father, it is Pure and Undefiled; it leads them that have it, to Visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction, and to keep themselves Unspotted from the World.97 Is this our Case? O that it were so!

If it be objected, Which Way shall we obtain this like Precious Faith? I answer, You must take diligent Heed to the Light and Grace that come by Jesus; that Candle of the Lord which he has set up in our Souls: We must bring our Deeds to this Light, and see if they be wrought in God or no?98For this gives us to discern betwixt the Precious and the Vile; the one gives Joy, the other brings a Load of Guilt upon the Soul. Do we not know, That we do the Things we ought not; and that we leave undone the Things we ought to do. This, alas! will be our Judgment one Day, the Last, the Terrible Day: For therefore Men are Condemnable, because they know.

Those, therefore, that would obtain this Precious Faith, that overcomes the World, must embrace the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which this Faith is begotten; and they, who believe not in this Grace, nor receive it in the Love of it, nor give themselves up to be taught and led by it, can never be said truly to believe in him, from whom it comes, any more than the Jews may be said, To believe in God, when they rejected Him that came from God, His Beloved Son. He that denies the Measure, can never own or receive the Fulness. John bears Record, that he was full of Grace and Truth, and that of his Fulness they received, and Grace for Grace: For the Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ:99 So that ’tis utterly impossible for a Man, to believe in Christ, and not to be taught and led by the Grace that comes from him, and by him.

’Tis a common Saying of People in these Days, We are not under the Law, but under Grace; who are in Truth under Sin and the Law of Death, and Subjects to the Prince of the Power of the Air; who reigns in the Hearts of the Children of Disobedience; and their Lives show it: No, those are under Grace, that live the holy Life of Grace. For the Grace of God, that bringeth Salvation, saith the Apostle Paul, hath appeared unto all Men, teaching us, that denying Ungodliness and the Worldly Lusts, we should live Soberly, Righteously, and Godly in this present World:100 These are the People that believe in Christ, unto the Saving of the Soul. This is that blessed Light which shines in the Hearts of those that believe, and gives the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ. The Ancients walkt in it, and found Eternal Life by it. I am the Light of the World, said Christ, he that follows me, shall not walk in Darkness, but have the Light of Life.101 The Saints armed themselves with it, against the Fiery Darts of Satan, and by the Virtue and Power that is in it, were enabled to overcome Temptation. And this will be the Condemnation of Disobedient Men, that they see, but shut their Eyes; they know the Light, but rebel against it. Christ, by his holy Light in the Conscience, shews Men their Danger, warns them of it, before it comes upon them: No Man on Earth can plead either Ignorance or Surprise.

’Tis true, the Candle of the Wicked is often put out;102 But that implies, It is often lighted, and that Men Sin against Conviction, against Sight and Knowledge: It is wilful, and that’s dangerous. No Faith in Disobedience will do; no Faith without Holy Fruits, Holy Works, will save. Men must be born again if ever they will enter into the Kingdom of God: there is no Fellowship between Christ and Belial: People must part with their Vile Affections and Inordinate Desires, or they are no Company for Christ;103 they have no Share in him. What Part can Pride have in Humility, Wrath in Meekness, Lust in Self-denial, Revenge in Forgiveness? To pretend to believe in Christ, and not to be like him, is a Contradiction. This is the Message (said the Beloved Disciple) which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is Light; and in him is no Darkness at all: If we say, that we have Fellowship with him, and walk in Darkness, we Lye and do not the Truth. The Truth is, all such Faith and Profession are a Lye, and that in the Right Hand, a Cheat upon a Man’s self. But, says he, if we walk in the Light as God is in the Light, we have Fellowship one with another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin. If we say, that we have no Sin, [to be cleansed from] we deceive our selves, and the Truth is not in us: But if we confess our Sins, he is Faithful and Just to forgive us our Sins, and to cleanse us from all Unrighteousness.104

To conclude, Christ Jesus, the Son of God and Saviour of the World, is Holy, Harmless, and Undefiled, and so must his Followers be: He is no Head of a Corrupt Body, nor Master of Rebellious Servants: He that has not the Wedding Garment, must be cast out:105 The Branch, that brings not forth Fruit, will be cut off. But those that truly believe in his Name, walk in his Light, and are taught by his Grace to renounce the Lusts of the Eye, the Lusts of the Flesh, and Pride of Life; the unjust Profits, Pleasures and Pomps of the World, and chuse to follow him in his own Holy Way of Resignation and Re-generation, the same is his Brother, his Sister and his Mother. And whatever Losses they may here sustain for his Name’s Sake, they have the Promise of an Hundred Fold in this Life and the Inheritance of that which is Eternal.106

And I do fervently beseech Almighty God, the Giver of all Saving Faith, mercifully to vouchsafe, more and more, to beget a Serious Inquiry in us, What that Faith is which we have? Who is the Author of it? And what Fruits it hath brought forth? That so we may not profane the Name of God by a Vain Profession of it, nor abuse our selves unto Eternal Perdition; But that we may endeavour, by God’s Assistance, to approve our selves such Believers as sincerely fear God, love Righteousness, and hate every Evil Way, as becomes the Redeemed of God by the Precious Blood of his Son. Since therefore we are not our own, but the Lord’s, who hath bought us with that Great Price,107 let us glorifie him in our Bodies, in our Souls, and in our Spirits, which are his: Then shall we be Children of Abraham, indeed, Heirs of the Promises, Partakers of that Resurrection and Life, that Immortality and Glory, which God the Righteous Judge will, one Day, plentifully distribute to them that abide in this precious Faith unto the End. This naturally brings me to my third Head, and an Unhappiness we have long labour’d under.

Sect. 4.

Of Debasing the true Value of Morality under Pretence of Higher Things; and mistaking, in great Measure, the very End of Christ’s Coming.

BY MORALITY I understand Virtuous Living, Purity of Manners; that Justice, Temperance, Truth, Charity, and Blamelesness in Conversation, out of Conscience and Duty to God and Man, which may well Denominate the Man that lives that Life, a Man Just, Virtuous, and Pious: In short, one that does unto all Men, as he would have all Men do unto him;108 this is my Mortal Man. It is notorious how small an Estimate two Sorts of People have put upon him, the Profane and the Professors, the Publicans and the Pharisees: The first despise him as too Squeamish, Nice and Formal; they deride his Regularity, and make a Jest of his Preciseness. And thinking No Man can be good, because they are Naught, and that all must needs fall by those Temptations they will not resist, they construe Sobriety to be a Trick to decoy Mankind, and put a Cheat upon the World. If they hear any one say, Such a Man is a Sober and Just Person, they have learned, by themselves, to call him Knave; that he has a Design upon some Body, by being Just in little Things, to cheat in Things of more Moment. This Man is very Unfashionable among Men of Immoral Principles; for his very Looks and Life carry a Reproof with them upon Vicious Men; who, as if Virtue were their Common Enemy, are in Combination against the Lovers and Entertainers of her: The Reason is, because such true Virtuoso will neither do the Ill Things they would have them, nor flatter them in the Ill they do; and therefore where Ill Men have the Power, Good Men are sure to be made the Common Enemy.

But the Reproaches that Men of Morality receive at the Hands of Lewd Men, are more their Honour than their Suffering: That which is most of all Anxious, is, that Morality is denied to be Christianity, that Virtue has any Claim to Grace, and that those who glory to be called Christians, can be so Partial and Cruel as to renounce a meer Just Man their Society, and send him packing among the Heathen for Damnation. And pray what’s the Matter? Why! though this Person be a sober Liver, yet he is but a General Believer; his Faith is at large. ’Tis true, he believes in God, but I hear little of his Faith in Christ. Very well: Does he not therefore believe in Christ? or must he therefore be without the Pale of Salvation? Is it possible that a Man can truly believe in God and be damned? But as he that believes in Christ, believes in God, so he that believes in God, believes in Christ: For he that believes on him, that raised up Jesus from the Dead, his Faith shall be imputed to him for Righteousness, and says Christ himself; He that believeth my Word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath Everlasting Life:109 Has he that believes in God no Interest in this Expression? But more particular is that Place of the Apostle to the Hebrews, viz. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a Diligent Rewarder of them that seek him.110 Now if those who so believe can come to God, the Moral Man’s Condition is not Dangerous even in the strictest Sense of the Word; not only such as have a General Faith of Christianity, and never adher’d to any particular Party, a Sense, we shall anon consider, but even those who never heard the History of Christ, nor had a distinct Knowledge of him, as we profess him.

For it seems a most unreasonable Thing, that Faith in God and keeping his Commandments should be no Part of the Christian Religion: But if a Part it be, as upon serious Reflection who dare deny it, then those before and since Christ’s Time, who never had the External Law nor History, and have done the Things contained in the Law, their Consciences not accusing nor Hearts Condemning, but excusing them before God, are in some Degree concern’d in the Character of a true Christian. For Christ himself preach’d and kept his Father’s Commandments, and came to fulfil and not to destroy the Law; and that not only in his own Person, but that the Righteousness of the Law might be also fulfilled in us.111

Let us but soberly consider What Christ is, and we shall the better know whether Moral Men are to be reckon’d Christians. What is Christ but Meekness, Justice, Mercy, Patience, Charity and Virtue in Perfection? Can we then deny a meek Man to be a Christian; a Just, a Merciful, a Patient, a Charitable and a Virtuous Man to be like Christ? By me Kings Reign and Princes decree Justice, saith Wisdom, yea, the Wisdom that is from above; so may I say here, By Christ Men are Meek, Just, Merciful, Patient, Charitable and Virtuous;112 and Christians ought to be distinguished by their Likeness to Christ and not their Notions of Christ; by his Holy Qualifications rather than their own Lofty Professions and Invented Formalities. What shall we say then of that Extravagancy which those Men are guilty of who upon hearing a sober Man commended, that is not of any great Visible Profession, will take upon them to cast him off with this Sentence; Tush, he is but a Moral Man; he knows nothing of Saving Grace: he may be damn’d for all his Morality. Nay, some have gone so far as to say and preach, if not print, That there are Thousands of Moral Men in Hell.

But ’tis worth our while to consider that he that sins is not saved by Grace in that State, and that the Virtuous Man is the Gracious Man; For ’tis the Nature and End of true Grace, to make Men so. Unanswerable is that Passage of the Apostle, to the Romans, Therefore if the Uncircumcision keep the Righteousness of the Law, shall not his Uncircumcision be counted for Circumcision? and shall not Uncircumcision, which is by Nature, if it fulfil the Law, judge thee, who by the Letter and Circumcision dost transgress the Law? For he is not a Jew, who is one outwardly, neither is that Circumcision, which is outward in the Flesh; but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and Circumcision is that of the Heart, in the Spirit, and not in the Letter, whose Praise is not of Men, but of God.113 So that he who keeps the Law of God, and abstains from the Impurity of the World, is the good Man, the Just Liver; he is the Apostle’s true Jew and Circumcision.

Wherefore it is not ill express’d by that extraordinary Man J. Hales of Eaton: The Moral Man, says he, is a Christian by the surer Side: As if he had said, Speculations may fail, Notions be mistaken, Forms wither, but Truth and Righteousness will stand the Test; and the Man that loves them will not be moved. He tells us, That the Fathers had that Opinion of the Sincerity of the Life of some Heathens, that they believ’d God had in Store for such even his Saving Grace, and that he would make them Possessors of his Everlasting Kingdom. And measuring your Satisfaction by the Pleasure I took in reading what the Author both quotes and comments upon this Subject, I will venture to transcribe him at large, whose Authority ought to go as far as his Reason, and he claims no more, nor indeed does any reasonable Man, since God himself seems to submit to that Method of overcoming us, to wit, Conviction, viz.114

† Let it not trouble you (saith he) that I entitle them to some Part of our Christian Faith, and therefore without Scruple to be receiv’d as Weak, and not to be cast forth as Dead. Salvianus disputing what Faith is; Quid est igitur Credulitas vel Fides? (saith he) Opinor fideliter hominem Christo credere, id est, Fidelem Deo esse, hoc est, Fideliter Dei mandata servare, What might this Faith be? (saith he) I suppose, it is nothing else, but Faithfully to believe Christ; and this is to be Faithful unto God; which is nothing else, but Faithfully to keep the Commandments of God.115 Not therefore only a bare Belief, but the Fidelity and Trustiness of God’s Servants, faithfully accomplishing the Will of our Master, is required as a Part of our Christian Faith.

Now, all those good Things which Moral Men by the Light of Nature* do, are a Part of God’s Will written in their Hearts: wherefore so far as they were Conscientious in performing them (if Salvianus his Reason be good;) so far have they Title and Interest in our Faith. And therefore Regulus, that Famous Roman, when he endured infinite Torments, rather than he would break his Oath, may thus far be counted a Martyr and Witness for the Truth.116 For the Crown of Martyrdom sits not only on the Heads of those, who have lost their Lives, rather than they would cease to profess the Name of Christ; but on the Head of every one that suffers for the Testimony of a Good Conscience and for Righteousness Sake. And here I cannot pass by one very General and Gross Mistake of our Age. For in our Discourses concerning the Notes of a Christian Man, by what Signs we may know a Man to be one of the Visible Company of Christ, we have so tied our selves to this outward Profession, that if we know no other Virtue in a Man, but that he hath con’d his Creed by Heart, let his Life be never so profane, we think it Argument enough for us to account him within the Pale and Circuit of the Church. On the contrary Side, let his Life be never so upright, if either he be little seen in, or peradventure quite ignorant of the Mystery of Christ, we esteem of him but as dead. And those, who conceive well of those Moral good Things, as of some Tokens giving Hope of Life, we account but as a Kind of Manichees, who thought the very Earth had Life in it. I must confess that I have not yet made that Proficiency in the Schools of our Age, as that I could see, why the Second Table and the Acts of it are not as properly the Parts of Religion and Christianity, as the Acts and Observations of the First? If I mistake, then it is St. James that hath abus’d me; for he describing Religion by its proper Acts, tells us, that Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is, to visit the Fatherless and the Widows in their Affliction, and to keep himself unspotted of the World.117 So that the Thing which is an especial refined Dialect of the New Christian Language signifies nothing but Morality and Civility, that in the Language of the Holy Ghost imports True Religion. Thus far J. Hales.

He hath said so well on this Account, that there is little Need I should say any more; yet let me add thus much: Did Men mind the Language of the Holy Ghost more than their own Conceits, they would not stile those meer Moral Men in a Way of Disgrace, who are not of their Perswasion; it would suffice, that those that Fear God and work Righteousness in all Nations are accepted of him; That Christ himself hath said, He that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; and of them that work Iniquity, Depart from me, I know you not.118

My Friends, Let us not deceive our selves, God will not be mocked; Such as we sow, we shall certainly reap. The Tree is known by it’s Fruits, and will be judg’d according to it’s Fruits. The Wages of Sin is Death: Men will find it so; and every Man shall receive his Reward suitable to his Work.119 For People to talk of Special Grace, and yet be carried away by Common Temptations: To let Pride, Vanity, Covetousness, Revenge, &c. predominate, it is Provoking to God: But to conceit that the Righteous God will indulge his People in that Latitude, which he condemns in other Men, is abominable. ’Tis Sanctification, that makes the Saint; and Self-denial that constitutes the Christian; and not filling our Heads and elevating our Fancies by applying those Promises to our selves, which as yet we have no Interest in, though we may think they belong to no Body else: This Spiritual Flattery of our selves is most pernicious. I cannot but say, with the Apostle, ’Tis neither Circumcision nor Uncircumcision, Jew nor Gentile (this not t’other Thing) but the New Creature, created after Christ Jesus in Holiness: for without Holiness no Man shall ever see the Lord.120 And what is Holiness, but abstaining from Wickedness? And what’s that but keeping the Law of God? Great Peace have they that love thy Law, said David, that had known the Trouble of breaking it: Therefore it is that Grace and Truth are come by Jesus Christ, to help us to fulfil the Law, not to excuse our Disobedience to the Law: And what before we were unable, this gives us Force to do.121 So that Christianity is not an Indulgence of People under Weakness and Disobedience, but the Compleating and Perfection of that Righteousness which without him was but short and Imperfect, through the all-sufficient Grace and Power that came by Jesus Christ.

Give me Leave, I beseech you, for I have a Godly Jealousie upon me; I fear, lest the very End of Christ’s Coming is mistaken; and of how dreadful a Consequence such a Mistake would be, you cannot possibly be ignorant, that believe there is No Salvation in any other Name. Let us hear the Testimony of Scripture: They are the Words of Christ himself, I must preach the Kingdom of God for therefore am I sent. Now, what is this Kingdom of God, but God’s Government? And where is this Kingdom and Government to be set up, but in Man? So Christ tells us, Behold the Kingdom of God is within you. So that the Reason of his being sent, is, that the Kingdom and Government of the Devil may be destroyed, the strong Man that kept the House, the Heart, be dispossessed, and the Kingdom and Government of God in the Soul, erected and established. We are taught to pray for it, as little as we make of it. Thy Kingdom come, thy Will be done.122 Would to God People would but consider what they Pray for! For they are scandaliz’d at the Thing they ask, and both neglect and revile the Substance of their own Prayers: Thy Kingdom come, and thy Will be done; but believe neither. It was the Office God designed his Son to. The Thief (says Christ) does not come but to kill, to steal, and to destroy; that is to steal away the Heart from God, and to kill and destroy all good Desires and Inclinations in the Soul: For the Devil is the Thief and Destroyer: But I am come (says Christ) that ye might have Life, and that ye might have it more abundantly.123 Again, O Death, I will be thy Death! as if he had said, I will kill that which kills the Soul: I will breath the Breath of Life into it again; and, by my Spirit and Grace, I will beget Holy Motions, and kindle Heavenly Desires in it after God, after the Kingdom of God, and the Righteousness thereof: This is the Newness of Life:124 And I will not only restore that Life the Soul has lost, but I will increase it: I will add to it, that it may have Life more abundantly; more Power and Strength to resist Evil, and embrace and delight in that which is Good.

Indeed he was Anointed of God for this Purpose; and is therefore called the Restorer of Paths, the Repairer of Breaches, and the Builder up of Waste Places; that is, he is ordained of God for the Recovery of Man from his Fallen and Disobedient State, This is the Reason of his Name: Thou shalt call his Name JESUS, said the Angel, for he shall save his People from their Sins:125 Not from Wrath only, but from Sin, which is the Cause of Wrath. That is, of Bad Men, he will make them really Good Men; and of Sinful and Unholy, he will make them Holy and Righteous Men, such as truly believe in him. This is the Burden of John’s Testimony: There is One, says he, that cometh after me, is mightier than I, He shall Baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with Fire; whose Fan is in his Hand, and he will throughly Purge his Floor. And seeing Jesus coming to him, said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the Sins of the World!126

I know the Use that too many make of these Scriptures, as if they were an Hebraism, borrow’d from the Old Sacrifices, which may be said, To take away Sin by taking away the Guilt, and not that the Natures of Men are Restored and Perfected. And indeed, this is that Sense which I dread above all others, because it perverts the End of Christ’s Coming, and lodges Men in a Security pernicious to their own Souls. For though it is most true, that Remission of Sin was, and is preached in his Name and Blood, and that Sin, in a Sense, may be said to be taken away, when the Guilt of the Sin is removed by Remission; yet this is only of Sin past, that upon Repentance is forgiven:127 But this is not the Whole, Full and Evangelical Sense, as Christ’s own Words do plainly import. For, says he, the Son of Man is come to save that which was Lost. And upon another Occasion he expresseth himself to the same Purpose, and almost in the same Words, For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was Lost.128 Now, who is this that is Lost, but Man? And in what Sense can Man be said to be Lost, but by Sin and Disobedience? That it was which cast him out of the Presence and Garden of God, and put him in a Condition of Eternal Misery. If Christ then came to Save Lost Man, he must be understood to Save him from that which puts him into a Lost Condition, and that is Sin; for The Wages of Sin is Death, and the Servant of Sin is a Son of Perdition.129

Christ has determin’d this Point beyond all Exception, in his Discourse with the Jews, (John 8. 31, 32, 33, 34.) Then said Jesus to those Jews, which believed on him, if ye continue in my Word, then are ye my Disciples indeed; and ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you Free. What Freedom was this? Certainly from Sin; suitable to that Passage in his Prayer: Sanctify them through thy Truth, thy Word is Truth.130 But some Jews present, proud of their Privileges, apprehended not the Liberty Christ spoke of, and therefore answer’d him thus: We are Abraham’s Seed, and were never in Bondage to any Man; how sayst thou, Ye shall be made Free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth Sin, is the Servant of Sin. In which Place it is very remarkable, that Men are only to be distinguished by their Works; that no Claims, Privileges, Successions, or Descents are available, but he that commits Sin, is the Servant of Sin.131 So that Christ’s Free Man is he that is freed from Sin: This is his Follower and Disciple. And as Christ oppos’d the Works of the Jews, who unjustly sought to kill him, to their Pretensions they made to be Abraham’s Seed; so must we oppose the Actions of ill Men to their better Professions: We must faithfully tell them, He that commits Sin, is the Servant of Sin; from which Servitude Christ came to Save his People, and is therefore rightly called, The Saviour and the Redeemer.

This Doctrine is closely followed by the Apostle Paul in his sixth Chapter to the Romans. Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into Death, that like as Christ was raised up from the Dead by the Glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in Newness of Life—Knowing this, that our Old Man is crucified with him, that the Body of Sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve Sin—Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be Dead indeed unto Sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. As if he had said, The End of Christ’s coming, is to turn People from their Sins; and that those who persist in their Disobedience, resist the Benefits that come by him.

Let not Sin therefore reign in your Mortal Body, that ye should obey it in the Lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your Members as Instruments of Unrighteousness unto Sin; but yield your selves unto God, as those that are Alive from the Dead, and your Members as Instruments of Righteousness unto God—Know ye not, that to whom ye yield your selves Servants to obey, his Servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of Sin unto Death, or of Obedience unto Righteousness?—For when ye were the Servants of Sin, ye were free from Righteousness. What Fruit had ye then in those Things, whereof ye are now ashamed? For the End of those Things is Death. But now being made Free from Sin, and become Servants to God, ye have your Fruit unto Holiness, and the End Everlasting Life. For the Wages of Sin is Death, but the Gift of God is Eternal Life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

To conclude, nothing can be more apparent, than that Freedom from Actual Sinning, and giving Newness of Life to the Souls of Men, was the Great Reason of Christ’s Coming, and the End for which he hath given us out of his Fulness of Grace and Truth, Grace for Grace; and that to be under Grace, and not under the Law, is not to have Liberty to do that now, which ought not to have been done before, or to be excused from former moral Obligations, as the Ranters interpret it;132 but to be freed from the Condemnation of the Law, First, through Remission of the Sins that are past upon Faith and Repentance, and next, by freeing us of that Weakness by which we were disabled from keeping God’s Just Law, and fulfilling the Righteousness of it, in receiving and obeying the Light and Grace that comes by Jesus Christ.

Very pertinent is that Passage of the Apostle Paul to Titus, to our present Purpose, for it seems to comprehend the End of Christ’s Coming, and the Faith and Duty of his People; which our Great Selden, after all his Painful Readings, and Curious Inquisitions, said, but a little before his Death, Was the Most Weighty Passage of the whole Bible to him, as the Bible was the Best of Books in the World, viz. For the Grace of God, that bringeth Salvation, hath appeared to all Men, teaching us, that denying Ungodliness, and Worldly Lusts, we should live Soberly, Righteously, and Godly in this present World; looking for that Blessed Hope, and the Glorious Appearing of the Great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all Iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar People, Zealous of Good Works.133

In which comprehensive Passage, we find the End of Christ’s Coming to be Our Redemption from all Iniquity, both to blot out our Sins that are past, and to purify our Hearts from the Sin that remains. We have the Means that works and brings this Salvation into our Souls, which is the Grace; and the Way, by which this Grace doth accomplish it, is by Teaching us to deny Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts, and to live Soberly, Righteously, and Godly in this present World. Which has this great Encouragement joyned to it, that those who so live, have only Right to look for that Blessed Hope and the Glorious Appearing of the Great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

I will add the Testimony of his Beloved Disciple John, who has defined to us the End of Christ’s Coming, thus: Whosoever committeth Sin, Transgresseth also the Law; and ye know, that he was manifested to take away our Sins. And to shew that this is understood, not only of the Guilt of Sins past, but of the Nature and present Power of Sin in Man, observe what follows; Whosoever abideth in him (Christ) Sinneth not. As if this Apostle had foreseen the present Mischief Christianity labours under both on the Side of Evil Men, and of but too many mistaken Professors. He adds, Little Children, let no Man deceive you; he that doth Righteousness is Righteous, even as he is Righteous; he that committeth Sin is of the Devil, for the Devil sinneth from the Beginning. (Now comes his most express Passage to the Matter in Hand) For this Purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the Works of the Devil: Which is more than the Remission of Sins that are past; here is the Destruction of the Power and Kingdom of Satan. They that know not this, know not Christ as he should be known, not savingly. For as we, so our Lord is known by his Fruits, by the Works which he works in us: Therefore it is said, That his own Works praise him. And said Christ, If I had not done among them the Works which no other Man did, &c.134 So that he referred to his Works to prove his Nature and Mission.

He therefore that lives in Sin denies Christ, by denying the End of his Coming. The Fool did not say with his Mouth, but in his Heart, There is no God;135 yet but too many now a-days, plead with their Tongues and Pens for Sin Term of Life, by endeavouring to shew the Impossibility of over-coming Sin. But what saith this Apostle farther of the Business? Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit Sin: In this the Children of God are manifest, and the Children of the Devil, whosoever doth not Righteousness, is not of God; neither he that loveth not his Brother. But if you walk in the Light, as God is in the Light, we have Fellowship one with another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all Sin. He that saith he abideth in Christ, ought himself also so to walk, even as Christ walked. A little lower in the same Chapter he says, I have written unto you, Young Men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the Wicked One.136

I will add one Scripture-Testimony more in the present Case, and it is this: Herein (saith John) is our Love made perfect, that we may have Boldness in the Day of Judgment, because as he is, so are we in this World.137

Behold now the true End of Christ’s Coming! viz. To save from Sin and to purge us from all Iniquity; that he might present us to God without Spot or Blemish.138 Let us not then flatter our selves, for we shall be the Losers: Neither let us make that impossible through our Infidelity, which a Grain of Sincere Faith can make not only Possible but Easie. What has been, may be again; nay, in this Case must be. Did the First Christians overcome the Wicked one? so must the Last Christians too. Were those Ages led by the Holy Spirit, and taught by the Grace of God to live God-like, or like God in the World? so must we of these latter Ages too, if we will be blessed for ever; that, having put off the old Man, the Devil and his Works, we may put on Christ the new and heavenly Man, the second Adam, with his Holy Life and Works; so shall the Fruits of his Spirit shine through us, which are Love, Joy, Peace, Long-suffering, Patience, Gentleness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance; for they that are Christ’s have Crucified the Flesh, with the Affections and Lusts:139 They hear his Voice that leads them out of the Concupiscences of this Vile World, and they follow him, and he gives unto them Eternal Life, and a Stranger they will not follow.140 The World, the Flesh and the Devil make up this Stranger, and those that are carried away by this Stranger are in an Unreconciled State to God, and, so dying, must inevitably perish. Well, then will we be true Christians? Have we Faith? then let us take the Advice of that good Man Peter; Let us add to our Faith Virtue, and to Virtue Knowledge, and to Knowledge Temperance, and to Temperance Patience, and to Patience Godliness, and to Godliness Brotherly-Kindness, and to Brotherly-Kindness Charity: For says he, if these Things be in you and abound, they make you, that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these Things is blind, and cannot see far off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old Sins. Wherefore the rather, Brethren, give Diligence, to make your Calling and Election sure; for if ye do these Things, ye shall never fall. For so an Entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.141 Thus much, O ye Protestants! That profess a Reformation, and value your selves upon it, Of the true Reformed Doctrine of Godliness, a virtuous and good Life, without which your Profession will be the Aggravation of your Guilt. For know this once for all, that a true Reformation lies in the Spirit of Reformation, reforming the Minds and Manners of such as profess it. God Almighty open your Eyes and affect your Hearts with this great Truth.

Sect. 5.

The Fourth great Ecclesiastical Evil, is Preferring Humane Authority above Reason and Truth.

THIS and the next Evil, which is the last now to be considered, to wit, Propagation of Faith by Force, Religion by Arms, are the Two Legs upon which the false Church hath in all Ages stood. Under this Degeneracy we find the Jewish Church at Christ’s coming, and he complains of it, Ye teach for Doctrines the Traditions of Men, ye seek to kill me, a Man that has told you the Truth:142 But I challenge the whole Account of Time, and Records of the World, which are come to the Hands of this Age, to tell me When, Where, and by whom, these Principles have been received, improved and used, in any Sort of Proportion or Comparison, with the Practice of that Church, which has long prided her self in the Name of Catholick and Christian. And yet I could wish nothing of these Two Ill Principles had found any Place amongst Us, that call our selves Protestants; though to the great Men of her Communion, in divers Countries of Europe, is chiefly owing most of that Ignorance, Superstition, Idolatry, Persecution and Blood-shed that have been among Christians, since the Christian Profession hath grown to any Power in the World. I shall consider them severally, respecting us, and in their due Order, with as much Brevity as well I can.

That Humane Authority hath been preferred above Reason and Truth, that is, That the Apprehensions, Interpretations, Conclusions and Injunctions of Men have been reputed the great Necessaries or Essentials to Salvation and Christian Communion, insomuch as a sober and reasonable Dissent hath been too often over-rul’d, not by Weight of Argument or Evidence of Truth, but by the Power and Numbers of Men in Ecclesiastical Office and Dignity, is, and speak Modestly, in a large Degree true among us. The First Church-Evil reprehended in this Discourse may begin the Proof, and give the first Witness upon this Part of the Charge, viz. That Opinions have been made Articles of Faith; that is, The Constructions and Conclusions of Men from Sacred Writ, and not the Text it self, have been enjoyn’d and impos’d as Essential to Eternal Salvation, and External Christian Communion. Insomuch as no Reason, Scripture or purest Antiquity hath been suffered to prevail against such Determinations, and too often not enough to excuse those that have pleaded for a Conscientious Dissent from them; the Authors of them either resting upon the Authority of their own Judgments, or conforming themselves to the Example of Ages less pure and clear.

I Conscientiously refuse to name Parties, because I am tender of giving the least Offence; but upon a Just Observance of those Revolutions of Protestancy that have been amongst us, we may see, with what Stiffness, not to say Obstinacy, several Models of Religion and Draughts of Creeds have been contended for. I would beseech every Party, in Christ’s Name, to look into it self; for I don’t, because such are best able (if they will be Impartial and put no Cheat upon themselves) to make the Application of what I say. However, I will name those Points, about which the Authority of Man, as it seems to me, has been so positive. Of God, as to his Prescience and Predetermination: Of Christ, as to his Natures and Personality, and the Extent of his Death and Intercession: Of Free-Will and Grace: Of Faith and Works: Of Perseverance and Falling away: Of the Nature and Power of the Church: And Lastly, of the Dignity and Power of the Clergy.

And if Men please but to lay their Hands upon their Hearts, and cast their Eyes upon the Scriptures; if they will but use the Light that God has afforded them, and bring such Debates and Results to the Test of that Light and the Sound Form of Words, the Holy Ghost hath used and preserv’d amongst us, I need not take the Employment upon me of pointing to Humane Authority among the several Parties of Protestants, as to these Points, since nothing will be clearer. For it is about the Meaning of this, and the Intention of that Place of Scripture, the Contest hath been and still is; and how to maintain and propagate those Conceits: So that the falling out is in the Wood of our own Opinions, and there the Contention is kindled, that consumes all about our Ears. A most unwarrantable Curiosity and Nicety, for the most Part, that hath more Influence upon our Passions, than our Practice, which is usually the worse in Point of Charity, and not the better for them in any Thing. O that we would but be impartial, and see our own Over-plus to the Scriptures, and retrench that redundancy, or keep it modestly! for ’tis an horrid Thing that we Protestants should assume a Power of ranging our human Apprehensions with the Sacred Text, and injoining our Imaginations for Indispensible Articles of Faith and Christian Communion.

But the next Proof of the Prevalency of Humane Authority amongst us Protestants, is The great Power and Sway of the Clergy, and the People’s Reliance upon them for the Knowledge of Religion, and the Way of Life and Salvation. This is such plain Fact, that every Parish more or less proves it. Is not Prophecy, once the Church’s, now engrost by them and wholly in their Hands? Who dare publickly Preach or Pray, that is not of that Class or Order? Have not they only the Keys in keeping? May any body else pretend to the Power of Absolution or Excommunication? Much less to constitute Ministers? Are not all Church Rites and Privileges in their Custody? Don’t they make it their proper Inheritance? Nay, so much larger is their Empire than Caesar’s, that only they begin with Births and end with Burials: Men must pay them for Coming in and Going out of the World. To pay for dying is hard! Thus their Profits run from the Womb to the Grave, and that which is the Loss of others, is their Gain, and a Part of their Revenue. Both Lives and Deaths do bring Grist to their Mill, and Toll to their Exchequer, for they have an Estate in us for our Lives, and an Heriot at our Deaths.

’Tis of this great Order and Sept of Men only, that all Synods and Convocations are, of modern Ages, compounded; and what they determin, is called the Canons or Decrees of the Church; though, Alas! She is only to Obey, what they of the Gown Ordain; giving us thereby to understand, that they want the Authority of her Name, where they deny her to have a Part, or to be present.

But they have not only been the usual Starters of new Opinions, and the great Creed-Makers among Christians, but the Sway they have long had with the People, makes them so considerable an Interest in the Eyes of the Civil Magistrate, that he often finds it not for his Safety to disoblige them. Upon this it is, we see them so Successful in their Solicitations of Publick Authority to give its Sanction to their Opinions and Forms; and not only recommend them (which goes certainly a great Way with the People) but impose their Reception, and that on severe Penalties: Insomuch, that either Men must offer up their Understandings to their Fears, and dissemble Conviction to be safe, or else perish: There is no Medium. Something of this lies near us: God Almighty open our Eyes to see both the Truth and Mischief of this Thing.

But what shall I say of that implicit Reverence the People have for the Clergy, and Dependence upon them about Religion and Salvation; as if they were the only Trustees of Truth, and high Treasurers of Divine Knowledge to the Laity: And we daily see, that the blind Opinion they have of their Office (as that which is peculiar to that Order, and not common to Christians, be their Gifts as they will) disposes them to rely entirely upon their Performances. The Minister is Chooser and Taster and every Thing for them: They seem to have deliver’d up their Spiritual Selves, and made over the Business of Religion, the Rights of their Souls to their Pastor; and that scarcely with any Limitation of Truth too: And as if he were, or could be their Guarantee, in t’other World, they become very insolicitous of any further search here. So that if we would examine the respective Parishes of Protestant as well as Popish Countries, we shall find, and it is come to that sad pass, that very few have any other Religion than the Tradition of their Priest. They have given up their Judgment to him, and seem greatly at their Ease, that they have discharged themselves of the Trouble of Working out their own Salvation and Proving all Things, that they might hold fast that which is good.143 And in the Room of that Care bequeath’d the Charge of those Affairs to a standing Pensioner for that Purpose.

Thus the Clergy are become a sort of Mediators betwixt Christ and us, that as we must go to God by Christ, so must we come to Christ by them: They must be, it seems, like the High Priest under the Law, who only enter’d into the Holy of Holies; whose Lips preserved Knowledge; and by them we must understand the Divine Oracle.144 As if the Mysteries of Salvation were not to be intrusted with the Vulgar; or that it were a kind of Prophanation to expose them to their View, and the only way to make them cheap and contemptible to suffer every Christian to have the keeping of them; though they belong to every Christian. But this Language, thanks be to God, is that of Humane Authority that would magnify the Mysteries of Salvation by the Ignorance of those that should know them, as if the Gospel-Dispensation were not that of full Age, but Infancy or Minority.

’Tis true, the State of People under the Law and the Levitical Priesthood is called a State of Bondage, Childhood and Minority, and the Law therefore is term’d a School-master to bring us to Christ; but it is as true, that the State of Christianity is reputed the Age of Grace, Freedom, Manhood and Inheritance by the same Apostle:145 And that we should have external Guardians of our Faith and Religion upon us after we are come to Years of Discretion, that might be very allowable under the feeble State of our Minority, is not to obtain greater Freedom, but to make our Case worse. For it is more tolerable to be used as Children when we are Children, and know nothing above that Condition, than when riper Years have brought us to the Understanding and Resentment of Men. But it is almost as unpardonable as it is unsufferable, to make that Infancy the Perfection of the Christian-Religion, as if there were nothing beyond wearing a Bib and being fed, carried and govern’d as Nurses please; that is, as the Priest will. It is a Knowing and Reasonable, and not a blind Obedience, that commends a Man: Children should be ruled, because they have not so ripe an Understanding or Choice; but because ’tis not so with Men, Reason ought to conduct them in their Duty, that the Service they perform to God, may be such as the Apostle calls a Reasonable one;146 The Will is no longer Will if not Free, nor Conscience to be reputed Conscience, where it is compelled. The Gospel is not the Time of Ceremonial Works, but of Faith, therefore not coercive, because out of our own Power; it is the Gift of God.

But though this be very unhappy, that so excellent a Reformation, founded upon the freest Principles of Inquiry, common to all that had Souls to save, should so miserably degenerate into Formality and Ignorance, Implicit Faith and blind Obedience; yet that Part of our History is most lamentable to me, where we find the Noble Bereans, the diligent Inquirers, People that desire to prove all Things, that they may hold fast that which is good;147 such as would see with their own Eyes, and that dare not transfer the Right of Examination of Points that so nearly concern their Immortal Souls to any mortal Man; but who desire to make their Faith and Religion, the Faith and Religion of their Conscience and Judgment, that on which they dare depend and rest their Eternal Happiness in the Day of Judgment: That these, I say, should instead of being cherisht, be therefore exposed to the Displeasure of the Clergy, the Scorn of the Rude Multitude, and the Prosecution of the civil Magistrate, has some thing in it, I confess, is harsh and anxious to remember, and I only do it for this Purpose, that it may put us in mind of our great Declension from Primitive Protestancy, and how much Humane Authority has crept into the Affairs of Religion since that Time of the Day, when we made it a prime Article of our Protestant Creed to reject and renounce it.

And that you may yet see your selves short of your own Pretences, if not contrary to your express Principles, and how much you have narrow’d your selves from the use of your First Principle; let us suppose a Turk is convinced, that Christ is that, which he believed Mahomet to be, the Greatest of all Prophets, That Mahomet was an Impostor, That Jesus is the only Saviour and Mediator; but being Catechistically taught the Two Natures in one Person, the Hypostatical Union, in fine, the Athanasian Creed and other Articles of Faith, or Rites of your Church, not so clearly express’d in Scripture, nor easily apprehended or assented to, will not this poor Creature be looked upon either as Infidel or Heretick, and renounced all share in Christ and Christian Fellowship, because his Weakness or Understanding will not allow him to come up to the full Inventory of Articles believed and imposed by you? Certainly you must either be partial, and give him that Liberty you deny to Persons of equal Tenderness, or else you must, after your present Streightness, conclude him Infidel or Heretick, tho’ he believe one God, Christ to be the only Mediator, the Gift of the Spirit, the Necessity of Holiness, Communion and Charity. But I would beseech you that we may consider if this bears any Proportion with the Wisdom and Love of God, in sending Christ into the World to save you and me?

The Apostle became all unto all, to win some;148 but this is becoming all unto none, to force all: he thereby recommends the utmost Condescension that can be lawful; but this Use of Humane Authority seems to make it unlawful to condescend: As if Faith per Force were better than Love; and Conformity, however it be come at, than Christian Condescension:

The blessed Apostle had his Eye to the Good Intention and Sober Life of the Weak; and used an holy Sort of Guile to catch them: He seems as if he dissembled the Knowledge of those averse Opinions which they held, or the Necessity of their embracing those Doctrines, which as yet they might not believe. He fell not to debate and canvass Points in Difference between them, which, instead of Union, would have enflam’d the Difference and rais’d Contention: No, no, he became all unto all, that is, he stooped to all Capacities, and humbled himself to those Degrees of Knowledge that Men had, and valued that which was good in all; and with this Sweetness he practised upon them to their farther Proficiency in the School of Christ. These Allurements were all his Injunctions? Nay, in this Case he makes it an Injunction to use no other: Let us therefore (says he) as many as be perfect, be thus minded; and if in any Thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.149 Which is to say, you shall not be imposed upon, stigmatiz’d or excommunicated for Want of full Satisfaction, or because you do not consent before Conviction; for God shall reveal it to you; you shall see and know what you do, and to God you shall owe your Knowledge and Conformity, and not to Human Authority and Imposition: Your Faith shall not be implicit, nor your Obedience blind, the Reason of your Hope shall be in you.

Pray let us compare this with the Language of our own Times, where because People cannot come up to the Prescriptions of Men, but plead the Liberty of Dissent, though with never so much Sobriety and true Tenderness of Conscience, they are upbraided after this Manner: Are you wiser than your Superiors? Were our Fore-fathers out of the Way? Did no body know the Truth ’till you came? Are you abler than all our Ministers and Bishops, and your Mother the Church? Cannot it content you to believe as she believes? Is not this Pride and Presumption in you, a Design to make and head Sects and Parties? with the like Entertainment.

Now this is that which you your selves, at least in the Persons of your Ancestors, have stiled Popery; yea, Popery in the Abstract; to wit, Implicit Faith and Blind Obedience: If so, then say I, let us also have a Case of Popery in Protestant Guise, for that Popery is likely to do us most Injury that is least suspected. I beg you, by the Love of God and Truth, and as you would lay a sure Foundation of Peace here, and eternal Comfort to your own Souls, that you would consider the Tendency of upbraiding and violently over-ruling the Dissent of Conscientious and Peaceable People: For if you will rob me once of the Liberty of my Choice, the Use of my Understanding, the Distinction of my Judgment, no Religion comes amiss; indeed it leads to no Religion. It was the Saying of the Old King to the then Prince of Wales and our present King; Make the Religion of your Education the Religion of your Judgment:150 which to me is of the Nature of an Appeal from his Education to his Judgment about the Truth of his Religion that he was Educated in: And that Religion which is too tender to be examined is unsound: Prove all Things, and hold fast that which is good, lies as an Impeachment against Imposition, deliver’d upon Record by the Apostle Paul in the Name of the Holy Ghost. ’Twas the same Apostle that commended the Bereans of Old, for that they diligently searched the Scriptures, whether those Things, deliver’d by the Apostles concerning the Messiah, were true.151

Nay Christ himself, to whom all Power was given in Heaven and in Earth, submitted himself to the Test: He did not require them to believe him, because he would be believ’d; he refers them to the Witness that God bore to him: If I bear Witness of my self, my Witness is not true. He also sends them to the Scriptures; and pleads the Truth of his Authority from that of his Doctrine and Miracles: If I had not done among them the Works which none other Man did. And finally challenges them to convince him but of one Sin: Which of you convinceth me of Sin? and if I say the Truth, why do ye not believe me?152 He offers to Reason the Matter, and submit himself to the Judgment of Truth, and well he might, who was Truth it self.

But an Imposing Church bears Witness of her self, and will be both Party and Judge: She requires Assent without Evidence, and Faith without Proof, therefore false: Christian Religion ought to be carried on only by that Way, by which it was introduced, which was Perswasion; If any Man will be my Disciple, let him take up his Cross and follow me:153 And this is the Glory of it, that it does not destroy, but fairly conquer the Understanding.

I am not unacquainted with the Pretences of Romanists to Abnegation, to a Mortified and Self-denying Life, and I do freely acknowledge, that the Author of the German Theology, Taulerus, Thomas a Kempis, and other Mysticks in that Communion, have written Excellent Practical Things, but there is scarcely any Thing of this Violent Popery in those Tracts:154 On the contrary, the very Nature and Tendency of them is Diametrically Opposite to the compulsory Spirit and Constitution of that Church, and all others that practise Imposition in Religion, whatever name they walk under.

And as it is one great Mark of the false Church to pervert the right End of True Doctrine, so hath she excelled in the Abuse of that Excellent Word Self-denyal: For she hath translated it from Life to Understanding, from Morals to Faith; Subjugare intellectum in Obsequium fidei, to subject the Understanding to the Obedience of Faith, is the perpetual Burden of their Song, and Conclusion of their Conferences. But what is this Faith? That which conquers the World and purifies the Heart? By no Means: But ’tis to believe that the Church of Rome is the True Church, and the Pope Christ’s Vicar, and the Visible Head of that Church.

Thus that Self-denyal which relates to our Wills and Affections in a corrupt State, they apply to the Use of our Understanding about Religion, as if it were the same Thing to deny that which we understand and know to be the Will of God that we should deny, (which is the Christian Self-denyal) and to deny that very Knowledge and Understanding which is God’s Gift and our Honour. Whereas Religion and Reason are so consistent, that Religion can neither be understood nor maintain’d without Reason: For if this must be laid aside, I am so far from being infallibly assured of my Salvation, that I am not capable of any Measure or Distinction of Good from Evil, Truth from Falshood. Why? I have no Understanding, or at least, not the Use of any. All the Disadvantage the Protestant is under in this, is that of his greater Modesty, and that he submits his Belief to be tried, which the other refuses, under the Pretence of unaccountable Infallibility; to that Authority Reason Demurs; right Reason I mean; the Reason of the first Nine Verses of the First of John. For so Tertullian, and some other Ancients as well as Modern Criticks, gives us the Word Logos; and the Divine Reason is One in all; that Lamp of God which lights our Candle and enlightens our Darkness, and is the Measure and Test of our Knowledge.

So that whereas some People excuse their Embracing of that Religion by urging the Certainty that is in it, I do say, ’Tis but a Presumption. For a Man can never be certain of that, about which he has not the Liberty of Examining, Understanding or Judging: Confident (I confess) he may be; but that’s quite another Thing than being certain.

Yet I must never deny, but that every Christian ought to believe as the Church believes, provided the Church be true; but the Question is, Which is that true Church? And when that is answer’d, as a Man may Unlawfully Execute a Lawful Sentence, so he may falsly believe as the True Church believes: For if I believe what she believes, only because she believes it, and not because I am convinced in my Understanding and Conscience of the Truth of what she believes, my Faith is false, though hers be true: I say, it is not true to me, I have no Evidence of it.

What is this Church, or Congregation rather (as worthy Tindal every where translates it)155but a Company of People agreed together in the sincere Profession and Obedience of the Gospel of Christ. Now look what Inducement they severally had to believe and embrace the Gospel and unite into Fellowship, that we must have to join with them: For as they made not one another an infallible Authority to one another, upon which they first embraced the Gospel, neither are we to ground our Belief thereof upon their Authority jointly; but as they had a Rule to believe and commune, so must we have the same Rule to embrace their Communion. So that the Church cannot properly be the Rule of my Faith, who have the same Faith, and Object for my Faith, that she has. I argue thus,

I must believe as the Church believes, that is, I must have the same Faith the Church has; then I must have the same Rule, because the Church can be no more the Rule of that Faith, than she can be that Faith of which some would make her the Rule. If then the Church has Faith, and that Faith have a Rule, and that she can no more be the Rule of her own Faith, than she can be that Faith it self, it follows she cannot be the Rule of the Faith of her Members, because those Members have the same Faith, and make up this Church. For that which is the Rule of the Congregation’s Faith in general, must reasonably be the Rule of every Member’s Faith that makes up that Congregation, and consequently of every Member that may hereafter adhere to it. So that to talk of believing as the Church believes, to flourish upon that Self-denyal and Humility, which takes all upon Trust, and revile those with the bitterest Invectives that are modestly scrupulous and act the Bereans for their Souls (who think that Easiness of Nature and Condescention may be better used, and in this Occasion is ill placed and dangerous) is to put the Knife to the Throat of Protestancy; and, what in them lies, to sacrifice it to implicit Faith and blind Obedience. For it cannot be denied but that the great Foundation of our Protestant Religion is the Divine Authority of the Scriptures from without us, and the Testimony and Illumination of the Holy Spirit within us. Upon this Foot the first Reformers stood, and made and maintain’d their Separation from Rome, and freely offered up their innocent Lives in Confirmation. With good Cause therefore it is the general Consent of all sound Protestant Writers, That neither Traditions, Councils, nor Canons of any visible Church, much less the Edicts of any Civil Sessions or Jurisdiction, but the Scriptures only, interpreted by the Holy Spirit in us, give the final Determination in Matters of Religion, and that only in the Conscience of every Christian to himself. Which Protestation made by the first publick Reformers against the Imperial Edicts of Charles the Fifth, imposing Church Traditions without Scripture Authority, gave first Beginning to the Name of Protestant, and with that Name hath ever been receiv’d this Doctrine, which prefers the Divine Authority of the Scripture and Spirit to that of the Church and her Traditions. And if the Church is not sufficient to be implicitly believed, as we hold it is not, what can there else be named of more Force with us, but the Divine Illumination in the Conscience, or Conscience in the best Sense of the Word; than which, God only is greater? But if any Man shall pretend that the Scripture judges, according to his Conceptions or Conscience, for other Men, and that they must take their Religious Measures by the Line of his Direction; such a Person makes himself greater than either Church, Scripture or Conscience. And, pray, let us consider if in any Thing the Pope is by our Protestant Divinity so justly resembled to Antichrist, as in assuming Infallibility over Conscience and Scripture, to determine as he thinks fit; and so in effect to give the Law to God, Scripture, Magistrates and Conscience. To this Protestants have, without Scruple, apply’d that to the Thessalonians, Sitting in the Temple of God, exalting himself above all that is called God.156

To check this Exorbitancy; the Apostle Paul demands, Who art thou that judgest another’s Servant? to his own Lord he stands or falls?157 Which showeth with great Evidence, that Christians of all Sizes, great and small, are but Brethren, and consequently, all Superiority, Lordship and Imposition are excluded: But if there be a Difference, ’tis in this, that, as Christ taught, he that is greatest is to be Servant to the rest:158 But what is more opposite to a Servant than a Lord, and to Service than Injunction and Imposition, and that on Penalties too: Here it is that Christ is Lord and Lawgiver, who is only King of this inward Kingdom of the Soul. And it is to be noted that the Apostle did not write this to a private Brother; or in some special Case, but to the Church, as a General and standing Truth, and therefore now as Authentick and proper as then. And if this be true, I cannot see how any, or even the most Part of the Church, that are still but Brethren to the rest, of one voluntary Communion and Profession, can with any Shew of Reason impose upon them; and escape the Reproof of this Scripture: For all Societies are to govern themselves, according to their Institution, and first Principles of Union. Where there is Violence upon this Part, Tyranny and not Order is introduced. Now since Perswasion and Conviction began all true Christian Societies, they must uphold themselves upon the same free Bottom, or they turn Antichristian. I beseech you here, let us examine our selves faithfully, and I am perswaded that something of this will yet appear among some of us, who shew great Reverence to that free Name.

But to make good their unreasonable Conceit of Church-Authority, they object Christ’s Words; go tell the Church,159 that is, say they, The Church is the Rule and Guide of Faith; whatever the Church agrees upon, and requireth your Assent to and Faith in, that you must necessarily believe and submit to. But though, as before, it is confest, in a Sense, we must believe as the true Church believes, yet not because she so believes; but for the same Reasons that she her self did and does so believe; in that none can truly believe as she believes; but must do so upon the same Principles and Motives, for which they believed, that first made up that Christian Church. To talk of being the Rule and Guide in Point of Faith, is to contradict Scripture, and justle Christ out of his Office, which is peculiar to him. He is given to his Church an Head, that is, a Councellor, a Ruler, a Judge, and is called a Lawgiver, and says the Apostle, if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his; and the Children of God are led by the Spirit of God.160And he was Wisdom and Righteousness to the Church Apostolick, and is so to his own Church all the World over. Besides ’tis absurd that the Church can be the Rule and Guide of Faith, for as such, she must be her own Rule and Guide, the Faith of the Members being that of the Church, which cannot be.

But what then can be the Meaning of Christ’s Words, Go tell the Church? Very well. I answer, ’tis not about Faith, but Injury, that Christ speaks; and the Place explains it self, which is this: Moreover, if thy Brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his Fault, between thee and him alone. Here is Wrong, not Religion; Injustice, not Faith or Conscience concerned; as some would have it, to maintain their Church-Power. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy Brother, but if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the Mouth of two or three Witnesses, every Word may be established; and if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church; but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an Heathen Man and a Publican. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth, shall be bound in Heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth, shall be loosed in Heaven, &c. The Matter and Manner of which Passage deliver’d by Christ, shews that he intended not to set up Church Power about Faith and Worship, unto which all must bow, even without, if not against Conviction. The Words Trespass and Fault, prove abundantly, that he meant private and personal Injuries, and that not only from the common and undeniable Signification and Use of the Words Trespass and Fault, but from the Way Christ directs and commands for Accommodation, viz. That the Person wronged, speaks to him that commits an Injury alone, if that will not do, that he take one or two with him; but no Man can think that if it related to Faith and Worship, I ought to receive the Judgment of one, or two, or three, for a sufficient Rule. This has not been the Practice, at least not the Principle of the most degenerated Church since the primitive Times; for most, if not all, agree, that nothing lower than the Church can determine about Matters of Faith and even many with Reason cannot go so far; I mean as to Injunction and Imposition. Yet Christ seems to fix a Blame upon him, that complies not with the Person he has offended, and more if he refuse to give Satisfaction, after one or two have also entreated him; but therefore it cannot relate to Matters of Faith and Scruples of Conscience, but Personal and Private Injuries. Which is yet clearer from this Part of Christ’s Saying, viz. That in the Mouth of two or three Witnesses every Word may be established: Which implies a Tryal and Judicial Proceeding, as is customary in civil Cases, about personal and private Trespasses; for it were not so proper to speak of Witnesses on any other Account. This is interpreted, beyond Exception, by the Apostle to the Corinthians, where he reproves and forbids them to go to Law one with another before Unbelievers; arguing thus, Do you not know that the Saints shall judge the World; and if the World shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest Matters?161 This shews the meaning of Church Authority in those Days, and is a natural Exposition upon Christ’s Words, in Case of Trespass and Refractoriness, tell the Church. And ’tis yet the Practice of all Sober, just and quiet People, rather to refer their Controversies to approv’d Men, than to tear one another to Pieces at Law.

But it is worth our Notice, that as any Decision upon an Arbitration, obliges only the Parties to set down content with that award, be it loss or gain, which the Arbitrators think equal, as the next best Way to accomodate Differences, and not that such award should alter their first Thoughts and Opinions they had of their Right, or force them to declare they are of the Arbitrators Mind; so is it most unreasonable, where the Church is only an Arbitrator about personal Trespasses, or Umpire at most, from thence to imagine a Power to determine and impose Faith, and that upon severe Penalties, as well of this World unto which Christ’s Church has no Relation, as of the other World. I say, this very Thing, well weighed, breaks all their Fallacies to Pieces, and decides the Business beyond all Contradiction, between those that stand upon the Spirit within and the Scripture without, on the one Hand, and such as meerly rest upon the Traditions of Men and Authority of the Church, on the other Hand. For, if in an Arbitration, I am not bound to be of the Arbitrators Mind, though for Peace Sake I submit to their Award, and that the Church Power, in this Place controverted, relates only to external and personal Trespasses, Injuries or Injustices, as the Place it self plainly proves, there can be no Sense, Reason or Modesty in the Earth, on the Part of those High Church Men, from hence to wring and extort the Power of defining, resolving and imposing upon all People, under temporal and eternal Punishment, Articles of Faith and Bonds of Christian Communion.

I conclude this of the Church, with saying, that ’tis not Identity of Opinion, but Justice, not Religious Uniformity, but Personal Satisfaction that concerns the Text, and therefore Reason, sober Conscience and good Sense may at any Time lawfully insist upon their Claim, to be heard in all their Scruples or Exceptions, without Disrespect to that excellent Doctrine when rightly understood, go tell the Church.

To this, let me add something about this great Word Church. Some Men think they are sure enough, if they can but get within the Pale of the Church, that have not yet considered what it is. The Word Church signifies any Assembly, so the Greeks used it: And it is by worthy Tindal every where translated Congregation. It has a two fold Sense in Scripture. The first and most excellent Sense is that, in which she is called the Body and Bride of Christ. In this Respect she takes in all Generations, and is made up of the Regenerated, be they in Heaven or on Earth, thus Ephes. 1. 22, Ch. 5. 23. to 33. Col. 1: 16, 17, 18. Heb. 12. 22, 23. Rev. 21. 2. Chap. 22. 17. Here Christ only can be Head: This Church is washed from all Sin; not a Spot nor a Wrinkle left: Ill Men have nothing to do with this Church, within whose Pale is only Salvation; nor is this universal and truly Catholick Church capable of being convened to be told of Wrongs or Trespasses. The other Use of that Word in Scripture is always referred to particular Assemblies and Places, that is the Church, which by Christ’s Doctrine, is to be told of Personal Injuries, and whose Determination, for Peace Sake, is to be adher’d and submitted to: They must of Necessity be the adjacent or most contiguous Company of Christian Believers, those to whom the Persons in Difference are by external Society and Communion related: And that such private and distinct Assemblies are called the Church, is apparent from the Acts and Writings of the Apostles: The Church of Jerusalem, Antioch, Corinth, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, Rome, Galatia, Thessalonica, Crete, &c. Peruse these Places, Acts 5. 11. and 9. 31. and 11. 22. 26. and 14. 23, 27. Rom. 15. 5. 1 Cor. 1. 2. and 4. 17. and 14. 4. Rev. 2. and 3 Chap. By which it plainly appears that the universal and visible Church; so much bragg’d of, for the Rule and Judge of Faith, &c. is an upstart Thing, and like mean Families, or ill got Goods, it uses false Heraldry to give it a Title.

For the Apostolick Times, to which all others must vail, and by whom they must be tried, knew no such Conceit: And the Truth is, it was first started, when the Pride of one Man made him ambitious, and his Power able to bid for Headship, Empire and Soveraignty: It was then needful to his being Universal Head, that he should first have an Universal Body. But suppose such a Church there were, ’tis utterly impossible that such a Church could be called together in any one Place; or at any one Time, to be told, or to determine of any Thing: So that yielding the Thing by them desired, ’tis useless and impracticable to the Ends for which they desire it. But alas! who knows not, that loves not to be blind, that the Church among them is the Priesthood? The few cunning Men govern the Majority, and intitle their Conceits the Canons of Christ’s Church, to give them Entrance and Acceptance: And then Humane Power and Force, the Policy and Weapons of this World, must be employed to back their Decrees. And all this comes from the Ignorance and Idleness of the People, that give the Pride and Industry of the Clergy an Opportunity to effect their Designs upon them. For so mean Spirited are the People, as to take all upon Trust for their Souls, that would not trust or take from an Arch-Bishop a brass Shilling or a slit Groat.

’Tis prodigious to think what Veneration the Priesthood have raised to themselves, by their usurpt Commission of Apostleship, their pretended Successions, and their Clink Clank of extraordinary Ordination. A Priest, a God on Earth, a Man that has the Keys of Heaven and Hell; do as he says or be damn’d! What Power like to this? The Ignorance of the People, of their Title and Pretences, hath prepared them to deliver up themselves into their Hands, like a crafty Usurer, that hedges in the Estate on which he has a Mortgage; and thus they make themselves over in Fee to the Clergy, and become their proper Patrimony, instead of being their Care, and they the true Ministers or Servants of the People: So that believing as the Church believes, is neither more nor less than rooking Men of their Understandings, or doing as ill Gamesters are wont to do, get by using false Dice. Come, come, it’s believing as the Priesthood believes, which has made Way for the Offence, wise and good Men have taken against the Clergy in every Age. And did the People examine their Bottom, the Ground of their Religion and Faith, it would not be in the Power of their Leaders to cause them to err. An implicit Veneration to the Clergy begun the Misery. What, doubt my Minister, arraign his Doctrine, put him to the Proof! by no Means: But the Consequence of not doing it, has been the Introduction of much false Doctrine, Superstition and Formality, which gave just Occasion for Schism; for the Word has no Hurt in it’s self, and implies only a Separation; which may as well be right as wrong.

But that I may not be taxed with Partiality, or upbraided with Singularity, there are two Men, whose Worth, Good Sense, and true Learning, I will at any Time engage against an entire Convocation of another Judgment, viz. Jacobus Acontius and John Hales of Eaton, that are of the same Mind, who, though they have not writ much, have writ well and much to the Purpose. I will begin with Jacobus Acontius at large, and do heartily beseech my Readers to be more than ordinarily intent in reading what I cite of him; their Care and Patience will be requited by his Christian and very acute Sense.162

It remains that we speak of such Causes of the not perceiving that a Change of Doctrine is introduced, as consist in the Persons that are taught. Now they are chiefly two, Carelesness and Ignorance. Carelesness for the most Part ariseth hence, In that the People trust too much to their Pastors; and perswade themselves, that they will not slip into any Error, and that therefore they have small Need to have an Eye over them, but that they are bound rather to embrace whatsoever they shall hold forth, without any curious Examination. Hereunto may be added many other Businesses, whereunto Men addict themselves: For that Saying is of large Extent, Where Men’s Treasure is, there is their Heart, and that other, No Man can serve two Masters.163 Now, how it may come to pass that after a People hath once had a great Knowledge of Divine Truths, the said Knowledge may as it were vanish away, besides that Cause which hath been even now alledged, we shall in another Place make Discovery of some other Reasons. We shall for the present add only this one, that the People themselves are in a perpetual Kind of Mutation, some daily dying and departing, others succeeding and growing up in their Stead. Whence it comes to pass, That since the Change which is made in every Age is small, either the People cannot perceive it, or if they do observe it, yet they esteem it not of such Moment, as to think fit to move any Difference thereabout. This Thing also is of very great Force to keep the People from taking Notice of a Change in Doctrine, when Men shall perswade themselves, that they are not able to judge of Matters of Religion, as though It is, It is not, and other Words used in Scripture, do not signify the same which they do in common discourse; or as if nothing could be understood without some great Knowledge in the Tongues, and Arts or Sciences, and as if the Power of the Spirit were of no Efficacy without these Helps. Whereby it cometh to pass, that whilst they think they understand not even those Things which in some Sort they do understand, being expressed in most clear and evident Words, they do at length arrive to that Blockishness, that they cannot understand them indeed; so that, though they have before their Eyes a Sentence of Scripture so clear, that nothing can be more evident, yet if they to whose Authority they in all Things subject themselves, shall say any Thing Point blank opposite thereunto, they will give Credit unto them, and imagine themselves not to see that which they see as clear as the Light. And by these Means verily it comes to pass, that when the Doctrine of Religion is corrupted, the Mutation is not discover’d. Furthermore, when the Doctrine is once begun to be changed, it must needs be, that out of one Error another should spring and propagate infinitely; and God, for Just Reasons of his own, blinding them, Men bring upon themselves so great Darkness, and slip into such foul Errors, that if God of his Mercy open a Man’s Eyes, and let him see those Errors he lives in, he can scarcely believe himself, or be perswaded that he was ever envelop’d with such blind Errors. Which thing is as true, and as well to be seen in Men of greatest Learning and Experience. If thou shalt thoroughly peruse the Writings of some of the School-men (as they call them) thou shalt in some Places meet with so much Acuteness, as will make thee admire: Thou shalt see them oftentimes cleave a fine Thread into many Parts, and accurately Anatomise a Flea, and a little after fall so foully, and avouch such Absurdities, that thou can’st not sufficiently stand amazed; wherefore we must obey that Advice of the Poet;

- Principiis obsta, sero medicina paratur,
- Cum mala per longas invaluere moras,
- Resist betimes; that Med’cine stays too long,
- Which comes when Age has made the Grief too strong.

Now there is Need of a double Caution, viz. That there be no Change made in the Doctrine, when it is pure: And if any Change be made, that there be notice taken of it. Now look what change is made in this Kind, all the Blame is laid upon those whose Office it is to instruct the People: For though themselves are the Authors of the Change, yet will the People impute it to the Ministers Sleepiness, and want of Care at least. It concerns therefore the Pastors and Teachers to be Eagle-eyed, and to be very well acquainted with those Causes whereby the Change of Doctrine becomes undiscover’d, and to have them at their Fingers Ends, and to be wary, that on no Hand they may miscarry. Now it will be an excellent Caution for the keeping of Doctrine pure, if they shall avoid all curious and vain Controversies: If they shall set before their Eyes the Scope and End of all Religious Doctrines, and likewise a Series or Catalogue of all such Things as make to the Attainment of that End (of which we formerly spake); if they shall affect, not only the Matter it self, but also, the Words and Phrases which the Holy Ghost in Scripture makes Use of, and exceedingly suspect all different Forms of Speaking. Not that I would have them speak nothing but Hebraisms; for so their Language would not be plain nor intelligible: but I wish that they would shun all such Expressions, as have been invented by overnice Disputants, beyond what was necessary to express the Sense of the Hebrew and Greek, and all those Tenets which Men by their own Wits do collect and infer from the Scriptures. Now of what Concernment this will be, we may gather by this Instance: The Papists think it one and the same Thing to say, The Church cannot Err; and to say in the Words of our Lord, Wheresoever two or three shall be gathered together in my Name, there will I be in the midst of them.164 Yet is the Difference very great, which may thus appear, forasmuch as in Case any one shall conceive the Church to be the Pope, Cardinals, and Bishops anointed by the Pope; he hearing the aforesaid Sentence, will judge, that whatsoever they shall decree, ought to be of Force. But if he shall rather mind the Words of our Lord, and shall consider that those Kind of Men do regard nothing but their own Commodity, Wealth and Dominion; he will be so far from so understanding them, that peradventure not being able to allow the Deeds and Practices of these Men, he will come to hope from those Words, That if himself, with some other good Men, loving God with their whole Heart, shall come together, and unanimously implore the Assistance of God, they shall be better able to determine what it is that ought to be believ’d and practised for the Attainment of Salvation, than if they should persist to put their Confidence in such Pastors. Now this Rule, that the Words of the Scripture ought to be used rather than any other, is then especially to be observ’d, when any Thing is delivered as a certain and tryed Truth, or as a Rule of Faith or Life, or out of which any other Thing is to be inferred. For in Expositions and Explanations, as there is need happily of greater Liberty, so is there less Danger if it be taken. For, when as the Word of God, and the Exposition thereof, are at one and the same Time both together in View as it were, there no Man can be ignorant, that the Exposition is the Word of Man, so that he may reject it, in case it seem impertinent. And look, by what Means a Man may hinder the Doctrine of Religion from being changed, by the self-same he may find whether it be changed or no. Now every Man ought to compare the Doctrine of that Age wherein he lives, with no other Doctrine than that which was out of Question spotless, which is the Doctrine of the Apostles. Wherefore, notwithstanding that in our Age the Gospel is as it were revived, yet ought not any Man thus to think, that he ought to Examine whether the Gospel hath not lost any of that Purity whereunto it had at this Time arrived; he ought rather to look again and again, whether some Corruption do not yet remain, whether it be not in some Part as yet not sufficiently restored to its ancient Purity and Lustre; and confidently perswade himself, That he cannot be (that I may so speak) sufficiently superstitious in rejecting every Word which is not in the Scriptures. For as much as Man will ever be more wise and wary than the Holy Spirit, and can very hardly forbear to mingle somewhat from his own Head: So that whatever comes from Man, can never be sufficiently suspected. And because a Thing will be so much the better preserv’d, by how much the Greater is the Number of those that keep it; the People ought often to be put in Mind, that both the Reading of the Scriptures and the Care of Religion belongs not to the Pastors of the Church only; but that every one that would be sav’d ought to make diligent Search, whether any Corruption be already, or is for the future like to be introduc’d; and this to do no less carefully, than if he were perswaded that all beside himself were asleep: And whatsoever is wont to take the common People off from such Studies, Care must be taken that that Thing be wholly taken away. Concerning which Matter, we shall more conveniently discourse anon.

Now, Forasmuch as the Profit will be small, if some private Man shall observe that an Error is introduc’d, unless he discover the said Error, and lay it open: there must of Necessity be some Way how this may conveniently be done. Now there cannot be a more fitting Way, than that which the Apostle propounds to the Corinthians. Let two or three Prophets speak, and let the rest judge; and if any thing be revealed to him that sits by, let the former be silent. For ye may all prophecy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be exhorted.165 If some one Person shall always speak in the Church, and no Man at any Time may contradict him, it will be a very strange Thing, if that one Man be not puffed up, if he do not fall into such a Conceit of himself, as to think that he is the only Man, that he only hath Understanding, he alone is wise: That all the rest are a Company of Brute Animals as it were, who ought to depend only upon him, and to do nothing but learn of him. And if any Man shall think, that himself likewise hath some Ability to teach, he will account that Man an heinous Offender. But what says the Apostle to this? Did the Word of God come from you? or came it unto you only? If any seem to be a Prophet, or Spiritual; let him acknowledge what I write unto you to be the Commands of the Lord. But if any one be ignorant, let him be ignorant. Wherefore Brethren, labour that ye may Prophecy, and forbid not to speak with Tongues, let all Things be done decently and in order.166 It is exceedingly to be lamented, that this Custom, and the Practise of this Command of the Lord, is not again restored into the Churches, and brought into Use. But some Men may say, Such is the Rashness of this Age of ours, such the Boldness, such the Impudence, that if it were allowed to every one to speak in the Congregation, there will be no End of Brawls and Contention. Why so? Is a Man another Kind of Creature now, than what he was of Old? Thou wilt say, He is: For Mankind hath continually degenerated, grown worse and worse, and seems now to have attained the Top of Corruption. Is it so indeed? But, suppose it to be so; Thou that art the Teacher of the People, art not thou also thy self made of the same Mold? Art not thou born in the same Age? Inasmuch as this Ordinance principally was intended to keep Pastors within the Bounds of Modesty that they may understand that they are not the Authors of the Word of God, that they have not alone received the Spirit: By how much the more Mankind hath degenerated, by so much the greater Need is there thereof; for that there is now more Rashness, Arrogance, Pride, than of Old; this is true, as well of the Pastors and Teachers, as of the rest of the People. Art thou a Prophet? Hast thou any Portion of the Spirit? If thou hast not, so unfitting it is, that thou alone should’st speak in the Congregation, that there will hardly be found any that deserves rather to be silenc’d, than thy self. But if thou art a Prophet, if thou hast the Spirit, mark what the Apostle says, Acknowledge (quoth he) that those Things which I write, are the Commandments of the Lord. Go to then, On the one Side we have the Judgment of our Lord, willing that Prophecy (for this is a Word that we are obliged to use) should be common to all, and that not for the Destruction, but the Salvation of the Church: On the other Side, we have thy Judgment, who fearest least that may breed Contention and Confusion; whose Judgment now ought we rather to stand to? If thou shalt conceive we must stand to thine, consider what thou assumest unto thy self, and what will become of thy Modesty. Our Lord, it should seem, understood not what a Kind of Creature Man was; he wanted thy Wisdom belike, to admonish him of the Danger; or haply he thought not upon that Corruption which should befal Mankind, whereby such a Liberty might prove unprofitable. But Paul answers thee, That God is not the Author of Contention, but of Peace:167 Who well knowing what might move Contentions, what begat Peace, and not loving nor willing to have Contention, but Peace, willed that this Liberty of Prophecy should be in the Church. What can’st thou say to the contrary? What hast thou to object against God himself, wilt thou accuse him of Indiscretion? No Man hath so wicked a Tongue, as to dare to do it, Yet if thou shalt diligently search thine Heart, thou shalt find there a certain Disposition ready to contend even with God himself: Which Motion of thy Heart, must by no Means be hearken’d unto, but sharply repressed, and wholly subjected to the Spirit of God. It may seem peradventure an absurd Thing, that after some very learned Person hath spoken, some contemptible Person shall be allow’d to contradict him. Can such a Person so do without great Rashness and Temerity? Were I to speak according to the Judgment of Man, verily I could not deny it. But if we be really perswaded, that the Knowledge of Matters Divine, ought not to be attributed to our Watchings, Studies, Wits, but to God and to his Spirit, wherewith he can in a Moment endue the simplest Person in the World, and that with no more Labour or Difficulty than if he were to give it to one that had spent Nestor’s Age in Study.168 What Reason is there for me to judge that this Man does rashly and unadvisedly, if he shall arise and contradict? Is not the Spirit able to reveal somewhat to him, which he hath hidden from thee? Now, if the Spirit have revealed somewhat to him, and to that End revealed it that he might contradict, that by his Means the Thing may be revealed to the Church; shall I say that he hath done rashly in obeying the Holy Ghost? And if thou think otherwise, verily thou art not perswaded that the Spirit is the Author and Teacher of this Knowledge, but that all the Praise thereof is due to Studies, Watchings, and the Wits of Men. And if this be thy Judgment, I tell thee again, that thou art not only unworthy to be sole Speaker, but worthy rather to be the only Person not permitted to speak in the Congregation.

And that thou mayst the better understand, that the most unlearned ought to be allowed to speak, consider, God will have himself to be acknowledged the Author of his own Gifts: He will not have his Praise attributed unto our Studies or Wits, but unto himself. But if the Man that hath spent all his Life in Study, speak wisely, it is not attributed to God, but to Study: In Word, perhaps, it may be attributed to God, yet not without a vehement Reluctancy of our Judgment; and this is that which, I say, God will not abide. But if so be thou shalt hear a wise Word come out of the Mouth of some unlearned Person, thou must needs, whether thou wilt or no, acknowledge God to be the Author thereof. So, when God was minded to give unto Israel a Victory against the Midianites, under the Conduct of Gideon; and Gideon had gathered together Thirty Thousand Men, lest the Israelites should boast that they had gotten the Victory by their own Strength, and not by the Assistance of God, (which might have been conceived, if Gideon had fought with so numerous an Army) he would not suffer him to have above Three Hundred, that it might appear that he was the Cause of the Victory, and not the Number or Valour of those that fought.169 Now, besides the Glory of God, hereby great Profit does accrue to the Church, For if the People shall see now one Man, now another, endued with the Spirit, beyond all Expectation; many will thereby be encouraged to hope for the same Gift, if they shall ask it: many will learn and profit; and it will thereby come to pass, that when Occasion shall be to choose a Minister, the Church shall not need to call strange and unknown Persons to that Office, but she may have of her own such as are fit to be chosen; Men whose Conversation and Manners are sufficiently known. And when the Number of such as are able to prophecy, shall be great, the Church will not be forced to use such Pastors as from their very Childhood have proposed to themselves such Office as the Reward of their Studies; and addicted themselves to the Study of Scripture and Religion, no otherwise then they would have done to some Trade, whereby they meant in Time to get their Living: So that a Man can expect but very few of them to prove other than Mercenary or Hireling Pastors.

Now, that it was the Custom of the Jewish Church, that all might thus Prophesie, we may hence conjecture, in that it is upon Record, Luke 4, how our Lord, upon the Sabbath-day, according to the Custom, came into the Synagogue, took a Book and expounded a place of Esay; and how, being twelve Years of Age, he sate at Jerusalem in the Temple among the Doctors, and did Dispute. For he could not so do by virtue of any ordinary Office, forasmuch as his Age was uncapable, neither did the Doctors know who he was. Yea rather, our Lord in so doing must needs make use of the Power which was granted to every one to speak. It remained in the Christians Congregations until the Times of Constantine at the least. Forasmuch as we have these Words of Eusebius, the Writer of Church Affairs, to that Effect: If any Man inspired by the Grace of God, should speak unto the People, They all with great Silence, fixing their Eyes upon him, gave such Attention, as if he had brought them some Errand from Heaven. So great was the Reverence of the Hearers, such order was seen among the Ministers. One after another, another after him. Neither were there only two or three that prophesied, according to what the Apostle said, but to all was given to speak; so that the Wish of Moses seems rather to have been fulfilled in them, when he said, Would God all the People might Prophecy.170 There was no Spleen, no Envy, the Gifts of God were dispensed, every one according to his Ability, contributing his Assistance for the Confirmation of the Church: And all was done with Love, in such sort, That they strove mutually to honour each other, and every one to prefer another before himself. But to the End this common Prophecying may be profitable to the Church, we must diligently mark what the Apostle advises. For a sure Thing it is, that the Pride of Man is so great, that whatever hath once fallen from him, he will by any Means have it stand for a Truth; neither can he suffer that any Man should infringe the same. So that if he might be permitted to judge, that last spake, it will be a Miracle if a Man in his Life Time should see any one give way to him that contradicts him: What is Paul’s Advice therefore in this Case? Let two or three Prophets speak, and let the rest judge. He will not therefore have the same Persons to be Parties and Judges. And he adds a little after, And the Spirit of the Prophets, is subject to the Prophets; for God is not the Author of Dissension, but of Peace.171 So that as soon as any Man hath spoken his own Mind, he ought to rest himself satisfied with the Judgment of the rest, and not obstinately to make no End of contending: If this be not done, a sure Thing it is; there will be no End of Strife. But what if any Man will not be content to submit to the Judgment of the rest: Verily I would avouch, that being sharply admonished, that he disturb not the Congregation, and that he go not against the Command of the Apostle, or rather of our Lord, commanding the Spirits of the Prophets to be subject to the Prophets, he ought to be cast out of the Society, though he should hold the prime Place in the Congregation. The People likewise must frequently be admonished, that Liberty for any one to speak in the Congregation, is not therefore granted by the Apostle, to the end every one should speak what comes to his Tongue’s End, as if he were in a Market; but whereas he gives Liberty to him to speak to whom any Thing is revealed, he would have all Rashness and Impudence to be laid aside. He that reverences not the Church of God, let that Man know, he despiseth the Spirit of God, who is President there; and shall be sure not to escape unpunished. Before a Man propounds any Thing to the Church, he ought to consider again and again, how sure a Manifestation he hath of that Thing, and whatever the Matter be, let him be sure not to forget a sober, modest, bashful Behaviour, without which Virtues, doubtless no good can be effected. But here we must attentively consider, both how far a Man ought to submit to the Judgment of the Congregation, and who may deservedly be accounted a Troubler of the Church. Verily, I conceive a Man ought so far to give way, as that after I have alledged what I had to say for my Opinion, if yet the rest shall not allow of my Judgment, I ought to give over defending of it, and cease to be troublesome to the Congregation concerning the same: But I ought not to be compelled to confess that I have erred, nor to deprecate any fault, while I do not yet understand that I have erred, for so I should sin against God. He therefore is a Troubler of the Church, that will not, so far as we have expressed, submit to the Judgment of the Church, but goeth on to be troublesome; but especially that Man who would exact of another that which he ought not to do; viz. to recant, being not perswaded that he is in an Error. But those Men are commonly reputed Troublers of the Church, who refuse to ratifie whatever shall any Ways fall out of the Pastors Mouths. Again, in this Place it may reasonably be demanded, whether, when that a Matter hath been once or twice debated, and some Man, knowing the Judgment of the Congregation, would again reduce it into Controversie, he ought to be heard, or enjoyned Silence, and take the Matter for determined: But of this we shall in another Place more conveniently dispute. That which remains therefore, is, that we wrestle with God, by daily Prayers, to grant that we may have the Use of this so soveraign and saving Liberty, so profitable to the Church, and that thereby we may reap Abundance of Fruit. And that he would, to that end, break and tame our Spirits with his Spirit, and render them mild and gentle: and not suffer, what he hath ordained for the Confirmation and Establishment of his Church, to be, by the Stubbornness and Perversness of our Wits and Minds, turned to the Mischief and Destruction thereof.

With much more to the same Purpose, too large to be here inserted.

What I have cited, makes an Apology, for doing so, needless; His whole Book is a most accurate Account of Satan’s Stratagems, to cause and keep up Divisions among Christians; deserving a first Place with the most Christian Writers since the Apostolical Times. He was an Italian, of excellent Natural and Supernatural Endowments, banisht about Luther’s Time for the Gospel.

Let us now inform our selves of the Judgment of that great Man of our own Country J. Hales of Eaton in his Treatise of the Power of the Keys.172 Upon the Matter in hand, viz.

To your second Query, Whether the Keys were confined to the Apostles only? The answer is in no case hard to give, it may perchance, in some case, be dangerous; for there is a Generation of Men in the World, the Clergy they call them, who impropriate the Keys unto themselves, and would be very angry to understand, that others from themselves should claim a right unto them. To your Question then, no doubt but originally none received the Keys from the Mouth of our Saviour, but the Apostles only; none did or ever could manage them with that Authority and Splendor, as the Apostles did, who were, above all most amply furnished with all Things fitting so great a Work. For whereas you seem to intimate, that the preaching Mission was communicated to others, as the seventy two Disciples, as well as the Apostles, you do but mistake your self, if you conceive that the Keys of the Gospel were any way committed to them: For concerning the Mystery of Jesus Christ, and him crucified for the Sins of the World (wherein, indeed, the opening the Kingdom of Heaven did consist) They received it not, they knew it not. To be the prime Reporters of this, was an Honour imparted only to the Apostles: Yet were they not so imparted, as that they should be confin’d to them. Every one that heard and received the Light of the saving Doctrine from them, so far forth as he had understanding in the Ways of Life, had now the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven committed to his Power, both for his own and others use. Every one, of what State or Condition soever, that hath any occasion offered him, to serve another in the Ways of Life, Clergy, or Lay, Male or Female, whatever he be, hath these Keys, not only for himself, but for the Benefit of others. For if Natural Goodness teach every Man, Lumen de Lumine, Erranti comiter monstrare viam, &c.173 then how much more doth Christian Goodness require of every one, to his Ability, to be a Light to those who sit in Darkness, and direct their steps, who most dangerously mistake their Way? To save a Soul, every Man is a Priest. To whom I pray you, is that said in Leviticus, Thou shalt not see thy Brother Sin, but shalt reprove, and save thy Brother?174 And if the Law binds a Man, when he saw his Enemies Cattel to stray, to put them in their Way; How much more doth it oblige him to do the like for the Man himself? See you not how the whole World conspires with me in the same Opinion? Doth not every Father teach his Son, every Master his Servant; every Man his Friend? How many of the Laity in this Age, and from time to time in all Ages, have by writing for the publick good, propagated the Gospel of Christ, as if some secret Instinct of Nature had put into Men’s Minds thus to do, &c.

To this let me add his Sense of the Force of the Fathers Authority in the Decision of Controversies, and how far the Ancients, whether Fathers or Councils, ought to be interested in the Debates of these Times, which may not be improper to the present subject, because not a few build upon their Bottom, the Clergy to be sure, that pretend to direct the rest.175

You shall find (says he) that all Schisms have crept into the Church by one of these three Ways; either upon Matter of Fact, or Matter of Opinion, or Point of Ambition. For the first; I call that Matter of Fact, when something is required to be done by us, which either we know or strongly suspect to be unlawful; so the first notable Schism, of which we read, in the Church, contained in it Matter of Fact; For it being, upon Error, taken for necessary that an Easter must be kept; and upon worse than Error, if I may so speak, (for it was no less than a Point of Judaism, forced upon the Church upon worse than Error, I say) thought further necessary, that the ground for the Time of our keeping that Feast, must be the Rule left by Moses to the Jews; there arose a stout Question, Whether we were to Celebrate with the Jews, on the fourteenth Moon, or the Sunday following? This Matter, though most unnecessary, most vain, yet caused as great a Combustion, as ever was in the Church, The West separating and refusing Communion with the East, for many Years together.176 In this Fantastical Hurry, I cannot see, but all the World were Schismaticks: Neither can any Thing excuse them from that Imputation; excepting only this, that we charitably suppose that all Parties, out of Conscience, did what they did.

A Thing which befel them through the Ignorance of their Guides, for I will not say their Malice, and that through the just Judgment of God, because through Sloth and Blind Obedience, Men examined not the Things which they were taught, but like Beasts of Burden, patiently couched down, and indifferently underwent whatsoever their Superiors laid upon them. By the Way, by this you may plainly see the Danger of our Appeal unto Antiquity, for Resolution in Controverted Points of Faith, and how small Relief we are to expect from thence. For if the Discretion of the chiefest Guides and Directors of the Church, did in a Point so trivial, so inconsiderable, so mainly fail them, as not to see the Truth in a Subject, wherein it is the greatest Marvel how they could avoid the Sight of it; can we, without Imputation of extream Grosness and Folly, think so Poor Spirited Persons, competent Judges of the Questions now on Foot, betwixt the Churches? Pardon me! I know not what Temptation drew that Note from me.

How these Two worthy Men will come off, I can’t tell: They have ventured fairly, and yet I think their Case not hazardous at all. You have them in three Points plain. First, That relying upon the Clergy as Guardians of Truth to the People, and the People’s not examining the Truth of Things from them, is not Apostolical, but Apostatical. Secondly, That no Councils or Fathers ought to be the Rule or Judge of our Faith. Thirdly, That to Save Souls, every Man is a Priest: That is, the People are interested in the Christian Ministry, which is not tied to Times, Places, Persons and Orders, as under the Law; but free to all that have obtained Mercy and Grace from God. And therefore Peter calls the Believers, 1 Pet. ii. 5, 9. an Holy and Royal Priesthood. So that every Believer is a Priest to himself under the Gospel. But all this I have mentioned with design, if it be possible, to beat Men off that superstitious and dangerous Veneration they carry to the Names of Church, Priesthood, and Fathers; as if they were to be saved by them, and not by Christ, who is the Only Head and Saviour of the True Church, and God over all, Blessed for ever. And truly, when I consider the wide Dependence some People have upon the Church, whilst they know not what She is, and make it a Principle not to enquire, I am amaz’d, and often struck with Horror, to observe with what Confidence they expose their Souls. This Principle it is, and not Enquiry, that makes Men careless and unactive about their own Salvation. But let none deceive themselves, as they Sow they shall Reap, Gal. vi. 5. 7. Every one must bear his own Burden. ’Tis not to be saved to be within the Pale of any Visible Church in the World. That is putting an Eternal Cheat upon our selves. Ill Things are ill Things, within or without the Pale: That matters not; and as Sin can’t be Christened, nor Impiety reconciled to Christianity by any Arts of Men, So the Wages of Sin will be Death, Rom. vi. 23. Eternal Death. To be therefore of the Church of which Christ is Head, the Redeemed, Regenerated Church of Christ, is quite another Thing, than to be of any Visible Society whatever; for in all such Communions there are, but too many, that have no True Title to Christianity. If then that Immaculate Church, of which Christ is Head, be made up only of Holy and Regenerated Souls throughout the Societies of Christians, this will administer but little Comfort to those, that presume upon their being within the Pale of the Visible Church, that are without the Pale of Virtue and Holiness.

But to proceed to those Scriptures that are irreconcileable to implicit Faith and Blind Obedience: He that believeth, hath the Witness in himself, 1 John v. 10. This General Rule respects no Persons: It is the Result of the Holy Ghost to all Believers. Such have no Need to go to Rome, nor Winifred’s Well,177to the Shrines of Saints, the Priests, nor the Church, for a Proof of their Faith. They have an Evidence nearer Home: They have the Witness of their Faith, and the Reason of their Hope in themselves.

It is true, this is a Private Judge; but (as it happens) ’tis one of the Holy Ghost’s setting up; of all Things, I confess, most destructive to Papacy, no Doubt; for there is a Judge in every Man, that sincerely believes, to whom he must stand and fall in this and the other World. For (saith the Apostle) If our Heart condemn us, God is greater than our Heart, and knoweth all Things: Beloved, if our Heart condemn us not, then have we Confidence towards God. 1 John iii. 20, 21. That is, the Witness in our selves discharges us. The Spirit beareth Witness with our Spirits, that we are the Children of God, Rom. viii. 16. and Sons of the True Church: Not She that hath fatted her self with the Flesh of Saints, and died her Garments in the Blood of Martyrs, who hath Merchandized in the Souls of Men: But of that Church which is Crowned with Stars, and Cloathed with the Sun, and has the Moon under her Feet. A Church of Light and Knowledge, of Understanding and Truth, and not of implicit Faith and blind Obedience: One that tramples upon all Sublunary Glory, and not she that makes her Pretences to Religion a Decoy to catch the Empire of the World.

Of like Tendency is that Notable Passage of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, 2 Cor. xiii. v. Examine your selves, whether ye be in the Faith; prove your own selves: Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be Reprobates? Here is not a Word of the Pope, nor an External Judge; no Humane Inquisition or Authority. Examine your selves, whether ye be in the Faith? Prove your own selves: But which Way shall we do this? By Christ, who is the Great Light, that shines in our Hearts, to give us the Knowledge of God and our selves: He that believes in him, has the Witness in himself; he is no Reprobate; his Heart condemns him not.

To which I will add another Passage to the same Purpose, in his Epistle to the Galatians, Gal. vi. 4, 5. But let every Man prove his own Work, then shall he have Rejoycing in himself alone, and not in another: For every Man shall bear his own Burden. Here every Man is enjoyned to turn Inquisitor upon himself; and the Reason rendred shews the Justice of the Thing; because my Rejoycing must be in my self alone, and not in another. I stand and fall to no Man; such as I Sow, I must Reap at the Hand of God, if Paul say true. Men’s Pardons are Vain, and their Indulgences Fictious; For every Man shall bear his own Burden in that Great Day of the Lord. It cannot therefore be Reasonably thought that another Man should have the keeping of my Understanding at my Eternal Cost and Charge, or that I must entirely depend upon the Judgment of a Man or Men, who erring, (and thereby causing me to err) cannot be Damned for me, but I must pay their Reckoning at the Hazard of my own Damnation.

I am not unacquainted with the great Objection that is made by Roman Catholicks, and some Protestants too, High Church-Men perhaps, That Love the Treason, but hate the Traytor; That like this Part of Popery, but hate the Pope, viz. There are Doubts in Scripture, even about the most important Points of Faith: Some Body must guide the Weak; there must be some One Ultimate, External, and Visible Judge to appeal to, who must determine and conclude all Persons as to their Doubts and Apprehensions concerning the Interpretation of Scripture; otherwise, So many Men, so many Minds; the Church would be filled with Controversie and Confusion.

I Answer, That the Scriptures are made more doubtful than they are, by such as would fain preserve to themselves the Umpirage and Judgship of their Meaning. I deny it in Point of Fact, that Man’s Duty is not most plainly exprest in all that concerns Eternal Salvation. But ’tis very strange, that when God intends nothing more by the Scriptures, than to reach the Capacities of Men, as to Things on which their Eternal Salvation depends, that no Book, if such Men say true, should be so obscure, or subject to so many various, nay, contradictory Constructions. Name me one Author, Heathen, Jew, or Christian, that ever wrote with that Obscurity and seeming Inconsistency, which some gladly pretend to find in the Holy Scripture, that they might have the use and keeping of them from the Vulgar, and make their own Ends by it. Is then every Body’s Book to be understood but God’s? Was that Writ not to be understood? In short, One of these Two Things must be True; Either that God intended not to be understood, or to be understood, in what he commanded to be written. If he resolved Not to be understood, it had been better there had been nothing writ; for then there had been no Doubts about the Meaning of it; but if it was his Purpose To be understood of Men, it must be supposed, that what he caused to be written, was plain enough for Men to understand, or he mist his own Aim and End, and writ it to no Purpose, which were too low and absurd a Thought of the Infinite Goodness and Wisdom.

If it should be told me, That it is not denied but that the Scriptures may be understood by some Body, but not by every Body, for that the Great, Visible Judge must needs understand them, because it belongs to his Office to resolve those Doubts, and determine those Controversies that may arise about understanding them, but not every one that reads them.

Answ. I must also say, that this is not True in Fact: For it is ridiculous to imagine, that Luke did not make Theophilus his own Judge in the reading of what he writ to him,178 or that the Apostles in writing to the several Churches, as Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, &c. to whom they directed their Epistles, did not intend that they should understand what they writ, or that they erected any such Officer in the Church, as an Expounder of their Epistles to the Assembly to be necessarily believed. For we know in those Days, the People made the Church, they were the χληρός the Clergy, however it came about that it be now engrossed into fewer Hands, as you may see in the Greek of Peter, 1 Pet.v.4. Μηδ’ ὡς κατακυριεύοντες τῶν κλήρων, which κλήρων, is Translated Heritage in all our Bibles. But this is as if the Priests only were the Lord’s Heritage; which can’t be, for a Reason obvious to all, namely, that they have long reign’d as Lords over God’s Heritage, or Clergy, forbid expresly by Peter, therefore not the Heritage and Clergy over which they so Rule like Lords; by no Means. I will say no more but this, ’tis no Convincing Proof to me of their Humility. But to shut up this Argument about the Difficulty of Understanding the Scripture, and pretended Necessity of a Visible Judge; I say, Whatsoever may be spoken, may be written; or thus; Whatsoever a Visible Judge can now say, the Holy Penmen by God’s Direction might have written; and what an Omniscient and Omnipotent God did know, and could do for Man’s Salvation, an Omnibenevolent God, that tells us, He delights not in the Death of one Soul, but rather that he should be saved, would certainly have done for Man. And because God is as Omnibenevolent, as Omniscient and Omnipotent, we must conclude he has done it; and ’tis great Presumption, and a mean Shelter to Ignorance or Ambition, to raise a Credit to Human Devices, by beating down the True Value of the Scriptures.

They are dark; What follows? They must not be read? What follows then? Why then such Teachers may do as they list with the People. But did the Pharisees, with their broad Phylacteries, know God’s Mind better than the Prophets?179 Or could they deliver it clearer? No such Matter: It is by the same strange Figure, that the School-Men know the Mind of Christ better than the Apostles, and that the Council of Trent can declare Faith more clearly than the Holy Ghost in the Scripture hath done; and yet this is the English of their Doctrine, that hold to us those Lights to read the Scripture by; and that would have us search their Canons and Decrees, to find out the Mind of the Holy Ghost in Scripture.

The Confusions that are pretended to follow such an Enquiry, are but the wretched Arts of Selfish Men, as much as in them lies, to keep Light and Truth out of the World. When the Net was cast into the Sea, there came some Good, some Bad Fish; it was not the Fisher’s Fault they were no better. Enquiry is not to be blamed for the ill Use weak, or worse Men, make of it. The Bereans might not all believe, though they might all search;180 for Men don’t enquire with equal Wisdom, Love, and good Desire: Some seek and find not, some ask and receive not; James iv.3. therefore must none ask or seek after that which is Good? Or because some ask or seek amiss, will it follow that the Thing it self is naught? If Superstition, Error, Idolatry, and Spiritual Tyranny be detected, and Truth discover’d, will it not more than make amends for all that Weakness and Folly some Men have brought forth by the Liberty of such an Enquiry? The Enemies of Light may be as Rhetorical as they please upon the Excess or Presumption of some, Bolder than Wise, and more Zealous than Knowing, but if they had nothing to lose by the Discovery, they would never be the Enemies of a Christian Search. It is to be fear’d, such get that Obedience and Subjection by a blind Devotion, which no Man could yield them upon better Information; And is it Reasonable that Men of that Stamp, should secure their Empire by the Ignorance of the People? Ignorance ought to be the Mother of Devotion with none but those that cannot be Devout upon better Terms: It is the Glory of a Man that he is Religious upon Reason, and that his Duty and (Lev. 22. 18, 29.) Sacrifice, are not Blind or forc’d, but Free and Reasonable. Truth upon Knowledge, though vext with Schism, Wise and Good Men will chuse before ignorant Religion, and all it’s Superstitious Effects with Uniformity. Enough of this.

But this Notion Of an Infallible Visible Judge, is as False in Reason as in Fact. For first, it takes away the Use of every Man’s Reason, and it is a Contradiction to have any, unless he were such an Interpreter, and such a Judge, as would conclude us by Conviction, and not by Authority: That would be the most Welcome Person in the World. But to over-rule my own Sight, to give the Lye to my own Understanding, say, Black is White, and that Two and Three make Ten; thus Subjugare intellectum in Obsequium fidei; to yield my Understanding to such an In-evident Way of Faith, nay, which is worse, to believe a Lye, for so it is to them, to whom the Thing to be believed, appears Untrue, is most Unreasonable.

If we must be Led, it had been easier for us to have been born Blind, we might then have better follow’d the Dog and the Bell; for we could not mend our selves; but to See, and to be Led; and that in Ways we see to be foul or wrong, this is Anxious. Here lies the Dispute: And truly here the Question might fairly end, Either put out our Eyes, or let us use them: But if we have Eyes for our Minds as well as for Bodies, I see no Reason why we should trust any Man, or Men, against the Eyes of our Understanding, any more than we ought to confide in them against the Sense and Certainty of the Eyes of our Bodies.

Where is the poorest Mechanick that would be paid his Labour in base Coin for Silver, by either Pope or Bishop? And can we be so Brutish, as to think our Nobler Part void of Distinction, about that Treasure which is of Eternal Moment. For though Peter was to feed the Sheep, yet the Sheep were not to follow Peter, but Christ.181My Sheep hear my Voice, says he, and follow me, and a Stranger they will not follow, John x. 14. Here is no Mediator betwixt Christ and his Sheep; nor does any Body else hear his Voice for them; but they hear his Voice themselves. And though the Shepherd may have many Servants, yet He only is their Shepherd, and they are only the Sheep of his Fold.

But there are three Places of Scripture, that come fresh into my Remembrance, that are very pertinent to the present Occasion. The first is this, Rom. i. 19. That which may be known of God, is manifest in Men, for God hath shewed it unto them: That is, The Spirit of Man being the Candle of the Lord, Prov. xx. 27. God hath enlightned it to manifest unto Man, what is necessary for him to know both of God and himself. Here is no Need of Wax-Candles, or Tapers, or a Visible Guide and Church; for still, He that believes, has the Witness in himself.

Another Passage is this: Be ye Followers of me, even as I am also of Christ, 1 Cor. xi. 1. In which the Apostle is so far from setting himself up a Judge over the Church of Corinth, that he makes his Appeal to them concerning his Doctrine and Conversation, regulating both by that of His Lord Jesus Christ, and making them Judges of the Truth of his Conformity to that Example. Be ye Followers of me: How? After what Manner? What! Absolutely, without Examination? Must we believe Thee without any Trial, and take what thou sayest for granted, without any more to do? No such Thing. Be ye Followers of me, even as I also am of Christ: I submit my self to be judg’d by you according to that Rule; and all Men and Churches are to be thus measur’d, that lay Claim to the Name of Christian: The Text will bear it.

The Third Passage is in his Second Epistle to the same Church of Corinth; ’tis this; 2 Cor. 4. 1, 2. Therefore seeing we have this Ministry, as we have received Mercy, we faint not: but have renounced the hidden Things of Dishonesty, not walking in Craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by Manifestation of the Truth, commending our selves to every Man’s Conscience in the Sight of God. Here is the utmost Imposition the Apostle makes Use of: He requires not Men to receive him without Evidence, and refers himself to that of their own Consciences in the Sight of God. This was the Way of making Christians then; it must be the Way of keeping and making Men Christians now.

Conscience, in the best Sense of the Word, has ever been allowed to be a Bond upon Men in all Religions: But that Religion, whoever holds it, which under Pretence of Authority, would supersede Conscience, and instead of making Men better, the End of Religion, make them worse, by confounding all Sense and Distinction betwixt Good and Evil, and resolving all into an implicit Faith and blind Obedience unto the Commands of a visible Guide and Judge, is false, it cannot be otherwise. For to admire what Men don’t know, and to make it a Principle not to inquire, is the last Mark of Folly in the Believer, and of Imposture in the Imposer. To be short, a Christian implies a Man, and a Man implies Conscience and Understanding; but he that has no Conscience nor Understanding, as he has not, that has deliver’d them up to the Will of another Man, is no Man, and therefore no Christian.

I do beseech you Protestants of all Sorts, to consider of the Danger of this Principle, with Respect to Religion. Of Old ’twas the Fool that said in his Heart, there is no God?182 But now, upon this Principle, Men must be made Fools in Order to believe there is one. Shall Folly, which is the Shame, if not the Curse of Man, be the Perfection of a Christian? Christ indeed has advised us to become as little Children,183 but never to become such Fools; for as the Proverb is, this is to be led by the Nose, and not by our Wits. You know that God hates the Sacrifices of Fools: Eccle. 5. 1. I will pray with the Spirit and with Understanding also, saith the Apostle. 1 Cor. 14. Let us commend that Testimony, which we believe to be true, to the Consciences of Men, and let them have the Gospel Privilege of Examination. Error only loses upon Tryal: If this had been the Way to Christianity, with Reverence be it spoken, God had not made our Condition better, but worse; for this translates our Faith and Dependence upon God, to Man; and the Possibility, if not Probability of Mans erring, exposes us to a greater Insecurity than before: For where I never trusted, I never could be deceived: But if I must abandon my own Sense and Judgment, and yield my self up to the Faith and Authority of another (to say no more of the Blindness and Lameness of such Belief and Devotion) what Security can I have, that the Man or Men whom I trust, may not err, and deceive me? And that Deceit is irreparable.

Again, since Man is a reasonable Creature, and that the more reasonable he is in his Religion, the nearer to his own being he comes, and to the Wisdom and Truth of his Creator, that did so make him: A Religion without Reason, imposed by an unaccountable Authority, against Reason, Sense and Conviction, cannot be the Religion of the God of Truth and Reason: For it is not to be thought that he requires any Thing that carries any Violence upon the Nature of his Creature, or that gives the Lye to that Reason or Sense with which he first endowed him. In short, either convince my Understanding by the Light of Truth and Power of Reason, or bear down my Infidelity with the Force of Miracles: For not to give me Understanding or Faith, and to press a Submission that requires both, is most unreasonable.

But if there were no other Argument than this, it goes a great Way with me, that as to such as have their Understanding at Liberty, if they are mistaken there may be Hopes of reclaiming them, by informing them; but where the Understanding and Conscience are enslaved to Authority, and where Men make it a Principal Doctrine, to suspect their own Sense, and Strive against their own Convictions; to move only by other Men’s Breath and fall down to their Conclusions; nothing seems to be left for the soundest Arguments, and clearest Truths, to work upon. They had almost need to be Re-Created in Order to be converted; for who can reasonably endeavour to make him a Christian, that is not a Man; which he cannot be truly said to be, who has no Understanding, or resolves not to use it, but reject it, which is yet worse: For he that has no Understanding, has no Prejudice against it, but he that purposely denies and abuses it, is so much worse, as that he turns Enemy to him that has and uses his Understanding. He therefore can never be convinced of his Error, who is prejudiced against the necessary Means of Conviction, which is the Use of his Understanding, without which ’tis impossible he should ever be convinced.

To conclude, I have reserved, till last, one Argument, which is ad Hominem, unanswerable by us Protestants, and without yielding to which, we cannot be consistent with our selves, or be thought to do unto others, what we would have others do unto us, and that is this: The Translation of the Scripture was the painful Work of our Ancestors; and this I call their most solemn Appeal to the People, against the Pope and Traditions of Rome in the Business of their Separation. For when the Question arose of the divine Authority of this or the other Practice in the Doctrine or Worship of the Roman Church, presently they recurred to the Scriptures, and therefore made them speak English, that they might witness for them to the People. This appeal to the People in Defence of their Separation, by making them Judges of their Proceeding against the Church, according to the Testimony of the Holy Scripture, puts every Man in Possession of them. Search the Scriptures, say the first Protestants, prove all Things; see if what we say against the Pope and Church of Rome be not true; and in Case any Difficulty did arise, they exhorted all to wait upon God, for the divine Aid of his Spirit, to illuminate their Understandings, that one should not impose upon the other, but commend them to God: Be Brotherly, Patient, Long-Suffering, ready to help the Weak, inform the Ignorant, shew Tenderness to the Mistaken, and with Reason and Moderation to gain the Obstinate. In short, Protestancy, is a restoring to every Man his just Right of Inquiry and Choice: And to it’s Honour be it ever spoken, there is a greater Likelihood of finding Truth, where all have Liberty to seek after it, than where it is denyed to all, but a few Grandees, and those too as short sighted as their Neighbours. But now let us Protestants examine, if we have not departed from this Sobriety, this Christian Temperance? How comes it that we who have been forgiven much, have our selves fallen upon our Fellow-Servants, who yet owe us nothing? Have not we refused them this reasonable Choice? Have we not threatned, beaten and imprisoned them? Pray consider, have you not made Creeds, framed Faiths, formed and regulated a Worship; and strictly enjoyn’d all Men’s Obedience, by the Help of the Civil Power, upon Pain of great Sufferings, which have not been spared upon Dissenters; though they have been, in common, Renouncers and Protesters with you, against the Pope and Church of Rome. For this the Land mourns, Heaven is displeased, and all is out of due Course.

To give us the Scriptures, and knock our Fingers for taking them: To translate them that we may read them, and punish us for endeavouring to understand and use them as well as we can, both with respect to God and our Neighbour, is very unreasonable upon our Protestant Principles. I wish we could see the Mischief we draw upon our selves, and which is worse upon our Cause; for the Papist, in this Case, acts according to his Principle, but we against our Principle, which shews indeed that we profess the better Religion, but that we also are more condemnable. If we will consider it seriously, we shall find it not much more injurious to Scripture, Truth and good Conscience, that we believe as the Church believes, than that we believe as the Church says the Scripture would have us believe. For where is the Difference, since I am not allowed to use my Understanding about the Sense of Scripture any more than about the Faith or Worship from Scripture, but what is handed to me through the Meanings of the Church, or her Clergy, I see my self in as ill Terms, as if I had sat down with the old Doctrine of believing as the Church believes. And had the Controversy been only for the Word Scripture, without the Use and Application of it, for, at this Rate, that is all that is left us, truly the Enterprise of our Fathers had been weak and unadvised; but because nothing less was intended by them, and that the Translation of the Scripture was both the Appeal and Legacy of those Protestant Ancestors; for the Reasons before-mentioned, I must conclude we are much degenerated from the Simplicity of Primitive Protestancy, and need to be admonished of our Backslidings: And I heartily pray to Almighty God, that he would quicken us by his repeated Mercies and Providences to return to our first Love, to the Light and Spirit of his Son, that we may become Sons indeed, the Ground of true Christianity, and from whence the true Ministry hath it’s Spring, which is open and free to those that are Proficients in that Holy School.

Let the Scriptures be free, Sober Opinion tolerated, Good Life cherish’d, Vice punish’d: Away with Imposition, Nick-Names, Animosities, for the Lord’s Sake, and let the Scripture be our Common Creed, and Pious Living the Test of Christianity, that God may please to perfect his good Work of Grace he has begun, and deliver us from all our Enemies, both within and without.

Sect. 6.

Of the Propagation of Faith by Force.

I AM now come to the last Point, and that is Propagation of Faith by Force: In which I shall, with the Ecclesiastick, consider the Civil Magistrate’s Share herein: For tho’ the Churchmen are principally guilty, who being profest Ministers of a Religion which renounces and condemns Force, excite the Civil Magistrate to use it, both to impose their own Belief, and suppress that of other Men’s; yet the Civil Magistrate in running upon their Errands, and turning Executioner of their Cruelty upon such as dissent from them, involves himself in their Guilt.

That in this Protestant Country Laws have been made to prosecute Men for their Dissent from the National Worship, and that those Laws have been executed, I presume will not be deny’d: For not only our own Histories since the Reformation will furnish us with Instances unbecoming our Pretences, as the Case of Barrow, Penrey, &c. in Queen Elizabeth’s Time,184 and others in the Reign of King James and Charles the First, but our own Age abounds with Proofs. Thousands have been excommunicated and imprison’d; whole Families undone; not a Bed left in the House, not a Cow left in the Field, nor any Corn in the Barn: Widows and Orphans stript without Pity, no Regard being had to Age or Sex: And what for? only because of their Meeting to Worship God after another Manner than according to the Form of the Church of England; but yet in a very peaceable Way.

Nor have they only suffered this by Laws intended against them, but, after an excessive Rate, by Laws known to have been never design’d against them, and only intended against the Papists. And in these Cases four Times the Value hath not served their Turn. We can prove Sixty Pounds taken for Thirteen, and not One Penny return’d, as we made appear before a Committee of the late Parliament, which is the Penalty of four Offences for one; to say nothing of the gross Abuses that have been committed against our Names and Persons, by Men of ill Fame and Life, that have taken the Advantage of our Tenderness, and the present Posture of the Law against us, to have their revengeful and covetous Ends upon us. And tho’ we are yet unredrest, not a Session of Parliament has past these Seventeen Years, in which we have not humbly remonstrated our Suffering Condition: We have done our Part, which has been patiently to suffer and modestly to complain: It is yours now to hear our Groans, and, if ever you expect Mercy from God, to deliver us. The late Parliament, just before it’s Dissolution, was preparing some Relief for us; if that Parliament could think of it, yea, begin it, we hope you will finish and secure it.

The better to remove all Scruples or Objections, that Politically or Ecclesiastically, on the Part of the State or the Church, may be advanced against us in this Request, I shall divide this Discourse into two Parts: First, Caesar’s Authority; next, the Church’s Power in Things that relate to Faith and Conscience; with my Considerations upon both.

* Our Blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, did long since distinguish the Things of Caesar from the Things of God, in his plain and notable Answer unto that ensnaring Question of the Jews, Is it lawful to pay Tribute to Caesar or not. Render (says he) unto Caesar the Things that are Caesar’s, and to God the Things that are God’s: That is, Divine Worship, and all Things relating to it, belong unto God, Civil Obedience to Caesar.185 God can only be the Author of right Acts of Worship in the Mind: This is granted by all; therefore it is not in the Power of any Man or Men in the World, to compel the Mind rightly to worship God. Where this is but attempted, God’s Prerogative is invaded, and Caesar, by which Word I understand the Civil Government, engrosseth All. For he doth not only take his own things as much as he can, but the Things appertaining to God also; since if God hath not Conscience for his Share, he hath nothing. My Kingdom, says Christ, is not of this World,186 nor is the Magistrate’s Kingdom of the other World: Therefore he exceeds his Province and Commission when ever he meddles with the Rights of it. Let Christ have his Kingdom, he is sufficient for it; and let Caesar have his, ’tis his Due. Give unto Caesar the Things that are Caesar’s, and to God the Things that are God’s. Then there are Things that belong not to Caesar, and we are not to give those to him which belong not to him; and such are God’s Things, Divine Things, Things of an Eternal Reference: But those that belong to Caesar and his Earthly Kingdom, must be, of Duty, rendred to him.

If any shall ask me, What are the Things properly belonging to Caesar? I answer in Scripture Language, To love Justice, do Judgment, relieve the Oppressed, right the Fatherless, and in general be a Terror unto Evil-doers, and a Praise to them that do well; for this is the Great End of Magistracy: And in these Things they are to be obey’d of Conscience as well as Interest.

But perhaps my Answer shall be reckoned too general and ambiguous, and a fresh Question started, Who are the Evil-doers, to whom the Civil Authority ought to be Terrible? But this ought in my Judgment to be no Question with Men that understand the Nature of Civil Authority; for those are the Evil-doers that violate those Laws which are necessary to the Preservation of Civil Society, as Thieves, Murderers, Adulterers, Traytors, Plotters, Drunkards, Cheats, Vagabonds, and the like mischievous and dissolute Persons: Men void of Virtue, Truth and Sincerity, the Foundation of all good Government, and only firm Bond of human Society. Whoever denies me this, must at the same Time say, that Virtue is less necessary to Government than Opinion, and that the most Vitiated Men, professing but Caesar’s Religion, are the best Subjects to Caesar’s Authority, consequently, that other Men, living never so honestly and industriously, and having else as good a Claim to Civil Protection and Preferment, shall, meerly for their Dissent from that Religion, (a Thing they can’t help; for Faith is the Gift of God)187 be reputed the worst of Evil-doers; which is followed with exposing their Names to Obloquy, their Estates to Ruin, and their Persons to Goals, Exiles, and Abundance of other Cruelties. What is this, but to confound the Things of Caesar with the Things of God, Divine Worship with Civil Obedience, the Church with the State, and perplex human Societies with endless Debates about Religious Differences? Nay, is not this to erect new Measures to try the Members of Worldly Societies by, and give an Accession to another Power, than that which is necessary to the Constitution of Civil Government? But that which ought to deter wise Rulers from assuming and exercising such an Authority, is the Consideration of the pernicious Consequences of doing so.

For, First, It makes Property, which is the first and most fix’d Part of English Government floating and uncertain; for it seems, no Conformity to the Church, no Property in the State: And doubtless, the Insecurity of Property can be no Security to the Government: Pray think of that.

II. It makes me owe more to the Church than to the State; for in this Case, the Anchor I ride by, is not my Obedience to Laws relating to the Preservation of Civil Society, but Conformity to certain Things belonging to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church: So that though I may be an honest, industrious Englishman, a great Lover of my Country, and an Admirer of the Government I live under, yet if I refuse to profess the Religion that either now is, or hereafter may be imposed, be it never so false, that is all one, I must neither enjoy the Liberty of my Person, nor the quiet Possession of my Estate.

III. This not only alters the Government, by sacrificing Men’s Properties for that which cannot be called a Sin against Property, nor an Offence to the Nature of Civil Government, if any Transgression at all, but it narrows the Interest and Power of the Governours: For look what Number they cut off from their Protection, they cut off from themselves and the Government; not only rendring thereby a great Body of People useless, but provoking them to be Dangerous: To be sure it clogs the Civil Magistrate in his Administration of Government, making that necessary which is not at all necessary to him as Caesar.

It is a Sort of Duumvirateship in Power, by which the Civil Monarchy is broken: For as that was a Plurality of Men, so this is a Plurality of Powers. And to speak freely, the Civil Power is made to act the Lackey, to run of all the unpleasant Errands the froward Zeal of the other sends it upon; and the best Preferment it receives for it’s Pains, is to be Informer, Constable, or Hangman to some of the best Livers, and therefore the best Subjects in the Kingdom.

O! What greater Injustice to Caesar than to make his Government vary by such Modes of Religion, and oblige him to hold his Obedience from his People, not so much by their Conformity to him, as to the Church, a meer Relative of to’ther World.

IV. This is so far from resembling the Universal Goodness of God, who dispenses his Light, Air, Showers and comfortable Seasons to all, and whom Caesar ought always to imitate, and so remote from increasing the Trade, Populacy and Wealth of this Kingdom, as that it evidently tends to the utter Ruin of Thousands of Traders, Artificers and Husbandmen, and their Families; and by increasing the Charges, It must needs encrease the Poor of the Nation.

V. This must needs be a great Discouragement to Strangers from coming in, and setling themselves amongst us, when they have Reason to apprehend that they, and their Children after them, can be no longer secured in the Enjoyment of their Properties, than they shall be able to prevail with their Consciences to believe, That the Religion which our Laws do now, or shall at any Time hereafter approve and impose, is undoubtedly True; and that the Way of Worshipping God, which shall be at any Time by our Laws enjoyned, is, and shall be more agreeable to the Will of God, than any other Way in which God is Worshipped in the World.

VI. That Way of Worship we are Commanded Conformity to, doth not make Better Livers, that is a Demonstration, Nor Better Artists, for it cannot be thought that going to Church, hearing Common-Prayer, or believing in the present Episcopacy, learn Men to Build Ships or Houses; to make Clothes, Shoes, Dials or Watches; Buy, Sell, Trade, or Commerce better, than any that are of another Perswasion. And since these Things are Useful, if not Requisite in Civil Society, is not prohibiting, nay ruining, such Men, because they will not come to hear Common-Prayer, &c. destructive of Civil Society? Pray shew me better Subjects. If any object, Dissenters have not always been so, the Answer is ready, Do not expose them, protect them in their Lives, Liberties and Estates; for in this present Posture they think they can call Nothing their own, and that all the Comforts they have in this World, are Hourly liable to Forfeiture for their Faith, Hope and Practice concerning the other World. Is not this to destroy Nature and Civil Government, when People are ruined in their Natural and Civil Capacity, not for Things relating to either, but which are of a Supernatural Import?

VII. This deprives them of Protection, who protect the Government. Dissenters have a great Share in the Trade, which is the Greatness of this Kingdom; and they make a large Proportion of the Taxes that maintain the Government. And is it Reasonable, or can it be Christian, when they Pay Tribute to Caesar, to be preserved in an Undisturbed Possession of the Rest, that the Rest should be continually exposed for the Peaceable Exercise of their Consciences to God?

VIII. Neither is it a Conformity to True and Solid Religion, such as is Necessary to Eternal Salvation, wherein most Parties Verbally agree, but for a Modification of Religion; some peculiar Way of Worship and Discipline. All confess One God, One Christ, One Holy Ghost, and that it is indispensably requisite to Live Soberly, Righteously, and Godly in this present Evil World, 2 Tit. xi. 12. yet is one prosecuting the other for his Conscience, Seizing Corn, Driving away Cattel, Breaking open Doors, taking away, and spoiling of Goods; in some Places not leaving a Cow to give poor Orphans Milk, nor a Bed to lie on; in other Places Houses have been swept so clean, that a Stool hath not been left to Sit on, nor so much as Working Tools to Labour for Bread. To say nothing of the Opprobrious Speeches, Bloody Blows, and Tedious Imprisonments, even to Death it self, through Nastiness of Dungeons, that many innocent People have suffered only for their Peaceable Conscience.

IX. But this Way of proceeding for Maintenance of the National Religion, is of an ill Consequence upon this Account, that Heaven is barred as much as in Men lies, from all farther Illuminations. Let God send what Light he pleases into the World, it must not be received by Caesar’s People, without Caesar’s Licence; and if it happen that Caesar be not presently Convinced as well as I, that it is of God, I must either renounce my Convictions, and lose my Soul to please Caesar, or profess and persevere in my Perswasion, and so lose my Life, Liberty or Estate, to please God. This hath frequently occurr’d, and may again. Therefore I would entreat Caesar to consider the sad Consequence of Imposition, and remember both that God did never ask Man Leave to introduce Truth, or make farther Discoveries of his Mind to the World, and that it hath been a Woful Snare to those Governments that have been drawn to employ their Power against his Work and People.

X. This Way of Procedure endeavours to stifle, or else to punish Sincerity; for Fear or Hopes, Frowns or Favour, prevail only with base Minds; Souls degenerated from True Nobleness. Every Spark of Integrity must be extinguisht, where Conscience is sacrificed to Worldly Safety and Preferment. This Net holds no Temporizers: Honest Men are all the Fish it catches: But one would think they should make but an ill Treat to such as reckon themselves Generous Men, and what is more, Christians too. That which renders the Matter more unjustifiable, is the Temptation such Severity puts Men upon, not hardy enough to Suffer for Conscience, yet strongly perswaded they have Truth on their Side, to desert their Principles, and smother their Convictions, which in plain Terms, is to make of Sincere Men, Hypocrites: Whereas it is one Great End of Government, by all Laudable Means, to preserve Sincerity; for without it there can be no Faith or Truth in Civil Society. Nor is this all, for it’s a Maxim worthy of Caesar’s Notice, Never to think him True to Caesar, that is False to his own Conscience: Besides, raped Consciences treasure up Revenge, and such Persons are not likely to be longer Friends to Caesar, than he hath Preferments to allure them, or Power to deter them from being his most implacable Enemies.

XI. There is not so ready a Way to Atheism, as this of extinguishing the Sense of Conscience for Worldly Ends: Destroy that Internal Rule of Faith, Worship and Practice towards God, and the Reason of my Religion will be Civil Injunctions, and not Divine Convictions; consequently, I am to be of as many Religions as the Civil Authority shall impose, however untrue or contradictory. This Sacred Tye of Conscience, thus broken, farewel to all Heavenly Obligations in the Soul, Scripture-Authority, and Ancient Protestant Principles. Christ may at this Rate become what the Jews would have had Him and His Apostles to be reputed, to wit, Turners of the World up-side down, as their Enemies represented them;188 and the Godly Martyrs of all Ages, so many Self-Murtherers; for they might justly be esteem’d Resisters of Worldly Authority, so far as that Authority concerned it self with the Imposition of Religion, because they refused the Conformity commanded by it, even to Death.

And it may not be unworthy of Caesar’s Consideration, that from these Proceedings People are tempted to infer, there is nothing in Religion but Worldly Aims and Ends, because so much Worldly Power is abus’d, under the Name of Religion, to vex and destroy Men for being of another Religion; and that he hazards the best Hold and Obligation he hath to Obedience, which is Conscience: For where they are taught only to Obey for Interest; Duty and Conviction are out of Doors. By all Means let Conscience be Sacred, and Virtue and Integrity (though under Dissenting Principles) cherish’d: Charity is more powerful than Severity, and Perswasion than all the Penal Laws in the World.

Lastly, To the Reproach of this Course with wise Men, it hath never yet obtain’d the End desired, since instead of Compliance, the Difference is thereby widened, and the Sufferers are pitied by Spectators, which only helps to increase the Number of Dissenters, for whoever is in the Wrong, few think the Persecutor in the Right. This in all Ages, having been the Issue of severe Prosecution of Dissenters for Matters of Religion; what a Cruel, Troublesome, Thankless, Succesless Office is it for Caesar to be employ’d in? May he take better Measures of his Authority and Interest, and use his Power to the Encouragement of all the Virtuous and Industrious, and Just Punishment of the Lazy and Vicious in all Perswasions; so shall the Kingdom Flourish, and the Government Prosper.

Church Power supposeth a Church first. It will not be improper therefore to examine; first, What a Scripture New-Testament-Church is; and next, what is the Scripture-Power belonging to such a Church. A Scripture-Church as she may be called Visible, is a Company or Society of People, believing, professing and practising according to the Doctrine and Example of Christ Jesus and his Apostles, and not according to the Scribes and Pharisees, that taught for Doctrine the Traditions of Men. They are such as are Meek in Heart, Lowly in Spirit (a) Chast in Life, (b) Virtuous in all Conversation, (c) full of Self Denial, (d) Long-suffering and Patient, (e) not only forgiving, (f) but loving their very Enemies; which answers Christ’s own Character of himself, Religion and Kingdom, which is the most apt Distinction that ever can be given of the Nature of his Church and her Authority, viz. (g) My Kingdom is not of this World. Which well connects with Render unto Caesar the Things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the Things that are God’s.189

It was an Answer to a very suspicious Question; for it was familiarly bruited that he was a King, and came to possess his Kingdom, and was, by some, called the King of the Jews.

The Jews being then subjected to the Roman Empire, it concerned Pilate, Caesar’s Deputy, to understand his Pretensions, which upon better Information he found to center in this, My Kingdom is not of this World, else would my Subjects fight for me.190 As if he had said, these Reports are a meer Perversion of my Peaceable and Self-denying Intentions; an Infamy invented by malicious Scribes and Pharisees, that they might the better prevail with Caesar to Sacrifice me to their hatred and revenge.

I am Caesar’s Friend, I seek none of his Kingdoms from him, nor will I sow Sedition, plot or conspire his Ruin; no, Let all Men render unto Caesar the Things that are Caesar’s: That’s my Doctrine; for I am come to erect a Kingdom of another Nature than that of this World, to wit, a Spiritual Kingdom, to be set up in the Heart; and Conscience is my Throne, upon that will I sit, and rule the Children of Men in Righteousness; and whoever lives Soberly, Righteously and Godlily in this World, shall be my good and loving Subjects. And they will certainly make no ill ones for Caesar, since such Virtue is the End of Government, and renders his Charge both more easie and safe than before. Had I any other Design than this, would I suffer my Self to be reproached, traduced and persecuted by a conquered People? Were it not more my Nature to suffer than revenge, would not their many Provocations have drawn from me some Instance of another kind than the Forbearance and Forgiveness I teach? certainly, were I animated by another Principle than the Perfection of Meekness and Divine Sweetness, I should not have forbidden Peter fighting, saying, put up thy Sword, or Instructed my Followers to bear Wrongs;191 but have revenged all Affronts, and, by Plots and other Stratagems, have attempted Ruin to my Enemies, and the Acquisition of worldly Empire: And no doubt but they would have fought for me. Nay, I am not only patiently, and with Pity to Enemies, sensible of their cruel Carriage towards me for my Good Will to them, whose Eternal Happiness I only seek; but I foresee what they further intend against me: They design to crucifie me: And to do it, will rather free a Murderer than spare their Saviour. They will perform that Cruelty with all the Aggravation and Contempt they can; deriding me themselves, and exposing me to the Derision of others: They will mock my Divine Kingship with a Crown of Thorns, and in mine Agonies of Soul and Body, for a Cordial, give me Gall and Vinegar to drink. But notwithstanding all this, to satisfie the World that my Religion is above Wrath and Revenge, I can forgive them.

And to secure Caesar and his People from all Fears of Imposition, notwithstanding my Authority, and the many Legions of Angels I might command, both to my Deliverance, and the Enforcement of my Message upon Mankind; I resolve to promote neither with worldly Power; for it is not of the Nature of my Religion and Kingdom. And as I neither assume nor practice any such Thing my self, that am the great Author, Promoter and Example of this Holy Way; so have I not only never taught my Disciples to live or act otherwise, or given them a Power I refuse to use my self, but expresly forbad them, and warn’d them, in my Instructions, of exercising any the least Revenge, Imposition or Coercion towards any. This is evident in my Sermon preached upon the Mount, where I freely, publickly, and with much Plainness, not only prohibited Revenge, and enjoyned Love to Enemies, making it to be a great Token of true Discipleship to suffer Wrongs, and conquer Cruelty by Patience and Forgiveness;192 which is certainly very far from Imposition or Compulsion upon other Men.

Furthermore, when I was strongly bent for Jerusalem, and sent Messengers before to prepare some Entertainment for me and my Company, in a Village belonging to the Samaritans, and the People refused because they apprehended I was going to Jerusalem, though some of my Disciples, particularly James and John, were provok’d to that Degree, that they asked me, if I were willing that they should command Fire from Heaven to destroy those Samaritans, as Elias in another Case had done; I turned about, and rebuked them, saying, Ye know not what Manner of Spirit ye are of; for I am not come into the World to destroy Men’s Lives, but, by my peaceable Doctrine, Example and Life, to save them.193

At another Time, one of my Disciples relating to me some Passages of their Travails, told me of a certain Man they saw, that cast out Devils in my Name, and because he was not of their Company, nor followed them, said he, we forbad him; as if they thereby served and pleased me; but I presently testified my Dislike of the Ignorance and Narrowness of their Zeal, and, to inform them better, told them, they should not have forbid him; for he that is not against us is for us.194

My Drift is not Opinion, but Piety: They that cast out Devils, convert Sinners, and turn Men to Righteousness, are not against me, nor the Nature and Religion of my Kingdom, and therefore ought to be cherisht rather than forbid. That I might sufficiently declare and inculcate my Mind in this Matter, I did at another Time, and upon a different Occasion, preach against all Coercion and Persecution for Matters of Faith and Practice towards God, in my Parable of the Sower, as my Words manifest, which were these; The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a Man which sowed good Seed in his Field; but while Men slept, his Enemy came, and sowed Tares among the Wheat, and went his Way; but when the Blade sprung up, and brought forth Fruit, there appeared the Tares also; so the Servants of the Housholder came and said, didst thou not sow good Seed in thy Field? from whence then hath it Tares? he answered, an Enemy hath done this; the Servants said unto him, wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? but he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the Tares, ye root up also the Wheat with them, let both grow together till the Harvest, and in the Time of Harvest I will say to the Reapers, gather ye together first the Tares, and bind them in Bundles to burn them, but gather the Wheat into my Barn.

And that I might not leave so necessary a Truth mis-apprehended of my dear Followers, or liable to any Mis-constructions, my Disciples, when together, desiring an Explanation, I interpreted my Words thus:

He that soweth the good Seed is the Son of Man; the Field is the World; the good Seed are the Children of the Kingdom; but the Tares are the Children of the Wicked One; the Enemy that sowed them is the Devil; the Harvest is the End of the World; and the Reapers are the Angels.195

This Patience, this Long Suffering and great Forbearance belonging to my Kingdom and the Subjects of it; my Doctrine speaks it, and mine Example confirms it, and this can have no possible Agreement with Imposition and Persecution for Conscience. ’Tis true, I once whipt out the Profaners of my Father’s Temple; but I never whipt any in. I call’d, I cry’d to every one that thirsted to come, and freely offer’d my Assistance to the Weary and heavy Laden; but I never impos’d my Help, or forced any to receive me; for I take not my Kingdom by Violence, but by Suffering. And that I might sufficiently deter my Followers from any such Thing, as I profess my self to be their Lord and Master, so have I commanded them to love one another in a more especial Manner.196 But if instead thereof any shall grow proud, high-minded, and beat or abuse their Fellow-Servants in my Religious Family, when I come to take an Account of my Houshold, he shall be cut asunder, and appointed his Portion among the Unbelievers. Behold the Recompence I appoint to imposing Lordly Persons, such as count others Infidels, and to make them such Believers as themselves, will exercise Violence towards them, and if they prevail not, will call for Fire from Heaven to devour them; and if Heaven refuse to gratify their Rage, will fall a Beating and Killing, and think, it may be, they do God good Service too; but their Lot shall be with Unbelievers for ever.

Nay, I have so effectually provided against all Mastery, that I expresly charged them, not to be many Masters; for one was their Master: I told them, the greatest amongst them was to be Servant to the rest, not to impose upon the rest: Nay, that to be great in my Kingdom, they must become as gentle and harmless as little Children, and such cannot force and punish in Matters of Religion. In fine, I strictly commanded them to love one another, as I have loved them, who am ready to lay down my Life for the Ungodly, instead of taking away Godly Men’s Lives for Opinions. And this is the great Maxim of my Holy Religion, He that would be my Disciple, must not Crucifie other Men, but take up his Cross and follow me, who am meek and lowly, and such as endure to the End, shall find Eternal Rest to their Souls; this is the Power I use, and this is the Power I give.197

How much this agrees with the Language, Doctrine and Example of Jesus Christ, the Son and Lamb of God, I shall leave them to consider that read and believe Scripture. But some affected to present Church-Power, and desiring their Ruin that conform not to her Worship and Discipline, will object, That Christ did give his Church Power to bind and loose, and bid any Persons aggrieved tell the Church.198

I grant it; but what binding was that? was it I Pray with outward Chains and Fetters, in nasty Holes and Dungeons? nothing less: Or, was it that his Church had that true Discerning in her, and Power with him, that what she bound, that is, condemned, or loosed, that is, remitted, should stand so in God’s Sight and Christ’s Account?

But tell the Church; and what then? Observe Christ’s Extent in the Punishment of the Offender: If the Offender will neither receive private Admonition, nor hear the Church, then (says Christ) let him be to thee as an Heathen, &c. Here’s not one Word of Fines, Whips, Stocks, Pillories, Goals, and the like Instruments of Cruelty, to punish the Heretick: For the Purport of his Words seems to be no more than this; If any Member of the Church refuse thy private Exhortation, and the Church’s Admonition, look upon such a Person as obstinate and perverse, have no more to do with him; let him take his Course, thou hast done well, and the Church is clear of him.

Well, but say the Church Fighters of our Age, Did not St. Paul wish them cut off that troubled the Church in his Time? Yes: But with what Sword think you? Such as Christ bid Peter put up, or the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God? Give him leave to explain his own Words; For though we walk in the Flesh, We do not War after the Flesh; for the Weapons of our Warfare are not Carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong Holds, casting down Imaginations, and every high Thing that exalteth it self against the Knowledge of God, and bringing every Thought into Obedience to Christ.199

What think you of this? Here are Warfares, Weapons, Oppositions and Conformity, and not only no external Force about Matters of Religion used or countenanced, but the most express and pathetical Exclusion and disclaiming of any such Thing that can be given.

It was this great Apostle that askt that Question, Who art thou that judgest the Servant of another? To his own Lord he standeth or falleth: but he shall stand; for God is able to make him stand.200 Can we think that Imposition or Persecution is able to Answer him this Question in the Day of Judgment? Do we with Reason deny it to the Papacy? With what Reason then can we assume it to our selves? Let us remember who said, Not that we have Dominion over your Faith, but are Helpers of your Joy.201Helpers, then not Imposers nor Persecutors. What Joy can there be in that to the Persecuted? But if Paul had no such Commission or Power over Conscience, I would fain know by what Authority more inferiour Ministers and Christians do claim and use it.

The Apostle Peter is of the same Mind; Feed says he, the Flock of God, not by Constraint, &c. neither as being Lords over God’s Heritage. The Heritage of God is free, they have but one Lord in and of their Religion, Christ Jesus, and they are Brethren.202

The Apostle Paul says, That where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty, but where Coercion, Fines and Goals are, there is no Liberty. Is it to be supposed that Men in these Days are instructed by the Spirit of the Lord to destroy People in this World for their Faith about the other World? That cannot possibly be; such mock at it. Again, says that Apostle to the Christians of his Time, You are called to Liberty;203 from what I pray, Sin and the Ceremonies of the Law? And shall the End of that call be the enthralling Conscience to human Edicts in Religion, yea, about meer Ceremonies of Religion, under the Gospel? This would make our Case worse than the Jews, for their Worship stood on divine Authority; and if Christ came to make Men free from them, and that those very Ordinances are by the Apostle call’d beggarly Elements and a burdensom Yoak, Is it reasonable that we must be subject to the Injunctions of Men in the Worship of God, that are not of equal Authority with them?

The Apostle yet informs us, for this End, says he, Christ both dyed and rose again, that he might be Lord both of the Dead and Living: But why dost thou judge thy Brother?204 Than which nothing can more expresly oppose the Imposition, Excommunication, and Persecution that are among us; ’Tis as if he had said, Christ is Lord of Christians, by what Authority dost thou pretend to judge his Servants? Thou also art but one of them: A Brother at most. Thou hast no Dominion over their Faith, nor hast thou Commission to be Lord over their Consciences; ’tis Christ’s Right, his Purchase, he has paid for it: For this End he both dyed and rose again, that he might be Lord of Dead and Living; that he might rescue them, from the Jaws of Oppression; from those that usurp over their Consciences, and make a Prey of their Souls, But why dost thou judge thy Brother? If not judge; then not Persecute, Plunder, Beat, Imprison to Death our Brethren; that must needs follow. Come, let us Protestants look at Home, and view our Actions, if we are not the Men.

In short, Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Mind, and if any Thing be short, God will reveal it;205 let us but be patient. It was not Flesh and Blood that revealed Christ to Peter, they are Christ’s Words, therefore let us leave off the Consultation, and Weapons of Flesh and Blood, and trust Christ with his own Kingdom: He hath said, that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it;206 and we cannot think that he would have us seek to Hell’s Gates to maintain it: And if it is not of this World, then not to be maintain’d by Force and Policy, which are the Props of the Kingdoms of this World. God, the Apostle tells us, has chosen the weak Things of this World, to confound the Mighty:207 Therefore he has not chosen the Strength and Power of this World, to suppress conscientious People, that as to humane Force, are justly accounted weakest and most destitute, in all Ages, of Defence.

I will here conclude my Scripture-Proofs with this Exhortation or Injunction rather of the Apostle. Ye are bought with a Price, be not ye the Servants of Men.208 The Subject here is not human, wherein human Ordinances are to be obeyed; that is not the Question; but Divine; and those that for Fear or Favour of Men desert their Principles, and betray their Consciences, they renounce their Lord, deny him that bought them, and tread his Blood, the Price of their Souls, under their Feet: Ye are bought with a Price, Christ has purchas’d you, you are not your own, but his that bought you, therefore be not the Servants of Men, about God’s Things or Christ’s Kingdom; vail to no Man’s Judgment, neither make Man’s Determinations, your Rule of Faith and Worship. Stand fast in the Liberty, wherewith he has made you free, and be not entangled again, into Bondage, for we are not come to that Mountain that we cannot touch, to Sinai: We are not now to be kept under like School-Boys or Minors:209 That Imposition might be useful then, which is a Bondage now. Moses was God’s Servant and faithful, he saw, heard, and went up to the Mount for the People; but Christians are come to Mount Zion, to Jerusalem, the Mother of Peace and Freedom. Much then depended upon the Integrity of Moses, and yet God sent for the People near the Mount, that they might see his Glory; and wrought Wonders and Miracles to engage their Faith and vindicate the Integrity of Moses his Servant (as the 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 Chapters of Numbers declares) and which none now can pretend to vouch the Exercise of their Authority: I say it pleased God then to appear by those Ways; but now the Law is brought Home to every Man’s Heart, and every one shall know God for himself, from the least to the greatest, My Sheep, says Christ, hear my Voice.210 And let us remember that there is no Possibility of Deception here, where there is no Necessity of trusting. In fine, Ye are bought with a Price, be not ye the Servants of Men. One is Lord, even Christ, and ye are Brethren.

But methinks I hear a stout Objection, and ’tis this: At this Rate you will overthrow all Church-Discipline, all Censure of Errors, if no Man or Men can determine. My Answer is ready and short, No Scripture Church-Discipline is hereby oppugned or weakned: Let not the Sentence end in Violence upon the Conscience unconvinced: Let who will expound or determine, so it be according to true Church-Discipline, which can be exercised on them only, who have willingly joyn’d themselves in that Covenant of Union, and which proceeds only to a Separation from the rest, a disavowing or disowning, and that only in Case of falling from Principles or Practices once received, or about known Trespasses: But never to any Corporal or Pecuniary Punishment; The two Arms of Anti-Christ, or rather of the great Beast which carries the Whore.

But let us observe what sort of Church-Government the Apostle recommends. Avoid foolish Questions, and Genealogies, and Contentions, and Striving about the Law; for they are unprofitable and vain: 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 (or in) Himself; or Self-condemned.211

It’s very remarkable, First, That this great Apostle, instead of exhorting Titus to stand upon Niceties, and sacrifice Men’s Natural Comforts and Enjoyments for Opinions of Religion, injoyns him to shun Disputes about them; leaving the People to their own Thoughts and Apprehensions in those Matters, as reputing the Loss of Peace, in striving, greater than the Gain that could arise from such an Unity and Conformity: Which exactly agrees with another Passage of his; Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded; and if in any Thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.212 He did not say you shall be fined, pillaged, Excommunicated and flung into Prison, if ye be not of our Mind.

2dly, That, in the Apostle’s Definition, an Heretick is a Self-condemned Person, one conscious to himself of Error and Obstinacy in it; but that are not conscientious Dissenters; for many ten Thousands in this Nation act as they believe, and dissent from the national Religion purely upon a Principle of Conscience to Almighty God; and would heartily conform if they could do it upon Conviction, or with any Satisfaction to their own Minds: And with Men of any Tenderness or common Sense, their continual great Sufferings in Person and Estate, and their Patience under them, are a Demonstration, or there can be none in the World, that Conscience and not Humour or Interest is at Bottom.

Nor can their Persecutors disprove them, unless they could search Hearts, and that is a little too far for a fallible Spirit to reach, and an infallible One they deny. So that the Apostle makes not the Heretick to lie upon the Side of Mis-believing, or not coming up to his Degree of Faith and Knowledge, but upon the Side of Wilfully, Turbulently, Obstinately, and Self-condemnedly, maintaining, Things inconsistent with the Faith, Peace and Prosperity of the Church.

Granting us then not to be Obstinate and Self-condemned Dissenters, and you cannot reasonably refuse it us, How do you prove us Erroneous in the other Part? All Parties plead Scripture, and that for the most opposite Principles. The Scripture, you say, cannot determine the Sense of it self; it must have an Interpreter: if so, he must either be Fallible or Infallible: If the first, we are worse than before; for Men are apt to be no less confident, and yet are still upon as uncertain Grounds: If the last, this must either be an external or an internal Judge: If an external, you know where you are without pointing; for there stands nothing between you and Popery in that Principle: If an internal Judge, either it is our selves or the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us: Not our selves, for then the Rule would be the Thing ruled, which cannot be; and if it be the Spirit of Christ Jesus, and the Apostle tells us, Rom. 8. That unless we have the Spirit we are none of Christ’s, then is the Neck of Imposition broken; and what hast thou to do to judge me? Let me stand or fall to my own Master: And upon this Foot when Luther, Zuinglius, Calvin, Melancthon, Beza, Bullinger, Zanchius Abroad, and Tindal, Barns, Cranmer, Ridley, Hooper, Jewel, Bradford, Philpot, Sanders, Rogers,&c. at Home; and as good Men, and constant Martyrs, in Ages before them.

But suppose Conscientious Dissenters as ill Men as the Apostle describes an Heretick to be; what is the Punishment? This is close to the Point: Stand it.

3dly. A Man that is an Heretick after the first and second Admonition, reject;213 that is, deny his Communion, declare he is none of you, condemn his Proceedings by a publick Censure from among your selves. What more can be strained, by the fiercest Prosecutors of Men for Religion, out of these Words?

But will we be governed by the Rules of Holy Writ? Have we any true Veneration for the Exhortations and Injunctions therein? Then let us soberly consider, what the Apostle Paul advises and recommends to his beloved Timothy upon the present Occasion, and I dare promise an End to Contest and Persecution for Religion. Flee youthful Lusts; but follow Righteousness, Faith, Charity, Peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure Heart; but foolish and unlearned Questions avoid, knowing that they do gender Strifes. And the Servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all Men, apt to teach, patient, in Meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth. 2 Tim. 2. 22, 23, 24, 25.

There is such a Depth of Wisdom lodged in this one Passage, that I find Difficulty to express my self upon it, and yet I shall with Pleasure endeavour it. Here is both Faith and Government, Religion and Duty, all that becomes us towards God, our Brethren, our Neighbour, our Selves, yea, our Opposers and Enemies.

Flee youthful Lusts: that is, avoid Sin, turn away from every Appearance of Evil, flee the Temptation as soon as thou seest it, lest it ensnare thee; but follow Righteousness, Charity and Peace; seek and love Holiness and there will be Charity and Peace to thy self, and in thee, to all Men. Rom. 14. 17. 1 Cor. 4. 20. For the Kingdom of God stands in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost; not in Contest about Words, nor in maintaining foolish and unlearned Questions, which reach not the Soul, nor carry any Force upon our Affections, nor learn Men to be better, to have more Piety, Virtue, Goodness; but are meer Notions and Speculations, that have no Influence upon Holy Living, or Tendency to the Regiment of our Passions: Such Questions as the Curiosity or Wantonness of Men’s Wit or restless Fancy are apt to start under Pretence of Divine Truth, and Sublime Mysteries: These Niceties, Conceits and Imaginations of Men, (not bottomed on the Revelation of the Eternal Spirit, but Human Apprehension and Tradition) such Questions avoid, meddle not with them; but, next to Youthful Lusts, flee them by all Means; for they draw to Strife, to Heats, Animosities, Envy, Hatred and Persecution, which unbecome the Man of God; for says this Apostle, He must not strive, but be gentle unto all Men, apt to teach, patient: Let his Rank, Notion, Opinion or Faith be what it will, he must not be Fierce, nor Censorious, much less should he persecute or excite Caesar to do it for him; no such Matter: He must be apt to teach and inform the Ignorant; and in Case it succeed not, he ought not to be Outragious, or go about to whip or club it into him: He must be patient, that is, he must not think to force and bend things to his own Will or Time, but commit his Honest Endeavours to God’s Blessing, that can raise, of the Stones of the Streets, Children unto Abraham.214 This Sort of Man will serve God against his Will, instead of submitting his Will to God’s: There is no Evil he will stick at to serve God his Way, he will plunder and kill for God’s Sake, and meritoriously send all his Passions upon the Errands of his ignorant Zeal; and the Trophies that it loves, are the Spoils and Havock it makes upon Mankind; the most unnatural and dangerous Temper in the World. Our Blessed Lord, that knew what was in Man, has left us his Remark upon it, Luke 9. 55. The Want of this Patience has been the Undoing of all.

But some will object, O! but it is not Ignorance! ’tis Obstinacy and Opposition: Hardly judged, my Friend; but admit it were so, here’s a Receipt for the Malady, and that of the Apostle’s prescribing. Observe the following Words: In Meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them Repentance, to the acknowledging of the Truth.215 Then not Fining, Plundering, Beating, Stocking, Imprisoning, Banishing and Killing, even Opposers themselves, for Religion; unless there be a Way of doing these Things with Gentleness, Patience and Meekness; which I confess I think no Body ever heard of.

But as the Apostle gives Timothy another Method than is now used by the Sons of Violence for reclaiming Opposers, so the Reason of the Counsel makes all other Ways unlawful, viz. If God peradventure will give them Repentance to the Acknowledgment of the Truth. I would hereupon enter the List with a Persecutor: Is Repentance in my own Power, or is it in thine to give me? The Apostle says neither: ’Tis God’s Gift alone; If God peradventure will give them Repentance,&c. Since Repentance then is in the Case, and that God alone can give it, of what Use are Violent Courses, which never beget Repentance? On the contrary, they have rarely fail’d to raise Prejudice and beget Hardness in the Sufferer, and Pity in the Beholder.

But was this the Evangelical Rule and Practice! Yes, that it was. O then! whence comes Imposition, Force, Cruelty, Spoil of Goods, Imprisonments, Knockings, Beatings, Bruisings, Stockings, Whippings, and Spilling of Blood for Religion? What Church is that whose Officers are so far from clothing the Naked that they strip the Clothed; from feeding the Hungry, that they take their Bread from them; and those, some of them, poor Widows and helpless Orphans? And so remote are they from visiting the Sick and Imprison’d, that they drag away their Beds from under them, and cast their Persons into Prison for Conscience Sake. Nay, some have been so unnatural that they haled away an Honest Man from a Meeting to Goal at Reading, a while since, not permitting him to take Leave of his poor Wife, newly delivered, and in a Dying Condition, though she much desired it, and liv’d but just by the Meeting, from whence they took him; with an Hundred more Things, that I forbear being particular in, because I would not be thought to provoke when I aim only at Christian Reproof and Amendment. In fine, What are they that for no other Cause pass such Dreadful Excommunications, as render the Excommunicants little better than Outlawed Persons, subjecting their Civil and Natural Rights to their Pride, Passion, Interest or Revenge, unless they will purchase their Enjoyment at the dear Rate of giving their own Consciences the Lye? For what else can be the Consequence of conforming to that I do not believe? Is not this to destroy sincere Men, and make and save Hypocrites? When it is but too palpable that Vice reigns without Controul, and few of these busy Men, these Conscientious-Hunters, give themselves the thought of correcting Manners, defending Virtue, or suppressing Vice.

O, that such as are concerned would soberly consider if any Thing be so Scandalous to True Religion as Force! Who can think that Evidence Good that is extorted? And what a Church is that which is made up of such Proselytes, or that employs such Means to make them? It is base Coyn that needs Imposition to make it current, but true Metal passeth for it’s own intrinsick Value. O where is that Christian Meekness, Patience and Forbearance! How many have been ruined, that were never exhorted, and excommunicated before they were once admonished? This is not to serve God, but worldly Interest: It’s quite contrary to Christ’s Counsel and his Followers and Practice. He came to save, and not to destroy Nature, to magnify his Grace. You pretend most of you, to dislike J. Calvin’s unconditional Reprobation, yet practise it: If you say, no, Conformity is your Condition, I answer, It is as unreasonable to require an Impossibility, as cruel to damn Men for not doing it: For, as you say, his Doctrine makes God to command them to repent, that cannot repent; and yet damn them if they repent not: So you enjoin Men to relinquish their present Faith and Worship, and conform to yours, which is not in their Power to do, yet damn them in a temporal Respect if they refuse it: For you make such an unavoidable Dissent punishable with the Destruction of Men’s Liberties and Estates. You had better leave off valuing your selves upon the Mercy and Well-natur’dness of that Tenet of the Universal Love of God to Mankind ’till you love more than your selves, and abominate that the Church of England should be the Elect to the Civil Government and all others as Reprobates, since you pretend to detest the like Injustice in John Calvin’s Notion of Election and Reprobation.216

And the Truth of it is, this helps on Atheism as much as any Enormity in the Land; when witty Men are not willing to take Pains to examine after the Truth and Excellency in Religion, so that People that call themselves Christ’s Ministers and the Apostles Successors and Followers, affect and seek Government, and yet twice deny it, when they go to receive it: That some others grow Lordly, live Voluptuously, and watch after the biggest Preferments, not being excited by most Service for God, but earthly Power and Wealth for themselves; and that, at the same Time, they persecute Men of more Self-denyal, for Matters of Opinion about Faith and Worship towards God; so that Non-Conformity to the Church, No Protection from the State. Which, among Protestants, is so much the more unreasonable; First, Because they, by these Courses, implicitly own and assume the highest Infallibility and Perfection, and yet deny any such Thing. For it supposes that nothing is Truer, nothing Perfecter; or else they both persecute Men to embrace a Fallible and Imperfect Religion, and with cruel Penalties provide against any thing more true or Infallible; which is the greatest Injury to the World that can be, in as much as it is a plain Endeavour to frustrate all those excellent Prophecies and gracious Promises God hath given, and the Holy Scriptures declare of the latter Days. But Secondly, It exposes Protestants to the Lash and Scorn of the Papist unavoidably; for, at this Rate, you that, with Reason, think it Ignorance and Irreligion in the Papist to imagine himself discharged in God’s Account, by believing only as the Church believes, conceive your selves, at the same Time, justify’d by believing only as a few of your own Doctors, or else as the State believes. But if the Church cannot use Force in Religion, because she cannot infallibly determine to the Conscience without Convincement, much less ought a few Doctors or the Civil Authority to use Force where they can much less judge. Unless you would make them the Civil Executioners of your Displeasure who have no Civil Power to give them such Commission; and to be sure no Ecclesiastical Authority to Exercise any Force or Violence about Religion. For the Papist, judging by his Principles, punishes them that believe not as the Church believes, though against Scripture; but the Protestant, who teaches every one to believe the Scripture, though against Church-Authority, persecutes, against his own Principles, even them that in any Particular so believe as he, in general, teaches them to believe. This is hard, but true upon the Protestant; for what is plainer than that he afflicts those, that, according to his own Doctrine, believe and honour Holy Scripture, but, against it, will receive no Human Interpretation. Them, I say, who interpret Scripture to themselves, which, by his Position, none but they to themselves can interpret; Them, that use the Scripture no otherwise, by his own Doctrine, to their Edification, than He himself uses it to their Punishing; and so whom his Doctrine acknowledges true Believers, his Discipline persecutes as Hereticks.

To sum up all at this Time, If we must believe as Caesar appoints, why not then as the Church believes? But if not as either, without Convincement, pray how can Force be lawful? Let me recommend one Book to you, that of Right claims a Place with you, and that is Bishop Taylor’s of Liberty of Prophecy;217 never answer’d, that I have heard of, and I have Reason to believe, never will be attempted; for indeed it is unanswerable. That was the Judgment of a Doctor under Persecution, I could be glad if it might be the Practice of Bishops in their Power: I may say the same of J. Tillotson’s sober and seasonable Discourse before the Commons on the Fifth of November.218 And, the Truth is, I am the more earnest with you at this Time, because I find that God daily shews us he has great good Will to poor England. O why should we drive him from us by our Disobedience to him, and our Severities to one another! He has lately put a Price into our Hands, and continues to pour his Favours upon us: All depends upon a sincere Reformation and our Perseverance therein.

To give Testimony of this, let us with our whole Hearts turn to God, and keep his Holy Law; and let us but be jealous of his Glory, by punishing Vice, and cherishing Virtue, and we may assure our selves he will interest himself in our Safety. Of this we cannot doubt; for he who has begun to do it under our Disobedience, will not desert us in our sincere Repentance. And as this is our Duty to God, without which we vainly hope for Deliverance, so is there a Duty we owe to one another, that is the next requisite to our Preservation.

Let, therefore, all Asperities be avoided, Nick-Names forbidden, and the Oppressed Protestant delivered. Revive the noble Principle of Liberty of Conscience, on which the Reformation rose: For in Vain do we hope to be deliver’d from Papists, ’till we deliver our selves from Popery. This Coercion upon Conscience and Persecution for Religion are that Part of Popery which is most justly hated and feared: And if we either fear or hate Popery for it’s Cruelty, shall we practise the Cruelty we fear or hate it for? God forbid! No, not on those that have used it to us. This were the Way to be deserted of God, and left to their Cruelty. The same Sins will ever fix the same Odium, and find the same Punishment where-ever they are; yea greater, by how much Protestants pretend to better Things: If they burnt your Ancestors, don’t you strip and starve your Brethren: Remember the many Thousands now persecuted in this Kingdom for the Sake of their tender and very peaceable Consciences; Husbands are unlawfully separated from their Wives, and Parents from their Children, their Corn, Cattle and Houshold-stuff swept away, perhaps at the Instigation of some lewd and indigent Informer, or to please the Malice of an ill-dispos’d Neighbour. In the mean Time many, once sufficient, are expos’d to Charity, the Fruits of their honest Labour and Bread of their poor helpless Children being now made the Forfeiture of their Conscience.

Friends and Country Men, there is a deep Doctrine in this Providence; examine it well, that you may reap the Benefit of it: And among the rest, let me tell you, this is not the least Part of it, that God is shewing you Mercy, that you may shew Mercy, and has awaken’d you at the Brink of the Pit, that you may help your Brethren out of it, ay, your Enemies. Be wise and considerate; It will be much your own Fault if you are not happy. And truly I have no Manner of Scruple, but God will preserve us, if we will not cast away our selves. For our own Sins and Folly can only direct the Hand that seeks to hit and hurt us; and shall we make it successful to our own Ruin? Let us therefore turn away from all Impiety; let the Magistracy discourage and punish it; and let us forbear and love one another. If we begin with God, we shall end with God, and that is with Success: Else, be assured, we shall only inherit the Wind of our own Invention, and be deserted of him then, when we shall most want him.

In short, reverence the present Providence; and though your Lives have not deserv’d it, let them now be grateful and not abuse it. Pursue your Advantages throughly, but wisely; be as temperate as zealous, and to your Enemies as generous as just. Insult not over ill Men for the Sake of their ill Principles, but pity their Unhappiness, whilst you abhor the Cause of it: Let them see that you had rather inform than destroy them, and that you take more Pleasure in their Conversion than your own Revenge. This will be the greatest Confutation upon them, that they be taught the Goodness of your Religion by the Mildness of it; and by it’s Mercy the Cruelty of their own. The Indian Atabaliba rejected the Romish Baptism because of the Spanish Tyranny; whence it was usual with those Poor Americans to desire they might not go to Heaven if the Spaniards went thither. I know there be little Arts used to prevent Protestant Union, and that in a Protestant Guise? and ’tis a Trick, not of Yesterday, to put one Party of Protestants upon devouring four or five, that both the Protestant Church may have the Odium of Eating or Devouring her own Children, and that another Interest, behind the Hangings, may find the more easy and creditable Accession to the Chair: It is the Men of this Strain, though under Disguise, that now seek to distract you; and to effect it the better, old Stories must be had up, Acts of Oblivion violated, the Dead disturb’d, their Tombs rifled, and they haled out of their Graves to receive a new Sentence: That condemning the Living of that Interest by the Dead, they might be deserted of those, that, to say True, cannot be long safe without them.

If any Thing Sober and Judicious be propos’d for allaying Asperities, accomodating Differences, and securing to Prince and People a just and legal Union of Interest, as our Government requires, we must presently be told of 41, and 42, as if there were a sort of Necromancy in the Numbers, or that the naming of those Figures (long since made Cyphers by an Act of Oblivion) had Power enough to lay the active and generous Spirits of our Times:219 But they find themselves mistaken in their black Art, and that Things as well as Times are changed; The Mask is off, and he that runs may read, Res Nolunt malè Administrari.220

Men in their Pleas and Endeavours for Truth, Justice and Sincere Religion will not be overborn or staggered by such stale and trifling Reflections, rarely used, of late, but to palliate wretched Designs, or discredit good ones with Men of weak Judgment, though perhaps of loyal Principles.

I beseech you let us not be unskilful in these Tricks, that we may not be mistaken or abused by them: I cannot tell a Time in which the Minds of all Sorts of Protestants have been more powerfully and unanimously engag’d to endeavour a good Understanding between the King and People. And as I am sure it was never more needed, so, let me say, no Age hath put a richer Price into the Hands of Men, or yielded a fairer Occasion to fix an happy and lasting Union upon: In order to which let me prevail with you that we may study to improve this great Principle as the necessary Means to it, viz. That God’s Providence and our own Constitution have made the Interest of Prince and People One; and that their Peace and Greatness lie in a most industrious and impartial Prosecution of it.

Those that teach other Doctrine, as that the Prince hath an Interest apart from the Good and Safety of the People, are the sole Men that get by it, and therefore find themselves oblig’d to study their Misunderstanding; because they only are disappointed and insecured by their Union.

Experience truly tells us that such Persons have another Interest than that which leads to a common Good, and are often but too artificial in interesting Princes in the Success of it: But prudent and generous Princes have ever seen that it is neither safe nor just; and that no Kingdom can be govern’d with true Glory and Success but there where the Interest of the Governour is one with that of the Governed, and where there is the strictest Care to steer all Transactions of State, by the Fundamentals, or the first and great Principles of their own Constitution: Especially, since swerving from them hath always made Way for Confusion and Misery in Government. Our own Stories are almost every where vext by this Neglect; and those of our Neighbours must submit to the same Truth.

To conclude and sum up the whole Discourse; If you will both cure present and prevent future Grievances, it will greatly behove you to take a most deliberate and unbyass’d View of the present State of Things, with their proper Causes and Tendencies. Let us confront our Ecclesiastical Matters with the plain Text and Letter of Holy Scripture; this is Protestant. And let us compare our Civil Transactions with the Ancient Laws and Statutes of the Realm; this is English. And I do humbly and heartily beseech Almighty God, that he would so dispose the Hearts of Prince and People, as that firm Foundations may be now laid for a Just and Lasting Tranquility to these Nations: And believe me if you please, unless they are Just and Equal they cannot last. Time will prove it, because it always has, and that God is unchangeable in the Order and Justice of his Providence. And, since Righteousness exalts a Nation, and that Sin is the Shame of any People:221 therefore will I close with David’s Prayer, Psal. 7. 9. O let the Wickedness of the Wicked come to an End, but Establish the Just: For the Righteous God tryeth the Hearts and the Reins.

An APPENDIX of the Causes and Cure of Persecution.

I IMPUTE all Persecution for Religion to these Seven ensuing Causes, tho properly speaking, there is but one Original Cause of this Evil, and that is the Devil, as there is but one Original Cause of Good, and that is God.

I. The first Cause of Persecution is this, That the Authors and Users of it have little or no Religion at Heart; They are not subject to the Ground and first Cause of true Religion in their own Souls; for it is the Part of true Religion to humble the Mind, break the Heart, and soften the Affection; It was God himself that said, Unto this Man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite Spirit, and trembles at my Word;222 not one that breaks Pates, and plunders Goods for Religion. Blessed are they that mourn, said Christ, they shall be comforted;223 but not Those that sell Joseph and make Merry. Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God; Those that are low in their own Eyes; not such as devour and damn all but themselves. Blessed are the Meek, for they shall inherit the Earth; such as are gentle and ready to help, and not Tyrannize over Neighbours. Blessed are the Merciful, for they shall obtain Mercy; what then shall become of those that are Cruel, under Pretence of doing it for God’s Sake? Blessed are the Peace-makers, for they shall be called the Children of God; then Disturbers and Destroyers of their peaceable Neighbours shall not be called so. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness, for they shall be filled; but not those that hunger and thirst after our Corn and Cattel, Houses and Land for Conscience sake. And Blessed are you, says Christ, when Men shall Revile and Persecute you, &c. Then not those that Revile and Persecute others that are Sober and Harmless: Not one Blessing to his Conscience-hunting Doctrine and Practice, that devour the Widow and Orphans for Religion. Were Men inwardly and truly Religious, they would have so low an Opinion of themselves, so tender a Regard to Mankind, so great an awe of Almighty God, as that none of these froward Passions would have any Sway with them. But, the Mischief is, unmortified Passions pretend to Religion; a proud, impatient, arrogant Mind would promote it; than which, nothing of Man is more remote from it; mistaking the very Nature and End of Christ’s peaceable Religion, Which if the Apostle James say true, is to visit the Fatherless and Widow, and keep our selves unspotted of the World.224 But, on the contrary, They turn Widow and Fatherless out of House and Home, and spot themselves with the Cruelty and Injustice of usurping their poor Patrimony, the Bread of their Lives, and Sustenance of their Natures: Such Men as these are void of natural Affection; their Religion has no Bowels, or they are without Mercy in the Profession of it; which is the Reverse of true Religion, that makes us love Enemies, do good to them that hate us, and pray for them that despitefully use us:225 And so much stronger, in Souls truly Religious, is the Power of Love to Mankind than any self revenging Passion, that from an humble and serious Reflection upon the Mercies and Goodness of God to them, they do not only suppress any rising of Heart against their Persecutors (much more against peaceable Dissenters) but with much softness and Charity, commiserate their Ignorance and Anger: Offering to inform them, and praying that they may be forgiven. This is to be Religious, and therefore those that Persecute for Religion any ways are Irreligious.

II. The next Cause of Persecution is the gross but general mistake which People are under concerning the Nature of the Church and Kingdom of Christ: For the lamentable Worldliness of Mens Minds hath put them upon those Carnal Constructions which have made Way for all the external Coercion and Violence, used by bad and suffer’d by good Men, on the Score of Religion, from the Beginning. And no wonder if ordinary Persons tumble upon this Construction, when the Disciples of Jesus shew’d themselves so ill read in the Mysteries of his Kingdom, that after all the Intimacy they had had with him, they refrain’d not to ask, When shall the Kingdom be restored to Israel.226 They look’t abroad, had a Worldly Idea in their Minds; Jews like, they waited for external Deliverance from the Power of the Romans, rather than an Internal Salvation from the Dominion of Satan; and interpreted those Words to Worldly Loss and Freedom, which did relate to the Loss and Redemption of the Soul: But Jesus taught them better Things; yet so, as not to deny or flatly discourage and rebuke them; for that, though true, might have been more at that Time, than they could have born; therefore he winds off with them upon the Time and the Season of the Thing, knowing that the Time was at Hand, that they should be better taught and satisfied of the Nature of his Kingdom, unto which he referred them. When the Spirit of Truth comes, it shall lead you into all Truth, &c:227

That the Kingdom of Christ is not of this World, has been before observed, and the Reason is so great that all Men of Common Sense must allow it, upon Christ’s Principle and Argument; for says he, then would my Servants fight for me;228 truly implying, because the Kingdoms of this World are evidently set up and maintained by worldly Force, and that he will have no worldly Force used in the Business of his Kingdom, that therefore it is not of this World. Consequently, those that attempt to set up his Kingdom by worldly Force, or make that their Pretence to use it, are none of his Servants: They are truly but Men of this World; such as seek an Earthly, and not an Heavenly Crown and Kingdom: Themselves, and not Christ Jesus. Where, by the way, let me observe, that though the Jews, to engage Pilate the more easily to their side, impeach’t Christ of being an Enemy to Caesar, they were Enemies, and He appeared a Friend to Caesar; for he came to reform the Lives of Men, to make them better Subjects; to obey Caesar, not for Fear, but for Conscience-sake: A way to make Caesar’s Province, both easie and safe. But the Jews would have had him Caesar’s Enemy; one that should have forceably rescu’d them from Caesar Power; That was what they waited for; a Captain General to head the Revolt, and with an High Hand to overbear and captive Caesar, as he had done them: And, ’tis more than probable, that this Appearance being after quite another Manner and to another End than they expected; They therefore rejected him; their Hearts being set upon the Desire of Worldly Empire:

But to return; Christ told his Disciples, that he had chosen them out of the World;229 how pray? Not to converse or live bodily in it? No such Matter: But he had chosen or singled them from the Nature, Spirit, Glory, Policy and Pomp of this World. How Persons, so qualified, can make a Worldly Church or Kingdom, unless they desert Christ’s Doctrine, is past my Skill to tell. So that the Capacity that Christians stand in to Christ is Spiritual, and not Worldly or Carnal; and for that Reason not Carnal or Worldly, but Spiritual Methods and Weapons only are to be used to inform or reclaim such as are Ignorant or Disobedient. And if we will give Ancient Story credit, we shall find that Worldly Weapons were never employed by the Christian Church till she became Worldly, and so ceast to be truly Christian.

But why should I say the Church? the most abused Word in the World; It is her Leaders have taught her to err; and that of believing as the Church believes, is so far from being true in Point of Fact as well as Reason, that the Church her self has long believed as the Clergy, that is, the Priest, believed, ever since that Sort of Men have practised a Distinction from, and Superiority upon, the Laity. He that will peruse the Ecclesiastical Story delivered us by Eusebius Pamphilus, Socrates Scholasticus, Evagrius, Ruffinus, Sozomen, and more especially the Councils, B. Usher, ay, and Baronius himself, will find but too many and sad Instances of the Truth of this.230

In short, People apprehending the Church and Kingdom of Christ to be Visible and Worldly, like other Societies and Governments, have thought it not only to be Lawful, but Necessary to use the Arts and Force of this World to support his Church and Kingdom; especially since the Interest of Religion hath been incorporated with that of the Civil Magistrate: For from that Time he hath been made Custos utriusque Tabulae,231 and such as offend, though about Church Matters, have been reputed Transgressors against the State, and consequently the State interested in punishing the Offence. Whereas had Christians remain’d in their primitive Simplicity and Purity, in the Self-denying, Patient and Suffering Doctrine of Christ; Christianity had stood in Holy Living and not in Worldly Regiment; and it’s Compulsion would have been Love, it’s Arms Reasons and Truth, and it’s utmost Rigour, even to obstinate Enemies or Apostates, but Renouncing of their Communion, and that not till much Forbearance and many Christian Endeavours had been used to reclaim them.

To sum up all; The Kingdoms of this World, stand in outward, Bodily and Civil Matters, and here the Laws and Power of Men reach and are effectual. But the Kingdom and Church of Christ, that is chosen out of the World, stands not in Bodily Exercise (which the Apostle says profits little) nor in Times nor Places, but in Faith, and that Worship which Christ tells us is in Spirit and in Truth:232 To this no worldly Compulsion can bring or force Men; ’tis only the Power of that King of Righteousness whose Kingdom is in the Minds and Souls of the Just, and he rules by the Law of his own free Spirit, which, like the Wind, Bloweth where it listeth:233 And as without this Spirit of Regeneration no Man can be made a Member of Christ’s Church or Kingdom, and less a Minister, so neither is it in the Power of Man to command or give it, and consequently all worldly Force employ’d to make Men Members of Christ’s Church and Kingdom is as ineffectual as unnatural. I could be very large upon this Point, for it is very fruitful, and so much the Cause of Persecution, that if there were never another to be assign’d, this were enough; and upon due Consideration it must needs meet with every Man’s Judgment and Experience, I will here add the Sense of Memorable Hales of Eaton upon this Subject.234

When our Saviour, in the Acts, after his Resurrection, was discoursing to his Disciples concerning the Kingdom of God, they presently brake forth into this Question, Wilt thou now restore the Kingdom unto Israel?235 Certainly this Question betrays their Ignorance: Their Thoughts still ran upon a Kingdom, like unto the Kingdoms of the World, notwithstanding they had so long and so often heard our Saviour to the contrary: Our Saviour therefore shortly takes them up, Non est vestrum, your Question is nothing to the Purpose; the Kingdom that I have spoken of is another Manner of Kingdom than you conceive. Sixteen hundred Years, & quod excurrit,236 hath the Gospel been preached unto the World, and is this Stain spunged out yet? I doubt it. Whence arise those novel and late Disputes, de Notis Ecclesiae, of the Notes and Visibility of the Church? Is it not from hence, they of Rome take the World and the Church to be like Mercury and Sosia in Plautus his Comedies, so like one another, that one of them must wear a Toy in his Cap, that so the Spectators might distinguish them;237 whence comes it, that they stand so much upon State and Ceremony in the Church? Is it not from hence, that they think the Church must come in like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts μετὰ πολλἦς φαντασίας, as St. Luke speaks, with a great deal of Pomp, and Train, and Shew, and Vanity?238 And that the Service of God, doth necessarily require this Noise and Tumult of outward State and Ceremony? Whence comes it, that we are at our Wits End, when we see Persecution, and Sword, and Fire, to range against the true Professors of the Gospel? Is it not because, as these bring Ruin and Desolation upon the Kingdoms of the World, so we suppose they work no other Effect in the Kingdom of Christ? All these Conceits, and many more of the like Nature, spring out of no other Fountain than that old inveterate Error, which is so hardly wiped out of our Hearts, That the State of the Church and Kingdom of Christ, doth hold some Proportion, some likeness with the State and managing of temporal Kingdoms: Wherefore to pluck out of our Hearts, Opinionem tam insitam, tam vetustam, a Conceit so ancient, so deeply rooted in us, our Saviour spake most excellently, most pertinently, and most fully, when he tells us that his Church, that his Kingdom is not of this World.239

In which Words of his, there is contained the true Art of discovering and knowing the true Nature and Essence of the Church. For as they which make Statues, cut and pare away all Superfluities of the Matter upon which they work; so our Saviour, to shew us the true Proportion and Feature of the Church, prunes away the World, and all Superfluous excrescencies, and sends her to be seen, at he did our first Parents in Paradise, stark naked: As those Elders in the Apocryphal Story of Susanna, when they would see her Beauty, commanded to take off her Mask;240 so he that longs to see the Beauty of the Church, must pull off that Mask of the World, and outward shew. For as Juda in the Book of Genesis, when Thamar sat vail’d by the Way Side, knew not his Daughter from an Whore;241 so whilst the Church, the Daughter and Spouse of Christ, sits vail’d with the World, and Pomp and Shew, it will be an hard Matter to discern her from an Harlot. But yet further, to make the Difference betwixt these Kingdoms the more plainly to appear, and so better to fix in your Memories, I will briefly touch some of those Heads, in which they are most notoriously differenced.

The first Head wherein the Difference is seen, are the Persons and Subjects of this Kingdom: For as the Kingdom of Christ is not of this World, so the Subjects of this Kingdom are Men of another World, and not of this. Every one of us bears a double Person, and accordingly is the Subject of a double Kingdom: The Holy Ghost, by the Psalmist, divides Heaven and Earth betwixt God and Man, and tells us, as for God, He is in Heaven, but the Earth has he given to the Children of Men: So hath the same Spirit, by the Apostle St. Paul, divided every one of our Persons into Heaven and Earth, into an outward and earthly Man, and into an inward and Heavenly Man:242 This Earth, that is, this Body of Clay hath he given to the Sons of Men, to the Princes under whose Government we live; but Heaven, that is, the inward and spiritual Man, hath he reserved unto himself: They can restrain the outward Man, and moderate our outward Actions by Edicts and Laws; they can tye our Hands and our Tongues;—Illâ se jactet in aula AEolus:243 Thus far they can go, and when they are gone thus far, they can go no farther: But to rule the inward Man in our Hearts and Souls, to set up an Impartial Throne in our Understandings, and Wills, this Part of our Government belongs to God and to Christ: These are the Subjects, this the Government of his Kingdom: Men may be Kings of Earth and Bodies, but Christ alone is the King of Spirits and Souls. Yet this inward Government hath Influence upon our outward Actions: For the Authority of Kings over our outward Man is not so absolute, but that it suffers a great Restraint; it must stretch no farther than the Prince of our inward Man pleases: For if secular Princes stretch out the Skirts of their Authority to command ought by which our Souls are prejudic’d, the King of Souls hath in this Case given us a greater Command, That we rather obey God than Men.244

III. A Third Great Cause of Persecution for Religion is this, that Men make too many Things necessary to be believed to Salvation and Communion. Persecution entred with Creed-making; for it so falls out, that those who distinguish the Tree in the Bulk, cannot with the like Ease discern every Branch or Leaf that grows upon it; and to run out the necessary Articles of Faith to every good or true Thing that the Wit of Man may deduce from the Text, and so too, as that I ought to have a distinct Idea or Apprehension of every one of them, and must run them over in my Mind as a Child would conn a Lesson by Heart, of which I must not miss a Tittle upon my Salvation; this I think to be a Temptation upon Men to fall into Dispute and Division, and then we are taught, by long Experience, that he that has most Power will oppress his Opinion that is weaker; whence comes Persecution: This certainly puts Unity and Peace too much upon the Hazard. Mary’s Choice therefore was not of many Things, but the one Thing necessary, as Christ, the Lord of the true Divinity Terms it. Luke 10. 42. And pray what was this one needful Thing, but Christ Jesus himself, and her Faith, Love and Obedience in and to him? Here is no perplex’d Creed to subscribe, no System of Divinity to charge the Head with; This One needful Thing was Mary’s Choice and Blessing: May it be ours, and, I should hope a quick End to Controversies, and consequently to Persecutions.

IV. Another Cause of Persecution, is The Prejudice of Education, and that Byass Tradition gives to those Men, who have not made their Religion the Religion of their Judgment: For such will forbid all the Inquiry which might question the Weakness or Falshood of their Religion, and had rather be deceiv’d in an honourable Descent, than be so uncivil to the Memory of their Ancestors as to seek the Truth, which found, must reprove the Ignorance of their Ages; of this, the vainest of all Honours, they are extream careful; and at the very Mention of any Thing, to them new, tho’ as old as Truth, and older than this World, are easily urg’d into a Tempest, and are not appeased but by a Sacrifice. This Ignorance and Want of Inquiry helps on Persecution.

V. Another Reason, and that no small one, is Self-Love and Impatience of Men under Contradiction, be it of Ignorance, that they are angry with what they cannot refute, or out of private Interest, it matters not: Their Opinion must reign alone, they are tenacious of their own Sense and can’t indure to have it questioned, be there never so much Reason for it. Men of their Passions are yet to learn that they are ignorant of Religion, by the want they have of Mortification; such Persons can easily let go their Hold on Charity, to lay violent Hands upon their Opposers: If they have Power, they rarely fail to use it so; not remembring, that when they absolv’d themselves from the Tye of Love, Meekness and Patience, they abandoned true Religion, and contended not for the Faith, once deliver’d to the Saints,245 which stood therein, but for meer Words.

It is here that proud Flesh, and a capricious Head disputes for Religion, and not an humble Heart and a Divine Frame of Spirit. Men that are angry for God, Passionate for Christ, that can call Names for Religion, and fling Stones for Faith, may tell us they are Christians if they will, but no Body would know them to be such by their Fruits; to be sure they are no Christians of Christ’s making.

I would to God that the Disputants of our Time did but calmly weigh the Irreligiousness of their own Heats for Religion, and see if what they contend for will quit the Cost, will countervail the Charge of departing from Charity, and making a Sacrifice of Peace to gain their Point. Upon so seasonable a Reflection I am confident they would find that they rather show their Love to Opinion than Truth, and seek Victory more than Concord.

Could Men be contented, as he whom they call their Lord was, to declare their Message, and not strive for Proselytes, nor vex for Conquest, they would recommend all to the Conscience, and if it must be so, patiently endure Contradiction too, and so lay their Religion, as he did his, not in Violence but Suffering: But I must freely profess, and in Duty and Conscience I do it, that I cannot call that Religion, which is introduced against the Laws of Love, Meekness and Friendship: Superstition, Interest or Faction, I may.

There is a Zeal without Knowledge, that is Superstition; there is a Zeal against Knowledge, that is Interest or Faction, the true Heresie; there is a Zeal with Knowledge, that is Religion; therefore blind Obedience may be Superstition, it can’t be Religion; And if you will view the Countries of Cruelty, you shall find them superstitious rather than Religious. Religion is gentle, it makes Men better, more friendly, loving and patient then before. And the Success, which followed Christianity, whilst the ancient Professors of it betook themselves to no other Defence, plainly proves both the Force of those passive Arguments above all corporal Punishments, and that we must never hope for the same Prosperity, till we fall into the same Methods. Gal. 5. 22. James 3. 17. Are Men impatient of having their Conceits own’d? they are then most to be suspected. Error and Superstition, like crackt Titles, only fear to be searcht, and run and cry for Authority and Number. Truth is plain and stedfast, without Arts or Tricks; will you receive her, well; if not, there is no Compulsion. But, pray tell me, what is that desired Uniformity that has not Unity, and that Unity, which has not Love, Meekness and Patience in it? I beseech you hear me, for those Men depart from the Spirit of Christianity that seek with Anger and Frowardness to promote it. Let us not put so miserable a Cheat upon our selves, nor such an Affront upon Christianity as to think that a most gentle and patient Religion can be advanced by most ungentle and impatient Ways. I should sooner submit to an humble Opposition, than to the greatest Zealot in the World, and rather deliver up my self to him that would modestly drop a controverted Truth, than to such as seek tempestuously to carry it; for even Error, bashfully and patiently defended, endangers Truth, in the Management of imprudent and hasty Zeal; and gives to it that Lustre, which only good Eyes can see from Gold. Alas! it is for want of considering that Men don’t see, that to disorder the Mind in Controversie is a greater Mischief, than to carry the Point can be a Benefit; inasmuch as it is not to be Religious to apprehend rightly, but to do well: The latter can scarcely be without the former, but the former often is without the latter, which brings me to my sixth Cause of Persecution.

VI. Another, and that no small Cause of Persecution, is a Misapprehension of the Word Religion. For when once the Ignorance or Prejudice of Men, has perswaded them to lay more weight upon their own Opinion, or Dissent of their Neighbours, than in Truth the Thing will bear, to excuse their Zeal or justifie their Spleen or Credit, they presently heighten the Difference to a new Religion; whence we so frequently hear of such Reflections as these, new Gospels and Faiths, upstart Religions and Lights, and with the like Scare-Crows, amuse the Vulgar, and render their own Design of ruining honest Men the more practicable. But I would obviate this Mischief; for a new Religion has a new Foundation, and consequently where there is the same Foundation, there cannot be a new Religion. Now the Foundation of the Christian Religion is Christ, and that only is another Religion than the Christian which professes another Foundation, or corruptly adds to that Foundation; by adding of other Mediators, and introducing a new Way of Remission of Sin: Which at least cannot be said of the several sorts of Protestants? For Protestants therefore to reproach each other with new Religions and Gospels; and by their indecent and unchristian Behaviour, to enflame their own Reckoning, and draw into more Discord, is a Sin against God, an Injury to the common Cause of Protestancy, and to the Security of the civil Interest of that Country, where the Inhabitants are of that Religion, as well as a real Injustice to one another: For Protestants don’t only agree in the same Fundamentals of Christianity, but of Protestancy too, that is, in the Reasons of Separation from Rome, which was also Christian. Let not every circumstantial Difference or Variety of Cult be Nicknam’d a new Religion, neither suffer so ill an Use to be made of such Dissents as to carry them beyond their true Bounds; for the Meaning of those Arts of ill Men, is to set the People farther off from one another than they really are, and to aggravate Differences in Judgment to Contrariety in Affection: And when they have once inflam’d them to Variance and Strife, nothing can hinder Persecution but Want of Power; which being never wanted by the strongest Side, the Weakest, though truest, is opprest, not by Argument but Worldly Weapons.

VII. The seventh and last Cause I shall now assign for Persecution is this, That Holy Living is become no Test among us, unless against the Liver. The Tree was once known by it’s Fruits: It is not so now: The better Liver, the more dangerous, is not a Conformist, and so the more in Danger, and this has made Way for Persecution. There was a Time, when Virtue was Venerable and good Men admired; but that is too much derided, and Opinion carries it.

He that can perswade his Conscience to comply with the Times, be he Vicious, Knavish, Cowardly, any Thing, he is protected, perhaps preferred. A Man of Wisdom, Sobriety and Ability to serve his King and Country, if a Dissenter, must be blown upon for a Phanatick, a Man of Faction, of disloyal Principles, and what not?

Rewards and Punishments are the Magistrates Duty and the Government’s Interest and Support. Rewards are due to Virtue, Punishments to Vice. Let us not mistake nor mis-call Things; let Virtue be what it always was in Government; good Manners, sober and just Living; and Vice, ill Manners and dishonest Living. Reduce all to this; Let such good Men have the Smiles and Rewards, and such ill Men the Frowns and Punishments of the Government: This ends Persecution, and lays Opinion to Sleep. Ill Men will make no more Advantages by such Conformity, nor good Men no more suffer for Want of it.

In short: As that Religious Society deserves not the Protection of the Civil Government which is inconsistent with the Safety of it; so those Societies of Christians that are not only not Destructive of the Civil Government, but Lovers of it, ought, by the Civil Government, to be secured from Ruin.

God Almighty open our Understandings and Hearts, and pour out the Spirit of thorough Reformation upon us; for it is in the Spirit, and not in the Words of Reformation, that the Life and Prosperity of Reformation stands; that so we may be all conscientiously dispos’d to seek and pursue those things which make for Love, Peace and Godliness, that it may be well with us and ours, both here and for ever.

For yet a little while and the Wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his Place, and it shall not be; but the Meek shall inherit the Earth, and shall delight themselves in Abundance of Peace. The Wicked Plotteth against the Just, and gnasheth upon him with his Teeth; the Lord shall laugh at him; for he seeth that his Day is coming. Psal. 37. 10, 11, 12, 13.

The Judgment of King James and King Charles the First about Persecution for Religion.

WE FIND it asserted by King James in his Speech to the Parliament in the Year 1609. That it is a pure Rule in Divinity, That God never loves to plant his Church with Violence and Blood: And he furthermore said, It was usually the Condition of Christians to be Persecuted, but not to Persecute.246

And we find the same Things in Substance asserted again by his Son, King Charles the First, in his Book known by the Name of ΕΙΚΩΝ ΒΑΞΙΛΙΚΗ, printed for R. Royston, as followeth.

Page 67. In his Prayer to God, he said, Thou seest how much Cruelty, amongst Christians, is acted under the Colour of Religion; as if we could not be Christians, unless we Crucify one another.

Page 28. Make them at length seriously to consider, that nothing Violent and Injurious, can be Religion.

Page 70. Nor is it so proper to hew out Religious Reformations by the Sword, as to polish them by fair and equal Disputations, among those that are most concern’d in the Differences, whom not Force but Reason ought to convince.

Sure, in Matters of Religion, those Truths gain most upon Men’s Judgments and Consciences, which are least urged with Secular Violence, which weakens Truth with Prejudices.

Page 115. It being an Office not only of Humanity, rather to use Reason than Force, but also of Christianity to seek Peace and ensue it.

Some Words of Advice from King Charles the First to the then Prince of Wales, now King of England, &c.

Page 165. MY COUNSEL and Charge to you is, That you seriously consider the former Real or Objected Miscarriages, which might Occasion my Troubles, that you may avoid them, &c.

Beware of Exasperating any Faction, by the Crosness and Asperity of some Men’s Passions, Humours and private Opinions, employ’d by you, grounded only upon Differences in lesser Matters, which are but the Skirts and Suburbs of Religion, wherein a Charitable Connivance and Christian Toleration, often dissipates their Strength, when rougher Opposition fortifies, and puts the Despised and Oppressed Party into such Combinations, as may most enable them to get a full Revenge on those they count their Persecutors.

Page 166. Take Heed that Outward Circumstances and Formalities of Religion devour not all.

6.

A BRIEF EXAMINATION AND STATE of Liberty Spiritual, both With Respect to Persons in their Private Capacity, and in their Church Society and Communion (1681)

Written for the Establishment of the Faithful, Information of the Simple-Hearted, and Reproof of the Arrogant and High-minded, by a Lover of True Liberty, as it is in Jesus.

William Penn.

To go amongst the People of the Lord, called Quakers.

If the Son shall make you Free, ye shall be Free indeed. John 8. 36.

If we walk in the Light as he is in the Light, we have Fellowship one with another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin, 1 John 1. 7.

To the People of the Lord, called QUAKERS.

Dear Friends and Brethren,

IT HATH of long Time rested with some pressure upon my Spirit, for Zion’s Sake, and the Peace of Jerusalem, to write something of the Nature of True Spiritual Liberty; Liberty,one of the most Glorious Words and Things in the World, but little understood, and frequently abused by many. I beseech Almighty God to preserve you, his People, in the right Knowledge and Use of that Liberty, which Jesus Christ, the Captain of our Salvation, hath purchased for us, and is redeeming us into, who hath led Captivity captive, and is giving Gifts to them that truly believe in his Name.1Christ’s Liberty is obtain’d through Christ’s Cross; they that would be his Free-men, must be his Bonds-men, and wear his blessed Yoke.2His Liberty is from Sin, not to Sin; to do his Will, and not our own; no, not to speak an Idle Word. ’Tis not I that live (saith the Apostle) but Christ that liveth in me, who had set him Free from the Power of Sin, and brought Immortality to Light in him; whence he learned thus to triumph, O Death, where is thy Sting! O Grave, where is thy Victory!3This is the Personal Freedom that comes by Jesus Christ, to as many as receive him in the Way, and for the End for which God hath given him, to wit, to be a Saviour and a Leader, to save us from our Corruptions, and guide us in the Narrow Way of his Holy Cross, and through the strait Gate of Self-denyal, which leads to Eternal Life. And as many as have enter’d at this Door, are come to have Unity with God, and one with another; To love him above all, and their Neighbours as themselves;4yea, to prefer each other before themselves.Such will not violate the great Law of their Lord and Master; Love one another;5the New, and yet the Old Commandment: These dwell in Love, and so they dwell in God; for God is Love. ’Twas the beloved Disciple’s Testimony, and it comes up to what another Man of God hath said, namely, The Church that dwells in God, if she dwells in God, then in Love; consequently her Members are in Union, of one Mind in Church Matters, since she has but one Head to Rule her.6

Peruse this brief Discourse in this Love, and it may be to Edification. My Aim is to assert the Truth, detect Error, and point in true Brotherly Kindness at those Shoals and Sands some by Mistake, or Overboldness, have and may run upon. O Friends! I greatly desire, that the Spirit of Love, Wisdom, and a sound Understanding, of Meekness, Judgment and Mercy, may ever rest upon you, that blamelesly you may be kept, an Holy Family, at Unity with it self, to the Lord God your Redeemer, that he over all may in you, through you, and by you, be Exalted, Honoured and Praised, who is worthy and blessed for ever.

A Brief EXAMINATION, &c.

Quest. WHAT is Spiritual Liberty?

Answ. It is twofold; there is a true and a false Liberty, as a true and false Spirit, the right discerning of which concerns every one’s Eternal Well-being.

Qu.What is true Spiritual Liberty?

Answ. Deliverance from Sin by the Perfect Law in the Heart, The Perfect Law of Liberty James 2. otherwise called, The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, that makes free from the Law of Sin and Death; else-where stiled, The Law of Truth writ in the Heart, which makes Free indeed, as saith Christ, If the Son shall make you Free, ye shall be Free indeed.7 So that the Liberty of Gods People stands in the Truth, and their Communion in it, and in the Perfect Spiritual Law of Christ Jesus, which delivers and preserves them from every Evil Thing that doth or would embondage. In this blessed Liberty, it is not the Will nor Wisdom of Man, neither the vain Affections and Lusts that rule, or give Law to the Soul; for the Minds of all such as are made Free by the Truth, are by the Truth conducted in doing and suffering through their Earthly Pilgrimage.

Qu.What is False Liberty?

Answ.A Departing from this blessed Spirit of Truth, and a Rebelling against this Perfect Law of Liberty in the Heart,8 and being at Liberty to do our own Wills; upon which cometh Reproof and Judgment.

Qu.But are there not some Things wherein we ought to be left to our own Freedom?

Answ.We are not our own, for we are bought with a Price; and in all Things ought we to glorify God with our Bodies, Souls and Spirits, which are the Lord’s.9

Qu.But must we have a Motion or Command from the Spirit of Truth for all Things that we do?10

Answ. That may be according to the Truth, which may not be by the immediate Motion or Command of the Truth; for that is according to the Truth, that is not against the Mind of the Truth, either particularly or generally exprest. The Truth commands me to do all to the Praise and Glory of God;11 but not that I should wait for a Motion to do every particular Thing. For Example: The variety of Actions in Trading, Commerce and Husbandry, the Variety of Flesh, Fish and Fowl for Food, with more of the same Nature, in all which there is a Choice and Liberty, but still according to the Truth, and within the Holy Bounds and Limits of it.

Qu.Then it seems there are some Things left to our Freedom.

Answ. Yes; but it must still be according to the Mind of God’s Truth: There are Things enjoyned, such as relate to our Duty to God, to our Superiors, to the Houshold of Faith and to all Men and Creatures, these are Indispensible. There are also Things that may be done or left undone, which may be called Indifferent;12 as what sort of Meat I will eat to day, whether I will eat Flesh, Fish or Herbs, or what Hours I will eat my Meals at, with many such outward Things of Life and Converse; yet even in such Cases I ought to act according to the Truth, in the Temperance and Wisdom of it.

Qu.But doth not Freedom extend farther than this; for since God hath given me a Manifestation of his Spirit to profit withal, and that I have the Gift of God in my self, should I not be lest to act according as I am free and perswaded in my own Mind, in the Things that relate to God, left looking upon my self as obliged by what is revealed unto another, though it be not revealed unto me, I should be led out of my own Measure, and act upon another’s Motion, and so offer a blind Sacrifice to God?

Answ. This is true in a Sense, that is, if thou art such an one that canst do nothing against the Truth, but for the Truth, then mayst thou safely be left to thy Freedom in the Things of God, and the Reason is plain; because thy Freedom stands in the Perfect Law of Liberty, in the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, and in the Truth, which is Christ Jesus, which makes thee Free indeed, that is, perfectly Free from all that is Bad, and perfectly Free to all that is Holy, Just, Lovely, Honest, Comely, and of good Report;13 but if thou pleadest thy Freedom against such Things, yea, obstructest and slightest such Good, Wholesome and Requisit Things, thy Freedom is Naught, Dark, Perverse, out of the Truth, and against the perfect Law of Love and Liberty.

Qu.But must I conform to Things whether I can receive them or no? Ought I not to be left to the Grace and Spirit of God in my own Heart?

Answ. To the first Part of the Question, Nay; to the last, Yea. But now let us consider what is the Reason thou canst not receive them: Is the Fault in the Things themselves? Are they inconsistent with Truth, or will not the Truth own or assent unto them, or is the Fault in thee? that is to say, Is it thy Weakness, or thy Carelesness; If thy Weakness, it is to be born with, and to be informed; if thy Carelesness, thou ought’st to be admonished; for it is a dangerous Principle, and pernicious to true Religion, and which is worse, it is the Root of Ranterism to assert, That nothing is a Duty incumbent upon thee, but what thou art perswaded is thy Duty;14 for the Seared Conscience pleads his Liberty against all Duty, the Dark Conscience is here unconcerned, the Dead Conscience is here uncondemned, unless this Distinction be allowed of, that there may be an Ignorance or an Insensibility from Inability or Incapacity, or a Dark Education; and an Ignorance and Insensibility, from Carelesness, Disobedience, Prejudice, &c. So that though thou art not to conform to a Thing ignorantly, yet thou art seriously to consider, why thou art ignorant, and what the Cause of such Ignorance may be; certainly it can’t be in God, nor in his Gift to thee; it must then needs be in thy self, who hast not yet received a Sense for or against the Matter, about which thou art in doubt. To the second Part of the Question; Ought I not to be left to the Grace of God in my own Heart? Ans. That is of all Things most desirable, since they are well left that are there left; for there is no Fear of want of Unity, where all are left with the one Spirit of Truth; they must be of one Mind, they can’t be otherwise. So that to plead this against Unity, is to abuse the very Plea, and to commit the greatest Contradiction to that very Doctrine of Scripture, viz. That all should be guided by the Grace and Spirit of God in themselves;15 for the End of that Doctrine is certainty. They shall all know me, saith the Lord, from the least to the greatest. And I will give them one Heart, and one Way, that they may fear me for ever, for the Good of them, and of their Children after them, Jer. 32. 39. And I will give them one Heart, and I will put a new Spirit within you; and I will take the Stony Heart out of their Flesh, and will give them an Heart of Flesh, Ezekiel 11. 19. And the Multitude of them that believed were of one Heart, and of one Soul, Acts 4. 32. Is not this Unity too? I will restore unto you a pure Language; they shall be of one Heart and of one Mind, and great shall be their Peace.16 Therefore I must say to thee, Friend, What if thou wilt not be left with the Grace and Spirit of God in thy self, nor wait for it’s Mind, nor be watchful to it’s Revelations, nor humble and quiet till thou hast received such necessary Manifestations, but pleadest against the Counsel of the Spirit of the Lord in other faithful Persons, under the Pretence of being left to his Spirit in thy self; by which Means thou opposest the Spirit to the Spirit, and pleadest for Dis-unity, under the Name of Liberty; I ask thee, May not I exhort thee to the Practice of that I am moved to press thee to the Practice of? If not, thou art the Imposer, by restraining me from my Christian Liberty; and not only so, but away goeth Preaching, and with it the Scriptures, that are both appointed of God for Exhortation, Reproof and Instruction.17

Quest.But are there not various Measures, diversities of Gifts, and several Offices in the Body?18

Answ. True; but therefore are not the Members of one Mind, one Will, and one Judgment in common and universal Matters, especially relating to the Family and Church of God; And indeed there can’t be a falser Reasoning than to conclude Discord from Diversity, Contrariety from Variety. Is there Contrariety of Bloods, Lifes, Feelings, Seeings, Hearings, Tastings, Smellings, in one and the same Body, at one and the same Time? No such Matter: Experience is a Demonstration against all such Insinuations. So that though it be granted, that there is Diversity of Gifts, yet there is no Disagreement in Sense; and though Variety of Offices, yet no Contrariety in Judgment concerning those Offices. Well, say the Holy Scriptures of Truth, there is but one God; the Lord our God is but one Lord; there is but one God and Father of all Things; (that are good) and there is but one Lord, one Faith, and One Baptism;19 and his Light, Life and Spirit is at Unity with it self in all; what comes from the Light, Life or Spirit in one, it is the same in Truth and Unity to the rest, as if it did rise in themselves: This is seen in our Assemblies every Day, and will be throughout all Generations in the Church of God, among those that live in the lowly Truth, in which the pure Sense and sound Judgment stands; God is not the God of Confusion, but Order:20 Every one in his Order is satisfied, hath Unity and true Fellowship with whatever comes from the Life of God in another; for this precious Life reacheth throughout the Heritage of God, and is the common Life that giveth the common Feeling and Sense to the Heritage of God. Degree or Measure in the same Life can never contradict or obstruct that which is from the same Life for the common Benefit of the Family of God. The Lord is the Unmeasurable and Incomprehensible Glorious Being of Life, yet have we Unity with him in all his Works, who are come to his Divine Measure of Light and Truth in our own Hearts, and live therein; and shall we not have Unity with that which proceeds from a Fellow Creature? In short, the Saints Way is in the Light, wherein there is neither Doubt nor Discord; yea, they are Children of the Light, and called Light, and The Lights of the World;21 and can it be supposed that such should disagree and contradict each other in their exterior Order and Practice in the Church before the World; O the blessed seamless Garment of Jesus! where that is known, these Things can never rise. But yet again, The Just Man’s Path is not only a Light, but a shining Light, Brightness it self: Certainly there can be no Stumbling. It is also said, That Light is sown for the Righteous;22 then the Righteous shall never want Light upon any Occasion: And saith that beloved Evangelist and Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ, They that walk in the Light, have Fellowship one with another, 1 John 1. Whence it is easy to conclude, they that go out of the Fellowship, go out of the Light; but if they that walk in the Light, have Fellowship one with another, what shall we say of those that plead being left to the Light to justify their not having Fellowship one with another? and, which is yet worse, who suppose People may conscientiously and Justifiably Dissent within themselves, and that by Reason of the Variety of the Degrees of the Spirit and Grace that are given of God unto them; as if the lesser Degree may dissent from the greater, because of it’s not being able to comprehend it. And to make this Principle more Authentick, such tell us, This is the Ancient Principle of Truth; and object, How will you else be able to maintain the Quakers Principles? The Fallacy of all which, lieth (as I said before) in not rightly distinguishing between Diversity and Disagreement, Variety and Contrariety; for this Diversity hath Concord, and this Variety hath Unity? And it is a Blindness that hath too much of late happened to some, by going from the one Life and Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, first to fall into Disagreements, and then plead for it, under the Notion of Diversity of Measures. I would ask all such Persons, who arrogate to themselves such a peculiar Knowledge of the Ancient Principles of Truth, or the Quakers first Principles; 1st, Whether they believe there be a Christian Body? 2dly, Whether this Body hath an Head? 3dly, Whether Christ be not this Head? 4thly, Whether this Head be without Eyes, Ears, Smell and Taste, and this Body without Sense and Feeling? If not, Whether this Head Seeth, Heareth, Smelleth, Tasteth DIFFERINGLY and CONTRARILY to it self? And whether this Body hath a contrary Feeling at the same Time about the same Thing? And if it be true, that the Church of Christ, redeemed by his most precious Blood to live to him, see with the same Eye, hear with the same Ear, speak with the same Mouth, live by the same Breath, and are led by the same Spirit, where is this Disagreement, Contrariety or Dissent about the Things of his Church?

Quest.But the Members of Christ’s Church in the Primitive Times had different Apprehensions; as the Apostles, and the People gathered by them.

Answ. Pray let me know who they were, and in what Cases?

Quest.The Persons were PAUL and PETER, and those Christians that differed about Meats; and the Scripture is plain in the Case.23

Answ. The Difference between Peter and Paul (in the Acts) testifies the Weakness of Peter, and the Place justifies Paul’s Reproof of his too great Compliance with the Jews in some of their Rites; which makes against Liberty of various Practices, in the Church of Christ, and not for indulging them. That Instance about the Difference of Christians as to Meats, &c. has nothing in it to the End for which it is alledged; for this related not to Church-Order or Communion, but Private and Personal Freedoms, what each might do with Respect to themselves; that is, they might make Laws to themselves, in Things that only concern’d private Persons, and it centred there; Here, What I will eat, When I will eat, Things to my self, and for my self, as a Man having Power over my own Appetite: The Liberty in Things Private, Personal, and Indifferent, makes nothing for Dissenting about Church Matters in Things of Communion and Society, and that also are not indifferent, as to eat Fish, or eat Flesh, or eat Herbs, plainly is: But necessary; As to be careful and orderly about the External Business of the Church: These are no Jewish Rites, nor Shadowy Ceremonies, no Meats nor Drinks that are Private and Personal, where Weakness is apt to mistake (That were an Unnecessary and an Unchristian Yoke to bear) but Things comely, orderly, and of good Report, that tend to Purity, Peace and Diligence in Things acceptable to God, and requisite among his People in their Temporal Christian Capacity. And herein the Apostle Paul exercised his Godly Authority; and we find that not only those that opposed themselves to it, as thinking, he took too much upon him, (demanded a Mark of Christ’s speaking in him) are in Scripture branded with Contention. But the true Believers, that had in themselves a Mark of Christ’s speaking in him, were of One Mind, and avoided such as were given to Contention; for it was not the Custom of the Churches of Christ. Thus were Christ’s People of One Heart, in Things relating to their Communion. Yet a little farther; They that have the Mind of Christ, are of one Mind; for Christ is not divided:24 They that have Christ for their Head, have One Counsellor and Prophet, One Seer and Bishop, they disagree not in their Judgments in Things relating to him, and the Good of his Church; they have one and the same Guide; For the one Spirit, into which they have all drank, and by it are baptized into one Body, leads them all.25 Now to every Member is a Measure of the same Spirit given to profit with; and though every Member is not an Eye, nor an Ear, nor a Mouth, yet every Member hath Unity with the Eye, with the Ear, with the Mouth, in their proper and respective Acts, and they one with the other: The Eye sees for the Mouth, the Mouth speaks for the Eye, and the Ear hears for both; this Variety hath no Discord, but in this Diversity of Gifts and Offices, each Member is sensible of the other, and moves and Acts by one and the same Life, Spirit and Guidance, which is Omnipresent, proportionable to every Member in it’s distinct Office. It must be granted, that there are Helps in the Church, as well as that there is a Church at all; and the Holy Ghost has compared those Helps (as is before-mentioned) to several Members and Senses of Man’s Body, as an Eye, an Hand, a Foot, Hearing, Smelling, &c. All then cannot be the Eye, neither can all be the Hand, for then they would confound their Office, and act disagreeably to the Ordination of the great Orderer of his Church. And if I will not comply with him that God hath made an Eye, because I am not that Eye, or an Hand, because I am not that Member my self, nor a Party to the Action, or Performance of that Member, I resist the Lord, though under Pretence of resisting Man for the Lord’s Sake. And truly, this is the Rock that some of our own Time, as well as Persons of former Ages, have split upon, they have not been contented with their own Station in the Body, they have not kept to their own Gift, nor been taken up with the Duty of their own Place in the Church. If he that is a Foot would be an Hand, and the Hand covets to be an Eye, envying others their allotted Station, through Height of Mind, and walking loose from the Holy Cross, there can be no such Thing as Concord and Fellowship in the Church of Christ.

Farthermore, since the Spirit of the Lord is one in all, it ought to be obey’d through another, as well as in one’s self; and this I affirm to you, That the same lowly Frame of Mind that receives and answers the Mind of the Spirit of the Lord in a Man’s self, will receive and have Unity with the Mind of the same Spirit through another, and the Reason is plain; Because the same Self-evidencing Power and Virtue that ariseth from the Measure of the Spirit of Truth in one’s self, and that convinceth a Man in his own Heart, doth also attend the Discovery of the Mind of the same Spirit, when delivered by another; for the Words of the Second Adam, the quickning Spirit,26 through another, are Spirit and Life, as well as in thy own Particular; this is discern’d by the Spiritual Man that judgeth all Things, although the Carnal Man pleadeth, Being left to his Freedom; and it may be talks of being left to the Spirit in himself too; the better to escape the Sense and Judgment of the Spiritual Man:27 It is my earnest Desire, that all that have any Knowledge of the Lord, would have a tender Care how they use that Plea against their faithful Brethren, that God put into their Mouths against the persecuting Priests and Hirelings of the World, namely, I must mind the Spirit of God in my self; for though it be a great Truth that all are to be left thereunto, yet it is as true, that he whose Soul is left with the Spirit of Truth in himself, differs not from his Brethren that are in the same Spirit; and as true it is, that those who err from the Spirit of Truth, may plead, being left to the Spirit in themselves, against the Motion and Command of the Spirit through another, when it pleaseth not his or her High Mind and perverse Will; for a Saying may be true or false, according to the subject Matter it is spoken upon, or applied to; We own the Assertion, we deny the Application: There lies the Snare. ’Tis true, the People of God ought to be left to the Guidings of the Spirit of God in themselves; but for this to be so applied, as to disregard the Preachings or Writings of Christ’s enlightned Servants, because by them applied properly to the Preaching or Writing of false Prophets and Seducers, will by no Means follow. I say the Doctrine is true, but not exclusively of all external Counsel or Direction; therefore false in Application, where Men are allowed to have had the Fear of God, and the Mind of his Spirit, and are not prov’d to have acted in their own Wills and Wisdom, or without the Guidance of the Spirit of God, about the Things of his Church and Kingdom.

Quest.But though this be True, which hath been alledged for Heavenly Concord, yet what if I do not presently see that Service in a Thing, that the Rest of my Brethren agree in; In this Case, what is my Duty and theirs?

Answ. It is thy Duty to wait upon God in Silence and Patience, out of all Fleshly Consultations; and as thou abidest in the Simplicity of the TRUTH, thou wilt receive an Understanding with the Rest of thy Brethren, about the Thing doubted. And it is their Duty, whilst thou behavest thy self in Meekness and Humility, to bear with thee, and carry themselves tenderly and loving towards thee; but if on the contrary, thou disturbest their Godly Care and Practice, and growest Contentious, and exaltest thy Judgment against them, they have Power from God to Exhort, Admonish, and Reprove thee; and (if thou perseverest therein) in His Name to refuse any farther Fellowship with thee, till thou repentest of thy Evil.28

Quest.But lest I should mistake, when thou speakest of True Liberty, that it stands in being made Free by the Truth, from all Unrighteousness, dost thou mean, That no other Persons ought to have the Liberty of Exercising their Dissenting Consciences, but that Force may be Lawful to reduce such as are reputed Erroneously Conscientious?29

Answ. By no Means: It were a great Wickedness against God, who is Lord of the Souls and Spirits of Men, and ought to preside in all Consciences, who, as the Apostle saith, Is the Only Potentate, and hath Immortality.30 For though I give the True Liberty of Soul and Conscience to those only that are set Free by the Power of Christ, from the Bondage of Sin, and Captivity of Death, yet do I not intend, that any Person or Persons should be in the least harm’d for the External Exercise of their Dissenting Consciences in Worship to God, though Erroneous; for though their Consciences be blind, yet they are not to be forced; such Compulsion giveth no Sight, neither do Corporal Punishments produce Conviction: This we above all People, in our Day, have withstood, in Speaking, Writing and Suffering, and, blessed be God, continue so to do with Faithfulness. For Faith is the Gift of God,31 and forced Sacrifices are not pleasing to the Lord.

Quest.But according to thy Argument, it may be my Fault, that I have not the Gift of Faith; and upon this Presumption, it may be, thou wilt inflict some Temporal Penalties upon me.

Answ. No such Matter; for such Kind of Faults are not to be punished with Temporal or Worldly Penalties; for whether the Errors be through Weakness or Wilfulness, not relating to Moral Practice, all External Coercion and Corporal Punishment is excluded. For the Weapons of our Warfare are not Carnal, but Spiritual.32

Quest.But what then is the Extent of the Power of the Church of Christ, in Case of Schism or Heresy?

Answ. The Power that Christ gave to his Church was this, That Offenders, after the first and second Admonition, (not Repenting) should be Rejected:33 Not Imprisoned, Plundered, Banished, or put to Death; this belongs to the Whore and false Prophet: O! all these Things have come to pass for Want of Humility, for Want of the ancient Fear, and keeping in the quiet Habitation of the Just:34 The Truth in you all shall answer me. And this I affirm, from the Understanding I have received of God, not only that the Enemy is at work to scatter the Minds of Friends, by that loose Plea, What hast thou to do with me? Leave me to my Freedom and to the Grace of God in my self, and the like; but this Proposition and Expression, as now understood and alledged, is a Deviation from, and a Perversion of the Ancient Principle of Truth; for this is the plain Consequence of this Plea, if any one (especially if they are but lately convinced) shall say, I see no Evil in paying Tythes to Hireling Priests, in that they are not claimed by Divine Right, but by the Civil Laws of the Land. I see no Evil in Marrying by the Priest, for he is but a Witness. Furthermore, I see no Evil in Declining a Publick Testimony in Suffering Times, or hiding in Times of Persecution, for I have Christ’s and Paul’s Examples.35I see no Evil in Worshipping and Respecting the Persons of Men; for whatever others do, I intend a sincere Notice that I take of those I know, and have a good Esteem for. Lastly, I see no Evil in keeping my Shop shut upon the World’s Holidays and Massdays, (as they call them) though they are rather Lewdly and Superstitiously than Religiously kept; for I would not willingly give any Offence to my Neighbours.36 And since your Testimony is against Imposition, and for leaving every one to the Measure of the Grace which God hath given him, not only, No Man hath Power to reprove or judge me, but I may be as good a Friend as any of you, according to my Measure. And now, here is Measure set up against Measure, which is Confusion it self—Babel indeed: This is that very Rock both Professors and Prophane would long since have run us upon, namely, That a Way is hereby opened to all the World’s Libertines, to plead the Light within for their Excesses; Which indeed grieves the Spirit of God, and was severely judged by our Friends in the Beginning, and is still reproved by them that keep their Habitation, though some are become as wandring Stars through their own Pride,37 and the Prevalency of the Hour of Temptation that hath overtaken them; whereas had they kept in the Channel of Love and Life, in the Orb and Order of the Celestial Power, they had shined as fixed Stars in the Firmament of God for ever. And from the deep Sense that I have of the Working of the Enemy of Zion’s Peace, to rend and divide the Heritage of God, who under the Pretence of crying down Man, Forms and Prescriptions, is crying down the Heavenly Man Christ Jesus, his blessed Order and Government, which he hath brought forth by his own Revelation and Power through his faithful Witnesses. This I farther testify, First, That the Enemy, by these fair Pretences, strikes at the Godly Care and Travail that dwells upon the Spirits of many faithful Brethren, that all Things might be preserved Sweet, Comely, Virtuous, and of good Report in the Church of God.38Secondly, That there never was greater Necessity of this Godly Care than at this Day, since we were a People, wherein the Cross, by too many, is not so closely kept to as in Days past, and in which there is not only a great Convincement, but a young Generation descended of Friends, who though they retain the Form their Education hath led them into, yet many of them adorn not the Gospel with that sensible, weighty, and heavenly Conversation as becomes the Children of the Undefiled Religion, and the Seed of that precious Faith which works by the Love that overcomes the World.39 And the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, that hath sent his Son Christ Jesus a Light into our Hearts and Consciences, to whose Search and Judgment all ought to (and must) bring their Deeds, and render up their Account, beareth Holy Record, that for this End hath he moved upon the Spirits of his Servants, and for this good End only have his Servants given forth, recommended, and put in Practice, those Things that are now in Godly Use among his People, whether in this or other Nations, relating to Men’s and Women’s Meetings, and their divers and weighty Services. And farther; in the Fear of the Almighty God, I shall add, That Heavenly Peace and Prosperity dwell with those who are found in an holy and zealous Practice of them; wherefore I warn all, that they take Heed of a slighting and obstinate Mind, and that they have a Care how they give Way to the Outcry of some, falsly, entituled, Liberty of Conscience against Imposition, &c. for the End thereof is to lead back again, and give Ease to the Carnal Mind, which, at last, will bring Death again upon the Soul to God, and the living Society of his Children. And indeed, it is a great Shame that any who have ever known the Truth of God in the inward Parts,40 and the sweet Society of Brethren, especially those who were early in the Work of this blessed Day and heavenly Dispensation, should so far depart from the Fear and Awe of the Lord, as to use such Unsavoury, as well as Untrue Expressions; this is very far from that meek Spirit of Jesus, and the first Love, which they pretend to have so singularly kept in, which beareth all Things, suffereth all Things, and endureth all Things, and teacheth to keep the Word of Patience in the Hour of Tribulation;41 Nay, but this is judging of Spiritual Things with a Carnal and Prejudiced Mind, stumbling at the Matter, for the Sake of the Persons through whom it comes, not eying nor weighing the Spirit the Thing arises from, but the Person by whom it is spoken, which darkens the Eye of the Understanding, and blinds, by Prejudice, the Mind that should discern, taste and judge; from whence many Mischiefs have sprung to the Church of Christ in divers Ages: Nor is it the least Evil this Spirit of Strife is guilty of, even at this Day, that it useth the Words, Liberty of Conscience and Imposition, against the Brethren, in the same Manner as our suffering Friends have been always accustomed to intend them against the persecuting Priests and Powers of the Earth, as if it were the same Thing to admonish and reprove Conceited, High-minded, Loose or Contentious Persons in the Church, as to compel Conformity in Matters of Faith and Worship, by Worldly Violence, upon the Persons and Estates of Conscientious Dissenters: O such Iniquity God will not leave unreproved!

This, Dear Friends, I send amongst you, as a Token of my true Love, in the Revelation of the free Spirit of our God and Father, who have ever been a Friend to true Liberty, as in the State according to Law, so in the Church according to Scripture, and as it standeth in the Truth of Jesus, that makes them who love it free indeed.42 Let us all keep low, and remember the Rock from whence we were hewn,43 and dwell in a tender and reverent Sense of the daily Mercies and Providences of the Lord, looking well to our own Growth and Prosperity in his heavenly Way and Work, then shall the Desire of our Hearts be more and more after him, and the Remembrance of his Name; and with our Love to God, will our Love increase one towards another, helping and aiding one another: And I no ways doubt, but God that has brought us out of the Land of AEgypt, and out of the House of Bondage, and delivered us from the Mouth of the Lyon and the Paw of the Bear,44 will preserve his People from this Uncircumcised Spirit that is not in Covenant with God, nor under the Yoke of his Holy Royal Law of True Spiritual Liberty; for they that keep and walk in the Light of Jesus, are fenced from the Power of this Crooked Serpent,45 that seeks whom he may betray; nor are any stung by him but the Unwatchful, the Listeners and Harkners after his jealous Whispers, and detracting Insinuations: They are such as make their Dwelling in the Earth, where his Region is, and where he creeps and twists, who is Earthly, Sensual and Devilish, and so is all the Wisdom that comes from him.46

My Dear Friends: Keep, I pray you, in the Simplicity of the Truth, and Cross of JESUS, and wait for your Daily Bread, and to be Daily Renewed from the Lord; look to your Increase about Eternal Riches, and be sure to lay up Treasure in Heaven that fadeth not away,47 that your Faith and Hope may have Eternal Foundations, which the cross Occurrences of Time, and Fears of Mortality cannot move: And beware of that Loose and Irreverent Spirit, which has not those in high Esteem among you, that are Faithful in the Lord’s Work, and that labour in His Blessed Word and Doctrine. I plainly see a Coldness and Shortness on this Hand; and be the Pretence as it will, it is not pleasing to the Lord. They that love Christ, his Servants are dear to them, and they bear a tender Regard to their Trials, Travails, Spendings and Sufferings, who seek not yours, but you, that you may all be Presented Blameless at the Coming of the Great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ;48 that so the Gospel-Ministry and Testimony may be held up with Holy Fervent Love, and Godly Esteem, to the keeping under every raw and exalted Mind, and whatever may slight and turn against it, lest God that has Richly Visited us with His Fatherly Visitations, and Day springing from on High,49 should remove His Blessing from amongst us, and place His Candlestick among other People.50 Be Wise therefore, O Friends! For behold He is at the Door that must have an Account of your Stewardship: Be watchful, keep to your First Love and Works, that so you may endure to the End, and be Saved. And having Overcome, you may have Right to Eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the Midst of the Paradise of God.51

The God of Peace, who hath brought Our Dear Lord Jesus from the Dead, and us with Him, more abundantly enrich you all with Wisdom and Knowledge, in the Revelation of Himself, through Faith in His Son, by whom in these Last Days He hath spoken to us, who is the Blessed and Only Potentate, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, who only hath Immortality;52to whom be Honour and Power Everlasting. Amen.

Your Friend and Brother, in the Tribulation and Salvation of
the Enduring Kingdom of our God,

William Penn.

Worminghurst in Sussex,
the 20th of the 9th
Month, 1681.

7.

a perswasive to Moderation to Church-Dissenters, in Prudence and Conscience: Humbly submitted to the KING and His Great Council (1686)

The EPISTLE.

HAVING of late Time observ’d the Heat, Aversion and Scorn with which some Men have treated all Thoughts of Ease to Church Dissenters, I confess I had a more than ordinary Curiosity to examine the Grounds those Gentlemen went upon: For I could not tell how to think Moderation should be a Vice, where Christianity was a Virtue, when the Great Doctor of that Religion commands, that Our Moderation be known unto all Men; and why? For the Lord is at Hand:1 And what to do? but to judge our Rancor, and retaliate and punish our Bitterness of Spirit. And, to say true, ’tis a severe Reflection we draw upon our selves, that though Pagan Emperors could endure the Addresses of Primitive Christians, and Christian Caesars receive the Apologies of Infidels, for Indulgence, yet it should be thought, of some Men, an Offence to seek it, or have it of a Christian Prince, whose Interest I dare say it is, and who himself so lately wanted it: But the Consideration of the Reason of this Offence, will increase our Admiration; for they tell us, ’tis dangerous to the Prince to suffer it, while the Prince is himself a Dissenter: This Difficulty is beyond all Skill to remove, that it should be against the Interest of a Dissenting Prince to indulge Dissent. For though it will be granted there are Dissenters on differing Principles from those of the Prince, yet they are still Dissenters, and Dissent being the Prince’s Interest, it will naturally follow, that those Dissenters are in the Interest of the Prince, whether they think on it or no.

Interest will not lye: Men embark’d in the same Vessel, seek the Safety of the Whole in their Own, whatever other Differences they may have. And Self-Safety is the highest worldly Security a Prince can have; for though all Parties would rejoyce their own Principles prevailed, yet every one is more solicitous about it’s own Safety, than the other’s Verity. Wherefore it cannot be unwise, by the Security of All, to make it the Interest as well as Duty of All, to advance that of the Publick.

Angry Things, then, set aside, As Matters now are, What is best to be done? This I take to be the Wise Man’s Question, as to consider and answer it, will be his Business. Moderation is a Christian Duty, and it has ever been the Prudent Man’s Practice. For those Governments that have used it in their Conduct, have succeeded best in all Ages.

I remember it is made in Livy the Wisdom of the Romans, that they relaxed their Hand to the Privernates, and thereby made them most faithful to their Interest. And it prevailed so much with the Petilians, that they would endure any Extremity from Hannibal, rather than desert their Friendship, even then, when the Romans discharged their Fidelity, and sent them the Despair of knowing they could not relieve them.2 So did one Act of Humanity overcome the Falisci above Arms: Which confirms that noble Saying of Seneca, Mitius imperanti Melius paretur, the mildest Conduct is best obeyed.3 A Truth Celebrated by Grotius and Campanella:4 Practised, doubtless, by the bravest Princes: For CYRUS exceeded, when he built the Jews a Temple, and himself no Jew: ALEXANDER astonished the Princes of his Train with the profound Veneration he paid the High Priest of that People: And AUGUSTUS was so far from suppressing the Jewish Worship, that he sent Hecatombs to Jerusalem to increase their Devotion.5Moderation fill’d the Reigns of the most Renowned Caesars: And Story says, they were Neros and Caligulas that loved Cruelty.

But others tell us that Dissenters are mostly Antimonarchical, and so not to be indulged, and that the Agreement of the Church of England and Rome in Monarchy and Hierarchy, with their Nearness in other Things should oblige her to grant the Roman Catholicks a special Ease, exclusive of the other Dissenters. But with the Leave of those Worthy Gentlemen, I would say, no Body is against that which is for him: And that the Aversion apprehended to be in some against the Monarchy, rather comes from Interest than Principle: For Governments were never destroy’d by the Interests they preserve.

In the next Place, it is as plain, that there is a Fundamental Difference between those Churches in Religion and Interest. In Religion, it appears by a Comparison of the Thirty Nine Articles with the Doctrine of the Council of Trent.6 In Interest, they differ; Fundamentally, because our Church is in the Actual Possession of the Churches and Livings that the other Church claims. What better Mixture then can these two Churches make than that of Iron and Clay? Nor do I think it well judged, or wise, in any that pretend to be Sons of the Church of England, to seek an Accommodation from the Topick of Affinity, since ’tis that some of her Dissenters have always objected, and she as constantly deny’d to be true.

I say, this Way of Reconciling or Indulging Roman Catholicks stumbles far greater Numbers of People of nearer Creeds, and gives the Church of England the Lye. But suppose the Trick took, and they only of all Dissenters had Indulgence, yet Their Paucity considered, I am sure, a Pair of Sir Kenelm Digby’s Breeches would set with as good a Grace upon the late Lord Rochester’s Dwarf. Upon the whole Matter, Let Men have Ease, and they will keep it; For those that might plot to get it, would not plot to lose it. Men love the Bridge they need and pass: And that Prince who has his People fast by Interest, holds them by the strongest human Tye; for other Courses have failed as often as they have been tried. Let us then once try a True Liberty: Never did the Circumstances of any Kingdom lye more open and fair to so blessed an Accommodation than we do at this Time.

But we are told, The King has promised to maintain the Church of England: I grant it: But if the Church of England claims the King’s Promise of Protection, her Dissenters cannot forget That of his Clemency: And as they were both great, and admirably distinguished, so by no Means are they inconsistent or impracticable.

Will not his Justice let him be wanting in the One? And can his Greatness of Mind let him leave the Other behind him in the Storm, unpity’d and unhelp’d? Pardon me, we have not to do with an insensible Prince, but one that has been Touch’d with our Infirmities:7 More than any Body fit to judge our Cause, by the Share he once had in it. Who should give Ease like the Prince that has wanted it? To suffer for his own Conscience, looked Great; but to deliver other Men’s, were Glorious. It is a Sort of paying the Vows of his Adversity, and it cannot therefore be done by any one else, with so much Justice and Example.

Far be it from me to solicite any Thing in Diminution of the Just Rights of the Church of England: Let her rest protected where she is. But I hope, none will be thought to intend her Wrong, for refusing to understand the King’s Promise to her, in a Ruinous Sense to all Others; and I am sure she would understand her own Interest better, if she were of the same Mind. For it is morally impossible that a Conscientious Prince can be thought to have ty’d himself to compel others to a Communion, that himself cannot tell how to be of; or that any thing can oblige him to shake the Firmness of those he has confirmed by his own Royal Example.

Having then so Illustrious an Instance of Integrity, as the Hazard of the Loss of Three Crowns for Conscience. Let it at least excuse Dissenters Constancy, and provoke the Friends of the Succession to Moderation, that no Man may lose his Birth-Right for his Perswasion, and us to live Dutifully, and so Peaceably under our own Vine, and under our own Fig-Tree, with Glory to God on High, to the King Honour, and Good-will to all Men.

A Perswasive to Moderation, &c.

MODERATION, the Subject of this Discourse, is in plainer English, Liberty of Conscience to Church Dissenters: A Cause I have, with all Humility, undertaken to plead, against the Prejudices of the Times.

That there is such a Thing as Conscience, and the Liberty of it, in Reference to Faith and Worship towards God, must not be denied, even by those, that are most scandal’d at the Ill Use some seem to have made of such Pretences. But to settle the Terms: By Conscience, I understand the Apprehension and Perswasion a Man has of his Duty to God: By Liberty of Conscience, I mean, A Free and Open Profession and Exercise of that Duty; especially in Worship: But I always premise this Conscience to keep within the Bounds of Morality, and that it be neither Frantick nor Mischievous, but a Good Subject, a Good Child, a Good Servant, in all the Affairs of Life: As exact to yield to Caesar the Things that are Caesar’s, as jealous of withholding from God the Thing that is God’s.

In brief, he that acknowledges the civil Government under which he lives, and that maintains no Principle hurtful to his Neighbour in his Civil Property.

For he that in any Thing violates his Duty to these Relations, cannot be said to observe it to God, who ought to have his Tribute out of it. Such do not reject their Prince, Parent, Master or Neighbour, but God who enjoyns that Duty to them. Those Pathetick Words of Christ will naturally enough reach the Case, In that ye did it not to them, ye did it not to me;8 for Duty to such Relations hath a Divine Stamp: And Divine Right runs through more Things of the World, and Acts of our Lives, than we are aware of: And Sacrilege may be committed against more than the Church. Nor will a Dedication to God, of the Robbery from Man, expiate the Guilt of Disobedience: For though Zeal could turn Gossip to Theft, his Altars would renounce the Sacrifice.

The Conscience then that I state, and the Liberty I pray, carrying so great a Salvo and Deference to publick and private Relations, no ill Design can, with any Justice, be fix’d upon the Author, or Reflection upon the Subject, which by this Time, I think, I may venture to call a Toleration.

But to this so much craved, as well as needed, Toleration, I meet with two Objections of weight, the solving of which will make Way for it in this Kingdom. And the first is a Disbelief of the Possibility of the Thing. Toleration of Dissenting Worships from that establish’d, is not practicable (say some) without Danger to the State, with which it is interwoven. This is Political. The other Objection is, That admitting Dissenters to be in the Wrong, (which is always premised by the National Church) such Latitude were the Way to keep up the Dis-union, and instead of compelling them into a better Way, leave them in the Possession and Pursuit of their old Errors, This is Religious. I think I have given the Objections fairly, ’twill be my next Business to answer them as fully.

The Strength of the first Objection against this Liberty, is the Danger suggested to the State; the Reason is, the National Form being interwoven with the Frame of the Government. But this seems to me only said, and not only (with Submission) not prov’d, but not true: For the Establish’d Religion and Worship are no other Ways interwoven with the Government, than that the Government makes Profession of them, and by divers Laws has made them the Currant Religion, and required all the Members of the State to conform to it.

This is nothing but what may as well be done by the Government, for any other Perswasion, as that. ’Tis true, ’tis not easy to change an Established Religion, nor is that the Question we are upon; but State Religions have been chang’d without the Change of the States. We see this in the Governments of Germany and Denmark upon the Reformation: But more clearly and near our selves, in the Case of Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, Queen Mary and Elizabeth; for the Monarchy stood, the Family remained and succeeded under all the Revolutions of State-Religion, which could not have been, had the Proposition been generally true.

The Change of Religion then, does not necessarily change the Government, or alter the State; and if so, a fortiori, Indulgence of Church-Dissenters, does not necessarily hazard a Change of the State, where the present State-Religion or Church remains the same; for That I premise.

Some may say, That it were more facile to change from one National Religion to another, than to maintain the Monarchy and Church, against the Ambition and Faction of divers Dissenting Parties. But this is improbable at least. For it were to say, That it is an easier Thing to change a whole Kingdom, than with the Sovereign Power, followed with Armies, Navies, Judges, Clergy, and all the Conformists of the Kingdom, to secure the Government from the Ambition and Faction of Dissenters, as differing in their Interests within themselves, as in their Perswasions; and were they united, have neither Power to awe, nor Rewards to allure to their Party. They can only be formidable, when headed by the Sovereign. They may stop a Gap, or make, by his Accession, a Ballance: Otherwise, ’till ’tis harder to fight broken and divided Troops, than an entire Body of an Army, it will be always easier to maintain the Government under a Toleration of Dissenters, than in a total Change of Religion, and even then it self has not fail’d to have been preserved. But whether it be more or less easy, is not our Point; if they are many, the Danger is of Exasperating, not of making them easy; for the Force of our Question is, Whether such Indulgence be safe to the State? And here we have the first and last, the best and greatest Evidence for us, which is Fact and Experience, the Journal and Resolves of Time, and Treasure of the Sage.

For, First, The Jews, that had most to say for their Religion, and whose Religion was Twin to their State, (both being joined, and sent with Wonders from Heaven) Indulged Strangers in their Religious Dissents. They required but the Belief of the Noachical Principles, which were common to the World: No Idolater, and but a Moral Man, and he had his Liberty, ay, and some Privileges too, for he had an Apartment in the Temple, and this without Danger to the Government. Thus Maimonides, and others of their own Rabbies, and Grotius out of them.9

The Wisdom of the Gentiles was very admirable in this, that though they had many Sects of Philosophers among them, each dissenting from the other in their Principles, as well as Discipline, and that not only in Physical Things, but Points Metaphysical, in which some of the Fathers were not free, the School-men deeply engaged, and our present Academies but too much perplexed; yet they indulged them and the best Livers with singular Kindness: The greatest Statesmen and Captains often becoming Patrons of the Sects they best affected, honouring their Readings with their Presence and Applause. So far were those Ages, which we have made as the Original of Wisdom and Politeness, from thinking Toleration an Error of State, or dangerous to the Government. Thus Plutarch, Strabo, Laertius, and others.10

To these Instances I may add the Latitude of Old Rome, that had almost as many Deities as Houses: For Varro tells us of no less than Thirty Thousand several Sacra, or Religious Rites among her People, and yet without a Quarrel:11 Unhappy Fate of Christianity! the best of Religions, and yet her Professors maintain less Charity than Idolaters, while it should be peculiar to them. I fear, it shews us to have but little of it at Heart.

But nearer Home, and in our own Time, we see the Effects of a discreet Indulgence, even to Emulation. Holland, that Bog of the world, neither Sea nor dry Land, now the Rival of tallest Monarchs; not by Conquests, Marriages, or Accession of Royal Blood, the usual Ways to Empire, but by her own superlative Clemency and Industry; for the one was the Effect of the other: She cherished her People, whatsoever were their Opinions, as the reasonable Stock of the Country, the Heads and Hands of her Trade and Wealth; and making them easy in the main Point, their Conscience, she became Great by them; This made her fill with People, and they filled her with Riches and Strength.

And if it should be said, She is upon her Declension for all that. I answer, All States must know it, nothing is here Immortal. Where are the Babylonian, Persian, and Grecian Empires? And are not Lacedaemon, Athens, Rome and Carthage gone before her? Kingdoms and Commonwealths have their Births and Growths, their Declensions and Deaths, as well as private Families and Persons. But ’tis owing neither to the Armies of France, nor Navies of England, but her own Domestick Troubles.

Seventy Two sticks in her Bones yet: The growing Power of the Prince of Orange, must, in some Degree, be an Ebb to that State’s Strength; for they are not so unanimous and vigorous in their Interest as formerly: But were they secure against the Danger of their own Ambition and Jealousy, any Body might insure their Glory at five per Cent. But some of their greatest Men apprehending they are in their Climacterical Juncture, give up the Ghost, and care not, if they must fall, by what Hand it is.

Others chuse a Stranger, and think one afar off will give the best Terms, and least annoy them: Whilst a considerable Party have chosen a Domestick Prince, Kin to their early Successes by the Fore-father’s Side (the Gallantry of his Ancestors) And that his own Greatness and Security are wrapt up in theirs, and therefore modestly hope to find their Account in his Prosperity. But this is a Kind of Digression, only before I leave it, I dare venture to add, that if the Prince of Orange changes not the Policies of that State, he will not change her Fortune, and he will mightily add to his own.

But perhaps I shall be told, That no Body doubts that Toleration is an agreeable Thing to a Commonwealth, where every one thinks he has a Share in the Government; ay, that the one is the Consequence of the other, and therefore most carefully to be avoided by all Monarchical States. This indeed were shrewdly to the Purpose, in England, if it were but true. But I don’t see how there can be one true Reason advanc’d in Favour of this Objection: Monarchies, as well as Commonwealths, subsisting by the Preservation of the People under them.

But, First, if this were true, it would follow, by the Rule of Contraries, that a Republick could not subsist with Unity and Hierarchy, which is Monarchy in the Church; but it must, from such Monarchy in Church, come to Monarchy in State too. But Venice, Genoa, Lucca, seven of the Cantons of Switzerland, (and Rome her self, for she is an Aristocracy) all under the loftiest Hierarchy in Church, and where is no Toleration, shew in Fact, that the contrary is true.

But, Secondly, This Objection makes a Commonwealth the better Government of the Two, and so overthrows the Thing it would establish. This is effectually done, if I know any thing, since a Commonwealth is hereby rendred a more copious, powerful and beneficial Government to Mankind, and is made better to answer Contingencies and Emergencies of State, because this subsists either Way, but Monarchy not, if the Objection be true. The one prospers by Union in Worship and Discipline, and by Toleration of Dissenting Churches from the National. The other only by an Universal Conformity to a National Church. I say, this makes Monarchy (in it self, doubtless, an admirable Government) less Powerful, less Extended, less Propitious, and finally less Safe to the People under it, than a Commonwealth; In that no Security is left to Monarchy under Diversity of Worships, which yet no Man can defend or forbid, but may often arrive, as it hath in England, more than five Times, in the Two Last Ages. And truly ’tis natural for Men to chuse to settle where they may be safest from the Power and Mischief of such Accidents of State.

Upon the whole Matter, it is to reflect the last Mischief upon Monarchy, the worst Enemies it has could hope to disgrace, or endanger it by; since it is to tell the People under it, that they must either conform, or be destroy’d, or to save themselves, turn Hypocrites, or change the Frame of the Government they live under. A Perplexity both to Monarch and People, that nothing can be greater, but the Comfort of knowing the Objection is False. And that which ought to make every reasonable Man of this Opinion, is the Cloud of Witnesses that almost every Age of Monarchy affords us.

I will begin with that of Israel, the most exact and sacred Pattern of Monarchy, begun by a valiant Man, translated to the best, and improv’d by the wisest of Kings, whose Ministers were neither Fools, nor Fanaticks: Here we shall find Provision for Dissenters: Their Proselyti Domicilii were so far from being compelled to their National Rites, that they were expresly forbid to observe them. Such were the Egyptians that came with them out of Egypt, the Gibeonites and Canaanites, a great People, that after their several Forms, worshipt in an Apartment of the same Temple. The Jews with a Liturgy, they without one: The Jews had Priests, but these none: The Jews had Variety of Oblations, these People burnt Offerings only. All that was required of them was the natural Religion of Noah, in which the Acknowledgment and Worship of the true God, was, and it still ought to be, the main Point; nay, so far were they from Coercive Conformity, that they did not so much as oblige them to observe their Sabbath, though one of the Ten Commandments: Grotius and Selden say more. Certainly this was great Indulgence, since so unsuitable an Usage lookt like prophaning their Devotion, and a common Nusance to their National Religion. One would think by this, that their Care lay on the Side of preserving their Cult from the Touch or Accession of Dissenters, and not of forcing them, by undoing Penalties, to conform. This must needs be evident: For if God’s Religion and Monarchy (for so we are taught to believe it) did not, and would not, at a Time when Religion lay less in the Mind, and more in Ceremony, compel Conformity from Dissenters, we hope we have got the best Presidents on our side.

But if this Instance be of most Authority, we have another very exemplary, and to our Point Pertinent; for it shews what Monarchy may do: It is yielded us from the famous Story of Mordecai.12 He, with his Jews, were in a bad plight with the King Ahasuerus, by the ill Offices Haman did them: The Arguments he used were drawn from the common Topicks of Faction and Sedition, That they were an odd and dangerous People, under differing Laws of their own, and refused Obedience to his; So denying his Supremacy. Dissenters with a witness: Things most tender to any Government.

The King thus incensed, commands the Laws to be put in Execution, and decrees the Ruin of Mordecai with all the Jews: But the King is timely intreated, his Heart softens, the Decree is revok’d, and Mordecai and his Friends saved. The Consequence was, as extream Joy to the Jews, so Peace and Blessings to the King. And that which heightens the Example, is the Greatness and Infidelity of the Prince: Had the Instance been in a Jew, it might have been placed to his greater Light, or Piety: In a petty Prince, to the Paucity or Intireness of his Territories: But that an Heathen, and King of One Hundred and seven and twenty Provinces, should throughout his vast Dominions not fear, but practise Toleration with good Success, has something admirable in it.

If we please to remember the Tranquility, and Success of those Heathen Roman Emperours, that allowed Indulgence; that Augustus sent Hecatombs to Jerusalem, and the wisest honoured the Jews, and at least spared the divers Sects of Christians, it will certainly oblige us to think, that Princes, whose Religions are nearer of kin, to those of the Dissenters of our Times, may not unreasonably hope for quiet from a discreet Toleration, especially when there is nothing peculiar in Christianity to render Princes unsafe in such an Indulgence. The admirable Prudence of the Emperour Jovianus, in a quite contrary Method to those of the Reigns of his Predecessors, settled the most Imbroiled Time of the Christian World, almost to a Miracle; for though he found the Heats of the Arrians and Orthodox carried to a barbarous Height, (to say nothing of the Novatians, and other dissenting Interests) the Emperour esteeming those Calamities the Effect of Coercing Conformity to the Prince’s or State’s Religion, and that this Course did not only waste Christians, but expose Christians to the Scorn of Heathens, and so scandal those whom they should convert, he resolutely declared, That he would have none molested for the different Exercise of their Religious Worship; which (and that in a trice (for he reigned but seven Months) calm’d the impetuous Storms of Dissention, and reduced the Empire, before agitated with the most uncharitable Contests) to a wonderful Security and Peace; Thus a kindly Amity brought a Civil Unity to the State; which endeavours for a forc’d Unity never did to the Church, but had formerly filled the Government with incomparable Miseries, as well as the Church with Incharity: And which is sad, I must needs say, that those Leaders of the Church that should have been the Teachers and Examples of Peace, in so singular a Juncture of the Churches ferment, did, more than any, blow the Trumpet, and kindle the Fire of Division. So dangerous is it to Super-fine upon the Text, and then Impose it upon Penalty, for Faith.

Valentinian the Emperour (we are told by Socrates Scholasticus) was a great Honourer of those that favoured his own Faith; but so, as he molested not the Arrians at all. And Marcellinus farther adds in his Honour, That he was much Renown’d for his Moderate Carriage during his Reign; insomuch, that amongst sundry Sects of Religion, he troubled no Man for his Conscience, imposing neither This nor That to be observed; much less, with menacing Edicts and Injunctions, did he compel others, his Subjects, to bow the Neck, or conform to that which himself Worshipped, but left such Points as clear and untoucht as he found them.13

Gratianus, and Theodosius the Great, Indulg’d divers Sorts of Christians; but the Novatians of all the Dissenters were prefer’d: Which was so far from Insecuring, that it preserv’d the Tranquility of the Empire. Nor till the Time of Celestine Bishop of Rome, were the Novatians disturbed; And the Persecution of them, and the Assumption of the secular Power, began much at the same Time. But the Novatians at Constantinople were not dealt withal; for the Greek Bishops continued to permit them the quiet Enjoyment of their dissenting Assemblies; as Socrates tells us in his fifth and seventh Books of Ecclesiastical Story.

I shall descend nearer our own Times; for notwithstanding no Age has been more furiously moved, than that which Jovianus found, and therefore the Experiment of Indulgence was never better made, yet to speak more in View of this Time of Day, we find our Contemporaries, of remoter Judgments in Religion, under no manner of Difficulty in this Point. The Grand Seignior, Great Mogul, Czars of Muscovia, King of Persia; the Great Monarchs of the East have long allow’d and prosper’d with a Toleration: And who does not know that this gave Great Tamerlane his mighty Victories? In these Western Countries we see the same Thing.

Cardinal d’Ossat in his 92d Letter to Villeroy, Secretary to Henry the Fourth of France, gives us Doctrine and Example for the Subject in hand;14

Besides (says he) that Necessity has no Law, be it in what Case it will; our Lord Jesus Christ instructs us by his Gospel, To let the Tares alone, lest removing them may endanger the Wheat. That other Catholick Princes have allow’d it without Rebuke. That particularly the Duke of Savoy, who (as great a Zealot as he would be thought for the Catholick Religion) Tolerates the Hereticks in three of his Provinces, namely, Angroyne, Lucerne and Perone. That the King of Poland does as much, not only in Sweedland, but in Poland it self. That all the Princes of the Austrian Family, that are celebrated as Pillars of the Catholick Church, do the like, not only in the Towns of the Empire, but in their proper Territories, as in Austria it self, from whence they take the Name of their Honour. In Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, Lusatia, Stirria, Camiolia and Croatia the like. That Charles the Fifth, Father of the King of Spain, was the Person that taught the King of France, and other Princes, how to yield to such Emergencies. That his Son, the present King of Spain, who is esteemed Arch Catholick, and that is, as the Atlas of the Catholick Church, Tolerates notwithstanding at this Day, in his Kingdoms of Valentia and Granada, the Moors themselves in their Mahometism, and has offered to those of Zealand, Holland, and other Hereticks of the Low Countries, the free Exercise of their pretended Religion, so that they will but acknowledge and Obey him in Civil Matters.

It was of those Letters of this extraordinary Man, for so he was (whether we regard him in his Ecclesiastical Dignity, or his greater Christian and Civil Prudence) that the great Lord Fulkland said, A Minister of State should no more be without Cardinal d’Ossat’s Letters, than a Parson without his Bible. And indeed, if we look into France, we shall find the Indulgence of those Protestants, hath been a flourishing to that Kingdom, as their Arms a Succour to their King. ’Tis true, that since they helpt the Ministers of his Greatness to Success, that haughty Monarch has chang’d his Measures, and resolves their Conformity to his own Religion, or their Ruin; but no Man can give another Reason for it, than that he thinks it for his Turn to please that Part of his own Church, which are the present necessary and unwearied Instruments of his absolute Glory. But let us see the End of this Conduct, it will require more Time to approve the Experiment.

As it was the Royal Saying of Stephen, King of Poland, That he was a King of Men, and not of Conscience; a Commander of Bodies, and not of Souls. So we see a Toleration has been practised in that Country of a long Time, with no ill Success to the State; the Cities of Cracovia, Racovia, and many other Towns of Note, almost wholly dissenting from the common Religion of the Kingdom, which is Roman Catholick, as the others are Socinian and Calvinist, mighty opposite to that, as well as to themselves.

The King of Denmark, in his large Town of Altona, but about a Mile from Hamburgh, and therefore called so, that is, All-to-near, is a pregnant Proof to our Point. For though his Seat be so remote from that Place, another strong and insinuating State so near, yet under his Indulgence of divers Perswasions, they enjoy their Peace, and he that Security, that he is not upon better Terms in any of his more immediate and Uniform Dominions. I leave it to the thinking Reader, if it be not much owing to this Freedom, and if a contrary Course were not the Way for him to furnish his Neighbours with Means to Depopulate that Place, or make it uneasie and chargeable to him to keep?

If we look into other Parts of Germany, where we find a Stout and Warlike People, fierce for the Thing they opine, or believe, we shall find, the Prince Palatine of the Rhine has been safe, and more potent by his Indulgence, witness his Improvements at Manheim: And as (believe me) he acted the Prince to his People in other Things, so in this to the Empire; for he made bold with the Constitution of it in the Latitude he gave his Subjects in this Affair.

The Elector of Brandenburg is himself a Calvinist, his People mostly Lutheran, yet in Part of his Dominions, the Roman Catholicks enjoy their Churches quietly.

The Duke of Newburg, and a strict Roman Catholick, Brother in Law to the present Emperor, in his Province of Juliers, has, not only at Dewsburg, Mulheim, and other Places, but in Duseldorp it self, where the Court resides, Lutheran, and Calvinist, as well as Roman Catholick, Assemblies.

The Elector of Saxony, by Religion a Lutheran, in his City of Budissin, has both Lutherans and Roman Catholicks in the same Church, parted only by a Grate.

In Ausburg, they have two chief Magistrates, as their Duumvirat, one must always be a Roman Catholick, and the other a Lutheran.

The Bishop of Osnabrug is himself a Lutheran, and in the Town of his Title, the Roman Catholicks, as well as Lutherans, have their Churches: And which is more, the next Bishop must be a Catholick too: For like the Buckets in the Well, they take turns: One way to be sure, so that one be but in the Right.

From hence we will go to Sultzbach, a small Territory, but has a great Prince, I mean, in his own extraordinary Qualities; for, among other Things, we shall find him act the Moderator among his People. By Profession he is a Roman Catholick, but has Simultaneum Religionis Exercitium,15 not only Lutherans and Roman Catholicks enjoy their different Worships, but alternatively in one and the same Place, the same Day; so ballancing his Affection by his Wisdom, that there appears neither Partiality in him, nor Envy in them, though of such opposite Perswasions.

I will end these Foreign Instances with a Prince and Bishop, all in one, and he a Roman Catholick too, and that is the Bishop of Mentz; who admits, with a very peaceable Success such Lutherans, with his Catholicks, to enjoy their Churches, as live in his Town of Erford. Thus doth Practice tell us, that neither Monarchy nor Hierarchy are in danger from a Toleration. On the contrary, the Laws of the Empire, which are the Acts of the Emperour, and the Soveraign Princes of it, have Tolerated these three Religious Perswasions, viz. The Roman Catholick, Lutheran and Calvinist, and they may as well tolerate three more, for the same Reasons, and with the same Success. For it is not their greater Nearness or consistency in Doctrine, or in Worship; on the contrary, they differ much, and by that, and other Circumstances, are sometimes engaged in great Controversies, yet is a Toleration practicable, and the Way of Peace with them.

And which is closest to our Point, at home it self, we see that a Toleration of the Jews, French and Dutch in England, all Dissenters from the National Way: And the Connivance that has been in Ireland: and the down-right Toleration in most of the Kings Plantations abroad, prove the Assertion, That Toleration is not dangerous to Monarchy. For Experience tells us, where it is in any Degree admitted, the King’s Affairs prosper most; People, Wealth and Strength being sure to follow such Indulgence.

But after all that I have said in Reason and Fact, why Toleration is safe to Monarchy, Story tells us that worse Things have befallen Princes in Countries under Ecclesiastical Union, than in Places under divided Forms of Worship; and so Tolerating Countries stand to the Prince, upon more than equal Terms with Conforming ones. And where Princes have been exposed to hardship in tolerating Countries, they have as often come from the Conforming, as Non-conforming Party; and so the Dissenter is upon equal Terms, to the Prince or State, with the Conformist.

The first is evident in the Jews, under the Conduct of Moses; their Dissention came from the Men of their own Tribes, such as Corah, Dathan and Abiram, with their Partakers.16 To say nothing of the Gentiles.

The Miseries and Slaughters of Mauritius the Emperor, prove my Point, who by the greatest Church-men of his Time was withstood, and his Servant that perpetrated the Wickedness, by them, substituted in his Room, because more officious to their Grandure. What Power but that of the Church, dethroned Childerick, King of France, and set Pepin in his Place? The Miseries of the Emperours, Henry the fourth and fifth, Father and Son, from their rebellious Subjects, raised and animated by the Power of Conformists, dethroning both, as much as they could, are notorious. ’Tis alledg’d, that Sigismund King of Sweedland, was rejected by that Lutheran Country, because he was a Roman Catholick.

If we come nearer home, which is most suitable to the Reasons of the Discourse, we find the Church-men take part with William Rufus, and Henry the first, against Robert their elder Brother; and after that, we see some of the greatest of them made Head against their King, namely Anselm Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, and his Party, as did his Successor Thomas of Becket to the second Henry. Stephen usurp’d the Crown when there was a Church Union: And King John lived miserable for all that, and at last died by one of his own Religion too. The Dissentions that agitated the Reign of his Son Henry the third, and the Barons War, with Bishop Grosteeds Blessing to Mumford their General: The Deposition and Murther of the second Edward, and Richard, and sixth Henry, and his Son the Prince. The Usurpation of Richard the Third, and the Murther of the Sons of Edward the fourth, in the Tower of London. The civil War that followed between him and the Earl of Richmond, afterwards our Wise Henry the seventh, were all perpetrated in a Country of one Religion, and by the Hands of Conformists. In short, if we will but look upon the civil War that so long raged in this Kingdom, between the Houses of York and Lancaster, and consider that they professed but one and the same Religion, and both back’t with Numbers of Church-men too (to say nothing of the Miserable end of many of our Kings princely Ancestors in Scotland, especially the first and third James) we shall find Cause to say, That Church-Uniformity is not a Security for Princes to depend upon.

If we will look next into Countries where Dissenters from the National Church are Tolerated, we shall find the Conformist not less Culpable than the Dissenter.

The Disorders among the Jews, after they were settled in the Land that God had given them, came not from those they tolerated, but themselves. They cast off Samuel, and the Government of the Judges. ’Twas the Children of the National Church, that fell in with the Ambition of Absolom, and animated the Rebellion against their Father David. They were the same that revolted from Solomon’s Son, and cryed in behalf of Jeroboam, To your Tents, O Israel!17

Not two Ages ago, the Church of France, too generally fell in with the Family of Guise, against their lawful Soveraign, Henry the Fourth: Nor were they without Countenance of the greatest of their Belief, who stiled it an Holy War: At that Time, fearing (not without Cause) the Defection of that Kingdom from the Roman See. In this Conjuncture, the Dissenters made up the best Part of that King’s Armies, and by their Loyalty and Blood, preserv’d the Blood Royal of France, and set the Crown on the Head of that Prince. That King was twice Assassinated, and the last Time Murdered, as was Henry the third, his Predecessor; but they fell, one by the Hand of a Churchman, the other, at least by a Conformist.

’Tis true, that the next civil War was between the Catholicks and the Huguenots, under the Conduct of Cardinal Richlieu, and the Duke of Rohan: But as I will not justifie the Action, so their Liberties and Cautions so solemnly settled by Henry the Fourth, as the Reward of their singular Merit, being by the Ministry of that Cardinal invaded, they say, they did but defend their Security, and that rather against the Cardinal, than the King, whose Softness suffered him to become a Property to the great Wit and Ambition of that Person: And there is this Reason to believe them, that if it had been otherwise, we are sure that King Charles the First would not in the least have countenanced the Quarrel.

However, the Cardinal, like himself, wisely knew when to stop. For though he thought it the Interest of the Crown, to moderate their Greatness, and check their Growth, yet having fresh in Memory the Story of the foregoing Age, he saw, ’Twas Wise to have a Ballance upon Occasion. But this was more than recompenc’d in their fixt Adhesion to the Crown of France, under the Ministry and Direction of the succeeding Cardinal, when their Perswasion had not only Number, and many good Officers to value it self upon, but yielded their King the ablest Captain of the Age, namely, Turene: It was an Huguenot then, at the Head of almost an Huguenot Army, that fell in with a Cardinal himself (see the Union Interest makes) to maintain the Imperial Crown of France, and that on a Roman-Catholick’s Head: And together with their own Indulgence, that Religion, as National too, against the Pretences of a Roman-Catholick Army, headed by a Prince Brave and Learned of the same Religion.

I mention not this, to prefer one Party to another; for contrary Instances may be given else-where, as Interests have varied. In Sweedland a Prince was rejected by Protestants; And in England and Holland, and many of the Principalities of Germany, Roman-Catholicks have approv’d themselves Loyal to their Kings, Princes and States. But this suffices to us that we gain the Point; for it is evident in Countries where Dissenters are Tolerated, the Insecurity of the Prince and Government may as well come from the Conforming, as Dissenting Party, and that it comes not from Dissenters, because such.

But how Happy and Admirable was this Civil Union between the Cardinal and Turene? Two most opposite Religions, both follow’d by People of their own Perswasion: One says his Mass, t’other his Directory: Both invoke One Deity, by several Ways, for One Success, and it followed with Glory, and a Peace to this Day. O why should it be otherwise now! What has been may be: Methinks Wisdom and Charity are on that Side still.

It will doubtless be objected, That the Dissenting Party of England, fell in with the State-Dissenter in our late Civil, but Unnatural War: And this seems to be against us, yet Three Things must be confessed: First, That the War rather made the Dissenters, than the Dissenters made the War. Secondly, That those that were then in being, were not Tolerated, as in France, but prosecuted. And, Lastly, That they did not lead, but follow great Numbers of Church-Goers, of all Qualities, in that unhappy Controversie; and which began upon other Topicks than Liberty for Church-Dissenters. And though they were herein blameable, Reason is Reason, in all Climates and Latitudes. This does not affect the Question: Such Calamities are no necessary Consequences of Church-Dissent, because they would then follow in all Places where Dissenters are Tolerated, which we see they do not: But these may sometimes indeed be the Effects of a violent Endeavour of Uniformity, and that under all Forms of Government, as I fear they were partly here under our Monarchy. But then, this teaches us to conclude, that a Toleration of those, that a contrary Course makes uneasie and desperate, may prevent or cure Intestine Troubles; as Anno Forty Eight; it ended the Strife, and settled the Peace of Germany.18 For ’tis not now the Question, How far Men may be provoked, or ought to resent it; but, Whether Government is Safe in a Toleration, especially Monarchy: And to this Issue we come in Fact, That ’tis Safe, and that Conformists (generally speaking) have, for their Interests, as rarely known their Duty to their Prince, as Dissenters for their Consciences. So that the Danger seems to lye on this Side, of forcing Uniformity against Faith, upon severe Penalties, rather than of a discreet Toleration.

In the next Place, I shall endeavour to shew the Prudence and Reasonableness of a Toleration, by the great Benefits that follow it.

Toleration, which is an Admission of Dissenting Worships, with Impunity to the Dissenters, secures Property, which is Civil Right, and That Eminently the Line and Power of the Monarchy: For if no Man suffer in his Civil Right for the Sake of such Dissent, the Point of Succession is settled without a Civil War, or a Recantation; since it were an absurd Thing to imagine, that a Man born to Five Pounds a Year, should not be liable to forfeit his Inheritance for Non-Conformity, and yet a Prince of the Blood, and an Heir to the Imperial Crown, should be made incapable of Inheritance for his Church-Dissent.

The Security then of Property, or Civil Right, from being forfeitable for Religious Dissent, becomes a Security to the Royal Family, against the Difficulties lately labour’d under in the Business of the Succession.19 And though I have no Commission for it, besides the great Reason and Equity of the Thing it self, I dare say, there can hardly be a Dissenter at this Time of Day so void of Sense and Justice, as well as Duty and Loyalty, as not to be of the same Mind. Else it were to deny that to the Prince, which he needs, and prays for from him. Let us not forget the Story of Sigismund of Sweedland, of Henry the Fourth of France, and especially of our Own Queen Mary. Had Property been fix’t, the Line of those Royal Families could not have met with any Let or Interruption. ’Twas this Consideration that prevail’d with Judge Hales, though a strong Protestant, after King Edward’s Death, to give his Opinion for Queen Mary’s Succession, against that of all the Rest of the Judges to the contrary: Which Noble President, was recompenc’d in the Loyalty of Archbishop Heath, a Roman Catholick, in favour of the Succession of Queen Elizabeth: And the same Thing would be done again, in the like Case, by Men of the same Integrity.

I know it may be said, That there is little Reason now for the Prince to regard this Argument in Favour of Dissenters, when it was so little heeded in the Case of the Presumptive Heir to the Crown. But as this was the Act and Heat of Conforming Men within Doors, so if it were, in Counsel or Desire, the Folly and Injustice of any Dissenters without Doors, shall many entire Parties pay the Reckoning of the few busie Offenders? They would humbly hope, that the singular Mildness and Clemency, which make up so great a Part of the King’s publick Assurances, will not leave him in his Reflection here.

’Tis the Mercies of Princes, that above all their Works, give them the nearest Resemblance to Divinity in their Administration. Besides, it is their Glory to measure their Actions by the Reason and Consequence of Things, and not by the Passions that possess and animate private Breasts: For it were fatal to the Interest of a Prince, that the Folly or Undutifulness of any of his Subjects, should put him out of the Way, or tempt him to be unsteady to his Principle and Interest: And yet, with Submission, I must say, it would be the Consequence of Coercion: For, by exposing Property for Opinion, the Prince exposes the Consciences and Property of his own Family, and plainly Disarms them of all Defence, upon any Alteration of Judgment. Let us remember, That several of the same Gentlemen, who at first Sacrificed Civil Rights for Non-Conformity in common Dissenters, fell at last to make the Succession of the Crown the Price of Dissent in the next Heir of the Royal Blood. So dangerous a Thing it is to hazard Property to serve a Turn for any Party, or suffer such Examples in the Case of the meanest Person in a Kingdom.

Nor is this all the Benefit that attends the Crown by the Preservation of Civil Rights; for the Power of the Monarchy is kept more Entire by it. The King has the Benefit of his whole People, and the Reason of their Safety is owing to their Civil, and not Ecclesiastical Obedience: Their Loyalty to Caesar, and not Conformity to the Church. Whereas the other Opinion would have it, That no Conformity to the Church, No Property in the State: Which is to clog and narrow the Civil Power, for at this Rate, No Church-Man, No English-Man; and, No Conformist, No Subject. A Way to alien the King’s People, and practise an Exclusion upon him, from, it may be, a Fourth Part of his Dominions. Thus it may happen, that the ablest Statesman, the bravest Captain, and the best Citizen may be disabled, and the Prince forbid their Employment to his Service.

Some Instances of this we have had since the late King’s Restoration: For upon the first Dutch-War, Sir William Penn being commanded to give in a List of the ablest Sea-Officers in the Kingdom, to serve in that Expedition, I do very well remember he presented our present King with a Catalogue of the knowingest and bravest Officers the Age had bred, with this Subscrib’d, These Men, if his Majesty will please to admit of their Perswasions, I will answer for their Skill, Courage and Integrity. He pickt them by their Ability, not their Opinions; and he was in the Right; for that was the best Way of doing the King’s Business. And of my own Knowledge, Conformity robb’d the King at that Time of Ten Men, whose greater Knowledge and Valour, than any One Ten of that Fleet, had in their Room, been able to have saved a Battel, or perfected a Victory. I will Name Three of them: The First was Old Vice Admiral Goodson, than whom, No-body was more Stout, or a Seaman. The Second, Captain Hill, that in the Saphire, beat Admiral Everson Hand to Hand, that came to the Relief of Old Trump. The Third, was Captain Potter, that in the Constant Warwick, took Captain Beach, after Eight Hours smart Dispute. And as evident it is, That if a War had proceeded between this Kingdom and France Seven Years ago, the Business of Conformity had deprived the King of many Land-Officers, whose Share in the late Wars of Europe, had made knowing and able.

But which is worst of all, such are not Safe, with their Dissent, under their own Extraordinary Prince. For, though a Man were a Great Honourer of his King, a Lover of his Country, an Admirer of the Government: In the Course of his Life, Sober, Wise, Industrious and Useful, if a Dissenter from the Establisht Form of Worship, in that Condition there is no Liberty for his Person, nor Security to his Estate: As Useless to the Publick, so Ruin’d in himself. For this Net catches the Best. Men True to their Conscience, and who indulged, are most like to be so to their Prince; whilst the rest are left to cozen him by their Change; for that is the Unhappy End of Forc’d Conformity in the Poor Spirited Compliers. And this must always be the Consequence of necessitating the Prince to put more and other Tests upon his People, than are requisite to secure him of their Loyalty.

And when we shall be so Happy in our Measures, as to consider this Mischief to the Monarchy, it is to be hop’d, it will be thought expedient to dis-intangle Property from Opinion, and cut the untoward Knot some Men have tyed, that hath so long hamper’d and gaul’d the Prince as well as People. It will be then, when Civil Punishments shall no more follow Church Faults, that the Civil Tenure will be recover’d to the Government, and the Natures of Acts, Rewards and Punishments, so distinguish’d, as Loyalty shall be the Safety of Dissent, and the whole People made useful to the Government.

It will, perhaps, be objected, That Dissenters can hardly be obliged to be True to the Crown, and so the Crown unsafe in their very Services; for they may easily turn the Power given them to serve it, against it, to Greaten themselves. I am willing to obviate every Thing, that may with any Pretence be offerr’d against our intreated Indulgence. I say No, and appeal to the King himself (against whom the Prejudices of our late Times ran highest, and who therefore has most Reason to Resent) If ever He was better Lov’d or Serv’d, than by the Old Round-headed Seamen, the Earl of Sandwich, Sir William Penn, Sir J. Lawson, Sir G. Ascue, Sir R. Stanier, Sir J. Smith, Sir J. Jordan, Sir J. Harmon, Sir Christopher Minns, Captain Sansum, Curtins, Clark, Robinson, Molton, Wager, Tern, Parker, Haward, Hubbard, Fen, Langhorn, Daws, Earl, White; to say nothing of many yet Living, of Real Merit, and many Inferior Officers, Expert and Brave. And to do our Prince Justice, He deserv’d it from them, by his Humility, Plainness and Courage, and the Care and Affection that he always shew’d them.

If any say, That most of these Men were Conformists, I presume to tell them, I know as well as any Man, they Serv’d the King never the Better for that: On the contrary, ’twas all the Strife that some of them had in themselves, in the doing that Service, that they must not serve the King without it; and if in that they could have been Indulged, they had perform’d it with the greatest Alacrity. Interest will not lye. Where People find their Reckoning, they are sure to be True. For ’tis Want of Wit that makes any Man false to himself. ’Twas he that knew all Men’s Hearts, that said, Where the Treasure is, there will the Heart be also.20 Let Men be easie, safe, and upon their Preferment with the Prince, and they will be Dutiful, Loyal, and most Affectionate.

Mankind by Nature fears Power, and melts at Goodness. Pardon my Zeal, I would not be thought to plead for Dissenters Preferment; ’tis enough they keep what they have, and may live at their own Charges. Only I am for having the Prince have Room for his Choice, and not be crampt and stinted by Opinion; but imploy those who are best able to serve him: And, I think out of Six Parties, ’tis better picking, than out of One, and therefore the Prince’s Interest is to be Head of all of them, which a Toleration effects in a Moment, since those Six (divided Interests, within themselves) having but One Civil Head, become one intire Civil Body to the Prince. And I am sure, I have Monarchy on my Side, if Solomon and his Wisdom may stand for it, who tells us, That the Glory of a King is in the Multitude of his People.21

Nor is this all, for the Consequences of such an Universal Content, would be of infinite Moment to the Security of the Monarchy, both at Home and Abroad. At Home, for it would Behead the Factions without Blood, and Banish the Ringleaders without going abroad. When the Great Bodies of Dissenters see the Care of the Government for their Safety, they have no Need of their Captains, nor these any Ground for their Pretences: For as they us’d the People to value themselves, and raise their Fortunes with the Prince, so the People follow’d their Leaders to get that Ease, they see their Heads promised, but could not, and the Government can, and does give them.

Multitudes cannot Plot, they are too many, and have not Conduct for it, they move by another Spring. Safety is the Pretence of their Leaders: If once they see they enjoy it, they have yet Wit enough not to hazard it for any Body: For the Endeavours of Busie Men are then discernable; but a State of Severity gives them a Pretence, by which the Multitude is easily taken. Men may indiscreetly Plot to get what they would never Plot to lose. So that Ease is not only their Content, but the Prince’s Security.

This I say, upon a Supposition, That the Dissenters could agree against the Government; which is a begging of the Question: For it is improbable (if not impossible without Conformists) since, besides the Distance they are at in their Perswasions and Affections, they dare not hope for so Good Terms from one another, as the Government gives: And that Fear, with Emulation, would draw them into that Duty, that they must all fall into a Natural Dependence, which I call, Holding of the Prince, as the Great Head of the State.

From Abroad, we are as Safe as from within our selves: For if Leading Men at Home are thus disappointed of their Interest in the People, Foreigners will find here no Interpreters of their dividing Language, nor Matter (if they could) to work upon. For the Point is gain’d, the People they would deal in, are at their Ease, and cannot be bribed; and those that would, can’t deserve it.

It is this that makes Princes live Independent of their Neighbours: And, to be loved at Home, is be feared Abroad: One follows necessarily the other. Where Princes are driven to seek a foreign Assistance, the Issue either must be the Ruin of the Prince, or the absolute Subjection of the People; not without the Hazard of becoming a Province to the Power of that Neighbour that turns the Scale. These Consequences have on either Hand an ill Look, and should rebate Extremes.

The Greatness of France carries those Threats to all her Neighbours, that, politically speaking, ’tis the Melancholiest Prospect England has had to make since Eighty Eight:22 The Spaniard at that Time, being shorter in all Things but his Pride and Hope, than the French King is now, of the same Universal Monarchy. This Greatness, begun with the Eleventh Lewis, some will have it, has not been so much advanced by the Wisdom of Richlieu, and Craft of Mazarene, no, nor the Arms of the present Monarch, as by the Assistance or Connivance of England, that has most to lose by him.

O. Cromwell began, and gave him the Scale against the Spaniard. The Reason of State he went upon, was the Support of Usurp’d Dominion: And he was not out in it; for the Exile of the Royal Family was a great Part of the Price of that Aid: In which we see, how much Interest prevails above Nature. It was not Royal Kindred could shelter a King against the Solicitations of an Usurper with the Son of his Mother’s Brother.

But it will be told us by some People, We have not degenerated, but exactly followed the same Steps ever since, which has given such an Increase to those Beginnings, that the French Monarchy is almost above our Reach. But suppose it were true, What’s the Cause of it? It has not been old Friendship, or nearness of Blood, or Neighbourhood. Nor could it be from an Inclination in our Ministers, to bring Things here to a like Issue, as some have suggested; for then we should have clogged his Successes, instead of helping them in any Kind, lest in so doing, we should have put it into his Power to hinder our own.

But perhaps our Cross Accidents of State may sometimes have compelled us into his Friendship, and his Councils have carefully improved the one, and husbanded the other to great Advantages, and that this was more than made for our English Interest: And yet ’tis but too true, that the extreme Heats of some Men, that most inveighed against it, went too far to strengthen that Understanding, by not taking what would have been granted, and creating an Interest at Home, that might naturally have dissolv’d that Correspondence Abroad.

I love not to revive Things that are uneasily remembred, but in Points most tender to the late King, he thought himself sometimes too closely pressed, and hardly held; and we are all wise enough now to say, a milder Conduct had succeeded better: For if reasonable Things may be reasonably prest, and with such private Intentions, as induce a Denial, Heats about Things doubtful, unwise or unjust, must needs harden and prejudice.

Let us then create an Interest for the Prince at Home, and Foreign Friendships (at best, uncertain and dangerous) will fall of Course; for if it be allowed to Private Men, shall it be forbid to Princes only, to know and to be true to their own Support?

It is no more than what every Age makes us to see in all Parties of Men. The Parliaments of England, since the Reformation, giving no Quarter to Roman Catholicks, have forc’d them to the Crown for Shelter. And to induce the Monarchy to yield them the Protection they have needed, they have with mighty Address and Skill, recommended themselves as the Great Friends of the Prerogative, and so successfully too, that it were not below the Wisdom of that Constitution, to reflect what they have lost by that Costiveness of theirs to Catholicks. On the other Hand, the Crown having treated the Protestant Dissenters with the Severity of the Laws that affected them, suffering the Sharpest of them to fall upon their Persons and Estates, they have been driven successively to Parliaments for Succour, whose Priviledges, with equal Skill and Zeal, they have abetted: And our late Unhappy Wars are too plain a Proof, how much their Accession gave the Scale against the Power and Courage of both Conformists and Catholicks, that adhered to the Crown.

Nor must this Contrary Adhesion be imputed to Love or Hatred, but Necessary Interest: Refusal in one Place, makes Way for Address in another. If the Scene be changed, the Parts must follow; for as well before, as after Cromwell’s Usurpation, the Roman Catholicks did not only promise, The most ready Obedience to that Government, in their Printed Apologies for Liberty of Conscience; but actually treated by some of their Greatest Men, with the Ministers of those Times, for Indulgence, upon the Assurances they offer’d to give of their Good Behaviour to the Government, as then Establish’d.

On the other Hand, we see the Presbyterians, That in Scotland began the War, and in England promoted and upheld it to Forty Seven, when ready to be supplanted by the Independents, wheel to the King. In Scotland they Crown him, and come into England with an Army to restore him, where their Brethren joyn them; but being defeated, They Help, by Private Collections, to support him Abroad; and after the Overthrow of Sir George Booth’s Attempt, to almost a Miracle, restore him. And which is more, a Great Part of that Army too, whose Victories came from the Ruin of the Prince they restored.

But to give the last Proofs our Age has of the Power of Interest, against the Notion oppos’d by this Discourse. First, the Independents themselves, held the Greatest Republicans of all Parties, were the most Lavish and Superstitious Adorers of Monarchy in Oliver Cromwell, because of the Regard he had to them; allowing him, and his Son after him, to be Custos Utriusque Tabulae, over all Causes, as well Ecclesiastical as Civil, Supreme Governour. And next, the Conformists in Parliament, reputed the most Loyal and Monarchical Men, did more than any Body question and oppose the late King’s Declaration of Indulgence; even They themselves would not allow so much Prerogative to the Crown, but pleaded and opposed his Political Capacity.

This proves the Power of Interest, and that All Perswasions center with it: And when they see the Government engaging them with a Fix’d Liberty of Conscience, they must for their own Sakes seek the Support of it, by which it is maintained. This Union, directed under the Prince’s Conduct, would Awe the Greatness of our Neighbours, and soon restore Europe to its Ancient Ballance, and that into his Hand too: So that He may be the Great Arbiter of the Christian World. But if the Policy of the Government, places the Security of it’s Interest in the Destruction of the Civil Interest of the Dissenters, it is not to be wondred at, if they are less found in the Praises of it’s Conduct, than others, to whom they are offered up a Sacrifice by it.

I know it will be insinuated, That there is Danger in Building upon the Union of divers Interests; and this will be aggravated to the Prince, by such as would engross His Bounty, and intercept His Grace from a great Part of his People. But I will only oppose to that meer Suggestion, Three Examples to the contrary, with this Challenge, That if after Rummaging the Records of all Time, they find one Instance to contradict me, I shall submit the Question to their Authority.

The First, is given by those Christian Emperors, who admitted all Sorts of Dissenters into their Armies, Courts and Senates. This, the Ecclesiastical Story of those Times, assures us, and particularly Socrates, Evagrius, and Onuphrius.

The next Instance, is that of Prince William of Orange, who by a timely Indulgence, united the scattered Strength of Holland, and, all animated by the Clemency, as well as Valour of their Captain, crown’d his Attempts with an extraordinary Glory; and, what makes, continues Great.

The last; is given us by Livy, in his Account of Hannibal’s Army; “That they consisted of divers Nations, Languages, Customs and Religions: That under all their Successes of War and Peace, for Thirteen Years together, they never mutiny’d against their General, nor fell out among themselves.”23 What Livy relates for a Wonder, the Marquis Virgilio Malvetzy gives the Reason of, to wit, their Variety and Difference, well managed by their General; for, said he, “It was impossible for so many Nations, Customs and Religions to combine, especially when the General’s equal Hand gave him more Reverence with them, than they had of Affection for one another. This (says he) some would wholly impute to Hannibal; but however great he was, I attribute it to the Variety of People in the Army: For (adds he) Rome’s Army was ever less given to Mutiny, when ballanced with Auxiliary Legions, than when intirely Roman.” Thus much in his Discourse upon Cornelius Tacitus.24

And they are neither few, nor of the weakest Sort of Men, that have thought the Concord of Discords a firm Basis for Government to be built upon. The Business is to Tune them well, and that must be the Skill of the Musician.

In Nature we see all Heat consumes, all Cold kills: That three Degrees of Cold to two of Heat, allays the Heat, but introduces the contrary Quality, and over-cools by a Degree; but two Degrees of Cold to two of Heat, makes a Poize in Elements, and a Ballance in Nature. And in those Families where the evenest Hand is carried, the Work is best done, and the Master is most reverenced.

This brings me to another Benefit, which accrues to the Monarchy by a Toleration, and that is a Ballance at Home: For though it be improbable, it may so happen, that either the Conforming or Non-conforming Party may be undutiful; the one is then a Ballance of the other. This might have prevented much Mischief to our second and third Henry, King John, the second Edward, and Richard, and unhappy Henry the Sixth, as it undeniably saved the Royal Family of France, and secured Holland, and kept it from Truckling under the Spanish Monarchy. While all hold of the Government, ’tis that which gives the Scale to the most Dutiful; but still, no farther than to shew it’s Power, and awe the Disorderly into Obedience, not to destroy the Ballance, lest it should afterwards want the Means of Over-poizing Faction.

That this is more than Fancy, plain it is, that the Dissenter must firmly adhere to the Government for his Being, while the Church-man is provided for. The one subsists by it’s Mercy, the other by it’s Bounty. This is tied by Plenty, but that by Necessity, which being the last of Tyes, and strongest Obligation, the Security is greatest from him, that it is fancy’d most unsafe to Tolerate.

But besides this, the Tranquility which it gives at Home, will both oblige those that are upon the Wing for Foreign Parts, to pitch here again; and at a Time when our Neighbouring Monarch is wasting his People, excite those Sufferers into the King’s Dominions, whose Number will encrease that of his Subjects, and their Labour and Consumption, the Trade and Wealth of his Territories.25

For what are all Conquests, but of People? And if the Government may by Indulgence add the Inhabitants of Ten Cities to those of it’s own, it obtains a Victory without Charge. The Ancient Persecution of France and the Low Countries, has furnish’d us with an invincible Instance; for of those that came hither on that Account, we were instructed in most useful Manufactures, as by Courses of the like Nature, we lost a great Part of our Woollen Trade. And as Men, in Times of Danger, draw in their Stock, and either transmit it to other Banks, or bury their Talent at Home for Security (that being out of Sight, it may be, out of Reach too, and either is fatal to a Kingdom) so this Mildness obtained, setting every Man’s Heart at rest, every Man will be at Work, and the Stock of the Kingdom employ’d: which, like the Blood, that hath it’s due Passage, will give Life and Vigour to every Member in the publick Body.

And here give me Leave to mention the Experiment made at Home by the late King, in his Declaration of Indulgence. No Matter how well or ill built that Act of State was, ’tis no Part of the Business in Hand, but what Effect the Liberty of it had upon the Peace and Wealth of the Kingdom, may have Instruction in it to our present Condition. ’Twas evident, that all Men laboured cheerfully, and traded boldly, when they had the Royal Word to keep what they got, and the King himself became the Universal Insurer of Dissenters Estates. Whitehall, then, and St. James’s, were as much visited and courted by their respective Agents, as if they had been of the Family: For that which eclipsed the Royal Goodness, being by his own Hand thus remov’d, his benign Influences drew the Returns of Sweetness and Duty from that Part of his Subjects, that the Want of those Influences had made barren before. Then it was that we look’d like the Members of one Family, and Children of one Parent. Nor did we envy our eldest Brother, Episcopacy, his Inheritance, so that we had but a Child’s Portion: For not only Discontents vanish’d, but no Matter was left for ill Spirits, foreign or domestick, to brood upon, or hatch to Mischief. Which was a plain Proof, that it is the Union of Interests, and not of Opinions, that gives Peace to Kingdoms.

And with all Deference to Authority, I would speak it, the Liberty of the Declaration seems to be our English Amomum at last: The Sovereign Remedy to our English Constitution. And, to say true, we shifted Luck (as they call it) as soon as we had lost it; like those that lose their Royal Gold, their Evil Returns. For all Dissenters seemed then united in their Affection to the Government, and followed their Affairs without Fear or Distraction. Projects, then, were stale and unmerchantable, and no Body cared for them, because no Body wanted any: That gentle Opiate, at the Prince’s Hand, laid the most Busy and Turbulent to Sleep: But when the Loss of that Indulgence made them uncertain, and that uneasy; Their Persons and Estates being again exposed to pay the Reckoning of their Dissent, no doubt but every Party shifted then as they could: Most grew selfish, at least, jealous, fearing one should make Bargains apart, or exclusive of the other. This was the fatal Part Dissenters acted to their common Ruin: And I take this Partiality to have had too great a Share in our late Animosities; which, by fresh Accidents falling in, have swelled to a mighty Deluge, such an one as hath over-whelmed our former civil Concord and Serenity. And pardon me, if I say, I cannot see that those Waters are like to asswage, ’till this Olive-Branch of Indulgence be some Way or other restored: The Waves will still cover our Earth, and a Spot of Ground will hardly be found in this glorious Isle, for a great Number of useful People to set a quiet Foot upon. And, to pursue the Allegory, What was the Ark it self, but the most apt and lively Emblem of Toleration? A Kind of Natural Temple of Indulgence. In which we find two of every living Creature dwelling together, of both Sexes too, that they might propagate; and that as well of the unclean as clean Kind: So that the baser and less useful Sort were saved.26 Creatures never like to change their Nature, and so far from being whipt and punish’d to the Altar, that they were expresly forbid. These were Saved, these were Fed and Restored to their Ancient Pastures. Shall we be so mannerly as to complement the Conformists with the Stile of Clean, and so humble as to take the Unclean Kind, to our selves, who are the less Noble, and more Clownish Sort of People? I think verily we may do it, if we may but be saved too by the Commander of our English Ark. And this the Peaceable and Virtuous Dissenter has the less Reason to fear, since Sacred Text tells us, ’Twas Vice, and Not Opinion, that brought the Deluge upon the rest. And here (to drop our Allegory) I must take Leave to hope, that though the Declaration be gone, if the Reason of it remain, I mean the Interest of the Monarchy, the King and His Great Council will graciously please to think a Toleration, no Dangerous nor Obsolete Thing.

But as it has many Arguments for it, that are drawn from the Advantages that have and would come to the Publick by it, so there are divers Mischiefs that must unavoidably follow the Persecution of Dissenters, that may reasonably disswade from such Severity. For they must either be ruined, fly, or conform; and perhaps the last is not the Safest. If they are Ruin’d in their Estates, and their Persons Imprisoned, modestly computing, a Fourth of the Trade and Manufactury of the Kingdom sinks; and those that have helped to maintain the Poor, must come upon the Poor’s Book for Maintenance. This seems to be an Impoverishing of the Publick. But if to avoid this, they transport themselves, with their Estates, into other Governments; nay, though it were to any of the King’s Plantations, the Number were far too great to be spared from Home. So much principal Stock wanting to turn the yearly Traffick, and so many People too, to consume our yearly Growth, must issue fatally to the Trade one Way, and to the Lands and Rents of the Kingdom the other Way.

And lastly, If they should resolve, neither to suffer nor fly, but conform to prevent both. It is to be enquired, if this Cure of Church-Division be safe to the State; or not rather, a raking up Coals under Ashes, for a future Mischief? He whom Fear or Policy hath made Treacherous to his own Conscience, ought not to be held True to any thing but his own Safety and Revenge. His Conformity gives him the first, and his Resentment of the Force that compels it, will on no Occasion let him want the last. So that Conformity cozens no Body but the Government: For the State Fanatick (which is the unsafe Thing to the State) being christen’d by Conformity, he is eligible every where, with Persons the most devoted to the Prince: And all Men will hold themselves protected in their Votes by it.

A Receipt to make Faction keep, and preserve Disloyalty against all Weathers. For whereas the Nature of Tests is to discover, this is the Way to conceal the Inclinations of Men from the Government. Plain Dissent is the Prince with a Candle in his Hand: He sees the Where and What of Persons and Things: He discriminates, and makes that a Rule of Conduct: But forc’d Conformity is the Prince in the Dark: It blows out his Candle, and leaves him without Distinction. Such Subjects are like Figures in Sand, when Water is flapt upon them, they run together, and are indiscernible: Or written Tradition, made illegible by writing the Oaths and Canons upon it: The safest Way of blotting out Danger.

I know not how to forbear saying, that this necessary Conformity makes the Church dangerous to the State: For even the Hypocrisy that follows, makes the Church both conceal and protect the Hypocrites, which, together with their Liberality to the Parson, Charity to the Poor, and Hospitality to their Neighbours, recommends them to the first Favour they have to bestow. That Fort is unsafe, where a Party of the Garrison consists of disguised Enemies; for when they take their Turns at the Watch, the Danger is hardly evitable. It would then certainly be for the Safety of the Fort, that such Friends in Masquerade were industriously kept out, instead of being whipt in.

And it was something of this, I remember, that was made an Argument for the Declaration of Indulgence, in the Preamble, to wit, the greater Safety of the Government, from Open and Publick, than Private, dissenting Meetings of Worship; as indeed the rest bear the same Resemblance. For these were the Topicks, Quieting the People, Encouraging Strangers to come and live among us, and Trade by it; and lastly, Preventing the Danger that might arise to the Government by Private Meetings:27 Of greater Reason then from Private Men, not less discontented, but more concealed and secure by the Great Brake of Church Conformity. It is this will make a Comprehension of the next Dissenters to the Church dangerous, tho’ it were practicable, of which Side soever it be. For in an Age, the present Frame of Government shall feel the Art and Industry of the Comprehended. So that a Toleration is in Reason of State to be prefer’d. And if the Reasons of the Declaration were ever good, they are so still, because the Emergencies of State that made them so, remain; and our Neighbours are not less powerful to improve them to our Detriment.

But it will be now said, Though the Government should find it’s Account in what has been last alledged, this were the Way to overthrow the Church, and encourage Dissenters to continue in their Errors. Which is that second main Objection I proposed at first, to answer in it’s proper Place, and that I think is this:

I humbly say, if it prove the Interest of the three considerable Church-Interests in this Kingdom, a Relaxation, at least, can hardly fail us. The three Church Interests are, That of the Church of England; That of the Roman Catholick Dissenter; and, That of the Protestant Dissenter.

That the Church of England ought in Conscience and Prudence to consent to the Ease desired.

I pray, first, that it be considered, how great a Reflection it will be upon her Honour, that from a Persecuted, she should be accounted a Persecuting Church: An Overthrow none of her Enemies have been able to give to her many excellent Apologies. Nor will it be excused, by her saying, She is in the Right, which her Persecutors were not; since this is a Confidence not wanting in any of them, or her Dissenters: And the Truth is, it is but the Begging of a Question, that will by no Means be granted.

No body ought to know more than Churchmen, that Conscience cannot be forced. That Offerings against Conscience, are as odious to God, as uneasie to them that make them. That God loves a free Sacrifice. That Christ forbad Fire, though from Heaven (it self) to punish Dissenters; and commanded that the Tares should grow with the Wheat till the Harvest. In fine, that we should love Enemies themselves: And to exclude worldly Strife for Religion; That his Kingdom is not of this World. This was the Doctrine of the Blessed Saviour of the World.28

Saint Paul pursues the same Course: Is glad Christ is Preached, be it of Envy; the worst Ground for Dissent that can be. It was he that ask’t that hard, but just Question, Who art thou that judgest another Man’s Servant? To his own Lord he standeth or falleth. He allows the Church a Warfare, and Weapons to perform it, but they are not Carnal, but Spiritual. Therefore it was so advised, that every Man in Matters of Religion, should be fully perswaded in his own Mind, and if any were short or mistaken, God would, in his Time, Inform them better.

He tells us of Schismaticks and Hereticks too, and their Punishment, which is to the Point in Hand: He directs to a first and second Admonition, and if that prevail not, reject them: That is, refuse them Church Fellowship, disown their Relation, and deny them Communion. But in all this there is not a Word of Fines or Imprisonments, nor is it an excuse to any Church, that the Civil Magistrate executes the Severity, while they are Members of her Communion, that make or execute the Laws.29

But if the Church could gain her Point, I mean Conformity, unless she could gain Consent too, ’twere but Constraint at last. A Rape upon the Mind, which may encrease her Number, not her Devotion. On the contrary, the rest of her Sons are in danger by their Hypocrisie. The most close, but watchful and Revengeful Thing in the World. Besides, the Scandal can hardly be removed: To over value Coin, and Rate Brass to Silver, Beggars any Country; and to own them for Sons she never begat, debases and destroys any Church. ’Twere better to indulge foreign Coin of intrinsick Value, and let it pass for it’s Weight. ’Tis not Number, but Quality: Two or three sincere Christians, that form an Evangelical Church: And though the Church were less, more Charity on the one Hand, and Piety on the other, with exact Church-Censure, and less civil Coercion, would give her Credit with Conscience in all Sects; without which, their Accession it self would be no Benefit, but disgrace, and hazard to her Constitution.

And to speak prudently in this Affair, ’tis the Interest of the Church of England, not to suffer the Extinction of Dissenters, that she may have a Counter-Ballance to the Roman Catholicks, who, though few in Number, are great in Quality, and greater in their foreign Friendships and Assistance. On the other Hand, it is her Interest to Indulge the Roman Catholick, that by his Accession, she may at all Times have the Ballance in her own Hand, against the Protestant Dissenter, leaning to either, as she finds her Doctrine undermined by the one, or her Discipline by the other; or lastly, her Civil Interest endangered from either of them.

And it is certainly the Interest of both those Extremes of Dissent, that She, rather than either of them should hold the Scale. For as the Protestant Dissenter cannot hope for any Tenderness, exclusive of Roman Catholicks, but almost the same Reasons may be advanced against him. So on the other Hand, it would look imprudent, as well as unjust, in the Roman Catholicks, to solicite any Indulgence exclusive of Protestant Dissenters. For besides that, it keeps up the Animosity, which it is their Interest to bury; the Consequence will be, to take the Advantage of Time, to snatch it from one another, when an united Request for Liberty, once granted, will oblige both Parties, in all Times, for Example-sake, to have it Equally preserved. Thus are all Church Interests of Conformists and Dissenters rendered consistent and safe in their Civil Interest one with the other.

But it will last of all, doubtless, be objected, That tho’ a Toleration were never so desirable in it self, and in it’s Consequence beneficial to the Publick, yet the Government cannot allow it, without Ruin to the Church of England, which it is obliged to maintain.

But I think this will not affect the Question at all, unless by maintaining the Church of England, it is understood that he should force whole Parties to be of her Communion, or knock them on the Head: Let us call to mind, that the Religion that is true, allows no Man to do Wrong, that Right may come of it. And that nothing has lessen’d the Credit of any Religion more, than declining to support it self by it’s own Charity and Piety, and taking Sanctuary in the Arms, rather than the Understandings of Men. Violences are ill Pillars for Truth to rest upon. The Church of England must be maintain’d: Right, but can’t that be done without the Dissenter be destroyed? In vain then did Christ command Peter to put up his Sword, with this Rebuke, They that take the Sword, shall perish with the Sword, if his Followers are to draw it again. He makes killing for Religion, Murder, and deserving Death: Was he then in the Right, Not to call Legions to his Assistance?30 And are not his Followers of these Times in the Wrong, to seek to uphold their Religion by any Methods of Force. The Church of England must be maintain’d, therefore the Dissenters, that hold almost the same Doctrine, must be Ruin’d. A Consequence most unnatural, as it is almost impossible. For besides that, the Drudgery would unbecome the civil Magistrate, who is the Image of divine Justice and Clemency, and that it would fasten the Character of a False Church, upon one that desires to be esteemed a True One; she puts the Government upon a Task that is hard to be performed. Kings can no more make Brick without Straw, than Slaves:31 The Condition of our Affairs is much chang’d, and the Circumstances our Government are under, differ mightily from those of our Ancestors. They had not the same Dissents to deal with, nor those Dissents the like Bodies of People to render them formidable, and their Prosecution mischievous to the State. Nor did this come of the Prince’s Neglect or Indulgence: There are other Reasons to be assigned, of which, the Opportunities Domestick Troubles gave to their Increase and Power, and the Severities used to suppress them, may go for none of the least. So that it was as involuntary in the Prince, as to the Church Anxious. And under this Necessity to tye the Magistrate to old Measures, is to be regardless of Time, whose fresh Circumstances give Aim to the Conduct of Wise Men in their present Actions. Governments, as well as Courts, change their Fashions: The same Clothes will not always serve: And Politicks made Obsolete by new Accidents, are as unsafe to follow, as antiquated Dresses are ridiculous to wear.

Thus Sea-men know, and teach us in their daily Practice: They humour the Winds, though they will lie as near as they can, and trim their Sails by their Compass: And by Patience under these constrained and uneven Courses, they gain their Port at last. This justifies the Government’s change of Measures from the change of Things; for res nolunt malè Administrari.32

And to be free, it looks more than Partial, to Elect and Reprobate too. That the Church of England is prefer’d, and has the Fat of the Earth, the Authority of the Magistrate, and the Power of the Sword in her Sons Hands, which comprehend all the Honours, Places, Profits, and Powers of the Kingdom, must not be repined at: Let her have it, and keep it all, and let none dare seek or accept an Office that is not of her. But to ruin Dissenters to compleat her Happiness, (pardon the Allusion) is Calvinism in the worst Sense; for this is that Horrendum Decretum reduc’d to Practice: And to pursue that ill-natur’d Principle, Men are civilly Damn’d for that they cannot help, since Faith is not in Man’s Power, though it sometimes exposes one to it.33

It is a severe Dilemma, that a Man must either renounce That of which he makes Conscience in the Sight of God, or be Civilly and Ecclesiastically Reprobated: There was a Time, when the Church of England her self stood in need of Indulgence, and made up a great Part of the Non-Conformists of this Kingdom, and what she then wanted, she pleaded for, I mean a Toleration, and that in a general Style, as divers of the Writings of her Doctors tell us: Of which let it be enough but to mention that excellent Discourse of Dr. Taylor, Bishop of Down, entituled, Liberty of Prophecy.34

And that which makes Severity look the worse in the Members of the Church of England, is the Modesty she professes about the Truth of the Things she believes: For though perhaps it were indefensible in any Church to compel a Man to that which she were infallibly assured to be true, unless she superseded his Ignorance by Conviction, rather than Authority, it must, doubtless, look rude, to punish Men into Conformity to that, of the Truth of which, the Church her self pretends no Certainty.

Not that I would less believe a Church so cautious, than one more confident; but I know not how to help thinking Persecution harsh, when they Ruin People for not believing that, which they have not in themselves the Power of believing, and which she cannot give them, and of which her self is not infallibly assured. The Drift of this is Moderation, which well becomes us poor Mortals, That for every Idle Word we speak, must give an Account at the Day of Judgment, if our Saviour’s Doctrine have any credit with us.35

It would much mitigate the Severity, if the Dissent were Sullen, or in Contempt: But if Men can’t help or hinder their Belief, they are rather Unhappy than Guilty, and more to be pitied than blamed. However they are of the reasonable Stock of the Country, and tho’ they were unworthy of Favour, they may not be unfit to live. ’Tis Capital, at Law, to destroy Bastards, and By-blows are laid to the Parish to keep: They must maintain them at last: And shall not these natural Sons, at least, be laid at the Door of the Kingdom? Unhappy Fate of Dissenters! to be less heeded, and more destitute than any Body. If this should ever happen to be the Effect of their own Folly, with Submission, it can never be the Consequence of the Government’s Engagements.

Election does not necessarily imply a Reprobation of the rest. If God hath elected some to Salvation, it will not follow of course, that he hath absolutely rejected all the rest. For tho’ he was God of the Jews, he was God of the Gentiles too, and they were his People, tho’ the Jews were his peculiar People. God respects not Persons, says St. Peter, the good of all Nations are accepted. The Difference at last, will not be of Opinion, but Works: Sheep or Goats, All, of all Judgments will be found: And Come, Well done; or Go ye Workers of Iniquity, will conclude, their Eternal State: Let us be careful therefore of an Opinion-Reprobation of one another.36

We see the God of Nature hath taught us softer Doctrine in his great Book of the World: His Sun shines, and his Rain falls upon all. All the Productions of Nature are by Love, and shall it be proper to Religion only to propagate by Force? The poor Hen instructs us in Humanity, who, to defend her feeble Young, refuses no Danger. All the Seeds and Plants that grow for the use of Man, are produced by the kind and warm Influences of the Sun. ’Tis Kindness that upholds Humane Race. People don’t Multiply in Spight: And if it be by gentle and friendly Ways, that Nature produces and matures the Creatures of the World, certainly Religion should teach us to be Mild and Bearing.

Let your Moderation be known to all Men, was the saying of a great Doctor of the Christian Faith, and his Reason for that Command Cogent, For the Lord is at Hand.37 As if he had said, Have a care what you do, be not bitter nor violent, for the Judge is at the Door: Do as you would be done to, lest what you deny to others, God should refuse to you.

And after all this, shall the Church of England be less tender of Men’s Consciences, than our common Law is of their Lives, which had rather a Thousand Criminals should escape, than that One Innocent should perish? Give me leave to say, that there are many Innocents (Conscience excepted) now exposed, Men honest, peaceable and useful; free of ill Designs; that pray for Caesar, and pay their Tribute to Caesar.

If any tell us, They have, or may, ill use their Toleration. I say, this must be look’t to, and not Liberty therefore refused; for the English Church cannot so much forget her own Maxim to Dissenters, That Propter abusum non est Tollendus usus.38 It suffices to our Argument, ’tis no necessary Consequence, and that Fact and Time are for us. And if any misuse such Freedom, and entitle Conscience to Misbehaviour, we have other Laws enough to catch and punish the Offenders, without treating One Party with the Spoils of Six. And when Religion becomes no Man’s Interest, it will hardly ever be any Man’s Hypocrisy. Men will chuse by Conscience, which at least preserves Integrity, though it were mistaken: And if not in the wrong, Truth recompences Inquiry, and Light makes amends for Dissent.

And since a plain Method offers it self, from the Circumstances of our ease, I take the Freedom to present it for the Model of the intreated Toleration.

Much has been desired, said and prest, in Reference to the late King’s being Head of a Protestant League, which takes in but a Part of the Christian World; the Roman and Grecian Christians being excluded. But I most humbly offer, that our Wise Men would please to think of another Title for our King, and that is Head of a Christian League, and give the Experiment here at Home in his own Dominions.

The Christian Religion is admired of All in the Text, and by All acknowledged in the Apostle’s Creed. Here every Party of Christians meet, and center as in a General. The several Species of Christians, that this Genus divideth it self into, are those divers Perswasions we have within this Kingdom; The Church of England, Roman-Catholicks, Grecians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, Quakers, Socinians: These I call so many Orders of Christians, that unite in the Text, and differ only in the Comment; All owning One Deity, Saviour and Judge, Good Works, Rewards and Punishments: Which Bodies once Regulated, and holding of the Prince as Head of the Government, Maintaining Charity, and Pressing Piety, will be an Honour to Christianity, a Strength to the Prince, and a Benefit to the Publick: For in Lieu of an unattainable, (at best an unsincere) Uniformity, we shall have in Civils Unity, and Amity in Faith.

The Jews before, and in the Time of Herod, were divided into divers Sects. There were Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and Essenes. They maintain’d their Dissent without Ruin to the Government: And the Magistrates fell under no Censure from Christ for that Toleration.

The Gentiles, as already has been observed, had their Divers Orders of Philosophers, as Disagreeing as ever Christians were, and that without Danger to the Peace of the State.

The Turks themselves show us, that both other Religions, and divers Sects of their own, are very Tolerable, with Security to their Government.

The Roman Church is a considerable Instance to our Point; for She is made up of divers Orders of both Sexes, of very differing Principles, fomented sometimes to great Feuds and Controversies; as between Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, and Sorbonists; yet without Danger to the Political State of the Church. On the contrary, She therefore cast her self into that Method, That She might safely give Vent to Opinion and Zeal, and suffer both without Danger of Schism. And these Regulars are, by the Pope’s Grants, priviledg’d with an Exemption from Episcopal Visitation and Jurisdiction.

GOD Almighty inspire the King’s Heart, and the Hearts of His Great Council, to be the Glorious Instruments of this Blessing to the Kingdom.

I shall conclude this PERSWASIVE, with the Judgment of some Pious Fathers, and Renowned Princes.

QUADRATUS and Aristides wrote Two Apologies to Adrian, for the Christian Faith, and against the Persecution of it.39

Justin Martyr, an Excellent Philosopher and Christian, writ Two Learned Disswasives against Persecution, which he Dedicated (as I take it) to Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.40

Melito, Bishop of Sardis, a Good and Learned Man, writ a smart Defence for the Christian Religion, and a Toleration, Dedicated to Verus.41

Tertullian, in his most sharp and excellent Apology for the Christians, fastens Persecution upon the Gentiles, as an inseparable Mark of Superstition and Error, as he makes the Christian Patience a Sign of Truth. In his Discourse to Scapula, he says, ’Tis not the Property of Religion to Persecute for Religion; She should be received for Her self, not Force.42

Hilary, an early and learned Father, against Auxentius, saith, The Christian Church does not persecute, but is persecuted.43

Atticus, Bishop of Constantinople, would by no Means have the Minister of Nice to respect any Opinion or Sect whatsoever, in the Distribution of the Money sent by him for the Relief of Christians; and by no Means to prejudice those that practise a contrary Doctrine and Faith to theirs: That he should be sure to relieve those that Hunger and Thirst, and have not wherewith to help themselves, and make that the Rule of his Consideration. In short, he made the Hereticks to have his Wisdom in Admiration, in that he would by no Means trouble or molest them.44

Proclus (another Bishop of Constantinople) was of this Opinion, That it was far easier by fair Means to allure unto the Church, than by Force to compel: He determined to vex no Sect whatever, but restored to the Church the Renowned Virtue of Meekness, required in Christian Ministers.45

If we will next hear the Historian’s own Judgment upon a Toleration, I am of Opinion (says he) that he is a Persecutor, that in any Kind of Way, molesteth such Men as lead a Quiet and Peaceable Life: Thus Socrates in his Third Book: In his Seventh he tells us, That the Bishop of Sinada, indeed, did banish the Hereticks, but neither did he this (says he) according to the Rule of the Catholick Church, which is not accustomed to persecute, lib. 7.46

Lactantius tells the angry Men of his Time, thus, If you will with Blood, Evil and Torments, defend your Worship, it shall not thereby be defended, but polluted.47

Chrysostom saith expresly, That it is not the Manner of the Children of God, to persecute about their Religion, but an evident Token of Antichrist.

Thus the Fathers and Doctors of the first Ages. That Emperors and Princes have thus believed, let us hear some of Greatest Note, and most pressing to us.

Jerom, a Good and Learned Father, saith, That Heresie must be Cut off with the Sword of the Spirit.48

Constantius, the Father of Constantine the Great, laid this down for a Principle, That those that were Disloyal to God, would never be Trusty to their Prince. And which is more, he liv’d thus, and so dy’d, as his Great Speech to his Great Son, on his Death-Bed, amply evidences.

Constantine the Great, in his Speech to the Roman Senate, tells them, There is this Difference between Humane and Divine Homage and Service, that the one is compell’d, and the other ought to be free.

Eusebius Pamphilus, in the Life of Constantine, tells us, that in his Prayer to God, he said, Let thy People, I beseech thee, desire and maintain Peace, Living free from Sedition to the common Good and Benefit of all the world; and those that are led away with Error, let them desire to live in Peace and Tranquility with the Faithful: For Friendly Humane Society and Commerce with them, will very much avail to bring them to the Right Way. Let no Man molest another, but let every one follow the Perswasion of their own Conscience: But let those that have a True Opinion concerning God, be perswaded, that such as regulate their Lives by God’s Holy Laws, do lead an Holy and Upright Life: But those that will not conform thereunto, may have Liberty to erect and set up Altars. But we will Maintain the Church and True Religion, which thou hast committed to our Defence. Moreover, we desire that they may Joyfully receive and welcome this General Offer of Peace and Concord.49

This was the Judgment of the Most Celebrated Emperor that ever professed the Christian Faith. I have cited other Emperors in the Body of this Discourse; but because the Worst are to be commended when they do well, Valens himself, charm’d with the Sweetness and Strength of the Philosopher Themistius, in his Elegant Oration, grew Moderate towards the Orthodox, whom a little before he had severely treated: Of which these were the Heads; That he Persecuted without Reason People of Good Lives: That it was no Crime to think or believe otherwise than the Prince believed: That he ought not to be troubled at the Diversity of Opinions: That the Gentiles were much more divided in their Judgment than the Christians: That it sufficeth, that every Sect aimed at the Truth, and lived virtuously.50 We have had Modern Royal Examples too.

Stephen, King of Poland, declared his Mind in the Point controverted, thus, I am King of Men, and not of Conscience; a Commander of Bodies, and not of Souls.

The King of Bohemia was of Opinion, That Mens Consciences ought in no Sort to be violated, urged, or constrained.

And Lastly, let me add (as what is, or should be of more Force) the Sense of King James and King Charles the First, Men, as of Supreme Dignity, so famed for their Great Natural Abilities and acquired Learning; It is a sure Rule in Divinity (said King James) that God never loves to Plant his Church by Violence and Bloodshed. And in his Exposition on the Twentieth of the Revelations, he saith, That Persecution is the Note of a False Church.51

And in the Advice of King Charles the First, to the late King, he says, Take Heed of abetting any Factions; your Partial adhering to any one Side, gains you not so great Advantages in some Men’s Hearts, (who are Prone to be of their King’s Religion) as it loseth you in others, who think themselves, and their Profession, first despised, then persecuted by you.

Again, Beware of Exasperating any Factions, by the Crosness and Asperity of some Men’s Passions, Humours, or Private Opinions, imployed by you, grounded only upon their Difference, in lesser Matters, which are but the Skirts and Suburbs of Religion; wherein a Charitable Connivence and Christian Toleration, often dissipates their Strength, whom rougher Opposition fortifies, and puts the despised and oppressed Party into such Combinations, as may most enable them to get a full Revenge on those they count their Persecutors, who are commonly assisted by that Vulgar Commiseration that attends all that are said to suffer under the Notion of Religion.

Always keep up Solid Piety, and those Fundamental Truths (which mend both Hearts and Lives of Men) with impartial Favour and Justice. Your Prerogative is best shown and exercised in Remitting, rather than Exacting the Rigour of Laws; there being nothing worse than Legal Tyranny.52

8.

Good ADVICE to the Church of England, Roman-Catholick, and Protestant Dissenter: In which it is endeavoured to be made appear, that it is their Duty, Principle, and Interest, to abolish the Penal LAWS and TESTS (1687)

Beati Pacifici1

To the READER.

Reader,

NO MATTER Who, but What; and yet if thou wouldst know the Author, he is an English-Man, and therefore obliged to this Country, and the Laws that made him Free.

That Single Consideration were enough to command this Undertaking; for ’tis to perswade his Country-Men to be delivered of the greatest Yoak a Nation can well suffer under; Penal Laws for Religion, I mean.

And now thou hast both the Who, and What: If thou art Wise and Good, Thou art above my Epithets, and more my Flatteries; If not, I am in the Right to let ’em alone. Read, Think, and Judge. Liberty, English and Christian, is all that is sought in the ensuing Discourse.

Adieu.

GOOD ADVICE, &c.

PART I.

I MUST own, it is my Aversion at this Time, to meddle with Publick Matters, and yet my Duty to the Publick will not let me be Silent. They that move by Principles, must not regard Times nor Factions, but what is Just, and what is Honourable; and That no Man ought to scruple, nor no Time or Interest to Contest.

The Single Question I go upon, and which does immediately concern and exercise the Minds of the Thinking, as well as Talking Men of this Kingdom, is, Whether it be fit to Repeal the Penal Laws and Tests, in Matters of Religion, or not? I take the Affirmative of the Question, and humbly submit my Reasons to every Reasonable Conscience. I say Reasonable, because That which knows not it’s own Duty, Principle and Interest, is not so, and That which is not willing to do to others as it would be done by, less deserves to be thought so.

Now there are Three Sorts of People that will find themselves concerned in this Question, The Church of England, the Roman Catholick, and the Protestant Dissenter, and these make up the whole Body of the Kingdom; If it appear to be their Duty, Principle and Interest, the Question is gain’d, and no Body is left to complain; and if I am mistaken, it is with so great an Inclination to serve them all, that their Good Nature cannot but plead my Excuse, especially when they consider I am neither mov’d by Hopes nor Fears. Private Loss or Gain being farther from my Thought, than I hope they are from a Good Understanding.

I say, First, then it is the Duty of all of them, because they all profess that Religion which makes it their common Duty to do it; Christianity I mean: For no Christian ought to deprive any Man of his Native Right for Matters of Faith and Worship towards God, in the Way that he thinks most agreeable to the Will of God; because it is necessary to a Christian to believe, That Faith is the Gift of God alone,2and that He only is Lord of Conscience, and is able truly to Enlighten, Perswade, and Establish it; and consequently that prejudicing Men in their Persons or Estates, or depriving them of any Station in the Government, they might otherwise, in their Turn, be capable to serve the Publick in, is contrary to the Tenderness and Equity of that Religion; which will yet farther appear, if we consider that Christianity is the Sole Religion of the World, that is Built on the Principles of Love; which brought with it the greatest Evidences of Truth: Equally convincing our Understandings with it’s Light, and bearing down our Senses with it’s Miracles: Which silenc’d the Oracles of the Heathens by the Divine Power present with it; and vanquisht their Hearts, that had left nothing else to conquer, leading Kings and Emperors with their Courts and Armies in Triumph, after the Despised Cross of Him, who was the Holy and Blessed Author of it.

It was He that laid not his Religion in Worldly Empire, nor used the Methods of Worldly Princes to Propagate it; as it came from Heaven, so That only should have the Honour of protecting and promoting it. His whole Business to Mankind, from first to last, was Love. ’Twas first Love in his Father to send Him (as Saint John teaches) God so loved the World, that He sent His Son, &c. It was Love in Jesus Christ to come on that Errand; that He, who thought it no Robbery to be Equal with God, should take the Form of a Servant to adopt us Children, and make himself of no Reputation with the World, that he might make us of Reputation with God His Father.3

And he did not only come in much Love, but preach’d it and prest it both to Friends and Foes; Love one another; Love Enemies; Do Good to them that Hate you; Forgive them that Trespass against you; What you would that other Men should do unto you, do that unto them: By these Things shall all Men know you are my Disciples; for I came not to destroy Men’s Lives, no, not for Religion it self; for my Kingdom, Power, Force, Weapons, and Victory, are not of this World. In all this, Love prevails: It was His Great, His New, His Last Commandment; of all his Disciples, the most pursued by His Beloved One, that in his Bosom had learn’d His Heart, as his Divine Doctrine of Love in his Epistles tells us.

As He Liv’d in Love, so He Died in Love, with us, and for us, and that while we were Rebellious too; ay, He Pray’d and Dy’d for them who put Him to Death, shewing us (says St. Peter) an Example that we should follow His Steps. And what are they? Doubtless the Steps of Love, the Path he trod: To do Good to Mankind, Enemies as well as Friends, that we may be like our Heavenly Father, that causes His Sun to shine, and His Rain to fall upon the Just and Unjust. This must be the Apostle’s Meaning, for the Rest of His Passion was inimitable.4

Now if this be the Doctrine of Christ, the Nature of Christianity, the Practice of the Primitive Church, that like Adam, was Created in full Strength, Beauty and Wisdom, and so an Example to succeeding Ages of Religion, and to which we so often refer as our Original; with what Pretence to a Christian Conscience, can any one stickle to keep Imprisoning, Banishing, Impoverishing, Hanging and Quartering Laws on Foot for Religion Sake, but especially against such as are by Creed Professors of Christianity as well as themselves.

I know the Case is put hard by those that have the Laws on their Side, We do this to save our selves; but an harder Case than Christ’s can never be put, whose Answer in his, ought to resolve theirs fully.

Christ is sent by his Father for the Salvation of the World: He introduces and proves his Mission by Miracles, and the Great Authority of his Word and Doctrine: His Followers fully satisfied who He was, whence He came, what He taught, and how eminently confirm’d, grew impatient at Contradiction; they could not bear the least Dissent; for when some of the Samaritans refused to entertain their Lord, because they thought he was going for Jerusalem, the Place of their greatest Aversion, these Disciples were for having but the Word from his Mouth, and they would, in Imitation of Elijah, have called for Fire from Heaven to have destroy’d them. But He turned and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what Manner of Spirit ye are of, for the Son of Man is not come to Destroy Men’s Lives, but to Save them.5 This Answer is to Purpose, and for all Times, to be sure Christian Ones; and the higher the Pretensions of any Party are to Christianity, the more inexcusable if they practice the contrary. Would not Christ then hurt them that refused him, and can we hurt our Neighbours for not receiving us? He condemned that Spirit in His Disciples, and shall we uphold the same Spirit, and that by Law too, which He condemned by his Gospel? This is Killing for God’s Sake, expresly charg’d by Christ with Impiety. They shall think, says he to his Disciples, they do God good Service to kill you; Who should think so? Why the Christian Persecutors. Is it their Property to do so? Yes; What shall one think then of those Christians that profess it.

The Jews were grievously punished of God, for that Abomination of Sacrificing their Children to Moloch,6 but these Laws, though they change the Object, they have not lessen’d the Sin; for they offer up Man, Woman and Child, and tho’ they say, ’Tis to God, no Matter for that, since it makes their Case worse, for ’tis to imagine that so Good, so Just, so Sensible, so merciful a Being, can take Pleasure in so much Cruelty. Well, But if we must not knock Folks on the Head, what must we do with them? Take an Answer at the Mouth of Truth and Wisdom: Let the Tares and Wheat grow together till the Harvest; What’s that? He tells you, ’Tis the End of the World;7 so that whatever the Church of England is, ’tis certain Christ is for a Toleration, and His Doctrine is always in Fashion: What He was, He is, and will be; He went not by Reasons of State, or Customs of Countries; His Judgment was better Built, who came to give Law, and not to receive it, and ’tis A Light and Rule to all Times. And He that Loves Father, or Mother, or Wife, or Children, or House, or Land, better than HIM, that is, His Doctrine (of which this is so great a Part) is not worthy of Him;8 and I fear no other Reason induces the Church of England to decline it.

To confirm what has been said, tho’ I design Brevity, let me not lose another Passage very pregnant to our Purpose; when His Disciples had accomplish’d their First Mission, at their Return they gave Him the History of their Travels: Among the rest, they tell Him of One they met with, That in His Name Cast out Devils, but because He would not follow with them, They forbad Him: Here is at least a Dissenting Christian, tho’ a Believer, yet it seems not One of that closer Congregation; we also see their Zeal and Sentence. But what says the Master yet alive, and with them, the Infallible Doctor, in whose Mouth was no Guile, who had not the Spirit by Measure, and was the Great Wisdom of God to His People, Was He of the same Mind, or did He leave them without Rule in the Point? His Answer is this: And JESUS said to them, Forbid Him not, for he that is not against us is for us.9 The Prohibition is taken off, and their Judgment revers’d; and from His, to be sure, there lies no Appeal. For tho’ a Power of Decision were allow’d to some One or more on Earth, in Matters obscure and undetermin’d, Yet in Cases already adjudged by the Son of God Himself, who had the Chair, and could not Err, there can be no Room for another Judge.

Now to apply it, I must first say, I find no such Disciples among those that are of the Side of keeping up the Penal Laws; God knows, the Disparity is but too unequal. But next, if they were all Twelve in Westminster-Abby, and should be of the Side of upholding the Penal Laws (which is the wrong Side they were of before) I should beg their Pardon, if I were of their Master’s Mind, and objected his Wisdom to their Zeal, and his Gentle Rule to their harsh and narrow Judgment. And I beseech the Church of England to consider, that no Pretence can excuse Her Dissent, and less Her cross Practice to the Judgment of Her Saviour: A Judgment that seems given and settled for the Conduct of the Church on the like Occasions, in succeeding Times: And ’tis pity any Worldly Thing should have Place with Her to divert Her Obedience. Did Christ then come to Save Men’s Lives, and not to Destroy them? And should She (She I say that pretends to be a Reformed Church) uphold those Laws that do destroy them? HE, Alas! went to another Village instead of Burning them, or theirs, for refusing Him. And She forbids any, that belongs to any other, to lodge in Her’s, upon Pain of losing Life or Estate: This may make Her a Samaritan Indeed, but Not the Good One, whose Example would have taught Her, instead of these sharp and ruder Remedies, to have poured the Oil of Peace and Gladness into those Chops and Wounds, that Time, and Heats of all Hands, had made in every Religious Party of Men. Nor does She lose any Thing by Repealing those Laws, but the Power of Persecuting, and a Good Church would never have the Temptation. Come, Some-Body must begin to Forgive, let Her not leave that Honour to another, nor draw upon Her self the Guilt and Mischief of refusing it. She pretends to fear the Strokes of the Romanists, but I would fain know of Her, if following their Example will Convert them, or Secure Her? Does She hope to keep them out by the Weapons that have fail’d in their Hands, or can She Honourably censure Persecution in them, and yet use it Her self?

But she is extremely scandal’d and scared at the Severity upon Protestants in France.10 ’Tis certainly very ill; but do not the Laws she is so fond of point at the same Work, Conformity, or Ruin. And don’t we know, that in some Places, and upon some Parties, her Magistrates have plow’d as deep Furrows, especially within these six and Twenty Years. Husbands separated from their Wives, Parents from their Children, the Widow’s Bed and the Orphans Milk made a Prize for Religion, Houses stript, Barns and Fields swept clean, Prisons crowded without Regard to Sex or Age, and some of both Sorts dungeon’d to Death, and all for Religion. If she says they were peevish Men, Bigots, or mov’d by private Interest, she still made the Laws, and says no more for her self than the French say for their King, which yet she refuses to take for an Answer. Perhaps I could parallel some of the severest Passages in that Kingdom out of the Actions of some Members of the Church of England in cool Blood, that are even yet for continuing the Penal Laws upon their plundered Neighbours; so that this Reflection of hers upon France, is more popular than just from her. But I beseech her to look upon a Country four Times bigger than France, Germany I mean, and she will there see both Religions practis’d with great Ease and Amity, yet of this we must not hear one Word: I hope it is not for Fear of imitating it. However, ’tis disingenuous to object the Mischiefs of Popery to a general Ease, when we see it is the Way to prevent them. This is but in the Name of Popery to keep all to her self, as well from Protestant Dissenters as Roman Catholicks. How Christian, how equal, how Safe, that narrow Method is, becomes her well to consider, and methinks she ought not to be long about it.

I know she flatters her self, and others too believe, she is a Bulwark against Popery; and with that, without any farther Security to other Protestants, wipes her Mouth of all old Scores, and makes her present Court for Assistance. But when that Word Bulwark is examin’d, I fear it appears to mean no more than this, That she would keep out Popery for that Reason, for which she apprehends Popery would turn her out, viz. Temporal Interest. But may I without Offence ask her, when she kept Persecution out? Or if she keeps out Popery for any Body’s Sake but her own? Nay, if it be not to hold the Power she has in her Hands, that she would frighten other Parties (now she has done her Worst) with what Mischief Popery would do them when it has Power. But to speak freely, can she be a Bulwark in the Case, that has been bringing the worst Part of Popery in these six and twenty Years, if Persecution be so as she says it is. This would be called Canting to the World in others. But I hear she begins to see her Fault, is heartily sorry for it, and promises to do so no more: And why may not Popery be as wise, that has also burnt her Fingers with the same Work? Their praying for Ease by Law, looks as if they chose That, rather than Power, for Security; and if so, Why may not the Papists Live as well as she Reign? I am none of their Advocate, I am no Papist, but I would be just and merciful too. However, I must tell her, that keeping the Laws on Foot, by which she did the Mischief, is none of the plainest Evidences of her Repentance: They that can believe it, have little Reason to quarrel at the Unaccountableness of Transubstantiation. It is unjust in Popery to invade her Privileges, and can it be just in her to provoke it, by denying a Christian Liberty? Or can she expect what she will not give? Or not do as she would be done by, because she fears others will not observe the same Rule to her? Is not this doing Evil that Good may come of it, and that uncertain too, against an express Command as well as common Charity?11 But to speak freely, whether we regard the Circumstances of the King, the Religion of his Children, the Inequality of the Number and Strength of those of each of their Communions, we must conclude, that the Aversion of the Church of England to this intreated Liberty, cannot reasonably be thought to come from the Fear she has of the Prevalency of Popery, but the Loss of that Power the Law gives her to domineer over all Dissenters. And is not this a Rare Motive for a Christian Church to continue Penal Laws for Religion? If her Piety be not able to maintain her upon equal Terms, methinks her having so much the whip Hand and Start of all others, should satisfy her Ambition, and quiet her Fears; for ’tis possible for her to keep the Churches if the Laws were abolished; all the Difference is, she could not Force: She might perswade and convince what she could: And pray, Is not that enough for a true Church, without Goals, Whips, Halters and Gibbets? O what Corruption is this that has prevail’d over Men of such Pretensions to Light and Conscience? that they do not, or will not, see nor feel their own Principles one Remove from themselves; but sacrifice the noblest Part of the Reformation to Ambition, and compel Men to truckle their tender Consciences to the Grandure and Dominion of their Doctors.

But because the Sons of the Church of England keep, at this Time, such a Stir in her Favour, and fix her Excellency in her Opposition to Popery, it is worth while to consider a little farther, if really the most feared and disagreeable Part of Popery, in her own Opinion, does not belong to her, and if it does, should we not be in a fine Condition, to be in Love with our Fetters, and to Court our Misery?

That Part of Popery which the Church of England with most Success objects against, is her Violence. This is that only she can pretend to fear: Her Doctrines she partly professes, or thinks she can easily refute. No Body counts her Doctors Conjurers for their Transubstantiation, or dangerous to the State for their Beads, or their Purgatory. But forcing others to their Faith, or ruining them for refusing it, is the terrible Thing we are taught by her to apprehend. Now granting this to be the Case, in Reference to the Roman Religion, where it is in the Chair. I ask, if the Church of England, with her better Doctrines, has not been guilty of this Impiety, and for that Cause more blameable than the Church she opposes so much? If we look into her Acts of State, we find them many, and bitter, against all Sorts of Dissenters. There is nigh twenty Laws made, and yet in Force, to constrain Conformity, and they have been executed too, as far and as often as she thought it fit for her Interest to let them. Some have been Hang’d, many Banish’d, more Imprison’d, and some to Death; and abundance Impoverish’d; and all this merely for Religion: Though, by a base and barbarous Use of Words, it has been call’d Treason, Sedition, Routs and Riots; the worst of Aggravations, since they are not contented to make People unhappy for their Dissent, but rob them of all they had left, their Innocency. This has been her State Act, to coin Guilt, and make Men dangerous, to have her Ends upon them. But that Way of Palliating Persecution, by rendering a Thing that it is not, and punishing Men for Crimes they never committed, shews but little Conscience in the Projectors. The Church of England cries out against Transubstantiation, because of the Invisibility of the Change. She don’t see Christ there, and therefore he is not there, and yet her Sons do the same Thing. For though all the Tokens of a Riot are as invisible in a Dissenter’s Meeting, as that in the Transubstantiation, yet it must be a Riot without any more to do; the English of which is, ’tis a Riot to pray to God in the humblest and peaceablest Manner in a Conventicle.

I know it is said, The Blood-shed in the foregoing Reign, and the Plots of the Papists against Queen Elizabeth, drew those Laws from the Church of England. But this was no Reason why she should do ill because they had done so: Besides, it may be answered, that that Religion having so long intermixt it self with worldly Power, it gave Way to take the Revenges of it. And certainly the Great Men of the Church of England endeavouring to intercept Queen Mary, by proclaiming the Lady Jane Gray, and the Apprehension the Papists had of the better Title of Mary Queen of Scots, together with a long Possession, were scurvy Temptations to kindle ill Designs against that extraordinary Queen. But tho’ nothing can excuse and less justify those cruel Proceedings, yet if there were any Reason for the Laws, it is plainly remov’d, for the Interests are joined, and have been since King James the first came to the Crown. However, ’tis certain there were Laws enough, or they might have had them, to punish all civil Enormities, without the Necessity of making any against them as Papists. And so the civil Government had stood upon it’s own Legs, and Vices only against it had been punishable by it. In short, it was the falsest Step that was made in all that great Queen’s Reign, and the most dishonourable to the Principles of the first Reformers, and therefore I know no better Reason why it should be continued, than that which made the Cardinal in the History of the Council of Trent oppose the Reformation at Rome. That tho’ it was true that they were in the Wrong, yet the admitting of it approv’d the Judgment of their Enemies, and so good-night to Infallibility.12 Let not this be the Practice of the Church of England, and the rather, because she does not pretend to it: But let her reflect, that she has lost her King from her Religion, and they that have got him, naturally hope for Ease for theirs by him, that ’tis the End they laboured, and the great Use they have for him, and I would fain wonder that she never saw it before; but whether she did or no, why should she begrudge it, at least refuse it now? since ’tis plain, that there is nothing we esteem dangerous in Popery that other Laws are not sufficient to secure us from: Have we not enough of them? let Her think of more, and do the best she can to discover Plotters, punish Traytors, suppress the Seditious, and keep the Peace better than those we have can enable us to do. But, for God’s Sake, let us never direct Laws against Men for the Cause of Religion, or punish them before they have otherwise done amiss. Let Men’s Works, not their Opinions, turn the Edge of the Magistrate’s Sword against them, else ’tis beheading them before they are born.

By the Common Law of this Kingdom there must be some real and proper Overt-act that proves Treason; some Malice that proves Sedition; and some violent Action that proves a Rout or Riot. If so, to call any Sort of Religious Orders, the one, or praying to God in any Way out of Fashion, the other, is preposterous, and punishing People for it, down right Murder or Breach of the Peace, according to the true Use of Words and the old Law of England.

If the Church of England fears the Growth of Popery, let her be truer to the Religion she owns, and betake her self to Faith, rather than Force, by a Pious, Humble, and a Good Example: To convince and perswade, which is the highest Honour to any Church, and the greatest Victory over Men. I am for a National Church as well as she, so it be by Consent, and not by Constraint. But coercive Churches have the same Principle, though not the same Interest. A Church, by Law Establish’d, is a State Church, and that is no Argument of Verity, unless the State that makes her so be infallible; and because that will not be asserted, the other can never oblige the Conscience, and consequently the Compulsion she uses, is unreasonable. This very Principle justifies the King of France, and the Inquisition. For Laws being equally of Force in all Countries where they are made, it must be as much a Fault in the Church of England’s Judgment to be a Protestant at Rome, or a Calvinist at Paris, as to be a Papist at London: Then where is Truth or Conscience but in the Laws of Countries! which renders her an Hobbist, notwithstanding her long and loud Clamours against the Leviathan.13

I beg her, for the Love of Christ, that she would think of these Things, and not esteem me her Enemy for performing the Part of so good a Friend. Plain-dealing becomes that Character; no Matter whether the Way be agreeable, so it be right: We are all to do our Duty, and leave the rest to God: He can best answer for our Obedience, that Commands it; and our Dependence upon his Word will be our Security in our Conduct. What Weight is it to a Church, that she is the Church by Law Establish’d, when no human Law can make a true Church? A True Church is of Christ’s making, and is by Gospel Establish’d. ’Tis a Reflection to a Church that would be thought true, to stoop to human Laws for her Establishment. I have been often scandal’d at that Expression from the Sons of the Church of England, especially those of the Robe, what do you talk for? our Religion is by Law Establish’d, as if that determined the Question of it’s Truth against all other Perswasions.

The Jews had this to say against our Saviour, We have a Law, and by our Law he ought to Dye.14 The Primitive Christians, and some of our first Reformers, died as by Law Established, if that would mend the Matter; but does that make it lawful to a Christian Conscience? we must ever demur to this Plea. No greater Argument of a Church’s Defection from Christianity than turning Persecutor. ’Tis true, the Scripture says, The Earth shall help the Woman, but that was to save her self, not to destroy others: For ’tis the Token that is given by the Holy Ghost of a false Church; That none must Buy or Sell in her Dominions that will not receive her Mark in their Forehead, or Right Hand.15 That is, by going to Church against Conscience, or bribing lustily to stay at Home.

Things don’t change tho’ Men do. Persecution is still the same, let the Hand alter never so often; But the Sin may not: For doubtless it is greatest in those that make the highest Claim to Reformation. For while they plead their own Light for doing so, they hereby endeavour to extinguish another’s Light that can’t concur. What a Man can’t do, it is not his Fault he don’t do, nor should he be compelled to do it, and least of all punish’d for not doing it. No Church can give Faith, and therefore can’t force it; for what is Constrain’d is not Believ’d; since Faith is in that Sense free, and Constraint gives no Time to assent; I say, what I don’t will is not I, and what I don’t chuse is none of mine, and another’s Faith can’t save me tho’ it should save him. So that this Method never obtains the End designed, since it saves no body, because it converts no body; it may breed Hypocrisy, but that is quite another Thing than Salvation.

What then is the Use of Penal Laws? only to shew the Sincerity of them that Suffer, and Cruelty of those that make and execute them. And all Time tells us they have ever fail’d those that have leaned upon them; They have always been Losers at last; Besides, it is a most unaccountable Obstinacy in the Church of England to stickle to uphold them, for after having made it a Matter of Religion and Conscience to address the late King in Behalf of This, to think he should leave Conscience behind him in Flanders, or when they waited on him to the Crown, that he should send it thither upon a Pilgrimage, is want of Wit at best, pardon the Censure. Could they Conscientiously oppose his Exclusion for his Religion, and now his Religion because he will not leave it? Or can they reasonably maintain those Tests that excluded him when Duke of York, while they endured none to hinder him from the Crown? I heartily beg the Church of England’s Excuse, if I say I can’t apprehend her: Perhaps the Fault is mine, but sure I am she is extremely dark. How could she hope for this King without his Conscience? or conceive that his Honour or Conscience would let him leave the Members of his Communion under the Lash of so many Destroying Laws? Would she be so serv’d by a Prince of her own Religion, and she in the like Circumstances? She would not, let her talk ’till Doom’s-day.

To object the King’s Promise, when he came to the Crown, against the Repeal of the Penal Laws, shews not his Insincerity, but her Uncharitableness, or that really she has a very weak Place: For it is plain the King first declared his own Religion, and then promised to maintain her’s; but was that to be without, or together with his own? His Words shews he intended that his own should Live, tho’ t’other might Reign. I say again, it is not credible that a Prince of any Sincerity can refuse a Being to his own Religion, when he continues another in it’s well-being. This were to act upon State not Conscience, and to make more Conscience to uphold a Religion he cannot be of, than of giving Ease to one his Conscience obliges him to be of. I cannot imagine how this Thought could enter into any Head that had Brains, or Heart that had Honesty. And, to say true, they must be a Sort of State Consciences, Consciences as by Law Established, that can follow the Law against their Convictions.

But this is not all I have to observe from that Objection: It implies too evidently, first, that she thinks her self shaken, if the Penal Laws be repealed; then by Law Establish’d she must mean, Established by those Penal Laws. Secondly, That the King having promised to maintain her, as by Law Established, he ought not to endeavour their Repeal by which she is established. I confess this is very close arguing, but then she must not take it ill, if all Men think her ill founded; for any thing must be so, that is established by destroying Laws? Laws, that Time and Practice have declared Enemies to Property and Conscience. O let her not hold by that Charter, nor point thither for her Establishment and Defence, if she would be thought a Christian Church.

Plutarch had rather one should think there never was such a Man in the World, than that Plutarch was an ill Man. Shall the Church of England, that glories in a greater Light, be more concerned for her Power than her Credit? To be, than to be that which she should be? I would say, far be it from her, for her own Sake, and which is of much more Moment, for the Sake of the general Cause of Religion.

Let us see therefore if there be not another Way of understanding those Words more decent to the King, and more honourable for her, viz. that she is in the National Chair, has the Churches and Revenues, and is Mother of those that do not adhere to any separate Communion, and that the King has promised to maintain her in this Post from the Invasions of any other Perswasion that would wrest these Privileges out of her Hands: This he promised formerly; this he has very particularly repeated in his gracious Declaration: But to ruin Men that would not conform, while himself was so great a Dissenter, and came such, to her Knowledge, to the Crown, can be no Part of his Promises in the Opinion of Common Sense and Charity. Is there no Difference to be observed between not turning her out, and Destroying all others not of her Communion: He will not turn her out, there’s his Promise, and he has not done it; There’s his Performance: Nor will he do it, I am confident, if she pleases. But there’s no Manner of Necessity from this Engagement that all Parties else are to be confounded. Tho’ if it were so, ’tis ill Divinity to press such Promises upon a Prince’s Conscience, that can’t be performed with a good One by Any Body.

Let us remember how often she has upbraided her Dissenters with this, Render to Caesar the Things that are Caesar’s, whilst they have returned upon her t’other half of the Text, and render unto God the Things that are God’s.16 It happens now that God and Caesar are both of a Mind, which perhaps does not always fall out, at least about the Point in Hand. Will she dissent from both now? Her Case, believe me, will be doubtful then. I beg her to be Considerate. ’Tis the greatest Time of Trial she has met with since she was a Church. To acquit her self like a Member of Christ’s Universal One, let her keep nothing that voids her Pretensions. The Babylonish Garment will undo her. Practices inconsistent with her Reformation will ruin her. The Martyr’s Blood won the Day, and her Severity has almost lost it. They suffered by Law, she makes Laws for Suffering. Is this an Imitation of their Practice, to uphold the Weapons of their Destruction? I must tell her, ’tis being a Martyr for Persecution, and not by it. Another Path than that the Holy Ancients, and our humble Ancestors trod, and which will lead her to be deserted and contemned of every Body that counts it safer to follow the blessed Rule and practice of Christ and his inspired Messengers, than her narrow and worldly Policies. But that which heightens the Reproach, is the Offer of the Romanists themselves to make a perpetual Civil Peace with her, and that she refuses. Would the Martyrs have done this? surely no. Let her remember the first Argument honest old Fox advances against that Church, is the Church of England’s present Darling, viz. Penal Laws for Religion; as she may see at the Beginning of his first Volume: Doubtless he was much in the Right, which makes her extremely in the Wrong. Nothing, says the Prophet, must harm in God’s Holy Mountain, and that’s the Church, says Fox, and therefore he says, Christ’s Church never Persecutes.17 Leave then God with his own Work, and Christ with his own Kingdom. As it is not of the World, let not the World touch it; no, not to uphold it, though they that bear it should trip by the Way. Remember Uzzah, he would needs support the Ark when the Oxen Stumbled; but was struck Dead for his Pains.18 The Presumption is more than parallel. Christ promised to be present with his Church to the End of the World. He bids them fear not, and told them, that sufficient was the Day for the Evil thereof.19 How? with Penal Laws? no such Matter; but his Divine Presence. Therefore it was, He called not for Legions to fight for him, because his Work needed it not. They that want them have another Sort of Work to do: And ’tis too plain, that Empire, and not Religion, has been too much the Business. But, O let it not be so any more! To be a True Church is better than to be a National One; especially as so upheld. Press Virtue, Punish Vice, Dispense with Opinion; Perswade, but don’t Impose. Are there Tares in Opinion? let them alone; you heard they are to grow with the Wheat ’till Harvest, that is, the End of the World. Should they not be plucked up before? No; and ’tis Angels Work at last too. Christ, that knew all Men, saw no Hand on Earth fit for that Business. Let us not then usurp their Office. Besides, we are to love Enemies; this is the Great Law of our Religion;20by what Law then are we to Persecute them? and if not Enemies, not Friends and Neighbours certainly.

The Apostle rejoyced that Christ was Preached out of Envy,21 If so, I am sure we ought not to envy Christians the Enjoyment of the Liberty of their Consciences. Christianity should be propagated by the Spirit of Christianity, and not by Violence or Persecution, for that’s the Spirit of Antichristianity. Nor for Fear of it, should we, of Christians, become Antichristians. Where is Faith in God? Where is Trust in Providence? Let us do our Duty, and leave the rest with Him; and not do Evil that Good may come of it;22 for that shews a Distrust in God, and a Confidence in our own Inventions for Security. No Reason of State can excuse our Disobedience to his Rule; and we desert the Principles of our Heavenly Master when we decline it. The Question is about Conscience, about this we can none of us be too tender, nor exemplary. ’Tis in right doing that Christians can hope for Success; and for true Victory only through Faith and Patience. But if to avoid what we fear, we contradict our Principles, we may justly apprehend that God will desert us in an unlawful Way of maintaining them. Perhaps this may be God’s Time of trying all Parties, what we will do; whether we will rely upon him or our own feeble Provisions; whether we will allow what we our selves, in our Turn, have all of us desired; if not, may we not expect to suffer the Thing we would inflict? for our Penal Laws cannot secure us from the Turns of Providence, and less support us under them. Let us consider the true Ground of the Difficulty that is made, if it be not partial and light in God’s Scale; for to that Tryal all Things must come, and his Judgment is inevitable as well as infallible. Besides, if we have not tried all other Methods, we are inexcusable in being so tenacious for this. I do therefore, in all Humility, beseech all Sorts of Professors of Christianity in these Kingdoms, to abstract themselves from those Jealousies which worldly Motives are apt to kindle in their Minds, and with an even and undisturbed Soul pursue their Christian Duty in this great Conjuncture: Considering the Race is not to the Swift, nor the Battle to the Strong, and that for all our Watchmen, ’tis God alone (at last) that keeps the City.23 Not that I would decline a fitting, but an unchristian Provision: For though the Foundation were never so true, yet if our Superstructure be Hay and Stubble, (our own narrow Devices) the Fire will consume it, and our Labour will be worse than in vain.24 Let us not therefore Sow what we would not Reap, because we must Reap what we Sow: And remember who told us, what we measure to others shall be measured to us again.25 Let us therefore do unto all Parties of Men, as we would be done unto by them in their Turn of Power: Lest our Fear of their Undutifulness, should tempt us out of our Duty, and so draw upon our selves the Mischiefs we are afraid of. Sacred Writ is full of this, in the Doctrine of both Testaments; and, as we profess to believe it, we are inexcusable if we do not practise it. Let the Spirit then of Christian Religion prevail: Let our Policies give Way to our Duty, and our Fears will be overcome of our Hopes, which will not make us ashamed at the last and great Judgment: where, O God! let us all appear with Comfort.

I could yet enlarge upon this Subject; for nothing can be more fruitful. I could say, that a Church that Denies Infallibility, cannot force, because she cannot be certain, and so Penal Laws (tho’ it were possible that they could be lawful in others) in her, would be Unjust. That Scripture leaves Men to Conviction and Perswasion. That the true Church-Weapons are Light and Grace; and her Punishments, Censure and Excommunication. That Goals and Gibbets are Inadequate Methods for Conversion, and that they never succeeded. That this forbids all farther Light to come into the World, and so limits the Holy One, which in Scripture is made a great Sin. And, lastly, That such ensnare their own Posterity that may be of another Mind, and forfeit by it the Estates they have so carefully transmitted to them. Thus far against Imposition. And against Compliance, I could say, that it’s to betray God’s Sovereignty over Conscience; To defy Men; Gratify Presumption; Soil and Extinguish Truth in the Mind; Obey Blindfold; make over the Soul without Security; turn Hypocrite, and abundance more; each of which Heads might well merit an whole Chapter. But this having been well and seasonably considered elsewhere, I shall now proceed to the second Part of this Discourse, in which I will be as brief, and yet as full as I can.

PART II.

That ’tis the Principle of Men of Note of all Parties.

BUT what Need Is there of this, may some say, when all Parties profess to be of the same Judgment, That Conscience ought not to be forced, nor Religion imposed upon Men at their Civil Peril? I own they are all of that Mind, at one Time or other, and therefore, that I may purge my self of any Animosity to the Doctrine of the Church of England, I will ingenuously confess the severe Conduct I have argued against is not to be imputed to her Principles; but then her Evil will be the greater, that in Fact has so notoriously contradicted them. I know some of her Defenders will hardly allow that too; tho’ the more candid give us their Silence or Confession: For they tell us, ’tis not the Church that has done it; which, unless they mean, the Laws were not made at Church, must needs be false, since those that made and executed them were of her own Communion, and are that great Body of Members that constitute her a Church; but, by her shifting them off, ’tis but reasonable to conclude that she tacitly condemns what she publickly disowns. One would think then it should not be so hard to perswade her to quit them, in the Way she made them, or to enjoyn her Sons to do it, if that Language be too harsh for her. This she must hear of some Way, and I pray God she may endeavour to do her Duty in it. She is not alone; for every Party in Power has too evidently lapsed into this Evil; tho’ under the Prevalency and Persecution of another Interest they have ever writ against Club-Law for Religion. And to the End that I may do the Reformation Right, and the Principles of the Church of England Justice, I must say, that hardly one Person of any note, died in the Time of Queen Mary, that did not pass Sentence upon Persecution as Antichristian, particularly Latimer, Philpot, Bradford, Rogers, very Eminent Reformers. The Apologies that were writ in those Times, are of the same Strain, as may be seen in Jewel, Haddon, Reynolds, &c. and the Papists were with reason thought much in the wrong by those Primitive Protestants, for the Persecution that they raised against them, for Matters of pure Religion. But what need we go so far back? Is it not recent in Memory, that Bishop Usher was Employ’d to O. Cromwell by some of the Clergy of the Church of England for Liberty of Conscience? Dr. Parr, in the Life of Dr. Usher Primate of Armagh, fol. 75. has that Passage thus.26

Cromwell forbidding the Clergy, under great Penalties, to teach Schools, or to perform any Part of their ministerial Function; some of the most considerable Episcopal Clergy in and about London, desired my Lord Primate that he would use his Interest with Cromwell, (since they heard he pretended a great Respect for him) that as he granted Liberty of Conscience to almost all Sorts of Religions, so the Episcopal Divines might have the same Freedom of serving God in their private Congregations (since they were not permitted the publick Churches) according to the Liturgy of the Church of England; and that neither the Ministers, nor those that frequented that Service, might be any more hindered, or disturbed by his Soldiers: So according to their Desire, he went and used his utmost Endeavours with Cromwell, for the taking off this Restraint, which was at last promised (though with some Difficulty) and that they should not be molested, provided they meddled not with any Matters relating to his Government.

Certainly those Gentlemen were of my Mind, And to give Dr. Hammond his due, who I understand was one of them, he left it to the Witnesses of his End, as his dying Counsel to the Church of England, That they displaced no Man out of the University or present Church, but that by Love, and an Holy Life they should prevail upon those in Possession to come into their Church. But this lookt so little like the Policy and Ambition of the Living, that they resolved it should be Buried with him. This I had from an eminent Hand in Oxford, a Year or two after his Death. An older Man out liv’d him, and one of the most Learned and Pious of that Communion, Bishop Sanderson I mean: They were the two great Men of their Sort that was of the Party. Let us see what this Reverend Man says to our Point.

The Word of God doth expresly forbid us to subject our Consciences to the Judgment of any other, or to usurp a Dominion over the Consciences of any One. Several Cases of Conscience discussed in Ten Lectures in the Divinity School at Oxford, 3 Lect. 30 Sect. pag. 103. printed 1660.

He is not worthy to be Christ’s Disciple, who is not the Disciple of Christ alone. The Simplicity and Sincerity of the Christian Faith, hath suffered a great Prejudice since we have been divided into Parties, neither is there any Hope that Religion should be restored to her former Original and Purity, until the Wounds that were made wider by our daily Quarrels and Dissentions, being anointed with the Oyl of Brotherly Love, as with a Balsam, shall begin to close again, and to grow entire into the same Unity of Faith and Charity, ibid. Sect. 29.

The Obligation of Conscience doth not signify any Compulsion, for, to speak properly, the Conscience can no more be compelled than the Free-will. ibid. 4. Lecture Sect. 5. pag. 109.

The express Commandment of God doth oblige the Conscience properly by it self and by it’s own Force; and this Obligation is absolute, because it doth directly and always oblige, and because it obligeth all Persons, and the Obligation of it is never to be cancelled. None but God alone hath Power to impose a Law upon the Conscience of any Man, to which it ought to be subjected, as obliging by it self,—This Conclusion is prov’d by the Words of the Apostle, There is but one Law-giver, who can both save and destroy.27 In which Words two Arguments do offer themselves to our Observation; In the first place they assert there is but one Legislator; not one picked out amongst many; not one above many; but one exclusively, that is to say, One, and but one only. The Apostle otherwise had made use of a very ineffectual Argument, to prove what he had propounded; for he rebuketh those who unadvisedly did pass their Judgment either on the Persons, or the Deeds of other Men, as the Invaders of their Rights. Who art Thou (saith he) who dost judge another?28 As if he should have said, dost thou know thy self, what thou art, and what thou dost? It doth not belong to Thee to thrust thy sawcy Sickle into the harvest of another Man, much less boldly to fling thy self into the Throne of Almighty God. If already Thou art Ignorant of it, then know, that it belongeth to him alone to judge of the Consciences of Men, to whom alone it doth belong to impose Laws upon the Consciences of Men, which none can do but God alone. ibid pag. 111, 112, 113.

The Condition and Natural Estate of the Conscience itself is so placed as it were in the middle betwixt God and the will of Man, as that which is usually and truly spoken of Kings and Emperours, may as truly be verified of the Conscience of every Man, Solo Deo minores esse, nec aliquem in Terris superiorem agnoscere; They are less than God only, and on Earth do acknowledge no Superior. That Speech of the Emperour Maximilian the first is very memorable, Conscientiis Dominari velle, est Arcem Caeli invadere; To exercise a Domination over Consciences, is to invade the Tower of Heaven. He is a Plunderer of the Glory of God, and a nefarious Invader of the Power that is due unto him, whosoever he is that shall claim a right to the Consciences of Men, or practice an Usurpation over them. ibid. Sect. 11. pag. 115.

And yet this is the sad Consequence of imposing Religion upon Conscience, and punishing Non-conformity with worldly Penalties.

Let us now hear what the late Bishop of Down says in his Lib. of Prophesy to our Point,29

I am very much displeased that so many Opinions and new Doctrines are commenced amongst us, but more troubled, that every Man that hath an Opinion thinks his own and other Men’s Salvation is concerned in it’s maintenance, but most of all, that Men should be Persecuted and Afflicted for disagreeing in such Opinions, which they cannot with sufficient Grounds obtrude upon others necessarily, because they cannot propound them Infallibly, and because they have no Warrant from Scripture so to do; for if I shall tye other Men to believe my Opinion, because I think I have a Place of Scripture which seems to warrant it to my Understanding; why may he not serve up another Dish to me in the same Dress, and exact the same Task of me to believe the contradictory? Liberty of Prophesy, Epist. Dedicat. p. 8, 9.

The Experience which Christendom hath had in this last Age is Argument enough that Toleration of differing Opinions is so far from disturbing the Publick Peace, or destroying the Interest of Princes and Common-wealths, that it does advantage to the Publick, it secures Peace, because there is not so much as the Pretence of Religion left to such Persons to contend for, it being already indulged to them. ibid. pag. 21.

It is a proverbial saying, Quod nimia familiaritas servorum est conspiratio adversus Dominum,30 and they who for their Security run into Grots and Cellars, and Retirements, think that they being upon the defensive, those Princes and those Laws that drive them to it are their Enemies, and therefore they cannot be secure, unless the Power of the one, and the Obligation of the other be lessened and rescinded; and then the being restrained, and made miserable, endears the discontented Persons mutually, and makes more hearty and dangerous Confederations, ibid. Page 23.

No Man speaks more unreasonably, than he that denies to Men the Use of their Reason in Choice of their Religion. ibid. pag. 169.

No Christian is to be put to Death, Dismembred, or otherwise directly Persecuted for his Opinion, which does not teach Impiety or Blasphemy, ibid. pag. 190.

There is a popular Pity that follows all Persons in Misery, and that Compassion breeds likeness of Affections, and that very often produces Likeness of Perswasion; and so much the rather, because there arises a Jealousie and pregnant Suspicion that they who Persecute an Opinion are destitute of sufficient Arguments to confute it, and that the Hangman is the best Disputant. ibid. Page 197, 198.

If a Man cannot change his Opinion when he lists, nor ever does heartily or resolutely, but when he cannot do otherwise, then to use Force, may make him an Hypocrite, but never to be a right Believer, and so instead of erecting a Trophy to God and true Religion, we build a Monument for the Devil. ibid. p. 200.

The Trick of giving Persons differing in Opinion over to the secular Power, at the best is no better than Hypocrisy, removing Envy from themselves, and laying it upon others, a refusing to do that in external Act, which they do in Counsel and Approbation. ibid. pag. 209.

Thus far Bishop Taylor, and one of the most Learned Men of the Church of England in his Time.

Let me add another Bishop, held Learned by all, and in great Reputation with the Men of his Communion, and among them the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, who have sufficiently declared against this persecuting Spirit on the Account of Religion, by their full Approbation of, and Thanks returned to the Bishop of S. Asaph for his Sermon Preached before them November the 5th, 1680. and their Desire that he would Print and Publish that Sermon.31 The Bishop says, that, “They who are most given to Hate and to Destroy others, especially those others who differ from them in Religion, they are not the Church of God, or at least they are so far corrupt in that particular.” pag. 8.

Again he says,

That, of Societies of Men, Christians, of all others, are most averse from Ways of Violence and Blood; especially from using any such Ways upon the Account of Religion: And among Christian Churches, where they differ among themselves, if either of them use those Ways upon the Account of Religion, they give a strong Presumption against themselves that they are not truly Christians. ibid. pag. 9.

There is reason for this, because, we know that Christ gave Love for the Character by which his Disciples were to be known. John 13. 35. By this shall all Men know that you are my Disciples, if you have love to one another. And lest Men should unchristen others first, that they may Hate them, and Destroy them afterwards, Christ enlarged his Precept of Love, and extended it even to Enemies, and not only to ours, but to the Enemies of our Religion, Matt. 5. 43, 44. ibid. Pag. 9.

As our Holy Religion excells all others in this admirable temper, so by this we may usually judge who they are that excel among Christian Churches, when there happens any Difference between them, whether touching the Faith, or the Terms of Communion. They that were the more Fierce, they generally had the worst Cause. ibid. pag. 12, 13.

The Council of Nice suppressed the Arrians by no other Force, but putting Arrians out of their Bishopricks; they could not think Hereticks fit to be trusted with cure of Souls; but otherwise, as to Temporal Things, I do not find that they inflicted any kind of Punishments; but when the Arrians came to have the Power in their Hands, when theirs was come to be the Imperial Religion, then Depriving was nothing, Banishment was the least that they inflicted. ibid. pag. 14.

Neither our Religion, nor our Church, is of a persecuting Spirit. I know not how it may be in particular Persons; but I say again, it is not in the Genius of our Church: She hath no Doctrine that teacheth Persecution. ibid. p. 20.

I would have no Man punished for his Religion, no not them that destroy Men for Religion. ibid. pag. 37.

Dr. Stillingfleet comes short of none of them on this Subject.*

Our Saviour, says he, never pressed Followers as Men do Soldiers, but said, If any Man will come after me, let him take up his Cross (not his Sword) and follow me. His was ἣμερος καὶ φιλάνθρωπος νομοθεσία,32 his very Commands shewed his Meekness; his Laws were sweet and gentle Laws; not like Draco’s that were writ in Blood,33 unless it were his own that gave them. His Design was to ease Men of their former Burdens, and not lay on more; the Duties he required were no other but such as were necessary, and withal very just and reasonable. He that came to take away the insupportable Yoke of Jewish Ceremonies, certainly did never intend to gall the Necks of his Disciples with another instead of it. And it would be strange the Church should require more than Christ himself did; and make other Conditions of her Communion, than our Saviour did of Discipleship. What possible reason can be assigned or given why such Things should not be sufficient for Communion with a Church, which are sufficient for Eternal Salvation? And certainly those Things are sufficient for that, which are laid down as necessary Duties of Christianity by our Lord and Saviour in his Word. What Ground can there be why Christians should not stand upon the same Terms now which they did in the Time of Christ and his Apostles? Was not Religion sufficiently guarded and fenced in them? Was there ever more true and cordial Reverence in the Worship of God? What Charter hath Christ given the Church to bind Men up to more than himself hath done? or to exclude those from her Society who may be admitted into Heaven? Will Christ ever thank Men at the great Day for keeping such out from Communion with his Church, when he will vouchsafe not only Crowns of Glory to them, but it may be Aureolae too, if there be any such Things there? The Grand Commission the Apostles were sent out with, was only to teach what Christ had commanded them.34 Not the least Intimation of any Power given them to impose or require any Thing beyond what himself had spoken to them, or they were directed to by the Immediate Guidance of the Spirit of God.

Without all Controversy, the main Inlet of all the Distractions, Confusions and Divisions of the Christian World, hath been by adding other Conditions of Church Communion than Christ hath done.

There is nothing the Primitive Church deserves greater Imitation by us in, than in that admirable Temper, Moderation and Condescension which was used in it towards all the Members of it.

This admirable Temper in the Primitive Church might be largely cleared from that Liberty they allowed freely to Dissenters from them in Matters of Practice and Opinion; as might be cleared from Cyprian, Austin, Jerome, and others.—Leaving the Men to be won by observing the true decency and order of Churches, whereby those who act upon a true Principle of Christian Ingenuity may be sooner drawn to a Compliance in all lawful Things, than by Force and rigorous Impositions, which make Men suspect the Weight of the Thing it self, when such Force is used to make it enter. In the Preface.

The same is in effect declared by the House of Commons, when they returned their Thanks to Dr. Tillotson, Dean of Canterbury, for his Sermon Preached before them November the 5th, 1678.35desiring him to Print that Sermon, where he says, upon our Saviour’s Words,

Ye know not what Manner of Spirit ye are of, Ye own your selves to be my Disciples, but do you consider what Spirit now Acts and Governs you? not that surely which my Doctrine designs to mould and fashion you into, which is not a Furious and Persecuting, and Destructive Spirit, but Mild and Gentle, and Saving; tender of the Lives and Interests of Men, even of those who are our greatest Enemies pag. 6, 7.

No Difference of Religion, no Pretence of Zeal for God and Christ can warrant and justifie this Passionate and Fierce, this Vindictive and Exterminating Spirit. ibid. pag. 7.

He (i.e. Christ) came to introduce a Religion, which consults not only the Eternal Salvation of Men’s Souls, but their Temporal Peace and Security, their Comfort and Happiness in this World. ibid. pag. 8.

It seemed good to the Author of this Institution to compel no Man to it by Temporal Punishment. ibid. pag. 13.

To separate Goodness and Mercy From God, Compassion and Charity from Religion, is to make the two best Things in the World, God and Religion, good for nothing. ibid. pag. 9.

True Christianity is not only the best, but the best natured Institution in the World; and so far as any Church is departed from good Nature, and become Cruel and Barbarous, so far it is degenerated from Christianity. ibid. pag. 30.

Thus far Dr. Tillotson, who, to be sure, deserves not to be thought the least Eminent in the present Church of England. Let us hear what Dr. Burnet says to it.

“Men are not Masters of their own Perswasions, and cannot change their Thoughts as they please; he that believes any Thing concerning Religion, cannot turn as the Prince commands him, or accommodate himself to the Law, or his present Interests, unless he arrive at that Pitch of Atheism, as to look on Religion only as a Matter of Policy, and an Engine for Civil Government”: Dr. Burnet’s History of the Rights of Princes, &c. in his Preface, pag. 49.36

’Tis to this Doctor’s Pains, She owes the very History of Her Reformation; and, as by it he has perpetuated his Name with Her’s, certainly he must have Credit with Her, or She can deserve none with any Body else; for no Man could well go farther to oblige Her.

Let me here bring in a Lay Member of the Church of England, Sir Robert Pointz, in His Vindication of Monarchy,37 who yields us an excellent Testimony to the Matter in Hand:

The Sword availeth little with the Souls of Men, unless to destroy them together with their Bodies, and to make Men Desperate, or Dissemblers in Religion, and when they find Opportunity, to fall into Rebellion, as there are many Examples, pag. 27.

In the Ancient Times of Christianity, such Means were not used as might make Hereticks and Schismaticks more obstinate than docible, through the preposterous Proceedings of the Magistrates and Ministers of Justice, in the Execution of Penal Laws, used rather as Snares for Gaining of Money, and Pecuniary Mulcts impos’d, rather as Prices set upon Offences, than as Punishments for the Reformation of Manners, ibid. pag. 28.

The Ancient Christians were forbidden by the Imperial Law, as also by the Laws of other Christian Nations, under a great Penalty, To meddle with the Goods of Jews, or Pagans, living Peaceably, ibid. pag. 29.

For, the Goods of the Jews, although Enemies to the Christian Religion, cannot for the Cause of Religion come by Escheat unto Christian Princes, under whom they live. Ibid. pag. 29.

It is truly said, that Peace, a Messenger whereof an Angel hath been chosen to be, is scarce Established by the Sword; and the Gospel, the Blessed Peace, cannot be published by the Sound of Cannon, neither the Sacred Word be convey’d unto us, by the Impious Hands of Soldiers; neither Tranquillity be brought to the Persons and Consciences of Men, by that which bringeth Ruin unto Nations, ibid. pag. 70.

He has said Much in a Little; the Talent and Honour of Men truly Great. I give this still to the Church of England’s Principles, which yet makes it harder for Her, to Justifie Her Practice in Her Use of Power. But let us hear a King speak, and One the Church of England is bound to hear by many Obligations.

King Charles the First, out of his Tender and Princely Sense of the sad and bleeding Condition of the Kingdom, and his unwearied Desires to apply such Remedies, as by the Blessing of Almighty God, might settle it in Peace, by the Advice of his Lords and Commons of Parliament, Assembled at Oxford, propounded and desired, That all the Members of Both Houses might securely Meet in a Full and Free Convention of Parliament, there to Treat, Consult, and Agree upon such Things, as may conduce to the Maintenance and Defence of the Reformed Protestant Religion, with due Consideration to all Just and Reasonable Ease to Tender Consciences. The King’s Message of a Treaty, March 3. 1643. from Oxford, Superscribed to the Lords and Commons of Parliament Assembled at Westminster.

In the King’s Twentieth Message for Peace, January 29, 1645, he has these Words, That by the Liberty offered in his Message of the 15th present, for the Ease of their Consciences who will not Communicate in the Service already Established by Act of Parliament in this Kingdom, He intends that all other Protestants, behaving themselves Peaceable in, and towards the Civil Government, shall have the Free Exercise of their Religion, according to their own Way.

In the Thirty Third Message for Peace, November 14, 1647, there are these Words, His Majesty considering the great present Distempers concerning Church-Discipline and that the Presbyterian Government is now in Practice, His Majesty to eschew Confusion, as much as may be, and for the Satisfaction of His Two Houses, is content that the said Government be Legally permitted to stand in the same Condition it now is, for Three Years; Provided, that His Majesty, and those of his Judgment (or any other who cannot in Conscience submit thereunto) be not obliged to comply with the Presbyterial Government, but have Free Practice of their own Profession, without receiving any Prejudice thereby. From the Isle of Wight.

In his Declaration to all his People, January 18, 1645, from Carisbrook Castle, after the Votes of no Address, He says, I have Sacrificed to My Two Houses of Parliament, for the Peace of the Kingdom, All but what is much more dear to me than my Life, my Conscience and my Honour.

In his Letter to the Lords, Gentlemen and Committee of the Scotch Parliament, together with the Officers of the Army, July 3, 1648, from Carisbrook Castle—As the Best Foundation of Loyalty is Christianity, so True Christianity is Perfect Loyalty.

ΕΙΚΩΝ ΒΑΞΙΛΙΚΗ. Ch. 6. Upon His Majesty’s Retirement from Westminster.—Sure it ceases to be Counsel, when not Reason is used, as to Men to Perswade, but Force and Terror, as to Beasts, to drive and compel Men to whatever Tumultuary Patrons shall Project. He deserves to be a Slave without Pity or Redemption, that is content to have his Rational Sovereignty of his Soul, and Liberty of his Will and Words so captivated.—Again, Ibid. Sure that Man cannot be blameable to God or Man, who seriously endeavours to See the Best Reason of Things, and faithfully follows what he takes for Reason; the Uprightness of his Intentions will excuse the possible Failing of his Understanding.—Again, Ibid. I know no Resolutions more worthy a Christian King, than to prefer his Conscience before his Kingdoms.

Chap. 12. Upon the Rebellion and Troubles in Ireland.—Some Kind of Zeal counts All Merciful Moderation, Lukewarmness, and had rather be Cruel, than accounted Cold, and is not seldom more greedy to Kill the Bear for his Skin, than for any Harm he hath done.—Ib. O my GOD, Thou seest how much Cruelty among Christians is acted under the Colour of Religion, as if we could not be Christians, unless we Crucify one another.

Chap. 13. Upon the calling the Scots, and their coming—Sure, in Matters of Religion, those Truths gain most on Men’s Judgments and Consciences, which are least urged with Secular Violence, which weakens Truth with Prejudices; and is unreasonable to be used, till such Means of Rational Conviction hath been applied, as leaving no Excuse for Ignorance, condemns Men’s Obstinacy to deserv’d Penalties.—Violent Motions are neither Manly, Christian, nor Loyal.—The proper Engine of Faction is Force; the Arbitrator of Beasts, not of Reasonable Men, much less of Humble Christians and Loyal Subjects, in Matters of Religion.

Chap. 14. Upon the Covenant.—Religion requires Charity and Candor to others of different Opinions—Nothing Violent and Injurious can be Religious.

Chap. 15. Upon the many Jealousies raised, and Scandals cast upon the King, to stir up the People against him.—In Point of True Conscientious Tenderness (attended with Humility and Meekness, not with proud or arrogant Activity, which seeks to hatch every Egg of indifferent Opinion to Faction or Schism) I have oft declared how little I desire My Laws and Scepter should intrench over God’s Soveraignty, who is the Only King of Men’s Consciences.

Chap. 27. To the Prince of Wales.—Take Heed of abetting to any Factions; your Partial adhering to any One Side, gains you not so great Advantages in some Men’s Hearts, (who are Prone to be of their King’s Religion) as it loseth you in others, who think themselves, and their Profession, first despised, then persecuted by you.—My Counsel and Charge to you is, That you seriously consider the former Real or Objected Miscarriages, which might occasion my Troubles, that you may avoid them.—A Charitable Connivence, and Christian Toleration, often dissipates their Strength, whom Rougher Opposition fortifies.—Always keep up Sound Piety, and those Fundamental Truths (which mend both Hearts and Lives of Men) with Impartial Favour and Justice.—Your Prerogative is best shewed and exercised in Remitting, rather than exacting the Rigour of the Law, there being nothing worse than Legal Tyranny:

And as this was the Sense and Judgment of a King, that Time, and the greatest Troubles had inform’d with a Superiour Judgment, (and which to be sure highly justifies the Measures that are now taken) So Dr. Hudson, His Plain Dealing Chaplain, must not be forgotten by us on this Occasion, who took the Freedom to tell His Royal Master, That he look’d upon the Calamities he labour’d under, to be the Hand of GOD upon Him, for not having given GOD His Due over Conscience.

One can easily imagine this to be Reformation Language, and then it is not hard to think, how low that Church must be fallen, that from so Free and Excellent a Principle, is come to make, execute, and uphold Penal Laws for Religion, against Her Conscientious Neighbours; but it is to be hoped, That like Nebuchadnezzar’s Image, whose Feet was a Mixture of Iron and Clay, andtherefore could not stand for ever,38 Persecution will not be able to mix so with the Seed of Men, but that Humanity will overcome it, and Mankind One Day be delivered from that Iron, Hard, and Fierce Nature.

I have done with my Church of England’s Evidences against Persecution: And for the Judgment of all Sorts of Dissenters in That Point, let their Practice have been what it will, nothing is clearer, than that they disallow of Persecution, of which their Daily Addresses of Thanks to the KING, for His General Ease, by His Excellent Declaration, are an undoubted Proof.

Thus then we see, it is evident, that it is not only the Duty of all Parties, as they would be thought Christians, to Repeal Penal Laws for Religion, but upon a Fair Enquiry, We see it is the avowed Principle of every Party, at one Time or other, that Conscience ought not to be compell’d, nor Religion impos’d upon Worldly Penalties. And so I come to the Third and Last Part of this Discourse.

PART III.

It is the Interest of all Parties, and especially the Church of ENGLAND.

AS I take all Men to be unwillingly separated from their Interests, and consequently ought only to be sought and discours’d in them, so it must be granted me on all Hands, That Interests change as well as Times, and ’tis the Wisdom of a Man to observe the Courses, and humour the Motions of his Interest, as the Best Way to preserve it. And lest any ill-natur’d, or mistaken Person, should call it Temporizing, I make this early Provision; That I mean, no immoral, or corrupt Compliance: A Temporizing, deservedly base with Men of Vertue, and which in all Times, my Practice, as well as Judgment, hath shown the last Aversion to. For upon the Principle I now go, and which I lay down, as common and granted in Reason and Fact, with all Parties concern’d in this Discourse, that Man does not change, that Morally follows his Interest under all it’s Revolutions, because to be True to his Interest, is his First Civil Principle. I premise this, to introduce what I have to offer, with Respect to the Interests to be now treated upon.

And first, I say, I take it to be the Interest of the Church of England, to abolish the Penal Laws, because it never was Her Interest to make them. My Reasons for that Opinion are these, First, They have been an Argument to invalidate the Sufferings of the Reformers, because if it be unlawful to disobey Government about Matters of Religion, they were in the wrong. And if they say, O but they were in Error that punish’d their Non-Conformity; I answer, How can She prove that She is Infallibly in the Right? And if this cannot be done, She compels to an Uncertainty upon the same Terms. Secondly, She has overthrown the Principles upon which She separated from Rome: For if it be Unlawful to plead Scripture and Conscience, to vindicate Dissent from Her Communion, it was Unlawful for Her upon the same Plea, To Dissent from the Church of Rome; unless She will say again, That She was in the Right, but the other in the Wrong; and She knows this is no Answer, but a begging of the Question; For they that Separate from Her, think themselves as Serious, Devout, and as much in the Right as She could do. If then Conscience and Scripture, interpreted with the Best Light She had, were the Ground of Her Reformation, She must allow the Liberty She takes, Or She Eats Her Words, and Subverts Her Foundation; than which nothing can be more Destructive to the Interest of any Being, Civil or Ecclesiastical. Thirdly, The Penal Laws have been the Great Make-Bate in the Kingdom from the Beginning: For if I should grant that She had been once truly the Church of England, I mean, consisting of all the People of England, (which She was not, for there were divers Parties Dissenting from the First of Her Establishment) yet since it afterwards appear’d She was but One Party, tho’ the biggest, She ought not to have made Her Power more National than Her Faith, nor Her Faith so by the Force of Temporal Authority. ’Tis true, She got the Magistrate of Her Side, but She engaged him too far: For She knew, Christ did not leave Caesar Executor to His Last Will and Testament, and, that That should be the Reason why She did so, was none of the Best Ornaments to Her Reformation. That She was but a Party, tho’ the biggest, by the Advantages that Temporal Power brought Her, I shall easily prove, but I will introduce it with a short Account of our State-Reformation here in England.

Henry the Eighth, was a Kind of Hermaphrodite in Religion, or in the Language of the Times, a Trimmer; being a Medly of Papist and Protestant, and that Part he acted to the Life, or to the Death rather; Sacrificing on the same Day Men of Both Religions, because one was not Protestant enough, and t’other Papist enough for him. In this Time were some Anabaptists, for the Distinction of Church of England, and Calvinist, was not then known.

Edward the Sixth succeeded, a Prince that promised Virtues, that might more than ballance the Excesses of his Father, and yet by Archbishop Cranmer, was compell’d to Sign a Warrant to Burn Poor Joan of Kent, a Famous Woman, but counted an Enthusiast: But to prove what I said of him, ’twas not without frequent Denials and Tears, and the Bishop taking upon him to answer for it at God’s Judgment, of which I hope his Soul was discharg’d, tho’ his Body, by the same Law, suffer’d the same Punishment in the succeeding Reign. Thus even the Protestants began with Blood for Meer Religion, and taught the Romanists, in succeeding Times, how to deal with them.

At this Time the Controversie grew warm between the Church of England and the Calvinists, that were the Abler Preachers and the Better Livers. The Bishops being mostly Men of State, and some of them looking rather backward than forward, Witness the Difficulty the King had to get Hooper Consecrated Bishop, without Conformity to the Reserved Ceremonies.

Queen Mary came in, and ended the Quarrel at the Stake. Now Ridley and Hooper hug, and are the Dearest Brethren, and Best Friends in the World. Hooper keeps his Ground, and Ridley stoops with his Ceremonies to t’others farther Reformation. But this Light and Union flow’d from their Persecution: For those abroad at Frankfort, and other Places, were not upon so good Terms: Their Feuds grew so great, that the one refused Communion with the other; many Endeavours were used to quench the Fire, but they were ineffectual; at best it lay under the Ashes of their Affliction for another Time; for no sooner was Queen Elizabeth upon Her Throne, than they returned, and their Difference with them. They managed it civilly for a While, but Ambition in some, and Covetousness in others on the one Hand, and Discretion giving Way to Resentment on the other, they first ply the Queen and Her Ministers, and when that ended in Favour of the Men of Ceremony, the others arraign’d them before the First Reformers abroad, at Geneva, Basil, Zurich, &c. The Leading Prelates by their Letters, as Dr. Burnet lately tells us, in his Printed Relation of his Travels, clear themselves to those first Doctors of any such Imputation, and lay all upon the Queen, who, for Reasons of State, would not be brought to so Inceremonious a Way of Worship, as that of the Calvinists.39

At this Time there were Papists, Protestants, Evangelists, Praecisians, Ubiquitists, Familists, or Enthusiasts, and Anabaptists in England; when the very First Year of Her Reign, A Law for Uniformity in Worship and Discipline was Enacted, and more followed of the severest Nature, and sometimes executed.40 Thus then we see that there never was such a Thing as a Church of England since the Days of Popery, that is, A Church or Communion, containing all the People of the Kingdom, and so cannot be said to be so much as a Twin of the Reformation; nevertheless, She got the Blessing of the Civil Magistrate: She made Him Great, to be Great by Him: If She might be the Church, He should be the Head. Much Good may the Bargain do her. Now is the Time for Her to stand to Her Principle. I never knew any Body exceed their Bounds, that were not met with at last. If we could escape Men, God we cannot, His Providence will overtake us, and find us out.

By all this then it appearing, that the Church of England was not the Nation, the Case is plain, That the Penal Laws were a Make-Bate, for they Sacrificed every Sort of People whose Consciences differed from the Church of England; which first put the Romanists upon flattering Prerogative, and courting it’s Shelter from the Wrath of those Laws. The Address could not be unpleasant to Princes; and we see it was not; for King James, that came in with Invectives against Popery, entring the Lists with the Learned of that Church, and charging Her with all the Marks the Revelation gives to that of Antichrist, grew at last so tame and easie towards the Romanists, that our own Story tells us of the Fears of the Increase of Popery in the latter Parliament of his Reign.

In King Charles the First’s Time, no Body can doubt of the Complaint, because that was in great Measure the Drift of every Parliament, and at last One Reason of the War. On the other Hand, the Severity of the Bishops, against Men of their own Principles, and in the Main, of their own Communion, either because they were more Zealous in Preaching, more follow’d of the People, or could not wear some odd Garment, and less, lead the Dance on a Lord’s Day at a Maypole, (the Relick of Flora, the Roman Strumpet)41 or perhaps for Rubbing upon the Ambition, Covetousness, and Laziness of the Dignified, and Ignorance and Looseness of the Ordinary Clergy of the Church, (of which I could produce Five Hundred Gross Instances) I say these Things bred bad Blood, and in Part, gave Beginning to those Animosities, that at last broke forth, with some other Pretences, into all those National Troubles that agitated this poor Kingdom for Ten Years together, in which the Church of England became the Greatest Loser, Her Clergy turn’d out, Her Nobility and Gentry Sequester’d, Decimated, Imprisoned, &c. And whatever She is pleas’d to think, nothing is Truer, than that Her Penal Laws, and Conduct in the Star-Chamber, and High Commission Court in Matters of Religion, was Her Overthrow.

’Tis as evident, the same Humour, since the Restoration of the late King, has had almost the same Effect. For nothing was grown so little and contemptible, as the Church of England in this Kingdom, She now intitles Her self The Church of: Witness the Elections of the Last Three Parliaments before this. I know it may be said, The Persons Chosen were Church-Goers; I confess it, for the Law would have them so. But no Body were more averse to the Politicks of the Clergy; insomuch that the Parson and the Parish almost every where divided upon the Question of their Election. In Truth, it has been the Favour and Countenance of the Crown, and not Her intrinsick Interest or Value, that has kept Her up to this Day; else Her Penal Laws, the Bulwark of the Church of England, by the same Figure, that She is One against Popery, had sunk her long since.

I hope I may, by this Time, conclude, without Offence, that the Penal-Laws have been a Make-Bate in the Great Family of the Kingdom, setting the Father against his Children, and Brethren against Brethren; not only giving the Empire to one, but endeavouring to extinguish the rest, and that for this, the Church of England has once paid a severe Reckoning. I apply it thus: Is it not Her Interest to be careful She does it not a second Time? She has a fair Opportunity to prevent it, and keep Her self where She is; that is, The Publick Religion of the Country, with the Real Maintenance of it; which is a plain Preference to all the rest.

Violence and Tyranny are no Natural Consequences of Popery, for then they would follow every where, and in all Places and Times alike. But we see in Twenty Governments in Germany, there is none for Religion, nor was for an Age in France; and in Poland, the Popish Cantons of Switzerland, Venice, Lucca, Colonia, &c. where that Religion is Dominant, the People enjoy their Ancient and Civil Rights, a little more steadily then they have of late Times done in some Protestant Countries nearer Home, almost ever since the Reformation. Is this against Protestancy? No; but very much against Protestants. For had they been True to their Principles, we had been upon better Terms. So that the Reformation was not the Fault, but not keeping to it better than some have done; For whereas they were Papists that both obtain’d the Great Charter, and Charter of Forests, and in the successive Reigns of the Kings of their Religion, industriously labour’d the Confirmation of them, as the Great Text of their Liberties and Properties, by above Thirty other Laws; we find almost an equal Number to destroy them, and but One made in their Favour since the Reformation, and that shrewdly against the Will of the High Church-Men too; I mean, The Petition of Right, in the Third Year of Charles the First.42 In short, They desire a Legal Security with us, and we are afraid of it, lest it should Insecure us; when nothing can do it so certainly as their Insecurity; For Safety makes no Man Desperate. And he that seeks Ease by Law, therefore does it, because he would not attempt it by Force. Are we afraid of their Power, and yet provoke it? If this Jealousie and Aversion prevail, it may drive Her to a Bargain with the Kingdom for such General Redemption of Property, as may Dissolve our Great Corporation of Conscience, and then She will think, That Half a Loaf had been Better than No Bread; and that it had been more advisable to have parted with Penal Laws, that only serv’d to Dress Her in Satyr, than have lost All for keeping them; especially when it was but parting with Spurs, Claws and Bills, that made Her look more like a Vultur than a Dove, and a Lion than a Lamb.

But I proceed to my next Reason, why it is Her Interest to Repeal those Penal Laws, (tho’ a greater cannot be advanc’d to Men than Self-Preservation) and That is, That She else breaks with a King heartily inclin’d to preserve Her by any Way that is not Persecuting, and whose Interest She once pursu’d at all Adventures, when more than She sees was suggested to Her by the Men of the Interest She opposed, in Favour of His Claim. What then has befallen Her, that She changes the Course She took with such Resolutions of Perseverance? For bringing Him to the Crown with this Religion, could not be more Her Duty to His Title, or Her Interest to support Her own, than it is still, To be fair with Him. If She ow’d the One to Him, and to Christianity, She is not less indebted to Her self the other. Does He seek to impose His own Religion upon Her? By no Means. There is no Body would abhor the Attempt, or, at all Adventures, condemn it more than my self. What then is the Matter? Why, He desires Ease for His Religion; She does not think fit to consider Him in this, (No, not the King She brought with this Objection to the Crown) Certainly She is much in the Wrong, and shows Her self an Ill Courtier, (tho’ it was become Her Calling) first, To give Him Roast-Meat, then beat Him with the Spit. Is not this to quit those High Principles of Loyalty and Christianity She valu’d Her self once upon, and what She can, provoke the Mischiefs She fears? Certainly this is dividing in Judgment from Him, that She has acknowledged to be Her Ecclesiastical Head.

My Fifth Reason is, That as the Making and Executing the Penal Laws for Religion affects all the several Parties of Protestant Dissenters as well as the Papists (the Judges in Vaughan’s Time, and he at the Head of them, giving it as their Opinion, they were equally exposed to those Laws) and that they are thereby naturally driven into an Interest with them; so it is at this Time greatly the Prudence of the Church of England to repeal them, for by so doing She divides that Interest that Self-preservation allows all Men to pursue, that are united by Danger: And since She is assured the Papists shall not have the less Ease, in this King’s Time than if the Laws were Repealed, and that her Fears are not of the succeeding Reigns, how is their Repeal a greater Insecurity, especially, when by that, she draws into her Interest all the Protestant Dissenters, that are abundantly more considerable than the Papists, and that are as unwilling that Popery should be National as her self. For if this be not granted, see what Reputation follows to the Church of England. She tells the King she does not desire his Friends should be Persecuted, yet the Forbearance must not be by Declaration, to save the Government, nor by Law, to save her: and without one of these Warrants, every Civil Magistrate and Officer in England is Perjur’d that suffers them in that Liberty against Law. How can she be sincerely willing that should be done, that she is not willing should be done Legally?

But, Sixthly, the Church of England does not know but they or some other Party may at one Time or other prevail. It seems to me her Interest to set a good Example, and so to bespeak easy Terms for her self. I know of none intended, and believe no Body but her self can place her so low, yet if it were her Unhappiness, I think to have Civil Property secured out of the Question of Religion, and Constraint upon Conscience prevented by a Glorious Magna Charta for the Liberty of it, were not a Thing of ill Consequence to her Interest.43 Let us but consider what other Princes did for their own Religion, within the last Seven Reigns, when they came to the Crown, and we cannot think so soft and equal a Thing as an Impartial Liberty of Conscience, after all that has been said of a Popish Successor, an ordinary Character of a Prince, or a mean Assurance to us: This ought not to slip her Reflection. Besides, there is some Care due to Posterity: Tho’ the present Members of her Communion may escape the Temptation, their Children may not: They may change the Religion of their Education, and Conscientiously chuse some other Communion. Would they submit the Fortunes they leave them to the Rape of Hungry Courtiers, Bigots and indigent Informers, or have their Posterity Impoverish’d, Banish’d or Executed for Sober and Religious Dissent? God knows into whose Hands these Laws at last may fall, what Mischief they may do, and to whom. Believe me, a King of the Humour of Sir J. K. of the West, or Sir W. A. of Reading, or Sir R. B. or Sir S. S. of London, would, with such Vouchers, quickly make a Golgotha of the Kingdom. If She thinks her self considerable in Number or Estate, She will have the more to lose. Let her not therefore Establish that in the Prejudice of others, that may in the Hands of others turn to her Prejudice.

Lastly, I would not have her miss the Advantage that is designed her by those that perhaps she thinks worst of. I dare say no body would willingly see the Presbyterian in her Chair, and yet that may happen to be the Consequence of her Tenaciousness in a little Time. For if the Aversion her Sons promote by wholesale against Popery should prevail, the Remains of it in her self are not like to escape that Reformation. I mean, her Episcopal Government, and the Ceremonies of her Worship, for which she has vex’d the most Conscientious People of this Kingdom above an Age past. And the Presbyterian being a Rich, Industrious and Numerous Party, as well among the Nobility and Gentry, as Trading and Country People, I cannot see but the next Motion, naturally speaking, is like to tend that Way; for other Parties, however well esteemed, may seem too great a Step of Reformation at once, and methinks she has tasted enough of that Regiment, to be once wise, and keep the Ballance in her own Hands. And certain it is, that nothing will so effectually do this, as the entreated Liberty of Conscience; for then there will be four Parties of Dissenters besides her self, to Ballance against any Designs that may warp or byass Things to their Advancement. And that which ought to induce the Church of England not a little to hasten as well as do the Thing, is this; She is now a Sort of National Church by Power, she will then be the Publick Church by Concurrence of all Parties. Instead of Enemies to invade or undermine her, they that should do it are made the Friends of her Safety by the Happiness they enjoy through her Complacency: And if any should be so unnatural or ungrateful to her, the Interest of the rest will oblige them to be her Spies and Security against the Ambition of any such Party. I do heartily pray to God that he would enlighten the Eyes of her Leaders, and give them good Hearts too, that Faction may not prevail against Charity, in the Name of Religion: And, above all, that she would not be proud of her Numbers, or stand off upon that Reflection; for that alone will quickly lessen them in a Nation loving Freedom as much as this we live in: And what appears in the Town is an ill Glass to take a Prospect of the Country by: There are Parishes that have Fifteen Thousand Souls in them, and if two come to Church it is Matter of Brag, tho’ half the rest be sown among the several Dissenting Congregations of their Judgment. I would not have her mistaken, though Popery be an unpopular Thing, ’tis as certain she of a long Time has not been Popular, and on that Principle never can be: And if she should Plow with that Heifer now, and gain a little by the Aversion to Popery; when it is discerned that Popery does return to the civil Interest of the Kingdom they will quickly be Friends. For besides that, we are the easiest and best-natur’d People in the World to be appeased: There are those Charms in Liberty and Property to English Nature, that no Endeavours can resist or disappoint. And can we reasonably think the Romanists will be wanting in that, when they see it is their own (and perhaps their only) Interest to do so? These are the Arguments which, I confess, have prevailed with me to importune the Church of England to yield to the Repeal of all the Penal Statutes, and I should be glad to see them either well refuted or submitted to.

I shall now address my self to those of the Roman Church, and hope to make it appear it is their Interest to sit down thankfully with the Liberty of Conscience herein desired, and that a Toleration and no more, is that which all Romanists ought to be satisfied with. My Reasons are these: First, The Opposition that Popery every where finds: For in Nothing is the Kingdom so much of a Mind as in this Aversion: ’Tis no News, and so may be the better said and taken. I say then this Unity, this Universality, and this Visibility against Popery, make the Attempt, for more than Liberty of Conscience, too great and dangerous. I believe there may be some poor silly Bigots that hope bigger, and talk farther, but who can help that? there are weak People of all Sides, and they will be making a Pudder: But what’s the Language of their true Interest, the Infallible Guide of the wiser Men? Safety certainly; and that in succeeding Reigns to chuse: And if so, their Steps must be modest, for they are Watch’d and Number’d. And tho’ their Prudence should submit to their Zeal, both must yield to Necessity, whether they like it or no, What they convert upon the Square, Perswasion I mean, is their own, and much Good may it do them. But the Fear is not of this, and for compelling the averse Genius of the Kingdom, they have not the Means, whatever they would do if they had them: Which is my Second Reason. I say they have not the Power, and that is what we apprehend most. There are three Things that prove this in my Opinion. First, their Want of Hands, next, Want of Time, and lastly, their Intestine Division; which, whatever we think, is not Inconsiderable. They are few, we must all agree, to the Kingdom, upon the best Computation that could be made: Out of Eighty Millions of People, they are not Thirty Thousand, and those but thinly sown up and down the Nation; by which it appears that the Disproportion of the Natural Strength is not less than Two Hundred and Seventy Persons to One. So that Popery in England is like a Spirit without a Body, or, a General without an Army. It can hurt no more, than Bullets without Powder, or, a Sword and no Hand to use it. I dare say, there is not of that Communion, enough at once, to make all the Coal-Fires in London, and yet we are apprehensive they are able to consume the whole Kingdom. I am still more afraid of her Fears than of them; for tho’ they seem high, she thinks their Religion in no Reign has appeared much lower.

O, but they have the King of their Side, and he has the Executive Power in his Hands! True, and this I call the Artificial Strength of the Kingdom. But I say, first we have his Word to bind him. And tho’ some may think our Kings cannot be tyed by their People, certainly they may be tyed by themselves. What if I don’t look upon the Act of both Houses to oblige the King, his own Concession must; and that may be given in an Act of State. I take the King to be as well obliged in Honour and Conscience to what he promises his People in another Method, as if it had been by his Royal Assent in Parliament; for an honest Man’s Word is good every where, and why a King’s should not I can’t tell. ’Tis true, the Place differs, and the Voice comes with greater Solemnity, but why it should with greater Truth I know not. And if the Church of England will but be advised to give him the Opportunity of keeping his repeated Word with her, and not deprive her self of that Advantage by Jealousies and Distances that make her suspected, and may force him into another Conduct, I cannot help believing that the King will to a Tittle let her feel the Assurance and Benefit of his Promises.

But next, we have his Age for our Security, which is the Second Proof, of the Second Reason, why the Papists should look no farther than a Toleration. This is the Want of Time I mentioned. They have but one Life in the Lease, and ’tis out of their Power to Renew; and this Life has lived fast too, and is got within Seven of Threescore; A greater Age than most of his Ancestors ever attained. Well, but he has an Army, and many Officers of his own Religion. And if it be so, What can it do? It may suppress an Insurrection, but upon the Attempts we foolishly fear, they were hardly a Breakfast to the Quarters they live in. For if they were together, all the Confines or remote Parts of the Nation would rise like Grass upon them; and, if dispersed, to be sure they have not Strength for such an Attempt.

But if they are not sufficient, there is a Potent Prince not far off can help the Design, who is not angry with Protestancy at Home only. Suppose this, Is there not as potent Naval Powers to assist the Constitution of the Kingdom from such Invasions? Yes, and Land One’s too. And as the Protestant Governments have more Ships than the other, so an equal Land Force, when by such Attempts to make Popery Universal, they are awakened to the Use of them: But certainly we must be very Silly to think the King should suffer so great a Shock to his own Interest, as admitting an Army of Foreigners to enter his Kingdom on any Pretence, must necessarily occasion. These Bull Beggars, and Raw-heads and Bloody-Bones, are the Malice of some and Weakness of others. But Time, that informs Children, will tell the World the Meaning of the Fright.

The Third Proof of my Second Reason, is, The Intestine Division among themselves. That Division, weakens a great Body, and renders a small one harmless, all will agree. Now, that there is such a Thing as Division among them is Town-talk. The Seculars and Regulars have ever been two Interests all the Roman Church over, and they are not only so here, but the Regulars differ among themselves. There is not a Coffee-House in Town that does not freely tell us that the Jesuits and Benedictines are at Variance, that Count Da, the Pope’s Nuncio, and Bishop Lyborn, Dissent mightily from the Politicks of the first; Nay, t’other Day the Story was, that they had prevailed entirely over them. The Lords and Gentlemen of her Communion have as warmly contested about the Lengths they ought to go, Moderation seems to be the Conclusion. Together they are little, and can do little; and, divided, they are Contemptible instead of Terrible.

Lastly, The Roman Church ought to be Discreet, and think of nothing farther than the entreated general Ease, because it would be an Extreme that must beget another in the succeeding Reign. For, as I can never think her so weak as well as base, that after all her Arguments for the Jus Divinum of Succession, she should, in the Face of the World, attempt to violate it in the Wrong of One of another Perswasion, (for that were an Eternal Loss of her with Mankind.) So, if she does not, and yet is Extravagant, she only rises higher to fall lower than all others in another Reign. This were provoking their own Ruin. And, to say true, either Way would, as the Second Letter has it, Discredit her for ever, and make true Prophets of those they had taken such Pains to prove false Witnesses. And supposing her to reckon upon the Just Succession, nothing can recommend her, or continue her Happiness in a Reign of another Judgment, but this Liberty equally maintained, that other Perswasions, more numerous, for that Reason as well as for their own Sakes, are obliged to insure her. Here the Foundation is broad and strong, and what is built upon it has the Looks of long Life. The Indenture will at least be quinque-partite, and Parties are not so mortal as Men. And as this joyns, so it preserves Interest entire, which amounts to a Religious Amity and a Civil Unity at the worst.

Upon the whole Matter, I advise the Members of the Roman Communion in this Kingdom, to be moderate, ’tis their Duty, and it belongs to all Men to see it and feel it from them, and it behoves them mightily they should; for the first Part of this Discourse belongs to their Hopes, as well as to the Church of England’s Fears, viz. The Duty and Spirit of Christianity. Next, Let them do good Offices between the King and his Excellent Children, for as that will be well taken by so affectionate a Father, so it gives the Lye to their Enemies Suggestions, and recommends them to the Grace and Favour of the Successors. And having said this, I have said all that belongs to them in particular. There is left only my Address to the Protestant Dissenters, and a General Conclusion to finish this Discourse.

Your Case, that are called Protestant Dissenters, differs mightily from that of the Church of England and Rome. For the first hath the Laws for her, the last the Prince. Those Laws are against you, and she is not willing they should be Repealed: The Prince offers to be kind to you if you please; Your Interest, in this Conjuncture, is the Question. I think none ought to be made, that it is the Liberty of Conscience desired, because you have much more Need of it, having neither Laws nor Prince of your Side, nor a Successor of any of your Perswasions. The Fears of Popery I know reach you; but it is to be remembred also, that if the Laws are not Repealed, there wants no New Ones to Destroy you, of the Papists making; so that every Fear you are taught to have of their Repeal, is against your selves. Suppose your Apprehensions well grounded, you can but be Destroy’d; Which is most comfortable for you to suffer, by Law or without it? The Church of England, by her Penal Laws, and the Doctrine of Headship, has Armed that Religion (as it falls out) to Destroy you. Nay, has made it a Duty in the King to do it, from which (he says) nothing but an Act of Parliament can absolve him, and that she is not willing to allow. And is it not as reasonable that you should seek their Repeal, that if you suffer from the Papists, it may be without Human Law, as well as against Christ’s Law, as for the Church of England to keep them in Force, because if she suffers, it shall be against the Laws made to uphold her? For not repealing them, brings you an inevitable Mischief, and her, at most, but an uncertain Safety; tho’ ’tis certain, she at the same Time will sacrifice you to it. And yet if I were in her Case, it would please me better to remove Laws that might reproach me, and stop my Mouth when turn’d against me, and be content; that if I suffer for my Religion, it is against the Law of God, Christianity, and the Fundamentals of the Old and True Civil Government of my Country, before such Laws helpt to spoil it. In short, you must either go to Church, or Meet, or let fall your Worshipping of God in the Way you believe. If the first, you are Hypocrites, and give away the Cause, and reproach your dead Brethren’s Sincerity, and gratify the old Accusation of Schism, Ambition, &c. and finally lose the Hope and Reward of all your Sufferings. If the second, viz. that you meet against Law, you run into the Mouth of the Government, whose Teeth are to meet in you and Destroy you, as by Law Established. If the last, you deny your Faith, overthrow your own Arguments, fall away from the Apostolical Doctrine of assembling together, and so must fall into the Hands of God, and under the Troubles of your own Consciences and Woundings of his Spirit, of which ’tis said, who can bear them. So that nothing is plainer than that Protestant Dissenters are not oblig’d to govern themselves after such Church of England Measures, supposing her Fears and Jealousies better Bottom’d than they are: For they are neither in this King’s Time in the same Condition, with her, if the Penal Laws remain in Force, nor like to be so, if she can help it, in the next Reign, if they are not repealed in this; so that they are to be certainly Persecuted now, in Hopes of an uncertain Liberty then. Uncertain both whether it will be in her Power, and whether she will do it if it be. The Language of Fear and Assurance are two Things, Affliction promises what Prosperity rarely performs. Of this the Promises made to induce the late King’s Restoration, and the Cancelling of the former Declaration, and what followed upon both are a plain Proof. And tho’ the last Westminster Parliament inclin’d to it; no Body so much opposed it as the Clergy, and the most Zealous Sons of that Church: And if they could or would not then see it to be reasonable, I can’t see why one should trust to People so selfish and short-sighted. But if she will stoop to all those Dissenting Interests that are Protestant, it must either be by a Comprehension, and then she must part with her Bishops, her Common-Prayer, her Ceremonies, and this it self is but Presbyterian; (and she must go lower yet, if she will comprehend the rest) or, if not, she must Persecute, or give this Liberty of Conscience at last; which, that she will ever yield to uncompel’d, and at a Time too, when there is none to do it, while she refuses it under her present pressing Circumstances, I confess I cannot apprehend. But there is yet one Argument that can never fail to oblige your Compliance with the General Ease intreated, viz. That the Penal Laws are against our Great Law of Property, and so void in themselves. This has been the Language of every Apology, and that which, to say true, is not to be answered: How then can you decline to help their Repeal, that in Conscience, Reason and Law, you think void in their own Nature?

Lastly, There is nothing that can put you in a Condition to help your selves, or the Church of England, against the Domination of Popery, but that which she weakly thinks the Way to hurt you both, viz. The Repeal of the Penal Laws. For, as you are, you are tyed Hand and Foot, you are not your own Men, you can neither serve her nor your selves, you are fast in the Stocks of her Laws, and the Course she would have you take, is to turn Martyrs under them to support them: If you like the Bargain you are the best natur’d People in the World, and something more. And since Begging is in Fashion, I should desire no other Boon; for upon so plain a Loss of your Wits, your Estates will of Course fall a Stray to the Government, so that without the Help of a Penal Law, you make an admirable Prize.

I have no Mind to end so pleasantly with you, I have a sincere and Christian Regard to you and yours. Be not Cozened, nor Captious, at this Juncture. I know some of you are told, if you lose this Liberty, you Introduce Idolatry, and for Conscience Sake you cannot do it. But that’s a pure Mistake, and improved, I fear, by those that know it so, which makes us the worse; for it is not Introducing Idolatry, (taking for granted that Popery is so) but saving the People from being Destroy’d that profess that Religion. If Christ and his Apostles had taken this Course with the World, they must have Killed them instead of Converting them. ’Tis your Mistake to think the Jewish rigorous Constitution is adequate to the Christian Dispensation; by no Means: That one Conceit of Judaising Christianity in our Politicks, has filled the World with Misery, of which this poor Kingdom has had it’s Share. Idolaters are to be Enlightned and Perswaded, as St. Paul did the Athenians and Romans,44 and not knocked on the Head, which mends no Body. And, to say a Christian Magistrate is to do that, that a Christian can’t do, is ridiculous; unless, like the Bishop of Munster, who goes like a Bishop one Part of the Day, and a Soldier the other, he is to be a Christian in the Morning, and a Magistrate in the Afternoon. Besides, ’tis one Thing to enact a Religion National, and Compel Obedience to it, (which would make this Case abominable indeed) and another Thing to take off Christian Penalties for the Sake of such Mistakes, since that is to give them Power to hurt others, and this only to save you from being hurt for meer Religion.

To conclude my Address to you, of all People, it would look the most disingenuous in you, and give you an Air, the least Sensible, Charitable and Christian, not to endeavour such an Ease, that have so much wanted it, and so often and so earnestly pressed it, even to Clamour. But that you should do it for their Sakes who have used you so, and that the Instruments of their Cruelty, the Penal Laws, should from a Common Grievance become a Darling to any among you, will be such a Reproach to your Understandings and Consciences, that no Time or Argument can wipe off, and which I beseech God and you to prevent.

The Conclusion.

I SHALL conclude with one Argument, that equally concerns you all, and that is this; You claim the Character of Englishmen. Now, to be an Englishman, in the Sense of the Government, is to be a Freeman, whether Lord or Commoner, to hold his Liberty and Possessions by Laws of his own consenting unto, and not to forfeit them upon Facts made Faults, by Humour, Faction, or Partial Interest prevailing in the Governing Part against the Constitution of the Kingdom; but for Faults only, that are such in the Nature of Civil Government; to wit, Breaches of those Laws that are made by the whole, in Pursuance of common Right, for the Good of the Whole.

This Regard must at no Time be neglected, or violated towards any one Interest; for the Moment we concede to such a Breach upon our General Liberty, be it from an Aversion we carry to the Principles of those we expose, or some little sinister and temporary Benefit of our own, we Sacrifice our selves in the Prejudices we draw upon others, or suffer them to fall under; for our Interest in this Respect is common. If then as Englishmen, we are as mutually interested in the inviolable Conservation of each other’s Civil Rights, as Men embark’d in the same Vessel are to save the Ship they are in for their own Sakes, we ought to Watch, Serve and Secure the Interest of one another, because it is our own to do so; and not by any Means endure that to be done to please some narrow Regard of any one Party, which may be drawn in Example at some other Turn of Power to our own utter Ruin.

Had this Honest, Just, Wise and English Consideration prevail’d with our Ancestors of all Opinions from the Days of Richard the Second, there had been less Blood, Imprisonment, Plunder, and Beggary for the Government of this Kingdom to answer for. Shall I speak within our own Knowledge, and that without Offence, there has been Ruin’d, since the late King’s Restoration, above Fifteen Thousand Families, and more than Five Thousand Persons Dead under Bonds for Matters of meer Conscience to God: But who hath laid it to Heart? It is high Time now we should, especially when our King, with so much Grace and Goodness leads us the Way.

I beseech you all, if you have any Reverence towards God, and Value for the Excellent Constitution of this Kingdom, any Tenderness for your Posterity, any Love for your Selves, you would embrace this happy Conjuncture, and pursue a common Expedient; That since we cannot agree to meet in one Profession of Religion, we may entirely do it in this common civil Interest where we are all equally engaged; and therefore we ought for our own Sakes to seek one another’s Security, that if we cannot be the Better, we may not be the worse for our Perswasions, in Things, that bear no relation to them, and in which, it is impossible we should Suffer, and the Government escape, that is so much concern’d in the civil Support and Prosperity of every Party and Person that belongs to it.

Let us not therefore uphold Penal Laws against any of our Religious Perswasions, nor make Tests out of each others Faiths, to exclude one another our civil Rights; for by the same Reason that denying Transubstantiation is made One to exclude a Papist, to own it, may be made one to exclude a Church of England Man, a Presbyterian, an Independent, a Quaker, and Anabaptist: For the Question is not who is in the right in Opinion, but whether he is not in Practice in the wrong, that for such an Opinion deprives his Neighbour of his common Right? Now ’tis certain there is not one of any Party, that would willingly have a Test made out of his Belief, to abridge him of his native Priviledge; and therefore neither the Opinion of Transubstantiation in the Papists, Episcopacy in the Church of England Man, Free-will in the Arminian, Predestination in the Presbyterian, Particular Churches in the Independent, Dipping of adult People in the Anabaptist, nor not swearing in the Quaker, ought to be made a Test of, to deprive him of the Comforts of his Life, or render him incapable of the Service of his Country, to which by a natural Obligation he is indebted, and from which, no Opinion can discharge him, and for that Reason, much less should any other Party think it fit, or in their Power to exclude him.

And indeed it were ridiculous to talk of giving Liberty of Conscience (which yet few have now the fore-head to oppose) and at the same Time imagine those Tests that do exclude Men that Service and Reward, ought to be continued: For though it does not immediately concern me, being neither Officer nor Papist, yet the Consequence is general, and every party, even the Church of England, will find her self concern’d upon Reflection; For she cannot assure her self it may not come to be her turn.

But, Is it not an odd Thing, that by leaving them on foot, every Body shall have Liberty of Conscience but the Government? For while a Man is out of Office, he is Test-free, but the Hour he is chosen to any Station, be it in the Legislation or Administration, he must wiredraw his Conscience to hold it, or be excluded with the Brand of Dissent: And can this be equal or wise? Is this the Way to employ Men for the good of the Publick, where Opinion prevails above Virtue, and Abilities are submitted to the Humour of a Party; surely none can think this a Cure for Division, or that Animosities are like to be prevented by the only Ways in the World that beget and heighten them. Nor is it possible that the ease that should be granted can continue long, when the Party in whose Favour they are not repeal’d, may thereby be enabled to turn the Point of the Sword again upon Dissenters.

I know Holland is given in Objection to this Extent of Freedom, where only one Perswasion has the Government, though the rest their Liberty: But they don’t consider, first, how much more Holland is under the Power of Necessity than we are. Next, That our Constitutions differ greatly. For the first, ’tis plain, in the little compass they live in; the Uncertainty and Precariousness of the Means of their Subsistence: That as they are in more Danger of Drowning, so nearer ruin by any Commotion in the State, than other Countries are. Trading is their Support, This, keeps them busy, That, makes them Rich; and Wealth, naturally gives them Caution of the Disorders that may spoil them of it. This makes the governing Party wary how they use their Power, and the other Interests tender how they resist it; for upon it, they have Reason to fear a Publick Desolation; since Holland has not a natural and Domestick Fund to rely upon, or return to, from such National Disorders.

The next Consideration is as clear and cogent; our Constitutions differ mightily: For though they have the Name of a Republick, yet in their Choice, in order to the Legislature, they are much less free then we are: And since the Freeholders of all the Parties in England may Elect, which in Holland they can no more do than they can be chosen, there is good reason why all may be elected to serve their King and Country here, that in Holland cannot be chosen or serve. And if our Power to chuse be larger than theirs in Holland, we are certainly then a freer People, and so ought not to be confin’d, as they are, about what Person it is that must be chosen: Methinks it bears no Proportion, and therefore the Instance and Objection are improper to our Purpose.

But it is said by some, That there cannot be two predominant Religions, and if the Church of England be not that, Popery by the King’s Favour is like to be so. It is certain that two predominant Religions, would be two Uppermosts at once, which is nonsense every where: But as I cannot see what need there is for the Church of England to lose her Churches or Revenues, so while she has them, Believe me, she is Predominant in the Thing of the World that lies nearest her Guides. But if I were to speak my Inclination, I cannot apprehend the Necessity of any Predominant Religion, understanding the Word with Penal Laws in the tail of it: The Mischief of it, in a Country of so many powerful Interests as this, I can easily understand, having had the Opportunity of seeing and feeling it too: And because nothing can keep up the Ball of Vengeance like such a Predominant Religion, and that Penal Laws and Tests are the Means of the Domination, I, for that Reason, think them fit to be Repeal’d, and let English Mankind say, Amen.

I do not love Quibling, but ’tis true, to a Lamentation, that there is little of the Power of Religion seen where there is such a predominant one, unless among those it Domineers over.

I conclude, they that are so Predominant, and they that seek to be so (be they who they will) move by the same Spirit and Principle, and however differing their Pretensions and Ends may be, the odds are very little to me, by which it is I must certainly be Opprest.

Dare we then do (for once) as we would be done by, and show the World, we are not Religious without Justice, nor Christians without Charity: That False self shall not govern us against True self; nor Opportunity make us Thieves to our Neighbours, for Gods Sake? The End of Testing and Persecuting under every Revolution of Government. If this we can find in our Hearts to do, and yet as Men, and as Christians, as English Men, we do but do our Duty, let the Penal Laws and Tests be Repeal’d; and in order to it, Let us now take those Measures of Men and Things, that may give our Wishes and Endeavours the best Success for the publick Good, that our Posterity may have more Reason to bless our Memories for their Freedom and Security, than for their Nature and Inheritance.

[1. ]He conquers who endures.

[2. ]Anytus is one of Socrates’ prosecutors in Plato’s Apology; Aristophanes satirized Socrates in his play The Clouds.

[3. ]Genesis 19.

[4. ]The Conventicles Act (22 Car. II, cap. 1), originally passed in 1664 and reinstated in 1670. It forbade religious gatherings of more than five people not of the same household. The act is reprinted in J. P. Kenyon, The Stuart Constitution: Documents and Commentary, 2d ed. (Cambridge, 1986), doc. 106, pp. 356–59.

[5. ]Matthew 14:1–12; and Mark 6:14–29.

[6. ]Job 32:8; and Ephesians 2:8.

[7. ]On God’s and men’s thoughts, see Isaiah 55:8–9; on rendering to Caesar and God, see Matthew 22:15–22; Mark 12:13–17; and Luke 20:20–26.

[8. ]John 13:15; and 1 Peter 2:21.

[9. ]For Jesus’ renunciation of force, see Matthew 26:52–54, John 18:11; and for his otherworldly kingdom, see John 18:36.

[10. ]Matthew 5:44.

[11. ]Penn here refers to the Directory for the Publique Worship of God Throughout the Three Kingdomes (London, 1646), which Parliament approved after it banned use of the Book of Common Prayer in 1645. A selection from the directory is reprinted in Religion and Society in Early Modern England: A Sourcebook, ed. David Cressy and Lori Anne Ferrell (London, 1996), pp. 186–92.

[12. ]Acts 17:26.

[13. ]Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (London, 1652), ch. 13.

[14. ]Daniel 4:33.

[15. ]Titus 3:10.

[16. ]See ch. 2, p. 26, n. 8.

[17. ]The Council of Trent (19th Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church) met intermittently from 1545 to 1563, instituting church reforms and responding to Protestant criticisms of Catholic doctrine and practice.

[18. ]Moses Maimonides (1135–1204); Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), Dutch jurist and humanist.

[19. ]Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 b.c.e.). All but a few of Varro’s seventy-odd works have been lost, though he receives an extended treatment in books 6 and 7 of Augustine’s City of God. His Antiquities elaborates the Roman system of gods.

[20. ]Sallust, Conspiracy of Catiline, ch. 52, though Penn’s direct reference is unclear, as Cato’s speech advocates harsh punishment for the conspirators (as opposed to Caesar’s pleas for leniency). Francesco Guicciardini, History of Florence (ca. 1508–9).

[21. ]Livy, History of Rome, bk. 28, ch. 12.

[22. ]Malvezzi, Discourses on Tacitus, discourse 49, pp. 475–77.

[23. ]Tacitus, Annals, bk. 4, chs. 34–35.

[24. ]Justin Martyr (ca. 114–65), First Apology; and Second Apology.

[25. ]Tertullian (ca. 160–220), Ad Scapulam, ch. 2.

[26. ]Socrates Scholasticus (ca. 379–450), Ecclesiastical History, bk. 3, ch. 25.

[27. ]Eusebius Pamphilius, Bishop of Caesarea (ca. 260–341), Ecclesiastical History, bk. 2, ch. 17, sec. 6–10 (with marginal references to Philo Judaeus [ca. 25 b.c.e.–41 c.e.]); and Flavius Josephus (37–101), Against Apion, bk. 1, sec. 224–26.

[28. ]This poem is likely not, in fact, from Chaucer; though it was perhaps erroneously attributed to him at the time of Penn’s writing.

[(a) ]The Primitive State of Things observed by a Poet, more than 300 Years old; by which the Clergy may read their own Apostacy and Character.

[(b) ]Time and Prosperity corrupted them, and then they grew States-Men.

[(c) ]’Twas now they began to persecute; they hated any that were more devout than themselves: Devotion was counted Disaffection; Religious Assemblies, Conventicles; primitive-Spirited Christians, Upstart Hereticks; thus the Tragedy began, Cain slaying Abel about Religion.

[(d) ]He truly maketh their Avarice the Cause of their Degeneration; for ’tis the Root of all Evil.

[29. ]John Wyclif, here spelled Wickliff (1324–84), English reformer; Albigenses were a neo-Manichean sect in southern France during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, suppressed by Pope Innocent III; of Luther’s responses to the councils and diets he faced, the most famous must be “Luther at the Diet of Worms,” reprinted in Career of the Reformer, vol. 32 of Luther’s Works, ed. Helmut L. Lehmann (Philadelphia, 1958); the “Prefatory Address” to Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion is addressed to King Francis I of France; and “The Poor Plowman’s Complaint” appears in John Foxe’s (1515–87) Actes and Monuments (commonly referred to as the Book of Martyrs), vol. 2, bk. 5.

[30. ]Dominic (or Dominicus) Soto, Commentariorum fratris Dominici Soto . . . in Quartum Sententiarum (Salamanca, 1562).

[31. ]Grotius, Politick maxims and observations (London, 1654).

[32. ]Sir Walter Raleigh, Maxims of State (London, 1651).

[33. ]Christopher St. Germain (ca. 1460–1540), The dialogue in English between a doctor of divinity and a student in the laws of England (London, 1660).

[34. ]John Fell, The life of the most learned, reverend, and pious Dr. H. Hammond (London, 1661).

[35. ]Jeremy Taylor, Theologike eklektike; or A discourse on the liberty of prophesying (London, 1647).

[36. ]Lactantius (260–330), Divine Institutes, bk. 5, ch. 20.

[37. ]Hilary of Poitiers, Contra Auxentium Arrianum; Hilary debated Auxentius, the Arian bishop of Milan, in 364.

[38. ]Jerome (ca. 341–420), Christian ascetic and saint.

[39. ]John Chrysostom (347–407), preacher and doctor of the church.

[40. ]James I, king of England 1603–25 (and, as James VI, of Scotland 1567–1625), “Speech to Parliament, 21 March 1609/1610,” in King James VI and I: Political Writings, ed. Johann P. Sommerville (Cambridge, 1994), p. 199.

[41. ]James I, Ane fruitfull meditatioun (Edinburgh, 1588).

[42. ]Charles I, Eikon Basilike (London, 1649), ch. 27.

[43. ]We are not able to say the things we have heard and seen.

[44. ]Possibly a reference to Thomas Lamb (d. 1686), but Penn’s specific referent is unclear.

[45. ]Tertullian, Apology, ch. 39.

[1. ]Matthew 22:38–39; Mark 12:30–31; and Luke 10:27.

[2. ]Proverbs 14:28.

[3. ]The Diet of the Holy Roman Empire at Speyer (1529) resolved that communities in which the new religion was firmly established should introduce no further innovations in religion. A number of princes protested that they did not intend to tolerate Catholicism within their borders. On that account they were called Protestants; prior to this time they had referred to themselves as “Evangelicals.”

[4. ]Matthew 12:25; Mark 3:24–25; and Luke 11:17.

[5. ]A number of Protestant martyrs under Queen Mary were burned at Smithfield.

[6. ]I.e., at or just following the restoration of Charles II.

[7. ]Romans 15:1–2; 2 Timothy 2:24–26; 1 Corinthians 1:10; and Ephesians 4:1–3.

[8. ]Which is contrary to truth.

[9. ]John 18:36.

[10. ]1 Samuel 17:38–39.

[11. ]Under the Test Act of 1673, officeholders were required to sign a declaration abjuring belief in transubstantiation, in addition to taking an oath denying papal supremacy.

[12. ]Obstacle; impediment.

[13. ]Equivocation and mental reservation were two forms of casuistry by which, Protestants feared, Jesuits or other Catholics could evade the force of oaths.

[14. ]An administrative district comprising several hundred people.

[15. ]A friend of Plato, a friend of Aristotle, but most of all a friend of truth, i.e., England.

[1. ]The five great crying sins of the kingdom, elaborated by Penn in Part I of this Address, are drunkenness, fornication, luxury, gambling, and oaths (which Penn considered a form of blasphemy).

[2. ]1 Peter 2:14.

[3. ]Leviticus 18:24–26, 28.

[4. ]1 Chronicles 10:13.

[5. ]Deuteronomy 30:14.

[6. ]1 Chronicles 10:14.

[7. ]Isaiah 30:1.

[8. ]1 Samuel 15:17.

[9. ]2 Kings 24:10–14; and 2 Chronicles 36:14.

[10. ]For the strength of Nimrod, see Genesis 10:8–9; and for the Chaldeans, see Daniel 1:4, 2:2, 5:11. Sardanapalus was an Assyrian monarch who burned his entire court (and himself) to death. See the Persica of Ctesias (fl. 400 b.c.e.).

[11. ]Daniel 4:33.

[12. ]Daniel 5.

[13. ]On Thermopylae, see Herodotus, Histories, bk. 7; Xenophon’s Anabasis tells the story of the Greek expedition to aid Cyrus the Younger, 401–399 b.c.e.; Agesilaus II (ca. 444–360 b.c.e.) was king of Sparta.

[14. ]St. Augustine (354–430), City of God, bk. 5, ch. 13.

[15. ]Livy, History of Rome, bk. 23, ch. 18.

[16. ]In the story of Hercules, the centaur Nessus attacks Deianeira. After being shot with one of Hercules’ poison arrows, the dying centaur tells Deianeira that anyone wearing a garment smeared with his blood would love her forever. When Hercules later fell in love with Iole, Deianeira sent him such a garment. Nessus’s blood turned out to be a poison, and Hercules died.

[17. ]To extinguish virtue itself.

[18. ]Gildas (ca. 504–70), Concerning the Ruin of Britain, chs. 22–24; and Andrew Horn, Mirror of Justice, bk. 1, ch. 2.

[19. ]Luke 12:24; Matthew 6:26–31; Matthew 10:29–31; and Luke 12:6–7.

[20. ]Respectively, bishop and presbyter. This debate was partly philological, regarding translation from the Greek, but such an issue also carried important ecclesiastical, social, and political ramifications. Debate about these two terms—and their respective models of church government, episcopal and presbyterian—divided Presbyterians and Anglicans in seventeenth-century England.

[21. ]The synod of reformed churches at Dort (1618–19) met to address the growing influence of Arminianism and resulted in a victory for orthodox Calvinists. See the letters appended to John Hales, Golden remains, or dealing with erring Christians (London, 1673), to find his letter on the synod.

[22. ]James 3:17.

[23. ]The controversy over the dating of Easter was resolved at the Synod of Whitby (664).

[24. ]Themistius (4th century), Oration 5.

[25. ]2 Peter 1:21.

[26. ]Hebrews 1:1–2.

[27. ]Job 10:8–9; Isaiah 64:8; and Romans 9:21.

[28. ]Mark 7:8.

[29. ]1 Corinthians 1:12.

[30. ]1 Timothy 6:3–4.

[31. ]1 Corinthians 1:19–21.

[32. ]Acts 17:15–34.

[33. ]Luke 10:30–37.

[34. ]Jude 3.

[35. ]John 14:15.

[36. ]Matthew 4:1–11; and Luke 4:1–13.

[37. ]Hebrews 11:1.

[38. ]Ephesians 2:8.

[39. ]Galatians 5:6.

[40. ]Genesis 5:24; and Hebrews 11:5 (also Sirach 44:16, 49:14).

[41. ]Hebrews 10:38.

[42. ]Acts 10; Romans 2:14; and Hebrews 11:39.

[43. ]Hebrews 1:1.

[44. ]John 1:17.

[45. ]Hebrews 10:34.

[46. ]Hebrews 1:1; and John 3:16–17.

[47. ]Respectively: Honest Peter, Matthew 16:13–19, Mark 8:27–30, and Luke 9:18–22; the woman of Samaria, John 4:6–30; Jesus contrasted with the scribes, Matthew 7:28–29, and Mark 1:21–22.

[48. ]John 14:10–11; and John 10:36–38.

[49. ]Matthew 12:25–26; Mark 3:24–26; and Luke 11:17.

[50. ]Citations, respectively: on Nathaniel, John 1:49; on Thomas, John 20:28; on Martha, John 11:24–27; on the blind man, John 9:35–38; on the centurion, Matthew 8:10; on the woman of Samaria, John 4:7–9; on the “importunate woman,” Matthew 15:22–28; on the man sick of palsy, Mark 2:1–5; on Jairus and the woman who touched Jesus’ garment, Mark 5:22–36; on the two blind men, Matthew 9:27–30; on the blind man near Jericho, Luke 18:35–43; on the leprous Samaritan, Luke 17:12–19; and on the woman who anointed Jesus’ head, Luke 7:37–50.

[51. ]Luke 23:42–43.

[52. ]On the “Three Thousand,” see Acts 2:41; on Cornelius, see Acts 10; and on Philip and the eunuch, see Acts 8:26–40.

[53. ]Acts 17:2–4.

[54. ]On everlasting life, see John 6:39–40; on dying in sins, see John 8:24; and on being saved, see Acts 16:29–31; and Romans 10:9–13.

[55. ]Deuteronomy 30:14.

[56. ]1 John 2:22; 4:2, 15; 5:1.

[57. ]John 20:30–31.

[58. ]Matthew 19:8.

[59. ]2 Timothy 3:16–17.

[60. ]Romans 10:9.

[61. ]As if for their altars and their hearths.

[62. ]John Hales (1584–1656), A tract concerning schisme and schismaticks (London, 1642), pp. 9, 10–11.

[63. ]Hales, Golden remains, pp. 49–50.

[64. ]Titus 3:10–11.

[65. ]John 10:10.

[66. ]Matthew 4:17; and Mark 1:14–15.

[67. ]2 Timothy 2:19.

[68. ]1 Corinthians 12:3.

[69. ]Romans 14:17; and Luke 17:21.

[70. ]John 1:12–13.

[71. ]1 Thessalonians 4:3.

[72. ]1 Corinthians 1:30.

[73. ]Matthew 7:16–20.

[74. ]Matthew 25:31–46.

[75. ]Matthew 5.

[76. ]Points 1–14 immediately following refer to the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 and 6).

[77. ]Matthew 7:12, 22:37–39.

[78. ]These three quotations, respectively: John 13:34–35; John 15:10, 12, 14, 17; and John 14:23–24.

[79. ]Galatians 6:10.

[80. ]1 John 4:16.

[81. ]John 15:12–14; and Hebrews 10:14.

[82. ]Romans 3:25–26.

[83. ]1 Timothy 2:5–6; and 1 John 2:1–2.

[84. ]1 John 4:1.

[85. ]Matthew 16:24; John 10:27; and Acts 15:9.

[86. ]Romans 4.

[87. ]2 Corinthians 4:13; and 2 Thessalonians 1:3.

[88. ]Hebrews 11.

[89. ]James 2:17–24.

[90. ]2 Peter 1:5–9.

[91. ]1 John 5:4–5.

[92. ]John 14:17; and John 8:23.

[93. ]1 John 2:3–6.

[94. ]1 John 3:18–23.

[95. ]1 John 4:14–17.

[96. ]Matthew 18:20.

[97. ]James 1:27.

[98. ]John 3:20–21.

[99. ]John 1:14, 16–17.

[100. ]Titus 2:11–12.

[101. ]John 8:12.

[102. ]Job 21:17.

[103. ]John 3:3; and 2 Corinthians 6:14–15.

[104. ]1 John 1:5–9.

[105. ]Matthew 22:1–14.

[106. ]Mark 3:32–35; Matthew 12:46–50; and Matthew 19:29.

[107. ]1 Corinthians 6:20; and 1 Corinthians 7:23.

[108. ]Matthew 7:12.

[109. ]John 5:24; and Romans 4:22–24.

[110. ]Hebrews 11:6.

[111. ]Romans 8:4.

[112. ]Proverbs 8:15; and James 3:17.

[113. ]Romans 2:26–29.

[114. ]The following extended quotation is taken from Hales’s Golden remains (1673), pp. 36–37, Sermon on Galatians 6:7.

[† ]J. Hales of Eaton, Golden Remains, Of dealing with Erring Christians, page 36, 37.

[115. ]Salvian of Marseilles (ca. 400–480), On the government of God, republished in translation by Eva M. Sanford (New York, 1930), bk. 4, ch. 1.

[* ]Or the Light which comes with us into the World, and grows up with us, as we are of a Capacity to discern the Teachings of it. See John 1. 9. ch. 8. 12. Rom: 1. 19. Ephes. 5. 13. 1 Job. 1. 7. All agree in it, As to it’s Universality. But the Beloved Disciple instructs us of it’s Original, Nature and Use, in the first Chapter of his Evangelical History, deeply and clearly: They had it before Christ’s coming, as may be seen in Job 18. 5, 6. ch. 21. 17. ch. 24. 13, 16. Psalm 27. 1. 36. 9.

[116. ]Regulus, an imprisoned Roman commander, was sent by his Carthaginian captors to secure a prisoner exchange with Rome. He swore an oath to return if unsuccessful. Regulus himself argued against exchanging the prisoners, and—though urged not to by Romans—returned to Carthage as he had sworn, where he was tortured to death. See Augustine, City of God, bk. 1, ch. 15.

[117. ]James 1:27.

[118. ]Acts 10:34–35; and Matthew 7.

[119. ]Galatians 6:7; and Romans 6:23.

[120. ]Romans 2:29; and Galatians 6:15.

[121. ]Psalms 119:165; and John 1:16–17.

[122. ]This paragraph, respectively: Luke 4:43; Luke 17:21; and Luke 11:2.

[123. ]John 10:10.

[124. ]Hosea 13:14; and Romans 6:4.

[125. ]Matthew 1:21.

[126. ]Matthew 3:11–12; and John 1:29.

[127. ]Acts 10:43; and Ephesians 1:7.

[128. ]Matthew 18:10–14; and Luke 19:10.

[129. ]Romans 6:23.

[130. ]John 17:17.

[131. ]John 8:34.

[132. ]The Ranters were one of the many radical sects that appeared during the 1640s in England. Their views apparently extended to a denial of original sin and moral codes more generally, and they were accused of sexual licentiousness by their many opponents.

[133. ]Titus 2:11–14.

[134. ]1 John 3:4–10; and John 15:24.

[135. ]Psalms 14:1; 53:1.

[136. ]1 John 3:9–10; 1:7; 2:6, 14.

[137. ]1 John 4:17.

[138. ]Ephesians 5:27.

[139. ]Romans 13:14; and Galatians 5:22–24.

[140. ]John 10:4–5.

[141. ]2 Peter 1:5, 7–11.

[142. ]Matthew 15:9; Mark 7:7; and John 8:40.

[143. ]1 Thessalonians 5:21.

[144. ]On priests and the tabernacle, see Leviticus, passim.

[145. ]Galatians 3:24–25.

[146. ]Romans 12:1.

[147. ]Acts 17:10–13; and 1 Thessalonians 5:21.

[148. ]1 Corinthians 9:22.

[149. ]Philippians 3:15.

[150. ]Charles I, Eikon Basilike (London, 1649), ch. 27.

[151. ]Acts 17:10–11.

[152. ]John 5:31; 15:24; 8:46.

[153. ]Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; and Luke 9:23.

[154. ]The German Theology, discovered and popularized by Martin Luther (perhaps written by Johannes of Frankfurt [ca. 1380–1440]), has been most recently published in English as Theologia Germanica, trans. Susanna Winkworth (London, 1937); Taulerus, or John Tauler (ca. 1300–1361), German Dominican, mystic, and preacher; and Thomas à Kempis (ca. 1379–1471), author of the Imitation of Christ.

[155. ]William Tyndale (ca. 1492–1536), English biblical translator, religious reformer, and martyr. Tyndale’s New Testament renders “ecclesia” as “congregation.”

[156. ]2 Thessalonians 2:4.

[157. ]Romans 14:4.

[158. ]Matthew 23:11.

[159. ]Matthew 18:15–18.

[160. ]Romans 8:9, 14.

[161. ]1 Corinthians 6:1–2.

[162. ]The following extended quotation is from Jacobus Acontius (ca. 1500–1567), Satans Strategems (London, 1648), bk. 4.

[163. ]Matthew 6:21–24; Luke 12:34; and Luke 16:13.

[164. ]Matthew 18:20.

[165. ]1 Corinthians 14:29–31.

[166. ]1 Corinthians 14:36–39.

[167. ]1 Corinthians 14:33.

[168. ]For Nestor, see Homer, Iliad, bk. 1.

[169. ]Judges 6–7.

[170. ]Numbers 11:26–29.

[171. ]1 Corinthians 14:29, 33.

[172. ]John Hales, Treatise of the keys, in his Several Tracts, by the Ever Memorable Mr. John Hales of Eaton Coll. (London, 1677), pp. 170–74.

[173. ]Light from light, shows the way, like a companion, to one going astray.

[174. ]Leviticus 19:17.

[175. ]The following quotation is taken from Hales, Tract concerning schisme, pp. 5–6.

[176. ]On the Easter dispute, see ch. 5, p. 150, n. 23.

[177. ]A place of pilgrimage to St. Winefride (ca. 600–660), the Welsh saint. A well purportedly sprang up on the site of her murder by Caradog (whose advances she had spurned), and the waters were said to have healing properties. (In another version of the tale, Winefride is raised to life and goes on to become a nun.)

[178. ]See Luke 1:3; and Acts 1:1.

[179. ]See Matthew 23:5.

[180. ]Acts 17:10–11.

[181. ]John 21:15–17.

[182. ]Psalms 14:1; 53:1.

[183. ]Matthew 18:3; Mark 10:15; and Luke 18:17.

[184. ]John Penry and Henry Barrow, English Puritans hanged in 1593 for writing pamphlets critical of the established church.

[* ]Note, The greatest Part of what follows in this Section, was first printed by Way of Appendix to the Continued Cry of the Oppressed for Justice, Anno 1675.

[185. ]Matthew 22:17–21; Mark 12:14–17; and Luke 20:22–25.

[186. ]John 18:36.

[187. ]Ephesians 2:8.

[188. ]Acts 17:6.

[189. ](a) Titus 2:5–6; (b) 1 Peter 3:2; (c) Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, and Luke 9:23; (d) Colossians 1:11, and 2 Timothy 3:10; (e) Luke 6:37; (f) Luke 6:27, 6:35; and (g) John 18:36.

[190. ]John 18:36.

[191. ]Matthew 26:52; and John 18:11.

[192. ]Matthew 5:44–47.

[193. ]Luke 9:51–56.

[194. ]Luke 9:49–50.

[195. ]Matthew 13:3–23; Mark 4:4–20; and Luke 8:5–15.

[196. ]John 2:13–17; and John 15:12.

[197. ]On masters and servants, Matthew 23:8–11; on little children, Matthew 18:3, 19:14, Mark 10:15, Luke 18:76; on loving one another, John 13:34–35, 15:12–17; on taking up the cross, Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, 10:21, and Luke 9:23.

[198. ]Matthew 16:19; and 18:17–18.

[199. ]On cutting off those who troubled the church, see Titus 3:10; on Christ bidding Peter to put up his sword, see Matthew 26:52; on the flesh and weapons of spiritual warfare, see 2 Corinthians 10:3–5.

[200. ]Romans 14:4.

[201. ]2 Corinthians 1:24.

[202. ]1 Peter 5:2–3.

[203. ]2 Corinthians 3:17; and Galatians 5:13.

[204. ]Romans 14:9–10.

[205. ]Romans 14:5.

[206. ]Matthew 16:18.

[207. ]1 Corinthians 1:27.

[208. ]1 Corinthians 7:23.

[209. ]Galatians 5:1; and Hebrews 12:9–11.

[210. ]Hebrews 8:10–11; and John 10:15–16.

[211. ]2 Timothy 2:23; and Titus 3:9–10.

[212. ]Philippians 3:15.

[213. ]Titus 3:10.

[214. ]Matthew 3:9; and Luke 3:8.

[215. ]2 Timothy 2:24–25.

[216. ]On Calvin, see ch. 2, p. 57, n. 36.

[217. ]Jeremy Taylor, Theologike eklektike; or A discourse on the liberty of prophesying (London, 1647).

[218. ]John Tillotson, A sermon preached November 5, 1678, at St. Margarets, Westminster (London, 1678).

[219. ]“41, and 42” refer to 1641 and 1642; opponents of toleration frequently associated religious dissenters with the instigators of the Civil Wars and the execution of Charles I. The 1660 Act of Oblivion (12 Car. II, c. 2) pardoned most of those who had opposed the royal cause during the Civil Wars.

[220. ]The matter refuses to be badly managed.

[221. ]Proverbs 14:34.

[222. ]Isaiah 66:2.

[223. ]Here and in the following sentences Penn refers to the Beatitudes, Matthew 5; for the reference to selling Joseph and making merry, see Genesis 37:28.

[224. ]James 1:27.

[225. ]Matthew 5:44.

[226. ]Acts 1:6.

[227. ]John 16:13.

[228. ]John 18:36.

[229. ]John 15:19.

[230. ]See the ecclesiastical histories of Eusebius Pamphilus, Socrates Scholasticus, Evagrius (ca. 536–94), Rufinus of Aquileia (345–410), Salminius Hermias Sozomen (d. 447 or 448), Bishop James Usher (1581–1656), and Venerable Cesare Baronius (1538–1607).

[231. ]Guardian of both tables: i.e., the First Table of the Ten Commandments outlined human duties toward God; the Second, duties toward fellow human beings.

[232. ]1 Timothy 4:8; and John 4:23–24.

[233. ]John 3:8.

[234. ]Hales, “Sermon on John 18:36,” in Golden remains, pp. 153–55.

[235. ]Acts 1:6.

[236. ]And more have passed.

[237. ]In Plautus’s (ca. 255–184 b.c.e.) Amphitryon, Mercury assumes the form of the slave Sosia. To distinguish Mercury from the actual Sosia (upon the latter’s return), the god wears a plume in his hat, ostensibly visible only to the audience.

[238. ]The account of Paul before Agrippa and Bernice is found in Acts 25–26.

[239. ]John 18:36.

[240. ]Book of Susanna, Apocrypha.

[241. ]Genesis 38:12–16.

[242. ]Psalms 115:16; and 2 Corinthians 4:16.

[243. ]Virgil Aeneid 1.140–41: “Let Aeolus rule in the locked prison of the winds.”

[244. ]Acts 5:29.

[245. ]Jude 3.

[246. ]James I, “Speech to Parliament, 21 March 1609/1610,” in King James VI and I: Political Writings, ed. Johann P. Sommerville (Cambridge, 1994), p. 199.

[1. ]Ephesians 4:8.

[2. ]Matthew 11:29–30.

[3. ]Galatians 2:20; and 1 Corinthians 15:55.

[4. ]Matthew 22:36–40.

[5. ]John 13:34–35.

[6. ]See 1 John 4:16; and 1 John 3:11; see also Colossians 1:8; and Ephesians 1:22.

[7. ]Romans 8:2; and John 8:31–32, 36.

[8. ]For the “spirit of truth,” see 1 John 4:6; for the “perfect law of liberty,” see James 1:25.

[9. ]1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23.

[10. ]“Motion” refers to an inward source of outward action; see Romans 7:5.

[11. ]1 Corinthians 6:20.

[12. ]The category of “indifferent” things, or adiaphora, played a central role in early modern toleration debates, often used by tolerationists to argue against compulsion on matters not central to Christian doctrine. Initially, the term referred to rituals that do not appear in the New Testament; later it was broadened to demarcate fundamental articles of faith from matters that do not reach to the essence of salvation. The concept of adiaphora was elaborated by Erasmus and further developed by Melanchthon (see especially his Loci Communes [1555], chs. 34, 35). The best recent discussion of indifferent matters, especially in their elaboration by Erasmus, is Gary Remer, Humanism and the Rise of Toleration (University Park, Pa., 1996), pp. 50–101.

[13. ]James 1:25; John 8:32; and Philippians 4:8.

[14. ]For the Ranters, see ch. 5, p. 193, n. 132.

[15. ]John 6:31.

[16. ]Zephaniah 3:9.

[17. ]2 Timothy 3:16–17.

[18. ]Romans 12:3–8; 1 Corinthians 12; and Hebrews 2:4.

[19. ]Deuteronomy 6:4; Ephesians 4:4–6.

[20. ]1 Corinthians 14:33.

[21. ]Matthew 5:14.

[22. ]Proverbs 4:18; and Psalms 97:11.

[23. ]The contention between the apostles is related in Acts 11:2–3 and 15:5. For the differences between Peter and Paul, see Galatians 2:11–14. The issue of meats refers to whether Christians ought to refrain from eating meats sacrificed to idols (see Romans 14:13–23 and 1 Corinthians 8).

[24. ]1 Corinthians 1:13.

[25. ]The following discussion draws on 1 Corinthians 12.

[26. ]1 Corinthians 15:45, 47; and John 5:21.

[27. ]Romans 8:5–9; 1 Corinthians 3:3–4; and 2 Corinthians 10:4.

[28. ]2 Timothy 4:2; Ephesians 5:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:15; and Titus 3:10.

[29. ]The notion of an erroneous conscience implies that one can be objectively mistaken about a sincerely held belief, and it was a long-standing element of orthodox Christian theology. The distinction goes back to St. Jerome and is fully elaborated in Thomas Aquinas’s Disputed Questions about Truth (q. 16–17). For a concise overview, see Timothy C. Potts, “Conscience,” in The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy, ed. Norman Kretzmann, Anthony Kenny, and Jan Pinborg (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 687–704.

[30. ]1 Timothy 6:15.

[31. ]Ephesians 2:8.

[32. ]2 Corinthians 10:4.

[33. ]Titus 3:10.

[34. ]Proverbs 3:33.

[35. ]Tithes were a long-standing issue for religious dissenters in England. See Margaret James, “The Political Implications of the Tithes Controversy in the English Revolution, 1640–1660,” History 26 (1941): 1–18. On Jesus and Paul hiding, see John 8:59; John 12:36; Mark 7:24; and Acts 9:25.

[36. ]Here Penn refers to the issue of closing one’s shop for “worldly” holidays. Devout and pious Christians ought not, in his view, refrain from labor on such “lewd” or “superstitious” occasions. Not wanting to offend one’s neighbors by staying open for business on such days, Penn suggests, represents a failure of nerve unworthy of a true Christian.

[37. ]Jude 13.

[38. ]Philippians 4:8.

[39. ]John 16:33.

[40. ]Luke 11:39.

[41. ]1 Corinthians 13:7; and Romans 5:3, 12:12.

[42. ]John 8:36.

[43. ]Isaiah 51:1.

[44. ]1 Samuel 17:37.

[45. ]Job 26:13; and Isaiah 27:1.

[46. ]James 3:15.

[47. ]Luke 12:33–34.

[48. ]1 Corinthians 1:8; and 1 Thessalonians 5:23.

[49. ]See the prophecy of Zacharias, in Luke 1:78–79.

[50. ]The candlestick was part of the Tabernacle (commanded by God in Exodus 25) and a sign of God’s continuing presence with the Israelites. Revelation 2:5 cautions thus: “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”

[51. ]Revelation 22:14.

[52. ]1 Timothy 6:15.

[1. ]Philippians 4:5.

[2. ]Livy, History of Rome, bk. 8, ch. 21 (Petilians); bk. 23, ch. 20 (Privernates).

[3. ]Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses, bk. 3, ch. 20; Seneca, in Sir Edward Coke, Third part of the Institutes (London, 1644), ch. 2.

[4. ]Hugo Grotius, Politick maxims and observations (London, 1654).

[5. ]On Cyrus, see the book of Ezra; on Alexander, see Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, bk. 11, ch. 8; Augustus (62 b.c.e.–14 c.e.) was the first Roman emperor.

[6. ]The Thirty-Nine Articles form the doctrinal basis of the Anglican Church; for the Council of Trent, see ch. 3, p. 101, n. 17.

[7. ]Hebrews 4:15; and Matthew 8:17.

[8. ]Matthew 25:40, 45.

[9. ]Moses Maimonides (1135–1204), Jewish philosopher and exegete; and Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), Dutch jurist and humanist.

[10. ]Plutarch (ca. 45–120), Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans; Strabo (ca. 64 b.c.e.–23 c.e.), Geography; Diogenes Laertius (fl. 3d century c.e.), Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.

[11. ]On Varro, see ch. 3, p. 105, n. 19.

[12. ]On Mordechai, see Esther, esp. ch. 3.

[13. ]Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, bk. 5, ch. 1; Ammianus Marcellinus (ca. 330–94 c.e.), History, bk. 30, ch. 9, sec. 5.

[14. ]Cardinal Arnaud d’Ossat (1536–1604). A number of versions of d’Ossat’s letters would have been available to Penn in French editions, including Lettres d’illustrissime et reverendissime Cardinal d’Ossat, 2 vols. (Paris, 1624).

[15. ]The simultaneous exercise of religion.

[16. ]Numbers 16.

[17. ]On casting off Samuel’s government, see 1 Samuel 7:15–8:22; on Absalom, 2 Samuel 15–18; and on Jeroboam’s rebellion against Rehoboam, 1 Kings 12.

[18. ]The Peace of Westphalia (1648) ended the Thirty Years’ War.

[19. ]That is, the Exclusion Crisis (see the introduction).

[20. ]Matthew 6:21; and Luke 12:34.

[21. ]Proverbs 14:28.

[22. ]That is, the Spanish Armada.

[23. ]Livy, History of Rome, bk. 28, ch. 12.

[24. ]Virgilio Malvezzi, Discourses upon Cornelius Tacitus, trans. Sir Richard Baker (London, 1642), discourse 59, pp. 475–77.

[25. ]In 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had guaranteed French Protestants the right to worship since its promulgation by Henry IV in 1598.

[26. ]Genesis 6–9.

[27. ]Preamble to 1672 Declaration of Indulgence, in J. P. Kenyon, Stuart Constitution 2d ed. (Cambridge, 1986), 382.

[28. ]Psalms 54:6. On Christ refusing to call down fire, see Luke 9:51–56; on the tares and wheat, see Matthew 13:24–30; on loving enemies, see Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27, 35; and on the otherworldliness of Christ’s kingdom, see John 18:36.

[29. ]On envy, see Philippians 1:15; on judging, see Romans 2:1–2; on spiritual weapons, see 2 Corinthians 10:4; on persuasion, see Romans 14:5; and on admonitions, see Titus 3:10–11.

[30. ]Matthew 26:52–54.

[31. ]The reference is to Exodus 5.

[32. ]The affair refuses to be badly managed.

[33. ]On Calvin’s horrendum decretum, see ch. 2, p. 57, n. 36.

[34. ]Jeremy Taylor, Theologike eklektike (London, 1647).

[35. ]Matthew 12:36.

[36. ]For the citation to Peter, see Acts 10:34; on sheep and goats, see Matthew 25:31–46.

[37. ]Philippians 4:5.

[38. ]Use (or a practice) must not be destroyed on account of its being abused.

[39. ]Quadratus presented his apology (which survives only in fragments) to Hadrian ca. 125; Aristides, an Athenian Christian, ca. 140.

[40. ]Justin Martyr, First Apology and Second Apology.

[41. ]Melito, bishop of Sardis, wrote during the 170s.

[42. ]Tertullian, Apology; and Ad Scapulam, ch. 2.

[43. ]Hilary of Poitiers, Contra Auxentium Arrianum.

[44. ]Atticus, Patriarch of Constantinople, 406–25.

[45. ]Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople (d. 446 or 447).

[46. ]Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, bk. 3, ch. 12; bk. 7, ch. 3.

[47. ]Lactantius, Divine Institutes, bk. 5, ch. 20.

[48. ]Jerome (ca. 340–420); possibly a reference to “To Pammachius against John of Jerusalem,” sec. 3, which refers to the Arians as “pierced by the sword of the Spirit.”

[49. ]Eusebius, Life of Constantine, bk. 2, ch. 56.

[50. ]Themistius, Oration 5.

[51. ]James I, “Speech to Parliament 21 March 1609/10,” in King James VI and I: Political Writings, ed. Johann P. Sommerville (Cambridge, 1994), p. 199; James I, Ane fruitfull meditatioun (Edinburgh, 1588).

[52. ]Charles I, Eikon Basilike (London, 1649), ch. 27.

[1. ]Blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9).

[2. ]Ephesians 2:8.

[3. ]John 3:16; and Philippians 2:8.

[4. ]1 Peter 2:21; and Matthew 5:45.

[5. ]Luke 9:51–56.

[6. ]Amos 5:26–27; and Acts 7:42–43.

[7. ]Matthew 13:24–30.

[8. ]Matthew 10:37.

[9. ]Mark 9:38–40; and Luke 9:49–50.

[10. ]That is, revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

[11. ]Romans 3:8.

[12. ]Paolo Sarpi, The history of the Council of Trent (London, 1676).

[13. ]In Leviathan (London, 1652), ch. 42, Thomas Hobbes united civil and ecclesiastical supremacy in a single absolute sovereign.

[14. ]John 19:7.

[15. ]Revelation 12:16; 13:17.

[16. ]Matthew 22:21; Mark 12:17; and Luke 20:25.

[17. ]Isaiah 11:9; John Foxe, Actes and Monuments.

[18. ]2 Samuel 6:3–7.

[19. ]Matthew 28:20; 6:34.

[20. ]Matthew 13:24–30; Matthew 5:44–46; and Luke 6:27–32.

[21. ]Philippians 1:15.

[22. ]Romans 3:8.

[23. ]Ecclesiastes 9:11; and Psalms 127:1.

[24. ]1 Corinthians 3:12–13.

[25. ]Matthew 7:1–2; and Luke 6:37–38.

[26. ]Richard Parr, The life of the most reverend Father in God, James Usher (London, 1686), p. 75.

[27. ]James 4:12.

[28. ]Ibid.

[29. ]Jeremy Taylor, Theologike eklektike (London, 1647).

[30. ]Excessive familiarity among slaves constitutes a conspiracy against the master.

[31. ]William Lloyd, A sermon preached before the House of Lords, on November 5, 1680 (London, 1680).

[* ]Irenicum, a Weapon-Salve for the Churches Wounds, by E. Stillingfleet Rector of Sutton in Bedfordshire, in Preface to the Reader.

[32. ]Gentle and benevolent law-giving.

[33. ]Draco promulgated his severe code of laws in Athens ca. 621 b.c.e.

[34. ]Matthew 28:19.

[35. ]John Tillotson, A sermon preached November 5, 1678 at St. Margarets, Westminster (London, 1678).

[36. ]Gilbert Burnet, The history of the rights of princes in the disposing of ecclesiastical benefices and church-lands (London, 1682).

[37. ]Sir Robert Poyntz, A vindication of monarchy and the government long established in the Church and Kingdome of England (London, 1661).

[38. ]Daniel 2:31–35.

[39. ]Gilbert Burnet, Dr. Burnet’s travels; or, Letters containing an account of what seemed most remarkable in Switzerland, Italy, France, and Germany, &c (Amsterdam, 1687).

[40. ]The 1559 Act of Uniformity (1 Elizabeth I, c. 2) is reprinted in The Tudor Constitution: Documents and Commentary, ed. G. R. Elton (Cambridge, 1960), pp. 401–4.

[41. ]Flora, the Roman goddess of spring; such festivities as the circling of the Maypole on May Day occasioned long-standing Puritan grievances against “worldly” holidays in early modern England. See also ch. 6, p. 284, n. 36.

[42. ]For the Petition of Right, see ch. 2, p. 45, n. 26.

[43. ]To allay suspicions of James’s motivations, some proposed a “new Magna Charta” to secure the civil rights of all regardless of their religious beliefs. For a critique, see Thomas Comber, Three considerations proposed to Mr. William Penn, concerning . . . his new Magna Charta for liberty of conscience (London, 1688).

[44. ]For Paul at Rome, see Acts 28:16–30; at Athens, Acts 17:15–34.