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<DATE>2011-06-21</DATE>
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<NAME>Alexis Jakobson</NAME>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P>The ancient Bounds, <HI>OR</HI> Liberty of Con&s;cience, TENDERLY STATED, MODESTLY ASSERTED, AND MILDLY VINDICATED.</P>
<Q><BIBL><HI>1 COR. 10.15.</HI></BIBL> I &s;peake as to wi&s;e men, judge yee what I &s;ay.</Q>
<Q>Quid jam nobis ulterius relinquitur, &s;i etiam hoc quod voluntate fieri oportet libi|do extorquet aliena? <BIBL>Lactan. lib. 5. In&s;tit. cap. 14.</BIBL></Q>
<Q>Etiam&s;i Magi&s;tratus Legum &s;uarum Regulis &s;ubditos &s;uos, Coercere debeat ne Re|ligioni quam approbat, apert&egrave; maledicant, Cogere eos tamen non pote&s;t ad fidem qua i&s;tam receptae Religionis formam approbent. Fides enim per&s;uaderi vult non Cogi, ae nihil tam voluntarium e&s;&s;e debet ac Religio, nihil &agrave; Magi&s;tratu Chri&s;tiano magis alienum, qu&agrave;m praepo&s;tera &s;everitas quae homines hypocritas reddat, eco&s;que ore Confiteri Cogat, quod corde non Credant.<BIBL>Prof. Leid. Sy|nop&s;. pag. 767.</BIBL></Q>
<P>Licen&s;ed and Entred according to Order.</P>
<P><HI>LONDON,</HI> Printed by <HI>M. S.</HI> for <HI>Henry Overton,</HI> and are to be &s;old at his Shop in <HI>Popes-head Alley.</HI> 1645.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="to the reader">
<PB REF="2">
<PB REF="2">
<HEAD>TO THE READER.</HEAD>
<P><HI>_AS is the fining pot to &s;ilver,</HI> (&s;aith <HI>Solomon</HI>) <HI>&s;o is a man to his prai&s;e;</HI> and (to accommo|date onely the moralitie of this &s;entence to my purpo&s;e) &s;o is a Booke to its title. Wherefore le&s;t I be thought to praevaricate by prefixing either an improper or imper|fect or in &s;ignificant title to this Booke, not holding forth &s;ufficiently the nature of the Di&s;cour&s;e, which (as may be early de&s;cryed) is partly of the Magi&s;trates duty as well as of Con&s;ciences liberty: It appeares needfull to adverti&s;e the courteous Reader, that this Di&s;cour&s;e was intended primarily (as to its ultimate and adaequate &s;cope) onely in the nature of a Plea for the <HI>Liberty of tender Con&s;ciences;</HI> and meerly in relati|on thereto, (the condition of the Argument devolving it thither) it comes to have (what it hath) to doe with the Magi&s;trate; otherwi&s;e power and intere&s;t (e&s;pe|cially when &s;o eminently &s;ubjected) are render and delicate things; and our Saviours &s;peech of <HI>John</HI> may be applyed thereto, among all Arguments of this low|er Region that are handled, there is not a greater then
<PB REF="3">this; though the lea&s;t in that higher &s;pheare of &s;piri|tuall truthes (which God is not jealous of our prying into, and being familiar with in a holy way) is greater then it. But &s;ure it cannot be unacceptable either to the wi&s;e and <HI>judicious</HI> (Magi&s;trates, or others) that count not <HI>names</HI> of honour a valuable con&s;ideration, for <HI>loads</HI> of trouble, or to the <HI>Con&s;cientious,</HI> that looke to the <HI>work</HI> more then the <HI>title</HI> to apologize in the Chri&s;ti|an Magi&s;trates behalfe, to exempt or excu&s;e him from the publique determining Cognizance of differences in Religion (though this by the way onely) and the de|ci&s;ion therof with the &s;word, as whereby, if it prove not to be a meanes &s;eparated and anointed by God to &s;uch an end, he &s;hall onely be &s;ure unnece&s;&s;arily to contract debt and &s;in upon him&s;elf. Yet not that I would tempt the Magi&s;trate to any thing, whereby he might incurre the &s;candall of Scepticknes and indifferency in Religi|on, or limit him from lifting up the head of his owne avowed way (above others which he apprehends in &s;ome things alien from the truth) by a more eminent countenancing and ample endowment thereof with priviledges of maintenance, &amp;c. (for as He &s;ays; <HI>As is the man, &s;o is his might;</HI> and &s;o let his Religion be for outward accommodations;) or that I would indulge or comply with &s;uch an unrea&s;onable expectation in any materially differing Party to &s;tand upon equall termes of outward advantage, and to glory equally (with the mo&s;t received way) in outward Priviledges of publiquene&s;&s;e and publique maintenance (which are but Civill and &s;ecular things, and the Magi&s;trates own that he may doe with what he will, and the truth de|pends not upon them:) for I wa&s;h my hands of the&s;e in the &s;ixth particular of the &s;econd Chapter; where as in other parts of the di&s;cour&s;e may be &s;eene as well
<PB REF="3">what I aske, as what I am far from asking. And this I de&s;ire may be carried along and &s;upplyed through the whole di&s;cour&s;e, and each particular therein; and if a|ny pa&s;&s;age or in&s;tance upon particular rea&s;on &s;peake higher, to bee re&s;trained hereby and taken downe (which is no fault in an In&s;tance to need it) to a <HI>Dia|pa&s;on</HI> with the po&s;tulation of this Di&s;cour&s;e, made upon grounds of Morall and Univer&s;all Rea&s;on and Ju&s;tice.</P>
<P>I have but a word more, and I have done; Let it not &s;eeme an unrea&s;onable reque&s;t to be beleeved, that what I have here attempted, (as it is not carried with any &s;uch reflexion, &s;o it) was not bred with any ap|probatory re&s;pect in my heart unto tho&s;e inventions which now like tares &s;pring up with the wheat, and wherein many Saints are involved; but what is &s;poken is (1) in favour of the <HI>per&s;ons</HI> that differ, not of their <HI>errours,</HI> for I would plea&s;e my Brother, but to his <HI>E|dification;</HI> and while I carry his per&s;on before the Lord with love in my prayers, I de&s;ire to carry his er|rours with complaints. (2) To take men off from the wrong way of oppo&s;ing errours, which will be as fruit|le&s;s as 'tis faithle&s;s, that they may apply them&s;elves to the u&s;e of the right meanes, as &s;ure as &s;afe, the Word of God, which requires this Libertie (but accidentally onely &s;erving to errours) for 'its better operation, as Phy&s;ick doth require open weather, when the humors are &s;tirring, not clung up nor re&s;trained, for to purge them away. I &s;hall not be offended nor count it &s;trange to heare of much weakne&s;&s;e and many failings in the handling of this Argument (which by the te|nour of this proportion, being &s;o early driven to my Apology, I may well expect to be multiplyed through the Di&s;cour&s;e) but I beg but that charitie to be belee|ved,
<PB REF="4">that could I fore&s;ee them, I &s;hould prevent them with an amendment, or Apologize for them particu|larly as for this: whereas now all I can doe is to crave a generall pardon. Many <HI>Ahimaazes,</HI> which I call not &s;o for impertinentne&s;&s;e, for they are before me, but for latterne&s;&s;e of &s;etting out, have over-run me, who was ready more then &s;ix moneths &s;ince: and what &s;imilitude of Notions I have with others, is not (I may cleare my &s;elfe and the matter herein) by any furtive extraction out of them; (though I am a debtor to them all, and the lea&s;t of them may adde to me who am lea&s;t of all) but through the onenes of Truth. And as I have been pre&s;t in &s;pirit, and &s;erv'd with an opportunitie of va|cancy from &s;ome other bu&s;ine&s;&s;e to the vindicating of this Truth; &s;o in the bearing it forth, I have no le&s;&s;e &s;trangely to my &s;elfe, (if &s;o &s;afely, and that it appeare &s;o to others) ob&s;erved a &s;peciall conduct leading me all along contrary to tho&s;e prae-engagements (&s;uch as they were) upon my judgement, who had dipt my pen on the other &s;ide; I &s;ay, I have been no le&s;&s;e &s;trangely led, then the milch Kine that did beare the Arke out of the Land of the <HI>Phili&s;tims,</HI> taking the &s;traight way to <HI>Beth&s;heme&s;h,</HI> the in&s;tinct of <HI>Providence</HI> &s;uper&s;eding the in&s;tinct of <HI>Nature.</HI></P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="table of contents">
<PB REF="4">
<HEAD>The Series, and Titles of the Chapters.</HEAD>
<LIST>
<HEAD>Sect. 1.</HEAD>
<ITEM><HI>Chapter 1.</HI> The State of the Que&s;tion.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Chap. 2.</HI> An appendix to the State of the Que&s;tion, clearing the Principles of this Book from di&s;charging or di&s;couraging the Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trate, to improve his authoritie for the Lord Je&s;us, his truth, and people.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Chap. 3.</HI> Coercive power (as before &s;tated) di&s;puted again&s;t by a <HI>Me|dium</HI> taken from the Con&s;ent of all Presbyterian Authors (though al&s;o the Medium be proved by the Authors <HI>own rea&s;ons) viz.</HI> that the Magi&s;trate hath not the Cogni|zance of differences in matters of Religion, in the &s;en&s;e that is expre&s;&s;ed in the Chapter.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Chap. 4.</HI> Coercive power more directly impugned.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Chap. 5.</HI> The Cognizance afore&s;aid, and Coercive power, both toge|ther oppo&s;ed: and the&s;e three Chapters bitherto are with &s;peciall Relation to the Magi&s;trate, if he exerci&s;e it.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Chap. 6.</HI> Again&s;t all Coercive power, exerci&s;ed by whom&s;oever for the forementioned matters in Chap. <HI>1.</HI></ITEM>
</LIST>
<LIST>
<HEAD>Sect. 2.</HEAD>
<ITEM><HI>Chap. 7.</HI> The Argument Illu&s;trated and Confirmed by Examples and Te&s;timonies; and fir&s;t out of the old Te&s;tament.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Chap. 8.</HI> By Examples and Te&s;timonies out of the New.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Chap. 9.</HI> By &s;ome few fragments of Examples and Te&s;timonies out of humane Story.</ITEM>
</LIST>
<LIST>
<HEAD>Sect. 3.</HEAD>
<ITEM>Chap. 10. Objections again&s;t the premi&s;&s;es an&s;wered.</ITEM>
</LIST>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="preface">
<PB REF="5">
<HEAD>A light to the Work.</HEAD>
<P>_THere are two things contended for in this liberty of Con&s;cience; Fir&s;t, to <HI>in&s;tate</HI> every Chri&s;tian in his <HI>right</HI> of <HI>free</HI> (yet mo|de&s;t) <HI>judging</HI> and accepting what he holds. Secondly, To <HI>vin|dicate a nece&s;&s;ary advantage</HI> to the truth; and this is the maine end and re&s;pect of this liberty. I contend not for variety of opinions, I know there is but one truth; But this truth cannot be &s;o ea&s;ily brought forth without this liberty; and a generall re&s;traint, though intended but for errours, yet through the unskilfulne&s;&s;e of men, may fall upon the truth; and better many errours of &s;ome kinde &s;uffered, then one u&s;efull truth be ob&s;tructed or de&s;troyed. Be&s;ides, truth would not oftentimes be &s;uffered in the world, if it went not di&s;gui&s;ed, and if there were not other things like the truth, therefore this liberty is nece&s;&s;ary al&s;o to its pre&s;ervation, (as well as production) as it is for a Prince or Generall when he fights to di&s;gui&s;e him&s;elfe, and habit him&s;elfe like one of his Souldiers, el&s;e all would lay at him, and <HI>fight with neither &s;mall nor great</HI> but him. When Chri&s;t was to be borne, all the world was to be quiet, and it was &s;o, though immedi|ately after there was a cruell &s;laughter; and then if other infants had not been like Chri&s;t, and Chri&s;t like other infants, he would have been &s;ingled out and &s;laine; So that as errours mu&s;t be, that tho&s;e that are approved may be made manife&s;t to God and &s;pirituall men, &s;o errours mu&s;t be that the truth and the profe&s;&s;ors of it may be tryed, and &s;ometimes al&s;o covered from the world, from their di&s;daine which lights upon common and obvi|ous things; and from their Odium, that it may be divided and di&s;tracted, and may &s;pend and wast it &s;elfe again&s;t other things then the truth; and &s;o <HI>the earth helpes the woman,</HI> and &s;wallowes up the floud that is powred out again&s;t the truth. <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> permitted divorce to the <HI>Jewes,</HI> notwith&s;tanding the hardne&s;&s;e of their hearts; &s;o mu&s;t this libertie be granted to men (within certain bounds) though it may be abu&s;ed to wan|ton opinions more then were to be wi&s;hed.</P>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB N="1" REF="5">
<HEAD>THE ANCIENT BOUNDS, <HI>OR</HI> LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE.</HEAD>
<DIV2 N="1" TYPE="section">
<HEAD>SECT. I.</HEAD>
<DIV3 N="1" TYPE="chapter">
<HEAD>CHAP. I. <HI>The State of the Que&s;tion.</HI></HEAD>
<P>_CHri&s;t Je&s;us, who&s;e is the Kingdome, the power, and the glory, both in <HI>Nature</HI> and in <HI>grace,</HI> hath given &s;everall Maps and Scheames of his Domi|nions gradually differing, &s;ome greater, &s;ome le&s;&s;er, of all &s;orts and &s;izes: Both of his <HI>great Kingdome</HI> the world, his Dominions at large, which he hath committed to men, to be admini|&s;tred in <HI>truth and righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e,</HI> in a various forme as they plea&s;e; each of which he cloaths him&s;elfe withall: And al&s;o of his <HI>&s;peciall</HI> and peculiar Kingdome the kingdome of Grace. Which kingdomes though they differ <HI>e&s;&s;entially,</HI> or formally, yet they agree in one common <HI>&s;ubject matter</HI> (man, and &s;ocieties of men) though under a <HI>diver&s;e</HI> con&s;ideration: And not onely man in &s;ociety, but <HI>every</HI> man individually is an <HI>Epitome,</HI> either of one onely, or of both the&s;e Dominions. <HI>Of one onely,</HI> &s;o every naturall man (who in a naturall con&s;ideration is called <HI>Microco&s;mus,</HI> an Epitome of the world) in who&s;e <HI>Con&s;cience</HI> God hath his <HI>throne,</HI> ruling him by the light of <HI>nature</HI> to a Civill outward good and end.</P>
<P>Of <HI>both,</HI> &s;o every beleever who be&s;ides this naturall con&s;cience and rule, hath an <HI>inlightned</HI> con&s;cience, carrying a more bright and lively &s;tampe of the Kingly place and power of the Lord Je&s;us, &s;waying him by the light of <HI>faith</HI> or Scripture: and &s;uch a man may be called <HI>Microchri&s;tus,</HI> the Epitome of Chri&s;t my&s;ticall.</P>
<PB N="2" REF="6">
<P>This is con&s;cience, and this its divi&s;ion. And of this con&s;cience is the Que&s;tion, or rather of the <HI>per&s;on</HI> that hath this con&s;cience, and the <HI>things</HI> he holds or practi&s;es con&s;cientiou&s;ly; For the <HI>power</HI> of con&s;cience it &s;elfe, as it will not be beholden to any man for its liberty, &s;o neither is it capable of outward re&s;traint, they mu&s;t be morall or &s;pirituall in&s;truments that can worke upon con&s;cience. But the exerci&s;e or practice of con&s;cience, or the per&s;on &s;o exerci|&s;ing, is properly the object of outward re&s;traint in que&s;tion.</P>
<P>Now then if we keep but to this terme <HI>Con&s;cience;</HI>
<MILESTONE N="1"> fir&s;t all vitious &amp; &s;candalous practices, contrary to the light of nature, or manife&s;t good of &s;ocieties, are cut off, not to trouble us in this matter, as de|riving them&s;elves not from <HI>Con&s;cience,</HI> but a malignant <HI>will</HI> and un|con&s;cienc't &s;pirit.</P>
<P><MILESTONE N="2"> Nor yet may all principles that derive them&s;elves from <HI>Con&s;ci|ence,</HI> have the benefit of this plea of Liberty, &s;o as to &s;ave their ow|ners; as fir&s;t, if they &s;hall be found of a <HI>di&s;abling</HI> nature, or <HI>want|ing</HI> in their due proportion of benevolence to publique peace, liber|ties, &s;ocieties; as in &s;ome of tho&s;e ca&s;es in&s;tanced by M^r <HI>Palmer;</HI> as for in&s;tance, Scruple of con&s;cience cannot exempt a man from any <HI>Civill</HI> duty he owes to the State, or the government thereof, but it may well be&s;eeme a State to force men to contribute to their own, and the publique good and &s;afety: And though <HI>God</HI> can have no glory by a forced Religion, yet the State may have benefit by a forced &s;ervice. Again, the &s;ervice of the State is <HI>outward,</HI> civill, bo|dily, and is perfect as to its end, <HI>without</HI> the will and con&s;cience of that per&s;on from whom it is extorted; &s;o is not the &s;ervice of God, which is inward and &s;pirituall, yea it mu&s;t be <HI>in &s;pirit and in truth.</HI></P>
<P><MILESTONE N="3"> Then much le&s;&s;e may any &s;uch Principles find favour in this di&s;|cour&s;e, as be&s;ides the former deficiency &s;hall be found pregnant, with <HI>po&s;itive</HI> malignity (and that in a high nature and con&s;equence too perhaps) to &s;ocieties, as the doctrines of the <HI>Papi&s;ts.</HI> The Que|&s;tion is not of the&s;e Principles that are either of the <HI>frigid</HI> Zone of deficiency, or the <HI>torrid</HI> Zone of malignancy, but of con&s;cientious Principles and practices, though perhaps erroneous, yet not inju|rious to publique good either way.</P>
<P>And of Principles thus allayd and qualified,
<MILESTONE N="4"> the Que&s;tion is not whether there be not <HI>a</HI> power to deale with them, and <HI>a</HI> force to be applyed to them; yea to con&s;cience it &s;elfe, the &s;ource of <HI>them;</HI>
<PB N="3" REF="6">for wee all agree in this, that there is, viz. <HI>Chri&s;ts</HI> power, and <HI>a &s;piri|tuall</HI> force; but the Que&s;tion is, whether <HI>outward</HI> force be to be applyed.</P>
<P><MILESTONE N="5"> And in this the Que&s;tion is not in&s;tituted in grudge or envy of the <HI>Magi&s;trate,</HI> Whether it be lawfull for him <HI>&s;pecially,</HI> much le&s;&s;e, whe|ther it be <HI>le&s;&s;e</HI> lawfull for him then for <HI>&s;ome other</HI> men, or generati|on of men, to force in the&s;e matters: but whether it be lawfull for <HI>any</HI> man, or kinde of men indifferently. And therefore though there be &s;ome arguments applyed <HI>particularly</HI> to the Magi&s;trate, in the third, fourth, and fifth Chapters; yet there are far <HI>more</HI> again&s;t force in <HI>generall,</HI> Chap. 6. and from thence the greate&s;t part of the di&s;cour&s;e is carried generally and indefinitely.</P>
<P>Yet neither in the&s;e is the Que&s;tion,
<MILESTONE N="6"> Whether the Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trates power doe or <HI>may</HI> beare <HI>any</HI> proportion of <HI>&s;ub&s;erviency</HI> to a worke of publique Reformation, and whether he cannot doe more then another man towards it. Wee freely grant he may doe much more, and therefore ought; as the next Chapter will &s;hew, which is added as an Appendix unto this; but the Que&s;tion is, Whether to other meanes he may <HI>adde</HI> force.</P>
<P>Nor will it &s;eeme unrighteous in our eyes,
<MILESTONE N="7"> that a <HI>difference</HI> &s;hould be made by the Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trate (as by every man in his place) between <HI>men</HI> and <HI>men,</HI> according as they judge them to be in truth or error (e&s;pecially in <HI>equall</HI> and <HI>&s;etled</HI> times, wherein <HI>ju&s;tice</HI> and <HI>humanitie,</HI> in re&s;pect of their brethrens <HI>nece&s;&s;ities</HI> and <HI>&s;ufferings,</HI> not onely <HI>with</HI> them, but <HI>for</HI> them, &s;hall not otherwi&s;e require) as is more largely expre&s;&s;ed before to the Reader. So that this difference be but by <HI>withholding</HI> their own <HI>favours,</HI> and not by taking <HI>away</HI> their Brethrens <HI>rights,</HI> and that it be al&s;o but in a <HI>due</HI> proportion, to the demerit of their difference, di&s;cerning between the <HI>greater</HI> and <HI>le&s;&s;er,</HI> between di&s;putable and manife&s;t errours, I meane mani|fe&s;t to the light of the godly and judicious generally. For certainly in tho&s;e things which are even by the principles of the <HI>powerfull</HI> &s;ide them&s;elves, remote from the <HI>vitalls</HI> and <HI>fundamentalls</HI> of Religion, and of a <HI>very controver&s;all</HI> nature: for the&s;e, I &s;ay, (re&s;erving the <HI>per|&s;onall</HI> liberty of every mans judgement to judge thereof as he finds) there is none or very &s;mall difference outward, ju&s;tly to be made by the <HI>Magi&s;trate,</HI> or power of a State; but if <HI>honour</HI> be to be given <HI>to whom honour is due,</HI> and they that <HI>doe well</HI> are by the Magi&s;trate to
<PB N="4" REF="7">be
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">1 Pet. 2.14.</NOTE> <HI>prai&s;ed, (i.)</HI> countenanced, authorized, and rewarded, then if any whit of a ju&s;t proportion be ob&s;erved, and no more prai&s;e and honour be detracted from &s;uch brethren, then the demerit of their difference cals for, I hope they &s;hall neither be put to <HI>fly</HI> for feare, or <HI>dye</HI> through want.</P>
<P>Nor doe we que&s;tion,
<MILESTONE N="8"> whether the Magi&s;trate may not to this <HI>negative</HI> di&s;countenance, adde <HI>po&s;itive,</HI> viz. to declare again&s;t errors, as well as the Mini&s;ters to convince and exhort again&s;t them.</P>
<P><MILESTONE N="9"> Nor whether (among us) errors of manife&s;t &s;candall and danger to mens &s;oules and con&s;ciences, as <HI>Arriani&s;me, Sociniani&s;me, Fami|li&s;me, &amp;c.</HI> ought not to be re&s;trained by the Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trate, and the A&s;&s;ertors and maintainers of them, interdicted under pe|nalties, the divulging or &s;preading of them by publique preaching or printing. For though God alone can convince and reduce <HI>their</HI> con&s;ciences; yet to pre&s;erve the <HI>acknowledged</HI> truth from being <HI>bla&s;|phemed,</HI> and the con&s;ciences of <HI>others</HI> yet free and disingaged from being <HI>&s;candalized</HI> and <HI>corrupted,</HI> is a work of <HI>love</HI> and <HI>charity,</HI> which the Magi&s;trates <HI>arme</HI> is requi&s;ite, and mu&s;t extend it &s;elfe unto, as in|deed alone bearing &s;ufficient proportion to &s;uch a &s;ervice, as the preventing occa&s;ions and removing &s;tumbling-blocks of &s;uch like temptations out of the way, which the &s;ecular power can doe, though the
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">1 Joh. 2.27.</NOTE> <HI>anoynting</HI> of the Spirit mu&s;t pre&s;erve their con&s;ciences inwardly, and enable them upon all occa&s;ions to <HI>di&s;cerne between things that differ.</HI></P>
<P><MILESTONE N="10"> La&s;tly (though we cannot likely be mi&s;taken) wee doe declare that &s;uch liberty as we plead for in the ca&s;es &s;pecified, is not by us, nor ought to be by any reputed as a <HI>vindication,</HI> ju&s;tification, &s;ancti|on or e&s;tabli&s;hment of any opinion or way &s;o tolerated, (as no fin nor error, as the truth and Orthodox) as &s;ome may po&s;&s;ibly think; e&s;pecially, if they be u&s;ed &s;o lightly to di&s;charge their <HI>owne</HI> re&s;pects and countenance to the truth they profe&s;&s;e and avow, as counting it almo&s;t enough <HI>to doe nothing again&s;t it:</HI> Whereas did they under|&s;tand their duty to the truth, and fulfill it, they would &s;ee a great doore of <HI>negative</HI> di&s;countenance opened to them again&s;t errours, whereby they might put a <HI>broad</HI> difference between them and the truth they embrace, (even as if lively communion of Churches were known, non-communion would appeare a terrible thing) though a negative di&s;countenance be not all that wee allow in &s;ome ca&s;es:
<PB N="5" REF="7">But by this liberty wee onely <HI>referre</HI> mens con&s;ciences to God to be convinced in his time, not cea&s;ing to u&s;e all <HI>proper</HI> meanes in the meane time: And this onely in tho&s;e things that pertaine <HI>onely</HI> to con&s;cience, making onely the &s;tate <HI>thereof</HI> good or bad towards <HI>God.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 N="2" TYPE="chapter">
<HEAD>CHAP. II. Being an appendix to the &s;tate of the Que&s;tion. <HI>Of the Relation that the Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trates office beares to the Church, and matters of Religion.</HI></HEAD>
<P>_TRuth requires that we &s;hew how far wee <HI>agree,</HI> as well as wherein we differ. Though it be ea&s;ier to &s;ay what the Ma|gi&s;trate may <HI>not</HI> do, then what he may: We are never more out, then when we goe about to make <HI>formes</HI> and <HI>&s;y&s;temes,</HI> and be de|finitive comprehen&s;ive <HI>Doctors</HI> of that which we mu&s;t be <HI>learners</HI> &amp; proficients in all our life time. E&s;pecially in things of this nature, which may better be perceived &amp; di&s;cerned <HI>upon occa&s;ion</HI> from time to time, by the humble and godly, then dige&s;ted into a few Rules or <HI>Canons.</HI> This premi&s;ed we acknowledge that the duty of a Chri|&s;tian Magi&s;trate is &s;omewhat more then of another Magi&s;trate. <HI>Civill protection</HI> is that which all Magi&s;trates owe, whether Chri&s;ti|an or not Chri&s;tian, to all <HI>quiet livers</HI> within their Dominions, whether Chri&s;tian or not Chri&s;tian, as being founded upon &s;uch <HI>politique</HI> con&s;iderations and conditions (&s;etting a&s;ide Religion) as being performed on the Subjects part, it cannot with ju&s;tice be de|nied them. But a Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trate owes &s;omething more to the truth he profe&s;&s;es, and to tho&s;e that profe&s;&s;e the &s;ame with him; which duty of his differs onely in <HI>degree,</HI> not in <HI>kinde</HI> from the duty of another Chri&s;tian that is no Magi&s;trate. For it is the duty of <HI>every Chri&s;tian,</HI> to improve every talent and advantage entru&s;ted with him, for the honour of Chri&s;t, and good of the body to the utmo&s;t, in a lawfull way. So a Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trate, if he have (as he hath) by vertue of his Magi&s;tracy a talent and advantage above other men, he is bound to improve it all lawfull wayes, to the afore|&s;aid purpo&s;e. To which he is to direct even all the common acts and parts of his government; for though all doe equally &s;hare in
<PB N="6" REF="8">the outward benefits of Magi&s;tracy, <HI>viz.</HI> peace and plenty, &amp;c. yet ought Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trates principally <HI>ex intentione</HI> to direct their whole government to the good of the <HI>Churches,</HI> and the glory of <HI>God</HI> therein; for as much as <HI>all things are the Churches,</HI> and for the <HI>Churches.</HI> And doubtle&s;&s;e, Magi&s;tracy, though an Ordinance of man, yet is a mo&s;t glorious Ordinance, and of &s;ingular u&s;e and &s;er|vice, if rightly applyed to the Church; as I &s;hall &s;hew gradually in the&s;e &s;teps.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t,
<NOTE N="1" PLACE="marg">Morality is within his Cognizance.</NOTE> Magi&s;trates doe <HI>prepare</HI> by a good Government for the Go&s;pel; Civility not re&s;ted in, nor mi&s;taken for godline&s;&s;e, makes men in a more proximious outward capacity for, and di&s;po&s;ition towards Religion, in as much as they are thereby re&s;trained from gro&s;&s;e prophanene&s;&s;e, and in&s;olent oppo&s;ition of the truth, where|by the Word may come among&s;t them with &s;afety to the per&s;ons of tho&s;e that bring it; according to which part, <HI>Chry&s;o&s;tome</HI> &s;ayes well; That the Magi&s;trate helps the Mini&s;try, <HI>viz.</HI> by taking cog|nizance of all morall vices, and it is their part not to commend one|ly, but to <HI>command</HI> a good morall conver&s;ation of their Subjects, at lea&s;t <HI>negative:</HI> In which ca&s;e again <HI>Chry&s;o&s;tome</HI> &s;ays well; That good Princes make vertue ea&s;ie, while they both urge it with their example, and drive men to it by feare and puni&s;hments.</P>
<P>But <HI>now</HI> for <HI>&s;upernaturall</HI> gifts, as <HI>illumination,</HI> &s;peciall or common, to make a man of <HI>this</HI> or <HI>that</HI> judgement or opinion; or <HI>faith,</HI> to make a man of this or that <HI>practi&s;e</HI> in Religion, may not be requi|red by the Civill &s;word; it may be per&s;waded, induced by exhor|tation, example, or &s;uch meanes, and that's all. And &s;o <HI>Chry&s;o&s;tome</HI> in pur&s;uance of his former &s;entence, namely, the a&s;&s;i&s;tance that Ma|gi&s;tracy contributes to the Mini&s;try, hath the&s;e words; <HI>For wee</HI> (&s;ays he) <HI>teach men loyalty, cha&s;tity, mode&s;ty, and dehort them from murder, fal&s;e-witne&s;&s;e-bearing, adultery, thefts, but the Magi&s;trate takes cognizance of them at his tribunall.</HI> And <HI>Origen</HI> in like manner &s;eemes to make this the adaequate object of the Magi&s;trates compul&s;ive power, upon that place, <HI>Act.</HI> 15. <HI>It &s;eemed good to the Holy Gho&s;t and us, to lay no other burden upon you, &amp;c.</HI> But if they will not charge them with more precepts, doe they give them liberty to murders, thefts, perjuries, lu&s;t, adultery? in no wi&s;e, but of the&s;e there was no need to &s;ay any thing; for they are within the Magi&s;trates cogni|zance, and prohibited by the Civill Lawes. And by the way, where|fore
<PB N="7" REF="8">hath it the denomination or di&s;tinction of <HI>Civill power,</HI> but that <HI>(ex vi vocis)</HI> Civility is the next, mo&s;t proper, immediate, and al|mo&s;t utmo&s;t care and extent of this power? For though the Chri|&s;tian Magi&s;trate well di&s;charging his place, doth promote the <HI>&s;piri|tuall</HI> good and edification of the Churches, yet not <HI>immediately</HI> and directly, but by and through a <HI>politique</HI> good, as he procures re&s;t and &s;afety to them, and &s;o they are edified, <HI>Act.</HI> 9.31. Which is a very con&s;iderable and needfull &s;ervice, while the publique wor&s;hip and the Churches in the exerci&s;e thereof (though according to their being and beauty in the Spirit, they tran&s;cend the under&s;tanding and principles of the world, yet) are circum&s;tanced &amp; <HI>habited</HI> with &s;uch outward relations and con&s;iderations as need &s;uch a <HI>worldly</HI> provi&s;ion, which Magi&s;tracy applying it &s;elfe unto God, hath there|fore (by the rule of proportion, 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 12.23. whereby the le&s;&s;e ho|nourable parts have more honour given them) provided a <HI>more a|bundant</HI> worldly honour for the Magi&s;trate (then for Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall Officers) for their <HI>worke</HI> &s;ake. And is not here a great deale of work, and enough to take up a whole man, and may not very acceptable &s;ervice be done to God herein, and much good redound to the Church, while not onely the Church hath hereby fairer quarter in the world, but a rude preparation is made for the Go&s;pel?</P>
<P>Thus wee have committed to the Magi&s;trate the charge of the <HI>&s;econd Table; viz.</HI> Materially, that is,
<NOTE N="2" PLACE="marg">The fir&s;t Table how farre.</NOTE> he is not to &s;ee God di&s;ho|noured by the manife&s;t breach thereof, or any part thereof; But is that all? No &s;urely; He may enter the vault even of tho&s;e abomina|tions of the <HI>fir&s;t Table,</HI> and ferret the <HI>Devils</HI> and Devil-wor&s;hip out of their holes and dennes, &s;o far as <HI>Nature</HI> carries the candle before him: Therefore it &s;eemes to me that <HI>Poluthei&s;me</HI> and <HI>Athei&s;ticall doctrines,</HI> which are &s;ins again&s;t the <HI>fir&s;t Table</HI> and Commandement; and <HI>Idolatry,</HI> (which is again&s;t the &s;econd Commandement) &s;uch as may be convinced by naturall light, (or the letter of the command where the Scriptures are received) as the wor&s;hipping of <HI>Images,</HI> and the <HI>breaden-god,</HI> the gro&s;&s;e&s;t Idolatry of all; the&s;e &s;o far forth as they <HI>breake out</HI> and di&s;cover them&s;elves, ought to be re&s;trained, exploded by the Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trate; for 'tis that which a <HI>Hea|thens</HI> light &s;hould not tolerate, nature carrying &s;o far; <HI>Rom.</HI> 1. and al&s;o <HI>bla&s;phemy,</HI> which is again&s;t the third Commandement, and is a common nu&s;ance to <HI>man-kind;</HI> and the in&s;olent prophanation of
<PB N="8" REF="9">the Lords day (though the keeping of it be not obvious to Natures light) ought not to be &s;uffered by the Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trate; for herein (as in the former) no mans <HI>liberty</HI> is infringed, no mans <HI>Con|&s;cience</HI> inthrall'd, <HI>truth</HI> not at all prejudiced or ob&s;tructed, while onely <HI>manife&s;t</HI> impiety and prophanene&s;&s;e is excluded, and the <HI>peace</HI> of tho&s;e that are better di&s;po&s;ed procured, and <HI>&s;candall</HI> avoyded by the&s;e <HI>Negatives.</HI> And thus farre the Magi&s;trate is <HI>Cu&s;tos utriu&s;que tabulae,</HI> not to require the <HI>Po&s;itive</HI> &s;o much, as to re&s;traine the <HI>Nega|tive;</HI> and all this <HI>Nature</HI> teaches hitherto.</P>
<P>But thirdly,
<NOTE N="3" PLACE="marg">Generally received Principles.</NOTE> as belonging to the <HI>third</HI> Commandement, the Chri|&s;tian Magi&s;trate may, not onely require a conver&s;ation and practi&s;e moralized according to the Principles and light of Nature, where they run <HI>lowe&s;t,</HI> as among the <HI>Heathen;</HI> but as they are <HI>improved</HI> and rai&s;ed by the Go&s;pel, through the common irradiation thereof: For <HI>Con&s;uetudo e&s;t altera natura,</HI> Cu&s;tome or Education is another nature. And look what notions fall upon <HI>every</HI> under&s;tanding, that is <HI>&s;o</HI> &s;ituated, or look what impre&s;&s;ions are made upon <HI>every</HI> natu|rall con&s;cience by the Go&s;pel, which <HI>ripens</HI> and meliorates nature in &s;ome degree, and hath at lea&s;t <HI>&s;ome</HI> fruit and &s;ucce&s;&s;e where ever it comes, though it do not change and &s;anctifie: I &s;ay the&s;e fruits, <HI>tales quales,</HI> the Magi&s;trate is Gods Titheman or Officer to gather them in for him, and to require a demeanor &s;uitable to &s;uch an ac|knowledged light, at lea&s;t <HI>negatively,</HI> that is, to re&s;traine the contra|ry, that &s;o the <HI>name of God be not taken in vaine.</HI> As to in&s;tance, though it be not eruable by the light of Nature, the article of the <HI>Trinity,</HI> or the <HI>per&s;on</HI> and <HI>Office</HI> of Je&s;us Chri&s;t, yet &s;ure to teach do|ctrine that denies either of the&s;e, where the Go&s;pel hath &s;ounded, is not tolerable; Or to deny the Re&s;urrection, or a Judgement day, &amp;c. I &s;ay, the Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trate ought not to tolerate the teaching of &s;uch Contradictions (in an in&s;tructed Common-wealth) to re|ceived Principles and manife&s;t impre&s;&s;ions upon all hearts that have lived under the Go&s;pell within his Dominions. And the rea&s;on is, Becau&s;e the&s;e Principles fall into the <HI>&s;ame</HI> rank and order and con|&s;ideration with
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">1 Cor. 11.14.</NOTE> naturall Principles, in as much as they are not onely habituated unto men as naturall, but <HI>atte&s;ted</HI> unto within by a <HI>divinely</HI>-impre&s;t Con&s;cience, though but naturall and in a com|mon way. And although in treating hereof, I have reflected much upon the <HI>Principles</HI> and <HI>light of Nature,</HI> and the <HI>outward</HI> good and
<PB N="9" REF="9"><HI>con&s;i&s;ting of &s;ocieties,</HI> yet I make not the&s;e the <HI>onely grounds,</HI> authori|zing the Magi&s;trate that is <HI>Chri&s;tian</HI> (of whom this Chapter &s;peaks) to the premi&s;es, nor the <HI>ultimate end</HI> &amp; &s;cope he is to ayme at there|in. For though the light of Nature be <HI>Gods Law</HI> in the hearts of men, not to be <HI>violated,</HI> and the pre&s;ervation of &s;ocieties one end thereof, not to be <HI>de&s;pi&s;ed;</HI> yet certainly the <HI>Chri&s;tian</HI> Magi&s;trate, as he hath his authority from God, &s;o he is to take the <HI>Ri&s;e</HI> of exerci&s;ing it from him <HI>who hath not committed to him the &s;word in vaine;</HI> and he is to ayme at the <HI>glory of God</HI> (the preventing or redre&s;&s;ing his di&s;ho|nour) in every act thereof, and to puni&s;h evill out of that con&s;ide|ration that it is <HI>evill:</HI> though God hath given him that <HI>Rule</HI> to pro|ceed by, and to <HI>make out</HI> the evill of evill to the world, even the <HI>contrariety</HI> thereof to the <HI>light of Nature, and the good of Societies.</HI> Wherein al&s;o God hath admirably &s;hewed his wi&s;dome and good|ne&s;&s;e, both in twi&s;ting and combining &s;o the intere&s;ts of <HI>his glory,</HI> (in this &s;en&s;e we &s;peake which is <HI>negative</HI>) and the <HI>happine&s;&s;e of &s;o|cieties,</HI> that this <HI>latter</HI> cannot be without the <HI>former:</HI> and in laying no other burthen on the <HI>Chri&s;tian</HI> Magi&s;trate for the <HI>Materiale,</HI> then what is within <HI>every</HI> mans Cognizance, and the light of Na|ture will lead him to. And though (as is &s;aid in effect already) we make not the light of Nature, and the con&s;i&s;ting of &s;ocieties, the <HI>onely,</HI> nor <HI>highe&s;t</HI> con&s;iderations, which the Magi&s;trate as a Chri&s;ti|an is to hold forth before God, and into which he is to re&s;olve his act, (I &s;ay as a <HI>Chri&s;tian,</HI> though as a Magi&s;trate he ought to hold out the&s;e Principles to the world, and <HI>build</HI> upon them; but as a Chri&s;tian he is bound certainly (as every <HI>man</HI>) to make every &s;er|vice as <HI>&s;avoury</HI> as may be, grafting them with the <HI>be&s;t</HI> Principles) yet certainly, they may very well be <HI>Harmonicall</HI> rea&s;ons, and <HI>additio|nall</HI> inforcements, even to him that is a Chri&s;tian, when the <HI>Mate|riale</HI> of his duty is no other then what may be convinced and infor|ced by the light and principles of Nature, either (<HI>Prima</HI> or <HI>&agrave; primis orta</HI>) and is but the <HI>old</HI> Commandement; though if he be a <HI>Chri&s;ti|an,</HI> it is a <HI>new</HI> Commandement to him, and according to the <HI>for|male</HI> is di&s;tingui&s;hed e&s;&s;entially from the act of a wi&s;e and con&s;cien|tious <HI>Heathen.</HI></P>
<P>Fourthly,
<NOTE N="4" PLACE="marg">The exter|nall peace and order of the Churches.</NOTE> The Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trate owes a duty about the <HI>ex|ternall peace and order</HI> of the Churches to look to that; For though the Magi&s;trate take not Cognizance of &s;everall forms and opinions
<PB N="10" REF="10">in Religion, yet of the outward manner and order he doth, and ought, and to bound and rectifie that is his place, and to puni&s;h di&s;|order, and all this (what ever noi&s;e it makes) is but a <HI>Civill</HI> thing. For there are the&s;e two things goe to Religion; The thing it &s;elfe, and the <HI>managing</HI> of it; Though con&s;cience is not to be forced to or from the thing, yet the manner of the practi&s;e is to be regulated according to <HI>peace and comeline&s;&s;e</HI> by the Civill Magi&s;trate.</P>
<P>But all this yet is but extrin&s;ecall to Religion;
<NOTE N="5" PLACE="marg">All meanes and advanta|ges for the promoting of the truth on this &s;ide of forcing.</NOTE> may the Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trate come no nearer? Yes doubtle&s;&s;e, he may and ought to doe all that he is <HI>able</HI> and hath opportunitie to do in the behalfe of the truth, &s;o that he keep on this &s;ide of force; as for in&s;tance, He ought to be <HI>Exemplary</HI> in the profe&s;&s;ion of the truth, as <HI>Jo&s;hua</HI> was, <HI>Jo&s;h.</HI> 24.15. <HI>As for me and my hou&s;e, wee will &s;erve the Lord.</HI> Wherein (as al&s;o in his Exhortation of the people) he is without all &s;cru|ple imitable by all in eminent place or authority, though the faith of their Subjects or Tenants is not to be pind upon <HI>their</HI> &s;leeve, yet if their example, countenance, intere&s;t, exhortations will gaine any credit to the truth, it is an hone&s;t way to make u&s;e thereof. Nay, if God hath given them <HI>parts</HI> to contend for the truth, and &s;top the mouthes of gain-&s;ayers, they ought to u&s;e them, by writing or di&s;|puting, as their Charge will give them leave. They may and ought to propo&s;e the truth to all, to apply meanes for the reclaiming of tho&s;e that erre, and to &s;end forth Teachers into blind and ignorant places, where they are not capable of the care of their own &s;oules: and to call Synods or A&s;&s;emblies to conferre their light in relation to a work of Reformation, or to the &s;olving of &s;ome particular dif|ficulties. In a word, he may doe any thing for the truth, &s;o that when he have done, he leave men to their con&s;ciences that are of a different minde from him, and manage that difference <HI>without of|fence.</HI></P>
<P>Sixtly and la&s;tly,
<NOTE N="6" PLACE="marg">A defen&s;ive power in be|halfe of the truth.</NOTE> The Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trate ought to be a <HI>Nur|&s;ing Father</HI> to the Church, to nouri&s;h the truth and godline&s;&s;e. The begetting Father he is not, that is Chri&s;t, <HI>the everla&s;ting Fa|ther</HI> by the &s;eed of the Word. But the Magi&s;trate is to con&s;erve and maintaine the Churches peace and liberty, in the exerci&s;e of their con&s;ciences, and wor&s;hipping of God in all his Ordinances according to their light; and &s;o he is to exerci&s;e a <HI>defen&s;ive</HI> power for Religion both at home and abroad.</P>
<PB N="11" REF="10">
<P>And this re&s;pect he is to bear to <HI>all</HI> equally whom he judges to be the children of truth in the <HI>maine,</HI> though &s;cabby or itchy chil|dren through &s;ome odd differences, in which things though he be not to further them or edifie them (wherein he apprehends them alien from the truth) by any compliance, but to leave tho&s;e opi|nions to them&s;elves to &s;tand or fall; yet (<HI>notwith&s;tanding</HI> them) he is to afford to them his <HI>Civill</HI> protection, they managing their differences in a lawfull peaceable manner (as hath been noted be|fore.) I &s;ay, this provided, The&s;e differences ought not to impaire or prejudice them at all in the intere&s;t they have in common ju&s;tice and protection; but if any a&s;&s;ault them in an unquiet way, they are to be defended, the a&s;&s;aylants puni&s;hed. So that with this <HI>difference</HI> is the Magi&s;trate to carry him&s;elf towards the acknowledged truth, and the reputed errours, (I meane &s;o reputed by him) he may and ought to do all he can to promote and inlarge the truth he ownes. He is not to doe ought again&s;t the other in controver&s;ie, nor &s;uffer any to doe ought again&s;t them, &s;ave to apply &s;pirituall meanes, to preach, write, di&s;cour&s;e, di&s;pute, exhort again&s;t them, which kind of fighting is allowable among Brethren, &s;o it be with right &s;pi|rits.</P>
<P>I expect here to be demanded, What I thinke of this pre&s;ent <HI>Parliament,</HI> and of their <HI>action</HI> in calling this A&s;&s;embly, and what I thinke of this A&s;&s;embly?</P>
<P>For the Parliament I looke upon them under the Notion de&s;cri|bed and allowed in this Chapter, as (warrantably and lawfully) improving an opportunity, God hath put into their hands for the <HI>increa&s;ing</HI> of light, and <HI>excu&s;&s;ion</HI> of truth, for which minde of theirs the ble&s;&s;ing of Chri&s;t and the Churches awaites them: and I hope they will not exceed their <HI>Bounds.</HI></P>
<P>For the A&s;&s;embly, I looke upon them, not as a Nationall Pre&s;|bytery of the Churches in <HI>England,</HI> but as godly and learned men, congregated by the power of the State. And I and all the people of God may and ought to &s;eeke a <HI>proofe of Chri&s;t</HI> &s;peaking in them, which he may doe, by vertue of <HI>generall</HI> promi&s;es to his people to be found of them &s;eeking him and his will, in and by all lawfull wayes and meanes, and of the particular advantage of their abili|ty: as in every faculty the <HI>profe&s;&s;ors</HI> of it that are mo&s;t exerci&s;ed in it, are <HI>likelie&s;t</HI> to di&s;cover truth, though alwayes they doe <HI>not:</HI> but is
<PB N="12" REF="11">not tyed by any <HI>&s;peciall</HI> or particular promi&s;e to be pre&s;ent with them, as he is to a <HI>Church,</HI> Mat. 18. therefore I &s;tand ready to em|brace any light, that Chri&s;t &s;hall plea&s;e <HI>providentially</HI> to mini&s;ter unto me by their hands; but tie my &s;elfe by no meanes to their <HI>ar|bitrament,</HI> further then I &s;ee it to be according to the Word; for Chri&s;t never made them the <HI>Lords</HI> of my faith; no not if they were the <HI>Apo&s;tles</HI> them&s;elves.</P>
<P>Thus I have given my judgement (at length) in this matter, and I think I give not much le&s;&s;e power to the Magi&s;trate in Religion, then hath been by our <HI>moderne,</HI> and more moderate Writers a&s;cri|bed to them, who contend on their behalfe for no more, but <HI>out|ward Juri&s;diction,</HI> and &s;tate the
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Primatus re|gius e&s;t quo princeps prae e&s;t Eccle&s;iae tan|quam caput externae poli|tiae; &s;eu quo Princeps e&s;t primas Eccle|&s;iae quant&ugrave;m ad externam Eccle&s;iae poli|tiam.</HI> Al&s;t.</NOTE> <HI>Primacy</HI> of the Magi&s;trate onely in the <HI>externall</HI> policy of the Church, relating onely to &s;uch acts as the&s;e, <HI>Synodum convocare authoritate public&acirc;, Con&s;tituere &s;alaria Mini|&s;tris Eccle&s;iae,</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign"> <HI>Eccle&s;iae procurare &amp; con&s;ervare per Mini&s;tros, Eccle&s;iarum jura con&s;tituere, &amp;c.</HI> But including no <HI>&s;uch</HI> power, as hath been di&s;puted again&s;t, for that appertaines not to the <HI>outward</HI> poli|ty of the Church.</P>
<P>And my judgement herein, for the Magi&s;trates intermedling thus farre, is founded upon <HI>this</HI> Rea&s;on or Principle; It is lawfull for every man, (and &s;o for the Magi&s;trate) nay, it is his duty to <HI>doe all he can</HI> for the truth; but it is unlawfull to do the lea&s;t thing <HI>again&s;t</HI> the truth. Now becau&s;e by earne&s;t <HI>invitations,</HI> hearty <HI>recommenda|tions,</HI> exemplary <HI>profe&s;&s;ion,</HI> generall <HI>tuition;</HI> in a word, by <HI>offering</HI> and <HI>propo&s;ing,</HI> not magi&s;terially <HI>forcing,</HI> commanding, impo&s;ing, much and great and <HI>certaine</HI> &s;ervice may be, will be done <HI>for</HI> the truth, and nothing <HI>again&s;t:</HI> And becau&s;e by the other way of for|cing, prohibiting, cen&s;uring, puni&s;hing, (impeacht in this di&s;cour&s;e) though &s;omething <HI>may light</HI> for the truth, and <HI>&s;ometimes</HI> (as in <HI>Au|&s;tins</HI> dayes is noted in the ca&s;e of the <HI>Donati&s;ts</HI>) yet much <HI>more</HI> pre|judice is much more <HI>probably</HI> like to redound to the truth: Many a truth <HI>&s;nibd,</HI> kept low, or quite kept out; Men confirm'd in <HI>ob&s;tinacy,</HI> if in errors, and more prejudiced again&s;t the right wayes, through the force that hangs over them, therefore <HI>that</HI> is lawfull, and <HI>this</HI> is unlawfull.</P>
<P>And in relation to the&s;e benefits which the Church reapes, and may expect from Chri&s;tian Magi&s;tracy, the Churches are comman|ded fir&s;t of all when they come together by way of re&s;tipulation,
<PB N="13" REF="11">and for the further continuance and increa&s;e of this &s;hadow, under which they re&s;t, to pray <HI>for Kings and all in authority,</HI> becau&s;e they doe, and that &s;till they may, through the benefit of their govern|ment, <HI>lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godline&s;&s;e and hone&s;ty.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 N="3" TYPE="chapter">
<HEAD>CHAP. III. <HI>The Que&s;tion thus &s;tated, we proceed to prove the Conclu&s;ion.</HI></HEAD>
<P>_THe Magi&s;trates <HI>Cognizance</HI> of Religion, and the differences therein, is not the <HI>Conclu&s;ion</HI> di&s;puted again&s;t in this di&s;|cour&s;e. It is &s;ufficiently done already by many able men, and all the <HI>Presbyterian</HI> Authors agree with us in it, allowing him onely that which is to be allowed every man, <HI>viz.</HI> to lead forth his act (what ever it &s;hall be found to be) under the conduct of a <HI>par|ticular</HI> or <HI>per&s;onall</HI> Cognizance, but a <HI>publique Magi&s;teriall binding</HI> Cognizance they deny; therefore to doe this were but <HI>actum agere.</HI> Neverthele&s;&s;e, becau&s;e &s;ome few con&s;iderations have been mini&s;tred to me in my own thoughts concerning this, I thought good to offer them being not many; as al&s;o becau&s;e the Cognizance di&s;proved may &s;erve as a <HI>Medium</HI> again&s;t the <HI>Coercive act.</HI></P>
<P>That this <HI>publique determining binding Cognizance,</HI> belongs not to him, appeares. 1. Becau&s;e it belongs to <HI>another</HI> charge,
<MILESTONE N="1" UNIT="rea&s;."><HI>viz.</HI> to the <HI>Church</HI> properly and peculiarly to <HI>try the &s;pirits,</HI> and judge of do|ctrines, therefore it is <HI>u&s;urpation</HI> of the Churches power and inte|re&s;t to take this out of her hands. 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 3.15. The Church is there declared to be <HI>the Pillar and ground of the truth;</HI> Not a Pillar, one a|mong others, but <HI>the</HI> Pillar and &s;tay of the truth; in allu&s;ion to the &s;etting up of the Edicts and Proclamations of Kings upon Pillars, to the view and notice of all their Subjects: So is the Church the Pillar of the truth, exhibiting it to the view and notice of all men, di&s;claiming and reproving the contrary errors by the Word of God. Thus the truth <HI>as a Rock,</HI> beares up the Church, <HI>Mat.</HI> 16.18. and the Church (in lieu) <HI>is a Pillar</HI> beares up the truth: the Magi|&s;trate is not the Pillar, nor his Lawes and Proclamations. By the
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Eccle&s;ia~ cum dico, non unum aut alterum &s;a|cerdotem, aut Mini&s;trum, &s;ed Legitimum ac Chri&s;tianu~ coe|tum nomino &amp; innuo.</HI> Humfred. de Relig. ver&acirc; Con&s;ervanda. pag. 24.</NOTE> Church here, I mean not <HI>Petrus in Cathedra,</HI> the Pope in his chaire, nor the Bi&s;hops in their Con&s;i&s;tory, nor the Angels and Lights of
<PB N="14" REF="12">the Churches onely, but the intire Church in&s;tituted <HI>[in the maine]</HI> according to the Go&s;pel. Further &s;ee <HI>Rev.</HI> 1. where the Churches are re&s;embled by Chri&s;t to <HI>John</HI> in a vi&s;ion as golden Candle&s;ticks; Now the Analogy is plaine (and not forged) in re&s;pect of holding forth the light unto the world. There be indeed bra&s;&s;e and copper Candle&s;ticks, that hold forth fal&s;e lights, but the &s;heep of Chri&s;t know the one from the other, that they turne not a&s;ide to the flocks of Chri&s;ts Companions, by <HI>a divine effectuall in&s;tinct,</HI> whereby Chri&s;ts &s;heep know Chri&s;ts voice, and will not follow a &s;tranger, <HI>Joh.</HI> 10.5. 1 <HI>Joh.</HI> 4.1.</P>
<P>Now mark here, the Church is the Pillar, the Church is the Can|dle&s;tick, particular Churches, as well as the Catholick; not the Magi&s;trate, not the State; If &s;o, the Holy Gho&s;t would not have wronged them, and <HI>detracted</HI> from them, by <HI>contracting</HI> this glori|ous power and intere&s;t to the Church. It is proper for Kings and Magi&s;trates <HI>to aske,</HI> and to aske of Chri&s;t, as <HI>He,</HI> (but more &s;incerely) in the Mini&s;try of his Word, in his Church admini&s;tration, <HI>What is truth?</HI> and to watch at his gates, and waite at the po&s;ts of his doores, yea to &s;it at the feet of Chri&s;t there; For therefore hath Chri&s;t given gifts to his Church, <HI>Eph.</HI> 4.11. And what are tho&s;e? Why, <HI>he gave &s;ome Apo&s;tles; and &s;ome Prophets; and &s;ome Evangeli&s;ts; and &s;ome Pa&s;tors and Teachers;</HI> He gave none Magi&s;trates; Sure if Ma|gi&s;tracy had been one of tho&s;e gifts, now that the Apo&s;tle was rec|koning, he would not have been &s;o injurious and deficient, but to have put it in. And what are the&s;e gifts for? Why, <HI>for the perfecting of the Saints; for the worke of the Mini&s;try; for the edifying of the body of Chri&s;t.</HI> If for the&s;e ends <HI>adaequately,</HI> then where &s;hall the Magi|&s;trate come in? or what work is left for the Magi&s;trate? I meane in point of authoritative teaching, or determining the truth. But you may &s;ay, This was onely for that time while there were no Chri&s;ti|an Magi&s;trates. Nay, read on; <HI>Till wee all come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the mea&s;ure of the &s;tature of the fulne&s;&s;e of Chri&s;t:</HI> So that this provi&s;ion was not temporary onely, but for perpetuity, therefore &s;ufficient.</P>
<P>Chri&s;t is the Judge of Controver&s;ies,
<MILESTONE N="2" UNIT="rea&s;."> and the interpreter of holy Scripture: (this is a <HI>Characteri&s;ticall Tenet,</HI> di&s;tingui&s;hing us from the <HI>Papi&s;ts:</HI>) that is, Chri&s;t by his Word and Spirit, in the true mini|&s;try of the Church, not in the Popes &s;entence, nor in the Commen|taries
<PB N="15" REF="12">of the Fathers, or the Votes of Synods, or the Interpretati|ons of Nationall A&s;&s;emblyes, though much helpe may be had by them, (for what difference (then) were there between the <HI>Papi&s;ts</HI> and us, but that wee make <HI>many men</HI> a Pope, and they <HI>one man?</HI>) Now to give the Magi&s;trate this Cognizance of differences in Reli|gion, were to &s;et up him (after we have puld downe the&s;e) as Judge of Controver&s;ies, and Interpreter of Scripture.</P>
<P>This were al&s;o to commit unto the Magi&s;trate <HI>the better part</HI> of the Mini&s;try, who&s;e office it is, to declare the whole Coun&s;el of God,
<MILESTONE N="3" UNIT="rea&s;."> and to be the Bound&s;men between truth and errour; and therefore Chri&s;t writes unto the Angels of the Churches of <HI>A&s;ia,</HI> and by them communicates him&s;elfe to the Churches. Nay, it is to give them a greater power and office then the Mini&s;try, who are onely to pro|po&s;e doctrines, not to impo&s;e them, and to <HI>waite</HI> with patience, if they be oppo&s;ed, trying if God will give repentance,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">2 Tim. 2.25.4.2. 2 Cor. 1.24.</NOTE> to the acknow|ledgement of the truth. This I &s;ay, is their utmo&s;t Commi&s;&s;ion, <HI>to exhort, in&s;truct, rebuke, with all long-&s;uffering and doctrine, not as Lords of mens faith, but helpers of their joy;</HI> and when&s;oever they fla&s;h and lay about them, it is to be onely with the &s;word of the Spirit.</P>
<P>If the determining of Religion, and differences therein,
<MILESTONE N="4" UNIT="rea&s;."> belong to the Magi&s;trate, <HI>quatenus</HI> a Magi&s;trate, then to all Magi&s;trates, or to the Magi&s;tracy of every Countrey, then to the great Turke, and Pagan Kings and Governours: But how uncapable of &s;uch an intere&s;t they are who are aliens from the true God, and his Com|mon-wealth of <HI>I&s;rael,</HI> I need not &s;ay. The con&s;equence is good, for <HI>Quatenus &amp; ad omne,</HI> are termes adaequate and convertible. That which belongs to a man as a man, belongs to every man.</P>
<P>If you &s;ay therefore that it belongs not to the Magi&s;trate, <HI>qua|tenus</HI> a Magi&s;trate, but <HI>quatenus</HI> a Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trate, &amp; &s;o make it a flower that Chri&s;tianity &s;ticks in his Crowne.</P>
<P>I an&s;wer, that Chri&s;tianity being altogether accidentall and ex|trin&s;ecall to a Magi&s;trate, adds nothing of <HI>power</HI> (over others in Religion) to him, more then to another man, but onely per&s;onall <HI>priviledge;</HI> For Chri&s;tianity is the &s;ame in all; and why &s;hould <HI>one</HI> man by vertue of his Chri&s;tianity (for 'tis denyed to be by vertue of his Magi&s;tracy) have power over judgements, and con&s;ciences in matters of Religion, more then <HI>another</HI> that hath <HI>equall</HI> and per|haps more Chri&s;tianity? But the Word of God adds nothing of
<PB N="16" REF="13">that nature to a Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trate, and let that &s;uffice; for it adds nothing in the <HI>&s;ame</HI> kinde, <HI>viz.</HI> of Civill power, therefore it much le&s;&s;e adds any thing of <HI>another</HI> kinde, as namely, Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall power. For the <HI>&s;ame</HI> &s;ubjection, and degree of &s;ubjection, is requi|red of &s;ervants, and &s;ubjects to Ma&s;ters and Governours, without di&s;tinction of good and bad, Chri&s;tian and Pagan, nay though they be cruell and froward, 1 <HI>Pet.</HI> 2.18. By Chri&s;tianity Chri&s;t hath &s;etled no advantage of <HI>power</HI> on the head of the Magi&s;trate, though thereby he commend the yoke to the &s;ubject with an advantage of <HI>&s;weetnes.</HI> 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 6.1. For the proportion is the &s;ame, and 'tis a found Argument, from a Ma&s;ter to a Magi&s;trate; that if a beleeving <HI>Ma&s;ter</HI> have no inlargement of power over his &s;ervant by beleeving; then neither hath a beleeving <HI>Prince</HI> over his Subjects, (and if not in Civill things, then much le&s;&s;e in Religion.) But wee &s;ee plainly, the Apo&s;tle neither accumulates authority on a beleeving Ma&s;ter, nor duties on the &s;ervant of &s;uch a Ma&s;ter, but makes it a greater motive to obey the authority they had before. Let them not de&s;pi&s;e them, becau&s;e they are Brethren, but obey them rather. Therefore to conclude this Rea&s;on; Chri&s;tianity makes Magi&s;trates <HI>members</HI> of the Church, not <HI>Ma&s;ters</HI> of the A&s;&s;emblies; It charges them to look to their <HI>own</HI> opinions, but not to determine and <HI>impo&s;e</HI> upon other men.</P>
<P>And this I &s;hall demon&s;trate in the fift place,
<MILESTONE N="5" UNIT="rea&s;."> from the maine &s;cope of the Magi&s;trates work, as 'tis laid downe in Scripture. The object or matter about which Magi&s;tracy is conver&s;ant, which they puni&s;h or reward, is not faith, but facts, not doctrines, but deeds; and tho&s;e not any deeds that differ, but evill deeds. Thus <HI>Rom.</HI> 13.3. Where the Apo&s;tle handles this point; <HI>For Rulers are not a terror to good workes, but to the evill, &amp;c. &mdash; if thou doe that which is evill,</HI> (he doth not &s;ay, if thou be of an heterodox opinion) <HI>be afraid; for he is the Mini&s;ter of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill.</HI> Where <HI>doing evill,</HI> is thrice mentioned, and no other termes u&s;ed, that &s;hould bring a mans judgement or opinion in Religion under the verge of the Magi&s;trate. And &s;o 1 <HI>Pet.</HI> 2.14. <HI>Submit your &s;elves unto every Ordinance of man, &mdash; Whether to the King, &mdash; or unto Governours, as &s;ent by him for the puni&s;hment of evill</HI> doers, <HI>and for the prai&s;e of them that</HI> doe <HI>well.</HI> His determination therefore is about the&s;e.</P>
<PB N="17" REF="13">
<P>This practi&s;e of Magi&s;tracy, to be the <HI>Dictator of truth,</HI>
<MILESTONE N="6" UNIT="rea&s;."> and to <HI>moderate</HI> with the <HI>&s;word,</HI> lays an unhappy caution, &amp; too effectuall an ob&s;truction, in the way of truth, which comes not in alwayes at the &s;ame end of the Towne; not alwayes by the learned and eminent in parts or power
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Joh. 7.48.</NOTE>; <HI>(Have any of the Rulers or Phari&s;ees beleeved on him?)</HI> but even by the
<NOTE N="a" PLACE="marg"><HI>Quid? unius laici &s;ententia quae cum Scri|pturis con&s;en|tit, praeponenda e&s;t &s;ente~tiae to|tius Concilii.</HI> Ger&s;on.</NOTE> <HI>people</HI> oftentimes. Who imbraced Chri&s;t, but the <HI>poore,</HI> but the people that <HI>knew not the Law,</HI> in the e&s;timati|on of the <HI>Phari&s;ees?</HI> Ought not this to be con&s;idered, that truth be not prevented, by &s;hutting the doore &s;hee often choo&s;es to come in at, and opening a &s;tately doore which &s;hee delights not alwayes in?</P>
<P>The ju&s;t care that Chri&s;t &s;hewed, to maintaine the due <HI>di&s;tincti|on</HI> between <HI>Magi&s;tracy</HI> and <HI>Mini&s;try,</HI> the Office <HI>Politique</HI> and <HI>Eccle|&s;ia&s;tick,</HI> doth likewi&s;e impeach this Cognizance of the Magi&s;trate.
<MILESTONE N="7" UNIT="rea&s;."> When the two Brethren came to him to <HI>divide</HI> the Inheritance <HI>ju|dicially;</HI> Chri&s;t refu&s;es, &s;aying, <HI>Who made me a Judge?</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Luk. 12.13.</NOTE> If <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> would not judge in <HI>Civill</HI> things; <HI>Magi&s;trates</HI> as &s;uch ought not to judge in the things of Chri&s;t.</P>
<P>Hence then we may argue thus; If the <HI>highe&s;t</HI> Cognizance of dif|ferences in Religion be &s;ubjected in the <HI>Church,</HI> and &s;o be onely <HI>Mi|ni&s;teriall,</HI> and a <HI>publique determining binding</HI> Cognizance be not en|tru&s;ted with the Magi&s;trate, then there can be no <HI>Magi&s;teriall Coer|cive</HI> act lawfully put forth in &s;uch differences; for
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">That the Magi&s;trate &s;hould decree puni&s;hment, <HI>Magi&s;terially,</HI> &amp; yet decerne the <HI>cau&s;e</HI> but after a <HI>private</HI> manner, will exerci&s;e the fine&s;t wit to find a pretext for.</NOTE> &s;uch as the Cog|nizance is, &s;uch of nece&s;&s;itie mu&s;t the Coercive power be, and not ex|ceed it; therefore as there is onely a Mini&s;teriall judgement in the Church, &s;o there is onely a Mini&s;teriall Coercive power to be exer|ci&s;ed in the Church al&s;o; for the <HI>&s;ubject</HI> of the <HI>one</HI> is the &s;ubject of the <HI>other</HI> al&s;o.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 N="4" TYPE="chapter">
<HEAD>CHAP. IV. <HI>Containing Arguments, directly concluding again&s;t the Magi&s;trates Coercive act in Ca&s;es of difference.</HI></HEAD>
<P>_THe Order in which I draw forth my Rea&s;ons, is under the&s;e foure Heads or Titles in di&s;tinct Chapters.</P>
<P N="1">1. Again&s;t the Magi&s;trates Cognizance.</P>
<P N="2">2. Again&s;t his Compul&s;ion.</P>
<P N="3">3. Again&s;t the whole Complexum, Cognizance and Compul&s;i|on together.</P>
<P N="4"><PB N="18" REF="14">4. Again&s;t all externall compul&s;ion in Religion.</P>
<P>The fir&s;t I have pa&s;&s;ed already. The &s;econd followes.</P>
<P>The immunity and impunity of differing opinions in Religion,
<MILESTONE N="1" UNIT="rea&s;."> as in relation to the Civill Magi&s;trate may &s;eem to be a Principle in Nature, founded upon the light of rea&s;on, &s;eeing many of the inge|nuous Heathen practi&s;ed it; as in that in&s;tance of <HI>Pauls</HI> ca&s;e, who was impeached by the <HI>Jewes,</HI> of greater Here&s;ie, then any differing Brethren in the&s;e dayes can charge one another withall: for he puld downe the old Religion, e&s;tabli&s;hed by God him&s;elfe, and preacht a new doctrine: Yet &s;ee what <HI>Pleads</HI> for <HI>Paul,</HI> in the Con|&s;ciences of his Judges, who had nothing in them but what they &s;uckt in with their Mothers milke. You have the &s;tory, <HI>Acts</HI> 23. where I &s;hall not comment upon the <HI>deeds</HI> of <HI>Ly&s;ias,</HI> (a <HI>&s;tranger</HI> to Religion, who yet <HI>delivered Paul</HI> both from the <HI>fury, and the fraud</HI> &s;everally, of tho&s;e that <HI>pretended</HI> much to Religion, and would for Religion &s;ake have de&s;troyed him in the former part of the Story) but onely give you the words of his Letter to <HI>Felix</HI> in behalfe of <HI>Paul,</HI> ver. 26. <HI>Claudius Ly&s;ias, unto the mo&s;t excellent Governour, Felix, &amp;c. &mdash; This man was taken of the Jewes, &amp;c. &mdash; Whom I perceived to be accu&s;ed of Que&s;tions of their Law, but to have nothing layd to his charge worthy of death, or of Bonds, &amp;c.</HI> Yet the&s;e were <HI>&s;trange</HI> Que&s;tions at that time. And of the <HI>&s;ame</HI> minde, in the <HI>&s;ame</HI> ca&s;e, is <HI>Fe&s;tus,</HI> Chap. 25.18. where declaring <HI>Pauls</HI> cau&s;e to King <HI>Agrippa,</HI> he u&s;es the&s;e words; <HI>Again&s;t whom, when the accu&s;ers &s;tood up, they brought none accu&s;ation of &s;uch things as I &s;uppo&s;ed, but had certain Que&s;tions again&s;t him of their own &s;uper&s;tition, and of one Je&s;us which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive. And becau&s;e I doubted of &s;uch manner of Que&s;tions, &amp;c.</HI> (ob&s;erve here the <HI>ingenuity</HI> of an Hea|then, that will not by a <HI>&s;ecular</HI> &s;word cut in &s;under tho&s;e knots in Religion which he cannot <HI>unty</HI> by a <HI>Theologicall</HI> re&s;olution.) Fur|ther, on the morrow when <HI>Paul</HI> was brought forth, <HI>Fe&s;tus</HI> u&s;es the&s;e words, <HI>ver.</HI> 24. <HI>King Agrippa, and all men which are here pre&s;ent with us, yee &s;ee this man, about whom all the multitude of the Jewes have dealt with me, both at Jeru&s;alem, and al&s;o here, Crying that he ought not to live any longer: But when I found he had committed nothing worthy of death, &amp;c.</HI> See the <HI>moderation</HI> of a Heathen, and the <HI>&s;tability</HI> of his re&s;olution again&s;t the importunity of multitudes. He is not &s;o zea|lous of <HI>his Gods,</HI> but he will <HI>let</HI> a Chri&s;tian <HI>live;</HI> nay, he will <HI>&s;ave</HI>
<PB N="19" REF="14">him from any that would hurt him; ju&s;tice &s;o <HI>con&s;traines</HI> him, that he <HI>di&s;daines</HI> the &s;ollicitations of the multitude. O what a check was this to the <HI>Jewes,</HI> from the mouth of an <HI>Heathen!</HI> And when <HI>Paul</HI> had declared his own cau&s;e, before King <HI>Agrippa, Fe&s;tus,</HI> and <HI>Ber|nice, and the whole Councell,</HI> they &s;aw no rea&s;on to be of any other mind, <HI>Chap.</HI> 26.31. For 'tis there &s;aid, <HI>That when they were gone a&s;ide, they talked between them&s;elves, &s;aying, This man doth nothing worthy of death, or of bonds:</HI> An in&s;tance which Chri&s;tians in the&s;e dayes may look upon and blu&s;h, who think an <HI>inconvenient expre&s;&s;ion</HI> de&s;erves a <HI>pri&s;on. Paul</HI> had made a <HI>free confe&s;&s;ion</HI> of his conver&s;ation, and of his faith; yet, &s;ay they, <HI>This man doth nothing worthy of death, or of bonds.</HI> They look for <HI>deeds, evill deeds,</HI> and thought it unrea&s;onable to pu|ni&s;h him for his <HI>different opinions.</HI> Now to enervate the force of this In&s;tance and Argument, &s;ome man perhaps will repre&s;ent my infe|rence thus: The&s;e <HI>Heathens</HI> did <HI>de facto</HI> permit differences of opi|nion, &amp; remit tho&s;e that were accu&s;ed of them, <HI>Ergo</HI> Chri&s;tian Ma|gi&s;trates mu&s;t be as carele&s;s <HI>de jure.</HI> But I urge it not as a <HI>fact</HI> onely, but as flowing from a <HI>principle</HI> of rea&s;on and ju&s;tice, that did <HI>glow</HI> in the hearts of the&s;e <HI>Heathen,</HI> and &s;o argues &s;trongly from them to <HI>Chri&s;tians;</HI> and let any prove it was from a <HI>principle</HI> of <HI>Heatheni&s;me.</HI></P>
<P>To imploy the Magi&s;trate in this kinde of compul&s;ion,
<MILESTONE N="2" UNIT="rea&s;."> is a pre|judice to the Lord Je&s;us, and the provi&s;ion he hath made for the propagation of the Church and truth: Chri&s;t hath a &s;word for the vindicating of Truth, for the propul&s;ing of Errours, for the con|quering of Enemies: And what is that? Why, the &s;word of the <HI>Spi|rit,</HI> the <HI>Word of God:</HI> it is de&s;cribed <HI>Emblematically,</HI> Rev. 19.21. by a <HI>&s;word coming out of his mouth.</HI> If <HI>Antichri&s;t</HI> the great enemy &s;hall be con&s;umed with this, &s;ure then it &s;hall be effectuall again&s;t the <HI>le&s;&s;er.</HI> And the Apo&s;tle cryes up, not onely the &s;ufficiency, but the <HI>migh|tine&s;&s;e</HI> of this meanes; <HI>The weapons of our warfare are not carnall,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">2 Cor. 10.4.</NOTE> but &s;pirituall, and mighty through God,</HI> ('tis through God indeed, and through him they are) &s;o mighty, that Chri&s;t will not be behold|ing to King, or Magi&s;trate, for their power to convert men by, though he may u&s;e them to coerce in&s;olent enemies, and &s;helter the profe&s;&s;ion of the truth, as was noted before. <HI>Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit.</HI> The Spirit of Chri&s;t is the Churches <HI>neck,</HI> mentioned <HI>Cant.</HI> 4.4. that knits Chri&s;t and the Church together, as the neck doth the head and the body: and &s;ee how 'tis de&s;cribed
<PB N="18" REF="15">
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<PB N="19" REF="15">
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<PB N="20" REF="16">there; <HI>Thy neck is like the Tower of David, builded for an Armoury, whereon there bang a thou&s;and Bucklers, all Shields of mightie men.</HI> Chri&s;t (you &s;ee) hath not left his Church without a Magazine, an Armoury, even his Word and Spirit, which is <HI>quick</HI> and <HI>powerfull,</HI> wherewithall Chri&s;t <HI>that mighty man,</HI> defended him&s;elfe again&s;t Sa|tan, and overthrew him: like that &s;ling of <HI>David</HI> wherewith he pre|vailed again&s;t the mighty <HI>Phili&s;tim;</HI> and what cannot this &s;word doe, backt by the Spirit, in the hand of Chri&s;ts Mini&s;ters and Members?</P>
<P>For the Efficacy of all Chri&s;ts In&s;titutions in his Church, lies in the <HI>Spirit,</HI> and not in the <HI>fle&s;h;</HI> As in preaching, and Sacraments; &s;o in <HI>Di&s;cipline,</HI> &s;o in beating downe Errors; 'tis Chri&s;t doth all by his Spirit; not by <HI>&s;uch</HI> in&s;truments, nor in &s;uch an order, as to &s;a|tisfie the wi&s;dome of man, &s;pecious, likely, probable to a fle&s;hly eye, (&s;uch as the Magi&s;trates compul&s;ion may &s;eeme to be) but by <HI>poore de&s;pi&s;ed</HI> things, that &s;o he may bring downe the pride of man, and the glory of the fle&s;h, and may traine up his people in the noble ex|erci&s;e of <HI>faith,</HI> and may fea&s;t him&s;elfe with the glorious <HI>a&s;cribings</HI> of might and power to him alone. But in the way that mo&s;t men goe, in drawing men to Religion, they leave but little to God; which practi&s;e hath indeed a principle in our natures, that &s;hews it &s;elfe in other things as well as this. For how apt are we in the point of Ju&s;tification, to confederate with the <HI>Babel</HI>-builders? and a de|&s;perate adventure doe we count it, to ca&s;t our &s;elves upon the free grace of God in Je&s;us Chri&s;t; &s;o likewi&s;e in this bu&s;ines, we count it pre&s;umption in &s;tead of faith, to relie upon God in the u&s;e of &s;pi|rituall means, without carnall weapons, to bring men to the truth; and therefore we devi&s;e wayes, to keep men in, that they &s;hall not &s;tirre; But if this be not of God, it will have the &s;ame &s;ucce&s;&s;e that <HI>Babel</HI> had, <HI>God will come down and confound</HI> this pride;
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Jer. 17.5.</NOTE> <HI>For cur&s;ed be man, that tru&s;teth in man, and maketh fle&s;h his arme, and withdraweth his confidence from the Lord:</HI> And this Arme &s;tretched forth to an Heterogeneous act, will wither and be &s;hrivelled up.</P>
<P><NOTE N="a" PLACE="marg"><HI>Rea&s;.</HI> 3.</NOTE> It is
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>No~ enim gla|diis, aut jacu|lis, aut m<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">l<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">tari manu veritas praed catur: &s;ed &s;uadedo, &amp; co~&s;ule~do; Quae auteni ibi &s;ua|dendi libertas, aut con&s;ulendi ratio, ubi qui co~tradicit, pro mercede, aut exilium aut mortem repor|tat?</HI> Athana&s;. Epi&s;t. ad &s;olit. vita~ agentes.</NOTE> contrary to the nature of Chri&s;ts kingdome, to have the mini&s;tery of the&s;e <HI>carnall</HI> meanes; For 'tis a <HI>&s;perituall</HI> kingdome, 'tis an <HI>invi&s;ible</HI> kingdome, and the Apo&s;tle di&s;claimes (as before) all car|nall weapons. A mans inke may be tempered too thick with <HI>humane</HI> Elegancies, to write the my&s;teries of the Go&s;pel. Chri&s;ts kingdome
<PB N="21" REF="16">is not of this world, nor &s;erved by this world: And as the manner of this world is contrary to him; &s;o he delights to walke contrary to the manner of this world, who make their party as &s;trong as they can, but Chri&s;t <HI>hath cho&s;en</HI> (marke, 'tis upon choice, not of nece&s;&s;i|ty) <HI>the weake things of the world,</HI> even babes, to &s;hew forth his prai&s;e and &s;trength. His Spirit in the Mini&s;try of his &s;ervants, is that glo|rious Arme, that he puts forth to conquer all the power of dark|ne&s;&s;e. <HI>He
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">P&s;al. 50.2.</NOTE> &s;hines out of Sion, the perfection of beauty,</HI> (not out of the Thrones of Princes as &s;uch) and with his
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">P&s;al. 43.3.</NOTE> <HI>light</HI> and his <HI>truth,</HI> &s;cat|ters the enemies of his truth. Chri&s;ts veine lyes in this, in cloathing weak things with incredible &s;trength, and acting them on to glori|ous atchievements.
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Prov. 8.</NOTE> <HI>By me Kings raigne;</HI> but &s;hall it ever be &s;aid, By Kings Chri&s;t raignes, otherwi&s;e then as being nur&s;ing Fathers to his Church? No; but he <HI>rebukes Kings for his peoples &s;ake,</HI> and &s;ayes, <HI>Touch not mine anointed, and doe my Prophets no harme:</HI> He fir&s;t anoints them, and thereby <HI>teaches them all things,</HI> and then &s;ayes, <HI>Touch not mine anointed.</HI> Chri&s;t doth not u&s;e <HI>all</HI> meanes that he could u&s;e, to e&s;tabli&s;h his Kingdome, and inlarge his Dominion. He <HI>could</HI> have called for more <HI>Legions</HI> of Angels, then he had <HI>units</HI> of Apo&s;tles, to have re&s;cued him. So Chri&s;t could u&s;e the Mini&s;tery of the Civill Magi&s;trate, and make them his friends, his champions, but he hath not plea&s;ed &s;o to doe. <HI>Not many wi&s;e, not many mighty are called,</HI> and tho&s;e that are, he doth not u&s;e their might nor authority for any &s;uch purpo&s;e as to conquer, but nur&s;e for him, by countenancing, providing, defending, &amp;c. As the vine needs the pole to climb up by, but yet grows up of it &s;elfe.</P>
<P>Wee may bring an Argument <HI>&agrave; Majori.</HI> If Pa&s;tours and Teachers,
<MILESTONE N="4" UNIT="rea&s;."> nay the Apo&s;tles them&s;elves, be not Lords of the peoples faith, (in a way humanely-authoritative) to impo&s;e doctrine or practi&s;e upon them; then much le&s;&s;e Magi&s;trates: But the Apo&s;tle him&s;elfe dares not a&s;&s;ume that greatne&s;&s;e; <HI>Not that wee are Lords of your faith, but helpers of your joy.</HI> Mini&s;ters may be too magi&s;teriall in their teach|ing, and people may be too implicit in their faith, and in their obe|dience to their doctrine: as on the contrary, the one may be too low, the other too cen&s;orious.</P>
<P>It will be granted on all hands, that if Religion be the Magi|&s;trates charge, yet as it is not his onely, &s;o neither his <HI>fir&s;t</HI> charge;
<MILESTONE N="5" UNIT="rea&s;."> for though it be the highe&s;t charge, it follows not that it mu&s;t be the
<PB N="22" REF="17">proper charge of Magi&s;tracy: But Magi&s;tracy <HI>immediately</HI> and di|rectly re&s;pects the good of men, their <HI>per&s;ons</HI> and <HI>outward</HI> being, and <HI>Religion</HI> onely <HI>obliquely</HI> and <HI>Collaterally;</HI> for &s;uch an end mu&s;t be a&s;|&s;ign'd to Magi&s;tracy, as doth <HI>competere omni,</HI> hold among all, and to levell Magi&s;tracy at an higher and further end, then God hath, or its own principle will carry, is vaine. Now this will pre&s;&s;e after the other, to be admitted likewi&s;e, that the <HI>fir&s;t</HI> charge mu&s;t be <HI>fir&s;t</HI> lookt to, and attended upon, and the latter doth not di&s;oblige from the former, much le&s;&s;e <HI>contra</HI>-oblige the former, that is, differing opini|ons in Religion being of a <HI>&s;econdary and remote con&s;ideration</HI> to the outward well-being of men, doth not oblige to de&s;troy or to expo&s;e to de&s;truction, by mulcts, bonds, or bani&s;hment, the <HI>per&s;ons</HI> of men; for whom, and in relation to who&s;e pre&s;ervation, Magi&s;tracy was erected. For this is a Rule, <HI>The Law of Nature &s;uper&s;edes In&s;titutions.</HI> Men have a <HI>naturall</HI> being, before they come to have a <HI>&s;pirituall</HI> be|ing; they are <HI>men</HI> before they are <HI>Chri&s;tians:</HI> Now therefore for faul|tine&s;&s;e in Chri&s;tianity, you mu&s;t not de&s;troy the <HI>man.</HI></P>
<P>'Tis al&s;o certain,
<MILESTONE N="6" UNIT="rea&s;."> there ought to be a <HI>proportion</HI> between the fault and the puni&s;hment, as that wherein ju&s;tice mainly con&s;i&s;ts; Now this proportion is not, nor cannot be ob&s;erved, when you goe out of <HI>that nature</HI> and capacity in which a man hath offended, and pu|ni&s;h him in <HI>another,</HI> as the Magi&s;trate doth when he puni&s;hes for &s;uch opinions in Religion. As for in&s;tance; A man is capable of a three-fold notion, according to a three-fold capacity, <HI>viz. Naturall, Politick, Religious.</HI> He &s;ins or offends in his religious capacity, and hath &s;ome heterodox opinions; yet a good &s;ubject, and fellow-&s;ub|ject, a good Father to his Family, &amp;c. Why now &s;uch may his er|rours be, that he may forfeit his <HI>religious</HI> notion, and ought to be <HI>rejected,</HI> as the Apo&s;tle &s;ays, after once or twice admoni&s;hed in vaine; but now to come upon his <HI>politick</HI> beeing or priviledges, is to puni&s;h him in that notion and capacity wherein he hath not at all offend|ed, (except he have di&s;turbed the publique peace by the turbulent managing of his opinion, and then no man may excu&s;e him, but o|therwi&s;e) as he was a good &s;ubject before he drunk in this opinion, &s;o he is never the wor&s;e &s;ince; therefore to deny him roome in the kingdome, or to &s;ei&s;e upon his per&s;on, or to come upon his e&s;tate, is as to puni&s;h <HI>one</HI> man for <HI>another</HI> mans fault. Therefore &s;eeing the Magi&s;trate cannot reach the <HI>mind,</HI> and judgement, and con&s;cience,
<PB N="23" REF="17">with his puni&s;hments, which is the offender, he ought not to pu|ni&s;h the <HI>outward</HI> man; Errours being properly <HI>&s;innes without the body.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 N="5" TYPE="chapter">
<HEAD>CHAP. V. <HI>Containing Rea&s;ons again&s;t the whole Complexum,</HI> viz. <HI>Cognizance and Compul&s;ion together, in the &s;en&s;e before mentioned.</HI></HEAD>
<P>_CHri&s;t never <HI>appointed</HI> nor <HI>anointed</HI> Magi&s;tracy to &s;uch a worke, neither ever came it into his heart &s;o to doe;
<MILESTONE N="1" UNIT="rea&s;."> therefore we mu&s;t not <HI>adde</HI> them; (for that were to be more carefull then Chri&s;t, and <HI>wi&s;e above that which is written</HI>) and therefore Chri&s;t will not
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Illa vero quae &agrave; &s;pirituals Chri&s;ti Regno aliena &s;unt, effect us qui ad hoc Coele&s;te Chri&s;ti Regnum pertincnt pro|ducere neque|unt, proinde quod in&s;titu|tutione divind ad cos produ|ce~dos non &s;unt &s;anctificata.</HI></NOTE> <HI>ble&s;&s;e</HI> them therein.</P>
<P>If this honourable burden of all the Churches belong to the Magi&s;trate, it is either by the <HI>law of Nature,</HI> or by <HI>In&s;titution;</HI> Not by the law of Nature, for that is the &s;ame every where, and would &s;tate it as well in a <HI>Heathen</HI> Conquerour, as a <HI>Chri&s;tian</HI> King. Not by In&s;titution; for 'tis none of tho&s;e <HI>gifts</HI> mentioned, <HI>Eph.</HI> 4. if any where els, let it be &s;hewed; And if it can no where be &s;hewed, then either it belongs not unto them, or one of the&s;e three wor&s;e con&s;e|quences will inevitably follow; <HI>viz.</HI> how doth Chri&s;t <HI>render unto Cae&s;ar the things that are Cae&s;ars,</HI> (who commands us &s;o carefully that we &s;hould) in concealing this their honourable intere&s;t? 2. <HI>How is he faithfull in all his hou&s;e,</HI> if he have left but this one duty uncharg'd upon Magi&s;trates? 3. How &s;hall the <HI>Word of God</HI> be found <HI>perfect, and able to make the man of God perfect,</HI> throughly in&s;tructed to every part of his worke, if it in&s;truct him not in this duty of the Ma|gi&s;trate?</P>
<P>Now then if this care doe not <HI>appertaine</HI> to Magi&s;trates, we &s;hall in vain <HI>ca&s;t</HI> it upon them, or they a&s;&s;ume it to them&s;elves; for Chri&s;t will ble&s;&s;e his own <HI>Ordinances,</HI> and concurre with them, but not mens <HI>inventions:</HI> he is ingaged to the one, <HI>I&s;a.</HI> 55.11. but he de|clines the other, <HI>Zach.</HI> 4.6.</P>
<P>The intermedling of the Magi&s;trate in this kinde,
<MILESTONE N="2" UNIT="rea&s;."> is the way but to confound policy and piety, and to make Religion a <HI>State-notion,</HI>
<PB N="24" REF="18">which while it &s;eems to &s;trengthen Religion, doth indeed
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>I&s;te null ara|tione in&s;tru|ctus, vi &amp; po|teti&acirc; omnes co|git, adeo ut &s;ta|tim nulli non appareat, ip&s;o|rum &s;ententia~, non &s;ecundum Deum, &s;ed hu|manam e&s;&s;e.</HI> Athana&s;. Epi&s;t. referring to the Arrian Magi&s;trate.</NOTE> eate out the native authority and maje&s;ty of it. It is the honour of the truth of Chri&s;t (that which was the honour of Chri&s;t the Truth,) <HI>not to receive honour from men,</HI> in this kinde; 'tis a prejudice which the wi&s;|dome of the Parliament will not doe to an <HI>ancient</HI> law of the King|dome, to enact that for law which is a law long &s;ince. Religion and every particle of it, is enacted already by an higher authority, then any earthly King or Magi&s;trate; and if that will not &s;way the con|&s;cience to obey, what can the lawes of men doe? can the&s;e cobwebs catch tho&s;e that the nets of God cannot?</P>
<P>This cour&s;e likewi&s;e would lay a &s;tumbling-block in mens way, to <HI>prophane</HI> the things of <HI>God,</HI> by doing them out of obedience to <HI>men,</HI>
<MILESTONE N="3" UNIT="rea&s;."> and to mi&s;take obedience to men, for obedience to God; And on the other hand, it may breed a Que&s;tion in tender hearts, Whe|ther they are over-ruled by the commands of God, and not &s;way|ed by man, in doing what is good, and &s;o they may lo&s;e the <HI>com|fort,</HI> through jealou&s;ie of the <HI>Principle,</HI> occa&s;ion'd by this ingredi|ency of mans power therein.</P>
<P>From the <HI>fru&s;traneou&s;ne&s;&s;e</HI> of &s;uch meanes,
<MILESTONE N="4" UNIT="rea&s;."> we may argue again&s;t it: How &s;hort and improportionate is the interpo&s;ing of the Ma|gi&s;trates Cognizance and power, to &s;uch an effect, as to convince the judgement, or to worke faith? it may indeed make hypocrites: <HI>Egregiam vero laudem, &amp;c.</HI></P>
<P>La&s;tly,
<MILESTONE N="5" UNIT="rea&s;."> You a&s;cribe to the Magi&s;trate the Cognizance of diffe|rences, and put a &s;word into his hands to keepe downe errours; the <HI>pre&s;ent</HI> Magi&s;tracy is good and orthodox, but there ari&s;es a <HI>Pha|raoh that knows not Jo&s;eph,</HI> a Magi&s;tracy that knows not the truth; now will errours <HI>walke on every &s;ide,</HI> (when heterodox Magi|&s;trates are exalted) and that not by permi&s;&s;ion, but by Com|mandement, and you &s;hall be forced to them, and &s;o whipt with your own Rod.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 N="6" TYPE="chapter">
<PB N="25" REF="18">
<HEAD>CHAP. VI. <HI>Containing Arguments again&s;t all externall force in matters of Religion, or Compul&s;ion in generall.</HI></HEAD>
<P>_CHri&s;ts people are a <HI>willing</HI> people, therefore not forced,
<MILESTONE N="1" UNIT="rea&s;."><HI>P&s;al.</HI> 110. as may al&s;o be drawne from that Metaphor, applyed to Mini&s;ters, who are called <HI>Fi&s;hers of men.</HI> Fi&s;hers <HI>allure</HI> by the baite, and doe not <HI>compell</HI> the fi&s;h with violence; there is an innocent guile, but compul&s;ion cannot be innocent. It's an obvious principle, that Religion is to be per&s;wa|ded, and not forced upon men: <HI>God per&s;wade Japhet</HI> (&s;ays the Pa|triarch) <HI>to dwell in the tents of Sem;</HI> and <HI>David</HI> &s;ays to his people; <HI>If it &s;eeme good unto you, let us fetch backe the Arke.</HI> That &s;ervice that is not
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Sed nec Reli|gionis e&s;t cogere Religione~ quae &s;ponte &s;u&s;cipi debeat, non vi. Cum &amp; ho&s;tiae ab animo libex|ti expo&s;tulen|tur: Ita et&s;i nos compuleri|tis ad &s;acrifi|candum, nihil prae&s;tabitis Di|is ve&s;tris, ni&s;t co~tentio&s;i &s;int: co~tentio&s;us au|tem Deus non e&s;t.</HI> Tertull. ad Scap. cap. 2.</NOTE> free, is not acceptable to <HI>God,</HI> who loves a <HI>chearfull</HI> giver; and therefore the peoples con&s;ent is al&s;o noted in that place, 1 <HI>Chron.</HI> 13.4. <HI>And all the Congregation &s;aid, that they would doe &s;o, for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people:</HI> and when the Ta|bernacle was to be built, how carefully is that Clau&s;e added, <HI>That every man bring what he brings willingly, and with his heart?</HI> Exod. 25.2. and <HI>Chap.</HI> 35.5. otherwi&s;e it was not to be received.</P>
<P><MILESTONE N="2" UNIT="rea&s;."> Was not this doctrine held forth to us in a <HI>my&s;tery</HI> under the Law, when <HI>David</HI> was not permitted to build God a hou&s;e, becau&s;e he had <HI>&s;hed much bloud in warre?</HI> 1 <HI>Chron.</HI> 22.8. But <HI>Solomon,</HI> a man of peace was de&s;ign'd thereto. Was not this partly, (for I &s;ay not 'twas the adaequate rea&s;on) to warne us not to u&s;e violence, to make men Religious?</P>
<P>That zeale of the <HI>outwards</HI> of Religion that is hurtfull to mens per&s;ons, is a breach of that <HI>exemplary</HI> Rule of Chri&s;t,
<MILESTONE N="3" UNIT="rea&s;."><HI>I will have mer|cy and not &s;acrifice.</HI> Moreover, <HI>The Sabbath was made for man,</HI> (&s;ays Chri&s;t) <HI>not man for the Sabbath;</HI> and as much may be &s;aid of <HI>all</HI> the outwards of Religion: then I mu&s;t not for the Sabbaths &s;ake, de|&s;troy man, for whom the Sabbath was made; for the Sabbath was made to advance mans happine&s;&s;e, not to take away his beeing, be|cau&s;e his opinion of the Sabbath differs from other men, and per|haps from the truth al&s;o: the Sabbath is to help a man to what he
<PB N="26" REF="19">hath not, not to take away what he hath. Though we grant an out|ward re&s;traint of all, for avoyding of &s;candall, as is afore&s;aid.</P>
<P>What ignorance and pride doth it &s;avour of,
<MILESTONE N="4" UNIT="rea&s;."> for man to goe a|bout to convince con&s;cience, and to work faith with his authority, who <HI>cannot make one haire white or black?</HI> And is it not <HI>God that mu&s;t give repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth?</HI> 2 Tim. 2.25. What can man do but <HI>prove</HI> (whether God will) by the u&s;e of due meanes? and what's the meanes of faith? the <HI>&s;word?</HI> Nay, but the <HI>Word: Faith comes by hearing.</HI> Beleevers are <HI>not
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Joh. 1.13.</NOTE> borne of fle&s;h, nor of bloud, nor of the will of man, but of God.</HI> A man cannot beleeve at his <HI>owne</HI> will, how much le&s;&s;e at <HI>anothers?</HI> Who can reveale and infu&s;e &s;u|pernaturall notions and truths, but the <HI>Spirit?</HI> (1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 2.) which the Spirit doth not by <HI>force,</HI> but by <HI>allurement</HI> rather or attraction.</P>
<P>And that is another Rea&s;on;
<MILESTONE N="5" UNIT="rea&s;.">
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Piae religionis proprium e&s;t, non cogere, &s;ed &s;uadere: &s;iqui|dem Dominus, non cogens, &s;ed libertatem &s;ua~ voluntati per|mittens, d<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ce|bat quide~ vul|go~ omnibus, &s;i quis vult veni|repo&s;t me; Apo|&s;tolis ver&ograve;, num &amp; vos abire valtis? Quae autem ibi&s;uadend libertas aut con&s;ulendi ratio, ubi qui contradic<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">t, pro mercede zut exilium, aut mortem reportat?</HI> Athana&s;. Epi&s;t. <HI>Deus coactam confitendi&s;e a&s;pernatus e&s;t voluntatem, &s;iquidem Deus univer&s;itatis e&s;t, ob&s;equi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> non eget nece&s;&s;ario, non requirit coactam confe&s;sionem; &s;implicitate quaerendus e&s;t, confe&s;sione di&s;cendus e&s;t, charitate amandus e&s;t, timore vene|randus e&s;t, voluntatis prob<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ta<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">e retinendus e&s;t; At vero quid i&s;tud, quod &s;acerdotes timere Deum vinculis coguntur, poenis jubentur, &s;acerdotes carceribus continentur, plebs in cu&s;todia catenati or|dinis con&s;tricta di&s;ponitur?</HI> Hilarius ad Con&s;tant. Augu&s;t.</NOTE> The Spirit him&s;elfe waites, and violates not the liberty of the rea&s;onable &s;oule, by &s;uper&s;eding the faculties thereof, but <HI>approves</HI> every truth to the under&s;tanding, and moves the will without violence, with a <HI>rationall</HI> force. Shall man be more zealous for God, then God is for him&s;elfe. God him|&s;elfe doth not force men, but <HI>call</HI> them to repentance, and to the knowledge, and acknowledgement of his Sonne. Let the extent of that word <HI>(Calling)</HI> be con&s;idered, whether it will warrant any further means then Arguments, per&s;wa&s;ions, intreaties, (make them as forcible as you can) and if you hold the feare of puni&s;hment o|ver men, it mu&s;t be the feare of <HI>divine</HI> puni&s;hments: <HI>Wee knowing the terrours of the Lord per&s;wade men.</HI></P>
<P>Furthermore,
<MILESTONE N="6" UNIT="rea&s;."> as a rea&s;on again&s;t this compul&s;ion, I will be bold to aske, Where is the man that needs not a graine of allowance in his opinions or practi&s;e? I will allude to the equity of that coun&s;ell, <HI>Eccle&s;.</HI> 7.21. <HI>Take not heed unto all words that are &s;poken, le&s;t thou heare thy &s;ervant cur&s;e thee: For often-times al&s;o thine owne heart knoweth, that thou thy &s;elfe likewi&s;e ha&s;t cur&s;ed others.</HI> So I &s;ay, infi&s;t not upon
<PB N="27" REF="19">every errour of thy brother, for thou thy &s;elfe knowe&s;t, if thou knowe&s;t thy &s;elfe, that thou ha&s;t errours not a few, or at lea&s;t-wi&s;e, if thou wilt beleeve the Scripture, that &s;aith, <HI>Wee know but in part.</HI></P>
<P>And how will you avoyd the <HI>devouring of one another,</HI>
<MILESTONE N="7" UNIT="rea&s;."> and &s;o the con&s;umption of your owne Kingdome, who differ among your &s;elves, as well as from (tho&s;e whom you call) <HI>Independents?</HI> As when the A&s;&s;embly were to carry up their Votes, and the Re&s;ult of their debates concerning Church-government, I have heard, &s;ome contended for the Cla&s;&s;icall Government that it <HI>mu&s;t be,</HI> and that it is <HI>jure divino,</HI> and no other: Others, that it <HI>may be</HI> by the Word: a third &s;ort, that <HI>any Government</HI> was indifferent, and the Magi|&s;trate was to determine; and therefore you were con&s;trained to ac|commodate the termes of your Propo&s;ition to the advantage of your cau&s;e, <HI>that a Presbytery may be by the Word of God,</HI> els you had lo&s;t two parts of three, who would never have gone, that it <HI>alone mu&s;t</HI> and might lawfully be. So here is <HI>Mana&s;&s;eh again&s;t Ephraim,</HI> and <HI>Ephraim again&s;t Mana&s;&s;eh,</HI> as well as both again&s;t a third; and &s;eeing <HI>Ephraim</HI> and <HI>Mana&s;&s;eh</HI> cannot con&s;i&s;t them&s;elves without an accommodation, why &s;hould not a third come in, and be accom|modated with them?</P>
<P>I aske not onely whether you may not erre,
<MILESTONE N="8" UNIT="rea&s;."> but whether you have not err'd; nor whether you may not have errours <HI>latent,</HI> but whether you will not acknowledge your &s;elves to have been in er|rours <HI>patent?</HI> I know you will not deny it, though I wi&s;h and ear|ne&s;tly exhort; that it be more frequently, more publickly acknow|ledged by &s;ome, with more &s;hame-taking to them&s;elves, that you have been tho&s;e Leaders that have cau&s;ed the people to erre; you have preacht for <HI>Conformity,</HI> written for <HI>Epi&s;copacy,</HI> pleaded for the <HI>Common-Prayer-Booke,</HI> and <HI>walked willingly after</HI> almo&s;t every <HI>Com|mandement.</HI> Now you have altered your minds and practi&s;es, re|tracted your opinions, de&s;troyed what you built, condemned your &s;elves in the things you allowed. Well then, have you taken your &s;elves once in an errour? learne this wi&s;dome by it, to &s;u&s;pect your &s;elves, and be not too violent again&s;t others. Why may you not in a while &s;ee cau&s;e to exchange your pre&s;ent judgement for a better? Why may there not be more truth yet behind? Is that which is perfect come, or are we come yet to the mea&s;ure of the &s;tature of the fulne&s;&s;e of Chri&s;t?</P>
<PB N="28" REF="20">
<P><MILESTONE N="9" UNIT="rea&s;."> And what have you to
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Of all things a man may di&s;pute alike. <HI>Charran.</HI></NOTE> &s;ay for your judgement, that your dif|fering Brethren have not to &s;ay for theirs? for the controver&s;ie be|twixt us, is not in &s;uch things as wherein one part mu&s;t needs be convicted in his own con&s;cience, as &s;inning again&s;t common prin|ciples in all men. You have grounds, &s;o have they; you propo&s;e Objections, they an&s;wer them; you are per&s;waded that you are in the right, and that this is the meaning, and right under&s;tanding of the Scriptures; they thinke no le&s;&s;e on their own &s;ide. Now who &s;hall &s;tate the difference, and be the <HI>dayes-man</HI> between you, but Chri&s;t in his owne time clearing the truth, and leaving naked the errours; except you can prove that the Word of God <HI>came out from
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Verity is not a thing of our own inventio~ and purcha&s;e, and when it yeelds it &s;elfe into our ha~ds, wee have no|thing in our &s;elves where|by wee may challenge it, po&s;&s;e&s;&s;e it, or a&s;&s;ure our &s;elves of it. <HI>Charron of Wi&s;dom, p.</HI> 250.</NOTE> you, or came to you onely?</HI></P>
<P>Againe, Is there not <HI>a time and a &s;ea&s;on</HI> for every purpo&s;e under heaven? Hath not God his time of <HI>winking,</HI> and his time of <HI>warn|ing?</HI> And &s;o hath not man his time of <HI>ignorance,</HI> and his time of <HI>repentance?</HI></P>
<P>May not a Truth for a time, lie under the &s;u&s;pition of an errour; was it not <HI>as</HI> &s;trange, and di&s;plea&s;ing to you not many yeares &s;ince, when &s;ome of your Brethren fell off from Common-prayer, and the Ceremonies, <HI>as</HI> tho&s;e wayes of difference, wherein they walke at pre&s;ent? And had you not exceedingly wronged them, &s;inned again&s;t the truth,
<MILESTONE N="10" UNIT="rea&s;."> and your owne &s;oules, if you had for the&s;e diffe|rences, wherein now you are come over to them, pro&s;ecuted them? though I &s;ay not &s;ome were altogether free from it.</P>
<P>And may not Errours for a time, have the credit of Truthes? as many Epi&s;copall Doctrines, now rejected, might be in&s;tanced in; hath not every truth its &s;et time, the <HI>fulne&s;&s;e of time</HI> to be borne into the world; as Chri&s;t Je&s;us the per&s;onall truth had? Would you have thought it faire dealing, if your judgements and con&s;ciences had been &s;uper&s;eded by mans authority, and you had been forced to the renouncing of tho&s;e things, which you held in &s;uch e&s;teeme, while you &s;o held them, and to have embraced the contrary mind and practi&s;e of con&s;traint, which now you doe voluntarily? Now walke but by the &s;ame Rule to others, and that is all that is de&s;ired.</P>
<P><MILESTONE N="11" UNIT="rea&s;."> And as there are &s;ome truthes proper and peculiar to &s;ome
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Dan. 9.24. &amp; 12.4.</NOTE> times, and not to every time, (as <HI>Peter</HI> &s;peaks of the <HI>pre&s;ent truths</HI>) &s;o to &s;ome per&s;ons and not to all per&s;ons. <HI>I&s;a.</HI> 8.16. <HI>Seale up the Law
<PB N="29" REF="20">among the Di&s;ciples.</HI> There are truthes then, proper to the Di&s;ciples; Truth (indeed, all truth) in the &s;pirituall under&s;tanding of it, is peculiarly vindicated to &s;uch, it is the Churches joynter or dowry. <HI>The truth &s;hall make you free.</HI> Is every man a free denizon of Heaven? I deny not but the common notion of many truthes, of any truth, may fall, be&s;ide the Church, upon other men (though for the Chur|ches &s;ake;) but what is a prerogative di&s;pen&s;ation, mu&s;t not be our ordinary expectation;
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">So &s;ome truths are pro|per to &s;ome of the Church, as the Spirit &s;hall reveale, 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 14. and without pre|judice to the re&s;t; as when Chri&s;t tooke the three Di&s;|ciples into the Mount; &s;o the doctrine of ju&s;tification was &s;pecially revealed to <HI>Paul;</HI> the do|ctrine of evi|dence of grace to <HI>John;</HI> reve|lation of fu|ture things to <HI>John</HI> the Di|vine, &amp;c.</NOTE> however, our expectation or compul&s;ion cannot bring it, and then 'tis vaine; for <HI>the winde blowes where he li&s;ts,</HI> as well in common as in &s;peciall graces.</P>
<P>Further,
<NOTE N="a" PLACE="marg"><HI>Rea&s;.</HI> 12.</NOTE> It will afford no &s;mall &s;atisfaction, and have no le&s;&s;e then the force of an Argument with him that con&s;iders the ri&s;e and root of this compul&s;ive power (in the particulars we &s;peak of) as too evi|dently deriving it &s;elfe either from the <HI>ignorance</HI> of tho&s;e who think them&s;elves to be in the very right, and would have all men think &s;o of them, that they had attain'd <HI>the re&s;urrection of the dead,</HI> the utmo&s;t <GAP DESC="foreign"> and period of all po&s;&s;ible knowledge and under&s;tanding, at lea&s;t in the pre&s;ent age, or in&s;tant; either, I &s;ay, it comes from this, or els from an <HI>arrogating</HI> &s;pirit in &s;ome, that would tie all men to their girdle, that cannot endure any &s;hould differ from them, le&s;t they &s;hould be preferr'd before them, that abhorre any change of their opinion, though it be for the better, becau&s;e that would &s;peake them imperfect; that cannot bring downe their &s;tomacks to follow another, and receive light from their Brethren, affecting them&s;elves to be called <HI>Rabbi,</HI> the leading Men and Oracles of the age, (whereas God hath &s;aid of no man, <HI>Heare him,</HI> but of his own Son;) Or els it comes in others from a <HI>covetous</HI> &s;pirit, that would make a gaine of godline&s;&s;e, a profit of the Mini&s;try, and &s;o would make all men religious, and conformable to them, that their <HI>Tithes</HI> and <HI>Ea&s;ter-bookes</HI> may ri&s;e the higher; Or la&s;tly, it comes in not a few from a &s;pirit of <HI>rule</HI> and dominion, which how doth it make us a &s;corne and deri&s;ion to the enemy, while they &s;ee even Chri&s;ti|ans, yea, the Teachers of Chri&s;tians, to be like the <HI>Fi&s;hes in the Sea,</HI> whereof the greater devoure the le&s;&s;er?</P>
<P>The Apo&s;tle fore&s;aw and &s;uppo&s;ed there would be diver&s;ity of opinions in men, untill the terme appointed, <HI>Eph.</HI> 4.
<MILESTONE N="13" UNIT="rea&s;."><HI>Till we all come into the unity of the faith.</HI> Now where Chri&s;t upon the place and ca&s;e, applyes no remedy or meanes, but &s;pirituall, &s;uch as is there
<PB N="30" REF="21">de&s;cribed, without any further provi&s;ion upon the &s;uppo&s;all of their inefficaciou&s;ne&s;&s;e, but &s;aw good rather to di&s;pen&s;e and tolerate; let us take heed of over-witting Chri&s;t.</P>
<P>Nay,
<MILESTONE N="14" UNIT="rea&s;."> the Holy Gho&s;t not onely fore&s;aw there would, but de|termines <HI>there mu&s;t be Here&s;ies;</HI> and 'tis expedient as well for the ex|erci&s;e of love, as gifts, and for a foyle to and di&s;covery of the truth, &amp; the profe&s;&s;ors thereof. What &s;ingular thing were it in the &s;heep of Chri&s;t, that they <HI>know his voice,</HI> if there were no &s;trange voices, or (which will come all to one) if the Magi&s;trate did brand all others with mulcts and heavy puni&s;hments? and how &s;hall the Apo&s;tles con&s;equence but be prevented, <HI>That by rea&s;on of errours
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">2 Pet. 2.2.</NOTE> the truth &s;hould be evill &s;poken of,</HI> if every errour be &s;napt up pre&s;ently, which if it prevent not errours from &s;tarting, yet will prevent the &s;candall of the truth by them? Are not errours as well as afflictions part of Chri&s;ts di&s;cipline, whereby he nurtures his Church? then let this di&s;cipline <HI>have its perfect worke,</HI> till it may be cured by its proper re|medy, the &s;word of the Spirit. You may as well &s;ay, there &s;hall be no &s;ins in the Church, as no errours.</P>
<P>Is not the practi&s;e of compul&s;ion in the particular we &s;peake of,
<MILESTONE N="15" UNIT="rea&s;."> at once to fru&s;trate all tho&s;e exhortations of the Apo&s;tles,
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Eph. 4.2. Phil. 3.16.</NOTE> <HI>To forbear one another in love;</HI> to <HI>walke whereunto wee have attained by the &s;ame rule; quietly waiting till God reveale what is behind,</HI> and cleare what is in controver&s;ie? Is it not to goe contrary <HI>ex diamentro,</HI> to tho&s;e arbi|traments of the Apo&s;tle;
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Rom. 14.13.</NOTE> <HI>Not to judge one another</HI> (then &s;ure much le&s;&s;e to pro&s;ecute one another) <HI>in meats, and drinks, or concerning a ho|ly day;</HI> as con&s;idering that
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Ibid.</HI> ver. 6.</NOTE> <HI>he that eateth, eateth to the Lord, and giveth God thanks,</HI> and he that for beareth, goes according to his con&s;cience too, and if right in the maine, may be acceptable to God al&s;o?</P>
<P>In policy 'tis the wor&s;t way in the world,
<MILESTONE N="16" UNIT="rea&s;."> and will prove the lea&s;t &s;ucce&s;sfull to extirpate errours by force: For this multiplies them rather; even as the Bi&s;hops tyrannies did drive men to extre|mities, and we may thanke their &s;trict urging Conformity and U|niformity, as the in&s;trumentall cau&s;e and meanes of tho&s;e extremi|ties of ab&s;olute Separation and Anabapti&s;me, which many hone&s;t and tender hearts (thinking they could never run far enough from the Bi&s;hops) did run into: as the <HI>Antinomians</HI> likewi&s;e have &s;tum|bled at our churli&s;h exacting Preachers of the Law,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">I&s;a. 32.6.</NOTE> <HI>Who made emp|ty the &s;onle of the hungry, and cau&s;ed the drinke of the thir&s;ty to faile:</HI>
<PB N="31" REF="21">And who knows but if force were removed, and a league made, and free trading of truth &s;et on foot, and liberty given to <HI>try all things;</HI> &s;traying Brethren on the right hand might be reduced? for as much as we know, that <HI>as &s;in takes occa&s;ion by the Commandement,</HI> &s;o do errours by pro&s;cription, and to forbid them, is to &s;owe them, and no readier way to make men fond of them, then to re&s;traine them by force; for <HI>Nitimur in vetitum,</HI> we love to be prying into a <HI>clo&s;ed</HI> Arke, and the price of any thing is inhaunced when 'tis made dainty of; and &s;o <HI>ex contrariis contraria &s;equuntur.</HI> Our fir&s;t Parents were ea&s;ily induced by the Devill, to beleeve there was more in that forbidden tree, then in all the trees of the Garden: and men are not &s;o wi&s;e as not to deliver them&s;elves of &s;uch a &s;ophi&s;try unto this day.</P>
<P><NOTE N="a" PLACE="marg"><HI>Rea&s;.</HI> 17.</NOTE> The Apo&s;tle requires us, 1 <HI>The&s;.</HI> 5. <HI>To prove all things;</HI> that is, as I conceive, not to gather all things what&s;oever before us (as all the creatures were gathered together before <HI>Adam</HI>) to forme and &s;tate a judgement of them; for this were a worke worthy of <HI>Solomon;</HI> but the Apo&s;tle meanes, that before we take up any thing in our beliefe or practi&s;e, we fir&s;t bring it to the barre and ballance, and put it into the &s;cales of an impartiall dijudication; and this is the <HI>dignity</HI> as well as the <HI>duty</HI> of a &s;pirituall man, that he <HI>judges all things,</HI> and is not concluded by the former judgement of any: and this liberty is as worthy the vindication as
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>O homines ad &s;ervitute~ nati!</HI> What mon|&s;ter is this, for a man to de&s;ire to have all things free, his body, his members, his goods, and not his &s;pirit, w^c^h neverthele&s;&s;e is onely borne unto liberty? A man wil wil|lingly make benefit of what &s;oever is in the world, that comes from the Ea&s;t or the We&s;t, for the good and &s;er|vice, nonri&s;h|ment, health, ornament of his body, and accommodate it all unto his u&s;e, but not for the culture, benefit, &amp; in|riching of his &s;pirit, giving his body the liberty of the fields, &amp; hold|ing his &s;pirit in clo&s;e pri&s;o~. <HI>Charron of Wi&s;|dome. p.</HI> 261.</NOTE> any, in the&s;e <HI>exonera|ting</HI> times, this liberty of judging. And 'tis e&s;tabli&s;hed upon very good rea&s;on; for it makes much to the advantage of truth, both to the <HI>getting,</HI> and <HI>holding</HI> of it; for, <HI>What lightly comes, lightly goes,</HI> (as we &s;ay.) The <HI>Bereans</HI> for &s;earching into <HI>Pauls</HI> doctrine and exa|mining it by the Word, are recorded by an Epithet unu&s;uall for the Holy Gho&s;t to give to men, <HI>They were more noble</HI> its &s;aid.</P>
<P>Now this liberty of trying and judging is in vaine, if there be not a liberty of profe&s;&s;ion; and to hinder this, were a mo&s;t tyrannicall u&s;urpation, over that connection, which God hath made between the act of the under&s;tanding, and the will, (whereby <HI>Voluntas &s;e|quitur dictamen intellectus</HI>) and to put a&s;under what God hath joy|ned together, and indeed to violate the Law of God and Nature.</P>
<P>A man cannot will contrary to the precedent act of judgement, he wills weakly without an act of judgement preceding; To force a man to a profe&s;&s;ion or practi&s;e which he wills not, nay, which he
<PB N="32" REF="22">nills, is to offer unto God a &s;acrifice of <HI>violence</HI> on the part of the compul&s;or, and an <HI>unrea&s;onable</HI> &s;ervice on the part of the compelled; and therefore nece&s;&s;arily unacceptable.</P>
<P>God would have every man fully <HI>per&s;waded in his owne minde,
<MILESTONE N="18" UNIT="rea&s;."> Rom.</HI> 14.15. even about dayes and meates, and nothing impo&s;ed upon a doubting con&s;cience, becau&s;e it is great; nor nothing recei|ved with a &s;leight credulity, becau&s;e it is &s;mall; but would have us
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Rom. 14.18.</NOTE> <HI>&s;erve him</HI> in every thing we take up to beleeve or practi&s;e, and not to be <HI>the &s;ervants of men,</HI> in any thing that hath relation to Re|ligion.</P>
<P>And this brings in another Argument;
<MILESTONE N="19" UNIT="rea&s;.">
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Rom. 14.4.</NOTE> <HI>Who art thou,</HI> &s;ays the Apo&s;tle, that <HI>judge&s;t another mans &s;ervant?</HI> Man in a naturall or <HI>poli|tick</HI> con&s;ideration, is the &s;ervant of <HI>men,</HI> of his Prince, and the Re|publique: But man in a <HI>religious</HI> con&s;ideration, is onely the &s;ervant of <HI>God,</HI> and <HI>he &s;tands or falls to his owne Ma&s;ter.</HI> He is the &s;ervant of men to their <HI>edification,</HI> by holding forth his light and con&s;cience before them; but he receives neither his <HI>law</HI> nor his <HI>judgement</HI> from man: God accepts perhaps whom man rejects. <HI>The day &s;hall declare it, becau&s;e it &s;hall be revealed by fire,</HI> 1 Cor. 3.13. A place worthy mo&s;t &s;erious con&s;ideration, in relation to the pre&s;ent Que&s;tion; for there the Apo&s;tle &s;peaks in a ca&s;e very fit &amp; parallell to what may be exi&s;tent among us; There may be among us building hay and &s;tub|ble upon the true and precious foundation Chri&s;t Je&s;us; Well, what mu&s;t man pull it downe by force? No; that were to take it out of Gods hand, who will do it better then we can, <HI>Who hath ap|pointed a day to make manife&s;t every mans worke.</HI></P>
<P>Con&s;ider likewi&s;e,
<MILESTONE N="20" UNIT="rea&s;."> what a mi&s;repre&s;enting of Chri&s;t the King of the Church this compul&s;ion is, and what a prejudice again&s;t the meekne&s;&s;e of his government; and in what a di&s;tance and di&s;pro|portion it runs from tho&s;e &s;weet and &s;oft Prophecies of him;
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Zech. 9.9.</NOTE> <HI>Be|hold, thy King coming, meek and lowly, riding upon an A&s;&s;e,</HI> the mo&s;t bearing and forbearing creature. And el&s;ewhere;
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">I&s;a. 42.2, 3.</NOTE> <HI>He &s;hall not cry, nor lift up his voice, nor make his voice to be heard in the &s;treets; A brui|&s;ed reed &s;hall he not breake; Butter and honey &s;hall he eat.</HI> Con&s;ider how har&s;hly this &s;ounds, how inharmoniou&s;ly to other of Chri&s;ts admi|ni&s;trations. When he had to deale with <HI>Jezabel,</HI> an harlot, that &s;e|duced his people to commit fornication, (a wor&s;e body there could not be) yet &s;ays Chri&s;t, <HI>I gave her &s;pace to repent,</HI> before ever I would
<PB N="33" REF="22">threaten her; and notwith&s;tanding this threat is gone out, it &s;hall not bring forth, if &s;he repent; for &s;o 'tis carried, <HI>Rev.</HI> 2.22. Shall Chri&s;t waite, and mu&s;t not men waite? Will Chri&s;t waite on a <HI>Je|zabel,</HI> a wanton <HI>Strumpet,</HI> and &s;hall we thinke much to waite upon a wanton <HI>opinion?</HI> Mu&s;t the <HI>&s;ervant</HI> be above his <HI>Ma&s;ter?</HI></P>
<P>And may I not &s;ay to the&s;e forward forcing men;
<MILESTONE N="21" UNIT="rea&s;."><HI>You know not what &s;pirit you are of?</HI> you forget that you are of that &s;pirit that wai|ted on the old world an hundred and twenty yeares in <HI>N<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="3 letters">s</HI> prea|ching; and many other parallell in&s;tances might be given of the Lords patience: and when his date of patience hath been out, and he hath drawn up his accu&s;ation again&s;t a Nation, what hath been the tenour of it but this,
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Mat. 23.37.</NOTE> <HI>I would have gathered you, but yee would not: I &s;ent my Prophets, ri&s;ing early, and &s;ending them, yee killed and &s;toned them?</HI> but where doth the Lord lay it to the charge of Prophet or Magi&s;trate, that they did not force and compell the people? Indeed when they have neglected their duty of teaching and giving good example; or when
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Jer. 23.15.</NOTE> <HI>pollution hath gone out from them into all the land,</HI> the Lord hath reckoned up that, as good cau&s;e why, but no where their not forcing them to an outward forme of amendment, whe|ther they would or no.</P>
<P>How contrary is the pre&s;ent voice, <HI>Ad ca&s;tra, ad in&s;ulas,</HI>
<MILESTONE N="22" UNIT="rea&s;."> to the patterne of your fore-fathers, who maintain'd their cau&s;e again&s;t unju&s;t Tyrants, <HI>Precibus &amp; lachrymis?</HI> but now that you have to deale with <HI>differing Brethren,</HI> you di&s;mi&s;&s;e your good old principle, and commend it to us, to receive your hard u&s;age <HI>with prayers and teares:</HI> and you are not contented, with the King of the Church, that hath all power in his hands, to <HI>behold Jera&s;alem, and weep over it,</HI> even over your differing Brethren, whom you count to be in er|rours, (if they are &s;o.) How doe you forget that you are <HI>in the body,</HI> and may be tempted, and erre your &s;elves? Doe you mete the &s;ame mea&s;ure, you would have meted to you again? Is the Church in her <HI>naturall</HI> gui&s;e (that u&s;es to run before the dog and the wol&s;e) when &s;hee follows her own kind with a &s;word in her hand? Is not this <HI>ma&s;culine</HI> property more harmonious, and agreeing to the man of &s;in, that exalts him&s;elfe again&s;t Chri&s;t Je&s;us? Pardon us then if &s;uch a temptation at lea&s;t ari&s;e in our hearts to thinke the &s;cene is quite changed, and you are (as to this) no longer the <HI>per&s;ecuted</HI> Saints, but the <HI>per&s;ecuting</HI> world.</P>
<PB N="34" REF="23">
<P><HI>Many &s;hall run to and fro,
<MILESTONE N="23" UNIT="rea&s;."> and knowledge &s;hall be increa&s;ed,</HI> Dan. 12.4. As a dog doth in following the &s;ent, &s;o doe men in following the truth, and they that will not give this liberty, mu&s;t not expect they &s;hould <HI>di&s;ereetly</HI> follow the track: Wee have a Proverb, that <HI>they that will find, mu&s;t as well &s;eek where a thing is not, as where it is.</HI> Let us look upon the truth as <HI>Gods,</HI> and not <HI>o<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">s;</HI> and let us look upon our &s;elves in all our di&s;cour&s;es, as <HI>hunting</HI> after it; every one acting and &s;eeking for him&s;elfe, and for his part onely, acknow|ledging that God mu&s;t lead every man by a <HI>&s;en&s;e</HI> and in&s;tinct, &s;o &s;hall we give God his due glory, and &s;ave our &s;elves much unprofitable vexation. And this liberty of free di&s;qui&s;ition is as great a meanes to <HI>keep</HI> the truth as to find it. The running water keeps pure and cleare, when the &s;tanding poole corrupts; that's the &s;en&s;e of the Pro|verbiall &s;peech, <HI>An Academick, or Pyrrhonian was never heretick.</HI> While men <HI>&s;leep</HI> in a carnall recumbency upon their Doctors and Teachers, the Devill <HI>&s;owes tares;</HI> the true temper and proper imployment of a Chri&s;tian, is alwayes to be working like the Sea, and purging ig|norance out of his under&s;tanding, and exchanging notions and ap|prehen&s;ions imperfect for more perfect, and forgetting things be|hinde to pre&s;&s;e forward.</P>
<P>Why &s;hould not men put on the &s;ame kindne&s;&s;e,
<MILESTONE N="24" UNIT="rea&s;."> and meekne&s;&s;e, and good manners, in debates of &s;uch truths, as we now &s;peake of, as in Civill and &s;ecular matters, where every one <HI>&s;u&s;pects him&s;elfe,</HI> and <HI>preferres others</HI> before him&s;elfe, not <HI>impo&s;ing</HI> his <HI>&s;en&s;e</HI> nor <HI>will</HI> upon any? Wherein &s;hould there be free and ingenuous dealing, if not about the <HI>truth,</HI> which <HI>makes</HI> men <HI>free?</HI></P>
<P>The Apo&s;tle &s;ays in a &s;peciall manner of Chri&s;tians,
<MILESTONE N="25" UNIT="rea&s;."><HI>that wee are called unto peace;</HI> and,
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Rom. 12.18.</NOTE> <HI>For as much as in us is, we are to live peaceably with all men.</HI> Marke <HI>[with all men]</HI> &s;ure then with Brethren. Let them fall out with us, but let not us fall out with them, but onely as the Apo&s;tle did, by &s;pirituall weapons contend for the truth. God is the <HI>God of peace:</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Deut. 20.10.</NOTE> and he commanded his people when they went out to Battell in a ju&s;t war, they &s;hould fir&s;t offer peace, for &s;o long. Nay, in that place, before referr'd unto, 1 <HI>Gor.</HI> 7. God would have his people &s;uffer unbeleevers Infidels, not onely in the &s;ame king|dome with them, but to live in the &s;ame hou&s;e, lie in the &s;ame bed together, that is, that the breach and de&s;ertion &s;hould not be on the Beleevers part (if there be no other cau&s;e, that may require it, but
<PB N="35" REF="23">the unbeliefe of the other;) and the rea&s;on is, <HI>God hath called us to peace.</HI> And peace is a Character of truth; <HI>The wi&s;dome that is from a|bove, it is fir&s;t pure, then peaceable,</HI> Jam. 1.17. and therefore tho&s;e metaphoricall de&s;criptions of conver&s;ion, by the changing of fierce natures into gentle di&s;po&s;itions, <HI>I&s;.</HI> 11. <HI>The wolfe &s;hall dwell with the lambe, and the Leopard &s;hall lie downe with the kid, &amp;c.</HI> As a notable in&s;tance hereof may be given in <HI>Paul;</HI> While he was in a fal&s;e way, he drives furiou&s;ly (<HI>Jehu</HI>-like) he rides to <HI>Dama&s;cus,</HI> fetches letters of authority thence, and is po&s;ting to <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI> to &s;ilence, and im|pri&s;on all that preach Je&s;us: But when he hath the truth on his &s;ide, we finde no &s;uch carriage in him, but be&s;eeches the Brethren by his gray haires, &amp;c. indeed again&s;t ob&s;tinate &s;educers, he expre&s;|&s;eth much zeale, but that's a &s;pirituall force, not corporall; for in|deed the truth needs no &s;uch violence to promote it.</P>
<P>That doctrine or way that is urged with violence,
<MILESTONE N="26" UNIT="rea&s;."> is rather pre|judiced then promoted thereby; for it &s;avours, as if man were more intere&s;ted, and concerned in the cau&s;e then God; for otherwi&s;e why is man &s;o ha&s;ty, where God is &s;o patient? It is a figne of men that
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Invitos ad mutatione~ &s;en|tentiae coegeru~t Ariani, quod hominium e&s;t, minim&egrave; &s;uae cau&s;ae con&s;identium,</HI> Athana&s;. Epi&s;t. <HI>Nova autem i&s;ta &amp; ex<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">r abilis haere|&s;is, cum rationibus &s;ubruitur, cum ip&s;aver itate pudefacta concidit; quos non potuit verbis inducere, eos vi plagis carceribu&s;a; ad &s;e pertrahere annititur; at&abque; vel ita &s;eip&s;am quam non fit pia &amp; Dei cul|trix mani&s;e&s;tat.</HI> This prejudice and &s;u&s;pition will any way incurre that is urged with violence on men.</NOTE> <HI>diffide</HI> their cau&s;e, to be violent, and that the way is rather of man then of God; for if it be of God, it &s;hall prevaile: What needs this force?</P>
<P><HI>Ha&s;t thou faith.</HI> (&s;aith the Apo&s;tle) <HI>have it to thy &s;elfe.</HI>
<MILESTONE N="27" UNIT="rea&s;."> My faith mu&s;t not be the rule of anothers practi&s;e, though voluntarily taken up, much le&s;&s;e will it warrant me to impo&s;e upon another, (that's the meaning.) For indeed practi&s;e comes not naturally, but from ones own principles, and a low practi&s;e that yet grows upon a <HI>true</HI> principle, <HI>well-beaten</HI> and under&s;tood, is better then the highe&s;t <HI>top|ling</HI> practi&s;e, without a principle; as <HI>a living dog is better then a dead Lyon.</HI> Faith without workes are dead, &s;o are works without faith; for faith is the forme and life of the worke. Therefore what a poore thing doe they contend for, that would bow the practi&s;e, and what <HI>arrow-&s;pirited</HI> men are they, that are content with a <HI>conformed</HI> pra|cti&s;e, though there be a <HI>contradicting</HI> principle, whereby a man <HI>jud|ges</HI>
<PB N="36" REF="24">him&s;elfe and his impo&s;er of weakne&s;&s;e and of &s;in?
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">2 Cor. 5.11.</NOTE> <HI>Wee are made manife&s;t to God</HI> (&s;ays the Apo&s;tle, and 'twas a great matter that he could undertake &s;o farre) but doth that &s;atisfie him? No, but <HI>wee tru&s;t al&s;o</HI> (&s;ays he) <HI>that we are made manife&s;t in your con&s;ciences,</HI> els the Apo&s;tle would have had little joy in them, or boldne&s;&s;e towards them, notwith&s;tanding all their outward conformity.</P>
<P>The practi&s;e of forcing &s;traitens men in their liberty they have as they are <HI>men</HI> and
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Quid jam nobis ulterius relinquetur, &s;i etiam hoc quod voluntate fieri oportet, libido extorquet alic|na?</HI> Lactant. lib. 5. In&s;tit. cap. 14.</NOTE> <HI>rea&s;onable</HI> creatures, who are borne with this priviledge and prerogative, to be led forth alwayes under the con|duct of their <HI>own</HI> rea&s;on. Which liberty is much <HI>inlarged</HI> by being Chri&s;tians: Therefore the Apo&s;tle &s;ays, <HI>The &s;pirituall man judgeth all things;</HI> which is not onely the <HI>Clergy man,</HI> but as <HI>Al&s;ted</HI> glo&s;&s;es well, <HI>Spiritualis homo,</HI> (i. e.) <HI>ver&egrave; Chri&s;tianus.</HI> And to the te&s;t and tryall of &s;uch doth <HI>Paul</HI> &s;ubmit his doctrine, 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 10. <HI>I &s;peake as unto wi&s;e men, judge yee what I &s;ay.</HI> And 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 14.29. <HI>Let the Prophets &s;peake two or three, and let the re&s;t judge:</HI> Upon which <HI>Al&s;ted,</HI> in rela|tion to another Argument, thus; <HI>Qu&ograve; etiam pertinet locus ille celebris, ubi omnibus in Eccle&s;ia Chri&s;ti congregatis, qui viz. munere ac dono prophetandi,</HI> (i.) <HI>docendi, praediti &s;unt, pote&s;tas loquendi; reliquis autem omnibus pote&s;tas judicandi conceditur;</HI> that is, <HI>&V;nto all in the Church, to whom is given the gift of prophecying, that is, of Teaching, is granted the liberty of &s;peaking; to all the re&s;t, the liberty of judging.</HI> To this Ar|gument I will adde the words of a late, and (for ought I know) yet living Author.</P>
<P><Q>The true office of a man, his mo&s;t proper and naturall exerci&s;e, his worthie&s;t profe&s;&s;ion is to <HI>judge;</HI> Why is he a man di&s;cour&s;ing, rea&s;oning, under&s;tanding? Why hath he a Spirit? to build (as they &s;ay) Ca&s;tles in the aire, and to feed him&s;elfe with fooleries and vanities, as the greate&s;t part of the world doth? <HI>Quis unquam oculos tenebrarum cau&s;a habuit,</HI> Whoever had eyes given him to keep them &s;hut? No doubtles, but to under&s;tand, to judge of all things, and therefore he is called the <HI>Governour,</HI> the Superintendent, the keeper of Nature of the world, of the workes of God. To goe about to deprive him of this right, is to make him no more a man, but a <HI>Bea&s;t.</HI> If not to judge, hurts the <HI>&s;imple</HI> and proper nature of man, what &s;hall it doe to a <HI>wi&s;e</HI> man, who is farre above the com|mon &s;ort of man? To judge &s;ingularly and excellently is indeed the peculiar part of a wi&s;e man, not of everyman. It is &s;trange
<PB N="37" REF="24">that &s;o many men (I &s;peake not of Idiots, and the weaker &s;ort, who have not the faculty &amp; the meane to exerci&s;e it, but of tho&s;e) who either are, or make &s;hew to be under&s;tanding and &s;ufficient, deprive them&s;elves willingly of this right and authority, &s;o natu|rall, &s;o ju&s;t, and excellent, who without the examining or judg|ing of any thing, receive and approve what&s;oever is pre&s;ented, either becau&s;e it hath a faire &s;emblance and appearance, or be|cau&s;e it is in <HI>authority,</HI> credit, and practi&s;e: yea they think it is not lawfull to examine or doubt of any thing; in &s;uch &s;ort doe they deba&s;e and degrade them&s;elves; they are forward and glorious in other things, but in this they are fearfull and <HI>&s;ubmi&s;&s;e,</HI> though it doe ju&s;tly appertaine unto them, and with &s;o much rea&s;on, &s;ince there are a <HI>thou&s;and</HI> lyes for <HI>one</HI> truth, a thou&s;and opinions of one and the &s;ame thing, and but one that is true, why &s;hould not I examine with the in&s;trument of rea&s;on, which is the better, the truer, the more rea&s;onable, hone&s;t, and profitable? &mdash; It is to play the part of <HI>prophane</HI> men and bea&s;ts, to &s;uffer our &s;elves to be led like Oxen&mdash;What can a wi&s;e or holy man have above a pro|phane, if he mu&s;t have his &s;pirit, his mind, his principall and he|roicall part a <HI>&s;lave</HI> to the vulgar &s;ort?&mdash;Why &s;hould it not be as lawfull for one to <HI>doubt</HI> &amp; con&s;ider of things as doubtfull, as 'tis for others to <HI>affirme</HI> them?&mdash;How &s;hould we be capable to know more, if we grow <HI>re&s;olute</HI> in our opinions, &s;ettle and repo&s;e our &s;elves in certain things, and in &s;uch manner, that we &s;eeke no far|ther, nor examine any more, that which we thinke we <HI>hold.</HI>&mdash; They know not that there is a kind of ignorance and <HI>doubt,</HI> more learned and certain, more noble and generous then all their <HI>&s;ci|ence</HI> and certainty. &mdash; There is a <HI>generation of men,</HI> that if they be con&s;trained to change their opinions, being altered, they are <HI>as re&s;olute</HI> and ob&s;tinate in their <HI>new,</HI> as they were before in their <HI>fir&s;t</HI> opinion, not knowing how to hold any thing without <HI>pa&s;&s;ion,</HI> and never di&s;puting to <HI>learne</HI> and find the truth, but to <HI>maintaine</HI> that which they have &s;worne and bound them&s;elves unto. The&s;e kinde of people know nothing, neither know they what it is to know, becau&s;e they think to know, and to hold the truth in their &s;leeve, 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> 8. &mdash; It is fit that weake men, that have not &s;trength to keep them&s;elves upright upon their feet, be kept up with <HI>props;</HI> they cannot live but in bonds, nor maintaine them&s;elves free, a
<PB N="38" REF="25">people borne to &s;ervitude, they feare Bug-beares, or that the wolfe will eat them, if they be alone. But in wi&s;e, mode&s;t, and &s;tayed men, it is quite contrary. &mdash; <HI>hoc liberiores &amp; &s;ulutiores &s;umus, qui<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> integra nobis judicandi pote&s;tas manet.</HI> It is a very &s;weet, peaceable, and plea&s;ant &s;ojourne or delay, where a man feareth not to faile or <HI>mi&s;count</HI> him&s;elfe, where a man is in the calme under covert, and out of danger of <HI>participating</HI> &s;o many errours (produced by the fanta&s;ie of man, and whereof the world is full,) of intangling him&s;elfe, in complaints, divi&s;ions, di&s;putes, of offending divers parts, of belying and gain-&s;aying his own beliefe, of changing, re|penting, and readvi&s;ing him&s;elfe: For how often hath time made us &s;ee, that we have been deceived in our thoughts, and hath in|forced us to change our opinions? To be briefe, it is to keepe the mind in peace &amp; tranquillity, far from agitations, and vices, which proceed from that <HI>opinion of &s;cience,</HI> which we thinke to have in things; for from thence do &s;pring, pride, ambition, immoderate de&s;ires, ob&s;tinacy in opinion, pre&s;umption, love of novelties, &amp;c. There is an <HI>univer&s;ality</HI> of &s;pirit in a wi&s;e man, whereby he takes a view, and enters into the con&s;ideration of the whole univer&s;e; like <HI>Socrates,</HI> who contained in his affection all humane <HI>kinde,</HI> he walketh through all, as if they were <HI>neare</HI> unto him; he &s;eeth like the Sun, with an <HI>equall</HI> and <HI>&s;etled</HI> regard, as from an high watch|tower, all the changes and interchangeable cour&s;es of things. &mdash; Which is a <HI>livery</HI> of the <HI>Divinity,</HI> and a high priviledge of a wi&s;e man, who is the <HI>image of God</HI> upon earth. <HI>Magna &amp; genero&s;a res animus humanus, nullos &s;ibi poni ni&s;i communes, &amp; cum Deo terminos patitur.</HI> The mo&s;t beautifull and greate&s;t &s;pirits, are the more <HI>univer&s;all,</HI> as the more ba&s;e and blunt are the more <HI>particular.</HI>&mdash; Every man calleth that <HI>barbarous,</HI> that agreeth not with <HI>his</HI> pa|late and cu&s;tome; and it &s;eemeth that we have no other touch of truth and rea&s;on, then the example and the <HI>Idea</HI> of the opinions and cu&s;tomes of <HI>that place</HI> or Countrey where we live. The&s;e kind of people <HI>judge</HI> of nothing, neither can they, they are &s;laves to that they hold, a &s;trong <HI>prevention</HI> and anticipation of opinions doth wholly po&s;&s;e&s;&s;e them, &amp;c.</Q> Thus <HI>Charron of Wi&s;dome,</HI> 2 <HI>booke Chap.</HI> 2. which he &s;peaks of in generall as a di&s;po&s;ition to wi&s;dome, but who knows but he might intend it in the nature of the woman of <HI>Tekoa's</HI> parable, as an advantage to divine truth; however, I bring it not as an authority, but as rea&s;on.</P>
<PB N="39" REF="25">
<P>Furthermore, are there not <HI>&s;everall &s;tatures</HI> in Chri&s;t,
<MILESTONE N="29" UNIT="rea&s;."> and that in knowledge as well as in other graces; as there are &s;everall kinds of metalls in the earth, &s;ome more precious and <HI>better concocted</HI> then other; and doth not <HI>one &s;tarre differ from another &s;tarre in glory?</HI> Even &s;o doe men, and &s;o will they, (do we what we can,) in the ac|curatene&s;&s;e of their knowledge, and in the clearne&s;&s;e of their appre|hen&s;ions. Some can onely &s;ee a rule of Di&s;cipline in the Scripture confu&s;edly and <HI>indi&s;tinctly;</HI> like the purblind man, that <HI>&s;aw men like trees walking:</HI> (and in truth 'tis mo&s;t proper for them to cry for a toleration, and he had a hard heart that would deny it them) Others &s;ee more <HI>clearly</HI> the perfect draught, and all the lineaments thereof, not through the <HI>excelling</HI> of their own wit, but the <HI>teaching</HI> of Chri&s;ts Spirit, yet not a&s;&s;uming to them&s;elves a greater mea&s;ure of it then the other, who perhaps in <HI>other</HI> things may &s;ee more then they by the &s;ame Spirit, 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 12.8. &amp;c.</P>
<P>La&s;tly, I &s;hall conclude the <HI>po&s;itive</HI> part of this Di&s;cour&s;e, with opening (in &s;ome mea&s;ure) the <HI>de&s;igne</HI> of Chri&s;t, in e&s;tabli&s;hing no other, <HI>more &s;pecious,</HI> better &s;atisfying order and meanes, for the pro|pagation of the truth, and in excluding force and power and au|thority <HI>humane,</HI> from mini&s;tring in his kingdome in this particular, leaving this and all that hath been &s;aid, to &s;pirituall men to judge, who can <HI>compare &s;pirituall things with &s;pirituall.</HI></P>
<P>It is in <HI>this</HI> matter as 'tis in the <HI>Government</HI> of <HI>particular</HI> Churches, the adver&s;ary carries it the &s;ame way, and turns upon the &s;ame com|mon hinge of <HI>humane rea&s;on,</HI> and mu&s;t be an&s;wered the &s;ame way in both. They diffide the &s;ufficiency of a particular Church to manage its own affaires, and why? becau&s;e they have &s;o <HI>few</HI> Officers, and in &s;ome Churches perhaps but <HI>one,</HI> and he none of the greate&s;t Scho|lars, and the Brethren a company of <HI>illiterate</HI> men, &amp; a good me&s;&s;e of government the&s;e are like to make. This errour proceeds now, from not con&s;idering, <HI>where</HI> the &s;trength &amp; &s;ufficiency of this poore flock doth lie, which is, not in them&s;elves, were they as eloquent as <HI>Apollo,</HI> as logicall as <HI>Paul,</HI> but in <HI>Chri&s;t their head,</HI> who is by his &s;pe|ciall promi&s;e pre&s;ent with them, <HI>Mat.</HI> 18. <HI>Where two or three are ga|thered together in his Name. The Lord is in the mid&s;t of her, therefore &s;hee cannot be moved,</HI> P&s;al. 46. <HI>And the government is upon his &s;houlder.</HI> Now hence (I &s;ay) is the mi&s;take, through not con&s;idering, that the Government of the Church by Officers, is but <HI>mini&s;ieriall,</HI> and
<PB N="40" REF="26">that they are guided and acted by Chri&s;t, and he puts wi&s;dome into their hearts, and right words into their mouthes; as once he fitted <HI>Bezaleel</HI> and <HI>Aholiab</HI> for the worke of the Tabernacle. The &s;ame doth Chri&s;t now; for <HI>he is a&s;cended upon high, that he might fill all things,</HI> and he doth fill carefully all his own In&s;titutions with force and efficacy; and they doe not wi&s;ely that judge of them according to their <HI>appearance,</HI> for &s;o, they are the mo&s;t contemptible unlikely things in the world, but could you &s;ee the vertue and power that Chri&s;t conveyes &s;ecretly under them, you would fall downe before them. So I &s;ay now in this matter of &s;uppre&s;&s;ing errours, (as before qualified) which we &s;ay, mu&s;t be onely by the <HI>Mini&s;try</HI> of the <HI>Spi|rit,</HI> by the <HI>Word</HI> of <HI>God,</HI> which in the hand of the Spirit is <HI>quick and powerfull,</HI> by brotherly <HI>admonitions</HI> and earne&s;t <HI>exhortations,</HI> and holding forth the contrary light, <HI>doctrinally</HI> and <HI>practically,</HI> &amp;c. Now alas, &s;ay our carnall hearts, what are the&s;e like to doe? 'Tis true; look upon them in the outward appearance onely, and they promi&s;e little, but men do not con&s;ider, that the&s;e are but the <HI>vaile</HI> and <HI>covering</HI> of that arme and power which mu&s;t doe the deed. For <HI>God him&s;elfe is Judge,</HI> P&s;al. 50.6. Chri&s;t Je&s;us is the <HI>Prince</HI> of <HI>light</HI> and <HI>truth,</HI> the decider of Controver&s;ies, <HI>Dictator</HI> to his Church, and in the ob&s;ervation of Go&s;pel Rules, he di&s;covers him&s;elfe unto his people, and by and through his people to tho&s;e that erre. The O|racle in the Temple &s;pake not, 'twas but a forme or image, but God &s;pake in the Oracle. The Scriptures them&s;elves are but a &s;ealed Booke, except Chri&s;t by his Spirit &s;peake in them, and by them, to our under&s;tandings and hearts. What matter is it what the forme be, if God fill it? What of &s;trength or force doth the &s;leeve or cove|ring contribute to the arme? There is no means of any efficacy with|out Chri&s;t, and the &s;malle&s;t means is of ab&s;olute &s;ufficiency through Chri&s;t; and what means &s;hould be ble&s;t by him but his <HI>own</HI> means? We forget that Chri&s;t will have his Church in all their ordinances, affaires, and admini&s;trations, to &s;hew forth his <HI>death;</HI> that all things and per&s;ons in the Church mu&s;t beare a &s;uitablenes and corre&s;pon|dency to <HI>Chri&s;t crucified,</HI> the head of the Church. It is &s;poken par|ticularly of that <HI>one</HI> Ordinance, and chiefe one the Lords Supper, that 'tis <HI>to &s;hew forth the Lords death;</HI> 'tis true of <HI>all</HI> Ordinances; Chri&s;t will have his people in the carriage and managing of all his and their affaires, performe his funerall rites, and ob&s;equies, and
<PB N="41" REF="26">hold forth an Embleme of his death to the world; and therefore 'tis &s;aid, <HI>The waters of Shiloah,</HI> that is, the Ordinances of the Church, <HI>run &s;oftly,</HI> I&s;a. 8.6. a pace for a funerall, and they are not cloathed in the light and gawdy colours of this worlds excellency and glo|ry, but in the mo&s;t po&s;&s;ible &s;implicity and lowline&s;&s;e; <HI>And I Bre|thren, came not</HI> (&s;ays <HI>Paul,</HI> who could have afforded it as &s;oone as any man) <HI>with excellency of &s;peech, or of wi&s;dome, &amp;c. For I, determined not to know any thing among you, &s;ave Je&s;us Chri&s;t, and him crucified,</HI> 1 Cor. 2. Marke here the ground and roote of the whole matter, (I meane of the <HI>&s;implicity</HI> of Chri&s;ts wayes and Ordinances,) 'tis <HI>Chri&s;t crucifi|ed.</HI> Chri&s;ts death is thus <HI>avenged</HI> upon the glory of the world, while&s;t the power and greatne&s;&s;e of this world is <HI>reprobated</HI> and re|jected from the mo&s;t <HI>noble</HI> u&s;es and honourable &s;ervices, namely, from mini&s;tring <HI>in</HI> his kingdome: Goe, &s;ays Chri&s;t to <HI>mans wi&s;dome</HI> and humane Eloquence, I will have none of thee in preaching my Go&s;pel; and returne into the &s;cabbard, &s;ays he to the <HI>Magi&s;trates &s;word,</HI> I will have none of thee to cut the way for my truth, through <HI>woods,</HI> and <HI>rocks,</HI> and <HI>mountaines,</HI> through &s;tony hearts and impli|cated rea&s;onings. <HI>Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, &s;aith the Lord.</HI> Thus Chri&s;t reprobates parts and learning, and the mo&s;t &s;pecious and likely meanes, (&s;hall he be <HI>crucified,</HI> and &s;hall the&s;e be in their <HI>flower</HI> &amp; blo&s;&s;ome?) and he brings down the mighty things of the world, by the
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Here may be pertinently &amp; commodio&s;ly in&s;erted a &s;to|ry out of <HI>Ruf|finus,</HI> of a Phi|lo&s;opher that evaded all the learned Arguments of the Divines, and was converted by a plain illiterate man; which I &s;hall doe in his own words. <HI>Cum pro &s;tudio Religio&s;i Imperatoris, ex omniterra &s;acer dotes Dei coi&s;&s;ent, opinione commoti, Philo&s;ophi quoq<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> &amp; Dialectici valde nobiles &amp; opinati&s;simi convene|runt. In quibus quidam in&s;ignis in arte Dialectic&acirc; per dies &s;inguloe, confl<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ctatus &s;ummi certaminis cum Epi&s;copis no&s;tris, viris adae&abque; in Dialectica, no~ improbabilit&egrave;r eruditis, movcbat, &amp; ficbat ingens &s;pecbaculum convenientibus ad audiendu~ doctis &amp; literatis viris. Nectamen ullo genere Philo&s;ophus concludi &agrave; quoquam poterat aut conftring. Tanta etenim dicendiarte, objectis quae&s;tionibus occurre|bat, ut ubi maxim&egrave; putaretur a&s;trictus velut anguis lubricus labcretur. Sed ut oftenderet Deus, quod non in &s;ermone regnum Dei &s;ed in virtute con&s;i&s;tit, quidam ex confe&s;&s;oribus, &s;implici&s;simae na|turae vir &amp; nihil aliud &s;ciens ni&s;i Je&s;um Chri&s;tum, &amp; hunc crucifixum, inter caeteros auditores E|pi&s;copos adorat, quiciam vidi&s;&s;et Philo&s;ophum in&s;ultantem no&s;tris &amp; callid&acirc; &s;e di&s;putationis arte jactantem, po&s;cit ab omnibus locum, velle &s;e paucis cum Philo&s;opho &s;er mocmari. Tum ver&ograve; no&s;tri qui &s;implicitatem viri, &amp; imperitiam de &s;ermone duntax at no&s;&s;ent, pavere, &amp; velut pudorem quendam pati, ne fort&egrave; apud callidos homines ri&s;u<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> officeretur &s;ancti &s;implicitas. Per&s;titit tamen &s;enior, &amp; hinc movet &s;ermonis exordium. In nomine, inquit, Je&s;u Chri&s;ti Philo&s;ophe aud<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">quae vera &s;unt; Deus unus e&s;t qui ficit Coelum &amp; terram, qui&abque; homini quem de terrae lime formaverat, &s;pir it um dedit: univer&s;a quae videntur, &amp; quae non videntur, virtute verbi &s;ui creavit, &amp; &s;piritus &s;ui &s;anctifica|tione firmavit. Hoc Verbum ae Sapientia quem nos Filium dicimus, humanos mi&s;cratus errores, ex virg<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">e na&s;cicur, &amp; per po&s;sionem mortis, &agrave; perpetua nos morte liberavit, ac re&s;urrectione &s;ua aeter|nam nobis contul<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters"> v<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">am: quem &amp; expectamus Jud cem omnium quae gerimus e&s;&s;e venturum. Cre|dis hoc na e&s;&s;e Philo&s;ophe? At ille velut &s;i nunquam ullum &s;ermonem contradicends dideci&s;&s;et, itaob|&s;tupo&s;actus vtrtute dictorum, mutus adomn<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">a hoc &s;olum potu<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">t re&s;pondere, it a &s;ibi videri, nec aliud verum e&s;&s;e quam quod dixerat. Tum&s;enior, &s;i haec (inquit) ita e&s;&s;ecred<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">s, &s;urge &amp; &s;equere me ad De|minicum, &amp; hujus fide &s;ignaculum &s;u&s;cipe. Et Philo&s;ophus cenver&s;us ad di&s;crpulos &s;uos, vel ad eos qui audiendi grat<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters"> convener<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">n<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">: Andite (inquit) &ocirc; Eruditi viri: Donec verbis mecum ge&s;t a res e&s;t, verba verbis oppo&s;ui, &amp; quae dicebantur dicendiarte &s;ubverti. ubi vero pro verbis virtus proce&s;&s;it ex are di<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">entes, non potuerunt re&s;i&s;tere verbavirtuti, nec komo adver &s;ari potuit Deo. Et ideo &s;i quis ve&s;trum potuit in his quae dicta &s;unt &s;entire quae &s;en&s;i credat Chri&s;to, &amp; &s;equatur hunc &s;enem, in qyo locutus e&s;t Deus. It a Philo&s;ophus Chri&s;tianus effectus tandem &s;e gratulatus e&s;t victum.</HI> Kuffi. l. 3. c. 3. And there is this good note adjected in the Margent; <HI>Ubi &s;unt nunc qui &s;ophi&s;ticis argutus opus e&s;&s;e putant ad convincendos Philo&s;ophos?</HI></NOTE> weake; and things that <HI>are,</HI> by things that <HI>are not, that no fle&s;h may glory in his pre&s;ence, but he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord,</HI> that neither our <HI>faith,</HI> nor the Ordinances <HI>&s;ucce&s;&s;e, &s;hould &s;tand in the wi&s;dome of men,</HI> nor in the likeline&s;&s;e of the meanes, approving them&s;elves &s;o to mans under&s;tanding, <HI>but in the power of
<PB N="42" REF="27">God.</HI> The&s;e and &s;uch like are the Rea&s;ons rendred in the <HI>fir&s;t</HI> and <HI>&s;econd Chapters of the fir&s;t Epi&s;tle to the Corinths;</HI> and the&s;e are enough (I conceive) to &s;atisfie a moderate under&s;tanding. For my owne part, I mu&s;t profe&s;&s;e it is the <HI>Clue</HI> of threed that carries me through this <HI>Labyrinth,</HI> 'tis the <HI>Pole &s;tarre,</HI> by which I <HI>&s;teere</HI> my judgement, and by which my doubts are re&s;olved &s;atisfactorily. I &s;ee rea&s;on enough for that &s;lender and <HI>abject</HI> provi&s;ion, which Chri&s;t hath made (in the worlds account) for the propul&s;ing of errours, and for that meane forme and gui&s;e, wherein all Chri&s;ts Ordinances appeare unto us, when I look upon the death of Chri&s;t, or upon <HI>Chri&s;t crucified.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="2" TYPE="section">
<PB N="43" REF="27">
<HEAD>SECT. II.</HEAD>
<DIV3 N="7" TYPE="chapter">
<HEAD>CHAP. VII. <HI>Illu&s;trating the Argument, with Examples and Te&s;ti|monies out of divine and humane Writ.</HI></HEAD>
<P>_HAving &s;tated the Que&s;tion, both on the <HI>po&s;itive</HI> and <HI>negative</HI> part of the <HI>Magi&s;trates</HI> duty, and proved it with Rea&s;ons; I proceed further to confirme and illu&s;trate this Argument with Examples and Te&s;ti|monies. Beginning with the <HI>old Te&s;tament,</HI> and therein with In&s;tances of <HI>Heathen</HI> Kings, (who&s;e Religion, and the <HI>Jewes</HI> were diametrally oppo&s;ite) whereby it may &s;eeme this to have been a principle in Nature,) that yet upon grounds of <HI>ingenuous rea&s;on,</HI> as well as <HI>policy,</HI> (though we deny not a providence in it) not onely permitted the publick exerci&s;e of a contrary Religion, (which is more then we plead for) but al&s;o gave <HI>faire quarter</HI> to the Church, and <HI>all liberty,</HI> yea <HI>authority</HI> and <HI>accom|modations</HI> for their religious ingagements; yea, endowed them and their wor&s;hip with <HI>great priviledges, immunities,</HI> and <HI>advantages;</HI> then which In&s;tances, nothing could po&s;&s;ibly be alledged by us, more pregnant, pre&s;&s;ing, provoking, upbraiding, con&s;training, to tho&s;e, between whom and us there is the <HI>&s;ame</HI> Religion, truth, and wor&s;hip &s;ub&s;tantially, though &s;ome lighter <HI>circum&s;tantiall</HI> differences.</P>
<P>The&s;e are e&s;pecially <HI>Cyrus, Darius,</HI> and <HI>Artaxerxes;</HI> I might adde to them <HI>Aha&s;uerus,</HI> who though a &s;tranger to the Church,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Aha&s;uerus.</HI></NOTE> and to the true God, yet not onely <HI>protected</HI> the Church, de&s;tined to de|&s;truction for their Religion &s;ake; but gave them a <HI>free avengement</HI> of them&s;elves, of his owne <HI>profitable</HI> &s;ubjects their enemies, <HI>E&s;th.</HI> 9. to the &s;laying of &s;eventy &s;ix thou&s;and men. And the book of <HI>Daniel</HI> is not without &s;ome pa&s;&s;ages, which might be referred hither, and good u&s;e made of them; as namely,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Nebuchad|nezzar.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Nebuchadnezzars exalting</HI> men of a Religion <HI>contrary</HI> to the <HI>Babylonians,</HI> in the Provinces, and ma|king
<PB N="44" REF="28">all the great Affaires of the Provinces to run through their hands, <HI>Dan.</HI> 2.48, 49. And a &s;econd time if not to a further degree of honour, <HI>Dan.</HI> 3.30. And the&s;e things done by <HI>Politick</HI> Princes, that wanted not &s;erious regards to their own &s;afety, &s;tability, flou|ti&s;hing; and were <HI>Conquerours</HI> over the&s;e <HI>captives,</HI> (who&s;e <HI>terrour could not make the&s;e Princes afraid,</HI> as <HI>Elibu</HI> &s;peaks, <HI>Job</HI> 33.7.) nor had they any politick ingagements to their Religion, further then the &s;atisfaction of the&s;e their Subjects in this particular, and their more willing &s;ubjection, and the union and peace of their kingdomes thereby; and they went on in their owne Heatheni&s;me them&s;elves, though they indulged thus to the Church.</P>
<P>But I &s;hall content my &s;elfe to &s;et before you tho&s;e three before mentioned,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Cyrus.</HI></NOTE> beginning with <HI>Cyrus,</HI> who&s;e Story, &s;o far as concernes our purpo&s;e, you &s;hall find, <HI>Ezra</HI> 1. to this effect; <HI>That he made a Pro|clamation throughout all his Kingdome, and put it in Writing, wherein be gave free liberly to all the people of the Jewes his Captives, to goe up to Jeru&s;alem, and build the hou&s;e of God there. And who&s;oever remaineth</HI> (he addes) <HI>in any place, where he &s;ojourneth, let the men of his place help him with &s;ilver and with gold, and with goods, and with bea&s;ts, be&s;ides the free will-offering for the hou&s;e of God, which is in Jeru&s;alem.</HI> More|over, he made re&s;titution of all the ve&s;&s;els of the Temple, plundred by his predece&s;&s;our <HI>Nebuchadnezzar.</HI></P>
<P>One would have thought a Proclamation of liberty, &amp; no more, had been enough, and doubtles that alone would have been mo&s;t thankfully accepted by the godly <HI>Jewes,</HI> and they would have ac|knowledged that this Prince had indulged a great and &s;peciall fa|your to them; but the&s;e further acts of grace might well make them &s;ay; as, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 126. <HI>When the Lord turned againe our captivitie, we were like them that dreame. Then was our mouth fill'd with laughter, and our tongue with &s;inging.</HI> Nay <HI>the Heathen</HI> could not choo&s;e but &s;ay, <HI>The Lord hath done great things for them:</HI> and truly &s;ay they, <HI>The Lord <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">th done great things for <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">s, whereof wee are glad.</HI> And who could blame them for being glad?</P>
<P>But I look it &s;hould be objected;
<MILESTONE UNIT="object."> That <HI>Cyrus</HI> did not this of him|&s;elfe, but was <HI>extravrdinarily</HI> &s;tirr'd up hereunto by God, (his owne words importing &s;o much) and that he was acted in this thing <HI>a|bove</HI> the con&s;ideration of all politique rea&s;ons, and the regard of his owne Religion: Therefore what <HI>Cyrus</HI> did upon &s;uch an extraor|dinary
<PB N="45" REF="28">motion, cannot be rea&s;onably expected from Princes now, that are not &s;o &s;tirr'd up and acted extraordinarily by the divine hand, but they mu&s;t be faithfull to their Principles <HI>received,</HI> and Re|ligion <HI>e&s;tabli&s;hed,</HI> and mu&s;t indulge no other liberties or favours, then may con&s;i&s;t therewith in a <HI>rationall</HI> and <HI>prudentiall</HI> way.</P>
<P>I an&s;wer. <HI>Cyrus</HI> was &s;tirr'd up by God;
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>An&s;w.</HI></NOTE> but fir&s;t God would not &s;tirre him up to an <HI>unlawfull</HI> or an <HI>uncomely</HI> thing, if that act of him being of <HI>one</HI> Religion him&s;elfe to accommodate <HI>another</HI> had been &s;uch, God was not &s;o put to it, he had <HI>other</HI> meanes to have brought this to pa&s;&s;e, then by the <HI>&s;in</HI> of any man, e&s;pecially then by becom|ing a <HI>tempter</HI> thereto him&s;elfe. <HI>Let not any man &s;ay when he is tempted, that he is tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted, neither tempteth he any man:</HI> therefore if this was a temptation, 'twas not of God, if it was of God, 'twas no temptation.</P>
<P N="2">2. <HI>Gyrus</HI> was &s;tirred up, but 'twas not by a Prophet that we read of, nor by a vi&s;ion, nor any extraordinary way. The Holy Gho&s;t <HI>tels</HI> us he was &s;tirred up, but perhaps none of his Court, nor his Princes could tell he was &s;tirred up by the <HI>Lord,</HI> nor he him&s;elfe, the Lord might carry this force &s;o &s;ecretly under rationall and pru|dent con&s;iderations: And no que&s;tion he did, and &s;hewed <HI>Cyrus rea&s;on</HI> for what he put him upon. And doe you thinke there were not politique Objections made again&s;t this act of <HI>Cyrus,</HI> by his State&s;inen and Coun&s;ellors (as there were to <HI>Artaxerxes,</HI> with whom they prevailed for the &s;u&s;pending of the worke that the <HI>Jewes</HI> had begun,) and was it likely <HI>Cyrus</HI> an&s;wered all the&s;e Objections to his carefull Coun&s;ellors, with the meere <HI>in&s;tigation</HI> he had to it <HI>with|out</HI> rea&s;on?</P>
<P N="3">3. We need not feare to affirme, that <HI>Cyrus</HI> had rea&s;on for what he did, and did move upon <HI>rea&s;on</HI> in this act, (though rea&s;on <HI>alone</HI> would not have done it with him, there was the <HI>&s;peciall</HI> ble&s;&s;ing of God upon that rea&s;on, and his effectuall in&s;tigation of <HI>Cyrus</HI> heart, making it facile and yeelding unto that rea&s;on) and we may <HI>a&s;&s;igne</HI> the rea&s;on partly what it was, at lea&s;t probably: 'tis couch'd in the act, which was an act of <HI>Ju&s;tice</HI> as well as of grace: For the&s;e poore <HI>Jewes</HI> had in <HI>Cyrus</HI> his predece&s;&s;ors time, been <HI>wrongfully</HI> carried a|way captive from their own land, and the wor&s;hip of God, and de|tained ever &s;ince in a &s;trange land, and <HI>di&s;abled</HI> to &s;et it up againe of them&s;elves, and therefore <HI>Cyrus</HI> might well through the workings
<PB N="46" REF="29">of a <HI>naturall</HI> con&s;cience, hold him&s;elfe bound to re&s;tore both per|&s;ons and uten&s;ills, and to &s;upply what ever inability or in&s;ufficiency that accrew'd to them through their captivity: and no doubt al&s;o but this Principle, which it &s;eemes by the &s;tories in the Bible was a <HI>received</HI> one in tho&s;e ancient times, did glow in <HI>Cyrus</HI> his heart, that <HI>every Nation would willingly walke in the Name of their God;</HI> even as him&s;elfe would; and it &s;eemed to him hard mea&s;ure to re&s;traine them, and therefore though as a Heathen, and &s;o one that had <HI>cho|&s;en</HI> and pitcht his Religion already, he had <HI>no</HI> obligation to any <HI>other</HI> Religion but his owne, yet out of a principle of <HI>common</HI> ju&s;tice, <HI>to doe as he would be done by,</HI> he might hold him&s;elfe bound to do what he did.</P>
<P>But it may be further objected,
<MILESTONE UNIT="object."> that <HI>Cyrus</HI> was in a <HI>fal&s;e</HI> way him|&s;elfe, and all that he did in this way of di&s;pen&s;ation, he did it for the <HI>truth,</HI> and if he had done more, and left his <HI>own</HI> way, and joyn'd with the <HI>Jewes,</HI> it had been but his <HI>duty.</HI></P>
<P>I an&s;wer,
<MILESTONE UNIT="an&s;w."> and grant, he did no more then was his duty, but yet by the Principles of <HI>&s;ome</HI> men in our dayes, he did <HI>over-doc</HI> his duty, nay he did <HI>contrary</HI> to his duty; if the duty of every Magi&s;trate be, to be &s;o zealous of his own <HI>con&s;cience</HI> and way, as to tolerate <HI>no</HI> o|ther; as they affirme.</P>
<P>But it will be &s;aid further,
<MILESTONE UNIT="object."> that <HI>Cyrus</HI> was <HI>convinced</HI> of the God of <HI>I&s;rael</HI> to be the true God.</P>
<P>Grant that,
<MILESTONE UNIT="an&s;w."> yet what was that to the <HI>in&s;tituted</HI> wor&s;hip of the God of <HI>I&s;rael?</HI> was he convinced of <HI>that</HI> too? Why did he not then <HI>goe up</HI> him&s;elfe with them to <HI>Jeru&s;alem?</HI> No, but <HI>Cyrus</HI> was a Hea|then in <HI>wor&s;hip</HI> &s;till: Or, Why might not <HI>Cyrus</HI> have &s;aid, I know and acknowledge the true God as well as you, and do wor&s;hip him, therefore you &s;hall wor&s;hip him after the <HI>&s;ame</HI> manner as I do? No, but he leaves them to their <HI>con&s;ciences;</HI> els, if he had tyed them to his heatheni&s;h rites in wor&s;hipping the true God, they had been but &s;orry gainers by his conver&s;ion. La&s;tly, <HI>Cyrus</HI> was convinced that the God whom <HI>I&s;rael</HI> &s;erved was the true God; and is that thought by you as a &s;ufficient rea&s;on for all the favour he indulged them? Why then I appeale to you, whether you have not the <HI>&s;ame</HI> &amp; much <HI>more</HI> rea&s;on to indulge as large priviledges to your differing Bre|thren, of whom you never had &s;uch a &s;infull &s;cruple, (I in charity thinke) <HI>whether they wor&s;hipped the true God.</HI></P>
<PB N="47" REF="29">
<P>Therefore to conclude this In&s;tance; It &s;eemed rea&s;onable to <HI>Cyrus</HI> to doe what he did in way of favour to the <HI>Jewes,</HI> though he him&s;elfe was of <HI>different</HI> principles from them in wor&s;hip. For God &s;carce acts his <HI>owne</HI> people to any thing without rea&s;on, (much le&s;&s;e again&s;t rea&s;on) how much le&s;&s;e <HI>other</HI> men, who are not prepared with &s;uch a principle of re&s;ignation, and &s;ubmi&s;&s;ion of will and rea|&s;on, and all to him, as his owne are or ought to be?</P>
<P>The next In&s;tance is of <HI>Darius,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Darius.</HI></NOTE> who (upon the occa&s;ion of the <HI>Jewes</HI> adventuring upon the worke againe, after the pro&s;cription of <HI>Artaxerxes,</HI> and a long ce&s;&s;ation thereof, <HI>Chap.</HI> 4.) is con&s;ulted with by Letters from <HI>Tatnai,</HI> and <HI>Shetherboznai,</HI> Governours on the other &s;ide the River, what to doe, whether to &s;uffer them, or to hinder them; and you have <HI>Darius</HI> his an&s;wer, <HI>Chap.</HI> 6. which is to this purpo&s;e; <HI>That as upon &s;earch, he found a decree of Cyrus, authori|zing them to build;</HI> &s;o he charges <HI>Tatnai</HI> the Governour, &amp;c. <HI>She|therboznai,</HI> and their companions, <HI>to be far from hindring them, but to let the worke of this hou&s;e alone, and let the Governour and Elders of the Jewes build it, in its owne place:</HI> Marke, how all is left to their con&s;ciences: Yea moreover be&s;ides the former indulgence and di&s;|pen&s;ation of <HI>Cyrus, he decrees that of the Kings goods, even of the tri|bute beyond the River, forthwith expences &s;hould be mini&s;tred to them,</HI> (that they be not &s;o much as hindred or retarded) <HI>yea and &s;acrifices day by day.</HI></P>
<P>Ob&s;erve here, 'tis not permitted, but <HI>commanded,</HI> not to be con&s;i|dered, but <HI>forthwith</HI> executed and obeyed by the Kings Officers, not to be lent, but to be <HI>given,</HI> not to be rai<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ed of the people by tax, but to be <HI>taken</HI> out of the <HI>Kings</HI> revenue. O unparallell <HI>Darius!</HI> again&s;t many a <HI>Chri&s;tian</HI> Prince and Magi&s;trate &s;hall he ri&s;e up in judge|ment, that <HI>&s;nib</HI> and keep downe their own <HI>free-borne</HI> &s;ubjects, in the exerci&s;e of the <HI>&s;ame</HI> Religion that them&s;elves profe&s;&s;e, for differing in a <HI>Circum&s;tance</HI> comparatively. Well, the depth of <HI>Darius</HI> policy is this? that <HI>they may offer &s;acrifice, and pray for the life of the King and of his children. Darius</HI> thought it but rea&s;onable, that if they did accommodate him and his children in their prayers, he &s;hould ac|commodate them in offering &s;acrifice. <HI>Beneficium po&s;tulat Officium,</HI> and <HI>Officiwn</HI> relates to <HI>Beneficium.</HI> Doe yee expect our prayers, and will not let us offer &s;acrifice? <HI>How can wee &s;ing the Lords &s;ong in a &s;trange land?</HI> How can wee pray for you, but as wee are bound to
<PB N="48" REF="30">pray for enemies, that God would turne their hearts, and breake the rod of their oppre&s;&s;ion? But &s;hall not our hearts indeed be lif|ted up in the day of your &s;hewing kindne&s;s and &s;peaking friendly to us, to pray for you? Wee promi&s;e not that we will doe it. Or doe you thinke we <HI>cannot</HI> pray, or that our prayers are nothing worth, will not <HI>&s;tead</HI> you at all? or doe you not <HI>need</HI> our prayers? Wee goe on. <HI>This Decree he ratifies</HI> (doth <HI>not onely</HI> recommend an Order for their accommodation) but <HI>under the paine of a mo&s;t exemplary death, to him that &s;hould di&s;obey this Word, even the Timber &s;hould be puld down from his hou&s;e, to make a Gibbet to hang him on, and his hou&s;e to be made a Dunghill,</HI> Ezr. 6.11. <HI>Concluding with a generall cur&s;e, pronounced up|on all that &s;hould put to their hand to alter or de&s;troy that hou&s;e,</HI> ver. 12. <HI>be they Kings or people.</HI></P>
<P>Will you &s;ee now O Magi&s;trates, what you are to doe, and where to u&s;e your &s;word and authority, even again&s;t tho&s;e that <HI>hinder</HI> the building of the hou&s;e, that will not &s;uffer the poore Saints that are in&s;tructed, to build the hou&s;e according to the patterne, that they have taken out of the Word, but worke them di&s;turbance and per|&s;ecution. Such you ought to puni&s;h; why? not becau&s;e they are of a <HI>differing mind</HI> and <HI>way</HI> from us, no more then you ought to pu|ni&s;h us for being of a differing mind and way from them, but if they hinder us in this worke of building the hou&s;e of God, which <HI>they know not but</HI> we are <HI>&s;tirred</HI> up of God unto (we &s;ay we are) and <HI>di|rected</HI> by him therein, (we tru&s;t we are and &s;hall be.) Therefore let them take heed in the feare of God what they doe again&s;t us: and thinke not you may <HI>alter</HI> the hou&s;e, no more then <HI>de&s;troy</HI> it, or that you may hinder <HI>us</HI> any more then we may hinder <HI>you.</HI></P>
<P>The third and la&s;t In&s;tance,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Artaxerxes.</HI></NOTE> is of <HI>Artaxerxes</HI> (not that <HI>Artaxerxes</HI> by whom the building was pro&s;cribed, but another after him) who &s;ends <HI>Ezra</HI> with a large Commi&s;&s;ion and authority to <HI>Jeru|&s;alem,</HI> to this effect, <HI>Ezra</HI> 7.11. <HI>To take with him the re&s;idue of the peo|ple, Prie&s;ts and Levites, that would freely goe,</HI> (he thought it not rea|&s;onable to force them to goe, though they were of the Church by birth and Nation.) Ob&s;erve that by the way [<HI>all that are minded of their owne free will to goe up,</HI> ver. 13.] <HI>and to carry with him the free will offering of the King and his Coun&s;ellors, in gold and &s;ilver, and all the &s;ilver and gold he could find in the Province of Babylon, with the free will offering of the Prie&s;ts and people, to furni&s;h him&s;elfe for &s;acrifice, and
<PB N="49" REF="30">to doe with the overplus what &s;eemed good unto him; He had al&s;o ve&s;&s;els given him for the &s;eruice of the hou&s;e, and a liberty to take out of the Kings Trea&s;ure-hou&s;e, what&s;oever more was needfull, (and charges his Trea&s;u|rers accordingly to furni&s;h him) if it were to an hundred <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">dents of &s;il|ver, &amp;c. And what&s;oever is commanded</HI> (&s;ays he) <HI>by the God of Heaven, let it be diligently done.</HI> I be&s;eech you, what were <HI>Artaxerxes</HI> his in|gagements to God and his wor&s;hip, who was a &s;tranger thereto, that he &s;hould be more bound to take care of his hou&s;e, and that every command of God concerning it and his wor&s;hip there, &s;hould be diligently ob&s;erved; then Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trates and people are now adayes? Ob&s;erve how punctuall his naturall con&s;cience tells him the &s;ervants of God mu&s;t be; and what provi&s;ion he makes that they might be punctuall; and will you now on the contrary, blame, fine, impri&s;on them, for ob&s;erving punctually what their confciences &s;ay is commanded by the God of Heaven? <HI>Furthermore, he exempts all the Mini&s;ters of the Hou&s;e of God from all Taxes, and au|thorizes Ezra to place and di&s;place Magi&s;trates, for the advantage of the true Religion, which he commends to him to promote and &s;pread, as far as ever he can, ratifying this Commi&s;&s;ion under the paine of heavy puni&s;h|ment, to all that &s;hould oppo&s;e, according to the degree and quality of their oppo&s;ition:</HI></P>
<P>But <HI>Cyrus</HI> did this <HI>&s;lavi&s;hly;</HI> for he addes,
<MILESTONE UNIT="object."><HI>Why &s;hould there be wrath again&s;t the Realme of the King and his &s;onnes?</HI></P>
<P><HI>Cyrus</HI> did this for feare of wrath,
<MILESTONE N="an&s;w."> what then will not you doe it at all? Nay doe it <HI>for con&s;cience &s;ake,</HI> and not for wrath onely; as the Apo&s;tle &s;ays in another ca&s;e, or God is able to bring you under the &s;en&s;e and feare of wrath as well as <HI>Artaxerxes.</HI> Did God &s;ubject him to this feare (who was a Heathen, and was therefore more remote from &s;uch a duty) for <HI>not furthering,</HI> and will he not judge Chri|&s;tians and Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trates (as they will be acknowledged) for <HI>hindering</HI> the worke of his hou&s;e? Nay, if they doe not further and incourage all they can, that all things may be done accurately and preci&s;ely, that the God of Heaven hath commanded, leaving it to &s;pirituall men to judge, who alone are able.</P>
<P>Chri&s;t Je&s;us is the <HI>Prince of Peace;</HI> where he is kept out, there's trouble, and wrath. Therefore imitate at lea&s;t, and goe <HI><GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters"> farre</HI> as the&s;e Heathens herein; &s;o &s;hall <HI>wee pray for the King and his &s;onnes,</HI> for our Rulers and Governours, <HI>under whom wee live peaceable lives,
<PB N="50" REF="31">in all godline&s;&s;e and hone&s;ty:</HI> and &s;hall ble&s;&s;e God, as <HI>Ezra</HI> doth, <HI>Chap.</HI> 7.27. <HI>Who hath put &s;uch a thing into our Governours hearts, as to beautifie the Hou&s;e of God, which is at Jeru&s;alem.</HI></P>
<P>There is much the truly con&s;cientious expect from our Gover|nours, in the name of the Lord, after the pre&s;ident of the&s;e Kings; Not a toleration onely, but an <HI>accommodation, incouragement,</HI> and &s;ufficient <HI>Protection</HI> from all mole&s;tation and damage. The Lord inlarge your hearts in proportion to this great duty and oppor|tunitie.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 N="8" TYPE="chapter">
<HEAD>CHAP. VIII. <HI>Containing Examples out of the New Te&s;tament.</HI></HEAD>
<P>_WEE come to the times of the New Te&s;tament,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Sub Principib. Maccabaeis &amp; corum &s;ucce&s;|&s;oribus diver|&s;ae Judaeorum &s;ectae, Phari&s;ae, Sadducaei, E&s;|&s;aei, &amp; &s;im<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">les liber&egrave; vigueru~t &amp; &s;atis amic&egrave; inter &s;e vixe|runt.</HI> Al&s;t. de Eccl. l. 4. c. 14.</NOTE> begin|ning from our Lord and Saviour Je&s;us Chri&s;t, when there were I know not how many &s;ects, <HI>Ca&s;&s;ideans, Phari&s;ees, Sadduces, E&s;&s;enes, Gaulonites</HI> and <HI>Herodians:</HI> The&s;e all differing from one another, as materially as Chri&s;tians doe now adayes. Some holding no re&s;urrection, no An|gels, or Spirits; others, holding all the&s;e, &amp;c. yet they lived by one another; yea, and our Saviour Chri&s;t, who lived among them three and thirty yeares, and upwards, whereof three yeares and more he &s;pent in the Mini&s;try, never (that we read of) &s;tirr'd up the Magi&s;trate to reduce them to an unity, never in&s;tigates tho&s;e that were in the right, or neare&s;t the truth, to pro&s;ecute the other: Our Saviour did neither feare them, nor &s;pare them, but among all his woes that he pronounces, there's none again&s;t Magi&s;trates for not forcing.</P>
<P>Further,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Joh. Bapti&s;t.</NOTE> <HI>Johns</HI> Di&s;ciples were in a great error, had an envious eye upon Chri&s;t, and would have had their Ma&s;ter to have been the Me&s;&s;ias. What doth <HI>John</HI> doe to convince them, and to right our Saviour? Doth he cudgell them into the true faith, or &s;way their a&s;&s;ent by his place and authority? No: but he
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Joh. 7.19.</NOTE> &s;ends them to Je&s;us, to be convinced by his word and workes; and ob&s;ervable is our Saviours carriage: When the&s;e Me&s;&s;engers came to him, and
<PB N="51" REF="31">made their errand known, he doth not require (as at other times) their Faith to bear upon his naked te&s;timony of him&s;elfe, but he demon&s;trates what he was, both by effectuall words and workes, and &s;o is made manife&s;t in their con&s;ciences, as the Apo&s;tle &s;ayes el&s;ewhere of him&s;elfe.</P>
<P>Here was toleration, and giving time in Fundamentals, how much more may there, ought there to be the like in more circum|&s;tantiall differences?</P>
<P>And our Saviour foretels that there &s;hould <HI>ari&s;e fal&s;e Chri&s;ts, and fal&s;e Prophets, that &s;hould worke &s;ignes,</HI> and counterfeit the true Mini|&s;try, and <HI>deceive many.</HI> But what word ever dropt from Chri&s;ts mouth, of violence to be u&s;ed again&s;t them, as to drag them be|fore the Magi&s;trate, or the like? No, but he bids us beware of them, and tels us, <HI>By their fruits we &s;hall know them,</HI> Mat. 7.16. And &s;o a|gaine, <HI>ver.</HI> 20. <HI>By their fruits yee &s;hall know them.</HI> It was our Saviours plea&s;ure, that there &s;hould be a Chri&s;t and a Chri&s;t, Prophets and fal&s;e Prophets, Apo&s;tles and fal&s;e Apo&s;tles in the world; and that the one &s;hould be <HI>di&s;tingui&s;ht</HI> from the other, not by any brands or eare-markes, but by their fruits, and that the one &s;hould at length be overcome and <HI>extingui&s;ht</HI> by the other, not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit. Even <HI>Michael contending with the Devill, brings no railing accu&s;ation, but the Lord rebuke thee.</HI></P>
<P>And &s;o what differences were there after our Saviours depar|ture, in the Apo&s;tles dayes, about <HI>ob&s;erving dayes, eating meat &s;acri|ficed to Idols, Circumci&s;ion, covering the head or face in wor&s;hip,</HI> and the like; &s;ome of which were Church-differences; and how doth the Apo&s;tle endeavour to compo&s;e them, but by argument and rea&s;on, by reproving, exhorting, convincing? and where he meets with contentious &s;pirits, what &s;ays he? <HI>We have no &s;uch cu&s;tome, nor any of the Churches of God.</HI> Others were differences that diffu&s;ed them|&s;elves further, then in one particular Church, taking un&s;table minds up and downe (perhaps) every where; as the <HI>oppo&s;ition of the Law to the Go&s;pel and Circumci&s;ion, &amp;c.</HI> Now how did the Apo&s;tles be|have them&s;elves here, who were armed and in&s;tructed with a grea|ter power and authority for the vindicating of the truth, then ever any &s;ince, either Civill or Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall per&s;ons; and when occa&s;i|on was, &s;hewed it, &s;triking <HI>Ananias</HI> and <HI>Saphira</HI> dead in the place, for lying in the face of the Holy Gho&s;t, and their own con&s;ciences?
<PB N="52" REF="32">I &s;ay,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Paul</HI> in &s;un|dry ca&s;es.</NOTE> how did the&s;e men behave them&s;elves? Why, <HI>Paul</HI> is very hot (as one could wi&s;h) in his Epi&s;tle to the <HI>Galatians,</HI> he workes his head, and writes, and chides, and in&s;inuates, and exhorts, and de|nounces; <HI>If an Angel from Heaven, &amp;c.</HI> He was as warme as the A|po&s;tles were, when they called for <HI>fire from Heaven;</HI> as warme as any are now in the ca&s;e of Church-government; but his zeale expre&s;&s;es it &s;elfe the right way. Indeed, he hath one &s;mart pa&s;&s;age, <HI>I would they were even cut off that trouble you,</HI> but he cals not upon man to cut them off. Again, <HI>Paul</HI> knew in what cau&s;e he &s;aid it, not in a doubt|full cau&s;e, wherein he might have been wrong, and they right, but he &s;peakes this in a full a&s;&s;urance and demon&s;tration of the truth by the Spirit; and 'tis but a committing the judgement to God. In other Epi&s;tles we finde errours and here&s;ies lay in <HI>Pauls</HI> way, and in the way of the truth: and thereupon he cals upon the Mini&s;ters to quit them&s;elves, and &s;hews how they had need to be furni&s;hed and accompli&s;ht, that they may exhort and convince gain-&s;ayers; and they mu&s;t doe it with patience and meekne&s;&s;e, 2 <HI>Tim.</HI> 2.25. Some indeed mu&s;t be <HI>rebuked &s;harply, that they may be &s;ound in the faith.</HI> But here's no calling to, nor authorizing any to exerci&s;e any forcible coaction.</P>
<P>And (yet not to have done with <HI>Paul</HI>) who had &s;pirit enough for the truth, yet where he might, how did he <HI>become all things to all men? to the Jewes he was as a Jew, &amp;c.</HI> Not by an unworthy di&s;&s;i|mulation, putting on any forme, to the humours of the pre&s;ent company, but by a friendly accord, and walking with them, not|with&s;tanding tho&s;e differences; that his pre&s;ence was no more dreadfull, nor his company any more unplea&s;ant to them, then if he were one of their own, a Jew, or of the Circumci&s;ion. And here|in the Apo&s;tle held forth an eminent practi&s;e of his owne Rule, 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 13. who after he had arbitrated in many Controver&s;ies, in the foregoing part of the Epi&s;tle, and laboured to compound their differences, and to bring them to an uniformity in the right order, (which if it may be had, I grant is not indifferently de&s;ireable) <HI>yet</HI> (&s;ays he) <HI>&s;hew I unto you a more excellent way:</HI> and that is the way of <HI>charity</HI> and <HI>love,</HI> as it follows: which is better then to have a mans mind poli&s;hed with the pure&s;t notions and livelie&s;t apprehen&s;ions. Its better for Chri&s;tians to be able to exerci&s;e abundance of love in differences, then to jump all ju&s;t in a judgement. For Mu&s;ick is not
<PB N="53" REF="32">made with one &s;tring, nor with many &s;trings &s;et to the &s;ame note, but of various notes and &s;trings, rightly &s;et and &s;ubdued to a har|mony, is the &s;weete&s;t mu&s;ick, and of differing In&s;truments. Indeed, if they be not &s;o &s;et and &s;ubdued, the variety makes but a mo&s;t un|plea&s;ant cra&s;hing confu&s;ion: &s;o it is in this ca&s;e of different judge|ments, with or without love. As order is &s;aid to be the forme of the univer&s;e, &s;o love may be &s;aid to be the forme of the Church, which makes us all one, and u&s;efull to one another in what we have, pity|ing and pardoning one another in what we have not.</P>
<P>La&s;tly, <HI>Paul</HI> fore&s;aw that as there were great, &s;o there would be greater errors, <HI>Acts</HI> 20.29. <HI>For I know this</HI> (&s;ays he) <HI>that after my de|parture, &s;hall grievous wolves enter in, &amp;c. Al&s;o of your owne &s;elves &s;hall men ari&s;e, &s;peaking perver&s;e things, drawing Di&s;ciples after them.</HI> But what cour&s;e doth <HI>Paul</HI> advi&s;e them to? but bids them therefore <HI>watch, and remember how by the &s;pace of three yeares, he had warned eve|ryone of them night and day with teares,</HI> ver. 31. Yet are wee to have (after <HI>Pauls</HI> example) a &s;erious zeale again&s;t pernicious doctrines, and the ob&s;tinate di&s;&s;eminators of them.</P>
</DIV3>
<DIV3 N="9" TYPE="chapter">
<HEAD>CHAP. IX. <HI>Of Examples and Te&s;timonies recorded and com|mended to us by humane Writings.</HI></HEAD>
<P>_SHall we fall downe from the&s;e times (the &s;acred Stories going no further) to the &s;ucceeding times continued by other Hi&s;tories, <HI>Eu&s;ebius, Theodoret,</HI> and others, out of whom (and e&s;pecially out of an unparalleld golden Ma|nu&s;cript I have &s;eene, which I wholly leave to tell his owne Tale) many In&s;tances, very pregnant and commendable, might be pro|duced, principally in the times of <HI>Con&s;tantine,</HI> and his &s;onnes, and both the <HI>Theodo&s;ius<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">es,</HI> and &s;ome other Emperours, who tolerated divers wayes, and pre&s;erved the peace between the &s;everall profe&s;|&s;ors of them; but that it would increa&s;e the bulke of this Argu|ment, far beyond what was intended, therefore I &s;hall content my &s;elfe with one onely, that indeed an eminent one.</P>
<P>And before I bring forth that, I mu&s;t vindicate the truth from
<PB N="54" REF="33">needing that one, or any humane te&s;timonies; and though it be lawfull to bring them, yet I would not <HI>be brought under the power</HI> of &s;uch an obligation. But they may &s;tand us in good &s;tead, thus far, to induce an eare that is inclined to Antiquity and Authority. And what wee &s;ee of this kinde in darke times, in men voyd of Religion, and &s;ufficiently zealous of their own &s;uper&s;tition, is like to be con|&s;onant to rea&s;on, and the principles of naturall light; and &s;o this In&s;tance or In&s;tances will have much authority with them, and a vertue not onely <HI>illu&s;trative,</HI> but <HI>argumentative.</HI> The In&s;tance is this;</P>
<P>Many complaints were brought by them of <HI>A&s;ia,</HI>
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Marcus Aure|lius Antonius. Eu&s;eb. Eccl. Hi&s;t.</NOTE> the Elders and Judges thereof, to the Emperour <HI>Marcus Aurelius Antonius,</HI> (as to his Father before him) upon occa&s;ion of an Earth-quake which did them great damage,) again&s;t the Chri&s;tians, who by rea&s;on of their different Religion were <HI>their</HI> envy, &amp; a great eye-&s;ore to them, charging the&s;e Chri&s;tians to be the cau&s;e of that Earth-quake, (as was their manner upon every mi&s;-fortune that befell them, and to cry out again&s;t them, <HI>Ad Leones</HI>) even as now all the faction and tumult is laid upon tender Con&s;ciences; to whom the Emperour an&s;wers thus, &mdash; <HI>De motibus autem terrae, &amp;c. Comperi quod in hu|ju&s;cemodi rebus, ad illorum invidiam, communes ca&s;us transfertis, &amp;c. &mdash; Super quibus plurimis ex Provinciis Judices etiam venerabili Patri no&s;tro &s;crip&s;erunt. Quibus re&s;criptum e&s;t ab eo, ut nihil omnino mole&s;tiae, huju&s;cemodi hominibus generarent, ni&s;i fort&egrave; arguerentur, aliquid adver|&s;um Romani Regni &s;tatum moliri. Sed &amp; mihi ip&s;i, de his quam plurimi retulerunt, quibus ego paternam &s;ecutus &s;ententiam, pari moderatione re|&s;crip&s;i. Quod &s;i quis per&s;i&s;tit huju&s;cemodi hominibus ab&s;&abque; ullo crimine movere negotia, ille quidem qui delatus pro hoc nomine fuerit, ab&s;olvatur, etiam&s;i probetur id e&s;&s;e quod ei objicitur, Chri&s;tianus; is autem qui cri|men obtendit, reus poenae ip&s;ius quam objecit, exi&s;tat.</HI> The &s;umme of it in Engli&s;h is this; <HI>That as for the Earth-quake, he hath found by expe|rience, that they doe put common accidents upon their</HI> (i. <HI>the Chri&s;tians</HI>) <HI>account out of envy, and commands them as his Father had done before, not to worke the&s;e men any trouble, except they &s;hould be found to attempt any thing again&s;t the Roman Empire. If any did cau&s;ele&s;ly mole&s;t them, the Chri&s;tian &s;hould goe free, and his accu&s;er &s;hould &s;uffer the puni&s;hment he would bring upon him.</HI> Here's now a Heathen, not onely tolera|ting a contrary Religion to his own (for he remained a very Hea|then
<PB N="55" REF="33">&s;till, as the fir&s;t pa&s;&s;age of his Epi&s;tle &s;hews; <HI>Ego quidem non ambigo Diis ip&s;is cu<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ae e&s;&s;e ne quis noxius lateat; Multo enim magis illis convenit punire eos qui ip&s;is immo<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">are nolunt, quam vobis</HI>) but counte|nancing and pleading for it, not onely not impeaching it of facti|on, but implicitly clearing of it, not onely providing for their e&s;cape of unju&s;t puni&s;hment, but making an Ordinance to doe them ju&s;tice upon their cau&s;le&s;&s;e accu&s;ers. How &s;hall this Emperour ri&s;e up in judgement at the la&s;t day, again&s;t many in the&s;e dayes?</P>
<P>How many of the Ancients have father'd this opinion of mine,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Au&s;tin</HI> how he came to be again&s;t us.</NOTE> I take not upon me to tell. But <HI>Au&s;tin</HI> once for us, afterwards got|ten from us, by what means, I &s;hall give you account out of <HI>Peter Martyr: At&abque; haec ratio fuit cur Augu&s;tinus cum ante&agrave; judica&s;&s;et, non oportere Magi&s;tratum anim <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">dvertere in Haereticos, po&s;te&agrave; mutavit &s;enten|tiam: Alii enim Epi&s;copi proferebant multas Eccle&s;ias, quae met<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> Impe|ratorum &amp; Legum, &agrave; Donati&s;tarum factione de&s;civi&s;&s;ent, &amp; jam a&s;&s;uetu|dine cognovi&s;&s;ent Catholicam veritatem, ut nullo pacto vellent ab e&acirc; di&s;|cedere; The Bi&s;hops of &s;everall places told him what great &s;ucce&s;&s;e the Em|perours force had to reclaime men from Donati&s;me.</HI> But &s;ucce&s;&s;e alone is not a rule for wi&s;e men to goe by, in as much as <HI>Solomon</HI> &s;ays; <HI>That there be ju&s;t men</HI> (and &s;o ju&s;t wayes) <HI>to whom it happeneth according to the worke of the wicked, and there be wicked men,</HI> (and &s;o wicked wayes) <HI>unto whom it happeneth according to the worke of the righteous.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Zanchy</HI> puts the <HI>Cri&s;is</HI> of the utmo&s;t extent of the Magi&s;trates au|thority, not upon all evill manners, dome&s;ticall or publique,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Zanchy.</HI></NOTE> except they di&s;turbe the publique peace, or hinder the publique good; though yet they may fall under the Churches Cognizance, yea cor|rection. His words are the&s;e; <HI>There are many wickedne&s;&s;es, again&s;t which the Magi&s;trate truly Chri&s;tian, doth not u&s;e to proceed, neither is bound by his lawes; is al&s;o many evill manners, both dome&s;ticall and pub|lique, which doe not di&s;turbe the publique peace, on the publique good: But the Church ought not to beare the&s;e, but to correct them according to Chri&s;ts in&s;titution.</HI> Now then if by <HI>Zanchies</HI> rule, <HI>di&s;turbing the pub|lique peace and good,</HI> is that which brings in the Magi&s;trate, and gives him Cognizance of mi&s;demeanours and wickedne&s;&s;es, then by his judgement, errours in faith, or practi&s;e of Religion, are not within the Magi&s;trates Cognizance, except they be &s;uch in their nature or managing, as di&s;turb the publique peace. Which is all that wee aske.</P>
<PB N="56" REF="34">
<P>And how far the &s;pirits of many now are from the moderation of later Authors and Writers,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Al&s;ted.</NOTE> I might &s;hew. <HI>Al&s;ted</HI> delivers his po|&s;ition thus upon the Que&s;tion; <HI>De pace Religionis, (ut vocant) &s;eu de libertate Religionis, &s;ive de bono autonomie: An &amp; quatenus concedi po&s;&s;it &agrave; pi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> Magi&s;tratu? &V;bi licet nos concedamus unam duntax it Reli|gionem, quam videlicet ip&s;e Magi&s;tratus veram agno&s;cit ex verbo Dei, ab eodem Magi&s;tratu, pro virili con&s;ervandam e&s;&s;e, neminem tamen ad ean|dem extern&acirc; aliqua vi cogendum e&s;&s;e docemus: quin potius &s;uam Con&s;ci|entiis libertatem relinquendam: Et non nunquam etiam diver&s;arum Re|ligionum exercitium, &s;i non publicum, &s;altem privatum, aut clande&s;tinum ex &s;ingularibus cau&s;is permittendum e&s;&s;e &s;tatuimus. At&abque; hoc demum &s;en|&s;u pacem &amp; concordiam externam &s;eu politiam inter Orthodoxos &amp; non orthodoxos, &s;aepe etiam haereticos &s;imul colendam, ab ip&s;o pio Magi&s;tratu procurari, &amp; p<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;&s;e &amp; debere exi&s;timamus.</HI> I could not wi&s;h my judge|ment more happily expre&s;t, nor words more accommodate to my &s;en&s;e, <HI>viz. That though the Magi&s;trate be with might and maine to de|fend but one Religion, even that which he judges to be the truth by the Word of God; yet none ought to be compeld to that by outward force, but every mans Con&s;cience to be left at liberty, &amp;c.</HI> (I &s;hall not Engli&s;h it all;) <HI>and that a Civill externall peace &s;hould be maintain'd by the god|ly Magi&s;trate, even between Orthodox and Heterodox.</HI> And he gives three
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><P>Prima niti|tur generali|bus illis &s;crip|turae dictis, qu&eogon; ju&s;titiam &amp; charitatem &s;tudium&abque; pacis &amp; co~cordiae &s;eri&ograve; nobis omnibus com|mendant: &amp; ne quid alit&egrave;r adver&s;us proximum &s;tatuamus, qu&agrave;m qualit&egrave;r nobi&s;cum agi velle|mus di&s;ert&egrave; praecipiunt. Deni&abque; ut con&s;cientiis &s;uam libertatem concedamus &amp; di&s;&s;entientes in negotio Religionis amic&egrave; toleremus, omnino mandant, <HI>Mat.</HI> 5.7. <HI>Rom.</HI> 12.14. &amp; alibi.</P>
<P>Secunda petitur ab exemplis &s;apientium &amp; piorum Principu~, tum in veteri tum in N. Te&s;t. &amp;c.</P>
<P>Tertia ab ip&s;a naturali equitate item&abque; adjuncta utilitate, qu&agrave;m etiam experientia quotidiana fere comprobat. Nam praeterquam quod aequi&s;&s;imum e&s;t, in cau&s;a Religionis ab omni vi &amp; co|actione externa ab&s;tinere, ip&s;is etiam rebus publicis ut ita fiat, omnino expedit, at&abque; conducit; quippe quae alioqui facillim&egrave; turbarentur, &amp; inte&s;tinis bellis, ac mutuis lanienis tandem conci|derent: prout hactenus in multis Europae provinciis, Gallia prae&s;ertim &amp; B<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">gio, accidi&s;&s;e novi|mus. Cum contr&agrave; in Germania, Helvetia, Polonia, &amp; alibi locorum, in quibus Religionum li|berta<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> hactenus indulta fuit, i&s;tis di&s;cordiis &amp; lanienis, non fuerit locus. Ergo res ip&s;a per&s;e li|cita, &amp; bona e&s;t, etiam&s;i per accidens abu&s;us aliquis accedere po&s;&s;it. <HI>Al&s;t. de Eccl. lib.</HI> 4. <HI>c.</HI> 14.</P></NOTE> Rea&s;ons for his judgement, which I &s;hall transject into the Margent.</P>
<P>And what Reformation this Kingdome had in the late dayes, it did con&s;i&s;t in the incoaction or &s;pontaneou&s;ne&s;s of it in the Parlia|ment,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Hum&s;red. de ver&acirc; Relig. &amp;c.</NOTE> what&s;oever it did in the people; as one reports of it; <HI>Nam in
<PB N="57" REF="34">&s;enatu, ut fertur, patuit omnibus ad dicendum locus, nec ulli hominum generi pote&s;tas contradicendi, &s;uam&abque; fidem profitendi interclu&s;a e&s;t; im&ograve; integrum fuit cui&abque; liberis velitari ac pugnare &s;ententiis, in quo &s;umma elucet aequitas &amp; moderatio Principum, qui allicere, ducere, per&s;uadere; non cogere, trahere, jubere voluerunt; ut impudens mendacium &s;it, &s;i quis jam dixerit, authoritatem vici&s;&s;e, non vecitatem. Illud etiam con&s;tat, liberum fui&s;&s;e adver&s;ariae parti in publica di&s;putatione &s;uas partes tueri, arbitris adhibitis incorruptioribus, &s;ive voce &s;ive calamo certare, &s;ive oppo|nere, &s;ive re&s;pondere malui&s;&s;ent.</HI> Humfr. de vera Relig. con&s;erv. p. 31, 32.</P>
<P>I quote the words, becau&s;e if they had never been realized, yet the <HI>Idea</HI> of &s;uch a carriage when men are &s;eeking out the truth is lovely, as being very equall and rationall.</P>
<P>And if I were in <HI>Davids</HI> ca&s;e, 1 <HI>Sam.</HI> 21. without my &s;word and weapons, I might tran&s;late two or three pages out of M^r <HI>Edwards Antapology.</HI> I &s;hall produce but a pa&s;&s;age or two, <HI>p.</HI> 168. he hath the&s;e <Q>words; Now the remedies appointed for the&s;e (<HI>viz.</HI> Church-mat|ters, &amp; matters of Con&s;cience, and the inward man) are &s;pirituall and Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall, namely, &s;pirituall puni&s;hments. Chri&s;t &s;aith, <HI>My kingdome is not of this world:</HI> and the Apo&s;tle, 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> 10.3, 4, 5. <HI>The weapons of our warfare are not carnall, but mighty through God, to the pulling downe of &s;trong holds,</HI> by which the &s;pirit, and the inward man, even every thought is &s;ubjected to the obedience of Chri&s;t. Spirituall remedies and meanes mu&s;t be u&s;ed in the kingdome of Chri&s;t, and by them Chri&s;t doth his worke; and hence in Eccle|&s;ia&s;ticall Di&s;cipline, and tho&s;e &s;candals in the Church, all the pu|ni&s;hments in the body, and in the pur&s;e, which can be by the Ma|gi&s;trate, have no place, neither can &s;uch means which are of a dif|ferent kinde from the &s;pirituall kingdome of Chri&s;t, produce tho&s;e effects which belong to that heavenly kingdome. 'Tis out of the &s;pheare of the activity of the Politicall Magi&s;trate to &s;ub|due the inward man, or to inflict &s;pirituall puni&s;hment upon the Con&s;cience, &amp;c.</Q> Thus M^r <HI>Edwards,</HI> and far more, which I mu&s;t o|mit for brevity &s;ake. Therefore I hope he will not thinke it meet to pre&s;&s;e the Magi&s;trates power in the <HI>Presbyteries</HI> quarrell, relating to <HI>Church-matters,</HI> &amp;c. which here he &s;o expre&s;ly declines.</P>
<P>To tell what <HI>Triglandius,</HI> and the <HI>Walacbrian</HI> and <HI>Leyden</HI> Pro|fe&s;&s;ors &s;ay in this point, were to tran&s;late Volumes worthy of a di|&s;tinct labour by it &s;elfe. For the&s;e that are produced, I have not
<PB N="58" REF="35">puld them from the &s;hockes of any Di&s;cour&s;es of this Argument, already prepared and dige&s;ted, which were a labour thankle&s;&s;e and needle&s;&s;e, but have gleaned and gathered the&s;e fragments here and there from places alien enough from this &s;ubject (at lea&s;t de&s;igned|ly,) that there might be no lo&s;&s;e.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="3" TYPE="section">
<HEAD>SECT. III.</HEAD>
<DIV3 N="10" TYPE="chapter">
<HEAD>CHAP. X. <HI>Wherein Objections are an&s;wered.</HI></HEAD>
<P>I Shall begin with the great and maine Objection of all,
<MILESTONE N="1" UNIT="object."><HI>viz.</HI> the Example of the Kings of <HI>Juda, A&s;a, Jeho&s;aphat, Hezekiah, Jo&s;iah,</HI> who reduced the people to the true wor|&s;hip, by compul&s;ory meanes; For 'tis &s;aid of <HI>A&s;a's</HI> refor|mation, 2 <HI>Chron.</HI> 15.13. <HI>That they entred into a Covenant, to &s;eeke the Lord God of their Fathers; and that who&s;oever would not, &s;hould be put to death:</HI> And of <HI>Jo&s;iah,</HI> 2 Chron. 34.32. that renuing the Covenant fir&s;t him&s;elfe, he <HI>cau&s;ed al&s;o all that were pre&s;ent in Jeru&s;alem and Ben|jamin to &s;tand to it.</HI> He [cau&s;ed] them.</P>
<P>To this I might give a manifold an&s;wer;
<MILESTONE N="1" UNIT="an&s;w."> as fir&s;t I might wi&s;h you to look into the particulars of their Reformation, whereabout they exerci&s;ed a compul&s;ive power; and it will be found to be about maine &s;ub&s;tantiall fundamentall things; not &s;uch as the pre&s;ent dif|ferences among Chri&s;tians; &s;o that the Argument comes not home to the Ca&s;e and Que&s;tion. There might be different opinions a|mong the Reformi&s;ts of <HI>Judah,</HI> notwith&s;tanding that they did all &s;eeke the Lord God of their Fathers; and it might be indulged to them in tho&s;e opinions, though they were compelled to this.</P>
<P>Againe,
<MILESTONE N="2"> the compul&s;ion they exerci&s;ed in the matter of &s;eeking the Lord God of their Fathers, was by expre&s;&s;e po&s;itive law, warranted, yea and in&s;tituted, <HI>Deut.</HI> 13.9. For 'twas no other then that law that this practi&s;e refer'd unto; which is the law pro|vided again&s;t inticing to Idolatry; to which law they had given their formall and expre&s;&s;e con&s;ent, to the very letter of it; and re|ceived as a reward the land of <HI>Canaan;</HI> which al&s;o they injoyed on that condition. Which law, if the equity of it hold &s;till, (and it
<PB N="59" REF="35">were not a temporary judiciall law peculiar to that Nation that was Church and Nation interchangeably) yet will it not impeach or prejudice the liberty and forbearance here &s;ued for; we plead not for manife&s;t Idolatry, nor any &s;uch practi&s;e a<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> is again&s;t the light of Nature.</P>
<P>But thirdly, What&s;oever they did rightly, (and what ever they might have done more, in this kind, perhaps,) yet cannot be drawn into pre&s;ident by us, and that becau&s;e there is not <HI>par
<NOTE N="a" PLACE="marg"><HI>Vid. Trigland.</HI> 1 <HI>De pote&s;tate Civili &amp; Ec|cle&s;ia&s;tic&acirc;. c.</HI> 12.</NOTE> ratio</HI> for it now. As I &s;hall &s;hew in a foure-fold difference of tho&s;e times, and the&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, tho&s;e were the times of the old Te&s;tament, the&s;e of the New, therefore 'tis not a &s;ound way of arguing from them to us in every thing; If they were under Tutors and Governours, it doth not follow that we mu&s;t be &s;o, nay the Apo&s;tle &s;ayes the contrary; if the Church in her nonage was u&s;ed more like a &s;ervant then a &s;on, mu&s;t they therefore when they are growne up? How ever it was that their &s;ervice was compul&s;orily required from them, wee have a word that ours &s;hould be free, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 110. <HI>Thy people &s;hall be
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign"> <HI>vo|luntaria.</HI> The word comes from the &s;ame root that is u|&s;ed <HI>Exod.</HI> 25.2 &amp; Chap. 35.5. Where cauti|on is put in, that all their offerings to the rearing of the Taberna|cle &s;hould be mo&s;t free: and the thing &s;prings from the &s;ame e|quity; and the example of Go&s;pel-con|verts confirms it, <HI>Act.</HI> 2.41. yea, and the rule of &s;uch conver&s;&s;on, 2 <HI>Tim.</HI> 25, 26.</NOTE> willing in the day of thy power,</HI> which day of Chri&s;ts power, is the times of the Go&s;pel adaequately, though &s;ome more &s;peciall time may (I de|ny not) be refer'd unto, and &s;ome more eminent accompli&s;hment of this promi&s;e, by a &s;ubdivi&s;ion of the times of the Go&s;pel.</P>
<P>Secondly, Their wor&s;hip was carnall, bodily, outward, con&s;i&s;ting much in the conformity of the outward man and practi&s;e to certain worldly Ordinances, <HI>Heb.</HI> 9. to the production and pre&s;ervation of which the in&s;tanced meanes of the Magi&s;trates compul&s;ion might beare a great proportion of &s;ufficiency and efficacy. But the wor|&s;hip of the New Te&s;tament is chiefly in the heart, and hidden man, in &s;pirit and in truth, <HI>Joh.</HI> 4. Which is at the back of no humane force or power: therefore it is no good argument from that wor|&s;hip to this.</P>
<P>Thirdly, The Kings of <HI>Judah</HI> (as it is generally received) had a peculiar Notion from Kings now; therefore 'tis no good argument from them to the&s;e; For they had not onely a Civill notion, but an Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall al&s;o, which ours have not; They were types of Chri&s;t the King of the Church, and did bear vi&s;ibly and execute typically his Kingly office, (even as Prie&s;ts and Prophets did his other two offices,) as is manife&s;t by tho&s;e glorious promi&s;es of dominion and
<PB N="60" REF="36">&s;tability, that are made to Chri&s;t in the per&s;ons of the Kings of <HI>Ju|dah;</HI> and to bring home this exception, what is alledg'd to be done by them in the foregoing in&s;tances of compelling the people, was done by vertue of their Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall Notion. But now the ca&s;e is otherwi&s;e. Our Kings are onely the Mini&s;ters of God in the world, (ruling indeed <HI>for</HI> the Church, not <HI>in</HI> the Church, and <HI>over</HI> it as then,) neither are they anointed in any &s;uch Notion as <HI>They</HI> were, that is, to execute the Kingly office of Chri&s;t in his Church.</P>
<P>Fourthly, and la&s;tly, The people of the <HI>Jewes</HI> were interchange|ably a Church &amp; a Nation, (&s;o that he who was head of the State, was &s;o al&s;o of the Church in a typicall way; as he that was a member of the Common-wealth, was by that a member of the Church, and <HI>vice ver&s;a</HI>) which no people ever &s;ince were, there|fore the Argument will not hold from <HI>I&s;rael</HI> to <HI>England,</HI> or any o|ther Nation: and this compul&s;ive power that was exerci&s;ed by the Kings of <HI>Judah</HI> among them, did relate to this Notion. Now then to any other Nation, that neither is nor can be lookt upon under &s;uch a Notion, &s;uch a di&s;cipline is not applicable: For a &s;pirituall body as the Church, and a &s;pirituall power or juri&s;diction, (as if it be Chri&s;ts it is,) are relatives, and as <HI>po&s;ito relato ponitur &amp; correla|tum: &s;o &s;ublato uno relatorum tollitur &amp; alterum.</HI> Now though I know a Nationall Church in one &s;en&s;e is the apple of &s;ome mens eye, (and M^r <HI>Prin</HI> of late hath endeavoured to make a lid for it with a numerous quotation out of the old and new Te&s;tament, <HI>I&s;a.</HI> 2.2. <HI>Mic.</HI> 4.7. &amp;c. But tho&s;e places doe no more hold forth <HI>Nationall</HI> Conver&s;ions and Churches, then the 12. <HI>Joh.</HI> 47. <HI>&amp; Eph.</HI> 1. <HI>Joh.</HI> 2.2. which &s;peak of Chri&s;ts dying for the &s;ins of the <HI>world,</HI> yea the <HI>whole</HI> world, doe hold forth <HI>univer&s;all</HI> redemption.) Yet in this &s;en&s;e they will none of them hold it; That as in <HI>I&s;rael,</HI> &s;o in <HI>England,</HI> &s;o in <HI>Scotland</HI> the Nation is holy, and all that are borne in it are of the Church <HI>ip&s;o facto,</HI> or <HI>ip&s;o natu;</HI> and if not &s;o, then may not Chri&s;ts Kingly Scepter, which relates onely to his Church, be &s;wayed over them all generally. Therefore Kings or Magi&s;trates may not now as then compell men to Religion: But that which tho&s;e Kings did in a typicall way, Chri&s;t the King of his Church doth in a &s;piritu|all antitypical way of accompli&s;hment; that is, as <HI>Jeho&s;aphat</HI> the type di&s;tributed the knowledge and feare of the Lord by his Princes, (or
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign"> The chiefe ones.</NOTE> chiefe Prie&s;ts, for &s;o the word may be rendred indifferently) with
<PB N="61" REF="36">the a&s;&s;i&s;tance of Levites through his Dominions (which was Chri&s;ts dominion and the Church adaequately then;) &s;o Chri&s;t Je&s;us the true King, it is his part, (and he did it when he a&s;cended, giving gifts to men,) efficaciou&s;ly to apply and bring home to his Church the <GAP DESC="foreign"> of his Prie&s;tly and Propheticall office; and &s;o might their other acts be paralleld by the Antitype.</P>
<P>Another Objection like unto the former, is Uniformity.
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Object.</HI> 2.</NOTE> How &s;hall there be uniformity, if there be this liberty?</P>
<P>Unity there is and ought to be,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">An&s;w.</NOTE> and uniformity al&s;o is to be in|deavoured after, becau&s;e the Apo&s;tle &s;ays, <HI>Whereto we have attained, let us walke by the &s;ame rule,</HI> Phil. 3.16. But this cannot be in all things attained, more then to thinke the &s;ame thing, to which yet wee are al&s;o exhorted. <HI>There is one body,</HI> the Apo&s;tle &s;ays,
<NOTE PLACE="marg">Eph. 4.</NOTE> <HI>and one &s;pirit, even as we are called in one hope of our calling; One Lord, one Faith, one Bapti&s;me, one God, and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all.</HI> Here's unity over and over, but this doth not ne|ce&s;&s;arily draw uniformity after it in all things. Nay the Apo&s;tle &s;ays the quite contrary. <HI>But to every one of us is given grace, according to the mea&s;ure of the gift of Chri&s;t;</HI> Not to every one the &s;ame gift, nor the &s;ame mea&s;ure. As not to every Officer, &s;o not to every Church, nor to every Chri&s;tian; much le&s;&s;e to every man. The rule holds proportionably throughout, <HI>Eph.</HI> 4.4. And wherefore doth the Apo&s;tle &s;o urge and in&s;i&s;t upon unity, but partly, if not chiefly to &s;alve up the want of uniformity? as <HI>ver.</HI> 3. doth &s;hew. For <HI>ver.</HI> 2. he exhorts them to the duty (contended for through this di&s;cour&s;e,) of forbearing one another in love, (that is, in ca&s;e of differences it mu&s;t be &s;uppo&s;ed) not &s;o much as to cen&s;ure one another; (much le&s;&s;e to pro&s;ecute one another) and as an Argument to this forbear|ance, he minds them of their unity, <HI>ver.</HI> 3. Now what need were there of pre&s;&s;ing to unity where there is uniformity, <HI>(Saevis inter &s;e convenit ur&s;is,)</HI> where all are of a &s;traine? What needs a bond of peace, where there are no crackes nor flawes of divi&s;ion? Neither were the pre&s;ervation of peace upon &s;uch termes thank-worthy a|mong them. Again, to require uniformity in a compul&s;ory way, is to bind heavier burdens on the Churches, then Chri&s;t hath laid upon them: Doth not the Apo&s;tle &s;ay mercifully,
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Phil. 3.16.</NOTE> <HI>Neverthele&s;s</HI> (that is, notwith&s;tanding all our particular &amp; &s;everall apprehen&s;ions) <HI>where|unto we have attained, let us walke together by the &s;ame Rule, and if any
<PB N="62" REF="37">man be otherwi&s;e minded, God &s;hall reveale even this unto him.</HI> To vio|late unity in the zeale of uniformity, is a bargain as will never make us rich.
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Rom. 14.15.</NOTE> <HI>Wilt thou for meat,</HI> &s;ays the Apo&s;tle, <HI>de&s;troy him for whom Chri&s;t dyed?</HI> Gold may be bought too deare, &s;o may uniformity. And is it not as vaine an expectation to have all men of one appre|hen&s;ion in all things, as to have all men of the &s;ame &s;tature or com|plexion, or their faces to be all alike? Is it not the glory of heaven|ly my&s;teries, that <HI>as the Heavens for height, and the earth for depth,</HI> &s;o they &s;hould be of an infinite in&s;crutability, and exerci&s;e the parts and acutene&s;&s;e of men in an endle&s;&s;e variety? But la&s;tly, Uniformi|ty was the Bi&s;hops Argument (and let it dye with them) having in it more of name then of realty. As the Apo&s;tle &s;ays in the ca&s;e of &s;inging, be &s;ure it be done with a gracefull heart, <HI>Col.</HI> 3.16. <HI>Making melody in our &s;pirits,</HI> els a gracefull and melodious voice is a bawble, for God is a Spirit: So we may &s;ay in the matter in hand; There is indeed an outward uniformity, but this is nothing in compari&s;on of the inward uniformity which con&s;i&s;ts in the having the &s;ame Chri&s;t in all our hearts, working the &s;ame workes of mortification and vivification in us: and this is not called indeed by &s;o &s;leight a name as Uniformity; 'tis Unity as before: Without which, Uni|formity is an abomination; but where unity is, uniformity may be, nay, mu&s;t be di&s;pens'd withall, except it may be had upon ea&s;ier termers then compul&s;ion.</P>
<P>And let me advi&s;e tho&s;e that are thus bent for uniformity, and would purcha&s;e it at any rate, in <HI>Solomons</HI> words; <HI>Be not righteous over much, neither make thy &s;elfe over-wi&s;e, why &s;houldst thou de&s;troy thy &s;elfe?</HI> as by &s;uch burning and con&s;uming zeale and &s;ollicitude, which will never &s;ee an&s;werable fruit; for God hath &s;aid, <HI>there mu&s;t be here&s;ies,</HI> and there &s;hall be &s;o, &amp; all this over-care will <HI>not adde one cubit</HI> to the Churches <HI>&s;tature:</HI> And it is again&s;t your own happine&s;s to have a will thus ingaged to impo&s;&s;ibilities: You cannot po&s;&s;e&s;&s;e your &s;elves in peace. God &s;ings a <HI>requiom</HI> to him&s;elfe in all the&s;e, for all things &s;ucceed according to his purpo&s;e, and when we have &s;hewed due care, and u&s;ed all due meanes for preventing, for reclar|ming errours, we &s;hould be quiet too. For that which is crooked, can no man make &s;traight, and that which is wanting, cannot be numbred. Take heed of an evill eye;
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Pro. 28.22.</NOTE> <HI>He that ha&s;teth to be rich,</HI> &s;ays <HI>Solomon, hath an evill eye;</HI> So likewi&s;e hath he who&s;e eye will be &s;a|tisfied
<PB N="63" REF="37">with nothing but uniformity; 'tis an eye that covets an un|attaineable happines, though I know not whether I may terme it happines, and whether it be not a greater happines, that Saints dif|fering in the judgement and practi&s;e of &s;ome things, can yet love one another, and keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace notwith&s;tanding.
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Eccl. 2.24.</NOTE> <HI>There is nothing better</HI> (as <HI>Solomon</HI> &s;ays in another ca&s;e) <HI>then that a man eat and drinke, and make his &s;oule injoy good in his labour;</HI> &s;o &s;ay I, nothing better then to rejoyce in that proporti|on and degree of truth and peace which God gives one to &s;ee: and know this, that as he &s;ays of pro&s;perity and adver&s;ity, &s;o the pro|portion holds of truths and errours: <HI>God hath &s;et the one over again&s;t the other, to the intent that man &s;hould find nothing after him,</HI> (i.) that we might re&s;olve our full contentment and joyfull re&s;t into Je&s;us Chri&s;t alone.</P>
<P>Further, that place is objected again&s;t the de&s;ired liberty,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Object.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Tit.</HI> 1.11. <HI>For there are many unruly and vaine talkers, e&s;pecially they of the Circumci&s;ion, who&s;e mouthes mu&s;t be &s;topped.</HI></P>
<P>But I am almo&s;t in an agony between compa&s;&s;ion and indignati|on,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>An&s;w.</HI></NOTE> that godly men &s;hould make Scripture lackey &s;o to their owne conceits again&s;t the lawes of all genuine interpretation. I am for <HI>&s;topping of monthes</HI> too. But there are more wayes of <HI>&s;topping</HI> mens mouthes then one; as if you &s;top not your eyes and eares I &s;hall ac|quaint you. Mens mouthes may be &s;topt, not onely by force, but with arguments. <HI>Rom.</HI> 3.19. <HI>That every mouth may be &s;topped, and all the world may become guilty before God.</HI> What &s;topping is that there? Doe we not &s;ay, then a mans mouth is &s;topt when he hath nothing to &s;ay, when he is convinced or confounded with a power of rea|&s;on brought again&s;t him? Looke but a little higher then the text, and &s;ee whether this be not the &s;topping there meant; For from <HI>ver.</HI> 7. the Apo&s;tle is &s;hewing how a Bi&s;hop mu&s;t be qualified, not onely outwardly, <HI>ver.</HI> 7, 8. but inwardly, <HI>ver.</HI> 9. <HI>Holding fa&s;t the faithfull Word, as he hath been taught, that he may be able by &s;ound do|ctrine, both to exhort and convince the gain-&s;ayers.</HI> And it follows im|mediately, <HI>for there are many unruly, and vaine talkers, and deceivers, &amp;c. who&s;e mouthes mu&s;t be &s;topped.</HI> Need I now &s;hew you, how their mouthes mu&s;t be &s;topped? Is it not plaine, 'tis the Bi&s;hops Office, not the Magi&s;trates: Not Lord Bi&s;hops, but labouring Bi&s;hops; not by his <HI>fift,</HI> bin by <HI>&s;ound doctrine;</HI> not by <HI>conventing</HI> them before the
<PB N="64" REF="38">Magi&s;trate, but by <HI>convincing</HI> them in their con&s;ciences. Now deare Brethren, if any of you have oppre&s;&s;ed this Scripture with the un|mercifull load of a Magi&s;teriall re&s;traint of con&s;cience bearing up|on it, and if your mouths be now &s;topped, open them againe, and free the truth that hath made you free.</P>
<P>But how &s;hall errours be re&s;trained,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Object.</HI></NOTE> if yee allow not Coercive power?</P>
<P>To re&s;traine errours is a good worke,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>An&s;w.</HI></NOTE> but it mu&s;t not be done by <HI>unrighteous</HI> meanes. If Gods glory may abound through my lye, it doth not make it lawfull for me to lye: But how &s;hall errours be cut off? How? by the Word, which is the &s;word of the Spirit, and it is for want of faith applyed to this meanes, that wee &s;ee &s;o little fruit of it; and it is the policy of Satan to hide the efficacy of this meanes from us, and by making us zealous of a fal&s;e, to divert us from the u&s;e of the true and proper meanes. Looke upon the Word as an <HI>in&s;titution,</HI> and what can it not doe? <HI>The Word of God is quicks and powerfull;</HI> and you will never &s;ubdue errors, till you take to this cour&s;e. The Devill joyes to &s;ee us upon cour&s;es of violence again&s;t the per&s;ons, even of erroneous men; what, is it becau&s;e he <HI>hates</HI> er|rours and here&s;ies? No, by them he al&s;o <HI>raignes,</HI> as well as by viti|ous actions; But he had <HI>rather</HI> yee &s;hould fight again&s;t them with the <HI>&s;word,</HI> then with the <HI>Word;</HI> and the rea&s;on is, becau&s;e the Word is Gods meanes, the &s;word is mans; the Word is an In&s;titution, the &s;word is our invention: the Word is a &s;pirituall meanes, (and tho&s;e are mighty, as the Angels are above men) the &s;word is a carnall meanes; God &s;tands ingaged to make good his Word, and then 'tis no matter how weake and unlikely the meanes be, if God be bound for it; 'Tis the In&s;titution be&s;towes that force and efficacy upon it; If God in&s;titute a bit of bread, and a &s;ip of wine, in &s;uch a u&s;e of it, to &s;trengthen my faith, it &s;hall doe it. Tho&s;e brave men, Souldiers and Armies, mentioned <HI>Heb.</HI> 11. had not obtained tho&s;e great victories and atchievements, but through faith; and had they been far weaker then they were, yet with faith they had done never the le&s;&s;e. The mo&s;t &s;pecious probable meanes without an In&s;titu|tion is nothing; the poore&s;t with an In&s;titution is almighty.</P>
<P>Aske not then, How &s;hall men be pre&s;erved from errours? for if they be intere&s;ted in Church-fellow&s;hip fixedly, they have the provi&s;ion of many In&s;titutions, and Ordinances, to be imployed for
<PB N="65" REF="38">them, and applyed to them: the doctrine, practi&s;e, prayers, parts, and utmo&s;t help of Elders and Brethren, with the &s;peciall ble&s;&s;ing of the relation, in and upon all and each of the&s;e. <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 133. <HI>For there the Lord commanded the ble&s;&s;ing, &amp;c.</HI> But if not &s;o intere&s;ted, or not &s;o di&s;tinctly, or not in &s;o pure a Church, that con&s;cientiou&s;|ly practi&s;es that mutuall in&s;pection, and care of one another: yet God hath not left him&s;elfe to any of his &s;ervants without witne&s;&s;e of a due care of their &s;oules, in this concernment, nor left any of his people without &s;ufficient meanes.
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">1 Joh. 2.20.</NOTE> <HI>Yee have an unction which teacheth you all things,</HI> is not &s;poken peculiarly to Church-mem|bers, though in a larger proportion perhaps to them but God takes care of all his elect: if it had not been &s;o, Chri&s;t would have told us; If it were not &s;o, Chri&s;t would not make a <HI>&s;i po&s;&s;ibile</HI> of their being &s;educed,
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Mat. 24.24.</NOTE> <HI>They &s;hall deceive, if it be po&s;&s;ible, the very elect.</HI> Let's not di&s;tru&s;t our cau&s;e, nor the truth in conflicting with errours, <HI>Tandem vincet veritas,</HI> Truth &s;hall overcome: and let's not di&s;tru&s;t Chri&s;t, but that as he kept his owne while he was with them on earth, and recommended them to his Father at his departure: &s;o he will not faile to keepe them now, that <HI>all power is given into his hands, the gates of hell &s;hall not prevaile again&s;t them.</HI> Let's commit this tru&s;t to Chri&s;t, &s;o &s;hall we ingage him: a man will looke to be tru&s;ted, or he will not count him&s;elfe ingaged.</P>
<P>But we &s;ee many of the Elect (for ought that we can judge,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Object.</HI></NOTE> woe dare not thinke otherwi&s;e of them) are carried away with the pre|&s;ent errours.</P>
<P>No better a ground or con&s;ideration would I de&s;ire to mollifie any rea&s;onable man towards men in Errours:
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>An&s;w.</HI></NOTE> The Elect are &s;ub|ject to them, therefore exact not too &s;trict an account of all men. If there are many that &s;hall live in heaven notwith&s;tanding their errours, it is no &s;in to let them live on earth.</P>
<P>But we &s;hall have no peace in the earth.
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Object.</HI></NOTE></P>
<P>Who&s;e fault is that? Why,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>An&s;w.</HI></NOTE> cannot yee live peaceably by differing Brethren? The fault of variance, &s;trife, and envyings, lyes not in the <HI>judgement,</HI> but in the <HI>will,</HI> not in the <HI>head,</HI> but in the <HI>heart.</HI></P>
<P>But differing opinions will be contending for victory.
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Object.</HI></NOTE></P>
<P>If there be pride, not els:
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>An&s;w.</HI></NOTE>
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Prov. 14.10.</NOTE> <HI>Onely through pride comes contention.</HI> Opinions may &s;trive, yet men may agree. There may be <HI>pugna logi|calis,</HI> and yet <HI>pax moralis.</HI></P>
<PB N="66" REF="39">
<P>But civill warres and &s;editions have &s;prung from different o|pinions.
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Object.</HI></NOTE></P>
<P>I grant opinions may be managed and actuated by turbulent &s;pi|rits,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>An&s;w.</HI></NOTE> in a &s;editious, factious, tumultuous way: and in &s;uch ca&s;e the Magi&s;trate mu&s;t come in indeed: and none &s;hould run fa&s;ter to call him then I would: if any party or kinde of men, doe either trea|cherou&s;ly undermine, or violently a&s;&s;ault their Brethren, that live &s;ecurely by them, inoffen&s;ively exerci&s;ing their con&s;ciences, I con|ceive it is <HI>a matter to be puni&s;hed by the Judges;</HI> be the a&s;&s;aylants ne|ver &s;o much in the right, and the &s;ufferers in &s;ome errours, yet mo|de&s;tly and harmle&s;ly managed.</P>
<P>There is another Objection,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Object.</HI></NOTE> and no meane one, though of a par|ticular nature and force, relating not to all per&s;ons concerned in the common cau&s;e of the argument of this di&s;cour&s;e, but peculiar|ly to us in the&s;e three united Kingdomes, and that is the <HI>Nationall Covenant,</HI> which is charg'd home in the <HI>Antapology,</HI> and made to &s;peake (for there are that can make any thing &s;peake what they li&s;t) again&s;t the de&s;ired liberty.</P>
<P>But fir&s;t, if this Covenant be applyed no otherwi&s;e then was at fir&s;t intended, (which without greate&s;t ingratitude and uncharita|blene&s;&s;e I cannot admit,) in being thus made a barre and prejudice again&s;t the free di&s;qui&s;ition of truth, (as in effect it is) I know not how the Authors of &s;uch a project could be innocent. But to wave the <HI>intention,</HI> there is nothing more obvious then the <HI>practi&s;e</HI> to in&s;nare and illaqueate tender Con&s;ciences by this Covenant; fir&s;t, compelling them to take it; afterwards, conjuring them by it to a fal&s;e <HI>Ob&s;equium.</HI></P>
<P>Who knows not that an unlawfull oath or Covenant, is better broken then kept: Therefore ju&s;tifie the <HI>matter</HI> of the Oath and Co|venant, or the <HI>Bond</HI> will di&s;&s;olve it &s;elfe. If the Parliament (be|cau&s;e it is charg'd very boldly, I &s;ay not pre&s;umptuou&s;ly upon them) have taken an oath to doe an unlawfull act, they mu&s;t not be &s;tirred up to that act in pur&s;uance of that oath and Covenant. Therefore fir&s;t make good this, that 'tis their <HI>duty</HI> to pro&s;ecute all different Brethren, el&s;e in charging a Covenant (&s;o to doe) upon them, you lay a &s;nare which the foote of &s;o judicious a Parliament will not be held by.</P>
<P>But not to compound the matter thus: We cannot yeeld you that
<PB N="67" REF="39">&s;en&s;e you put upon the Covenant: Nor will any expre&s;&s;ion or ex|pre&s;&s;ions therein, con&s;idered in their &s;everall <HI>place</HI> and <HI>relation,</HI> amount to &s;uch a verdict as you give in mo&s;t confidently: If they &s;hould, as I mu&s;t confe&s;&s;e then, that I was deceived, and &s;o &s;hall hold my &s;elfe obliged in no other &s;en&s;e, then I under&s;tood it when I took it; So I &s;hall profe&s;&s;e my de&s;ire to repent of my ra&s;hne&s;&s;e in taking it, though I did it without the lea&s;t appearance to my be&s;t judge|ment, of any contradiction to my principles.</P>
<P>To come to the Te&s;t therefore, there are foure clau&s;es in the Co|venant urged again&s;t this liberty; (for a toleration wee owne not, <HI>permi&s;&s;io non e&s;t ni&s;i peccati,</HI> and 'tis in &s;uch matters wherein the Ma|gi&s;trate is authorized, nay is bound to re&s;traine, which here I hum|bly conceive he is not, without prejudice to his ju&s;t greatne&s;&s;e.)</P>
<P>The fir&s;t clau&s;e is of <HI>Endeavouring the reformation of Religion, in the Kingdomes of England and Ireland, in Doctrine, Wor&s;hip, Govern|ment, and Di&s;cipline, according to the example of the be&s;t reformed Churches.</HI></P>
<P>The &s;econd Clau&s;e is of <HI>Endeavouring to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdomes to the neare&s;t conjunction and uniformity in Re|ligion, Confe&s;&s;ion of Faith, Forme of Church-Government, Directory for Wor&s;hip, and Catechizing.</HI></P>
<P>The third; <HI>That wee &s;hall in like manner, without re&s;pect of per&s;ons, endeavour the extirpation of Schi&s;me, and what ever &s;hall be found con|trary to &s;ound doctrine, and the power of godline&s;&s;e, le&s;t we partake of o|ther mens &s;innes.</HI></P>
<P>The fourth and la&s;t, is the <HI>Endeavouring of the di&s;covery of &s;uch as have been evill In&s;truments, by hindring reformation of Religion, or ma|king any faction, or parties among the people, contrary to this league and Covenant.</HI></P>
<P>I &s;hall fir&s;t take &s;ome Exceptions to the manner,
<NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>An&s;w.</HI></NOTE> and then an&s;wer to the matter of this Objection: and becau&s;e there is more <HI>ill man|ner</HI> in it then <HI>&s;trong matter,</HI> therefore the fir&s;t part of my An&s;wer will be longe&s;t.</P>
<P>The manner is full of exception, as rendring the Author and ur|ger thus, guilty of <HI>Partiality, Tautology, &s;ubornation of &s;en&s;e, di&s;-&s;er|vice to the State, and want of love to the Brethren.</HI> This charge I nei|ther lay nor pro&s;ecute again&s;t him in <HI>Foro externo,</HI> in the Magi&s;trates Court, but in <HI>Foro Con&s;cientiae.</HI></P>
<PB N="68" REF="40">
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>Partiality,</HI> clipping and partially repre&s;enting not onely the Parliaments &s;en&s;e, but even the words of the Covenant, (as it he had got up againe the <HI>Index Expurgatorius</HI>) quoting onely the words that make for his own turne, and leaving out what doth and ought to goe along with them. This in two particulars. 1. Lea|ving out tho&s;e words belonging to the fir&s;t Clau&s;e, <HI>viz. [according to the Word of God,]</HI> which is &s;et before the example of the be&s;t re|formed Churches, as being the onely patterne and regulation for us and them: and we doe not <HI>jurare in exemplar,</HI> &s;weare to the pat|tern of the be&s;t reformed Church in the world, further then it &s;hall approve it &s;elfe by the Scriptures. <HI>Follow me, as I follow Chri&s;t.</HI> So that &s;o far are other Churches from being the onely Rule, that they are not &s;o much as a <HI>&s;ocious</HI> Rule: that is, they goe not in an <HI>aequipage</HI> with, but are <HI>&s;ubordinate</HI> to the Word, and of a &s;econ|dary con&s;ideration and imitation after the Word of God: and the leaving out of the&s;e words, I might well call the <HI>clipping</HI> of the Co|venant, for it takes away the <HI>Ring</HI> of the Coine (as it were) where|in the letters of In&s;cription (that &s;hew who&s;e this Covenant is, and who and who&s;e we are that make it, and give the &s;pecificall diffe|rence, or characteri&s;ticall di&s;tinction between it, and a Popi&s;h im|plicit faith) are contained. The other particular left out is in the latter end of the Covenant, which yet referres to the whole obli|gation of each per&s;on re&s;pectively, <HI>viz.</HI> that he &s;hall <HI>by all lawfull wayes and meanes,</HI> and according to his <HI>place and calling,</HI> endeavour to ob&s;erve and performe the tenour of the Covenant, <HI>viz.</HI> to bring the Churches to uniformity, and to extirpate &s;chi&s;me: As for in|&s;tance, 'tis the godly Magi&s;trates duty, their <HI>place and calling,</HI> to &s;end forth Mini&s;ters into the darke places of the Land, and to &s;et up lights to guide mens feet into the wayes of truth and peace, and re|claime them from errours: and he cannot be urged upon his cal|ling to puni&s;h or compell gain-&s;ayers. And the Mini&s;ters place and calling is to improve his parts and opportunities, in &s;ea&s;on and out of &s;ea&s;on, by exhorting, rebuking, in&s;tructing, with all long-&s;uffe|ring and doctrine, and he is to goe no further, not to deliver up to the Judge and Executioner. So that here is nothing but fallacy in urging the Covenant thus, in putting men upon that <HI>ab&s;olutely,</HI> which is de&s;ireable and to be pro&s;ecuted onely <HI>conditionally,</HI> viz. Conformity to and uniformity with other Churches, if they be in
<PB N="69" REF="40">the truth, and it may be done with the Word of God; and fallacy likewi&s;e in prompting men to doe that <HI>omnibus viis &amp; modis,</HI> as they &s;ay, which is to be done onely <HI>regularly and orderly,</HI> as every mans calling leads him.</P>
<P N="2">2. <HI>Tautology,</HI> which is a con&s;equent of the former errour; for by leaving out the&s;e words <HI>[according to the Word of God]</HI> in the fir&s;t Clau&s;e, he hath de&s;troyed its particular nature and di&s;tinct kinde, and hath made it run into the &s;econd Clau&s;e: that whereas the fir&s;t Clau&s;e in the Covenant &s;ounds <HI>reformation,</HI> now as he has maimed it, it &s;ounds no more then <HI>uniformity,</HI> which makes it the &s;ame with the &s;econd Clau&s;e, as by comparing the two Clau&s;es above may be &s;eene.</P>
<P N="3">3. <HI>Subornation of &s;en&s;e,</HI> and that in the&s;e particulars, <HI>viz.</HI> Inter|preting the <HI>neare&s;t</HI> conjunction in his &s;econd Clau&s;e, to be an <HI>ab&s;o|lute</HI> conjunction and <HI>identity.</HI> If we be agreed of the &s;ame Church-Officers with the reformed Churches, and have ca&s;t out the old u|&s;urpers as they have done, if we have ca&s;hier'd the common-Prayer-Booke as they, and all the fooli&s;h Ceremonies, and Organ-pipes, and Copes, and Ve&s;tments, and di&s;tinction of places, di&s;placed our Altars, broken our painted gla&s;&s;e and Crucifixes (all which have been done but &s;ince this Parliament, and upon this Covenant many of them.) Now I &s;ay, if this be the <HI>neare&s;t</HI> conjunction, with the re|formed Churches, which the Word of God in the Interpretation of our Con&s;ciences, will allow; doe wee not &s;ave our Covenant, though we ca&s;t not our Churches into &s;uch Cla&s;&s;icall, Provinciall and Nationall formes of admini&s;tration as they? 2. In applying tho&s;e termes and Clau&s;es of <HI>[Schi&s;me and what&s;oever &s;hall be found contrary to &s;ound doctrine, and the power of godline&s;&s;e, and evill in&s;tru|ments, hindering Reformation, making factions, and parties among the people]</HI> unto the Congregationall men: Again&s;t whom if the Par|liament did indeed levell the&s;e battering Clau&s;es, I am much mi|&s;taken, onely I mu&s;t crave leave to &s;ay then, 'twas not faire to draw the&s;e men into a Covenant to de&s;troy them&s;elves.</P>
<P>Fourthly, <HI>Di&s;-&s;ervice to the State,</HI> in weakning the hands, and di&s;|couraging the hearts, of &s;uch a con&s;iderable number in the Citie and Kingdome, (who under God and the Parliament, have been the life of this cau&s;e &s;o many wayes) by turning the whole traine of the Covenant again&s;t them, as if there were no Papi&s;ts nor Malignants
<PB N="70" REF="41">to di&s;charge it again&s;t. And it &s;eemes this is but the <HI>birth</HI> of that challenge again&s;t the&s;e men (to be the <HI>Sanballat's</HI> and <HI>Tobia's</HI> in this pre&s;ent worke and ingagement) which was the <HI>prodromus</HI> &s;ome moneths agoe. And is it not a great di&s;-&s;ervice to the State, to be|reave or goe about to bereave the Kingdome of the &s;trength of &s;o many cordiall per&s;ons, &s;ervent prayers, willing pur&s;es, brave Com|manders, and valiant Souldiers, which are of this way and judge|ment: and to doe it at this time when we have need of no &s;ubdivi|fions, a common enemy waiting for us both? Could more pernici|ous advice be given with more probable &s;ucce&s;&s;e for ruine then this, to divide the &s;ound party among them&s;elves? I call not this <HI>di&s;-af|fection</HI> to the State, (for truly I judge not &s;o of the man, but that he &s;pake &amp; wrote herein he knew not what, nor of what con&s;equence) but certainly the greate&s;t <HI>di&s;-&s;ervice</HI> to the State it is, that a man of no greater intere&s;t and influence could doe. I call not for Ju&s;tice, but for Repentance.</P>
<P>La&s;tly, the highe&s;t breach of love and charity is this that could be, to apply the fore-mentioned termes and things to this &s;ort of men: as let all the world, or any indifferent man that is not baptized in|to the &s;ame &s;pirit of gall and wormewood, con&s;ider and judge.</P>
<P>Now to the matter of the Objection (avoyding what might be returned) that the Covenant may with as faire a con&s;truction, &amp; as genuine and unforc't an interpretation, be urged again&s;t the <HI>Presby|tery,</HI> and for the Congregationall way as otherwi&s;e.) I an&s;wer briefly thus; That the Covenant binds no man, nor number of men, no State or Church, for their parts re&s;pectively, to any patterne or de|gree of Reformation, Conformity, or Uniformity with other Chur|ches: but what &s;hall <HI>&s;atisfactorily</HI> to them and each of their Con&s;ci|ences, <HI>appeare to be according to the Word of God:</HI> And &s;uch a Refor|mation do the Congregationall men de&s;ire, pray, preach, endeavour for and after, (therefore are no <HI>enemies to Reformation,</HI> as is alledged by the Objecter) in pur&s;uance of their Covenant, as they &s;hould and would have done, if there had been no &s;uch outward Cove|nant obliging them. I will not feare to appeale to you: would we have men driven in droves to the Sacrament &s;till, and the precious and the vile commixed together? Would we have idle drones and Idoll Shepheards &s;uffered in Congregations, and the darke places of the Land remaine &s;till <HI>full of cruelty?</HI> Would we have the Bi&s;hops
<PB N="71" REF="41">Courts and Con&s;i&s;tories continue? Nay, had the&s;e ever been downe, if we had not under God, as a forlorne hope, fir&s;t given them bat|tell? How then have you the face to &s;ay, wee <HI>hinder Reformation,</HI> when wee are for a further and purer Reformation (your &s;elves being Judges?) You would &s;it downe on this &s;ide <HI>Jordan,</HI> we would advance, not onely &s;o far with you, but pa&s;&s;e over <HI>Jordan:</HI> how then doe we hinder you? Sit you quiet if you will not helpe us as we have helped you; and doe not &s;ay (to help your &s;elves and ex|cu&s;e your owne ingratitude) that we are <HI>enemies to Reformation.</HI></P>
<P>The&s;e are the mo&s;t materiall and obvious Objections that I have met withall, and could gather in with either &s;en&s;e, my eye or eare: Onely there is a pa&s;&s;age in the <HI>Antapology,</HI> that I mu&s;t give an Ani|madver&s;ion upon, <HI>viz. That by vertue of many Scriptures both in the Old and New Te&s;tament, the example of the Kings of Judah, &amp;c. The Parliament is bound to e&s;tabli&s;h, and to command obedience to that Re|formation which is judged</HI> (to wit, by the pre&s;ent Synod) <HI>mo&s;t agree|able to the Word, and to &s;uppre&s;&s;e and hinder all other.</HI></P>
<P>Now the&s;e places <HI>in the New Te&s;tament</HI> (I confe&s;&s;e) made me li|&s;ten: (for of the old Te&s;tament and Now, there is not <HI>eadem ratio,</HI> nor of the Kings of <HI>Judah</HI> and of <HI>England,</HI> as hath been &s;hewed be|fore) but if the New Te&s;tament conclude us under &s;uch an arbitra|tion, we are gone. I turned to the places quoted, and &s;hall de&s;ire no more of any man, but to turne to them, and &s;atisfie him&s;elfe. The Scriptures are, <HI>Rom.</HI> 13.4. <HI>Eph.</HI> 5.11. 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 5.22 2 <HI>Epi&s;t. Joh.</HI> 11. <HI>Rev.</HI> 2.20.</P>
<P>For the fir&s;t of them, I have already prevented it, and &s;hewed that it a&s;&s;ignes deeds and workes to the Magi&s;trates Cognizance, not opinions in Religion.</P>
<P>For the next, <HI>Eph.</HI> 5.11. <HI>And have no fellow&s;hip with the unfruit|full works of darkne&s;&s;e, but rather reprove them.</HI> It is nothing more then an admonition to all Chri&s;tians, in as much as they are the chil|dren of light, to have no fellow&s;hip with the &s;innes before mentio|ned in that Chapter, fornication, uncleanne&s;&s;e, covetou&s;ne&s;&s;e, &amp;c. But what is this to different opinions, or to the Magi&s;trates act of &s;uppre&s;&s;ing &s;uch.</P>
<P>For the third place, 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 5.22. <HI>Lay hands &s;uddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other mens &s;innes; keepe thy &s;elfe pure:</HI> It is an in|&s;truction to <HI>Timothy,</HI> and all &s;uch whom it may concerne, that are
<PB N="72" REF="42">called to lay hands and ordaine Officers, that they ordaine onely worthy men. This reaches not yet the Magi&s;trate, nor within a mile of him.</P>
<P>For the fourth place; 2 <HI>Epi&s;t. Joh.</HI> 10.11. (for I will give him a ver&s;e more then he quotes, and yet not feare the cau&s;e) <HI>If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your hou&s;e, nor bid him God-&s;peed. For he that biddeth him God-&s;peed, is partaker of his evill deeds.</HI> Fir&s;t, this is written to a <HI>Lody,</HI> not to the Magi|&s;trate; then he requires onely a <HI>Negative</HI> of her, <HI>viz.</HI> not to be a par|taker by any countenance, but he requires not to pro&s;ecute &s;uch a one. We mu&s;t not <HI>receive</HI> &s;uch <HI>into our hou&s;es,</HI> but mu&s;t we therefore <HI>ca&s;t them out of their owne hou&s;es,</HI> or native Countrey, or put than into the pri&s;on-hou&s;e? And who are thus to be &s;hook off and di&s;|countenanced? Why, <HI>who&s;oever brings not this doctrine,</HI> that is, if he bring <HI>another</HI> doctrine, as it is <HI>Gal.</HI> 1.5. <HI>another Go&s;pel</HI> that over|throwes this; Not if he differ in the under&s;tanding of &s;ome con|trovertible place. Now doe not tho&s;e men again&s;t whom this Scrip|ture is urged, bring this doctrine with them in as pure and &s;piritu|all a di&s;covery of it as others? Becau&s;e they differ in point of di&s;ci|pline, doe they &s;et up another Go&s;pel? If you judge &s;o: then bid them not God-&s;peed: but yet God doth not bid you &s;peed them out of the Land.</P>
<P>For the fifth and la&s;t place, 2 <HI>Rev.</HI> 2.20. <HI>Notwith&s;tanding I have a few things again&s;t thee, becau&s;e thou &s;uffere&s;t that woman Jezabel, who calleth her &s;elfe a Prophete&s;&s;e, to teach and to &s;educe my &s;ervants to commit fornication, &amp;c.</HI> Now will you &s;ee who and what &s;hee was that was &s;uffered, both a &s;trumpet, and a diabolicall in&s;trument of &s;eduction, and that to fornication; (here was <HI>fact,</HI> as well as <HI>faith,</HI>) and to eat things &s;acrificed to Idols: and will you con&s;ider likewi&s;e by whom &s;hee was &s;uffered, by the <HI>Church</HI> of <HI>Thyatira,</HI> 'tis &s;hee is blamed or her <HI>Angel,</HI> and &s;ure what ever Church &s;hould retaine or &s;uffer &s;uch a Member without the application of the <HI>cen&s;ures</HI> to her, de&s;erve an Epi&s;tle from Heaven, to be written unto them in <HI>bloud:</HI> and &s;uch a Member may be no wayes &s;heltred under any Church relation, from the <HI>&s;word</HI> of the Magi&s;trate.</P>
<P>Thus you have heard the&s;e Witne&s;&s;es &s;peake, what thinke yee? doe they &s;peake to the purpo&s;e for which they are brought? Doth it appeare by the&s;e places in the New Te&s;tament, that the Magi|&s;trate
<PB N="73" REF="42">is bound to ratifie the Decrees of the pre&s;ent Synod, and pro|ceed again&s;t all that vary from them with &s;evere puni&s;hment? Or is it not rather as the old Proverb; <HI>Parturiunt, Montes na&s;cetur ridicu|lous mus: Mountaines in expectation, bring forth mice in the Conclu|&s;ion?</HI> The neare&s;t-&s;ounding Scripture, and but in &s;ound, is that to <HI>Timothy, Lay hands &s;uddenly on no man;</HI> But if he might ea&s;ily mi|&s;take a <HI>Bi&s;hop</HI> for a <HI>Magi&s;trate,</HI> yet &s;ure there's a great deale of diffe|rence between <HI>laying hands,</HI> and <HI>laying no hands;</HI> and 'tis a <HI>Non-&s;e|quitur</HI> that would be hi&s;t at in the Schooles; <HI>The Bi&s;hop mu&s;t not ordaine every one that is offer'd: Ergo, the Magi&s;trate mu&s;t order every one that differs.</HI></P>
<P>But I know upon the la&s;t Scripture, <HI>viz. Rev.</HI> 2.20. he will thinke he has a good ground to &s;tate his <HI>Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall Coercive</HI> power at lea&s;t; For that Chri&s;t deales with the <HI>Angel,</HI> and charges him with &s;uffering <HI>Jezabel,</HI> therefore if there be not a Civill power, yet there is at lea&s;t an <HI>Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall power</HI> to deale with &s;educers. Now for &s;uch as &s;hee, 1. We have before granted that an Eccle&s;ia&s;t call power is <HI>not &s;ufficient</HI> to deale withall, but the Civill Magi&s;trate is al&s;o to intere&s;t him&s;el&s;e. 2. That there is a <HI>Church-power</HI> to deale with men in point of faith as well as fact, I deny not, though I &s;tate it not where the <HI>Presbyterians</HI> doe, that is, not in a <HI>Combination of Chur|ches,</HI> but in a <HI>particular Church:</HI> (for Chri&s;t doth not threaten the Angels of <HI>Ephe&s;us</HI> and <HI>Smyrna</HI> for <HI>Thyatira's</HI> fault, who yet all did belong to one <HI>Regionall,</HI> though not to one <HI>Cla&s;&s;icall Presbytery:</HI> Nor doe I &s;tate it in the <HI>Elder&s;hip</HI> alone, but within the whole body. For though the Epi&s;tle be directed to the <HI>Angel</HI> of the Church of <HI>Thyatira,</HI> yet 'tis intended (as all the others are) to the <HI>whole body;</HI> which appeares clearly out of the Epi&s;tles them&s;elves: Not onely that what is written to the <HI>Angel,</HI> is of concernment to the Church, but is <HI>written to the Church.</HI> For is it written to the Officer onely, <HI>I know thy workes, and charity, and &s;ervice, and faith, and thy patience, and thy workes, and the la&s;t to be more then the fir&s;t,</HI> or is it &s;aid to the body of the Church? To whom (be it one or more) this is &s;aid, to him or them is it &s;aid in the next ver&s;e, <HI>Notwith&s;tanding I have &s;ome|what again&s;t thee, &amp;c.</HI> If it be the Church that is commended for her workes, and charity, &amp;c. then it is the <HI>Church</HI> al&s;o, that is here bla|med for not exerci&s;ing the power committed to her again&s;t <HI>Jezabel.</HI> So likewi&s;e the Epi&s;tle to the Church of <HI>Smyrna</HI> is directed to the
<PB N="74" REF="43">Angel, but is the Angel onely &s;poken to in the 10^t^h <HI>ver&s;e, Feare none of tho&s;e things that thou&s;halt &s;uffer, behold the Deviall &s;hall ca&s;t &s;ome of you into pri&s;on?</HI> And &s;o I might in&s;tance in the other Churches. But that generall Proclamation &s;hall &s;erve to evince it, which is be|fore every Epi&s;tle; <HI>Let him that hath an eare heare what the Spirit &s;aith unto the Churches:</HI> Not to the Angel onely, but <HI>to the Churches.</HI> It is <HI>&s;ent fir&s;t</HI> to the Angel, as a <HI>principall part</HI> of the Church, who&s;e Office al&s;o it is to <HI>receive</HI> from Chri&s;t, and to <HI>communicate</HI> to the Church. Therefore when Chri&s;t &s;ayes, <HI>I have &s;omething again&s;t thee,</HI> he meanes again&s;t the Church for &s;uffering <HI>Jezabel.</HI> So that as wee have found an Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall power, &s;o we have found for the <HI>&s;ub|ject of its in<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">e&s;ion,</HI> a particular Church or body; and for the <HI>object of its application,</HI> its own members, as <HI>Jezabel</HI> was. But now for <HI>o|the<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">s,</HI> a <HI>particular</HI> Church, and there is no other <HI>mini&s;tring Church</HI> hath onely the power of <HI>&s;ub&s;traction,</HI> withdrawing from them, or rejecting them; <HI>A man that is an Heretick, after the fir&s;t and &s;econd admonition reject;</HI> which is an act, whereby a Church or a Member <HI>re&s;erves</HI> them&s;elves, exerci&s;es not any power over others. In practi&s;e of which Rule, as a light to the under&s;tanding of it, Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall Hi&s;tory furni&s;hes us with the In&s;tances of the
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Quod apud Eph<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;um, cum Balneas lava|di gratia ful&s;|&s;et ingre&s;&s;us, &amp; vidi&s;&s;et ibi Cerin: hum, ex|ilucrit co~tinu&ograve; non lotus, &amp; di&s;ce&s;&s;erit, di|cens, Fugianus bincne &amp; Ba<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">|ncae ip&s;ae corru|ant, in quibus Cerinthus la|vatur, verita|tis inimicus. I|dem etiam ip&s;e Polycarpus Marcioni ali|qua~ do cum oc|curri&s;&s;et, dice|ti &s;ibi Agno&s;ce nos, Agno&s;co (inquit) pri|mogenitum &s;a|tanae.</HI> Eu&s;eb. lib. 4. cap. 14.</NOTE> Apo&s;tle <HI>John,</HI> and <HI>Polycarpus,</HI> profe&s;&s;edly avoyding the &s;ociety of Hereticks; but not exerci&s;ing any power over them, or again&s;t them.</P>
<P>And this <HI>law</HI> of <HI>Church-Di&s;cipline</HI> is con&s;onant and harmonicall to <HI>right rea&s;on,</HI> and to the Rule of <HI>Civill</HI> admini&s;tration: Where a man is tryed by his <HI>Peeres:</HI> and 'tis fit he &s;hould be &s;o in &s;pirituall things judged by his <HI>fellow-members.</HI> And there is no rea&s;on or ju|&s;tice, in &s;ubjecting a Church or member to a <HI>foraine juri&s;diction.</HI> Advi&s;ed and <HI>con&s;ulted</HI> with, other Churches may be, ought to be, the nature of the ca&s;e for weight, difficulty, and difference re|quiring it.</P>
<P>But to come to the bu&s;ine&s;&s;e. There be two branches of our Bre|threns (the <HI>Presbyterians</HI>) claime. The one is power of <HI>judging,</HI> de|termining, impo&s;ing doctrines, and conclu&s;ions upon all men and Churches. 2. The other a power of <HI>tran&s;mitting,</HI> and delivering o|ver to the Magi&s;trate, and &s;tirring up his power in ca&s;e of di&s;obe|dience to them.</P>
<P>Now for the fir&s;t of the&s;e, in vaine is it &s;aid, <HI>Try all things,</HI> if a Synod may impo&s;e: For either the tryall relates to a <HI>particular
<PB N="75" REF="43">judgement</HI> to be made, and that judgement to a <HI>practi&s;e</HI> to be con|firmed, or not; If not, as good not try, if I try onely for <HI>tryall &s;ake,</HI> and if when I have tryed I am but where I was, to wit, I mu&s;t be <HI>concluded</HI> by others vote and impo&s;ition; If yea, then to what pur|po&s;e is the impo&s;ition? for if I <HI>approve</HI> it, the impo&s;ition is <HI>needle&s;&s;e,</HI> if I <HI>reject,</HI> 'tis <HI>fruitle&s;&s;e.</HI> 2. They that have right and power of im|po&s;ing, are <HI>Lords of my Faith;</HI> but &s;o are not any men, the Apo&s;tles them&s;elves a&s;&s;umed it not: <HI>For by faith yee &s;tand.</HI> Take away a Chri|&s;tians <HI>judicious faith,</HI> you take away his legs, his <HI>&s;tanding</HI> from un|der him. 3. In vaine did the <HI>Bereans</HI> try the Apo&s;tles doctrine, and unduely were they commended, if that doctrine were impo&s;ed upon them. 4. If yee <HI>Presbytery</HI> have power to impo&s;e doctrines, then they mu&s;t have power of <HI>Excommunication</HI> over all tho&s;e on whom they impo&s;e: For power of <HI>commanding,</HI> without power of <HI>revenging</HI> di&s;obedience, is a ridiculous &s;hadow and image of power. It is like <HI>Jupiters</HI> leg, &s;ent downe to be the King of Frogges, which they <HI>leapt upon</HI> and &s;corned. But this power of Excommunicating, we have found a <HI>proper</HI> &s;eat and &s;ubject for it already, even a parti|cular Church, and till our Brethren &s;hew out of Scripture, a <HI>&s;ubor|dination of Churches,</HI> I need &s;ay no more; and if they doe that, then I will &s;ay with them.</P>
<P>For the other branch, <HI>in&s;tigating</HI> the Magi&s;trate, which is not to be under&s;tood of tran&s;mitting &s;uch things to him as doe <HI>pertinere ad mores,</HI> (wherein he is of him&s;elfe con&s;cious of his duty and obliga|tion, and needs no in&s;tigation) but of things pertaining properly to <HI>Con&s;cience.</HI> In which ca&s;es, as Mini&s;ters are not in&s;tructed with any <HI>externall</HI> force and power to be exerci&s;ed by them&s;elves again&s;t men; &s;ure al&s;o they ought not <HI>&s;evire per alios,</HI> to &s;tirre up the Magi|&s;trate again&s;t them. For the Office of the Mini&s;tery beares no rela|tion to <HI>temporall</HI> puni&s;hment. The Magi&s;trate is properly <HI>the Mini|&s;ter of God for wrath;</HI> but it is fit for Mini&s;ters to &s;ay as Chri&s;t,
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Luk. 9.56.</NOTE> <HI>I am not come to de&s;troy, but to &s;ave alive.</HI></P>
<P>It is a rea&s;on given for the Office of a <HI>Ruling Elder</HI> in the Church, added to the <HI>Teaching Elders,</HI> namely, to avoyd the prejudice and <HI>Odium</HI> that would fall upon the Mini&s;try, &s;hould they di&s;charge that part which is a <HI>hard</HI> and <HI>&s;evere</HI> Office; as being to inquire into the conver&s;ations of the flock, and each member, and to ob&s;erve their faults, in manners, and otherwayes, and deale roundly with
<PB N="76" REF="44">them therein, laying the <HI>axe</HI> of &s;evere reproofe to the <HI>roote</HI> of every &s;inne. Now if this be a worke of that nature, that God in his wi&s;|dome hath priviledg'd the Mini&s;try from, le&s;t it might make their <HI>per&s;ons,</HI> and &s;o their <HI>doctrine</HI> le&s;&s;e acceptable, (the Mini&s;try having need to be like <HI>one that has a plea&s;ant voice, and can play well on an In&s;trument</HI>) and in con&s;ideration hereof, hath for this work found|ed a <HI>di&s;tinct</HI> Office in his Church; &s;hall we thinke tho&s;e Mini&s;ters provide wi&s;ely for them&s;elves, and the acceptance of their Mini&s;try, that will thru&s;t them&s;elves into a <HI>more di&s;-affecting</HI> Office, namely, to be <HI>Promoters, Tell-tales, Appparitors,</HI> or <HI>Summoners</HI> to the Civill Magi&s;trates Courts? We know how apt men are to receive the truth in <HI>re&s;pect of per&s;ons:</HI> Mini&s;ters had not need then, to incurre <HI>needle&s;&s;e</HI> prejudice. We know how Mini&s;ters <HI>per&s;onall</HI> faults, make their do|ctrine to be loathed, &s;leighted, and di&s;-e&s;teemed. Ile never heare him, &s;ays one, he is an <HI>u&s;urer;</HI> and of another, he is very <HI>worldly,</HI> and covetous; There is indeed an uncomeline&s;&s;e more then ordina|ry, in the <HI>match</HI> of &s;uch vices with &s;uch a calling: <HI>High talke becomes not a foole</HI> (&s;ays <HI>Solomon:</HI>) and is not this as deepe and effectuall an exception again&s;t a Mini&s;ter, Oh, he is a <HI>cruell</HI> man, he made &s;uch a <HI>poore</HI> man <HI>fined,</HI> and he cau&s;ed &s;uch a one to be <HI>ca&s;t in pri|&s;on</HI> for a little difference in opinion, when they agreed in the maine, <HI>and his wife and children were ready to &s;tarve the while?</HI> (Will not this bring the cur&s;e of the poore &s;uffering Families upon them?) And he is a <HI>proud</HI> man, he will breake the backe of any, that will not be <HI>of his mind?</HI> Oh how doth this prejudice the <HI>whole&s;ome</HI> truths that &s;uch men may deliver? And how farre are tho&s;e Mini&s;ters that give &s;uch occa&s;ion, and with whom &s;uch con&s;iderations prevaile nothing, from <HI>Pauls</HI> &s;pirit and temper, who that he might create the greater opportunity to him&s;elfe among the <HI>Corinthians,</HI> would not u&s;e that power that he had of <HI>living upon them,</HI> and being bur|den&s;ome to them: and <HI>content</HI> him&s;elfe with a fallacy,
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">2 Cor. 12.14.</NOTE> <HI>That the Fa|thers mu&s;t lay up for their children:</HI> &s;o carefull was he even to <HI>over-doe,</HI> in removing prejudices that might be (though <HI>not ju&s;tly</HI>) in carnall minds again&s;t his doctrine.</P>
<P>Secondly, We have
<NOTE N="a" PLACE="marg"><HI>Sed nemo ad Regnu~ Chri&s;ti aruditoru~ ig|norat, Domi|num non adveni&s;&s;e in hunc mundum, ut e&s;&s;et Legis &amp; gladii, &s;ed gratiae tantum &amp; Evangelii Mini|&s;ter; praedicaret&abque; onmibus peccatorum poenitentiam, &amp; remi&s;sionem; non afficeret &s;uppliciit flagi|tio&s;os.</HI> Martin Bucer. de Regno Chri&s;ti. l. 2. c. 33. upon the place.</NOTE> Chri&s;ts example, that would not have for|borne
<PB N="77" REF="44">his duty, nor could no more when he was <HI>made under the law,</HI> di&s;pen&s;e with it, then we can with ours; for he came <HI>to fulfill all righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e.</HI> When they brought to him the Woman taken in the act of adultery; they that apprehended her, were there to witne&s;&s;e it: Chri&s;t doth not now <HI>accu&s;e</HI> her to the <HI>Magi&s;trate,</HI> nor doth he bid them to doe it, but he doth what was fit for a <HI>Mini&s;ter,</HI> a bring|er of good things to doe: He <HI>exhorts</HI> her to <HI>repent, Goe and &s;inne no more.</HI> And did he omit the proceeding again&s;t her out of incogi|tance or forgetfulne&s;&s;e? No; for he &s;ays, <HI>Hath no man accu&s;ed thee?</HI> Shee an&s;wered, no; <HI>Neither doe I,</HI> &s;ays Chri&s;t, onely <HI>goe and &s;inne no more.</HI> I know Chri&s;t got an <HI>ill name</HI> by this, <HI>The friend of Publicans and &s;inners,</HI> but he cared not for that, he went as far as his office led him, and he advanced his Fathers bu&s;ines by that carriage.</P>
<P>To conclude, it is a Rule which I have ob&s;erved in <HI>prudent</HI> Pa|rents, not to encourage their <HI>children</HI> to informe of one anothers faults, (but let the <HI>&s;ervants</HI> doe it) becau&s;e it doth not nouri&s;h love, but <HI>di&s;-affects</HI> them towards one another: and it is a good Rule, which we ought to ob&s;erve in this <HI>higher</HI> relation, between <HI>Pa&s;tors</HI> and <HI>people,</HI> which &s;hould be carried with all the <HI>freene&s;&s;e</HI> that may be.</P>
<P>NOw if there be light in the things that have been brought, and that they conclude for a <HI>greater</HI> liberty then
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Viz.</HI> The Congregatio|nall judge|ment.</NOTE> <HI>&s;ome Bre|thren</HI> want, I hope you will &s;ave them the labour of <HI>asking</HI> their li|berty at your hands. Not that we &s;hall thinke them <HI>hard</HI> termes to <HI>aske and have,</HI> or that we would not be <HI>beholden</HI> to you. If you will have it of <HI>grace as well</HI> as debt, or <HI>not of debt,</HI> wee are content &s;o to receive it. We acknowledge it is of the <HI>Lords free grace</HI> and mercy that wee enjoy <HI>that</HI> liberty that wee doe, that wee have enjoyed it <HI>thus long,</HI> as it were a breathing &s;pace: and that our Parliament are not as
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">1 Sam. 25.17.</NOTE> <HI>&s;ons of Belial, that a man cannot &s;peak unto;</HI> Nay, far enough from that, <HI>great is our boldne&s;&s;e towards you,</HI> and <HI>our hearts are inlar|ged,</HI> both to you and for you. Wee never goe before the throne of grace, but we carry you in our <HI>hearts</HI> and <HI>prayers</HI> along with us, and pre&s;ent you together with our &s;elves in the&s;e <HI>works</HI> and <HI>labours</HI> of yours; and are full of hope, that God who hath concurr'd with you thus far, and acted you to &s;o many worthy and memorable de|grees of &s;ervice to him and his Son Je&s;us Chri&s;t, hath not concei|ved
<PB N="78" REF="45">that <HI>di&s;plea&s;ure</HI> again&s;t both <HI>you</HI> and <HI>us,</HI> as to re&s;erve your <HI>f<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="2 letters">|ther</HI> Coun&s;els to <HI>&s;hut</HI> that doore of Chri&s;tian liberty that was <HI>fir&s;t opened</HI> to us by your meanes. And let it not be imputed to us as <HI>arro|gance,</HI> if in the day wherein our &s;elves are but <HI>Probationers,</HI> our Principles &s;peake for <HI>others</HI> as well as our &s;elves. Common <HI>humani|ty</HI> requires if there be a <GAP DESC="foreign">, a <HI>redundancy</HI> of any thing whereby we may profit others al&s;o, that we &s;hould extend the <HI>overplus</HI> unto them, and that it &s;hould not run out to <HI>lo&s;&s;e:</HI> But <HI>the Royall Law</HI> of love commands us <HI>not to &s;eeke our own things, but every one his Bro|thers weale,</HI> and to &s;erve them <HI>before</HI> our &s;elves, accounting it a <HI>mor|ble&s;&s;ed thing</HI> to be <HI>in&s;truments</HI> of their re&s;t and peace, then to <HI>injoy</HI> our owne. We &s;hall ble&s;&s;e God, if he &s;hall [&s;o far clear] <HI>us and our way</HI> in your thoughts: but our peace and liberty will not fall with that <HI>rich and full</HI> contentment into our bo&s;omes, except all that walke <HI>con&s;cientiou&s;ly</HI> and <HI>inoffen&s;ively,</HI> may injoy the &s;ame with us. <HI>Now he who is the Father of lights, from whom comes downe every good and perfect gift, fill you with wi&s;dome and ability to di&s;cerne between the intere&s;ts of man, and mans greatne&s;&s;e, and the intere&s;ts of God and his glory, that you may admini&s;ter rightly in this matter, as in all things; that we may have more and more cau&s;e to ble&s;&s;e God for tho&s;e quiet and peaceable lives we lead under you, in all godline&s;&s;e and bone&s;ty: and that the Lord when be comes may find you</HI>
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Luk. 12.43.</NOTE> &s;o <HI>doing.</HI></P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
