confusion in all government But what is this to the present enquiry whether Conscience lay an Obligation on men as regulated by the word of God and respecting Him to practise according to its dictates It is true enough that if any of its practices do not please or satisfy the Magistrate their Authors must for ought I know stand to what will follow or ensue on them to their prejudice but this frees them not from the Obligation that is upon them in Conscience unto what is their duty This is that which must be here proved if any thing be intended unto the purpose of this Author namely that notwithstanding the judgment of Conscience concerning any duty by the interposition of the Authority of the Magistrate to the contrary there is no Obligation ensues for the performance of that duty This is the Answer that ought plainly to be returned and not a suggestion that outward Actions must fall under the Cognizance of the Magistrate which none ever doubted of and which is nothing to the present purpose unless he would have them to fall under the Magistrates Cognizance as that his will should be the supream Rule of them which I think he cannot prove But what sense the Magistrate will have of the outward Actions wherein the discharge of mans duty doth consist is of another consideration This therefore is the state of the present case applied unto Religious Worship Suppose the Magistrate command such things in Religion as a man in his Conscience guided by the Word and respecting God doth look upon as Vnlawful and such as are Evil and Sin unto him if he should perform them and forbid such things in the Worship of God as he esteems himself obliged in Conscience to observe as commands of Christ If he may practise the things so commanded and omit the things so forbidden I fear he will find himself within doors continually at confession saying with trouble enough I have done those things which I ought not to have done and I have left undone those things which I ought to have done and there is no health in me unless this Author can prove that the Commands of God respect only the minds of men but not their outward actions which are left unto the Authority of the Magistrate alone If no more be here intended but that whatever Conscience may require of any it will not secure them but that when they come to act outwardly according to it the Civil Magistrate may and will consider their Actions and allow them or forbid them according to his own judgement it were surely a madness to deny it as great as to say the Sun shineth not at noon day If Conscience to God be confined to Thoughts and Opinions and Speculations about the general Notions and Notices of things about True and False and unto a liberty of judging and determining upon them what they are whether they are so or no 〈◊〉 the whole nature and being of Conscience and that to the Reason sense and experience of every man is utterly overthrown If Conscience be allowed to make its judgement of what is good or evil what is Duty or sin and no obligation be allowed to ensue from thence unto a suitable practice a wide door is opened unto Atheism and thereby the subversion of all Religion and Government in the world This therefore is the summ of what is asserted in this matter Conscience according to that Apprehension which it hath of the will of God about His worship whereunto we confine our discourse obligeth men to act or forbear accordingly if their Apprehensions are right and true just and equal what the Scripture the great Rule of Conscience doth declare and require I hope none upon second thoughts will deny but that such things are attended with a right unto a Liberty to be practised whilst the Lord Jesus Christ is esteemed the Lord of Lords and King of Kings and is thought to have power to command the observance of his own Institutions Suppose these Apprehensions to be such as may in some things be they more or less be judged not to correspond exactly with the great Rule of Conscience yet supposing them also to contain nothing inconsistent with or of a disturbing nature to civil Society and publick Tranquillity nothing that gives countenance to any Vice or Evil or is opposite to the principal Truths and main Duties of Religion wherein the minds of men in a Nation do coalesce nor carry any politick entangleâ—ments along with them and add thereunto the peaceableness of the persons possesâ— with those Apprehensions and the impossibility they are under to devest themselves of them and I say Natural Right Justice Equity Religion Conscience God himself in all and His Voice in the hearts of all unprejudiced persons do require that neither the persons themselves on the account of their Consciences have violence offered unto them nor their practices in pursuit of their Apprehensions be restrained by severe prohibitions and penalties But whereas the Magistrate is allowed to judge and dispose of all outward Actions in reference to publick tranquility if any shall assert Principles as of Conscience tending or obliging unto the practice of Vice Immorality or Sin or to the disturbance of publick society such principles being all notoriously judged by Scripture Nature the common consent of Mankind and inconsistent with the fundamental principles of Humane Polity may be in all instances of their discovery and practice coerced and restrained But plainly as to the commands of Conscience they are of the same extent with the commands of God If these respect only the inward man or the mind Conscience doth no more if they respect outward Actions Conscience doth so also From the Liberty of Conscience a Proceed is made to Christian Liberty which is said to be a Duty or priviledg founded upon the chimaerical Liberty of Conscience before granted But these things stand not in the Relation imagined Liberty of Conscience is of natural Right Christian Liberty is a Gospel-priviledge though both may be pleaded in bar of unwarrantable Impositions on Conscience But these things are so described by our Author as to be confounded For the Christian Liberty described in this Paragraph is either restrained to matters of pure Speculation wherein the mind of man is left entirely free to judge of the Truth and falsehood of things or as it regards things that fall under Laws and Impositions wherein men are left intirely free to judge of them as they are objects of meer Opinion Now how this differs from the Liberty of Conscience granted before I know not And that there is some mistake in this description of Christian Liberty need no other Consideration to evince but this namely that Christian Liberty as our Author tells us is a Priviledge but this is not so being that which is equally common unto all mankind This Liberty is necessary unto Humane Nature nor can it be divested of it and so it is not
just Plea or false pretence of Authority and the interest of men in the Civil concerns of Nations However it cannot be pretended that Liberty of Conscience gave the least occasion unto any disorders in those dayes For indeed there was none but only that of Opinion and Judgement which our Author placeth out of the Magistrates cognizance and dispose and supposeth it is as a thing wherein the publick peace neither is nor can be concerned It is well if it prove so but this Liberty of Judgement constantly prest with a practice contrary to its own determinations will I fear prove the most dangerous posture of the minds of men in reference to publick tranquillity that they can be well disposed into However we may take a little nearer view of the certain Remedy provided for all these evils by our Author and satisfie our selves in some Enquiries about it Shall then according to this Expedient the Supream Magistrate govern rule and oblige unto obedience the consciences of his Subjects universally in all things in Religion and the Worship of God so that appoint what he please forbid what he please Subjects are bound in Concience to observe them and yield obedience accordingly His answer as far as I can gather his meaning is that he may and must do so in all things taking care that what he commands shall neither countenance Vice nor disgrace the Deity and then the Subjects are obliged according to the Enquiry But yet there seems another limitation to be given to this power p. 37. where he affirms that the Lord Christ hath given severe Injunctions to secure the obedience of men to all lawful Superiours except where they run directly cross to the interest of the Gospel and elsewhere he seems to give the same priviledge of Exemption where a Religion is introduced that is Idolatrous or Superstitious I would then a little farther enquire who shall judge whether the things commanded in Religion and the Worship of God be Idolatrous or Superstitious Whether they cross directly the Interest of the Gospel Whether they countenance Vice and disgrace the Deity or no. To say that the Magistrate is to judge and determine hereof is the highest foppery imaginable For no Magistrate unless he be distracted will enjoyn such a Religion to observance as he judgeth himself to fall under the qualifications mentioned and when he hath done declare that so they do and yet require obedience unto them Besides if this Judgement be solely committed unto him indeed in the issue there neither is nor can be any Question for a Judgement to be passed upon in this matter For his Injunction doth quite render useless all disquisitions to that purpose The judgement and determination hereof therefore is necessary to be left unto the Subjects from whom obedience is required So it lyes in the letter of the Proposal they must obey in all things but such and therefore surely must judge what is such and what is not Now who shall fix bounds to what they will judge to fall under one or other of these limitations if they determine according to the best light they have that the Religious Observances enjoyned by the Magistrate do directly cross the Interest of the Gospel they are absolved by our Author from any obligation in Conscience to their observation And so we are just as before and this great Engine for publick Tranquility vanisheth into Air and Smoak Thus this Author himself in way of objection supposeth a case of a Magistrate enjoyning as was said a Religion Superstitious and Idolatrous this he acknowledgeeth to be an Inconvenience yet such as is far beneath the Mischiefs the ensue upon the Exemption of the Consciences of men in Religion from the power of the the Magistrate which I confess I cannot but admire at and can give Reasons why I do so admire it which also may be given in due season But what then is to be done in this Case he answers It is to be born True but how Is it to be so born as to practise and observe the things so enjoyned though Superstitious and Idolatrous though his words are dubious yet I suppose he will not plainly say so not can he unless he will teach men to cast off all respect unto the Authority of God and open such a door to Atheism as his rhetorical Prefatory Invective will not be able to shut The bearing then intended must be by patient suffering in a refusal to practise what is so commanded and observing the contrary Commands of God But why in this Case ought they to suffer quietly for refusing a compliance with what is commanded and for their observance of the contrary Precepts of the Gospel Why they must do so because of the command of God obliging their Consciences unto Obedience to the Magistrate in all things wherein the publick peace is concerned and so that is absolutely secured Is it not evident to him that hath but half an eye that we are come about again where we were before Let this be applyed to all the concernments of Religion and Religious Worship and there will arise with respect unto them the same security which in this case is deemed sufficient and all that Humane Affairs are capable of For if in greater matters men may refuse to act according to the Magistrates Command out of a sense of the Authority of God obliging them to the contrary and yet their Civil Peaceableness and Obedience be absolutely secured from the respect of their Consciences to the Command of God requiring it why should it not be admitted that they may and will have the same respect to that Command when they dissent from the Magistrates Constitution in lesser things on the same account of the Authority of God requiring the contrary of them Shall we suppose that they will cast off the Authority of God requiring their Obedience on the account of their dissatisfaction in lesser things of the Magistrates appointment when they will not do so for all the violences that may be offered unto them in things of greater and higher importance The Principle therefore asserted is as useless as it is false and partakes sufficiently of both those properties to render it inconsiderable and contemptible And he that can reconcile these things among themselves or make them useful to the Authors design will atchieve what I dare not aspire unto I know not any thing that remains in this first Chapter deserving our farther consideration What seems to be of real importance or to have any aspect towards the cause in hand may undergoe some brief Remarques and so leave us at liberty to a farther progress In general a supposition is laid down and it is so vehemently asserted as is evident that it is accompanied with a desire that it should be taken for granted namely that if the Consciences of men be not regulated in the choice and practice of Religion by the Authority of the Magistrate over them they will undoubtedly
in Conscience to practise according to the publick prescription but only pleads that the Magistrate may punish them if they do not and sain would have it thought that he may do so justly But these things are certain unto us in this matter and are so many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Christian Religion that if the supream Magistrate command any thing in the Worship of God that is Idolatrous we are not to practise it accordingly because we must obey God rather than men Nextly that in our refusal of complyance with the Magistrates commands we do neither rebel nor sin against him For God hath not doth not at any time shut us up in any condition unto a necessity of sinning Thirdly that in case the Magistrate shall think meet through his own mistakes and misapprehensions to punish destroy and burn them alive who shall not comply with his Edicts as did Nebuchadnezzar or as they did in England in times of Popery after all honest and Lawful private wayes of self-preservation used which we are obliged unto we are quietly and patiently to submit to the Will of God in our sufferings without opposing or resisting by force or stirring up seditions or tumults to the disturbance of publick peace But our Author hath elsewhere provided a full Solution of this difficulty Chap. 8. p. 308. Where he tells us that in cases and disputes of a publick concern Private men are not properly sui juris they have no power over thiâ— actions they are not to be directed by theiâ— own judgements or determined by their ouâ— wills but by the commands and determinaâ—â—ons of the publick Conscience And if theâ— be any sin in the command he that imposed iâ— shall answer for it and not I whose Duty it iâ— to obey The commands of Authority will warrant my Obedience my Obedience will hallâ—â— or at least excuse my action and so secure 〈◊〉 from sin if not from errour because I folleâ— the best guide and most probable direction 〈◊〉 am capable of and though I may mistake my integrity shall preserve my innocence and in all doubtfull and disputable cases it is better to err with Authority than to be in the right against it When he shall produce any oâ—â— Divine Writer Any of the Ancient Fathers any sober Schoolmen or Casuists any Learned modern Divines speaking at this rate or giving countenance unto this direction given to men for the regulating of their moral actions it shall be farther attended unto I know some such thing is muttered amongst the pleaders for blind Obedience upon Vowes voluntarily engaged into for that purpose But as it is acknowledged by themselves that by those Vowes they deprive themselves of that Right and Liberty which naturally belongs unto them as unto all other men wherein they place much of the merit of them so by others those Vowes themselves with all the pretended bruitish Obedience that proceeds from them are sufficiently evidenced to be an horrible Abomination and such as make a ready way for the perpetration of all villanies in the world to which purpose that kind of Obedience hath been principally made use of But these things are extreamly fond and not only as applyed unto the Worship of God repugnant to the Gospel but also in themselves to the Law of our Creation and that Moral dependance on God which is indispensible unto all individuals of mankind We are told in the Gospel that every one is to be fully perswaded in his own mind that whatever is not of faith is sin that we are not to be in such things the Servants of men that other mens leading of us amiss whoever they are will not excuse us for if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch and he that followeth is as sure to perish as he that leadeth The next Guids of the souls and Consciences of men are doubtless those who speak unto them in the name of God or Preachers of the Gospel Yet are all the Disciples of Christ frequently warned to take heed that they be not deceived by any under that pretence but diligently examining what is proposed unto them they discern in themselves what is good and evil Nor doth the great Apostle himself require us to be followers of him any further than he was a follower of Christ. They will find small relief who at the last day shall charge their sins on the commands of others whatever hope to the contrary they are put into by our Author Neither will it be any excuse that we have done according to the Precepts of men if we have done contrary to those of God Ephraim of old was broken in judgement because he willingly walked after the commandment Hos. 5. 14 But would not his Obedience hallow or at least excuse his action And would not the Authority of the King warrant his Obedience Or must Ephraim now answer for the sin and not be only that imposed the command But it seems that when Jeroboam sinned who at that time had this goodly Creature of the publick Conscience in keeping he made Israel sin also who obeyed him It is moreover a brave attempt to assert that Private men with respect to any of their Moral Actions are not properly sui juris have no power over their actions are not to be directed by their own judgements or determined by their own wills This is Circes Rod one stroke whereof turned men into Hoggs For to what purpose serve their Understandings their Judgements their Wills if not to guide and determine them in their Actions I think he would find hard work that should go about to perswade men to put out their own eyes or blind themselves that they might see all by one publick Eye And I am sure it is no less unreasonable to desire them to reject their own Wills Understandings and Judgements to be lead and determined by a publick Conscience considering especially that that publick Conscience it self is a meer Tragelaphus which never had Existence in Rerum natura Besides suppose men should be willing to accept of this condition of renouncing their own Understandings and Judgements from being their Guides as to their Moral actions I fear it will be found that indeed they are not able so to do Mens Understandings and their Consciences are placed in them by him who made them to rule in them and over their actions in his name and with respect unto their dependance on him And let men endeavour it whilest they please they shall never be able utterly to cast of this Yoke of God and destroy this order of things which by him inlaid in the Principles of all Rational Beings Men whilest they are meâ— in things that have a Moral Good or Eâ—â— in them or adhering to them must be guided and determined by their own Understandings whether they will or no. Aâ— if by any means they stisle the actings 〈◊〉 them at present they will not avoid the Judgement which according to
Tranquility in this world the great end of His Authority So he asserts also that there are things of God which are to be observed and practised even all and every one of his own commands in a neglect whereof on any pretence or account we give not unto God that which is His. And he doubted not but that these things these distinct respects to God and man were exceedingly well consistent and together directive to the same end of publick good Wherefore passing through the flourishes of this Frontispiece with the highest inconcernment we may enter the Fabrick it self where possibly we may find him declaring directly what it is that he asserts in this matter and contendeth for and this he doth pag. 10. And therefore it is the design of this Discourse by a fair and impartial Debate to compose all these differences and adjust all these quarrells and contentions and settle things upon their true and proper foundations first by proving it to be absolutely necessary to the peace and Government of the World that the Supream Magistrate of every Commonwealth should be vested with a power to govern and conduct the Consciences of Subjects in Affairs of Religion I am sure our Author will not be surprized if after he hath reported the whole Party whom he opposeth as a Company of silly foolish illiterate Persons one of them should so far acknowledge his own stupidity as to profess that after the Consideration of this Declaration of his Intention and mind he is yet to seek for the Direct and determinate sense of his Words and for the Principle that he designes the Confirmation of I doubt not but that the Magistrate hath all that power which is absolutely necessary for the preservation of publick Peace and Tranquility in the world But if men may be allowed to fancy what they please to be necessary unto that end and thence to make their own measures of that power which is to be ascribed unto Him no man knows what bounds will be fixed unto that Ocean wherein the Leviathans they have framed in their Imagination may sport themselves Some will perhaps think it necessary to this purpose that the Magistrate should have power to declare and determine whether there be a God or no whether if there be it be necessary He should be worshipped or no whether any Religion be needful in or usefull to the World and if there be then to determine what all subjects shall believe and practise from first to last in the whole of it And our Author hopes that some are of this mind Others may confine it to lesser things according as their own Interest doth call upon them so to do though they are not able to assign a clear distinction between what is subjected unto Him and what may plead an exemption from his Authority He indeed who is the Fountain and Original of all Power hath both assigned its proper end and fully suited it to the attainment thereof And if the noise of mens Lusts Passions and Interests were but a little silenced we should quickly hear the harmonious consenting voice of Humane nature it self declaring the just proportion that is between the Grant of power and its end and undeniably express it in all the instances of it For as the Principle of Rule and Subjection is natural to us concreated with us and indispensably necessary to Humane Society in all the distinctions it is capable of and Relations whence those Distinctions arise so Nature it self duly attended unto will not fail by the Reason of things to direct us unto all that is essential unto it and necessary unto its end Arbitrary Fictions of Ends of Government and what is necessary thereunto influenced by present Interest and arising from circumstances confined to one Place Time or Nation are not to be imposed on the Nature of Government it self which hath nothing belonging unto it but what inseparably accompanieth mankind as Sociable But to let this pass The Authority here particularly asserted is a Power in the supream Magistrate to govern and guide the Consciences of his Subjects in affairs of Religion Let any man duly consider these expressions and if he be satisfied by them as to the sense of the Controversie under debate I shall acknowledge that he is wiser than I which is very easie for any one to be What are the Affairs of Religion here intended all or some Whether in Religion or about it what are the Consciences of men and how exercised about these things what it is to govern and conduct them with what power by what means this may be done I am at a loss for ought that yet is here declared There is a Guidance Conduct yea Government of the Consciences of men by Instructions and Directions in a due proposal of rational and spiritual motives for those ends such as is that which is vested in and exercised by the Guides of the Church and that in subjection to and dependance on Christ alone as hath been hitherto apprehended though some now seem to have a mind to change their Master and to take up praesente Numine who may be of more Advantage to them That the Magistrate hath also power so to govern and conduct the Consciences of his Subjects in his way of Administration that is by ordering them to be taught instructed and guided in their duty I know none that doth deny So did Jehosophat 2 Chron. 17 7 8 9. But it seems to be a Government and Guidance of another nature that is here intended To deliver our selves therefore from the Deceit and Intanglement of these general expressions and that we may know what to speak unto we must seek for a Declaration of their sense and Importance from what is elsewhere in their pursuit affirmed and explained by their Author His general Assertion is as was observed that the Magistrate hath power over the Consciences of his Subjects in Religion as appears in the Title of his Book Here p. 10. that power is said to be to govern and conduct their Consciences in Religious Affairs pag. 13. that Religion is subject to his dominion as well as all other affairs of State pag. 27. it is a Soveraignty over mens Consciences in matters of Religion and this Universal Absolute and Uncontrollable Matters of Religion are as uncontrollably subject to the supream power as all other Civil Concerns He may if he please reserve the Exercise of the Priesthood to Himself p. 32. that is what now in Religion corresponds unto the ancient Priesthood as the Ordering Bishops and Priests Administring Sacraments and the like as the Papists in Q. Elizabeth 's time did commonly report in their usual manner that it was done by a Woman amongst us by a fiction of such principles as begin it seems now to be owned That if this power of the Government of Religion be not Universal and Unlimited it is useless p. 35. that this power is not derived from Christ nor any grant of
his but is antecedent to his coming or any power given unto Him or granted by Him pag. 40. Magistrates have a power to make that a particular of the Divine Law which God had not made so p. 80. and to introduce new duties in the most important parts of Religion So that there is a publick conscience which men are in things of a publick concern relating to the Worship of God to attend unto and not to their own And if there be any sin in the command he that imposed it shall answer for it and not I whose whole duty it is to obey p. 308. Hence the command of Authority will warrant obedience and obedience will hallow my actions and excuse me from sin ibid. Hence it follows that whatever the Magistrate commands in Religion his Authority doth so immediately affect the Consciences of men that they are bound to observe it on the pain of the greatest sin and punishment And he may appoint and command whatever he pleaseth in Religion that doth not either countenance Vice or disgrace the Deity p. 85. And many other expressions are there of the general Assertion before laid down This therefore seems to me and to the most impartial Considerations of this Discourse that I could bring unto it to be the Doctrine or Opinion proposed and advanced for the quieting and composing of the great tumults described in its entrance namely That the supream Magistrate in every Nation hath power to order and appoint what Religion his Subjects shall profess and observe or what he pleaseth in Religion as to the worship of God required in it provided that he enjoyneth nothing that countenanceth Vice or disgraceth the Deity and thereby binds their Consciences to profess and observe that which is by him so appointed and nothing else are they to observe making it their duty in Conscience so to do and the highest Crime or Sin to do any thing to the contrary and that whatever the precise Truth in these matters be or whatever be the apprehensions of their own Consciences concerning them Now if our Author can produce any Law Usage or Custome of this Kingdom any Statute or Act of Parliament any authentick Record any Acts or Declarations of our Kings any publickly authorised writing before or since the Reformation declaring asserting or otherwise approving the Power and Authority described to belong unto to be claimed or exercised by the Kings of this Nation I will faithfully promise him never to write one word against it although I am sure I shall never be of that mind And if I mistake not in a transient Reflection on these Principles compared with those which the Church of England hath formerly pleaded against them who opposed her Constitutions they are utterly by them cast out of all consideration and this one notion is advanced in the room of all the Foundations which for so many years her Defenders as wife and as Learned as this Author have been building upon But this is not my concernment to examine I shall leave it unto them whose it is and whose it will be made appear to be if we are again necessitated to engage in this dispute For the present be it granted that it is the duty and in the power of every supream Magistrate to Order and Determine what Religion what Way what Modes in Religion shall be allowed publickly owned and countenanced and by publick revenue maintained in his Dominions That is this is allowed with respect to all pretensions of other Soveraigns or of his own Subjects with respect unto God it is his Truth alone the Religion by him revealed and the Worship by him appointed that he can so allow or establish The Rule that holds in private persons with respect to the publick Magistrate holds in him with respect unto God Illud possumus quod jure possumus It is also agreed that no men no individual Person no Order or Society of men are either in their persons or any of their outward concerns exempted or may be so on the account of Religion from His Power and Jurisdiction nor any Causes that are lyable unto a legal political disposal and determination It is also freely acknowledged that whatever such a Magistrate doth determiâ—â— about the Observances of Religion under what penalties soever His Subjects are bound to observe what He doth so command and appoint unless by general or especial Rules their Consciences are obliged to a Dissent or contrary Observation by the Authority of God and His Word In this case they are to keep their Souls entire in their spiritual subjection unto God and quietly and peaceably to bear the troubles and inconveniencies which on the account thereof may befall them without the least withdrawing of their Obedience from the Magistrate And in this state of things as there is no Necessity or appearance of it that any man should be brought into such a condition as wherein Sin on the one hand or the other cannot be avoided so that state of things will probably occurr in the world as it hath done in all Ages hitherto that men may be necessitated to Sin or Suffer To winde up the state of this Controversie we say that antecedent to the Consideration of the power of the Magistrate and all the Influence that it hath upon men or their Consciences there is a superiour determination of what is true what false in Religion what right and what wrong in the Worship of God wherein the Guidance of the Consciences of men doth principally depend and whereinto it is ultimately resolved This gives an Obligation or Liberty unto them antecedent unto the imposition of the Magistrate of whose command and our actual Obedience unto them in these things it is the Rule and Measure And I think there is no Principle no common presumption of Nature nor dictate of Reason more evident known or confessed than this that whatever God commands Us in his Worship or otherwise that we are to do and whatever he forbids us that we are not to do be the things themselves in our eye great or small Neither is there any difference in these things with respect unto the Way or manner of the declaration of the Will of God Whether it be by innate common light or by Revelation all is one The Authority and Will of God in all is to be observed Yea a Command of God made known by Revelation the way which is most contended about may suspend as to any particular Instance the greatest command that we are obliged unto by the Law of Nature in reference unto one another as it did in the precept given to Abraham for the Sacrificing of his Son And we shall find our Author himself setting up the Supremacy of Conscience in opposition unto and competition with that of the Magistrate though with no great self-consistency ascribing the preheminence and prevalency in obligation unto that of Conscience and that in the principal and most important duties of Religion and
have as good and better grounds to suspect him to have no conscience at all who upon unjust surmises shall so injuriously charge them as finding him in a direct transgression of the principal Rules that Conscience is to be guided and directed by than he hath to pronounce such a judgement concerning them and their sincerity in what they prosess And whether such mutual censures tend not to the utter overthrow of all peace love and security amongst mankind is easie to determine Certainly it is the worst game in the World for the Publick to have men bandying suspicions one against another and thereon managing mutual charges of all that they do surmise or what else they please to give the countenance of surmise unto I acknowledge the notion insisted on namely that mhilest men reserve to themselves the freedom and liberty of judging what they please or what seems good unto them in matters of Religion and the Worship of God they ought to esteem it their duty to practise in all things according to the prescription of their Rulers though every may contrary unto and inconsistent with their own judgements and perswasions unless it be in things that countenance Vice or disgrace the Deity where of yet it may be it will not be thought meet that they themselves should judge for themselves and their own practise seeing they may extend their conceptions about what doth so unto such minute Instances as would frustrate the whole design is exceedingly accommodated to the corrupt lusts and affections of men and suited to make provision for their security in this world by an exemption from the indispensable command of professing the truth communicated and known unto them a sense of the obligation where of hath hitherto exposed innumerable persons in all Ages to great difficulties dangers and sufferings yea to death the height and summ of all For whereas men have been perswaded that with the heart man believeth unto Righteousness and with the mouth Confession is made unto Salvation the latter clause is in many cases hereby sufficiently superseded and the troublesome duty seeming to be required in it is removed out of the way It will not it may be be so easie to prove that in the Religion of the Mahumetans there is any thing enjoyned in practise that will directly fall under the limitations assigned unto the complyance with the commands of Supeperiours contended for And therefore let a man but retain his own apprehensions concerning Jesus Christ and the Gospel it may be lawful for him yea be his duty to observe the worship enjoyned by the Law of Mahomet if his lot fall to live under the power of the Grand Seignior or any Soveraign Prince of the same perswasion But the case is clear in the Religion of the Papists which is under the protection of the greatest number of supream Magistrates in Europe It will not be pretended I suppose by our Author that there is any thing in the confession of the Church of Rome or imposed by it on the practices of men that directly gives countenance unto any Immorality especially as the sense of that term is by him stated and it is no easie matter for ordinary men to prove and satisfie themselves that there is ought in their Modes of Worship of such a tendency as to cast disgrace upon the Deity especially considering with how much learning and diligence the charge of any such miscarriage is endeavoured to be answered and removed all which pleas ought to be satisfied before a man can make sedately a determinate judgement of the contrary Let then men's judgements be what they will in the matters of difference between Protestants and Papists it is on this Hypothesis the duty of all that live under the Dominion of Soveraign Popish Princes outwardly to comply with and practise that Religious Worship that is commanded by them and enjoyned The case is the same also as to the Religion of the Jews Now as this casts a Reflection of incredible folly and unexpiable guilt upon all Protestant Martyrs in casting away their own lives and disobeying the Commands of their lawful Soveraigns so it exposeth all the Protestants in the World who are still in the same condition of subjection to the severe censures of Impiety and Rebellion and must needs exasperate their Rulers to pursue them to destruction under pretence of unwarrantable obstinacy in them For if we wholly take off the protection of Conscience in this matter and its subjection to the Authority of God alone there is no plea left to excuse dissenting Protestants from the guilt of such crimes as may make men justly cry out against them as the Jews did against St. Paul Away with them away with them it is not meet that such Fellows should live or Frotestantes ad Leones according to the old cry of the Pagans against the Primitive Christians But if this should prove to be a way of teaching and justifying the grossest Hypocrisie and Dissimulation that the nature of man is capable of a means to cast off all regard unto the Authority of God over the wayes and lives of men all the Rhetorick in the World shall never perswade me that God hath so moulded and framed the order and state of humane affairs that it should be any way needful to the preservation of publick peace and tranquility Openness plainness of heart Sincerity in our Actions and Professions Generous honesty and an universal respect in all things to the supream Rector of all the great Possessour of Heaven and Earth with an endeavour to comply with His present revealed mind and future judgement are far better Foundations for and ligaments of publick peace and quietness To make this the Foundation of our Political Superstructure that Divisum Imperium Cum Jove Caesar habet God hath immediate and sole power over the minds and inward thoughts of men but the Magistrate over the Exercise of those thoughts in things especially belonging to the Worship of God and in the same Instances seems not to prognosticate a stable or durable building The Prophet was not of that mind of old who in the name of God blamed the people for willingly walking after the Commandment of their Ruler in concerns of Worship not warranted by Divine appointment nor was Daniel so who notwithstanding the severe prohibition made against his praying in his house continued to do so three times a day But besides all this I do not see how this Hypothesis is necessarily subservient to the principal design of the Author but it may be as well improved to quite distant yea contrary ends and purposes His design plainly is to have one Fabrick of Religion erected one Form of External Worship enacted and prescribed which all men should be compelled by penalties to the outward profession and observance of these penalties he would have to be such as should not fail of their end namely of taking away all professed Dissent from his Religious establishment which if
the preservation of publick Tranquility as is pretended a man cannot but wonder how the world hath been in any Age past kept in any tolerable peace and quietness and how it is any where blessed with those ends of Government at this day For it will not be an easie task for our Author or any one else to demonstrate that the Power mentioned hath ever been either claimed or exercised by any Supream Magistrate in Christendom or that it is so at this day The Experience of past and present Ages is therefore abundantly sufficient to defeat this pretence which is sufficiently asserted without the least appearance of proof or Argument to give it countenance or confirmation or they must be very charitable to him or ignorant in themselves who will mistake Invectives for Arguments The remembrance indeed of these Severities I would willingly lay aside especially because the very mention of them seems to express an higher sense of and regret concerning them then I am in the least subject unto or something that looks like a design of Retaliation but as these things are far from my mind so the continual returns that almost in every Page I meet with of high and contemptuous Reproaches will not allow that they be alwayes passed by without any notice or remark It is indeed indispensably necessary that publick Peace and Tranquility be preserved but that there is any thing in point of Government necessary hereunto but that God have all spiritual power over the Consciences of men and Rulers Political power over their Actings wherein publick Peace and Tranquility are concerned the World hath not hitherto esteemed nor do I expect to find it proved by this Author If these things will not preserve the publick peace it will not be kept if one should rise from the dead to perswade men unto their duty The Power of God over the Consciences of men I suppose is acknowledged by all who own any such thing as Conscience or believe there is a God over all That also in the exercise of this Authority he requires of men all that obedience unto Rulers that is any way needfull or expedient unto the preservation of the ends of their Rule is a Truth standing firm on the same Foundation of Universal consent derived from the Law of Creation and his positive Commands to that purpose have an evidence of his Will in this matter not liable to exception or controll This Conscience unto God our Author confesseth as we have observed in his fourth Chapter to be the great preservation and security of Goverment and Governours with respect unto the ends mentioned And if so what becomes of all the pretences of disorder and confusion that will ensue unless this power over mens Consciences be given to the Magistrate and taken as it were out of the hands of God Nor is it to be supposed that men will be more true to their Consciences supposing the Reiglement of them in the hand of men than when they are granted to be in the hand and power of God for both at present are supposed to require the same things Certainly where Conscience respects Authority as it always doth the more Absolute and Soveraign it apprehends the Authority by which it is obliged the greater and more firm will be the impressions of the obligation upon it And in that Capacity of preheminence it must look upon the Authority of God compared with the Authority of man Here then lyes the security of publick peace and tranquility as it is backed by the Authority of the Magistrate to see that all outward Actions are suitable unto what Conscience toward God doth in this matter openly and unquestionably require The pretence indeed is that the placing of this Authority over the Consciences of men in the Supream Ruler doth obviate and take away all grounds and occasions of any such Actings on the Account of Religion as may tend unto publick disturbance For suppose Conscience in things concerning Religion and the Worship of God subject to God alone and the Magistrate require such things to be observed in the one or the other as God hath not required at least in the Judgements and Consciences of them of whom the things prescribed are required and to forbid the things that God requires to be observed and done in this case it is said they cannot or will not comply in Active Obedience with the Commands of the Magistrate But what if it so fall out Doth it thence follow that such persons must needs Rebell and be Seditious and disturb the publick peace of the Society whereof they are Members Wherefore is it that they do not do or observe what is required of them by the Magistrate in Religion or the Worship of God or that they do what he forbids Is it not because of the Authority of God over their minds and Consciences in these things And why should it be supposed that men will answer the Obligations laid by God on their Consciences in one thing and not in another in the things of his Worship and not of obedience unto Civil Power concerning which his Commands are as express and evident as they can be pretended to be in the things which they avow their obligation unto Experience is pretended to the contrary It is said again and again that men under pretence of their Consciences unto God in Religion have raised Wars and Tumults and brought all things into confusion in this Kingdom and Nation especially and what will words avail against the evidence of so open an experience to the contrary But what if this also should prove a false and futilous pretence Fierce and long Wars have been in this Nation of old upon the various Titles of persons pleading their Right unto Supream Government in the Kingdom against one another so also have there been about the Civil Rights and the Priviledges of the Subjects in the Confusions commonly called the Barons Wars The late Troubles Disorders and Wars amongst us must bear the weight of this whole charge But if any one will take the pains to review the publick Writings Declarations Treaties whereby those Tumults and Wars were begun and carried on he will easily discern that Liberty of Conscience in practice or the exemption of it from the power of the Magistrate as to the Rule and Conduct of it now ascribed unto him in the latitude by sober persons defended or pleaded for had neither place in nor influence into the Beginnings of those troubles And when such confusions are begun no man can give assurance or conjecture where they shall end Authority Laws Priviledges and I know not what things wherein private men of whom alone we treat have no pretence of Interest were pleaded in those Affairs He that would judge aright of these things must set aside all other Considerations and give his instance of the Tumults and Seditions that have ensued on the account of menskeeping their Consciences entire for God alone without any
common consent were admitted and received amongst them Besides our Author by his Discourse seems not to be much acquainted with the rise of the office of the Priesthood amongst men as shall be demonstrated if farther occasion be given thereunto However by the way we may observe what is his judgement in this matter The Magistrate we are told hath not his Ecclesiastical Authority from Christ and yet this is such as that the power of the Priesthood is included therein the exercise whereof as he is pleased to transfer to others so he may if he please reserve it to himself p. 32. whence it follows not only that it cannot be given by Christ unto any other for it is part of the Magistrates power which he hath not limited nor confined by any subsequent Law nor can there be 〈◊〉 Coordinate Subject of the same power of several kinds so that all the Interest or Right any man or men have in or unto the exercise of it is but transfer'd to them by the Magistrate and therefore they act therein in his name and by his Authority only and hence the Bishops as such are said to be Ministers of State p. 49. Neither can it be pretended that this was indeed in the power of the Magistrate before the coming of Christ but not since For he hath as we are told all that he ever had unless there be a Restraint put upon Him by some express prohibition of our Saviour p. 41. which will hardly be found in this matter I cannot therefore see how in the exercise of the Christian Priesthood there is on these principles any the least respect unto Jesus Christ or his Authority for men have only the exercise of it transferred to them by the Magistrate by vertue of a power inherent in him antecedent unto any concessions of Christ and therefore in his name and Authority they must act in all the sacred offices of their Functions It is well if men be so far awake as to consider the tendency of these things At length Scripture proofs for the confirmation of these opinions are produced p. 35 36. And the first pleaded is that promise that Kings shall be nursings Fathers unto the Church It is true this is promised and God accomplish it more and more But yet we do not desire such Nurses as beget the Children they nurse The proposing prescribing commanding binding Religion on the Consciences of men is rather the begetting of it than its nursing To take care of the Church and Religion that it receive no detriment by all the wayes and means appointed by God and useful thereunto is the duty of Magistrates but it is so also antecedently to their actings unto this purpose to discern aright which is the Church whereunto this promise is made without which they cannot duly discharge their Trust nor fulfill the Promise it self The very Words by the rules of the Metaphor do imply that the Church and its Religion and the worship of God observed therein is constituted fixed and regulated by God himself antecedently unto the Magistrates duty and power about it They are to Nurse that which is committed to them and not what Themselves have framed or begotten And we contend for no more but a Rule concerning Religion and the Worship of God antecedent unto the Magistrates interposing about it whereby both his Actings in his place and those of Subjects in theirs are to be regulated Mistakes herein have engaged many Soveraign Princes in pursuit of their Trust as Nursing Fathers to the Church to lay out their strength and power for the utter ruine of it as may be evidenced in instances too many of those who in a subserviency to and by the direction of the Papal Interest have endeavoured to extirpate true Religion out of the World Such a Nursing Mother we had sometimes in England who in pursuit of her care burned so many Bishops and other Holy men to Ashes He asks farther what doth the Scripture mean when it stiles our Saviour the King of Kings and maketh Princes his Vicegerents here on earth I confess according to this Gentleman's principles I know not what it means in so doing Kings he tells us have not their Authority in and over Religion and the Consciences of men from him and therefore in the exercise of it cannot be his Vicegerents for none is the Vicegerent of another in the exercise of any power or Authority if he have not received that power and Authority from him Otherwise the words have a proper sense but nothing to our Authors purpose It is his power over them and not theirs over the Consciences of their Subjects that is intended in the words Of no more use in this controversie is the direction of the Apostle that we should pray for Kings that under them we may lead a quiet and peaceable life for no more is intended therein but that under their peaceable and righteous administration of humane Affairs we may live in that Godliness and honesty which is required of us Wherefore then are these weak attempts made to confirm and prove what is not Those or the most of them whom our Author in this Discourse treats with so much severity do plead that it is the duty of all supream Magistrates to find out receive imbrace promote the Truths of the Gospel with the Worship of God appointed therein confirming protecting and desending them and those that embrace them by their Power and Authority And in the discharge of this duty they are to use the liberty of their own judgements enformed by the wayes that God hath appointed independently on the dictates and determinations of any other persons whatever They affirm also that to this end they are entrusted with supream power over all persons in their respective Dominions who on no pretence can be exempted from the exercise of that power as occasion in their judgements shall require it to be exercised as also that all causes wherein the profession of Religion in their Dominions is concerned which are determinable in foro Civili by coercive Vmpirage or Authority are subject unto their cognizance and power The Soveraign power over the Consciences of men to institute appoint and prescribe Religion and the Worship of God they affirm to belong unto him alone who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith who is the head over all things to the Church The Administration of things meerly Spiritual in the Worship of God is they judge derived immediately from him to the Ministers and Administrators of the Gospel possessed of their Offices by his Command and according to his institution as to the external practice of Religion and Religious Worship as such it is they say in the power of the Magistrate to regulate all the outward civil concernments of it with reference unto the preservation of publick peace and Tranquillity and the prosperity of his subjects And herein also they judge that such respect is to be had to the
House to his Son or Neighbour whereby what is just and lawfull in it self is accommodated to the use of political Society He determines also how Persons guilty of death shall be executed and by whom and in what manner whence it must needs follow that he hath power to assign new particulars of the Divine Law to declare new bounds or hedges of right and wrong which the Law of God neither doth nor can limit or hath power over the Consciences of men with respect to Moral Vertues which was to be demonstrated Let us lay aside these swelling expressions and we shall find that all that can be ascribed unto the Civil Magistrate in this matter is no more than to preserve Property and Peace by that Rule and power over the outward Actions of men which is necessary thereunto Having made some enquiry into the termes of Moral Vertue and the Magistrates power it remains only that we consider what respect this case hath unto the Consciences of men with reference unto them And I desire to know whether all mankind be not obliged in Conscience to the Observation of all Moral Vertue antecedently to the command or Authority of the Magistrate who doth only inspect their observation of them as to the concerns of publick peace and tranquility Certainly if all Moral Vertue consists in living suitable to the dictates of Reason as we are told and in a sense rightly if the Rule of them all and every one which gives them their formal Nature be the Law of our Creation which all mankind enter the World under an indispensable obligation unto it cannot be denyed but that there is such an antecedent obligation on the Consciences of Men as that inquired after But the things mentioned are granted by our Author nor can by any be denyed without offering the highest outrage to Scripture Reason and the common consent of Mankind Now if this Obligation be thus on all Men unto all Vertue as Vertue and this absolutely from the Authority of God over them and their Consciences how comes an inferiour Authority to interpose it self between that of God and their Consciences so immediately to oblige them It is granted that when the Magistrate commandeth and requireth the exercise of any Moral Duty in a way suited unto publick good and tranquility he is to be obeyed for Conscience sake because he who is the Lord of Conscience doth require Men to be obedient unto him whereon they are obliged in Conscience so to be But if the things required of them be in themselves Moral Duties as they are such their Consciences are obliged to observe and exercise them from the command of God and other obligation unto them as such they neither have nor can have But the direction and command for the exercise of them in these and those circumstances for the ends of publick Good whereunto they are directed belongs unto the Magistrate who is to be obeyed For as in things meerly Civil and which have nothing originally of morality in them but secondarily only as they tend to the preservation and welfare of humane Society which is a thing Morally good the Magistrate is to be obeyed for Conscience sake and the things themselves as far as they partake of Morality come directly under the command of God which affects the Conscience so in things that have an inherent and inseparable Morality and so respect God in the first place when they come to have a civil Sanction in reference to their exercise unto publick political Good that Sanction is to be obeyed out of Conscience but the antecedent obligation that was upon the Conscience unto a due exercise of those Duties when made necessary by circumstances is not superseded nor any new one added thereunto I know what is said but I find not as yet what is proved from these things concerning the uncontroleable and absolute power of the supream Magistrate over Religion and the consciences of men Some things are added indeed here up and down about circumstances of Divine Worship and the power of ordering them by the Magistrate which though there may be some different conceptions about yet they no way reach the cause under debate But as they are expressed by our Author I know not of any one Writer in and of the Church of England that hitherto hath so stated them as they are by him For he tells us pag. 85. That all Rituals Ceremonies Postures and Manners of performing the outward expressions of Devotion that are not chargeable with countenancing Vice or disgracing the Deity are capable of being adopted into the Ministeries of Divine Service and are not exempted from being Subject to the determinations of humane power Whether they are so or no the Magistrate I presume is to judge or all this flourish of words and concessions of power vanish into smoak His command of them binds the Consciences of men to observe them according to the principle under consideration Hence it must be absolutely in the power of every supream Magistrate to impose on the Christian Subjects a greater number of Ceremonious observances in the Worship of God and those of greater weight than ever were laid upon the Jews For who knows not that under the names of Rituals Ceremonies Postures manners of Performing all Divine Service what a butrdensome heap of things are imposed in the Roman Church whereunto as far as I know a thousand more may be added not chargeable in themselves with either of the crimes which alone are allowed to be put in in Barr or Plea against them And whether this be the Liberty whereunto Jesus Christ hath vindicated his Disciples and Church is left unto the judgement of sober men Outward Religious Worship we know is to be performed by natural actions these have their circumstances and those oft-times because of the publick concernments of the exercise of Religion of great importance These may be ordered by the power and according to the Wisdome of those in Authority But that they should make so many things as this assertion allows them to make to belong unto and to be Parts of the Worship of God whereof not one is enjoyned or required by him and the Consciences of men be thereby obliged unto their observance I do not believe nor is it here at all proved To close this Discourse about the power of obliging the consciences of men I think our Author grants that Conscience is immediately obliged to the Observation of all things that are Good in themselves from the Law of our Creation Such things as either the nature of God or our own require from us our Consciences surely are obliged immediately by the Authority of God to observe Nor can we have any dispensation for the non-performance of our Duty from the interposition of the commands and Authority of any of the sons of Men. For this would be openly and directly to set up men against God and to advance them or their Authority above him or his
on the Minds Consciences or judgements of men to think or judge otherwise of what is imposed on them than as their nature is and doth require only they are obliged unto their Usage Observance and Practice which is to put us into a thousand times worse condition than the Jews if Instances of them should be multiplyed as they may lawfully 〈◊〉 every year seeing it much more quiet◠the mind to be able to resolve its thought◠immediately into the Authority of Go◠under its Yoke than into that of man I◠therefore we are freed from the one by our Christian Liberty we are so much more from the other so as that being made free by Christ we should not be the servants of men in things belonging to his Service and Worship From this discovery here made of the nature of Christian Liberty our Author makes some deductions p. 98 99. concerning the nature of Religious Worship wherein he tells us that the whole substance of Religious Worship is transacted within the mind of man and dwells in the heart and thoughts the soul being its proper Seat and Temple where men may Worship their God as they please without offending their Prince and that External Worship is no part of Religion it self I wish he had more clearly and distinctly expressed his mind in this matter for his Assertions in the sense the words seem to bear are prodigiously false and such as will open a door to Atheism with all Villany and Confusion in the World For who would not think this to be his intention Let men keep their minds and inward thoughts and apprehensious right for God and then they may practise outwardly in Religion what they please one thing one day another another be Papists and Protestants Arians and Homousians yea Mahometans and Christians any thing every thing after the manner of the Country and Laws of the Prince where they are and live the Rule that Ecebolius walked by of old I think there is no man that owns the Scripture but will confess that this is at least if not a direct yet an interpretative rejection of the whole Authority of God And may not this Rule be quickly extended unto Oaths themselves the bonds and Ligaments of humane Society For whereas in their own formal nature they belong to the Worship of God why may not men pretend to keep up their Reverence unto God in the internal part of them or their esteem of Him in their Invocation of His Name but as to the outward part accommodate it unto what by their Interest is required of them so swearing with their Tongues but keeping their Mind at Liberty If the Principles laid down be capable of any other more tolerable sense and such as may be exclusive of these Inferences I shall gladly admit it at present what is here deduced from them seems to be evidently included in them It is true indeed that Natural Moral or Internal Worship consisting in Faith Love Fear Thankfulness Submission Dependance and the like hath its constant Seat and Residence in the Souls and Minds of men but that the wayes whereby these Principles of it are to be outwardly exercised and expressed by Gods Command and Appointment are not also indispensably necessary unto us and parts of his Worship is utterly false That which principally in the Scripture comes under the notion of the Worship of God is the due observance of his outward Institutions which Divines have upon unquestionable grounds contended to be commanded and appointed in general in the second Commandment of the Decalogue whence all particular Institutions in the several seasons of the Church are educed and resolved into the Authority of God therein expressed And that account which we have here given us of outward Worship namely that it is no part of Religion it self but only an Instrument to express the inward Veneration of the mind by some outward action or posture of the body as it is very difficultly to be accommodated unto the sacrifices of old or the present Sacraments of the Church which were and are parts of outward Worship and as I take it of Religion so the being an instrument unto the purpose mentioned doth not exclude any thing from being also a part of Religion and Worship it self if it be commanded by God to be performed in His Service unto His Glory It is pretended that all Outward Worship is only an exteriour signification of Honour but yet all the parts of it in their performance are Acts of Obedience unto God and are the proper Actings of Faith Love and Submission of Soul unto God which if they are not His Worship and parts of Religion I know not what may be so esteemed Let then Outward Worship stand In what Relation it will to Inward Spiritual Honour where God requires it and commands it it is no less necessary and in dispensably to be performed than any part of Inward Worship it self and is a no less important duty of Religion For any thing comes to be a part of Religious Worship outwardly to be performed not from its own nature but from its respect unto the command of God and the End whereunto it is by him designed So the Apostle tells us that with the heart man believeth unto Righteousness and with the Mouth Confession is made un◠Salvation Rom. 10. Confession is but the exteriour signification of the Faith that is i◠our hearts but yet it is no less necessary to Salvation than Faith it self is to Righteousness And those who regulate their Obedience and Religious Worship by the Commands of God knowing that which way ever they are signified by inbred Light or superadded Revelation it is they which give their Obedience its formal nature making it Religious will not allow that place and use of the outward Worship required by God Himself which should exclude it from being Religious or a part of their Religion But upon the whole matter our Author affirms that in all Ages of the World God hath left the Management of His Outward Worship unto the Discretion of Men unless when to determine some particulars hath been usefull to some other purpose pag. 100. The management of Outward Worship may signifie no more but the due performance of it and so I acknowledge that though it be not left unto mens discretion to observe or not observe it yet it is too their Duty and Obedience which are their Discretion and their Wisdom But the management here understood is opposed to Gods own determination of particular Forms that is His especial Institutions and hereof I shall make bold to say that it was never in any Age so left to the Discretion of men To prove this Assertion Sacrifices are singled out as an Instance It is known and granted that these were the most solemn part of the Outward Worship of God for many Ages and that there was a general consent of Mankind unto the use of them so that however the greatest part of the
Worship only and not that which is purely Moral and Natural which in many instances of it hath a great coincidence with the light of Nature as was before discoursed We understand also the Solemn or stated Worship of the Church of God That Worship I say which is solemn and stated for the Church the whole Church at all times and seasons according to the rules of his appointment is that which we enquire after Hence in this matter we have no concernment in the fact of this or that particular person which might be â—â—casionally influenced by necessity as vids eating of the Shewbread was 〈◊〉 which how far it may excuse or just 〈◊〉 the persons that act thereon or reguâ—â— their actions directly I know not nor any way engaged to enquire This is the state of our Question in haâ—â— the mind of the Assertion which is hâ—â— so hideously disguised and represent in its pretended consequences Neitâ—â—â— do I think there is any thing needful fâ—â—ther to be added unto it But yet for 〈◊〉 clearing of it from mistakes somethiâ—â— may be discoursed which relates unto We say then First That there are sundry things be used in about and with those Actioâ— whereby the Worship of God is perforâ—â—ed which yet are not Sacred nor do 〈◊〉 long unto the Worship of God as suâ—â— though that Worship cannot be perform without them The very Breath that 〈◊〉 breathe and the light whereby they sâ— are necessary to them in the Worshipâ—â— God and yet are not made Sacredâ— Religious thereby Constantine said of oâ— that he was a Bishop but without the Churcâ— not a Sacred Officer but one that tooâ— care and had a supervisorship of thirâ— â—ecessarily belonging to the performance of Gods Worship yet no Parts or Adjuncts 〈◊〉 it as such For it was all still without Now all those things in or about the Worship of God that belonged unto Constantines Episcopacy that is the ordering and disposal of things without the Church but about it without Worship but about it we acknowledge to be left unto common prudence guided by the general Rules of Scripture by which the Church is to walk and compose its actings And this wholly supersedes the Discourse of our Author concerning the great variety of circumstances wherewith all humane actions are attended For in one word all such circumstances as necessarily attend humane actions as such neither are Sacred nor can be made so without an express Institution of God and are disposable by humane Authority So that the long contest of our Author on that Head is altogether vain So then Secondly By all the concernments of Religious Worship which any affirm that they must be directed by Divine Revelation or regulated by the Scripture they intend all that is Religious or whatever belongs to the Worship of God as it is Divine Worship and not what belongs unto the actions wherein and when by it is performed as they are actions Thirdly That when any part of Worship is instituted in special and general Rule are given for the practice of it hic â— nunc there the Warranty is sufficient foâ— its practice at its due seasons and for those seasons the nature of the thing it self with what it hath respect unto and the lighâ— of the general Scripture Rules will give them an acceptable determination And these few Observations will abundantly manifest the impertinency of those who think it incumbent on any by vertue of the Principle before laid down to produce express Warranty in words of Scripture for every Circumstance that doth attend and belong unto the Actions whereby the Worship of God is performed which as they require not so no such thing is included in the Principle as duly stated For particular circumstances that have respect to good order decency and external regulation of Divine Worship they are all of them either circumstances of the Actions themselves whereby Divine Worship is performed and exercised and so in general they are natural and necessary which in particular or actu exercito depend on Moral Prudence or Religious Rites themselves added in and to the whole or any parts of Divine Service which alone in this question come under enquiry I know there are usually sundry Exceptions put into this Thesis as before stated and asserted and instances to the contrary are pretended some whereof are touched upon by our Author pag. 181. which are not now particularly and at large to be considered But yet because I am beyond expectation engaged in the Explication of this Principle I shall set it so far forth right and straight unto further examination as to give in such general Observations as being consistent with it and explanatory of it will serve to obviate the most of the exceptions that are laid against it As 1. Where ever in the Scripture we meet with any Religious duty that had a preceding Institution although we find not expresly a consequent Approbation we take it for granted that it was approved and so on the contrary where an Approbation appears and Institution is concealed 2. The Question being only about Religious Duties or things pertaining to or required in or about the Worship of God no exception against the general thesis caâ—â— take place but such as consists in thingâ— directly of that nature Instances in and about things civil and belonging meerly to humane conversation or things natural as signs and memorials one of another are in this matter of no consideration 3. Things extraordinary in their performance and which for ought we know may have been so in their warranty 〈◊〉 rule have no place in our debate Foâ— we are inquiring only after such things as may warrant a suitable practice in usâ— without any further Authority which is the end for which instances against this principle are produced this actions extrâ—ordinary will not do 4. Singular and occasional Actions which may be variously influenced and regulated by present circumstances are nâ— Rule to guide the ordinary stated Worship of the Church Davids eating of thâ— shew-bread wherein yet he was justifieâ— because of his hunger and necessity was not to be drawn into Example of giving the shew-bread promiscuously to the people And sundry instances to the same purpose are given by our Saviour himself 5. There is nothing of any dangerous or had consequence in this whole controversie but what lyes in the imposition on mens practices of the Observation of uncommanded Rites making them necessary unto them in their observation The things themselves are said in their own nature antecedent to their injunction for practice to be indifferent and indifferent as unto practice What hurt would it be to leave them so They cannot say some be omitted for such and such Reasons Are there then Reasons for their observation besides their Injuction and such as on the account whereof they are injoyned Then are they indeed necessary in some degree before their Injunction For all Reason for them must be taken from
For the Reason of things in matters Civil and Religious are not the same All political Government in theWorld consists in the exercise of Principles of natural Right and their just Application to Times Ages People Occasions and Occurences Whilest this is done Government is acted regularly to its proper end where this is missed it failes There things God hath left unto the prudence of men and their consent wherein they cannot for the most part faile unless they are absolutely given up unto unbridled lusts and the things wherein they may faile are alwaies convenient or inconvenient good and useful or hurrful and destructive not alwaies yea very seldome directly and in themselves morally Good or Evil. In such things mens ease and pofit not their Consciences are concerned In the Worship of God things are quite otherwise It is not Convenience or Inconvenience Advantage or disadvantage as to the things of this life but meerly Good or Evil in reference to the pleasing of God and to Ternity that is in question Particular Applications to the manners customes usages of places times Countreys which is the proper field of humane Authority Liberty and prudence in Civil things because their due useful and regular Administration dâ—â—pends upon them have here no placâ—â— For the things of the Worship of God bâ—â—ing Spiritual are capable of no variatioâ— from temporal earthly varieties amonâ— men have no respect to Climateâ— Customes Formes of Civil Governmenâ— or any thing of that Nature But conâ—sidering men quite under other notions namely of Sinners and Believers with respect utterly unto other ends namely their living spiritually unto God here and the eternal enjoyment of him hereafter are not subject to such prudential Accommodations or Applications The Worship of God is or ought to be the same at all times in all places and amongst all People in all Nations and the order of it is fixt and determined in all particulars that belong unto it And let not men pretend the contrary untill they can give an instance of any such defect in the Institutions of Christ as that the Worship of God cannot be carryed on nor his Church Ruled and Edified without an addition of something of their own for the supply thereof which therefore should and would be necessary to that end antecedent unto its addition and when they have so done I will subscribe unto whatsoever they shall be pleased to add of that or indeed any other kind â—ustomes of Churches and Rules of Decency which our Author here casts under the Magistrates power are ambiguous terms â—nd in no sense express the Hypothesis he â—ath undertaken the defence of In the proper signification of the words the â—hings intended may fall under those natural Circumstances wherein Religious Actions in the Worship of the Church may have their concern as they are Actions and are disposable by humane Authority But he will not I presume so soon desert his fundamental Principle of the Magistrates appointing things in and parts of Religious Worship no where described or determined in the Word of God which alone we have undertaken to oppose The instances he also gives us about Actions in their own nature and use indifferent as going to Law or taking Physick are not in the least to his purpose And yet if I should say that none of these Actions are indeed indifferent in actu exercito as they speak and in their individual performance but have a Moral good or evil as an inseparable Adjunct attending them arising out of respect to some Rule general or particular of Divine Revelation I know he cannot disâ—prove it and much more is not pleade concerning Religious Worship But this Principle is further charge with mischief equal to its folly which iâ—â—proved by instances in sundry uninstituted Observances both in the Jewish anâ— primitive Christian Churches as also iâ— Protestant Churches abroad I answer that if this Author will consent to Umâ—pire these differences by either the Old or New Testament or by any Protestant Church in the World we shall be nearer an end of them than as far as I can see yet otherwise we are If he will not be bound neither to the Example of the Church of the Jews nor of the Churches of the New-Testament nor of the present Protestant Churches it must he confessed that their names are here made use of only for a pretence and an Advantage Under the Old Testament we find that all that God required of his Church was that they should observe the Law of Moses his Servant which he commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel with his Statutes and Judgements Mal. 4. 4. And when God had given out his Institutions and the whole Order of his Worship it being fixed in the Church accordingly it is added eight or ten times â—n one Chapter that this was done as â—he Lord commanded Moses even so did he Exod. 40. After this God gives them many strict prohibitions from adding any thing to what he had so commanded as Deut. 4. 2. and Chap. 12. 32 Prov. 30. 6. And as he had in the Decalogue rejected any Worship not of his own appointment as such Exod. 20. 4 5. so he made it afterwards the Rule of his acceptation of that People and what they did or his refusal of them and it whether it was by him commanded or no. So in Particular he expresly rejects that which was so added as to dayes and times and places though of the nearest Affinity and Cognation to what was appointed by himself because it was invented by man yea by a King 1 Kings 12. 33. And when in process of time many things of an uncertain original were crept into the observance of the Church and had firmed themselves with the notion of Traditions they were all at once rejected in that word of the blessed Holy One in â—ain do ye Worship me teaching for doctrines that is what is in my Worship to be observed the traditions of men For the Churches of the New Testament the foundation of them is laid iâ— that command of our Saviour Matt 28. 20. go and Teach all Nations teacâ—â—ing them to observe and do all whatsoever command you and so I am with you to thâ— end of the world That they should bâ— taught to do or observe any thing buâ— what he commanded that his presencâ— should accompany them in the teaching oâ— observation of any superadditions of their own we no where find written intimated or exemplified by any practice of theirs Nor however in that juncture of time the like whereunto did never occurt before nor ever shall do again during the expiration and taking down of Mosaical Institutions before they became absolutely unlawful to be observed the Apostles according to the liberty given them by our Lord Jesus Christ and direction of the Holy Ghost did practise some things complyant with both Church-states did they in any one instance impose any thing on the practice of the Churches in the