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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	church_n	civil_a	power_n	6,426	5	5.4101	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86009	VVholesome severity reconciled with Christian liberty. Or, the true resolution of a present controversie concerning liberty of conscience. Here you have the question stated, the middle way betwixt popish tyrannie and schismatizing liberty approved, and also confirmed from Scripture, and the testimonies of divines, yea of whole churches: the chiefe arguments and exceptions used in The bloudy tenent, The compassionate samaritane, M.S. to A.S. &c. examined. Eight distinctions added for qualifying and clearing the whole matter. And in conclusion a parænetick to the five apologists for choosing accommodation rather then toleration. Imprimatur. Ia. Cranford. Decemb 16. 1644.	Gillespie, George, 1613-1648.	1645 (1645)	Wing G765; Thomason E24_5; ESTC R21730	38,275	48

I answer further 1. The Text Rom. 13. 4. speaketh generally and we must not distinguish where the Scripture doth not distinguish 2. Those that are in authority are to take such courses and so to rule that we may not onely lead a quiet and peaceable life but further that it be in all godlinesse and honesty 1 Tim. 2. 2. The magistrate is keeper of both Tables and is to punish the violation of the first Table as well as of the second 3. Will any man saith Angustine who is in his right wit say to Kings Doe not care by whom the Church of God in your Kingdome be maintained or opposed it doth not concerne you in your Kingdome who will be religious who sacrilegious to whom notwithstanding it cannot bee said It doth not concerne you in your Kingdome who be chaste who whorish c. Is the soules keeping faith and truth to God a l●ghter matter then that of a woman to a man He confesseth in the same Epistle that he and some other African Divines were sometime of that opinion that the Emperour should not at all punish the Donatists for their heresie or error but such of them only as should be found to commit any riot or breach of peace especially the furious and violent Circumcellions But afterward he confesseth that the Emperour had as good reason to represse their pernicious error as their furious violence A fourth Argument is drawne from the names which the Scripture giveth to Hereticks and Sectaries holding forth the extreame danger of tolerating and letting them alone They are called ravening wolves Matth. 7. 15. and grievous wolves not sparing the flocke Act. 20. 29. theeves and robbers John 10. 8. Their word eateth as a canker 2 Tim. 2. 17. and is as a little leaven leavening the whole lumpe Gal. 5. 9. They are troublers of Israel Act. 15. 24. Gal. 5. 12. Shall the troublers of the State be punished and the troublers of Israel go free Shal Physitians cut off the member that hath a Gangrene in it because it indangereth the whole body and shall the great State physitians suffer the Gangrene to spread in the Church Shall mens bodies goods and purses be so farre cared for that theeves and robbers must not be suffered but justice done upon them and shall those have immunity who steale away soules from Christ and rob us of the pearle of truth Nay shall the poore sheepe be so much looked to that the wolfe must not be spared and shall we suffer the soule-destroying wolves to enter yea abide peaceably among the dear-bought flock of Jesus Christ Other Arguments might be added but let these suffice at this present I come next to answer all the materiall objections which I have either read or heard to my best remembrance alledged against this coercive power of the Magistrate in matters of Religion First the Parable of the Tares is objected Christ will not have the tares to be pluckt up but to grow together with the wheat untill the harvest Mat. 13. 29. 30. In this argument Mr. Williams in his Bloudy Tenent putteth a great deale of confidence But I am as confident to discover the strength of it to be lesse then nothing For first he taketh the tares to be meant neither of hypocrites in the Church whether discovered or undiscovered nor yet of those who are scandalous offenders in their life and conversation but only of Antichristian Idolaters and false worshippers which is a most false interpretation Christ himselfe expoundeth it generally vers. 38. The good seed are the children of the Kingdome but the tares are the children of the wicked one And vers. 41. the tares are expounded to be all that offend and which doe iniquity This being the cleare meaning it will follow undeniably that if the Magistrate must spare those who are meant by tares in the Parable then he must spare and let alone all scandalous offenders murtherers adulterers drunkards theeves c. when any such are discovered in the visible Church But this cannot be the meaning of the tares in the Parable saith Mr. Williams chap. 24. that wicked livers opposite to the children of God should be understood For then saith he when Christ saith Let the tares alone he should contradict other ordinances for the punishment of evill doers by the Magistrate But this is a base begging of the question for he well knew that those against whom he disputes hold that his exposition of the Parable contradicteth the ordinance of God for punishing Idolaters and Hereticks the question being whether this be not an ordinance as well as the punishment of scandalous livers Besides if the tares be Antichristian Idolaters and they must not be pluckt up but suffered to grow till the harvest as he expoundeth this contradicteth other Scriptures which say that the sword must be drawne against Antichristian idolaters and they thereby cut off Revel. 13. 10. and 17. 16. But I proceed to a second answer If by tares I should suppose only to be meant Idolaters Hereticks and false worshippers which is a glosse contrary to the text as I have demonstrate yet their argument will not conclude the forbearing or sparing of such except onely in such cases and so farre as the true worshippers of God cannot be certainly and infallibly dignosced from the false worshippers as the wheat from the tares as Jehu would not destroy the worshippers of Baal till he was sure that none of the servants of the Lord were among them 2 King 10. 23. The reason why the tares are not to be pluckt up is lest while ye gather up the tares ye root up also the wheat with them vers. 29. Now when a man is sure that he plucks up nothing but tares or rather thornes without the least danger to the wheat how doth the Parable strike against his so doing If M. S. will not beleeve me let him beleeve himselfe pag. 50. For my part saith he when the Civill Magistrate shall be farre enough out of this danger of fighting against God I have nothing to say against his fighting with superstition heresie schisme c. Thirdly what if I shape yet another answer to the argument out of Mr. Williams owne words chap. 27. I acknowledge saith he this command Let them alone was expresly spoken to the messengers or ministers of the Gospel who have not civill power or authority in their hand and therefore not to the civill Magistrate King or Governour Now therefore what a blockish argument is it to reason from this Parable against the coercive power of the magistrate in matters of religion If there must be a forbearance of any severity we must forbeare Church censures and excommunication a way of rooting out the tares which Mr. Williams himselfe justifieth as much as we doe Fourthly and if the utter extirpation and plucking up of Hereticks by capitall punishments should be understood to be forbidden in the parable as it is not

VVholsome Severity reconciled with CHRISTIAN LIBERTY OR The true Resolution of a present Controversie concerning Liberty of CONSCIENCE Here you have the Question stated the middle way betwixt Popish Tyrannie and Schismatizing Liberty approved and also confirmed from Scripture and the testimonies of Divines yea of whole Churches The chiefe Arguments and Exceptions used in The Bloudy Tenent The Compassionate Samaritane M. S. to A. S. c. examined Eight Distinctions added for qualifying and clearing the whole matter And in conclusion a Paraenetick to the five Apologists for choosing Accommodation rather then Toleration Imprimatur Ia. Cranford Decemb. 16. 1644. August contra primam Gaudentii Epist. c. 5. Ab●● autem ut ista persecutio dicenda sit hominum cum sit potius pro hominibus liberandis persecutio vitiorum qualem facit aegris etiam diligentia medieorum Idem contra Epist. Parmen. lib. 1. cap. 7. Prius enim probent se non esse Haereticos vel Schismaticos tum demum de indignis poenis suis lividam emittant vocem c. nos corporum persecutores vocant se animarum interfectores non vocant LONDON Printed for Christopher Meredith and are to be sold at the Signe of the Crane in Pauls Churchyard 1645. To the Christian and courteous Reader IT cannot be unknown to any except such as are ignorant of Satans devices and altogether strangers to the Histories of former times that when the Church commeth out of Idolatry and out of bitter servitude and grievous pressures of conscience all her storms are not over her head but she begins to be assaulted and afflicted more then before with heresies schismes and home-bred disturbances Which through the manifold wisdome and over-ruling dispensation of God who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will is Englands lot this day that this may be to those in whom the Lord hath no pleasure a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence that they may goe and fall back ward and be broken snared and taken that others who are approved may be made manifest yea that many may be purified and tried and made white and that in the issue God may have the greater glory in making a soveraign remedy out of poysonfull Ingredients and his people may say blessed be the Lord God of Israel who only doth wondrous things But now will the Sectaries be contented as Christs witnesses in former times were to be examined and judged according to the word of God and if they be found to be what they are accused to be then to suffer accordingly Nay if so they fear they shall run too great a hazard Therefore they cry out for toleration and liberty of conscience hereby going about not only themselves to fish in troubled waters but to improve at once the manifold advantages of sympathising with the principles of the most part of men amongst us for as it is a common plea and bond of union among all hereticks and sectaries how many soever their divisions and subdivisions be among themselves yea they give in this the right hand of fellowship to the Prelaticall and malignant party for they also put in for liberty of conscience and as carnall and prophane men desire nothing more then that they may not be compelled to any religious duty but permitted to doe what seem good in their own eies So liberty of conscience is a sweet and taking word among the lesse discerning sort of godly people newly come out of the house of bondage out of the popish and Prelaticall tyranny I say the lesse discerning sort because those of the godly who have their senses exercised to discern good and evill know that liberty of heresie and schisme is no part of the liberty of conscience which Christ hath purchased to us at so dear a rate But is there no golden book and taking bait for the Magistrate yes sure for his part he is told that he may punish any breach of peace or civill justice or a trespasse against the State and against civill authority but yet not put forth his power against any man for heresie or schisme being matters of religion and of conscience As if both Polititians and Divines had been in a great error when they said that the end and use of Magistracy is to make bonum hominem as well as bonum civem a good man as well as a good commonwealths man Shall I adde further that all who wish well to the publike from principles either of religion or policy want not here their own tentations perswading to a toleration of sectaries in regard of the necessity of an union against the common adversary and the great hazard if not certain ruine of the cause by our own ruptures Vnder these fair colours and handsome pretexts doe sectaries infuse their poyson I mean their pernicious God-provoking Truth-defacing Church ruinating State-shaking toleration The plain english of the question is this whether the Christian Magistrate be keeper of both Tables whether he ought to suppresse his own enemies but not Gods enemies and preserve his own ordinances but not Christs Ordinances frō violation Whether the troublers of Israel may be troubled Whether the wilde boars and beasts of the forest must have leave to break down the hedges of the Lords vineyard and whether ravening wolves in sheeps clothing must be permitted to converse freely in the flock of Christ Whether after the black Devil of Idolatry and tyranny is trod under our feet a white Devill of heresie and schisme under the name of tender consciences must be admitted to walk up and down among us Whether not only pious and peaceable men whom I shall never consent to persecute but those also who are as a pestilence or a Gangrene in the body of Christ men of corrupt minds and turbulent spirits who draw factions after them make a breach and rent in Israel resist the truth and reformation of religion spread abroad all the ways they can their pernicious errors and by no other means can be reduced whether those also ought to be spared and let alone I have endeavoured in this following discourse to vindicate the lawfull yea necessary use of the coercive power of the Christian Magistrate in suppressing and punishing hereticks and sectaries according as the degree of their offence and of the Churches danger shal require Which when I had done there came to my hands a book called The storming of Antichrist Indeed The recruting of Antichrist and the storming of Zion if so be that I may anabaptize an Anabaptists book Take one passage for instance pa. 25. And for Papists saith he though they are least to be borne of all others because of the uncertainty of their keeping faith with Hereticks as they call us and because they may be absolved of securements that can arise from the just solemn oaths and because of their cruelty against the Protestants in divers Countries where they get the upper hand and because they are

yet the stopping of their mouths the dissipating and suppressing of them some other coercive way is not forbidden as Chrysostome noteth upon the place whom Euthymius and Theophylactus doe follow in this allowing of coercive though not capitall punishments Fifthly Calvin Beza and our best Interpreters take the scope and intent of that parable not to be against the immoderate severity of Magistrates but against the immoderate zeal of those who imagine to have the Church rid of all scandalous and wicked persons as wheat without tares corn without chaffe a flock of sheep without goats which hath been the fancy of Novatians Donatists and Anabaptists The parable therefore intimates unto us as Bucerus upon the place expoundeth it that when the Magistrate hath done all his duty in exercising his coercive power yet to the worlds end there will be in the Church a mixture of good and bad So that it is the universall and perfect purging of the Church which is put off to the last judgement not the punishment of particular persons Neither doe the servants in the parable aske whether they should pluck up this or that visible tare but whether they should goe and make the whole field rid of them which field is the generall visible Church sowed with the seed of the Gospel and so much for that argument Another negative argument is this Such a coercive power in matters of religion maketh men hypocrites and seven times more the children of hell Christs Ordinances put upon a whole City or a Nation may more civilize and moralize but never christianize them saith M Williams chap. 82. I answer this argument doth utterly condemn Josiahs Reformation as sinfull for he caused all Judah to stand to the Covenant as we heard before from 2 Chron. 34. 32. yet Iudah became thereby more hypocriticall Treacherous Iudah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart but fainedly saith the Lord speaking of those very days of Iosiah Ier. 3. 6. 10. 2. This argument maketh also against the punishment of adulteries murthers thefts robberies c. for unlesse filthy lust hatred and covetousnesse in the heart be mortified and men convert freely and sincerely the reducing of them to a morall conversation maketh them hypocrites and neerer hell then before 3. There are two sorts of Christs Ordinances some for the communion of Saints others for the conversion of sinners It is far from our thoughts to admit much lesse to compell a whole City or Nation promiscuously to the use of the former But yet converting or reducing ordinances may and ought to put upon all whom they concern The means must be used and mens hearts left to God Object 3. This Doctrine of the Magistrates coercive power maketh many to stumble at the Presbyterian Reformation as a bloudy Reformation as a building of Zion with bloud and Ierusalem with iniquity Mic. 3. 10. Answ 1. We have not so learned Christ we abominate the Popish and Prelaticall tyranny We know that the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient In meeknesse instructing those that oppose themselves if God pera●venture will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. yet he who said so could also say I would they were even ●ut off which trouble you G●l 5. 12. It is my souls desire that the secular coercive power may be put ●orth upon those only who can by no other means be reclaimed who can be no longer spared without a visible rupture in the Church and the manifest danger of seducing and misleading many souls A Presbytery is not so ill a neighbour that no man who hath the least differing opinion may live beside it But 2. this objection doth as much strike against the New England government as against the government of the neighbouring reformed Churches For in New England there hath been severity enough to say no worse used against Hereticks and Schismaticks And here I must appeal the consciences of those who now plead so much for liberty of conscience and toleration in this Kingdome were they able to root out the Presbyterians and their way could find civil authority inclinable to put forth the coercive power against it whether in that case would they not say that the Magistrate may represse it by strong hand if it cannot be otherwise repressed It is not without cause that I put this Quere to them for M. S. pag. 50. a passage before cited doth allow of the Magistrates fighting against a doctrine or way which is indeed superstition heresy or schisme and only pretendeth to be from God when it is indeed from men Also that pamphlet called As you were p. 3. tels us that it was neither Gamal●els meaning nor Mr. Goodwins meaning that every way pretending to be from God must be let alone but that only we are to refrain let alone till we are certain that we are out of danger of fighting against God while we endeavour to overthrow it Now I assume there are some who plead for liberty of conscience who professe that they are certain and fully assured upon demonstrative proofs that the Presbyteriall way is not from God nor according to the mind of Jesus Christ which is hintedtous both in the pamphlet last cited p. 5 6. in ●●EOMAXIA pag. 25. Therefore according to their principles they must allow of the putting forth of the civil coercive power against the Presbyteriall way And if so what a grand imposture is this what a deceiving of the world what a mocking of the Parliament and of the Kingdome to plead generally for liberty of conscience when they intend only liberty to themselves not to others that are opposite to them Which appeareth yet further by the compassionate Samaritane pag. 10. he saith that no man is to be punished or discountenanced by authority for his opinion unlesse it be dangerous to the State pag. 23 24. he discourseth against the opinion of Presbyterians as most dangerous to the State Therefore he would have the Presbyterians discountenanced and punished by authority and intendeth liberty only to the Separatists Anabaptists and the like I have done with three objections but I have three words more to speak with the compassionate Samaritane in answer to his three arguments for liberty of conscience in which though all the strength of his discourse doth lie I hope to make him ashamed of them if he can at all blush His first argument is this Whatsoever a mans reason doth conclude to be true or false to be agreeable or disagreeable to Gods word that same to that man is his opinion or judgement and so man is by his own reason necessitated to be of that mind he is Now where there is a necessity there ought to be no punishment for punishment is the recompence of voluntary actions therefore no man ought to be punished for his judgement Answ 1. The question is not whether a