Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	according_a	scripture_n	word_n	5,566	5	3.9070	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54203	The reasonableness of toleration, and the unreasonableness of penal laws and tests wherein is prov'd by Scripture, reason and antiquity, that liberty of conscience is the undoubted right of every man, and tends to the flourishing of kingdoms and commonwealths, and that persecution for meer religion is unwarrantable, unjust, and destructive to humane society, with examples of both kinds.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1687 (1687)	Wing P1352; ESTC R23116	25,930	41

Embassador for the use of the Eucharist in both kinds had so much kindness for Toleration that he gave for answer to the Embassador That he had always thought the use of the Sacrament in both kinds and liberty for the Priest-hood to Marry were things indifferent and as depending rather upon the Decrees of the Fathers then upon Divine Authority might be altered according to the constitutions of Times and alteration of Customes And in the Council of Trent several of the wisest and chiefest of the Prelates stiffly argu'd against the Prohibition of the Use of the Cup affirming those to be void of Christian Charity who stood so strictly and so nicely upon a particular Ceremony the granting of which might prevent the Effusion of much Blood and recover into the Bosom of the Church many that were fallen from Her. And thus what Scripture and Humane Authority justify Common Reason is no less ready to uphold For first If the word of God be the sole Rule of Faith and no Humane Authority be so highly impowr'd as to bind up our Assents to whatever Interpretations shall be propos'd then of necessity it follows that every Christian indifferently has an equal Interest in the will of the Creator so that no particular Person has a right to impose a force upon the judgment of his Brother Thus one holds the Baptizing of Infants to be necessary another deems it lawful a third denies both these Opinions yet admitting that it may but that there is no necessity it should be done therefore they conferr Texts and examine the Original yet after all diligence used they still are but where they were Now what reason can there be to advise Persecution for such a difference as this Besides There are several Disputes upon various Points of Christianity that cannot be cleard to any man by Arguments meerly natural as being matters of Fact such are the Miracles and Resurrection of Christ the Real Presence c. For the belief of which therefore there is a need of Faith which is the Gift of Grace and not of Nature which being so and seeing more-over that it is not within the power of Man to give a reason why some Men believe and others are of a contrary Opinion it cannot fall under the Imagination of Man that either the defect or surplusage of belief which may perhaps glide into Superstition which of the two so'ere be the cause of the difference should be subject to the Punishment of Human Laws for tho both have the same outward helps and means to inform themselves yet the potent cause is in the will of God who will have Mercy upon whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardens And therefore for this cause it was that Tertullian avers that the New Law of the Gospel does not call for the Sword to revenge the Injuries done it And Sisibutus King of Spain was justly tax'd for compelling the Jews to Christianity by the coercive power of the Sword when he ought to have won them to the Faith by meek and gentle Perswasions In the next place this violent and rigorous Proceeding and tyrannizing over the Consciences of Men is contrary to the purpose of God in the Order of the Creation who made and ordain'd all Man-kind free from Bondage and never advanc'd him over all the Works of his Creation to be a contemptible Slave to the Will of his fellow Creature even in things Temporal much less in matters Spiritual and relating to Eternity So that this same actual Violence of Imposing by force in matters of Faith Worship and Duty to God of one Man upon another or of some Persons over all is an Act of the highest Presumption imaginable that goes about to subdue to Bondage and Slavery those that are Created by God to equal Priviledges and Immunities with themselves subjecting them by Oppression not to the Divine Will of the Creator but to the Will Ambition and Interest of Mortal Creatures no less fraile and subject to Error then they over whom they affect illegal Dominion A thing which is quite contrary to the most pure and perfect order of the Creation which was altogether blessed From which whatever is degenerated by Corruption or has deviated by Temptation from that pure and regular Order either in things Temporal or Divine must be included within the curse of Sin and be lookt upon as an opposing the Creator himself And of this nature is Compulsion exercised in Spiritual matters as being the highest product of degenerate Usurpation and the grandest swerving imaginable from the chief design of the Creation For without all question the Creator himself reserved and retained in his own power alone the priviledge of Supremacy over the Inward Man in all matters touching Immortality that he might be the only Lord in that case to give Spiritual Laws and to command the Souls and hearts of men in reference to his own Worship and that Obedience which is due to himself so that of necessity it must be a Usurpation of the Creators rightful Dominion a robbing Him of his Dignity and Prerogative an act of Violence against his Soveraignty and a bold intruding into his proper Right for any Persons to assume to themselves Dominion and Authority over others by Commanding and Imposing in Spiritual matters upon their Consciences in the Worship and Service of God. Add to this that Force is Punishment and consequently unjust unless the offence be voluntary but he that believes according to the evidence of his own Reason is necessitated to that Belief and to compel him against it were to compel him to renounce the most essential part of man his reason And that same injunction would be altogether vain To hold fast that which w● find to be best if after the most serious and deliberate Election we must be whipt out of our Consciences by Penalties 'T is but odly done to Preach a company of poor Souls into just so much Liberty of Scripture as may suffice to beget their torture and not permit them to rest where they find their satisfaction Either utterly prohibit the search or let them enjoy the benefit of it To believe what appears untrue is somewhat impossible but to profess what we believe untrue is absolutely damnable Nor is it one of the least arguments against Compulsion of Conscience that it breaks the bands of civil Society and annihilates all manner of Love Unity Fellowship and Concord among men Neighbours are at enmity among Neighbours Brethren with Brethren and Families are divided among themselves Princes and their Subjects Rulers and their People are at discord and debates that many times turns to absolute Disobedience and Rebellion while the one labours to Impose the other to keep off the Oppression Men says Zenophon resist none with greater animosity then those that affect to Tyrannize over their bodies more especially such as seek to establish an illegal Dominion over their minds and Consciences They contend pro Aris in the

a man. It is said that Diana of the Scythians had a Temple and an Altar near the entrance into the lake Meotis upon which it was the custom of the Heathens to Sacrifice the Bodies of living Men a Cruelty little differing from the severity of those People that seem to make their Interest their Scythian Diana and living Men the Sacrifices to their Ambition and the support of their Spiritual Grandeur Yet this must be the main design of those that study thus the destruction of all other Mortals but themselves within the Verge of their Jurisdiction which as it is a great Argument of a Spiritual Arbitrary Government so is it at the same time a sign of no less Presumption for a particular number of Men enclosed within the narrow Circle of Episcopacy compar'd with those vast multitudes of Dissenters and Roman-Catholicks that under various names of distinction invented by their Adversaries spread themselves over the fourth part of the World to arrogate to themselves to be the only Flock of Christ and that they are the only Pastors who have power to drive men to Heaven for this is to disclaim the Popes Supremacy and usurp it to themselves to Preach down one Antichrist and set up six and twenty For if Meekness Mildness Unity Peace and Concord are the Vertues that embellish Christian Jurisdiction Cruelty Rigor Persecution and Violence must be the marks of Antichristian Tyranny They therefore that so vehemently Persecute the Professors of Christianity because they either doubt or happily err in some particulars that will admit of Ambiguity and which it may be have been otherwise understood in former Ages are most unjust For we find that the Antient Jews did never Punish the Sadduces tho they denied the Doctrine of the Resurrection For that tho it were most true yet then it was but only glanced at in their Law and not taught at all but covertly under Types and Figures But supposing the Errors to be such as among equal Judges might be easily confuted both by the Authority of the Scriptures and the common Consent of the Fathers Nevertheless the great strength of an over-grown Opinion is to be considered and how the Endeavours of Men to defend their own Sects diminishes the strength and liberty of their Judgments A Man will sooner part with any thing than his Opinion An Opinion says Chrysostom that has taken deep root through Custome is hardly to be removed for that there is nothing that we alter with more unwillingness then our Customes in Religion But whether this different Opinion be an Error and how it is to be Punished he only can without danger judge who is the Eternal Judge who alone knows the true measures of Knowledge and the proportion of Faith. Let them Rage against you says St. Austin concerning the Manichees who can presume to be without Errors themselves for my part I neither can nor dare for I ought to bear with you as others did formerly with me and to treat you with as much Patience Meekness and Gentleness as they did me when I was blindly carryed away with your Errors Religionis non est Religionem cogere says Tertullian And Athanasius also highly blames the Arrians because they were the first that call'd in the Civil Power to their Assistance against their Antagonists and that endeavoured by Force Stripes and Imprisonments to draw such to themselves whom they could not win by the strength of their Arguments Gregory Bishop of Rome writing to the Bishop of Constantinople said that it was a new and unheard of manner of Preaching to enforce Faith by Stripes and Punishments History also affords us the Examples of several French Bishops who were condemned by the judgment of the Church for calling in the Civil Power against the Priscillianists and of a whole Council in the East that was Condemned for consenting to the Burning of Bogomilus Conformable to the sayings of Plato The Punishment of him that Errs is to be Instructed And of Seneca That no wise man ever hated those that Erred for if so he must necessarily sometimes hate himself And therefore the Emperour Valentinian is highly commended because he never Persecuted any man for his Religion nor ever commanded this or that to be Adored nor forced his Subjects to Embrace his own manner of Worship Infinite are the sayings of the Primitive Fathers and Men of Learning their Successors who have all along condemned the forcing of Conscience or compelling Men to do a thing which is contrary to their Conscience or to abstain from such Exercises as they in Conscience esteem necessary and profitable for their Salvation all centring in the utter detestation of all manner of Violence and Imposition in matters of Religion A Maxim which not all the Usurpations of Ecclesiastical Persons have bin able to corrupt And therefore it was the saying of Montluc a Roman Catholic and Bishop of Valence That the Rigors of Torments was never to be practized towards People who had no other Crime but only a Perswasion which they thought to be good and pious Peter Martyr speaking of the Power of the Church It is her Duty says he to correct Sinners not with the Sword not with Penal-Laws or Fines not with Imprisonment or Exilement but after her own Method by the Efficacy and Power of the Word It is said of Maximilian the Second Emperour of Germany That tho he persever'd to his death a Roman Catholic yet he was never the less disesteemed by the Protestants for that in matters of Religion he observed an exact Moderation between both Parties and never ceas'd till he had obtain'd the use of the Cup in the Eucharist for those of his Subjects that desir'd it The same Emperour also gave this Advice to Henry the Third of France then returning out of Poland to quiet all disturbances in his Kingdom at his first Entrance into it according to the Example of his Father Ferdinand who after he had long toyl'd and labour'd in the Reign of Charles the V. to appease the troubles in Germany and settle the differences about Religion when he found the Minds of the People more provok'd then any remedy obtain'd by force and violence with the Consent and Applause of all the Orders of the Empire made those favourable Concessions which when nothing also would do restor'd Tranquilitie to the Empire More Remarkable was that saying of Henry the Third of France Himself upon his Death-Bed after he had received his Deaths wound from Clement the Monk Nor let the cause of Religion deter ye This Error long possess'd me and drew me into inextricable Mistakes The pretence of Religion hurried us into Faction Leave that to the judgment of the Orders of the Kingdom and keep this in your Minds as a fix'd and constant Maxime That Religion which is inspir'd into the Minds of Men by God cannot be commanded by Men. Nay Pius the Fourth the none of the best of Popes yet being Sollicited by the French

disturbance or molestation Which we have thought fit fully to signify to your Excellency to the end you might understand that we have given free and absolute leave to the Christians for the Exercise of their Religion And as we have granted this Indulgence to them so your Excellency is likewise to understand that we have granted the same open and free Liberty to all others to Exercise the Religion to which they have chosen to adhere for the Tranquility of our Reign to the end that every one may be free in the Election of his Worship without any Prejudice from us either to his Honour or to his Religion And this we thought fit moreover to decree in reference to the Christians that their Meeting-Places be restor'd them without any hesitation or delay and without the demand of any Fees or Sums of Money And if any Fines or Mulcts have been Sequester'd formerly into our Exchequer or taken by any other Person that the same be also restor'd them without the least Diminution Or if they have any Favour to request further at our hands let them make choice of any of our Advocates to take care of their Affairs The rest I omit as less pertinent to our purpose But after them when the Emperours began to lend an Ear to Ecclesiastic Rigour and Sects became Predominant as they were guarded by the Power and Protection of the Civil Magistrate 't is a strange thing how soon the several Schisms and Opinions that had taken root under the milder sway of the Heathens began to rend the Church into a thousand Factions and whereas a single Colledge of Pontiffs would serve the Heathen Priest-hood to resolve their Doubts the Determination's of National Councils could not put a stop to the Growing Controversies of the Christians but from words they fell to blows and happy they who could get the Soveraign Prince on their side for the other were sure to go by the worst So early was the Civil Power made an Engine to support the Pride and Ambition of Spiritual Contenders At what time an Eutychian Pope by Name Horsmisdas having the upper hand gave this Motto for answer to all that admonish'd him of his Severity Nos Imperare volumus nos Imperari nolumus It were to be wish'd that this Motto may not have got too much Footing in England And now Liberty of Conscience seem'd for a time exterminated from the Earth till we meet with it again among the Goths who as Procopius alledges would never in the height of all their Conquests compel the vanquished to embrace the Religon which they professed but left them to their own it being always the Maxime of Rulers truly generous to engage men rather as their Friends then as their Slaves thinking themselves far more safe in a free then in a compell'd Obedience But to descend to latter times we find that even among the Mahumetans all over Turky no man is compell'd to embrace the Mahumetan Superstition but that all People unless the Professors of Heathenish Idolatry are left to the exercise of their own Religion And this as several Authors observe was at first the chiefest means by which the Turks enlarged their Empire over the Christian VVorld For that many People rather chose to live under the Turk permitting them the Liberty of their Consciences then under the Exorbitant Tyranny of the Spanish Inquisition And further others observe That nothing has rendered the Turk more powerful then the King of Spain's Expulsion of all the Moors and Turks out of his Territories in the Year 1609 at what time above a Hundred and twenty Thousand of those Exiles retir'd into Africa and other parts of the Turkish Dominions to the great benefit of the Turks who learnt from them to Combat the Europeans with their own Weapons and their own Arts of War. The Persians give Liberty to the Melchites under the Patriarch of Antiochia who obstinately maintain all those Errors that were condem'd by the Synod of Florence together with the Nestorians and Christian Armenians who have no Patriarchs of their own nor are the Roman Catholics excluded the chief City of Ispahan To which we may add their Toleration of the Jews and the Dissenting Sects in their own Religion In Poland tho generally the Nobility adhere to the Church of Rome yet they prohibit none and the mixture of Lutherans Calvinists Socinians Anabaptists Greeks and Jews who there enjoy most ample Priviledges apparently demonstrates well-constituted Government to be no Enemy to Liberty of Conscience Nor does the scrupulous Muscovite exclude those of the Augustan Confession from having a Church of their own within view of the City of Moscow it self That the Switzers are a Prudent People appears by the permanent constitution of their Government by them upheld and propagated for so many Ages together their Concord has rendered them Populous and their Populousness has made them formidable to all the Neighbouring Princes by whom they have been all along courted for their Assistance and to whom they have been beholding for the chiefest part of their Conquests All this while a People half Protestants half Catholic's yet in general so equally unanimous and in some particular Cities so peaceably intermix'd that you never hear among them since they first leagu'd together for the common Security of any Quarrels or Contentions for Superiority or of any Fines Imprisonments or Banishing of the Dissenting parties nor do they refuse their Protection to any that fly from other Countries to seek Tranquility of Conscience among them There is the same mixture of the two Professions of Popery and Calvinism among the Grisons and the same Unanimity and this Confirm'd by the league of the Ten Jurisdictions by which all Disputations concerning Religion are forbid to prevent Exasperation and Contests among Nations and Friends tho differing in Opinion In Venice the Roman Catholic Religion prevails yet such is the Prudence and Generosity of the Government and Governours that they cannot deny to others that Liberty which they enjoy themselves in so much that tho they admitted the Inquisition into their Territories yet they fil'd it's sharp Fangs in such a manner that the malice and fury of it was render'd ineffectual for they decreed that the Inquisition should not meddle either with Witches or Inchanters nor with those that should offer to Buffet an Image or Lampoon the Vices and Disorders of the Clergy nor indeed have any power to prohibit the Printing of any Books whatever That it should have no power over Blasphemy or such as married two Wives nor in causes of Usury That it should have no Jurisdiction over Jews Infidels or those that follow the Ceremonies of the Greek Church nor any Authority over any secular Trade or Profession and in all other Causes whatever that were brought before the Tribunal of the Inquisition they reserv'd to themselves the Examination Judgment and final Determination of the Matter which indeed was an absolute Toleration of Jews Infidels and Greek

Morals the beginning is the end of the Operations and so the Ultimate end is the first Principle of such Actions but the Common Good or Felicity of a City or Kingdom is the Ultimate end of it in its Government therefore it ought to be the first beginning of the Law and therefore the Law ought to be for the Common Good. Now it is apparent that the Penal Laws were made only for the particular good and felicity of the Church of England men all others being by them excluded from the benefit of their native Priviledges that could not in Conscience conform to the Ceremonies of their Worship to the Ruin and Vexation of many thousands which was positively against the Common Good and Felicity of the Nation and general Community of the People divided only in some points of Religion but in an equal poise of Obedience and Loyalty to the Supream Magistrate and therefore justly deserving equal share of provision by the Laws for their Security and Protection And therefore unless it can be prov'd that it is for the Common Good and Benefit of the whole Nation that men should be persecuted to uphold the Hierarchy of the Church of England the Penal Laws are unduly made and therefore as of no force to be repeal'd and annul'd Therefore the Intention of the Divine Laws might have taught the Promoters of these Penal Statutes better and more Christian Learning for therefore are Prelates call'd Pastors because they ought to lay down their Lives for the good of the Sheep not the Sheep to lay down their Lives for the good of them they are call'd Dispensers and not Lords Ministers of God not Primary Causes and therefore they ought to be conformable to the Divine Intention in the Exercise of their Power God principally intends the Common Good of men and therefore his Ministers are bound to do the same They are Tyrants not Governours in the Church while they seek their own Support and not the Common Benefit As to the Injustice of the Penal Laws experte Materiae in commanding those things which ought not to be observed this Axiom from thence arises That no unjust Law can be a Law and then there lies no obligation to accept it or to observe it if accepted for that the Subjects are not only not bound to accept it but have it not in their power when the command is clearly and manifestly unjust as when men are commanded not to meet above such a number under such a penalty for the Exercise of their Religion according to their Consciences This is an Evil Command because it debars men from the free Worship of God for unless it could be prov'd that the Religion of the Church of England is the only True Religion in the World and they the only Infallible Ministers upon Earth it is unjust in any Law to constrain others to believe that which may be as Erroneous in them as what the other professes For tho I may believe the Liturgy of the Church of England to be the purest form of Supplication under Heaven yet another may not believe so neither is it a Crime in him to believe otherwise We have said that the Penal Laws are defective in point of Honesty which is another reason why they are invalid and therefore to be annull'd For the Immorality of the Precept is contrary to God himself because it includes a Crime and a Transgression against God and therefore ought not to be observ'd as no way obligatory seeing that it behoves us to obey God rather then Man which is the reason these Laws ought not to be observed as contradicting our Obedience to God and subjecting us to the Compulsions of Men. In the last place no Law can be valid beyond the Intention of the Legislators Now it is not rational to think that those Persons who made the Penal Laws upon a presumption of danger from Factious and Turbulent Spirits ever intended those Laws sor the punishment of those that liv'd peaceably and obediently toward the Government in all the Passive Duties of good Loyal Subjects for that had been to make Laws for the punishment of good men which was never the design of any just and vertuous Legislator in this World. Now then the Presumption of the danger being remov'd by his Majesties most Gracious Indulgence the Foundation of the Penal Laws are remov'd and consequently the Obligation to them for it is not to be imagin'd that the Framers of these Laws ever meditated to Establish the Dominion of a Spiritual Oligarchy upon the Ruin of so many Families of Pious and Religious People and therefore the suspitions which were the grounds of these Laws being vanish'd the Laws themselves are to be laid aside as altogether vain and frivolous and such as have only serv'd to gratify the Revenge and Animosity of their promoters for we never hear'd of Traytors or Factious Persons that were ever try'd upon those Laws there being others of greater force to take hold of such Criminals As for the Test it appears to be an Oath continued to prevent the sitting of any Commoner or Peer in either of the Houses of Parliament from coming into his Majesties Presence or Court and from bearing any Office or Imployment Military or Civil in any of his Majesties Realmes of England or Ireland c. And they that are to take this Oath are thereby to abjure the belief of Transubstantiation Invocation or Adoration of Saints and the Sacrifice of the Mass c. The Learned are of Opinion That to make an Oath binding it is requisite that it refers to things Lawful for that if the thing promised upon Oath be forbidden either by the Law of Nature or by the Divine Laws or Interdicted by the Laws of Men it has no power to oblige the Swearer Now the Q●●●●●●n will be whether this Oath does not positively 〈…〉 Laws of the Land by enforcing a Peer of the Realm or any other free-born English-man of lower Degree to ac●use himself with so strong and dangerous a Temptation to Perjury where the Choice is only this Either to forswear their Religion or lose their Native Priviledges and Preferments and all possibility of advancing their Fortunes A piece of severity that constrains the inward Belief of the Mind which God the searcher of all Hearts has resorv'd to himself That this is an Act contrary to the known Laws of the Land is undoubtedly true as is apparent from the great Charter and several Statutes of the Realm therefore the Test has no power to oblige the Swearer and consequently to be repeal'd as Useless That it is against the Law of God is apparent from hence for that there is nothing more strongly prohibited in Scripture then to ground a Penal Prosecution upon the enforc'd Oath of the Party without Witness or Accuser In the next place it seems a hard case to oblige the Papist to Swear away his Religion before he has another provided for him by those that