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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	church_n	word_n	world_n	3,040	5	4.5870	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30026	De Christiana libertate, or, Liberty of conscience upon it's [sic] true and proper grounds asserted & vindicated and the mischief of impositions amongst the people called Quakers made manifest : in two parts : the first proving that no prince nor state ought by force to compel men to any part of the doctrine, worship, or discipline of the Gospel, by a nameless, yet an approved author [i.e. Sir Charles Wolseley], &c. : the second shewing the inconsistency betwixt the church-government erected by G. Fox, &c., and that in the primitive times ... : to which is added, A word of advice to the Pencilvanians / by Francis Bugg.	Bugg, Francis, 1640-1724?; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714. Liberty of conscience upon its true and proper grounds asserted and vindicated.; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714. Liberty of conscience the magistrates interest.	1682 (1682)	Wing B5370; ESTC R14734	148,791	384

the other Heb. 10.28 29. He that despised the Law of Moses died without mercy under two or three Witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under Foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant an unholy thing and done despite unto the spirit of Grace Here is the highest offence imaginable against the Gospel and the punishment as 't is clear in the next Verses is not Corporal but Spiritual and Eternal and to fall into the hands of the living God himself to execute it He that broke Moses's Law fell but into the hand of man and suffered corporal death but this offence under the Gospel brings a man to fall into the Hand of God for eternal death The sorer punishment he speaks of cannot be outward or corporal for there can be no sorer punishment of that kind than what was inflicted under Moses's Law to put a man to death and therefore he speaks of another punishment in the nature of it So Piscator upon the place Graviori supplicio scilicet Eterno the Supream Punishment under the Law was inflicted by Moses upon the Body suitable to that outward state of things that sorer Punishment for Offences under the Gospel according to the nature of it is inflicted by God himself upon the Soul eternally And so the kinds of the Punishments under the Law and the Gospel suitable to the offences relating to each are here clearly distinguished Those Scriptures that are usually urged out of the New Testament to justifie compulsion in the Magistrate and corporal punishment for spiritual offences are of so little cogency and so apparently wrested from their native sense that every eye may if unprejudiced perceive it I will instance in two or three of those chiefly insisted on by Mr Prinne and those who earnestly contend that way Ananias and Saphira were struck to death by Peter therefore corporal Punishment is to be inflicted under the Gospel Who is there that does not see that whole business to be miraculous and extraordinary as the healing the Lame the Blind was First the punishment is wholly extraordinary and secondly the ground of it so For it was upon a Judgment passed on Hypocrisie and Evil latent in the heart However if we will continue that Power to any now we must I hope derive it to the Church and not to the Magistrate Another Scripture earnestly urged is that of our Saviour Luke 19.27 But those mine Enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me This speech relates to the Parable before which is of a noble man going into a far Country to receive a Kingdom and to return and then to take an account of all his Servants what they had done in his absence What can be more clear than that this Parable is spoken to set forth Christs ascension into Heaven and his return to Judgment in the end of the World And this place is a clear Prophetick expression of that Judgment Christ will then execute upon his Enemies both Jews and Gentiles The words of Calvin upon this place are very express this way and indeed 't is not possible to interpret yet any other His words are these In this second part he seemeth specially to reprove the Jews yet he toucheth all which in the abscence of the Master do bend themselves to fall away And Christ purposed not only to terrifie such with denouncing of horrible Vengeance but also to keep his in faithful obedience for it is no light temptation to see the Kingdom of God shaken by the faithlesness of many Therefore that we might remain quiet amongst so many tumultuous stirs Christ saith That he will come again and will be revenged at his coming of that ungodly falling away Another Scripture pressed to serve for the proof of this is that wish not command of Paul's in Gal. 5.12 I would they were even cut off that trouble you This makes as little for the purpose as the other Some amongst the Galatians highly pressed the observation of the Jewish worship upon them in Circumcision and other things the Apostle bespeaks them to a Gospel-punishment in the Jewish Language Casting-out under the Gospel comes in the room of Cutting-off under the Law the Apostle means a Gospel-rejection under the Jewish terms of cutting-off which was oppositely expressed to those that pressed the observance of the Law So Beza upon the place Paulus ad pelliculae sectionem alludit quam ipsi urgebant And a little after Possumus istud de Excommunicatione simpliciter intellegere qualis fuit illa incestuosi Corinthij Nothing is more usual than to express Gospel-matters in the Typical Language of the Jewish Church So the Saints are called Priests their Alms Sacrifices and we are bid to eat the Passover And so in that famous place of our Saviour where he bids us If an Offender refuse to hear the Church to count him as an Heathen man and a Publican 'T is nothing but a Gospel-Precept expressed in the Jewish dialect Of as little moment or less if it may be to the purpose in hand are the other Scriptures insisted on Let the New Testament be but fairly dealt with and suffered to enjoy its own native sense and we shall not find a word to countenance the execution of the Laws of the Gospel by Temporal force nor to inflict upon any man corporal punishment for a Spiritual offence committed in the Church Our Saviour directly tells Pilate and Paul to Timothy calls it a good confession That his Kingdom is not of this World he means no doubt the Kingdom of the Gospel and therefore his Empire would no way invade Caesar's though the Jews told Pilate If he let Christ go he was none of Caesar's Friend His meaning was That his Kingdom as Head of his Church was a Spiritual Kingdom distinct from the World and that as God governed the World by the Temporal power in the hand of the Magistrate so Christ governs his Kingdom by the Power of his Spirit and by Officers and Institutions wholly different and distinct from the World and suitable to such a Dominion Nothing since Christ's Ascension hath more disturbed the Christian World or brought more disorder into Religion than mixing those two Dominions in their distinct powers that of the World and this of the Church together 'T is absolutely necessary to keep these Powers distinct and several The Magistrate will be most useful to the Church by keeping the civil Power in its due bounds and the Church will be most safe and secure in the use of its Spiritual weapons Let the Sword of Justice govern in one and the Sword of the Spirit in the other and men will be most happy in both That the Laws made to punish Offenders corporally under the Jewish Church are not now to be executed without making our selves debtors to the whole Law sufficiently appears Take an

the Gospel and Christs wisdom in these things as that Church will be most pure as having nothing of humane make in it so it will perfectly annihilate all those pretended necessities for the interposition of humane Authority about such things If the Magistrate hath likewise a farther power to suppress all Errors and Heresies and to establish by force the Orthodox Truth the Rule of which must needs be what he thinks to be so this will inevitably follow that there can be never any such thing as Liberty of Conscience in any case or upon any terms in the world under a Christian Magistrate he sins if he suffer to tolerate any thing but what he thinks punctually right If he be the proper Judge entrusted first to judge and then to execute his Judgment with the Temporal Power all Liberty to whosoever is not of his mind is perfectly gone This is no other than to make the Magistrate's Power a meer Inquisition And by this means a Christian Magistrate will prove a marvellous hurt to much of the Church where he governs for unless you will suppose all the Truth and all sound Christians to be included in what he establishes for Orthodox if there be any Truth or true Professors of Christianity amongst all the other Opinions he persecutes they are sure to be sufferers and it will ever fall out that all those that are not of the Magistrates Opinion had better live under one of Gallio's temper than under a Magistrate so practising These large positions about the Magistrates Power have no visible ground for themselves in the Gospel and when 't is said the reason of it is because there was no Christian Magistrate till long after and so little mention is made of his Authority in these things there is nothing said that can be any way satisfactory because what Power soever any shall exercise in or over the Gospel Church to the end of the world must have its rise and derivation from what was then established by Christ and his Apostles However they are sure of a popular acceptance 1. Because they bring us to a visible Judge and a humane certainty which most men had rather be at than a laborious inquiry after divine Truth in the way God hath revealed it in the Scriptures And 2. Because they are positions that land us in a very safe harbour and free us from any danger of suffering about those things he that thinks it his duty to be alwayes of the Magistrates Religion is so secured in that duty that no Religion can possibly ever hurt him and whoever thinks the Magistrate is Gods substitute to determine all matters of Religion as he pleaseth must needs think it a duty to be of his mind The second Extream about the Magistrates Power is in asserting the Magistrate to have ample concerns about Religion and a power sufficient entrusted to him but the manner in which it is to be exercised is in a punctual suberviency to the Church that is they are to determine and he is to execute they are to be his eye and he is to be their hand As the first Extream debaseth the Church and all Ecclesiastical power under the Magistrates feet and makes him the sole Lord of all so this in another extream makes the Magistrate a Slave to the Church this is an unreasonable Imposition upon him and gives him less liberty than each private Christian ought to have to oblige him to put a civil Sanction and execute by his Authority whatever the Church decrees whether he judge it to be right or no this is only to make him a Sword-bearer to the Clergy This is the great Engine by which the Church of Rome has inslaved so much of the World Antichrist could never have been setled in his Throne if Kingdoms had not thus given up their power to him How shamefully upon this pretence that the Civil power must be subject to the Ecclesiastical have the Popes of Rome brought Kings and Emperors not only to employ their power as they pleased but to suffer all the scorns and indignities from them imaginable The story of what Hildebrand did to the Emperor Henry and many others do abundantly shew this The truth is the carnal Conjunction of the Temporal Power with the Spiritual is that which has made all Ecclesiastical Regiment odious and unsavoury in the nostrils of the world in all Ages and hath had no other effect but to enable the Clergy under a pretext of the power of the Gospel to trample by the power of the World mankind under their Feet That the Civil Magistrate ought not to employ his power in such a sub-ordination let these things be considered First This is to suppose either an insufficiency in that Spiritual Power which Christ did at first leave in his Church or else that he fails in that Promise of being with them to the end of the World and continuing his Presence to make his Laws effectual for the end they are intended Christ hath appointed the means of Converting men to the Gospel to be the preaching of it to them If you will compel men by the Civil power to become Converts it plainly intimates we judge Christs way insufficient and use the other as what we judge a better As Christ hath appointed Preaching the Gospel as the great means to bring men into the Church so he hath appointed Excommunication as the great means to cast offenders out of the Church and force is as unreasonable in the one as in the other The outward advantages a man has by becoming a Christian lies in the enjoyment of all Christs Institutions and the punishment of all Gospel-crimes lies in being cast out from those priviledges and undergoing the weight that Christ shall lay upon the Conscience thereby When a person is excommunicated to deliver him over to the Temporal power to be corporally punished must either be because we think Christs punishment in that case not enough or else because our own animosity prompts us to go farther Chrysost Serm. de Anathem hath a pious and prudent saying Dogmata impia quae ab Hereticis profecta sunt arguere Anathematizare opertet hominibus autem parcendum pro salute eorum orandum that is We must confute and pronounce Anathema to the wicked opinions of Hereticks but we must spare their Persons and pray for their Salvation Secondly This way alters the manner of Christs rule under the Gospel which is in the Spirits and Consciences of men 'T is much of Christs glory to rule his Subjects under the Gospel by a Spiritual power 't is that power makes a man a Christian 't is that power in all Gospel Institutions that keeps men in their due obedience unto Christ and 't is that power carries the sting of the punishment when men are cast out of the Church 't is indeed that power does all under the Gospel and to bring in the Temporal Sword is to make the weapons of the

that power Where will he find a Rule in the Gospel to bear with some kind of Heresies and not with others He must not make submitting to a civil Penalty to compensate for an Heresie unless Christ had appointed that as the punishment of it that 's a selling of sin and making a bargain for iniquity for his own advantage and profit That therefore which the Magistrate under the Gospel may not do and without him I am sure the Church cannot do in which negative restraint upon him all Liberty of Conscience is comprehended and the Freedom Christ hath so dearly and fully purchased comprised and which is chiefly intended to be made good by this discourse shall be declared in this following Position which is That no Prince nor State ought by force to compel men to any part of the Doctrine Worship or Discipline of the Gospel The proof of which shall lie in the Reasons following First 'T is a thing against the light of nature so to do and if the Magistrates Power be grounded in the light of nature then to do a thing against that light of nature must needs be very Heterogeneal and wholly out of his compass it must needs be against the common Light and Reason of mankind to force me to be believe a thing wholly out of the compass of my knowledge and capacity and which nature reveals not to me Such are all Gospel Truths they are not like the matters of the moral Law but they are things purely supernatural and of divine Revelation such things as from the beginning of the world eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor never entred into any mans heart to conceive of these things the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man with all the endowments of nature discerneth not because they are spiritually discerned No man can call Jesus the Christ but by the holy Ghost Will you punish a man for not having the holy Ghost that is no way in his power to get but is like the Wind that bloweth where and when it lists 'T is a strange contradiction to our common reason to force men about things wholly unknown to them and out of their own power If Force should be used at any time it should be to bring men from Paganism to Christianity for without that we cannot be saved but when once Christians we may be saved under different apprehensions and yet we may not force a man to be a Christian 1st because 't is unlawful and 2dly because 't is impossible 'T is not lawful because 't is not Christs way of making Christians nor a means by him appointed for that purpose 2dly 'T is impossible because force upon men will never beget or change Principles or Opinions And as we should not force men at the first to the Gospel because till God reveals it we are wholly ignorant of it so we should not force men that are under the Gospel to any thing they believe not for they are as great strangers still to every farther attainment of knowledge in the Gospel till God please to reveal it as they were at first to the whole and therefore the Apostle calls us to patience in these things one with another till God please to reveal himself The light of nature must needs condemn that practice for another to force me about such things wherein my own eternal good or ill is only concerned where it is not to be imagined that I can have any aim but my own Salvation and can hurt none by my belief but my self When I have used rational suitable means to inform another I ought to acquiesce it being not a supposition to be made that a man would willingly design that which he knows will be his own ruin and which will hurt no body but himself He that forceth me to a Religion makes me hate it and makes me think there wants reason and other evidence to evince it Nature abhors compulsion in Religious things as a spiritual rape upon the Conscience No man by the light of nature was ever angry with another for not quitting his Conscience till his judgment was suitably informed because every man finds it an impossibility in himself so to do That which some say That though we may not force men to believe yet men may be forced to the outward means of believing is very little to the purpose for if by outward means they mean a bare outward act distinct from any Religious Worship no doubt Superiors may command it but if they mean any Religious means if the means be such as my Conscience is not satisfied in I ought not to be forced to it if it be such as I am satisfied in force is altogether needless and it belongs not to this Discourse Secondly To use force in Religion is wholly unlawful in any hand whatever because 't is no means appointed by Christ to bring about any Gospel end For the Magistrate to enforce the Laws of the Gospel by temporal power or compel men into the Gospel by such a power is to act without the least Precept or President and to induce an Engine to execute the Gospel contrary to the nature of Christs Kingdom which is not of this world and contrary to the nature of all Gospel institutions The Magistrate as he should be careful to see the Gospel put in execution so in the manner Christ in his wisdom hath appointed for the doing of it which is by his own Institutions and his own invisible power operating and working with them The great Rule of the Gospel is a rule of the Spirit in the hand of Christ as Mediator and 't is a Rule in the hearts and spirits of men and to set up a Rule by any humane power over any part of the Gospel is highly to derogate from that mediatory dominion of Christ nay to use force is not only to act without but against the declared mind of Christ Does not Paul positively deliver this That the Weapons of the Gospel are not carnal but spiritual and mighty through God 'T is not Faggots and Halters but spiritual means by which men are both to be brought in and cast out of the Gospel Church 'T is hearing and not forcing by which Faith is wrought The sword of the Spirit is the weapon by which Christ does all yea by which he will destroy Antichrist the greatest Gospel-enemy the world hath produced Among all the arguments that are brought to prove the Compulsatory Power of the Magistrate under the Gospel the greatest weight is laid upon the Practice of the Kings of Israel and Judah and what they did under the Law in compelling men to the Worship of God then established In the due consideration whereof we shall find the truth in hand no way invalidated and that what was then done by the Kings of Israel and Judah cannot reasonably be made a Rule to Magistrates now under the Gospel and that the Analogy will no way hold may be made

forcing men to perform Gospel-Duties in Hypocrisie Moral Actions are positively good and evil in their own nature Gospel-Duties performed are only so as they are circumstantiated And therefore the two Instances of Ahab and the Ninevites will no way fit this matter What was done by the Ninevites for ought appears was well done with all the circumstances that should make it to be so for our Saviour saith They repented at the Preaching of Jonah What Ahab did will be clearly differenced in two things First it was a voluntary action And Secondly it was only a Moral action 'T was voluntary for it arose from the dictates of his own Conscience upon what the Prophet Elijah said to him And Secondly it was purely a Moral act his Humiliation was no other He himself was an Hypocrite and his Service was hypocritical and abominable in the sight of God yet the outward act of his Humiliation was in it self good and God rewards it with an outward blessing That men may be compelled about actions Morally good and evil is out of doubt and that God does likewise with outward blessings and judgments reward and punish Moral good and evil is also plain But herein lies the difference of forceing men in things Moral and things Divine In things Moral the action in it self however circumstantiated is positively good or evil Things of Divine Institution are quite otherwise there the manner of the performance makes the action good or evil He that sacrificeth an Ox is as if he killed a man he that killeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck Where the manner of performing the command is not observed as well as the bare outward act of performance And so in all Gospel Duties the Institutions of Christ as Baptism the Lords Supper and the rest the actions themselves in those things are not simply good nay they are accidentally evil unless they have all the due circumstances attending them the goodness of those things depends wholly upon Institution and there the manner as well as the matter must be punctually observed Nay the manner of doing such things determines the matter of them for if they be performed in their due manner the Action is good if not the Action it self is sinful Having thus far endeavoured to establish this Truth That the exercise of force by the hand of the civil Power is ho means appointed by Christ either for setling or regulating the Churches of the New-Testament and is a thing in its own nature altogether unreasonable so to be And that Princes and Magistrates under the Gospel should imploy their care to see the Laws of Christ's Kingdom put in execution in the way and manner he himself hath appointed and ought to rest themselves satisfied therewith as that which his infinite Wisdom hath provided and to leave things that are purely Gospel-offences to Gospel-punishments as most adaequate and proper knowing well that if after such punishments inflicted Errors and Heresies shall continue in the Church Christ will over-rule the Being of them for holy ends and purposes acccording to that of Paul There must be Heresies that those that are approved may be made manifest which though it be no good ground to indulge Heresie from any punishment Christ hath appointed for it yet 't is a very good ground to satisfie our selves upon after all Christs means used and to stop us from all violent and irregular proceedings when we consider That Christ will extract good out of such evil and turn such things to his own Glory and the good of such as are sincere I say having endeavoured the proof of these things that the plainest Truths of the Gospel ought not to be enforced upon men much less those more doubtful and obscure concerning Discipline and Order of the obscurity of which there needs no other evidence than that the holiest wisest and most impartial men have in all Ages differed about them How may we lament over the present Imposition of the Ceremonies now enjoyned amongst us in England which are no part of Divine Truth nor any of Christs Institutions but things perfectly Humane in their creation and yet are enforced by the civil Power upon the practice and Consciences of men If Christ did not appoint his own Laws to be inforced upon the Church but to be received and executed by the influence and operating power of the Holy Ghost concurring with them How little pleased will he be to have Laws and Rules made by others to be so inforced If it be neither reasonable nor warrantable for a Magistrate to inforce the Truths of the Gospel in his own sense of them How much less is it so to enjoyn things in the Worship of God wholly framed by men and of their devising Those as being Divine are in their own nature infallible and certainly true These as being Humane are lyable to all Error and Mistake How unmerciful a thing is it and how unlike the Primitive Christians to make such Ceremonies a Rule of the Churches Communion which used to be nothing but the Creed That a man now only out of Conscience to God and without a just imputation of either Faction or Folly or any other designed end may very well become a Non-Conformist to these present imposed Ceremonies hath been often evinced These things may afford us some prospect into those grounds upon which Liberty of Conscience ought to be asserted and also the due and natural bounds of it When men discoursing of this Subject are enumerating what parties may be tolerated and what not What Fundamentals are necessary to be believed to make a man a capable Subject of this Liberty and how far the punishment is to be inflicted upon men for matters of this Nature are to proceed and where to be terminated they do but lose themselves and come to be involved with inextricable inconveniences and do usually little more then discover their own particular inclinations and interests and at last often end in this Determination That none are fit to be Indulged but such as are punctually of their own belief and perswasion The general Laws of Nature and the general Laws of the Gospel are the best Umpire in this Case As the first renders it a thing unreasonable so the other makes it unlawful to tolerate any thing upon any pretence against the common Light and the common Interest and natural good of mankind And so on the other hand 't is equally as unreasonable and as unlawful to force men about things wholly Supernatural and purely Spiritual and so are all the matters of the Gospel which lie seated in mens Belief and Perswasion in reference to their own Eternal Condition and as they have no proper relation to Humane Concerns so they are in Aliena republica and are only cognizable there and only to be dealt with by such Spiritual means and punishments as Christ in the Gospel hath appointed for that end Hear the Opinion of the Learned Alsted on this subject at

Friend in Europe than Vniformity in England As Liberty of Conscience here is that they fear above any thing so it would insensibly more weaken them than all the Victories we have obtained over them 2dly Men will never trade freely where they do not live and converse freely Where a man is afraid to be watched to a Conventicle and most of the time he serves God is fain to hide himself no man will chuse to live so if he can avoid it Every man that cannot conform to the publick Religion lying under the lash of the Law will prudently shun both Business and Company will never lay out his Estate where 't is in any mans power to do him a mischief A man conscious to himself that he cannot comply with the Law will avoid medling with any thing and chuse privacy as his best security This we have had a sufficient demonstration of in the Papists who for many years ever since they lay under the lash of the penal Laws have been of little use to the Nation have retreated from all publick Commerce amongst us kept their Money by them sent their Children abroad and disjoyned themselves from all the publick concerns of the Kingdom 3dly 'T is the King of England's true Interest to become Head of all the Protestant party in the World and he will never do that but by first making himself a common Father to all his Protestant Subjects at home That 't is his Interest to head the Protestant party abroad is plain because being the greatest and most powerful of all Protestant Princes and States he will necessarily draw them into a dependance upon him and desire of Protection from him by which not only the Protestant Interest in it self will be much secured by being so united and conjoyned but the King of England also will receive a great Accession of Power by the Influence he will have on so great a part of Christendom which he may make use of not only to secure the Protestant Religion against the common Enemy of it but to advantage himself every way by the great respect and interest he will have in all Protestant States To bring the Protestants into an Union amongst themselves will be of advantage to every Protestant-State but to none so much as England First Because England naturally becomes the Head of such a Union And secondly Because the Designs and Practices of the Popish party ever since the Reformation have lain and will lie more united against England than any Protestant-State as supposing that the chief Support of all the rest and therefore England can never be truly safe nor secured in its proper Interest but when 't is inviron'd with all Protestant-States adhearing to it and depending upon it How sadly England has miscarried when it has espoused any other collateral Interest but the Protestant has been too obvious ever since the first Reformation England has been always greatest at home when it has been the greatest Defender of the Protestant Faith abroad Now if the King will thus rightly state his Interest abroad he must begin the work at home if he persecute and keep under any of his Protestant Subjects at home those of their Opinion abroad will never put themselves under his protection As he must make no distinction in Christendom but Protestant and Papist so he must make no other amongst his Subjects at home He that imposeth any one Opinion amongst Protestants and will tolerate no other makes the distinction to be still between Protestant and Protestant and makes himself but Head of a Party amongst them and will never so head the Protestant Interest as to oppose the Popish party with it or unite the Protestants so under him as to make them acknowledge him for their Head Whoever would be Head of all the Protestant Interest must have no common Enemy but Popery and concenter all there Imposing Conformity to the Opinion of any one Protestant party upon all the rest is but to make himself so much the weaker by every Dissenter and is indeed totally destructive to the very being of such a thing First Liberty of Conscience is the best way to secure us to the Protestant Faith and to prevent a relapse to Popery the Protestant Religion will be fastest rooted by exerting fully the Principles of it and a throughout adhearing to them By our practice in dealing one with another to deny those Principles by which we justifie our Separation from Rome is the ready way to make them return thither again Teach men that there is no man nor men under any one denomination since the Apostles time that are infallible in delivering Divine Truth Teach men that the Scripture is the only Rule of Religion and let them read it Tell them they are to follow no men farther than they follow that Rule and that every man is Judge according to the best Light he hath of that Rule and how far other men comply with it and differ from it And that every man is bound to behave himself towards God according to the Judgment he shall so make within himself All which are Protestant Principles and Eternal Truths And then collect the sense which these Principles issue themselves into and how unreasonable will it then appear to force men to comply with the belief of others contrary to their own And when you have bid them use their Light and Reason to punish them because they will not oppose it and go against it How can we otherwise justitie forcing men where such Principles are avowed but by a flat denyal of them and recurring to those Popish Weapons of the absolute Power of the Church and her uncontrolable Authority And so by condemning others that upon the exercise of their own Light and Reason now differ from us condemn our selves who upon the same at first departed from Rome When we oppose the Church of Rome we justifie our selves upon the very same Arguments by which Dissenters now amongst our selves make their defence against us And when we dispute against them we take up the same Arguments the Papists use against us There is scarce any considerable Argument urged of late for Conformity and Imposition but if you trace it to the Seat you shall find it in Bellarmine or Suarez The truth is he that cannot indure to have any differ from him in Opinion about the supernatural Truth of the Gospel and will have no toleration of several perswasions of that kind and thinks it destructive to mankind and the being of every State to suffer any so to be That man is a Protestant by mistake and will find himself at home in his Principles no where but at Rome The farther we remove in our Reformation from the Practices and Principles of the Church of Rome and live upon our own the less like we are to return to it If we make use of their Arguments and Principles at one time we may come to use them at another and at last espouse

his People was our Principle the very Foundation Principle and Corner Stone in our Building there are yet many Living Witnesses and our Work and Labour in that day was to turn Peoples minds thereunto as to the more sure Word of Prophesy whereunto as many as took heed did well and that there was Sufficiency in it being obeyed to lead to Salvation And as our Minds came to be turned to this Inward Teacher And as we came to experience the Vertue and Excellency of this Holy Vnction so we held a publick Testimony thereof to others that they might thereby be provoked to make tryal thereof that so they might have the Witness in themselves and see for themselves and tast for themselves and to this Word nigh in the Heart were we committed and recommended suitable to the Doctrine and Antient Prophesies of Christ Jesus our Lord and his Blessed Apostles and Prophets and in that Day How did our Harmony sound in our Assemblies And how did our Love abound one towards another And our Zeal for the Holy Name of our God In this stood our Unity in this stood our Fellowship even in that Inward Testimony which God committed to us to bear for his Names sake here was the moving Cause of our Love to God one toward another even the Inward Testimony or Manifestation of his Spirit which God in his Infinite Love hath given us to profit withal persuant to his former Promises to our Fathers by his Prophets saying I will give Him for a Light to the Gentiles and to be my Salvation to the Ends of the Earth I will give him for a Commander and a Leader to my People Israel And as we came to believe this Report and to experience the fulfilling of these Promises and to be Witnesses of the Vertue of this his Blessed Appearance so we declare to others that they also might believe and have Fellowship with us therein and the more we came thus to be Spiritually-minded and Spiritually-exercised and the more we came to take delight therein and to meditate therein the more the Lord manifested his Love unto us and his pure Power amongst us and became a Hedge about us and a Wall unto us and gave us Favour in the Sight of the People Blessed and Praised be his Holy Name for ever And in that Day when others would boast of their Church Authority and Church Discipline Vseful Ceremonies Comely Orders and Decent Vestments c. We told them the Spirit of God was the Foundation of our Church as well as the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles That Christ Jesus the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven who is a Quickning Spirit was Head of our Church Lawgiver to our Church on whose Shoulders the Government and Authority of our Church is laid yea the Hedge and Pale of our Church and able to preserve our Church and in this Faith we lived and walked in pure undefiled Love If any said to us Lo here is Christ in this Ordinance or in that Observation We told them Nay Christ is within and there they must wait to know Him except they were Reprobates for the Kingdom of Heaven is within and there they must wait to receive the Earnest of it for it comes not by Outward Observations This we told People this we proved to the People out of the Holy Scriptures This upon all occasions we testified to all People Professor and Prophane Bond and Free Noble and Ignoble When they told us of their Articles of Faith and how many they had and of the Scripture being the Rule c. We told them That Faith was the Gift of God and to be waited for and that Faith was the Evidence of things not seen and that although in the World there were Faiths many and Lords many yet to us there was but one Faith and one Lord Jesus Christ who was the Author of that Faith And that although the Scriptures were good and a true Declaration of those Things which were most surely believed by the Apostles and by us ought to be believed yet not the only Rule But still the Spirit of God which was the First Principle the Foundation Principle the Palc and only Hedge of the Church and Sanctified People of God so likewise it was the Rule of Life Practice first and before any other Rule and always had the Preheminency in our Testimony from the Beginning And if any question the Truth of what I have here affirmed then for Proof thereof I refer them to the Testimonies of Isaac Pennington Edward Burrough George Bishop c. Published by T. Crisp together with the Writings of Francis Howgil Richard Hubberthorn and many other Antient Friends c. And in that Day if any Brethren gave forth a Letter of Advice and Counsel for the Help and Information of the weak and lately Convinced It was so worded as that Christian-Liberty was preserved and the People not Impos'd upon beyond their Freedom And that it was so I shall prove by an undeniable Instance in a Letter of Advice from the Brethren in the North about twenty Years since containing twenty particular Things wherein Advice and Counsel is given yet SO as to leave them to their Freedom and not to impose them further than Friends to whom they wrote could receive them or see a Service in them as is evident both from the Title or Direction of the said Paper and also from the Closure and Conclusion of the said Letter both which I shall here insert as also that Clause or particular Advice about Marriage which is the seventh particular thing wherein Counsel is given in the said Paper or Letter of Advice That is to say The Elders and Brethren sendeth unto the Brethren in the North these necessary Things following to which if you in the Light wait to be kept in Obedience you will do well Fare you well This is the Title or Direction of the said Letter of Advice now follows the 7th Particular which is about Marriage c. That as any are moved of the Lord and in his Light called to take a Brother or Sister in Marriage Marriage being honourable in all and the Bed Vndefiled let it be made known to the Children of Light especially to those of the Meeting of which the Parties are Members that all in the Light may it witness to be of God and being in the Light made manifest to be of God let them be joyned together in the Lord and in his Fear in the presence of many Witnesses according to the Example of the Holy Men of God in the Scriptures of Truth recorded which was written for our Example and Learning and that no Scandal may rest upon the Truth nor any thing be done in secret but all things to the Light brought that Truth may triumph over all Deceit and that they who are joyned together in the Lord may not by Man be put asunder whom the Lord hath joyned together That there may