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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

De Christiana Libertate OR Liberty of Conscience Upon it's 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 c. The Second Shewing the Inconsistency betwixt the Church-Government Erected by G. Fox c. and that in the Primitive Times being Historically Treated on To which is added A Word of Advice to the Pencilvanians By Francis Bugg Mat. 15.9 But in vain do they Worship me teaching for Doctrine the Commandments and Traditons of Men. London Printed for the Author and are to be sold by Enoch Presser at the Rose and Crown in Swithins Alley at the East End of the Royal Exchange 1682. AN EPISTLE Dedicatory TO H. N. Knight Honoured Friend WHereas accidentally or rather as I hope the Event will shew providentially I met with a small Tract Wrote many years since but by whom I know not there being no name to it Entituled Liberty of Conscience Asserted and Vindicated c. being the 1st Part of this Treatise and having found it upon perusing such an Eminent Piece upon that Subject at least in my apprehension that I thought my self oblieged to Publish the same both for the Information of the Magistracy and such with whom the Execution of the Penal Statutes is left and committed and also in favour of the Nonconformists in general even of all Perswasions amongst Protestant Dissenters who desire to live a quiet and peaceable Life under the Government who for Conscience sake cannot Conform to the Established Rules Orders Cannons and Constitutions and other Ceremonies of Prelatical Institution for Worship and Discipline and yet do and desire to live a peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty under the Government in both which respects if diligently read and perused I am perswaded it will be of good Service and Information And when I came to a Resolution to Publish the same I thought it my Duty to Dedicate it to thy self of whose Moderation I have had many years Experience of thy Christian Charity towards such as differ from thee in some Points of Religious Matters of which I can produce many Witnesses to wit all my Friends in the County of Suffolk who lately stood Convict of Recusancy in the Exchequer wherein thou didst not act the Part of the Proud Pharisee who Salute their Brethren only nor yet of the Priest who can without any sense of Pitty easily pass by without taking any notice of the Suffering of others nay often times are the Cause of their Sufferings But like the Merciful and Sympathizing Samaritan took notice of our threatned Ruine and prevented it c. I am not unsensible that many yea very many are against Liberty of Conscience and especially those of the Spirituality so called as a Thing intollerable and unsufferable and not for the Kings Interest and their Arguments for Force and Compulsion and Corporal Punishments to be inflicted on the Nonconformists are not a few insomuch as that they too much resemble proud Haman who in his Address to King Ahasuerus cryed out in great Enmity and said There is a certain People scattered abroad and dispersed amongst the People in all the Provinces of thy Kingdom and their Laws are divers from all People neither keep they the Kings Laws Therefore it is not for the Kings profit to suffer them c. As in Esther the 3d. and the 8th And for a full Replication to all their Arguments Either against Liberty of Conscience and the free Exercise of it in Matters purely Spiritual and a Christian Forbearance and mutual Condiscention to such as differ from them in some Ceremonies other Notions in Church-Discipline and Order AND FOR Corporal Punishment Impositions and Antichristian Force upon Conscientious Dissenters for some Differences in Matters of Oppinion I refer them to the First Part of this Treatise wherein in my Apprehension the Answer lyes ready to all their Alligations Thus having discharged my Duty to my Country in general and to thee in particular I conclude and rest a Lover of Peace desiring the Continuance of it in this World and that which is to come both for my self Neighbours and as many as persue it And Remain thy Friend in what I may or can Mildenhall the 25th of the 12th Mo. 1681. F. B. Liberty of Conscience Upon it true and proper Grounds Asserted and Vindicated The First Part. AMongst all the endowments bestowed upon the Sons of men nothing is to have a higher price and value put upon it than that we call Conscience because of the immediate reference it hath to the pleasing or displeasing of the great God and those more noble concerns of a better life and also the irresistible Influence it hath upon our selves to determine our well or ill being here CONSCIENCE is an Ability in the Understanding of man by a Reflect Act to judge of himself in all he does as to his acceptance or rejection with God this is the inward Rule he hath to walk by And 't is but reasonable to believe mankind bound to steer their course by what upon the utmost improvement of their understandings they know and believe best The proper seat of Conscience is in the Understanding and is no other thing but this Reflect Act of our knowledge back upon our selves dictating to us God's liking or disliking what we do as good or evil This ability is more or less according to the suitable light God affords to our understanding either inwardly or outwardly whether natural or divine and is indeed to each man the Rule of all other Rules God is pleased to govern him by for whether it be by natural Light or divine Revelation still the utmost bounds of his Conformity lies in the knowledge and conception he hath of it and of his duty in reference unto it So that the information of the understanding is still the guide of the Conscience for when we become once convinced that this or that is Gods will my understanding reflects back to my self and tells me This is my Duty in reference to it and so comes in upon each man the obligation of that we call Conscience which is indeed so unavoidable a Reflection suitable to the conviction and impression the understanding lies under that no man hath power in himself if he would to escape it Conscientiam non esse judicium theoreticum quo verum à falso simpliciter discernitur sed puncticum quo particulariter illa cognitio applicatur ab homine ad illud quod ipsi vel bonum vel malum est ut sit interna Regula dirigens voluntatem Ames de cas Consci That there was at first in Adam a clear and perfect knowledge of God and of himself is not to be doubted and that there was this

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

large De pace Religionis ut vocant seu de Libertate Religionis seu de bono Autonomiae An quatenus concedi possit a pio Magistratu Concerning Liberty of Religion and how far it may be granted by a pious Magistrate he saith That though the Magistrate be to defend but one Religion even that which he judges to be Truth by the Word of God yet none ought to be compelled to that by outward force but every mans Conscience to be left at Liberty Et nonnunquam diversaram Religionum exercitium si non publicum saltem privatum aut clandestinum ex singularibus causis permittendum esse statuimus Atque hoc demum sensit pacem concordiam externam seu politiam inter Orthodoxos non Orthodoxos saepe etiam Hereticos simul colendam ab ipso pio Magistratu procurari posse debere existimamus And he gives these three following Reasons for his Judgment Prima nititur generalibus illis Scripturae dictis quae justiciam charitatem studiumque pacis concordiae serò nobis omnibus commendant ne quid aliter adversus proximum statuamus quam qualiter nobiscum agi vellemus diserte praecipiunt Denique at conscientiis suam libertatem concedamus dissentientes in negotio Religionis amice toleremus omnino mandant Mat. 5.7 Rom. 12.14 alibi Secunda petitur ab exemplis sapientium piorum Regum tum in veteri tum in novo Testamento c. Tertia ab ipsa naturali Equitate itemque adjuncta utilitate quam etiam experientia quotidiana fere comprobat Nam praeterquam quod aequissimum est in causa Religionis ab omni vi coactione externâ abstinere ipsis etiam rebus publicis ut ita fiat omnino expedit atque conducit quippe quae alioqui facillime turbarentur ut intestinis bellis ac mutuis lanienis tandem considerent prout hactenus in multis Europae provinciis Galliâ praesertim Belgio accidisse novimus Cum contra in Germania Helvetia Polonia alibi locorum in quibus Religionum libertas hactenus indulta fuit istis discordiis lanienis non fuerit locus Ergo resipsa per se licita bona est etiam si per accidens abusus aliquis accidere possit Alst de Eccl. Lib. 4. Cap. 14. What can be said with more truth and soberness about this matter LIBERTY of CONSCIENCE The Magistrates Interest Or To grant Liberty of Conscience to Persons of Different Perswasions in matters of Religion is the Great Interest Of all Kingdoms and States and particularly of ENGLAND Asserted and Proved HAving thus far considered those things which do most immediately reflect upon the Magistrates Duty in allowing a due Liberty to each mans Conscience We will in the next place consider how far his Interest engages him this way That 't is the great Interest of all Protestant States and particularly of England To give Liberty to men of differing Apprehensions in the Protestant Religion is evident if we consider That a Prince or State by imposing the Principles of any one party in Religion makes himself of that party and engages all the rest against him 'T is no way prudent for a Prince when his Subjects consist of many differing Judgments to resolve to have them all of one mind a thing impracticable or else to be their declared Enemy and Persecutor 't is a ready way to interrupt his own quiet and repose without any other effect for he will never by force and violence unite them in one Opinion those differences will rather be fomented and all Animosities arising thereupon and men rather fixed and confirmed by such Persecution than any way removed from their Principles by it 'T is not the having several parties in Religion under a State that is in it self dangerous but 't is the persecuting of them that makes them so First It puts them all under discontent and then unites them together in such discontent Thuanus a wise States-man saith Heretici qui pace datâ factionibus franguntur persecutione uniuntur contra Rem Publicam Those who in their Principles largely differ from each other when they come to be all bound up together in one common Volumn and linked in the same chain of Persecution and suffering will be sure to twist themselves into an united Opposition to such an undistinguishing severity Whereas the thing in it self rightly considered so many divided Interests and Parties in Religion are much less dangerous than any and may be prudently managed to ballance each other and to become generally more safe and useful to a State than any united party or interest whatever He that is suffered to enjoy under a State the freedom of his Religion when differing from the publick Profession has not only the common tye of a Subject upon him for his protection as a man but the cumulative obligation and thanks to pay for his Indulgence as a Christian under such a Character Subjects in such a posture as they will ever be studious of an opportunity to testifie their grateful fidelity and by some eminent service to lay up a stock or Merit that may secure their future quiet so they will be of any most careful not to forfeit so pleasing an Indulgence by falling under a publick displeasure A Prince in such a state of things by making himself a common Father to the whole Protestant Religion though made up of some differences within it self will be secured not only of that common Homage of Obedience and Subjection but with it that more noble of the Hearts and Affections of all his Protestant Subjects To say any party in Religion is disaffected to a State and therefore not fit for such favour when such disaffection if it be does plainly arise from the Severity of the State against them in that case the reason why favour should not be shewed is removed by showing of it For as persecuting men for their Religion must necessarily disgust them so giving them the freedom of it must needs equally oblige them 'T is no true measure to take of any parties in Religion to say the one are better Subjects than the other when the one are favoured and countenanced and the other still kept under and oppressed There is no reason but to believe there is an equal Tendency in all to love that Prince or State where they find favour and protection 't is a common disposition runs in the blood of all men and by how much the Principles of any party are less taking and plausible the less dangerous still is that party and as they will need favour more than others so they must needs lie proportionably secured to a State by the Obligation is put upon them Take it for Truth which is commonly affirmed That all such for whom Liberty is at any time desired are men full of Faction and full of Error For the first 't is certain Persecution will not only continue but foment

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