therein still and these successes against him whom God would cast down engaged them the more speedily to effect their intentions and enact a disbanding of the Army lest the Army should disband them This hastens the Armies march to London I am consident altogether unresolved what to do the work which God now called them to was higher then ever and the presages were the ruine either of London the Army or both certainly there were many who would have put it to the Tryal but the Citizens wisely considering that the multitude of discontented persons poor and necessitous were as great if not greater dangers within then the Army without and that lose they what they could by compliance they must lose more by opposition they admit the General The Parliament is now shattered many of the Members being taken and imprisoned are declared as guilty of the bringing in the Scots and might as well if not better of the several mutinies in England on the Land and defection of the Ships at Sea London is now Garrisoned the Arrears which were great there intending by want of pay if possible to dishearten the Souldier are strictly ordered and the Seat of the beast there that is Pauls Church the Cathedral made a Court of Guard and such Members as would avow the proceedings with the King excluded the House Ireland all this while was to the Parliament almost as it hath been with me a thing not regarded but now there are thoughts of that and the Army setled under a certain number with a settlement of pay respectively and order taken for the settling the Navy and Generals sent forth there is great thoughts of the necessity of doing Justice mens minds had run no higher generally then happily to bring a Lord or two to the block but lo God raiseth mens spirits to that height and brings them to it by degrees that they bring even the King himself to the Barr of Justice O that every heart may tremble at the work of the Lord he hath here manifested his power let all Princes tremble Charls of England the best of Kings I may admit but the worst of all other men for none hath such obligations is the example No Nation had the like mercies with England the hand of heaven had planted and watered us we were grown rich our eyes stared with fat and our bodies sweat under the pride of apparel but our Religion was formal and all our improvement of outward mercies were to licentiousness the poor were naked idle and unprovided for the Law held forth righteousness but the Judges and Ministers made it crooked or broken the rich men only were imployed the honour of Magistracy was rich clothes and a full Table but they were too good to take pains Now O all you Magistrates see God hath plucked him out who was prayed for as the light of your life and the breath of your nosthrils the fountain of your so called Honours your Idoll and hath broken off not only the palms of his hands and his feet but by the Sword of the Lord hath cut off his head as an offender against the Laws which he was entrusted to be the chief Keeper of I write it when I still see with grief men great in riches able in parts think scorn to be left out of Offices and places of trust as neglected but put them in and if they have nothing else to do they think that a work below them I avow it just if God should turn them out of all and set the Plough-man to be their Lord but I see yet no Justice for man to do it yet that they should be punished is most just but of this more seasonably afterwards men that will may see God in this and admire I know many pious Christians enemies to this Act who yet adhered to the Parliament in all the Wars and contributions thereto against the King yea in the offensive one but their stick is the Covenant I would have such rest content 〈◊〉 their own innocency in the fact they might have opposed if then they resisted not let them now be silent seeing the Lord is high in judgement That party of Parliament who transacted the affairs of State now still keeping the name of the Parliament though assisted with or guarded by the Army and in that saving to us our due Rights and Liberties of equal Law and property After this fatall Sentence proceeds to the sentencing of others both of high and low estate and enact the alteration of the State of the Nation from a Monarchy the Government being grown wholly confused the due regulation of the Prince the priviledges of Parliament and the liberty of the Subject being rather not to be distinguished then destinguished rather treated on in the Schools then by themselves and our Laws though the ignorance of them excused no man by the Judges or Senate then by the many concerned whether Executioners as Justices of the Peace inferior Judges Constables c. or the poor multitude yea all our Cities and Boroughs lost in their Franchises and Towns lawless in all kinds so that there was a kinde of legall levelling or theevery grown common Was it not high time for the Parliament of England to step up God raised up some spirits and but a few they attempted high matters feared not the frown of a King nor the combinations of all neighbour Princes which was threatned but resolved to establish the work God set them about And I let them to know God hath plained the way unto them there is no opposition but Self they have been Gods instruments for great works and must be yet for greater success doth not always demonstrate the truth God may suffer them in many errors for one good sake What he intends I determine not but may conjecture that themselves saw God Almighty intended an alteration of that frame of Government which was in this Nation What to settle is their work and how to oppose this settlement was now the endeavour some things I fear in the many Counterbuffs which God had given were taken to oppose which were never so intended though they might be tendered inopportunely and under the time of the grand design of Petitioning As namely some Petitions which though not burned by the hands of the Hangman as that was presented to the ungarbled House yet it was for some things it may be justly distasted in the whole disowned and called or rather miscalled as seditious by some interessed persons to render the whole odious Rainsborough is slain and no due enquiry into his death or Sir H. Cholmleys supposed compliance with the Pomfreteers This in an unsetled State where though faith was highly known and pretended to on both sides little was acted by the parties controverting but as men adopted enemies to new attempts and that from grounds given forth plausible enough for the Engagements at New-Market and Triploe-Heath c. were made the outside of the design The matter proposed
He was neither believed or regarded of the wicked world and though he saw Gods great judgement upon the world and his special mercy to him in their destruction and his own wonderful preservation immediately sins grievously and is derided of his own accursed son yet this is the man whom the Lord chose and with him enters an express Covenant When he chose a Judge and Ruler whom did he choose but Moses And his present qualifications were an Alien exposed in a strange land and fled then for fear of what the eye and Judgement of man called murder I speak not this to justifie suddain murders and where he was at first a hired servant at best a sheppard a stammerer and tediously impertinent even with God himself and loth to the work though God had also fitted him in a humane way for government yea the extraordinary duty which was upon him to lead a rebellious and stiffnecked people as he found them to which end surely by divine providence he was not only of a meek spirit to bear injuries but wise to make use of them brought up not only in Pharoahs house but learned in more then the ordinary politiques or usual recreations of hawking and hunting swearing drinking gaming c in all the learning of the Aegyptians which was the admirablest of that age as stories witness the very Greeks themselves borrowing their knowledge from them And this was according to the rule of God for the choice of a Magistrate men of knowledge not men that had the age for knowledge or education or such like helps if they wanted the thing but that knowledge indeed I omit to speak of Abraham Isaac and Jacob as exercising but only a paternal power which though it were the foundation or rise of other governments yet must now be enlarged as necessity evidences as well as enforces and when the other Judges or Heads or Elders were chosen they were chosen according to the rule and so long they prospered yea go to the Kings Saul seeking Asses David from the Sheep-fold and how were these despised that I may speak it once for all the generality of men saw not Gods choice else why did the people so murmur against Moses and Aaron Miriam against Moses as also Corah Dathan and Abiram and the next day all the people notwithstanding that exemplary punishment upon them saying of them swallowed up you have slain the people of the Lord so of Saul shall he he in derision what a Benjamite a yonger son c. shall he deliver us how Deliver as if they had said he cannot and if you aske me the reason both of this and all other disobediences to prophesies commands and declarations of the will of God I must deal plainly with you the same reason moved them moves us and so on the contrary we believe or believe not the word As our harts are affected so move our hands so are our actions enlivened see this when Saul chops the Oxen in pieces and sends them through all the coasts of Israel with that Proclamation So shall it be done to him that will not follow Saul and Samuel The fear of the Lord fell upon them says the Text what is that but the Lord put or raised up their spirits to the work and so it was effected and where God gave a spirit of sloath deadness of heart c. there they set still and were afterward punished as well as cursed who did not help the Lord against the mighty Yea the Prophets were not esteemed in their daies which of them came to his end either without sufferings or but by sufferings and who were the Enemies The Kings c. and which of them but the evill ones see Isaiah Jeremiah and the rest and yet their great renown was spread abroad amongst strangers though there may be a reason for it as Jeremiahs providing for by Nebuzaradan giving him in charge to Gedeliah and that was he prophesied against Zedekiah and for Nebuchadnezar but our Saviour hints another God did not raise up his Prophets in vain but they were his messengers and against the Kings and Princes and therefore being hated or at best neglected by them so were they by the inferiors following their example and so called mad fellows and by the base Priests of Idols forbid to prophesie in the Kings Court and all along such were they whom God chose owned imployed and Covenanted with and now not to speak here more of the persons I come to the nature of the Covenant which both with Noah Abraham and his offspring Moses and all Israel were in the letter but outward blessings and though by the word everlasting there is more to be gathered yet at first veiw what is it Seed time and Harvest the dominion over and use of the Creature but with restraint not with the blood cold and heat Summer and Winter and now God gives a law and not before otherwise then as the voice of nature sounded it forth against murder professing he will not only require the blood of man at the hand of man and that without any exception but even of the beast and this law was before the so called partition wall of divine love to the Jew was declared while all men were simply considered as the sons of Adam Upon this declaration declaration there is a new covenant but what is that All this land will I give to thee and thy seed and blessings where ever they go assured by the note of Gods Alsufficiency which though typing higher matters both in respect of the place Canaan and his seed the Lord Christ Jesus typed in Isaac yet Abrahams faith fails him for his life and wife he lies and Jacob pilleth rods and decieves as some say Laban to enrich himself and was irregular in his affection to Rachel and other frailties Such also was the Covenant with Moses and all Israel In blessing I will bless with riches honor long-life victories over enemies and this was in case of obedience to Gods laws and then for disobedience Cursing I will curse the earth should be Iron and the heavens brass and as before one should chase 100. and 100. put 10000. to flight c. so now they should flye when none pursue the same Covenant with Solomon all which shews that what the Lord held forth to the Jew was outward and legal obedience so called righteousness and now that the Covenant might have effect God gives his law with promises and threats and this according to the nature and quality of it either toward himself or of one man toward another for the Laws towards God they were either the moral the sum whereof was the ten Commandments of which the first four are here first to be discussed and are indeed the prerogative or royall law which were briefly To have but one God Secondly to make no likeness of him Thirdly not use his name irreverently Fourthly to sanctifie a seventh day if not the seventh day to him
of God that Christ had not destroyed this Law he came to fulfill it And lastly they enforced this from the rule of reason If man had no boundary to his Reason no rule to make his Law by reason would be infinite which error had been the foundation of so many dreadful alterations as States had suffered under in such clymaterick revolutions as now this Nation laboured under and therefore they desired the drawing of Englands Laws to their primitive rule namely the Judicials This was objected against by others who yet desired a rule of righteousness alledging that if this were the Rule then it must be all so or but part not all for the Ceremonial Law being the shadow fled away at the coming of Christ in the body and that the Church of Rome had done evil yea that it was the foundation and root of their so dangerous Apostacy to carry the shadow along with the body for from thence had come their high power of the Pope their sacring of Churches as well as persons their Altars Trinckets c. their Jubiles Pardons Indulgences c. Canonical hours holy Vestments and all the rest of their trash and that one admitted all would follow and as the entertaining the amusive or formal part of worship into religious services had under the supremacy of the Ecclesiastick power defiled Church and Commonwealth taking away all sence of inward serious conscionable moral duty as well as religious and resting only in the exterior form either the pomp of the action or the act it self So now in the reformation of the Ecclesiastick power by the Magisterial Civil power the Commonwealth would at last lay the foundation of a new defilement to the Church and that this might be was too too evident by the precedent example So that we should but change the Tables and keep the false Dice still which would never better our game and therefore they said that unless there could be shewed exactly which part of the Judicials by an infallible word and that as given by Moses that is not as confirmed by Christ or his Apostles was the rule of Christian duty they would take none at all as so given for if man were Judge of a part of that Law how agreeable to the Nation whereof he or they were rulers then of all and if so then as good take pure reason not contrary to the Law of Christ and his Apostles but founded rather upon his Doctrine in the general rule though the particular application might vary in respect of circumstances so not rejecting the judicials but not taking them as obligatory as given to the Jew the people of God or typing out all Christian Nations or an Ensign of the faith but as a wise Law yea the wisest as being the dictates of the prime wisdom the same God that the Christians worshipped they not only admitted but desired such as were consonant to Christian reason to be established amongst us There were some particular contentions as first for Tythes secondly Appeals next the Sabboth then Theft not to be death then Adultery and Blasphemy to be death and these were things of principal Interest indeed But the Interest in part which discredited the whole was so visible as I cannot allow it though I may them who sought the thing as afflicted in spirit seeing the want of conscience in multitudes thinking ill of all called Ministers for some evil mens sakes open prophanation of the Sabboth by those professed a Sabboth and by the last Act restrained in part and left in other part as loose as before petty Theft death yet in the same State common and manifest Adultery go without any punishment or question all for want of a rule for we hear of long debates about it and Swearing and Blasphemy almost as ordinary as speaking yet proof made difficult and punishment easie but no conscience of reforming for few thought it a sin for the great men and the wise men were most guilty and gloried in it so that it was evident that as some sought the re-establishment of the old frame of Government and that both in Church so called and State according to the old pattern of the Erroneous Church or Apostacy of Rome founding upon the equity and useful allusion so called of the Mosaical Judicials and Ceremonials some nothing but confusion so others desired one wholly new avoiding all the errors which corrupt interests had introduced and that not only because the way of Error was before tracked and therefore easie to be trodden anew but as being builded upon a false foundation as well as by time and error corrupted and perverted Some of these though holding the truth were by a part of themselvs supposed to be in an error while presuming upon the wonderful mercies the Lord had bestowed upon them they were over-rash in their desires of a change for the evident symptomes of unavoidable ruine say they threaten us the multitude of interests are so divers and contrary how few are there to manage such a work not one to ten if one to an hundred this were to tempt God To expect miracles in a day when miracles cease God bade the Jew not destroy all their enemies at once lest the beasts should prevail against them it may hold forth the simplicity of the Dove but not the subtilty of the Serpent which is requisite in this case for you see say they what a contest hath been with the single interest of the Clergy and the scattered fry of their corrupt Courts but if you engage against all the remainders of them with the numerous off-spring of all Courts as of Judges Serjeants Counsellors Sollicitors Attorneys Protho-notaries Secondaries Clerks of the Crown Clerks of Assise Clerks of the Exigents Clerks of the Papers Clerks of the Warrants Clerks of the Essoyne Clerks of the Juries Clearks of the Pipe Clerke of the Kings silver Clerks of the Seal Clerk of the Peace Custos brevium Chyrographers Fillizer Marshals Cryers Waiters Chancellors Remembrancers Six Clerks Registers Comptrollers of the Seal Examiners Clerk of the Hamper Clerk of the petty Bag Cursiters Serjeants of the Mace Ushers of the Court Clerks in nature of ordinary Attorneys with many more and all these having their adherents for which of these but come in under some corrupt interest or other But generally the chief in Offices at least of profit as Judges Serjeants Councellors Advocates Doctors Proctors Attorneys Six Clerks Clerks of Assize c. are all the younger Brethren or sons of Lords or of their Families however of the greatest Gent. and of the Parliament men themselves and setled by the Bastard so called the Conquerour upon a politick Maxime That the Land in England being appointed for the safeguard of the Kingdom might not be brackled away therefore as all the Land went to the eldest these were the wayes of educating and maintaining the younger make them Lawyers and make the Laws dubious Offices plentiful and there would be as
that it grow not from an Oligarchy into a Tyranny which gives just cause of fear while of Parliament men and those perpetual and no power visible to question them they are not responsal for any wrong and to put any into office with them not Parliament men and so responsal except their brethren in power beat them out there is injustice that one should answer another not for the same fault They rather desire some fit way of choise of one man out of every County in the Nation from them come to Committees delays the complaint now foreruns the new instituted Committee of Accompts all Receivers Treasurers Collectors c. will have fine work no Rule Order c. but bare placet of c. But the Officers of Sequestrations will have the best share of trouble who have accounted in the County to the Sub-Committee of Sequestrations among themselves to the Sub-committee of Accounts there Now all must account at Goldsmiths Hall and then to the new Catholike Committee of Accounts as if Officers were but to drive a Trade of maintenance by whole sale and retaile from one shilling per pound to nine pence then to six pence then to four pence three pence two pence one penny per pound and that drawn out again in two three four five six seven eight nine pence c. per sheet to Writers Clerks Accountants all after the form of the corrupt Commonwealth past There are honest men of all sides say That they fear no policy will prevail against truth that is they hope though it be so feared upon which they offer to confideration whether it were ought but corrupt interest that made good men bad Bishops And whether it will not upon the same Rule make good men corrupt Officers of all sorts therefore they hate as much to hear of one shilling per pound as of Patents during pleasure or to some for three years while all are not so and then not capable of so many years more for the remote contingent dependance is evil though not so evil as the more immediate and absolute Indeed there is a great complaint that not onely things complained of c. remain still the same but grow worse Inns Taverns and Alehouses multiply to the out daring Justice irregularity in all Trades c. Neglect of all inferior Powers in ordinary Jurisdiction The orders issue That all is left to be done according to Law but that so dilatory and difficult that no wise and honest man dare meddle with it so that many faint and say what they expected to be be the Lords deliverance is his Bondage many while in the Wilderness wish they were in Egypt again there are that call for Kingly Government as you well perceive Yet were they the instruments to his overthrow vain and impatient spirits some rebell against you to make themselves high indeed like Corah and his company for they say What are you that you shall raign over us Therefore they say Let the old Race come in again let not upstarts c. now these are the Lords Remembrancers to you you are of the same frame and temper with other men And you know mans condition since his fall he hath shaken off the pure Law of Righteousness as an insupportable Tyranny and we are wholly led away of our own lusts and Satan snares us under the notion of Liberty Thus are we become mighty in mischief the devils policies are easily learned but his stratagems difficulty if at all but by grace discovered this makes us more subtile to deceive our selves then others but God assuredly will not cannot be mocked this makes many fear mercies are given for a snare that is for future and greater Judgements which the Lord prepare us for if so determined but if it be his gratious Will prevent by our returnings By all which now it is evident that the Apostacy and defection hath over spread both Churches and Nations the people of God as well as the men of the world that this Apostacy hath been yea is in England c still working as vigorously if not more then ever Satan now rages and the chaffer of the Whore is not yet expulsed the Camp of the Saints The stone hewn out of the Mountain without hands in the Regiment of the Lord Jesus hath been rejected as Chyliastical a notion too obstruse in learned Scripture sense how plain so ever in the vulgar letter All that I say to them so reject it yet look for Christs coming is let them take heed that as the Jews eyes were blinded in looking for a Prince and lo a Servant That we be not blinded in still looking at a Servant Christ when he will be exalted lest in stead of one we raise up many Antichrists and set them in the Seat of God I would not be mistaken I plainly mean with what limitations we intend the Magistrate to be the keeper of the Keys which I fear can rest in no mans hand but the Lord Christ's let him have all the power the Pope or Bishop or Clergy could claim But I say the fellowships of Saints are freed from the enforcing power over conscience de Jure though all evils as well as sins may befall them with others for disobedience to unjust Laws de facto You whom God hath called out to the work have a great task be not found idling or about other business that you are securing your great estates or laying out your hundred thousand pound in a setled way of lands c. will be a weak answer at the great day of account Give not occasion to evil men to speak evil of the Lords people and of his wayes for lucre sake England offers it self as a white Paper to receive any Print you need not at present out of fears of a change pretend a new Representative to quiet spirits No the people are as the Israelites at Mount Sinai feared enough with the thundrings lightnings and Trumpet of quarterings Sequestrations and dilatory attendances that they are resolved speak you like Moses to God for them and what he saith they will hear there are some or other particulars ready to fly out and say as Corah Am not I as good as you as wise learned vertuous godly c. in impatience of spirit But blessed be God all the Congregation have not yet said as they You have slain the people of the Lord We know say some the difficulty of the Work if there were no opposition how much must there then be where there is so much sit not still find time to settle least God take you away let 's at least see the fruits of your labours and if you think it not yet the time of Christs personal yet it be of his vertual Raign here let there be a plain sure certain easie settlement of affairs with that charitable affection that sociable suitable behaviour that clearness and that in simplicity which by the Laws of Nature is due to our
is that of Magisterial Interest whereby he would wave a limitation or rule in ordinary and make himself absolute in every condition For Supremacy generally aims at absolute Power in all estates Royal or Republical or mixt though they maintain their interest diversly according to evident principles upon which their foundation stands this therefore is a Politick rule but how warranted by Supremacy of Reason upon the pure principle of common or universal good or what Rule in the Word must be examined in the written Word there is owned nothing as clear for sure then the controversie with some one good Magistrate or Commomwealth or other would be determined and the interest of Righteousness would cloud the interests of riches honor power c. This therefore failing let us see the Reason the first part whereof is in necessity of altering Laws according to emergencies to which it is answered That Laws in inflicting just penalties may be higher or lower according to emergency and the rigorous or exact execution may be justly inforced but the incompatibility or disproportion of the Law of Death for Theft is in that all the goods of a Prince are not of equal worth as goods be they Horses Kine Gold Silver c. to the head of a Slave consider him as man nay the Lord touches not mans liberty for goods meerly if he had wherewith to restore therefore this Reason will not avail But if we consider the Quaere a little further there will appear less reason yet and that is that even Christians themselves doubt not but that would the Magistrate wave his advantages both to himself Clerks Officers c. by the death of Felons and strictly see to the Execution but of restoring two or three fold Theft would not be the one hundred part so frequent as now it is for though generally it be truth that preservation of life is the prime principle of Nature and he will part with all to save that Yet the spirits of some men are such being not polished by divine precept that they scorn to live but as they have been educated some will dye rather then labour and so Thieve or commit any villany Now it is by some thought these may be put to death but these do not put these men to death for Theft but not having to restore they imprison them to satisfie by labor their wrongs and if they break prison they dye for it so that death is now inflicted upon them not only by the equity of the Law Judicial but universal reason cutting off this disobedient son rooting out this Moth of the Commonwealth and there is sure much of Justice in this for now with Christians to prosecute a Felon as any other criminous person will cost a man in expence of time and Fees and other charges as much as would have kept his Family a moneth which added to his loss who would prosecute yet compound the Law forbids but I intend haste The next reason is the Judicials are so mixed with Ceremonials To which it is answered that many are clear use them the other search out how the mixture stands for if there be a plain Law of distributive Justice a necessary rule for the benefit of Societies take that and if there be no corrupt interest in it sure it will be accepted by wise men though meer Politicians may baulk it as well as enact it as King Hen. the 8. did in case of Marriages I am now come to the great head of all namely that the Judicials were a Law of revenge which now is proper to God Christians must not fight war revenge c. I could with some say I admire the wonderfull goodness mercy long-sufferance patience c. of God who willing to shew the Riches of his mercy forbears the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction Art thou a Christian that objectest against the Judicials to elate another Magisterial power then that of the Regiment of the Lord Christ for though they were given by Moses they were the Dictates of the prime verity And where O man hast thou such a pattern But thou wilt say We are Christians and we have no need of Laws I answer with Paul If thou beest the Law to thy self the Law punishes thee not Rulers are set up for the punishment of evil doers So said the Lord to Cain in the first two thousand years And so saith the Spirit to the world in the last two thousand But say you we acknowledge a Law to men but not Christians Brethren be not deceived remember what Peter saith The unlearned and unstable wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction the place I pitch upon to clear up the Righteousness of the Law even to Christians is that of the 1 Tim. 1. from the 8. to 14. There are multitudes of places hinting the same I at present know none more pregnant for thence it is plain that there were then many controversies stirred by the Christian Iews or so pretending concerning the observance of the whole Mosaical Law whether Ceremonial or Judicial Paul had beaten down as much as in him lay the Ceremonial shewing it was but the shadow the body was Christ Now concerning the Judicials particularly there is no question but from the following verses and from other places it is plain what was intended for in the 9. verse he sheweth wherefore the Law was made First Negatively not for the Righteous the foundation of great errors while misapplied Next Affirmatively for the lawless and disobedient ungodly and sinners unholy and prophane these are general Now he comes to particulars Murderers Manslayers Whoremongers Buggerers Men-stealers Lyers Perjured persons and against all other things contrary to sound Doctrine c. There is an objection against this viz. these things are Morall To which I answer that if you take Morall for the Law of the ten Commandements they are not literally there if you intend Moral for what ever is contained virtually under these heads the two generals whereof comprehend the whole duty of man to God and to his brother all mankind then the whole Judicial at least must be therein comprized If you intend by Moral what the light of perfect reason holds forth concerning just and good no man dare say the Judicials wanted the height of perfect Reason If you look at it as rectified by Evangelical Doctrine then it is answered that the primitive error is the cause of our now wandering First generally seeing the errors which have flowed by the Church to the Commonwealth we confusedly judge this to rise from the principle of the Judicials and lay all the pride covetize and various interests of Princes Courts Judges Fees and unjust and unnecessary dependancies Nurses of Heathenish and detestable wickedness villany and ensnaring dependencies to life and liberty of common Societies as well as particular men upon the Judicial Next it is beleeved that Christians take the Judicials proper to them as to the prototype of the Jew which
a sworn Officer and published in Print and a Book kept in every Town or Precinct What is the Magistrates duty in all Orders of Government and necessaries thereto And first whether the Christian Magistrate may admit War THe Magistrate ought to provide for the well-being of the Nation or any part thereof repectively according to his trust so let us consider the evils which may disturbe this well-being and that arising First from open war secondly from private force thirdly from deceit or fraud and lastly from difficulty Let us a little discourse therefore of war and whether Christians may war Surely the Church that is the Congregation of Saints are militant on earth but that opposition being against spiritual enemies Satan lust pomps vanities c. are not the subject of our discourse against these there is no Quaere they must war and these are enemies both outward and inward and though the children of God will not cannot war among themselves yet there are false brethren such as go out because they were never in Heretiks so called Deceivers Lyars and all such as are cast out of the Church Now for these I still humbly conceive that we must look at the nature of the offence for if it be meerly mental opinative and internal from the souls mistakings but not degenerating in actual scandal the weapons that are to be used against these are meerly spiritual which are mighty to the beating down of all the strong holds of sin and overthrowing every thing that is not of God and against such I suppose no outward force yea though you suppose or beleeve them firmly to be Hereticks may or ought to be used so as they disturb not the Civil Peace But a case will enlighten somewhat Suppose one doth beleeve as many are said to do the abolishing of the Sabboth may the Magistrate enforce obedience To this I say that he that holds the abolishing of the Sabboth held a Sabboth was and then must acknowledge the power whereby that Sabboth was and so the end to which it was directed which was the ease of the creature from corporal labor and for his edification in the service of God in the Spirit This gives no loose to any Jocundrie that day no Sporting no nor idle Tatling Walkings but the Spirits Recreations in the Contemplations of Divinity ought to be the repasts of the Soule Then assuredly the Magistrate may hinder this and cause keeping within doors and punish offenders Therefore let not the Gates of a City be opened that day but to such as pass too and fro and are known and that to partake in divine and spiritual services and that not above a Sabbath dayes journey and agree that but dilate not twelve moneths what is a Sabboth dayes journey but within the private Family there is no inforcing of the Magistrate that is he seems not to be bound to it nor is his power evident No the better way to know the care and diligence of the Master of the Family is to appoint some men not as Church Officers but Civil Inquisitors of Knowledge who may see the progress in Knowledge of such as are out of the Schools and Colledges and punish or cause them to be punished at first and afterwards the Parents and Masters and not to admit to places of Magistracy such as are ignorant themselves so neither those that do not carefully educate and instruct their Family whereby they may in their season become serviceable in the Congregation of the faithful Now this war of Hereticks and profane persons being over let us see what is to be done to those without the Church I say to these That these also as the Religion wherein they were educated are to be permitted their Conscience without force suppose them Papists and suppose them Idolators suppose them Turks and suppose them Heathens for unless by the pure light of Nature they must or may see it that is it be evident and perspicuous I take it Reason Divine or Humane corrects not notwithstanding that Parable of the Servant that knew not his Masters Will and was to be beaten Now this is evident for among all the clashings amongst opinions untill now where was it not that every one strove onely to free themselves from the power of others to be inforced yet would inforce others but now I take it to be the infinite Mercy of the Lord to reveal this thing unto us that see it how many do not that is they can see nothing but confusion accompany it Now as to the other part of Papistry though claimed as part of Religion viz. That the Pope is Head c. and may dispose Kingdoms dissolve Leagues Oathes and remit obedience to powers and that because he hath said it there is no faith to be kept with Hereticks All or any of these being contrary to the peace and safety of a State may be enforcedly renounced and the parties denying justly banished I say not their goods confiscate for we know many do conscienciously hold these things and with great strength of Natural Reason as much as maintains the greatest pretending opinion in this Age and now in contest with us And in case of Resistance War is lawful So that in brief I take it War is lawful against the Enemies of the Church Spiritually with Spiritual weapons against the carnal enemies with corporal weapons of Banishment in case of destructive errors to peace and civil quiet and warlike force where the State and Nation cannot otherwise in Prudence secure it self for the entring the others Country or Limits First To make that the Seate of the war where other things are clear the Law of Nations which admit it will well setle it What Arms or Armies he ought to use whether his own People or Strangers ASsuredly the necessity of Arms being preservation it were indiscretion to put that strength into a Strangers keeping Experience hath proved it unsafe and Religion will count it unlawful to imploy an other about that which we count simply evil Next onely to keep the people from delight in blood it must be Civil or Divine Knowledge must do that indeed there is a shadow of exception in the Law which prohibites Butchers to be of a Jury of Life and Death but that was I suppose because most of them were of mean and servile condition and so ignorant for assuredly the killing of beasts makes not a man careless of the life of a man in a judicial way it was the office of Gods High Priests though it may in the way of a particular quarrel next Souldiers for never so many battels are not debarred the being of Juries How the Militia ought to be setled ALL Humane Laws have their settlements and of themselves naturally devolve into Error so that if we eye all the wise settlements of Nations in this or ought else it is nought worth now The Jewish Romane Grecian Egyptian or other old or Modern the foundation yet of most of