unaccountable that the Supreme Magistrate may not be permitted to determine the Circumstances and Appendages of the subordinate Ministeries to Moral Virtue and yet should be allowed in all Common-wealths to determine the particular Acts and Instances of these Virtues themselves For Example Justice is a prime and natural Virtue and yet its particular Cases depend upon humane Laws that determine the bounds of Meum and Tuum The Divine Law restrains Titius from invading Caius's Right and Propriety but what that is and when it is invaded only the Laws of the Society they live in can determine And there are some Cases that are Acts of Injustice in England that are not so in Italy otherwise all Places must be govern'd by the same Laws and what is a Law to one Nation must be so to all the World Whereas 't is undeniably evident That neither the Law of God nor of Nature determine the particular Instances of most Virtues but for the most part leave that to the Constitutions of National Laws They in general forbid Theft Incest Murther and Adultery but what these Crimes are they determine not in all Cases but is in most particulars to be explained by the Civil Constitutions and whatsoever the Law of the Land reckons among these Crimes that the Law of God and of Nature forbids And now is it not strangely humoursome to say That Magistrates are instrusted with so great a Power over mens Conscience in these great and weighty Designs of Religion and yet should not be trusted to govern the indifferent or at least less material Circumstances of those things that can pretend to no other Goodness than as they are Means serviceable to Moral Purposes That they should have Power to make that a Particular of the Divine Law that God has not made so and yet not be able to determine the use of an indifferent Circumstance because forsooth God has not determin'd it In a word That they should be fully impowered to declare new Instances of Vertue and Vice and to introduce new Duties in the most important parts of Religion and yet should not have Authority enough to declare the Use and decency of a few Circumstances in its subservient and less material Concerns § 5. The whole State of Affairs is briefly this Man is sent into the World to live happily here and prepare himself for happiness hereafter this is attain'd by the practice of Moral Vertues and Pious Devotions and wherein these mainly consist Almighty Goodness has declared by the Laws of Nature and Revelation but because in both there are changeable Cases and Circumstances of things therefore has God appointed his Trustees and Officials here on Earth to Act and Determine in both according to all Accidents and Emergencies of Affairs to assign new Particulars of the Divine Law to declare new Bounds of right and wrong which the Law of God neither does nor can limit because of necessity they must in a great measure depend upon the Customs and Constitutions of every Common-wealth And in the same manner are the Circumstances and outward Expressions of Divine Worship because they are variable according to the Accidents of Time and Place entrusted with less danger of Errour with the same Authority And what Ceremonies this appoints unless they are apparently repugnant to their Prime end become Religious Rites as what particular Actions it constitutes in any Species of Virtue become new Instances of that Virtue unless they apparently contradict its Nature and Tendency Now the two Primary Designs of all Religion are either to express our honourable Opinion of the Deity or to advance the Interests of Vertue and Moral Goodness so that no Rites or Ceremonies can be esteemed unlawful in the Worship of God unless they tend to debauch men either in their Practices or their Conceptions of the Deity And 't is upon one or both of these Accounts that any Rites and Forms of Worship become criminally superstitious and such were the Lupercalia the Eleusinian Mysteries the Feasts of Bacchus Flora and Venus because they were but so many Festivals of Lust and Debauchery and such were the Salvage and Bloody Sacrifices to Saturn Bellona Moloch Baal-Peor and all other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Antient Paganism because they supposed the Divine Being to take pleasure in the Miseries and Tortures of its Creatures And such is all Idolatry in that it either gives right Worship to a wrong Object or wrong Worship to a right one or at least represents an infinite Majesty by Images and Resemblances of finite things and so reflects disparagement upon some of the Divine Attributes by fastning dishonourable Weaknesses and Imperfections upon the Divine Nature As for these and the like Rites and Ceremonies of Worship no Humane Power can command them because they are directly contradictory to the Ends of Religion but as for all others that are not so any lawful Authority may as well enjoyn them as it may adopt any Actions whatsoever into the Duties of Morality that are not contrary to the Ends of Morality § 6. But a little farther to illustrate this we may observe That in matters both of Moral Vertue and Divine Worship there are some Rules of Good and Evil that are of an Eternal and Unchangeable Obligation and these can never be prejudiced or altered by any Humane Power because the Reason of their Obligation arises from a necessity and constitution of Nature and therefore must be as Perpetual as that But then there are other Rules of Duty that are alterable according to the various Accidents Changes and Conditions of Humane Life and depend chiefly upon Contracts and Positive Laws of Kingdoms these suffer Variety because their Matter and their Reason does so Thus in the matter of Murther there are some Instances of an unalterable Nature and others that are changeable according to the various Provisions of Positive Laws and Constitutions To take away the life of an innocent Person is forbidden by such an indispensable Law of Nature that no Humane Power can any way directly or indirectly make it become lawful in that no Positive Laws can so alter the Constitution of Nature as to make this Instance of Villany cease to be mischievous to Mankind and therefore 't is Capital in all Nations of the World But then there are other particular Cases of this Crime that depend upon Positive Laws and so by consequence are liable to change according to the different Constitutions of the Common-wealths men live in Thus though in England 't is Murther for an injured Husband to kill an Adulteress taken in the Act of Uncleanness because 't is forbidden by the Laws of this Kingdom yet in Spain and among the old Romans it was not because their Laws permitted it and if the Magistrate himself may punish the Crime with Death he may appoint whom he pleases to be his Executioner And the Case is the same in reference to Divine Worship in which there are some things of
Instruments of Morality Of the Villany of those mens Religion that are wont to distinguish between Grace and Virtue They exchange the substance of true Goodness for meer Metaphors and Allegories Metaphors the only cause of our present Schism and the only ground of the different Subdivisions among the Schismaticks themselves The Vnaccountableness of Mens Conceits That when the main Ends and Designs of Religion are undoubtedly subject to the Supreme Power they should be so eager to exempt its Means and Circumstances from the same Authority The Civil Magistrate may determine new Instances of Virtue how much more new Circumstances of Worship As he may enjoyn any thing in Morality that contradicts not the ends of Morality so may be in Religious Worship if he oppose not its design He may command any thing in the Worship of God that does not tend to debauch Mens practices or their conceptions of the Deity All the subordinate Duties both of Morality and Religious Worship are equally subject to the Determinations of Humane Authority § 1. HAving in the former Chapter sufficiently made out my first Proposition viz. That 't is absolutely necessary to the Peace and Government of the World that the Supreme Magistrate of every Common-wealth should be vested with a Power to govern the Consciences of Subjects in Affairs of Religion I now proceed to the proof of the second thing proposed viz. That those who would deprive the Supreme Civil Power of its Authority in reference to the Conduct of the Worship of God are forced to allow it in other more material parts of Religion though they are both liable to the same Inconveniences and Objections Where I shall have a fair opportunity to state the true extent of the Magistrates Power over Conscience in reference to Divine Worship by shewing it to be the same with his Power over Conscience in matters of Morality and all other Affairs of Religion And here it strikes me with wonder and amazement to consider That men should be so shy of granting the Supreme Magistrate a Power over their Consciences in the Rituals and External Circumstances of Religious Worship and yet be so free of forcing it upon him in the Essential Duties of Morality which are at least as great and material Parts of Religion as pleasing to God and as indispensably necessary to Salvation as any way of Worship in the World The Precepts of the Moral Law are both perfective of our own Natures and conducive to the Happiness of others and the Practice of Vertue consists in living suitably to the Dictates of Reason Nature And this is the substance and main Design of all the Laws of Religion to oblige Mankind to behave themselvs in all their actions as becomes Creatures endued with Reason and Understanding and in ways suitable to Rational Beings to prepare and qualifie themselves for the state of Glory and Immortality And as this is the proper End of all Religion That Mankind might live happily here and happily hereafter so to this end nothing contributes more than the practice of all Moral Vertues which will effectually preserve the Peace and Happiness of Humane Societies and advance the Mind of Man to a nearer approach to the Perfection of the Divine Nature every particular Vertue being therefore such because 't is a Resemblance and Imitation of some of the Divine Attributes So that Moral Vertue having the strongest and most necessary influence upon the End of all Religion viz. Mans Happiness 't is not only its most material and useful Part but the ultimate End of all its other Duties And all true Religion can consist in nothing else but either the Practice of Vertue it self or the use of those Means and Instruments that contribute to it § 2. And this beside the Rational Account of the thing it self appears with an undeniable evidence from the best of Demonstrations i. e. an Induction of all Particulars The whole Duty of Man refers either to his Creator or his Neighbour or himself All that concerns the two last is confessedly of a Moral Nature and all that concerns the first consists either in Praising of God or Praying to him The former is a Branch of the Vertue of Gratitude and is nothing but a thankful and humble temper of mind arising from a sense of Gods Greatness in himself and his Goodness to us so that this part of Devotion issues from the same virtuous quality that is the Principle of all other Resentments and Expressions of Gratitude only those Acts of it that are terminated on God as their Object are styled Religious and therefore Gratitude and Devotion are not divers Things but only different Names of the same Thing Devotion being nothing else but the Virtue of Gratitude towards God The latter viz. Prayer is either put up in our own or other mens behalfs If for others 't is an Act of that Virtue we call Kindness or Charity If for our selves the things we pray for unless they be the Comforts and Enjoyments of this life are some or other virtuous Qualities and therefore the proper and direct use of Prayer is to be instrumental to the Virtues of Morality So that all Duties of Devotion excepting only our returns of Gratitude are not Essential parts of Religion but are only in order to it as they tend to the Practice of Virtue and moral Goodness and their Goodness is derived upon them from the moral Virtues to which they contribute and in the same proportion they are conducive to the ends of Virtue they are to be valued among the Ministeries of Religion All Religion then I mean the Practical Part is either Virtue it self or some of its Instruments and the whole Duty of man consists in being Virtuous and all that is enjoin'd him beside is in order to it And what else do we find enforc'd and recommended in our Saviour's Sermons beside heights of Morality What does St. Paul discourse of to Felix but moral matters Righteousness and Temperance and Iudgment to come And what is it that men set up against Morality but a few figurative Expressions of it self that without it are utterly insignificant 'T is not enough say they to be completely Virtuous unless we have Grace too But when we have set aside all manner of Virtue let them tell me what remains to be call'd Grace and give me any Notion of it distinct from all Morality that consists in the right order and government of our Actions in all our Relations and so comprehends all our Duty and therefore if Grace be not included in it 't is but a Phantasm and an Imaginary thing So that if we strip those Definitions that some men of late have bestowed upon it of Metaphors and Allegories it will plainly signifie nothing but a vertuous temper of mind and all that the Scripture intends by the Graces of the Spirit are only Vertuous Qualities of the Soul that are therefore styled Graces because they were derived purely from Gods
Reasonings in so general terms as that they might be equally forcible upon the minds of all men of howsoever different Perswasions in all other matters And now I have no other Favour or Civility to request of the Reader than that he would suspend his Iudgment till he have seriously perused and weighed all parts of the following Treatise But if he shall pass Sentence upon any part before he has considered the whole he will in all probability put himself to the pains of raising those Objections I have already answered to his hand and perhaps the next thing he condemns may be his own Rashness CHAP. I. A more General Account of the Necessity of an Ecclesiastical Power or Sovereignty over Conscience in matters of Religion The Contents THe Competition between the Power of Princes and the Consciences of Subjects represented The mischiefs that unavoidably follow upon the Exemption of Conscience from the Iurisdiction of the Supreme Power The absolute necessity of its being subject in affairs of Religion to the Governours of the Common-wealth This proved at large because Religion has the strongest influence upon the Peace of Kingdoms and the Interests of Government Religion is so far from being exempted from the Restraints of Laws and Penalties that nothing more requires them 'T is more easie to govern mens Vices than their Consciences because all men are bold and confident in their Perswasions The remiss Government of Conscience has ever been the most fatal miscarriage in all Common-wealths Impunity of Offenders against Ecclesiastical Laws the worst sort of Toleration The Mischiefs that ensue upon the permitting men the Liberty of their Consciences are endless Fanaticism a boundless Folly Affairs of Religion as they must be subject to the Supreme Civil Power so to none other The Civil and Ecclesiastical Iurisdictions issue from the same Necessity of Nature and are founded upon the same Reason of things A brief account of the Original of Civil Power The Original of Ecclesiastical Power the same In the first Ages of the World the Kingly Power and Priestly Function were always vested in the same persons and why When they were separated in the Iewish State the Supremacy was annexed to the Civil Power And so continued until and after our Saviours Birth No need of his giving Princes any new Commission to exercise that power that was antecedently vested in them by so unquestionable a Right And therefore the Scripture rather supposes than asserts it The argument against penal Laws in Religion from the practice of our Saviour and his Apostles answered and confuted The Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction of Princes not derived from any grant of our Saviours but from the natural and antecedent Rights of all Sovereign Power Christ and his Apostles could not use any coercive Iurisdiction because they acted in the capacity of Subjects Their threatnings of Eternity carry in them as much compulsion upon Conscience as secular punishments The power of the Church purely spiritual In the first Ages of the Christian Church God supplied its want of Civil Iurisdiction by immediate and miraculous Inflictions from Heaven Diseases of the Body the usual consequences of Excommunication And this had the same effect as temporal Punishments All this largely proved out of the writings of St. Paul When the Emperors became Christian the Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction was reannext to the Civil Power And so continued till the Vsurpation of the Bishops of Rome How since the Reformation the Ecclesiastical Power of Princes has been invaded by some pragmatical Divines Their Confidence has scared Princes out of their Natural Rights Of the clause of Exception annexed to the Jejunium Cecilianum How the Puritans used it to countenance all their unruly and seditious Practices A Conclusion drawn from all the Premisses for the absolute Necessity of the Ecclesiastical Power of Princes § 1. NOtwithstanding that Conscience is the best if not the only security of Government yet has Government never been controul'd or disturb'd so much by any thing as Conscience This has ever rival'd Princes in their Supremacy and pretends to as uncontroulable an Authority over all the Actions and Affairs of humane life as the most absolute and unlimited Power durst ever challenge Are Governours Gods Vicegerents so is this Have they a power of deciding all Controversies so has this Can they prescribe Rules of Virtue and Goodness to their Subjects so may this Can they punish all their Criminal Actions so can this And are they subject and accountable to God alone so is this that owns no superiour but the Lord of Consciences And of the two Conscience seems to be the greater Sovereign and to govern the larger Empire For whereas the Power of Princes is restrain'd to the outward actions of men this extends its Dominion to their inward thoughts Its throne is seated in their minds and it exercises all that Authority over their secret and hidden sentiments that Princes claim over their publick and visible practices And upon this account is it set up upon all occasions to grapple with the Scepters and Swords of Princes and countermand any Laws they think good to prescribe and whenever Subjects have a mind to controul or disobey their Decrees this is immediately prest and engaged to their Party and does not only dictate but vouches all their Remonstrances Do Subjects rebel against their Sovereign 't is Conscience that takes up Arms. Do they murder Kings 't is under the conduct of Conscience Do they separate from the Communion of the Church 't is Conscience that is the Schismatick Do they tye themselves by one Oath to contradict and evacuate another 't is Conscience that imposes it Every thing any man has a mind to is his Conscience and Murther Treason and Rebellion plead its Authority The Annals and Histories of all times and places are too sad a Witness that this great and sacred thing has ever been abused either through the Folly of some or Hypocrisie of others to patronize the most desperate Mischiefs and Villanies that were ever acted § 2. Here then we see is a Competition between the Prerogative of the Prince and that of Conscience i. e. every private mans own judgment and perswasion of things The judgment of the Magistrate inclines him to Command that of the Subject to Disobey and the Dictates of his Conscience countermand the Decrees of his Prince Now is there not likely to be untoward doings when two Supreme Powers thus clash and contradict each other For what power would be left to Princes if every private mans perswasion for that is his Conscience may give check to their Commands Most mens minds or Consciences are weak silly and ignorant things acted by fond and absurd principles and imposed upon by their vices and their passions so that were they entirely left to their own conduct in what mischiefs and confusions must they involve all Societies Let Authority command what it please they would do what they list And what is this but a state
and such other Irreligious Debaucheries If he may why then they are matters that as directly and immediately relate to Religion as any Rites and Ceremonies of Worship whatsoever and for the Government of which they are as utterly to seek for any Precedent of our Saviour and his Apostles Nay more if this Argument were of any force it would equally deprive the Magistrate of any Power to compel his Subjects to obedience to any of the moral Precepts of the Gospel by secular Laws and Punishments because our Saviour and his Apostles never did it especially when all matters of Morality do as really belong to our spiritual concerns as any thing that relates immediately to Divine Worship and Affairs of meer Religion and therefore if the Civil Magistrate may not compel his Subjects to a right way of Worship with the Civil Sword because this is of a spiritual concernment as is pretended upon the same ground neither may he make use of the same force to compel men to Duties of Morality because they also equally relate to their spiritual Interests Besides the Magistrates Authority in both is founded upon the same Principle viz. The absolute necessity of their due Management in order to the Peace and Preservation of the Common-wealth We derive not therefore his Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction from any grant of our Saviours but from an antecedent right wherewith all Sovereign Power was indued before ever he was born into the world forasmuch as the same Providence that intrusted Princes with the Government of Humane Affairs must of necessity have vested them in at least as much Power as was absolutely necessary to the nature and ends of Government § 15. But further yet all the ways our Saviour has appointed in the Gospel for the advancement and propagation of Religion were prescribed to Subjects not to Governours and this indeed is certain that no private person can have any power to compel men to any part of the Doctrine Worship or Discipline of the Gospel for if he had he would upon that very account cease to be a Private person and be vested with a Civil Power But that no Magistrate may do this will remain to be proved till they can produce some express prohibition of our Saviour to restrain him and till that be done 't is but a strange rate of arguing when they would prove that Magistrates may not use any coercive Power to promote the Interests of Religion because this is forbidden to their Subjects especially when 't is to be considered that Christ and his Apostles acted themselves in the capacity of Subjects to the Common-wealth they lived in and so could neither use themselves nor impart to others any coercive Power for the advancement and propagation of their Doctrine but were confined to such prudent and peaceable Methods as were lawful for persons in their condition to make use of i. e. humble Intreaties and Perswasions Our Saviour never took any part of the Civil Power upon himself and upon that score could not make penal and coercive Laws the power of Coertion being so certainly inseparable from the Supreme Civil Power But though he back'd not his Commandments with temporal punishments because his Kingdom was not of this world yet he enforced them with the threatnings of Eternity which carry with them more compulsion upon mens Consciences than any Civil Sanctions can For the only reason why Punishments are annex'd to Laws is because they are strong Motives to Obedience and therefore when our Savour tied his Laws upon mankind under Eternal Penalties he used as much force to drive us to obedience as if he had abetted them with temporal Inflictions So that the only reason why he bound not the Precepts of the Gospel upon our Consciences by any secular Compulsories was not because Compulsion was an improper way to put his Laws in execution for then he had never established them with more enforcing sanctions but only because himself was not invested with any secular Power and so could not use those methods of Government that are proper to its Jurisdiction § 16. And therefore the Power wherewith Christ intrusted the Governours of his Church in the Apostolical Age was purely spiritual they had no Authority to inflict temporal Punishments or to force men to submit to their Canons Laws and Penalties they only declared the Laws of God and denounced the threatnings annexed to them having no Coercive Power to inflict the Judgments they declared and leaving the event of their Censures to the Divine Jurisdiction Though alas all this was too weak to attain the ends of Discipline viz. to reclaim the offending Person and by example of his Censure to awe others into Obedience and could have but little influence upon the most stubborn and notorious Offenders For to what purpose should they drive one from the Communion of the Church that has already renounced it To what purpose should they deny him the Instruments and Ministries of Religion that cares not for them To what purpose should they turn him out of their Society that has already prevented them by forsaking it How should offenders be reclaim'd by being condemn'd to what they chuse How should they be scared by threatnings that they neither fear nor believe And if they will turn Apostates how can they be awed back into their Faith by being told they are so And therefore because of the weakness of this spiritual Government to attain the ends of Discipline and because that the Governours of the Church being subject to those of the Common-wealth they were not capable of any coercive Power 't is wonderfully remarkable how God himself was pleased to supply their want of Civil Jurisdiction by his own immediate Providence and in a miraculous manner to inflict the Judgments they denounced that if their Censures could not affright refractory Offenders into Obedience his Dreadful execution of them might For 't is notoriously evident from the best Records of the Primitive and Apostolical Ages that the Divine Providence was pleased to abet the Censures of the Church by immediate and Miraculous inflictions from Heaven In those times torments and diseases of the Body were the usual consequents of Excommunication and this was as effectual to awe men into subjection to the Ecclesiastical Government as if it had been endued with coercive Iurisdiction For this consists only in a power of inflicting temporal punishments and therefore when the Anathema's of the Church were attended with such Inflictions Criminals must have as much reason to dread the Rod of the Apostles as the Sword of the Civil Magistrate in that it carried with it a power of inflicting temporal Penalties either of Death as on Ananias and Sapphira or of Diseases as on Elymas the Sorcerer And this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherewith St. Paul so often threatens to lash the factious Corinthians into a more quiet and peaceable temper Thus 1 Cor. 4. 21. What will ye shall I come unto you with a
Conscience in matters of Religious Worship as in Affairs of Justice and Honesty i. e. a Liberty of Iudgment but not of practice they have an inviolable freedom to examine the Goodness of all Laws Moral and Ecclesiastical and to judge of them by their suitableness to the natural Reasons of Good and Evil but as for the Practice and all outward Actions either of Virtue or Devotion they are equally governable by the Laws and Constitutions of Common-wealths and men may with the same pretences of Reason challenge an Exemption from all Humane Laws in Matters of common Honesty upon the score of the Freedom of their Consciences as they plead a liberty from all Authority in Duties of Religious Worship upon the same account because they have a freedom of Judgment in both but of Practice in neither § 2. And upon the reasonableness of this Principle is founded the Duty or rather Priviledge of Christian Liberty viz. To assert the Freedom of the Mind of Man as far as 't is not inconsistent with the Government of the World in that a sincere and impartial use of our own Understandings is the first and Fundamental Duty of Humane Nature Hence it is that the Divine Providence is so highly solicitous not to have it farther restrained than needs must and therefore in all matters of pure Speculation it leaves the mind of Man entirely free to judge of the Truth and Falshood of things and will not suffer it to be usurp'd upon by any Authority whatsoever And whatsoever Opinion any man entertains of things of this Nature he injures no man by it and therefore no man can have any reason to commence any Quarrel with him for it Every man here judges for himself and not for others and matters of meer Opinion having no reference to the Publick there is no need of any Publick Judgment to determine them But as for those Actions that are capable of having any Influence upon the Publick Good or ill of Mankind though they are liable to the Determinations of the Publick Laws yet the Law of God will not suffer them to be determin'd farther than is requisite to the Ends of Government And in those very things in which it has granted the Civil Magistrate a Power over the Practices of men it permits them not to exercise any Authority over their Judgments but leaves them utterly free to judge of them as far as they are Objects of meer Opinion and relate not to the Common Interest of mankind And hence though the Commands of our Lawful Superiours may change Indifferent things into Necessary Duties yet they cannot restrain the Liberty of our Minds from judging things thus determin'd to remain in their own Nature Indifferent and the Reason of our Obligation to do them is not fetcht from any Antecedent Necessity in themselves but from the Supervening Commands of Authority to which Obedience in all things Lawful is a Necessary Duty So that Christian Liberty or the Inward Freedom of our Judgments may be preserved inviolable under the Restraints of the Civil Magistrate which are Outward and concern only the Actions not Judgments of men because the Outward Determination to one Particular rather than another does not abrogate the Inward Indifferency of the thing it self and the Duty of our Acting according to the Laws arises not from any Opinion of the Necessity of the thing it self but either from some Emergent and Changeable Circumstances of Order and Decency or from a sense of the Absolute Indispensableness of the Duty of Obedience Therefore the whole Affair of Christian Liberty relates only to our Inward Judgment of things and provided this be kept inviolate it matters not as to that Concern what Restraints are laid upon our Cutward Actions In that though the Gospel has freed our Consciences from the Power of things yet it has not from that of Government we are free from the matter but not from the Authority of Humane Laws and as long as we obey the Determinations of our Superiours with an Opinion of the Indifferency of the things themselves we retain the Power of our Christian Liberty and are still free as to the matter of the Law though not as to the Duty of Obedience § 3. Neither is this Prerogative of our Christian Liberty so much any new Favour granted in the Gospel as the Restauration of the mind of Man to its Natural Priviledge by Exempting us from the Yoke of the Ceremonial Law whereby things in themselves indifferent were tied upon the Conscience with as indispensable an Obligation as the Rules of Essential Goodness Equity during the whole Period of the Mosaick Dispensation which being Cancell'd by the Gospel those Indifferent things that had been made necessary by a Divine positive Command return'd to their own Nature to be used or omitted only as occasion should direct And upon this Account was it that St. Paul though he were so earnest an Assertor of his Christian Liberty against the Doctrine of the Necessity of Jewish Ceremonies never scrupled to use them when ever he thought it serviceable to the Interests of Christianity as is apparent in his Circumcision of Timothy to which he would never have condescended out of Observation of the Mosaick Law and yet did not in the least scruple to do it for other Purposes as Prudence and Discretion should direct him And though in his Discourses of Christian Liberty he Instances only in Circumcision Meats and Drinks and other Ceremonial Ordinances which were then the Particulars most in Dispute between the Christians and the Jews yet by the clearest Analogy of Reason the Case is the same as to the Judicial Law and all other things commanded by Moses that were not either Rules of Eternal Goodness or expresly establish'd in the Gospel This being its clearest and most important Design to reprieve Mankind from all the burdensome and Arbitrary Impositions of Moses that were scarce capable of any other Goodness than their being Instances of Obedience and to restore us to such a Religion as was most suitable to the perfection of Humane Nature and to tye no other Laws upon us than such whose Natural and Intrinsick Goodness should carry with them their own Eternal Obligation And therefore whatsoever our Superiours impose upon us whether in Matters of Religious Worship or any other Duties of Morality it neither is nor can be any entrenchment upon our Christian Liberty provided it be not imposed with an Opinion of the Antecedent Necessity of the thing it self § 4. Now the Design of what I have discoursed upon this Article of Christian Liberty is not barely to shew the manifest Impertinency of all those little Objections men force from it against the Civil Magistrates Jurisdiction over the outward Concerns of Religion whereas this relates entirely to things of a quite different Nature and is only concern'd in the inward Actions of the Mind but withal my purpose is mainly by exempting all internal Acts of the Soul from
necessary that either the same or some other in their stead be establish'd that will be liable to the same inconvenience Besides 't is not unworthy Observation that it is not so properly the end of Government to punish Enormities as to prevent Disturbances and when they bring Malefactors to Justice as we term it they do not so much inflict a Punishment upon the Crime for that belongs peculiarly to the cognizance of another Tribunal as provide for the welfare of the Common-wealth by cutting off such Persons as are Pests and Enemies to it and by the example of their Punishment deter others from the like Practices And therefore there are some sins of which Governours take not so much notice that are more hainous in themselves and in the sight of God than others that they punish with Capital Inflictions because they are not in their own nature so destructive of the ends of Government and the good of Publick Societies So that actions being punishable by Humane Laws not according to the nature of the Crime but of their ill consequence to the Publick when any thing that is otherwise even innocent is in this regard injurious it as much concerns Authority to give it check by severity of Laws and Punishments as any the foulest Immoralities Temporal Punishments then are inflicted upon such persons that are turbulent against prescribed Rules of Publick Worship upon the same account as they are against those that offend against all other Publick Edicts of Government they are both equally intended to secure the Publick Peace and Interest of the Society and when either of them are violated they equally tend to its disturbance and therefore as mens actings against the Civil Laws of a Common-wealth are obnoxious to the Judgment of its Governours for the same reason are all their Offences against its Ecclesiastical Laws liable to the censure of the same Authority So that the matter debated in its last result is not so much a question of Religion as of Policy not so much of what is necessary to faith as to the quiet and preservation of a Common-wealth and 't is possible a man may be a good Christian and yet his Opinion be intolerable upon the score of its being inconsistent with the Preservation of the Publick Peace and the necessary ends of Government For 't is easily imaginable how an honest and well-meaning man may through meer ignorance fall into such Errours which though God will pardon yet Governours must punish His integrity may expiate the Crime but cannot prevent the Mischief of his Errour Nay so easie is it for men to deserve to be punished for their Consciences that there is no Nation in the world in which were Government rightly understood and duly managed mistakes and abuses of Religion would not supply the Gallies with vastly greater numbers than Villany CHAP. VII Of the Nature and Obligations of Scandal and of the Absurdity of Pretending it against the Commands of Lawful Authority The Contents THE Leaders of the Separation being asham'd of the silliness of the Principle with which they abuse the People think to shelter themselves by flying to the pretence of Scandal Scandal is any thing that occasions the sin of another and is not in it self determinately Good or Evil. All Scandal is equally taken but not equally Criminal Men are to govern themselves in this Affair by their own prudence and discretion Of St. Paul's contrary behaviour towards the Iews and Gentiles to avoid their contrary Scandal The reason of the seeming Contradiction in this point between his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians The proper obligations of Scandal are extended only to indifferent things The Cases in which it is concern'd are not capable of being determined by setled Laws and Constitutions How scandalously these men prevaricate with the World in their pretence of Scandal that may excuse their refusal of Conformity but gives no account of their Separation Of their scrupling to renounce the Covenant this is no reason to drive them from Divine Service into Conventicles How shamefully these men juggle with the World and impose upon their Followers If they would but perswade their Proselytes to be of their own minds it would end all our differences They first lead the people into the Scandal and then make this the formal reason why they must follow them If the peoples scruples are groundless then to comply with them is to keep them in a sinful disobedience A further account of their shameful prevarication The ridiculousness of the peoples pretending it concerning themselves that they are scandalized By their avoiding private Offences they run into publick Scandals They scandalize their own weak Brethren most of all by complying with them Old and inveterate Scandals are not to be complyed with but opposed and such are those of the Non-Conformists The Commands of Authority and the Obligations of Obedience infinitely outweigh and utterly evacuate all the pretences of Scandal Sect. 1. THough the former Principle viz. that no man may with a safe conscience do any thing in the Worship of God that is not warranted by some Precept or Precedent in the Word of God be riveted into the peoples minds as the first and fundamental Principle of the Puritan Separation yet their Leaders seem to be ashamed of their own folly and being driven from this and all their other little holds and shelters they have at length thought it the safest and the wisest course to flie to the pretence of Scandal This is their Fort Royal in which they have at last secured and entrench'd themselves As for their own parts they tell us they are not so fond as to believe That the Ceremonies of the Church of England are so superstitious and Antichristian and that themselves might lawfully use them were it not that there are great numbers of sincere but weak Christians that apprehend them to be sinful and for this reason they dare not conform to our Ceremonial Constitutions for fear of ensnaring and scandalizing weak Consciences which is in the Apostles account of it no less than spiritual murther And whatever is due to Authority the Souls of men are too high a Tribute None can be more ready than themselves to submit to all lawful Commands but here they desire to be excused when they cannot obey but at the price of Souls 'T is a dreadful Doom that our Saviour has denounced against those who offend any of his little ones i. e. Babes and Weaklings in Christianity And therefore though they would not stick to hazard their own lives in obedience to Authority yet nothing can oblige them to be so cruel and so uncharitable as to destroy any for whom Christ died which is certainly done by casting snares and scandals before their weak Brethren This is the last refuge of the Leaders of the Separation and therefore I cannot but think my self obliged to examine its strength and reasonableness and I doubt not but to make it appear as