Saint Paul more strongly plead for Mercy towards them whom without Mercy they destroy Were not those blind Guides who led their Followers into the pit who made their Proselytes ten times more the children of Satan than themselves who neither would enter into the Kingdom of God nor suffer other men to enter as fit objects of our Lord's Displeasure as was Huss and Jerome of Prague Archbishop Cranmer Latimer and Ridley of the displeasure of the Church of Rome Was not the Execution of Death from Heaven upon these violent Opposers of the Truth as likely to convert the Jew or terrifie the Enemies of the Gospel as is the burning massacring tormenting of the Hereticks to fright them from their Heresies Might not our Lord as well have called for his twelve legions of Angels to destroy the Scribes and Pharisees as his pretended Vicar gathers his Crusado's to destroy the Hereticks And might he not more plausibly have pleaded Zeal for God and for Religion in his Case than doth the Church of Rome in hers But notwithstanding all these Provocations and specious Pretensions our Lord intending that his Religion should be propagated in humane ways and that men should be drawn to the Profession of it by the Bands of Love and the Cords of a Man by the gentle and peaceable Methods of Reason and Persuasion gave no example of a furious Zeal and religious Rage against those who despised his Doctrine It seemed good to the Author of this Institution to compell no man to it by temporal Punishments when he went about making Proselytes he offered violence to no man onely said if any man will be my disciple if any man will come after me And when his disciples were leaving him he does not set up an Inquisition to torture and punish them for their Defection from the Faith onely says Will ye also go away § III. But to proceed to the Example and Deportment of those Apostles by whom the Gospel was first propagated let us consider 1. That in their daies the Hereticks were as pernicious the false Prophets and Deceivers as dangerous and so as fit to be cut off as were the Hereticks who have and do thus suffer in the Church of Rome Our Saviour did foretell that they would deceive many and if it were possible even the elect St. Paul That grievous Wolves should enter into the Church not sparing the flock That men should speak perverse things to draw away disciples after them That in the latter times some should depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Demons speaking lyes in Hypocrisie c. St. Peter That there should be false Prophets among them who should bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them by reason of whom the way of truth should be evil spoken of They declared concerning these Deceivers That by good words and fair speeches they deceived the hearts of the simple That they bewitched them that they should not obey the truth That they made them fall from grace and rendred Christ unprofitable to them That their Doctrine did spread as a Gangreen and overthrow the Faith of some That they subverted whole houses teaching things which they ought not particularly that Jezabel calling her self a Prophetess did pervert Christ's servants and teach them to commit whoredom and eat things offered to Idols That by means of these false Teachers and Corrupters of the Truth some had already swerved from the Faith turning aside to vain janglings some had made shipwreck of the Faith and that they were in doubt of others that they were jealous over them with a godly jealousie and feared lest as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so their minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. So that you see they had great reason to doe themselves and to advise the Rulers of the Church civil and sacred in future Generations to doe all that was proper and fitting to be done by Christians for the rooting up of these tares and the delivering the Flock of Christ from their pernicious Delusions 2. Consider that the Disciples of our Lord could have confounded all these Hereticks false Prophets and Deceivers and by a word have sentenced them to death as Peter in the case of Ananias and Saphira did had they conceived this method of proceeding sutable to the Mind of God the Rules of their Profession and tending to the Edification of the Church For they were furnished with a Power of working Miracles the weapons of their warfare were not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds and casting down every thing that exalted it self against the knowledge of Christ and to revenge all disobedience against him they had a Power given them by Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use severity provided that it were for edification and not for destruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to take away or to cut off the wicked person from among them by the Spiritual Sword The Kingdom of God preached by them was not in word onely but in power they had a Rod for the Chastisement of those refractory persons on whom the Spirit of Meekness could not prevail and they could give men up to Satan for the destruction of the flesh but yet we never find that they did use their Power to inflict Death upon the Heretick or the Deceiver or that the Power of the Lord which did attend upon their Censures ever did thus operate But on the contrary the Fathers note that the Apostle setteth bounds to the chastisement of the Devil permitting him to afflict the body of the wicked person or the Heretick with a disease or boil but not to take away his life as in the case of Job 3. Consider that these Apostles knowing by the Spirit that the Christian Faith would certainly prevail and after a few Centuries would have the Favor and the Protection of the Civil Magistrate could had they thought it meet have left in those most Sacred Books which they composed to be a Rule of Faith and Manners to all future Ages some Directions to the Civil Magistrate for dealing with the Heretick agreeable to the Decrees of Roman Councils for it is not to be supposed that they either wanted Zeal for that Religion which they promoted with the loss of Life and all things in this World desireable to prompt them so to doe or that they wanted Wisedom to know what was the best and truest method of promoting or of preserving that Religion which they had preach'd throughout the World 4. Consider that the Apostles shewed their Care and Zeal for preservation of the Church from the pernicious Doctrines and Delusions of these false Teachers by all other ways which they judged proper for this End For 1. We find in their Epistles frequent Exhortations to the Christian to
specially from using any such waies on the account of Religion And among Christian Churches where they differ among themselves if either of them use those waies upon the account of Religion they give a strong Presumption against themselves that they are not truly Christian. The reason is because Christ gave Love for the Character by which his Disciples were to be known Joh. 13. v. 35. And lest men should unchristen others first that they may hate them and destroy them afterwards Christ enlarged his Precept of Love and extended it to Enemies and not onely to ours but to the Enemies of our Religion Matt. 5. 43 44. Secondly He adds that by this we may usually judge who they are that excell among Christian Churches when there happens any difference between them whether touching the Faith or the Terms of Communion they that were the more fierce they generally had the worst Cause as v. g. the Nicene Council suppres'd the Arians by no other force but putting Arians out of their Bishopricks they could not think Hereticks fit to be trusted with the Care of Souls but otherwise as to temporal things I do not find that they inflicted any kind of Punishment but when the Arians came to have the Power in their hands then Depriving was nothing Banishment was the least that they inflicted Thirdly That he would have no man punished for his Religion no not them that destroy men for Religion Fourthly He saith that neither our Religion nor our Church is of a persecuting Spirit she hath no Doctrine that teacheth Persecution N. B. she hath not practised it as others when they were in authority I thank God for it and I hope she will alwaies continue in the temper which being added to the other marks of a True Church may assure us she is a Church according to the mind of Christ. The same is in effect declared by the House of Commons when they returned their Thanks to Dr. Tillotson Dean of Canterbury for his Sermon preached before them Novem. 5. 78. desiring him to print that Sermon where having laid down the Example of our Lord he adds that in imitation of this blessed Pattern the Christian Church continued to speak and act for several Ages and this was the Language of the H. Fathers Lex nova se non vindicat ultore gladio The Christian Law doth not avenge it self by the Sword This was then the Style of Councils Nemini ad credendum vim inferre To offer violence to no man to compell him to the Faith adding p. 19. that to separate Goodness and Mercy from God Compassion and Charity from Religion is to make the two best things in the World good for nothing And p. 30. That true Christianity is not onely the best but the best-natured Institution in the World and so far as any Church is departed from good nature and become cruel and barbarous so far is it degenerated from Christianity We have indeed a Statute about Banishing Dissenters but no Ithacius that I know of who ever supplicated for the Making or for the Execution of it but onely for Retaining of it as a due Curb for men too prone to Faction and Sedition And so it lies still dormant in the hands of his most Gracious Majesty and may it ever doe so § X. 2. This Treatise serves to justifie us in and to provoke us to the use of any lawfull means for the avoiding of these Punishments They who exhort us in this Exigence to trust to Providence must know that Providence doth not exclude but rather doth require and suppose the use of any honest means for the prevention of impendent Dangers for we can have no reason to expect that Providence should supernaturally engage for the immediate Accomplishment of that which may be done by Divine Blessing upon ordinary means First therefore we must use the Means then pray that Providence would bless and countenance and render prosperous our just Endeavors in this kind and when we have performed our utmost to prevent Dangers in a lawfull way and find that our Attempts prove frustrate then onely is the time to trust to Providence without subordinate endeavors Now what Means may be lawfully pursued according to the Constitutions of this Kingdom for the preventing this aboding Evil Divines should not presume too nicely to determine who do then chiefly deviate when they do meddle extra Sphaeram Theologiae it rather doth become them to leave this Matter to those Persons whose Business and Office it professedly is to be skilfull in the Laws and who may rationally therefore be presumed men better qualified to pass a Judgment in this Case This notwithstanding I may safely say That what no Law of Nature or positive Command of God forbids may lawfully be done and is expedient to be done for Preservation of the Souls and Bodies of a whole Community and their succeeding Generations from the worst of Evils § XI 3. This Treatise may be usefull to quicken us by a due apprehension of this so barbarous Religion and inhumane Doctrine to labor to prevent it by our most serious Reformation and most importunate Addresses to the Throne of Grace or if the Providence of God sees fitting for the Punishment of our Iniquities to give us up to this tremendous Judgement to let us see what need we shall then have of the most perfect Patience and undaunted Courage the most unshaken Faith and stedfast Resolution to undergoe the Fiery Trials to which we may expect to be exposed if we continue firm to our Religion For if the Providence of God should for our crying Sins permit our lawfull Prince to be perverted to the R. Faith and poisoned with these bloudy Principles I declare to all the World that Christianity and our own Oaths both of Allegiance and Supremacy engage us upon pain of everlasting Ruin not to lift up our hands against him that all who do resist him must resist God's Ordinance and so receive damnation to themselves that all who use the Sword without Commission from him take it and they who take it though in Defence of me saith Christ shall perish by it In this case therefore I freely do acknowledge with L'Estrange we have no other choice before us but either to suffer the highest degree of Misery that can befall us in this World or else to prostitute our Souls for the saving of our Lives and Fortunes and I do make with him this publick Profession to the World that though I have as little mind to be under the Government of an English Papist as any mortal and would doe all that I could justifie as a Christian and an honest man to avoid it yet since I can no more chuse my Governor than my Father and that I may as well renounce my duty to the one upon the score of Religion as to the other I am resolved to pay the duty of a Subject to what Legal Prince soever
Knowledge of himself and ascertaining the Authority of his Commands by Works of Power despised all compell'd confession of himself If such Force should be used to compel your Faith saith he to the Arians the Episcopal Doctrine would oppose it and would say God is the God of the whole World he needs no compell'd obedience nor requires any such confession of him he is not to be deceived but well-pleased God is to be sought with Simplicity learnt by Confession loved by Charity worshipp'd by Fear retained by Probity of Will whence is it therefore that Priests are compell'd by Bands and commanded by Punishments to fear God that they are imprisoned c. Therefore do ye labor and rule the Commonwealth with salutary Councils saith he to the Emperor that all under your Government may enjoy the sweetest Liberty there is no other way to compose our Troubles let then thy Lenity permit the People to hear them teaching whom they would hear whom they think meet whom they chuse 2. They also thought it an indecent and unworthy thing to call in the Secular Arm for the assistence of Religion and for the Punishment of Errors in Religion or Assronts offered by them to the Deity Saint Hilary in his Book against Auxentius of Milan represents them who did this not as the Bishops of Christ but the Servants of Antichrist And first saith he we ought to pity the Labor of our Age and groan at the fond Opinions of the present Times in which men think to defend God by men and labor to preserve the Church of Christ by Secular Ambition I beseech you Bishops who conceive your selves to be so What Suffrages did the Apostles use in Preaching of the Gospel and by what Powers were they assisted when Preaching Christ they converted the heathen World from Idols to God Did they assume to themselves any Authority from the Palace when they sang Hymns to God in Prison Did Paul gather a Church to Christ by the King's Edict who was himself a Spectacle in the Theatre Did he defend himself by the Protection of Nero or Vespasian by whose Hatred against us the Preaching of our Faith then flourished But now which is to be lamented earthly Suffrages commend divine Faith and Christ is represented as destitute of his Power whilst the Favor of men is purchased in his Cause The Church terrifies by Exiles and Prisons she compells Belief which was believed in Exiles and Prisons she which was consecrated by the Terror of Persecutors depends upon the Favor of them who communicate with her she puts to flight Priests which was propagated by Priests put to flight she glories that she is beloved by the World which could not be the Church of Christ if the World did not hate her The Plea of Heathens for their Cruelty against the Christians was to this effect That they did punish Christians to revenge the injuries done by their Faith and Doctrines to their Gods This say the Ancient Fathers is a ridiculous and absurd method of proceeding and you ought rather to leave the Sacrilegious and Impious Transgressors of their Laws to the Vengeance of your gods For if your deities have any power saith St. Cyprian let them rise up and vindicate themselves and by their Majesty defend themselves for what can they doe for those that worship them who cannot vindicate themselves from those who do not worship them Is it so saith Arnobius that the gods desire the Protection of men Are they not able without your asserting of their Cause to defend themselves and to repell the Calumnies of us Christians When the Heathens punish the Sacrilegious saith Lactantius they distrust the power of their gods for if they think they can doe any thing why do they not leave them to execute their own Vengeance on such persons 3. Another Principle though not so generally embraced yet taught by many Eminent Assertors of the Christian Faith was fundamentally repugnant to this cruel Butchery viz. That their Religion did not permit them to kill or even to behold the shedding humane bloud It was objected to them by the Heathens that in their Meetings they murthered little Children and did feast upon their Flesh and Bloud This say the Fathers is a thing impossible because the Christian Faith doth not allow of Murther or Shedding humane Bloud We are so far from Killing men saith Minucius that 't is not lawfull for us to behold Manslaughter Can any man saith Athenagoras object to them that they kill men who as they know dare not see a person justly slain It is in no case lawfull to destroy men saith Lactantius or to be present where they suffer lest the Bloud stain the Conscience there is no exception from this Precept for it is alwaies a Wickedness to kill that man whom God hath made Sacred A Just man therefore will accuse no man of a Capital Crime it being all one to kill men with our Words or with our Swords The Servant of the Lord saith Tertullian may not judge in Capital Causes he may not condemn as a Judge or a Law-maker he may bind imprison torture no man Will he who doth not revenge his own Injuries inflict on others Bonds Prisons Torments Punishments If Christian Religion saith Origen had received its Rise from Sedition as Celsus saith surely their Legislator would not have forbid them to kill men teaching that action was unjust which his Disciples did attempt upon the most wicked person Mat. 26. 52. for he conceived it unbecoming his Divine Laws any way to yield to the Death of a man nor would the Christians had they had their beginning from Sedition admitted such mild Laws as give them up to be slain like Sheep and will not suffer them to help themselves against their Persecutors or to repell Injuries Let then our Adversaries judge whether these Principles can be consistent with the Doctrines of their general Councils and with their Practice of burning and destroying all whom they call Hereticks and binding Christian Magistrates to doe so Whether these Fathers do not expresly teach that their Proceedings against Hereticks are irreligious inconsistent with Religion and Justice opposite to the Episcopal Doctrine ridiculous absurd and matters of just Lamentation Whether they do not say that their Severity in this kind is a Conviction of their Folly and that they by promoting it do act not like Christ's Bishops but the Servants of Antichrist Whether they who thought that men were to be left to their freedom in matters of Religion and not to be compell'd by corporal Punishments to the Profession of it would have approved of the compulsory Decrees of Roman Councils Whether they who thought it unworthy of the Christian to call the Secular Arm to their assistence were of their Religion who by Oaths and Excommunications and other grievous Penalties oblige the Magistrate to persecute Whether they who thought it utterly unlawfull to shed humane Bloud believed
held at Beziers A. D. 1246. Can. 31. by a Council of many Bishops and Prelates held at Alby in France Can. 11 12. Moreover this Oath by the Decrees of the Council of Tolose and Alby is to be renewed upon them every two years And All that do come in and confess their Heresie must take the same Oath saith this Council of Beziers Can. 5. 2. All Consuls Governours of Castles Authorities and Barons must be compelled by Ecclesiastical Censure to abjure Hereticks with the Favourers and Abettors of them saith the Provincial Council of Narbon Can. 15. 3. No Lay-man upon penalty of Excommunication must dispute publickly or privately touching the Catholick Faith saith Nicholas the Third Const. 2. § 19. 4. No Lay-man must have any Books of the Old or New Testament except the Psaltery the Breviary and the Hours of the Blessed Virgin three New Testament Books of the Roman Edition any of which they must by no means have in the Vulgar Tongue saith the Council of Tolose Can. 14. And surely such unworthy Arts do give just Reason to all considering persons to suspect the Truth of that Religion which needeth thus to be supported by Oaths and Abjurations made by Children by stopping of mens mouths and not permitting them to ask that Reason of their Faith which all men are obliged by their Christianity to be in readiness to give to all that ask it and by withholding of those Scriptures of the Old Testament which are able to make them wise unto Salvation which by the Law of Moses were to be continually read unto continually talk'd of by the People to which they by the Prophets were advised to go and by which to pass Judgment on those who spake unto them of Religious matters which our Lord doth enjoin them both to hear and search as also his Apostles did commending them who from their youth had known and who upon occasion search the Scriptures and also those of the New Testament which were on purpose writ in the most vulgar Language of the World that all might know them and in great plainness of speech that they might understand them and which were left to be a Rule of Faith and Manners to all succeeding Generations which the Primitive Fathers do vehemently commend to the perusal of all Christians and which the Heathen Persecutors as fiercely as the Roman Catholicks did strive to wrest out of their hands § III. 2. If notwithstanding all this Care to keep them ignorant and blind some by the strength of natural Reason and Religion and others by conversing with men of better Principles or reading that so pestilent and therefore carefully forbidden Book the Word of God come to the knowledge of his Truth and be convinced of the Superstitions and Follies of the Roman Doctrines and so become according to their notions Hereticks 1. All imaginable Care is used that they may not escape their Hellish Cruelty nor find a corner in Villages or Woods above or under ground which may preserve them from their Fury And therefore 2. For the better discovering and apprehending of Hereticks and those who favour and abet them or are suspected of these matters they have these following Persons authorised for that Work 1. Inquisitors of Heretical Pravity constituted by his Holiness for that End v. Leg. Fred. 2. 2. All Archbishops and Bishops in their respective Provinces and Diocesses with their Officials and Vicars And 3. Abbots within their Precincts And 4. For the Assistence of these persons every Governour or Magistrate throughout Lombardy and Italy is bound to keep twelve honest men two Notaries and as many Servants as the Bishop or two of the Brethren Inquisitors shall think fit who shall be bound to search after apprehend Hereticks or bring them within the power of the Diocesan or his Vicars and to require all persons to assist them in so doing Constit. Innocentii Quarti cap. 3 4. Clem. 4 Const. 13. Leg. 3. These are the persons authorised by as good Authority as the Court and Church of Rome hath any to discover and apprehend the Heretick and his Abbettors And their Commission is exceeding large For § IV. 1. If the Bishop his Vicar the Inquisitor or these 12 Officers require it the Magistrate must assist them in enquiring after taking and spoiling Hereticks by sending Souldiers with them this must be done by Cities under the Penalty of 100 li. by Villages under the Penalty of 50 li. by private persons under the Penalty of 25 li. Const. Innoc. IV. cap. 19. By the Constitutions of Clement the Fourth every Governour and private person is bound to assist the Inquisitors and Officials of the Bishop and his Visitor to apprehend Hereticks Const. 13. L. 18. 2. They also have Power to compell all the neighbourhood to swear that if they know of any Hereticks or any that keep secret Conventicles or any that believe defend receive or favour Hereticks they will endeavour to give notice of them to the Inquisitors appointed by the Apostolick See Const. Innoc. IV. cap. 30. The Council of Tolose Can. 1. decrees That the Archbishops and Bishops shall in every Parish within their Cities and without bind one Priest and two or three honest Lay men or more if that be needfull by their Oaths that they will diligently faithfully and frequently enquire after Hereticks in the said Parishes by searching any houses or subterraneal receptacles that may give suspicion of them and if they find any Hereticks Believers Favourers Receivers or Defenders of them they will secure them that they may not fly and then with all speed give intimation of them to the Archbishop Bishop Lord or Bailiff of the Place This Decree is renewed by the Provincial Council of Beziers held An. Do. 1246. Can. 34. by the Council of Alby Can. 1. p. 722. by the Council of Arles A. D. 1234. Can. 5. the Council of Saltzburgh held A. D. 1420. commands all persons under the penalty of Excommunication and eternal Death as soon as they know that any Heretick is in their Territories to reveal them to their Superiors and all Magistrates when the Inquisitors give notice of them are bound under the same Penalty to apprehend imprison and deliver them to the Inquisitors Can. 32. And by the Constitutions of Nicholas the Third directed to all Christians they are liable to excommunication who neglect to do so 3. The Lords of Territories must be solicitous to enquire after Hereticks in their Houses and Woods and to destroy their Hiding places Concil Tolos Can. 3. Stat. Raimundi Com. Tolos Concil Albiense Can. 4. p. 723. They must assist the Ordinary in taking them under the Penalty of Excommunication Concil Paris A. D. 1346. Can. 4. 4. All Earls Barons Rectors and Consuls of Cities and other secular Powers bearing any Office whatsoever must be admonished by the Diocesan to