in the Laws of it and it is proper for Christian People to settle Christian Religion by Law But still as I said at first Distinction must be made between Christian Religion or points of Faith contained as to the things to be believed only in the Creed commonly called the Apostles stiled by Ireneus the Catholick Faith between that matters of Opinion it being unsafe for any Government to inlay in its Foundation any Opinion that is disputable and doubtful To build a Government upon an Opinion that is disputable and doubtful is to build a House on the Sand and to lay a weak Foundation and a weak Foundation will deceive the Structure whereas to build to on the true Religion or that Christian and Catholick Faith which is established confirmed with uncontroulable reasons and from Heaven with the Authority of Miracles is to build on a Rock To build on Opinion is to weaken the State for if the Opinion be shaken the State totters But the Christian Religion is a Foundation that settles and keeps it steady being as Mount Zion not to be removed But to return lt is observable and very much to purpose That Jesus Christ although in his time there were diversities of Opinions and some of very ill nature and aspect even on all Religion for besides the Pharisees the Essenes and the Herodians there were the Saduces that denied Angels and Spirits and a Resurrection yet he never took occasion to intimate any Duty as incumbent on the Magistrate to take cognizance of them and penally to animadvert upon them nor doth he once reprove the Magistrate for not doing it nor is there any intimation of such a duty in all the writings of the Apostles which evidenceth what I said before that the Magistrate as so is concerned but in Natural Religion and not in the Christian except as it becomes a Law of the State The only Method that Jesus Christ and his apostles have obliged to even in case of Heresies and have recommended both by their Examples and their Precepts is to combate them with the Sword of the Spirit that is to reason against them from the Word of God and in case of obstinacy to withdraw from the Communion of the Heretick Indeed in case of ill manners and of Blasphemy of the former the incestuous person of the latter Hymeneus is an Exmaple I find them giving up to Satan which according to the sentiments of some being an act of punitive and coercive Power vested but in the Apostles whilest there was no Christian Magistrate doth seem to intimate that where there is he may yes he must in such cases cases of ill manners and of Blasphemy take Cognizance and use coercive and penal Animadversions and indeed this is the proper work of Magistrates But for Matters of Opinion not clearly and infallibly decidable from the word of God in which men of good and upright Conscience may have different lights Matters of no malignant Influence upon the State such as Popery hath or on the Societies of Christians in these matters I cannot find the Magistrate hath any thing to do no nor Ministers neither but to endeavour to convince and persuade and to rectifie mistakes if any be in such a manner as may manifest the due regard value they have for upright and well meaning though erring and mistaking Conscience Let us walk together in things in which we agree and for others refer them to the day that will declare We are all to stand before the Master and he must Judge And certainly it would much import to the healing of our Breaches and to allay the Heats and Animosities that reign amongst us if we more regarded the Conscience they who do dissent from us do make and the good designs and ends they aim at than the very Opinions and Practices themselves in which they dissent for in the former all good Christians agree and in the latter will ever differ we ought highly to value and honour tenderness of Conscience and Intentions directed to the Glory of God and the common good of the Church and of the World wherever we find them though we never so much differ in the subject matters of that Conscience and of those good Intentions This was the Healing Principle on which the Apostle proceeded when he said he that keepeth a day keepeth it to the Lord and he that keepeth not a day keepeth it not to the Lord thus with a grain of Christian Moderation and good Temper He at that time reconciled the most distant and contradictory Practices and Opinions 't is as if he had said the former he believeth the Law of God given by Moses that commandeth the observation of Days to be still in force and therefore keepeth a day because he believeth the Lord will have him the latter better understanding the nature of the Gospel and the true extent of Christian Liberty that we are not under the Law but under Grace and redeemed hereunto by the precious Blood of the Lord Christ he doth not keep the legal days it is in honour to the Lord Christ to the Redemption purchased by his Blood that he doth not And here let us be think how far a Principle of this kind would go towards healing in our present differences They who do Baptise Infants do it to the Lord they who do it not do it not to the Lord the former believing that the Convenant of Abraham is the Convenant of Grace are persuaded that the Lord will have them do it the latter believing that all things are become new and that we stand not on the old Basis are persuaded that he will not So he that kneeleth in the Sacrament doth it to the Lord and he that kneeleth not kneeleth not to the Lord the one believeth that in the act of receiving when Jesus Christ doth give himself he cannot take that unspeakable Gift from such a Hand too reverently too humbly and therefore He expresses that Humility and Reverence with his Knee the other believeth that the Lord Christ inviting him unto his Table obliges to the use of that gesture which may intimate the friendship and familiarity that by such an Invitation he is taken into and therefore he sits or uses a Table gesture as Christ and his Disciples did In a word men of good and upright Consciences think they may conform to the Worship as it is by Law established because they think the Rites and Ceremonies in it are no other than what are decent and also think the Officers of the Church impowered by our Lord Christ to institute and order in points of decency and those that do so conform conform to the Lord But on the contrary others persuaded that the Lord Christ as being faithful in all his House hath himself instituted all the necessary Officers and made all the necessary Orders and there being Officers and Orders in the Church that they cannot find Example or command for in
Servants and for the rest to put it upon humane Weakness and Infirmity that Weakness and Infirmity which he will pardon And if God himself have so much tenderness and Compassion for humane Weakness and Imperfection shall men themselves have none for one anothers Further to be rigid and severe to others in matters of Opinion is not to comport with the Golden Rule of all our Actions prescribed by our blessed Saviour which is to do as we would be done unto would'st thou be compelled thy self that dost compel others Nor is it to use such proper and convenient Methods as are necessary for the working of belief the understanding being a faculty that cannot be forced or constrained any more than the Will Belief may be persuaded but cannot be compelled Arguments and Reasons and not Capiases and Imprisonments Fire and Fagot are proper means to effect it thus the Antient Fathers in all their Apologies to the Heathen in defence of themselves and the Christian Religion ever pleaded Besides Forceable courses never answered their Ends Persecution of a Doctrine doth but spread it The Christian Religion had never extended so far in so short time as it did but for the violence used toward it The Blood of the Martyrs was the Seed of the Church Nor is that a thing of small Moment neither which is insisted on by some that where the understanding is not led by the light it hath to the Approbation of a Worship all Conformity thereto is but Hypocrisie that to compel the outward man unto a compliance against the Dictates of the inward which may be done and is all that can be done by violent and forcible courses is but to make as many Hypocrites as Worshipers and so instead of honouring God which is the end of Worship to give him the greatest distaste and to do him the greatest affront that can be Such Differences what man would lke them and how shall God I add that Conscience as it is taken for the Principle that bindeth us to act in the things of God and with immediate reference to him is not under the Government and Power of the Magistrate this inward man is of the Kingdom of Christ and under his direction and conduct by the Word and Spirit The Kingdom of Heaven is within you God hath not by his Son our blessed Saviour the only Prophet we are bid to hear obliged Magistrates to superintend in Matters of his Worship and to give directions about them except perhaps in some Circumsances or to use their Magistratical and coercive Power over their Subjects in relation to them he would not trust any in matters so immediately concerning himself and of such Importance but hath reserved the regulating and directing of his Worship and of all things properly pertaining to it unto himself by his word which all both Magistrates and People are obliged to obey And indeed this was the great Principle on which the first Reformers proceeded in the Reformation that nothing ought to be imposed upon Christians in matters of Faith or of Practise in Life or Worship but what is plainly intimated in the Scriptures or that the Scrptures are the only Rule of Faith Worship and Manners a Principle that restored the Christian Liberty long oppressed with the Tyranny of humane and Antichristian Impositions and a Principle that duly settled and conformed to will likely prove a remedy and haply is the only true one to all the Distractions Schisms and Ruptures now among Christians A Toleration or Indulgence according to this Principle is the most hopeful Basis and Foundation of Settlement But here it was urged on the contrary That the Magistrates and Kings of Judah were invested in a Power to coerce Blasphemers and Idolaters They broke down the Images destroyed the Groves and put to death the Priests that ministred and the Christian Magistrate should seem invested in the same Powers in order to preserve the true Christian Religion that the Jewish had for theirs and consequently that he hath a Power of coercing too But as for the Powers of the Kings of Judah though it be admitted that they had a Power in some cases of coercing even to death in mattes of Religion yet it will not follow that Christian Governours have the same for the dispensation under which the former were was a terrible dispensation and went on other Maxims than the new doth in which Christians are that was the Dispensation of a Servant this of a Son that more accommodated to the Rules of Humane Wisdom this of Divine they had a worldly Sanctuary and consequently used worldly Methods but the Kingdom of Christ is not of this world and the Weapons in it are not Carnal but Spiritual Besides it may be said That even then it was mainly in relation to Idolatry and Blasphemy that the Jewish Magistrates were vested in that sanguinary Power and Idolatry sets up a false God and Blasphemy is so highly against the true that This as well as That is treasonable and therefore in a Kingdom which recognized God for Soveraign King and in whose very Civils may I so express it their Religion was inlay'd their Religion being the Basis and Foundation of their State and their Civil and Religious Laws being all of one Sanction and in one volume for them to punish in the Instances alledged was but to punish High-Treason And let it be observed that I never did intend that Atheists Blasphemers of the true God and Enemies to natural Religion without which no Government or Common-Wealth can stand should be exempted from punishment for not to punish these is to be false and treacherous to Government itself It as much importing that Atheists Blasphemers and Enemies to natural Religion should be punished Capitally as Enemies to all Government seeing without Religion there can be none as that Treasons against this or that particular STate should be so But I think the Magistrate is not invested by the Lord Christ in any Powers of Coercion with relation to the Christian Religion as it is Christian Religion because as I said before it is the Kingdom of Heaven and not of this World and therefore not to be set up or maintained in a worldly way but as it was set up at first so it must be continued still in heavenly Methods by the Word of God and by the holy Spirit accompanying it the same being the only proper means of Continuation and Preservation that were of Inchoation and Production and let these means be used Only where the Christian Religion is inlayed with the State and become a matter of civil Sanction and Establishment by Law there it ought to be maintained and preserved by the Magistrate and that with the power of the Sword and such Coercion as the State invests him in but this is not simply as it is the Christian Religion but on a civil account and with respect to the State as it is become a Stone in that Building and hath a place
the Scriptures therefore they conform not and as the former in conforming do conform to the Lord so the latter in not conforming do not conform in regard to the Lord. As for Separations into several and distinct conventions which on the former Principles will unavoidably follow for those of the same Opinion will unite and convene together and so divide from others Birds of one Feather will be flocking and associating I see no cause of fearing any greater Inconvenience in them to the Church or to the State if mutual Toleration and Indulgence be the received Principle than is in so many several Clubs of friendship or Companies of Trade for however different they may be from one another in other respects in this they will all agree to love one another for that of God they see to maintain the publick Liberty the common Interest of all and so though they are as many Conventions as you can imagine and the more the less dangerous one will ballance another yet they are not factions It is the belief of Infallibility and the damning Principle of the several Opiniators therefore to be condemned itself that is the cause of all the hatred heat and animosity among them and of the Designs they all nourish to exterminate one another this turns Opinions into Factions dangerous to Church and State Mischiefs not to be avoided even under State-Toleration and Indulgence as long as one Opinionator damns all others which every one who impropriates Salvation a fault yet too general to his own Opinion and Method doth by Implication do Else different Opinions would not create Trouble in a State any more than different Garbs and Fashions 't is damning spoils all But who art thou that judgest and condemnest another mans Servant Judge not that ye be not judged Yet on the other hand there is I think no other way of preventing the inconveniences and dangers that threaten a State which settles on any one particular Opinion without Indulging and Tolerating of others but what is equally Hazardous and Tirannical viz. To mop the Eyes of the Subject and keep them in perpetual Darkness either by obliging them to a blind submission to some External or Internal Authority or by forbidding all Schools and Learning all Preaching and Disputing c. It being Ignorance only that can be the Mother of such Devotion A truth evinced both in the Tirannical Method of Turkey and in that of the Papacy and few but will think such Methods unsafe because uneasie and the darkness must be thick darkness too for a Liberty but in Philosophy will in the consequence draw on a Liberty of thinking in Divinity In fine it is worth the observing what befel Philip 2d King of Spain that rigid and inflexible assertor of Uniformity in Worship who to one of his Ministers of State that represented to him the danger of losing all by severe bloody Proceedings in Flanders and therefore advised him to some connivence and temper alledging the Example of the neighbouring Countries of France and Germany answered That he would rather be without Kingdoms than enjoy them with Heresie And he was taken to his word for this Inexorable Lofty Prince because he would not enjoy with Heresie as he called it the Noble Provinces now known by the name of United to all the World became divested of them indeed and he that would not keep them by Moderation and Temper did deservedly lose them by his severity and Obstinacy This is the summ of what I said in that Discourse to which because you have confined me I will not offer now what more I have to say concerning the Subject of it Only you may please to take the Judgment of two of our wisest and most celebrated Princes I st King James in his Speech to the Lords and Commons at White-Hall March 21. 1609. I never found that Blood and too much severity did good in matters of Religion For besides that it is a sure Rule in Divinity that God never loves to plant his Church by violence and bloodshed Natural Reason may oven persuade us and daily experience proves it true That when men are severely Persecuted for Regligion the Gallantness of many mens Spirits and the Willfulness of their Humours rather than the justness of their Cause makes them to take a Pride boldly to endure any torments or death itself to gain thereby the Reputation of Martyrdom though but in a false shadow 2d King Charles 1. in his Declaration 1641. For differences amongst our selves for matters indifferent in their own Nature concerning Religion We shall in tenderness to any number of our loving Subjects very willingly comply with the Advice of our Parliament That some Law may be made for the Exemption of tender Consciences from punishment or prosecution for such ceremonies and in such cases which by the Judgment of most men are held to be matters indifferent and of some to be absolutely unlawful To which most illustrious suffrages I will add the Testimony of the learned Mr. Chillingworth both in regard of the great Authority and Reputation he hath in the World and also of the Reason and Moment of what he says Require saith he of Christians only to believe Christ and to call no man Master but him only let those leave claiming of Infallibility who have no right unto it and let them that in their words disclaim it disclaim it likewise in their actions In a word take away Tiranny which is the Devil's Instrument to support Errours and Superstitions and Impiety in the several parts of the World which could not otherwise withstand the Power of Truth I say take away Tiranny and restore Christians to their just and full Liberty of Captivating their understandings to the Scripture only An universal Liberty thus moderated may quickly reduce Christendom to truth and Unity This is so smartly so fully so excellently penned by that great man that I am persuaded the delight and pleasure you will take in reading this one Paragraph in conjunction with what I have given you as the sense of those great Princes K. J. and K. C. will make sufficient compensation for the longsom exercise you had in all that preceded it and therefore to leave you in the same good humour and pleasantness in which I found you and that you may go off with a Relish I think it time to write my self SIR Your Humble Servant