Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	civil_a	magistrate_n	matter_n	3,433	5	6.0251	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45126	A case of conscience whether a nonconformist, who hath not taken the Oxford Oath, may come to live at London, or at any corporate town, or within five miles of it, and yet be a good Christian : stated briefly, and published in reference to what is offered to the contrary, in a book intituled, A friendly debate betwixt a confirmist and a nonconformist : together with animadversions on a new book, entituled, Ecclesiastical polity, the general heads and substance whereof are taken under consideration : as also a peaceable dissertation, by way of composition with some late papers, entituled, Liberty of conscience, in order to the determining the magistrates power in matters of religion.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.	1669 (1669)	Wing H3673; ESTC R16379	28,077	32

ad humanum modum non si onus injungant quod à ratione natura plane abhorreat If you ask at last How this Sheet comes out thus alone without the rest against this Debate with it I must say What shall a man do when the Press is become so like the Hedge-hog's Den that when they have one door open still for themselves they will be sure to stop the other where the least wind can but blow upon them FINIS The Animadversions HAving written out the foregoing sheet and left it at the Press there is that Book newly come forth entituled A Discourse of Ecclesiastical Polity wherein the Authority of the Civil Magistrate over the Conscience of Subjects in matters of Religion is asserted containing eight Chapters which require this fresh labour The first is Of the necessity of an Ecclesiastical Power or Soveraignty over Conscience wherein he supposing a competition between the Power of Princes and the Consciences of the Subject gives a superiority to the Power of the Prince above Conscience The very Title of this Book as the flourishing stile does shew him a young man that writ it The Conscience of man is a judgment on his actions in relation to God that is a judging whether that which he is about to do is agreeable or not to his will and it is impossible that any mortal can have an authority over that judgment that the subject should do any thing against it That the Commands of the Magistrate for the peoples good do by vertue of the general Institution and fifth Commandment bind the Conscience so that if they are bound to the King by the Law of Nature or Word of God before this adds a new Obligation and if they be not this brings one on them will be confest I think by the most judicious and sober in this point but that the Authority of the Magistrate must take place of the Authority of Conscience when they stand in competition is a determination I suppose that is strange and unheard-of in the Orthodox VVorld Every single person sayes the Author is subject to two supream powers the Laws of his Prince and the Dictates of his Conscience and therefore if the supream power of the Prince must give place to that of the Conscience it ceases upon that score to be supream because there is a superiour authority that can countermand all its laws and constitutions And who is there that understands himself that does not know the sense of this spoken in modest and right terms as it ought is what is most true and what all are to assert The Supremacy of the King I hope is over the Subject as to their Persons and their Causes not over their Consciences If we were to conceive indeed of men that they might chuse what Consciences themselves pleased and then plead them against the Magistrate as the face of his words do carry it that which he sayes here would have reason and of all Villains the ill-meaning not the well-meaning Zealot as he speaks would be the most dangerous But when the Conscience that man hath is no other then what God hath placed in him and he hath no power himself over it which is and must and will be whether he will or no conclusive with him according to the Light of Nature and the Word of God there is no danger to the Migistrate though some of his Commands sometimes may not actively be obeyed in yielding that authority which is due unto Conscience And how indeed shall a man be subject to the Magistrate for Conscience sake if the command of Conscience had not in it a superiour and more prevalent Power than his It would be for his own sake and not for Conscience sake if his authority were greater than it I remember being discoursing with some about the Title of this Book presently after I had it a little Boy about ten years of age being carried belike to a Play that week which being never at one before had made some impressions in his mind Why Mother sayes he to her standing by Lacy hath confuted this Book for he acting the Tyrant said in the Play That Conscience was a greater King than he I will take this note from hence It is pity that Religion should be brought as it were on the Stage and made Comical in the Friendly Debate and that the Stage should speak more truly and tenderly of Conscience than this Book of Ecclesiastical Polity His Second Chapter is a more particular account of the Magistrates Power in the Affairs of Religion the extent whereof he endeavours to shew to be the same with his power over the Conscience in matters of Morality But this Person hath received no long information into his understanding I believe of these matters for he may be pleased to know that some perhaps of the best that have wrote on this subject will grant him freely that the Magistrate hath the same Power in matters that are Religious as in those that are Moral when there is none will say that that power is over the Conscience in either This very daring as accomplished young person too presuming on his own parts must be acquainted therefore That it is one thing to grant the King his Authority in matters Ecclesiastical as well as Civil and another to grant him any Authority over the Conscience in the least thing in the world If the Magistrate command any matter of Morality or of Religion or of Civil Affairs which are good for the People that which is commanded does oblige as well in the one as in the other But if it be evil which he commands that is if it be against the Word of God in Religion against vertue and honesty in Morals against the common good in Civils such things are to be forborn though Commanded and what or who can be judge if it be so but a man 's own Conscience And how irrational consequently as well as presumptuous are such kind of speeches That Princes may with less hazard give liberty to mens Vices and Debaucheries than to their Consciences unless the acts of men were to be bruitish and performed without judgment His Third Chapter is of the subject-matter of the Magistrates Power that is not the inward acts of the mind but the outward actions from whence he would state the Liberty of the Conscience to lye altogether in the freedom of a man's thoughts judgment or opinion and that Religious worship which is internal when as for his outward actions or practises in the Service of God as of all things else he would have men not so shy of granting the Magistrate power to use still his own language over their Consciences But this really is short of what here is to be said that is a few first thoughts taken into the Pen and written away glibly For though this distinction of the inward and outward acts of men is one thing requisite to the determining the Point in hand

really but an open tendring that Scandal to his Brethren in his sort which Christ and his Apostle St. Paul hath so forewarned us to take heed of which is the inducing the Tender and Conscientious to do those things whereof they are unsatisfied and so to sin in the doing have so much confidence as he now seems to have in what he has done For if the black Ox shall come to tread once on this young man's foot and he grow graver or if it shall please the Lord to touch his presumptuous soul with the sense and horror of that one text or some other That it were better that a Milstone were hung about his neck and he thrown into the Sea then that one of Christ's little ones who are now tender of their Consciences should do what he hath advised it may be I say the poor man may have reason to change his Conclusion to pray to Gods above all men that his Book take no effect and taking little joy what Pilate did to with-draw the breath of his Defiance and to wish that What he hath written were unwritten Reader there is an Answer come fresh out to the Friendly Debate which is yet wholly unseen to me There is also a little Book of a subject very rarely before offered to the Publick entituled The Childrens-Petition and Remonstrance to the Parliament presented belike to both Houses on Wednesday last which appears to me of such concern to posterity that I cannot but take this spare place between these Papers to give notice of it as fit to be furthered upon that account by all who are lovers of Purity and ingenuous Virtue The Dissertation THe Discourse of Ecclesiastical Polity came to my hand within two or three days after it came abroad I kept it by me about just a week and then carried the preceding Animadversions to the Press to come out with the first sheet But how many weeks it may be ere they be printed I know not In the mean while I think good to prepare two or three more in regard of one subject which is so necessary to be adjoyned that it lies at the bottom of all our business That is Concerning the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Religious Affairs I must confess I have some Papers by me besides those against the Friendly Debate which are not controversal and contentious but healing and tending to peace The Original Design whereof was for Moderation on both sides to wit For Condescention on the part of Authority towards Tender Consciences and for submission on the part of the Subject so far as every one can to what is established I shall leave those Papers perhaps but the more entire in their proper matter and yet supply my self here out of some former years thoughts for this present occasion Indeed the power of the Supreme Magistrate in things Religious is a business of great Concern and assured Difficulty That the Church is to be govern'd by those Officers whom God hath set in it appears reasonable That such are Apostles Pastors and Teachers unto whom the Keys are committed and not the Sword cannot be denied That when there is no formal power then at all in the Magistrate over the Church of Christ there is some Superintendent inspection nevertheless belonging to him as Episcopus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ecclesiastical Affairs the Example of the good Kings in the Old Testament and Constantine under the times of the New and the Confessions of all Churches will allow That in the exercise of this external objective power which he hath in the Church he is not to be a blind Executor onely of the Bishops will in putting a Sanction on their Canons and enforcing the observance without having the Book of the Law delivered to him and consequently a Judgement of Discretion whether they be agreeable to the Rule of Gods Word and condition of his People the consonant Judgement of Protestants will assert on all hands Now then when the Magistrate hath something to do and not all to do in these Affairs how or how far this Authority of his is to be maintained or stated that it intrench not on the Liberty of Conscience which is due to his Christian Subjects as peculiar and sacred to God is the Attempt I perceive of some late Papers bearing that Title The Arguments whereof especially as to the Nations Interest I have already praised The state of the Question I judge also to be tendered with much Ingenuity and Reason but when they come to the very point where I expect their notion fixt that I might set my foot upon it and stand fast I find the ground methinks sinking away from its Foundation Let us consult Common Places on that head De Magistrata and we shall find these are made two Questions by Divines Whether the Magistrate is to TAKE CARE of Religion Whether he is to COMPEL HIS SVBJECTS to it And when the former is granted generally from that Text Deut. 17 18. and that Tenet That he is Custos utrinsque Tabutae the latter is denied yet with Caution Distinguish say they between Cogere ad fidem and i●terdicere exercitio in heterodoxia Posterius ad evitandum corruptionem scandala competit Magistratui Distinguish again of a Commonwealth or Kingdom free or not free from divers Religions Ibi cavendae hic tolerandae sed cum conditione ne publica Religionis exercitia heterodoxis facile concedantur By this little we see a door open for Christian Prudence to be let in to the decision of these matters which being guided by the Light of Universal Nature and the General Rules of Scripture must needs make very much way for variety of Judgement and Practise in the Case To state these matters then a little which our purpose requires The Civil Magistrate says the Apostle is the Minister of God for our good The Souls good is the best good Ea est optima Respublica with Aristotle Ex cujus instituto quisque optimè beatissime vivat As Religion makes Folks be●● Subjects and best men it makes them most happy having the Promises of this Life with a better The institution of the Magistrate upon this Account appears to be for this End That the People may lead peaceable Lives under him in all Godliness as well as Honesty It is not consequently for us here to imagine that the Magistrates Authority does extend onely to Civil Things but to take a care of Sacred also and to see the Will of God to be executed in both Im●●●atores sacra saecularia ex aequo curant sin ad singula veniatur fatendum est angustius esse jus imperii circa sacra quam circa profana bac una ratione quod Lex divina de sacris plura constituat libertati eximat quam de caeteris rebus To this purpose we must know that Actions or Things quae subjacont humano imperio are either such as are determined and necessary being

Sword To say or think then because the Salvation of mens Souls is wrought by God's grace not by outward force that is because the Gospel is the power of God to that end and the Weapons are spiritual not carnal that is able to do this Therefore the Magistrate is not to use his Sword in Religious affairs is though in some sense true and what in that truth may be spoken in the gross obnoxious to mistake through the want of consideriug what the matter materia circa quam of humane Empire is which is the outward acts of men only those Religious acts I say as well as Secular that are outward and the not distinguishing in the government of the Church aright between that which Christ hath committed to the Magistrate and what he keeps in his own hands and executes by his own officers That which is therefore rather to be said to build Uniformly on the same bottom I suppose is this The Magistrate in that Author's notion is God's chief Officer to see his revealed Will in the world and as a Christian Magistrate let me say to see his will in the Church to be performed This I take it understanding it as to mens outward acts and without an exclusive meaning of his determining power in indifferent things is very well Now it is the will of God that every man alwayes in what he acts though he is not alwayes to act whether in things Religious or Civil should do according to his Conscience so far for certain as never to do against it which he requires of him under those terms that he shall sin certainly if he does This is God's will by the light of Nature by the rule of Scripture and universal Consent The Conscience either is in the Right and then it is as God to us it must be obeyed we must do according to it we ought not to be disturbed by man Or it is in an Error and then we must not go against it even when we are bound to be informed otherwise and lay down that Error It is the duty consequently of the Magistrate to see that his Subjects be not put upon any thing that is against their Consciences and that they serve God when it is fit according to them If a man goes against his Conscience I say he sins against God which it is his will he should not do and how does that man see the will of God to be executed who compels men to that the contrary whereof is his Will There is no need here to put any difference between those things that do not differ in this point Let the Magistrate under the Gospel have the same power with those allowing a variety only in their Judicials under the Law And whether things are Religious or Secular if God hath left them free and neither prescribed nor forbidden them let such be equally at the Magistrates determination with this difference alone that God hath determined more things certainly if not all things but Circumstances only in Religion and so exempted them from humane arbitriment then he hath done in Civil matters Let the Magistrate know farther That in whatsoever he may Command his Power is coercive and his Sword may be used I speak as to the Quod licet not quid convenit to cause his own and much more God's Will to be done There is nothing of all this does hurt that Liberty I state and establish for the Conscience whose safeguard I place not in any distinction in reference to the Magistrates power between things Sacred and Civil or between what might or ought to be done under the Law and may not under the Gospel but in the most holy Anchor of God's supream Authority and determination which over-rules the Magistrate who derives from and must not go against his Will nor can command or compel to that which he hath made to be sin as the doing any thing against Conscience is Duo sunt genera actnum imperil qui ar jus imperantis non pertinent Deo vetita jubers Deo jussa vetare And unto this is there nothing moreover that I know of to be added or replied but only to decide well as is intimated from Divines at the first between Restraint and Constraint if I may so speak it being one thing I mean how far the Magistrate may proceed in restraining men of wild Principles that they act nor according to their Conscience mis-inflamed and another in constraining them to do things which are against their Conscience That the Magistrate may proceed in the one that is to restraint upon good reason it appears from hence because that although God does require every man to act in whatsoever he does according to his Conscience yet he requires not that in every thing which is according to his Conscience he should act His Conscience may be erroneous or the thing not expedient if lawful to be done Again the Magistrates Conscience and his are two He may think he is bound in Conscience to act suppose in preaching Seditious or seducing Doctrine yet if upon restraint he acts not his Conscience cannot accuse him of sin because he cannot help it and the Magistrates restraining him is according as he believes good and thereupon he does it Now here is nothing contrary to his office the execution of God's Will whose Minister he is for the man I say does not break his Will though his Will be if he act he should act according to his Conscience because that besides the thing perhaps is not to be done he is under restraint and so excused even to himself by the necessity and the Magistrate does perform his Will as he judges in restraining him because of the evil that would follow if he should suffer him But now in the case of Constraint I mean in the constraining any to do that which is against their Conscience that is manifestly against the office or work of the Magistrate who being to see God's Will performed does hereby directly endeavour that his Will be not performed His Will is that the man should never act against his Conscience whatsoever comes of it and he is forcing him hereunto Here then are there two Questions in those Papers mentioned proposed to the life as the sum of what could be desired if they had but been directly answered when proposed The one is How far men must be suffered to do those things which they say they are in Conscience obliged to do The other is How far they may be commanded and enforced to do such things which they indeed believe and say they are in Conscience abliged not to do The substance of these Questions I perceive that excelling Gentleman takes to be one and so they are passed off into his main entendment But as the putting a difference I accounted before as to some things which in relation to what is asserted admits none So must the confounding that here wherein the difference being put is so much to purpose needs

commanded or forbidden of God or such as are indifferent being left undetermined by him In Things or Actions which God hath forbidden or commanded that is which he hath determined to wit either by the Law of Nature or Divine positive Institution the Duty of the Magistrate does lie in removing Obstacles administring Helps and withdrawing Occasions of the sin but his Power precisely does lie in super-adding a new Obligation to that of Gods and by the sanction and infliction of punishments to inforce unto the Duty And so is he a Keeper onely of the two Tables having no Right of changing a Tittle of Gods Will. In things left indifferent and not determined by God that is in things which are neither written in the mind of Man nor Gods Word Haec sive sacra sivè profana sint determinare in alteram partem Jus est summae potestatis The Magistrate hath Power here and Liberty Liberty to determine and Power thereby to change such things into lawful and unlawful according as he requires or prohibits them for the spiritual or temporal good of his people and the effects of that Command or Prohibition are Obligation and Coercion This premised the ingenuous Papers before mentioned after they have endeavoured to shew the extremity of three Opinions about the Magistrates power in Religions Things In some that make him the sole Judge of all Matters Spiritual and Temporal In others that affirm the like power but to be exercised in Spirituals in a perfect subserviency to the Church In a third that make him have nothing to do but in Civil Matters onely wherein if that Truth rather which lies contained in those extream Opinions as omne falsum in nititur vero should be discovered instead of their bare rejection and laid well together the most mature account of the Magistrate in reference to this point were I think to be given they bring the whole to this issue That the Magistrate is the great Office● 〈◊〉 Minister as the Apostle calls him of God upon Earth to see his Will which in Religion they count if I misapprehend them not is what alone he hath revealed to be put in execution And then for the rescuing that liberty they would assert and keep for the Conscience they put in That under the Gospel the Magistrate must do this in the manner also that Christ hath appointed and so not by the temporal Sword This is to profess a great matter and momentous Truth but in the fulness of the Authors own pious and weighty Conceptions he hath left his Reader at a perfect loss of the true account when we are brought as it were too almost within ken of it I must humbly crave pardon therefore if I bring a few of my dryer thoughts here to minister to his abundance The Office it self of the Magistrate is to bear the Sword and by that to act or effect what it his to do Where a Person hath no power of Coercion he acts not as a Magistrate but as another man as an eminent Member only of the Society and he that sayes He may not use the temporal Sword in the concerns of the Gospel does upon the matter say That quâ Magistrate he hath nothing to do at all in Religion which is an acknowledged Errour What the Will of God then is we are orderly to enquire here which the Magistrate is to see done It is the Will of God that People should be Converted that they should Believe Repent and be saved And it is his Will that the Gospel be preached and his Ordinances attended to that end It is not to be thought I suppose the Office of the Magistrate concerns both these alike without distinction If men are not converted and believe not he cannot make them do that But if the Minister neglects his duty of Preaching Catechising Administring the Sacraments or Censures which Christ commands in order thereunto the Magistrate may punish him because herein he hath power when he cannot administer the Ordinances and Excommunicate any himself wherein he hath none committed to him Aliud enins est imperium circa sacra aliud sacra functio If the People likewise be loose and prophane and upon that account come not to Church but neglect God he may punish them for their not coming which I hope is in the concerns of the Gospel although if they abstain only upon doubt scruple or reason of Conscience there is difference in the matter There are therefore the inward or the outward acts of men When the Magistrate is said to be the Minister of God and consequently to see his Will performed it must be understood not simply and indefinitely but restrictè secundum quid in reference to mens outward acts and the inward as they are concern'd only in the outward Neither must we confound the distinctions of sacred and civil actions with inward and outward in this place The power of the Magistrate may extend to both in the one but does not in the other The inward acts of men are not within his Cognizance and so not under his Jurisdiction The Government of the Church accordingly is internal and external The internal government of it belongs to Christ It is he alone can rule mens hearts The Magistrate can but look to the outward acts and his kingdom is when Christ's is not of this world This external rule again of the Church or Church-affairs must be distinguished into two sorts It is one sort belongs to the Pastor and Church-guides and another to the Magistrate For instance the Magistrate cannot be said properly to make Cinons sayes Bramhal of Schism being prescribed under pain of Excommunication and yet can they have no obligation Grotius shews on the Subjects but by Empire only The one is then Ecclesia regimen externum formale the other Externum objectivum The one is directive swasory declarative The other Juris constitutivum imperatory coercive This I take to be certain that into whatsoever the Rule of the Magistrate extends his Sword must What he may command he may compel that is he may punish if the command be not fulfilled and where he cannot compel he cannot command I speak as to the standing Power not the Exercise wherein prudence is to direct It is true the pious Magistrate is to desire and endeavour the salvation of his People He is to seek their good and the spiritual good is beyond their temporal But he is to do this I hope in his sphere according to his place as far only as he can that is as far as his Sword will go His Sword will not reach the inward man If it would he might he should use it no doubt to do them good But seeing it will not he is to see then that the spiritual Sword be applied the Word preached and the Ministers office executed and how is he to see to that to cause on enforce that and the People to attend thereunto but by the authority of his