Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	false_a	true_a	worship_n	4,780	5	7.8086	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30026	De Christiana libertate, or, Liberty of conscience upon it's [sic] true and proper grounds asserted & vindicated and the mischief of impositions amongst the people called Quakers made manifest : in two parts : the first proving that no prince nor state ought by force to compel men to any part of the doctrine, worship, or discipline of the Gospel, by a nameless, yet an approved author [i.e. Sir Charles Wolseley], &c. : the second shewing the inconsistency betwixt the church-government erected by G. Fox, &c., and that in the primitive times ... : to which is added, A word of advice to the Pencilvanians / by Francis Bugg.	Bugg, Francis, 1640-1724?; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714. Liberty of conscience upon its true and proper grounds asserted and vindicated.; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714. Liberty of conscience the magistrates interest.	1682 (1682)	Wing B5370; ESTC R14734	148,791	384

a rational Creature if I do I must necessarily be a Judge for my self for if I am guided by another judgment than my own as that I think best for me there is as clear an act of my judgment in so doing as if I were punctually directed by my own This we call knowledge in men God hath given to taste Principles and Notions as the Mouth tasteth Meats take away once the use of this taste and you take away the noblest accomplishment of a man You make a man created in honour if he do not understand like a Beast that perisheth as the Eye guideth the Body so the judgment of the Understanding guides the Soul force a man once from the use of this and you betray him into a dark Chaos of slavery and bruitish subjection and render him an object fit for the same scorn and contempt that Sampson found when he had lost his two Eyes By these things we may plainly discern that the necessity of every mans being a Judge for himself in divine things is grounded both upon Scripture and Reason and that 't is not only lawful but a positive duty God expects the performance of and obliges every man living to And this being so for any Power on Earth to compel men to believe or practise contrary to their Judgment and Conscience must needs be both unlawful and unreasonable Lastly The ill success Force and Imposition in Religion hath ever had and which it hath a necessary tendency to have may very well make us out of love with it there can possibly be no other effect of it but either to debauch men in their Consciences or bring violent Persecutions upon their Persons and Estates If the first those that impose bring a guilt upon themselves and partake of the sin as being the great occasion and causers of it So did Jeroboam when he made Israel to sin the guilt stuck to himself as well as to the People If the second men are sufferers from men for doing their duty to God and part with their Estates because they cannot with their Integrity and in this case the Punishment falls upon the Sufferers but the Guilt still upon the Imposer Either a Magistrate imposing in Religion is to be obey'd in whatsoever he commands or not if he be we shall then excuse those that obey'd Jeroboam and cast reproach upon all the Martyrs that have suffered for refusing the sinful commands of Superiors If they be not there must be then some judgment when they are to be obey'd and when not and that can be no other than every mans own Conscience And if every mans own Conscience and the light of it is to be his Rule by which he is to judge then whenever I refuse to obey a command in Religion because my Conscience tells me 't is sinful I am plainly punished for doing my Duty and following that Light God hath given to guide me Nay suppose my Conscience be erroneous 't is confessed by all 't is a sin not to follow it till better informed and if so I am sure 't is likewise a sin to force me out of it Conscientia quamvis errans semper ligat ita ut ille peccat qui agit contra Conscientiam quoniam agit contra voluntatem Dei quamvis non materialiter vere tamen formaliter interpretive Ames de cas Con. If we look upon this practice in the Roman Church where 't is in its Meridian what a Massacre of Souls hath it made What Darkness and miserable Ignorance is grown up in the Laity by it And amongst the Clergy what Pride Corruption and Tyranny Where it has been practised in the Reformed Churches it has introduced nothing but Divisions and Animosities and the sad effects of them those who have been freed from the Roman Imposition and enlightened in the Protestant Truths being less able to endure Imposition than any being by their departure from Rome furnished with Principles that do wholly overthrow any such Power by whomsoever exercised How little hurt would variety of Opinions about Religion do in the World if it were not for this What hurt could any mans Opinion do me if he used no other Weapons than Reasoning and Discourse 'T is the Imposing Opinions makes them pernicious and troublesom to the World and makes every Party strive to get the Magistrate on their side that they may suppress the rest and turn Religion into a worldly Interest Religion troubles no body as Christ left it but as men make it By this practice men of differing judgments in Religion can never live together in the World nor enjoy the great advantages they might afford one to another in civil concerns and in Religion too so far as they agree because their Consciences will not let them come up to the practice of an imposed Uniformity in all things How different from this were the thoughts of Paul he bids us joyn together so far as we agree and in other matters wherein we do not agree to wait till God shall reveal himself to us What an unreasonable thing is it to oblige Christians either to suffer or follow all the changes made by human Powers in Religion upon what worldly or political ends soever to have the Conscience floating about at the Magistrates pleasure as his property which is only God's peculiar Those that lived in the days of Henry the 8th Edward the 6th Q. Mary and Q. Elizabeth had occasion enough to experience this who must either have withstood a conformable practice with suffering or else surely have been sometimes out of the way But that which should put us perfectly out of all charity with the use of Force in Religion is when we consider the true Worship of the Gospel can never be established by it You may establish a false Worship or a formal outside Worship but never make such Worshippers as Christ speaks of when he saith The true Worshippers under the Gospel are such who Worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth You may establish a false Worship that is a Worship of mens appointing for if they be but outwardly obey'd in what they institute they look no farther Jeroboam's business was to keep the People from Jerusalem if they came but to Dan and Bethel he cared for no more he little minded the Religion he had set up for he made Priests of the meanest of the People his end was Political to bring men into subjection to himself You may also establish a formal Worship you may by force make men hypocritically conform to the out-side of true Worship you may force men to the Sacraments but without they be qualified with those Praerequisites God requires instead of performing an acceptable Service you force them to commit a great Sin That you cannot by force establish the right Gospel-Worship appears by these two things 1st 'T is a spiritual Worship and 2dly 'T is a voluntary Worship First 'T is a Spiritual Worship there is no one

own Hand would neither Answer the Letter nor so much as Discourse me but when I had given them the Letter C. T. bad me be gone All which shews the Author to the Accuser his Pretentions to an Accommodation Condiscention to be fallacious Deceitful and Hypocritical Object BY this time some may be ready to object and say It is true these Things as Stated cannot be denyed but to have used a more private way might have been as convincing and not have ministred that occasion to such as are Enemies to all Religion as this way of Proceeding perhaps may especially since the Author of the Accuser says p. 127. We can the more easily concur and accord as to Circumstances and Outward Methods and in the Wisdom of God so condiscend one to another and accommodate Matters as not to divid about them Answ That I with many other have used private meanes for about the space of four years without any Redress nay not so much as a Christian Answer and that the Pretence of the Author of the Accuser to Condiscention and Accommodation is fallacious and false and a meer piece of feigned Hypocrisy to amuse his Reader and delude the World I shall make evidently appear before I pass this Chapter especially considering what meanes I used at our Quarterly-Meeting in the Case of J. A. made mention of in the third Chapter both by Letters and Queries First then see a Letter that eleven Friends belonging to our Meeting in Milden-Hall sent to our Quarterly Meeting who were so far from Condiscention Accommodation as that they refused to have it read amongst them but said We were all deluded A Copy whereof followeth To Friends at the Quarterly Meeting in Hadenham the 4th Mo. 80. Dear Friends THese Lines are to put you in Mind that many Friends belonging to our Meeting as well as in divers other Places are offended and burthened by reason of the continued Record against John Ansloe which exclude him what in you lye out of the Unity of Friends which is nothing less than Excommunication to the utmost of your Power whereby we are constrained to visit you in this manner entreating you to race out the said Record out of your Quarterly Book Indeed had J. A. denyed Marriage the very forbidding of which is a Doctrine of Devils you might justly have thrown him out for Marriage is Gods Ordinance But the Controversy is not here but about manifesting his Intention to Marry Behold the Crime as you account it and consider of it we beseech you for Peace sake and lay not such a Stress where Christ nor his Primitive Followers laid none And that thereunto you may be encouraged ponder the saying of W. P. in his Address to Prot. p. 77. I beseech you Protestants by the Mercies of God and Love of Jesus Christ ratified to you in his most precious Blood FLY ROME AT ROME Look to the Enemies of your own House have a care of this Presumption carry it not too high lay not Stress where God hath laid none The Impositions of such Opinions is the Priviledge of Hypocrites and the Snare of many honest Minds And p. 93. If we consider the Matter well I fear saith W. P. it will be found that the occasion of Disturbance in the Church of Christ hath in most Ages been found to lye on the Side of those who have had the greatest Sway in it And Pag. 94. If the Spiritual Guides and Fathers of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with needless Supersluities there were far less danger of Schism and Superstition And Pag. 144. Nay Christ himself to whom all Power was given in Heaven and Earth submitted himself to the Test He did not require them to believe him because he would be believed he refers them to the Witness that God bore of him saying If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true He also sends them to the Scriptures but an Imposing Church bears witness of her self and will be both Party and Judge require Assent without Evidence and Faith without Proof therefore false But Christian Religion ought to be carryed on only by that way by which it was Introduced which was Perswasion If any Man will be my Disciple let him take up his Cross and follow me Pag. 146. For if I believe what the Church believes only beause She believes and not because I am convinced in my Vnderstanding of the Truth of what She believes my Faith is false though hers be true I say 't is not true to me I have no Evidence of it And Pag. 141. The Apostle became all unto all that he might win some but this is becoming all unto none to force all he therefore recomends the utmost Condiscention that can be lawful he stooped he became all unto all that is he stooped to all Capacities and humbled himself to those Degrees of Knowledge that Men had and valued that which was good in all These Allurements were all his Injunctions nay in this Case he makes it an Injunction to use no other Let us therefore saith he as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you you shall not be Imposed upon Stigmatized or Excommunicated for want of full satisfaction or because you do not consent before Conviction Thus far William Penn. Now let us a little animadvert upon this Noble Mans Words Lay no Stress saith he where God hath not laid Stress as if he should have said Friends God never laid any such Stress about publishing the Intent of Marriage Why then do you Have a care of this Presumption carry not things too high neither Smite Record nor Excommunicate one another about such Things which are at best but Mens Traditions and Impositions which may prove a Snare to the Honest and Conscientious but a seeming Priviledge to the conformable Hypocrite for you see that such as have the greatest Sway in the Church are evermore the cause of these Disturbances who pretending themselves Fathers and Spiritual Guides are not sparing of cumbring the Churches with needless Superfluities and such Orders as Christ never commanded nor his Apostles ever practised which had they been so useful as you pretend they be surely Christ and his Apostles would not have been so forgetful of Prescribing such Outward Observations nay but on the contrary they have told us in Holy Writ The Kingdom of Heaven comes not that way neither consists in such things You also may perceive that Christ was such an Example of Meekness and Self-denyal and so far and free from Force and Imposition that he only said If any Man will be my Discipie let him take up his Cross and follow me but an Imposing Church bears witness of her self and though She sets up such Orders as Christ never commanded yet She requires assent without Evidence and Faith without Proof for She will be both Party and Judge

and Recorder out of the Unity at her pleasure which manifests her to be the false Church for the true Christian Religion was introduced by Perswasion and ought to be so carryed on for if I believe and practice only because the Church doth so ad not from a convincement in my self my Faith and Obedience would be false and Idolatrous The Apostles who had the Mind of Christ became all unto all stooped to all Capacities to all Degrees of Knowledge valued what was good in all these were his Injunctions who said As every Man is fully perswaded so let him walk for what is not of Faith is Sin He did not Record out of the Unity such as saw not so clear as himself but became all unto all that he might save some but you that would force all become all to none you will not stoop at all nor condiscend at all but exalt and magnifie your Orders and written Prescriptions how many weak Brethren soever you offend You value not the good in any but Conformity to your Humour and to your Will and though some are otherwise minded about Discipline and Church-Government you will not let them alone but you will impose upon them Stigmatise and Record them out of the Unity which is no less than Excommunication Wherefore take W. P's Advice FLY ROME AT HOME and lay not Stress where God lays not Stress Thus twice over as it were have you herein the genuine sense of Dear W. P. And Oh! that every one concerned would make a diligent search in his own Heart and like the beloved Disciple smite upon his Breast and say Is it I Is it I that am guilty of this Severity of this Presumption if carrying things too high of setting up such Orders as prove a Snare or at least a burthen to the Conscientious yea of laying a Stress and a great Stress where God never laid any One that am the Cause of this Disturbance in the Church One that bears witness of my self and that will be both Party and Judge Oh! let me a little Examine my self Am I One that cannot become all unto all One that cannot condiscend at all to my Brother One that will value not the good in any but Conformity to my Will and Humour One that would have all believe and practice as I do whether I convince their Vnderstanding of the Truth of what I believe and practice or not and if not condemn them for Hereticks without any more a do I say Oh that every one would thus reflect upon himself that so you might consider of these things for many are offended and grieved with the continuance of the aforementioned Record against J. A. And again beseech and intreat you to reverse the same that so Love and Good-will Unity and Concord may spring amongst us as in the Beginning which is heartily desired by your Friends who subscribe their names hereunto Francis Bugg Elizabeth Bugg Joseph Masson Jane Masson Joseph Ellington Rachel Ellington John Thrift Joseph Tetsall William Bellsham Phillip Wing Mary Huggins Sarah Bird. Dated the 15th of the 3d. Month 1680. Note That John Thrift who carried the recited Letter to the Quarterly-Meeting said that they would not suffer it to be read but cryed out You are deluded Which by the Second-days Meetings own Rule if they approved W. P's small Tract Entituled A Brief Examination and State of Liberty Spiritual is a mark of Imposition For in the said Tract p. 4. 't is thus written I ask thee May I not exhort thee to the Practice of that I am moved to press thee to the Practice of If not thou are the Imposer by restraining me from my Christan-Liberty and not only so but away goeth Preaching and with it the Scriptures that are both appointed of God for Exhortation Reproof and Instruction Their Proceedings herein need no Comment being worse than the Magistrates ever served me who do as really believe me to be deluded as they could pretend to any such Thing and yet they will often hear and do Justice too And after I had waited more than a Year and saw no Redress I then wrote to W. P. thinking he might be an Instrument to compose things but what he did whether any thing or nothing I never had any Answer to this Day A Coppy of which now followeth Viz. This for W. P. with Care c. Dear Friend VVHen I consider the Nature of the Controversy betwixt W. R. and G. F. and the multitude of Friends on each side in almost all Counties together with the lamentable Consequences which will unavoidably follow the same if not timely put a stop to by a Brotherly Condiscention I am even bowed down and grieved to behold the same and under a sense thereof I desire to lay before thee my Apprehension both of the Cause and Cure that so thou together with G. W. to whom I have already wrote may endeavour a Composure of this Controversy and in remembrance of what thou didst declare at the Meeting at Devonshire House the 27th of the 3d. Month last after the Debate gives me Incouragement so to do as also they Printed Addr. to Prot. for saidst thou If I knew of such a Design as is surmised to bring in an Implicit Faith and Blind Obedience by forcing a Conformity before Conviction I would oppose it with my at most Endeavour or to that effect Now that thou mayst know if yet thou dost not as that thou shouldst not by thy positive Assertions in Alexander the Copper Smith pag. 10. 12. 15. I will give thee a Copy of Orders Recorded as our Cannon or Rule to walk by in the Quarterly Book for the Isle of Ely Verbatim Parenthesis excepted Viz. It is ordered at this Quarterly-Meeting and agreed upon that no Friends may for time to come permit or suffer Marriages without the consent of Friends at two Mens and Womens-Meetings and the Man and Woman to come both to the said two Meetings to receive the Answer of Friends that so no disorderly a notable Hedge without parrellel I presume or Indirect Proceedings may be carryed on any more and yet never more disorderly than since contrary to the Vnity of Friends Written at a Quarterly Meeting in Hadenham the 1st of the 10th Month 1675. Behold the Nature Manner and Form of these Orders and compare them with the Condemnation of J. A. for not coming up to a strict Conformity who was Recorded out of the Unity the 4th of the 7th Month 1678. in the same Book as may be seen for not proceeding in his Marriage according to the Orders Now see whether we do not first make a Rule or Cannon to walk by and compel a Conformity to the same before Conviction nay not only so but pass Diffinitive Sentence too for Nonconformity to the utmost of our little Power we have and when any Body questions the Authority of these Orders and Practices G. F. is presently quoted and that being as some say moved to

appear both from the different station and posture those Kings were in from all Magistrates now and also from the different condition of the Church then and now and many circumstances peculiarly relating to both First The worship and policy of the Jews being in it self typical and representive of what was to come hereafter their Government was likewise so and in their Kings very eminently that David and Soloman did very plainly in the type represent the Kingly Dominion of Christ none will deny and 't is as plain that the very Throne of David it self upon which the succeeding Kings of Judah sate was likewise so there being that Prophesie long before That the Scepter should not depart from Judah until Shiloh came and therefore the Power David and Solomon and the succeeding Kings of Judah for amongst the Kings of Israel after Solomon we find not one concerned for the true Worship of God who were of the lineage of David exercised had a peculiarity in it that is not applicable to any Magistrate now Secondly God was pleased in those times upon all eminent occasions of reformation in his Worship and proceedings of that nature to send Prophets to declare his positive mind and to put an end to all doubts that could be about such things nay some of the Kings themselves were Prophets immediately inspired and did not only take care of the Worship established by Moses but did themselves by divine Authority bring in things of a new Institution into the Worship of God this David did and Solomon in bringing Musick into the Temple and setling the courses of the Priests and were divinely inspired to write part of the holy Scriptures No Magistrates now can pretend to any such power in themselves nor have they any such extraordinary direction to guide them but are punctualy obliged to whatever Christ hath revealed in the Gospel and therefore in this respect the Analogy no way holds good Thirdly The state of the Jewish Church and Common-wealth was such as wholly differed them from all others since that was a Church and a State in the very constitution of them mixed together none could be brought into one but he was a member of the other nor could a man be cast out of the Church but he was thereby cast out of the State to be out-lawed and excommunicated was there amongst the Jews the same thing Grotius expresseth it well At that time saith he the Wisdom in Divine and Humane Law was not divided and he proves it by this As the Magistrate did intermeddle in Church Affairs so the Priest did intermeddle in Cvil things For saith he the Priest was a Judge and did not only give Judgment in Sacred but in Civil Affairs being the best Interpreter of the whole Law And saith the same Grotius further That the Priest had Magistracy This alone may be proved in Deut. 17.8 That he is to dye who obeys not the Command of the Priest 'T is most clear also That Eli was chief Priest in Israel and chief Judge in Shiloe 'T is not any way to be avoided but that the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power lay then interchangeably mixed and with as equal reason may we bring Magistracy into the Ministerial Power of the Gospel from what the Priests then exercised and their example as to bring such a power in Religion into the Magistrates under the Gospel from the parallel of what those Kings did then Besides the Magistratical power was so absolutely necessary to the Jewish Church-Policy so mixed that it could not be upheld without it the very Municipal Law of the Nation was their Religion He that was chief in the State must needs be Head of the Church They were a Holy People living in a Holy Land appointed to Worship in one Holy City and in one Holy place of that City and to offer upon one Altar in that Holy place The Church of the Gospel is totally of another nature perfectly distinct from the civil State can well subsist without a relation to it and is no way intermixed in its Concerns with it And therefore to say all Magistrates now must do as those did that governed such a mixed complicated Church and State in one carries no proportion at all of reason or equity in it more then if a man should argue from a Par ratio that what Moses did at first amongst the Jews who was King in Jeshuron that Kings may now do amongst Christians under the Gospel Lastly What was then done was by Gods command and was in a way suitable to the frame and state of the Church the Jews were imbodied in and lay chiefly in bringing men from Idolatry to the Worship of the true God for in differences between Sect and Sect amongst themselves there was nothing that we find done at any time they continued till our Saviours time and putting such a kind of Worship in execution as lay in outward carnal Services and was in every minute particular exactly set down and determined First The state of the Gospel-Church now is wholly differing from what that was and is setled upon clear other grounds and principles Secondly Here is no command in the Gospel for the Magistrate to do any thing of that nature Thirdly Let it be granted as truth that in parity of reason because Magistrates were appointed to take care of Religion then they are to do so still it must of necessity be granted also that they must do it by the means appointed by Christ under the Gospel as they did heretofore by those God appointed under the Law It is an Inference very infirm That because the Kings of Israel and Judah compelled men by Gods own appointment to acknowledge the true God and forsake Idolatry therefore Magistrates now may not only without but against Christs commands and the whole tenor of the New Testament compel men to the Spiritual Belief and Worship of the Gospel The truth is the civil Power of the Magistrate is no means of Christs appointing for the carrying on of the Gospel the Gospel in the very nature of it carries an Antipathy in it to all outward force Instead of all the temporal promises and corporal punishments under the Law Christ makes this Declaration He that believes shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned That 's the Language of the Gospel Christ sets Hell and Wrath to come before men and by his Spirit working upon and convincing the Conscience works more admirable effects upon men that way than all the outward punishments in the World could ever bring about The Word of Christ is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged Sword and can divide between the Soul and the Spirit the Joynts and the Marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the Heart We have in the Hebrews a very perfect account of Gods dealing with men under the Law and now under the Gospel and the plain difference in the manner of the one and

certain evil that way But the Author proceeds and tells us In a little time it will remove the cause of the Error That is to say Forcing men if you do it long enough will convert them and the reason he gives is this Because Paul ranks his Heresies amongst the works of the Flesh and it is not seated so solely in the mind but that it hath often no sublimer motives then other sensual transgressions and as outward considerations are sometimes the cause so they may be the cure of it That ever any man did change an Opinion first or last by being forced since the World began is without instance and impossible in the nature of the thing to be One says well You may as well cure a man of the Cholick by brushing his Cout or fill a mans Belly with a Syllogisme These things do not communicate in matter and so neither in action or passion But Heresie is a work of the Flesh so is every mistake of the Soul Heresie is a work of the Soul rather in mis-believing than mis-doing 't is a thing in Opinion rather than Fact The Apostle in Galatians 5. where Heresie is reckoned amongst the works of the flesh does not put the distinction between works of the flesh as things outwardly acted opposite to what is inwardly believed but by the flesh he means the corrupt and carnal mind opposite to the Spirit of God for he says plainly in the Verse before The Flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh By the Flesh there he means the corrupt state of man in Soul and Body so that Heresie may be a work of the flesh and yet purely seated in the mind Every corruption in the mind is a work of the flesh and yet as 't is there only is in some sence a thing spiritual and speculative But saith he Outward considerations are sometimes the cause of an Opinion and may be sometimes the cure of it If outward considerations suitable to a conviction of my understanding have wrought upon my understanding and made me really believe a thing there is then no proportion at all of reason to say That force because 't is an outward thing wholly incapable of working upon my understanding may make me as well disbelieve it And if those outward considerations he means have not really convinced me then 't is not my Opinion Either outward considerations are the ground of such Opinions or they are not if they be they will best discover themselves in their effects such causes are best so known and only so known and those effects will be obvious if they be evil to a due punishment if they be not the cause of them 't is first a superlative want of Charity to make our selves evil Judges of other mens hearts and then an eminent piece of injustice to punish men upon such a false supposition He that will take upon him to judge the grounds of any mans Principles which he knows not may make any Opinion have what Original he pleaseth 'T is a most absurd thing to believe any man for outward respects should suffer all reproach and persecution You may as well say all the Martyrs suffered only to set up a Pillar and get themselves a Name 't is obvious enough to any impartial eye those outward considerations are more probably to be mens temptations that go another way Fourthly No man under the Gospel ought to be compel●ed to believe or practice any thing and if not to believe then not to practice for the practice ought to correspond with and be but the counter-part of the belief 't is strangely unreasonable to require uniformity in the practice where there is variety and difference in the Judgment 't is to bid a man go directly against his Light 't is miserable to rend a man into two pieces his Conscience in one part and his outward man and practice in another part God arrests him and draws him in a way suitable to his rational Soul one way and men by means wholly contrary another Who think we has the greatest right and whether is it better to obey God or man in such a case Those that thus impose upon men do what in them lies to ruin them eternally I say 't is not reasonable to compel men to believe or practice for practice should suppose belief because God tells so very often He only accepts a willing Service in his Worship and abhors all other God detests the smell of a Sacrifice where the heart is not where the heart is far from him and 't is impossible it should be near him where a man is compelled directly against his own judgment How much does the beauty of the Gospel lie in this that Gods People are made by him a willing People and that God hath his Creature wholly in his Service Such are the Converts of the Gospel where every man is in his rational Soul so satisfied enlightned and convinced that he does all freely 'T is a severe thing to enjoyn me by penal Laws to worship God in a way I neither like nor he accepts which he does not though it be what he has appointed for the matter if I come not in the manner he has likewise appointed to it I shall neither please him nor advantage my own Soul This was the case of the Jews when God hated their solemn Assemblies and said Incense was an abomination to him 'T is usually false worship that needs force 't was Jeroboam that upon Politick grounds began to force a Religion and 't is said of him He made Israel to sin by compelling them to Dan and Bethel If men intend to make Converts to God they must not do more for him than he does for himself he never violates the liberty of the rational Soul but approves things to the understanding if they under this pretext intend to make Proselites to their own power 't is very sinful Fifthly The practice of Christ and the Apostles positively contradicts this course they could have commanded what power they had pleased if that had been the way of setling the Gospel in the world Christ would have no Fire come down from Heaven but that of the Holy Ghost nor no Sword used in the Church but that of the Spirit he bids them Teach all Nations Baptizing them c. that is his way of initiating men into the Church Not as the Spainards Convert the Indians who leave them no choice but to be Baptized or Murthered Men are first to be enlightned and then led into conformable practice Paul prays for men That the Eyes of their understandings might be enlightned And our Saviour when he preached called for an eye and an ear to hear and discern his Doctrine 'T is no matter for either where force is the Medium This deserves to be very well weighed that the Apostles never urged the Truths of the Gospel in their infallible Ministry of them upon farther or other terms than Perswasion

such Faction and give it a plausible pretence to justifie it self upon whereas a Liberty granted in matters of Conscience will either wholly win such men to a due and hearty Obedience as finding themselves in a posture they cannot expect to mend or else will lay them open to such apparent justice for punishment and bring them under such a general contempt as shall leave them stript of all pretensions and render them wholly inconsiderable 'T is marvellous prudence to separate between Conscience and Faction which can never be but by a Liberty of the one that so they may distinctly punish the other He that hath liberty granted to worship God according to his Conscience and yet is not satisfied but continues troublesom makes every body ready to be his Executioner and makes that discovery which could never have been made before that Faction was his end and Conscience but the pretended means such men will not only lie open to the States just severity but to the hatred of all men who do generally dislike ill actions most when they come from men of the best pretensions Punish men for their Religion because you judge them Factious and mix all together and you fall into this double Error Either you punish men for Faction that deserve it not and so besides a piece of Injustice do what you can to make those Enemies who are not nor would not be so or else those that are so you give them the pretence of Conscience to justifie themselves in whatever sufferings comes upon them When people differing from the publick Religion meet to worship God and are seized and punished for so doing the Magistrate saith He punisheth for Faction they say They suffer for Religion And all People who see the actual punishment inflicted for things relating to Conscience and Religion will be sure to believe and pitty them and be ready to condemn the State A due Separation as 't is best to be made so 't will only by a Liberty given be obtained He that intends nothing but to give God the Homage of his Conscience will have freedom to do it and he that under that has other ends and aims will be justly punished for it But for a State to imbibe a general belief that all who differ from the State-Religion are factious to the civil Power and not to be suffered and so to punish them as such and if they be not so to tempt them thereby to be so is to do an act of injustice to them and to forfeit their own prudence towards themselves For the Errors you may suppose men possessed withal as an eager Persecution is apt to make the Professors of them think them more than ordinary Truths and themselves some great men in maintaining them so it makes others seek after that when driven into a Corner which were it in the open Streets no man would regard He that preaches and writes under restraint that restraint begets him readers and hearers that would else pass through the World with very little notice taken of him things difficult and hard to come by carry some weight in mens expectancy Foolish and absurd Opinions are only put to Nurse by Persecution and by that made to have something in the concerns and fears of others which has indeed nothing in it self The hiding men by a keen pursuit after them in the profession of such things keeps them alive whereas if they were openly preached written and discoursed of the folly of them would appear such as not only others but the men themselves would be ashamed and a weary of them Besides punishing men for Religion where there are several parties lays a Foundation of endless troubles and perpetual feuds for that ill Opinion and anger which makes one party when prevaling to suppress and punish the rest propagates still the same anger and dislike in the parties punished and begets by such provocation a certain resolution to retort the same again and a readiness to embrace all opportunities to effect it whereas that party that once gives liberty to the rest buries all those Evils and unites all in the common union of their own interest and security 'T will be impossible to find out a way for men of differing Judgments in Religion to live together and enjoy the common advantages which as men they may afford one to another unless they exercise an Indulgence to each other in that variety they stand in as Christians Where there are many differences and a State denyes any Liberty but strictly imposeth the State-Religion upon all the case always falls out to be that the earnest desire of that we call Liberty of Conscience lies glowing in the Embers of mens discontent and is a thing in it self so popular a thing of so great evidence of Reason when it may be discoursed upon equal terms and so much the concern of every man but the present Imposer that 't is very apt to kindle and flame out and upon any strait or emergency of State either by Forreign War or Domestick Division to make such an Earthquake as may endanger the whole 'T is most prudent in a State to give Liberty when there is least power to demand it those may be gained by giving it that may prove dangerous in forcing it To force and pen men up in such things is wholly unnatural and will like Wind penned up in the Earth or the Sea shut up by Banks break out at one time or another with the greater violence Liberty in Religion was never yet denyed in a Protestant State but it had first or last a mischievous effect To instruct men in Protestant Principles and then to put a Yoke of Vniformity upon them hath no more proportion in it than to educate a man at Geneva that is to live at Rome and to breed him a Calvinist whom you intend for a Papist Were there no other reason to make a Prince or a State out of love with punishing men for Religion and matters of that nature this were sufficient to consider such punishment ever falls upon the most honest of his Subjects in every differing party men of loose jugling principles and unsound hearts will be sure to escape the Net only the sincere plain-hearted man that cannot dissemble is caught 't was the device against Daniel heretofore they knew in the matters of his God 't was easie to deal with him because in those he would not upon any terms dissemble This has Three ill Effects always attending it First It disobliges the best sort of men in every party whom the State should most cherish and engage whatever is said to the contrary those that are the truest Subjects to the Great King will be also found the best to his Vice-gerents here 'T is a strange Heterodox kind of policy to make all the honest sincere men in a Nation of every party but that one the State adheres to the object of the States displeasure and to make Laws that can