Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A61911
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A plea for tolleration of opinions and perswasions in matters of religion, differing from the Church of England. Grounded upon good authority of Scripture, and the practice of the primitive times. Shewing the unreasonablenesse of prescribing to other mens faith, and the evil of persecuting differing opinions. / Humbly presented to the kings most excellent majesty, by John Sturgion, a member of the Baptized People.
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Sturgion, John.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing S6093; ESTC R208120
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10,549
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20
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third Reason against restraining or using force in matters of Religion is taken from the unreasonablenesse of such proceedings for what is more unreasonable then to deny men the use of their Reason in choice of their Religion for if Scripture Tradition Councils and Fathers be the evidence in a question yet Reason is the judge that is we being the Persons that are to be perswaded we must see that we be perswaded reasonably and it is against Reason to assent to a lesser evidence when a greater is propounded but every man for himself is to take cognizance if he be able to judge but if he be not then he is not bound under the tye of necessity to know it nor will God punish him for not knowing it and not onely the unreasonablenesse but the impiety of using force in this case may be further seen if it be considered that there is nothing under God hath power over the understanding of a man God commanding us to believe his Revelations perswades and satisfies the understanding by his commanding and revealing it for there is no greater probation in the World that a Proposition is true then because God hath commanded it to be believed but then it must certainly be made appear to us that God hath so commanded it but no man hath any Efficacy or Authority on the understanding of another but by Proposal Perswasion and then a man is bound to assent according to the operation of the Argument and strength of the Perswasion neither indeed can he assent sooner or other wayes though he would never so fain he therefore that in this case useth force or punishment punisheth a man for keeping a good Conscience or forceth him into a bad he both punisheth sincerity and perswades hypocrisie he presecutes a truth and drives into an errour he teacheth a man to dissemble to be safe but never to be honest nor acceptable to God Learned Doctor Taylors Argument for Tolleration is very Excellent in his Epistle to his Liberty of Prophecie in page 14. This very thing saith he being one of the Arguments I use to perswade permissions left compulsion introduce hypocrisie and make sinceritie troublesome and unsafe Reason 4. The fourth Reason which I humbly offer to consideration That persecution for Conscience or the Civil Magistrate using force in the matters of Religion is because it came in through corruptions of the times so that it is so far from being of Divine Sanction that it is earthly and sensual for the proof of this I shall onely transcribe a passage out of that worthy Author Doctor Taylor in his aforesaid Epistle to his Liberty of Prophecie Page the 18 19. Which is as followeth That against this I have laid prejudice enough from the Dictates of holy Scripture it is observable that this with its Appendent degrees I mean restraint of Prophesying imposing upon other mens understandings being masters of their Consciences and Lording it over their Faith came in with the retinue and train of Antichrist that is they came as other abuses and corruption of the Church did by reason of the Iniquity of times and the cooling of the first heats of Christianity and the increase of Interest and the abatement of Christian simplicity when the Churches fortune grew better and her sons grew worse and some of her Fathers worst of all For in the first three hundred years there was no sign of persecuting any man for his opinion though at that time there were very horrid opinions commenced and such which were Exemplary and parallel enough to determine this question for they then were assaulted by new Sects which destroyed the common Principles of Nature of Christianity of Innocency and publick Society and they who used all the means Christian and spiritual for their disimprovement and conviction thought not of using corporal force other wayes than by blaming such proceedings and therefore I do not urge their not doing it as an Argument of the unlawfulness of such proceedings but their defying it and speaking against such Practices as unreasonable and distructive to Christianty for which the Learned Doctor cites all these Fathers Tertullian St. Cyprian Lactantius St. Hilary Minuitius Felix Sulpitius Severus Saint Chrysostome St. Hierom St. Austin Damascon Theophylact Socrates Scholasticus and St. Bernard and he further saith that all wise Princes till they were overborn with Faction or solicited by Peevish Persons gave Tolleration to differing Sects whose Opinions did not disturb the publick Interest and in page 20. till 400. years after Christ no Catholick Person or very few did provoke the secular arm or implore its aide So far he From which it is evident that the Magistrates imposing in matters of Religion is an Evil from which I pray God deliver your Majesty Reason 5. The fifth Reason is taken from the Principles and Practices of some great Princes who did both give and perswade Tolleration King Iames your Majesties Royal Grand-Father in his Letter to the States of the united Provinces dated the sixth of March 1613. amongst other things thus wrote Etdistrictè imperetis ut Pacem Colant seinvicem tolerando in ista opinionum ac sententiaram discere pacitià Eoque Iustius videmur vobìs hoc ipsum suadere debere quod Neutrum Comperimus adeo deviam ut non possint cum Fidei Christiana veritate cum Animarum Salute consistore Englished for common Benefit That you charge them to maintain peace by bearing one with another in such difference of Opinions and Iudgements Therefore it seemeth more Right that you should be thus perswaded seeing neither of the Judgements is found so dangerous but that it may stand with the true Faith of a Christian and the Salvation of Souls The like Counsel in the divisions of Germany at the first Reformation was thought reasonable by the Emperour Fardinand and his Excellent son Maximilion they had observed that violence did Exasperate was unblessed unsuccessful and unreasonable and therefore they made Decrees of Tolleration and appointed Tempors and Expediences to be drawn up by discreet Persons and George Cassander was designed to this great work and did some thing towards it and Immanuel Phillibert Duke of Savoy repenting of his War undertaken for Religion against the Pedimontans promised then Tolleration and was as good as his word as much is done by the Nobilitie of Polonia and Theodoricus the Sage King of the Gothes asswaging the vemency of the Arians against the Orthodox No belief saith he is carryed on by blowes nor is that Excellent saying of King Edward the sixth to be forgotten he being solicited to put a Heretick to death made this wise answer Will you have me to send her to Hell in her sins But to conclud◠this the French King although he be the second son of the Church of Roome gives Tolleration to different perswasions in matters of Religion for the Hugonets have their Churches and Places of meeting for to worship God in according as they
are perswaded by order from their King and the world is witness how prosperous they have been since they have left fighting for Religion among themselves Reas. 6. The sixt and last Reason I have taken from the ill success that alwayes attends such proceedings for whoever used force upon the body to change the mind or to make men believe something they are not perswaded of or to disbelieve something they have received for truth or to leave off worshipping God in that way which they think is most agreeable to his will they will have no better success than that man had that clapt his shoulder to the ground to stop the earth-quake and the experiences which Christendom hath had in this last Age are sufficient instances when France fought amongst themselves the Catholicks against the Hugonets the spilling of their own blood was Argument enough of the imprudence of that way of promoting Religion and that all the blood shed in open Arms and private Massacres could not prevent their further growth nor extinguish that light that sprung up amongst that People and the name of the Hugonets is not onely still in France but they and their Religion Tollerated But the great instance is in the differing temper Government and success which Margaret of Parma and the Duke of Alva had the clemency of the first had almost extinguished the Flame but when she was removed and Duke Alva succeeded and Mannaged the matter of Religion with fire and sword 〈◊〉 made the flame so great that his Religion and his Prince too have been quite turned out of a great part of the Country And we are not without example nearer home in Queen Maries dayes what Force and Violence was there used to make the People believe as the Queen and her Bishops believed some was burnt to death some destroyed in Persons and many that scaped with life were undone in their estates and lively-hood and all this was so unsuccesful as to the suppressing their further growth that it did the quite contrary for the more they were opprest the more they grew I shall onely add a passage out of Learned Bishop Taylor in his Epistle to his Liberty of Prophesie page 25. But it is saith he observed by Socrates that when the first Persecution was made against them that is such as differed in Opinion from the Bishop at Rome by Pope Innocent the first at the same instant the Gothes invaded Italy and become Lords of all it being just in God to bring a persecution upon them for true belief who with an incompetent Authority and insufficient Grounds do persecute an errour lesse material in persons agreeing with them in the profession of the same common Faith The next thing I humbly offer to Your Princely consideration is the Divine Bond upon our Hearts to worship God according to our Light and the crying sin we must commit if we shall resist our own understanding and refuse to obey the Command of God upon our Conscience to assemble our selves together for his Worship and that we ought to esteem our duty to God much dearer than our Estates Liberty or Lives And our Souls are fully perswaded that it is our duty to meet together and speak often one to another to exhort each other daily to take heed of sin and to follow after vertue and to presse after the Mark of our High Calling of God in Christ Iesus our Lord and to provoke to love and good works and if any be overtaken in a fault to restore them in the Spirit of meekness and to relieve the poor and to support the weak that by bearing one anothers burthens we may fulfill the Law of Christ and to walk so inoffensively in our conversation as to give no Iust occasion neither to your Majesty as Supream Magistrate nor to any of your Ministers under you nor to any of the People or Neighbours about us but to observe that excellent Law of Christ Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them and if any shall persecute us for our Profession-sake to bear it with patience and not to return evil for evil nor reviling for reviling but contrary-wise to do them good for evil and to pray for them that their eyes may be opened and that God may not lay their sin in this case to their charge Now if Your Majesty will but consider what it is which the Baptized People and divers others have made such earnest suite to your Majesty for it is not for Titles of Honours nor for places of great profit either in a Civil or Ecclesiastical Capacity but onely this is their request and humble desire that we may serve the Lord without molestation in that Faith and order which we have Learned in the Holy Scripture giving Honour to our King to whom Honour belongs fear to whom fear Tribute to whom Tribute belong in every thing as far as we have abilities to render to God the things that are Gods and to the Magistrate the things that are His. Rom. 13.7 We likewise judge it our duty to be alwayes willing and ready to give an Answer to every man that shall ask us a Reason of our Hope that is in us with meekness and fear Now if any who judge themselves to be spiritual Guides will but take the pains to endeavour our conviction if they think we erre or at least to hear what we have to say why we dissent from the Publick worship we doubt not but through the Grace of God we shall be able to give such an account of our Faith and Practice that we do not deserve those Epithets some are please do give us I shall onely transcribe one passage out of that Ingenious Doctor Dr. Ieremiah Taylor which I find in Sect. 18. number 34. of his Liberty of Prophesie he speaking of the Anabaptists saith That since there is no direct impietie in the Opinion nor any that is apparently consequent to it and they with so much probability do or may pretend to true perswasion they are with all means Christian fair and humane to be Redargued or instructed but if they cannot be perswaded they must be left to God who knoweth every degree of every mans understanding all his weaknesses and strengths what impresse each Argument maketh upon his spirit and how unresistable every Reason is and he alone judges his Innocency and sinceritie And for the question I think there is so much to be pretented against that which I believe to be the truth that there is much more truth than evidence on our side and therefore we may be confident as for our own particulars but not too forward peremptorily to prescribe to others much lesse to damn or to kill or to persecute them that onely in this Particular disagree So far he I shall conclude with this Humble Petition that seeing Your Majesty hath been most earnestly supplicated by many Petitions Addresses and Papers to continue Your former Indulgence Oh that Your Majesty would be Gratiously Pleased to do something in it that may recommend Your Name to be embalmed by them for perpetuity through the remembrance of Your Just Righteous and Merciful Actions in breaking every Yoak of Oppression and to the easing of the Conscience of every man professing Jesus Christ from all Unrighteous Impositions And as this will administer Peace Joy and Comfort to many of Your Suffering Subjects so it will bring most excellent Consolation unto Your Majesties Soul when the Heavens shall be no more And as Your Majesty desires to be found on the right hand of the great Judge in that his day so in this Your day to remember and consider that Magistracy and Power of Government are no Institutions of God either to fill the Purses or to furnish the Tables or to lift up the Minds or in any kind to gratifie the flesh of those in whom they are invested but rather to serve to accomodate and bless the Societies and Communities of men on earth unto which they relate respectively according to that worthy Item which the Queen of Sheba gave unto Solomon Because the Lord loved Israel for ever therefore made he thee King to do Iudgement Iustice. 1 Kin. 10.9 The same Lord and Mighty God so over-shadow Your Majesty with his Power and Good Spirit that the conceptions of Your Heart may be Holinesse to him Wealth and Peace and gladness of Heart to the People of these Great and Famous Kingdoms the Government whereof God hath been pleased to intrust with You to Your Royal Self Honour and Safety and length of Dayes with the Peace and Joy of a good Conscience on earth and a far more exceeding Eternal weight of Glory in the Heavens So Prayeth Your Humble and Dutiful Subject JOHN STURGION THE END 1 Pet. 1. 12. 2 Cor. 3. 18. Eze. 18. 20. The Apologie of the Baptized People of London The Linconshire two addresses The Kentish Petition and many more to that Purpose 2 Cor. 10. v. 5. Gal. 6. ◠Mat. 7.12 There were very sharp contentions about Religion amongst the Holland Ministers at that time King Iames adviseth the Magistrate to moderate them not to kill or punish them for they may both be saved Heb. 10. 25. Mat. 7. 12. Mat. 5. 44. 1 Pet. 2◠17.