Apostles in those Books which by way of eminency we call the Scriptures So that whatever Worship is not according to those holy Oracles is not true and acceptable but false and vain In vain do ye Worship me c. It being an undoubted Truth That God hath as much right to appoint the way of his own Worship as to be Worshipp'd There are moreover we know two parts of Religion Credenda Agenda Truths to be believed and Duties to be performed in order to Salvation and in both these the Scripture is our Rule and Direction He therefore that is Punished either for believing those Truths or for doing those Duties the belief and performance of which holy Scripture requireth of him or he that is punished for not believing those things as Truths which are but falsities and lies or for not doing those things as Duties which are sinful and unlawful he I say who is punished upon these accounts is properly Persecuted The Case then about Persecution as it respects the Nonconformists is briefly this If those Instances for which they are punished be no way required of them in holy Scripture either for belief or practise and if it shall appear upon inquiry that the Church of England requires nothing of them that is in side Erroneous or in facto Impious if she neither enjoynes them to believe Lies nor to commit any Sin if nor so nor so let the world then judge where the fault lies and who they are that without Repentance must one day Answer which I fear is now little thought on for all those Separations and Divisions in the Church all those Distractions Confusions Wars Murthers Rapines c. the natural consequents of the former in the State which these poor miserable divided Kingdomes have so sadly experienc'd 'T will be replyed and I find it no unusual Plea That Preaching and Praying are necessary Duties But they are punished for Preaching and Praying Therefore they are punished for performance of religious Duties and consequently according to the now mentioned definition are Persecuted They tell us e Prop. for Saf of King and Kingd p. 10. There are certain inoffencive persons and they meaning their Rulers have really no more against them only that they meet and preach and pray together Innocent folks who are dragged to Prison for doing nothing in earnest but endeavouring to save their Souls That I may if possible convince my Brethren of the weakness and vanity of this plausible Argument I 'le give them my Answer I hope Methodically and clearly in these following Conclusions Concl 1. By Preaching and Praying as they are the Subject of our present Disquisition is meant the performance of them in publick not in private this latter being liberae observation is since every man of what perswasion soever may not only Pray with his own family when and how he pleaseth but also Preach or Instruct them and that without fear of punishment in what manner he thinks fit Concl 2. In Preaching and Praying there is considerable Substantia Circumstantiae Res Modus the substance of the Duty or the thing to be perform'd and the circumstances or manner of its performance Preaching and Praying quoad Substantiam are necessary necessitate Praecepti Medii i. e. God hath Commanded and the condition of the Church whilst Militant in viâ doth require that these Duties be attended Nor is the Substance only but also the Circumstances of these Duties in Thesi and in the general necessary i. e. when these Duties are considered in actu exercito whenever they are put into practice we must necessarily make use of Circumstances some or other Concl 3. These Circumstances however in Thesi necessary in Hypothesi and in Particular are not determined in Scripture which I do not mean as to their Lawfulness but as to their being duties if they be there must then be produc'd some clear and distinct Precept perpetually obligatory to the Church requiring our observance of such or such Circumstances for this and nothing else though other things are pretended can constitute a Religious Duty Thus though Prayer be a Duty yet whether it be a Set Form or Extemporary The Minister whether habited in a Surplice or without His Gesture whether kneeling or standing The Place whether in a Deske or at the Communion Table or at both So for Preaching whether in a Gown a long Cloak or a short How many Sermons in one day whether three or two or but one I say none of these or such like are determined in Scripture to be our Duties those who assert they are must produce the Command making them to be such for Duty and Command have a necessary Respect and Relation to one another Concl 4. These Circumstances though still free and indifferent quoad naturam being neither commanded nor forbidden yet must not be left undetermined quoad usum i. e. Private persons must not be left at liberty to do what they think fit in Circumstantials as if an agreement in Substantialls only were sufficient so as if there be but Preaching and Praying if these Duties be but performed one man may use a Set Form another may pray Extempore this Minister may wear the Surplice whilst his Neighbour rejects it as Popish and Antichristian Does not any man who hath not enslaved his Reason to support a Faction very easily observe that the bare mention of this Fancy such I am forc'd to call it is its own Confutation was it ever so much as thought on but in the heat of a Dispute Did ever any Constituted Church in the world allow such Liberty Are not my Brethren themselves convinc'd of the contrary If they deny it I could very easily refresh their Memories in so obvious a Theam I could turn them to their Directory and their Ordinances to enforce it c. but I spare them In short g Mr. Newcomes Serm. at Pauls Feb. 8. 1646. pag. 18. There is scarce any difference so small and inconsiderable but the divulging and propagating of it may prove dangerous and pernicious and in the event intollerable Therefore to allow private persons the Liberty to order these Circumstances in the publick Worship pro modulo Conscientiae as their own Conscience perhaps humour or interest shall Dictate is the ready way to destroy all Order and Government in the world And this I hope is sufficiently made plain to any man that will but read and consider in the following Collections Well then to rise yet a little higher Since it is necessary that there must be some Circumstances made use of in the exercise of these Duties Preaching and Praying it being impossible to perform any Action and therefore Religious Action without them and since Scripture hath determined nothing either by requiring some as necessary or forbidding others as unlawful and since to leave them undetermin'd for private Persons to do what seems good in their own eyes is apparently destructive both to Church and State
printed for Luke Fawne at the Par. rot in Pauls Church yard 1647. There is a word of Exhortation behind and I beseech you suffer it First to you Honourable and noble Patriots who are called to be Reformers and healers of a poor broken Kingdom Doth not indeed the punishing and suppressing of spirituall whoredomes against God Idolatrie Heresie Blasphemie and the rest doth it not belong unto you as well as the punishing bodily whoredomes theft murder c doth it indeed belong to you only to looke to the civil peace and to let Religion and truth and the worship of God stand or fall to their own master fight God fight Divell fight Christ fight Antichrist catch that catch can you have nothing to do but to stand by and looke on say so then speake out publish it in your Declarations to the world and let the People of England know that it is the right and liberty to which the Subjects of England are borne that Every man hold what he please and publish and preach what he holds that it is the birth-right as some would have it of the free born people of England every man to Worship God according to his own Conscience and to be of what Religion his own Conscience shall dictate Do so and see Fathers and Brethren how long your Civill peace will secure you when Religion is destroyed how long it will be ete your civill peace be turned into civill war for no doubt if this once be granted them but they may in good time come to know also there be them that are instructing them evē in these principles too that it is their birth-right to be freed from the power of Parliaments and from the power of Kings and to take up armes against both when they shall not vote and act according to their humours Liberty of Conscience falsly so called may in good time improve it selfe into liberty of Estates and liberty of Houses and liberty of wives and in a word liberty of perdition of souls and bodies Right Honourable and worthy Gentlemen I cannot stand to dispute this only would I know of you are Idolaters and Hereticks and Blasphemers and Seducers are they evill doers if so then look to your Charge Rom. 13 4. Rulers must be a Terror to evill Doers unless ye mean to bear the sword in vaine And if you will God will not and if God take the Sword into his own hand once as he seems to be a doing of it he will smite to purpose he will execute vengeance throughly both upon the evill doers and upon you that have not been a Terrour to them Oh therefore up and be doing that ye may deliver the Kingdome out of the hand of the Lord for it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God O let not your Patience I hope it is no more all this while be interpreted a Connivence and your Connivence be taken for a Toleration it may be the Kingdoms ruine but it will be your sin a Ser before the Com Feb. 19. 1645. p. 25. Fathers and brethren how will ye call this keeping of Covenant with God Had we a Parliament of Apostate Julians of whom it is reported that at what time he opened the temples of the Heathenish Gods he set open the Christian Churches call'd home all the Christians whom he had banisht both Orthodox and Heretick and gave them as we call it Liberty of Conscience but as Austin more truly phraseth it b Aug. Ep. 166. vid. Ammian Marcel lib. 22. p. 208. 209 Edit Hen Valesii Defence of the Prop. calls this of Julian a brave and Politick thing p 98. Libertatem perditionis Liberty to destroy themselves for that was his Policy and end namely by liberty of all Religions Eo modo putans Christianum nomen posse perire de terris c. to destroy the True and the Professors thereof too Or had we a Parliament of careless Gallio's we should not wonder but for a Parliament of Christians Protestants Professors the Choisest the most active that could be cull'd out of a Christian State the like not under heaven that these things should be done and you hold your Peace and be able to keep your places and not to put on Righteousness as a Breast-plate and the Garments of Vengeance for your Cloathing as it is said of God this makes the Churches abroad to wonder what Englands Parliament is a doing and all at home that love the Lord Jesus Christ more then their own Interests and Notions to be filled with unspeakable trembling and astonishment to wit what God means to do with this poor bleeding Church and State a Ser. before the Comm. Aug. 22. 1645. p. 29. If you mean that England shall be turned into a wildernes and be over-run with Atheisme and Heresie and Prophaneness and Blasphemy you may hold your hands and you need not do it long b Ser. before the Comm Feb. 19. 1645. p. 25. The Errors and Innovations under which we so much groan'd of later years were but tolerabiles ineptiae tolerable trifles childrens play compared with these damnable doctrines Doctrines of Devils as the Apostle calls them Polygamy Arbitrary Divorce Mortality of the Soule No Ministery No Churches No Ordinances No Scripture yea the very Divinity of Christ and the Holy Ghost questioned by some denyed by others And the very foundation of all these laid in such a Schisme of Boundless Liberty of Conscience viz Believe what you will and Preach what you Believe and such Lawless separation of Churches and all these not only whispered in Corners but Preacht on the house top yea publisht in Print before your faces with so much virulency and impudence that I verily believe no Age since the Apostles time could ever parallel a Sermon before the Commons May 26. 1647. p. 25. There be a Generation of men in the Land that stand up for all kind of false Worship that every man may Worship God after his own Conscience or if they will not own it in words at length they will have it in figures And if they may not are ready not only to cry but to act Persecution and that to purpose for while they cry Persecution gladio oris they are ready to act persecution ore gladii I pray God it may never be englished b M. John Lightfoot Ser before the Comm. Aug. 26. 1645. p. 30. Lond-printed for And. Crook at the Green Dragon in Pauls Chur yard 1645. There is great talk of and pleading for Liberty of Conscience for men to do in matters of Religion as Israel did in the booke of Judges whatsoever seemeth good in their own eyes and how that proved there there are sad stories that relate I shall not goe about to determine the question whether the Conscience may be bound or not though for mine own satisfaction I am resolved it may and do hold it a truer point in Divinity that errans
the most part odious I think it might easily appear without disparagement be it spoken That there are as Honest Religious Zealous good men that have willingly and chearfully submitted to the Church of England as the best of them all that have oppos'd the same Our Pious-Fore-fathers to whom under God we owe the purity of our Religion and some of which embrac'd a Stake had more moderate apprehensions then the present Generation For when the Tyranny of the Church of Rome had forc'd them to a Separation and that in Obedience to God who commands us neither to believe Lies nor to commit Sin neither of which they could avoid by continuing in Communion with her though they left many of her Ceremonies the number of them being great and burthensome yet they thought fit to retain some others of them and that for Order and Decency in the Service of God If it be replyed as usually it is That the Reformation being carried on by those that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made of the same Clay and subject to the like passions with others was at best but small and imperfect it being beyond the wit and power of Man either to foresee or remove all Inconveniences on a sudden and therefore that it was the Duty of After-Ages to perfect and complete what they had so happily begun by removing this Rubbish out of the House of God To this I Answer That the Topick of Reformation is too large for a short Preface and beyond my designe onely this by the by I wish that Protestants of whatsoever Perswasion would be more sparing in their Reflections upon our first Reformers for besides the advantage that is hereby given to the Romish Party we ought to consider That abuses are easier complain'd of then redress'd and possibly had the men of this Age been in their stead and under the same Circumstances I do much question if we may take an estimate by their late transactions whether they would have brought the work to so good an Issue as through Gods Blessing they then did But no more of this T is sufficient for my present purpose That since the cause of their Separation from Rome was to avoid her Pollutions 't is evident That these Ceremonies which they thought fit to retaine were in their Judgment no part of them or any other way unlawful the which if my dissenting Brethren will but grant not to talke now off their inexpedience of which neither they nor I must be Judges as it is a fair step to end our Differences so it hence avoidably follows That if some pious men have refus'd the Ceremonies others of as great piety have Conform'd to them if some Learned have disputed others as Learned have defended which may for ever Silence that Branch of the Objection viz. The Learning and Piety of their Parties Nor is there much more weight in that other part of the Objection drawn from their persecutions and sufferings which comes now to be considered A Pretence indeed very plausible and popular for besides its subtle Insinuations upon a natural score we being all obliged by that common bond of Humanity to compassionate those that are in any misery and trouble witness those usual resentments even for a Thief upon the Gallows it hath this farther advantage That wherever in Scripture the word Persecution is mentioned and that either with some Promise annex'd for the support of Gods people who otherwise might despond under such gloomy dispensations or of some Judgment denounced to restrain the fury of their Persecutors I say wheresoever such passages occur as they do frequently in holy Writ they have learned the Art by imposing upon a credulous Vulgar to make the World believe that they are those persecuted Saints for whom those promises are recorded and that all such persons as are any way employed though in Obedience to Authority to suppress them are Persecuting wretches on whom sooner or later all those Judgments threatned shall certainly be inflicted I shall not in the least offend them with any harsh Invectives such Reflections though some ease indeed to a burthen'd mind being very little to the Substance of a Cause but shall only beg their Patience and Charity whilst I endeavour to undeceive them by assuring them in plaine English what without Repentance they will one day find true That they are not Persecuted as Saints but punished as Malefactors And this I shall through Gods assistance undenyably prove in this Method 1. By fixing the Notion in laying down a clear and distinct definition of Persecution 2. By considering how far those present Sufferings to which our Nonconformists are obnoxious do agree with it or differ from it Persecution for Religion for of such onely I now treat may not unfitly be thus described T is an eager violent inflicting of outward temporal Evils for the exercise of true Religion I call it eager violent inflicting so the Lat. c i. e. continue seu continuato motu sequor inimico affectu insequor continuò assidue quaero Mart. Lex Philolog Persequor and the Gr. d i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do fully denote they both signifie so to follow as a Hunter doth his Prey who pursues it till he takes it But because these terms eager and violent do only agree to one sort of Persecution viz. That which is furious and rageing it being sometimes more mild and moderate and since definitions do express the nature but not the degree of the thing defined as when we define Calor we take no notice of it in summo I shall therefore omit these words eager and violent and then the definition I suppose unquestionably stands thus Persecution is an inflicting of outward temporal Evils for the exercise of true Religion Outward temporal Evils either upon the Body as Banishment Imprisonment Tortures Death or upon the Estate as Pecuniary Mulcts confiscation of Goods or upon Reputation and good Name as Slanderings Revilings Reproachful Speeches For the exercise of true Religion which is the Ratio formalis the Constitutive difference whereby Persecution is distinguished from all other violences whatsoever For let the greatest Reproaches and Indignities usher in the most exquisite Tortures and those be concluded by a Death as cruel as the utmost Malice on Earth or Fury in Hâ—ll can contrive yet unless these Tortures be eo nomine inflicted for the sake and cause of Religion we may call them merciless inhumane unnatural Cruelties or any such like name as can most fitly express them but not Persecution By Religion that I may yet more fully explaine the Definition I mean the Worship of God by true Religion the worshipping of him according to his Will the which Will though heretofore variously delivered and in different Dispensations yet those extraordinary ways of Conveyance being now ceased it hath pleased the Goodness and Wisdom of God to deliver in Writing by the Ministry of the Prophets and