and your Cause out of Countenance Scrup. You must understand that though my Reason lies against Uniformity yet I 'm no Advocate for Anarchy and 't is with Non-conformists as with Other People there are Good and Bad of All Sorts But to go with the Moderate Would you have All mens Consciences Govern'd by the same Rule when 't is Impossible to bring them All to the same Mind Conf. Better Particulars suffer for Incompliance with the Publique than the Publique suffer for Complying with Particulars Uniformity is the Ciment of both Christian and Civil Societies Take That away and the Parts drop from the Body one piece falls from Another The Magistrate for Order's sake requires Uniformity You and your Associates Oppose it upon a Plea of Conscience and the Question is Whether He shall Over-Rule Your Opinions or You Over-Rule His Authority This Dispute begets a War for want of a Iudge and to Prevent that Mischief I offer that a Iudge is Necessary Or put it Thus You and I Differ and Possibly we are Both of us in the Wrong but most certainly we are not Both in the Right and yet neither of us but thinks well enough of his own Opinion What 's to be done in This Case shall we wrangle Eternally Scrup. No Wee 'll rather put the matter to Arbitration Conf. Well! but the Arbiter himself is Fallible and may Mistake too or let him have the Wisdome of an Angel he cannot please us Both for That which seems Right to the One will appear Wrong to the Other Shall we stand to his Award what ever it be If not take into your Thought These Consequences You Refuse to submit because 't is Wrong I may refuse by the same Reason though it be Right for every Man's Reason is of Equal Force where there is no Common and Representative Reason to Bind All So that by your Reckoning Every man is in the Right to Himself and in the Wrong to all the World beside every man's hand is against his Brother and his Brother 's against Him At least if I deceive not my self in my perswasion that Nature never produc'd Two persons in all points of the same Judgment Now if you can neither deny Confusion to be the Natural Effect of This Liberty of Judgment nor the want of a Regulating and Decretory Sentence to be the manifest Cause of This Confusion I hope you 'll Grant me the Necessity of an Unaccomptable Judge Scru. Is not the Word of God a sufficient Iudge Conf. No That 's no Iudge but a Rule for Christians to Iudge by and the Great hazard lies upon the Meaning of That Rule What swarms of Heresies have Over-spread This Land since the Bible has been deliver'd up to the Interpretation of Private Spirits Scrup. You say well if you could direct me to a Iudge that we might All Relie upon Conf. And You say something too if you could make appear that None at All is better then the best we have or that Popular Errours Numberless and Inevitable with the Dissolution of Communities to boot are to be preferr'd to the few and only Possible Failings of Authority attended with Peace and Agreement But to come to the short of the Question This is it Whether will you rather have One fallible Iudge or a Million of Damnable Heresies Scrup. Truly as you have reduc'd it to a Certainty of Peace the One way and to as great a Certainty of Discord the Other to a Certainty of Many Errours without a Iudge and to a bare Possibility of some few with One I am content in this Particular to think a Final Iudge Necessary Conf. If you find it so in the Church sure you will not Dispute it in the State especially against an experience too the most forcible of all Reasons We were never troubled with Constructive Necessities with Cavils about the Receptacle of Power and the Limits of Obedience with Distinctions betwixt the Political and the Natural Right of the People the Legal and Personal Will of the Prince and betwixt the Equity and Letter of the Law till Judgment was forc'd from its Proper Course and Channel and the Decision of Right and Wrong committed to the Frivolous and Arbitrary Determinations of the Multitude Scrup. Pray'e by your Leave I am as much for a Iudge as You but not for One Judge to All Purposes nor I confess for any Iudge so Absolute as you would have him Conf. I tell ye again A Iudge and no Absolute Judge is No Judge and you shall as soon find the End of a Circle as of a Controversie by such a Iudge Nor is it my Meaning that One Iudge should serve for All purposes Scrup. Will you Divide your Matter then and Assign to every Judicable Point his Proper Judge Conf. You say well For truly I do not take the Magistrate to be any more a Judge of My Conscience than I am of His. Scrup. 'T is very Right and it were an Encrochement upon the Prerogative of God Himself for him to Challenge it Conf. How comes it now that we that Agree so well i' the End should Differ so much ' i th' Way to 't But I hope the clearing of the next point will set us Through-Right For after the setling of the Iudge we have nothing further to do but to Submit and so wee 'll Forward SECT XIV The Three great Iudges of Mankind are GOD MAGISTRATES and CONSCIENCE Conf. SOme things we do as Men other things as Men in Society and some again as Christians In the first place we are acted by the Law of Individuals which Law is in the second place Subjected to That of Government and Both these Lawes are in the third place Subordinate to That of Religion i. e. the Law of God's Reveal'd Will. So that the Three great Judges of Mankind are God Magistrates and Conscience Man as consisting of Soul and Body may be again Subdivided within Himself Take him in his Lower Capacity and hee 's sway'd by the General Law of Animal Nature but in his Divine part you 'll find him Govern'd by the Nobler Law of Refin'd Reason which Reason in some Respects may be call'd Prudence and in others Conscience according as 't is variously Exercis'd The things which we do purely as Men abstracted from any Ingredients of Policy or Regulated Religion are either Natural Actions Prudential or Moral Of the First sort are Those Actions to which we are prompted by a Natural Impulse in order to the Conservation of Life and Beeing Of the Third sort are such Actions as we perform in Obedience to Moral Principles which are no other than the Divine Will veil'd under the Dictate of Humane Reason and betwixt These Two lies the Region of Middle Actions that is of such Actions as although not of simple and strict Necessity either to Life or Virtue are notwithstanding Useful and Commodious for the Guidance and Comfort of the One and for the Practice of the Other The Accurate
Imprimatur Geo. Stradling S. T. P. Rev. in Christo Pat. D. Gilb. Episc. Lond. à Sac. Domest Aed Sab. 〈◊〉 16. 1662. Toleration DISCUSS'D By ROGER L'ESTRANGE Ferre quam Sortem patiuntur Omnes Nemo recuset Sen. Troas LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in Ivie-Lane 1663. The Praeface I AM not so vain as to expect that any Man will be either the Better or the Wiser for what I write and yet when I consider that God Himself is pleas'd with Free-will Offerings though ne're the Richer for them I make That Thought my Measure and how Incapable-soever of Doing the Publique a Service I think my self yet Honestly Oblig'd to Offer it a Duty and This poor Little is My All. The Subject I Treat of is TOLERATION wherein with Modesty I have not ventur'd beyond my Reach For upon the Ventilation of the Question It seems to mee that it is one of the Hardest Things in the World for the Non-conformists to say What They would have and one of the Easiest on the other side to Overthrow All they can say To give the Reader a Clear Distinct and Impartial Prospect of the Matter I have layd the Debate before him in Colloquy and under the Names of CONFORMITY ZEAL and SCRUPLE are Represented the Three Grand Partyes ORTHODOX PRESBYTERIAN and INDEPENDENT That which first put mee upon this Theme was the Great and Irregular Earnestness that was not long stnce Employ'd toward the Procurement of a Toleration Concerning which I found my self at a Double Loss First touching the Proposition it self and Secondly about the Manner of Promoting it As to the Former Me'thought Toleration in Gross was of something a Mysterious Latitude but upon the taking it in pieces I perceive that nothing can be plainer than the Meaning of it and the Truth is It means not to be understood that they may be sure to make something on 't whether it Hitts or Misses The One way they may do what they please and the Other way there 's a Ground for a Compleynt A Second thing that surpriz'd me not a little was the Manner of Introducing it for it was Usher'd in by All the Querulous wayes of Compleynt and Aggravation Imaginable Which I presume they would have forborn had they but been Acquainted with the Iustices Opinions in the 2d of King James upon that very Point It was demanded by Chancellor Ellesmere Whether it were an Offence punishable and what punishment they deserved who framed Petitions and Collected a Multitude of Hands thereto to Prefer to the King in a Publique Cause as the Puritans had done with an Intimation to the King That if He Deny'd Their Suit many Thousands of his Subjects would be Discontented Whereto all the Iustices Answer'd That it was an Offence Finable at Discretion and very near to Treason and Felony in the Punishment For they Tended to the Raising of Sedition Rebellion and Discontent among the People Upon the Rejection of their Suit the Business was Husht till of Late When the Revival of their Pretensions together with the Dispersing of divers Virulent Libells mov'd me to Gather up my Thoughts which I here submit to the Fate of my other Weaknesses I might say Twenty things to Excuse the slips of my Distracted Leisures but I shall rather Recommend what 's worth the Reading than Trifle away a Complement for that which is not I caus'd a Little Tract lately to be Re-printed under the Title of Presbytery Display'd Who was the Author of it I know not but it is Certainly a Iudicious and well-Order'd Draught of Their Government and may serve to stop Any Presbyterian's Mouth that Opens for a Toleration which how Formidable soever it may Appear in a Petition is Certainly a most Pitifull Thing in an Argument The Contents are to be found at the End of the Book Toleration Discuss'd INTRODUCTION ZEAL and CONFORMITY And to Them SCRUPLE Zeal GOod morrow to ye Conformity Conform Welcome Zeal Is this your Eight a clock As sure as I live A Presbyterian forfeits his Charter that keeps touch with a Son of the Church Zeal 'T is Late I Confess but I could not possibly get away sooner Conf. And I beseech ye if a body may ask what mighty business hinder'd ye Zeal Guess Conf. Why then my Head to a Nut-shell thou hast either been Breathing thy Girles at some Prohibited Lecture or getting Hands against the Act for Uniformity Go to speak Truth What made You and your Ladies so early abroad this Morning for I saw ye at the Back-gate as soon as ye could well find the way to it Zeal Suppose I should tell ye that we went to a Religious Meeting Conf. Then would I tell you again that 't is well your Wife is My Kinswoman Ze. What 's your Conceit for That Conf. I should suspect she might be tempted Else to make your Head ake For Those Assemblies which you call Religious Meetings What are they but close Appointments where the Men meet to Cuckold Authority and the Women if they please to do as much for their Husbands Without Fooling I look upon Conventicling but as a Graver kind of Catter-wawling and in fine 'T is not good to wont our selves to stoln pleasures Ze. You will be Bitter Conf. No no I will not Raillery apart Your Wife 's a very good Lass. But where have you been in Earnest Ze. To tell you the very Truth I have been with my Wife and my Daughter to Ioy Mr. Calamy of his Enlargement Conf. Bless me Is he at Liberty then Ze. Yes He is at Liberty Do ye Wonder at it Conf. No not much But prethee why was he Clapt up Ze. For Preaching Is not That Crime enough Conf. That 's according as the Sermon is For so as a man may order the Matter in a Pulpit I think he may with a better Conscience Deliver Poyson in the Sacrament for the One does but Destroy the Body t'Other the Soul This poysons only the Congregation That the whole Kingdome Ze. I sent ye his Sermon last night have ye overlookt it Conf. Yes And I have weigh'd every Syllable in 't Ze. Well and How do ye find it Conf. Only a Plague-plaister that 's made Publique for the Good of His Majesties Liege-People Find it say ye If ever I live to be King of Utopia I 'le hang him up that Prints the fellow on 't within my Dominions Zeal And what shall become of him that Preaches it I beseech ye Conf. Perhaps I 'le spare him for his Industry for a Presbyterian that Preaches Sedition do's but Labour in 's Calling Ze. Come leave your Lashing and tell me Soberly What hurt do you find in 't Conf. That Hurt that brought the Late King to the Scaffold And in a word which will unsettle the Best Establisht Government in the world with a very small Encouragement That Hurt do I find in 't Ze. Truly My Eyes can discover no such Matter Conf. It may be you 'll see better with
of what he may Tolerate and Deny him the Knowledge of what he may Impose In fine Your Arguments and Opinions duely weigh'd his Majesty has either no Power or no Reason to permit you a Toleration No Power as You state his Capacity and no Reason as you Disclaim his Supremacie Scrup. I do not Oppose the Coactive Power of the Civil Magistrate in Matters of Civil Concernment but I take the Case in Question to be of Another Quality and out of the Verge of the Secular Iurisdiction Conf. I think it will become you then not to Importune his Majesty for the Dissolving of an Ecclesiastical Law before you acknowledge him Vested with the Right of Making it Ze. If you think fit let that Point be the Next Question Conf. Agreed it shall SECT XI The Proper Subject and Extent of Humane Power Conf. AS Reasonable Nature consists of Soul and Body so is the Authority that Governs it Divine and Humane God Eminently over All and Princes Ministerially under Him and as His Substitutes The Dominion of our Souls God reserves peculiarly to Himself committing That of our Bodyes to the Care of the Magistrate Now if Power be a. Divine Ordinance so consequently is Subjection for to Imagine the One without the Other were to Destroy the Ratio of Relatives A sober Disquisition of This Matter would save much Trouble that arises about the Bounds and Limits of our Duty how far Religion binds us and how far Allegeance That they are severable we must not doubt for Truth it self hath said it Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's But that They are only so severable as never to become Inconsistent is founded upon the same Immovable Rock Let every soul be subject c. a Precept of a Perpetual and Universal Operation and Limited neither to Time Place nor Persons Ze. Your Deduction of Government and Subjection from Divine Institution is well enough Coucht and that we are to Obey the Magistrate for God's sake and in subordination to God is Easily Prov'd and Granted but I hear Nothing yet of the Particular Bounds and Terms of Humane Jurisrisdiction What 't is belongs to God and What to Caesar Conf. That I confess is the Pinch of the Question for One Duty comes up so close to the Other that 't is not for Every Common Eye to passe between them Effectually they Touch but in what Point is of a Nice Decision The Readyest way in my opinion to the strict Knowledge of our Duty is by the Lawes and Powers of the Authority for 't is Requisite that a Man know the Rule before he can Observe it Wee are then to Consider that the Almighty Wisdom has Invested Kings with an Unlimited Power of Commanding or Forbidding in all matters which God himself has not either Commanded or Forbidden which Proposition Resolves it self into This Conclusion Whatsoever God has left Indifferent is the subject of Humane Power Scrup. Does not That Opinion destroy Christian Liberty Conf. No but the Denyal of it Destroyes Magistracy If Kings have not This Power they have none at all and it Implyes a Contradiction to suppose any Authority in Nature without it Scrup. But may not a Prince tye himself up in a Thing Otherwise Indifferent Conf. I speak of Power according to the Institution not of Power limited by Paction Scrup. May not the same thing be Indifferent to One and not so to Another Conf. Granted and I pray'e follow it a little further May not every thing Imaginable appear Non-Indifferent to some or other if nothing can be commanded but what upon such a Phansy may be Disobey'd Scrup. Pardon me I do not speak of Matters of Civil Concern but of Matters of Religion Conf. That 's all a Case for you cannot Instance in any One Civil Action that may not be made Relative to Religion But stick to the Mark We are upon the Extent of Humane Power That there is such a Power and That Authoris'd too by God Himself You have already granted Now tell me Upon what shall That Power be Exercis'd if you Exclude things Indifferent One man may have a Reall Scruple and All the Rest Pretend one Who shall Distinguish So that the Rule holding from One to All the Sacred Authority of the Prince becomes Dependent upon the Pleasure of the Subject and the Validity of a Divine and Unchangeable Ordinance is subjected to the Mutable Judgement and Construction of the People Scrup. It may be You Expect the Magistrate should as well have a Power of Judging what 's Indifferent as of Restreyning it Conf. You may be sure I do for otherwise I 'm where I was if I make You the Judge Is 't not all one as to the Magistrate Whether you Refuse upon Pretense that the Thing is not Indifferent or upon Pretense that he cannot Restreyn a Thing Indifferent The Crime indeed is differing in the Subject for the One way 't is an Usurpation of Authority and the Other way 't is a Denyall of it Scrup. Why then it seems I am to Believe any thing Indifferent which the Magistrate tells me is so be it never so Wicked Conf. No There You 're bound up by a Superiour Law Scrup. Have you forgot your self so soon 'T was but just now you would not allow me to be a Iudge and here you Make me One. Conf. Right to your self you are but not to the Publique A Judge of your own Thought but not of the Law Scrup. At your rate of Arguing now from One to All Authority methinks should be as much Endanger'd This way as the Other for All may Iudge Thus as well as One. Conf. 'T is possible they May Nay wee 'll suppose an Imposition foul Enough to move them all to do so and yet there 's a Large Difference for Diversity of Iudgment does not shake the Foundation of Authority and a man may Disobey a sinful Command with great Reverence to the Power that Imposes it Scrup. You were saying even now that my Duty to God and to the King could never be Inconsistent Pray'e How shall I behave my self if the Prince Commands One thing and God Another I cannot Observe the Law without Violence to my Conscience nor Discharge my Conscience without Offence to the Law What Course shall I take to avoid Enterfering Conf. Demean your Self as a Christian toward the Law of God on the One hand and as a Subject toward the Ordinance of God on the Other as Considering that you are Discharg'd of your Obedience but not of your Subjection Scrup. Suppose the Supreme Magistrate should by a Law Establish a False Worship Conf. Hee 's still your Prince and even in This Complication you may acquit your self both to God and Caesar. Divide the Worship from the Magistrate and in so doing you both Fear God and Honour the King and it is only This Loyal and Religious Separation of our Duties that must set us right
Oblig'd to rely upon other Mens Eyes as Totally to Abandon the Direction of his Own or so Unconditionally to swear Obedience to Other Mens Lawes and Perswasions as to hold no Intelligence at all with That Sacred Law and faithfull Counsellor which he carryes in his own Bosom Conf. Forgive me If you Imagine that I would have ye Renounce your Reason No but on the Contrary I would have ye to be Guided and Concluded by 't and only to Obey for Quiet 's sake so far as you can possibly Obey in Conscience Scrup. What if a Single Person hitts That Truth which a General Council Misses Which will you have him follow Truth or Authority Conf. Why truly Both Truth with his Soul and Authority with his Body but so Remote a Possibility must not Presume to Bolster up the Thinkings of a Private Spirit against the Resolutions of Authority yet for the very Possibility's sake wee 'l take That supposition likewise into our Care and Word the sum of the Whole Matter Plainly Thus The Church says ye May do and the Law says ye Must Do That which your Conscience says You Ought not to Do. How will you Reconcile your Duty and your Conscience in This Case Scrup. Very well for I think it my Duty to obey my Conscience upon This Principle that Conscience is God's Substitute over Individuals Conf. Keep to That and Answer me again Is not the Civil Magistrate God's Substitute too If he bee How comes Your Conscience to take Place of His Authority They are Both Commission'd alike and consequently They are Both to bee Obey'd alike which is Impossible where their Commands are Inconsistent Scrup. The Magistrate is a Publique Minister and his Commission does not Reach to Particular Consciences Conf. 'T is very Right and on the other side My friend Scruple is a Private Person and there 's as little Reason to pretend that his Opinion should operate upon a Publique Law So that if I Mistake ye not Wee are Agreed thus far That Every Particular is to look to One and the King to the Whole Scrup. I do not much Oppose it Conf. If your Brother Zeal would deal as candidly with me now about the Ecclesiastical Power as You have done in the Civill we might make short work of This Question and I hope he will not deny that the Church is as well Authoris'd to TEACH and INSTRUCT in all the External Acts of Worship as the Magistrate is to COMPELL to those External Acts. Ze. There is no Doubt but the Church as the Church has a Ministerial Power Ex Officio to Define Controversies according to the Word of God and that A Synod Lawfully Conven'd is a Limited Ministerial and bounded visible Judg and to be Believed in so far as they follow Christ the Peremptory and Supreme Judg speaking in his own Word Conf. This will not do our business yet for if a Synod be but to be Believed in SO FAR as it followes Christ c. They that ought to be Concluded by That Act are left the Iudges of it and the Credit of the Authority rests upon the Conscience or if you please the Phansy or Humour of the Believer and so there 's no Decision Ze. e The Truth is we are to believe Truths Determin'd by Synods to be Infallible and never again lyable to Retraction or Discussion nor because So sayes the Synod but because So sayes the Lord Conf. Still y' are short for 't is not in our Power to Disbelieve what we acknowledge to be a Truth but That which is Truth at the Fountain may become Errour in the Passage or at least appear so to me and what Then Ze. It must be look'd upon as an Errour of the Conscience which is no discharge at all of your Obedience from which Errour you are to be Reclaym'd either by Instruction or Censure For the People are oblig'd to Obey those that are over them in the Lord who watch for their souls as those who must give an Accompt and not Oblig'd to stand to and Obey the Ministerial and Official Judgement of the PEOPLE He that Heareth You MINISTERS of the Gospel not the PEOPLE heareth MEE and he that Despiseth YOU despiseth MEE Conf. Then I find we shall shake hands You two Gentlemen are joyntly engag'd against the Act for Uniformity and yet ye cannot say that it wants any thing to give it the full Complement of a binding Law Whether ye Regard either the Civil or the Ecclesiastical Authority Here 's first the Judgment of the Church Duely Conven'd touching the Meetness and Convenience of the Rites and Forms therein Conteyn'd You have next the Royal Sanction Approving and Authorising Those Rites and Forms and Requiring your Exact Obedience to Them Now so it is that you can neither Decline the Authority of your Iudges nor the Subjection of your Dutyes What is it then that hinders your Obedience Scrup. That which to me is More then all the World It goes against My Conscience Conf. Only That Point then and no More upon This Subject That God is the Iudg of the World that the Church is the Iudg of what Properly concerns Religion that the Civil Magistrate is the Iudg of what concerns the Publique Peace and that Every Mans Conscience is the Iudg of what concerns his Own Soul is already Clear'd The Remaining Difficulty is This How I am to behave my self in a Case where the Law bids me do One Thing and my Conscience Another To take a true Estimate of what 's before us we must first ballance the Two Interests that meet in Competition There is in favour and for the Execution of the Law meaning that of Uniformity 1. The Personal Conscience and 2. the Political Conscience of the King There is likewise for the Equity of it the solemn and deliberate Iudgment of the Church which is Effectually the Publique Conscience and lastly for the Observance of it there is the Duty of the Subject which if it be withdrawn does not only invalidate This Particular Act but it loosens the sinews of Sovereign Authority and which is more it destroyes even a Divine Ordinance for take away Obedience and Government lapses into Confusion Now for the Counterpoize AGAINST This Law and Thus supported appears your Naked Conscience Nay That 's the Fairest on 't It may be worse and in Truth any thing that 's Ill under that name Scrup. But what 's the World to Mee in the scale against my Soul Conf. You have great Reason sure and 't is no more than every man may challenge That is to Stand or Fall to his own Conscience Is That your Principle Scrup. Yes out of doubt 't is Mine and Yours and His and any Man's that's Honest. Conf. Well hold ye a little Your Conscience will not down with This Law it seems and This Law will as little down with Your Conscience Weigh now the Good against the Bad What if it stands What if it