and grave Whatsoever things are just or exactly agreeable to the Rule of doing as we would be done unto Whatsoever things are pure or far from all shew and appearance of unchastity Whatsoever things are lovely or which tend to secure to us love among men such as all works of benignity mercy and Charity Whatsoever things are of good report or which are apt to procure a good name and therefore to prevent all the causes of shame and to give us the greatest freedom and confidence as before God so before Men too If there be any virtue if there be any thing that is by Good men reckoned in the number of Virtues And if there be any praise or any thing laudable and praise-worthy All these things as the Apostle in the general here enjoyneth us to think upon them so they are very particularly and as clearly and perspicuously recommended to us to be carefully observed by us in the New Testament There is nothing which it becometh us to Do or Forbear whether in reference to God our Great Creator Governour and Benefactor or to our Fellow-creatures or to our own Souls and Bodies but here we find it Again we may observe all these in our Saviour's Life also wherein He set us an Example that we should follow his steps And it is a most admirable Example of Piety towards God of Love to him Trust in him and Submission to his Will of Charity to all men even his greatest Enemies and of Humility Meekness Temperance Purity Contempt of the World and Heavenly-mindedness He that shall observe how our Blessed Saviour Lived cannot be ignorant of any of those Laws of Righteousness and Goodness which before his coming the World was so lamentably in not a few instances to seek in the knowledge of through that blindness which by the customary gratifying their vile Affections men had generally contracted I say he that is acquainted with the Life of our Saviour cannot easily be ignorant of any of those Laws although he never understood what particular Commands or Prohibitions his Precepts consist of So that this is the First thing Christ Iesus hath done for us in order to our being made Free He hath given us fully to understand what it is to be Free what are those several Rules of Righteousness and Goodness in compliance with which consists our Liberty Secondly Our Saviour hath also prescribed most Effectual Means by making use of which we shall most certainly obtain and maintain this Liberty that is obey those Laws of Liberty which he hath given us These Means are especially Believing himself to be the Son of God and consequently the Truth and Divinity of his Doctrine Hearing his Word and Receiving it into honest hearts or Pondering it in our minds and Meditating upon it with the Design of conforming our selves to it Prayer to God in his Name together with Faith in his Bloud for the Remission of our Sins and in his Power and Goodness for the Subduing our Lusts and the making us Obedient to his Precepts That is for the blessing our Endeavours to that End Setting his Example before our Eyes which is an Excellent Means to beget in us a likeness to him and to our partaking of his Spirit and Temper Watching over our own Hearts and against Temptations Denying our selves and not indulging our Sensitive Part. Advising in all Cases of doubt and difficulty with our Pastors and Spiritual Guides whom Christ hath given to his Church For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the Edifying of the Body of Christ Ephes. 4. 12. And obeying them which have the Rule over us in the Lord they watching for our Souls as those that must give an Account Heb. 13. 17. Which Duties were never more neglected than in this Age to the great scandal of our Reformed Religion Keeping in the Communion of the Church And not forsaking the Assembling our selves together or our publick Assemblies as the manner of some is Heb. 10. 25. And now is the manner of vast numbers of us though no Terms of Communion are required that contradict any one Text of Scripture which Separation we are too like ere long to pay dear for The Religious observation of the Lords Day both in Publick and Private is another singular Help and Advantage Though few Professors of Christianity seem now to have any great sense of it to the great prejudice of their own Souls and the Souls of those who are under their charge And to these add in the last place because 't is most convenient to place them here The Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper By Baptism we are admitted into the Church of Christ and brought into a New State We are baptized into the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost or devoted to their service And the Father in this Sacrament takes us into his special care and into the Relation of his Children whereas before we were only the Children of Adam The Son receives us as members of his Body the Church We are baptized into one Body as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 12. 13. that Body whereof Christ is the Head And the Holy Ghost who is the Author of Grace and Spiritual Life taketh us for his Temples We are said to Receive the Holy Ghost in Baptism to receive that power and strength from him which will enable us to Mortifie the deeds of the Body and to acquire the Divine Graces and Virtues which we shall certainly do if we refuse not to Exert and Improve it when we come to years of Discretion and our Faculties are ripe enough for that purpose In Baptism the Holy Spirit communicates to us the Beginnings of a new life which may afterwards be improved to large measures of Virtue and Goodness if we be not wilfully wanting to our selves in the other Means And in the Lords Supper as we renew the Covenant we made in Baptism to renounce the Devil and all his works c. So all worthy Receivers of that Sacrament receive great additions of Grace and Spiritual Strength are fed with the spiritual food of the most Precious Body and Bloud of Christ. And of all the Means prescribed for the Subduing our Lusts and Growing in Grace the Frequent Receiving the Lord's Supper is very deservedly accounted the Principal Certainly there is not any Ordinance wherein sincere Souls do so experiment the Communications of the Holy Spirit by which they are so Strengthened with strength in their Souls Nor are there any such Strong and Spriteful Christians any so confirmed and rooted in Goodness in the love of God and their Neighbour and all the Christian Virtues as those who take all occasions to attend upon it with a thankful sense of the infinite love of God and Christ to them and sincerely design in so doing a fuller participation of the Divine nature But this intimation that these two Sacraments are conveyances of Grace and Strength leads me to shew that
besides her Authority She will have your Assent to their being of Divine Authority to depend wholly upon her Testimony Notwithstanding that God Almighty hath vouchsafed to the World marvellously full and plentiful Evidence thereof and such as is adapted to the capacities of all those who have the use of Reason but never once mentioned this as a part of that Evidence and therefore much less can it be thought the Whole How infinitely ill hath this Corrupt Church deserved at the hands of all Christians although this were the onely Abuse she had put upon them For to say nothing of her Horrible Pride and Uncharitableness in making the truth of the Scriptures dependent on her Testimony that her Pretence supposing her making her self the onely true Church this is the greatest injury imaginable to Christianity nor can she take a surer course than this to make all men Infidels And that upon these two Accounts First This Pretence of hers is immediately founded upon a Precarious and most Evidently false Principle viz. That of her Infallibility I dare appeal to those of her own Sons who have studied the Controversie whether there was ever a more shamefully baffled Cause in the World than this is Whether by their Infallible Church they mean with the Iesuits the Pope alone or with others the Pope with his General Council that is a pack of Bishops and Priests of his own Faction As the Psalmist saith If the Foundations be destroyed what shall the Righteous do So if this be the Foundation of our Christian Faith and that be proved to be a Rotten Foundation as nothing was ever proved if this be not then what shall we Christians do We must then acknowledge our selves a Generation of most Credulous Fools and that our Faith is vain If the Foundation be tottering the whole Superstructure must fall to the Ground But so fond is this Unsatiably Covetous and Ambitious Church of her Great Diana Infallibility by the Pretence whereof she hath raised her self to such a Height and Grandeur that she is well content if that must fall that our Saviour and his Apostles both the Old and New Testament should fall with it And she hath done all that lies in her to make it necessary that those who shall have the wisdom to reject her Ridiculous Doctrine of Infallibility should at the self-same time renounce Christianity If Popery were Chargeable with no other Crime as it is with innumerable others and many of them intolerable I say were it Chargeable with no other Crime but the making our Belief of the Authority of the Books of Scripture to be founded on the Infallibility of the Romish Faction we ought to be as zealous for the Preventing its Reestablishment in this Nation from whence it hath happily been twice Expelled as we are desirous to Preserve the Christian Religion Secondly The Romish Churche's making her Authority the sole Foundation of our Belief of the Scriptures makes the Testimony of the Spirit to the Truth of Christianity in our Saviour when on â—arth and in the Apostles and others in the Primitive Ages to be now perfectly Insignificant I think it makes them to be so as to the Church Representative for she pretends to her Infallibility and consequently to her Infallible Assurance of the Truth of Christianity as an immediâ—te Gift of the Holy Ghost therefore what need hath she of the Testimony of Miracles But as to Private Christians I can by no means understand in what stead they stand them for if the Churches Authority be necessary to their believing the truth of the Scriptures and therefore to their believing that there were those Miracles really wrought which the Writings of the Apostles tell us of then why may they not without any more ado make her Authority the immediate ground of their Assent to the truth of Christianity It is said that the truth of the Matters of Fact are not knowable at this distance such as whether there were such Persons as our Saviour and his Apostles whether they performed such Miracles and the Apostles wrote such Books c. but by the Tradition of the Church because no such Matters are to be known at any considerable distance but by Tradition To this it is Answered that it is one thing to believe the Matters of Fact upon the Churche's Tradition and another to believe them upon her Authority founded upon her Infallibility Now this latter we reject but adhere to the former as a Ground of our belief of those things But then by the Tradition of the Church we are far from meaning that of Rome onely We mean the Catholick Church or the whole Collective Body of Christians throughout the World from the Apostles times down to this present Age of which the Roman Church is but a Part and therefore does Impudently in appropriating Catholicism to her self and that a very Vitiated Part too and that Church Representative an exceedingly small Part. And we receive the Tradition of the Catholick Church as a Ground as I said of believing these Matters not as tâ—e Ground because we take in another Tradition viz. that of those who are out of the Church and Enemies to Christianity the Iews especially In short we believe those and the like matters of Fact upon the same ground that we believe all other wherein Religion is not concerned but there are Circumstances which give the Tradition of Christian matters of Fact a mighty Advantage above other Traditions as unquestionable Assurance as these give men when they are General and Uninterrupted But 't is well known to all who are not strangers to the Popish Writers what lamentable work they make in proving the Testimony of the Church to be the foundation of our Faith concerning the Authority of the Scriptures This Proof they fetch out of the Scriptures themselves and their main Text for this purpose and for the Infallibility of their Church is those words of S. Paul 1 Tim. 3. 15. where he calls the Church the Pillar and Ground of Truth But what a manifest Circle is this We ask them how it appears that the Scriptures are the Word of God They answer it appears from the Testimony of the Church We ask again how it appears that the Testimony of the Church is true They reply it appears from the Scriptures And so they prove the Authority of the Scriptures by the Testimony of the Church and then wheel about again and prove the Authority of the Church by the Testimony of the Scriptures But again We can either be certain of the truth of these words of S. Paul setting aside the Authority of the Church or we cannot be Certain If we can be Certain why then not of the truth of the whole Scripture as well as of this single Text If we cannot be certain of the truth of this Text without the consideration of the Churche's Authority what Folly or rather Knavery is it to make this Text an Argument to prove the thing
violent hands upon himself rather than that Usurper should be his Master The Jewish Nation being besieged in Ierusalem thought it more Eligible to suffer the most direful Calamities such as are not to be parallel'd in any other History than yield themselves Captives to Titus and put their Necks under the Roman Yoke Both single persons and Communities esteem all their other Enjoyments but little worth whilest Liberty is wanting nor hath any one thing occasioned so much Bloudshed in the world as the Defence or Recovery of Liberty Though Tacitus tells us that 't was greatly deliberated among the Gallican Cities whether Liberty or Peace was to be preferred yet ordinarily without the least consultation when these two stand in competition the former is chosen and Peace is forced to give way to and sold for Liberty There is no Suffering so impatiently born as the loss or but Infringment of Liberty nor are any looked upon as such Enemies to Mankind or have so hateful a character as the Invaders of it But yet as inamoured with Liberty as we all are the generality are lamentably ignorant of its true nature and wherein it mainly and principally consisteth A Spartan being asked Quid sciret replied Scio quid est liberum esse I know what Liberty and Freedom meaneth But I fear there are very few Comparatively that can truly return this answer nay that most are so strangely mistaken in this matter as to account the worst of Slaveries the most desirable Liberty and the chiefest of Liberties the most intolerable Slavery But if we will believe our Blessed Saviour who being the Wisdom of the Father can best inform us we shall be satisfied that there is no Liberty like that which is of his bestowing He hath said Iohn 8. 36. If the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye shall be really free and not only in shew in outward appearance and opinion you shall be in the truest and most excellent sence free Which words do plainly tell us that all other Liberties are unworthy of that name in comparison of that which is conferred by himself And what I now said of Liberty in the general may as truly be affirmed of Christian Liberty viz. First That there is nothing hath raised more dust or occasioned more sad feuds in the Christian World than this hath done The great Ball of Contention hath been Christian Liberty among the professed Disciples of Christ. Such an opinion is conceived of it that 't is never thought too dearly bought This is the Good Old Cause for which multitudes have been very liberal of both their Fortunes and Lives and no one thing hath been esteemed better if so well deserving the price of bloud The pretence of Christian Liberty is of all other the most Plausible and Popular and nothing hath been more unhappily successful in raising Tumults and exciting the People to take the Field Nay this hath been held so Sacred a thing if it be lawful to judge of mens opinions by their practices as to be able to hallow the unholiest actions and to sanctifie the most apparently wicked when designed for the preserving or regaining thereof And therefore Secondly Too many that are called Christians as I should not need to add must needs very grosly mistake the nature of that they are so fond of And as great zeal as they shew for Christian Liberty do as little desire that which really is so and is the chiefest instance of it Upon which account I presume 't will be thought no needless labour to endeavour to rectifie mens apprehensions about the nature of this Liberty And in order hereunto I design with Gods assistance to shew in the following Discourse First That the most excellent and most highly to be valued Liberty doth consist in an intire compliance with the Laws of Righteousness and Goodness or in freedom from the dominion of corrupt and sinful Affections Secondly That herein that Liberty principally or rather wholly consisteth which our Blessed Saviour hath purchased for us and in his Gospel proclaimed to us Which two Propositions being demonstrated we shall Thirdly Draw distinctly from each several useful inferences where particularly the false notions which too many have conceived of Christian Liberty shall be effectually confuted SECT I. That the most excellent and most highly to be valued Liberty doth consist in an intire Compliance with the Laws of Righteousness and Goodness Or in Freedom from the dominion of corrupt and sinful Affections CHAP. I. This shewed in the General from Texts of Scripture and further confirmed by those who were strangers to Divine Revelation NOW in the General that this is so those forecited words of our Saviour Iohn 8. 36. do give us assurance For the Freedom which Christ there commends as the true Freedom by way of Eminence is this from the dominion of sin and corrupt affections This will appear by considering the Context Our Saviour having said verse 31 32. to those Iews that believed on him If you continue inmy words then are ye my disciples indeed and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free It follows ver 33. They answered him we be Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any man how sayest thou ye shall be made free They answered not the Believers but some of the Company that came with no good design We be Abrahams seed we are not descended from the Canaanites or other servile people but from Abraham and from him not by Hagar the Bond-woman but by Sarah the Free-woman We are of a Generous and Illustrious extract And were never in bondage to any man as we were not born slaves so neither have at any time been made slaves But how could they say this whenas they were formerly in bondage both to the Egyptians and Babylonians with divers others and even now subjected to the power of the Romans The truth is if they spake this concerning their Nation the saying was an impudent and loud Falshood as it is usual for men when they are vaunting and boasting to make bold with truth but if they understood it of their own particulars and they meant that they were not in Personal servitude had not lost their natural Liberty as Men though they were in a Political servitude as a Nation their saying that they were Abrahams seed came in impertinently It follows ver 34. Iesus answered them Verily verily I say unto you whosoever committeth sin is the Servant of sin He that is a worker of iniquity is inslaved and brought into a servile state thereby Ver. 35. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever but the Son abideth for ever Or those who are in this servile state under sin though they may for a time be members of Gods houshold they shall at length be for ever Cast out but the Son hath a right to continue there and to the enjoyment of his Fathers Inheritance Then
of Grace should no more have hindred his Salvation than God's Threatning against Nineveh The cause of Rejection or Damnation is Sin in man which will not hear neither receive the promise of the Gospel c. It is not a Christian man's part to attribute his Salvation to his own Free-will with the Pelagian and extenuate Original Sin nor to make God the Author of ill and damnation with the Manichee nor yet to say that God hath written Fatal Laws and with necessity of Destiny violently pulleth the one by the hair into Heaven and thrusteth the other head-long into Hell I have thus at large transcribed the words of these two Holy Bishops and Martyrs for the Reformed Religion because the Books are not easie to be met with and Bishop Hooper's not to be light on without great difficulty And I say by these Citations to which we might have added others it is very apparent not only that they undoubtedly believed the Doctrine of Christ's dying for all men and were zealous Assertors of it too but also that they rejected that Doctrine of Fatal Decrees which is the Foundation of the contrary Opinion I cannot but take notice by the way how Unreasonable and Uncharitable those men are who clamour at such a rate against their Brethren as Innovators and Apostates from the Church of England for their asserting no worse Doctrine than we have now seen was heartily approved by these Ancient and Eminent Fathers of our Church The Doctrine of which Church I presume they 'l have the Modesty to acknowledge they were as fit judges of as themselves But I must hasten to that which is much more to our present purpose viz. That no Doctrine is more clearly or fully asserted in the Holy Scriptures than this of Vniversal Redemption And that there may remain no longer the least doubt or scruple in any of our breasts concerning it let us take notice of these following particulars First How those that have a share in Christ's Redemption are expressed by our Saviour and his Apostles They are expressed by the words SINNERS indefinitely the WORLD ALL the WHOLE WORLD EVERY MAN And can the Wisdom of man invent more plain significant and full words by which to express the Universality of Mankind 1. Those whom Christ came and died to save that is to put into a Salvable state so that it will be wholly long of themselves if they perish are expressed by the word Sinners indefinitely S. Paul saith 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Iesus Christ came into the world to save Sinners of which I am chief Now 't is a known Maxim that An indefinite Proposition is equivalent to an Vniversal one And our Saviour himself saith that He came to call sinners to repentance Luke 5. 32. And to seek and save that which was lost Chap. 19. 10. He makes no exception of Sinners or Lost persons and therefore what can they be less than All Mankind But if this be not satisfactory 2. They are expressed by the word World Our Saviour saith Iohn 3. 16 17. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved I could not disparage any ones understanding more than by endeavouring to satisfie him that 't is a most pitiful and senseless shift to say that by the World is meant all the Elect in the world that is some exceeding few of the world in comparison of the rest For besides that this is to make nonsence of the former Verse as must needs be obvious to every body so by taking the same Liberty in interpreting other Texts the Bible would be made the most insignificant Book in the world The Generality of men is ordinarily called the World and Bad men are sometimes so called in Scripture because they are the Generality but to express the incomparably lesser part of men by the word World is such a Figure as was never heard of 3. They are expressed by the word All to put us more out of doubt 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that died for them and rose again Now did ever the word All signifie a few And that by All is to be understood the Universality is plain from the former of these Verses where the Apostle proves that all were dead or obnoxious to death by this Argument that Christ died for all But we will not question whether all in the largest sence were obnoxious to death and therefore all must be understood in the same extent when it is said that Christ died for all or we shall make the Apostle a very sad Arguer For how could it follow from hence that Christ died for some that therefore all without exception were dead Again 1 Tim. 2. 6. we read that Christ gave himself a Ransom for all And ver 4. that He will have all to be saved and come to the knowledge or Acknowledgment of the truth And once more 1 Tim. 4. 10. that He is the Saviour of all men but especially of those that believe So that those that believe are not the all he is the Saviour of the all being distinguished from them And the meaning of the words is sufficiently obvious viz. He is so the Saviour of all as to put them into a capacity of Salvation but he is so the Saviour of those that believe as that they shall be actually saved Those that so believe as to obey the Gospel are at present in a state of Salvation and if they persevere shall be undoubtedly saved 4. Those whom Christ died for and came to save to make it still more out of doubt if it be possible are expressed by the Whole World 1 John 2. 6. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous who is the Propitiation for our sins and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole World Nay 5. They are expressed by Every man Heb. 2. 9. But we see Iesus who was made a little or for a little while lower than the Angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour that he by the grace of God should taste death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for every man And this is the fullest and most Comprehensive Expression that can be imagined If after all these most express Affirmations in such variety of the plainest words it shall still be asserted that the Doctrine of Universal Redemption is Heretical or false there needs no other Reply but this Let Christ be true and his Holy Apostles and everyman a Liar that dares to
contradict them Secondly As our Saviour and his Apostles do so express the Persons for whom he died as that they must necessarily be the Universality of Mankind so we learn from S. Paul that the Remedy by Christ is of equal extent with the mischief occasioned by Adam That the Sore is not so broad but the Plaister is every whit as broad Rom. 5. 18. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life Can anything be said plainer than this is in these words viz. That as many as fell by the Transgression of Adam were designed to be recovered by the Righteousness of Christ But it is Objected that it follows in the 19. ver that By the obedience of one shall Many he made Righteous As our Saviour himself saith This is the New Testament in my bloud which was shed for Many for the Remission of Sins But that this is a Strange objection will appear by comparing the latter part of that 19. ver with the former For as by one mans disobedience Many were made sinners So that as many were put into a possibility of being justified by the Righteousness of Christ and we do not desire that more should as were made Sinners or made liable to condemnation by the Disobedience of Adam And by this means the Reign of Grace to Eternal life was designed to be no more limited than was the Reign of Sin to death As it follows in the 21. ver That as Sin hath reigned unto death even so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto Eternal life by Iesus Christ our Lord. And it is not to be wondered at that the word Many should signifie All for it is well known that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Many or the Many is used in other Greek Authors to signifie all as well as in the New Testament So that these Texts do most necessarily and plainly speak thus much That none that hear the Gospel shall fall short of Salvation but through their Unbelief and Disobedience their wilful rejecting the Remedy offered them Nor any neither that never heard the Gospel merely for the Transgression of their first Parents but only for their own Sins I mean their wilful disobedience to that light they have And that none to whom the Gospel is preached are excluded from Salvation by Christ is manifestly implied in those words of our Saviour Iohn 3. 14. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life As the Brazen Serpent was erected for the Cure of all that were stung by the Fiery Serpent none excepted but such as would not look up to it for that end So none shall be shut out from the benefit designed by the Son of man's being lifted up upon the Cross but such as will not believe that is apply themselves to him in that way which he hath appointed for the obtaining of it And though our Saviour saith ver 19. of that Chapter that This is the condemnation that a light is come into the World Yet he immediately explains himself in the following words and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil Or Mens being condemned by the occasion of his coming is to be imputed to their Rejecting him and so refusing to comply with the most reasonable terms of his New Gracious Covenant not to his or his Father's design in his Coming For he saith Iohn 12. 47. I came not to judge the World but to save the World Thirdly We are assured that Christ died even for those that perish The Apostle saith 1 Cor. 8. 11. If any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the Idols Temple shall not the Conscience of him that is weak be imboldened to eat those things which are offered to Idols and through thy knowledge shall the weak Brother perish for whom Christ died Here it is supposed that a man may perish for whom Christ died And consequently that he died for Reprobates themselves that is those that have made themselves so for if Christ died for all there can be no other Reprobates Again Rom. 14. 15. Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died And the Author to the Hebrews expresly preacheth this Doctrine Chap. 10. 29. Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the bloud of the Covenant wherewith he was Sanctified or Consecrated an unholy thing S. Peter likewise asserts the same 2 Epist. 2. 1. But there were false Prophets also among the People even as there will be false Teachers among you who privily will bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction So that these vile wretches were not destroyed because Christ did not redeem them for they are said to be bought or redeemed by him as well as others but they brought upon themselves swift destruction Lastly If this Doctrine be false that Christ died for all then none are or can be condemned for not Believing in him notwithstanding that the condemnation of men is so continually ascribed thereunto For 't is a plain case that those for whom Christ did not die can be no more obliged to believe in him than the Devils are And to say that any are condemned for not doing that which it was not their duty to do will I hope be acknowledged the grossest absurdity This little in comparison of what might be said to demonstrate the truth of this Great Article of our Faith is much more than barely sufficient to give us an undoubted assurance of it The truth is the Sun doth not shine more bright in the Firmament than doth this Doctrine in the New Testament And I know nothing we can be assured of upon Scripture Authority if this be False or Uncertain I verily believe that there are few of the Greatest Points of our Christian Faith but may as plausibly be objected against as this Doctrine from Scripture 'T is said indeed by our Saviour Iohn 10. 5. I lay down my life for my sheep But did he ever say I lay down my life for none but my sheep If he had we must have concluded either that the whole World are his Sheep or that which is far worse that he said and unsaid and contradicted himself and so destroyed the Foundation of our Faith and Hope But in saying He laid down his life for his sheep his meaning was that those who obeyed his voice should receive the benefit of his death and such Sheep he would have all to be For as we have seen in 1 Tim. 2. 4. He would have all men to be saved and to come to the acknowledgment of the truth Again our Saviour saith that He
of God the Powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore Resisteth the Power Resisteth the Ordinance of God c. So that all we assert is this that we are bound to obey our lawful Governours for God's sake who hath invested them with the Authority they have over us and commanded us to obey those Laws of theirs which are not contradictory to any of His. Nor do we say that Humane Authority can make more Duties or Sins than God hath made or to speak properly and strictly can make any thing to be a Duty or Sin for it can only Command or Forbid and what it Commands if lawful the Divine Authority makes it a Duty and what it Forbids if not a Duty the Divine Authority makes it a Sin Or to speak in the words of the Learned Bishop Taylor Humane Authority doth not make the action of disobedience to be a Sin It makes that the not compliance of the Subject is Disobedience but it is the Authority of God which makes Disobedience to be a Sin And what immediately follows deserves also to be transcribed in this place viz. And though no Humane Power can give or take Grace away yet we may remember that we our selves throw away God's Grace or abuse it or neglect it when we will not make use of it to the purposes of Humility Charity and Obedience all which are concerned in our Subordination to the Laws There is also this difference between the Obligations of Divine and Humane Laws viz. The Divine Laws bind our Thoughts and the Sense of our Minds they bind us not onely to obey them but to think them also Wise and Good Laws But so do not Humane Laws they oblige onely to Obedience but not to the thinking them such as ought or are fit to be imposed A man may think a Humane Law imprudent or unreasonable and be guilty of no Transgression if notwithstanding he complies with it I mean provided he keeps his thoughts to himself or does not make them publick The forementioned Worthy Prelate layeth down no sewer than Ten or Eleven differences of Divine and Humane Laws in their obligation in his Ductor Dubitantium Whether they will all hold or no or may not be reduced to a smaller number I will not take upon me to say but thither I refer the Reader And thus much may serve to be spoken to the First thing premised viz. That Conscience is not so Sacred a thing as to be uncapable of being bound by Humane Laws Secondly I premise also that no man can be deprived properly of the true Liberty of his Conscience by any Power on Earth I mean without his own consent no Mortal nor any Creature is able to invade it This will appear by considering what that is which is called Conscience Conscience is The Mind of a man considered as possessed with certain practical principles and comparing his own actions with those principles doth according as he finds them agreeing or disagreeing with them judge of himself either absolve or condemn himself So that there are three Offices of Conscience The first is That of assenting to and embracing certain practical principles as Laws for the governing a man's self The second is That of comparing ones self or actions with those Rules or Principles The third That of passing judgment of ones self accordingly Now that is properly Liberty of Conscience and that onely which relates to the execution of these three Offices But the Acts of Conscience in executing these Offices being all Internal and within a mans Soul how can its Liberty in exerting those Acts be infringed by any Humane Power What Earthly Power can make me Assent to or believe what it pleaseth Can so give Laws to my Conscience as to necessitate me to receive them for such and to think them good Laws and safe to steer my Actions by Again how can any such Power deprive me of my Liberty to compare my Actions with such Rules as I think I am obliged to be governed by And having reflected upon my self and actions and made this comparison how can any such Power abridge me of Liberty to Absolve my self if I find my actions agreeing with those Rules or to Condemn my self if I find the contrary Can make me Condemn when I ought to Acquit my self or Acquit when I see reason to Condemn my self So that the Liberty which is with so much heat contended for by some and inveighed against by others under the name of Liberty of Conscience is truly and properly Liberty of Practice not of Conscience And the great thing in contest is Whether a Liberty of doing what a man's Conscience tells him he ought to do and of forbearing what it tells him he ought to forbear be an inviolable Right and not to be invaded by Humane Authority This being the true state of the Question I shall endeavour an Answer thereunto in these following Propositions Prop. 1. That there are two Extremes about this matter to be carefully avoided First That of Asserting an unlimited Liberty of practising according to a mans Conscience Secondly That of over-great severity in Restraining this Liberty First As to the Extreme of Asserting an unlimited Liberty of practising according to a man's Conscience This will appear to be an Extreme indeed and a very wild and mad one if we consider that there is scarcely any thing so extravagant or wicked but the Consciences of some or other may urge them to it Nay it is certain that men have pretended Conscience for some of the most impious and most villanous actions in the World So the Papists have done among our selves we all know And another sort of People too whose principles though very bad were better than theirs And it is not possible for us to know that their pretences of Conscience were mâ—re pretences Nor is it hard for us to perswade our selves that through the just judgment of God for past provocations the Spirit of delusion may be permitted to have such power over some mens Consciences as that they shall call evil good and good evil put darkness for light and light for darkness and bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter for we find a Woe pronounced against such as do so Esay 5. 20. which there would not have been if there were no such men nor could be And it is said of some 2 Thess. 2. 10 11 12. that Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved God shall send them or permit to be sent them strong delusions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strength of delusion that they should believe a lie That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness Our Saviour foretold his Disciples Iohn 16. 2. that The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service That is the time is coming when men shall kill you out of Conscience As no doubt the Papists have done
in Controversie by when the truth of this Text is questionable upon the same grounds that the truth of the Scriptures in general is Again When they say that the Testimony of the Church is the Ground of this our Faith they tell us that by the Church they mean the Church of Rome and that She onely is the True Church We reply that there are a many Societies of Christians in the World that hold no Communion with the Church of Rome and Each of these calls it self a True Church and therefore how shall we know that they are none of them so but that the Church of Rome alone is They tell us that this Church alone hath the Notes and Characters of the True Church We ask again how it doth appear that those Notes and Characters they give are true and genuine and if they are that their Church onely hath them Here they are forced to fly again to the Scriptures and produce us some which they would have us believe are very pertinent to the purpose though none but those who see by their Light are able to discern any such matter But whether they be to the purpose or no is no part now of our Enquiry but this is that which we shew from hence how still they are intangled in their own Net and Run round in a Circle Yet once again these People would perswade us that there is no knowing the Scriptures to be of Divine Authority but by the Testimony of their Church whenas 't is impossible to know that there is any such thing in being as a Church but by the Scriptures And thus you see what prime Christians these Romanists are what Worthy Catholicks If there were no better Champions than these for the Authority of the Scriptures or the Truth of Christianity Atheists and Infidels long since would have filled all Places As it is well known how they abound in the Popish Countries and most of all in Italy and of all Italy most in Rome And but for Old Mother Ignorance whom they have a marvellous Fondness for as well they may their Holy Mother the Church would by this time have had but a very small number of Children or Friends But I would this had been the worst on 't as alas it is not For Multitudes among them being well aware that they are merely imposed on and being Acquainted with no better than an Implicit Faith and thinking that no more is to be said for Christianity than they learn from them shake off both their Popish and Christian Faith together But we must not let that forementioned Text wholly pass on which is laid such mighty Stress for the proving of the Infallibility of the Roman Church which gives her such a plausible Pretence for the Enslaving of Mens Minds and Understandings The whole Verse runs thus with the Verse foregoing Thâ—â—e things write I unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the living God the Pillar and Ground of Truth According to Episcopius his reading of these latter words it is not the Church that is here called the Pillar and Ground of Truth but God manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit c. in the next Verse For he makes that 15. Verse to conclude with living God Verses and Pointings being arbitrary and The Pillar and Ground of Truth to begin the next Verse thus The Pillar and Ground of Truth and without controversie the great Mystery of Godliness is God manifested in the flesh c. But there is no need of using any artifice to make these words unserviceable to the design of proving the Infallibility of the Church of Rome for all that can be gathered from them is no more than this That the Church is the support of that Truth which is necessary to Salvation viz. the Doctrine of the Gospel That which preserveth it in the world is the Churches constant profession of it and standing up for it That is this is the External and Visible means whereby this Truth is kept from perishing and being lost Or according to Grotius The Church doth uphold and lift up the Truth it causeth it not to slip out of mens minds and also to be beheld far and near For the Testimony of many good men who all say that they received these Doctrines and Precepts from the Apostles must needs have great force and efficacy upon those who are not obstinate and contumacious So that First This Great man seems to understand by the Church in this place onely that which was most Ancient But Secondly There is no reason at all to understand by the Church here onely the Church Representative but the whole Body of Christians must necessarily be meant It being called the House of God but the Apostles Bishops and Pastors are called the Builders of the House and Governours never the House it self And besides the Church which is here called the Pillar and Ground of Truth is that over part of which Timothy presided That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God c. that is as a Bishop and Pastor in it Thirdly If it should be understood of the Church Representative 't is however intolerable impudence to make it onely the Roman But Fourthly This Text makes nothing to the purpose of Infallibility in the Church of Rome's sence understand by the Church of the living God which Church you please especially if you do not limit it to the First Age As is plain from what hath been said and it needs no more words to make it plainer Now how can we have greater assurance that the Church of Rome is an Arrant Impostor than this one thing gives us viz. That She will not allow us the Liberty of judging for our selves The Great Apostle S. Paul allowed this Liberty to the Corinthians in those words I speak as unto wise men judge â—e what I say 1 Cor. 10. 15. And dare they say that he overshot himself in that saying or passed a mere Complement upon the Corinthians 'T will not be at all strange if they do considering how many worse things several of them have said of this Apostle But I say this Church will not permit us to see with our own Eyes but we must take the whole of our Religion upon trust that is upon her bare word pin our whole Faith upon her Sleeve and receive the most Fundamental Articles upon her Warrant and Authority Nay though she would seem to give us leave to use our Reason in the choice of our Church yet neither doth she this really but what she gives with one hand takes away again with the other in that she will not suffer us to judge of the sence of Scripture and consequently not of those Texts whereby she pretends to prove her self the onely true Church For if we be
many thousands of good Christians And it is well known that their principles are such as that they cannot be true to them and not think themselves bound in Conscience to Stab and Poison Burn and Massacre all without exception whom they call Hereticks whensoever an opportunity is put into their hands S. Paul as cruel a persecutor of Christians as he was before his Conversion did then think not onely that he did what was lawful but that he did his duty too For saith he Acts 26. 9. I verily thought with my self or I was verily perswaded in my Conscience that I ought to do many things contrary the Name of Jesus of Nazareth Among which things he reckoneth in the two following verses Shutting up many of the Saints in Prison and giving his voice against them to be put to death and compelling them to Blaspheme No man is able to imagine what dismal Effects Superstition and Enthusiasm may have upon the Mind and Conscience So that this will be easily granted me by men of any Sobriety that that which they call Liberty of Conscience must be limited by Governours if they will have any concern for the Honour of God the Welfare of Religion the Safety of the Community and the Preservation of Government it being impossible that there should be any such thing as Government if all shall be exempt from Punishment who shall plead Conscience for their Disobedience nay though they should be known to plead it never so truly Now it being so evident that Conscience may and must be restrained in its Liberty we clearly gain one point by it and that no small one viz. That Liberty of Conscience is not to be necessarily allowed under the notion of Liberty of Conscience For this Liberty as such is not an inviolable Right if it be not to be claimed in all cases without exception Secondly As to that which we call the other Extreme of over-great Severity in Restraining this Liberty no man surely will question but that there may be an erring on this hand also But how to steer betwixt Scylla and Charybdis these two extremes is I think one of the greatest difficulties And requires a conjunction of the greatest Prudence with as great Goodness But as to what measures in the general are to be taken we will adventure modestly to suggest our Thoughts in the Propositions that follow Prop. 2. No such Liberty of Conscience for so for fashions-sake wee 'l call it is by any means to be allowed as is apparently injurious to the Community and such a Liberty as can have no ill publick influence in the Church or State both may and ought to be granted The welfare of the Community with respect to both its Civil and Spiritual Interests is the business and design of Government and the welfare of particular persons as they are parts of the Community Therefore not to grant to particular persons as much Liberty of what nature soever as is consistent with the general Good or Well-being of the Whole is to hold the Reins too strait and to be over-severe and Arbitrary But it must be left to the iudgment of our Governours what measure and proportion of Liberty may be safely vouchsafed with respect to the Interest of the Community both because they are to be presumed the fittest Judges of this affair and because it is wholly inconsistent with Government for every private person to be his own Judge But as I need not add Governours are obliged as they will answer it to their Judge not to be hasty in making a judgment but to do it with the greatest wariness and deliberation because their being mistaken in this point may happen to be of very evil and mischievous consequence Prop. 3. It is a very plain case that men ought to have the Liberty of enjoying their Opinions to themselves without their being extorted by penalties from them This follows from the foregoing proposition and if that be true this can't be false For if such a Liberty ought to be granted as hath no ill Aspect upon the Community then no Body should be compelled to discover his Opinions because whilest they are kept within a mans own Breast they can do no hurt to other Folk and if they discover themselves by Overt-Acts as the Lawyers speak there is no need of using violent means for the Extorting of them Which is the cruel practice of the Roman Church and our own Nation knew it by sad experience in the Reign of Queen Mary How many excellently good Christians were then Sentenced to the Stake for their mere Refusing to Subscribe to their as wicked as false Doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Altar Prop. 4. To make Sanguinary Laws against mere Dissenting from the publick Establishment that is when Dissenting from it is not accompanied with a Factious Schismatical and Seditious opposition to it is without controversie Antichristian Tyranny Of all the indefensible practices of the now mentioned Church there is none that makes the Title of Antichrist more due to her than her prosecuting with Fire and Faggot and all manner of Cruelties men who are guilty of no other crime but that of renouncing Communion with her in her gross Corruptions But suppose her Terms of Communion were as agreeable as they are contrary to the Word of God yet would her putting men to death for their bare not submitting to those terms speak her to be utterly destitute of the true Christian Spirit And to deserve that Reprehension which her mild and gentle Master gave to his Disciples for desiring him to call for Fire from Heaven to destroy the Samaritans for refusing to receive him viz. Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of for the Son of man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them And if our Saviour was so offended with those Disciples for making that motion though He knew 't was not made deliberately but in a sudden fit of passion and that kindled too by the quick resentment they had of an high affront that was put upon his Sacred person how highly must it needs provoke him to see Christians destroying their Brethren in cool bloud and that not for so hainous a crime as Renouncing his Religion but for not being Christians of their Mode and Form Which possibly considering all their circumstances particularly their Education the prejudices of which it is the most difficult thing in the world one of them to overcome their Parts Complexions c. may be more their misfortune than their fault Besides Sanguinary Penalties or the using of extreme Rigour of any kind to compel men to come over to our way of Religion are the most improper means to effect that end that of Lactantius being as great a Truth in all Ages as it was in his and the two foregoing when the Church was subject to the Heathen Persecutors viz. Religion is a thing to which no man can be forced the Will is perswaded by
Words not by Blows And the Arguments used by the most Ancient Fathers against persecuting people for mere dissenting in matters of Religion are as strong against the persecuting practices of Rome Christian as they were against those of Rome Pagan And this means hath proved always as unsuccessful as it is improper the best success it hath ever had hath been to make some Hypocrites and the rest more averse and obstinate than they were before That way of Religion they before disliked they now hate and oppression making even wise men mad as King Solomon observeth multitudes from modest Dissenters in their own defence turn Factious and Seditious and down-right opposers And nothing hath been more ordinarily observed than that Persecution doth mightily encrease instead of diminishing the number of Dissenters As it is grown into a Maxim Sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae The bloud of Martyrs is the seed of the Church so nothing makes any party so considerable nor any thing gains them so many Proselytes as their bearing Death or Torment or any cruel usage like Martyrs which we need not be informed the very worst of men have frequently done Thanks be to God the Church of England is as far departed from that of Rome in this point of merciless Severity as in the rest of her Abominations Which hath made me stand amazed at the Tragical out-cries of one or two of late against our Church as if the Inquisition it self could hardly match her in her savage cruelty towards sober Dissenters Such Libellers as these have as little Wit as Christianity or Common Honesty for can they more expose their Reputation than by publishing to the World such things as every body can confute from his own knowledge These people cannot but believe in their Consciences that modest Dissenters nor immodest neither as themselves know by experience cannot hope to have fairer quarter in any part of the Christian world where there is any Establishment than they have in this Church Nay that there is hardly any one Party of the Dissenters that would be half so favourable to the rest should they get into Power as our Constitution is to all of them The principal of our divided Parties 't is well known have been tried in England Scotland and New-England and how exemplary they have been for their Moderation towards men of a different perswasion is too well understood to be quickly forgotten But old sores shall not bleed afresh by my rubbing them as great provocation as is given by some at the most unseasonable time imaginable Prop. 5. But notwithstanding what we have now Asserted there is a necessity of making it more mens interest to comply with the publick Establishment than not to comply with it Which cannot be done so long as those who are conformable thereunto and those which dissent from it are both put into the self-same circumstances It is as good nay better to have no legal Establishment at all than not to back it with motives of Temporal Interest to disswade from Disobedience to it it is so so long as this sort of interest hath so great a power over the generality of men nay of professors of Religion too as we see it hath and so few comparatively are governed by pure Reason and Conscience as great pretences as there are to both Penalties of one nature or other are necessary Sanctions of Laws and were it not for the annexing of them Laws would be so far from being generally obeyed that they would be generally despised and contemned Nay the perverse natures of men do so incline them niti in vetitum to do what 's prohibited through their excessive fondness for Liberty that I am perswaded the way to have this or that done by the far greater part would be for Authority to forbid it without a Penalty And as for that Objection that Civil penalties make men Hypocrites how is it possible that those who make it should not at the same time see that it is as much levelled at all Laws as at those which relate to matters of Religion Then men ought not to be prohibited Murther Adultery or Theft under Civil penalties because they will be apt to make them Hypocrites as 't is certain those are no better who abstain from those crimes from the mere fear of the lash of the Law But it is better for the Publick that men should be Hypocrites in their Obedience than that they should live in Disobedience and somewhat better for themselves too And no man will be made a Hypocrite by penalties but such a one as would disobey and be an open sinner were it not for them I add that this Objection is also levelled at leaving it to every bodies Liberty to comply or not comply with the legal Establishment What a Temptation would this be to those to plead scruples of Conscience against some condition of Communion who are only swayed by some motive of Interest to get better trading to please their Wives or the like to leave the Church and joyn themselves to separate Congregations Prop. 6. We must distinguish between a Liberty of serving God according to our Consciences and a Liberty of making others to be of our perswasion There is a wide difference between these two It is inconsistent with Government for this latter Liberty to be Allowed Nothing can come of Authorities giving licence to Dissenters to make Proselytes to their several Parties but downright Confusion I appeal to themselves whether if any of them now sate at the Helm and were in the chair of Government they could endure to have their Authority publickly confronted they know they could not and much less give Liberty that is Encouragement to those to confront it who have a mind to it But what is it to put an affront upon Authority if publick Endeavours to withdraw People from Obedience be not so It is the greatest immodesty to desire of Governours such a Liberty as this and supposeth them either not to understand or to have no concern for their own interest as Governours And those that dissent from the legal Establishment ought to think themselves most kindly dealt with and to be very thankful may they enjoy upon tolerable terms their own way of Religion without free licence to do all they can to encrease their Party How happy would our good Ancestors in the Reign of Queen Mary have thought themselves had Her Majesty vouchsafed them such a Liberty as that They would hardly have thought they could pay too dear for 't It may be objected what if a man be immediately commissionated by the King of Kings as the Apostles were publickly to withdraw men from Obedience to those Laws which require of them unlawful things and withal he prove his Commission by working of Miracles is not Authority obliged to give Liberty so to do in that case Surely it is I answer surely it is not but 't is obliged to do that which is much better