4. For the necessity of courses of extremity against erroneous per- sons, for the upholding " the faith once delivered to the saints/' and
OF TOLERATION. 183
the keeping the churches in peace, it doth not appear to me to be so urgent as is pretended.
For three hundred years the church had no assistance from any magistrate against heretics; and yet in all that space there was not one long-lived or far-spreading heres}', in comparison of those that followed. As the disease is spiritual, so was the remedy which in those days was applied; and the Lord Jesus Christ made it effectual. The Christians also of those days disclaimed all thoughts of such pro- ceedings. The expressions of the most ancient, as Polycarpus, Igna- tius, IrenjEus, concerning heretics, are sharp and cutting ; their avoid- ing of them, being admonished, precise and severe ; their confutations of them laborious and diligent; their church censures and ejections jDiercing and shaqD; communion amongst the churches close, exact, and carefully preserved, so that a stubborn heretic was thrust out of Christian society; — but for corporeal punishment to be inflicted on them, in their writings not a syllable. Until Augustine was changed from his first resolution and persuasion, by the madness of Donatistical Circumcellions, this doctrine had but poor footing in antiquity. And whether his reasons as to this point be convincing, let any impar- tial man read his Epistle 50, and determine. What some say, — The Christians would have been of another mind had they enjoyed Chris- tian magistrates, — is so suited to our present frame and temper, but so unworthy of them, that I should wrong them by a defensative. What was their sense of them, in a spiritual way, is clear. John, they say, would not abide in a bath where Cerinthus the heretic, infected Avith Judaism and Paganism, was; saying, "Let us depart, lest the building fall on us where Cerinthus is,'' Iron., lib. iii. cap. 3; Euseb. Eccles. Hist., lib. iii. cap. 28. Marcion meeting Polycarpus, and ask- ing him whether he knew him, or acknowledged him, his answer was, " Yea, to be the first-born of the devil," Euseb., lib. iv. cap. 14. IgTiatius's epistles are full of the like expressions. Irenseus says, he would have no words with them, lib. iii. cap. 3. Tertullian's books testify for him at large, with what keenness of spirit he pursued the heretics of his days, though before the end of them he had the un- happiness to be almost one himself Cyi^rian cries out, " Nulla cum talibus convivia, nulla colloquia, nulla commercia misceantur," Epist. iii. ad Cornel ; — " Neither eat, nor talk, nor deal with them." Antonius the hermit leaves testimony when he was dying, " that he never had peaceable conference with them all his days," Vita Anton, inter Oper. Athan. Surely had these men perceived the mind of God for their bodily punishment, they would not have failed to signify their minds therein ; but truly their expressions hold out rather the quite contrary. To;), fLiaoZyrag rov Qsov, /xieuv yjvi xai vfj-ag, xa/ It/ roTg s-^dpoTg
184 or TOLERATIOX.
iJdora rhv Kvpiov y.ai Qshv, dXX' iy^6po-ji (hiv riyiTaOai xai y^c/jpi^iffdai art aurSjv, says Ignatius, Epist. ad Pliilad. ; — " Count them enemies, and separate from them who hate God ; but for beating or persecuting them, that is proper to the heathen who know not God, nor our Saviour: do not you so." Tertulhan in very many places lays down general maxims tending to more liberty than is now pleaded for. One or two places may be pointed at: " Videte ne et hoc ad irreligiosi- tatis elogium concurrat, adimere libertatem religionis, et interdicere optionem divinitatis, ut non liceat mihi col ere quem velim, sed cogar colore quem nolim. Nemo se ab invito coli vellet, ne homo quidem," Apol., cap. xxiv. And again to Scapula the governor of Carthage, to dissuade him from the persecution he intended : " Tamen humani jiiris et naturalis potestatis est unicuique quod putaverit colere, nee alii obest, aut prodest alterius religio: sed nee religionis est cogere religionem, quse sponte suscipi debeat, non vi ; cum et hostia? ab animo libenti expostulentur : ita et si nos compuleritis ad sacrificandum, nihil prsestabitis diis vestris, ab invitis enim sacrificia non desidera- bunt." And I desire to know, whether that which he maketh to be the plea of Christians may not also be used by all emng persons: " Quasi non totum quod in nos potestis, nostrum sit arbitrium. Certe si velim, Christianus sum, tunc ergo me damnabis, si damnari velim. Cum vero quod in me potes, nisi velim, non potes, jam mete volun- tatis est quod potes, non tuse potestatis," Apol., cap. xlix. Hence Avas that query of Lactantius, " Quis imponet mihi necessitatem aut cre- dendi quod nolim, aut quod velim non credendi?" And long after these, Gregory of Rome, lib. ii. Epi.st. lii., tells us, "Nova et inaudita est ista praidicatio, quae verberibus exigit fidem;" — to beat in faith with stripes, was then a new kind of preaching. These and the like were their expressions.
It is true, in the three first centuries many fond, fooli.sh, corrupt opinions were broached by sundry brain-sick men; but they laid little hold of the churches, kept themselves in the breasts of some few dis- orderly wanderers, and did very little promote the mystery of iniquity : but afterward, when the Roman emperors, and the great men of the earth, under and with them, began to interpose in the things of religion, and were mutually wooed, instigated, and provoked by the parties at variance (as indeed it is a shame to consider, upon all meetings, assemblies, disputes, councils, what running, what flattering, Avhat insinuation at court, were used on all hands), what root did divers heresies take ! how far were they propagated ! Witness Arianism, which had almost invaded the whole world.