2. That any doctrine tending undeniably in its own na- ture (and not by strained consequences) to the disturbance of the civil state may be suppressed, by all such means as are lawfully to beused,forthe conservation of the peace andsafety
OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT THERE. 75
of the state. Jesus Christ, though accused of sedition, taught none, practised none, his gospel gives not control to magis- tracy, righteous laws, or any sort of lawful government es- tablished amongst men ; and therefore they whose faith is faction, and whose religion is rebellion, I mean Jesuits, and Jesuitical Papists, some of the articles of whose creeds are directly repugnant to the safety, yea, being of any common- wealths, wherein themselves and men of their own persua- sion, do not domineer and rule, may be proceeded against by them who bear not the sword in vain. The like may be said of men seditious under any pretences whatsoever, like the Anabaptists at Munster.
3. That such heresies or mispersuasions as are attended with any notorious sin in practice (1 mean, not in conse- quences, but owned by their abettors, and practised accord- ingly, beyond Epicurus, whose honest life was not corrupted by his foul dishonest opinion) like the Nicolaitans, teaching, as most suppose, promiscuous lust ; and the Papists express abominable idolatry, may be in their authors more severely punished, than such crimes not owned and maintained do singly deserve. To pretend conscience in such a case will not avail ; ' the works of the flesh are manifest/ easy to be discerned, known to all. Apologies for such argue seared- ness, not tenderness : sKch * evil communication' as ' cor- rupteth good manners,' is not to be tolerated.
4. No pretences whatsoever, nor seeming colour, should countenance men dissenting from what is established, to re- vile, traduce, deride, or otherwise expose to vulgar contempt, by words or actions, the way owned by authority (if not evi- dently fallen off from Jehovah to Baal), or fasten bitter un- charitable appellations on those who act according to that way ; that is, the public ministers and ministry, acknow- ledged, owned, and maintained by the supreme magistrate where they both are. Where, by the way, I cannot but com- plain of want of ingenuity and candid charity in those men, who having a comfortable maintenance arising another way, do yet, *ad faciendum populum,' continually in pulpits, and other public places, inveigh against that way of mainte- nance which is allowed by the magistrate, and set apart for that labour in the word and doctrine ; unto whom I wish no farther evil, but only forced patience when their neighbour-
76 A COUNTRY ESSAY FOR THE PRACTICE
ing tradesmen shall have persuaded the people about him that preachers of the gospel ought to live by the work of their hands, and so the contribution for their maintenance be subducted.
Such men as these do shew of what spirit they are, and what they would do if they were lions; seeing they bark so much, being but snarling dogs. And therefore truly, if some severe course were used for the restraint of those, who in our days strive to get themselves a name, and to build up their repute, by slighting, undervaluing, and by all uncha- ritable malicious ways, rendering odious those from whom they dissent, I should not much intercede for them : these are evil works, fruits of the flesh, evident to all. Now these, and such things as these, are acknowledged by all even spi- rited men. Some few I shall now add, I hope not unlike them. As,
5. That it is a most difficult undertaking to judge of he- resies and heretics, no easy thing to shew what heresy is in general ; whether this or that particular error be a he- resy or no, whether it be a heresy in this or that man; espe- cially if such things as stubbornness, and pertinacy upon conviction, with the like, be required to make a man a he- retic; for such things cannot be evidenced or made out, but only (for the most part) by most obscure conjectures, and such as will scarcely satisfy a charitable judgment. Papists indeed, who have laid it down for a principle, that a contradiction of the doctrine of the church known to be so, and continued in after admonition, doth infallibly make a man a heretic, are very clear, uniform, and settled in that which they have made the ground, warrant, and foundation of slaying millions of men, professing the name of Christ : but for all other Christians, who acknowledge an infallibility in the rule, but no infallibility in any for the discovery of the truth of that rule (though exceeding clear and perspi- cuous in things necessary), for them I say, understanding and keeping close to their own principles, it is a most dif- ficult thing to determine of heresy ; with an assurance, that they are so out of danger of erring in that determination, as to make it a ground of rigorous proceedings against those of whom they have so concluded. Some things indeed are so clearly in the Scripture laid down and determined, that to
OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT THERE. 77
question or deny them, bespeaks a spirit self-condemned, in that which he doth profess: that twice two makes four, that he that runneth, moveth ; are not things more evident to rea- son, than many things in the Scripture are to every capti- vated understanding : a wilful deviation in such merits no charity. But generally errors are about things hard to be understood, not so clearly appearing, and concerning which it is very difficult to pass the sentence of heresy. No judge of heresy since the apostle's days, but hath been obnoxious to error in that judgment; and those who have been for- wardest to assume a judicature, and power of discerning be- tween truth and error, so as to have others regulated thereby, have erred most foully. Of old it was generally conceived to be in councils. Now I should acknowledge myself obliged to any man, that would direct me to a council, since that Acts XV. which I may not be forced from the word to assert, that it, in some thing or other, went astray.