so A COUNTIIY ESSAY FOR THE PRACTICE
tenance men walking disorderly in any regard, especially in the particulars before recounted ; but only to shew how warily, and upon what sure principles, that cannot be retorted on us, we ought to proceed, when any severity is necessarily required, in case of great danger; and how in lesser things, if the unity of faith may in some comfortable measure be kept, then to assert the proposition in its full latitude, -urg- ing and pleading for Christian forbearance, even in such manner to be granted, as we would desire it from them, whom we do forbear ; for truly in those disputable things, we must acknowledge ourselves in the same series with other men, unless we can produce express patents for our exemp- tions. But some perhaps will say, that even in such things as these Gamaliel's counsel is not good; better all go on with punishing that can ; truth will not be suppressed, but error will. Good God ! was not truth oppressed by anti- christian tyranny ? was not outward force the engine that for many generations kept truth in corners ? But of this af- terward.
Now I am mistaken, if this principle, that the civil ma- gistrate ought to condemn, suppress, and persecute every one that he is convinced to err, though in smaller things, do not at length, in things of greater importance, make Chris- tendom a very theatre of bloody murders, killing, slaying, imprisoning men round in a compass; until the strongest becomes dictator to the rest, and he alone be supposed to have infallible guidance, all the rest to be heretics, because overcome and subdued (when I speak of death and killing in this discourse, I understand not only forcible death itself, but that also which is equivalent thereunto, as banishment, or perpetual imprisonment), I had almost said, that it is the interest of mortality, to consent generally to the persecution of a man maintaining such a destructive opinion.
7. That whatsoever restraint, or other punishnnent may be allowed in case of grosser eri'ors, yet slaying of heretics for simple heresy, as they call it, for my part I cannot close withal ; nor shall ever give my vote to the burning, hanging, or killing of a man, otherwise upriglit, honest, and peaceable in the state, merely because he misbelieveth any point of Christian faith. Let what pretences you please be produced, or colours flourished, I should be very unwilling to pro-
OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT THERE. 81
nounce the sentence of blood in the case of heresy. I do not intend here to dispute: but if any one will, upon pro- testant principles, and Scripture grounds, undertake to assert it, I promise (if God grant me life) he shall not want a con- vert, or an antagonist. I know the usual pretences : such a thing is blasphemy : but search the Scripture, look upon the definitions of divines, and by all men's consent you will find heresy, in what head of religion soever it be, and blas- phemy properly so called, to be exceedingly distant. Let a blasphemer undergo the law of blasphemy : but yet I think we cannot be too cautious how we place men in that damna- ble series, calling heaven and earth to witness the contrary. But again : to spread such errors will be destructive to souls; so are many things, which yet are not punishable with forcible death : let him that thinks so go kill Pagans and Mahometans. As such heresy is a canker, but a spiritueJ one, let it be prevented by spiritual means ; cutting off men's heads is no proper remedy for it : if state physicians think otherwise, I say no more, but that I am not of the college, and what I have already said I submit to better judgments. 8. It may be seriously considered, upon a view of the state and condition of Christians, since their name was known in the world, whether this doctrine of punishing erring persons with death, imprisonment, banishment, and the like, under the name of heretics, hath not been as useful and advantageous for error, as truth ; nay, whether it hath not appeared the most pernicious invention that ever was broached : in the first, second, and third ages, we hear little of it ; nothing for it ; something against it : much after- ward against it, in Austin and others. s Marlinus, the famous French bishop, rejected the communion of a com- pany of his associate bishops, because they had consented with Maximus the emperor, unto the death of the Priscilli- anists, as vile heretics as ever breathed. At the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth century, when the Arians and orthodox had successively procured the supreme ma- gistrate to join with them, men were killed and dismembered like beasts : banishments, imprisonments, plunderings, es-
S Touf (ttis-ouvTa; tov Segv fxifiHv ;^p^ Jtat vfAa^, not IttI to"? ij^Sgo"? avrov ixTnuer^ai , ov fxlv Kai TuTTTEiv auTouf Koi Siiuxeiv, xaSif Ta idvn to, fji.fi li Joto. tov xupiov xai ©lo'v aXX' ixBfovs (jth hyi~a-^ai, xoi p^ajfi^so-fiai utt' alrm. Ignat. Epist. ad Philad.
VOL. XV. G
82 A COUNTRY ESSAY FOR THE PRACTICE
pecially by the Arians were as frequent, as in new subdued kingdoms. But never was this tragedy so acted to the life, as by the worshippers of images on the one side, and their adversaries on the other :'' which difference rose about the year 130, and was carried on with that barbarous outrage on both sides, especially by the Iconolatrse (as the worst were ever best at such proceedings), as is wonderful to consider. Now excepting only those idolatrous heretics in the last, who were paid home in their own coin, for a thousand years together, this doctrine was put in practice against none al- most, but the martyrs of Jesus. The Roman stories of the killing of heretics, are all martyrologies ; thousands slain for heretics now lie under the altar, crying for vengeance, and shall one day sit upon thrones, judging their judges. So that where one man hath suffered for an error, under the name of a heretic, five hundred under the same notion have suffered for truth : a principle would seem more befitting Christians to spare five hundred for the saving of one guilt- less person. Truth hath felt more of the teeth of this scorpion, than error ; and clearly it grew up by degrees with the whole mystery of iniquity. In the gospel we have no- thing like it: the acts of Christ purging the temple, Peter pronouncing the fate of Ananias, and Paul smiting Elymas with bhndness, seem to me heterogeneous. The first laws of Constantine speak liberty and freedom.' Pecuniary mulcts afterward were added, and general edicts against all sects, and so it is put over into the hands of the Arians, who ex- ceedingly cherished it: yet for a good while pretences must be sought out, Eustachius of Antioch must be accused of adultery, Athanasius of sedition, magic, and I know not what, that a colour might be had for their persecution,'' The Arian kings in Africa, were the first that owned it, yvfivy K£<paX\h and acted according to their persuasions. Methinks I hear the cries of poor dismembered, mangled creatures, for the faith of the holy Trinity ! Next to these, through a few civil constitutions of some weak emperors, it wholly comes to reside in the hands of the pope ; kings and princes are made his executioners, and he plays his game to the pur- pose. Single persons serve not this Bel and Dragon, whole