•' Theophanes. histor. Miscel. lib. 22. cap. 30. > Euseb. vit. Const, lib. 2. cap. 27. ■' Socrat. Evag. Rufinus. Sozom.
OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT THERE. 83
nations' must be slaughtered, that he may be drunk with blood. He sends whole armies to crucify Christ afresh, he gives every one of his soldiers a cross ; hence followed cruel sights, bloody battles, wasting of kingdoms, raging against the names, ashes, sepulchres of the dead, with more than heathenish cruelty : such evil fruits hath this bitter root sent forth, the streams of this fountain have all been blood ; so that it cannot be denied, but that a judicature of truth, and the contrary assumed, with a forcible backing of the sen- tence, was the bottom stone in the foundation, and highest in the corner of the tower of Babel : and I believe upon that search it will appear, that error hath not been advanced by any thing in the world so much, as by usurping a power for its suppression. In divers contests that the pope had with others, the truth was on his side (as in the business of Atha- nasius, and others in the east deposed by the Arians™) ; now who would not have thought, that his standing up with all earnestness for the truth, would not have been the ruin of the devil's kingdom of darkness, and almost have spoiled the plot of the mystery of iniquity ; when the truth is, the largest steps that ever the man of sin took towards his throne, was by usurping of power to suppress errc^s and heresies. It would be a great encouragement to use that way for the extirpation of errors (if any such be, besides the preaching of the gospel, and convictions from thence), which, any one could produce and give assurance that it hath not been tried, or been tried and proved ineffectual for the sup- plantation of truth ; and if such a way be not produced, what if both should grow together until harvest?
9. Let us not be too hasty in pressing any opinion arising and divulged with odious consequences of sedition, turbu- lency, and the like, because tumults and troubles happen in the commonwealth, where it is asserted : a coincidence of events is one of the principal causes of error and niisjudg- ings in the world : because errors and tumults arise together, therefore one is the cause of the other, may be an argument, ' a baculo ad angulum.' It is a hard thing to charge them with sedition, who protest against it ; and none can make it appear, that it is ' contraria factis,' by any of their actions, but only because it is fit they should bear the blame of what
' Albigenses, Waldenses, Bohemians. '» Socrat. lib. 2. cap. 11. '
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84 A COUNTRV ESSAY FOR THE PRACTICE
happeneth evilly in their days. Upon every disaster in the empire, the noise of old was, ' Ghristianos ad leones :'° for our parts we ought to remember, that we were strangers in Egypt; it is but little more than a hundred years since all mouths were opened and filled with reproaches against that glorious reformation, wherein we rejoice. Was it not the unanimous voice of all the adversaries thereof, that a new religion was brought in, tending to the immediate ruin of all states and commonwealths, attended with rebellion, the mo- ther of sedition ? Have we not frequent apologies of our divines for the confutation of such false, malicious, and putid criminations ? It is true indeed, the light of the gospel breaking out, was accompanied with war and not peace (ac- cording to the prediction of our Saviour), whereof the gospel was no more the cause, than John Diazius was of that horri- ble murder, when his brains were chopped out with an axe by his brother Alphonsus," because he professed the gospel. Hence Luther, the vehemency of whose spirit gave no way to glosses and temporizing excuses, plainly affirms those tu- mults to be such necessary appendixes of the preaching of the gospel, that he should not believe the word of God to be abroad in the world, if he saw it not accompanied with tu- mults, which he had rather partake in, than perish under the wrath of God in an eternal tumult :^ the truth must go on, though thereby the world should be reduced to its primitive chaos and confusion. Were it not a perpetual course for men of every persuasion to charge sedition, and the like, upon that which they would have suppressed, knowing that no name is more odious unto them who have power to effect their desire ; and did I not find that some, who have had much ado, whilst they were sheep, to keep off that imputa- tion from themselves, within a few years, becoming lions, have laid it home upon others, as peaceable as they ; I might perhaps be more rigid than now these discoveries will suffer me to be : far be it from me to apologize for truth itself, if seditious ; only I abhor those false, malicious criminations, whereby God's people in these days wherein we live, have exceedingly suffered. It hath pleased God so to order
" Arnob. " Sleid. Com.
P Ego nisi tumultus istos vidercm, verbum Dei in niundo non esse dicerem. Prae- eligiraus teniporali tiiniultu collidi, quam aiterno tumullu sub ira Dei conteri. Luth. de 8er, Art. cap. 32 — 34.