ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΑ ΕΚΛΕΚΤΙΚΗ . A DISCOURSE OF The Liberty of Prophesying . SHEWING THE UNREASONABLENES of prescribing to other mens Faith , and the Iniquity of persecuting differing opinions .

By IER: TAYLOR , D. D. Chaplaine in Ordinarie to His MAJESTIE .

LONDON , Printed for R. ROYSTON , at the Angel in Ivie-lane . 1647.

IN this great Storm which hath dasht the Vessell of the Church all in pieces , I have been cast upon the Coast of Wales , and in a little Boat thought to have enjoyed that rest and quietnesse , which in England in a greater I could not hope for : Here I cast Anchor , and thinking to ride safely , the Storm followed me with so impetuous violence , that it broke a Cable , and I lost my Anchor : And here again I was exposed to the mercy of the Sea , and the gentlenesse of an Element that could neither distinguish things nor persons . And but that he who stilleth the raging of the Sea , and the noise of his Waves , and the madnesse of his people , had provided a Plank for me , I had been lost to all the opportunities of content or study . But I know not whether I have been more preserved by the courtesies of my friends , or the gentlenesse and mercies of a noble Enemy : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And now since I have come ashoar , I have been gathering a few sticks to warm me , a few books to entertain my thoughts , and divert them from the perpetuall Meditation of my private Troubles , and the publike Dyscrasy , but those which I could obtain were so few and so impertinent , and unusefull to any great purposes , that I began to be sad upon a new stock , and full of apprehension that I should live unprofitably , and die obscurely , and be forgotten , and my bones thrown into some common charnell house , without any name or note to distinguish me from those who only served their Generation by filling the number of Citizens , and who could pretend to no thanks or reward from the Publike , beyond a jus trium liberorum . While I was troubled with these thoughts , and busie to find out an opportunity of doing some good in my small proportion , still the cares of the publike did so intervene , that it was as impossible to separate my design from relating to the present , as to exempt my selfe from the participation of the common calamity ; still halfe my thoughts was ( in despite of all my diversions and arts of avocation ) fixt upon and mingled with the present concernments : so that besides them I could not goe . Now because the great Question is concerning Religion , and in that also my Scene lies , I resolved here to fix my considerations , especially when I observed the wayes of promoting the severall opinions which now are busie , to be such , as besides that they were most troublesome to me , and such as I could by no meanes be friends withall , they were also such as to my understanding , did the most apparently disserve their ends whose design in advancing their own opinions was pretended for Religion : For as contrary as cruelty is to mercy , as tyranny to charity , so is warre and bloodshed to the meeknesse and gentlenesse of Christian Religion : And however that there are some exterminating spirits who think God to delight in humane sacrifices , as if that Oracle — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , had come from the Father of Spirits , yet if they were capable of coole and tame Homilies , or would hear men of other opinions give a quiet account without invincible resolutions never to alter their perswasions , I am very much perswaded it would not be very hard to dispute such men into mercies and compliances , and Tolerations mutuall , such I say , who are zealous for Jesus Christ ; then whose Doctrine never was any thing more mercifull and humane , whose lessons were softer then Nard , or the juice of the Candian Olive : Upon the first apprehension , I design'd a Discourse to this purpose , with as much greedinesse as if I had thought it possible with my Arguments to have perswaded the rough and hard handed Souldiers to have disbanded presently : For I had often thought of the Prophecy that in the Gospel , our swords should be turned into plowshares , and our Speares into pruning hooks ; I knew that no tittle spoken by Gods Spirit could return unperform'd and ineffectuall , and I was certain , that such was the excellency of Christ's Doctrine , that if men would obey it , Christians should never warre one against another ; in the mean time I considered not , that it was praedictio consilii , non eventus , till I saw what men were now doing , and ever had done since the heats and primitive fervours did coole , and the love of interests sweld higher then the love of Christianity ; but then on the other side , I began to fear that whatever I could say would be as ineffectuall , as it could be reasonable : For if those excellent words which our blessed Master spake , could not charm the tumult of our spirits , I had little reason to hope that one of the meanest and most ignorant of his servants could advance the end of that which he cals his great , and his old , and his new Commandement , so well as the excellency of his own Spirit and discourses could . And yet since he who knew every event of things , and the successe and efficacy of every Doctrine ; and that very much of it to most men , and all of it to some men would be ineffectuall , yet was pleased to consign our duty that it might bee a direction to them that would , and a conviction and a Testimony against them that would not obey , I thought it might not misbecome my duty and endevours to plead for peace and charity , and forgivenesse and permissions mutuall , although I had reason to believe that such is the iniquity of men , and they so indisposed to receive such impresses , that I had as good plow the Sands , or till the Aire , as perswade such Doctrines , which destroy mens interests , and serve no end but the great end of a happy eternity , and what is in order to it . But because the events of things are in Gods disposition , and I knew them not , and because if I had known my good purposes would be totally ineffectuall as to others , yet my own designation and purposes would be of advantage to my selfe , who might from Gods mercy expect the retribution which he is pleased to promise to all pious intendments ; I resolved to encounter with all Objections , and to doe something to which I should be determined by the consideration of the present distemperatures and necessities , by my own thoughts , by the Questions and Scruples , the Sects and names , the interests and animosities which at this day , and for some years past have exercised and disquieted Christendome .

Thus farre I discourst my selfe into imployment , and having come thus farre , I knew not how to get farther , for I had heard of a great experience , how difficult it was to make Brick without Straw , and here I had even seene my design blasted in the bud , and I despaired in the Calends of doing what I purposed in the Ides before : For I had no Books of my own here , nor any in the voisinage , and but that I remembred the result of some of those excellent Discourses , I had heard your Lordship make when I was so happy as in private to gather up what your temperance and modesty , forbids to be publick , I had come in praelia inermis , and like enough might have far'd accordingly . I had this only advantage besides ; that I have chosen a Subject , in which , if my own reason does not abuse me , I needed no other books or aides , then what a man carries with him on horse-back , I meane the common principles of Christianity , and those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which men use in the transactions of the ordinary occurrences of civill society ; and upon the strength of them and some other collaterall assistances I have run through it utcunque , and the sum of the following Discourses , is nothing but the sense of these words of Scripture ;

That since we know in part , and prophesy in part , 1 Cor. 13. and that now we see through a glasse darkly , wee should not despise or contemn persons not so knowing as our selves , but him that is weak in the faith Rom. 14. we should receive , but not to doubtfull disputations ; Therefore certainly to charity , and not to vexations , not to those which are the idle effects of impertinent wranglings . And provided they keep close to the foundation , which is Faith and Obedience , let them build upon this foundation matter more or lesse precious , yet if the foundation be intire , they shall be saved with or without losse . And since we professe our selves servants of so meek a Master , and Disciples of so charitable an Institute , Let us walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called with all lowlinesse and meeknesse , with long suffering , forbearing Ephes. 4. 2 , 3. one another in love ; for this is the best endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit , when it is fast tyed in the bond of peace . And although it be a duty of Christianity , that we all speak the 1 Cor. 1. 10. same thing , that there be no divisions among us , but that we be perfectly joyned together in the same mind , and in the same judgement , yet this unity is to bee estimated according to the unity of faith , in things necessary , in matters of Creed , and Articles fundamentall ; for as for other things , it is more to be wished then to be hoped for ; there are some doubtfull Disputations , and in such the Scribe , the Rom. 14. Wise , the Disputer of this world , are most commonly very farre from certainty , and many times from truth : There are diversity of perswasions in matters adiaphorous , as meats and drinks , and holy dayes , &c. and both parties , the affirmative and the negative , affirm and deny with innocence enough , for the observer and he that observes not , intend both to God ; and God is our common Master , we all fellow servants , and not the judge of each other , in matters of conscience or doubtfull Disputation : And every man that hath faith must have it to himselfe before God , but no man must either in such matters judge his brother or set him at nought ; but let us follow after the things which make for peace , and things wherewith one may edifie another : And the way to doe that is not by knowledge , but by charity , for knowledge puffeth up , but 1 Cor. 8. 1. charity edifieth ; and since there is not in every man the same knowledge , but the conscience of some are Vers. 7. weak ; as my liberty must not be judged of another 1 Cor. 10. 29. mans weak conscience , so must not I please my selfe so much in my right opinion , but I must also take order that his weak conscience be not offended or despised , for no man must seek his own but every man Ibid , anothers wealth : And although we must contend earnestly for the faith , yet above all things we must put on charity which is the bond of perfectnesse : And therefore this contention must be with arms fit for the Christian warfare , the sword of the Spirit , and the shield of Faith , and preparation of the Gospel of peace instead of shooes , and a helmet of salvation , but not with Colos. 3. 14. other armes ; for a Church-man must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a striker , for the weapons of our warfare are not carnall but spirituall , and the persons that use them ought to be gentle , and easy to be intreated , and we must give an account of our faith to them that ask us with meeknesse and humility , for so is the will of God , that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men . These and thousands more to the same purpose are the Doctrines of Christianity , whose sense and intendment I have prosecuted in the following Discourse , being very much displeased that so many opinions and new doctrines are commenc'd among us , but more troubled that every man that hath an opinion thinks his own and other mens salvation is concern'd in its maintenance , but most of all that men should be persecuted and afflicted for disagreeing in such opinions which they cannot with sufficient grounds obtrude upon others necessarily , because they cannot propound them infallibly , and because they have no warrant from Scripture so to doe : For if I shall tie other men to believe my opinion , because I think I have place of Scripture , which seems to warrant it to my understanding , why may he not serve up another dish to me in the same dresse , and exact the same task of me to believe the contradictory : And then since all the Hereticks in the world have offered to prove their Articles by the same meanes by which true believers propound theirs , it is necessary that some separation either of Doctrine or of persons be clearly made , that all pretences may not be admitted , nor any just Allegations be rejected ; and yet that in some other Questions whether they be truly or falsly pretended if not evidently or demonstratively , there may be considerations had to the persons of men and to the Laws of charity more then to the triumphing in any opinion or doctrine not simply necessary . Now because some doctrines are clearly not necessary , and some are absolutely necessary , why may not the first separation be made upon this difference , and Articles necessary be only urg'd as necessary , and the rest left to men indifferently , as they were by the Scripture indeterminately . And it were well if men would as much consider themselves as the Doctrines , and think that they may as well be deceiv'd by their own weaknesse , as perswaded by the Arguments of a Doctrine which other men , as wise , call inevident . For it is a hard case that we shall think all Papists and Anabaptists and Sacramentaries to be fooles and wicked persons , certainly among all these Sects there are very many wise men and good men , as well as erring ; and although some zeales are so hot , and their eyes so inflamed with their ardors , that they doe not think their Adversaries look like other men , yet certainly we find by the results of their discourses , and the transactions of their affaires of civill society , that they are men that speak and make syllogismes , and use reason , and read Scripture , and although they do no more understand all of it , then we doe , yet they endeavour to understand as much as concerns them , even all that they can , even all that concerns repentance from dead works , and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ : And therefore me thinks this also should be another consideration distinguishing the persons , for if the persons be Christians in their lives , and Christians in their profession , if they acknowledge the Eternall Sonne of God for their Master and their Lord , and live in all relations as becomes persons making such professions , why then should I hate such persons whom God loves , and who love God , who are partakers of Christ , and Christ hath a title to them , who dwell in Christ , and Christ in them , because their understandings have not been brought up like mine , have not had the same Masters , they have not met with the same books , nor the same company , or have not the same interest , or are not so wise , or else are wiser , ( that is , for some reason or other which I neither doe understand , nor ought to blame ) have not the same opinions that I have , and do not determine their Schoole Questions to the sense of my Sect or interest .

But now I know before hand , that those men who will endure none but their own Sect , will make all manner of attemps against these purposes of charity and compliance , and say I , or doe I what I can , will tell all their Proselytes that I preach indifferency of Religion , that I say it is no matter how we believe , nor what they professe : But that they may comply with all Sects , and doe violence to their own consciences , that they may be sav'd in all Religions , and so make way for a colluvies of Heresies , and by consequence destroy all Religion . Nay , they will say worse then all this , and but that I am not used to their phrases and formes of declamation , I am perswaded I might represent fine Tragedies before hand . And this will be such an objection , that although I am most confident I shall make apparent to be as false and scandalous as the Objectors themselves are zealous and impatient , yet besides that , I believe the Objection will come where my answers will not come , or not be understood ; I am also confident that in defiance and incuriousnesse of all that I shall say , some men will persist pertinaciously in the accusation , and deny my conclusion in despite of mee : well , but however I will try .

And first I answer , that whatsoever is against the foundation of Faith , or contrary to good life and the lawes of obedience , or destructive to humane society , and the publick and just interests of bodies politick , is out of the limits of my Question , and does not pretend to complyance or toleration : So that I allow no indifferency , nor any countenance to those Religions whose principles destroy Government , nor to those Religions ( if there be any such ) that teach ill life , nor doe I think that any thing will now excuse from beliefe of a fundamentall Article , except stupidity or sottishnesse and naturall inhability . This alone is sufficient answer to this vanity , but I have much more to say .

Secondly , The intendment of my Discourse is , that permissions should be in Questions speculative , indeterminable , curious , and unnecessary , and that men would not make more necessities then God made , which indeed are not many . The fault I find and seek to remedy is , that men are so dogmaticall and resolute in their opinions , and impatient of others disagreeings in those things wherein is no sufficient meanes of union and determination , but that men should let opinions and problemes keep their own forms , and not be obtruded as axiomes , nor questions in the vast collection of the systeme of Divinity , be adopted into the family of Faith : And I think I have reason to desire this .

Thirdly , It is hard to say , that he who would not have men put to death , or punished corporally for such things , for which no humane Authority is sufficient either for cognisance or determination , or competent for infliction , that he perswades to an indifferency , when he referres to another Judicatory , which is competent , sufficient , infallible , just , and highly severe . No man or company of men can judge or punish our thoughts , or secret purposes whilest they so remaine , and yet it will be unequall to say , that he who owns this Doctrine preaches it lawfull for men to think or purpose what they will . And so it is in matters of doubtfull disputation ( such as are the distinguishing Articles of most of the Sects of Christendome : ) So it is in matters intellectuall ( which are not cognoscible by a secular power ) in matters spirituall ( which are to be discerned by spirituall Authority , which cannot make corporall inflictions ) and in Questions indeterminate , ( which are doubtfully propounded or obscurely , and therefore may be in utramque partem disputed or believed ; ) for God alone must be Judge of these matters , who alone is Master of our souls , and hath a dominion over humane understanding , and he that sayes this , does not say that indifferency is perswaded , because God alone is Judge of erring persons .

Fourthly , No part of this Discourse teaches or encourages variety of Sects , and contradiction in opinions , but supposes them already in being , and therefore since there are , and ever were , and ever will be variety of opinions , because there is variety of humane understandings , and uncertainty in things , no man should be too forward in determining all Questions , nor so forward in prescribing to others , nor invade that liberty which God hath left to us intire by propounding many things obscurely , and by exempting our souls and understandings from all power externally compulsory : So that the restraint is laid upon mens tyranny , but no license given to mens opinions , they are not considered in any of the Conclusions , but in the premises only as an Argument to exhort to charity . So that if I perswade a license of discrediting any thing which God hath commanded us to believe , and allow a liberty where God hath not allowed it , let it be shewn , and let the Objection presse as hard as it can ; but to say that men are too forward in condemning where God hath declared no sentence nor prescribed any rule ; is to disswade from tyranny , not to encourage licentiousnesse , is to take away a license of judging , not to give a license of dogmatizing what every one please , or as may best serve his turn . And for the other part of the Objection ;

Fifthly , This Discourse is so farre from giving leave to men to professe any thing though they believe the contrary , that it takes order that no man shall bee put to it , for I earnestly contend that another mans opinion shall be no rule to mine , and that my opinion shall be no snare and prejudice to my selfe , that men use one another so charitably and so gently , that no errour or violence tempt men to hypocrisy , this very thing being one of the Arguments I use to perswade permissions , lest compulsion introduce hypocrisy , and make sincerity troublesome and unsafe .

Sixthly , If men would not call all opinions by the name of Religion , and superstructures by the name of fundamentall Articles , and all fancies by the glorious appellative of Faith , this objection would have no pretence or footing , so that it is the disease of the men , not any cause that is ministred by such precepts of charity that makes them perpetually clamorous : And it would be hard to say that such Physitians are incurious of their Patients , and neglectfull of their health , who speak against the unreasonablenesse of such Empericks that would cut off a mans head if they see but a Wart upon his cheek , or a dimple upon his chin , or any lines in his face to distinguish him from another man ; the case is altogether the same , and we may as well decree a Wart to be mortall as a various opinion in re alioqui non necessariâ to be capitall and damnable .

For I consider , that there are but few Doctrines of Christianity , that were ordered to be preached to all the world , to every single person , and made a necessary Article of his explicite beliefe : Other Doctrines which are all of them not simply necessary , are either such as are not clearly revealed , or such as are : If they be clearely revealed , and that I know so too , or may , but for my own fault , I am not to be excused , but for this I am to be left to Gods judgement , unlesse my fault be externally such as to be cognoscible and punishable in humane judicatory : But then , if it be not so revealed but that wise men and good men differ in their opinions , it is a clear case , it is not inter dogmata necessaria simpliciter , and then it is certain I may therefore safely disbelieve it , because I may be safely ignorant of it : For if I may with innocence be ignorant , then to know it or believe it , is not simply obligatory ; ignorance is absolutely inconsistent with such an obligation , because it is destructive and a plaine negative to its performance , and if I doe my honest endeavour to understand it , and yet doe not attain it , it is certain that is not obligatory to me so much as by accident , for no obligation can presse the person of a man , if it be impossible , no man is bound to doe more then his best , no man is bound to have an excellent understanding , or to be infallible , or to be wiser then he can , for these are things that are not in his choyce , and therefore not a matter of a Law , nor subject to reward and punishment ; so that where ignorance of the Article is not a sin , there disbelieving it in the right sense , or believing it in the wrong , is not breach of any duty , essentially or accidentally necessary , neither in the thing it selfe , nor to the person ; that is , he is neither bound to the Article , nor to any endeavours or antecedent acts of volition and choyce , and that man who may safely bee ignorant of the proposition , is not tyed at all to search it out , and if not at all to search it , then certainly not to find it : All the obligation we are capable of , is not to be malicious or voluntarily criminall in any kind , and then if by accident we find out a truth , we are obliged to believe it ; and so will every wise or good man doe ; indeed he cannot doe otherwise : But if he disbelieves an Article without malice , or design , or involuntarily , or unknowingly , it is contradiction to say it is a sinne to him who might totally have been ignorant of it ; for that he believes it in the wrong sense , it is his ignorance , and it is impossible that where hee hath heartily endeavoured to finde out a truth , that this endeavour should make him guilty of a sinne , which would never have been laid to his charge , if he had taken no paines at all : His ignorance in this case is not a fault at all ; possibly it might , if there had been no endeavour to have cur'd it .

So that there is wholly a mistake in this proposition : For true it is , there are some propositions , which if a man never heare of , they will not be required of him ; and they who cannot read might safely be ignorant , that Melchizedeck was King of Salem ; but he who reads it in the Scripture , may not safely contradict it , although before that knowledge did arrive to him , he might safely have been ignorant of it : But this although it be true , is not pertinent to our Question ; For in sensu diviso this is true , that which at one time a man may be ignorant of , at some other time he may not disbelieve : But in sensu conjuncto it is false ; For at what time , and in what circumstance soever it is no sinne to be ignorant , at that time and in that conjuncture , it is no sinne to disbelieve ; and such is the nature of all Questions disputable , which are therefore not required of us to bee believed in any one particular sense , because the nature of the thing is such as not to be necessary to be known at all simply and absolutely , and such is the ambiguity and cloud of its face and representment as not to be necessary so much as by accident , and therefore not to the particular sence of any one person .

And yet such is the iniquity of men , that they suck in opinions as wild Asses doe the wind , without distinguishing the wholesome from the corrupted ayre , and then live upon it at a venture , and when all their confidence is built upon zeale and mistake , yet therefore because they are zealous and mistaken , they are impatient of contradiction .

But besides that against this I have laid prejudice enough from the dictates of holy Scripture , it is observable that this with its appendant degrees , I meane restraint of Prophesying , imposing upon other mens understanding , being masters of their consciences , and lording it over their Faith , came in with the retinue and traine of Antichrist , that is , they came as other abuses and corruptions of the Church did , by reason of the iniquity of times , and the cooling of the first heats of Christianity , and the encrease of interest , and the abatements of Christian simplicity , when the Churches fortune grew better , and her Sonnes grew worse , and some of her Fathers worst of all ; For in the first three hundred years there was no sign of persecuting any man for his opinion , though at that time there were very horrid opinions commenced , and such which were exemplary and parallel enough to determine this Question ; for they then were assaulted by new Sects which destroyed the common principles of nature , of Christianity , of innocence and publike society ; and they who used all the meanes Christian and Spirituall for their disimprovement and conviction , thought not of using corporall force , otherwise then by blaming such proceedings : And therefore I doe not only urge their not doing it as an Argument of the unlawfulnesse of such proceeding , but their defying it and speaking against such practises , as unreasonable and destructive of Christianity : For so Tertullian is expresse , Humani Ad Scapulat . juris & naturalis potestatis , unicuique quod putaverit colere , sed nec religionis est cogere religionem , quae suscipi debet sponte non vi : The same is the Doctrine of S. Cyprian , Lactantius , S. Hilary , Minutius Felix , Sulpitius Severus , S. Chrysostome , S. Hierom , S. Austin , Damascen , Theophylact , Socrates Scholasticus , and S. Bernard , as they are severally referr'd to and urg'd upon occasion in the following Discourse .

To which I adde , that all wise Princes till they were overborn with faction or sollicited by peevish persons , gave Toleration to differing Sects , whose opinions did not disturb the publike interest : But at first , there were some hereticall persons that were also impatient of an Adversary , and they were the men who at first entreated the Emperours to persecute the Catholicks ; but till foure hundred yeares after Christ , no Catholick persons , or very few , did provoke the secular arme , or implore its aide against the Hereticks , save only that Arrius behav'd himselfe so seditiously and tumultuarily , that the Nicene Fathers procur'd a temporary Decree for his relegation , but it was soon taken off and God left to be his Judge , who indeed did it to some purpose , when he was trusted with it and the matter wholly left to him .

But as the Ages grew worse , so men grew more cruell and unchristian , and in the Greek Church Atticus , and Nestorius of Constantinople , Theodosius of Synada , and some few others who had forgotten the mercies of their great Master , and their own duty , grew implacable and furious and impatient of contradiction . It was a bold and an arrogant speech which Nestorius made in his Sermon before Theodosius the younger , Da mihi , O Imperator , terram ab haereticis repurgatam , & ego tibi vicissim coelum dabo : Disperde mecum haereticos , & ego tecum disperdam Persas : It was as groundlesse and unwarrantable , as it was bloody and inhumane .

And we see the contrary events prove truer , then this groundlesse and unlearned promise ; for Theodosius and Valentinian were prosperous Princes , and have to all Ages a precious memory , and the reputation of a great piety ; but they were so farre from doing what Nestorius had suggested , that they restrained him from his violence and immanity , and Theodosius did highly commend the good Bishop Proclus for his sweetnesse of deportment towards erring persons , far above the cruelty of his Predecessor Atticus : And the experience which Christendom hath had in this last Age is Argument enough , that Toleration of differing opinions is so farre from disturbing the publick peace , or destroying the interest of Princes and Common-Wealths , that it does advantage to the publick , it secures peace , because there is not so much as the pretence of Religion left to such persons to contend for it , being already indulged to them . When France fought against the Huguenots , the spilling of her own blood was argument enough of the imprudence of that way of promoting Religion ; but since she hath given permission to them , the world is witnesse how prosperous she hath been ever since : But the great instance is in the differing temper , Government and successe which Margaret of Parma , and the Duke of Alva had : The clemency of the first had almost extinguished the flame ; but when she was removed , D' Alva succeeded and managed the matter of Religion with fire and sword ; he made the flame so great , that his Religion and his Prince too hath both been almost quite turned out of the Countrey . Pelli è medio sapientiam , quoties vi res agitur , said Ennius ; and therefore the best of men , and the most glorious of Princes were alwayes ready to give Toleration , but never to make executions for matters disputable : Eusebius in his second Book of the life of Constantine reports these words of the Emperour , Parem cum fidelibus ii qui errant , pacis & quietis fruitionem gaudentes accipiant : Ipsa siquidem communicationis & societatis restitutio ad rectam etiam veritatis viam perducere potest . Nemo cui quam molestus sit , quisque quod animo destinat hoc etiam faciat .

And indeed there is great reason for Princes to give Toleration to disagreeing persons , whose opinions by faire meanes cannot be altered ; for if the persons be confident , they will serve God according to their perswasions ; and if they be publikely prohibited , they will privately convene , and then all those inconveniences and mischiefes which are Arguments against the permission of Conventicles , are Arguments for the publick permissions of differing Religions , because the denying of the publick worship will certainly produce private Conventicles , against which all wise Princes and Common-Wealths have upon great reasons made Edicts and severe Sanctions , Quic quid enim agitur absente rege , in caput ejus plerunque redundat , say the Politicks : For the face of a man is as the face of a Lion , and scatters all base machinations which breath not but in the dark : It is a proverbiall saying , quod nimia familiaritas servorum est conspiratio adversus Dominum , and they who for their security runne into grots and cellars , and retirements , think that they being upon the defensive , those Princes and those Lawes that drive them to it are their Enemies , and therefore they cannot be secure , unlesse the power of the one , and the obligation of the other be lessened and rescinded ; and then the being restrained and made miserable , endeares the discontented persons mutually , and makes more hearty and dangerous Confederations . King Iames of blessed memory , in his Letters to the States of the United Provinces , dated 6 March . 1613. Thus wrote .... Magis autem è re fore si sopiantur authoritate publicâ , ita ut prohibeatis Ministros vestros ne eas disputationes in suggestum aut ad plebem ferant , ac districtè imperetis ut pacem colant se invicem Tolerando in istâ opinionum ac sententiarum discrepantiâ : ..... Eoque justiùs videmur vobis hoc ipsum suadere debere quòd neutram comperimus adeò deviam ut non possint & cum fidei Christianae veritate , & cum animarum salute consistere , &c. The like Councell in the divisions of Germany , at the first Reformation was thought reasonable by the Emperour Ferdinand , and his excellent Sonne Maximilian ; For they had observed that violence did exasperate , was unblessed , unsuccessefull and unreasonable , and therefore they made Decrees of Toleration , and appointed tempers and expedients to be drawn up by discreet persons , and George Cassander was design'd to this great work , and did something towards it : And Emanuel Philibert , D. of Savoy repenting of his warre undertaken for Religion against the Pedemontans , promised them Toleration , and was as good as his word : As much is done by the Nobility of Polonia . So that the best Princes and the best Bishops gave Toleration and Impunities ; but it is known that the first Persecutions of disagreeing persons were by the Arrians , by the Circumcellians and Donatists , and from them , they of the Church took examples , who in small numbers did sometime perswade it , sometime practise it . And among the Greeks it became a publick and authorized practise , till the Question of Images grew hot and high ; for then the Worshippers of Images having taken their example from the Empresse Irene , who put her Sonnes eyes out for making an Edict against Images , began to be as cruell as they were deceived , especially being encouraged by the Popes of Rome , who then blew the coales to some purpose .

And that I may upon this occasion give account of this affaire in the Church of Rome , it is remarkable that till the time of Iustinian the Emperour , A. D. 525. the Catholicks and Novatians had Churches indifferently permitted even in Rome it selfe , but the Bishops of Rome whose interest was much concerned in it , spoke much against it , and laboured the eradication of the Novatians , and at last when they got power into their hands they served them accordingly , but it is observed by Socrates that when the first Persecution was made against them at Rome by Pope Innocent I , at the same instant the Gothes invaded Italy , and became Lords of all , it being just in God to bring a Persecution upon them for true beliefe , who with an incompetent Authority and insufficient grounds doe persecute an errour lesse materiall , in persons agreeing with them in the profession of the same common faith . And I have heard it observ'd as a blessing upon S. Austin ( who was so mercifull to erring persons as the greatest part of his life in all senses , even when he had twice chang'd his mind , yet to Tolerate them , and never to endure they should be given over to the secular power to be kild ) that the very night the Vandals set down before his City of Hippo to besiege it , he dyed and went to God , being ( as a reward of his mercifull Doctrine ) taken from the miseries to come , and yet that very thing was also a particular issue of the Divine Providence upon that City , who not long before had altered their profession into truth by force , and now were falling into their power , who afterward by a greater force turned them to be Arrians .

But in the Church of Rome , the Popes were the first Preachers of force and violence in matters of opinion , and that so zealously , that Pope Vigilius suffered himselfe to be imprisoned and handled roughly by the Emperour Iustinian , rather then he would consent to the restitution and peace of certain disagreeing persons , but as yet it came not so farre as death . The first that preached that Doctrine was Dominick , the Founder of the Begging Orders of Friers , the Friers Preachers ; in memory of which the Inquisition is intrusted only to the Friers of his Order ; and if there be any force in dreams , or truth in Legends ( as there is not much in either ) this very thing might be signified by his Mothers dreame , who the night before Dominick was born , dream'd she was brought to Bed of a huge Dog with a fire-brand in his mouth : Sure enough , however his disciples expound the dreame , it was a better sign that he should prove a rabid , furious Incendiary , then any thing else ; whatever he might be in the other parts of his life , in this Doctrine he was not much better , as appears in his deportment toward the Albigenses , against whom hee so preached , adeo quidem ut centum haereticorum millia ab octo millibus Catholicorum fusa & interfecta fuisse perhibeantur , saith one of him ; and of those who were taken , 180 were burnt to death , because they would not abjure their Doctrine : This was the first example of putting erring persons to death , that I find in the Roman Church ; For about 170 years before , B. Bruno Berengarianes è suâ diocesi expulit , non morti aut suppliciis corporalibus tradidit . Berengarius fell into opinion concerning the blessed Sacrament which they cald Heresy , and recanted , and relapsed , and recanted againe , and fell again two or three times , saith Gerson writing against Romant of the Rose , and yet he died siccâ morte his own naturall death , and with hope of Heaven , and yet Hildebrand was once his judge , which shewes that at that time Rome was not come to so great heigths of bloodshed . In England , although the Pope had as great power here as any where , yet there were no Executions for matter of opinion known till the time of Henry the Fourth , who ( because he Usurped the Crown ) was willing by all means to endeare the Clergy by destroying their Enemies , that so he might be sure of them to all his purposes . And indeed , it may become them well enough , who are wiser in their generations then the children of light , it may possibly serve the pollicies of evill persons , but never the pure and chaste designs of Christianity , which admits no blood but Christs , and the imitating blood of Martyrs , but knowes nothing how to serve her ends , by persecuting any of her erring children .