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 councilsince that Acts xv.-which I may not be forced from the word to assert that it, in some thing or other, went astray. Luther feared not to affirm of the first and best of general synods, that he "understood not the Holy Ghost to speak in it;" and that the canons thereof were but plain hay and stubble;'-yea, and Beza, that such was the " folly, ignorance, ambition, wickedness of many bishops in the best times, that you would suppose the devil to have been president in their assemblies;"" insomuch as Nazianzen complained that he never saw a3 good end of any, and affirmed that he was resolved never to come at them more. And in truth, the fightings and brawls, diabolical arts of defamation and accusing one another, abominable pride, ambition, and affectation of pre-eminence, which appeared in most of them, did so far prevail, that in the issue they became (as one was entitled) dens of thieves, rather than conventions of humble and meek disciples of Jesus Christ, until at length, the holy dove being departed, an ominous owl overlooked the Lateran fathers; and though with much clamour they destroyed the appearing fowl, yet the foul spirit of darkness and error wrought as effectually in them as ever. But to close this discourse. Ignorance of men's invincible prejudices, of their convictions, strong persuasions, desires, aims, hopes, fears, inducements,-sensibleness of our own infirmities, failings, misapprehensions, darkness, knowing but in part,— should work in us a charitable opinion of poor erring creatures, that do it perhaps with as upright, sincere hearts and affections as some enjoy truth. Austin* tells the Manichees, the most paganish heretics that ever were, that they only raged and were high against them who knew not what it was to seek the truth and escape error. With what ardent prayers the knowledge of truth is obtained! And how tender is Salvian' in his judgment of the Arians! "They are," saith he, "heretics, but know it not,-heretics to us, but not to themselves; nay, they think themselves so catholic that they judge us to be heretics: what they are to us, that are we to them. They err, but 16 "Hic prorsus non intelligo Sanctum Spiritum in hoc concilio: hi omnes articuli fænum, stramen, ligna, stipulæ fuerunt."-Luth. "In optimis illis temporibus, ea fuit nonnullorum episcoporum, partim ambitio, partim futilitas et ignorantia," &c.-Beza, præfat. ad Nov. Testa. 3" Ego, si vera scribere oportet, ita animo affectus sum, ut omnia episcoporum concilia fugiam, quoniam nullius concilii finem lætum faustumque vidi: nec quod depulsionem malorum potius quam accessionem et incrementum habuerit.”—Greg. Naz. Ep. ad Procop. * "Illi in vos sæviunt, qui nesciunt cum quo labore inveniantur, et quam difficile caveantur errores," &c.-Aug. "Apud nos sunt hæretici, apud se non sunt: quod ergo illi nobis sunt, hoc nos illis," &c.-Salv. de Prov. &c. with a good mind; and for this cause God shows patience towards them." Now, if any should dissent from what I have before asserted concerning this particular, I would entreat him to lay down some notes whereby heresies may infallibly be discerned to be such; and he shall not find me repugning. 6. That great consideration ought to be had of that sovereign dictate of nature, the sum of all moral duties, " Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris;"-"Do not that unto others which you would not have done to you, were you in the same condition with them." In the business in hand, we are supposed by others to be in that estate wherein we suppose those to be of whom we speak; those others being to us what we are to them. Now truly, if none of the former inconveniences and iniquities which we recounted (assertion 2, 3, 4, or the like), do accompany erring persons, it will be something difficult to make it appear how we may, if enjoying authority over them, impose any coercion, restraint, or punishment on them, which we would not acknowledge to be justly laid on us by others (supposing it should be laid) having authority over us, convinced that our persuasion differing from them is false and erroneous. No sort of Christians but are heretics and schismatics to some Christians in authority; and it may be their lot to live under the power and jurisdiction of men so persuaded of them, where they ought to expect that the same measure will be given unto them which, in other places, they have consented to mete out to others. But men will say, and all men pleading the cause of non-toleration in its full extent do say, That they are heretics and erroneous persons whom we do oppose: we ourselves are orthodox; and no law of nature, no dictate of the Scriptures, requires that we should think it just to render unto them that are orthodox as unto them that are heretics, seducers, and false teachers. Because thieves are punished, shall honest men fear that they shall be so too?-But a thief is a thief in all the world, unto all men: in opinions it is not so.-He is a heretic that is to be punished.—But to whom? in whose judgment? in his own?—no more than we are in ours.-But he is so to them that judge him.—True. Put the case, a Protestant were to be judged by a Papist, as a thousand saints have been: is he not the worst of heretics to his judge? These things turn in a circle: what we are to ourselves, that he is to himself: what he is to us, that we are unto others that may be our judges. But however, you will say, we are in the truth, and therefore ought to go free. Now, truly, this is the same paralogism: who says we are in the truth? others? no, ourselves. Who says erroneous persons (as so supposed) are heretics, or the like? they themselves? no, but we: and those that are to us as we are to them, say no less of us. Let us not suppose that all the world will stoop to us, because we have the truth, as we affirm, but they do not believe. If we make the rule of our proceedings against others to be our conviction that they are erroneous; others will, or may, make theirs of us to be their rule of proceeding against us. We do thus to them, because we so judge of them; will not others, who have the same judgment of us as we of them, do the like unto us? Now here I profess that I do not desire to extend any thing in this discourse to the patronizing of any error whatsoever, I mean, any thing com-> monly so esteemed in the reformed churches,-as myself owning any such; much less to the procuring of a licentious immunity for every one in his way; and least of all, to countenance men walking disorderly in any regard, especially in the particulars before recounted;— but only to show 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, urging 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 exemptions. 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 antichristian tyranny? was not outward force the engine that for many generations kept truth in corners? But of this afterward. Now, I am mistaken if this principle, that the civil magistrate 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 Christendom 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 punishment may be allowed in case of grosser errors, 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 upright, 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 pronounce the sentence of blood in the case of heresy. I do not intend here to dispute; but if any one will, upon Protestant principles and Scripture grounds, undertake to assert it, I promise (if God grant me life) he shall not want a convert 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 blasphemy 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 damnable 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 Mohammedans. As such heresy is a canker, but a spiritual 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 afterward against it, in Austin and others. Marlinus, the famous French bishop, rejected the communion of a company of his associate bishops, because they had consented, with Maximus the emperor, unto the death of the Priscillianists, 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 magistrate to join with them, men were killed and dismembered like beasts: banishments, imprisonments, plunderings, especially 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, 1 Τοὺς μισοῦντας τὸν Θεὸν, μισεῖν χρὴ καὶ ὑμᾶς, καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς ἐχθροῖς αὐτοῦ ἐκτήκεσθαι οὐ μὴν καὶ τύπτειν αὐτοὺς ἢ διώκειν, καθὼς τὰ ἔθνη τὰ μὴ εἰδότα τὸν Κύριον καὶ Θεὸν ἀλλ ̓ ἐχθροὺς μὲν ἡγεῖσθαι, καὶ χωρίζεσθαι ἀπ ̓ αὐτῶν.—Ignat. Epist. ad Philad. Theophanes. Histor. Miscel., lib. xxii. cap. 30. and was carried on with that barbarous outrage on both sides, especially by the Iconolatræ (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 almost 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 guiltless 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 nothing like it: the acts of Christ purging the temple, Peter pronouncing the fate of Ananias, and Paul smiting Elymas with blindness, seem to me heterogeneous. The first laws of Constantine speak liberty and freedom.1 Pecuniary mulcts afterward were added, and general edicts against all sects; and so it is put over into the hands of the Arians, who exceedingly cherished it: yet for a good while pretences must be sought out,-Eustathius 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, you xɛpaλ, 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 purpose. Single persons serve not this Bel and dragon, -whole 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 3 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 sentence, was the bottom-stone in the foundation and highest in the corner of the tower of Babel: and I believe that upon 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 con 1 Euseb. Vit. Const., lib. ii. cap. 27. Socrat. Evag. Rufinus. Sozom. 5 |