The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience...

[81] Bloody Tenent more Bloody, p. 38.

[82] The two parts of this work are quoted in the notes to this volume, as “Cotton’s Reply,” and “Cotton’s Answer.”

[83] [See Tracts on Liberty of Conscience and Persecution, p. 217. Hanserd Knollys Society, 1846.]

[84] Essay of Religion. [Eos qui conscientias premi, iisque vim inferri suadent, sub illo dogmate, cupiditates suas subtexere, illamque rem sua interesse, putare. De Unitate Ecclesiæ.]

[85] It is rarely seen that ever persons were persecuted for their conscience, but by such persecution they were confirmed and hardened in their conscience.

[86] [See Tracts on Liberty of Conscience, pp. 214-224.]

[87] Sozom. lib. 1. Eccles. Hist. chap. 19, 20. [Fleury, Eccles. Hist. Liv. xi. c. 23. “The impious Arius was banished into one of the remote provinces of Illyricum.... The emperor had now imbibed the spirit of controversy, and the angry, sarcastic style of his edicts was designed to inspire his subjects with the hatred which he had conceived against the enemies of Christ.” Gibbon, Decline and Fall, p. 317. 8vo. edit.]

[88] In Epist. 166. [Tunc Constantinus prior contrá partem Donati severissimam legem. Hunc imitati filii ejus talia præceperunt. Quibus succedens Julianus deserto Christi et inimicus, supplicantibus vestris Rogatiano et Pontio libertatem perditioni partis Donati permisit—Huic successit Jovianus—Deinde Valentinianus, legite quam contra vos jusserit. Inde Gratianus et Theodosius—Veri Christiani non pro heretico errore pœnas justissimas sicut vos, sed pro catholica veritate passiones gloriosissimas pertulerunt. S. Aug. Opera, Tom. ii. fol. 156. Ed. Venetiis, 1552.]

[89] [Igitur et scintilla statim ut apparuerit, extinguenda est, et fermentum a massæ vicinia se movendum, secandæ putridæ carnes, et scabiosum animalia caulis ovium repellendum, ne tota domus, massa, corpus, et pecora ardeat, corrumpatur, putrescat, intereant. Arius in Alexandria una scintilla fuit, sed quia non statim oppressa est, totum orbem ejus flamma populata est. S. Hieronymi Opera. Tom. iii, p. 927. Parisiis, 1609. ed.]

[90] [Sunt duo libri mei, quorum titulos est contra partem Donati. In quorum primo libro dixi non mihi placere ullius seculari potestatis impetu schismaticos ad communionem violenter arctari. Quod (et) vere mihi non placebat, qua nondum expertus eram, vel quantum mali eorum auderet impunitas, vel quantum eis in melius mutandis conferre posset diligentia disciplinæ. Retract. ii. Opera, tom. i. fol. 10. To the same effect in Epist. 48, 50, tom. ii. fol. 35, 45. Quid enim non isti juste patiuntur, cum ex altissimo dei presidentis, et ad cavendum ignem æternum flagellis talibus admonentis judicio patiuntur, et merito criminum, et ordine potestatum? Contra Epist. Parmen. tom. vii. fol. 4. Tract xi. in Evang. Joann. tom. ix.]

[91] [Vindicavit (diximus) Moyses, vindicavit Helias, vindicavit Phinees. Vindicavit Macarius. Si nihil offenderant, qui occisi esse dicuntur, fit Macarius reus, in eo quod solus nobis nescientibus, et vobis provocantibus fecit. S. Optati Opera, p. 75. Parisiis, 1679.]

[92] [Melius proculdubio gladio coercentur, illius videlicet qui non sine causa gladium portat, quam in suum errorem multos trajicere permittantur. Dei enim minister ille est, vindex in iram ei qui male agit. Opera, tom. iii. p. 369. edit. Parisiis, 1836.]

[93] [Fidelis expositio errorum Mich. Serveti et brevis eorundem refutatio, ubi docetur, jure gladii coercendos esse hæreticos. Calvini Tract. Theol. p. 686. edit. 1597.]

[94] [Beza Tract. Theol. tom. i. p. 85. edit. 1582.]

[95] [Aretius. Hist. Val. Gentilis. Geneva, 1567.]

[96] [“Thus a man may find a knot in a bulrush, yea, thus a man that were disposed might find fault with the comforts of God for not being full and complete.” Reply of Cotton in The Bloudy Tenent Wash’d and made White in the Bloud of the Lambe, p. 4, edit. 1647.]

[97] [“Fundamental doctrines are of two sorts: some hold forth the foundation of Christian religion—others concern the foundation of the church. I speak of the former sort of these only—the other sort I look at as less principal, in comparison of these.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 5.]

[98] [“It is not truly said, that the Spirit of God maketh the ministry one of the foundations of Christian religion, for it is only a foundation of church order, not of faith, or religion.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 8.]

[99] [In his Reply, Mr. Cotton affects to have forgotten these admonitions and arguments; but Mr. Williams, in his rejoinder, reminds him that once, when riding together in company with Mr. Hooker to and from Sempringham, Mr. Williams did thus address Mr. Cotton, whose reply was to the effect, “that he selected the good and best prayers in his use of that book, as the author of the Council of Trent used to do.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 8; Williams’ Bloudy Tenent made yet more Bloudy, p. 12.]

[100] It pleaseth God sometimes, beyond his promise, to convey blessings and comfort to His, in false worships.

[101] [“Though I say, that it is not lawful to persecute any, though erring in fundamental and weighty points, till after once or twice admonition, I do not therefore say, that after once or twice admonition, then such consciences may be persecuted. But that if such a man, after such admonition, shall still persist in the error of his way, and be therefore punished, he is not persecuted for cause of conscience, but for sinning against his conscience.... It was no part of my words or meaning, to say, that every heretic, though erring in some fundamental and weighty points, and for the same excommunicated, shall forthwith be punished by the civil magistrate; unless it do afterwards appear that he break forth further, either into blasphemy, or idolatry, or seducement of others to his heretical pernicious ways.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 27.]

[102] [“In alleging that place, I intended no other persecution, but the church’s against such an heretic by excommunication.... Verily excommunication is a persecution, and a lawful persecution, if the cause be just offence; as the angel of the Lord is said to persecute the wicked, Psal. xxxv. 6.... Sure it is the Lord Jesus accounteth it a persecution to his disciples, to be delivered up into the synagogues, and to be cast forth out of the synagogues, Luke xxi. 12, with John xvi. 2.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 32.]

[103] [“And for the civil state, we know no ground they have to persecute Jews, or Turks, or other pagans, for cause of religion, though they all err in fundamentals. No, nor would I exempt anti-christians neither from toleration, notwithstanding their fundamental errors, unless after conviction they still continue to seduce simple souls into their damnable and pernicious heresies: as into the worship of false gods, into confidence of their own merits for justification, into seditious conspiracies against the lives and states of such princes as will not submit their consciences to the bishop of Rome.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 33.]

[104] [“This is too vast an hyperbole: as if murderers, seditious persons, rebels, traitors, were none of them such as did break the city’s or kingdom’s peace at all; but they only who are too sharp against corruptions in religion.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 36.]

[105] [“What hurt do they get by being caught? Hypocrites, and corrupt doctrines and practices, if they be found like unto good Christians, or sound truths, what hurt do they catch when I say such are to be tolerated to the end of the world? But—I acknowledge—that by tares are meant such kind of evil persons as are like unto the good.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 37.]

[106] [“If the Discusser had cast his eye a little lower, he might have found that Christ interpreteth the tares not only to be persons, but things, πάντα τὰ σκάνδαλα, all things that offend, as well as those that do iniquity. But I shall not stick upon that at all. Let the tares be persons, whether hypocrites, like unto true Christians, or holders forth of scandalous and corrupt doctrines and practices like unto sound.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 38.]

[107] Hence were the witnesses of Christ, Wickliff and others, in Henry the Fourth’s reign, called Lollards, as some say, from Lolia, weeds known well enough, hence taken for sign of barrenness: Infelix lolium et steriles dominantur avenæ. Others conceive they were so called from one Lollard, &c.; but all papists accounted them as tares because of their profession.

[108] [“It is not true that ζιζάνια signifieth all those weeds that grow up with the corn. For they be a special weed, growing up chiefly amongst the wheat, more like to barley.... Neither is it true, that tares are commonly and generally known as soon as they appear.... Yea, the servants of the husbandman did not discern the tares from the wheat, till the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit. It is like enough, they did not suspect them at all by reason of the great likeness that was between them whilst they were both in the blade.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 40.]

[109] [“1. It is true, Christ expoundeth the field to be the world; but he meant not the wide world, but, by an usual trope, the church scattered throughout the world.... 2. If the field should be the world, and the tares anti-christians and false Christians: it is true, Satan sowed them in God’s field, but he sowed them in the church.... 3. It is not the will of Christ, that anti-christ and anti-christians, and anti-christianity, should be tolerated in the world, until the end of the world. For God will put it into the hearts of faithful princes, in fulness of time, to hate the whore, to leave her desolate and naked, &c. Rev. xvii. 16, 17.” Cotton’s Reply, pp. 41, 42.]

[110] [“It is no impeachment to the wisdom of Christ to call his elect churches and saints throughout the world, by the name of the world.... It is no more an improper speech, to call the church the world, than to speak of Christ as dying for the world, when he died for his church.” Ib. p. 43.]

[111] [“1. Did not Christ preach and sow the seed of the word to all those four sorts of hearers? And yet he was the minister of the circumcision, and preached seldom to any, but to church members, members of the church of Israel.... 2. If the children of church members be in the church, and of the church, till they give occasion of rejection, then they growing up to years become some of them like the highway side, others like the stony, &c.... 3. It is the work of the church to seek the changing of the bad into the good ground. For is it not the proper work of the church, to bring on the children to become the sincere people of God?... 4. There is not such resemblance between highway-side ground and good ground, as is between tares and wheat. Nor would the servants ever ask the question, whether they should pluck up weeds out of the highway-side, &c.” Cotton’s Reply, pp. 44, 45.]

[112] [“1. These tares are not such sinners as are contrary to the children of the kingdom; for then none should be opposite to them but they. 2. The tares were not discerned at first till the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 45.]

[113] [“Neither is it true that anti-christians are to be let alone by the ordinance of Christ, till the end of the world. For what if the members of a Christian church shall some of them apostate to anti-christian superstition and idolatry, doth the ordinance of Christ bind the hands of the church to let them alone? Besides, what if any anti-christian persons, out of zeal to the catholic cause, and out of conscience to the command of their superiors, should seek to destroy the king and parliament, should such an one by any ordinance of Christ be let alone in the civil state?” Cotton’s Reply, p. 47.]

[114] [“Let it be again denied, that hypocrites, when they appear to be hypocrites, are to be purged out by the government of the church. Otherwise they may soon root out, sometime or other, the best wheat in God’s field, and the sweetest flowers in the garden, who sometimes lose their fatness and sweetness for a season.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 48.]

[115] [“Not every hypocrite, but only such, who either walk inordinately without a calling, or idly and negligently in his calling.” Ib. p. 49.]

[116] [“But what if their worship and consciences incite them to civil offences? How shall then the civil state keep itself safe with a civil sword?” Cotton’s Reply, p. 50.]

[117] [“But if their members be leavened with anti-christian idolatry and superstition, and yet must be tolerated—will not a little leaven, so tolerated, leaven the whole lump? How then is the safety of the church guarded?” Ib. p. 50.]

[118] [“The elect of God shall be saved: but yet if idolaters and seducers be tolerated—the church will stand guilty before God of the seduction and corruption of the people of God.” Ib. p. 50.]

[119] [“There is no fear of plucking up the wheat, by rooting out idolaters and seducers—the censures inflicted (upon God’s people), would be blessed of God to their recovery and healing.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 51.]

[120] [“It would as well plead for the toleration of murderers, robbers, adulterers, extortioners, &c., for all these will the mighty angels gather into bundles, &c.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 51.]