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

[161] [See before, p. 11.]

[162] [See before, p. 24.]

[163] Upon this point hath Mr. John Goodwin excellently of late discoursed. [In “M. S. to A. S., with a Plea for Libertie of Conscience in a Church Way,” &c. Lond. 1644. 4to. pp. 110. See Introduction to this volume.]

[164] [“I willingly grant, it may be lawful for a civil magistrate to tolerate notorious evil doers in two cases, under which all the examples will fall, which the discusser allegeth; ... when the magistrates’ hand is too weak and feeble, and the offenders’ adherents too great and strong ... and an evil may be tolerated to prevent other greater evils.... In ordinary cases it is not lawful to tolerate a seducing false teacher. The commandment of God is clear and strong, Deut. xiii. 8, 9.... Capitalia Mosis politica sunt æterna.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 113.]

[165] [“It will be hard for the discusser to find anti-christian seducers clear and free from disobedience to the civil laws of a state, in case that anti-christ, to whom they are sworn, shall excommunicate the civil magistrate, and prescribe the civil state to the invasion of foreigners.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 115.]

[166] [See before, p. 22. “The letter denieth the lawfulness of all persecution in cause of conscience, that is, in matter of religion: I seek to evince the falsehood of it, by an instance of lawful church-prosecution in case of false teachers.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 117.]

[167] [“I intended to apply the scriptures written to the churches, and to the officers thereof, no further than to other churches and their officers. The scriptures upon which we call in the magistrate to the punishment of seducers, are such as are directed to civil states and magistrates, of which divers have been mentioned and applied before.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 118.]

[168] [See before, p. 24.]

[169] [“This will no ways follow, unless all men’s consciences in the world did err fundamentally and obstinately after just conviction, against the very principles of Christian religion, or unless they held forth other errors ... and that in a turbulent and factious manner. For in these cases only, we allow magistrates to punish in matters of religion.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 120.]

[170] [See before, p. 25.]

[171] [“The answer which I gave to his argument is not taken from the like number of princes, but from the greater piety and presence of God with those princes who have professed and practised against toleration. It is truly said, suffragia non sunt numeranda, sed ponderanda.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 123.]

[172] [“If the discusser had well observed, he would have found, it was not the speech of the king, but of the prisoner.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 129.]

[173] [“Though the unknowing zeal of the one was sinful, yet it was the fruit of human frailty,—error amoris; but the rage of the others was devilish fury,—amor erroris. Besides the unknowing zeal of the good emperors, lay not in punishing notorious heretical seducers ... it was toleration that made the world anti-christian.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 132.]

[174] [“It followeth not. For Queen Elizabeth might do well in persecuting seditious or seducing papists, according to conscience rightly informed, and King James do ill according to conscience misinformed.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 136.]

[175] [The Third Vial, pp. 6, 7. The object of Mr. Cotton in this work was to justify the persecution of the papists by Queen Elizabeth, and the imitation of that conduct in the Low Countries. He says, “This phrase, out of the altar, holds forth some under persecution.... Duke D’Alva boasts that 36,000 protestants were put to death by him, and in 1586 the Jesuits were banished the country.... They [the protestants] justly say Amen, to the queen’s law—that as she gave the popish emissaries blood to drink—the angel says, Even so, Amen. They acknowledge God’s almighty power, that had given them power to make that law against them—‘all states rang of these laws, and it raised all Christendom,’” &c., &c. The Pouring out of the Seven Vials: or an Exposition of Rev. xvi. By the learned and reverend John Cotton, B.D. London, 1642. 4to.]

[176] [See before, p. 26.]

[177] [“If it be unlawful to banish any from the commonwealth for cause of conscience, it is unlawful to banish any from the church for cause of conscience.... If the censure of a man for cause of conscience by the civil sword be persecution, it is a far greater persecution to censure a man for cause of conscience by the spiritual sword.... Sure I am, Christ Jesus reckoneth excommunication for persecution, Luke xxi. 12.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 143.]

[178] [“I see no reason why the chaste and modest eye of a Christian church should any more spare and pity a spiritual adulterer that seeketh to withdraw her from her spouse to a false Christ, than the eye of a holy Israelite was to spare and pity the like tempters in days of old, Deut. xiii. 8.” Ib. p. 144.]

[179] [See before, p. 24.]

[180] [“Thus far he may be constrained, by withholding such countenance and favour from him, such encouragement and employment from him, as a wise and discerning prince would otherwise grant to such as believe the truth and profess it.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 145.]

[181] [By the 35th of Elizabeth, all subjects of the realm above sixteen years of age, were compelled to attend church under the penalties of fine and imprisonment. Collier’s Eccles. Hist. vii. 163. The pilgrim fathers of New England adopted a similar obnoxious and persecuting law. In the year 1631, it was enacted by their general court, “that no one should enjoy the privileges of a freeman, unless he was a member of some church in the colony.” “Every inhabitant was compelled to contribute to the support of religion, and the magistrates insisted on the presence of every man at public worship.” Knowles’s Memoir of Roger Williams, p. 44. Bancroft’s Hist. of U. States, i. 369.]

[182] [“I know of no constraint at all that lieth upon the consciences of any in New England, to come to church.... Least of all do I know that any are constrained to pay church duties in New England. Sure I am, none in our own town are constrained to pay any church duties at all. What they pay they give voluntarily, each one with his own hand, without any constraint at all, but their own will, as the Lord directs them.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 146. Mr. Williams thus rejoins, “If Mr. Cotton be forgetful, sure he can hardly be ignorant of the laws and penalties extant in New England that are, or if repealed have been, against such as absent themselves from church morning and evening, and for non-payment of church duties, although no members. For a freedom of not paying in his town (Boston) it is to their commendation and God’s praise. Yet who can be ignorant of the assessments upon all in other towns, of the many suits and sentences in courts.” &c. Bloody Tenent yet more Bloody, p. 216.]

[183] [See before, p. 26.]

[184] [“It is not true that the New English do tolerate the Indians, who have submitted to the English protection and government, in their worship of devils openly.... It hath been an article of the covenant between such Indians as have submitted to our government, that they shall submit to the ten commandments.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 148. On the contrary Mr. Williams re-asserts, that certain tribes of the Indians “who profess to submit to the English, continue in the public paganish worship of devils—I say openly, and constantly,” and that their practices are in utter opposition to the ten commandments they had professed to receive. Bloody Tenet, &c. p. 218.]

[185] [But “that is a civil law whatsoever concerneth the good of the city, and the propulsing of the contrary. Now religion is the best good of the city: and, therefore, laws about religion are truly called civil laws, enacted by civil authority, about the best good of the city.... Here will be needful the faithful vigilancy of the Christian magistrate, to assist the officers of the church in the Lord’s work: the one to lay in antidotes to prevent infection, the other to weed out infectious, noisome weeds, which the sheep of Christ will be touching and taking.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 151.]

[186] [See before, p. 27. Also, Tracts on Lib. of Conscience, p. 220.]

[187] [In this paragraph Mr. Williams refers the above quotation to Tertullian, but by an evident mistake or slip of the pen; we have, therefore, inserted in the text “Jerome,” instead of “Tertullian,” as in the copy.]

[188] [“The Lord, through his grace, hath opened mine eye many a year ago to discern that a national church is not the institution of the Lord Jesus.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 156.]

[189] [See before, p. 26.]

[190] [“It is an untruth, that either we restrain men from worship according to conscience, or constrain them to worship against conscience; or that such is my tenet and practice.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 157. “I earnestly beseech,” says Mr. Williams, “every reader seriously to ponder the whole stream and series of Mr. Cotton’s discourse, propositions, affirmations, &c., through the whole book, and he shall then be able to judge whether it be untrue that his doctrine tends not to constrain nor restrain conscience.... And a cruel law is yet extant [in New England] against Christ Jesus, muffled up under the hood or veil of a law against anabaptistry.” Bloody Tenet yet, &c., p. 233.]

[191] [See before, p. 28.]

[192] [“Though the government of the civil magistrate do extend no further than over the bodies and goods of his subjects, yet he may and ought to improve that power ... to the good of their souls; yea, he may much advance the good of their outward man also.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 162.]

[193] [See before, p. 28.]

[194] [“When the wolf runneth ravenously upon the sheep, is it against the nature of the true sheep to run to their shepherd? And is it then against the nature of the true shepherd to send forth his dogs to worry such a wolf, without incurring the reproach of a persecutor.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 171.]

[195] [See before, p. 28.]

[196] [“The murder of the soul is not the only proper cause of a heretic’s capital crime, but chiefly his bitter root of apostasy from God: not only falling off himself from God, but seducing others.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 175.]

[197] [“Yet the very murderous attempt of killing a soul, in abusing an ordinance of God, in corrupting a religion, is a capital crime, whether the soul die of that wound or no.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 175.]

[198] [“As for such as apostate from the known truth of religion, and seek to subvert the foundation of it, and to draw away others from it, to plead for their toleration, in hope of their conversion, is as much as to proclaim a general pardon for all malefactors; for he that is a wilful murderer and adulterer now, may come to be converted and die a martyr hereafter.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 176.]

[199] [“It appeareth he meant not that passage of Deut. xiii., but of Exod. xxxii., where he put to death idolaters; and that of Levit. xxiv., where he put the blasphemers to death.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 178.]

[200] [“The text numbereth them 450 and he numbereth them 850.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 179.]