A discourse concerning the laws ecclesiastical and civil made against hereticks by popes, emperors and kings, provincial and general councils, approved by the church of Rome with a preface against persecuting and destroying hereticks / by a cordial friend to the Protestant religion now by law established in these realms.

§. I. Now that to burn, destroy, extirminate all those who differ from us in Religion, and upon that account are called Hereticks, (though they be men of peaceable and quiet Lives) and prosecute them

according to the Laws here mentioned purely on the account of Conscience, that this, I say, is evidently repugnant to the true Spirit of Christianity, we learn from Christ's own words to his Disciples, who, when a Village of Samaria refused to receive him, because he appeared to them to be going to Jerusalem, ask this Question, Lord wilt thou that we command fire from Heaven to come down, and to consume them, as Eli∣as did? For our dear Lord no sooner heard this Que∣stion but he rebuked his Disciples, saying, Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of, for the Son of man is not come to destroy mens lives, but to save them. Where observe,

1. That whereas they who are thus persecuted by the Church of Rome, are falsly supposed to be Schis∣maticks and Hereticks, the Samaritans undoubtedly were both. For, First, In opposition to the Temple of Jerusalem, which God himself appointed for the Place where he would be worshipped, commanding all men to repair to it, they erected a Temple upon Mount Gerizim, and there they worshipped, deserting the Temple of Jerusalem, this was their Schism. Se∣condly, They also were Hereticks and Idolaters, for they err'd in matters which concerned Salvation, they feared the Lord, and served their own gods, 2 Kings 17. 33. And this our Saviour testifieth in these words, Ye worship ye know not what, we know what we worship, for Salvation is of the Jews.

2. Observe, That whereas Romanists do exercise this Cruelty on them whom they call Schismaticks and Hereticks, chiefly for their refusing to receive and own him as Christ's Vicar who manifestly doth usurp that Title, these Samaritans refused to receive our Saviour himself in his own Person, and that because

he seemed to be going to Jerusalem to worship, so that the Honor of God, and of Religion, and of Jerusalem, the Place of his peculiar Worship, were all concer∣ned in this case.

3. Observe, That the Permission of what was here desired by Saint John and Peter, would have been more effectual for the Conviction of the Heretical, Schismatical Samaritans, than any of the Punish∣ments inflicted by the Inquisition, or any Arts of Pa∣pal Tyranny can be for the Conviction of those whom they call Hereticks and Schismaticks; for these Disci∣ples did not desire that they themselves might exe∣cute on the Samaritans this Sentence, by committing them to the Flames, or by imploring the Magistrates assistence to consume or burn them, they onely did request that they might call upon the God of Hea∣ven to rain down fire upon them, and consume them; which had it pleased him to doe on this occasion, the rest of the Samaritans, by what this Village suffered, must have been evidently convinced by Demonstrati∣on from Heaven, of God's displeasure against their way of Worship, and of the Truth of that Messiah and his Doctrine, who procured this Vengeance to be executed upon them; whereas the Persecutions of the Church, because they minister no Conviction to the Conscience, serve onely to harden Mens Hearts and imbitter their Spirits against those who use them, and to induce them more firmly to believe That such a barbarous Religion cannot be of God.

From these three Observations it is evident that whatsoever may be pleaded by the Church of Rome to justifie her Practice in burning, massacring, extirpa∣ting of Hereticks and Schismaticks, might with ad∣vantage have been pleaded here:

Doth she practise

her Severities out of a Zeal for Truth, and for the Honor of God and Christ, and of the true Religi∣on, and for the reclaiming Hereticks and Schisma∣ticks, and the preventing or terrifying others from adhering to them or being deluded by them;

upon all these accounts you see that the Disciples had far greater cause to call for fire from heaven upon this Village of Samaria. And yet our Saviour, under these Circumstances, thinks fit to rebuke even the desires of doing this to one small Village; How then will he rebuke the actual performance of it to many hundred thousand Souls, after his solemn Declaration of the Re∣pugnancie of these Proceedings to the Design of his most blessed Advent, and to the Spirit of his Gospel? For the true Reasons why Christ rebuked his Disci∣ples for their Desire of dealing thus severely with these Schismatical and Heretical Samaritans were these.

1. Because this Spirit of Severity towards erroni∣ous persons, in whomsoever it is found, is highly opposite to the calm Temper of Christianity, as is in∣sinuated in that Reply of Christ to his Disciples, Ye know not what spirit ye are of, that is, Ye do not well consider under what Way of Dispensation ye are placed by me. The Way I come to teach men, the Temper, Disposition and Affection I would fix within them, is not a furious, persecuting and de∣structive Spirit, but mild, and gentle, and tender of the Lives and Interests of Men, even of those who are our greatest Enemies. Under the Old Testament, indeed, they who rejected and scoffed at a Prophet, suffered severely for it, the Prophet had Commission to call for fire from heaven to devour them presently, curse them in the name of the Lord, 2 Kings 2. 24. But

they who reject and crucifie Christ are by him pray'd for, and are, by his Command, to be still preached to, and, if possible, brought to Repentance, and ac∣cording to this Example, so are all Christians to con∣form themselves, acting towards Contemners of their Persons, or Rejectors of their Doctrine, not accor∣ding to the legal, but the evangelical Dispensation; not according to the Severity of Elias, but the Meek∣ness and Gentleness of Christ. And therefore your Desire of proceeding according to the extraordina∣ry Spirit of Elias, under the gospel Dispensation, is intolerable; for that designs universal Love, Peace and Good-will even to Enemies, it doth engage us to shew all meekness to all men, and so no Difference of Religion, no Pretence of Zeal for God, can justifie this fierce, vindictive and exterminating Spirit.

Our Saviour's second Reason against this Procee∣ding is, That it was repugnant to the End for which he came into the World, which was, not to destroy mens lives, but to save them:

He came to discoun∣tenance all Fierceness, and Rage, and Cruelty in men one towards another, to restrain and subdue that furious and unpeaceable Spirit which is so troublesome to the World, and the cause of so ma∣ny Mischiefs and Disorders in it, to beget a peace∣able Disposition in men of the most distant Tem∣pers, making the Lamb and Wolf lie down together,

and no more to destroy and hurt each other, but turn their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pru∣ning-hooks; engaging them to lay aside all bitterness and wrath, anger and clamor, and evil-speaking, with all malice.

He came to introduce that excellent Religion which consuits not onely the eternal Sal∣vation of mens Souls, but their temporal Peace and

Security, their Comfort and Happiness in this World:

Whose Fruits are righteousness and peace, Rom. 14. 18. love, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness and meekness, Gal. 5. 22, 23. whose wise∣dom is pure and peaceable, gentle, and easie to be in∣treated, full of mercy and good works, Jam. 3. 17. and which commands the wise and knowing man to shew forth out of a good conversation his works with meek∣ness of wisedom, ver. 13. condemning all his bitter zeal as earthly, sensual and devilish, ver. 14, 15. which suffers not the Servant of the Lord to be engaged in foolish questions which beget strife, because that the Disciple of this mild and gentle Saviour must not fight, but must be gentle towards all men, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves against the truth, though their doctrine spread as a gangreen, and over∣throw the faith of some, 2 Tim. 2. 24, 25, - 17, 18. not dispatching them out of the way, as is the man∣ner of the Romanist, but with Longsuffering expec∣ting if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth: Which teacheth us to bear the infirmities of persons weak in Faith, Rom. c. 15. v. 1. to restore them in the spirit of meekness, Gal. 6. 1. to become as weak to the weak, that we may gain the weak, 1 Cor. 9. 22. to bear with the weak, and be long suffering to all men, 1 Thess. 5. 14. to speak evil of no man, to be no fighters, but meek, shewing all gentleness towards all men, and that upon this sole account, that we our selves were sometimes foolish and deceived, Tit. 3. 2, 3.

Now both these Reasons are such as equally con∣cern all Persons, Magistrates as well as Ministers, men who thus persecute out of mis-guided Zeal to∣wards God, as well as they who doe it out of Envy,

Hatred, and such carnal Principles. And they seem plainly to infer, that no man should be persecuted, as in the Church of Rome men are, purely for his mis∣take concerning, or his denial of any Article of Faith revealed by the Gospel, but onely for seditious and treasonable Doctrines, or for such Crimes as, had the Gospel never been revealed, might justly have been punished by the civil Magistrate, or for seducing o∣thers from the Truth, when by the Magistrate they are forbidden so to doe, or propagating and divulging their pernicious Errors to the Disturbance of the ci∣vil Peace.

Notes

• Luke 9. 54.
• Ver. 55, 56.
• John 4. 22.
• Dr. Tillotson's Sermon, Nov. 5. 1678. p. 15.
• Ibid. p. 7.
• Vide Dr. Ham∣mond in locum.
• Tit. 3. 1.
• Dr. Tillot. ibid. p. 8.
• Esa. 11. 6, 9.
• Es. 2. 4.
• Mich. 4. 3.
• Eph. 4. 31.