Chapter 2
A Table of the Principal Contents of the Book
PAGE.
[SYLLABUS OF THE WORK
ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT
ADDRESS TO EVERY COURTEOUS READER
SCRIPTURES AND REASONS AGAINST PERSECUTION
MR. JOHN COTTON’S ANSWER TO THE AFORESAID ARGUMENTS ]
A REPLY TO THE AFORESAID ANSWER OF MR. COTTON.
Truth and Peace, their rare and seldom meeting
Two great complaints of Peace
Persecutors seldom plead Christ but Moses for their author
Strife, Christian and unchristian
A threefold doleful cry
The wonderful providence of God in the writing of the arguments against persecution
A definition of persecution discussed
Conscience will not be restrained from its own worship, nor constrained to another
A chaste soul in God’s worship compared to a chaste wife
God’s people have erred from the very fundamentals of visible worship
Four sorts of spiritual foundations in the New Testament
The six fundamentals of the Christian religion
The coming out of Babel not local, but mystical
The great ignorance of God’s people concerning the nature of a true church
Common prayer written against by the New English ministers
God’s people have worshipped God with false worships
God is pleased sometimes to convey good unto his people beyond a promise
A notable speech of King James to a great nonconformist turned persecutor
Civil peace discussed
The difference between spiritual and civil state
Six cases wherein God’s people have been usually accounted arrogant, and peace breakers, but most unjustly
The true causes of breach and disturbance of civil peace
A preposterous way of suppressing errors
Persecutors must needs oppress both erroneous and true consciences
All persecutors of Christ profess not to persecute him
What is meant by the heretic, Tit. iii.
The word heretic generally mistaken
Corporal killing in the law, typing out spiritual killing in the gospel
The carriage of a soul sensible of mercy, towards others in their blindness, &c.
The difference between the church and the world, wherein it is, in all places
The church and civil state confusedly made all one
The most peaceable accused for peace breaking
A large examination of what is meant by the tares, and letting of them alone
Satan’s subtlety about the opening of scripture
Two sorts of hypocrites
The Lord Jesus the great teacher by parables, and the only expounder of them
Preaching for conversion is properly out of the church
The tares proved properly to signify anti-christians
God’s kingdom on earth the visible church
The difference between the wheat and the tares, as also between these tares and all others
A civil magistracy from the beginning of the world
The tares are to be tolerated the longest of all sinners
The danger of infection by permitting of the tares, assoiled
The civil magistrate not so particularly spoken to in the New Testament as fathers, masters, &c., and why?
A twofold state of Christianity: persecuted under the Roman emperors, and apostated under the Roman popes
Three particulars contained in that prohibition of Christ Jesus concerning the tares, Let them alone, Matt. xiii.
Accompanying with idolaters, 1 Cor. v. discussed
Civil magistrates never invested by Christ Jesus with the power and title of defenders of the faith
God’s people [Israel] ever earnest with God for an arm of flesh
The dreadful punishment of the blind Pharisees in four respects
The point of seducing, infecting, or soul-killing, examined
Strange confusions in punishments
The blood of souls, Acts xx., lies upon such as profess the ministry: the blood of bodies only upon the state
Usurpers and true heirs of Christ Jesus
The civil magistrate bound to preserve the bodies of their subjects, and not to destroy them for conscience’ sake
The fire from heaven, Rev. xiii. 13, 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26, examined
The original of the Christian name, Acts xi.
A civil sword in religion makes a nation of hypocrites, Isa. x.
A difference of the true and false Christ and Christians
The nature of the worship of unbelieving and natural persons
Antoninus Pius’s famous act concerning religion
Isa. ii. 4, Mic. iv. 3, concerning Christ’s visible kingdom, discussed
Acts xx. 29, the suppressing of spiritual wolves, discussed
It is in vain to decline the name of the head of the church, and yet to practise the headship
Titus i. 9, 10, discussed
Unmerciful and bloody doctrine
The spiritual weapons, 2 Cor. x. 4, discussed
Civil weapons most improper in spiritual causes
The spiritual artillery, Eph. vi., applied
Rom. xiii., concerning civil rulers’ power in spiritual causes, largely examined
Paul’s appeal to Cæsar, examined
And cleared by five arguments
Four sorts of swords
What is to be understood by evil, Rom. xiii. 4
Though evil be always evil, yet the permission of it may sometimes be good
Two sorts of commands, both from Moses and Christ
The permission of divorce in Israel, Matt. xix. 17, 18
Usury in the civil state lawfully permitted
Seducing teachers, either pagans, Jewish, Turkish, or anti-christian, may yet be obedient subjects to the civil laws
Scandalous livers against the civil state
Toleration of Jezebel and Balaam, Rev. ii. 14, 20, examined
The Christian world hath swallowed up Christianity
Christ Jesus the deepest politician that ever was, yet commands he a toleration of anti-christians
The princes of the world seldom take part with Christ Jesus
Buchanan’s item to King James
King James’s sayings against persecution
King Stephen’s, of Poland, sayings against persecution
Forcing of conscience a soul-rape
Persecution for conscience hath been the lancet which hath let blood the nations. All spiritual whores are bloody
Polygamy, or the many wives of the fathers
David advancing of God’s worship against order
Constantine and the good emperors, confessed to have done more hurt to the name and crown of Christ, than the bloody Neros did
The language of persecutors
Christ’s lilies may flourish in the church, notwithstanding the weeds in the world permitted
Queen Elizabeth and King James, their persecuting for cause of religion examined
Queen Elizabeth confessed by Mr. Cotton to have almost fired the world in civil combustions
The wars between the papists and the protestants
The wars and success of the Waldensians against three popes
God’s people victorious overcomers, and with what weapons
The Christian church doth not persecute, but is persecuted
The nature of excommunication
The opinion of ancient writers examined concerning the doctrine of persecution
Constraint upon conscience in Old and New England
The Indians of New England permitted in their worshipping of devils
In two cases a false religion will not hurt
The absolute sufficiency of the sword of the Spirit
A national church not instituted by Christ
Man hath no power to make laws to bind conscience
Hearing of the word in a church estate a part of God’s worship
Papists’ plea for toleration of conscience
Protestant partiality in the cause of persecution
Pills to purge out the bitter humour of persecution
Superstition and persecution have had many votes and suffrages from God’s own people
Soul-killing discussed
Phineas’s act discussed
Elijah’s slaughters examined
Dangerous consequences flowing from the civil magistrate’s power in spiritual cases
The world turned upside down
The wonderful answer of the ministers of New England to the ministers of Old
Lamentable differences even amongst them that fear God
The doctrine of persecution ever drives the most godly out of the world
A MODEL OF CHURCH AND CIVIL POWER, composed by Mr. Cotton and the ministers of New England, and sent to Salem, (as a further confirmation of the bloody doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience) examined and answered
Christ’s power in the church confest to be above all magistrates in spiritual things
Isa. xlix. 23, lamentably wrested
The civil commonweal, and the spiritual commonweal, the church, not inconsistent, though independent the one on the other
Christ’s ordinances put upon a whole city or nation may civilize them, and moralize, but not christianize, before repentance first wrought
Mr. Cotton and the New English minister’s confession, that the magistrate hath neither civil nor spiritual power in soul matters
The magistrates and the church, (by Mr. Cotton’s grounds) in one and the same cause, made the judges on the bench, and delinquents at the bar
A demonstrative illustration, that the magistrate cannot have power over the church in spiritual or church causes
The true way of the God of peace, in differences between the church and the magistrate
The terms godliness and honesty explained, 1 Tim. ii. 1, and honesty proved not to signify in that place the righteousness of the second table
The forcing of men to God’s worship, the greatest breach of civil peace
The Roman Cæsars of Christ’s time described
It pleased not the Lord Jesus, in the institution of the Christian church, to appoint and raise up any civil government to take care of his worship
The true custodes utriusque tabulæ, and keepers of the ordinances and worship of Jesus Christ
The kings of Egypt, Moab, Philistia, Assyria, Nineveh, were not charged with the worship of God, as the kings of Judah were
Masters of families not charged under the gospel to force all the consciences of their families to worship
God’s people have then shined brightest in godliness, when they have enjoyed least quietness
Few magistrates, few men, spiritually good; yet divers sorts of commendable goodness beside spiritual
Civil power originally and fundamentally in the people Mr. Cotton and the New English give the power of Christ into the hands of the commonweal
Laws concerning religion, of two sorts
The very Indians abhor to disturb any conscience at worship
Canons and constitutions pretended civil, but indeed ecclesiastical
A threefold guilt lying upon civil powers, commanding the subject’s soul in worship
Persons may with less sin be forced to marry whom they cannot love, than to worship where they cannot believe
As the cause, so the weapons of the beast and the lamb are infinitely different
Artaxerxes his decree examined
The sum of the examples of the gentile king’s decrees concerning God’s worship in scripture
The doctrine of putting to death blasphemers of Christ, cuts off the hopes of the Jews partaking in his blood
The direful effects of fighting for conscience
Error is confident as well as truth
Spiritual prisons
Some consciences not so easily healed and cured as men imagine
Persecutors dispute with heretics, as a tyrannical cat with the poor mouse: and with a true witness, as a roaring lion with an innocent lamb in his paw
Persecutors endure not the name of persecutors
Psalm ci., concerning cutting off the wicked, examined
No difference of lands and countries, since Christ Jesus his coming
The New English separate in America, but not in Europe
Christ Jesus forbidding his followers to permit leaven in the church, doth not forbid to permit leaven in the world
The wall (Cant. viii. 9.) discussed
Every religion commands its professors to hear only its own priests or ministers
Jonah his preaching to the Ninevites discussed
Hearing of the word discussed
Eglon his rising up to Ehud’s message, discussed
A twofold ministry of Christ: first, apostolical, properly converting. Secondly, feeding or pastoral
The New English forcing people to church, and yet not to religion (as they say), forcing them to be of no religion all their days
The civil state can no more lawfully compel the consciences of men to church to hear the word, than to receive the sacraments
No precedent in the word, of any people converting and baptizing themselves
True conversion to visible Christianity is not only from sins against the second table, but from false worships also
The commission, Matt. xxviii., discussed
The civil magistrate not betrusted with that commission
Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xvii., a figure of Christ Jesus in his church, not of the civil magistrate in the state
The maintenance of the ministry, Gal. vi. 6, examined
Christ Jesus never appointed a maintenance of the ministry from impenitent and unbelieving
They that compel men to hear, compel them also to pay for their hearing and conversion
Luke xiv., Compel them to come in, examined
Natural men can neither truly worship, nor maintain it
The national church of the Jews might well be forced to a settled maintenance: but not so the Christian church
The maintenance which Christ hath appointed his ministry in the church
The universities of Europe causes of universal sins and plagues: yet schools are honourable for tongues and arts
The true church is Christ’s school, and believers his scholars
Mr. Ainsworth excellent in the tongues, yet no university man
King Henry the Eighth set down in the pope’s chair in England
Apocrypha, homilies, and common prayer, precious to our forefathers
Reformation proved fallible
The precedent of the kings of Israel and Judah largely examined
The Persian kings’ example make strongly against the doctrine of persecution
1. The difference of the land of Canaan from all lands and countries in seven [eight] particulars
2. The difference of the people of Israel from all other peoples, in seven particulars
Wonderful turnings of religion in England in twelve years revolution
The pope not unlike to recover his monarchy over Europe before his downfall
Israel, God’s only church, might well renew that national covenant and ceremonial worship, which other nations cannot do
The difference of the kings and governors of Israel from all kings and governors of the world, in four particulars
Five demonstrative arguments proving the unsoundness of the maxim, viz., the church and commonweal are like Hippocrates’ twins
A sacrilegious prostitution of the name Christian
David immediately inspired by God in his ordering of church affairs
Solomon’s deposing Abiathar, 1 Kings ii. 26, 27, discussed
The liberties of Christ’s churches in the choice of her officers
A civil influence dangerous to the saints’ liberties
Jehoshaphat’s fast examined
God will not wrong Cæsar, and Cæsar should not wrong God
The famous acts of Josiah examined
Magistracy in general from God, the particular forms from the people
Israel confirmed in a national covenant by revelations, signs, and miracles; but not so any other land
Kings and nations often plant and often pluck up religions
A national church ever subject to turn and return
A woman, Papissa, or head of the church
The papists nearer to the truth, concerning the governor of the church, than most protestants
The kingly power of the Lord Jesus troubles all the kings and rulers of the world
A twofold exaltation of Christ
A monarchical and ministerial power of Christ
Three great competitors for the ministerial power of Christ
The pope pretendeth to the ministerial power of Christ, yet upon the point challengeth the monarchical also
Three great factions in England, striving for the arm of flesh
The churches of the separation ought in humanity and subjects’ liberty not to be oppressed, but at least permitted
Seven reasons proving that the kings of Israel and Judah can have no other but a spiritual antitype
Christianity adds not to the nature of a civil commonweal; nor doth want of Christianity diminish it
Most strange, yet most true consequences from the civil magistrates being the antitype of the kings of Israel and Judah
If no religion but what the commonweal approve, then no Christ, no God, but at the pleasure of the world
The true antitype of the kings of Israel and Judah
4. The difference of Israel’s statutes and laws from all others in three particulars
5. The difference of Israel’s punishments and rewards from all others
Temporal prosperity most proper to the national state of the Jew
The excommunication in Israel
The corporal stoning in the law, typed out spiritual stoning in the gospel
The wars of Israel typical and unparalleled, but by the spiritual wars of spiritual Israel
The famous typical captivity of the Jews
Their wonderful victories
The mystical army of white troopers
Whether the civil state of Israel was precedential
Great unfaithfulness in magistrates [ministers] to cast the burden of judging and establishing Christianity upon the commonweal
Thousands of lawful civil magistrates, who never hear of Jesus Christ
Nero and the persecuting emperors not so injurious to Christianity as Constantine and others, who assumed a power in spiritual things
They who force the conscience of others, cry out of persecution when their own are forced
Constantine and others wanted not so much affection, as information of judgment
Civil authority giving and lending their horns to bishops, dangerous to Christ’s truth
The spiritual power of Christ Jesus compared in scripture to the incomparable horn of the rhinoceros
The nursing fathers and mothers, Isa. xlix.
The civil magistrate owes three things to the true church of Christ
The civil magistrate owes two things to false worshippers
The rise of high commissions
Pious magistrates’ and ministers’ consciences are persuaded for that, which other as pious magistrates’ and ministers’ consciences condemn
An apt similitude discussed concerning the civil magistrate
A grievous charge against the Christian church and the king of it
A strange law in New England formerly against excommunicate persons
A dangerous doctrine against all civil magistrates
Original sin charged to hurt the civil state
They who give the magistrate more than his due, are apt to disrobe him of what is his
A strange double picture
The great privileges of the true church of Christ
Two similitudes illustrating the true power of the magistrate
A marvellous challenge of more power under the Christian, than under the heathen magistrate
Civil magistrates, derivatives from the fountains or bodies of people
A believing magistrate no more a magistrate than an unbelieving
The excellency of Christianity in all callings
The magistrate like a pilot in the ship of the commonweal
The terms heathen and Christian magistrates
The unjust and partial liberty to some consciences, and bondage unto all others
The commission, Matt. xxviii. 19, 20, not proper to pastors and teachers, least of all to the civil magistrate
Unto whom now belongs the care of all the churches, &c.
Acts xv. commonly misapplied
The promise of Christ’s presence, Matt. xviii., distinct from that Matt. xxviii.
Church administrations firstly charged upon the ministers thereof
Queen Elizabeth’s bishops truer to their principles than many of a better spirit and profession
Mr. Barrowe’s profession concerning Queen Elizabeth
The inventions of men swerving from the true essentials of civil and spiritual commonweals
A great question, viz., whether only church members, that is, godly persons, in a particular church estate, be only eligible into the magistracy
The world being divided in thirty parts, twenty-five never heard of Christ
Lawful civil states where churches of Christ are not
Few Christians wise and noble, and qualified for affairs of state
The Ninevites’ fast examined
Luke xxii. 36 discussed
Rev. xvii. 16 discussed
Conclusion
[MR. COTTON’S LETTER EXAMINED AND ANSWERED.
To the Impartial Reader
If Jesus Christ bring more light he must be persecuted
Public sins, the cause of public calamities, must be discovered
Grounds of Mr. Williams’s banishment
Persecutors do no good to men’s souls
Mr. Cotton’s proof from Prov. xi. 26 discussed
Spiritual offences only liable to spiritual censure
Mr. Cotton ignorant of the cause of Williams’s sufferings
Civil peace and magistracy blessed ordinances of God
The mercies of a civil state distinct from those of a spiritual state
Affliction for Christ sweet
The state of godly persons in gross sins
God’s mystical Israel must come forth of Babel before they build the temple
New England refuses church fellowship with godly ministers of Old England
Christ considered personally and in his people
Mr. Cotton confessing the true and false constitution of the church
Difference between God’s institutions to the Jews and anti-christian institutions
Coming forth of Babel not local
The polygamy of the fathers
Every true church separate from idols
The substance of true repentance in all God’s children
The first Christians the best pattern for Christians now
Mr. Cotton against a national church, and yet holds fellowship with it
The Jewish national church not to be separated from
Mr. Cotton extenuates national churches
Mr. Cotton guilty of cruelty in persecuting, yet cries out against due severity in the church
God’s controversy for persecution
The puritans and separatists compared
Mr. Ainsworth’s poverty
Four sorts of backsliders from separation
Mr. Canne’s Answer to Mr. Robinson’s Liberty of Hearing
Preachers and pastors far different
The fellowship of the word taught in a church estate
False callings or commissions for the ministry
The Nonconformists’ grounds enforce separation
Mr. Cotton’s practice of separation in New England
Persecution is unjust oppression wheresoever ]
THE
BLOVDY TENENT
of Persecution, for cause of
Conscience, discussed, in
A Conference betweene
TRVTH and PEACE.
Who,
In all tender Affection, present to the High
Court of Parliament, (as the result of
their Discourse) these, (amongst other
Passages) of highest consideration.
London
Printed in the Year 1644.
First. That the blood of so many hundred thousand souls of protestants and papists, spilt in the wars of present and former ages, for their respective consciences, is not required nor accepted by Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace.
Secondly. Pregnant scriptures and arguments are throughout the work proposed against the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience.
Thirdly. Satisfactory answers are given to scriptures and objections produced by Mr. Calvin, Beza, Mr. Cotton, and the ministers of the New English churches, and others former and later, tending to prove the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience.
Fourthly. The doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience, is proved guilty of all the blood of the souls crying for vengeance under the altar.
Fifthly. All civil states, with their officers of justice, in their respective constitutions and administrations, are proved essentially civil, and therefore not judges, governors, or defenders of the spiritual, or Christian, state and worship.
Sixthly. It is the will and command of God that, since the coming of his Son the Lord Jesus, a permission of the most Paganish, Jewish, Turkish, or anti-christian consciences and worships be granted to all men in all nations and countries: and they are only to be fought against with that sword which is only, in soul matters, able to conquer: to wit, the sword of God’s Spirit, the word of God.
Seventhly. The state of the land of Israel, the kings and people thereof, in peace and war, is proved figurative and ceremonial, and no pattern nor precedent for any kingdom or civil state in the world to follow.
Eighthly. God requireth not an uniformity of religion to be enacted and enforced in any civil state; which enforced uniformity, sooner or later, is the greatest occasion of civil war, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus in his servants, and of the hypocrisy and destruction of millions of souls.
Ninthly. In holding an enforced uniformity of religion in a civil state, we must necessarily disclaim our desires and hopes of the Jews’ conversion to Christ.
Tenthly. An enforced uniformity of religion throughout a nation or civil state, confounds the civil and religious, denies the principles of Christianity and civility, and that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
Eleventhly. The permission of other consciences and worships than a state professeth, only can, according to God, procure a firm and lasting peace; good assurance being taken, according to the wisdom of the civil state, for uniformity of civil obedience from all sorts.
Twelfthly. Lastly, true civility and Christianity may both flourish in a state or kingdom, notwithstanding the permission of divers and contrary consciences, either of Jew or Gentile.