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.]
[121] [“Certain it is from the word of truth, that the anti-christian
kingdom shall be destroyed and rooted up by Christian princes and states
long before the great harvest of the end of the world.... And either such
princes must perform this great work without prayer, and then it were not
sanctified to God, or if it be a sacrifice sanctified to God, they must
pray for their desolation before they inflict it.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 53.]
[122] [“It might as truly be said the ministers of Christ are forbidden
to denounce present or speedy destruction to any murderers, &c.” Cotton’s
Reply, p. 54.]
[123] [“It is moral equity, that blasphemers, and apostate idolaters
seducing others to idolatry, should be put to death, Levit. xxiv. 16....
The external equity of that judicial law of Moses was of moral force, and
bindeth all princes to express that zeal and indignation, both, against
blasphemy in such as fall under their just power, which Ahab neglected;
and against seduction to idolatry, which Ahab executed, or else Elijah,
or some others, by his consent.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 55.]
[124] [“It was no just cause for the civil magistrate to punish the
Pharisees, for that they took unjust offence against Christ’s wholesome
doctrine. For neither was the doctrine itself a fundamental truth;
nor was their offence against it a fundamental error, though it was
dangerous. Besides, the civil magistrates had no law established about
doctrines, or offences of that nature. And therefore, they could take no
judicial cognizance of any complaint presented to them about the same.”
Cotton’s Reply, p. 57.]
[125] [“Paul’s appeal to Cæsar, was about the wrongs done unto the Jews.
The wrongs to them were not only civil, but church offences, which Paul
denied.... A man may be such an offender in matters of religion, against
the law of God, against the church, as well as in civil matters against
Cæsar, as to be worthy of death.... Paul, or any such like servant
of Christ, if he should commit any such offence, he would not refuse
judgment unto death.” Ib. p. 59.]
[126] [“We do not say, It is the holy will and purpose of God to
establish the doctrine and kingdom of his Son only this way, to wit, by
the help of civil authority. For it is his will also to magnify his power
in establishing the same ... by the sufferings of his saints, and by
the bloody swords of persecuting magistrates: ... but it is the duty of
magistrates to know the Son, acknowledge his kingdom, and submit their
thrones and crowns to it, &c.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 61.]
[127] [“We do not allege that place in Isaiah, to prove kings and queens
to be judges of ecclesiastical causes; but to be providers for the
church’s well-being, and protectors of it.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 61.]
[128] [“We do not hold it lawful for a Christian magistrate to compel
by civil sword either Pharisee, or any Jew, or pagan, to profess the
religion, or doctrine, of the Lord Jesus, much less do we think it meet
for a private Christian to provoke either Jewish or pagan magistrates to
compel Pharisees to submit to the doctrine or religion of Christ Jesus.”
Cotton’s Reply, p. 64. On this Mr. Williams observes, that Mr. Cotton
believes “it is no compulsion to make laws with penalties for all to come
to church and to public worship.” Bloudy Tenent yet more Bloudy, p. 87.]
[129] [“When the corruption, or destruction of souls, is a destruction
also of lives, liberties, estates of men, _lex talionis_ calleth for, not
only soul for soul, but life for life.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 64.]
[130] [“Yet it is not only every man’s duty, but the common duty of the
magistrates to prevent infection, and to preserve the common health of
the place, by removing infectious persons into solitary tabernacles.” Ib.
p. 65.]
[131] [“That hindereth not the lawful and necessary use of a civil sword
for the punishment of some such offences, as are subject to church
censure.... It is evident that the civil sword was appointed for a remedy
in this case, Deut. xiii.... For he (the angel of God’s presence) did
expressly appoint it in the Old Testament: nor did he ever abrogate it
in the New.... The reason is of moral, i. e., of universal and perpetual
equity to put to death any apostate seducing idolater, or heretic ... the
magistrate beareth not the sword in vain, to execute vengeance on such an
evil doer.” Cotton’s Reply, pp. 66, 67.]
[132] [“It is a carnal and worldly, and indeed an ungodly imagination, to
confine the magistrates’ charge to the bodies and goods of the subject,
and to exclude them from the care of their souls.... They may and ought
to procure spiritual help to their souls, and to prevent such spiritual
evils, as that the prosperity of religion amongst them might advance the
prosperity of the civil state.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 68.]
[133] [“The matter of this answer, it is likely enough, was given by me;
for it suiteth with my own apprehension, both then and now. But some
expressions in laying it down, I do not own, nor can I find any copy
under my own handwriting, that might testify how I did express myself,
especially in a word or two, wherein the discusser observeth, in cap.
38, some haste, and light, sleepy attention.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 74. Mr.
Williams replies, “It is at hand for Master Cotton or any to see that
copy which he gave forth and corrected in some places with his own hand,
and every word _verbatim_ here published.” Bloody Tenent yet more Bloody,
p. 114. See ante, p. 22.]
[134] [“It is far from me to say, that it is lawful for civil magistrates
to inflict corporal punishments upon men contrary-minded, standing
in the same state the Samaritans did. No such thought arose in my
heart, nor fell from my pen—that it is lawful for a civil magistrate
to inflict corporal punishments upon such as are contrary-minded in
matters of religion.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 76. To this Mr. Williams
expresses his surprise as to the meaning Mr. Cotton puts upon the words
_contrary-minded_, seeing the whole argument of his book is to show that
heretics may be lawfully punished by the civil magistrate. P. 115.]
[135] [“Let it not seem strange to hear tell of unconverted Christians or
unconverted converts. There is no contradiction at all in the words. When
the Lord saith, that _Judah turned unto him, not with all her heart, but
feignedly_, was she not then an unconverted convert? converted in show
and profession, but unconverted in heart and truth?” Cotton’s Reply, p.
78.]
[136] [“I have not yet learned that the children of believing parents
born in the church, are all of them pagans, and no members of the church:
or that being members of the church, and so _holy_, that they are all of
them truly converted. And if they be not always truly converted, then let
him not wonder, nor stumble at the phrase of unconverted Christians.” Ib.
p. 78.]
[137] [“If opposition rise from within, from the members of the church,
I do not believe it to be lawful for the magistrate to seek to subdue
and convert them to be of his mind by the civil sword; but rather to
use all spiritual means for their conviction and conversion. But if the
opposition still continue in doctrine and worship, and that against the
vitals and fundamentals of religion, whether by heresy of doctrine or
idolatry in worship, and shall proceed to seek the seduction of others,
I do believe the magistrate is not to tolerate such opposition against
the truth in church members, or in any professors of the truth after due
conviction from the word of truth.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 81.]
[138] [“Yet it is not more than befell the church of Judah, in the
days of Ahaz and Hezekiah, Manasseh and Josiah; yet the prophets never
upbraided them with the civil magistrate’s power in causes of religion,
as the cause of it.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 82.]
[139] [“A civil magistrate ought not to draw out his civil sword against
any seducers till he have used all good means for their conviction,
and thereby clearly manifested the bowels of tender commiseration and
compassion towards them. But if after their continuance in obstinate
rebellion against the light, he shall still walk towards them in soft and
gentle commiseration, his softness and gentleness is excessive large to
foxes and wolves; but his bowels are miserably straitened and hardened
against the poor sheep and lambs of Christ.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 83.]
[140] [Eusebii Eccles. Hist. lib. iv. c. xiii. The rescript is also found
appended to the second apology of Justin Martyr, Opera, tom. i. p. 100,
edit. Coloniæ, 1686. By modern writers it is deemed spurious, although in
spirit consonant with the well known temper of the emperor. Neander Ch.
Hist. i. p. 141. Gieseler, i. 130. Clark’s For. and Theol. Lib.]
[141] [“Though the same arm may with a staff beat a wolf, yet it will not
with the same staff beat a sheep. The same voice from heaven that calleth
the sheep by name into the sheepfold, and leadeth them by still waters,
the same voice hath said, that anti-christian wolves and seducers shall
drink of blood, for they are worthy.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 86. To this Mr.
Williams replies, that if civil power may force out of the church, it may
also force in. “If civil power, to wit, by swords, whips, prisons, &c.,
drives out the spiritual or mystical wolf, the same undeniably must drive
in the sheep.” The Bloody Tenent yet more Bloody, p. 128.]
[142] [“If those be peaceable and quiet subjects, that withdraw subjects
from subjection to Christ: if they be loving and helpful neighbours, that
help men on to perdition: if they be fair and just dealers, that wound
the souls of the best, and kill and destroy the souls of many, if such be
true and loyal to civil government, that subject it to the tyranny of a
foreign prelate, then it will be no advantage to civil states, when the
kingdoms of the earth shall become the kingdoms of our Lord; and they may
do as good service to the civil state, who bring the wrath of God upon
them by their apostasy, as they that bring down blessings from heaven by
the profession and practice of the true religion in purity.” Cotton’s
Reply, pp. 87, 88.]
[143] [“Magistrates ought to be so well acquainted with matters of
religion, as to discern the fundamental principles thereof, and the
evil of those heresies and blasphemies as do subvert the same. Their
ignorance thereof is no discharge of their duty before the Lord. Such
wolfish oppressors, and doctrines, and practices as they cannot discern
with their own eyes, it will be their sin to suppress them, because they
cannot do it of faith: or to tolerate them, because they are destructive
to the souls of the people.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 89.]
[144] [“It is no dishonour to Christ, nor impeachment of the sufficiency
of the ordinances left by Christ, that in such a case his ministers of
justice in the civil state, should assist his ministers of the gospel in
the church state.” Ib. p. 91.]
[145] [“Elders must keep within the bounds of their calling; but killing,
and dashing out of brains, which is all one with stoning, was expressly
commanded in such a case to the people of God, by order from the judges.
Deut. xiii. 10.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 91.]
[146] [“Nor is it a frustrating of the sweet end of Christ’s coming,
which was to save souls, but rather a direct advancing of it, to destroy
(if need be) the bodies of those wolves, who seek to destroy the souls of
those for whom Christ died.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 93.]
[147] [“This is not unfitting nor improper, that a magistrate should draw
his sword, though not in matters spiritual, yet about matters spiritual,
to protect them in peace, and to stave off the disturbers and destroyers
of them.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 94.]
[148] [_Saker_ is the peregrine hawk; but was applied to a piece of
ordnance of three inches and a half bore, carrying a ball of five pounds
and a half weight.]
[149] [“It is far from me to allow the civil magistrate to make use of
his civil weapons to batter down idolatry and heresy in the souls of men,
... but if the idolater or heretic grow obstinate ... now the magistrate
maketh use, not of stocks and whips, but of death and banishment....
Heretics and idolaters may be restrained from the open practice and
profession of their wickedness by the sword of justice, and such weapons
of righteousness.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 95.]