have nothing to do to punish any violation, no, not of the weightiest
duties of the first table.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 96.]
[151] [Comment. in Rom. xiii. 5, tom. v. p. 200, ed. Tholuck.]
[152] [“But how far off Calvin’s judgment was to restrain civil
magistrates from meddling in matters of religion, let him interpret
himself in his own words, in his answer to Servetus, who was put to
death for his heresies at Geneva by his procurement:—Hoc uno, saith he,
contentus sum, Christi adventu; nec mutatum esse ordinem politicum, nec
de magistratuum officio quicquam detractum.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 98.]
[153] [Comment. in vers. 8, 10, tom. v. pp. 201, 202.]
[154] [Bezæ Nov. Test. in loc. edit. Londini, 1585.]
[155] [“Though idolatry, and blasphemy, and heresy, be sins against
the first table: yet to punish these with civil penalties is a duty of
the second table.... It was neither the word nor judgment of Calvin or
Beza, so to interpret Rom. xiii. as to exempt magistrates from power of
punishing heresy and idolatry.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 99.]
[156] [“In giving them a power and charge to execute vengeance on evil
doers, it behoved them to inquire and listen after true religion, to hear
and try all, and upon serious, deliberate, and just scrutiny, to hold
fast that which is good, and so prevent the disturbance thereof by the
contrary.... The cases of religion, wherein we allow civil magistrates
to be judges are so fundamental and palpable, that no magistrate,
studious of religion,—but, if he have any spiritual discerning, he cannot
but judge of such gross corruptions as are insufferable in religion.”
Cotton’s Reply, p. 101.]
[157] [“Paul did submit to Cæsar’s judgment-seat the trial of his
innocency, as well in matters of religion as in civil conversation. For
he pleadeth his innocency, that he was guilty of none of those things
whereof they did accuse him, and for trial hereof he appealeth to Cæsar.
Now the things whereof they did accuse him, were offences against the
law of the Jews, and against the temple, as well as against Cæsar. And
offences against the law of the Jews, and against the temple, were
matters of religion.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 103.]
[158] [“What though the sword be of a material and civil nature?...
It can reach to punish not only the offenders in bodily life and
civil liberties, but also the offenders against spiritual life and
soul-liberties.... If the sword of the judge or magistrate be the
sword of the Lord, why may it not be drawn forth, as well to defend
his subjects in true religion, as in civil peace?... What holy care of
religion lay upon the kings of Israel in the Old Testament, the same
lieth now upon Christian kings in the New Testament, to protect the same
in their churches.” Cotton’s Reply, pp. 104, 105.]
[159] [In “A Model of Church and Civil Power—sent to the Church at
Salem,” examined at length by Mr. Williams, in some subsequent chapters
of this volume.]
[160] [“When we say, the magistrate is an avenger of evil, we mean of all
sorts or kinds of evil: not every particular of each kind. Secret evils,
in thought, or affection, yea, in action too, but neither confessed, nor
proved by due witnesses, the magistrate cannot punish.” Cotton’s Reply,
p. 110.]
[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.]
[201] [“Is it a miracle for Elijah, with the aid of so many thousand
people of Israel, to put to death 450 men, whose spirits were
discouraged, being convinced of their forgery and idolatry?” Ib. p. 179.]
[202] [See before, p. 17.]
[203] [See before, p. 30.]
[204] [An answer to thirty-two questions by the elders of the churches in
New England. Published by Mr. Peters; Lond., 1643.]
[205] [“If princes be nursing fathers to the church, then they are to
provide that the children of the church be not nursed with poison instead
of milk. And in so doing they keep the first table.... Princes sit on
the bench over the church in the offensive government of the church: and
yet may themselves, being members of the church, be subject to church
censure in the offensive government of themselves against the rules of
the gospel.” Cotton’s Reply, p. 194.]
[206] [Under the influence of Calvin the legislation of Geneva was
entirely theocratic. Idolatry, adultery, cursing and striking parents,
were punishable with death. Imprisonment was inflicted for every
immorality at the instance of the church courts. Women were forbidden
to wear golden ornaments, and not more than two rings on their fingers.
Even their feasts were regulated: but three courses were allowed, and
each course to consist of only four dishes. Great efforts were also made,
which gave rise to many civil commotions, to remove from office under the
state persons excommunicated by the church. Henry’s Das Leben Calvins, p.
173, edit. 1843.]
[207] Chamier. De Eccles. p. 376. Parker, part. polit. lib. i. cap. 1.
[208] [That is, baptism and the Lord’s supper.]
[209] [See Broadmead Records, Introd. pp. xli., lxxxvii.]
[210] [“If a prince should, by covenant and oath, make his whole kingdom
a national church, he should do more than he hath any word of Christ to
warrant his work.” A Survey of the Sum of Ch. Discipline, &c., part 2,
Argument 12.]
[211] [Among the early settlers were two brothers of the name of Brown,
who, still attached to the rites of the church of England, set up a
separate assembly, and when summoned before the governor, accused the
ministers of departing from the usages of that church, adding that
they were separatists, and would soon become anabaptists. To this
the ministers made reply, “That they were neither separatists nor
anabaptists, that they did not separate from the church of England, nor
from the ordinances of God there, but only from the corruptions and
disorders of that church; they came away from the Common Prayer and
ceremonies ... because they judged the imposition of these things to be
sinful corruptions of the word of God.” Neal’s Hist. of New England, i.
p. 144. The two brothers were sent back to England in the same ship that
brought them over.]
[212] [The law concerning heresy stood thus in New England: “Whoever
denies the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, or the
evil done by the outward man is sin, or that Christ gave himself a ransom
for sins, or that we are justified by his righteousness, or the morality
of the fourth command, or _the baptizing of infants_, or the ordinance of
magistracy, or their authority to make war, or punish offenders against
the first table; whoever denies any of these, or seduces others to do so,
must be banished the jurisdiction.” Neal’s Hist. of New England, ii. p.
344.]
[213] [See note before, p. 164.]
[214] [_Diana_, in the original copy.]
[215] [“I do not disapprove of the use frequently made of it by St.
Augustine against the Donatists, to prove that godly princes may lawfully
issue edicts to compel obstinate and rebellious persons to worship the
true God, and to maintain the unity of the faith; for although faith is
a voluntary thing, yet we see that such means are useful to subdue the
obstinacy of those who will not until compelled obey.” Calvin in loc.
tom. ii. 43. edit. Tholuck.]
[216] [In the Platform of Church Discipline, agreed upon at Cambridge in
New England in 1648, it is provided that not only members of churches,
but hearers of the word also, shall contribute to the maintenance of the
ministry: if the deacons failed to obtain it, recourse was then to be had
to the magistrate, whose duty it was held to be to see that the ministry
be duly provided for. C. Mather’s Magnalia, book v. p. 31. Neal’s Hist.
of New England, ii. p. 301.]
[217] [Mr. Henry Ainsworth, the most eminent of the Brownists, was the
author of a very learned commentary on the Pentateuch and Canticles, as
also of several other minor works. “He was,” says Mr. Cotton, “diligently
studious of the Hebrew text, hath not been unuseful to the church in his
exposition of the Pentateuch, especially of Moses’s rituals.” Way of
Cong. Churches, p. 6. Stuart’s edit. of his Two Treatises, p. 55.]
[218] [The composition of the first book of Homilies is generally
attributed to Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hopkins, and Becon. Jewel is said
to have had the largest share in the second, although Archbishop Parker
speaks of them as “revised and finished, with a second part, by him and
other bishops.” The first edition of the first book appeared in July,
1547, 1 Edward VI. The use of the Apocrypha in the church service was an
early complaint of the Puritans. The apocryphal books were commanded to
be bound up with the other books of scripture by Archbishop Whitgift.
Short’s Hist. of Church of England, p. 239. Strype’s Whitgift, i. 590.
Neal, i. 427.]
[219] [A Letter of many Ministers in Old England requesting the judgment
of their reverend brethren in New England concerning nine positions:
written A.D. 1637. Together with their answer thereto returned, anno
1639, &c. Published 1643, 4to. pp. 90. For a condensed view of it, see
Hanbury’s Hist. Memorials, ii. pp. 18-39.]
[220] [Sentiments precisely similar to the above were embodied in the
seventeenth chapter of the Cambridge Platform, and continued to be for
many years the ruling principles of the congregational churches of New
England. See C. Mather’s Magnalia, book v. p. 37.]
[221] [See Tracts on Lib. of Conscience, Introd. p. xxxii.]
[222] [The Assembly of Divines was at this time engaged in forming a
directory of worship for the entire nation.]
[223] [The central part of a target, which anciently was painted white.]
[224] [There are two chapters numbered CXX. in the original copy.]
[225] Nero and the persecuting emperors were not so injurious to
Christianity, as Constantine and others who assumed a power in spiritual
things. Under Constantine Christianity fell into corruption, and
Christians fell asleep.
[226] [Martial, De Spectaculis Libellus, Ep. ix.]
[227] [See Neal’s Hist. of Puritans, i. 353, edit. 1837.]
[228] Is not this too like the pope’s profession of servus servorum Dei,
yet holding out his slipper to the lips of princes, kings, and emperors?
[229] [For elucidations of the references made by Mr. Williams in
this preface to his sufferings, and for Mr. Cotton’s reply, see the
Biographical Introduction.]
[230] [It is] a monstrous paradox, that God’s children should persecute
God’s children, and that they that hope to live eternally together with
Christ Jesus in the heavens, should not suffer each other to live in
this common air together, &c. I am informed it was the speech of an
honourable knight of the parliament: “What! Christ persecute Christ in
New England?”[231]
[231] [“Though God’s children may not persecute God’s children, nor
wicked men either, for well-doing: yet if they be found to walk in the
way of the wicked—their brethren may justly deprive them in some cases
not only of the common air of the country, by banishment, but even of
the common air of the world by death, and yet hope to live eternally
with them in the heavens.” Master John Cotton’s Answer to Master Roger
Williams, p. 14.]
[232] [That is, of the church at Salem, of which Mr. Williams was then
the pastor.]
[233] [This should be four hundred and fifty. See 1 Kings xviii.
19-22:—or including the “prophets of the groves,” 850.]
[234] [“The truth is, I did not publish that discourse to the world—A
brief discourse in defence of set forms of prayer was penned by Mr.
Ball—that a religious knight sent over with desire to hear our judgment
of it. At his request I drew up a short answer, and sent one copy to
the knight and another to Mr. Ball divers years ago. How it came to be
published I do not know.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 23. See Hanbury’s Hist.
Mem. ii. 157, for an abstract of it.]
[235] [See also Biographical Introduction to this volume.]
[236] [“The scope of my letter was, not to confirm the equity of his
banishment, but to convince the iniquity of his separation.” Cotton’s
Answer, p. 41.]
[237] [“He that shall withdraw or separate the corn from the people, or
the people from the corn; the people have just cause to separate either
him from themselves, or themselves from him. And this proportion will
hold as well in spiritual corn as bodily.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 44.]
[238] [“If men hinder the enjoyment of spiritual good things, may they
not be hindered from the enjoyment of that which is less, carnal good
things?” Ib. p. 46.]
[239] [“I spent a great part of the summer in seeking by word and writing
to satisfy his scruples, until he rejected both our callings, and our
churches. And even then I ceased not to follow him still, ... whereof
this very letter is a pregnant and evident demonstration.” Cotton’s
Answer, p. 47.]
[240] [“I intended not a cordial of consolation to him, ... but only
a conviction, to abate the rigour of his indignation against the
dispensation of divine justice.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 48.]
[241] [“I bless the Lord from my soul for his abundant mercy in forcing
me out thence, in so fit a season.” Cotton’s Answer, p. 49.]