degrades it from a divine and spiritual kingdom, to a kingdom of this world: which he denies it to be, because it needs not force to confirm it: John xviii. 36, "If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews." This proves the kingdom of Christ not governed by outward force, as being none of this world, whose kingdoms are maintained all by force only: and yet disproves not that a christian commonwealth may defend itself against outward force, in the cause of religion as well as in any other; though Christ himself 'coming purposely to die for us, would not be so defended. ****

The main plea is, and urged with much vehemence to their imitation, that the kings of Judah, as I touched before, and especially Josiah, both judged and used. force in religion: 2 Chron. xxxiv. 33, "He made all that were present in Israel to serve the Lord their God" ** To this * I return a threefold answer: First, That the state of religion under the gospel is far differing from what it was under the law; then was the state of rigour, childhood, bondage, and works, to all which force was not unbefitting; now is the state of grace, manhood, freedom, and faith, to all which belongs willingness and reason, not force the law was then written on tables of stone, and to be performed according to the letter, willingly or unwillingly; the gospel, our new covenant, upon the heart of every believer, to be in terpreted only by the sense of charity and inward persuasion the law had no distinct government or governors of church and commonwealth, but the Priests and Levites judged in all causes, not ecclesiastical only, but civil, Deut. xvii. 8, &c. which under the gospel is forbidden to all church ministers, as a thing which Christ.

their master in his ministry disclaimed, Luke xii. 14, as a thing beneath them, 1 Cor. vi. 4, and by many other statutes, as to them who have a peculiar and far differing government of their own. I not, why different the governors? Why not Church-ministers in state-affairs, as well as state-ministers in church-affairs? If church and state shall be made one flesh again as under the law, let it be withal considered, that God, who then joined them, hath now severed them. ** Secondly, the kings of Judah, and those magistrates under the law might have recourse, as I said before, to divine inspiration ; which our magistrates under the gospel have not, more than to the same spirit, which those whom they force have ofttimes in greater measure than themselves: and so, instead of forcing the christian, they force the Holy Ghost; and, against that wise forewarning of Gamaliel, fight against God. Thirdly, those kings and magistrates: used force in such things only as were undoubtedly known and forbidden in the law of Moses, idolatry and direct apostacy from that national and strict enjoined worship of God; whereof the corporal punishment was by himself expressly set down but magistrates under the gospel, our free, elective and rational worship, are most commonly busiest to force those things which in. the gospel are either left free, nay, sometimes abolished when by them compelled, or else controverted equally by writers on both sides, and sometimes with odds on that side which is against them. ****

But they bring now some reason with their force, which must not pass unanswered, that the church of Thyatira was blamed, Rev. ii. 20, for suffering the false "Prophetess to teach and to seduce." I answer, That seducement is to be hindered by fit and proper means ordained in Church-discipline, by instant and powerful.

demonstration to the contrary; by opposing truth to errour, no unequal match; truth the strong, to errour the weak, though sly and shifting. Force is no honest confutation, but uneffectual, and for the most part unsuccessful, ofttimes fatal to them who use it: sound doctrine, diligently and duly taught, is of herself both sufficient, and of herself (if some secret judgment of God hinder not) always prevalent against seducers. This the Thyatirians had neglected, suffering, against Church-discipline, that woman to teach and seduce among them: Civil Force they had not then in their power, being the Christian part only of that city, and then especially under one of those ten great persecutions, whereof this the second was raised by Domitian: force therefore in these matters could not be required of them who were under force themselves.

I have shown, that the civil power hath neither right, nor can do right, by forcing religious things: I will now show the wrong it doth, by violating the funda mental privilege of the gospel, the new birthright of every true believer, christian liberty: 2 Cor. iii. 17, "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Gal. iv. 26, "Jerusalem, which is above, is free; which is the mother of us all." And v. 31, "We are not Children of the bondwoman, but of the free." It will be sufficient in this place to say no more of christian liberty, than that it sets us free not only from the bondage of those ceremonies, but also from the forcible imposition of those circumstances, place and time, in the worship of God: which though by him commanded in the old law, yet in respect of that verity and freedom which is evangelical, St. Paul comprehends both kinds alike, that is to say, both ceremony and circumstance, under one and the same contemptuous name of "weak and beggarly Rudi

ments," Gal. iv. 3, 9, 10; Col. ii. 8, with 16; confor mable to what our Saviour himself taught, John iv. 21, 23, "Neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem.. In Spirit and in Truth; for the father seeketh such to worship him:" that is to say, not only sincere of heart, for such he sought ever; but also, as the words here chiefly import, not compelled to place, and by the same reason, not to any set time; as his apostle by the same spirit hath taught us, Rom. xiv. 6, &c., “One man esteemeth one day above another; another," &c.; Gal. iv. 10, "Ye observe days and months," &c.; Col. ii. 16. These and other such places in scripture the best and. learnedest reformed writers have thought evident enoughto instruct us in our freedom, not only from ceremonies, but from those circumstances also, though imposed with a confident persuasion of morality in them, which they hold impossible to be in place or time. * * * *

A fourth reason, why the magistrate ought not to use force in religion, I bring from the consideration of all those ends, which he can likely pretend to the interpos ing of his force therein: and those hardly can be other than first the glory of God; next, either the spiritual good of them whom he forces, or the temporal punishment of their scandal to others. As for the promoting of God's glory, none, I think, will say that his glory ought to be promoted in religious things by unwarrantable means, much less by means contrary to what he hath commanded. ** That outward force cannot tend to the good of him who is forced in religion, is unquestionable. For in religion whatever we do under the gospel, we ought to be thereof persuaded without scruple; and are justified by the faith we have, not by the work we do: Rom. xiv. 5, "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." The other reason which follows

necessarily, is obvious, Gal. ii. 16, and in many other places of St. Paul, as the groundwork and foundation, of the whole gospel, that we are "justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law." If not by the works of God's law, how then by the injunctions of man's law? Surely force cannot work persuasion, which is faith; cannot therefore justify nor pacify the conscience; and that which justifies not in the gospel, condemns; is not only not good, but sinful to do: Rom. xiv. 23, "Whatsoever is not of faith, is sin." It concerns the magistrate then to take heed how he forces in religion conscientious men: lest by compelling them to do that whereof they cannot be persuaded, that wherein they cannot find themselves justified, but by their own consciences condemned, instead of aiming at their spiritual good, he force them to do evil.**

Lastly, as a preface to force, it is the usual pretence, That although tender consciences thall be tolerated, yet scandals thereby given shall not be unpunished, prophane and licentious men shall not be encouraged, to neglect the performance of religious and holy duties by colour of any law giving liberty to tender consciences. By which contrivance the way lies ready open to them hereafter, who may be so minded, to take away by little and little that liberty which Christ and his gospel, not any magistrate, hath right to give.** As for scandals, if any man be offended at the conscientious liberty of another, it is a taken scandal, not a given. To heal one conscience, we must not wound another: and men must be exhorted to beware of scandals in christian liberty, not forced by the magistrate; lest while he goes about to take away the scandal, which is uncertain whether given or taken, he take away our liberty, which is the certain and the sacred gift of God, neither to be touched by him, nor to be parted with by us.