Chapter II: Part 2

From this treatise was taken those arguments against persecution,[65] which being replied to by Mr. Cotton, gave rise to the work of Mr. Williams, and which he has so significantly called “The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution Discussed.” Mr. Cotton tells us that this excerpt was sent to him about the year 1635, by Mr. Williams, and that Mr. Williams, against the “royal law of the love of the gospel, and without his knowledge, published it, with his reply, adding thereto a refutation.”[66] A contradictory and more particular account is, however, given of the affair by Mr. Williams. No such letter or intercourse, he tells us, passed between him and Mr. Cotton on this subject. The prisoner’s arguments against persecution were presented to Mr. Cotton by Mr. Hall, a congregational minister at Roxbury, to whom also Mr. Cotton’s answer was addressed. Mr. Hall not being satisfied, sent the papers to Mr. Williams _already printed_, who, therefore, conceiving that being printed they were no longer _private_ papers, felt at liberty to publish his discussion of Mr. Cotton’s principles.[67] At the time when Mr. Cotton wrote the letter to Mr. Hall, he tells us that Mr. Williams “did keep communion with all his brethren, and held loving acquaintance with myself.” It must therefore have been written some time before the banishment of Mr. Williams, and soon after the arrival of Mr. Cotton in New England.

At the close of Mr. Cotton’s letter is found a reference to “a treatise sent to some of the brethren late of Salem, who doubted as you do.” This treatise is the “Model of Church and Civil Power,” the examination of which forms the second part of the “Bloudy Tenent.”[68] The authorship of it is attributed to Mr. Cotton by Mr. Williams. This Mr. Cotton denies. He charges Mr. Williams with a “double falsehood:” First, in saying that he wrote it; second, that the ministers who did write it sent it to Salem.[69] This “blustering charge” Mr. Williams repudiates. He refers to the closing paragraph of Cotton’s own letter, and avers, “to my knowledge it was reported, according to this hint of Mr. Cotton’s, that from the ministers of the churches such a model composed by them was sent to Salem.” He then adds, that hearing of it he wrote to “his worthy friend Mr. Sharp, elder of the church at Salem, for the sight of it, who accordingly sent it to him.” Moreover, Mr. Cotton approved of it, promoted it, and directed others to repair to it for satisfactory information:[70] it was therefore unworthy of him to pass so “deep censures for none or innocent mistakes.” The real author of it was probably Mr. Richard Mather, of whom we are told that “when the platform of Church Discipline was agreed—in the year 1647, Mr. Mather’s model was that out of which it was chiefly taken.”[71] Or perhaps it may preferably be regarded as the result of an act passed by the General Court in the year 1634, wherein the elders of every church were entreated to “consult and advise of _one uniform order_ of discipline in the churches ... and to consider how far the magistrates are bound to interpose for the preservation of that uniformity and peace of the churches.”[72] Certain it is, that the principles of this document pervade all the subsequent legislation of the colony, and many of its conclusions were embodied in the ecclesiastical and civil laws. Mr. Williams did well in selecting these two pieces for discussion. They broadly state those views which are antagonist to intellectual and religious freedom. Other treatises were published to defend New England practices against the observations of friends in Old England, which are occasionally referred to by Mr. Williams; but in none of them were developed to the same extent, that persecuting spirit and theocratic legislation which Mr. Williams so ably, so patiently, and so thoroughly confronts and confutes in the following pages.

The “Bloudy Tenent” was published in England in the year 1644, and without the name either of the author or publisher. It was written while he was occupied in obtaining the charter for Rhode Island. In many parts it bears evident tokens of haste, and occasional obscurities show that he had found no time to amend his work. Indeed he tells us, “that when these discussions were prepared for public in London, his time was eaten up in attendance upon the service of the parliament and city, for the supply of the poor of the city with wood, during the stop of coal from Newcastle, and the mutinies of the poor for firing.”[73] Nevertheless, his style is generally animated, the discussion acutely managed, and frequent images of great beauty adorn his page.

Although not the first in England among the baptist advocates for the great principle of liberty of conscience, Roger Williams holds a preeminent place. Previous to the Bloudy Tenent, several pieces had been published, of great interest and value. Some of these have been reprinted;[74] and we have already seen how one of them gave rise to the present work of Williams. In 1642 we find a baptist asserting as one of the results of infant baptism, that “hence also collaterally have been brought the power of the civil magistrate into the church ... being willingly ignorant that the state and church of the Jews is to be considered in a twofold respect, one as it was a civil state and commonwealth and kingdom, in respect whereof it was common to other civil states and kingdoms in the world; the other as it was the church of God, and in relation thereto had worship, commandments, a kingly office, and government, which no other state and kingdom had or ought to have: for herein it was altogether typical. This state (the church) being spiritual admits of none but Him, their spiritual Head, Lawgiver, James iv. 12.”[75]

In 1643 another most able piece appeared, entitled, “Liberty of Conscience; or the sole means to obtain peace and truth.” The author expresses his opinion that the distractions and troubles of the nation were owing in great measure to the general obstinacy and averseness of most men of all ranks and qualities to tolerate and bear with tender consciences, and different opinions of their brethren.

The same year in which the “Bloudy Tenent” was published, there issued from the press “The Compassionate Samaritan, Unbinding the Conscience, and pouring oil into the wounds which have been made upon the separation.” This piece likewise asserts the rights of conscience with great clearness and power.

Until now the baptists stood alone in this conflict, they were the only known advocates for perfect liberty; but in this year Mr. John Goodwin also came forth to aid them,[76] and by his powerful writings did much to disseminate right views on this great subject.

The activity of Mr. Williams, and his deep interest in whatever concerned the well-being of his fellow countrymen, are still more illustrated by the publications which he put forth while in England. For he not only published his “Key into the Language of America,” composed while on his voyage to this country, and the two treatises reprinted in this volume; but also an anonymous piece, entitled “Queries of Highest Consideration proposed to Mr. Thomas Goodwin—presented to the High Court of Parliament,”[77] containing clear and accurate observations on the respective provinces of civil and ecclesiastical authority.

The publication of the “Bloudy Tenent” was most offensive to the various parties into which the ruling powers of the State were divided. The presbyterians exclaimed against it as full of heresy and blasphemy. If we may believe Mr. Richardson, they even proceeded so far as to burn it.[78] To this we are inclined to attach some confidence, as thereby we may account for the extreme rarity of the book, and for what is in fact a second edition, published in the same year. The existing copies of the work do not quite agree. While they are page for page and line for line the same, they differ in the fact of a table of errata being found in some, which errata are corrected in others. There is also a slight difference in the type and orthography of the title page.[79]

Baillie informs us that Williams’s work did not meet with the approbation of the English Independents. Its toleration was too unlimited for their taste. They were willing to grant liberty only to those sound in fundamentals—the identical views of their brother Congregationalists of America.[80] Yet we are informed in a subsequent work by Mr. Williams, that it operated most beneficially on the public mind. “These _images_ and _clouts_ it hath pleased God to make use of to stop no small leaks of persecution, that lately began to flow in upon dissenting consciences, and to Master Cotton’s own, and to the peace and quietness of the Independents, which they have so long and so wonderfully enjoyed.”[81]

In the year 1647, Mr. Cotton attempted a reply to Mr. Williams. He entitled his work, “The Bloudy Tenent washed, and made white in the bloud of the Lambe: being discussed and discharged of blood-guiltinesse by just Defence, &c. Whereunto is added a Reply to Mr. Williams’s Answer to Mr. Cotton’s Letter. By John Cotton, Batchelor in Divinity, and Teacher of the Church of Christ at Boston in New England. London. 1647.” 4to. pp. 195 and 144. In the notes of the present volume,[82] various examples are given of the character of this reply, and of the tortuous constructions adopted to escape the home thrusts of Mr. Williams. As compared with Williams’s work it displays great unfairness, and a most lamentable want of Christian temper and spirit—it is “wormwood and gall,” to use Mr. Williams’s own words.

A rejoinder appeared in the year 1652. It is entitled “The Bloody Tenent yet more Bloody by Mr. Cotton’s endevour to wash it white in the blood of the Lambe, &c. By R. Williams, of Providence in New-England. London, 1652.” 4to. pp. 373. It is characterized by the kindest tone, the most affectionate spirit, and a considerate treatment of Mr. Cotton’s perversions, errors, and mistakes, which he did not deserve. It is proposed to reprint this volume as necessary to the completeness of the present.

The work it is now the editor’s great pleasure and satisfaction to place in the hands of the subscribers is of great rarity. But _six_ copies are at present known to exist of the original editions. Three of these are in America; two in the Library of Brown University, Rhode Island, and one in the library of Harvard College. Three are in this country; one in the library of the present American Consul, Colonel Aspinall; one in the British Museum; and one in the Bodleian Library. From the latter the present reprint is made by the kind permission of the Librarian. It is a volume of two hundred and forty-seven pages, in small quarto. The original table of Contents is given with the pagination only altered. Mr. Williams’s Reply to Mr. Cotton’s Letter, is of still greater rarity. Two copies are in America; one in Yale College which is much mutilated, and one in the possession of the family of the late Moses Brown, Esq., of Providence. Two are in this country; one in the British Museum, and one in the Bodleian Library, which is also somewhat mutilated. This reprint is from the latter. The proof sheets have been compared with the very fine copy in the British Museum, by my kind friend George Offor, Esq.

E. B. U.

_Newmarket House, August 9th, 1848._

A TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL CONTENTS OF THE BOOK.

PAGE.

[SYLLABUS OF THE WORK 1

ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT 3

ADDRESS TO EVERY COURTEOUS READER 7

SCRIPTURES AND REASONS AGAINST PERSECUTION 10

MR. JOHN COTTON’S ANSWER TO THE AFORESAID ARGUMENTS 19]

A REPLY TO THE AFORESAID ANSWER OF MR. COTTON.

Truth and Peace, their rare and seldom meeting 31

Two great complaints of Peace 33

Persecutors seldom plead Christ but Moses for their author 34

Strife, Christian and unchristian 34

A threefold doleful cry 35

The wonderful providence of God in the writing of the arguments
against persecution 36

A definition of persecution discussed 37

Conscience will not be restrained from its own worship, nor
constrained to another 38

A chaste soul in God’s worship compared to a chaste wife 38

God’s people have erred from the very fundamentals of visible
worship 39

Four sorts of spiritual foundations in the New Testament 39

The six fundamentals of the Christian religion 40

The coming out of Babel not local, but mystical 40

The great ignorance of God’s people concerning the nature of a
true church 41

Common prayer written against by the New English ministers 43

God’s people have worshipped God with false worships 43

God is pleased sometimes to convey good unto his people beyond
a promise 44

A notable speech of King James to a great nonconformist turned
persecutor 45

Civil peace discussed 45

The difference between spiritual and civil state 46

Six cases wherein God’s people have been usually accounted
arrogant, and peace breakers, but most unjustly 48

The true causes of breach and disturbance of civil peace 52

A preposterous way of suppressing errors 53

Persecutors must needs oppress both erroneous and true consciences 53

All persecutors of Christ profess not to persecute him 55

What is meant by the heretic, Tit. iii. 58

The word _heretic_ generally mistaken 59

Corporal killing in the law, typing out spiritual killing in
the gospel 62

The carriage of a soul sensible of mercy, towards others in their
blindness, &c. 64

The difference between the church and the world, wherein it is,
in all places 65

The church and civil state confusedly made all one 66

The most peaceable accused for peace breaking 67

A large examination of what is meant by the tares, and letting
of them alone 68

Satan’s subtlety about the opening of scripture 69

Two sorts of hypocrites 74

The Lord Jesus the great teacher by parables, and the only
expounder of them 75

Preaching for conversion is properly out of the church 76

The tares proved properly to signify anti-christians 77

God’s kingdom on earth the visible church 78

The difference between the wheat and the tares, as also between
these tares and all others 78

A civil magistracy from the beginning of the world 79

The tares are to be tolerated the longest of all sinners 81

The danger of infection by permitting of the tares, assoiled 82

The civil magistrate not so particularly spoken to in the New
Testament as fathers, masters, &c., and why? 85

A twofold state of Christianity: persecuted under the Roman
emperors, and apostated under the Roman popes 85

Three particulars contained in that prohibition of Christ Jesus
concerning the tares, _Let them alone_, Matt. xiii. 86

Accompanying with idolaters, 1 Cor. v. discussed 88

Civil magistrates never invested by Christ Jesus with the power and
title of defenders of the faith 92

God’s people [Israel] ever earnest with God for an arm of flesh 93

The dreadful punishment of the blind Pharisees in four respects 94

The point of seducing, infecting, or soul-killing, examined 96

Strange confusions in punishments 100

The blood of souls, Acts xx., lies upon such as profess the
ministry: the blood of bodies only upon the state 100

Usurpers and true heirs of Christ Jesus 101

The civil magistrate bound to preserve the bodies of their
subjects, and not to destroy them for conscience’ sake 103

The fire from heaven, Rev. xiii. 13, 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26, examined 104

The original of the Christian name, Acts xi. 105

A civil sword in religion makes a nation of hypocrites, Isa. x. 107

A difference of the true and false Christ and Christians 109

The nature of the worship of unbelieving and natural persons 109

Antoninus Pius’s famous act concerning religion 110

Isa. ii. 4, Mic. iv. 3, concerning Christ’s visible kingdom,
discussed 110

Acts xx. 29, the suppressing of spiritual wolves, discussed 112

It is in vain to decline the name of the head of the church, and
yet to practise the headship 114

Titus i. 9, 10, discussed 115

Unmerciful and bloody doctrine 116

The spiritual weapons, 2 Cor. x. 4, discussed 117

Civil weapons most improper in spiritual causes 118

The spiritual artillery, Eph. vi., applied 119

Rom. xiii., concerning civil rulers’ power in spiritual causes,
largely examined 121

Paul’s appeal to Cæsar, examined 128

And cleared by five arguments 128

Four sorts of swords 131

What is to be understood by _evil_, Rom. xiii. 4 133

Though evil be always evil, yet the permission of it may sometimes
be good 136

Two sorts of commands, both from Moses and Christ 138

The permission of divorce in Israel, Matt. xix. 17, 18 138

Usury in the civil state lawfully permitted 139

Seducing teachers, either pagans, Jewish, Turkish, or
anti-christian, may yet be obedient subjects to the civil laws 141

Scandalous livers against the civil state 142

Toleration of Jezebel and Balaam, Rev. ii. 14, 20, examined 143

The Christian world hath swallowed up Christianity 145

Christ Jesus the deepest politician that ever was, yet commands
he a toleration of anti-christians 149

The princes of the world seldom take part with Christ Jesus 150

Buchanan’s item to King James 151

King James’s sayings against persecution 151

King Stephen’s, of Poland, sayings against persecution 152

Forcing of conscience a soul-rape 152

Persecution for conscience hath been the lancet which hath let
blood the nations. All spiritual whores are bloody 152

Polygamy, or the many wives of the fathers 153

David advancing of God’s worship against order 153

Constantine and the good emperors, confessed to have done more
hurt to the name and crown of Christ, than the bloody Neros did 154

The language of persecutors 156

Christ’s lilies may flourish in the church, notwithstanding the
weeds in the world permitted 156

Queen Elizabeth and King James, their persecuting for cause of
religion examined 157

Queen Elizabeth confessed by Mr. Cotton to have almost fired the
world in civil combustions 158

The wars between the papists and the protestants 159

The wars and success of the Waldensians against three popes 159

God’s people victorious overcomers, and with what weapons 160

The Christian church doth not persecute, but is persecuted 160

The nature of excommunication 161

The opinion of ancient writers examined concerning the doctrine
of persecution 163

Constraint upon conscience in Old and New England 164

The Indians of New England permitted in their worshipping of devils 165

In two cases a false religion will not hurt 167

The absolute sufficiency of the sword of the Spirit 168

A national church not instituted by Christ 169

Man hath no power to make laws to bind conscience 169

Hearing of the word in a church estate a part of God’s worship 173

Papists’ plea for toleration of conscience 173

Protestant partiality in the cause of persecution 174

Pills to purge out the bitter humour of persecution 175

Superstition and persecution have had many votes and suffrages
from God’s own people 176

Soul-killing discussed 176

Phineas’s act discussed 179

Elijah’s slaughters examined 180

Dangerous consequences flowing from the civil magistrate’s power
in spiritual cases 183

The world turned upside down 184

The wonderful answer of the ministers of New England to the
ministers of Old 184

Lamentable differences even amongst them that fear God 185

The doctrine of persecution ever drives the most godly out of the
world 186

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 189

Christ’s power in the church confest to be above all magistrates
in spiritual things 190

Isa. xlix. 23, lamentably wrested 190

The civil commonweal, and the spiritual commonweal, the church,
not inconsistent, though independent the one on the other 192

Christ’s ordinances put upon a whole city or nation may civilize
them, and moralize, but not christianize, before repentance
first wrought 193

Mr. Cotton and the New English minister’s confession, that the
magistrate hath neither civil nor spiritual power in soul matters 194

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 196

A demonstrative illustration, that the magistrate cannot have power
over the church in spiritual or church causes 197

The true way of the God of peace, in differences between the church
and the magistrate 198

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 201

The forcing of men to God’s worship, the greatest breach of civil
peace 203

The Roman Cæsars of Christ’s time described 204

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 205

The true _custodes utriusque tabulæ_, and keepers of the ordinances
and worship of Jesus Christ 206

The kings of Egypt, Moab, Philistia, Assyria, Nineveh, were not
charged with the worship of God, as the kings of Judah were 207

Masters of families not charged under the gospel to force all the
consciences of their families to worship 207

God’s people have then shined brightest in godliness, when they have
enjoyed least quietness 210

Few magistrates, few men, spiritually good; yet divers sorts of
commendable goodness beside spiritual 211

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 214

Laws concerning religion, of two sorts 217

The very Indians abhor to disturb any conscience at worship 217

Canons and constitutions pretended civil, but indeed ecclesiastical 217

A threefold guilt lying upon civil powers, commanding the subject’s
soul in worship 222

Persons may with less sin be forced to marry whom they cannot love,
than to worship where they cannot believe 223

As the cause, so the weapons of the beast and the lamb are
infinitely different 226

Artaxerxes his decree examined 227

The sum of the examples of the gentile king’s decrees concerning
God’s worship in scripture 230

The doctrine of putting to death blasphemers of Christ, cuts off
the hopes of the Jews partaking in his blood 232

The direful effects of fighting for conscience 233

Error is confident as well as truth 234

Spiritual prisons 236

Some consciences not so easily healed and cured as men imagine 237

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 239

Persecutors endure not the name of persecutors 239

Psalm ci., concerning cutting off the wicked, examined 241

No difference of lands and countries, since Christ Jesus his coming 242

The New English separate in America, but not in Europe 244

Christ Jesus forbidding his followers to permit leaven in the
church, doth not forbid to permit leaven in the world 246

The wall (Cant. viii. 9.) discussed 246

Every religion commands its professors to hear only its own
priests or ministers 248

Jonah his preaching to the Ninevites discussed 248

Hearing of the word discussed 248

Eglon his rising up to Ehud’s message, discussed 248

A twofold ministry of Christ: first, apostolical, properly
converting. Secondly, feeding or pastoral 249

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 249

The civil state can no more lawfully compel the consciences of men
to church to hear the word, than to receive the sacraments 250

No precedent in the word, of any people converting and baptizing
themselves 253

True conversion to visible Christianity is not only from sins
against the second table, but from false worships also 254

The commission, Matt. xxviii., discussed 254

The civil magistrate not betrusted with that commission 255

Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xvii., a figure of Christ Jesus in his
church, not of the civil magistrate in the state 256

The maintenance of the ministry, Gal. vi. 6, examined 257

Christ Jesus never appointed a maintenance of the ministry from
impenitent and unbelieving 257

They that compel men to hear, compel them also to pay for their
hearing and conversion 258

Luke xiv., _Compel them to come in_, examined 258

Natural men can neither truly worship, nor maintain it 259

The national church of the Jews might well be forced to a settled
maintenance: but not so the Christian church 261

The maintenance which Christ hath appointed his ministry in the
church 262

The universities of Europe causes of universal sins and plagues:
yet schools are honourable for tongues and arts 263

The true church is Christ’s school, and believers his scholars 264

Mr. Ainsworth excellent in the tongues, yet no university man 265

King Henry the Eighth set down in the pope’s chair in England 266

Apocrypha, homilies, and common prayer, precious to our forefathers 266

Reformation proved fallible 267

The precedent of the kings of Israel and Judah largely examined 271

The Persian kings’ example make strongly against the doctrine
of persecution 272

1. The difference of the land of Canaan from all lands and
countries in seven [eight] particulars 273

2. The difference of the people of Israel from all other peoples,
in seven particulars 278

Wonderful turnings of religion in England in twelve years
revolution 280

The pope not unlike to recover his monarchy over Europe before his
downfall 280

Israel, God’s only church, might well renew that national covenant
and ceremonial worship, which other nations cannot do 283

The difference of the kings and governors of Israel from all kings
and governors of the world, in four particulars 284

Five demonstrative arguments proving the unsoundness of the maxim,
viz., the church and commonweal are like Hippocrates’ twins 286

A sacrilegious prostitution of the name Christian 290

David immediately inspired by God in his ordering of church affairs 291

Solomon’s deposing Abiathar, 1 Kings ii. 26, 27, discussed 292

The liberties of Christ’s churches in the choice of her officers 293

A civil influence dangerous to the saints’ liberties 293

Jehoshaphat’s fast examined 294

God will not wrong Cæsar, and Cæsar should not wrong God 294

The famous acts of Josiah examined 295

Magistracy in general from God, the particular forms from the
people 295

Israel confirmed in a national covenant by revelations, signs, and
miracles; but not so any other land 295

Kings and nations often plant and often pluck up religions 296

A national church ever subject to turn and return 297

A woman, Papissa, or head of the church 297

The papists nearer to the truth, concerning the governor of the
church, than most protestants 297

The kingly power of the Lord Jesus troubles all the kings and
rulers of the world 298

A twofold exaltation of Christ 298

A monarchical and ministerial power of Christ 300

Three great competitors for the ministerial power of Christ 300

The pope pretendeth to the ministerial power of Christ, yet upon
the point challengeth the monarchical also 300

Three great factions in England, striving for the arm of flesh 300

The churches of the separation ought in humanity and subjects’
liberty not to be oppressed, but at least permitted 302

Seven reasons proving that the kings of Israel and Judah can have
no other but a spiritual antitype 303

Christianity adds not to the nature of a civil commonweal; nor doth
want of Christianity diminish it 304

Most strange, yet most true consequences from the civil magistrates
being the antitype of the kings of Israel and Judah 305

If no religion but what the commonweal approve, then no Christ,
no God, but at the pleasure of the world 305

The true antitype of the kings of Israel and Judah 306

4. The difference of Israel’s statutes and laws from all others
in three particulars 306

5. The difference of Israel’s punishments and rewards from all
others 308

Temporal prosperity most proper to the national state of the Jew 308

The excommunication in Israel 308

The corporal stoning in the law, typed out spiritual stoning
in the gospel 308

The wars of Israel typical and unparalleled, but by the spiritual
wars of spiritual Israel 309

The famous typical captivity of the Jews 311

Their wonderful victories 311

The mystical army of white troopers 312

Whether the civil state of Israel was precedential 313

Great unfaithfulness in magistrates [ministers] to cast the burden
of judging and establishing Christianity upon the commonweal 314

Thousands of lawful civil magistrates, who never hear of Jesus
Christ 315

Nero and the persecuting emperors not so injurious to Christianity
as Constantine and others, who assumed a power in spiritual
things 316

They who force the conscience of others, cry out of persecution
when their own are forced 316

Constantine and others wanted not so much affection, as information
of judgment 317

Civil authority giving and lending their horns to bishops,
dangerous to Christ’s truth 317

The spiritual power of Christ Jesus compared in scripture to the
incomparable horn of the rhinoceros 318

The nursing fathers and mothers, Isa. xlix. 319

The civil magistrate owes three things to the true church of Christ 319

The civil magistrate owes two things to false worshippers 320

The rise of high commissions 321

Pious magistrates’ and ministers’ consciences are persuaded for
that, which other as pious magistrates’ and ministers’
consciences condemn 321

An apt similitude discussed concerning the civil magistrate 322

A grievous charge against the Christian church and the king of it 330

A strange law in New England formerly against excommunicate persons 331

A dangerous doctrine against all civil magistrates 331

Original sin charged to hurt the civil state 331

They who give the magistrate more than his due, are apt to disrobe
him of what is his 332

A strange double picture 336

The great privileges of the true church of Christ 336

Two similitudes illustrating the true power of the magistrate 337

A marvellous challenge of more power under the Christian, than
under the heathen magistrate 339

Civil magistrates, derivatives from the fountains or bodies of
people 341

A believing magistrate no more a magistrate than an unbelieving 341

The excellency of Christianity in all callings 341

The magistrate like a pilot in the ship of the commonweal 342

The terms _heathen_ and _Christian_ magistrates 343

The unjust and partial liberty to some consciences, and bondage
unto all others 344

The commission, Matt. xxviii. 19, 20, not proper to pastors and
teachers, least of all to the civil magistrate 345

Unto whom now belongs the care of all the churches, &c. 345

Acts xv. commonly misapplied 346

The promise of Christ’s presence, Matt. xviii., distinct from that
Matt. xxviii. 347

Church administrations firstly charged upon the ministers thereof 349

Queen Elizabeth’s bishops truer to their principles than many of a
better spirit and profession 350

Mr. Barrowe’s profession concerning Queen Elizabeth 350

The inventions of men swerving from the true essentials of civil
and spiritual commonweals 353

A great question, viz., whether only church members, that is, godly
persons, in a particular church estate, be only eligible into
the magistracy 353

The world being divided in thirty parts, twenty-five never heard
of Christ 354

Lawful civil states where churches of Christ are not 355

Few Christians wise and noble, and qualified for affairs of state 355

The Ninevites’ fast examined 357

Luke xxii. 36 discussed 359

Rev. xvii. 16 discussed 361

Conclusion 363

[MR. COTTON’S LETTER EXAMINED AND ANSWERED.

To the Impartial Reader 367

If Jesus Christ bring more light he must be persecuted 371

Public sins, the cause of public calamities, must be discovered 372

Grounds of Mr. Williams’s banishment 375

Persecutors do no good to men’s souls 377

Mr. Cotton’s proof from Prov. xi. 26 discussed 379

Spiritual offences only liable to spiritual censure 382

Mr. Cotton ignorant of the cause of Williams’s sufferings 383

Civil peace and magistracy blessed ordinances of God 384

The mercies of a civil state distinct from those of a spiritual
state 385

Affliction for Christ sweet 390

The state of godly persons in gross sins 393

God’s mystical Israel must come forth of Babel before they build
the temple 395

New England refuses church fellowship with godly ministers of Old
England 398

Christ considered personally and in his people 398

Mr. Cotton confessing the true and false constitution of the church 401

Difference between God’s institutions to the Jews and anti-christian
institutions 403

Coming forth of Babel not local 406

The polygamy of the fathers 410

Every true church separate from idols 411

The substance of true repentance in all God’s children 412

The first Christians the best pattern for Christians now 413

Mr. Cotton against a national church, and yet holds fellowship
with it 415

The Jewish national church not to be separated from 417

Mr. Cotton extenuates national churches 420

Mr. Cotton guilty of cruelty in persecuting, yet cries out against
due severity in the church 423

God’s controversy for persecution 424

The puritans and separatists compared 424

Mr. Ainsworth’s poverty 426

Four sorts of backsliders from separation 428

Mr. Canne’s Answer to Mr. Robinson’s Liberty of Hearing 429

Preachers and pastors far different 430

The fellowship of the word taught in a church estate 432

False callings or commissions for the ministry 433

The Nonconformists’ grounds enforce separation 436

Mr. Cotton’s practice of separation in New England 436

Persecution is unjust oppression wheresoever 438]

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.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE BOTH HOUSES OF THE HIGH COURT OF PARLIAMENT.

RIGHT HONOURABLE AND RENOWNED PATRIOTS,

Next to the saving of your own souls in the lamentable shipwreck of mankind, your task as Christians is to save the souls, but as magistrates the bodies and goods, of others.

Many excellent discourses have been presented to your fathers’ hands and yours, in former and present parliaments. I shall be humbly bold to say, that, in what concerns your duties as magistrates towards others, a more necessary and seasonable debate was never yet presented.

Two things your honours here may please to view, in this controversy of persecution for cause of conscience, beyond what is extant.

First. The whole body of this controversy formed and pitched in true _battalia_.

Secondly. Although in respect of myself it be _impar congressus_, yet, in the power of that God who is _Maximus in Minimis_, your Honours shall see the controversy is discussed with men as able as most, eminent for ability and piety—Mr. Cotton, and the New English ministers.

When the prophets in scripture have given their coats of arms and escutcheons to great men, your Honours know the Babylonian monarch hath the lion, the Persian the bear, the Grecian the leopard, the Roman a compound of the former three, most strange and dreadful, Dan. vii.

Their oppressing, plundering, ravishing, murdering, not only the bodies, but the souls of men, are large explaining commentaries of such similitudes.

Your Honours have been famous to the end of the world for your unparalleled wisdom, courage, justice, mercy, in the vindicating your civil laws, liberties, &c. Yet let it not be grievous to your Honours’ thoughts to ponder a little, why all the prayers, and tears, and fastings, in this nation, have not pierced the heavens, and quenched these flames; which yet who knows how far they will spread, and when they will out!

Your Honours have broke the jaws of the oppressor, and taken the prey out of his teeth, Job xxix. 17. For which act, I believe, it hath pleased the Most High God to set a guard, not only of trained men, but of mighty angels, to secure your sitting, and the city.

I fear we are not pardoned, though reprieved. Oh! that there may be a lengthening of London’s tranquillity, of the parliament’s safety, _by [shewing] mercy to the poor_! Dan. iv. [27.]

Right Honourable, soul yoke, soul oppressions, plunderings, ravishings, &c., are of a crimson and deepest dye, and I believe the chief of England’s sins—unstopping the vials of England’s present sorrows.

This glass presents your Honours with arguments from religion, reason, experience: all proving that the greatest yokes yet lying upon English necks, the people’s and your own, are of a spiritual and foul nature.

All former parliaments have changed these yokes according to their consciences, popish or protestant. It is now your Honour’s turn at helm, and as [is] your task so I hope [is] your resolution—not to change: for that is but to turn the wheel, which another parliament, and the very next, may turn again; but to ease the subjects and yourselves from a yoke (as was once spoke in a case not unlike, Acts xv. [10]) which neither you nor your fathers were ever able to bear.

Most noble senators; your fathers, whose seats you fill, are mouldered, and mouldering their brains, their tongues, &c., to ashes in the pit of rottenness: they and you must shortly, together with two worlds of men, appear at the great bar. It shall then be no grief of heart that you have now attended to the cries of souls, thousands oppressed, millions ravished, by the acts and statutes concerning souls not yet repealed—of bodies impoverished, imprisoned, &c., for their souls’ belief: yea, slaughtered on heaps for religious controversies, in the wars of present and former ages.

[Sidenote: The famous saying of a late king of Bohemia.]

“Notwithstanding the success of later times, wherein sundry opinions have been hatched about the subject of religion, a man may clearly discern with his eye, and as it were touch with his finger, that according to the verity of holy scripture, &c., men’s consciences ought in no sort to be violated, urged, or constrained. And whensoever men have attempted any thing by this violent course, whether openly or by secret means, the issue hath been pernicious, and the cause of great and wonderful innovations in the principallest and mightiest kingdoms and countries,” &c.[83]

It cannot be denied to be a pious and prudential act for your Honours, according to your conscience, to call for the advice of faithful counsellors in the high debates concerning your own, and the souls of others.

Yet, let it not be imputed as a crime for any suppliant to the God of heaven for you, if, the humble sense of what their souls believe, they pour forth, amongst others, these three requests at the throne of grace:

First. That neither your Honours, nor those excellent and worthy persons whose advice you seek, limit the Holy One of Israel to their apprehensions, debates, conclusions, rejecting or neglecting the humble and faithful suggestions of any, though as base as spittle and clay, with which sometimes Christ Jesus opens the eyes of them that are born blind.

Secondly. That the present and future generations of the sons of men may never have cause to say that such a parliament, as England never enjoyed the like, should model the worship of the living, eternal, and invisible God, after the bias of any earthly interest, though of the highest concernment under the sun. And yet saith the learned Sir Francis Bacon[84] (however otherwise persuaded, yet thus he confesseth), “Such as hold pressure of conscience, are guided therein by some private interests of their own.”

Thirdly. [That] whatever way of worshipping God your own consciences are persuaded to walk in, yet, from any bloody act of violence to the consciences of others, it may never be told at Rome nor Oxford, that the parliament of England hath committed a greater rape than if they had forced or ravished the bodies of all the women in the world.

And that England’s parliament, so famous throughout all Europe and the world, should at last turn papists, prelatists, Presbyterians, Independents, Socinians, Familists, Antinomians, &c., by confirming all these sorts of consciences by civil force and violence to their consciences.[85]

TO EVERY COURTEOUS READER.

While I plead the cause of truth and innocency against the bloody doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience, I judge it not unfit to give alarm to myself, and to [all] men, to prepare to be persecuted or hunted for cause of conscience.

Whether thou standest charged with ten or but two talents, if thou huntest any for cause of conscience, how canst thou say thou followest the Lamb of God, who so abhorred that practice?

If Paul, if Jesus Christ, were present here at London, and the question were proposed, what religion would they approve of—the papists, prelatists, Presbyterians, Independents, &c., would each say, Of mine, Of mine?

But put the second question: if one of the several sorts should by major vote attain the sword of steel, what weapons doth Christ Jesus authorize them to fight with in his cause? Do not all men hate the persecutor, and every conscience, true or false, complain of cruelty, tyranny, &c.?

Two mountains of crying guilt lie heavy upon the backs of all men that name the name of Christ, in the eyes of Jews, Turks, and Pagans.

First. The blasphemies of their idolatrous inventions, superstitions, and most unchristian conversations.

Secondly. The bloody, irreligious, and inhuman oppressions and destructions under the mask or veil of the name of Christ, &c.

Oh! how likely is the jealous Jehovah, the consuming fire, to end these present slaughters of the holy witnesses in a greater slaughter! _Rev._ v.

Six years preaching of so much truth of Christ as that time afforded in K. Edward’s days, kindles the flames of Q. Mary’s bloody persecutions.

Who can now but expect that after so many scores of years preaching and professing of more truth, and amongst so many great contentions amongst the very best of protestants, a fiery furnace should be heat, and who sees not now the fires kindling?

I confess I have little hopes, till those flames are over, that this discourse against the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience should pass current, I say not amongst the wolves and lions, but even amongst the sheep of Christ themselves. Yet, _liberavi animam meam_, I have not hid within my breast my soul’s belief. And, although sleeping on the bed either of the pleasures or profits of sin, thinkest thou thy conscience bound to smite at him that dares to waken thee? Yet in the midst of all these civil and spiritual wars, I hope we shall agree in these particulars,

First. However the proud (upon the advantage of a higher earth or ground) overlook the poor, and cry out schismatics, heretics, &c., shall blasphemers and seducers escape unpunished? Yet there is a sorer punishment in the gospel for despising of Christ than Moses, even when the despiser of Moses was put to death without mercy, Heb. x. 28, 29. _He that believeth shall not be damned_, Mark xvi. 16.

Secondly. Whatever worship, ministry, ministration, the best and purest, are practised without faith and true persuasion that they are the true institutions of God, they are sin, sinful worships, ministries, &c. And however in civil things we may be servants unto men, yet in divine and spiritual things the poorest peasant must disdain the service of the highest prince. _Be ye not the servants of men_, 1 Cor. vii. [23].

Thirdly. Without search and trial no man attains this faith and right persuasion. 1 Thes. v. [21], _Try all things_.

In vain have English parliaments permitted English bibles in the poorest English houses, and the simplest man or woman to search the scriptures, if yet against their souls persuasion from the scripture, they should be forced, as if they lived in Spain or Rome itself without the sight of a bible, to believe as the church believes.

Fourthly. Having tried, we must hold fast, 1 Thes. v. [21], upon the loss of a crown, Rev. iii. [11]; we must not let go for all the fleabitings of the present afflictions, &c. Having bought truth dear, we must not sell it cheap, not the least grain of it for the whole world; no, not for the saving of souls, though our own most precious; least of all for the bitter sweetening of a little vanishing pleasure:—For a little puff of credit and reputation from the changeable breath of uncertain sons of men: for the broken bags of riches on eagles’ wings: for a dream of these—any or all of these, which on our death-bed vanish and leave tormenting stings behind them. Oh! how much better is it from the love of truth, from the love of the Father of lights from whence it comes, from the love of the Son of God, who is the way and the truth, to say as he, John xviii. 37: _For this end was I born, and for this end came I into the world, that I might bear witness to the truth_.

SCRIPTURES AND REASONS, WRITTEN LONG SINCE BY A WITNESS OF JESUS CHRIST, CLOSE PRISONER IN NEWGATE, AGAINST PERSECUTION IN CAUSE OF CONSCIENCE; AND SENT SOME WHILE SINCE TO MR. COTTON, BY A FRIEND, WHO THUS WROTE:

“In the multitude of counsellours there is safety;” it is
therefore humbly desired to be instructed in this point, viz.:—

_Whether persecution for cause of conscience be not against the
doctrine of Jesus Christ, the King of kings. The scriptures and
reasons are these._[86]

1. Because Christ commandeth, that the tares and wheat, which some understand are those that walk in the truth, and those that walk in lies, should be let alone in the world, and not plucked up until the harvest, which is the end of the world. Matt. xiii. 30, 38, &c.

2. The same commandeth, Matt. xv. 14, that they that are blind (as some interpret, led on in false religion, and are offended with him for teaching true religion) should be let alone, referring their punishment unto their falling into the ditch.

3. Again, Luke ix. 54, 55, he reproved his disciples who would have had fire come down from heaven and devour those Samaritans who would not receive Him, in these words: “_Ye know not of what Spirit ye are; the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them._”

4. Paul, the apostle of our Lord, teacheth, 2 Tim. ii. 24, _that the servant of the Lord must not strive, but must be gentle toward all men; suffering the evil men, instructing them with meekness that are contrary minded, proving if God at any time will give them repentance, that they may acknowledge the truth, and come to amendment out of that snare of the devil_, &c.

5. According to these blessed commandments, the holy prophets foretold, that when the law of Moses concerning worship should cease, and Christ’s kingdom be established, Isa. ii. 4; Mic. iv. 3, 4, _They shall break their swords into mattocks, and their spears into scythes_. And Isa. xi. 9, _Then shall none hurt nor destroy in all the mountain of my holiness_, &c. And when he came, the same he taught and practised, as before. So did his disciples after him, for _the weapons of his warfare are not carnal_ (saith the apostle), 2 Cor. x. 4.

But he chargeth straitly, that his disciples should be so far from persecuting those that would not be of their religion, that when they were persecuted they should pray, Matt. v. 44; when they were cursed, they should bless, &c.

And the reason seems to be, because they who now are tares, may hereafter become wheat; they who are now blind, may hereafter see; they that now resist him, may hereafter receive him; they that are now in the devil’s snare, in adverseness to the truth, may hereafter come to repentance; they that are now blasphemers and persecutors, as Paul was, may in time become faithful as he; they that are now idolaters, as the Corinthians once were, 1 Cor. vi. 9, may hereafter become true worshippers as they; they that are now no people of God, nor under mercy, as the saints sometimes were, 1 Pet. ii. 10, may hereafter become the people of God, and obtain mercy, as they.

Some come not till the eleventh hour, Matt. xx. 6: if those that come not till the last hour should be destroyed, because they come not at the first, then should they never come, but be prevented.

All which promises are in all humility referred to your godly wise consideration.

II. Because this persecution for cause of conscience is against the profession and practice of famous princes.

First, you may please to consider the speech of King James, in his majesty’s speech in parliament, 1609. He saith, “It is a sure rule in divinity, that God never loves to plant his church by violence and bloodshed.”

And in his highness’ Apology, p. 4, speaking of such papists that took the oath, thus:

“I gave good proof that I intended no persecution against them for conscience’ cause, but only desired to be secured for civil obedience, which for conscience’ cause they are bound to perform.”

And, p. 60, speaking of Blackwell, the archpriest, his majesty saith, “It was never my intention to lay any thing to the said archpriest’s charge, as I have never done to any, for cause of conscience.”

And in his highness’ exposition on Rev. xx. printed 1588, and after in 1603, his majesty writeth thus: “Sixthly, the compassing of the saints, and the besieging of the beloved city, declareth unto us a certain note of a false church to be persecution; for they come to seek the faithful, the faithful are them that are sought: the wicked are the besiegers, the faithful are the besieged.”

Secondly, the saying of Stephen, king of Poland: “I am a king of men, not of consciences; a commander of bodies, not of souls.”

Thirdly, the king of Bohemia hath thus written:

“And, notwithstanding, the success of the later times, wherein sundry opinions have been hatched about the subject of religion, may make one clearly discern with his eye, and (as it were) to touch with his finger, that according to the verity of holy scriptures, and a maxim heretofore told and maintained by the ancient doctors of the church; that men’s consciences ought in no sort to be violated, urged, or constrained; and whensoever men have attempted any thing by this violent course, whether openly or by secret means, the issue hath been pernicious, and the cause of great and wonderful innovations in the principallest and mightiest kingdoms and countries of all Christendom.”