The Modern Statesman, Chapter 12
CHAP. XII.
The Outward means to be uſed; Miniſters to be incouraged, and maintained; the Chriſtian Magistrates duty.
NOw that we may be ſo, we are to uſe all means God hath appointed for the obtaining the true knowledge of him, and his will, which is the ground of Religion; for as our knowledge is true or falſe, ſo will our Religion be too; and the ordinary means are the reading and hearing of the ſacred Scriptures, for faith comes by hearing, and how ſhall we hear unleſſe we are taught, and how ſhall we be taught without a Teacher? In the firſt place therefore as we ought to have a holy eſteem of his word, ſo ought we to have a reverent eſteem of the faithfull and able diſpencers of it, giving them all due incouragement and maintenance, that they may be the better enabled cheerfully to follow that work whereunto they are called, of winning ſouls unto Chriſt.
And this is a duty incumbent on the Chriſtian Magiſtrate, who is to uſe all lawful means to promote Religion, and to reſtrain prophaneſſe, for he beareth not the ſword in vain, but for terrour of evill doers, and encouragement of thoſe that do well. And here let me not be miſtaken, for though I believe it is their duty to puniſh thoſe grand Traytours againſt the majeſty of Heaven, blaſphemers I mean, and all other publick diſturbers of the civill peace and quiet of the nation; yet on the otherſide to force all men to ſubmit to one form, or to be of ſuch or ſuch a general received opinion in every tittle, under penalty of Cenſures civil and eccleſiaſtical, I conceive a Tyranny as little to be ſuffered by the Magiſtrate, as it had been for Saul to have ſuffered Nahaſh the Ammonite to put out the right eyes of the Gilcadites, for indeed this were to put out both our eyes.
For it is God and none but God that can aſſure us of his own mind, though he do reveal his mind by a creature, there wil be ſome tremblings, and waverings in the ſoul, unleſſe he doth withall ſatisfie the ſoul that ſuch a creature doth communicate his mind truely and really as it is, ſo that ultimately the certainty is reſolved into the voice of God, who is onelyonly to rule his Church foreign, by a determining and legiſlative power; Men that are fitted by God are to guide and direct foreign, in way of ſubſerviency to him, and by an explication of his mind, yet ſo that every one may judge of this foreign, by acts of their own underſtanding illuminated by the Spirit of God, for there are no Repreſentatives in ſpirituals, men may repreſent the bodies of others in civil and temporal affairs, and thus a bodily obedience is due to a juſt authority, but there is none can alwayes repreſent the mind and judgement of another in the vitals and inwards of religion; for as a late Biſhop of our own, ad nudam praeſcriptionem, aut determinationem alterius ſine lumine privati judicii nemo est qui credere poteſt etiamſi cupiat maximè; No man let him deſire it never ſo much can believe the bare determination of another unleſſe his own judgement concur; a truth that condemns the antichriſtian practices of the reſt that were of that order, and Mirandula gives the reaſon of it, for ſays he, Nemo credit aliquid verum praecisè quia vult credere illud eſſe verum, non est enim in potentia hominis facere aliquid apparere intellectui ſuo verum, quando ipſe voluerit: No man believes a thing becauſe he will believe it, for it is not in the power of man to make a thing appear what he wil to his underſtanding; and indeed, before there can be faith there muſt not only be a knowledg of the thing to be believed; but an inclination alſo of the underſtanding to aſſent to it when known; ſhould we not judge that man a Tyrant that ſhould command us to renounce our ſenſe, to believe that to be white that we ſee to be black, to believe that to be ſweeter than honey, that we taſte to be bitterer than gaul? what are thoſe then that would force us to diſclaim our underſtandings, and make us believe that to be true, wch we conceive or know to be falſe? and yet what cruelty in this kind hath been practized by the Papists? What by the Prelates? What by ſome that ſucceeded them, and yet de-cryed it in them? yea what by ſome of thoſe who will cry out for Liberty of conſcience too?