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being odious; thofe who executed juft and well grounded Laws were branded with that Name, and by that Means, as far as lay in the Calumniator's Power,,were rendred odious, without Reason, to the Multitude; I would fain know what these Accufers would have had the Church of England to have done when the Laws of the Realm concurr'd with the Laws of the Church, and gave the Church's Spiritual Governors Powerto exercise their Original Inherent Jurifdiction over fuch as call'd themselves Members of the Christian Church, under the Protection of the Civil Government? The Governors of every Society must be invested with fuch Powers as are neceffary for the real Good and Prefervation of that Society over which they prefide: The meer Spiritual Governors of God's Church are invefted with fuch a Power and for thofe very Ends, by Virtue of which the Church has been preferv'd thro' all Ages, in Spite of all the Combinations of Hell and wicked Men against them: Does the Consent of Humane Laws with thefe Original Spiritual Powers render thofe Spiritual Powers weaker, or of lefs Ufe than they were before?

Would those who charged the Church of England with Perfecution, for making use of theLaws of the Realm to coerce Tranfgreffors, have had her Governors have permitted all Sorts of Wickednefs to have gone unpunifh'd in the profeffed Members of the Church? Or did ever any fober Christian think an Indulgence that should give way to the Propagation of all Kinds of Errors and Herefies in a Chriftian Body, an infinitely sweet and acceptable Bleffing? No, certainly: Those Parents must be very unnatural, who permit their

Children to go on without Correction in fuch Ways as muft neceffarily bring them to the Gallows at laft: And our Holy Mother the Church of England must have had very little Kindness for the Souls of her Children, if the could have permitted Sin to reft, upon them, without Concern, without any Endeavours to apply the proper Remedies. Now let the lewd and profane Wretch, let the malicious and uncharitable Hypocrite, let the factious and feditious Incendiary, let the Whoremonger, Adulterer, Slanderer, let the Bufy-Body, the Schifmatick, the Heretick, the Idolater, look into the Laws of our Church, let them examine them throughly and impartially, and let them tell us at laft, who thofe Laws were made for, if not for them? Let them tell us fairly, if the Laws of God Himself were not made for the very fame Perfons, and all others of the fame Temper? Let them tell us, whether a bold Breach of any one of God's Precepts be a Vertue or a Sin? Whether Idolatry, Herefy or Schifm be Things in their own Nature good or commendable, or otherwife? And when they have weigh'd these Things well; let them proceed and tell us which of all these Tranfgreffors, when he's legally prosecuted either by the Laws of the Church, or by the Law of the Land is under Perfecution? Which of all thefe Perfons, in cafe the Law of the Land fhould reach his Life, can be faid to fuffer for Righteoufnefs Sake?

If fuch Persons may complain of Perfecution ; then we may very well fall in with fome Socinians and the Mennonites, who hold it unlawful for a Magiftrate to make Ufe of the Sword of Juftice at all, or to take away Men's Lives for

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any Crime whatfoever: And then Thieves and Murderers, Rebels and Traitors have the fame Plea against all Temporal Magiftrates; and when they die by Law, and according to their Deferts, Men may say they are perfecuted. Or again, Let Hereticks and Schifmaticks plead Confcience in Defence of their falfe Principles and dividing Practices, or for those Disturbances which they create in the Church; and let them but grant, that no Man of Senfe or Reafon can embrace or follow Sin under the Notion of Sin, or for its own Sake and in its Native Deformity; and then the groffeft Idolarer may alledge Confcience as well in his own Behalf, as either the Heretick or the Schifmatick can: For we can never be fo uncharitable as to believe that He who owns that Honour and Worship is due to God, would ever pay that Worship and Honour to more than one God, and Him the Supreme Creator of Heaven and Earth; did He not imagine it was his Duty to do fo, and were he not perfuaded that he fhould be guilty of a great Sin, if he refus'd to worship any fuppos'd Deity, or to bow down to the Image or visible Representation of the true God. Whence thofe of the Church of Rome pay their Adorations to the Images of the Holy Trinity, to Saints and Martyrs deceased, to Angels, and to the Reprefentations of any of them in as forward an Obedience to what they call Confcience, as the moft understanding Chriftians refuse all fuch Pra&tices with, out of real Confcience.

Thus, Did not those who had made a kind of Rupture in the very Infancy of the Church, about the perpetual Obligation of the Mofaick Law, tho' the Meffias was come; Did they not make it a Matter of Confcience with a

Witness, when they afferted that, Except the Gen- Acts 15.11 tiles were circumcis'd after the Manner of Mofes, they could not be fav'd? Did not those who had almost fubverted the Faith of the Galatians, pretend to act upon the fame Principles of Confcience, and attempt to pull down what St. Paul with a great deal of Care and Industry had built up, on Pretence of inftructing them farther than these Apoftles had done? And have we not had in thefe Kingdoms, and in the Memory of many ftill living,Rebels and Murderers who have pleaded Confcience for their Wickedneffes? Confcience, without Doubt, is an excellent Plea, where the Confcience is real, and the Plea is found and true: It is that, for which Almighty God has made Way, that it might enter, and be firmly fettled in the Mind of Man, that it might be his certain and unerring Guide, and teach him to diftinguifh rightly between Good and Evil, between Truth and Falfhood. But to fuppose that Confcience, (that Confcience which is fo much spoken of in Scripture) fhould really, and in good Earneft lead any Man into Wickedness or encourage him to commit a Sin, is to fuppofe that God gives Confcience only as an Ignis fatuus to milguide and to confound us.

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But if we thould perfuade our felves that true Confcience might effectually drive Men on to the Story of Egroffeft Impieties, and the moft unnatural Bar-noch ap Ebarities in the World, would this render fuch Mr.Stude vans, by horrid Crimes the more pardonable? Chriftian ly of Liberty would be a fine Thing indeed, were Men Shrewsbu only fet free by it from all Legal Reftraints, and ry empower'd by it to commit all Manner of Wickedness with an high Hand. But God's Word teaches us another Leffon. The Jews when they Voi. II. G

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crucify'd their Saviour, did it out of that erro neous Principle, which fome call Confcience: They took him for an Impoftor, one guilty of Sabbath-breaking and Sacrilege, a Friend of Publicans and Sinners, and one whofe Defign was to difannul that Law, which they were well affur'd had been given them by God Himself; and all thefe Things were very ftrong Prefumptions against Him, especially among the unthinking Vulgar: But when St. Peter comes to encourage them to hope for Pardon for their Sin by a fincere Repentance of it, to extenuate their Guilt, he charitably fuppofes, that they and their RuA&s 3.17.lers committed that great Sin out of Ignorance, Not out of Confcience: And we may believe, that St.Peter, knew very well how to refer their Crime to its true Cause or Original. So where the Idolatrous Athenians, (as their Fore-Fathers had long done before, worship'd they knew not what, with a great Deal of oftentatious Zeal and Devotion, and thought they could do no lefs without a great deal of Ingratitude to Heaven: Acts 17. St. Paul informs them, that the Times in which 30. they acted fo foolishly were the Times of their Ignorance; not of the free Notions and Operations of Confcience. And, therefore, God overlook'd thofe Times; or would not now charge the Guilt of their Fathers upon them. St. Paul himself, while he knew nothing but the Law of Mofes, was extremely zealous for that and for the Honour of that Church, which had been founded upon it; and he fuppos'd himfelf bound by his Duty to God and his Religion, to perfecute all those to the utmoft, who had endeavoured to introduce the Religion of Chrift: But when he comes afterwards to reflect upon that miracu

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