The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience Discussed and Mr. Cotton's Letter Examined and Answered, by Roger Williams
CHAP. XIV.
CHAP. XIV.
Peace. Now, in the second place, what is this self-condemnation?
Truth. The apostle seemeth to make this a ground of
the rejecting of such a person—because he is subverted
and sinneth, being condemned of himself. It will appear
upon due search, that this self-condemning is not here
intended to be in heretics (as men say) in fundamentals
only; but, as it is meant here, in men obstinate in the
lesser questions, &c.
First, he is subverted, or turned crooked, ἐξέστραπται, a
word opposite to straightness, or rightness. So that the
scope is, as I conceive—upon true and faithful admonition
once or twice, the pride of heart, or heat of wrath, draws
a veil over the eyes and heart, so that the soul is turned
off or loosed from the checks of truth.
Secondly, he sinneth, ἁμαρτάνει; that is, being subverted,
or turned aside, he sinneth, or wanders from the
path of truth, and is condemned by himself, αὐτοκάτακριτος;
that is, by the secret checks and whisperings of
his own conscience, which will take God’s part against a
man’s self, in smiting, accusing, &c.
Checks of conscience.
Which checks of conscience we find even in God’s own
dear people, as is most admirably opened in the fifth of
Canticles, in those sad, drowsy, and unkind passages of
the spouse, in her answer to the knocks and calls of the
Lord Jesus; which God’s people, in all their awakenings,
acknowledge how slightly they have listened to the checks
of their own consciences. This the answerer pleaseth to
call sinning against his conscience, for which he may lawfully
be persecuted: to wit, for sinning against his conscience.
Which conclusion—though painted over with the vermilion
of mistaken scripture, and that old dream of Jew
and Gentile that the crown of Jesus will consist of outward
material gold, and his sword be made of iron or
steel, executing judgment in his church and kingdom by
corporal punishment—I hope, by the assistance of the
Lord Jesus, to manifest it to be the overturning and
rooting up the very foundations and roots of all true
Christianity, and absolutely denying the Lord Jesus, the
great anointed, to be yet come in the flesh.