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 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.