A vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat lux

2. Your Doctrine and Practise of forcing men by carnal weapons, corporal penalties, tortures, and terrors of death, unto the embracement of your profession, and actually destroying and taking away the lives of them that persist in their dissent from you, is condemned by Fathers and Councils, as well as by the Scriptures, and the light of Nature its self. It is condemned by Tertullian, Apol. cap. 23. Videte, saith he, ne & hoc ad irreligiositatis elogium concurrat, adimere libertatem Religionis, & interdicere optionem Divinitat is, ut non liceat mihi colere quod velim, sed cogar colere quod nolim; with the like expressions, in twenty other places. All this external compulsion he ascribes unto profaneness. So doth Clemens Alexand. Stromat. 8. So also did Lactantius; all consenting in that Maxim of Tertullian, Lex nova non se vindicat ultore gladio: The Law of Christ revengeth not its self with a punishing sword. The Council of Sardis, Epist. ad Alexand. expresly affirms, that they dissuaded the Emperor from interposing his Secular power to compel them that dissented. And you are fully condemned in a Canon of a Council at Toledo, Cap. de Judae. distinc. 45. Praecipit sancta Synodns, nemini deinceps ad credendum vim inferre; cui enim vult Deus miseretur, & quem vult indurat. The holy Synod commandeth, that none hereafter shall by force be ⟨p. 72⟩compelled to the faith: for God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Athanasius in his Epistle ad Solitar. falls heavily on the Arians, that they began first to compel men to their heresy, by force, prisons, and punishments; whence he concludes of their Sect, atque ita seipsam quam non sit pia nec Dei cultrix manifestat: it evidently declares it self hereby, to be neither pious, nor to have any reverence of God. In a Book that is of some credit with you, namely Clemens his Constitutions, you have this amongst other things for your comfort, [Greek or Hebrew]. Christ left men the power of their wills free (in this matter), not punishing them with death temporal, but calling them to give an account in another world. And Chrysostom speaks to the same purpose on Joh 6. [Greek or Hebrew]. He asked them saying, Will you also go away? which is the Question of one rejecting all force and necessity. Epiphanius gives it, as the character of the semi-Arians, [Greek or Hebrew].

2. Your Doctrine and Practise of forcing men by carnall weapons, corporall penalties, tortures, and terrors of death, unto the embracement of your profession, and actually destroying and taking away the lives of them that persist in their dissent from you, is condemned by Fathers and Councels, as well as by the Scriptures, and the light of Nature its self. It is condemned by Tertullian, Apol. cap. 23. Videte, saith he, ne & hoc ad irreligiositatis elogium concurrat, adimere libertatem Religionis, & interdicere optionem Divinitat is, ut non liceat mihi colere quod velim, sed cogar colere quod nolim; with the like expressions, in twenty other places. All this externall compulsion he ascribes unto profaneness. So doth Clemens Alexand. Stromat. 8. So also did Lactantius; all consenting in that Maxim of Tertullian, Lex nova non se vindicat ultore gladio: The Law of Christ revengeth not its self with a punishing sword. The Councell of Sardis, Epist. ad Alexand. expresly affirms, that they disswaded the Emperour from interpesing his Secular power to compell them that dissented. And you are fully condemned in a Canon of a Councell at Toledo, Cap. de Judae. distinc. 45. Praecipit sancta Synodns, nemini deinceps ad credendum vim inferre; cui enim vult Deus miseretur, & quem vult indurat. The holy Synod commandeth, that none hereafter shall by force be