A70175:78
Wholesome severity reconciled with Christian liberty, or, The true resolution of a present controversy…Wholesome severity reconciled with Christian liberty, or, The true resolution of a present controversie…
Wholesome severity reconciled with Christian liberty, or, The true resolution of a present controversy concerning liberty of conscience here you have the question stated, the middle way betwixt popish tyranny and schismatizing liberty approved and also confirmed from Scripture and the testimonies of divines, yea of whole churches : the chief arguments and exceptions used in the bloody tenet, The compassionate Samaritan, M.S. to A.S. &c., examined : eight distinctions added for qualifying and clearing the whole matter : and in conclusion a parænetick to the five apologists for choosing accommodation rather than toleration.Wholesome severity reconciled with Christian liberty, or, The true resolution of a present controversie concerning liberty of conscience here you have the question stated, the middle way betwixt popish tyrannie and schismatizing liberty approved and also confirmed from Scripture and the testimonies of divines, yea of whole churches : the chiefe arguments and exceptions used in the bloudy tenent, The compassionate samaritane, M.S. to A.S. &c., examined : eight distinctions added for qualifying and clearing the whole matter : and in conclusion a parænetick to the five apologists for choosing accommodation rather than toleration.
London: printed for Christopher Meredith, 1645
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The first is when the Magistrate is a Nullifidian, Neutralist, and Adiaphorist, esteeming as Gallio did, questions of the law and of the Ordinances of Christ, to be of words & names, or things which he careth not for, Acts 18. 14, 15.
The second is when the Magistrate tolerateth heretics and sectaries for his own profit, or some such interest of policy, such as maketh the Pope to tolerate the Jews in Italy, yea in Rome it self, where they have their synagogues, circumcision and liturgies, because his profit by them is greater then by the very Courtesans; yea, besides their certain tribute, he doth sometimes impose on them a subsidy of ten thousand crowns extraordinary for some service of the State, as Europae speculum, pag. 221, 222. hath represented to us. And whether the States of the united Provinces do not grant tolerations upon the like interests of their own profit, I leave it to the judgement of their own consciences.
The second is when the Magistrate tolerateth hereticks and sectaries for his own profit, or some such interest of policy, such as maketh the Pope to tolerate the Jews in Italy, yea in Rome it self, where they have their synagogues, circumcision and liturgies, because his profit by them is greater then by the very Courtizans; yea, besides their certain tribute, he doth sometimes impose on them a subsidy of ten thousand crownes extraordinary for some service of the State, as Europae speculum, pag. 221, 222. hath represented to us. And whether the States of the united Provinces do not grant tolerations upon the like interests of their own profit, I leave it to the judgement of their own consciences.
The third is the toleration pleaded for here, by Mr Williams, the compassionate Samaritan, &c. as if justice, equity, duty, and conscience should make the Magistrate forbear all coercive power in matters of religion. All these three I utterly condemn, and the former arguments do strongly militate against them.