A86009:35
Wholesome severity reconciled with Christian liberty. Or, the true resolution of a present controversy…VVholesome 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 then toleration. Imprimatur. Ja. Cranford. Decemb 16. 1644.VVholesome 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 then toleration. Imprimatur. Ia. Cranford. Decemb 16. 1644.
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.
A second argument we have from divers laudable examples in the Old Testament; Moses drew the sword against Idolaters, Exod. 32. 27. the children of Israel resolved to go out to war against the Reubenites and Gadites, when they understood that they were building another Altar. Jos. 22. 12. Elijah commanded to slay the Priests of Baal, 1 Kings 18. 40. In Asa his time there was a Covenant for putting to death such as would not seek the Lord God of their Fathers, 2 Chro. 15. 13. Jehu slew the Priests of Ahab, and the worshippers of Baal, 2 Kings 10. 11. 24. First, searching and making sure that there were none of the servants of the Lord among them, ver. 23. Josiah sacrificed the Priests of Samaria upon their own altars, 2 Kings 23. 20. Nebuchadnezzar, though an Heathen, being convinced that there was no god like the God of Israel, made a Decree, that whosoever speaketh blasphemy, or uttereth any error against God, shall be out in pieces, and their houses made a dunghill, Dan. 3. 29. As for those whose errors and corruptions in religion were not so great, there was some (though not the highest) severity used against them: Moses was so angry with the people that were seduced into Idolatry, that he burnt the Calf which they had worshipped, and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made the Children of ⟨p. 10⟩Israel to drink of it, Exod. 32. 20. Thereby teaching them (as Hierome and others give the reason) to abhor that Idolatry, while their Idol did pass from them among their own excrements. Asa did remove his mother Maachah from being Queen, because of an Idol which she had made in a grove, 1 Kings 15. 13