A86009:81
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.
The fifth and last is that kind of toleration whereby the Magistrate when it is in the power of his hand to punish and extirpate, yet having to do with such of whom there is good hope either of reducing them by convincing their judgements, or of uniting them to the Church by a safe accommodation of differences, he granteth them a Supersedeas; or though there be no such grounds of hope concerning them,1 yet while he might crush them with the foot of power, in Christian pity and moderation, he forbeareth so far as may not be destructive to the peace and right government of the Church, using his coercive power with such mixture of mercy as createth no mischief to the rest of the Church. I speak not only of bearing with those who are weak in the faith, Rom. 15. 1. but of sparing even those who have perverted the faith, so far as the word of God and rules of Christian moderation would have severity tempered ⟨p. 32⟩with mercy: that is (as hath been said) so far as is not destructive to the Churches peace, nor shaketh the foundations of the established form of Church government, and no further: these last two kinds of toleration are allowed; the first three are wholly condemned.
The fifth and last is that kind of toleration whereby the Magistrate when it is in the power of his hand to punish and extirpate, yet having to doe with such of whom there is good hope either of reducing them by convincing their judgements, or of uniting them to the Church by a safe accommodation of differences, he granteth them a Supersedeas; or though there be no such grounds of hope concerning them,1 yet while he might crush them with the foot of power, in Christian pity and moderation, he forbeareth so far as may not be destructive to the peace and right government of the Church, using his coercive power with such mixture of mercy as createth no mischief to the rest of the Church. I speak not only of bearing with those who are weak in the faith, Rom. 15. 1. but of sparing even those who have perverred the faith, so far as the word of God and rules of Christian moderation would have severity tempered