A92140:361
A free disputation against pretended liberty of conscience tending to resolve doubts moved
A free disputation against pretended liberty of conscience tending to resolve doubts moved by Mr. John Goodwin, John Baptist, Dr. Jer. Taylor, the Belgic Arminians, Socinians, and other authors contending for lawless liberty, or licentious toleration of sects and heresies. / By Samuel Rutherfurd professor of divinity in the University of St. Andrews.A free disputation against pretended liberty of conscience tending to resolve doubts moved by Mr. John Goodwin, John Baptist, Dr. Jer. Taylor, the Belgick Arminians, Socinians, and other authors contending for lawlesse liberty, or licentious toleration of sects and heresies. / By Samuel Rutherfurd professor of divinity in the University of St. Andrews.
London: printed by R.I. for Andrew Crook, 1649
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 heretic (saith Celsus) is an innocent man, and is not such a man as sins against light, nor maliciously, nor with an ill conscience, nor is his end gain, pleasure, nor an ambitious lusting after a name, he seeth none of these are attainable, yea, it is his desire of life eternal, and his •eale that setteth him on work, and rather or he dishonour God and deny the known truth, and sin against his conscience, he had rather choose torment, and dye a martyr, and drink that direful and bitter cup of death, which was so terrible to Jesus Christ, that it caused him to fall to the earth, sweat blood and water. So he, fol. 14, 15, 16. which if it be true, an heretic is rather an innocent Angel, then a guilty man, condemned of his own conscience. Yet Minus C•lsus saith here, he behaveth himself as one worthy of damnation, and damned, though none but himself condemn him, 1 Joh. 3. 20. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater then our heart and knoweth all things. It is like then, an innocent man is ⟨p. 144⟩condemned, and his company to be eschewed as a pestilent wretched man.
The hereticke (saith Celsus) is an innocent man, and is not such a man as sins against light, nor maliciously, nor with an ill conscience, nor is his end gaine, pleasure, nor an ambitious lusting after a name, hee seeth none of these are attaineable, yea, it is his desire of life eternall, and his •eale that setteth him on worke, and rather or he dishonour God and deny the knowne truth, and sin against his conscience, he had rather chuse torment, and dye a martyr, and drinke that direfull and bitter cup of death, which was so terrible to Jesus Christ, that it caused him to fall to the earth, sweat blood and water. So he, fol. 14, 15, 16. which if it be true, an hereticke is rather an innocent Angell, then a guilty man, condemned of his owne conscience. Yet Minus C•lsus saith here, he behaveth himselfe as one worthy of damnation, and damned, though none but himselfe condemne him, 1 Joh. 3. 20. For if our heart condemne us, God is greater then our heart and knoweth all things. It is like then, an innocent man is