Nor shall it help the matter to say, the Law of punishing the false Prophet,1 Deut. 13. &c. was only to be executed on such a man; as, 1. sinned against his conscience, showing him that to say other Gods, beside the God that made the heaven and the earth, were to be adored and worshipped, was repugnant to the light of Nature. 2. And on such as the infallible oracle of God fell and blacked as a heart blasphemer, and to punish such a seducer, was not to compel understanding and will, nor to force the conscience, nor to make stoning, and the sword of steel, the carnal weapons that produce spiritual repentance, because there was foregoing conviction from the light of Nature persuading the man, or which might have persuaded him that his blasphemy was against Nature; whereas ye will have the godly punished merely by the Magistrate, because he cannot command his mind and conscience, to be of the Magistrates Religion, which he judgeth in his conscience, to be a false, superstitious, and Idolatrous way; for this contains many uncertainties and lies: For death was to be inflicted, not on those only that sinned against the Law of Nature, but 2 Chron. 15. 13. Whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel, was put to death, small or great, man or woman; now the seeking of the Lord God of Israel, was to serve him, according to the rule revealed, in the supernatural, spiritual and holy Law of God contained in Moses his Books. This I judge was some higher, then the Law of Nature. 2. Let us put Libertines to make this good, that those who said, the golden calves, were the gods that brought them out of Egypt, and adored them, and were therefore put to death, Exod. 32. (since our Divines prove from the place, that they made those Calves memorative objects of Jehovah only) did that against the light of their conscience, and the manifest Law of Nature. What if God had made Calves and Bullocks to represent God, as there were Bullocks in the Temple, and the sacrificed Bullocks were all types of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself to God? And what if the Lord should command ⟨p. 393⟩to adore himself before those Bullocks, as he commanded to pray to him before the Ark, and the face toward the Temple?
Nor shall it helpe the matter to say, the Law of punishing the false Prophet,1 Deut. 13. &c. was onely to be executed on such a man; as, 1. sinned against his conscience, shewing him that to say other Gods, beside the God that made the heaven and the earth, were to be adored and worshipped, was repugnant to the light of Nature. 2. And on such as the infallible oracle of God fell and blacked as a heartblasphemer, and to punish such a seducer, was not to compell understanding and will, nor to force the conscience, nor to make stoning, and the sword of steel, the carnall weapons that produce spirituall repentance, because there was foregoing conviction from the light of Nature perswading the man, or which might have perswaded him that his blasphemy was against Nature; whereas ye will have the godly punished meerly by the Magistrate, because he cannot command his minde and conscience, to be of the Magistrates Religion, which he judgeth in his conscience, to be a false, superstitious, and Idolatrous way; for this containes many uncertainties and lyes: For death was to be inflicted, not on those onely that sinned against the Law of Nature, but 2 Chron. 15. 13. Whosoever would not seeke the Lord God of Israel, was put to death, small or great, man or woman; now the seeking of the Lord God of Israel, was to serve him, according to the rule revealed, in the supernaturall, spirituall and holy Law of God contained in Moses his Books. This I judge was some higher, then the Law of Nature. 2. Let us put Libertines to make this good, that those who said, the golden calves, were the gods that brought them out of Egypt, and adored them, and were therefore put to death, Exod. 32. (since our Divines prove from the place, that they made those Calves memorative objects of Jehovah onely) did that against the light of their conscience, and the manifest Law of Nature. What if God had made Calves and Bullocks to represent God, as there were Bullocks in the Temple, and the sacrificed Bullocks were all types of Christ, who through the eternall Spirit offered himselfe to God? And what if the Lord should command ⟨p. 393⟩to adore himselfe before those Bullocks, as he commanded to pray to him before the Arke, and the face toward the Temple?
- 1The Law Deu. 13. Lev. 24 &c. was not executed upon such only, is sinned against the light of his conscience, and the Law of nature, and upon whom the immediate response of the Oracle fell, as false Prophets.The Law Deu. 13. Lev. 24 &c. was not executed upon such onely, is sinned against the light of his conscience, and the Law of nature, and upon whom the immediate response of the Oracle fell, as false Prophets.
