Parentator. Memoirs of remarkables in the life and the death of the ever-memorable Dr.…

A Perfect Reverse hereof, the Second Thoughts of Mr. Mather. New-England being a Country Planted by a People, whose Design it was to maintain, The Faith and Order of the Gospel, in Evangelical ⟨p. 57⟩Churches, and therewithal transmit the same with all possible Purity down to their Posterity; And their Common Wealth being looked upon, as an Institution of GOD for the Preservation of their Churches, and the Civil Rulers looked upon as both Members and Fathers of them; there were Laws made which inflicted Punishments on the Broachers of Pernicious Errors, and on such as made Invasions and Infractions upon the Ecclesiastical Constitution, which was esteemed the grand Glory & Interest of the Country. The Zeal of the Good Men mightily urged for the Civil Magistrates using his Power, in Coercive Ways, to restrain all Attempts of Evil minded Men to Introduce any Apostasies or Deviations from the Religion, which was the Professed End of the Plantation. Toleration was decried, as a Trojan Horse profanely and perilously brought into the City of GOD. Plausible Outcries were made about, Antichrist coming in at the Backdoor of Toleration. It was a Maxim often Cited (but by none more, than them whose Resolution it was, to Tolerate next to nothing,) To Tolerate all things and Tolerate nothing, are both alike Intolerable. Now, though Mr. Mather never went unto the Extremity that some carried the matter to, but greatly Disliked the Bitter Spirit he saw in some that carried all before them; and little Approved some Unadvised and Sanguinary Things that were done by them who did all; particularly, the Rash Things done unto the Quakers, And indeed, it is a Thousand pities, that the Unhappy Laws made in the Colony in those Days, ⟨p. 58⟩ever should stand upon Record any where, when Some of them were never Executed, and All of them, were Disclaimed, and Renounced, and Repea•ed more than Thirty Years ago! Nevertheless, he joined with the Good Men, who did not care to hear of a Toleration for Seducers; and was for the Civil Magistrates Exerting his Power, as a Master of Restraint upon them. For this purpose, he wrote an Essay full of Erudition, and said all that could be said, on The Power of the Civil Magistrate; which yet he never Published. And it was well he did not! For, anon, he became fully Satisfied, in the Declared Will of our SAVIOUR, That the Tares must have a Toleration: