plainly, that whereunto the sanction under debate was added, as the bond of the law against it (which was the bottom of the commendable proceedings of divers kings of Judah against such), was a voluntary relinquishment of Jehovah revealed unto them, to give the honour due unto him, to dunghill idols. Now though error and ignorance ofttimes lie at the bottom of this abomination, yet error properly so called, and which under the name of heresy is opposed, is sufficiently differenced therefrom. That common definition of heresy, that it is an error, or errors, in or about the fundamentals of religion, maintained with stubbornness and pertinacy after conviction (for the main received by most Protestant divines), will be no way suited unto that, which was before given of idolatry, and is as commonly received, being indeed much more clear, as shall be afterward declared. That this latter is proper and suitable to those scriptural descriptions, which we have of heresy, I dare not assert; but being received by them who urge the punishment thereof, it may be a sufficient ground of affirming, that those things whose definitions are so extremely different, are also very distant and discrepant in themselves, and therefore constitutions for the disposal of things concerning, the one, cannot 'eo nomine' conclude the other. Neither is the inference any stronger, than that a man may be hanged for coveting, because he may be so for murdering. The penal constitutions of the Judaical policy (for so they were, which yet I urge not), concerning idolaters, must be stretched beyond their limits, if you intend to inwrap heretics within their verge. If heretics be also idolaters, as the Papists (the poor Indians who worship a piece of red cloth, the Egyptians who adored the deities which grew in their own gardens, being not more besotted with this abomination than they, who prostrate their souls unto, and lavish their devotion upon a piece of bread, a little before they prepare it for the draught, so casting the stumbling block of their iniquities before the faces of poor heathens and Jews, causing Averroes to breathe out his soul, in this expression of that scandal,' Quoniam Christiani manducant Deum quem adorant, sit anima mea cum Philosophis), I say then, the case seems to me to have received so considerable an alteration, that the plea of forbearance is extremely weakened, as to my present apprehension. However, for the present, I remove such from this debate. 5. The like to this also may be said concerning blasphemy, the law whereof is likewise commonly urged in this cause. The establishment for the punishment of a blasphemer is in Lev. xxiv. 16. Given it was upon the occasion of the blaspheming and cursing of the son of an Egyptian, upon his striving and contending with an Israelite. Being, probably, in his own apprehension, wronged by his adversary, he fell to reviling his God. The word here used to express his sin, is ap signifying also to pierce, and is twice so rendered, Isa. xxxvi. 6. Hab. iii. 14. Desperate expressions! piercing the honour and glory of the Most High, willingly and wilfully, were doubtless his death-deserving crime. It is the same word that Balak used to Balaam, when he would have persuaded him to a deliberate cursing and pouring out of the imprecations on the people of God; Numb. xxiii. 13, 14. A resolved piercing of the name and glory of God, with cursed reproaches, is the crime here sentenced to death. The schoolmen tells us, that to complete blasphemy, the perverse affection of the heart, in detestation of the goodness of God, joined with the reproaches of his name, is required." Which how remote it is from error of any sort (I mean within the compass of them whereof we speak), being a pure misapprehension of the understanding, embraced (though falsely), for the honour of God, I suppose is easily conceived; and so consequently that the argument for the death of a person erring, because he came off no easier of old who blasphemed, is a baculo ad angulum.' If any shall say that blasphemy is of a larger extent, and more general acceptation in the Scripture, I shall not deny it. But yet that that kind of blasphemy which was punishable with violent death, was comprehensive of any inferior crime, I suppose cannot be proved. However, blasphemy in the Scripture is never taken in any place, that I can remember, for a man's maintaining his own error; but for his reviling, and speaking evil of the truth, which he receiveth not: and so Paul before his conversion was a blasphemer." Now if men, to whom forbearance is indulged in by-paths » Thom. 22æ. g. 13. a 1. ad 1um. of their own, shall make it their work to cast dirt on the better ways of truth, it is to me very questionable whether they do not offend against that prime dictate of nature, for the preservation of human society, 'Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris:' and for such I will be no advocate. Neither can indeed the law of blasphemy be impartially urged by us in any case of heresy whatsoever. For, (1.) The penal sanctions of the laws of God are not in England esteemed of moral equity, and perpetually indispensable for if so, why do adulterers unmolested behold the violent death of stealers? : (2.) The blasphemer by that law was not allowed his clergy: die he must without mercy, no room being left for the intervention of repentance, as to the removal of his temporal punishment: when once the witnesses garments were rent he was anathema. But in case of any heresy repentance, yea, recantation is a sure antidote (at least for once, so it is among the Papists) against all corporal sufferings. 6. Neither doth that place in Zechariah, chap. xiii. 3. concerning the running through of the false prophet, more prove or approve of the punishment of death to be inflicted for misapprehensions in the matters of religion (and if it proves not that, it proveth nothing; for slaying is the thing expressed, and certainly if proofs be taken from the letter, the letter must be obeyed, or we force the word to serve our hypothesis) than that place of John x. 1. He that entereth not by the door is a thief and a robber;' which Bellarmine strongly urgeth to this very purpose, because thieves and robbers are so dealt withal righteously. If such deductions may be allowed, it will be easy to prove 'quidlibet ex quolibet,' at any time. If the letter be urged, and the sense of the letter as it lies (indeed the figurative sense of such places is the proper, literal sense of them) let that sense alone be kept to. Let parents then pass sentence, condemn, and execute their children, when they turn seducers; and that in any kind whatsoever, into what seduction soever they shall be en r Bell. lib. de Laicis. cap. 21. * August. de util. creden. cap. 3. Thom. pp. q. 1 a. 10. Zanch. de SS. q. 12. cap. 2. reg. 10. Tilen. Syntag. Theol. de interpret. S. thes. 8. Whitak. de SS. qu. 5. cap. 2. Armin. disput. pri. Thes. 9. 1. Ames. Med. Theol. cap. 34. Thes. 22. gaged, be it most pernicious, or in things of less concernment. The letter allows of none of our distinctions; be they convinced, or not convinced; obstinate, or not obstinate, all is one; so it must be, thrust through, and slain by their parents, must they fall to the ground. Only observe, his father and his mother that begat him must be made magistrates, prophets with unclean spirits be turned into heretics, only thrusting through, that must be as it is in the letter; yea, though plainly the party, of whom it is said, Thou shalt not live,' ver. 3. is found alive, ver. 6. Surely such an Orlean's gloss is scarce sufficient to secure a conscience in slaying heretics. But when men please, this whole place shall directly point at the discipline of the churches, and their spiritual censures under the gospel, curing deceivers, and bringing them home to confession and acknowledgment of their folly. See the late Annot. of the Bible. 7. From the asserting of the authority and description of the duty of the magistrate, Rom. xiii. the argument is very easy that is produced for the suppressing, by external force, of erroneous persons. The paralogism is so foul and notorious, in this arguing, He is to suppress evil deeds; heresy is an evil deed, therefore that also, that it needs no confutation. That he is to punish all evil deeds was never yet affirmed. Unbelief is a work of the flesh, so is coveting; one the root sin, against the first, the other against the second table; yet in themselves both exempted from the magistrate's cognizance and jurisdiction. The evil doers, doubtless, for whose terror and punishment he is appointed, are such as by their deeds disturb that human society, the defence and protection whereof is to him committed. That among the number of these are errors, the depravations of men's understandings, hath not yet been proved. 8. The case of the seducer, from Deut. xiii. is urged with more shew of reason than any of the others, to the business in hand; but yet the extreme discrepancies between the proof, and the thing intended to be proved, make any argumentation from this place, as to the matter in hand, very intricate, obscure, and difficult. For, (1.) The person here spoken of pretends an immediate revelation from heaven: he pretends dreams, and gives signs and wonders, ver. 1. and so exempts his spirit from any re gular trial. Heretics, for the most part, offer to be tried by the rule that is in 'medio,' acknowledged of all; a few distempered enthusiasts excepted. (2.) His business is to entice from the worship of Jehovah, not in respect of the manner, but the object, ver. 5. All heretics pretend the fear of that great name. (3.) The accepting and owning idol, dunghill gods in his room, is the thing persuaded to, ver. 2. (and those were only stocks and stones) and this in opposition to Jehovah, who had revealed himself by Moses. Heretics worship him, own him, and abhor all thoughts of turning away from following after him, according to their erroneous apprehensions. Manichees, Marcionites, Valentinians, and such like names of infidels, I reckon not among heretics; neither will their brainsick paganish follies be possibly comprehended under that definition of heresy, which is now generally received. Mahometans are far more rightly termed heretics, than they. (4.) This seducer was to die without mercy. And Ainsworth observes from the rabbins, that this offender alone had traps laid to catch him; and were he but once overheard to whisper his seduction, though never so secretly, there was no expiation of his transgression, without his own blood: but now this place is urged for all kind of restraint and punishment whatsoever. Now where God requires blood, is it allowed to man to commute at an inferior rate? So I confess it is urged. But yet what lies at the bottom, in the chambers of their bellies, who plead for the power of the magistrate to punish erring persons, from those, and such like places as these, is too apparent. Blood is there: swiftly or slowly they walk to the chambers of death. (5.) Obstinacy after conviction, turbulency, &c. which are now laid down as the main weights that turn the scale on the side of severity, are here not once mentioned, nor by any thing in the least intimated. If he have done it, yea, but once, openly, or secretly, whether he have been convinced of the sinfulness of it or no, be he obstinate, or otherwise, it is not once inquired, die he must, as if he had committed murder, or the like indispensable death-procuring crime. If the punishment then of erring persons be urged from this place, all consideration of their conviction, obstinacy, per |