CASE V.

Whom may we justly hold a heretic? and what is to be done in the case of heresy?

THERE is no one point, wherein the Church of God hath suffered more, than in the misunderstanding of this question. How many thousand innocents have, in these latter ages of the Church, perished in this unhappy quarrel! yea, how many famous Churches have been most unjustly thunderstruck, with direful censures of excommunication, down to the pit of hell, upon pretence of this crime, which have been less guilty than their anathematizers! And, even amongst ourselves, how apt we are to brand one another with this hateful mark, where there is no true merit of such a reproach!

It much imports us, therefore, to know who may be deservedly thus stigmatized by us. I have, elsewhere, somewhat largely insisted on this theme: whither I might spare some lines to refer you. But, in short, thus: To let pass the original sense and divers acceptions of the word, a Heresy is none other than an obstinate error against the foundation. All truths are precious; but some, withal, necessary. All errors are faulty; but some damnable: the heinousness of the error is according to the worth of the truth impugned. There are theological verities, fit for us to know and believe: there are Articles of Christian Faith, needful to be known and believed. There are truths of meet and decent superstructure, without which the fabric may stand: there are truths of the foundation, so essential, as that without them it cannot stand. It is a maim to the house, if but a tile be pulled off from the roof; but, if the foundation be razed, the building is overthrown: this is the endeavour and act of Heresy.

But now, the next question will be, what doctrines they are, which must be accounted to be of the foundation.

Our countryman, Fisher the Jesuit, and his associates, will tell you roundly, That all those things, which are defined by the Church to be believed, are fundamental: a large groundwork of faith!

Doubtless, the Church hath defined all things contained in the Scripture, to be believed: and theirs, which they call Catholic, hath defined all those traditional points, which they have added to the Creed, upon the same necessity of salvation to be believed. Now if all these be the foundation, which is

h Relat. of the Third Confer. p. 6.

the building? What an imperfect fabric do they make of Christian Religion: all foundation; no walls; no roof!

Surely, it cannot, without too much absurdity, be denied, that there is great difference of truths; some, more important than others which could not be, if all were alike fundamental. If there were not some special truths, the belief whereof makes and distinguisheth a Christian, the authors of the Creed Apostolic, besides the other Symbols received anciently by the Church, were much deceived in their aim.

He, therefore, that believes the Holy Scriptures (which must be a principle presupposed) to be inspired by God: and, as an abstract of the chief particulars thereof, professeth to believe and embrace the Articles of the Christian Faith; to regulate his life by the Law of God's Commandments, and his devotion by the rule of Christ prescribed; and, lastly, to acknowledge and receive the Sacraments expressly instituted by Christ: doubtless, this man is by profession a Christian, and cannot be denied to hold the foundation.

And, whosoever shall wilfully impugn any of these, comes within the verge of Heresy: wilfully, I say; for mere error makes not a Heretic. If, out of simplicity or gross ignorance, a man shall take upon him to maintain a contradiction to a point of faith, being ready to relent upon better light, he may not be thus branded: eviction and contumacy must improve his error, to be heretical.

The Church of Rome, therefore, hath been too cruelly liberal of her censures, this way; having bestowed this livery upon many thousand Christians, whom God hath owned for his Saints; and upon some Churches, more orthodox than herself: presuming upon a power, which was never granted her from heaven, to state new Articles of Faith; and to excommunicate and bar all, that shall dare to gainsay her oracles.

Whereas, the great Doctor of the Gentiles hath told us from the Spirit of God, that there is but one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism; Eph. iv. 5. And what faith is that? St. Jude tells us, the faith that was once delivered to the saints ; Jude 3: so that, as well may they make more reiterations of Baptism, and multiplicities of Lords, as more Faiths than one. Some explications there may be of that one faith, made by the Church, upon occasion of new-sprung errors: but such, as must have their grounds from fore-written truths; and such, as may not extend to the condemnation of them, whom God hath left free. New Articles of Faith, they may not be ; nor bind farther, than God hath reached them.

Heretics then they are, and only they, that pertinaciously raze the foundation of the Christian Faith.

What now must be done with them?

Surely, first, if they cannot be reclaimed, they must be

avoided. It is the charge of the Beloved Disciple to the Elect Lady, If any man come unto you, and bring not (that is, by an ordinary Hebraism, opposes) this doctrine, receive him not into your houses, neither bid him God speed; 2 John 10. But the Apostle of the Gentiles goes yet higher: for, writing to Titus, the great Superintendent of Crete, his charge is, A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition reject; Titus

iii. 10.

Now, when we compare the charge with the person, we cannot but find that this rejection is not a mere negative act, of refraining company; but a positive act of censure: so as he, who had power to admonish, had also power to reject, in an authoritative or judicatory way.

He says then, Derita, Reject, or Avoid; not, as Erasmus too truly but bitterly scoffs the Romish practice, De vitá tolle. This, of killing the Heretic, as it was out of the power of a spiritual supervisor; so was it no less far from the thoughts of him, that desired to come in the spirit of meekness. Faggots were never ordained by the Apostle for arguments to confute Heretics. This bloody logic and divinity was of a much later brood; and is for a Dominic, not a Paul, to own: for, certainly, Faith is of the same nature with Love: it cannot be compelled persuasions may move it; not force.

These intellectual sins must look for remedies of their own kind. But if either they be, as it is often, accompanied with damnable blasphemies against God, whether in his essence or attributes, or the Three incomprehensible Persons in the Allglorious Deity, or the blessed Mediator betwixt God and Man Jesus Christ in either of his natures; or, else, shall be attended with the public disturbances and dangerous distempers of the kingdom or state, wherein they are broached; the Apostle's wish is but seasonable, in both a spiritual and a bodily sense: Would to God those were cut off, that trouble you; Gal. v. 12. In the mean time, for what concerns yourself, if you know any such, as you love God and your souls, keep aloof from them, as from the pestilence. Epiphanius well compares Heresy to the biting of a mad dog: which, as it is deadly, if not speedily remedied; so, it is, withal, dangerously infectious: not the tooth only, but the very foam of that envenomed beast carries death in it: you cannot be safe, if you avoid it not.

Epiphan. Hæres. 1. i.

CASE VI.

Whether the laws of men do bind the conscience; and how far we are tied to their obedience?

BOTH the extremes of opinion, concerning this point, must needs bring much mischief upon Church and Kingdom. Those, that absolutely hold such a power in human laws, make themselves slaves to men: those, that deny any binding power in them, run loose into all licentiousness.

Know, then, that there is a vast difference betwixt these two: to bind the conscience, in any act; and to bind a man in conscience, to do or omit an act. Human laws cannot do the first of them: the latter they may and must do.

To bind the conscience, is, to make it guilty of a sin, in doing an act forbidden, or omitting an act enjoined, as in itself such; or making that act in itself an acceptable service to God, which is commanded by men. Thus, human laws cannot bind the conscience: it is God only; 1 John iii. 21. who, as he is greater than the conscience, so hath power to bind or loose it. It is he, that is the only Lawgiver to the conscience; Is. xxxiii. 22. James iv. 12. Princes and Churches may make laws for the outward man; but they can no more bind the heart, than they can make it. In vain is that power, which is not enabled with coercion now what coercion can any human power claim of the heart, which it can never attain to know? The spirit of man, therefore, is subject only to the Father of Spirits; who only sees and searches the secrets of it, and can both convince and punish it. Besides, well did penitent David know what he said, when he cried out, Against thee only have I sinned; Ps. li. 4. He knew that sin is a transgression of the Law, and that none but God's Law can make a sin. Men may be concerned and injured in our actions: but it is God, who hath forbidden these wrongs to men, that is sinned against, in our acts of injustice and uncharitableness; and who only can inflict the spiritual (which is the highest) revenge upon offenders. The charge of the great Doctor of the Gentiles to his Galatians, was Stand fast in the liberty, wherewith Christ hath made us free; and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage; Gal. v. 1. What yoke of bondage was this, but the law of ceremonies? What liberty was this, but a freedom from the bondage of that law? And, certainly, if those ordinances, which had God for their Author, have so little power to bind the conscience, as that the yoke of their bondage must be shaken off, as inconsistent with Christian liberty; how much less is it to be en

dured, that we should be the servants of men, in being tied up to sin by their presumptuous impositions!

The laws of men, therefore, do not, ought not, cannot bind your conscience, as of themselves; but, if they be just, they bind you in conscience to obedience. They are the words of the Apostle to his Romans: Wherefore, you must needs be subject; not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake; Rom. xiii. 5. However, then, their particular constitutions in themselves put no special obligation upon us, under pain of sin and damnation; yet, in a general relation to that God who hath commanded us to obey authority, their neglect or contempt involves us in a guilt of sin. All power is of God: that, which the supreme authority therefore enjoins you, God enjoins you by it: the charge is mediately his, though passing through the hands of men.

How little is this regarded, in these loose times, by those lawless persons, whose practices acknowledge no sovereignty but titular, no obedience but arbitrary; to whom the strongest laws are as weapons to the Leviathan, who esteems iron as straw; and brass as rotten wood! Job xli. 27.

Surely, had they not first cast off their obedience to him, that is higher than the highest, they could not, without trembling, hear that weighty charge of the great God of Heaven: Let every soul be subject to the higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be, are ordained of God: Rom. xiii. 1: Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake; 1 Peter ii. 13: and, therefore, should be convinced in themselves, of that awe and duty, which they owe to sovereignty; and know and resolve to obey God in men, and men for God.

You see, then, how requisite it is, that you walk in a middle way, betwixt that excessive power, which flattering Casuists have been wont to give to Popes, Emperors, Kings, and Princes in their several jurisdictions; and a lawless neglect of lawful authority. For the orthodox, wise, and just moderation whereof, these last ages are much indebted to the learned and judicious Chancellor of Paris, John Gerson, who first so checked that overflowing error of the power of human usurpation, which carried the world before it, as gave a just hint to succeeding times, to draw that stream into the right channel: insomuch as Dominicus à Soto complains' greatly of him, as, in this, little differing from the Lutheran Heresy: but, in the way which they call heresy, we worship the God of our fathers; Acts xxiv. 14: rendering unto Cæsar the things that are

* Tract. de Vit. Spec. lect. 4. cit. Dom. à Soto ut infra.

1 Gersonis positio parùm distat ab hæresi Lutheraná. Dominic. à Soto De Jure, &c. I. i. qu. 6.