Caution humbly offer'd about passing the bill against blasphemy

CAUTION Humbly Offer'd ABOUT Passing the Bill against Blasphemy .

THE Caution requisite in the Consideration of the Bill against Blasphemy , is this , that the Word may be so well Distinguish'd and Explained , that it may not prove , in Practice , a greater Snare and Suffering to Good Men , than a Restraint upon Ill Ones . For if it be left Ambiguous , so that it may Affect Religious , as well as Lewd and Wicked People , it will , like the Trojan Horse , carry an Army in the Belly of it , to serve the Spleen or Pride of every Party , in their turn of Government , to Oppress the Rest .

Charity forbids me to think the Gentlemen , whose Zeal is Imploy'd to Promote the Success of this Bill , have any such unfair Latitudes in their Design ; and therefore I shall First say , What Blasphemy is in it self . Secondly , How Blasphemy is Cognoscible to the Civil Authority , and how far It may fall within Its Province to Consider and Suppress .

Blasphemy . then , in it self , is certainly , a Speaking Evilly of God : But what that Evil Speaking is , and how to Distinguish and Explain it , to the Magistrates Purpose , will be the Narrow and Pinch of the Question .

I Grant , a Man that shall Seriously Prosess some Erroneous Opinion concerning God , upon a weak Judgment , or a mistaken Education , that Contradicts the Express Text of Holy Scripture , may be said to hold a Blasphemous Opinion , just as such may be said to take God's Name in vain , that Pray to Him , and yet hate to be Reformed by Him : And is God Charges Blasphemy on them that say they are Jews , and are not , but of the Synagogue of Satan : Which , whether it was Error or Hypocrisie , It does not appear to be of such a Nature as is Punishable by the Civil Magistrate . I therefore Distinguish and Say , That Blasphemy , as it falls under the Notice of Civil Power , is not an Humble and Serious Mistake of the Text , but a Presumptuous and Despiteful Expression , or Opinion about the Nature and Being of God : An Irreligious and Scornful Treating of the Divine Majesty in his Nature and Attributes ; and not an Incongruous Speculation , or Erroneous Notion from an Unsound Judgment , or a Misguided Conscience . For what is true of an Heretick , and is his Characteristick , is also true of a Blasphemer ; that is , not a Mistaken , but a Guilty Man : Not a Conscientious , but an Irreligious Person : One that is Condemned in himself , who Dares the Divinity , and Proudly Acts against Knowledge , and so , Conscious to himself of his own Evil and Error .

Thus the Apostle to Titus ; A Man that is an Heretick , after the first and second Admonition , Reject ; Knowing that he that is such , is Subverted and Sinneth , being Condemned of himself . And such a Self-condemned Sinner is the Blasphemer proper for the Magistrates Cognizance .

Not Considering well of this one word Heretick , in the Apostles sence , viz. One Self-Condemned , or Condemned of Himself , has fill'd the World with Blood and Misery through many Generations . Whereas had St. Paul's Definition and Direction been understood and follow'd , Mistaken Men had been Pittied and Informed , and not Persecuted and Killed for Gods sake ; while the Impious Contemners and Blasphemers of God and Religion had met with their Deserts from the Civil Magistrates .

But I will readily confess , that a Person never so Serious in his Mistake concerning God , may very well be Disowned by the Church he is a Member of , because the contrary Sentiment might be one of the Terms of Communion , and no Wrong done ; But Therefore , to say , Take him Goaler , though otherwise a Vertuous , Peaceable and Charitable Man , is a Method , not to be Justified by True Christianity ; especially when that which is required to be Believed , is the Comment , and not the Text , which alone should be Sacred and Controuling in point of Doctrine among Christians . And to say True , 't would be too hard a Task , to defend the Imposition of a Doctrine , not delivered in the Terms of Scripture , which is the Great Creed of Christians , when the Party to Believe does not refuse to give his Faith in the Terms thereof : For after all , Truth loses no Ground by fair Concessions , and I know not how we can well deny that Comments are a sort of Begging of the Question , which have not a Voice from Heaven to Confirm them .

I perceive the Bill is Fram'd in favour of the Christian Religion , and of the Trinity , as a main Pillar of it . But after all , I believe our Good Lives will best Recommend and Maintain It. Framing of Creeds hath cost former Ages so very Dear , by the Distraction of Churches , and the Destruction of People , that it were great pitty fresh occasions should be given to Revive a Controversie so well laid .

This Quarrel alone , had so besmeared the Face of Christianity with Blood , in the first Ages of the Church , that it lost to Christians that Reverence with the Gentiles , their Piety and Charity had before rais'd to themselves , and their Profession : And whatever we may think , nothing else can Repair our Breaches , and Restore to us Paths to Dwell in .

There are several sorts of Creeds , I know , as the Athanasian , Nicean , Sabellian , and in short the Real and Nominal Trinitarians . But since none can be so orthodox as that deliver'd to us in Gods Book , why should we press the point further ? Who can Determine with equal Authority to that of the Holy Ghost ? Who can express His mind Apter ? Or how can we frame a better General to Center In ? At least to maintain Charity by , If our sentiments of the Intention of the Text are not the same ? I speak this with great respect to the secular Authority . For it is certain , that the several Churches , or Religious Societies that may hold these several Modes of Trinity , have that Power over their own Members , by the Common Rules of Fellowship , that as to such Points as are the Terms of Communion , They may Respectively deal with any of them that may forsake their usual Belief ; so far as refusing them any further Communion . But for the Civil Authority , at this time of Day , to Interpose , and Penally Impose any one of them , unless it were the sacred Text ( to which all Parties Refer and Submit ) looks something hard : And when we consider the Divided State of the Nation , the Learning and Freedom of Spirit that is now among the People , and the Liberty of Conscience they are in the Possession of , I must acknowledge , I cannot see the Prudence of it . But to make Property a Sacrifice for mistakes about Religion , if yet it be a mistake ; and to make it So by the vote of Civil Authority , that indeed may Conclude but not Convince , ( for that pretends not to an Infallible Spirit of Decision , as to Truth and Error ) has certainly a Difficulty in it not easily overcome : Since to me it seems to shake those Fundamental Laws by which Property is Declared and Desended . For it is hard to apprehend how Faith is the Foundation of Property .

Nor is this all ; for if this Bill Pass , to pick a hole in the Coat of any one Party this time , the rest may say , that perhaps lye open to be hitt upon other Points , what know we but that it will be our Turn next time ; and tho' as to this Doctrine we are within the Pale and Safe , yet upon other Articles we may at another time be equally exposed ; and so that which cannot be done at once , may , in the same manner , by little and little , be accomplished at last , to the Prejudice of every Interest that Dissents from that which is uppermost ? I mean , a forced Uniformity in Worship , Doctrine and Discipline . Certainly Presidents in so Nice a Case must be very dangerous , and every Party being concern'd in every Party's Security , it is obliged , by its own safety , to endeavour the safety of the Rest , tho' , as to the Point on Foot , They Differ'd as much from the Party in Question , as that which holds the Chair .

I confess this Consideration moves much with me ; and if their be any ground for it , then certainly there can be no Good One now , for a Bill against Blasphemy , without great Caution and Distinction in the wording of it ; lest Virtue suffer more than Vice , and Dissent rather than Impiety .

I have been the Freer in this matter , being neither Deist nor Socinian ; and have no other Exception to the Bill , than that which I have Exprest : For I fear it will be an Occasion of Animosity , if not of Persecution : And as it has more than once happened , that part which Affects the Conscientious shall be more Vigorously Executed , than that which Regards the Irreligious Blasphemer . For it has been Observed , during the Reign of King Charles the Second , that the Dissenters Suffered more in One Year that the Laws were put in Execution , for their Religious Meetings , than the Impious and Debauched did in his Whole Reign : So much more Inclinable were some Men to Wink at Wickedness than Indure a Conscientious Dissent : Of which the Ecclesiastical Courts were but too great an Instance , as well as the Ordinary Sessions of Justice

To Conclude , but with all Submission and Respect to Authority , I say again , to make a Culpable and Punishable Blasphemy , there must be an Irreligious and Despiteful Intention and Design in the words of the Person Accused .

And here I conceive the Civil Magistrate has the full and free use and exercise of his Authority against Blasphemy : For Blasphemy , in this Sence , Corrupts Good Manner , being a plain and Impudent Indignity and Affront upon the most High Good and God ; and merits not only Law , but the warmest Zeal to suppress It : For to endure it , as it hath been , God knows , too long and too much already , is the high way to Provoke God to vindicate his own Glory and Soveraignity at the cost of the whole Nation ; wherein the Innocent may happen to suffer with the Guilty , tho' to these a Judgment , and to them but an Affliction .

It is to be Lamented , as well as aborr'd , that a People of so much Light and Knowledge , and under such pretences to Reformation , should want Zeal to ther Power , to Root out such Scandalous and Impious Practices from among us . There are good Laws , if they were but Imployed to discourage such Irreligious Persons , let their Quality be what it will. Law knows No Respect of Persons , Tho' it too often happens that many Cloathed with Authority Do , that have the Power and are sworn to Suppress them .

And indeed , as the case stands , If we are in earnest to suppress Blasphemy , Prophaness and Debauchery , There seems to be but two ways in the Power of the Civil Magistrates ; but they are good ones , and might be in great measure effectual .

First , to suppress all Play-Houses , and Gameing-Houses , and Places of Looseness and Debauchery , those Seminaries or Nurseries of Impiety : That have palpably Relax'd the Ancient Discipline of the Nation , and corrupted the Youth of it , to the Ruin of the Honour , Virtue and Fortune , of many Ancient and Worthy Families : And which therefore are the Scandal and Aversion of the Sober Men of every Perswasion .

The next way to Extinguish Vice , is to make a Vicious Man Uncapable of being a Magistrate ; who , being conscious of his own Ills , will but faintly Punish other Men's , and whose Power will Awe others from Informing against him . If Publick Employments and Marks of Favour were made the Rewards of Virtue and Ability , where-ever they are found , we should quickly see an Alteration among the Gentry of England , and by their Power and Example , a Reformation among the Common People . And to say true , If Virtue , and not Opinion , were the Test , England would have the Use and Service of the Sobriety and Good Sence of all Her People , for the Suppression of Vice , and Introducing of a General Reformation of Manners : Which God Almighty send .

THE END .