[22] Acts 15. 20.
[23] John 13. 14.
[24] James 5. 14.
The Fourteenth Proposition.
Concerning the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Matters purely Religious, and pertaining to the Conscience.
Since God hath assumed to himself the Power and Dominion of the Conscience, who alone can rightly instruct and govern it therefore [25]it is not lawful for any whatsoever, by Virtue of any Authority or Principality they bear in the Government of this World, to force the Consciences of others; and therefore all Killing, Banishing, Fining, Imprisoning, and other such Things, which Men are afflicted with, for the alone Exercise of their Conscience, or Difference in Worship or Opinion, proceedeth from the Spirit of Cain, the Murderer, and is contrary to the Truth; provided always, that no Man, under the Pretence of Conscience, prejudice his Neighbour in his Life or Estate; or do any Thing destructive to, or inconsistent with Human Society; in which Case the Law is for the Transgressor, and Justice to be administered upon all, without Respect of Persons.
[25] Luke 9. 55, 56.; Mat. 7. 12. 29.; Tit. 3. 10.
The Fifteenth Proposition.
Concerning Salutations and Recreations, &c.
[26]Seeing the chief End of all Religion is to redeem Man from the Spirit and vain Conversation of this World, and to lead into inward Communion with God, before whom, if we fear always, we are accounted happy; therefore all the vain Customs and Habits thereof, both in Word and Deed, are to be rejected and forsaken by those who come to this Fear; such as the taking off the Hat to a Man, the Bowings and Cringings of the Body, and such other Salutations of that Kind, with all the foolish and superstitious Formalities attending them; all which Man has invented in his degenerate State, to feed his Pride in the vain Pomp and Glory of this World; as also the unprofitable Plays, frivolous Recreations, Sportings and Gamings, which are invented to pass away the precious Time, and divert the Mind from the Witness of God in the Heart, and from the living Sense of his Fear, and from that evangelical Spirit wherewith Christians ought to be leavened, and which leads into Sobriety, Gravity, and Godly Fear; in which, as we abide, the Blessing of the Lord is felt to attend us in those Actions in which we are necessarily engaged, in order to the taking Care for the Sustenance of the outward Man.