has prevented me on that Subject having writ a Book particularly of his Life Anthony was thought worthy of the Vision of God and led a Life perfectly conformable to the Laws of Christ. This whoever reads the Book wherein is contain'd the History of his Life will easily know wherein he will also see Prophecy shining out For he prophesied very clearly of those who were infected with the Arian Contagion and foretold what Mischief from them was threatned to the Churches God truly reuealing all these things to him which is certainly the principal evidence of the Catholick Faith No such Man being to be found amongst the Hereticks But do not take this upon my Word but read and study the Book it self This Account you have from St. Chrysostom whom Mr. Dodwell calls the Contemner of Fables St. Hierom in his Treatise De Viro Perfecto speaks of the frequency of Miracles done in his time as a thing past question Besides those not a few which he has left upon record in the Lives of Hilarion and Paul two Monks whose Lives he has writ And he that has a mind to see the plenty of Miracles of this kind need but read the Collection of the Lives of the Fathers made by Rosweydus Russin tells us That Athanasius lodg'd the Bones of St. John Baptist in the Wall of the Church knowing by the Spirit of Prophecy the good they were to do to the next Generation And of what Efficacy and Use they were may be concluded from the Church with the golden Roof built to them soon after in the place of the Temple of Serapis St. Austin tells us That he knew a blind Man restor'd to sight by the Bodies of the Millan Martyrs and some other such things of which kind there were so many done in that time that many scaped his Knowledg and those which he knew were more than he could number More of this you may see Epist. 137. He further assures us that by the simple Reliques of St. Stephen a blind Woman receiv'd her Sight Lucullus was cured of an old Fistula Eucharius of the Stone Three Gouty Men recovered A Lad kill'd with a C art-wheel going over him restor'd to Life safe and sound as if he had received no hurt A Nun lying at the point of Death they sent ber Coat to the Shrine but she dying before it was brought back was restor'd to Life by its being laid on her dead Body The like happened at Hippo to the Daughter of BASSUS and two others whose Names he sets down were by the same Reliques raised from the dead After these and other Particulars there set down of Miracles done in his time by those Reliques of St. Stephen the holy Father goes on thus What shall I do pressed by my Promise of dispatching this Work I cannot here set down all And without doubt many when they shall read his will be troubled that I have omitted so many Particulars which they truly know as well as I. For if I should â—…assing by the rest 〈◊〉 only the miraculous Cures which have been wrought by this most glorious Martyr Stephen in the Colony of Calama and this of ours I should fill many Books and yet should not take in all of them But only of those of which there are Collections published which are read to the People For this I took care should be done when I saw that Signs of divine Power like those of old were FREQUENT also in our Times It is not now two Years since that Shrine has been at Hippo And many of the Books which I certainly knew to be so not being published those which are published concerning those miraculous Operations amounted to near fifty when I writ this But at Calama where this Shrine was before there are more published and their number is incomparably greater At Uzal also a Colony and near Utica we know many famous Things to have been done by the same Martyr Two of those Books he mentions are printed in the Appendix of the Xâ—… Tome of St. Austin's Works of Plantius Edit One of them contains two Miracles the other as I remember about seventeen So that at Hippo alone in two Years time we may count besides those omitted there were published above 600 Miracles and as he says incomparably more at Calama besides what were done by other Reliques of the same St. Stephen in other parts of the World which cannot be suppos'd to have had less virtue than those sent to this part of Africa For the Reliques of St. Stephen discovered by the Dream of a Monk were divided and sent into distant Countries and there distributed to several Churches These may suffice to shew that if the Fathers of the Church of great it Name and Authority are to be believed Miracles were not withdrawn but continued down to the latter end of the 4 th Century long after Christianity had prevailed to be received for the Religion of the Empire But if these Testimonies of Athanasâ—… Chrysostom Palladius Russin St. Hierom and St. Austin will not serve your turn you may find much more to this purpose in the same Authors and if you please you may consult also St. Basil Gregory Nazianzen Gregory Nazianzen St. Ambrose St. Hilary Theodoret and others This being so you must either deny the Authority of these Fathers or grant that Miracles continued in the Church after Christianity was received for the Religion of the Empire and then they could not be to supply the want of the Magistrate's Assistance unless they were to supply the want of what was not wanting and therefore they were continued for some other end Which end of the Continuation of Miracles when you are so far instructed in as to be able to assure us that it was different from that for which God made use of them in the 2d and 3d Centuries when you are so far admitted into the Secrets of Divine Providence as to be able to convince the World that the Miracles between the Apostles and Constantine's Time or any other Period you shall pitch on were to supply the want of the Magistrate's Assistance and those after for some other purpose what you say may deserve to be consider'd Till you do this you will only shew the Liberty you take to assert with great Confidence though without any ground whatever will sute your System and that you do not stick to make bold with the Counsels of infinite Wisdom to make them subservient to your Hypothesis And so I leave you to dispose of the Credit of Ecclesiastical Writers as you shall think fit and by your Authority to establish or invalidate theirs as you please But this I think is evident that he who will build his Faith or Reasonings upon Miracles delivered by Church-Historians wiâ—… find cause to go no farther than the Apostles time or else not to stop at Constantine's since the Writers after that period whose Word we readily take as unquestionable in other
the Atheists as you call them who do so give the People up in every Country to the coactive Force of the Magistrate to be employed for the assisting the Minisâ—… of his Religion And King Lewis of good right comes in with his Dragoons for 't is not much doubted that he as strongly believed his Popish Priests and Jesuits to be the Ministry which our Lord appointed as either King Charles or King James the 2d believed that of the Church of England to be so And of what use such an exercise of the coactive Power of all Magistrates is to the People or to the true Religion you are concerned to shew But 't is you know but to tell me I only trifâ—…e and this is all answered What in other places you tell us is to make Men hear consider study imbrace and bring Men to the true Religion you here do very well to tell us is to assist the Ministry and to that 't is true common Experience discovers the Magistrate's coactive Force to be useful and necessary viz. to those who taking the Reward but not over-busying themselves in the care of Souls find it for their Ease that the Magistrates coactive Power should supply their want of Pastoral Care and be made use of to bring those into an outward Consormity to the National Church whom either for want of Ability they cannot or want of due and friendly Application join'd with an exemplary Life they never so much as endeavoured to prevail on heartily to embrace it That there may be such Neglects in the best-constituted National Church in the World the Complaints of a very knowing Bishop of our Church in a late Discourse of the PASTORAL CARE is too plain an Evidence Without so great an Authority I should scarce have ventured though it lay just in my way to have taken notice of what is so visible that it is in every one's Mouth for fear you should have told me again that I made my self an occasion to shew my Good-will toward the Clergy For you will not I suppose suspect that eminent Prelate to have any Ill-will to them If this were not so that some were negligent I imagine the Preachers of the True Religion which lies as you tell us so obvious and exposed as to be easily distinguish'd from the False would need or desire no other Assistance from the Magistrates coactive Power but what should be directed against the Irregularity of Mens Lives their Lusts being that alone as you tell us that makes Force necessary to assist the true Religion which were it not for our depraved Nature would by its Light and Reasonableness have the advantage against all salâ—…e Religions You tell us too That the Magistrate may impose Creeds and Ceremonies indeed you say sound Creeds and decent Ceremonies but that helps not your Cause for who must be Judg of that sound and that decent If the Imposer then those Words signify nothing at all but that the Magistrate may impose those Creeds and Ceremonies which he thinks sound and decent which is in effect such as he thinks â—…t Indeed you telling us a little above in the same page that it is a Vice not to worship God in Ways prescribed by those to whom God has left the ordering of such Matters you seem to make other Judges of what is sound and decent and the Magistrate but the Executor of their Decrees with the Assistance of his coactive Power A pretty Foundation to establish Creeds and Ceremonies on that God has lest the ordering of them to those who cannot impose them and the imposing of them to those who cannot order them But still the same Difficulty returns for after they have prescribed must the Magistrate judg them to be sound and decent or must he impose them though he judg them not sound or decent If he must judg them so himself we are but where we were if he must impose them when prescribed though he judg them not sound nor decent 't is a pretty sort of Drudgery is put on the Magistrate And how far is this short of implicite Faith But if he must not judg what is sound and decent he must judg at least who are those to whom God has left the ordering of such Matters and then the King of France is ready again with his Dragoons for the sound Doctrine and decent Ceremonies of his Prescribers in the Council of Trent and that upon this ground with as good right as any other has for the Prescriptions of any others Do not mistake me again Sir I do not say he judges as right but I do say that whilst he judges the Council of Trent or the Clergy of Rome to be those to whom God has left the ordering of those Matters he has as much right to follow their Decrees as any other to sollow the Judgment of any other Set of mortal Men whom he believes to be so But whoever is to be Judg of what is sound or decent in the case I ask Of what Vse and Necessity is it to impose Creeds and Ceremonies for that Vse and Necâ—…ssuy iâ—… all the Commission you can sind the Magistrate hath to use his coactive Power to impose them 1. Of what Use and Necessity is it among Christians that own the Scripture to be the Word of God and Rule os Faith to make and impose a Creed What Commission for this hath the Magistrate from the Law of Nature God hath given a Revelation that contains in it all things necessary to Salvation and of this his People are all perswadâ—…d What Necessity now is there How does their Good require it that the Magistrate should single out as he thinks sit any number of those Truths as more necessary to Salvation than the rest if God himself has not done it 2. But next are these Creeds in the Words of the Scripture or not If they are they are certainly sound as containing nothing but Truth in them and so they were before as they lay in the Scripture But thus though they contain nothing but sound Truths yet they may be imperfect and so unsound Rules of Faith since they may require more or less than God requires to be believed as necessary to Salvation For what greater necessity I pray is there that a Man should believe that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate than that he was born at Bethlehem of Judah Both are certainly true and no Christian doubts of either But how comes one to be made an Article of Faith and imposed by the Magistrate as necessary to Salvation for otherwise there can be no necessity of Imposition and the other not Do not mistake me here as if I would lay by that Summary of the Christian Religion which is contained in that which is called the Apostles Creed which though no body who examines the Matter will have reason to conclude of the Apostles compiling yet is certainly of reverend Antiquity and ought still to be preserved in
Discretion in their Callings are not able to judg when an Argument is conclusive or no much less to trace it through a long Train of Consequences What Penalties shall be sufficient to prevail with such who upon examination I fear will not be found to make the least part of Mankind to examine and weigh Matters of Religion carefully and impartially The Law allows all to have common Discretion for whom it has not provided Guardians or Bedlam So that in effect your Men of common Discretion are all Men not judg'd Idiots or Mad-men And Penalties sufficient to prevail with Men of common Discretion are Penalties sufficient to prevail with all Men but Idiots and Mad-men Which what a Measure it is to regulate Penalties by let all Men of common Discretion judg Secondly You may be pleased to consider that all Men of the same degree of Discretion are not apt to be moved by the same degree of Penalties Some are of a more yielding some of a more stiff Temper and what is sufficient to prevail on one is not half enough to move the other though both Men of common Discretion So that common Discretion will be here of no use to determine the Measure of Punishment especially when in the same Clause you except Men desperately perverse and obstinate who are as hard to be known as what you seek viz. the just Proportions of Punishments necessary to prevail with Men to consider examine and weigh Matters of Religion wherein if a Man tells you he has considered he has weighed he has examined and so goes on in his former Course 't is impossible for you ever to know whether he has done his Duty or whether he be desperately perverse and obstinate So that this Exception signifies just nothing There are many things in your use of Force and Penalties different from any I ever met with elsewhere One of them this Clause of yours concerning the Measure of Punishments now under consideration offers me wherein you proportion your Punishments only to the Yielding and Corrigible not to the Perverse and Obstinate contrary to the common Discretion which has hitherto made Laws in other cases which levels the Punishments against refractory Offenders and never spares them because they are obstinate This however I will not blame as an Over-sight in you Your new Method which aims at such impracticable and inconsistent things as Laws cannot bear nor Penalties be useful to forced you to it The Uselesness Abâ—…dity and Unreasonableness of great Severiâ—…s you had acknowledged in the foregoing Paragraphs Dissenters you would have brought to consider by moderate â—…eties they lie under them but whether they have considered or no for that you cannot tell they still continue Dissenters What is to be done now Why the Incurable are to be left to God as you tell us Your Punishments were not meant to prevail on the desperately Perverse and Obstinate as you tell us here And so whatever be the Success your Punishments are however justified The fulness of your Answer to my Question With what Punishments made you possibly pass by these two or three Pages without making any particular Reply to any thing I said in them we will therefore examine that Answer of yours where you tell us That having in your Answer declared that you take the Severities so often mentioned which either destroy Men or make them miserable to be utterly unapt and improper for Reasons there given to bring Men to imbrace the Truth that must save them but just how far within those Bounds that Force extends it self which is really serviceable to that end you do not presume to determine To determine how far moderate Force reaches when it is necessary to your business that it should be determined is not presuming You might with more reason have called it presuming to talk of moderate Penalties and not to be able to determine what you mean by them or to promise as you do That you will tell plainly and directly with what Punishments and here to tell us You do not presume to determine But you give a reason for this Modesty of yours in what follows where you tell me I have not shown any cause why you should And yet you may find in what is above repeated to you these words If in this you are not plain and direct all the rest of your Design will signify nothing But had I failed in shewing any cause why you should and your Charity would not enlighten us unless driven by my Reasons I dare say yet If I have not shown any cause why you should determine in this Point I can shew a cause why you should not For I will be answerable to you that you cannot name any Degree of Punishment which will not be either so great as to come amongst those you condemn and shew what your Moderation what your Aversion to Persecution is or else too little to attain those Ends for which you propose it But whatever you tell me that I have shewn no cause why you should determine I thought it might have passed for a cause why you should determine more particularly that as you will find in those Pages I had proved that the Measures you offer whereby to regulate your Punishments are just as good as none Your Measures in your Argument considered and which you repeat here again are in these Words So much Force or such Pâ—…nalties as are ordinarily sufficient to prevail with Men of common Discretion and not desperately perverse to weigh Matters of Religion carefully and impartially and without which ordinarily they will not do this so much Force or such Penalties may fitly and reasonably be used for the prâ—…moting true Religion in the World and the Salvation of Souls And what just Exception this is liable to you do not understand Some of the Exceptions it is liable to you might have seen in what I have here again caused to be reprinted if you had thought them worth your notice But you go on to tell us here That when you speak of Men of common Discretion and not desperately perverse and obstinate you think 't is plain enough that by common Discretion you exclude not Idiots only and such as we usually call Mad-men but likewise the desperately Perverse and Obstinate who perhaps may well enough deserve that Name though they be not wont to be sent to Bedlam Whether by this you have at all taken off the Difficulty and shewn your Measure to be any at all in thâ—… use of Force I leave the Reader to judg I asked Since great ones are unfit what Degrees of Punishment or Force are to be used You answer So much Force and such Penalties as are ordinarily sufficient to prevail with Men of ordinary Discretion I tell you 't is as hard to know who those Men of common Discretion are as what Degree of Punishment you would have used unless we will take the Determination of the Law which allows all
may be useful whether you can stop at any Degree that is ineffectual to the End which you propose let that End be what it will If it be barely to gain a hearing as in some places you seem to say I think for that small Punishments will generally prevail and you do well to put that and moderate Penalties together If it be to make Men consider as in other places you speak you cannot tell when you have obtained that End But if your End be which you seem most to insist on to make Men consider as they ought i. e. till they imbrace there are many on whom all your moderate Penalties all under those Severities you condemn are too weak to prevail So that you must either consess not considering so as to imbrace the true Religion i. e. not considering as one ought is no Fault to be punished by the coactive Force of the Magistrate or else you must resume those Severities which you have renounced chuse you whether of the two you please Therefore 't was not so much at random that I said That thither at last Persecution must come Indeed from what you had said of falling under the Stroke of the Sword which was nothing to the purpose I added That is by that you meant any thing to the business in hand you seem to have a reserve for greater Punishments when less are not sufficient to bring Men to be convinced Which hath produced this warm Reply of yours And will you ever pretend to Conscience or Modesty after this For I beseech you Sir what Words could I have used more express or effectual to signify that in my Opinion no Dissenters from the true Religion ought to be punished with the Sword but such as choose rather to rebel against the Magistrate than to submit to lesser Penalties For how any should refuse to submit to those Penalties but by rebelling against the Magistrate I suppose you will not undertake to tell me 'T was for this very purpose that I used those Words to prevent Cavils as I was then so simple as to think I might And I dare appeal to any Man of common Sense and common Honesty whether they are capable of any other meaning And yet the very thing which I so plainly disclaim in them you pretend without so much as offering to shew how to collect from them Thither you say at last viz. to the taking away Mens Lives for the saving of their Souls Persecution must come As you fear notwithstanding mâ—… talk of moderate Punishments I my self intimate in those Words And if I mean any thing in them to the business in hand I seem to have a reserve for greater Punishments when lesser are not sufficient to bring Men to be convinced Sir I should expect fairer dealing from one of your Pagans or Mahometans But I shall only add that I would never wish that any Man who has undertaken a bad Cause should more plainly confess it than by serving it as here and not here only you serve yours Good Sir be not so angry lest to observing Men you increase the Suspicion One may without forfeiture of Modesty or Conscience fear what Mens Principles threaten though their Words disclaim it Nonconformity to the National when it is the true Religion as in England is a Fault a Vice say you to be corrected by the coactive Power of the Magistrate If so and Force be the proper Remedy he must increase it till it be strong enough to work the Cure and must not neglect his Duty for so you make it when he has Force enough in his Hand to make this Remedy more powerful For where-ever Force is proper to work on Men and bring them to a Compliance it 's not producing that Effect can only be imputed to its being too little And if so whither at last must it come but to the late Methods of procuring Conformity and as his most Christian Majesty called it of saving of Souls in France or Severities like them when more moderate ones cannot produce it For to continue inefficacious Penalties insufficient upon trial to master the Fault they are applied to is unjustifiable Cruelty and that which no body can have a right to use it serving only to disease and harm People without amending them for you tell us they should be such Penalties as should make them uneasy He that should vex and pain a Sore you had with frequent dressing it with some moderate painful but inefficacious Plaister that promoted not the Cure would justly be thought not only an ignorant but a dishonest Surgeon If you are in the Surgeon's hands and his Help is requisite and the Cure that way to be wrought Corrosives and Fire are the most merciful as well as only justifiable way of Cure when the Case needs them And therefore I hope I may still pretend to Modesty and Conscience though I should have thought you so rational a Man as to be led by your own Principles and so honest charitable and zealous for the Salvation of Mens Souls as not to vex and disease them with inefficacious Remedies to no purpose and let them miss of Salvation for want of more vigorous Prosecutions For if Conformity to the Church of England be necessary to Salvation for elfe what Necessity can you pretend of punishing Men at all to bring them to it it is Cruelty to their Souls if you have Authority for any such Means to use some and not to use sufficient Force to bring them to conform And I dare say you are satsfâ—…d that the French Discipline of Dragooning would have made many in England Conformists whom your lower Penalties will not prevail on to be so But to inform you that my Apprehensions were not so wholly out of the way I beseech you to read here what you have writ in these Words For how confidently soever you tell me here that it is more than I can say for my Political Punishments that they were ever useful for the promoting true Religion I appeal to all observing Persons whether where-ever true Religion or sound Christianity has been Nationally received and established by moderate Penal Laws it has not always lost ground by the Relaxation of those Laws Whether Sects and Heresies even the wildest and most absurd and even Epicurism and Atheism have not continually thereupon spread themselves and whether the very Spirit and Life of Christianity has not sensibly decayed as well as the number of sound Professors of it been daily lessened upon it Not to speak of what at this time our Eyes cannot but see for fear of giving offence though I hope it will be none to any that have a just concern for Truth and Piety to take notice of the Books and Pamphlets which now fly so thick about this Kingdom manifestly tending to the multiplying of Sects and Divisions and even to the promoting of Scepticism in Religion among us Here you bemoan the decaying State of
cautious of Whilst you refuse to do this and keep your self under the Mask of moderate convenient and sufficient Force and Penalties and other such-like uncertain and undetermin'd Punishments I think a consciencious and sober Dissenter might expect fairer dealing from one of my Pagans or Mahometans as you please to call them than from one who so professes Moderation that what Degrees of Force what kind of Punishments will satisfy him he either knows not or will not declare For your moderate and convenient may when you come to interpret them signify what Punishments you please for the Cure being to be wrought by Force that will be convenient which the Stubbornness of the Evil requires and that moderate which is but enough to work the Cure And therefore I shall return your own Complement That I would never wish that any Man who has undertaken a bad Cause should more plainly confess it than by serving it as here and not here only you serve yours I should beg your Pardon for this sort of Language were it not your own And what Right you have to it the Skill you shew in the Management of general and doubtful Words and Expressions of uncertain and undetermined Signification will I doubt not abundantly convince the Reader An Instance we have in the Argument before us For I appeal to any sober Man who shall carefully read what you write where you pretend to tell the World plainly and directly what Punishments are to be used by your Scheme whether after having weighed all you say concerning that matter he can tell what a Nonconformist is to expect from you or find any thing but such Acuteness and Strength as lies in the Uncertainty and Reserve of your way of talking which whether it be any way suted to your Modesty and Conscience where you have undertaken to tell us what the Punishments are whereby you would have Men brought to imbrace the true Religion I leave you to consider If having said Where-ever true Religion or sound Christianity has been Nationally received and established by moderate Penal Laws you shall for your Defence of the Establishment of the Religion in England by Law say which is all is left you to say that though such severe Laws were made yet it was only by the Execution of moderate Penal Laws that it was established and supported but that those severe Laws that touch'd Mens Estates Liberties and Lives were never put in Execution Why then do you so sâ—…riously bemoan the loss of them But I advise you not to make use of that Plea for there are Examples in the Memory of hundreds now living of every one of those Laws of Queen Elizabeth being put in Execution and pray remember if by denying it you require this Truth to be made good 't is you that force the publishing of a Catalogue of Men that have lost their Estates Liberties and Lives in Prison which it would be more for the Advantage of the Religion established by Law should be forgotten But to conclude this great Accusation of yours If you were not conscious to your self of some Tendency that way why such an Outâ—…ry Why was Modesty and Conscience call'd in Question Why was it less fair dealing than you could have expected from a Pagan or Mahometan for me to say if in those Words you meant any thing to the Business in hand you seemed to have a Reserve for greater Punishments Your Business there being to prove that there was a Power vested in the Magistrate to use Force in Matters of Religion what could be more besides the Business in hand than to tell us as you interpret your meaning here that the Magistrate had a Power to use Force against those who rebell'd for who ever denied that whether 〈◊〉 or not Dissenters Where was it question'd by the Author or me that whoever rebell'd were to fall under the Stroak of the Magistrate's Sword And therefore without Breach of Modesty or Conscience I might say what I again here repeat That if in those Words you meant any thing to the Business in hand you seemed to have a Râ—…serve for greater Punishments One thing more give me leave to add in Defence of my Modesty and Conscience or rather to justify my self from having guessed so wholly bâ—…side the matter if I should have said which I did not that I feared you had a Reserve for greater Punishments For I having brought the Instances of Ananias and Sapphira to shew that the Apostles wanted not Power to punish if they sound it necessary to use it you inser that therefore Punishment may be sometimes necessary What Punishments I beseech you for theirs cost them their Lives He that as you do concludes from thence that therefore Punishments may be sometimes necessary will hardly avoid whatever he says to conclude capital Punishments necessary And when they are necessary it is you know the Magistrate's Duty to use them You see how natural it is for Men to go whither their Principles lead them though at first Sight perhaps they thought it too far If to avoid this you now say you meant it of the Punishment of the incestuous Corinthian whom I also mentioned in the same Place I think supposing your self to lie under the Imputation of a Reserve of greater Punishments you ought in Prudence to have said so there Next you know not what Punishment it was the incestuous Corinthian under-went but it being for the Destruction of the Flesh it seems to be no very light one And if you will take your Friend St. Austin's Word for it as he in the very Epistle you quote tells you it was a very severe one making as much Difference between it and the Severities Men usually suffer in Prison as there is between the Cruelty of the Devil and that of the most barbarous Jaylor so that if your moderate Punishments will reach to that laid on the incestuous Corinthian for the Destruction of the Flesh we may presume them to be what other People call Severities CHAP. V. How long your Punishments are to continue THE Measure of Punishments being to be estimated as well by the Length of their Duration as the Intenseness of their Degrees 't is fit we take a View also of your Scheme in this Part. I told you that moderate Punishments that are continued that Men find no End of know no way out of sit heavy and become immoderately uneasy Dissenters you would have punished to make them consider Your Penalties have had the Effect on them you intended they have made them consider and they have done their utmost in considering What now must be done with them They must be punished on for they are still Dissenters If it were just and you had Reason at first to punish a Dissenter to make him consider when you did not know but that he had considered already it is as just and you have as much Reason to punish him on even when he
obliged to answer when I have produced those Reasons and Arguments which are proper and sufficient to convince Men that they ought to go to Mass. But if you had not omitted the 3 or 4 immediately preceding Lines an Art to serve a good Cause which puts me in mind of my Pagans and Mahumetans the Reader would have seen that your Reply was nothing at all to my Argument My Words were these Especially if you consider that as the Magistrate will certainly use it Force to force Men to hearken to the proper Ministers of his Religion let it be what it will so you having set no time nor bounds to this Consideration of Arguments and Reasons short of being convinced you under another c. My Argument is to shew of what advantage Force your Way apply'd is like to be to the True Religion since it puts as much Force into the Magistrate's hands as the openest Persecutors can pretend to which the Magistrates of wrong Perswasions may and will use as well as those of the true because your Way sets no other Bounds to Considering short of Complying And then I ask What Difference there is between punishing you to bring you to Mass or punishing you to consider those Reasons and Arguments which are proper and sâ—…fficient to convince you that you ought to go to Mass To which you râ—…ply That it is a Question you shall then think your self oblig'd to answer when I have produced those Reasons and Arguments that are proâ—…er and sufficient to convince Men that they ought to go to Mass. Whereas the Objection is the same Whâ—…ther there be or be not Râ—…asons and Arguments proper to convince Men that they â—…t to go to Mass for Men mâ—…st be puâ—…h on till they have so coâ—…dered as to comply And what differnce is there then bâ—…n punishing Men to bring them to Mass and punishing 〈◊〉 to make them consider so as to go to Mass But though I preâ—…d not to produce any Reasons and Arguments proper and conviâ—…e to convince you or all Men that they ought to go to Mass yet do you think there are none proper and sufficient to convince any Men And that all the Papists in thâ—… World go to Mass without believing it their Duty And whosoever believes it to be his Duty does it upon Reasons and Arguments proper and sufficient to convince him though perhaps not to convince an other that it is so or else I imagine he would never believe it at all What think you of those great Numbers of Japaneses that resisted all sorts of Torments even to Death it self for the Romish Religion And had you been in France some years since who knows but the Arguments the K. of France produced might have been proper and sufficient to have convinced you that you ought to go to Mass I do not by this think you less confident of the Truth of your Religion than you profess to be But Arguments set on with Force have a strange Efficacy upon humane Frailty and he must be well assured of his own Strength who can peremptorily affirm he is sure he should have stood what above a Million of People sunk under amongst which 't is great Confidence to say there was not one so well perswaded of the Truth of his Religion as you are of yours though some of them gave great Proofs of their Perswasion in their Sufferings for it But what the necessary Method of Force may be able to do to bring any one in your sense to any Râ—…ligion i. e. to an outward Profession of it he that thinks himself secure against must have a greater Assurance of himself than the Weakness of decayed and depraved Nature will well allow If you have any Spell against the Force of Arguments driven with Penalties and Punishments you will do well to teach it the World for it is the hard Luck of well-meaning People to be often misled by them and even the Confident themselves have not seldom fallen under them and betrayed their Weakness To my demanding if you meant Reasons and Arguments proper and sufficient to convince Men of the Truth why did you not say so You reply As if it were possible for any Man that reads your Answer to think otherwise Whoever reads that Passage in your A. p. 5. cannot possibly think you meant to speak out and possibly you found some difficulty to add any thing to your Words which are these Force used to bring Men to consider Reasons and Arguments proper and sufficient to convince them that might determine their Sense For if you had said to convince them of Truth then the Magistrate must have made Laws and used Force to make Men search after Truth in general and that would not have served your turn If you had said to convince them of the Truth of the Magistrate's Religion that would too manifestly have put the Power in every Magistrate's hands which you tell us none but an Atheist will say If you had said to convince them of the Truth of your Religion that had looked too ridiculous to be owned though it were the thing you meant and therefore in this strait where nothing you could say would well sit your purpose you wisely choose to leave the Sense imperfect and name nothing they were to be convinced of but leave it to be collected by your Reader out of your Discourse rather than add three Words to make it good Grammar as well as intelligible Sense To my saying That if you pretend it must be Arguments to convince Men of the Truth it would in this Case do you little Service because the Mass in France is as much suppos'd the Truth as the Liturgy here You reply So that it seems that in your Opinion whatsoever is suppos'd the Truth is the Truth for otherwise this Reason of mine is none at all If in my Opinion the Supposition of Truth authorizes the Magistrate to use the same Means to bring Men to it as if it were true my Argument will hold good without taking all to be true which some Men suppose true According to this Answer of yours to suppose or believe his Religion the true is not enough to authorize the Mastrate to use Force he must know i. e. be infallibly certain that his is the True Religion We will for once suppose you our Magistrate with Force promoting our National Religion I will not ask you whether you know that all required of Conformists is necessary to Salvation But will suppose one of my Pagans asking you whether you know Christianity to be the True Religion If you say Yes he will ask you how you know it and no doubt but you will give the Answer whereby our Saviour proved his Mission John V. 36. that the Works which our Saviour did bear witness of him that the Father sent him The Miracles that Christ did are a Proof of his being sent from God and so his Religion the True
Men use consideration which is a means not necessary to that but another end viz. finding out and imbracing the one true Religion For however consideration may be a necessary means to find and imbrace the one true Religion it is not at all a necessary means to outward Conformity in the Communion of any Religion To manifest the consistency and practicableness of your Method to the Question what advantage would it be to the true Religion if Magistrates did every where so punish You answer That by the Magistrates punishing if I speak to the purpose I must mean their punishing Men for rejecting the true Religiâ—…n so tender'd to them as has been said in order to the bringing them to consider and imbrace it Now before we can suppose Magistrates every where so to punish we must suppose the true Religion to be every where the National Religion And if this were the case you think it is evident â—…nough what advantage to the true Religion it would be if Magistrates every where did so punish For then we might reasonably hope â—…hat all fâ—…lse Religions would soon vanish and the true become onâ—… more the only Religion in the World Whereas if Magistrates should not so punish it were much to be fear'd especially considering what has already happen'd that on the contrary false Religions and Atheism as more agreeable to the Soil would daily take deeper Root and propagate themselves till there were no room left for the true Religion which is but a foreign Plant in any Corner of the World If you can make it practicable that the Magistrate should punish Men for rejecting the True Religion without judging which is the True Religion or if True Religion could appear in Person take the Magistrate's Seat and there judg all that rejected her something might be done But the mischief of it is it is a Man that must condemn Men must punish and Men cannot do this but by judging who is guilty of the Crime which they punish An Oracle or an Interpreter of the Law of Nature who speaks as clearly tells the Magistrate he may and ought to punish those who reject the True Religion tender'd with sufficient Evidence The Magistrate is satisfied of his Authority and believes this Commission to be good Now I would know how possibly he can execute it without making himself the Judg 1. What is the True Religion unless the Law of Nature at the same time deliver'd into his Hands the 39 Articles of the One only True Religion and another Book wherein all the Ceremonies and outward Worship of it are contain'd But it being certain that the Law of Nature has not done this and as certain that the Articles Ceremonies and Discipline of this One only True Religion have been often varied in several Ages and Countries since the Magistrate's Commission by the Law of Nature was first given there is no Remedy left but that the Magistrate must judg what is the True Religion if he must punish them who reject it Suppose the Magistrate be commission'd to punish those who depart from right Reason the Magistrate can yet never punish any one unless he be Judg what is right Reason and then judging that Murder Theft Adultery Narrow Cart-Wheels or want of Bows and Arrows in a Man's House are against right Reason he may make Laws to punish Men guilty of those as 〈◊〉 right Reason So if the Magistrate in England or France having a Commission to punish those who reject the One only True Religion judges the Religion of his National Church to be it 't is possible for him to lay Penalties on those who reject it pursuant to that Commission otherwise without judging that to be the One only True Religion 't is wholly impracticable for him to punish those who imbrace it not as Rejecters of the One only True Religion To provide as good a Salvo as the thing will bear you say in thâ—… folâ—…wing words Before we can suppose Magistrates every where so to punish we must suppose the True Religion to be every where the National That is true of actual Punishment but not of laying on Penalties by Law for that would be to suppose the National Religion makes or chuses the Magistrate and not the Magistrate the National Religion But we see the contrary for let the National Religion be what it will before the Magistrate doth not always fall into it and imbrace that but if he thinks not that but some other the True the first Opportunity he has he changes the National Religion into that which he judges the True and then punishes the Dissenters from it where his Judgment which is the True Religion always necessarily precedes and is that which ultimately does and must determine who are Rejecters of the True Religion and so obnoxiâ—…us to Punishment This being so I would gladly see how your Methâ—…d can be any way practicable to the advantage of the True Religion whereof the Magistrate every-where must be Judg or else he can punish no body at all You tell me that whereas I say that to justify Punishment it is requisite that it be directly useful for the procuâ—…ing some 〈◊〉 Good than that which it takes away you wish I had told you why it must needs be directly useful for that purpose However exact you may be in demanding Reasons of what is said I thought here you had no cause to complain but you let slip out of your Memory the foregoing words of this Passage which together stands thus Punishment is some Evil some Inconvenience some Suffering by taking away or abridging some good thing which he who is punish'd haâ—… otherwise a Right to Now to justify the bringing any such Evil upon any Man two Things are requisite 1. That he that does it has a Commission so to do 2. That it be directly useful for the promoting some greater Good 'T is evident by these Words that Punishment brings direct Evil upon a Man and therefore it should not be used but where it is directly useful for the procuring some greater Good In this case the signification of the Word directly carries a manifest Reason in it to any one who understands what directly means If the taking away any Good from a Man cannot be justified but by making it a Means to procure a greater is it not plain it must be so a Means as to have in the Operation of Causes and Effects a natural Tendency to that Effect and then it is called directly useful to such an end And this may give you a reason why Punishment must be directly useful for that purpose I know you are very tender of your indirect and at a distance Usefulness of Force which I have in another place shew'd to be in your way only useful by accident nor will the Question you here subjoin excuse it from being so viz. Why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as directly useful for the bringing Men to the True Religion as the Râ—…d
of Miracles till the Fourth Century your Hypothesis that they were continued to supply the Magistrate's Assistance will be only precarious For if there was need of Miracles till that time to other purposes the continuation of them in the Church though you could prove them to be as frequent and certain as those of our Saviour and the Apostles it would not advantage your cause since it would be no evidence that they were used for that end which as long as there were other visible uses of them you could not without Revelation assure us were made use of by Divine Providence to supply the want of the Magistrate's Assistance You must therefore confute his Hypothesis before you can make any advantage of what he says concerning the continuation of Miracles for the establishing of yours For till you can shew that that which he assigns was not the end for which they were continued in the Church the utmost you can say â—…is that it may be imagined that one reason of their continuation was to supply the want of the Magistrate's Assistance But what you can without proof imagine possible I hope you do not expect should be received as an unquestionable proof that it â—…as so I can imagin it possible they were not continued for that end and one Imagination will be as good a proof as another To do your Modesty right therefore I must allow that you do faintly offer at some kind of reason to prove that Miracles were continued to supply the want of the Magistrate's Assistance And since God has no where declared that it was for that end you would perswade us in this Paragraph that it was so by two Reasons One is that the Truth of the Christian Religion being sufficiently evinced by the Miracles done by our Saviour and his Apostles and perhaps their immediate Successors there was no other need of Miracles to be continued till the Fourth Century and therefore they were used by God to supply the want of the Magistrate's Assistance This I take to be the meaning of these Words of yours I cannot but think it highly probable that God was pleased to continue them till then not so much for any necessity there was of them all that while for the evincing the Truth of the Christian Religion as to supply the want of the Magistrate's Assistance Whereby I suppose you do not barely intend to tell the World what is your opinion in the case but use this as an Argument to make it probable to others that this was the end for which Miracles were continued which at best will be but a very doubtful Probability to build such a bold Assertion on as this of yours is viz. That the Christian Religion is not able to subsist and preâ—…ail in the World by its own Light and Strength without the assistance either of Force or actual Miracles And therefore you must either produce a Declaration from Heaven that authorizes you to say that Miracles were used to supply the want of Force or shew that there was no other use of them but this For if any other use can be assigned of them as long as they continued in the Church one may safely deny that they were to supply the want of Force and it will lie upon you to prove it by some other way than by saying you think it highly probable For I suppose you do not expect that your thinking any thing highly probable should be a sufficient Reason for others to acquiesce in When perhaps the History of Miracles considered no Body could bring himself to say he thought it probable but one whose Hypothesis stood in need of such a poor support The other Reason you seem to build on is this That when Christianity was received for the Religion of the Empire Miracles ceased because there was then no longer any need of them which I take to be the Argument infinuated in these Words Considering that those extraordinary means were not withdrawn till by their help Christianity had prevailed to be received for the Religion of the Empire If then you can make it appear that Miracles lasted till Christianity was received for the Religion of the Empire without any other Reason for their continuation but to supply the wants of the Magistrate's Assistance and that they ceased as soon as the Magistrates became Christian Your Argument will have some kind of probability that within the Roman Empire this was the method God used for the propagating the Christian Religion But it will not serve to make good your Position That the Christian Religion cannot subsist and prevail by its own Strength and Light without the assistance of Miracles or Authority unless you can shew that God made use of Miracles to introduce and support it in other parts of the World not subject to the Roman Empire till the Magistrates there also became Christians For the corruption of Nature being the same without as within the Bounds of the Roman Empire Miracles upon your Hypothesis were as necessary to supply the want of the Magistrate's Assistance in other Countries as in the Roman Empire For I do not think you will find the Civil Sovereigns were the first converted in all those Countries where the Christian Religion was planted after Constantine's Reign And in all those it will be necessary for you to shew us the Assistance of Miracles But let us see how much your Hypothesis is favoured by Church-History If the Writings of the Fathers of greatest Name and Credit are to be believed Miracles were not withdrawn when Christianity had prevail'd to be received for the Religion of the Empire Athanasius the great Defender of the Catholick Orthodoxy writ the Life of his Contemporary St. Anthony full of Miracles which though some have question'd yet the Learned Dodwell allows to be writ by Athanasius and the Stile evinces it to be his which is also confirmed by other Ecclesiastical Writers Palladius tells us That Ammon did many Miracles But that particularly St. Athanasius related in the Life of Anthony That Ammon going with some Monks Anthony had sent to him when they came to the River Lycus which they were to pass was afraid to strip for fear of seeing himself naked and whilst he was in dispute of this matter he was taken up and in an extasy carry'd over by an Angel the rest of the Monks swimming the River When he came to Anthony Anthony told him he had sent for him because God had revealed many things to him concerning him and particularly his Translation And when Ammon died in his retirement Anthony saw his Soul carried into Heaven by Angels Palladius in vita Ammonis Socrates tells us That Anthony saw the Soul of Ammon taken up by Angels as Athanasius writes in the Life of Anthony And again says he It seems supersluous for me to relate the many Miracles Anthony did how he fought openly with Devils discovering all â—…heir Tricks and Cheats For Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria
things speak of Miracles in their time with no less Assurance than the Fathers before the 4 th Century and a great part of the Miracles of the 2d and 3d Centuries stand upon the Credit of the Writers of the 4 th So that that sort of Argument which takes and rejects the Testimony of the Ancients at pleasure as may best sute with it will not have much force with those who are not disposed to imbrace the Hypothesis without any Arguments at all You grant That the True Religion has always Light and Strength of its own i. e. without the Assistance of Force or Miracles sufficient to prevail with all that consider it seriously and without Prejudice That therefore for which the Assistance of Force is wanting is to make Men consider seriously and without Prejudice Now whether the Miracles that we have still Miracles done by Christ and his Apostles attested as they are by undeniable History be not fitter to deal with Mens Prejudices than Force and than Force which requires nothing but outward Conformity I leave the World to judg All the Assistance the true Religion needs from Authority is only a Liberty for it to be truly taught but it has seldom had that from the Powers in being in its first entry into their Dominions since the withdrawing of Miracles And yet I desire you to tell me into what Country the Gospel accompanied as now it is only with past Miracles hath been brought by the Preaching of Men who have labour'd in it after the Example of the Apostles where it did not so prevail over Mens Prejudices that as many as were ordain'd to eternal Life consider'd and believ'd it Which as you may see Aâ—…t XIII 48. was all the Advance it made even when assisted with the Gift of Miracles For neither then were all or the majority wrought on to consider and embrace it But yet the Gespel cannot prevail by its own Light and Strength and therefore Miracles were to supply the place of Force How was Force used A Law being made there was a continued Application of Punishment to all those whom it brought not to imbrace the Doctrine proposed Were Miracles so used till Force took place For this we shall want more new Church-History and I think contrary to what we read in that part of it which is unquestionable I mean in the Acts of the Apostles where we shall find that the then Promulgators of the Gospel when they had preach'd and done what Miracles the Spirit of God directed if they prevail'd not they often left them Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you but seeing you put it from you and judg your selves unworthy we turn to the Gentiles They shook off the Dust of their Feet against them and came unto Iconium But when divers were hardned and believed not but spake evil of that way before the multitude he departed from them and separated the Disciples Paul was pressed in Spirit and testisied to the Jews that Jesus was Christ and when they opposed themselves and blasphemed he shook his Raiment and said unto them Your Blood be upon your own heads I am clean from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles Did the Christian Magistrates ever do so who thought it necessary to support the Christian Religion by Laws Did they ever when they had a while punish'd those whom Perswasions and Preaching had not prevail'd on give off and leave them to themselves and make trial of their Punishment upon others Or is this your way of Force and Punishment If it be not your's is not what Miracles came to supply the room of and so is not necessary For you tell us they are punish'd to make them consider and they can never be suppos'd to consider as they ought whilst they persist in rejecting and therefore they are justly punish'd to make them so consider So that not so considering being the Fault for which they are punish'd and the Amendment of that Fault the end which is design'd to be attain'd by punishing the Punishment must continue But Men were not always heat upon with Miracles To this perhaps you will reply that the seeing of a Miracle or two or half a dozen was sufficient to procure a hearing but that being punish'd once or twice or half a dozen times is not for you tell us the Power of Miracles communicated to the Apostles served altogether as well as Punishment to procure them a hearing Where if you mean by Hearing only Attention who doubts but Punishment may also procure that if you mean by Hearing receiving and imbracing what is propos'd that even Miracles themselves did not effect upon all Eye-witnesses Why then I beseech you if one be to supply the place of the other is one to be continued on those who do reject when the other was never long continued nor as I think we may safely say often repeated to those who persisted in their former Perswasions After all therefore may not one justly doubt whether Miracles supplied the place of Punishment nay whether you your self if you be true to your own Principles can think so You tell us that not to join themselves to the True Church where sufficient Evidence is offered to convince Men that it is so is a Fault that it cannot be unjust to punish Let me ask you now Did the Apostles by their Preaching and Miracles offer sufficient Evidence to convince Men that the Church of Christ was the True Church or which is in this case the same thing that the Doctrine they preach'd was the True Religion If they did were not those who persisted in Unbelief guilty of a Fault And if some of the Miracles done in those days should now be repeated and yet Men should not imbrace the Doctrine or join themselves to the Church which those Miracles accompanied would you not think them guilty of a Fault which the Magistrate might justly nay ought to punish If you would answer truly and sincerely to this Question I doubt you would think your beloved Punishments necessary notwithstanding Miracles there being no other â—…umane Means left I do not make this Judgment of you from any ill Opinion I have of your good Nature but it is consonant to your Principles For if not Professing the True Religion where sufficient evidence is offer'd by bare Preaching be a Fault and a Eault jusâ—…y to be punish'd by the Magistrate you will certainly think it much more his Duty to punish a greater Fault as you must allow it is to reject Truth propos'd with Arguments and Miracles than with bare Arguments Since you tell us that the Magistrate is obliged to procure as much as in him lies that every Man take care of his own Soul i. e. consider as he ought which no Man can be suppos'd to do whilst he persists in rejecting As you tell us pag.