such Cases care is to be taken that the Sentence of Excommunication and the Execution thereof carry with it no rough usage of Word or Action whereby the ejected Person may any wise be damnified in Body or Estate For all Force as has often been said belongs only to the Magistrate nor ought any private Persons at any time to use Force unless it be in self-defence against unjust Violence Excommunication neither does nor can deprive the excommunicated Person of any of those Civil Goods that he formerly possessed All those things belong to the Civil Government and are under the Magistrate's Protection The whole Force of Excommunication consists only in this that the Resolution of the Society in that respect being declared the Union that was between the Body and some Member comes thereby to be dissolved and that Relation ceasing the participation of some certain things which the Society communicated to its Members and unto which no Man has any Civil Right comes also to cease For there is no Civil Injury done unto the excommunicated Person by the Church-Minister's refusing him that Bread and Wine in the Celebration of the Lord's Supper which was not bought with his but other mens Money Secondly No private Person has any Right in any manner to prejudice another Person in his Civil Enjoyments because he is of another Church or Religion All the Rights and Franchises that belong to him as a Man or as a Denison are inviolably to be preserved to him These are not the Business of Religion No Violence nor Injury is to be offered him whether he be Christian or Pagan Nay we must not content our selves with the narrow Measures of bare Justice Charity Bounty and Liberality must be added to it This the Gospel enjoyns this Reason directs and this that natural Fellowship we are born into requires of us If any man err from the right way it is his own misfortune no injury to thee Nor therefore art thou to punish him in the things of this Life because thou supposest he will be miserable in that which is to come What I say concerning the mutual Toleration of private Persons differing from one another in Religion I understand also of particular Churches which stand as it were in the same Relation to each other as private Persons among themselves nor has any one of them any manner of Jurisdiction over any other no not even when the Civil Magistrate as it sometimes happens comes to be of this or the other Communion For the Civil Government can give no new Right to the Church nor the Church to the Civil Government So that whether the Magistrate joyn himself to any Church or separate from it the Church remains always as it was before a free and voluntary Society It neither acquires the Power of the Sword by the Magistrate's coming to it nor does it lose the Right of Instruction and Excommunication by his going from it This is the fundamental and immutable Right of a spontaneous Society that it has power to remove any of its Members who transgress the Rules of its Institution But it cannot by the accession of any new Members acquire any Right of Jurisdiction over those that are not joined with it And therefore Peace Equity and Friendship are always mutually to be observed by particular Churches in the same manner as by private Persons without any pretence of Superiority or Jurisdiction over one another That the thing may be made yet clearer by an Example Let us suppose two Churches the one of Arminians the other of Calvinists residing in the City of Constantinople Will any one say that either of these Churches has Right to deprive the Members of the other of their Estates and Liberty as we see practised elsewhere because of their differing from it in some Doctrines or Ceremonies whilst the Turks in the mean while silently stand by and laugh to see with what inhumane Cruelty Christians thus rage against Christians But if one of these Churches hath this Power of treating the other ill I ask which of them it is to whom that Power belongs and by what Right It will be answered undoubtedly That it is the Orthodox Church which has the Right of Authority over the Erroneous or Heretical This is in great and specious Words to say just nothing at all For every Church is Orthodox to it self to others Erroneous or Heretical For whatsoever any Church believes it believes to be true and the contrary unto those things it pronounces to be Error So that the Controversie between these Churches about the Truth of their Doctrines and the Purity of their Worship is on both sides equal nor is there any Judge either at Constantinople or elsewhere upon Earth by whose Sentence it can be determined The Decision of that Question belongs only to the Supream Judge of all men to whom also alone belongs the Punishment of the Erroneous In the mean while let those men consider how hainously they sin Who adding Injustice if not to their Error yet certainly to their Pride do rashly and arrogantly take upon them to misuse the Servants of another Master who are not at all accountable to them Nay further If it could be manifest which of these two dissenting Churches were in the right there would not accrue thereby unto the Orthodox any Right of destroying the other For Churches have neither any Jurisdiction in Worldly matters nor are Fire and Sword any proper Instruments wherewith to convince mens minds of Error and inform them of the Truth Let us suppose nevertheless that the Civil Magistrate inclined to favour one of them and to put his Sword into their Hands that by his Consent they might chastise the Dissenters as they pleased Will any man say that any Right can be derived unto a Christian Church over its Brethren from a Turkish Emperor An Infidel who has himself no Authority to punish Christians for the Articles of their Faith cannot confer such an Authority upon any Society of Christians nor give unto them a Right which he has not himself This would be the Case at Constantinople And the Reason of the thing is the same in any Christian Kingdom The Civil Power is the same in every place nor can that Power in the Hands of a Christian Prince confer any greater Authority upon the Church than in the Hands of a Heathen which is to say just none at all Nevertheless it is worthy to be observed and lamented that the most violent of these Defenders of the Truth the Opposers of Errors the Exclaimers against Schism do hardly ever let loose this their Zeal for God with which they are so warmed and inflamed unless where they have the Civil Magistrate on their side But so soon as ever Court-favour has given them the better end of the Staff and they begin to feel themselves the stronger then presently Peace and Charity are to be laid aside Otherwise they are religiously to be observed Where they have not
their Promise that Princes may be dethroned by those that differ from them in Religion or that the Dominion of all things belongs only to themselves For these things proposed thus nakedly and plainly would soon draw on them the Eye and Hand of the Magistrate and awaken all the care of the Commonwealth to a watchfulness against the spreading of so dangerous an Evil. But nevertheless we find those that say the same things in other words What else do they mean who teach that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks Their meaning forsooth is that the priviledge of breaking Faith belongs unto themselves For they declare all that are not of their Communion to be Hereticks or at least may declare them so whensoever they think fit What can be the meaning of their asserting that Kings excommunicated forfeit their Crowns and Kingdoms It is evident that they thereby arrogate unto themselves the Power of deposing Kings because they challenge the Power of Excommunication as the peculiar Right of their Hierarchy That Dominion is founded in Grace is also an Assertion by which those that maintain it do plainly lay claim to the possession of all things For they are not so wanting to themselves as not to believe or at least as not to profess themselves to be the truly pious and faithful These therefore and the like who attribute unto the Faithful Religious and Orthodox that is in plain terms unto themselves any peculiar Priviledge or Power above other Mortals in Civil Concernments or who upon pretence of Religion do challenge any manner of Authority over such as are not associated with them in their Ecclesiastical Communion I say these have no right to be tolerated by the Magistrate as neither those that will not own and teach the Duty of tolerating All men in matters of meer Religion For what do all these and the like Doctrines signifie but that they may and are ready upon any occasion to seise the Government and possess themselves of the Estates and Fortunes of their Fellow-Subjects and that they only ask leave to be tolerated by the Magistrate so long until they find themselves strong enough to effect it Again That Church can have no right to be tolerated by the Magistrate which is constituted upon such a bottom that all those who enter into it do thereby ipso facto deliver themselves up to the Protection and Service of another Prince For by this means the Magistrate would give way to the settling of a forrein Jurisdiction in his own Country and suffer his own People to be listed as it were for Souldiers against his own Government Nor does the frivolous and fallacious distinction between the Court and the Church afford any remedy to this Inconvenience especially when both the one and the other are equally subject to the absolute Authority of the same person who has not only power to perswade the Members of his Church to whatsoever he lists either as purely Religious or in order thereunto but can also enjoyn it them on pain of Eternal Fire It is ridiculous for any one to profess himself to be a Mahumetan only in his Religion but in every thing else a faithful Subject to a Christian Magistrate whilst at the same time he acknowledges himself bound to yield blind obedience to the Mufti of Constantinople who himself is intirely obedient to the Ottoman Emperor and frames the feigned Oracles of that Religion according to his pleasure But this Mahumetan living amongst Christians would yet more apparently renounce their Government if he acknowledged the same Person to be Head of his Church who is the Supreme Magistrate in the State. Lastly Those are not at all to be tolerated who deny the Being of a God. Promises Covenants and Oaths which are the Bonds of Humane Society can have no hold upon an Atheist The taking away of God tho but even in thought dissolves all Besides also those that by their Atheism undermine and destroy all Religion can have no pretence of Religion whereupon to challenge the Privilege of a Toleration As for other Practical Opinions tho not absolutely free from all Error if they do not tend to establish Domination over others or Civil Impunity to the Church in which they are taught there can be no Reason why they should not be tolerated It remains that I say something concerning those Assemblies which being vulgarly called and perhaps having sometimes been Conventicles and Nurseries of Factions and Seditions are thought to afford the strongest matter of Objection against this Doctrine of Toleration But this has not hapned by any thing peculiar unto the Genius of such Assemblies but by the unhappy Circumstances of an oppressed or ill-setled Liberty These Accusations would soon cease if the Law of Toleration were once so setled that all Churches were obliged to lay down Toleration as the Foundation of their own Liberty and teach that Liberty of Conscience is every mans natural Right equally belonging to Dissenters as to themselves and that no body ought to be compelled in matters of Religion either by Law or Force The Establishment of this one thing would take away all ground of Complaints and Tumults upon account of Conscience And these Causes of Discontents and Animosities being once removed there would remain nothing in these Assemblies that were not more peaceable and less apt to produce Disturbance of State than in any other Meetings whatsoever But let us examine particularly the Heads of these Accusations You 'll say That Assemblies and Meetings endanger the Publick Peace and threaten the Commonwealth I answer If this be so Why are there daily such numerous Meetings in Markets and Courts of Judicature Why are Crowds upon the Exchange and a Concourse of People in Cities suffered You 'll reply Those are Civil Assemblies but These we object against are Ecclesiastical I answer 'T is a likely thing indeed that such Assemblies as are altogether remote from Civil Affairs should be most apt to embroyl them O but Civil Assemblies are composed of men that differ from one another in matters of Religion but these Ecclesiastical Meetings are of Persons that are all of one Opinion As if an Agreement in matters of Religion were in effect a Conspiracy against the Commonwealth or as if men would not be so much the more warmly unanimous in Religion the less liberty they had of Assembling But it will be urged still That Civil Assemblies are open and free for any one to enter into whereas Religious Conventicles are more private and thereby give opportunity to Clandestine Machinations I answer That this is not strictly true For many Civil Assemblies are not open to every one And if some Religious Meetings be private Who are they I beseech you that are to be blamed for it those that desire or those that forbid their being publick Again You 'll say That Religious Communion does exceedingly unite mens Minds and Affections to one another and is therefore the more
A LETTER CONCERNING Toleration Humbly Submitted c. LICENSED Octob. 3. 1689. LONDON Printed for Awnsham Churchill at the Black Swan at Amen-Corner 1689. A LETTER CONCERNING TOLERATION There will be published in a few days AN Agreement betwixt the Present and the Former Government Or A Discourse of this Monarchy Whether Elective or Hereditary Also of Abdication Vacancy Interregnums Present Possession of the Crown and the Reputation of the Church of England c. By a Divine of the Church of England c. Foxes and Firebrands Or A Specimen of the Danger and Harmony of Popery and Separation A Third-Part An Hundred and fifty three Chymical Aphorisms To which whatever relates to the Science of Chymistry may fitly be referred Done by the Labour and Stidy of a Country Hermite and Printed in Latin at Amsterdam Anno 1688. Sold by Awnsham Churchill in Ave-mary Lane. TO THE READER THe Ensuing Letter concerning Toleration first Printed in Latin this very Year in Holland has already been Translated both into Dutch and French. So general and speedy an Approbation may therefore bespeak its favourable Reception in England I think indeed there is no Nation under Heaven in which so much has already been said upon that Subject as Ours But yet certainly there is no People that stand in more need of having something further both said and done amongst them in this Point than We do Our Government has not only been partial in Matters of Religion but those also who have suffered under that Partiality and have therefore endeavoured by their Writings to vindicate their own Rights and Liberties have for the most part done it upon narrow Principles suited only to the Interests of their own Sects This narrowness of Spirit on all sides has undoubtedly been the principal Occasion of our Miseries and Confusions But whatever have been the Occasion it is now high time to seek for a thorow Cure. We have need of more generous Remedies than what have yet been made use of in our Distemper It is neither Declarations of Indulgence nor Acts of Comprehension such as have yet been practised or projected amongst us that can do the Work. The first will but palliate the second encrease our Evil. Absolute Liberty Iust and True Liberty Equal and Impartial Liberty is the thing that we stand in need of Now tho this has indeed been much talked of I doubt it has not been much understood I am sure not at all practised either by our Governours towards the People in general or by any Dissenting Parties of the People towards one another I cannot therefore but hope that this Discourse which treats of that Subject however briefly yet more exactly than any we have yet seen demonstrating both the Equitableness and Practicableness of the thing will be esteemed highly seasonable by all Men that have Souls large enough to prefer the true Interest of the Publick before that of a Party It is for the use of such as are already so spirited or to inspire that Spirit into those that are not that I have Translated it into our Language But the thing it self is so short that it will not bear a longer Preface I leave it therefore to the Consideration of my Countrymen and heartily wish they may make the use of it that it appears to be designed for A LETTER CONCERNING TOLERATION Honoured Sir SInce you are pleased to inquire what are my Thoughts about the mutual Toleration of Christians in their different Professions of Religion I must needs answer you freely That I esteem that Toleration to be the chief Characteristical Mark of the True Church For whatsoever some People boast of the Antiquity of Places and Names or of the Pomp of their Outward Worship Others of the Reformation of their Discipline All of the Orthodoxy of their Faith for every one is Orthodox to himself These things and all others of this nature are much rather Marks of Men striving for Power and Empire over one another than of the Church of Christ. Let any one have never so true a Claim to all these things yet if he be destitute of Charity Meekness and Good-will in general towards all Mankind even to those that are not Christians he is certainly yet short of being a true Christian himself The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them said our Saviour to his Disciples but ye shall not be so The Business of True Religion is quite another thing It is not instituted in order to the erecting of an external Pomp nor to the obtaining of Ecclesiastical Dominion nor to the exercising of compulsive Force but to the regulating of Mens Lives according to the Rules of Vertue and Piety Whosoever will lift himself under the Banner of Christ must in the first place and above all things make War upon his own Lusts and Vices It is in vain for any Man to usurp the Name of Christian without Holiness of Life Purity of Manners and Benignity and Meekness of Spirit Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity Thou when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren said our Lord to Peter It would indeed be very hard for one that appears careless about his own Salvation to persuade me that he were extreamly concern'd for mine For it is impossible that those should sincerely and heartily apply themselves to make other People Christians who have not really embraced the Christian Religion in their own Hearts If the Gospel and the Apostles may be credited no Man can be a Christian without Charity and without that Faith which works not by Force but by Love. Now I appeal to the Consciences of those that persecute torment destroy and kill other Men upon pretence of Religion whether they do it out of Friendship and Kindness towards them or no And I shall then indeed and not till then believe they do so when I shall see those fiery Zealots correcting in the same manner their Friends and familiar Acquaintance for the manifest Sins they commit against the Precepts of the Gospel when I shall see them prosecute with Fire and Sword the Members of their own Communion that are tainted with enormous Vices and without Amendment are in danger of eternal Perdition and when I shall see them thus express their Love and Desire of the Salvation of their Souls by the infliction of Torments and exercise of all manner of Cruelties For if it be out of a Principle of Charity as they pretend and Love to Mens Souls that they deprive them of their Estates maim them with corporal Punishments starve and torment them in noisom Prisons and in the end even take away their Lives I say if all this be done meerly to make Men Christians and procure their Salvation Why then do they suffer Whoredom Fraud Malice and such like enormities which according to the Apostle manifestly rellish of Heathenish Corruption to predominate so much and abound amongst their Flocks and People These and
grow the strongest While things are in this condition Peace Friendship Faith and equal Justice are preserved amongst them At length the Magistrate becomes a Christian and by that means their Party becomes the most powerful Then immediately all Compacts are to be broken all Civil Rights to be violated that Idolatry may be extirpated And unless these innocent Pagans strict Observers of the Rules of Equity and the Law of Nature and no ways offending against the Laws of the Society I say unless they will forsake their ancient Religion and embrace a new and strange one they are to be turned out of the Lands and Possessions of their Forefathers and perhaps deprived of Life it self Then at last it appears what Zeal for the Church joyned with the desire of Dominion is capable to produce and how easily the pretence of Religion and of the care of Souls serves for a Cloak to Covetousness Rapine and Ambition Now whosoever maintains that Idolatry is to be rooted out of any place by Laws Punishments Fire and Sword may apply this Story to himself For the reason of the thing is equal both in America and Europe And neither Pagans there nor any Dissenting Christians here can with any right be deprived of their worldly Goods by the predominating Faction of a Court-Church nor are any civil Rights to be either changed or violated upon account of Religion in one place more than another But Idolatry say some is a sin and therefore not to be tolerated If they said it were therefore to be avoided the Inference were good But it does not follow that because it is a sin it ought therefore to be punished by the Magistrate For it does not belong unto the Magistrate to make use of his Sword in punishing every thing indifferently that he takes to be a sin against God. Covetousness Uncharitableness Idleness and many other things are sins by the consent of all men which yet no man ever said were to be punished by the Magistrate The reason is because they are not prejudicial to other mens Rights nor do they break the publick Peace of Societies Nay even the sins of Lying and Perjury are no where punishable by Laws unless in certain cases in which the real Turpitude of the thing and the offence against God are not considered but only the Injury done unto mens Neighbours and to the Commonwealth And what if in another Country to a Mahumetan or a Pagan Prince the Christian Religion seem false and offensive to God may not the Christians for the same reason and after the same manner be extirpated there But it may be urged further That by the Law of Moses Idolaters were to be rooted out True indeed by the Law of Moses But that is not obligatory to us Christians No body pretends that every thing generally enjoyned by the Law of Moses ought to be practised by Christians But there is nothing more frivolous than that common distinction of Moral Judicial and Ceremonial Law which men ordinarily make use of For no positive Law whatsoever can oblige any People but those to whom it is given Hear O Israel sufficienly restrains the Obligation of the Law of Moses only to that People And this Consideration alone is Answer enough unto those that urge the Authority of the Law of Moses for the inflicting of Capital Punishments upon Idolaters But however I will examine this Argument a little more particularly The Case of Idolaters in respect of the Iewish Commonwealth falls under a double consideration The first is of those Who being initiated in the Mosaical Rites and made Citizens of that Commonwealth did afterwards apostatise from the Worship of the God of Israel These were proceeded against as Traytors and Rebels guilty of no less than High-treason For the Common-wealth of the Iews different in that from all others was an absolute Theocracy nor was there or could there be any difference between that Commonwealth and the Church The Laws established there concerning the Worship of One Invisible Deity were the Civil Laws of that People and a part of their Political Government in which God himself was the Legislator Now if any one can shew me where there is a Commonwealth at this time constituted upon that Foundation I will acknowledge that the Ecclesiastical Laws do there unavoidably become a part of the Civil and that the Subjects of that Government both may and ought to be kept in strict conformity with that Church by the Civil Power But there is absolutely no such thing under the Gospel as a Christian Common-wealth There are indeed many Cities and Kingdoms that have embraced the Faith of Christ but they have retained their ancient Form of Government with which the Law of Christ hath not at all medled He indeed hath taught men how by Faith and Good Works they may attain Eternal Life But he instituted no Common-wealth He prescribed unto his Followers no new and peculiar Form of Government Nor put he the Sword into any Magistrate's Hand with Commission to make use of it in forcing men to forsake their former Religion and receive his Secondly Foreigners and such as were Strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel were not compell'd by force to observe the Rites of the Mosaical Law. But on the contrary in the very same place where it is ordered that an Israelite that was an Idolater should be put to death there it is provided that Strangers should not be vexed nor oppressed I confess that the Seven Nations that possest the Land which was promised to the Israelites were utterly to be cut off But this was not singly because they were Idolaters For if that had been the Reason why were the Moabites and other Nations to be spared No the Reason is this God being in a peculiar manner the King of the Iews he could not suffer the Adoration of any other Deity which was properly an Act of High-treason against himself in the Land of Canaan which was his Kingdom For such a manifest Revolt could no ways consist with his Dominion which was perfectly Political in that Country All Idolatry was therefore to be rooted out of the Bounds of his Kingdom because it was an acknowledgment of another God that is to say another King against the Laws of Empire The Inhabitants were also to be driven out that the intire possession of the Land might be given to the Israelites And for the like Reason the Emims and the Horims were driven out of their Countries by the Children of Esau and Lot and their Lands upon the same grounds given by God to the Invaders But tho all Idolatry was thus rooted out of the Land of Canaan yet every Idolater was not brought to Execution The whole Family of Rahab the whole Nation of the Gibeonites articled with Iosuah and were allowed by Treaty and there were many Captives amongst the Iews who were Idolaters David and Solomon subdued many Countries without the Confines of the Land of Promise
and the like To this I answer That in Religious Worship we must distinguish between what is part of the Worship it self and what is but a Circumstance That is a part of the Worship which is believed to be appointed by God and to be well-pleasing to him and therefore that is necessary Circumstances are such things which tho' in general they cannot be separated from Worship yet the particular instances or modifications of them are not determined and therefore they are indifferent Of this sort are the Time and Place of Worship the Habit and Posture of him that worships These are Circumstances and perfectly indifferent where God has not given any express Command about them For example Amongst the Iews the Time and Place of their Worship and the Habits of those that officiated in it were not meer Circumstances but a part of the Worship it self in which if any thing were defective or different from the Institution they could not hope that it would be accepted by God. But these to Christians under the liberty of the Gospel are meer Circumstances of Worship which the Prudence of every Church may bring into such use as shall be judged most subservient to the end of Order Decency and Edification But even under the Gospel those who believe the First or the Seventh Day to be set apart by God and consecrated still to his Worship to them that portion of Time is not a simple Circumstance but a Real Part of Divine Worship which can neither be changed nor neglected In the next place As the Magistrate has no Power to impose by his Laws the use of any Rites and Ceremonies in any Church so neither has he any Power to forbid the use of such Rites and Ceremonies as are already received approved and practised by any Church Because if he did so he would destroy the Church it self the end of whose Institution is only to worship God with freedom after its own manner You will say by this Rule if some Congregations should have a mind to sacrifice Infants or as the Primitive Christians were falsely accused lustfully pollute themselves in promiscuous Uncleanness or practise any other such heinous Enormities is the Magistrate obliged to tolerate them because they are committed in a Religious Assembly I answer No. These things are not lawful in the ordinary course of life nor in any private house and therefore neither are they so in the Worship of God or in any religious Meeting But indeed if any People congregated upon account of Religion should be desirous to sacrifice a Calf I deny that That ought to be prohibited by a Law. Melibaeus whose Calf it is may lawfully kill his Calf at home and burn any part of it that he thinks fit For no Injury is thereby done to any one no prejudice to another mans Goods And for the same reason he may kill his Calf also in a religious Meeting Whether the doing so be well-pleasing to God or no it is their part to consider that do it The part of the Magistrate is only to take care that the Commonwealth receive no prejudice and that there be no Injury done to any man either in Life or Estate And thus what may be spent on a Feast may be spent on a Sacrifice But if peradventure such were the state of things that the Interest of the Commonwealth required all slaughter of Beasts should be forborn for some while in order to the increasing of the stock of Cattel that had been destroyed by some extraordinary Murrain Who sees not that the Magistrate in such a case may forbid all his Subjects to kill any Calves for any use whatsoever Only 't is to be observed that in this case the Law is not made about a Religious but a Political matter nor is the Sacrifice but the Slaughter of Calves thereby prohibited By this we see what difference there is between the Church and the Commonwealth Whatsoever is lawful in the Commonwealth cannot be prohibited by the Magistrate in the Church Whatsoever is permitted unto any of his Subjects for their ordinary use neither can nor ought to be forbidden by him to any Sect of People for their religious Uses If any man may lawfully take Bread or Wine either sitting or kneeling in his own house the Law ought not to abridge him of the same Liberty in his Religious Worship tho' in the Church the use of Bread and Wine be very different and be there applied to the Mysteries of Faith and Rites of Divine Worship But those things that are prejudicial to the Commonweal of a People in their ordinary use and are therefore forbidden by Laws those things ought not to be permitted to Churches in their sacred Rites Onely the Magistrate ought always to be very careful that he do not misuse his Authority to the oppression of any Church under pretence of publick Good. It may be said What if a Church be Idolatrous is that also to be tolerated by the Magistrate I answer What Power can be given to the Magistrate for the suppression of an Idolatrous Church which may not in time and place be made use of to the ruine of an Orthodox one For it must be remembred that the Civil Power is the same every where and the Religion of every Prince is Orthodox to himself If therefore such a Power be granted unto the Civil Magistrate in Spirituals as that at Geneva for Example he may extirpate by Violence and Blood the Religion which is there reputed Idolatrous by the same Rule another Magistrate in some neighbouring Country may oppress the Reformed Religion and in India the Christian. The Civil Power can either change every thing in Religion according to the Prince's pleasure or it can change nothing If it be once permitted to introduce any thing into Religion by the means of Laws and Penalties there can be no bounds put to it but it will in the same manner be lawful to alter every thing according to that Rule of Truth which the Magistrate has framed unto himself No man whatsoever ought therefore to be deprived of his Terrestrial Enjoyments upon account of his Religion Not even Americans subjected unto a Christian Prince are to be punished either in Body or Goods for not imbracing our Faith and Worship If they are perswaded that they please God in observing the Rites of their own Country and that they shall obtain Happiness by that means they are to be left unto God and themselves Let us trace this matter to the bottom Thus it is An inconsiderable and weak number of Christians destitute of every thing arrive in a Pagan Country These Foreigners beseech the Inhabitants by the bowels of Humanity that they would succour them with the necessaries of life Those necessaries are given them Habitations are granted and they all joyn together and grow up into one Body of People The Christian Religion by this means takes root in that Countrey and spreads it self but does not suddenly