proud ignorant and seditious Preachers against whom if the severity of the Laws were particularly levelled How easie would it be in some competent time to reduce the people to a quiet and peaceable temper and to make all our present Schisms that may otherwise prove eternal expire with or before the present Age The want or neglect of which method is the only thing that has given them so much strength so long a continuance § 8. Fourthly No man is bound to take notice of or give place to old and inveterate scandals but rather ought in defence of his Christian liberty to oppose them with a publick defiance and to shame those that pretend them out of their confidence For the only ground of compliance and condescension in these Cases is tenderness and compassion to some mens infirmities and as long as I have reason to think this the only cause of their being scandalized so long am I bound by charity and good nature to condescend to their weaknesses and no longer For after they have had a competent time and means of better information I have reason enough to presume that 't is not ignorance that is the gound of their taking offence but pride or peevishness or something worse So that all that is to be done in this case is to disabuse the weak by rectifying his judgment removing his scruples declaring the innocence of my action clearing it of all sinister suspicions and protesting against all those abuses he would put upon the lawful use of my Christian liberty And when I have so done I have cleared my self from all his ill-natured jealousies and surmises and discharged all the offices and obligations of Charity And if after all this my offended Neighbor shall still persevere in his perverse mis-interpretation of my actions and pretend that they still gaul and ensnare his tender Conscience the man is peevish and refractory and only makes use of this precarious pretence to justifie his uncharitable censures of my innocent liberty and then am I so far from being under any obligation to comply with the peevishness and insolence of his humour that I am strongly bound to thwart and oppose it For otherwise I should but betray my Christian liberty to the Tyranny of his wilful and imperious ignorance and give superstitious folly the advantage and Authority of Prescription For if that prevail in the practice of the World and I must yield and condescend to it because 't is stubborn and obstinate it must in process of time gain the reputation of being the custom and received opinion of the Church and when it can plead that then it becomes necessary Inveterate Errours are ever sacred and venerable and what prescription warrants it always imposes Custom ever did and ever will rule and preside in the practices of men because 't is popular and being ever attended with a numerous train of Followers it grows proud and confident and is not ashamed to upbraid free reason with singularity and Innovation So that all I could gain by an absolute resignation of my own liberty to another mans folly would be only to give him a plausible pretence to claim a right of command and dominion over me and to make my self subject to his humour by my own civility And thus though the Jews were in the beginning of Christianity for a time permitted the Rites and Customs of their Nation yet afterward when the Nature of the Christian Religion was or might be better understood the Church did not think it owed them so much civility And if the Primitive Christians had not given check to their stubborn perswasions they had given them Authority and by too long a compliance would have vouched and abetted their Errours and adopted Judaism into Christianity and Circumcision not only might but of necessity must have been conveyed down to us from age to age by as firm and uninterrupted a Tradition as Baptism And this shews us how way-ward and unreasonable those men are who still persevere to object Scandal against the Churches Constitutions after she has so often protested against this Exception by so many solemn Declarations When at first it was pretended it might perhaps for a while excuse or alleviate their disobedience but after Authority has so sufficiently satisfied their scruples and removed their suspicions and so amply cleared the innocence of its own intentions if men will still continue jealous and quarrelsom they may thank themselves if they smart for their own presumption and folly And Princes have no reason to abridge themselves in the exercise of their lawful Power only because some of their Subjects will not learn to be modest and ingenuous And if his Majesty should think good to condescend so far to these mens peevishness as to reverse his Laws against them out of compliance with them this would but feed and cherish their insolence and only encourage them to proceed if that be possible to more unreasonable demands for upon the same reason they insist upon these they may when they are granted them go on to make new remonstrances i. e. upon no reason at all And beside this would but give the countenance of Authority to their scruples and superstitious pretences and leave the Church of England under all those Calumnies to Posterity with which themselves or their followers labour to charge it and oblige future Ages to admire and celebrate these peevish and seditious persons as the Founders of a more godly and thorow Reformation Not to mention how much Princes have ever gain'd by their concessions to the demands of Fanatick Zealots they may easily embolden but hardly satisfie them and if they yield up but one Jewel of their Imperial Diadem to their importunity 't is not usual for them to rest till they have gain'd Crown and all and perhaps the head that wears it too for there is no end of the madness of unreasonable men How happy would the world be if wise men were but wise enough to be instructed by the Mistress of Fools But every Age lives as much at all adventure as if it were the first without any regard to the warnings and experiences of all former Ages Sect. 9. Fifthly The Commands of Authority and the Obligations of Obedience infinitely outweigh and utterly evacuate all the pretences of scandal For the matters wherein scandal is concern'd are only things indifferent but nothing that is not antecedently sinful remains so after the commands of lawful Authority are superinduced upon it these change things indifferent as to their Nature into necessary Duties as to their Vse and therefore place them beyond the reach of the obligations of scandal that may in many cases extend to the restraint of our Liberty but never to the prejudice and hinderance of our Duty so that no Obedience how offensive soever unless it be upon some other account faulty is capable of being made Criminal upon the score of scandal the obligations whereof are but accidental
an absolute and indispensable Necessity and others of a Transient and changeable Obligation Thus 't is absolutely necessary every Rational Creature should make returns of Gratitude to its Creator from which no Humane Power can restrain it but then for the outward Expressions and Significations of this Duty they are for the most part Good or Evil according to the Customs and Constitutions of different Nations unless in the two forementioned Cases that they either countenance Vice or disgrace the Deity But as for all other Rituals Ceremonies Postures manners of performing the outward Expressions of Devotion that are not chargeable with one or both of these nothing can hinder their being capable of being adopted into the Ministeries of Divine Service or exempt them from being subject to the Determinations of Humane Power And thus the Parallel holds in all Cases between the Secondary and Emergent Laws of Morality and the Subordinate and Instrumental Rules of Worship they both equally pass an Obligation upon all men to whom they are prescribed unless they directly contradict the ends of their Institution And now from this more general Consideration of the Agreement between matters of meer Worship and other Duties of Morality in reference to the Power of the Civil Magistrate we may proceed by some more particular accounts to discover how his Dominion over both is of equal extent and restrain'd within the same bounds and measures and that in what cases soever he may exercise Jurisdiction over Conscience in matters of Morality in all the same he may exercise the same Power in Concerns of Religious Worship and on the contrary in what cases his Power over matters of Religion is restrain'd in all the same is it limited as to things of a Moral Nature Whence it must appear with a clear and irresistible Evidence That mens right to Liberty of Conscience is the same in both to all Cases Niceties and Circumstances of things and that they may as rationally challenge a freedom from the Laws of Justice as from those of Religion and that to grant it in either is equally destructive of all Order and Government and equally tends to reduce all Societies to Anarchy and Confusion CHAP. III. A more Particular State of the Controversie concerning the Inward Actions of the Mind or Matters of meer Conscience The Contents MAnkind have a Liberty of Conscience over all their Actions whether Moral or strictly Religious as far as it concerns their Iudgments but not their Practices Of the Nature of Christian Liberty It relates to our Thoughts and not to our Actions It may be preserved inviolable under outward Restraints Christian Liberty consists properly in the Restauration of the Mind of Man to its Natural priviledge from the Yoke of the Ceremonial Law The substantial part of Religious Worship is internal and out of the reach of the Civil Magistrate External Worship is no part of Religion It is and must be left undetermined by the Law of God Sacrifices the most antient Expressions of Outward Worship were purely of Humane Institution Though their being expiatory depended upon a positive Law of God yet their most proper and original Vse viz. To express the Significations of a Grateful Mind depended on the Wills of Men. Of their first Original among the Heathens The Reason why God prescribed the particular Rites and Ceremonies of outward Worship to the Iews Vnder the Christian Dispensation he has left the disposal of outward Worship to the power and discretion of the Church The Impertinency of mens Clamours against Significant Ceremonies when 't is the only use of Ceremonies to be significant The Signification of all Ceremonies equally Arbitrary The Signification of Ceremonies is of the same Nature with that of Words And men may as well be offended at the one as the other § 1. FIrst then Let all matters of meer Conscience whether purely Moral or Religious be subject to Conscience meerly i. e. Let men think of things according to their own perswasions and assert the Freedom of their Judgments against all the Powers of the Earth This is the Prerogative of the Mind of Man within its own Dominion its Kingdom is intellectual and seated in the thoughts not Actions of Men and therefore no Humane Power does or can prescribe to any mans Opinions and secret Thoughts but men will think as they please in spight of all their Decrees and the Understanding will remain free when every thing else is bound And this Sovereignty of Conscience is no entrenchment upon that of Princes because 't is concern'd only in such matters as are of a quite different Nature from their Affairs and gives no restraint to their commanding Power over the Actions of men for meer Opinion whilst such has no Influence upon the Good or Evil of Humane Society that is the proper object of Government and therefore as long as our Thoughts are secret and lock'd up within our own Breasts they are out of the reach of all Humane Power But as for matters that are not confined within the Territories of meer Conscience but come forth into outward Action and appear in the Societies of men there is no remedy but they must be subject to the Cognizance of Humane Laws and come within the Verge of Humane Power because by these Societies subsist and humane Affairs are transacted And therefore it concerns those whose Office it is to secure the peace and tranquillity of mankind to govern and manage them in order to the Publick Good So that 't is but a vain and frivolous pretence when men plead with so much noise and clamour for the Sacred and Inviolable Rights of Conscience and apparently invade or infringe the Magistrates Power by submitting its Commands to the Authority of every Subjects Conscience because the Commands of Lawful Authority are so far from invading its proper Liberty that they cannot reach it in that 't is seated in that part of Man of whose Transactions the Civil Power can take no Cognizance All Humane Authority and Jurisdiction extends no farther than mens outward Actions these are the proper Object of all their Laws Whereas Liberty of Conscience is Internal and Invisible and confined to the minds and Judgments 〈◊〉 men and whilst Conscience acts within its proper Sphere that Civil Power is so far from doing it violence that it never can But when this great and imperious Faculty passes beyond its own peculiar Bounds and would invade the Magistrates Authority by exercising an unaccountable Dominion within his Territories or by venting such Wild Opinions among his Subjects as he apprehends to tend to the disturbance of the Publick Peace then does it concern him to give check to its proceedings as much as to all other Invasions for the care of the Publick Good being his Duty as well as Interest it cannot but be in his Power to restrain or permit Actions as they are conducible to that End Mankind therefore have the same Natural Right to Liberty of
Conscience in matters of Religious Worship as in Affairs of Justice and Honesty i. e. a Liberty of Iudgment but not of practice they have an inviolable freedom to examine the Goodness of all Laws Moral and Ecclesiastical and to judge of them by their suitableness to the natural Reasons of Good and Evil but as for the Practice and all outward Actions either of Virtue or Devotion they are equally governable by the Laws and Constitutions of Common-wealths and men may with the same pretences of Reason challenge an Exemption from all Humane Laws in Matters of common Honesty upon the score of the Freedom of their Consciences as they plead a liberty from all Authority in Duties of Religious Worship upon the same account because they have a freedom of Judgment in both but of Practice in neither § 2. And upon the reasonableness of this Principle is founded the Duty or rather Priviledge of Christian Liberty viz. To assert the Freedom of the Mind of Man as far as 't is not inconsistent with the Government of the World in that a sincere and impartial use of our own Understandings is the first and Fundamental Duty of Humane Nature Hence it is that the Divine Providence is so highly solicitous not to have it farther restrained than needs must and therefore in all matters of pure Speculation it leaves the mind of Man entirely free to judge of the Truth and Falshood of things and will not suffer it to be usurp'd upon by any Authority whatsoever And whatsoever Opinion any man entertains of things of this Nature he injures no man by it and therefore no man can have any reason to commence any Quarrel with him for it Every man here judges for himself and not for others and matters of meer Opinion having no reference to the Publick there is no need of any Publick Judgment to determine them But as for those Actions that are capable of having any Influence upon the Publick Good or ill of Mankind though they are liable to the Determinations of the Publick Laws yet the Law of God will not suffer them to be determin'd farther than is requisite to the Ends of Government And in those very things in which it has granted the Civil Magistrate a Power over the Practices of men it permits them not to exercise any Authority over their Judgments but leaves them utterly free to judge of them as far as they are Objects of meer Opinion and relate not to the Common Interest of mankind And hence though the Commands of our Lawful Superiours may change Indifferent things into Necessary Duties yet they cannot restrain the Liberty of our Minds from judging things thus determin'd to remain in their own Nature Indifferent and the Reason of our Obligation to do them is not fetcht from any Antecedent Necessity in themselves but from the Supervening Commands of Authority to which Obedience in all things Lawful is a Necessary Duty So that Christian Liberty or the Inward Freedom of our Judgments may be preserved inviolable under the Restraints of the Civil Magistrate which are Outward and concern only the Actions not Judgments of men because the Outward Determination to one Particular rather than another does not abrogate the Inward Indifferency of the thing it self and the Duty of our Acting according to the Laws arises not from any Opinion of the Necessity of the thing it self but either from some Emergent and Changeable Circumstances of Order and Decency or from a sense of the Absolute Indispensableness of the Duty of Obedience Therefore the whole Affair of Christian Liberty relates only to our Inward Judgment of things and provided this be kept inviolate it matters not as to that Concern what Restraints are laid upon our Cutward Actions In that though the Gospel has freed our Consciences from the Power of things yet it has not from that of Government we are free from the matter but not from the Authority of Humane Laws and as long as we obey the Determinations of our Superiours with an Opinion of the Indifferency of the things themselves we retain the Power of our Christian Liberty and are still free as to the matter of the Law though not as to the Duty of Obedience § 3. Neither is this Prerogative of our Christian Liberty so much any new Favour granted in the Gospel as the Restauration of the mind of Man to its Natural Priviledge by Exempting us from the Yoke of the Ceremonial Law whereby things in themselves indifferent were tied upon the Conscience with as indispensable an Obligation as the Rules of Essential Goodness Equity during the whole Period of the Mosaick Dispensation which being Cancell'd by the Gospel those Indifferent things that had been made necessary by a Divine positive Command return'd to their own Nature to be used or omitted only as occasion should direct And upon this Account was it that St. Paul though he were so earnest an Assertor of his Christian Liberty against the Doctrine of the Necessity of Jewish Ceremonies never scrupled to use them when ever he thought it serviceable to the Interests of Christianity as is apparent in his Circumcision of Timothy to which he would never have condescended out of Observation of the Mosaick Law and yet did not in the least scruple to do it for other Purposes as Prudence and Discretion should direct him And though in his Discourses of Christian Liberty he Instances only in Circumcision Meats and Drinks and other Ceremonial Ordinances which were then the Particulars most in Dispute between the Christians and the Jews yet by the clearest Analogy of Reason the Case is the same as to the Judicial Law and all other things commanded by Moses that were not either Rules of Eternal Goodness or expresly establish'd in the Gospel This being its clearest and most important Design to reprieve Mankind from all the burdensome and Arbitrary Impositions of Moses that were scarce capable of any other Goodness than their being Instances of Obedience and to restore us to such a Religion as was most suitable to the perfection of Humane Nature and to tye no other Laws upon us than such whose Natural and Intrinsick Goodness should carry with them their own Eternal Obligation And therefore whatsoever our Superiours impose upon us whether in Matters of Religious Worship or any other Duties of Morality it neither is nor can be any entrenchment upon our Christian Liberty provided it be not imposed with an Opinion of the Antecedent Necessity of the thing it self § 4. Now the Design of what I have discoursed upon this Article of Christian Liberty is not barely to shew the manifest Impertinency of all those little Objections men force from it against the Civil Magistrates Jurisdiction over the outward Concerns of Religion whereas this relates entirely to things of a quite different Nature and is only concern'd in the inward Actions of the Mind but withal my purpose is mainly by exempting all internal Acts of the Soul from
to the Common-wealth but he that is turbulent and passionate is dangerous But then when passion is fired with religious zeal nothing can temper its outragious and Fanatick heats but it works the minds of men into rancour and bitterness and drives them into all manner of savage and inhumane practices Princes have never found any thing so restive and ungovernable as Sectarian Madness no malice so spightful and implacable as the zeal of a Godly Party nor any rage so fierce and merciless as sanctified Barbarism All the ancient Tyranny has in some places been out-done by a thorough-godly Reformation zeal for the Glory of God has often turn'd whole Nations into Shambles fill'd the World with continual Butcheries and Massacres and flesh'd it self with slaughters of Myriads of Mankind And when men think their passions warranted by their Religion how is it possible it should be otherwise For this obliges them by their greatest hopes and fears to act them to the highest and 't is easie to imagine what calm and peaceable things those men must be who think it their duty to enforce and enrage their passions with the obligations of Conscience And yet alas How few are they who have wisdom enough to keep their zeal clean from these sowre and crabbed mixtures The generality of men are scarce sensible of their spiritual wickednesses and 't is observable That in all Ages and all Religions of the world few people have taken notice of them beside their Wise men and Philosophers And even among the Professors of Christianity it self notwithstanding that our Religion has made such special provisions against all Excesses of Passion and establish'd Love Charity Moderation Patience Candor and Ingenuity as its Prime and Fundamental Duties yet the Spirit of meekness and humility soon decayed with its Primitive and Apostolical Professors and within a few Centuries of years the Church was over-run with some Sects of men much of the same temper with some of our Modern Saints So that even in true and innocent perswasions 't is necessary to asswage the distempers and indiscretions of a forward zeal The giddy multitude judge weakly fancy strongly and act passionately and unless restrain'd by wary and sober Laws will drive on so furiously in a good cause till they run their Religion into Folly and Faction and themselves into tumults and riotous proceedings What Socrates once said of Vertue That when it is not conducted by prudence it is but Pedantry and a phantastick thing is much more true of Religion which when it wants the guidance and ornament of this Vertue may be folly or madness or any thing rather than it self In brief Fanaticism is both the greatest and the easiest vice that is incident to Religion 't is a Weed that thrives in all Soils and there is the same Fanatick Spirit that mixes it self with all the Religions in the World And 't is as natural to the Common People as the proud or ignorant or perverse or factious or stubborn or eager or passionate for when ever any of these vices or follies are twisted with mens apprehensions of Religion they naturally work and ferment their minds into a boysterous and tumultuary zeal And yet how infinitely difficult it is to cure the Common Heard of these vices the Experience of all Ages is too great a demonstration so that there is nothing so apparently necessary or difficult as to govern the vulgar Rout in their conceptions of Religion seeing 't is so natural for them both to mix and heigthen yes and sanctifie their passions with their Consciences And from hence it is that though the Fanaticks in all Nations may disagree in the objects and matters of their Superstition according to the different Customs of their Country and variety of their Educations yet as for their tendency to disturbance and Sedition in the State 't is in all places the same to all intents and purposes And those unquiet Sects that have often disturb'd and sometimes subverted whole Kingdoms in Africa if they had hapned to have been born in Europe would have done the same here where though their Religion might have been different yet would their Genius have been the same as rising from the same Conjunction of Conscience and Passion And therefore it cannot but be a wonder to any man that is acquainted with the Experience of former Ages to see Governours after so many warnings so insensible of this mischief and however they may think themselves unconcern'd to restrain the opinions of any dissenting Sect as being perhaps but foolish and inconsiderable in themselves yet nothing can more highly concern them than to provide against their inclinations as being generally of a sad and dangerous consequence to the State And this at present may suffice to evince How much it concerns Authority to look to the particular Principles and Inclinations of every Sect and to prove That the meer Belief of Invisible Powers is so far from being Religion enough to awe men to obedience that unless it be temper'd with a due sense of vertue and managed with special prudence and discretion it rather tends to make the rude multitude more head-strong and ungovernable Sect. 5. Thirdly To permit different Sects of Religion in a Common-wealth is only to keep up so many pretences and occasions for publick Disturbance the Factions of Religion are ever the most seditious and the less material their difference the more implacable their hatred as the Turks think it more acceptable to God to kill one Persian than seventy Christians No hinge so vehemently alienates mens affections as variety of judgment in matters of Religion here they cannot disagree but they must quarrel too and when Religion divides mens minds no other Common Interest can unite them and where zeal dissolves friendship the ties of Nature are not strong enough to reconcile it Every Faction is at open defiance with every Faction they are always in a state and posture of War and engaged in a mortal and irreconcileable hatred against each other When ever men part Communion every Party must of necessity esteem the other impious and Heretical in that they never divide but with pretences that they could not agree without being guilty of some sin or other as Blasphemy or Idolatry or Superstition or Heresie or the like For all agree in this Principle That peace ought always to be preserved where it can without offending God and offering violence to Conscience and therefore they cannot but look upon one another as lying under the Divine Wrath and Displeasure and consequently in a damnable condition and then are both Parties engaged as they love God and the Souls of men to labour one another ruine And when the Party is form'd and men are listed into it by chance and Education the distinguishing Opinion of the Party is to them the most material and fundamental Article of their Belief and so they must account of all that either disowne or deny it as of Heathens Infidels and