am obliged to submit to the Determinations of the Clergy I may be forc'd to believe what I judg is either adding changing or diminishing the Law of God as it 's manifest all Sects by believing it to be of their own Side do judg their Adversaries do add c. But if it be meant that the Clergy have a Right to make me believe a thing whilst I doubt of the Truth of it that is impossible and so it is to change my Mind before I see Reason for it It may be said tho it 's not in my Power to believe as they will have me yet I may do as they command even whilst I doubt of the Lawfulness of the Action But then to obey them would be the ready way to damn my self for he that acts when he doubts is damn'd No Law whether of God or Man can scarce be of any use without applying it to particular Cases and deducing Consequences from it and explaining Doubts that arise But if the Laity must be determined by the Priests in all such Cases they must become Brutes and renounce their Reason where they ought to make the most use of it Our Author I confess says not that a Man should rest in the Determinations of the Clergy in deducing Consequences in things explicitly determined by the Law of God But what is meant by things explicitly determined I do not well understand for tho Words are explicit yet the Things implied in those Words are certainly implicit And if the Clergy can oblige Men to follow right or wrong their Determinations in deducing Consequences in things implicitly determined by Scripture they may oblige Men to add change or diminish the Law of God in most Points 3. The Popish Priests never carried their Pretences higher than this Author does they have not the Impudence to assert they can oblige People to believe contrary to the Law of God but that for the sake of the Church's Peace they have a Right to determine those Controversies that may arise among the Faithful and when they have done so none ought to begin to examine those Points again In a word there is no Medium between the Protestant Doctrine of every one having a Right to judg for himself and the Popish one of being obliged to believe as the Church does But this Author is much more absurd than the Papists in making Truth and Falshood to be decided not by an Infallible Pope or Council whose Decrees are to bind the Catholick Church but by the casting Voices of a Fallible Convocation in every Nation which may in Spain oblige the People to believe Transubstantiation in Sweden Consubstantiation in England the Real Corporeal Presence so that a Man may be bound to change his Sentiments with his Habitation and the Difference of a Degree or two may oblige him to opposite Opinions And yet as absurd as this is since the Clergy are so infinitely divided amongst themselves the Laity must either do so or else judg for themselves if it were but to know which of the Clergy were in the Right But 4. The Pamphleteer supposes this impossible and pag. 18. where he speaks out he roundly tells the Commons of England That it 's a little too much to suppose Countrey Gentlemen Merchants or Lawyers to be nicely skill'd in the Languages of the Bible Masters of all the Learning of the Fathers or of the History of the Primitive Church which they must in some measure be who sit Judges of Religious Doctrines and Opinions which ought to be left to their proper Tribunal a Convocation Had People at the Reformation been of this Mind we might still have groaned under the Popish Yoke for the Majority of the Clergy not only in England but every where else were as averse to this Reformation which may justly be called a Lay one as the Jewish Priests were to that of Christ and his Apostles If to be Masters of all the Learning of the Fathers be necessary to the judging of Religious Doctrines it 's as necessary the Laity should understand them because the Clergy are strangely divided amongst themselves about them each Sect pretending they are on their Side which shows that either the Clergy are not to be trusted with giving us the Sense of those Fathers because they make them say any thing according as it serves their present Interest or that the Fathers talk forward and backward contradict themselves as well as one another which if so shows great disingenuity in the Clergy not to own it and if we may trust Mr. Chillingworth a Man unsuspected of the least Priestcraft he tells us Chap. 6. That he sees plainly and that with his own Eyes that there are Councils against Councils some Fathers against others the same Fathers against themselves a Consent of Fathers of one Age against a Consent of Fathers of another Age the Church of one Age against the Church of another Age. 5. The Apostles were so far from requiring the Christians to give up their Judgments to any Number of fallible Men that they command them all to make use of their Reason in judging of Religion commend those as the Bereans that did so and blame those that did not Why have you not judged these things of your selves And if Men were then obliged to try the Spirits because there were many false Prophets gone out into the World there is certainly much more reason to do so now But having spoken fully to this Point in Ch. 2. Par. 1. I shall only add that it 's a Rule authorised by common Sense not to consent to any thing till we are capable of judging of its Truth nor can we without renouncing our Reason suppose God will have us believe any thing without seeing good Reason for it And nothing can reflect more on the Wisdom and Goodness of God than to suppose that he who would have all Men come to the Knowledg of his Will should yet make it so obscure that not one in a thousand is capable of knowing it because it depends upon Skill in Fathers Criticks Church-History c. A Man may therefore justly conclude if there be any such Doctrines pretended as there are in most Systems the impossibility of the Peoples judging of them alone demonstrates they come not from God who as he was able so his Goodness made him willing to express Truth so clearly that all who are not wilfully blind may understand it in order to practice and it would seem strange that God should chuse Fishermen and such simple Persons to preach a Religion intelligible only to the Learned and Philosophers There 's no need of running to Fathers Criticks c. For he that will do the Will of God shall know as our Saviour John 7. saith of the Doctrine whether it be of God that is if it be such as tends to make me love reverence and honour God or is beneficial to Man and a Doctrine cannot shew it self to be of God any
differ but in Scripture-expressions in which they all agree And is it not the Imposers that not only in the Arminian Controversy which has caused a Schism in the Protestant Countries beyond Sea but in all others that are guilty of the Separation For I do not see as that very Honest and Judicious Man Mr. Hales in his Tract of Schism observes That Opinionum varietas Opinantium unitas are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that Men of different Opinions may not hold Communion in Sacris or both go to the same Church Why may not I go if occasion requires to an Arian Church so there be no Arianism expressed in their Liturgy and were Liturgies and publick Forms of Service so framed as they admitted no particular and private Fancies but contained those things in which all Christians agree Schisms on Opinions were utterly vanished And let me add that not only Schisms or Heresies but all Hatred Animosities and Uncharitableness would be destroyed For then the Clergy since it would be their common Interest to unite together would maintain Peace Love and Kindness amongst themselves and preach the same to the People who would never were they but left to themselves hate or molest one another for meerly speculative Opinions which make but little impression on them especially too when they did not create any Divisions or Schisms amongst them nay then all Opinions of Moment I mean those which Men cannot neglect examining into without a Fault would being handled without Prejudice or Passion quickly be rightly understood and those of little or no Moment which are chiefly kept up by the Hatred and Animosities of the different Sects and the Artifices of the Priests soon fall to the Ground And this is the sense of the ablest Champion that the Protestant Religion could ever boast of the brave Chillingworth who tells us Ch. 3. n. 8. If Men would be themselves and be content that others should be in the choice of their Religion the Servants of God and not of Men if instead of being zealous Papists earnest Calvinists rigid Lutherans c. they would become themselves and be content that others should be plain and honest Christians if all Men would believe the Scripture and freeing themselves from Prejudice and Passion would sincerely endeavour to find the true Sense of it and live according to it and require no more of others than to do so not refusing their Communion to those that do so would so order their Publick Service of God that all may without Scruple or Hypocrisy or Protestation against any part of it join with them in it who does not see that seeing all necessary Truths are plainly and evidently set down in Scripture there would of necessity be amongst all Men in all things necessary Unity of Opinion and notwithstanding any other Differences that are or could be Unity of Communion and Charity and mutual Toleration by which Means all Schism and Heresy would be banished the World and those wretched Contentions which now rend and tear in pieces not the Coat but the Members and Bowels of Christ with mutual Pride and Tyranny would speedily receive a most blessed Catastrophe So Chap. 4. n. 16. This presumptuous imposing of the Senses of Men upon the Word of God the special Senses of Men upon the general Words of God and laying them on Mens Consciences under the equal Penalty of Death and Damnation this vain Conceit that we can speak of the Things of God better than the Words of God this deifying our own Interpretations and tyrannous enforcing them upon others this restraining the Words of God from that Latitude and Generality and the Understanding of Men from their Liberty where Christ and his Apostles left them is and hath been the only Fountain of all Schisms of the Church and that which makes them immortal the common Incendiary of Christendom Ridente Turca nec dolente Judaeo Take away these Walls of Separation and all will quickly be one Take away this persecuting burning cursing damning of Men for not subscribing to the Words of Men as the Words of God require of Christians only to believe Christ and to call no Man Master but him only Let those leave claiming Infallibility that have no Title to it and let them that in their Words disclaim it disclaim it likewise in their Actions In a word Take away Tyranny which is the Devil's Instrument to support Errors Superstitions and Impieties in the several Parts of the World which could not otherwise long withstand the Power of Truth I say take away Tyranny and restore Christians to the just and full Liberty of captivating their Understanding to Scripture only and as Rivers when they have a free passage run all to the Ocean so it may well be hoped by God's Blessing that Universal Liberty thus moderated may quickly reduce Christendom to Truth and Unity But to add a greater Authority even that of the Apostles themselves who tho they were to teach the People the Christian Faith before they baptized them into it nay it 's impossible any should be of the Christian Church before he knew the Faith that must make him a Christian yet they required no more of those that before believed the Unity of God to qualify them to be Members of the Church than to believe Jesus to be the Christ and that God has raised him from the Dead and the Doctrine of Repentance And upon this Belief which all Christians profess they constantly admitted both Jews and Gentiles into the Church and consequently whilst this Belief remains they are not unqualified to be Members of the Church except Men have a Right now-a-days to disown those for Brethren and Members of the Church that the Apostles owned as such But They are indeed as Mr. Chillingworth observeth the greatest Schismaticks who make the Way to Heaven narrower the Yoke of Christ heavier the Differences of Faith greater than they were made at the beginning by Christ and his Apostles they talk of Unity and aim at Tyranny and will have Peace with none but their Slaves and Vassals 4. But it 's said A Heretick after two or three Admonitions is to be rejected or more properly avoided therefore Difference of Opinions will hinder Men from being of the same Communion By a Heretick is not meant one that thrô the weakness of Understanding is in an Error but an immoral Man that acts against his Conscience for the Apostle describes him as one that 's conscious of his Crime as being condemned of himself on whom Admonitions might have a good Effect or if they should not be sufficient yet that the Trouble and Disgrace of being shunned by his Brethren might reclaim him which Methods could have no such Effect if his Fault had been a meer Error of the Understanding And Heresy cannot but be a Fault of the Will because it 's called a Work of the Flesh and damnable which a meer Error of the Understanding by no means is And
doubt will instruct them in their own Religion whether Paganism Judaism or Mahometism yet no Man will suppose that they can justly use Force on them when they come to Years of Discretion to make them embrace those Religions or any other And yet the Case between the Magistrate and his Subjects is very different from that of Parents and Children in their Nonage because the Magistrate is not in those Matters to supply the Defects of his Subjects Understanding for a time but his Power reaches to Men of all Ages and Capacities so that it 's evident that the Reason that subjects Children in their Nonage to the use of Force does not all concern Men at Years of Discretion 10. It 's granted by all that a Heathen Magistrate has no right to judg in Matters simply Religious how then comes a Christian by the Law of Nature to obtain this Charter since that Law allows one Magistrate no more Power than another and what is done by a competent Authority tho not right yet is valid ratum si non rectum And as Civil Power is every where the same so let me add Church-Power is so too so that the Church cannot give any new Power to the Magistrate by his becoming a Member of it nor the Magistrate any new Power to the Church by his coming into it 11. It 's said the Law of Nature obligeth every one in his Station to promote the true Religion and for that reason the Magistrate is obliged to exercise a Coercive Power in Matters meerly Religious The Magistrate no doubt is to make use of his Power in things that belong to his Station but meerly religious Ones as it has been already proved do not as to those he is no more than a private Person nay the Clergy cannot own him for more without destroying their own Supremacy in Matters Spiritual which includes meerly religious Ones except there can be more than one Supream in the same thing CHAP. III. That a Power in the Magistrate to use Force in Matters of meer Religion tends to Mens Eternal Ruin 1. BUT if the Magistrate has any such Power from the Law of Nature it must be because it tends to promote either the Eternal or Temporal Good of Mankind or the Honour of God But to take away the least Colour of any Right upon these Pretences I shall show first the Exercise of such a Power is destructive of Man's Eternal Happiness 2dly Of his Temporal and contrary to all those Laws that for our mutual good God requires of us 3dly That it is directly opposite to and inconsistent with the Honour of God 2. As to the first It is of fatal Consequence to the Eternal Happiness of Mankind in having a direct tendency to make them act contrary to their Consciences For since Force can no more work a Change or Alteration on the Mind than Arguments can on Matter all that it can do is to make Men unwilling to lie under the weight of it which they have no way of avoiding but by acting as the Magistrate will have them the Truth of which Force is wholly unapt to convince them of and can only produce an outward compliance the Conscience still remaining averse For nothing is more evident than that where a thing is wholly impertinent to convince the Conscience as Violence is and yet it obligeth a Man to act it obligeth him to act contrary to his Conscience which is directly contrary to his Eternal Happiness For if he that acts when he doubts is damned he cannot certainly be in a better Condition who wholly revolts from his Conscience and basely lieth both to God and Man 3. The true Religion it self can neither judg nor punish but the Magistrate by the True Religion means his own and since all Magistrates think themselves in the right they if Force is to be used must think themselves oblig'd to use it And consequently if one useth Force to make People profess a True Doctrine or Religion there are at least five hundred who would use it to make People contrary to their Consciences profess a False Religion either in whole or part than which there can be nothing more impious nor would the Matter be much mended if the Magistrate forceth Men to profess the True Religion which yet is certainly false to them whilst they believe it so And the forcing People to profess either a true or false Religion is equally prejudicial to the Common-Wealth and consequently upon that account equally sinful because when Men by acting against their Consciences are brought to have no regard to them they will not scruple to break those moral Duties which all Religions teach and in the observing of which Man 's mutual Happiness consists therefore the Magistrate is so far from having a right to punish Men for acting according to their Consciences that it 's his Duty to see they do not violate them tho supposed never so erroneous and consequently all Force is religiously to be abstain'd from which as Mr. Chillingworth Chap. 5. n. 96. observeth may make Men counterfeit but cannot make them believe and therefore is fit to breed Form without and Atheism within Yet this is not the only fatal Consequence of this Doctrine but as I shall show in my next CHAP. IV. Compulsion is inconsistent with all those Duties that God for the sake of Mens Temporal Happiness requires of one towards another 1. NOthing can be more diametrically opposite to all those Precepts of Love Charity Kindness Gentleness Meekness Patience Forbearance the Gospel is in a manner composed of than Mens ill using one another for different Sentiments in things meerly Religious To pretend Love Kindness Friendship c. and yet vex oppress and ruin is no better than mocking and sporting with the Miseries of those we have so treated First to kiss and then betray is the basest Hypocrisy if that can pass for Hypocrisy which openly proclaims at how great a distance Mens Words and Actions are The kindest Office one Man can do to another is if he thinks him in an Error to endeavour to convince him of it who tho he continues in his former Opinion yet the Obligation to the other for his good Intention still remains and this Benefit he may obtain by it that by examining the Reasons on both Sides he is more likely to discover the Truth yet should he mistake after he has impartially examined the Point his Error would be wholly innocent since he has done what he can to find out the Truth and God requires no more but to cause a Person to be persecuted for being instrumental in this is the most unnatural and diabolical thing that can be 2. Object It 's usually said 't is not want of Charity but the greatest that can be to hinder Men by Force from professing such Opinions as are destructive to their Souls Answ. But I say first that it 's against Charity for the Magistrate to do a real Ill to
or indeed any thing else that does not invade the Right of others or is consistent with the Welfare of the Society And if it be unreasonable that he should harass Men about these things which have some relation to the Civil Society tho not sufficient to erect Courts of Judicature about them is it not much more so to molest them about nice Controversies Speculative Points meer Ceremonies or Forms of outward Worship in which the Interest of the Society is not at all concerned In a word If the Magistrate is to punish for some things in Religion and not for others what other Rule can there be to know what belongs to his Jurisdiction and what not but that about those things of Religion which relate to the Civil Society he is to use the Force of the Society and that what do not ought wholly to be left to God and the Parties concerned For as it 's absurd that the Force of the Society should be imployed about things that do not belong to it so it 's very unjust that a Man should not be suffered to act as he judgeth best in those things wherein no other has an Interest but his own eternal Good or Ill is only concerned 11. God who does not require of Men to be infallible but to do their best to discover Truth can never be supposed to be willing that they should be punished for invincible Error But the Magistrate who by reason of the infinite Variety of Mens Parts and Apprehensions does not know what Errors are invincible and what not cannot but punish unjustly since he cannot tell whether the Person he punisheth supposing him in an Error is in a Fault or if in a Fault cannot know what degrees of Weakness or Wilfulness it has or how to proportion his Punishment according to the different Abilities of every individual Person which he ought to do since where much is given much is required and where little is given as little is required But as he is not capable of doing this so he cannot tell after he has done his best but that he has made them guilty of a much greater Fault than what he pretends to correct by forcing them to act against their Consciences All which no less than demonstrates that the Magistrate is not qualified and therefore not ordained to punish such Offences but that they are to be left to the Searcher of Hearts the great and righteous Judg of all Men who alone discerns all the Powers and Workings of Mens Minds when they sincerely seek after Truth or by what if by any Default they miss it and who alone knows whom to punish and how to proportion his Punishments 12. To suppose God has constituted the Supream Powers to judg not only concerning Civil Crimes for which he has sufficiently qualified them but also meerly Religious Ones is inconsistent with the Justice as well as Wisdom and Goodness of God For if we cannot suppose so very unjust and foolish a thing of a King on Earth as that he should constitute for his Vicegerents those of whom he certainly knew not one in a thousand but would punish his Faithful Subjects and that for no other Reason but because they were so and reward those that were not so How then can we suppose so very absurd a thing of the King of Kings that he should appoint them for his Vicars in spiritual Matters and arm them with a Coercive Power to punish those Offences that relate solely to himself who as he could not but infallibly foreknow would make use of their Power to encourage even their rebelling against him by setting up of false Gods in his stead for Idolatry was every where quickly the Publick Religion of their Dominions except amongst God's own People the Jews and even there very often it was the National Religion And after their Captivity until Constantine's Time not one of God's supposed Vicars in Matters of meer Religion but were themselves Idolaters and did all of them discountenance and several of them persecute the Worshippers of the true God And when the Christians if Persecutors deserve that Name made use of Force upon Christians what did it produce but Popish Superstition and Idolatry 13. Persecution is so far from being a Means to promote the true Religion that it must necessarily hinder its progress because the Infidels must think themselves as much obliged to hinder the preaching of the Gospel amongst them as the Christians their Religion here And in vain do we pray for their Conversion whilst we assert such a Doctrine as will not let us suffer them to live here in order to their Conversion nor them to suffer us to preach the Gospel there But this is not all for had this Doctrine of promoting the true Religion by Force been believed by the Heathen it would have obliged them to have extirpated the Christian Religion and certainly that can scarce be thought to be a Christian Doctrine which if practised would have destroy'd the very Name of Christian. 14. It may be said no Persecution could extirpate the Christian Religion because the severest Methods were so far from destroying it that they were the Occasion of its encreasing the faster Not to mention if this were so and the Magistrate was to persecute it ought to be the true Religion because it 's the way to make it increase and by Parity of Reason use a contrary Method with false Religions I say that Persecution if it continues but a short time will make any Religion to increase and flourish the more because the Bravery the Courage of those that suffer prepares People to have a good Opinion of the Cause they suffer for But if it continue for an Age or Ages so that the old Professors are all destroyed the succeeding Generations will all be of the Religion they are educated in Thus we find Christianity by the continued Cruelty of its Enemies rooted out of the greatest Part of Africa and other Places it entirely possessed And should the Persecution in France continue the next Generation would be all Papists as they are in Spain and Portugal So that the Reason why Persecution had not the like Effect under the Pagan Emperors was because God did not permit it to continue long at a time and not without great intermissions But had all those Emperors been for promoting by Force what according to their Sentiments was the true Religion they had utterly extirpated the very Name of a Christian 15. Nay had the Heathen Emperors abhorr'd Persecution as all but what were Monsters did yet they had been under an indispensible Duty as they valued the Peace and Welfare of Mankind in general and of their Subjects in particular to root out a Religion which when it got Power into its Hands would have no other measure of Justice and Equity than its own Interest and would deprive Men tho never so strict Observers of the Laws of Morality and the Society of their Properties and