Whoever does this does in effect however he may deny it in Words claim a Legislative Power But where there is such a Power one is oblig'd to obey upon the account and for the sake of the Authority that commands it And if the Magistrate had such a Power Men would be obliged to profess whatever Religion he commands them 4. The Reason why a Judg is necessary in Civil and not in Religious Controversies is because in Civil Matters it is impossible that Titius should enjoy the things in Controversy and Sempronius too therefore the Plaintiff must injure the Defendant by disquieting his Possession or the Defendant wrong the Plaintiff by keeping his Right from him so that there is a necessity of a common Judg between them who would be to no purpose if both Parties were not obliged to acquiesce in his Sentence I mean with an external Obedience so as to suffer it to be put in execution but not with an Internal so as to believe it always just But in Religious Controversies the Case is otherwise for there each may hold his Opinion and do the other no wrong nor himself neither if he did his best in judging concerning his Opinion so that there can be no occasion of a Judg And it 's further considerable that here can be none but what is a Party as being before engaged either for or against the Opinion that is to be decided But for a Party to judg it against all natural Equity tho it 's the constant practice of the Clergy to make profest and highly interessed Parties whose Preferments are held by declaring for such Opinions to be both Accusers and Judges that is to declare themselves Orthodox and therefore to engross all Preferments and their Opponents Heterodox and consequently not to share with them But if there is a Judg to whose Determination one is obliged to submit he that is so obliged must give an Internal Consent because here all External Compliance contrary to one's Judgment is a Sin but all the Power in the World is not able to make a Man give an Internal Consent because it 's not in his own much less in another's Power to make him believe or think as he pleaseth Yet were that possible no Man is qualified to be a Judg but he that is infallible besides were there any such Judg yet a Man was not to be ruled by him except he was convinced he was so But 5. There being no such Judg on Earth there is an absolute necessity of leaving those Controversies to be decided by God himself as being Matters wholly relating to him and consequently wholly to be left to him Therefore for the Magistrate to punish any for acting according to their Judgments is not only invading the Rights of his Fellow-men but the Prerogative of God himself in taking upon him to judg those Matters God has reserv'd for his own Tribunal Nay he goes further than this and punisheth Men for obeying God rather than himself God requires Man to worship him as he in his Conscience thinks most agreeable to his Will and the Magistrate threatneth him if he does so to Fine Imprison and Ruin him which is setting himself above God a Crime greater than that of Lucifer who only attempted an Equality with his Maker not a Superiority above him 6. It 's said the Magistrate has a Right to hinder his Subjects from following their Consciences when erroneous Which is very absurd for if a Man was not oblig'd to act according to his Conscience for fear of its being erroneous no Man would be obliged to act according to his Conscience at all since the mistaken Person thinks himself as much in the right nay is generally more confident than he that is really so So that if one must follow his Conscience there 's the same necessity for all because all equally judg themselves in the Right But if the Magistrate is to judg whose Conscience is erroneous then Men must desert their Consciences and all the World over profess the same Principles with the Magistrates they live under For Civil Government is every where the same and one Magistrate as well as another has an equal right to judg who of his Subjects have erroneous Consciences 7. If it be Mens indispensible Duty to worship God according to Conscience and that publickly too for the more publick the Worship is the more it tends to the Glory of God it must be their Duty to use the Means that are necessary to that End and consequently if it be necessary oppose Force to Force for the Magistrate in things beyond his Commission is but a private Person and People do no Injustice in defending that Right none can have a right to deprive them of and which themselves cannot part with it being the Essential Right of Human Nature to worship God according to Conviction which is antecedent to all Government and can never be subject to it But 8. If the Magistrate has a Right to use Force in Matters of meer Religion he must have this Right by God's positive Law or by the Law of Nature But that he has no such Power by God's positive Law is evident from this one Consideration that all Mankind except the Jews whose Laws were not obligatory to other Nations were under no Law but that of Nature until the coming of Christ But Christ whose Kingdom is not of this World and who disclaimed all Civil Power made no Change or Alteration in the Civil Rights and Conditions of Mankind which he must have done had he made Mens Properties depend upon their thinking or acting in Matters purely Religious according to the Magistrate's Judgment As Christ and the Magistrate have each their distinct Kingdoms so they must have each their Limits and Bounds the Magistrate's Kingdom it's true must be subservient to Christ's in punishing Vice and Immorality and in preserving People from being molested in their Civil Rights for worshipping God according to Conscience and here he still keeps within the Confines of his own Kingdom but if he exerciseth a Legislature in Christ's and makes use of Violence to put his Laws in execution he assumes a greater Power than Christ himself claims But 9. If the Magistrate claims such a Right by the Law of Nature that Right ought fully to be made appear because there is no part of that Law but what is most clear and evident To prove he has such a Power it 's usually urged that if Parents by the Law of Nature have a right to use Force on their Children in Matters of meer Religion the Magistrate whose Power over his Subjects is much greater than that of Parents over their Children has at least as great a Right I answer It 's a Duty in Parents for the Good of their Children for which they are fitted by their natural Love and Tenderness to supply the Defects of their Understanding until they are capable of understanding for themselves Before which time Parents no
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
he does God Service therein therefore his Belief is worse than Atheism or no Faith at all That Faith that must save us is that which works by Love but his Faith destroys his Love The Apostle James Chap. 1. v. 27. tells us Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction But his Religion is to bring Affliction to Fatherless and Widows and every one else that has a different Perswasion from himself In a word If it were so great a Crime in the Jews that it could not be forgiven in this World nor the next to impute the Miracles our Saviour did when he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed with the Devil not to the Holy Spirit but to that of Beelzebub Can it be much less to impute to the Holy Ghost a Doctrine which destroys the End and Intent of all natural as well as revealed Religion and can serve to no other End than to dishonour God destroy Conscience and confound Mankind By what has been said I think it 's plain that nothing can be more provoking to the Supream Protector of Mankind than to pervert the Knowledg he has given us of himself for the Good of his Creatures to their ruin and make the Honour of God a Pretence for destroying the Welfare of Human Societies Besides 5. What can be more absurd than that in judging of these matters wherein we differ from Brutes we should be subject to brutal Force which is the highest Indignity that can be put not only on Reason which is the Candle of the Lord but upon Religion it self which is the highest and most exalted Reason and even upon the infinitely rational Nature of God which can receive no Satisfaction but in a Rational Service which must be free and spontaneous Force has only a natural tendency and therefore can only lawfully be used to cure brutal Passions where Men act contrary to their Knowledg and in defiance to their Reason where the Inconveniences they suffer may over-balance the Pleasure they receive in indulging their unlawful Appetites But he seems to be void of all Understanding himself who by Force attempts to inform the Understanding If Reasons and Arguments cannot convince it 's downright Madness to think Fines Imprisonments or Tortures can 6. The destroying Men when the Publick Good does not require it on pretence it's pleasing to God what is it but in effect imagining he delights in Man's Blood and Human Sacrifices And as under the Law none were to be offered but unspotted and clean Beasts so here none are to be sacrificed but pure and undefiled Men who prefer the honouring and obeying God according to the best of their Knowledg before any worldly Advantages whatever even the saving their own Lives And as the Heathen Priests amongst the most brutish and barbarous Nations introduced the sacrificing of Men not so much to gratify their Gods as their own Ambition there being no way more effectual to bring a Man who otherwise would be in danger to be mark'd for a Sacrifice into perfect Subjection so the Christian Priests who have given the World as little reason to suspect their neglecting any Means that make for their Advantage promoted the sacrificing the Peoples Lives and Properties much upon the same account For they having obtained the Direction of the Sword made it fall with unparallel'd Cruelty on all that opposed or by a Separation disowned their usurped Powers and Jurisdictions by which means they made the People on whom they imposed what Doctrines they thought fit absolute Slaves and Magistrates no better than their Executioners who durst not refuse to put their Sentences in force 7. It may be said That the Magistrate when he deprives People of their Lives or Properties does not offer them as a Sacrifice to God but as God's Vicar in Spirituals executes his Wrath on those that offend him But if it be the Magistrate's Duty to punish those Offences that relate meerly to God it cannot be presumed but that God has sufficiently qualified him for that Employ which how can it be whilst he is incapable of knowing not only the greatest part of the Actions but all the Thoughts of Men in which alone consists by far the greater part of the Offences against him Nay to qualify the Magistrate for this Employ 't is not sufficient he knows the present but it 's necessary he should discern the future Thoughts of Men and how God himself will deal with them for if God instead of punishing will highly reward those that come in at the Eleventh as well as at the first Hour it would be unjust in the Substitute to punish where the Principal for whose Sake alone he punisheth will not only pardon but highly reward But 8. This is so far from being so that the Magistrate is obliged to punish not only those that will be but those that are actually innocent in the Sight of God otherwise he could punish no Criminal at all because there 's none but will pretend he has truly repented of his Crime and consequently is wholly innocent in the sight of God And the Magistrate being no Discerner of Hearts could punish none for fear of punishing such a One had he not a Right to punish those who with respect to God are entirely Innocent so vice versa had he not a Power to forgive those that in relation to God are as Nocent it would not be in his Power to forgive any one Nay the Magistrate may justly be the Occasion even of the Death not only of those that have repented of their Crimes but even of Innocent Persons as he is by forcing his Innocent Subjects into the Wars where it 's unavoidable but Numbers must be slain and in attacking Ships and Towns of Enemies where Children that never offended either God or Man are very often destroyed and this without any Fault in the Magistrate because protecting the Common-Wealth being his indispensible Duty any lesser Good in competition with that ought to be looked upon sub ratione Mali. All which sufficiently shows that the only thing he concerns himself with as Magistrate is the Good of the Society and that he rewards and punishes his Subjects only as it tends to this End without respect to their being either Innocent or Nocent in the Sight of God and that when he punishes any Sin he does it not as it 's a Sin against God but as it 's prejudicial to the Society and consequently he does not act as God's Deputy in punishing Offences meerly as they relate to him But to make this if it be possible more plain 10. The Magistrate as he has no Right so he pretends to none to punish for things that are owned by all to be notorious Offences against God and where Men cannot plead Conscience to justify themselves such as Pride Ambition Ingratitude breach of Promise Lying Uncharitableness Envy Ill-nature Covetousness Prodigality