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
Instruments of Morality Of the Villany of those mens Religion that are wont to distinguish between Grace and Virtue They exchange the substance of true Goodness for meer Metaphors and Allegories Metaphors the only cause of our present Schism and the only ground of the different Subdivisions among the Schismaticks themselves The Vnaccountableness of Mens Conceits That when the main Ends and Designs of Religion are undoubtedly subject to the Supreme Power they should be so eager to exempt its Means and Circumstances from the same Authority The Civil Magistrate may determine new Instances of Virtue how much more new Circumstances of Worship As he may enjoyn any thing in Morality that contradicts not the ends of Morality so may be in Religious Worship if he oppose not its design He may command any thing in the Worship of God that does not tend to debauch Mens practices or their conceptions of the Deity All the subordinate Duties both of Morality and Religious Worship are equally subject to the Determinations of Humane Authority § 1. HAving in the former Chapter sufficiently made out my first Proposition viz. That 't is absolutely necessary to the Peace and Government of the World that the Supreme Magistrate of every Common-wealth should be vested with a Power to govern the Consciences of Subjects in Affairs of Religion I now proceed to the proof of the second thing proposed viz. That those who would deprive the Supreme Civil Power of its Authority in reference to the Conduct of the Worship of God are forced to allow it in other more material parts of Religion though they are both liable to the same Inconveniences and Objections Where I shall have a fair opportunity to state the true extent of the Magistrates Power over Conscience in reference to Divine Worship by shewing it to be the same with his Power over Conscience in matters of Morality and all other Affairs of Religion And here it strikes me with wonder and amazement to consider That men should be so shy of granting the Supreme Magistrate a Power over their Consciences in the Rituals and External Circumstances of Religious Worship and yet be so free of forcing it upon him in the Essential Duties of Morality which are at least as great and material Parts of Religion as pleasing to God and as indispensably necessary to Salvation as any way of Worship in the World The Precepts of the Moral Law are both perfective of our own Natures and conducive to the Happiness of others and the Practice of Vertue consists in living suitably to the Dictates of Reason Nature And this is the substance and main Design of all the Laws of Religion to oblige Mankind to behave themselvs in all their actions as becomes Creatures endued with Reason and Understanding and in ways suitable to Rational Beings to prepare and qualifie themselves for the state of Glory and Immortality And as this is the proper End of all Religion That Mankind might live happily here and happily hereafter so to this end nothing contributes more than the practice of all Moral Vertues which will effectually preserve the Peace and Happiness of Humane Societies and advance the Mind of Man to a nearer approach to the Perfection of the Divine Nature every particular Vertue being therefore such because 't is a Resemblance and Imitation of some of the Divine Attributes So that Moral Vertue having the strongest and most necessary influence upon the End of all Religion viz. Mans Happiness 't is not only its most material and useful Part but the ultimate End of all its other Duties And all true Religion can consist in nothing else but either the Practice of Vertue it self or the use of those Means and Instruments that contribute to it § 2. And this beside the Rational Account of the thing it self appears with an undeniable evidence from the best of Demonstrations i. e. an Induction of all Particulars The whole Duty of Man refers either to his Creator or his Neighbour or himself All that concerns the two last is confessedly of a Moral Nature and all that concerns the first consists either in Praising of God or Praying to him The former is a Branch of the Vertue of Gratitude and is nothing but a thankful and humble temper of mind arising from a sense of Gods Greatness in himself and his Goodness to us so that this part of Devotion issues from the same virtuous quality that is the Principle of all other Resentments and Expressions of Gratitude only those Acts of it that are terminated on God as their Object are styled Religious and therefore Gratitude and Devotion are not divers Things but only different Names of the same Thing Devotion being nothing else but the Virtue of Gratitude towards God The latter viz. Prayer is either put up in our own or other mens behalfs If for others 't is an Act of that Virtue we call Kindness or Charity If for our selves the things we pray for unless they be the Comforts and Enjoyments of this life are some or other virtuous Qualities and therefore the proper and direct use of Prayer is to be instrumental to the Virtues of Morality So that all Duties of Devotion excepting only our returns of Gratitude are not Essential parts of Religion but are only in order to it as they tend to the Practice of Virtue and moral Goodness and their Goodness is derived upon them from the moral Virtues to which they contribute and in the same proportion they are conducive to the ends of Virtue they are to be valued among the Ministeries of Religion All Religion then I mean the Practical Part is either Virtue it self or some of its Instruments and the whole Duty of man consists in being Virtuous and all that is enjoin'd him beside is in order to it And what else do we find enforc'd and recommended in our Saviour's Sermons beside heights of Morality What does St. Paul discourse of to Felix but moral matters Righteousness and Temperance and Iudgment to come And what is it that men set up against Morality but a few figurative Expressions of it self that without it are utterly insignificant 'T is not enough say they to be completely Virtuous unless we have Grace too But when we have set aside all manner of Virtue let them tell me what remains to be call'd Grace and give me any Notion of it distinct from all Morality that consists in the right order and government of our Actions in all our Relations and so comprehends all our Duty and therefore if Grace be not included in it 't is but a Phantasm and an Imaginary thing So that if we strip those Definitions that some men of late have bestowed upon it of Metaphors and Allegories it will plainly signifie nothing but a vertuous temper of mind and all that the Scripture intends by the Graces of the Spirit are only Vertuous Qualities of the Soul that are therefore styled Graces because they were derived purely from Gods
unaccountable that the Supreme Magistrate may not be permitted to determine the Circumstances and Appendages of the subordinate Ministeries to Moral Virtue and yet should be allowed in all Common-wealths to determine the particular Acts and Instances of these Virtues themselves For Example Justice is a prime and natural Virtue and yet its particular Cases depend upon humane Laws that determine the bounds of Meum and Tuum The Divine Law restrains Titius from invading Caius's Right and Propriety but what that is and when it is invaded only the Laws of the Society they live in can determine And there are some Cases that are Acts of Injustice in England that are not so in Italy otherwise all Places must be govern'd by the same Laws and what is a Law to one Nation must be so to all the World Whereas 't is undeniably evident That neither the Law of God nor of Nature determine the particular Instances of most Virtues but for the most part leave that to the Constitutions of National Laws They in general forbid Theft Incest Murther and Adultery but what these Crimes are they determine not in all Cases but is in most particulars to be explained by the Civil Constitutions and whatsoever the Law of the Land reckons among these Crimes that the Law of God and of Nature forbids And now is it not strangely humoursome to say That Magistrates are instrusted with so great a Power over mens Conscience in these great and weighty Designs of Religion and yet should not be trusted to govern the indifferent or at least less material Circumstances of those things that can pretend to no other Goodness than as they are Means serviceable to Moral Purposes That they should have Power to make that a Particular of the Divine Law that God has not made so and yet not be able to determine the use of an indifferent Circumstance because forsooth God has not determin'd it In a word That they should be fully impowered to declare new Instances of Vertue and Vice and to introduce new Duties in the most important parts of Religion and yet should not have Authority enough to declare the Use and decency of a few Circumstances in its subservient and less material Concerns § 5. The whole State of Affairs is briefly this Man is sent into the World to live happily here and prepare himself for happiness hereafter this is attain'd by the practice of Moral Vertues and Pious Devotions and wherein these mainly consist Almighty Goodness has declared by the Laws of Nature and Revelation but because in both there are changeable Cases and Circumstances of things therefore has God appointed his Trustees and Officials here on Earth to Act and Determine in both according to all Accidents and Emergencies of Affairs to assign new Particulars of the Divine Law to declare new Bounds of right and wrong which the Law of God neither does nor can limit because of necessity they must in a great measure depend upon the Customs and Constitutions of every Common-wealth And in the same manner are the Circumstances and outward Expressions of Divine Worship because they are variable according to the Accidents of Time and Place entrusted with less danger of Errour with the same Authority And what Ceremonies this appoints unless they are apparently repugnant to their Prime end become Religious Rites as what particular Actions it constitutes in any Species of Virtue become new Instances of that Virtue unless they apparently contradict its Nature and Tendency Now the two Primary Designs of all Religion are either to express our honourable Opinion of the Deity or to advance the Interests of Vertue and Moral Goodness so that no Rites or Ceremonies can be esteemed unlawful in the Worship of God unless they tend to debauch men either in their Practices or their Conceptions of the Deity And 't is upon one or both of these Accounts that any Rites and Forms of Worship become criminally superstitious and such were the Lupercalia the Eleusinian Mysteries the Feasts of Bacchus Flora and Venus because they were but so many Festivals of Lust and Debauchery and such were the Salvage and Bloody Sacrifices to Saturn Bellona Moloch Baal-Peor and all other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Antient Paganism because they supposed the Divine Being to take pleasure in the Miseries and Tortures of its Creatures And such is all Idolatry in that it either gives right Worship to a wrong Object or wrong Worship to a right one or at least represents an infinite Majesty by Images and Resemblances of finite things and so reflects disparagement upon some of the Divine Attributes by fastning dishonourable Weaknesses and Imperfections upon the Divine Nature As for these and the like Rites and Ceremonies of Worship no Humane Power can command them because they are directly contradictory to the Ends of Religion but as for all others that are not so any lawful Authority may as well enjoyn them as it may adopt any Actions whatsoever into the Duties of Morality that are not contrary to the Ends of Morality § 6. But a little farther to illustrate this we may observe That in matters both of Moral Vertue and Divine Worship there are some Rules of Good and Evil that are of an Eternal and Unchangeable Obligation and these can never be prejudiced or altered by any Humane Power because the Reason of their Obligation arises from a necessity and constitution of Nature and therefore must be as Perpetual as that But then there are other Rules of Duty that are alterable according to the various Accidents Changes and Conditions of Humane Life and depend chiefly upon Contracts and Positive Laws of Kingdoms these suffer Variety because their Matter and their Reason does so Thus in the matter of Murther there are some Instances of an unalterable Nature and others that are changeable according to the various Provisions of Positive Laws and Constitutions To take away the life of an innocent Person is forbidden by such an indispensable Law of Nature that no Humane Power can any way directly or indirectly make it become lawful in that no Positive Laws can so alter the Constitution of Nature as to make this Instance of Villany cease to be mischievous to Mankind and therefore 't is Capital in all Nations of the World But then there are other particular Cases of this Crime that depend upon Positive Laws and so by consequence are liable to change according to the different Constitutions of the Common-wealths men live in Thus though in England 't is Murther for an injured Husband to kill an Adulteress taken in the Act of Uncleanness because 't is forbidden by the Laws of this Kingdom yet in Spain and among the old Romans it was not because their Laws permitted it and if the Magistrate himself may punish the Crime with Death he may appoint whom he pleases to be his Executioner And the Case is the same in reference to Divine Worship in which there are some things of
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
be expected if we consider the weaknesses and imperfections of humane Nature and therefore we must bear it as well as we can because if we go about to alter any present Setlement we must almost of necessity make it worse And all the effects of such attempts have seldom ended in any thing else but perpetual Confusions till things have at length resetled in the same or as bad if not a worse condition than they were in before The miseries of Tyranny are less than those of Anarchy and therefore 't is better to submit to the unreasonable Impositions of Nero or Caligula than to hazard the dissolution of the State and consequently all the Calamities of War and Confusion by denying our subjection to Tyrants And there never was any lawful Magistrate so bad whose Laws and Government were not more conducive to the preservation of the Common Good than his Oppression was to subvert it and 't is wisely eligible to suffer a less Evil rather than lose a greater good 'T is a known and a wise saying of Tacitus Bonos Principes voto expetere debemus qualescunque pati quomodo sterilitatem aut nimios imbres caetera Naturae mala sic luxum avaritiam dominantium tolerare And this in one word is not only a satisfactory Answer but an ample Confutation of that Pestilent Book Vindiciae contra Tyrannos the scope whereof is only to invite Subjects to rebel against Tyrannical Government by representing the evils of Tyranny which though they were as great as he supposes them to be yet they are abundantly less than those that follow upon Rebellion as himself and his Party were sufficiently taught by the Event And for one Common-wealth he can instance in that has gain'd by Rebellion 't is easie to produce an hundred that it has hazarded if not utterly ruined And therefore this Author not to mention Mariana and Buchanan and others has perform'd nothing in behalf of his Cause by displaying the miseries of a Tyrannical Power unless he had withal evinced them to be more calamitous than those of War and Confusion There is nothing in this World that depends upon the freedom of man's will can be so securely establish'd as not to be liable to sad inconveniences and therefore that Constitution of Affairs is most eligible that is liable to the fewest And upon this score I say it is that the Divine Law has so severely injoin'd us to submit to the worst of Governours because notwithstanding that Tyranny is an oppressing burden of Humane life yet 't is less intolerable than a state of War and Confusion Sect. 16. But to speak more expresly to the particular matter in debate 'T is necessary the world must be govern'd govern'd it cannot be without Religion Religion as harmless and peaceable as it is in it self yet when mixt with the Follies and Passions of men it does not usually inspire them with overmuch gentleness and goodness of Nature and therefore 't is necessary that it submit to the same Authority that commands over all the other affections of the mind of man And we may as well suppose all men just and honest and upon that account cancel all the Laws of Equity as suppose them wise and sober in their Religious Conceits and upon that score take off all restraints from the excesses and enormities of Zeal 'T is therefore as necessary to the preservation of Publick Peace that men should be govern'd in matters of Religion as in all other common Affairs of Humane life And as for all the inconveniences that may follow from it they are no other than what belong to all manner of Government and such as are and must be unavoidable as long as mankind is endued with liberty of Will for so long he cannot be intrusted with any Power how good soever that he may not abuse And therefore for men to go about to abrogate the Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction of the Civil Magistrate because he may abuse it to evil and irreligious ends by establishing Idolatry instead of the true Worship of God in which case 't is pity that good men should be exposed to ruine only for preserving a good Conscience 'T is just as reasonable as if they should cashier all manner of Government and set men free from all Oaths and Obligations of Allegiance because 't is possible some Usurper may gain the Supreme Power and then force his Subjects to abjure all their former Oaths to their lawful Sovereign and 't is pity that men of the gallantest and most honest Principles should be fined decimated hanged banish'd and Murdered only for their loyalty to their Prince And thus will the Parallel run equal in all Cases between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Authority of the Supreme Powers both may be and often are lamentably abused and therefore if that be reason enough to abolish one 't is so to abolish both so that the whole result of all amounts only to this Enquiry Whether it would not be a politick course to take away all Government because all Government may be abused Sect. 17. Though this be a sufficient reply to the Objection yet it will not be altogether impertinent or unnecessary to abet it with this one consideration more That it may and often does so happen that 't is necessary to punish men for such Perswasions into which they have perhaps innocently abused themselves for 't is easily possible for well-meaning People through ignorance and inadvertency to be betrayed into such unhappy Errors as may tend to the Publick Disturbance which though it be not so much their Crime as Infelicity yet is there no remedy but it must expose them to the Correction of the Publick Rods and Axes Magistrates are to take care of the Common-wealth and not of every particular mans concerns And the end of all their Laws is to provide for the welfare of the Publick that is their Charge and that they must secure and if any harmless and well-meaning man make himself obnoxious to the Penalties of the Law that is a misfortune they cannot prevent and therefore must deal with him as they do with all other Offenders that is pity and punish him Private interest must yield to Publick Good and therefore when they cannot stand together and there is no remedy but one must suffer 't is better certainly that one or a few should perish than the whole Community Neither is it possible that any Laws should be so warily contrived but that some innocent Persons may sometimes fall under their Penalties yet because 't is more beneficial to the Publick Welfare that now and then a guiltless person should suffer than that all the guilty should escape in that the former injures but one the latter all Therefore is it necessary to govern all Societies by Laws and Penalties without regard to the ill fortune that may befal a few single persons which can hardly be avoided whilst the Laws are in force and yet 't is
necessary that either the same or some other in their stead be establish'd that will be liable to the same inconvenience Besides 't is not unworthy Observation that it is not so properly the end of Government to punish Enormities as to prevent Disturbances and when they bring Malefactors to Justice as we term it they do not so much inflict a Punishment upon the Crime for that belongs peculiarly to the cognizance of another Tribunal as provide for the welfare of the Common-wealth by cutting off such Persons as are Pests and Enemies to it and by the example of their Punishment deter others from the like Practices And therefore there are some sins of which Governours take not so much notice that are more hainous in themselves and in the sight of God than others that they punish with Capital Inflictions because they are not in their own nature so destructive of the ends of Government and the good of Publick Societies So that actions being punishable by Humane Laws not according to the nature of the Crime but of their ill consequence to the Publick when any thing that is otherwise even innocent is in this regard injurious it as much concerns Authority to give it check by severity of Laws and Punishments as any the foulest Immoralities Temporal Punishments then are inflicted upon such persons that are turbulent against prescribed Rules of Publick Worship upon the same account as they are against those that offend against all other Publick Edicts of Government they are both equally intended to secure the Publick Peace and Interest of the Society and when either of them are violated they equally tend to its disturbance and therefore as mens actings against the Civil Laws of a Common-wealth are obnoxious to the Judgment of its Governours for the same reason are all their Offences against its Ecclesiastical Laws liable to the censure of the same Authority So that the matter debated in its last result is not so much a question of Religion as of Policy not so much of what is necessary to faith as to the quiet and preservation of a Common-wealth and 't is possible a man may be a good Christian and yet his Opinion be intolerable upon the score of its being inconsistent with the Preservation of the Publick Peace and the necessary ends of Government For 't is easily imaginable how an honest and well-meaning man may through meer ignorance fall into such Errours which though God will pardon yet Governours must punish His integrity may expiate the Crime but cannot prevent the Mischief of his Errour Nay so easie is it for men to deserve to be punished for their Consciences that there is no Nation in the world in which were Government rightly understood and duly managed mistakes and abuses of Religion would not supply the Gallies with vastly greater numbers than Villany CHAP. VII Of the Nature and Obligations of Scandal and of the Absurdity of Pretending it against the Commands of Lawful Authority The Contents THE Leaders of the Separation being asham'd of the silliness of the Principle with which they abuse the People think to shelter themselves by flying to the pretence of Scandal Scandal is any thing that occasions the sin of another and is not in it self determinately Good or Evil. All Scandal is equally taken but not equally Criminal Men are to govern themselves in this Affair by their own prudence and discretion Of St. Paul's contrary behaviour towards the Iews and Gentiles to avoid their contrary Scandal The reason of the seeming Contradiction in this point between his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians The proper obligations of Scandal are extended only to indifferent things The Cases in which it is concern'd are not capable of being determined by setled Laws and Constitutions How scandalously these men prevaricate with the World in their pretence of Scandal that may excuse their refusal of Conformity but gives no account of their Separation Of their scrupling to renounce the Covenant this is no reason to drive them from Divine Service into Conventicles How shamefully these men juggle with the World and impose upon their Followers If they would but perswade their Proselytes to be of their own minds it would end all our differences They first lead the people into the Scandal and then make this the formal reason why they must follow them If the peoples scruples are groundless then to comply with them is to keep them in a sinful disobedience A further account of their shameful prevarication The ridiculousness of the peoples pretending it concerning themselves that they are scandalized By their avoiding private Offences they run into publick Scandals They scandalize their own weak Brethren most of all by complying with them Old and inveterate Scandals are not to be complyed with but opposed and such are those of the Non-Conformists The Commands of Authority and the Obligations of Obedience infinitely outweigh and utterly evacuate all the pretences of Scandal Sect. 1. THough the former Principle viz. that no man may with a safe conscience do any thing in the Worship of God that is not warranted by some Precept or Precedent in the Word of God be riveted into the peoples minds as the first and fundamental Principle of the Puritan Separation yet their Leaders seem to be ashamed of their own folly and being driven from this and all their other little holds and shelters they have at length thought it the safest and the wisest course to flie to the pretence of Scandal This is their Fort Royal in which they have at last secured and entrench'd themselves As for their own parts they tell us they are not so fond as to believe That the Ceremonies of the Church of England are so superstitious and Antichristian and that themselves might lawfully use them were it not that there are great numbers of sincere but weak Christians that apprehend them to be sinful and for this reason they dare not conform to our Ceremonial Constitutions for fear of ensnaring and scandalizing weak Consciences which is in the Apostles account of it no less than spiritual murther And whatever is due to Authority the Souls of men are too high a Tribute None can be more ready than themselves to submit to all lawful Commands but here they desire to be excused when they cannot obey but at the price of Souls 'T is a dreadful Doom that our Saviour has denounced against those who offend any of his little ones i. e. Babes and Weaklings in Christianity And therefore though they would not stick to hazard their own lives in obedience to Authority yet nothing can oblige them to be so cruel and so uncharitable as to destroy any for whom Christ died which is certainly done by casting snares and scandals before their weak Brethren This is the last refuge of the Leaders of the Separation and therefore I cannot but think my self obliged to examine its strength and reasonableness and I doubt not but to make it appear as
his Governours with nice and curious disputes the Authority of the Law stifles all scruples and trifling objections And thus where there was no apparent repugnancy to the Law of God we find none more compliant and conformable in all other things than the Apostles freely using any Customs of the Synagogue or Iewish Church that were not expresly cancelled by some Divine Prohibition But further this their Apology is as forcible a Plea in concerns of Civil Justice and common honesty as in Matters of Religion it holds equally in both in cases of a certain and essential injustice and fails equally in both in doubtful and less material cases and was as fairly urged by that famous Lawyer Papinian who upon this account when the Emperor commanded him to defend and justifie the lawfulness of Parricide chose rather to die than to Patronize so monstrous a villany Here the wickedness was great and palpable But in matters more doubtful and less material where the case is nice and curious and not capable of any great Interest or great reason there Obedience out-weighs and evacuates all Doubts Jealousies and suspicions And what wise or honest man will offend or provoke his Superiours upon thin pretences and for little regards And if every man that can raise doubts and scruples and nice Exceptions against a Law shall therefore set himself free from its obligation then farewel all Peace and all Government For what more easie to any man that understands the Fundamental Grounds and Reasons of Moral Equity than to pick more material quarrels against the Civil Laws of any Common-wealth than our Adversaries can pretend to against our Ecclesiastical Constitutions And now shall a Philosopher be excused from obedience to the Laws of his Country because he thinks himself able to make exceptions to their Prudence and Convenience and to prove them not so useful to the Publick nor so agreeable to the Fundamental Rules of natural Justice and Equity as himself could have contrived What if I am really perswaded that I can raise much more considerable objections against Littletons Tenures than ever these men have or shall be able to produce against our Ceremonial Constitutions Though it be easie to be mistaken in my conceit yet whether I am or am not it is all one if I am confident And now it would be mightily conducive to the interests of Justice and Publick Peace for me and all others of my Fond Perswasion in this particular to make Remonstrances to the Laws of the Land to Petition the King and Parliament to leave us at the liberty of our own Conscience and Discretion to follow the best Light God has given us for the setlement of our own estates because we think we can do it more exactly according to the Laws of Natural Iustice than if we are tied up to the positive Laws of the Land Thus that groundless and arbitrary maxim of the Law That inheritances may lineally descend but not lineally ascend whereby the Father is made uncapable of being immediate Heir to the Son would be thought by a Philosopher prejudicial to one of the most equal and most ingenuous Laws of Nature viz. The gratitude of Children to Parents which this Law seems in a great measure to hinder by alienating those things from them whereby we are best able to express it What if I have been happy in a loving and tender Father that has been strangely solicitous to leave me furnished with all the comforts and conveniences of life that declined not to forego any share of his own ease and happiness to procure mine that has spent the greatest part of his care and industry to bless me according to the proportion of his abilities with a good fortune and a good education and has perhaps out of an over-tender solicitude for my welfare reduc'd himself to great streights and exigences How monstrous unnatural must the contrivance of this Law appear to me that when the bounty of Providence has blest me with a fortune answerable to the good old Mans desires and endeavours if I should happen to be cut off before him by an untimely death all that whereby I am able to recompence his Fatherly tenderness should in the common and ordinary course of Law be conveyed from him to another person the stream of whose affections was confined to another Channel and who being much concerned for his own Family could in all probability be but little concerned for me What an unnatural and unjust Law is this that designs as far as it can to cut off the streams of our natural Affections and disposes of our possessions contrary to the very first tendencies and obligations of Nature So easie a thing is it to talk little Plausibilities against any Laws whose obligation is positive and not of a prime and absolute necessity And yet down-right Rebellion it would be if I or any man else should refuse subjection to these and the like Laws upon these the like pretences And thus we see is the case all the way equal between Laws Civil and Laws Ecclesiastical In all matters greatly and notoriously wicked the nature of the action out-weighs the duty of Obedience but in all cases less certain and less material the duty of Obedience out-weighs the nature of the action And this may suffice to shew from the Subject Matters of all doubts and scruples That they are not of consideration great enough to be opposed to the commands of Authority And this leads me from the matter of a scrupulous Conscience to consider its Authority And therefore Sect. 5. As the objects of a scrupulous Conscience are of too mean importance to weigh against the mischiefs of Disobedience so are its obligations too weak to prevail against the commands of Publick Authority For when two contradictory obligations happen to encounter the greater ever cancels the less because if all good be eligible then so are all the degrees of goodness too And therefore to that side on which the greater good stands our duty must ever incline otherwise we despise all those degrees of goodness it contains in it above the other For in all the Rules of Goodness there is great inequality and variety of degrees some are prescribed for their own native excellency usefulness and others purely for their subserviency to these Now when a greater a lesser virtue happen to clash as it frequently falls out in the transaction of Humane Affairs there the less always gives place to the greater because it is good only in order to it and therefore where its subordination ceases there its goodness ceases and by consequence its obligation For no subordinate or instrumental dutys are absolutly commanded or commended but become good or evil by their Accidental Relations their goodness is not intrinsick but depends upon the goodness of their end and their being directed to a good end if they are not intrinsically evil makes them virtuous because their Morality is entirely relative and
changeable and so alters its colours of good and evil by its several aspects and postures to various and different ends And therefore they never carry any Obligation in them when they interfere with higher more useful Duties And hence it comes to pass that it is absolutely impossible for any man to be reduced into a necessity of sinning because though two inferiour and subordinate Duties may sometimes happen to be inconsistent with each other or with some duty of an absolute and unalterable goodness yet the nature of things is so handsomly contrived that it is utterly impossible that things should ever happen so crosly as to make two essential and indispensable Duties stand at mutual opposit on And therefore no man can ever be forc'd to act against one out of compliance with the other And if there be any contrariety between a natural and instrumental Duty there the case is plain that the greater evacuates the less if between two instrumental Duties it can scarce so fall out but that some emergent circumstances shall make one of them the more necessary but if they are both equally eligible there is no difficulty and a man may do as he pleases It is indeed possible for any man by his own voluntary choice to entangle himself in this sad perplexity but there is no culpable Error that is unavoidable and every sinfully erroneous Conscience is voluntary and vincible And if men will not part with their sinful Errors it is not because they cannot but because they will not avoid them And if they resolve to abuse themselves no wonder if their sin be unavoidable but then the necessity is the effect of their own choice And so all sin is inevitable when the peremptory determination of the will has made it necessary But as for the nature of all the Laws of Goodness in themselves they are so wisely contrived that it is absolutely impossible any circumstances should ever fall out so awkardly as to make one sin the only way to escape another or a necessary passage to a necessary Duty Now to apply this general Rule of Conscience to our particular case there is not any Precept in the Gospel set down in more positive and unlimited expressions or urged with more vehement motives and perswasions than obedience to Government because there are but few if any Duties of a weightier and more important necessity than this And for this reason is it that God has injoined it with such an absolute and unrestrained severity thereby to intimate that nothing can restrain the universality of its obligatory power but evident unquestionable disobedience to himself The duty of Obedience is the original and Fundamental Law of Humane Societies and the only advantage that distinguishes Government from Anarchy This takes away all dissentions by reducing every mans private will and judgment to the determination of Publick Authority Whereas without it every single person is his own Governour and no man else has any power or command over his actions i. e. He is out of the state of Government and Society And for this reason is obedience and condescension to the wisdom of Publick Authority one of the most absolute and indispensable duties of mankind as being so indispensably necessary to the peace and preservation of Humane Societies Now a Conscience that will not stand to the Decrees and Determinations of its Governors subverts the very Foundations of all Civil Society that subsists upon no other principle but mens submitting their own judgments to the decisions of Authority in order to the publick peace and setlement without which there must of necessity be eternal disorders and confusions And therefore where the Dictates of a private Conscience happen to thwart the determinations of the publick Laws they in that case lose their binding power because if in that case they should oblige it would unavoidably involve all Societies in perpetual tumults and disorders Whereas the main end of all Divine as well as Humane Laws is the prosperity and preservation of Humane Society So that where any thing tends to the dissolution of Government and undermining of Humane happiness though in other circumstances it were virtuous yet in this it becomes criminal as destroying a thing of greater goodness than it self And hence though a doubtful and scrupulous Conscience should oblige in all other cases yet when its commands run counter to the commands of Authority there its obligatory power immediately ceases because to act against it is useful to vastly more noble and excellent purposes than to comply with it In that every man that thwarts and disobeys the Laws of the Common-wealth does his part to disturb its Publick Peace that is maintained by nothing else but obedience and submission to its Laws Now this is manifestly a bigger mischief and inconvenience than the foregoing of any doubts and scruples can amount to And therefore unless Authority impose upon me something that carries with it more evil and mischief than there is convenience in the peace and happiness of the whole Society I am indispensably bound to yield obedience to his commands And though I scrupulously fear lest the Magistrates injunctions should be superstitious yet because I am not sure they are so and because a little irregularity in the external expressions of Divine Worship carries with it less mischief and enormity than the disturbance of the Peace of Kingdoms I am absolutely obliged to lay aside my doubt rather than disobey the Law because to preserve it naturally tends to vast mischiefs and confusion whereas the inconvenience of my acting against it is but doubtful and though it were certain yet it is small and comparatively inconsiderable And therefore to act against the inclinations of our own doubts and scruples is so far from being criminal that it is an eminent instance of Virtue and implies in it besides its subserviency to the welfare of mankind the great duties of Modesty Peaceableness and Humility And as for what some are forward enough to object that this is To do evil that good may come of it it is a vain and frivolous exception and prevented in what I have already discoursed in that that Rule is concerned only in things absolutely and essentially evil whose nature no case can alter no circumstance can extenuate and no end can sanctifie But things that are only subserviently good or evil derive all their Virtue from the greater Virtue they wait upon and therefore where a meaner or an instrumental duty stands in competition with an essential Virtue its contrariety destroys its goodness and instead of being less virtuous becomes altogether sinful for though it have abstractedly some degrees of goodness yet when it chances to oppose any duty that has more and more excellent degrees it becomes evil and unreasonable by as many degrees as that excels it And one would think this case should be past dispute as to the matters of our present Controversie that are of so vast a