AN ESSAY Concerning the POWER of the MAGISTRATE and the Rights of Mankind in Matters of Religion With some Reasons in particular for the Dissenters not being obliged to take the Sacramental Test but in their own Churches and for a General Naturalization Together with a Postscript in Answer to the Letter to a Convocation-Man LONDON Printed by J. D. for Andrew Bell at the Cross-Keys and Bible in Cornhil 1697. THE CONTENTS of the CHAPTERS PART I. Chap. 1. THAT Government is from the People who had a Right to invest the Magistrate with a Power in those Matters of Religion which have an Influence on Humane Societies but not in others that are meerly Religious or have no such Influence Page 1 Chap. 2. That God has not either by the Law of Nature or his positive Law given the Magistrate a Power in Matters meerly Religious Pag. 17 Chap. 3. That a Power in the Magistrate to use Force in Matters of meer Religion tends to Mens Eternal Ruin Pag. 27 Chap. 4. That Compulsion is inconsistent with all those Duties that God for the sake of Mens Temporal Happiness requires of one towards another P. 30 Chap. 5. That the Doctrine of Compulsion is directly contrary to the Honour of God Pag. 47 PART II. Chap. 1. AN Answer to Arguments from Scripture on behalf of Persecution Pag. 68 Chap. 2. Arguments from Humane Authority answered Pag. 78 Chap. 3. Object That Compulsion tends to make People impartially consider examined Pag. 87 Chap. 4. Object That the Magistrate has a Right to use Force to prevent the Increase to those Erroneous Opinions that a Toleration would produce examined Pag. 103 Chap. 5. That all Force upon the Account of meer Religion is inconsistent with the Principles of the Protestant Religion Pag. 117 Chap. 6. Of the Method to destroy not only Schisms and Heresies but Hatred and Vncharitableness amongst Christians notwithstanding their different Opinions Pag. 124 Chap. 7. That the Good of the Society obligeth the Magistrate to hinder different Professions of Religion examined Pag. 144 Chap. 8. Some few Reasons for the Dissenters not taking the Sacramental Test but in their own Churches and for a General Naturalization Pag. 168 Postscript Pag. 176 Errata Page 28. line 5. for Truth read Lawfulness P. 42. l. 12. r. seventy times P. 48. l. ult r. Notion P. 73. l. 21. r. one P. 99. l. 19. r. betrayed him P. 103. l. 22. r. if Force should P. 144. l. 1. r. Chap. VII P. 190. l. 10. r. creating An ESSAY Concerning the Power of the MAGISTRATE c. CHAP. I. That Government is from the People who had a right to invest the Magistrate with a Power in those Matters of Religion which have an Influence on Humane Societies but not in others that are meerly Religious or have no such Influence 1. A Discourse on this Subject cannot be unseasonable whilst so many instead of shewing their Gratitude to the Government for rescuing them from the apparent Danger of Popish Persecution are so disaffected for being depriv'd of the Power of persecuting their Brethren that they had rather run the risque of the Nation 's being ruined by the French and themselves under Popish Persecution than to be without that Power and for want of it do in their daily invective Discourses and Sermons besides a great many other malicious Insinuations pretend the Church now to be nearer its Ruin than it was in the late Reign I cannot but be sensible I incur a great hazard of exposing my self by writing on a Subject in a manner wholly exhausted by the three incomparable Letters concerning Toleration which yet I had rather do than be wanting in my Endeavours to encourage impartial Liberty and mutual Toleration which instead of ruining is the only way to preserve both Church and State Yet this was not the only Motive that engag'd me in this Design for intending to write concerning what is commonly called Church or Ecclesiastical Power I thought it necessary for the better handling that Subject first to examine the Extent of the Magistrate's Power in Matters of Religion lest the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power should in my Discourse what in the World they frequently do clash one with the other I shall therefore without further prefacing attempt to shew what Power the Magistrate has in Matters of Religion Tho to prevent all occasion of Mistake or Cavil I shall first explain those Terms 2. By the Magistrate I mean the Person or Persons who in every Society have the Supream Power which consists in a Right to make Laws and by Force without which all Laws would be to no purpose to oblige the Unwilling and Disobedient to govern their Actions according to them 3. By Religion I understand the Belief of a God and the Sense and Practice of those Duties which result from the Knowledg we have of him and our selves and the Relation we stand in to him and our fellow Creatures or in short whatever appears to us from any convincing Evidence to be our Duty to believe or practise 4. In things relating to our selves or what is in our disposal any Action is lawful where there is no Law to forbid it But there is more than this required to invest a Man with a Right to deprive others of their natural Freedom and make Laws that in Conscience oblige them Whoever pretends to this must have a Commission either from God or Men but there is no Person that can pretend to have an immediate Commission from God therefore they that lay the Foundation of any Magistrate's Power not on a Humane but a Divine Right destroy all Obligation of Obedience to him for why should I be oblig'd to obey him on the account of a Divine Commission when he can neither show nor ever had any such Commission And there are none of his Subjects but what have as good a Pretence that is just none at all to a Divine Right Therefore since no Man can pretend an immediate Right from Heaven all the Right that one more than another has to command must be the Consent of the Governed either explicitly or implicitly given But it 's said the Powers that be are ordain'd of God which may very fitly and justly be said since they are chosen and appointed by those who had not only a Power from God to chuse them but were absolutely required by the Law of Self-preservation imprinted by God on their Natures to avoid the Inconveniences and Dangers of an unsafe State of Nature by placing the Power of governing them in one or more Hands in such Forms and under such Agreements as they should think fit To suppose the Powers that be to be otherwise from God than as they are the Creatures of the People made by them and for them is not only to contradict St. Peter who calls Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Creature or Contrivance of Man but the Experience of all Ages wherein Men have contrived and framed various sorts
are to obey him and not to invade his Prerogatives The Duties are reciprocal and consequently one Party cannot be bound but the other must be so too so that both or neither are free to use Force in such Cases It 's said the Good of the Society hinders the Subjects from using Force The same Reason then must hinder the Magistrate too because Men will not endeavour to use Force against him but when they judg themselves strong enough and then they will whatever Passive Principles they may pretend as little fail to do it if he persecutes them and in the mean time they must suffer all he will inflict which makes the Argument to conclude much stronger against the Magistrate the Abuse of whose Power produces greater and more unavoidable Mischiefs to Mankind than any thing else can 15. By what has been said I think it 's evident that Men tho they are answerable to God for every Breach of his Laws yet are accountable to one another for those things only that relate to their mutual Security and Welfare because every Man has so much Interest and no more in another's Conduct and therefore Government is no further concerned in Matters of Religion than as the Principles or Practices of the different Professors tend to make them more or less fit for the Duties of the Society For which Reason those Opinions that are meerly Speculative or Practices that are purely Ceremonial as having no relation at all to the true Foundation of Government ought to be tolerated for nothing can be evidently more unjust than for the Representative of the Civil Society as the Magistrate is to deprive any of the Rights of the Society who has done nothing against its Interest nor can any thing be more ridiculous than to suppose a Man's Rights to the enjoyment of this Life ought to depend upon his thinking just as the Magistrate does about Things relating to the next or that a Man's Property in this World is founded upon his having right Notions of Things no ways relating to it which is as absurd as that Property is founded in Grace and there is as much dispute who is in the right Opinion as who has Grace every one alike pretending to it and none being obliged to submit to the Determination of another CHAP. II. That God has not either by the Law of Nature or his positive Law given the Magistrate a Power in Matters meerly Religious SINCE it appears that the Magistrate has not his Power immediately from God but from the People and that God has not authoriz'd or capacitated them to bestow a Right on him to use Force in Cases of meer Religion it necessary follows that he has no such Right But however to avoid all pretence of Cavilling let us suppose that Government both as to the Form and to the Persons that administer it is immediately from God yet still it 's most evident that the Magistrate has no such Power 1. Which thus I prove A Right in the Magistrate to punish for not doing as he commands necessarily supposes it a Duty in the Subject to obey otherwise he would punish a Man for not doing what he is not obliged to do and where there is no Power to make Laws or to command there can be no Disobedience and where there is no Disobedience there punishing on pretence of Disobeying is manifestly unjust But that God has the sole Legislative Power in Matters meerly Religious or what only concerns himself and can alone prescribe what Honour Worship c. shall be paid him none I suppose will deny therefore the Magistrate has no Legislative nor Coercive Power which cannot subsist without Legislation to which it necessarily adheres And 2. As God has reserv'd to himself the sole Legislature so he has not given the Magistrate a Right to interpret for others his Law or to impose on them in what sense they must understand it But he has endowed Men in general with Reason which is the only Guide he has obliged them to follow in judging of the Sense and Meaning of his Laws and he that does not follow it degrades himself from the Rank of rational Creatures and highly offends God And this is not only evident by the Light of Nature but confirmed by God's Positive Law which frequently commands us to make use thereof in Matters of Religion We are bid to prove all things and hold fast that which is good to try the Spirits to let no Man deceive us to beware of false Prophets Seducers Deceivers to judg of our selves what is right But how shall we judg and try Not as the Horse and Mule which have no Vnderstanding but as Circumspect and Wise that is by making use of those Faculties God has given us to discern between Truth and Falshood Good and Evil. And he not only forbids us to act contrary to our Judgment but requires we should be fully satisfied before we act For he that acts when he doubts is damn'd and whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin The Reason is most evident why a Man ought not to do an Action when he judges it to be ill because to judg an Action to be ill or displeasing to God is the same and he that forms such a Judgment of an Action and yet does it does knowingly and willingly displease God which is eternally and essentially ill because no Circumstances what-ever can make it lawful for a Creature to do that which he judges will offend his Creator or even to act when he doubts whether it will or no. If then God rewards and punishes Men according as they have followed the Dictates of their Reason that must needs be the Rule of their Actions and not the Commands of the Magistrate and consequently the Magistrate can have no more Right to use Force on a Subject than a Subject has on him for tho he is his Subject in other Matters yet in those meerly Religious he is equally a Soveraign equally Independant as the Magistrate himself because where there is no other Judg on Earth but every one 's own Reason every Man one as well as another is a Supream Judg Nay this Sovereign Right of judging every one for himself is so inherent that none can make this Power over to another So that it 's impossible that the Magistrate upon any Pretence whatever can claim a Magisterial Power in these Matters but only a Right to advise which belongs to every one as well as to him And 3. The Difference between Advice and Command consists in this that Advice one is oblig'd to follow not for the sake of the Person that gives it but for the good that is contained in it which he to whom and for whose sake it is given is to judg of and consequently if he does not think it good is not obliged to follow it It 's ridiculous as well as unjust to use Force in Matters of Advice and by Civil Sanctions oblige People to follow it
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
according to the Submission c. That the Clergy shall not presume to attempt c. unless they have the King 's most Royal Assent and Licence to make c. So that it 's evident the King's Licence is antecedently necessary to their making or even attempting which includes all conferring or debating in order to the making any new Canons and that they are to be punished unless they have the King's Authority on that behalf And none but our Author can be so absurd as to think the King 's confirming the Canons the Convocation has made is a Licence to them to make or attempt the making new ones Is the King 's signing an Act a Licence to the Parliament to make a new one But the Author's Ingenuity in reciting this Act and his Reasoning upon it is much alike 14. The Author demands Why are the Clergy called to a Convocation if when they come they are not to act The Convocation was once a Limb of Parliament and the Writ they are now summoned by is not much different from that of the Commons and no doubt did then meet were Adjourned Prorogued Dissolved with the rest of the Parliament and this continued till H. 8. when they lost all their Parliamentary Rights but of Taxing themselves for the doing of which they were still summoned according to the Antient Form and tho they have now lost that Right too and so the Reason of summoning wholly ceaseth yet the Writs are issued out still after the same manner It is not their being summoned by this Writ that alone makes them a Synod for Ecclesiastical Matters for in the Popish Times they were always summoned with the rest of the Parliament yet they were not a Synod nor could not act as such without Authority from the Pope and instead of any such Authority now the King makes them a Synod and gives them Power to enact Canons by Licence under the Broad-Seal and this with Submission I take to be the true state of the Case 15. As to the third that a Convocation is as essential and necessary to the Church and Constitution and binds all People in Ecclesiasticals as a Parliament does in Temporals I answer If the Clergy have another Right to make Canons besides the Will of the Legislative Power viz. a Divine Right their Canons would be valid without the King 's confirming them nor could an Act of Parliament abrogate or annul any of those Canons made by a Spiritual Authority which is so far from depending on theirs that the Parliament it self is subject to them in those Matters nor could they hinder them from sitting when and as long as they had a Mind to because they that have a Divine Right to make Ecclesiastical Laws must have the same Right to sit in order to make them which is but necessary to the making them and in a word they must be as absolute and independant in all things relating to Ecclesiasticals as the Lay-state is in Civils but there cannot be two Independant or Legislative Powers about the same or different things for then People would be obliged to obey contrary Commands about the same things or different Commands at the same Time which is impossible but that Power which can annul the Commands of the other must be able to command in all Cases and be alone Supreme because as great a Power is required to take off as to lay on If therefore the Civil Power can annul any Ecclesiastical Laws the Convocation can have no Power but what is dependant on theirs which they can abridg curtail or annul as they think fit therefore it 's absurd to pretend that a Convocation has the same Rights or Privileges or is as essential to the Constitution as a Parliament without whose Authority no Laws relating to Church or State can be made And a Convocation is so far from being necessary to make Laws for the Church that it 's usurping the Rights of the English Churches or Christian People of England who are to be tied up by no Laws about indifferent things which alone are subject to humane Empire whether of a Civil or Ecclesiastical Nature but by their own Consent given in Parliament And I know no Law of Christianity that deprives them of this Right which from the first spreading of the Gospel here they have always claimed There were no Laws in the British and Saxon Times that concerned the whole Church but as our Historians testify were made by the same Power that made the Temporal Laws and were put in execution by the same Persons The tearing the Ecclesiastical Power from the Temporal was the cursed Root of Antichrist those Powers were not distinct in England nor in most Nations till the See of Rome got the Ascendant then and not till then did the Clergy attempt to bind the Laity by those Laws they never consented to but their design was never brought to perfection for such was the Genius of a Government built upon this noble Foundation That no Man ought to be bound by a Law he does not consent to that as muffled up in Darkness and Superstition as our Ancestors were yet that Notion seemed to be so strongly engraven in their Nature that nothing could deface it and accordingly we often find them protesting that this and the other thing does not bind them because done without their Consent that they would not be bound by any Ordinances of the Clergy without their Assent that they would not subject themselves to the Clergy no more than their Ancestors had done And 25 H. 8. cap. 21. they tell the King that besides Acts of Parliament The People are bound by no other Laws but what they have taken at their free Liberty by their own Consent to be used amongst them and have bound themselves by long Vse and Custom to the observance of the same No marvel if we find this People submitting to nothing in Religion but what was ordained by themselves De majoribus omnes was one of their Fundamental Constitutions before they came hither and so it has continued to this Day and Matters of Religion were amongst their Majora even before they received Christianity And what neither the Pagan nor Popish Priests could cheat or scare them from our Author will find a hard Matter to harangue them out of If no Canon is valid that is contrary to the Custom or Law of this Realm How can a Canon oblige contrary to this most antient Custom and Fundamental part of the Constitution of the Peoples being obliged by no Laws but of their own making What 's become of the boasted English Liberty if they may be excommunicated and consequently imprisoned for Contempt or Disobedience to a Law they never made This I think is sufficient to show the Frivolousness of our Author's Reasons for making his Majesty guilty of the breach of his Coronation-Oath in denying those Rights to the Convocation he pretends are their due which I think I have proved to be contrary both to the Law of God and the Realm I shall therefore conclude praying that the God of Patience would grant that no Priests of this Man's Principles in or out of Convocation may hinder Men from being like-minded one to another nor disturb the Peace of Church or State FINIS Books sold by Andrew Bell at the Cross-Keys and Bible in Cornhil A New History of Ecclesiastical Writers Containing an Account of the Authors of the several Books of the Old and New Testament and the Lives and Writings of the Primitive Fathers An Abridgment and Catalogue of all their Works c. To which is added A Compendious History of the Councils c. Written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin Doctor of the Sorbon In seven Volumes Fol. A Detection of the Court and State of England during the four last Reigns and the Interregnum Consisting of Private Memoirs c. with Observations and Reflections And an Appendix discovering the present State of the Nation Wherein are many Secrets never before made publick as also a more impartial Account of the Civil Wars in England than has yet been given By Rog. Coke Esq The third Edition much corrected with an Alphabetical Table Advice to the Young or the Reasonableness and Advantages of an Early Conversion In three Sermons on Eccles. 12. 1. By Joseph Stennett His Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. John Belcher Scotland's Sovereignty asserted A Dispute whether the K. of Scots owes Homage to the K. of England Written in Latin by Sir Tho. Craig Translated by Geo. Ridpath with a Preface against Mr. Rymer Answ. 1. * D r. Burnet 's Hist. Reform Part 1. Colâ—ect N. 17. * Rot. Parl. 40 Edw. 3. Num. 7 8. Rot. Parl. 5. Edw. 3. Art 46. Rot. Parl. 6 Rich. 2. Num. 62. †Tacitus de Moribus Germanorum C. 11.
enable them tho they stood alone to be a Match for their most potent Enemy when perhaps otherwise we may sometime or other be in danger of being oppressed by him And when a troublesome Neighbour encreases in Riches and Strength we are very much wanting to our selves if we do not to our utmost endeavour to do the same All that the Government would suffer by a Naturalization would be to have not only the Number of its Subjects in which consists the Riches and Strength of a Nation encreased and them also under as strict an Obligation of Loyalty and Duty as any of the Native Subjects but its Revenues also augmented by not only more of the Exciseable Commodities being consumed but by the vast Encrease of Trade which must proportionably increase the Customs All the Disadvantage the Natives would receive by such an Act would be that by a quick Vent and Consumption of the Products of the Country the Value of all home Commodities would be raised Land and Houses yield greater Rents and Money by its Encrease and quick Circulation be plenty and those that have a mind to dispose of their Estates would the Number of the Chapmen being so much encreased sell to a much greater Advantage and all the Purchase-Money the Foreigners give would be an additional Treasure to the Nation But it requires a just Treatise to show what I have not as much as time to hint at here all the Advantages we should receive by a Naturalization Act Therefore I shall only answer an Objection of some who tho they cannot but own that it would be advantageous to the Nation yet are against it upon an Apprehension it may be prejudicial to Religion But I think I have already proved that no Part of Religion can be opposite to or inconsistent with the Good of Societies but on the contary the promoting the Publick Good is the chiefest Part of it And if to supply the Wants of the Poor and Needy be the greatest Duty viz. of Charity and to visit the Fatherless and Widows in order to relieve their Necessities be pure and undefiled Religion it must be so in the highest manner to prevent Peoples falling into Want and Poverty And whatever contributes to this especially when it tends to the Support not only of a few but of a whole Nation must be the Duty of every one to promote that is a lover of his God his King and his Country And whatsoever is inconsistent with doing this is so far from being a Matter of Religion that it must be either sinful in it self or by the Circumstances that attend it become so and therefore by no means is to be opposed to the Good of a Nation And indeed nothing can be more strange than to suppose God has commanded any thing inconsistent with the Publick Good Yet without this Supposition not only Persecution Humane Sacrifices and absolute Passive Obedience the most pernicious Doctrines that can be but no other destructive Ones could have prevailed And it 's this monstrous Absurdity that Jacobites are guilty of in thinking they are obliged to sacrifice the Peace and Happiness of a Nation to the Interest of a particular Person But I shall conclude only adding That I hope what I have said will not displease the Magistrate since I have no other Intent than to hinder him from committing one of the greatest Sins Humane Nature is capable of and which cannot but turn to his Prejudice here as well as hereafter And as to the Clergy This cannot displease those that have what the Bishop of Sarum in his Preface to Lactantius calls Lay Pity since I have endeavoured to show how much they are in the right in abhorring Persecution and how causlesly they are for that Reason hated as generally they are by their Brethren And for those that are for Persecution the greatest Kindness I could do them was to represent as fully as I could in so short a Discourse the fatal Tendency and Consequence of that Doctrine that they may repent of it which if I any ways contribute to I think my Pains happily bestowed if not I yet hope a Reward from him who accepts the hearty sincere endeavour of those that do their best to promote Peace and Charity which if any hinder or obstruct it 's the Duty of all good Christians to pray that God would abate their Pride asswage their Malice and confound their Devices that there may be Glory to God on High Peace on Earth and good Will towards Men. A POSTSCRIPT concerning the Letter to a Convocation-Man I Must beg the Reader 's pardon for further trespassing on his Patience in making some Remarks on a Pamphlet entituled A Letter to a Convocation-Man I mean as to that part of it which under the Pretence of giving Reasons for the Sitting of a Convocation rails at a Toleration in Matters simply Religious and endeavours to deprive Men of the Right of Judging for themselves about Religious Doctrines and Opinions 1. The Author of this Letter P. 3. affirms That the Indifference of all Religion is endeavoured to be established by the Pleas for the Justice and Necessity of a Vniversal unlimited Toleration Which Assertion were it true would make the King and Parliament indifferent whether they were Quakers since they have given them a Toleration But it 's so far from being true that there cannot well be a greater Demonstration of Mens not thinking all Religions indifferent than a desire to be tolerated in the Profession of that they judg the best Did they suppose all Religions equal it would be indifferent to them whether there was a Toleration since they would be sure to avoid all Persecution by being of the Magistrate's Religion 2. The Author P. 19. saith Tho the Clergy have no Power of changing adding or diminishing the Law of God yet the applying this Law to particular Cases explaining the Doubts that may arise concerning it deducing Consequences from it in things not explicitly determined already by that Law and the enforcing Submission and Obedience to their Determinations are the proper Objects of their Power and Jurisdiction who are to act by ordinary and natural Means such as Assembling Debating and by majority of Voices Deciding But here I must demand Who shall judg whether what the Clergy thus determine be either adding changing or diminishing the Law of God If the Priests to be sure they will not say their Determinations are so But if I must judg then I ought to reject their Determinations if I believe them not consonant to Scripture but if I think them agreeable to it then I must believe them not for the sake of their Determinations but because I judg them to be so and consequently I must be guided by my own Reason in all things of Religion If by the Doubts that may arise be meant any thing that admits of dispute there is scarce any thing so clear but what may or does and if in all such Cases I
otherwise than as it has this Mark and Character stampt upon it Hence it is that God Heb. 8. speaking of the Gospel-time and Covenant saith I will put my Laws into their Minds and write them in their Hearts And they shall not teach every Man his Neighbour and every Man his Brother saying Know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest And to interpret this Law which is written in our Hearts and which we cannot from the greatest to the least fail to discover if we attend to our own Minds by Fathers Councils c. is to interpret a Rule that 's clear and evident in it self by what is most obscure and mysterious If the Gospel be hid from any it 's not the Poor the Babes the Simple but the Pretenders to vain Philosophy and Science falsly so called the Wranglers and Disputers of this World who would fain be thought to be the Wise and Prudent and as it was their Prejudices and Prepossessions made them esteem the Gospel the foolishness of Preaching so it afterward made some of them corrupt the foolishness of Preaching with their wise unintelligible Philosophy and their Successors by following the Tradition of Men made void the Commandments of God The first Reformers despised any Authority but that of Reason and Scripture and had those that succeeded them followed their Example they had no doubt destroyed Popery whose chief Support consists in Human Traditions as Fathers Councils c. 6. The Subject of this Book shows how little is to be relied on the Authority of those Men on which they will have every thing to rely for tho the Light of Nature by placing Man in such a helpless Condition that he cannot subsist without the Assistance of others does oblige all Men except he that is Orthodox to himself is Al sufficient for himself to be most kind loving and friendly one to another and agreeable to this the Scripture most passionately recommends the Love of our Neighbour but most frequently and zealously when we differ from him and tho the observance of this Command has at all times been absolutely necessary the Christians from the beginning being divided in their Sentiments yet for all this there never was a Convocation of Priests but what notoriously broke this Rule by not only most uncharitably anathematizing and damning those that could not comply with their Sentiments but by obliging Men to abstain from all Commerce and Converse with them and as soon as the Christians had the Power of the Sword to treat them most inhumanely and barbarously And by degrees the Clergy so intoxicated the People that they were perswaded that this Branch of the Fundamental Law of Nature and the Gospel so absolutely necessary in this State of Ignorance and Darkness was one of the greatest Crimes imaginable The Author of the Letters concerning Toleration is if not absolutely the first the first that amongst us has ventured to assert the Justice and Necessity of a Toleration in its due and full Extent An Author that on more Accounts than one is to be esteemed a Patron of the Liberties of Humane Nature and a Guardian of the Happiness and Safety of Civil Societies and who has by his Writings been most serviceable to Mankind in enlightning their Minds and in improving their Understandings for which he must never expect forgiveness by Men of the Pamphleteer's Principles 7. But to return Tho our Author supposes it no small Crime P. 15. for the Parliament to judg of Matters of Religion yet he grievously complains that notwithstanding the urgency of the Occasion no Relief has been effected that way and tho the Commons have a standing Committee for Religion nothing as I remember has since the Revolution been done by them in behalf of it But what can Men in a Legislative Capacity do more for Religion than besides punishing Vice and Immorality to protect every one in worshipping God as they judg most agreeable to his Will and give them the best Opportunity of informing themselves of his Mind And have they not done this by granting a Toleration and by refusing a Bill for restraining the Liberty of the Press 8. In short when the Clergy had corrupted the Christian as much as the Heathen Priests had Natural Religion it pleased God out of his great Goodness that the Noble Art of Printing should be discovered whereby Men could with ease communicate their Thoughts to the World and some free-spirited Men who durst judg with their own Understandings doing this and Copies of their Works being dispersed it caused many to perceive how miserably they had been imposed on by their Spiritual Guides which as it may well be imagined strangely alarm'd the Kingdom of Darkness of which I shall give but one Instance Cardinal Woolsey Lord Herb. Hist. of H. 8. in a Letter to the Pope tells him That his Holiness could not be ignorant what divers Effects the new Invention of Printing had produced that it had brought in and restored Books and Learning and had been the occasion of those Sects and Schisms that daily appear in the World and chiefly in Germany where Men begin to question the Faith and Tenets of the Church that if this were suffered the common People besides other Dangers might come to believe there was not so much need of the Clergy The Priests to secure themselves from any harm from this new Invention did their utmost to hinder any thing from being printed but what was on their own side and by that means to turn this dreadful Engine on their Enemies which as far as it was quickly and steddily put in Execution had its desired Effect in preserving of Popery but in those Places where by the Connivance of the Government or otherwise this Method was not strictly observed the People threw off the Popish Yoke and the generality of the Clergy were forced to comply yet loth to forgo their beloved Empire over the Consciences of Men they quickly endeavoured to make the People pay the same Obedience to their Determinations as they formerly did to the Romish Clergy and as they made use of the same Arguments and the very same Method to enslave them so they were no less zealous to hinder the Liberty of the Press which puts me in mind of what Le Clere observes at the latter end of the Life of Nazianzen that tho Theology is subject to Revolutions as well as Empire and has undergone considerable Changes yet that the Humour of the Divines is not much altered but the Powers the Clergy claimed to themselves being inconsistent with the Principles of the Reformation and in England with the Oath of Supremacy and that Power the Laws have invested the King with there is nothing so contradictory as their pretended Power and that which they are forced to own does belong to the Magistrate So that our high Church-men are not consistent with themselves no not in one Point but what is worse assert such Principles