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
for judging for others and punishing them for not acting according to their Judgments are unwilling that others when the Scales of Authority are turned should judg for them in like manner Tho then there 's nothing they can plead for themselves but what before they condemned in others and it would be as ridiculous to request those that they before ill used to have regard to the common Rules of Justice as it would have been in those Scythians who sacrificed all Strangers to their Gods to desire others to have respect to the Laws of Hospitality 5. It may be objected That the Rule of doing as you would be done unto does not hold because one Magistrate is in the Right and the other not and consequently he that is in the Right himself has a Right to judg but not vice versa Answ. But since the Dispute is who is in the Right it 's ridiculous to say he that 's only in the Right has a Power to judg except there were some Superiour to determine which of them is in the Right but there being no such Superiour every Magistrate is to judg for himself who to be sure will judg himself in the Right and consequently those that differ from him in the Wrong And there can be no reason why one Magistrate as well as another has not a Right to judg since that Right is founded in being a Magistrate which is common to them all And there can be no Reason for the Orthodox punishing Schismaticks Hereticks Mahometans Jews Pagans c. but what will equally oblige them as long as they believe themselves to be Orthodox to punish those that really are so Therefore the Defenders of any Persecution are guilty of encouraging and abetting all Persecution whatsoever even that under which themselves suffer since they can frame no Arguments to justify the using Force to promote the true Religion but what will equally serve in behalf of any Religion that 's believed to be true As we find the loose Harangues of Austin upon that Subject are urged by the Patrons of Persecution of what Sect or Denomination soever And since there can be no Argument to prosecute Error but what will be turned upon Truth it self let the Persecutors themselves judg whether it 's not better to leave all such disputable Points to the only just Judg than to take them into their own Hands who were they wholly ignorant in what part of the World their Station was to be would be glad there was no such thing as Persecution rather than run the risque of being persecuted themselves which shows that even they look on it in general as an ill thing and it 's better certainly that a particular Inconvenience supposing Toleration to be such should be permitted than such a Universal Mischief as Persecution is should prevail It 's said do as you would be done unto is not properly a Law to warrant the thing we are about but only a Rule to direct us what Measures we ought to observe in our acting with others when the thing it self is lawful Which granting to be true yet for a Man to judg which is the true Religion and act according to that Judgment all agree is not only lawful but a Duty because all agree themselves are obliged to act so and therefore if I desire this Liberty for my self I ought not to deny it to my Brother seeing he is a Man and I am no more and therefore no more infallible than he and for that reason can have no more Right to persecute him into my Opinion than he has to force me into his for between Equals there ought to be an equal Measure Now by Nature all Men are equal and have an equal and natural Right of serving God as they think best and no accidental Difference as to other Matters can deprive them of this Right In a word there can be no reason to deny the Obligation of this Rule in this Case but what will equally destroy it in any other But 6. Persecution destroys not only natural Equity and Justice but breaks all the Ties of Kindred Blood Gratitude Merit because let a Man be never so nearly related to one of persecuting Principles or have done him all the important Kindnesses imaginable or have never so much Merit be never so useful to the Publick or be never so exemplary in his Life and Conversation that will but the sooner expose him to suffer not only because People are apt to be influenced by such a one but because according to the Persecutor's Principles he is obliged to harass him sooner than another out of pure love to him it being the kindest thing he is capable of doing him So that without a Figure it may justly be said of all Persecutors that their very Mercies and Kindnesses are Cruelties But 7. This is not all this Doctrine of Compulsion annuls all Obligations of the most Sacred Oaths for if the Magistrate is obliged by God to use Force on his dissenting Subjects no Promises to indemnify them tho sworn to with the most solemn Oaths ought to be kept because all such Oaths are void from the beginning the Magistrate being under a prior Obligation to God which is not in his Power to dispense with to punish them which must make all Quarrels between the Magistrate and his dissenting Subjects immortal since there can be no Security given that they shall not be punished for their Religion when-ever it is in the Magistrate's Power and by the same Reason all Articles and Covenants that Towns or Countries make for Liberty of Conscience upon their submitting themselves are null and void and so are all the Promises which Popish Kings have made to their Protestant Subjects because they are obliged to punish Hereticks which they suppose Protestants to be and consequently cannot but think their Oaths unlawful And all our late Laws for Liberty of Conscience are in themselves void because he that has the Power of the Sword is required by God's Laws which no Human Ones can supersede to punish Dissenters from the true Church And if all these Obligations are void in themselves what Reason is there that those between Sovereign and Sovereign should be more firm when either of them judg the breaking them will tend to advance the Honour of God since as they cannot pretend to have so great a tenderness for the Right of Foreigners as of their own Subjects so they cannot but know that God is equally dishonoured by false Religions in one Place as in another And it 's but a poor Zeal for his Honour that looks no farther than such a Lake River or Mountain the usual Boundaries of Kingdoms which would be the way to set all Mankind together by the Ears But 8. Suppose it should not always have that Effect yet it must necessarily destroy all Trade and Commerce between Nations of different Perswasions for who would venture into a Foreign Nation except he were of the same Perswasion
even Lives as the Christian Emperors did for acting according to their Consciences And the Heathens who in spight of their Religious Differences cultivated Peace and Friendship amongst themselves could not but have a just Indignation for a Religion that had Compulsion been a part of it brought with it so many horrid Consequences which were sufficient to make them not only reject it as contrary to the Light of Nature but to treat the Professors of it as publick Enemies of Mankind who like Vipers could make no other return to those that nourish them but the sooner to sting them And it 's for the sake of this Doctrin that the Christians instead of propagating their Religion have been so cruelly persecuted of late Years in several Places As in Japan where it 's evident they were not so rigorously dealt with upon account of any aversion the Japoneses had to the Christian Religion for they suffered it quietly a good while to grow amongst them who were not so zealous for a Uniformity since they had seven or eight Sects as different as the Mortality and Immortality of the Soul No it was the Doctrines and Practices of the persecuting Christians that made them believe the Christian Religion was dangerous and destructive to Human Societies 16. Were the Magistrate ordained by God to punish for Matters meerly Religious the Heathen Persecutors supposing they acted according to the best of their Skill were no more to be condemned for punishing the Christians than a Judg is when he acts according to the best of his Knowledg in punishing an innocent Person All that can be said they were faulty in was their being governed by the Prejudices of their Education and influenced by their Priests and not suffering the Christians before they condemned them fairly to represent their Religion nor themselves impartially to consider it If this were the sole Crime of the Heathen Persecutors I am afraid the Christian ones are as much influenced by their Priests or prejudiced by their Education and do as little as they freely permit Men before they condemn them to propose their Opinions back them with their Reasons and answer the Objections of their Adversaries that they may impartially judg whether they ought to receive or reject them And if it be their Duty so to judg all their Subjects ought to do the same which is inconsistent with their hindering any by Penalties from instructing them in those Opinions and the Reasons and Arguments that make for them If the Magistrate without thus examining should condemn Men for professing even an erroneous Opinion that would no more justify him than it would a Judg that condemns a Man without hearing his Defence or a Person that swears a thing to be true without knowing whether it be so or no. 17. Those Matters about which Christians persecute one another are generally such as neither tend to the Honour of God nor the Good of Man and at the best are but Appendices to Religion and withal so perplext mysterious and uncertain that Men of the greatest Learning Judgment and Probity are strangely divided in their Opinions about them and consequently they will not admit of such Proof as in Justice and Equity ought to subject a Man to Punishment for there should be as much certainty and evidence that the Matter one is condemned for is a Crime as that he is guilty of it But can the Magistrate be as sure supposing a meer Error to be a Crime that not only his Subjects are in an Error but himself in the Right as he is that the causless punishing them is Injustice and Tyranny But could he be as certain yet that depends either upon Criticism in the Sacred Tongues and Skill in the Customs and Ways of speaking in use amongst the Jews or in distinguishing between genuine and spurious Readings or upon Metaphysicks School-Divinity Fathers Councils Church History c. which the Supream Powers have neither inclination nor leasure to study and examine and consequently they cannot but act most tyrannically in making Laws for condemning whole Parties of Men at a venture for things that for ought they know may be true and which they do not think worth their while to examine And yet to see them act contrary to their known indispensible Duty in ruining their Subjects about such Points is strangely unaccountable All that can be said is Delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi 18. To prevent the Magistrate's intermedling God has expresly declared That he will have the Tares and Wheat grow together until the Harvest or Day of Judgment where the Angels are the Reapers c. And the Reason is lest the Wheat be rooted up with the Tares which relates not to Civil but only to Matters meerly Religious where Men generally so grosly do they mistake root up the Wheat instead of the Tares and the same Reason will hold not only against the rooting up but any ways molesting them The Magistrate ought to render to God those things which belong to him as well as claim to himself what is Cesar's Due but if he assumes an Absolute viz. a Legislative and Coercive Power in Matters wholly relating to God he leaves nothing to him but usurps his peculiar and inseparable Power and Jurisdiction and is as much guilty of Treason against the King of Heaven as a private Person in assuming a Sovereign Power over his fellow Subjects is guilty of Treason against his King and it will no more excuse the Magistrate if he whom he punisheth should have committed an Offence against God than it would the other if his fellow Subjects had broke the Law of the Land But the Infinite inequality that is between the King of Kings and a King on Earth must strangely aggravate the Magistrate's Crime If God wanted either Skill to judg or Power to punish those Offences that concern himself only there might be some colour for the over-officiousness of the Magistrate if uncommissioned and uncalled for he offers his infallible Judgment and almighty Arm otherwise there can be no Reason as Grotius de jur Bell. Pac. C. 30. l. 2. observes Cur non talia delicta Deo relinquantur punienda qui ad ea noscenda est sapientissimus ad expendenda aequissimus ad vindicanda potentissimus And this I take is sufficient to show that the Magistrate has not only no Right to a Coercive Power in Matters meerly Religious but that such a Power is directly contrary to the Honour of God and most destructive of Mens Eternal and Temporal Happiness and consequently the greatest and most comprehensive of all Sins whatever But because this is a Point of so great a Consequence to Mankind I will most impartially examine the Reasons and Arguments how frivolous soever they are that the Defenders of Persecution urge in its behalf PART II. CHAP. I. An Answer to Arguments from Scripture on behalf of Persecution I Having offered several and if I flatter not my self concluding Arguments against the
doubt will instruct them in their own Religion whether Paganism Judaism or Mahometism yet no Man will suppose that they can justly use Force on them when they come to Years of Discretion to make them embrace those Religions or any other And yet the Case between the Magistrate and his Subjects is very different from that of Parents and Children in their Nonage because the Magistrate is not in those Matters to supply the Defects of his Subjects Understanding for a time but his Power reaches to Men of all Ages and Capacities so that it 's evident that the Reason that subjects Children in their Nonage to the use of Force does not all concern Men at Years of Discretion 10. It 's granted by all that a Heathen Magistrate has no right to judg in Matters simply Religious how then comes a Christian by the Law of Nature to obtain this Charter since that Law allows one Magistrate no more Power than another and what is done by a competent Authority tho not right yet is valid ratum si non rectum And as Civil Power is every where the same so let me add Church-Power is so too so that the Church cannot give any new Power to the Magistrate by his becoming a Member of it nor the Magistrate any new Power to the Church by his coming into it 11. It 's said the Law of Nature obligeth every one in his Station to promote the true Religion and for that reason the Magistrate is obliged to exercise a Coercive Power in Matters meerly Religious The Magistrate no doubt is to make use of his Power in things that belong to his Station but meerly religious Ones as it has been already proved do not as to those he is no more than a private Person nay the Clergy cannot own him for more without destroying their own Supremacy in Matters Spiritual which includes meerly religious Ones except there can be more than one Supream in the same thing CHAP. III. That a Power in the Magistrate to use Force in Matters of meer Religion tends to Mens Eternal Ruin 1. BUT if the Magistrate has any such Power from the Law of Nature it must be because it tends to promote either the Eternal or Temporal Good of Mankind or the Honour of God But to take away the least Colour of any Right upon these Pretences I shall show first the Exercise of such a Power is destructive of Man's Eternal Happiness 2dly Of his Temporal and contrary to all those Laws that for our mutual good God requires of us 3dly That it is directly opposite to and inconsistent with the Honour of God 2. As to the first It is of fatal Consequence to the Eternal Happiness of Mankind in having a direct tendency to make them act contrary to their Consciences For since Force can no more work a Change or Alteration on the Mind than Arguments can on Matter all that it can do is to make Men unwilling to lie under the weight of it which they have no way of avoiding but by acting as the Magistrate will have them the Truth of which Force is wholly unapt to convince them of and can only produce an outward compliance the Conscience still remaining averse For nothing is more evident than that where a thing is wholly impertinent to convince the Conscience as Violence is and yet it obligeth a Man to act it obligeth him to act contrary to his Conscience which is directly contrary to his Eternal Happiness For if he that acts when he doubts is damned he cannot certainly be in a better Condition who wholly revolts from his Conscience and basely lieth both to God and Man 3. The true Religion it self can neither judg nor punish but the Magistrate by the True Religion means his own and since all Magistrates think themselves in the right they if Force is to be used must think themselves oblig'd to use it And consequently if one useth Force to make People profess a True Doctrine or Religion there are at least five hundred who would use it to make People contrary to their Consciences profess a False Religion either in whole or part than which there can be nothing more impious nor would the Matter be much mended if the Magistrate forceth Men to profess the True Religion which yet is certainly false to them whilst they believe it so And the forcing People to profess either a true or false Religion is equally prejudicial to the Common-Wealth and consequently upon that account equally sinful because when Men by acting against their Consciences are brought to have no regard to them they will not scruple to break those moral Duties which all Religions teach and in the observing of which Man 's mutual Happiness consists therefore the Magistrate is so far from having a right to punish Men for acting according to their Consciences that it 's his Duty to see they do not violate them tho supposed never so erroneous and consequently all Force is religiously to be abstain'd from which as Mr. Chillingworth Chap. 5. n. 96. observeth may make Men counterfeit but cannot make them believe and therefore is fit to breed Form without and Atheism within Yet this is not the only fatal Consequence of this Doctrine but as I shall show in my next CHAP. IV. Compulsion is inconsistent with all those Duties that God for the sake of Mens Temporal Happiness requires of one towards another 1. NOthing can be more diametrically opposite to all those Precepts of Love Charity Kindness Gentleness Meekness Patience Forbearance the Gospel is in a manner composed of than Mens ill using one another for different Sentiments in things meerly Religious To pretend Love Kindness Friendship c. and yet vex oppress and ruin is no better than mocking and sporting with the Miseries of those we have so treated First to kiss and then betray is the basest Hypocrisy if that can pass for Hypocrisy which openly proclaims at how great a distance Mens Words and Actions are The kindest Office one Man can do to another is if he thinks him in an Error to endeavour to convince him of it who tho he continues in his former Opinion yet the Obligation to the other for his good Intention still remains and this Benefit he may obtain by it that by examining the Reasons on both Sides he is more likely to discover the Truth yet should he mistake after he has impartially examined the Point his Error would be wholly innocent since he has done what he can to find out the Truth and God requires no more but to cause a Person to be persecuted for being instrumental in this is the most unnatural and diabolical thing that can be 2. Object It 's usually said 't is not want of Charity but the greatest that can be to hinder Men by Force from professing such Opinions as are destructive to their Souls Answ. But I say first that it 's against Charity for the Magistrate to do a real Ill to
or indeed any thing else that does not invade the Right of others or is consistent with the Welfare of the Society And if it be unreasonable that he should harass Men about these things which have some relation to the Civil Society tho not sufficient to erect Courts of Judicature about them is it not much more so to molest them about nice Controversies Speculative Points meer Ceremonies or Forms of outward Worship in which the Interest of the Society is not at all concerned In a word If the Magistrate is to punish for some things in Religion and not for others what other Rule can there be to know what belongs to his Jurisdiction and what not but that about those things of Religion which relate to the Civil Society he is to use the Force of the Society and that what do not ought wholly to be left to God and the Parties concerned For as it 's absurd that the Force of the Society should be imployed about things that do not belong to it so it 's very unjust that a Man should not be suffered to act as he judgeth best in those things wherein no other has an Interest but his own eternal Good or Ill is only concerned 11. God who does not require of Men to be infallible but to do their best to discover Truth can never be supposed to be willing that they should be punished for invincible Error But the Magistrate who by reason of the infinite Variety of Mens Parts and Apprehensions does not know what Errors are invincible and what not cannot but punish unjustly since he cannot tell whether the Person he punisheth supposing him in an Error is in a Fault or if in a Fault cannot know what degrees of Weakness or Wilfulness it has or how to proportion his Punishment according to the different Abilities of every individual Person which he ought to do since where much is given much is required and where little is given as little is required But as he is not capable of doing this so he cannot tell after he has done his best but that he has made them guilty of a much greater Fault than what he pretends to correct by forcing them to act against their Consciences All which no less than demonstrates that the Magistrate is not qualified and therefore not ordained to punish such Offences but that they are to be left to the Searcher of Hearts the great and righteous Judg of all Men who alone discerns all the Powers and Workings of Mens Minds when they sincerely seek after Truth or by what if by any Default they miss it and who alone knows whom to punish and how to proportion his Punishments 12. To suppose God has constituted the Supream Powers to judg not only concerning Civil Crimes for which he has sufficiently qualified them but also meerly Religious Ones is inconsistent with the Justice as well as Wisdom and Goodness of God For if we cannot suppose so very unjust and foolish a thing of a King on Earth as that he should constitute for his Vicegerents those of whom he certainly knew not one in a thousand but would punish his Faithful Subjects and that for no other Reason but because they were so and reward those that were not so How then can we suppose so very absurd a thing of the King of Kings that he should appoint them for his Vicars in spiritual Matters and arm them with a Coercive Power to punish those Offences that relate solely to himself who as he could not but infallibly foreknow would make use of their Power to encourage even their rebelling against him by setting up of false Gods in his stead for Idolatry was every where quickly the Publick Religion of their Dominions except amongst God's own People the Jews and even there very often it was the National Religion And after their Captivity until Constantine's Time not one of God's supposed Vicars in Matters of meer Religion but were themselves Idolaters and did all of them discountenance and several of them persecute the Worshippers of the true God And when the Christians if Persecutors deserve that Name made use of Force upon Christians what did it produce but Popish Superstition and Idolatry 13. Persecution is so far from being a Means to promote the true Religion that it must necessarily hinder its progress because the Infidels must think themselves as much obliged to hinder the preaching of the Gospel amongst them as the Christians their Religion here And in vain do we pray for their Conversion whilst we assert such a Doctrine as will not let us suffer them to live here in order to their Conversion nor them to suffer us to preach the Gospel there But this is not all for had this Doctrine of promoting the true Religion by Force been believed by the Heathen it would have obliged them to have extirpated the Christian Religion and certainly that can scarce be thought to be a Christian Doctrine which if practised would have destroy'd the very Name of Christian. 14. It may be said no Persecution could extirpate the Christian Religion because the severest Methods were so far from destroying it that they were the Occasion of its encreasing the faster Not to mention if this were so and the Magistrate was to persecute it ought to be the true Religion because it 's the way to make it increase and by Parity of Reason use a contrary Method with false Religions I say that Persecution if it continues but a short time will make any Religion to increase and flourish the more because the Bravery the Courage of those that suffer prepares People to have a good Opinion of the Cause they suffer for But if it continue for an Age or Ages so that the old Professors are all destroyed the succeeding Generations will all be of the Religion they are educated in Thus we find Christianity by the continued Cruelty of its Enemies rooted out of the greatest Part of Africa and other Places it entirely possessed And should the Persecution in France continue the next Generation would be all Papists as they are in Spain and Portugal So that the Reason why Persecution had not the like Effect under the Pagan Emperors was because God did not permit it to continue long at a time and not without great intermissions But had all those Emperors been for promoting by Force what according to their Sentiments was the true Religion they had utterly extirpated the very Name of a Christian 15. Nay had the Heathen Emperors abhorr'd Persecution as all but what were Monsters did yet they had been under an indispensible Duty as they valued the Peace and Welfare of Mankind in general and of their Subjects in particular to root out a Religion which when it got Power into its Hands would have no other measure of Justice and Equity than its own Interest and would deprive Men tho never so strict Observers of the Laws of Morality and the Society of their Properties and
Magistrate's using Force in other Matters than those relating to the Civil Society I shall now examine with all impartiality the Reasons that are urged in behalf of the contrary Opinion from Divine and Human Authority and from Reason But first as to Divine Authority 1. All that can be urged from the New Testament with the least colour of Reason is contained in Rom. 13. where it 's said Rulers are not a Terror to good Works but to the Evil Wilt thou not be afraid of the Powers do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same If thou dost that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the Sword in vain Where say they by Evil and Good Works not only those Actions that relate to the Civil Society but those that are meerly Religious are meant To make this out they ought to prove 1. That meer Errors of the Understanding are evil Works So that those who act justly in all Matters of a Civil Nature and in all others according to the best of their Understanding are evil Doers 2. That the Apostle means such here which ought fully to be proved because without it the Magistrate's Jurisdiction is not to be presumed much less Penal Laws to be extended But not to mention that they whose Opinions are no wise prejudicial to others are never for the sake of those Opinions termed Malefactors or evil Doers it 's clear from the Text that Evil and Good Works there spoken of relate only to Civil Matters because otherwise the latter Part will not consist with the former where it 's said If thou wilt not fear the Power do good and thou shalt have praise of the same Which supposing Good and Evil relate to Matters simply Religious was so far from being true that they were at that time persecuted for doing Good and encouraged in doing Evil and consequently the Apostle's Reasoning would be so far from being an Argument as he here intends it for the Christians paying Obedience and Tribute to the Powers in being that it would have been a good one to the contrary since they bore the Sword worse than in vain being only a Terror to good Works and were not God's but the Devil's Ministers attending continually upon this very thing The Primitive Christians it 's certain would have been loth it should have been taken in this Sense since it would have given an unanswerable Argument to Nero to whom the Apostle here requires Obedience and the other Emperors for punishing Christians who according to their Notions taking Evil in this Sense were the most evil Doers 2. As to the Old Testament that 's positive say they that the Magistrate ought to punish for Idolatry which is no Injury to the State but an Offence simply Religious and consequently has a Right to use Force in those Matters For Job Chap. 31. 28. speaking of Idolatry saith This were an Iniquity to be punished by the Judg. But to give no other Answer it appears from the very Prints of our Bibles that to be punished by the is not in the Original which only saith For this might be accounted to me an Iniquity and agreeable to the Hebrew the Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It 's an easy thing to have Proofs if Men when they cannot find them are resolved to make them 3. But they further add That if by the Jewish Law Idolaters and those that denied the God of Israel were to be put to death by the same Reason Christians who ought not to be less zealous for the Honour of God should destroy all Idolaters and Blasphemers I answer The Jewish Laws oblige no Nation but that of Israel to whom alone they were given And if any of these Laws are now obligatory it 's not because they were commanded them but as they are Parts of the Law of Nature for there were several things requir'd under the Jewish Oeconomy which are so far from being now Obligatory that they are utterly unlawful Therefore to conclude that a thing which was binding to the Jews is so to the Christians it ought to be proved to be part of the Law of Nature or at least that they are under the very same Circumstances and there can be no reason why it should hold in one Case and not in another But whoever considers this Point will quickly perceive as vast a difference as can be For the Jewish Common-Wealth being a perfect Theocracy God himself was their King and as such he gave them their whole Body of Politick Laws with no other Sanction but what was Civil viz. Temporal Rewards and Punishments and did himself judicially determine Controversies of Legal Rights and other Matters of Moment So that he was not to be considered by them only simply as he was the Creator of all Men but as their King the Laws established concerning the Worshipping of one God being the Civil Law of the Nation and a Fundamental of their Constitution So that none could be a Member of that Common-Wealth without owning the God that brought them out of the Land of Egypt and they that revolted from him by disowning him for their God it being impossible to own him for their King and yet disown him for their God were proceeded against as Traitors and Rebels So that such a manifest Revolt no-wise consisting with his Kingship there was an absolute necessity that all Idolatry should be rooted out of God's peculiar Kingdom the Land of Canaan And that it was for this Reason is evident from this one Consideration because in all other Places where the Jews extended their Conquests none were put to death nor punished for their Idolatry tho it were manifest all were guilty of it it reached only to the Members of the Jewish Common-Wealth who as they were free People upon their coming out of Egypt so it was not without their express Consent Exod. 19. that God became their King and consequently for disowning him they were most justly treated as Rebels and Traitors But Christ as he had no Civil Power himself so he did not establish those Precepts he was to deliver with any Temporal Sanctions But as those of the Law were meerly Temporal so those of the Gospel are purely Eternal He that does this shall live and he that does it not shall be damned Yea Christ was so far from bestowing a Temporal Canaan on his Disciples that he foretold they should suffer Persecution for his sake And he when his Disciples urged a Precedent from the Jewish Dispensation to oblige him to destroy severely rebuked them saying Ye know not what Spirit you are of for the Son of Man is not come to destroy but to save Mens Lives Which is far from being true if Men are to be punished with Death for Idolatry or material Blasphemy for then the Christians would think themselves obliged to destroy the Indians and other Heathens for Idolatry in owning more Gods than own and all Jews and Turks for Blasphemy
make them pay a blind Submission to the Decrees of the Clergy that has been the Cause not only of all the Mischief and Miseries that upon the account of Religion have happened in Christendom but of the great Corruption of Religion which being a thing so plain and easy in it self and suted to the Capacity of the People would never have been so much and so universally depraved had there been an entire Liberty of Conscience for tho upon several Accounts such as Prejudice of Education mistaken Philosophy Interest c. Errors might have crept into the Church yet had they not been established by Penal Laws there would have been some in all Ages who not being under the like Prejudices would have opposed them and consequently upon a free Examination Error could not long have withstood the Power of Truth Luther Calvin c. were more successful than others who before them saw the Corruptions the Clergy had introduced only because they had better Fortune in meeting with Princes that allow'd them a Liberty that was denied to the others 10. One of the chiefest Means of corrupting Religion was occasioned by the Heathen Philosophers those Pretenders to Science falsly so called who when they thought it worth their while tho few or none of them at first were converted to come into the Church and became Governours and leading Men in it brought in with them so hard it is to conquer the Prejudice of Education their absurd Metaphysical Notions wholly inconsistent with the Plainness and Simplicity of the Gospel which they wrested to their preconceived Opinions and being then unwilling to make a meaner Figure upon the account of their Learning than they did formerly they blended together two very different things Christianity and that vain Philosophy St. Paul so much cautions People against And they that succeeded them made it their Business to render Religion more and more mysterious and unintelligible that the Laity should admire them for their profound Knowledg in things past their own understanding and be wholly governed by them in Matters of Religion as being above their Apprehensions and so get their Consciences and consequently their Estates in their disposal Which Design succeeded accordingly for we find that it was wholly left to them to make what Creeds impose what Opinions they thought fit on the Laity who whenever they asserted their Natural Right of judging for themselves and acting according to that Judgment were by the Magistrate's Sword always ready forc'd to a Compliance Thus it was that Priest-craft began and Persecution compleated the Ruin of Religion And if this was the Method the Clergy took in the most early Times what reason is there to suspect that in these latter Times they are less in love with Power and Dominion 9. It 's said That the Magistrate's Force is necessary to preserve Religion because for want of it the World was quickly and universally overrun with Idolatry I answer A Right in the Magistrates to use Force would in no wise have prevented Idolatry except they had been against it when the People were inclined to it which was so far from being true that the Kings themselves as that great and good Man the Author of the Letters concerning Toleration plainly shows were the Promoters of Idolatry by introducing their Predecessors into the Divine Worship of the People to secure to themselves as descended from the Gods the greater Veneration from their Subjects and therefore erected such a Worship and such a Priesthood as might awe the seduced Multitude into the Obedience they desired And it 's much more probable that Courts by their Instruments the Priests and by their Artifices the Fables of their Gods their Mysteries and Oracles should thus advance the Honour of their Kings amongst the People for the Ends of Ambition and Power than that the People should find out those refined Ways of doing it and introduce them into Courts for enslaving themselves And it 's no wonder that Absolute and Arbitrary Monarchs as the first Introducers of Idolatry were could impose what they pleased on their Subjects bred up in Slavery and consequently in Ignorance for where Men are poor and miserable the necessary Consequence of Arbitrary Power they have no leisure to examine into Matters of Religion their Time being wholly taken up in providing necessary Subsistence and consequently they must be grosly ignorant and have mean low and abject Thoughts sutable to their Condition So that 't is not strange that these Emperors might by degrees impose on them the worshipping their Ancestors especially when they saw the Priests and Courtiers scarce forbear adoring the present Monarch which is almost unavoidable in Arbitrary Governments witness the most fulsome and blasphemous Flatteries that are offered up to the French King even by his Christian Subjects Nay how many Instances have we of such Monarchs whose Impatience would not permit them to stay till after their Death for Divine Honours which then Custom had in a manner made their Right And 10. One and not perhaps the least Reason why the generality of the Priests are for preaching up absolute Arbitrary Power to be Jure Divino is because that necessarily causes an Universal Ignorance and thereby gives them a fair Opportunity of imposing on the People what they think fit For Ignorance tho it 's far from being the Mother of Devotion to God it 's certainly so to the Church as the Priests call themselves and therefore there is nothing they dread more than a knowing Laity and to show all the Arts and Methods they have taken to keep them ignorant would require a large History And we find that in those Places where the Clergy are most numerous potent and rich the People are most ignorant and superstitious as well as most enslaved and where the Clergy are fewest in Number Religion abounds most as well as Knowledg and Liberty It was Piedmont and some such barren Places which could not well maintain many Priests and where it was scarce worth their while to advance Priest-craft that best preserved the Purity of the Gospel And not to go so far from home as nothing made way so much for the Reformation as the depriving the Priests of their Monasteries and other ill-gotten Goods so nothing has since contributed more to the continuing of it than those Possessions being out of their Hands And the Method by which they have generally corrupted Religion is by wheedling or forcing the People into a blind Submission to what they impose on them And it was by these Artifices that the Jewish Priests and Rabbies imposed on that Nation the Traditions of Men for the Commandments of God And it 's by this Method that the Mahometan Religion supports it self there being no Debate nor Discourse allowed of what the Mufties shall teach the People And every body knows that the forcing People into an implicit Faith is the Bulwark of the Popish Religion And now having answered and I think I may
to the Nation witness the mighty Advantages we gained by the Liberty allowed the Walloons and other Dissenters from the Church established by Law What was it that made Norwich which in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign was so desolate that it was often debated in Council whether it should be demolished as being a Receptacle of vagrant and idle Persons and therefore dangerous to the Government become so very considerable for its Riches and Trade but the granting Liberty to the Flemins whom D'Alva's Cruelty had forced to fly their Countrey to settle there and set up their Manufacture of Stuffs as they did at Colchester their Bays to the infinite Advantage of the Nation And there 's no Reason why we may not expect greater Advantages by those Manufactures and Trades the French Refugees if well encouraged may set up with us On the contrary Persecution has been as prejudicial to the Nation by driving not only the Traders and Trades themselves beyond Seas as it has happened with respect to those Woollen Manufactures wrought in Sussex and Essex which those that by Persecution were forced to leave their Countrey have set up in Holland and other Places to the almost ruin of our Trade of those Woollen Manufactures in the Places within the Sound but by hindring great Numbers of which many Instances can be given who had they Liberty to exercise their Religion would have settled here to as great Advantage to the Nation as any it has permitted to inhabit here But it would be endless to mention the great Mischiefs Persecution has caused even in the Memory of Man by either driving great Numbers of our most useful People beyond Seas or by starving them or causing them to perish in noisom Jails or by imprisoning or beggaring them and thereby depriving them of the Opportunity and Means to carry on their Trades To give no other Instance but in Bristol where by reason of the Persecution in Ch. 2d's Time the Customs of that Place were diminished by almost three parts in four and it 's no wonder for Men will not then expose themselves by Trading but hide their Heads to avoid Persecution And 't is owing to Toleration that our Trade is in so good Circumstances as it is But nothing was so fatal to England as that unnatural War in King Charles the 1st's Reign chiefly caused by Imposition and Persecution fatal at last to the Persecutors themselves And the King after he had seen the great Encourager and Promoter of them brought to condign Punishment was himself publickly executed before that Palace from whence he issued out his persecuting Orders yet his Son Charles the Second to the unspeakable Prejudice of the Nation took the same Method of persecuting his Protestant Subjects even those that were the chief Instruments of his Restauration which however ungrateful as well as unjust it was in him yet in respect of several of them it was but a just Judgment who when it was in their own Power were themselves Persecutors And it 's more than probable that that King who had no other design in causing the Protestants to persecute one another but that they might more easily become a Prey to the Papists was taken off by those very People whose Interest by it he designed to promote And as to the late King the chief promoter of Persecution in his Brother's Time the Nation was very sensible for all his prevaricating what a dreadful Persecution he intended them and therefore it 's not strange they would not trust him 10. It 's no wonder that God brings down signal Judgments on the Heads of Persecutors since they like the Giants of old make War against Heaven it self and endeavour to deprive God of his peculiar Empire over Conscience which obligeth him if I may so say to assert his Right by making Examples of such bold and impious Men. And Examples of this Nature are so frequent that Men begin to wonder at the long uninterrupted Prosperity of the grand Persecutor the French King But let it be considered that Persecution is much more odious in Protestants in general as being directly contrary to their Principles but with all the aggravating Circumstances in these Nations if upon their being freed from the danger of Popery they should themselves practise the worst part of it in persecuting those they judg to be Hereticks which is the very same thing they so loudly exclaim against in the French King And let it be remembred the Supream Power is every where the same and that they have as much right in France to judg who are Hereticks as any where else Therefore may it not be feared that instead of the French King being made an Example of God's Anger he may be made an Instrument to punish others 11. The great Advantage the Nation has gained by the Liberty that has been allowed might one would think destroy all the remains of a persecuting Spirit since it is that which has preserved Church and State else it had been impossible that the Nation could have supported it self under such Calamities as a War and a general Persecution And it 's the securing to the People their Religious as well as their Civil Rights that has made them with so much Patience and Contentedness undergo all hardships and in the midst of them be so very zealous for the Government And for my part I doubt not but it's owing to Providence that so signally declares it self for Liberty of Conscience that in the Course of this War we have had so many signal Mercies and miraculous Favours and certainly we ought not to provoke God to repent of his Mercies by persecuting any Sect whatever 12. By a partial Toleration we act inconsistent with our selves for either the Magistrate ought to punish or ought not to punish those that err in Matters meerly Religious If the first why are there so many of the Erroneous exempted even from the least Punishment If the last why are not all exempted Where shall we find a Rule to punish some and not others nay with the same Punishment if the End of it be as it 's pretended to make Men impartially consider I do not mention this so much upon the account of a small Sect that 's still liable to the lash of the Law but for the sake of all Sects in general because whilst that Doctrine of using Force upon the Account of Matters meerly Religious is not wholly abhorred no Sect can be safe For 13. If any one Sect is to be punished upon a Civil or Religious Account it will involve all for as to the first the Arguments from Discord and Disturbances will equally affect all that dissent in Matters simply Religious And as to the last there 's no Reason to excuse Schisms and punish Heresies since as it 's owned by all a Schismatick cannot be a Member of the Church of Christ which is but one and consequently he is out of the ordinary way of Salvation and
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.