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
Countreymen barbarously used for serving God according to the Dictates of their Consciences And there 's no Person where he has not a direct Interest to the contrary as the Body of the People have not but would wish that Men had the choice of serving God as they think best rather than that any one Way even that which himself at present espouses should be forced on them by Penal Laws because not only his own but any of those Magistrates he may chance to be subject to changing their Opinions neither of which is in his Power to hinder must subject him to Punishment beside the thing in general being so prejudicial to the Publick must make them abhor it therefore it 's Madness to suppose they are fond of any persecuting Laws much less that they will create a Civil War to obtain them but on the contrary by a Toleration all colour and pretence is taken away from those that might be supposed to desire Civil Commotions and the more People are used to Liberty of Conscience the greater and more irreconcileable will their dislike be of Imposition and consequently will the more heartily unite in a general abhorrence of Popery as the grand Promoter of it and by no pretences whatever will be brought to endure the Thoughts of Popish Kings and Princes 4. It may be urged That tho the People of themselves will be content that others should have the same freedom of judging for themselves and acting according to that Judgment yet that the Clergy by the great Influence they have over them may engage them in Commotions c. Where Men have liberty to examine what the Priests teach and dissent from them if they think fit they will never be able so far to impose on them as to oblige them to act so directly contrary to their Interest It 's Persecution that chiefly supports a blind implicit Faith and Obedience but an entire Liberty will put a Necessity on the People their Guides differing amongst themselves of judging and examining for themselves and the longer Toleration continues the more will they be freed from a blind implicit Obedience And in these Days where Light and Knowledg does so much aboud it 's impossible they should be so grosly imposed on by the Clergy whose Conduct especially in Points relating to their Interests have given them too just an Occasion not to give a blind Assent to what they affirm And whoever does but consider with what Zeal and Fury the Clergy are for persecuting Men for a dissent in Speculative Points or a Matter of Form above what they are in Matters of Vice and Immorality nay that they are for caressing even very wicked Persons if they appear but zealous for their Interest will quickly see it 's not a Sense of Religion that hurries them on and consequently how little Reason People have to be blindly guided by them in those Points Besides the Magistrate may make the Clergy be for Liberty of Conscience by not suffering them to enjoy any Preferment except they will declare their Abhorrence of Force in Matters meerly Religious and then they will be as much for Liberty as now they are against it except we can suppose that they will be true to their Interest only when that is against the Truth 5. On the contrary Let us suppose the most favourable that can happen to a persecuting Magistrate that he destroys all Sects but his own All that he would get by it would be to make himself a Property to his Priests to whom then it would be too late to deny any thing and who will not fail to advance such Antichristian Doctrines as shall exalt them above all that 's called God and make all the Bigotted and Superstitious which would then be the greatest part of their Side So that all the Magistrate would get by persecuting his Subjects would be to enslave himself And what other I pray was the Effect of the Christian Kings and Emperors persecuting their Subjects but to make themselves Vassals to the Pope the Head and to the rest of the Clergy And had it not been for the Toleration without which a Reformation was impossible that was allowed the first Protestants they had been daily more and more enslaved so that it 's owing to those Hereticks the Popish Magistrates are for extirpating that the Chains are filed off from their Hands and Necks and that they no longer lie prostrate at the Feet of an insolent Priest or are obliged to hold his Bridle or Stirrup c. And tho since the Reformation much of the extravagant Pretences of the Popish Clergy are abated yet it 's observable that in those Places where Persecution is highest the Magistrates are most subject to the Power of the Priests And if the Magistrates themselves are thus dealt with what Usage must the People have who are indeed made most miserable and wretched Slaves as tho Nature had intended them to be what the Clergy there suppose they are Asini ad portenda onera Clericorum 6. It may be said This will only happen in Popish Countries But if Persecution was the Cause of these most pernicious Effects in the more early Times of Christianity when Men were supposed to be better What Reason is there to imagine that in these latter and worser Times it will not have as bad if not worse Effects And if the Protestant Clergy can perswade the Magistrate to use Force to hinder People from examining or even knowing any Doctrine but what they have a mind to impose on them a thing so contrary to the Light of Nature the Gospel and their own Principles what is there that by their joint Endeavours they could not or would not introduce when it served to promote their Interest Nay have not the Protestant Clergy been every jot as much if not more zealous and industrious than the Popish to enslave the People and promote Arbitrary Power and have preached up absolute Passive Obedience even as much as Faith in Christ as knowing that the only way to secure Tyranny in the Church was first to get it established in the State because Tyranny by bringing the generality to Poverty and Slavery must depress their Minds and debase their Thoughts and make them ready blindly to submit to the Determinations of the Clergy And tho some would be in better Circumstances yet what they enjoy would be so precarious that they could not be secure without they comply with the Religion of the Prince who if he be a great Bigot as the Clergy would do their utmost to make him so would be sure to use all the Violence Arbitrary Power could give him to force Men to profess the Court Religion Or if he should turn to the other Extream and instead of being Superstitious should have little or no regard for Religion yet if he should sometime or other be troubled in Conscience as even the most vicious often are the Clergy would be sure to perswade him that 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
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
of Governments as they thought most convenient for themselves which makes it sufficiently evident that all the Powers the Magistrates have are the Gift of their fellow Men. And 5. It 's as evident that Men could not give the Magistrate a Power they themselves had not Now by the Law of Nature no Man had a Right to deprive another of his Life Liberty or Property but in defence and for the preservation of his Own which by that Law he is obliged to preserve and consequently had a Right to what-ever is necessary to that End But the Difficulty of exercising this Right every one having the same obliged Men to enter into Societies and to commit to some particular Persons the Inspections of those things that relate to their common Good So that Matters of Right and Wrong and generally all that part of Morality relating to the reciprocal Duties of Man to Man are under the Cognisance of the Magistrate and any Man tho he never so much pretends Conscience may be punished for acting against the Welfare of the Society because no Man's Conscience ought to hinder the Magistrate from discharging his Trust. 6. But his Power does not extend to those Duties only that one Man owes another but even to those that Man owes to God I mean those that have an influence on Humane Life and conduce to the Welfare and Support of Societies viz. the acknowledging a Supreme Being who can discern Mens Actions and is both willing and able to punish them for neglecting those Duties that are necessary for the well-being of Mankind It being impossible as is own'd by Pagans as well as Christians that any Society can subsist without some Notions of Religion or the acknowledging of Invisible Powers Therefore the Magistrate is obliged to punish those who deny the Existence of a God or that he concerns himself with Humane Affairs it being the belief of these things that preserveth them in Peace and Quiet and more effectually obliges them to be true to their Promises and Oaths and to perform all their Covenants and Contracts and all those other Duties in which their mutual Happiness consists than all the Rods and Axes of the Magistrate Nor can the Maintainers of Atheistical Principles seeing they destroy Conscience by subverting all Religion have any Pretence from it to challenge to themselves a Toleration And this is no greater Power than one Man had over another in the State of Nature for an Atheist may justly be reckoned an Enemy to Mankind whatsoever State they are in and therefore is to be disarmed and bound to his good behaviour So far then it 's evident that the Magistrate's Power extends in Matters of Religion But 7. As to those Opinions and Actions which relate to God alone in which no third Person has an Interest wherein conscientious People may and do differ which I call meerly Religious to distinguish them from those wherein others have an Interest there is no Law of Nature that gives one Man a Right to use Force on another and consequently they could not invest any of their Brethren with this Power All the Right that Equals as all by Nature are have over one another is a Right to prevent or repel Force by Force and to punish the Aggressor thereby to discourage him or any other from attempting the like and to seek Reparation for the Loss sustained They that have no such Power over themselves as to do themselves any Hurt much less to take away their own Lives have as little Right to deprive others whom they are obliged to love as themselves of their Lives or Properties or commit any Violence on them otherways than may be necessary to defend themselves and their own Rights But what Right of his Neighbour's does any Man invade or what Injury or Injustice does he do him in worshipping God according to that Method he judgeth best for the saving his own Soul If Men think one another in the Wrong common Charity will oblige them to shew each other their Errors but this gives neither a Right to punish because neither of them are any-wise injured And it 's against the immutable and eternal Law of Justice to punish a Person that neither does nor designs to do another an Injury Yea Christianity that requires Men to abstain from Revenge even after repeated Provocations and multiplied Injuries can much less be supposed to oblige them who suffer nothing nor have any Harm done them to molest and ill use their Brethren 8. If the Magistrate was intrusted by the Society to use Force on those that hold wrong Tenets in things merely religious this Power upon his Neglect or Incapacity to use it would devolve on them that gave it him and then every one would have the same Right to use Force on them that are in the Wrong as to use it in defence of their own Lives and Properties when the Magistrate either upon the suddenness of the Danger or otherwise does not protect them It 's an undeniable Argument that Government or in other words the Right to use the Force of the Society in defence of the Peoples Lives or Properties is their own Gift because when the Magistrate does not this the Right of defending themselves returns to every one of them who may in defence of themselves or what belongs to them take away the Life of an Invader and so must the Right of using Force in Matters of meer Religion upon the Magistrate's either not using or misusing it had they at first intrusted him with it But they were so far from having such a Right one upon the other in the State of Nature that Force to bring a Man to a Religion which he thinks not true was an Injury which in that State every one would avoid and consequently Protection from that as well as any other Injury was one of the Ends of constituting Civil Society 9. Could Men have liv'd in Peace without any fear of Fraud or Violence one from the other there would have been no need of Government Nor can it be supposed that Men who are by Nature equal would have submitted their Lives and Properties to the Discretion of a single or a few Persons but to prevent those greater Inconveniences And that which was the End of erecting Government ought certainly to be the Measure of its Proceeding Now it 's evident Men might have lived peaceably and quietly together and yet have differ'd in those things that give no biass to their Conversation or Actions with respect to one another as Members of the Society and therefore the using Force in these Matters was not one of the Ends of uniting under Laws and submitting to Government but the direct contrary to prevent it and consequently every one by being a Member of a Civil Society has as much Right to be protected in his Religious Worship as in any other Matter whatever And if in Civil Matters the Magistrate never does and it would be look'd on as
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
his Subjects when by it he who is as fallible as those he persecutes is as likely to promote Error as Truth because if the Error ballanceth the Truth it 's doing Mischief for Mischief's sake now since Truth is but one and Falshood almost infinite there 's a prodigious odds he persecutes his Subjects to establish Error 2dly I answer That Opinions meerly as such are not destructive of Mens Souls for God who has made Man liable to mistake does not require an Impossibility of him never to be mistaken but that he impartially searches after religious Truth and sincerely endeavours to discover it by those Helps and Abilities he has bestowed on him to that purpose He therefore that does this has the satisfaction of doing his Duty as a rational Creature and may be sure tho he misseth Truth he shall not miss the Reward of it since he has followed as well as he could and no more could be his Duty the only Guide God has given him to judg of Truth and Falshood And if it be no Fault in a Judg that condemns an innocent Person if upon sufficient Evidence he appears guilty the same Reason will hold as strong for the Innocence of an Opinion that a Man after he has impartially considered embraceth for Truth and by which he prejudiceth no Person And if he that has lost his Senses if it be not by his own Fault is not accountable for what he does there is as little reason that he should who acts according to the best of his Understanding for it 's the Sincerity of the Heart and the Goodness of the Intention that God wholly regards And the ignorant and mistaken if it be not their own Fault are as acceptable to him as the knowing and not mistaken since it 's he that causes the Differences of Mens Understandings as well as Circumstances which last makes the Widow's Mite tho very inconsiderable in it self as acceptable as the great Presents of the Rich. So that two Men that are of different Religions may be both in the right Way to Heaven provided they do their endeavour to find out the Truth For it 's inconsistent with Justice to give a Being to any Creature that must necessarily make it more miserable than not to be which must be if Men are to be punished eternally for unavoidable Mistakes But God who could have no other Design in creating our immortal Minds than that they should be happy consequently has given them all since they are all equally from him sufficient Means to make themselves so so that it 's strangely absurd as well as injurious to an infinitely perfect Being to suppose he is a respecter of Persons or that he has made Mens Eternal Happiness or Misery to depend on such Accidents as being born in England Rome Turky China c. Promulgation is certainly essential to a Law and therefore those that have no opportunity of being convinced of the Truth of the Gospel shall not be accountable for not believing it but shall be judged by the Law they know and not by that they did not know nor shall those that do believe the Gospel if after a diligent search they are mistaken in some Points of it be condemn'd for it because those Points cannot be said to be sufficiently promulgated to them To doubt of this is to question the Justice of God therefore I may safely conclude that whoever does what God requires from him shall be rewarded and that God requires no more from every one but that he shall use his honest Endeavour by all means to know and understand his Will as perfectly as he can provided when known he does his best Endeavours to live up to it and consequently the greatest Charity the Magistrate is capable of doing is not to prejudice Men in their grand Choice by Punishments or Rewards but to leave them entirely at Liberty as the most likely way to find out the Truth or if they miss it to make their Mistakes wholly innocent But of that more hereafter 3. All the Uncharitableness Animosities Envy and Hatred that reigns amongst dissenting Parties are owing to Persecution and not to the bare Differences of Opinions which of themselves are no more apt to produce these Effects than different Complexions or Palats for to see a Man in an Error is apt to create Pity in us a Passion very opposite to Hatred Nor would there be the least Grounds for Uncharitableness if no Man was to be harassed in his Name Goods or Person for any speculative Opinion or outward way of Worship but to use one ill upon that account sets him at perfect Enmity and creates a Quarrel The Heathens who had more and wider Differences about Matters of Religion than the Christians yet because they tolerated one another had not those irreconcilable Animosities fierce Contentions and unnatural Wars which have frequently happened since the Propagation of the Christian Religion which yet without Impiety cannot be imputed to its Genius which is pure peaceable and inoffensive and requires a universal Love and Charity for all Men of what Profession soever No it 's the Antichristian Doctrine of Persecution that has transformed the mild and sociable Nature of Man into greater Ferocity than that of Wolves and Tigers for nothing it's certain can more exasperate the Minds of Men than to be ill used for following the Dictates of their Consciences for then every one of them since they all suffer upon the same Account will be apt to resent not only what is done to himself but to the rest of his Sect who cannot but think their Persecutors their mortal Enemies since they not only use them ill without any manner of Provocation but as they cannot but suppose endeavour to force them to ruin themselves eternally and they if ever they get their Persecutors in their Power will in all likelihood double or treble on them what themselves suffered So by degrees Men arrive to the height of Fury Rage and Madness and break thrô not only all the Ties of Christianity but even Humanity tho whilst they thus furnish such powerful Provocations to endless Discords Hatreds Factions Wars Massacres c. they have nothing in their Mouths but the Good of the Church and Salvation of Souls not considering that without Love they cannot be Christ's Disciples John 13. and that all other Duties without Charity profit nothing But what is more opposite to these than to tempt Men to make themselves miserable hereafter to avoid being so here For either they must continue all their Lives under Persecution which who can support or else they must buy their temporal Quiet with the loss of their Eternal Happiness But 4. This Doctrine of Compulsion is not only inconsistent with Love Meekness and such-like but directly contrary to the very Foundation of natural Equity and Justice in causing Men to do as they would not be done unto for they that are when they have the Civil Power on their side
he does God Service therein therefore his Belief is worse than Atheism or no Faith at all That Faith that must save us is that which works by Love but his Faith destroys his Love The Apostle James Chap. 1. v. 27. tells us Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction But his Religion is to bring Affliction to Fatherless and Widows and every one else that has a different Perswasion from himself In a word If it were so great a Crime in the Jews that it could not be forgiven in this World nor the next to impute the Miracles our Saviour did when he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed with the Devil not to the Holy Spirit but to that of Beelzebub Can it be much less to impute to the Holy Ghost a Doctrine which destroys the End and Intent of all natural as well as revealed Religion and can serve to no other End than to dishonour God destroy Conscience and confound Mankind By what has been said I think it 's plain that nothing can be more provoking to the Supream Protector of Mankind than to pervert the Knowledg he has given us of himself for the Good of his Creatures to their ruin and make the Honour of God a Pretence for destroying the Welfare of Human Societies Besides 5. What can be more absurd than that in judging of these matters wherein we differ from Brutes we should be subject to brutal Force which is the highest Indignity that can be put not only on Reason which is the Candle of the Lord but upon Religion it self which is the highest and most exalted Reason and even upon the infinitely rational Nature of God which can receive no Satisfaction but in a Rational Service which must be free and spontaneous Force has only a natural tendency and therefore can only lawfully be used to cure brutal Passions where Men act contrary to their Knowledg and in defiance to their Reason where the Inconveniences they suffer may over-balance the Pleasure they receive in indulging their unlawful Appetites But he seems to be void of all Understanding himself who by Force attempts to inform the Understanding If Reasons and Arguments cannot convince it 's downright Madness to think Fines Imprisonments or Tortures can 6. The destroying Men when the Publick Good does not require it on pretence it's pleasing to God what is it but in effect imagining he delights in Man's Blood and Human Sacrifices And as under the Law none were to be offered but unspotted and clean Beasts so here none are to be sacrificed but pure and undefiled Men who prefer the honouring and obeying God according to the best of their Knowledg before any worldly Advantages whatever even the saving their own Lives And as the Heathen Priests amongst the most brutish and barbarous Nations introduced the sacrificing of Men not so much to gratify their Gods as their own Ambition there being no way more effectual to bring a Man who otherwise would be in danger to be mark'd for a Sacrifice into perfect Subjection so the Christian Priests who have given the World as little reason to suspect their neglecting any Means that make for their Advantage promoted the sacrificing the Peoples Lives and Properties much upon the same account For they having obtained the Direction of the Sword made it fall with unparallel'd Cruelty on all that opposed or by a Separation disowned their usurped Powers and Jurisdictions by which means they made the People on whom they imposed what Doctrines they thought fit absolute Slaves and Magistrates no better than their Executioners who durst not refuse to put their Sentences in force 7. It may be said That the Magistrate when he deprives People of their Lives or Properties does not offer them as a Sacrifice to God but as God's Vicar in Spirituals executes his Wrath on those that offend him But if it be the Magistrate's Duty to punish those Offences that relate meerly to God it cannot be presumed but that God has sufficiently qualified him for that Employ which how can it be whilst he is incapable of knowing not only the greatest part of the Actions but all the Thoughts of Men in which alone consists by far the greater part of the Offences against him Nay to qualify the Magistrate for this Employ 't is not sufficient he knows the present but it 's necessary he should discern the future Thoughts of Men and how God himself will deal with them for if God instead of punishing will highly reward those that come in at the Eleventh as well as at the first Hour it would be unjust in the Substitute to punish where the Principal for whose Sake alone he punisheth will not only pardon but highly reward But 8. This is so far from being so that the Magistrate is obliged to punish not only those that will be but those that are actually innocent in the Sight of God otherwise he could punish no Criminal at all because there 's none but will pretend he has truly repented of his Crime and consequently is wholly innocent in the sight of God And the Magistrate being no Discerner of Hearts could punish none for fear of punishing such a One had he not a Right to punish those who with respect to God are entirely Innocent so vice versa had he not a Power to forgive those that in relation to God are as Nocent it would not be in his Power to forgive any one Nay the Magistrate may justly be the Occasion even of the Death not only of those that have repented of their Crimes but even of Innocent Persons as he is by forcing his Innocent Subjects into the Wars where it 's unavoidable but Numbers must be slain and in attacking Ships and Towns of Enemies where Children that never offended either God or Man are very often destroyed and this without any Fault in the Magistrate because protecting the Common-Wealth being his indispensible Duty any lesser Good in competition with that ought to be looked upon sub ratione Mali. All which sufficiently shows that the only thing he concerns himself with as Magistrate is the Good of the Society and that he rewards and punishes his Subjects only as it tends to this End without respect to their being either Innocent or Nocent in the Sight of God and that when he punishes any Sin he does it not as it 's a Sin against God but as it 's prejudicial to the Society and consequently he does not act as God's Deputy in punishing Offences meerly as they relate to him But to make this if it be possible more plain 10. The Magistrate as he has no Right so he pretends to none to punish for things that are owned by all to be notorious Offences against God and where Men cannot plead Conscience to justify themselves such as Pride Ambition Ingratitude breach of Promise Lying Uncharitableness Envy Ill-nature Covetousness Prodigality
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
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
a pernicious Example to others But if Men out of Conscience worship false Gods and are thereby guilty of what is called material Blasphemy the reason for punishing them wholly ceaseth for Force cannot convince but only make them false to their Consciences and they that are so will never be true to the Publick therefore the Magistrate is so far from having a Right to hinder them from honouring those false Gods that he ought to punish those who whilst they pretend to worship them do dishonour them by Blasphemy Perjury or any other manifest Contempt nay God himself will punish such Contempts as if done to himself and consequently will punish the Magistrate for hindering them from worshipping those false Gods when they believe them to be true Ones 2. But as to Christian Magistrates punishing for Matters wherein Conscientious Persons may and do differ it shows their great Wickedness and Impiety in acting contrary to the Light of Nature and those Precepts and Practices of Christ and his Apostles and if there be any weight in meer Human Authority I may add contrary to the Sentiments of the Primitive Church for the first three hundred Years who we do not find but were all unanimous in condemning the use of Force in Matters of Religion and had they been of another Opinion nothing could be more absurd than those frequent Addresses they made to the Heathen for Liberty of Conscience For then they could not deny that it was the Duty of the Heathen Magistrate as long as they rejected what he judged to be the true Religion to punish them nor could they urge any thing for themselves but a shameless begging the thing in dispute which the Magistrate the proper Judg had determin'd against them And to hear them acknowledge that were the Power in their Hands they were oblig'd to serve them after the same manner could not but encourage the Heathen in their Persecution But they were so far from having any such Thoughts that even when the Empire became Christian the very Heathen Worship as the Bishop of Sarum observes in his most excellent Preface to Lactantius was not only tolerated for a whole Age together but the Heathens continued to be in the chief Employments of the Empire 3. Compulsion was not only against the Sense of the Primitive Christians but the rest of Mankind for tho the Differences amongst them were more in Number and wider than those amongst the Christians yet we do not find that they used Force to compel one another Socrates it's true was put to death for his Religion but were not the People tho still averse to his Principles as soon as their Fury was abated sensible of the Crime they had committed and of the Injury done him Therefore to make him what Amends they could they erected a Statue to his Memory and most of those that set them on were so abhorred that this together with their own Remorse made them become their own Executioners But what the Sense of the Heathen was about this Matter cannot be better known than from the Sentiments of Gallio the Town-Clerk of Ephesus Agrippa and Felix in the Acts of the Apostles Nay so zealous Assertors of Liberty of Conscience were the Heathens that we find Themistius and other Philosophers using all their Eloquence to perswade the Christian Emperors to give Liberty to the different Sects of Christians whilst at the same time the Bishops were urging them to persecute their Brethren If the Heathens would have persecuted any it would have been the Jewish Nation whose Religion they most disliked yet we do not find they were so used by the various Masters they were under from their first being subject unto Foreigners until the Destruction of Jerusalem and their being no longer a Nation but by the mad Antiochus who at last grievously lamented that Crime Nay Nero himself the first Persecutor of Christians durst not do it bare-fac'd but pretended they were Incendiaries and set Rome on fire and therefore were to be punished as Enemies to the State And it was their being so represented that was more than any thing else the Cause of their Sufferings For Trajan as soon as he perceived that they were Innocent and disobeyed no Laws of the Empire but those that forbad their Worship straight commanded that they should be no longer enquired after And Adrian under severe Penalties forbad any to accuse them The same did Antoninus Pius And Aurelius went further and made it Death to inform against them Nay Commodus himself as great a Tyrant as he was otherwise enacted the same most just Law so that it was then no less than a Capital Crime to cause any to be molested upon the Account of Religion tho supposed never so false 4. Nay I think I may add that Persecutors act not only contrary to the Sense of Mankind but their own Sentiments for ask any of them why the swift and sudden Encrease of the Mahometan Religion should not be as good an Argument for its Truth as 't is for that of the Christians they straightway answer That maugre its swift Progress 't is little less than a Demonstration of its Falshood that it has the Character of Persecution annexed to it and made use of Violence as a lawful Means for its promotion Which Answer of theirs shows that themselves believe Force an unlawful Means of promoting Religion for how else can that be an Argument of the Falseness of any Religion if it be a Means ordained by God to promote the True And therefore the Mahometans may justly say How can the Christians condemn them for using that Method which themselves as soon as they get Power into their Hands and the Mahometans could do it no sooner practised with far greater Cruelty even one upon the other Thus they give occasion for the Enemies of the Christian Religion to triumph and that so much the more confidently by how much less Christians suffer under them for Religion than they do under one another 5. Nay I may go further and add that there 's no Party of Christians but what have ever since Persecution has been in use expresly condemned it and have writ in defence of Liberty of Conscience And tho the Orthodox made use of Persecution as well as the Arians yet they not only condemn'd it but thought it so very odious that they supposed it as great a Crime as they could brand their Adversaries with And Athanasius in Epist. ad Solit. saith Persecution alone is a manifest Proof that they the Arians have neither Piety nor the fear of God For adds he it 's essential to Piety not to force any in imitation of our Saviour it 's the Devil that comes with violent Means And the Synod of Alexandria condemns all Force in Religion and reproaches the Arians as the Inventers and Promoters of it It 's strange they should be so very forgetful as not to mind that the Nicene Fathers over-perswaded Constantine contrary to his Faith
the choice of their Religion by no other Motive than that of their Eternal Happiness what right can the Magistrate have to make them do otherwise by the Awes and Bribes of this World To pretend to establish a Church by Penal Laws is inconsistent with the very Nature of it because it 's essential to a Church to be a voluntary Society that meet for no other Intent than to serve God as they think most agreeable to his Will If Men therefore associate not for this Consideration but because of Penal Laws they may be called any thing sooner than a Church 4. If worldly Awes and Bribes were away there could be little or nothing to prejudice Men in their grand Choice Education would not then make half so deep an Impression For it 's Persecution that 's the Occasion that People of different Perswasions contract so early and so great an Aversion one for the other that it becomes in a manner part of their Nature and makes it so very difficult to perswade them to hear with tolerable Patience what their Adversaries have to offer but were they taught to have that Love and Kindness which is due from different Sects to each other and instead of being frightned from were heartily advised to examine and impartially consider other Perswasions besides those they were bred in Education could create little or no Prejudice in Mens Minds who when they found themselves in an Error as what thinking Men do not discover some imbibed in their greener Years would then as freely leave them for the sake of their Souls as they do now their Diet or Physick when they judg the Health of their Bodies requires it nor would others then be more disturbed or concerned at the one than at the other I am sure there is more reason to change in one Case than in the other since the professing an Opinion one believes to be false is so far from doing him good that that alone turns it to rank Poison which is otherwise in Physick where a Man may be cured by a Medicine he has no Faith in By what has been said it 's evident that Force is so far from causing People impartially to consider that it can only serve either to prejudice them as they become capable of judging or else when they have chosen make them act against their Judgments 5. But it 's urged That when the Magistrate is of the true Religion himself his using Force will contribute to make others to be so by causing them to consider since it 's their Interest so to do the Reasons and Arguments that make for the true Religion That the Magistrate's using Force when he is of the true Religion tends to make others profess it there is no doubt but that it is by making them impartially consider ought not to be taken for granted since we find it as effectual to make them imbrace a false as a true Religion else the French Tyrant had not forced above a Million to turn Papists and therefore by how much the Number of the Erroneous Magistrates is greater than of the Orthodox by so much more it causeth the Profession of false Perswasions And if we should judg what may by what has already happened not only before but since Christ's coming it 's as probable that all Magistrates may use Force to promote Error as that any one should do it to propagate Truth It 's absurd to suppose Persecution makes Men impartially consider because they generally look on it as so just a Prejudice against any Religion that useth it that it tempts them without any further looking into it to conclude it wants Reason to support it self and therefore the Professors of it have recourse to brutal Force to uphold it and the way that Persecutors take to make Men hate their Persons is a very improper way to take off the Prejudices they have to their Opinions and as Suffering prejudices them against the Religion that causeth it so it strangely endears to them the Religion for which they suffer and makes them apt to think nothing but the Grace of God could cause them to adhere so firmly to their Religion and apply to themselves the Prophecies that foretel the Persecution of true Believers And in such a Case it 's almost impossible to convince them they have suffered for being in the wrong And 7. As to the Spectators it will be very apt to produce the same Effects and fill them with Horror and Indignation against the Principles of such Men as go about to ruin innocent Persons for serving God according to Conscience and make them judg as favourably of the Sufferers for there 's a natural Compassion that follows all in Misery which creates likeness of Affection and this very often likeness of Perswasion especially when they suppose the Sufferers would not expose themselves to those Punishments which by a Compliance they might easily avoid were they not fully convinced of the Truth of their Opinions And it 's very probable that the Quakers to give no other Instance had not been so very numerous had not the Sufferings which they generally bore with more than ordinary Resolution created in many of the by-standers not only an Aversion for the Church that persecuted them but a very great Esteem of them and by degrees of their Opinions 8. That violent and rough Methods are not the way to make prejudiced Persons impartially consider is evident from the contrary Method that all Men take when they endeavour to perswade And they are but little acquainted with Mankind who do not know how absolutely necessary it is for a Man by all insinuating ways to ingratiate himself with those he endeavours to perswade especially if it be of the falseness of an Opinion they have a long time imbibed Nay I desire no body to go further than his own Breast for an Experiment whether ever Violence gained any thing on his Opinion or whether Arguments managed but with Heat did not lose somewhat of their Efficacy and have not made him even the more obstinate in his Opinion So much concern'd is Human Nature to preserve the Liberty of that Part wherein lies the Dignity of Man which could it be imposed on by Force would make him but very little different from a Beast The properest Means to maintain any thing are those that first made it grow if therefore the Gospel had owed its first Encrease and Progress to Force that had been still the best Means to support it but since it was nursed and grew up by fair Means they must be the fittest to preserve it The Apostles in conquering the almost invincible Prejudices of the Jews and Gentiles made use of all those endearing Methods that are so directly opposite to Force And St. Paul the great Converter of the Gentiles became all things to all Men that he might gain some And he tells Timothy That the Servant of the Lord must not strive but must be gentle to all Men
their Consciences And yet your Protestant Persecutors for all their Pretences to Moderation would be as loth as the Papists their Excommunications should be without them As to punishing People in their Properties considering the almost infinite Variety of Mens Circumstances there can scarce be any Fines or Mulcts so small but the constant paying of them must ruin great Numbers and be grievous to many more There 's nothing can well be more moderate than the Price that Christians pay for Liberty of Conscience under the Mahometans yet to avoid that great Numbers of them turn Mussulmen In a word There is no such thing as Moderate Penalties in any persecuting Protestant Country And considering Mens Tempers how much sooner some than other will be wrought on by Punishment or losing some temporal Advantage it 's impossible to say what degree of Force will not make some act against their Conscience and prejudice others in their choice of Religion and destroy the Charity of most since there 's no where that Brotherly Love and Friendship between different Sects where Persecution prevails as the Gospel requires or as there is where they tolerate one another And where there is a Man whom Force will not cause to act against his Conscience or prejudice his Judgment or destroy his Charity it cannot be presumed but that the Thoughts of future Rewards and Punishments have made so religious a Person impartially consider so that the punishing him tho but moderately would be very unjust 12. And yet if the Magistrate has a Right to use Force to make People profess what Religion he judgeth to be true that degree of Force ought to be used that is most effectual to that End because where the End is a Duty the Means that are most conducive to it must be so too Now it 's evident a greater Degree will cause Men to profess where a less will not and consequently the greater Degree will have the greatest Effect Besides what can the Magistrate do if Men will still go on in a constant Defiance to his Laws to assert Opinions he judgeth do dishonour God or not assert others that do honour him must he not at last come to capital Punishments except he will see God continually dishonoured And if meer Opinions are of that fatal Consequence to the Souls of Men as Persecutors pretend it 's the highest Charity that can be to destroy all Promoters of such pernicious Opinions for is it not better that a few and those too hated of God should be cut off rather than they should destroy the Souls of a great many for who knows where such Opinions will stop not only of the present but of succeeding Generations so that here 's no room for Clemency For how can the Life of a Man counterpoise the loss of a Soul And since nothing can at least so certainly root out such Opinions as putting the Professors of them to Death is it not the highest Charity to the Souls of others to serve them so Nay it 's more for the Safety and Interest of a Nation that a few should be destroyed upon the Account of Religion than that great Numbers by lesser Punishments which suffers them to encrease should be grieved and provoked which must necessarily create Disturbances Tumults Wars c. Nay such proceeding will be the occasion of the Death of more People as it was here in the late Persecutions where more were starved or otherwise died in noisom Prisons than what are destroyed in the like Proportion of Time where the Inquisition is established And how little it 's able to bring People to a Uniformity may be judged from Charles the First 's Time where the Church was so far from rooting out the different Sects by Punishments and those too not very moderate that those Methods were the Ruin of the persecuting Church so that in respect of the good of Men as well as the Honour of God all Sectaries if they are not to be set wholly at Liberty are to be quite rooted out for all middle Ways are both absurd and unsafe CHAP. IV. Object That the Magistrate has a Right to use Force to prevent the Increase of those Erroneous Opinions that a Toleration would produce IF Force prevents Men from running into Errors it must be because it hinders Men from freely and impartially examining Matters of Religion which if Men would as freely do where Force is used as where 't is not it could no ways hinder the supposed encrease of Errors because the not using it does no wise blind nor the using it enlighten Mens Understandings And as Error where impartial Diligence is used is wholly innocent so where it 's neglected the accidental stumbling on Truth will not justify or excuse the neglect of it Therefore if it should tend to hinder Error by preventing Men from impartially considering it would not give the Magistrate a Right to use Force But how can Force in the Hands of Men as liable to be mistaken as those they use it on contribute to hinder Mens falling into Error There may perhaps be more Errors in a Country where there is Liberty of Conscience but not more in Error because it 's more than probable as I shall fully prove hereafter that where Persecution prevails they are all unanimous in the Wrong But where will the Magistrate using Force prevent Errors only in that Place where the Persecutor's particular Sect is established in all other Places it will as much serve to promote and immortalize them So that except the Persecutor can find out a way that only his Sect shall use Force he cannot deny but that there are at least a thousand Arguments to one even upon this Head against the use of it But 2. A free Permission from the Pulpit or Press for Men of different Opinions to propose their Reasons to the People that they may search into them in order to discern the Truth is so far from being the way to maintain and propagate Falshood that it 's the only way to destroy it except we will say That tho God has given us Faculties to judg of Truth and Falshood and has commanded us to make use of them in order to find the Truth yet the more we do so the further we shall be from discovering it To hinder Men from doing this on pretence they would be led into Error by it what is it but to make our selves wiser than God and in effect to say he is mistaken in the Method he has proposed to us for our discovering the Truth Therefore say the Persecutors let us keep the People in Ignorance of any Opinion but our own for fear lest when they come to understand the different Opinions and the Reasons that make for one side as well as the other they should be unqualified to judg of them 3. It may be said Upon supposition of this Liberty Opinions tho never so absurd may be published But if every one is to judg for
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
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
and Ambition is so very great in them that it cannot be expressed And this was not spoke in a Heat or dropt carelesly from him for he repeats it not only in his 65th 71st 72d and 74th Letters but in his Poetical Pieces P. 80. where he saith He will never go to any Synod because there 's nothing to be heard there but Geese and Cranes who fight without understanding one another There one may see Divisions Quarrels and shameful Things which were hid before and are collected into one place with cruel Men. And Basilius in his 102 Epist. is of the same Mind in resolving carefully to avoid all Assemblies of Bishops of whom he saith most severe things even worse than Nazianzen It cannot be supposed that these Good Men and I might add all that had any Ingenuity amongst them would say so very shameful things of their Brethren were there not very great Disorders amongst them But I need not mention the Opinions of particular Persons when the Church-History sufficiently shews there can scarce be more Scolding Wrangling Disorder and Confusions in a Bear-Garden than there has constantly been in those sort of Meetings So that one would be apt to think there was some Ground for what the Great Episcopius saith in his Institutes That the Bishops led on by Fury Faction and Madness did not so much compose as huddle up Creeds for the Christian World And considering the Heats and Animosities as well as differences of Opinions amongst the Clergy no better Effect at present can be expected from a Convocation which instead of destroying will in all likelihood encrease Divisions widen our Breaches heighten our Animosities and rend and tear the Church by excluding all those who are no contemptible Number that could not agree with the Sentiments of the prevailing Party and treating them according to usual Custom as Hereticks And what Thoughts prejudicial to the State as well as the Church this Disgrace and the loss of their Preferments may inspire them with or what a Ferment by their instigation it may cause in Peoples Minds cannot well be imagined The Confusion was so great after the Council of Nice that the good Emperor begs of his Bishops to vouchsafe him peaceable Days and quiet Nights that he might continue his Expedition against the Infidels and not be obliged to return to keep them in order And in all probability the Consequence of a Convocation would be a great interruption to the King 's prosecuting the War against the Enemies of our Religion and Liberties tho I hope our Author has no such Design in seeming so very zealous for a Convocation yet who can think him in earnest when he supposeth pag. 7. The next Age will not believe a Religion revealed by Heaven except the Convocation make such a Declaration Which is so far from being true that nothing would more expose revealed Religion than the Heats and Quarrels and other Irregularities that would happen in a Convocation If Synods are so necessary to preserve the Christian Religion how comes it that Mahometism propagated at first but by a private Man should in spight of frequent Councils get in most Places so much the better and that in others nothing but the Name of the Christian Religion should be left the Councils having destroyed the Essence of it by introducing Ignorance Superstition Uncharitableness Persecution Popery and Idolatry And no considering Man can doubt that had Convocations ever since the Reformation not only met but debated of Religious Matters as they thought fit as frequently as our Author pretends it 's their Right the Clergy long before now had assumed to themselves a Papal Power or if since the Revolution only a Toleration as well as all other Religious Matters had been left to a Convocation which was to sit as frequently and to debate Matters as freely as the Parliament does but it would have caused such a Ferment both in Church and State as would have destroyed both so that nothing has shown the Prudence and Wisdom of our Protestant Ancestors more than not allowing them those Powers our Author so zealously pleads for 11. Nothing more preserved the Church in the late King's Reign than the Dissenting Gentry and Nobility unanimously refusing to join with him in taking off the Test and Penal Laws for which the Church-men were not wanting in words to express their grateful Acknowledgment and to promise them upon the first Opportunity all the Kindness imaginable which when it was in their Power and the Convocation was desired to come to some Accommodation with the Dissenters they thought notwithstanding their former Obligations that Faith was as little to be kept with Schismaticks as the Council of Constance did with Hereticks But this is not the worst A great many it 's to be feared of our high Church-men were so dissatisfied with the Government 's depriving them of the Power of persecuting their Brethren which is almost as great a Grievance as to be persecuted themselves that they have ever since hated the Government and have endeavoured as far as they durst to subvert it tho they cannot but be sensible that at the same time they attempt the Ruin both of Church and State and of themselves into the bargain But where will not some Mens Spleen and Revenge carry them And it 's plain 't is for want of their beloved Persecution they are thus prejudiced for none were more zealous notwithstanding the Oxford Decree than these Church-men to Associate in defence of their Legal Rights and for the Security of the Prince of Orange's Person and did several other things more inconsistent with their former Notions than any they now pretend to scruple but none seems more inveterate than this Author who knowing nothing endears the King to the People more than his Zeal for the Protestant Religion and securing to them the quiet Enjoyment of it with the daily hazard of his Life has endeavoured to take off their Affections by maliciously insinuating as if his Majesty were a Person of no Religion For not to mention his Hints and sly Insinuations as P. 27. That those that were against the Sitting of a Convocation were Enemies to all Religion and the Professors of it and P. 23. to this effect as if Men whispered that it was not the King's Judgment and Piety that inclined him to be present at the Service of the Church and a great deal more to the same purpose he speaks out more plainly P. 22. where he takes occasion nothing to the purpose after he has said As for his Majesty's good Will we do not I say we will not in the least doubt it to add Tho some who would be thought to understand his Mind best and to be most in his Interests are pleased in all Companies to admire and celebrate a Prince of no Religion as the best of Governours Which is more malicious than if he had said it himself in direct Terms since it 's the likeliest way not