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. Tindal, Matthew, 1653?-1733. 1697 Approx. 284 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 105 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A62675 Wing T1302 ESTC R4528 11957669 ocm 11957669 51550 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A62675) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 51550) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 518:9) 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. Tindal, Matthew, 1653?-1733. [4], 204 p. Printed by J.D. for Andrew Bell, London : 1697. Attributed to Matthew Tindal. Cf. Halkett & Laing (2nd ed.). Advertisement: p. 204. A letter to a convocation-man was written by Sir Bartholomew Shower. Reproduction of original in Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. 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Dissenters, Religious -- England. 2004-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-11 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-01 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2005-01 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion 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 an Injustice if he should any farther than relates to the good of the Publick , enjoin Men the Care of their Private Concerns , or force them to a prosecution of their Private Interest , but only protect them from being invaded , ( which is much the same as Toleration ) there is the same reason he should no farther use Force in Matters of Religion , than the Publick Good is concerned , and only protect Men from being injured by others in their Private Concerns between God and themselves . 10. To suppose that one Man in the State of Nature had a Right to use Force on another on the account of meer Religion , is to suppose that State a State of Anarchy , War , and Confusion ; because every one supposing himself in the right , and not being willing to submit to another , there must necessarily happen perpetual Quarrels , Confusions and Destruction , which is contrary to the Law of right Reason , whereby in that State Men were wholly to be governed . The only Difference between being in a State of Nature , and under Government , consists in this , that under Government Men have debarred themselves from exercising their natural Rights , and intrusted the Magistrate to do those things that in the State of Nature every one of them had a Right to do ; so that the Magistrate's Power is not larger , but their 's more contracted than it was in that State. 11. If in the State of Nature Men had a Right to use Force one upon the other for Differences of Opinion ; different Nations , who with respect to one another are still in that State , may upon that account justly use it , which would involve almost all Nations ( since there are scarce any but differ , and in their own Opinions , very materially ) in endless Wars . But they are so far from thinking they ought to make War for this Reason , that by the Sacred Laws of Nations , Ambassadors , and all vested with a Publick Character , have a Right to exercise their own Religion in the Country they are sent to , tho never so contrary to that there established . But , 12. If the Magistrate of one Society has no Right to use Force on the Members of another , he can have as little to use it on those of his own , because in becoming their Governour , he has obliged himself to promote their Happiness and Welfare : And he that is entrusted with a Power for the Good of the Society , can never have a Right to use it to the Prejudice of it , as he manifestly does who deprives his Subjects either of their Lives or Properties for things that do not relate to the Safety or Good of the Civil Society . Which either against Foreign or Domestick Enemies , is best provided for by the Peoples Union , which arises from the mutual Enjoyments of their Liberty , whereby the Source and Foundation of Domestick Enmities is taken away , and their Strength against Foreign Enemies encreased ; which Union , and with it the general Welfare of the People , can only be secured by such a Conduct in the Governors , as gives impartial Encouragement to all that are Vertuous and Industrious , and perfect Security to every one in the Fruits of their Labours : Which is altogether inconsistent with the Magistrate's depriving them of those Fruits , or any part of them , for Matters meerly Religious , which can only tend to divide a People into Parties and Factions , and to weaken the State by their Disunion , and endanger it by their Discontents . But this is not the worst ; it necessarily tends to the ruining and beggaring of a Nation , not only by destroying all Encouragement to Industry , Frugality , and Labour , but by depriving People of the Means to carry on those Trades , upon which the Safety and Riches of a Nation depend ; which must in time depopulate a Country , as we find evident in all those where Men are not secure in the enjoyments of the Fruits of their own and their Ancestors Labours . But such Tyranny is much more destructive , when it happens upon the Account of Religion ; then it wholly falls on the truly Religious , and Conscientious , who are the most Just , most Frugal , most Industrious , and in a word most serviceable to their Country both in Peace and War : For that Conscience that makes them suffer rather than act against it , causeth them to abound with all those moral Vertues ( about which there are no Contentions ) that are necessary and useful to the Publick . But because I shall have further occasion to mention the fatal Consequences of Persecution , I shall only add here , that there never was a Nation ( especially a trading One , where Men could with ease remove themselves and their Effects ) long either Rich , Populous or Happy , where Persecution prevail'd : And on the contrary , no Nation but what has thriven proportionably as they have allowed a Toleration . 13. In a word , since it 's the Magistrate's Duty to preserve as much as possible , when it 's not contrary to the greater Good of the Society , the Property , Quiet and Life of every individual Person ; neither Man nor God can oblige him to inconsistent or contradictory things , viz. to do this , and deprive the Members of the Society of these , when the Good of it is not concerned : But the more the Good of the Society forbids him , the more he is obliged to use Force , because as the Number of those he judges to be erroneous encreases ; so not only the Number of the Sufferers , but even their Sufferings ought to encrease , to put a stop to those spreading Errors . But the more the Sufferers are , and the more they suffer , the more the Publick is damnified ; so that it 's evident the Magistrate cannot be obliged both to promote the Publick Good , and to use this Power . Nay , the very exercising such a Power is inconsistent with Government , and as far as it extends destroys it : because a Design to deprive People , not only of their Lives , but Properties , ( for conservation of which Government was instituted , and therefore more sacred than Government it self ) and a Design to govern them are inconsistent . And has not the Magistrate such a Design , when he invades the Peoples Rights for things not tending to the Good of the Society , nor as much as in their Power , but morally impossible , such as acting contrary to their Conscience is ? And it 's a greater piece of Tyranny to punish Men for what is morally , than what is naturally impossible . 14. If the Magistrate on pretence of the Honour of God , or the Good of Souls , can use Force to make Men of that Religion he judgeth to be true , there can be no reason why the same religious Causes should not oblige the dissenting Subjects to use Force on the Magistrate and his Sect , in order to cause them to be of that Religion they judg to be true . The same reason that will justify one , will equally justify the other : For Property is no more founded in speculative Opinions or ceremonial Practices , than Dominion is ; and the Magistrate is as much bound to protect his Subjects , and not to destroy their Privileges , as they are to obey him , and not to invade his Prerogatives . The Duties are reciprocal , and consequently one Party cannot be bound , but the other must be so too , so that both or neither are free to use Force in such Cases . It 's said , the Good of the Society hinders the Subjects from using Force : The same Reason then must hinder the Magistrate too , because Men will not endeavour to use Force against him , but when they judg themselves strong enough , and then they will ( whatever Passive Principles they may pretend ) as little fail to do it , if he persecutes them ; and in the mean time they must suffer all he will inflict : which makes the Argument to conclude much stronger against the Magistrate ; the Abuse of whose Power produces greater and more unavoidable Mischiefs to Mankind than any thing else can . 15. By what has been said , I think it 's evident that Men , tho they are answerable to God for every Breach of his Laws , yet are accountable to one another , for those things only that relate to their mutual Security and Welfare ; because every Man has so much Interest ( and no more ) in another's Conduct ; and therefore Government is no further concerned in Matters of Religion , than as the Principles or Practices of the different Professors tend to make them more or less fit for the Duties of the Society . For which Reason those Opinions that are meerly Speculative , or Practices that are purely Ceremonial , as having no relation at all to the true Foundation of Government , ought to be tolerated ; for nothing can be evidently more unjust , than for the Representative of the Civil Society ( as the Magistrate is ) to deprive any of the Rights of the Society , who has done nothing against its Interest : nor can any thing be more ridiculous , than to suppose a Man's Rights to the enjoyment of this Life , ought to depend upon his thinking just as the Magistrate does about Things relating to the next ; or that a Man's Property in this World is founded upon his having right Notions of Things no ways relating to it ; which is as absurd as that Property is founded in Grace : and there is as much dispute who is in the right Opinion , as who has Grace , every one alike pretending to it , and none being obliged to submit to the Determination of another . CHAP. II. That God has not , either by the Law of Nature , or his positive Law , given the Magistrate a Power in Matters meerly Religious . SINCE it appears that the Magistrate has not his Power immediately from God , but from the People ; and that God has not authoriz'd or capacitated them to bestow a Right on him to use Force in Cases of meer Religion , it necessary follows that he has no such Right . But however , to avoid all pretence of Cavilling , let us suppose , that Government , both as to the Form and to the Persons that administer it , is immediately from God ; yet still it 's most evident that the Magistrate has no such Power . 1. Which thus I prove : A Right in the Magistrate to punish for not doing as he commands , necessarily supposes it a Duty in the Subject to obey , otherwise he would punish a Man for not doing what he is not obliged to do : and where there is no Power to make Laws , or to command , there can be no Disobedience ; and where there is no Disobedience , there punishing on pretence of Disobeying is manifestly unjust . But that God has the sole Legislative Power in Matters meerly Religious , or what only concerns himself , and can alone prescribe what Honour , Worship , &c. shall be paid him , none ( I suppose ) will deny ; therefore the Magistrate has no Legislative nor Coercive Power , which cannot subsist without Legislation , to which it necessarily adheres . And , 2. As God has reserv'd to himself the sole Legislature , so he has not given the Magistrate a Right to interpret for others his Law , or to impose on them in what sense they must understand it . But he has endowed Men in general with Reason , which is the only Guide he has obliged them to follow in judging of the Sense and Meaning of his Laws ; and he that does not follow it , degrades himself from the Rank of rational Creatures , and highly offends God. And this is not only evident by the Light of Nature , but confirmed by God's Positive Law , which frequently commands us to make use thereof in Matters of Religion : We are bid to prove all things , and hold fast that which is good ; to try the Spirits ; to let no Man deceive us ; to beware of false Prophets , Seducers , Deceivers ; to judg of our selves what is right . But how shall we judg and try ? Not as the Horse and Mule which have no Vnderstanding , but as Circumspect and Wise ; that is , by making use of those Faculties God has given us to discern between Truth and Falshood , Good and Evil. And he not only forbids us to act contrary to our Judgment , but requires we should be fully satisfied before we act : For he that acts when he doubts , is damn'd ; and whatsoever is not of Faith , is Sin. The Reason is most evident , why a Man ought not to do an Action when he judges it to be ill , because to judg an Action to be ill , or displeasing to God , is the same ; and he that forms such a Judgment of an Action , and yet does it , does knowingly and willingly displease God , which is eternally and essentially ill , because no Circumstances what-ever can make it lawful for a Creature to do that which he judges will offend his Creator , or even to act when he doubts whether it will or no. If then God rewards and punishes Men according as they have followed the Dictates of their Reason , that must needs be the Rule of their Actions , and not the Commands of the Magistrate ; and consequently the Magistrate can have no more Right to use Force on a Subject , than a Subject has on him : for tho he is his Subject in other Matters , yet in those meerly Religious , he is equally a Soveraign , equally Independant as the Magistrate himself ; because where there is no other Judg on Earth but every one 's own Reason , every Man ( one as well as another ) is a Supream Judg : Nay , this Sovereign Right of judging every one for himself is so inherent , that none can make this Power over to another . So that it 's impossible that the Magistrate upon any Pretence whatever , can claim a Magisterial Power in these Matters , but only a Right to advise , which belongs to every one as well as to him . And , 3. The Difference between Advice and Command consists in this , that Advice one is oblig'd to follow , not for the sake of the Person that gives it , but for the good that is contained in it , which he , to whom and for whose sake it is given , is to judg of ; and consequently if he does not think it good , is not obliged to follow it . It 's ridiculous as well as unjust to use Force in Matters of Advice , and by Civil Sanctions oblige People to follow it . Whoever does this , does in effect ( however he may deny it in Words ) claim a Legislative Power . But where there is such a Power , one is oblig'd to obey upon the account , and for the sake of the Authority that commands it : And if the Magistrate had such a Power , Men would be obliged to profess whatever Religion he commands them . 4. The Reason why a Judg is necessary in Civil and not in Religious Controversies , is , because in Civil Matters it is impossible that Titius should enjoy the things in Controversy , and Sempronius too ; therefore the Plaintiff must injure the Defendant by disquieting his Possession , or the Defendant wrong the Plaintiff by keeping his Right from him , so that there is a necessity of a common Judg between them , who would be to no purpose if both Parties were not obliged to acquiesce in his Sentence , I mean , with an external Obedience , so as to suffer it to be put in execution ; but not with an Internal , so as to believe it always just . But in Religious Controversies the Case is otherwise , for there each may hold his Opinion , and do the other no wrong nor himself neither , if he did his best in judging concerning his Opinion , so that there can be no occasion of a Judg : And it 's further considerable that here can be none but what is a Party , as being before engaged either for or against the Opinion that is to be decided : But for a Party to judg it against all natural Equity , tho it 's the constant practice of the Clergy to make profest and highly interessed Parties , whose Preferments are held by declaring for such Opinions , to be both Accusers and Judges ; that is , to declare themselves Orthodox , and therefore to engross all Preferments , and their Opponents Heterodox , and consequently not to share with them . But if there is a Judg to whose Determination one is obliged to submit , he that is so obliged must give an Internal Consent , because here all External Compliance contrary to one's Judgment is a Sin ; but all the Power in the World is not able to make a Man give an Internal Consent , because it 's not in his own , much less in another's Power to make him believe or think as he pleaseth : Yet were that possible , no Man is qualified to be a Judg but he that is infallible ; besides , were there any such Judg , yet a Man was not to be ruled by him , except he was convinced he was so . But , 5. There being no such Judg on Earth , there is an absolute necessity of leaving those Controversies to be decided by God himself , as being Matters wholly relating to him , and consequently wholly to be left to him . Therefore for the Magistrate to punish any for acting according to their Judgments , is not only invading the Rights of his Fellow-men , but the Prerogative of God himself , in taking upon him to judg those Matters God has reserv'd for his own Tribunal . Nay , he goes further than this , and punisheth Men for obeying God rather than himself . God requires Man to worship him as he in his Conscience thinks most agreeable to his Will ; and the Magistrate threatneth him if he does so , to Fine , Imprison , and Ruin him , which is setting himself above God ; a Crime greater than that of Lucifer , who only attempted an Equality with his Maker , not a Superiority above him . 6. It 's said , the Magistrate has a Right to hinder his Subjects from following their Consciences when erroneous . Which is very absurd ; for if a Man was not oblig'd to act according to his Conscience for fear of its being erroneous , no Man would be obliged to act according to his Conscience at all , since the mistaken Person thinks himself as much in the right , nay is generally more confident than he that is really so : So that if one must follow his Conscience , there 's the same necessity for all , because all equally judg themselves in the Right . But if the Magistrate is to judg whose Conscience is erroneous , then Men must desert their Consciences , and all the World over profess the same Principles with the Magistrates they live under . For Civil Government is every where the same , and one Magistrate as well as another has an equal right to judg who of his Subjects have erroneous Consciences . 7. If it be Mens indispensible Duty to worship God according to Conscience , and that publickly too , ( for the more publick the Worship is , the more it tends to the Glory of God ) it must be their Duty to use the Means that are necessary to that End ; and consequently , if it be necessary , oppose Force to Force : for the Magistrate in things beyond his Commission , is but a private Person ; and People do no Injustice in defending that Right none can have a right to deprive them of , and which themselves cannot part with ; it being the Essential Right of Human Nature , to worship God according to Conviction , which is antecedent to all Government , and can never be subject to it . But , 8. If the Magistrate has a Right to use Force in Matters of meer Religion , he must have this Right by God's positive Law , or by the Law of Nature . But that he has no such Power by God's positive Law , is evident from this one Consideration , that all Mankind ( except the Jews whose Laws were not obligatory to other Nations ) were under no Law but that of Nature , until the coming of Christ : But Christ , whose Kingdom is not of this World , and who disclaimed all Civil Power , made no Change or Alteration in the Civil Rights and Conditions of Mankind , which he must have done had he made Mens Properties depend upon their thinking or acting in Matters purely Religious according to the Magistrate's Judgment . As Christ and the Magistrate have each their distinct Kingdoms , so they must have each their Limits and Bounds ; the Magistrate's Kingdom ( it's true ) must be subservient to Christ's in punishing Vice and Immorality , and in preserving People from being molested in their Civil Rights for worshipping God according to Conscience ; and here he still keeps within the Confines of his own Kingdom : but if he exerciseth a Legislature in Christ's , and makes use of Violence to put his Laws in execution , he assumes a greater Power than Christ himself claims . But , 9. If the Magistrate claims such a Right by the Law of Nature , that Right ought fully to be made appear , because there is no part of that Law but what is most clear and evident . To prove he has such a Power , it 's usually urged , that if Parents by the Law of Nature have a right to use Force on their Children in Matters of meer Religion ; the Magistrate , whose Power over his Subjects is much greater than that of Parents over their Children , has at least as great a Right . I answer ; It 's a Duty in Parents , for the Good of their Children , ( for which they are fitted by their natural Love and Tenderness ) to supply the Defects of their Understanding , until they are capable of understanding for themselves . Before which time Parents no 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 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 ) for judging for others , and punishing them for not acting according to their Judgments , are unwilling that others , when the Scales of Authority are turned , should judg for them in like manner . Tho then there 's nothing they can plead for themselves , but what before they condemned in others ; and it would be as ridiculous to request those that they before ill used , to have regard to the common Rules of Justice , as it would have been in those Scythians who sacrificed all Strangers to their Gods , to desire others to have respect to the Laws of Hospitality . 5. It may be objected , That the Rule of doing as you would be done unto does not hold , because one Magistrate is in the Right , and the other not ; and consequently he that is in the Right himself , has a Right to judg , but not vice versa . Answ. But since the Dispute is who is in the Right , it 's ridiculous to say , he that 's only in the Right has a Power to judg , except there were some Superiour to determine which of them is in the Right ; but there being no such Superiour , every Magistrate is to judg for himself , who to be sure will judg himself in the Right , and consequently those that differ from him in the Wrong : And there can be no reason why one Magistrate as well as another has not a Right to judg , since that Right is founded in being a Magistrate , which is common to them all : And there can be no Reason for the Orthodox punishing Schismaticks , Hereticks , Mahometans , Jews , Pagans , &c. but what will equally oblige them , as long as they believe themselves to be Orthodox , to punish those that really are so . Therefore the Defenders of any Persecution are guilty of encouraging and abetting all Persecution whatsoever , even that under which themselves suffer , since they can frame no Arguments to justify the using Force to promote the true Religion , but what will equally serve in behalf of any Religion that 's believed to be true : As we find the loose Harangues of Austin upon that Subject are urged by the Patrons of Persecution , of what Sect or Denomination soever . And since there can be no Argument to prosecute Error , but what will be turned upon Truth it self , let the Persecutors themselves judg whether it 's not better to leave all such disputable Points to the only just Judg , than to take them into their own Hands ; who , were they wholly ignorant in what part of the World their Station was to be , would be glad there was no such thing as Persecution , rather than run the risque of being persecuted themselves , which shows that even they look on it in general as an ill thing ; and it 's better certainly that a particular Inconvenience ( supposing Toleration to be such ) should be permitted , than such a Universal Mischief as Persecution is , should prevail . It 's said , do as you would be done unto , is not properly a Law to warrant the thing we are about , but only a Rule to direct us what Measures we ought to observe in our acting with others , when the thing it self is lawful . Which granting to be true , yet for a Man to judg which is the true Religion , and act according to that Judgment , all agree is not only lawful , but a Duty , because all agree themselves are obliged to act so ; and therefore if I desire this Liberty for my self , I ought not to deny it to my Brother , seeing he is a Man , and I am no more , and therefore no more infallible than he , and for that reason can have no more Right to persecute him into my Opinion , than he has to force me into his ; for between Equals there ought to be an equal Measure : Now by Nature all Men are equal , and have an equal and natural Right of serving God as they think best ; and no accidental Difference as to other Matters , can deprive them of this Right . In a word , there can be no reason to deny the Obligation of this Rule in this Case , but what will equally destroy it in any other . But , 6. Persecution destroys not only natural Equity and Justice , but breaks all the Ties of Kindred , Blood , Gratitude , Merit ; because , let a Man be never so nearly related to one of persecuting Principles , or have done him all the important Kindnesses imaginable , or have never so much Merit , be never so useful to the Publick , or be never so exemplary in his Life and Conversation , that will but the sooner expose him to suffer , not only because People are apt to be influenced by such a one , but because according to the Persecutor's Principles he is obliged to harass him sooner than another , out of pure love to him , it being the kindest thing he is capable of doing him : So that without a Figure it may justly be said of all Persecutors , that their very Mercies and Kindnesses are Cruelties . But , 7. This is not all , this Doctrine of Compulsion annuls all Obligations of the most Sacred Oaths ; for if the Magistrate is obliged by God to use Force on his dissenting Subjects , no Promises to indemnify them , tho sworn to with the most solemn Oaths , ought to be kept , because all such Oaths are void from the beginning , the Magistrate being under a prior Obligation to God ( which is not in his Power to dispense with ) to punish them ; which must make all Quarrels between the Magistrate and his dissenting Subjects immortal , since there can be no Security given that they shall not be punished for their Religion when-ever it is in the Magistrate's Power : and by the same Reason , all Articles and Covenants that Towns or Countries make for Liberty of Conscience , upon their submitting themselves , are null and void ; and so are all the Promises which Popish Kings have made to their Protestant Subjects , because they are obliged to punish Hereticks , ( which they suppose Protestants to be ) and consequently cannot but think their Oaths unlawful . And all our late Laws for Liberty of Conscience are in themselves void , because he that has the Power of the Sword , is required by God's Laws ( which no Human Ones can supersede ) to punish Dissenters from the true Church : And if all these Obligations are void in themselves , what Reason is there that those between Sovereign and Sovereign should be more firm , when either of them judg the breaking them will tend to advance the Honour of God , since , as they cannot pretend to have so great a tenderness for the Right of Foreigners , as of their own Subjects , so they cannot but know that God is equally dishonoured by false Religions in one Place as in another ? And it 's but a poor Zeal for his Honour , that looks no farther than such a Lake , River , or Mountain , the usual Boundaries of Kingdoms ; which would be the way to set all Mankind together by the Ears . But , 8. Suppose it should not always have that Effect , yet it must necessarily destroy all Trade and Commerce between Nations of different Perswasions ; for who would venture into a Foreign Nation , except he were of the same Perswasion with them , if they were equally obliged to punish Men for false Religions or Doctrines , as well as for Theft and Murder , & c ? which must necessarily discourage all Commerce , and make Nations most inhospitable and barbarous : And if Persecutors do not follow this Method , it 's because they do not act according to their own Principles , 9. Which root out all Mercy , and take from the Magistrate all Power of pardoning any Crime whatever , and from all private Persons the forgiving their Enemies : For if the Magistrate is not to act as the Representative of the Civil Society only , but also to punish Offences against God , meerly as such , tho he may forgive any Crime against himself , or pardon the breach of his own Laws ; yet these being also Sins against God , he is obliged upon God's Account to punish Men for the Breach of them , as well as for Infidelity or Heresy : And all private Persons , tho they must forgive their Brethren , not only seven , but seven times seven , yet the not punishing them by this Doctrine is wholly put out of their Power , because it obliges them to shew their Zeal for God's Honour , in getting the Magistrate to punish them , who by injuring their Brethren , offend against God. 10. In a word , this Doctrine of Force is directly contrary to the main Design of all God's Laws , wherein Men are concerned one with another , which is their mutual Good : As for Instance ; The forbidding Murder is intended for the Security of Mens greatest Good , their Lives ; which would be strangely defeated , if the Supream Powers were to punish with Death those they judg do dishonour God with their false Worship , because it would not fail to fill the World with Blood and Slaughter , since the Governours of it are as opposite in their Judgments about these Matters , as in the Fable the Man's two Wives were , where his old one pluckt out his black Hairs , and his young Wife his gray Ones . But suppose the Supream Powers were not oblig'd to deprive People of their Lives , but only of their Properties , ( not to mention that even that would destroy great Numbers by robbing them of the Necessaries of Life ) the end of all those Laws which forbid all kinds of Injuries , and require mutual Assistance one towards another for their common good , would be in a manner destroyed , since a great part of Mankind must be unavoidably miserable , by being either at once , or by degrees , deprived of the means of subsisting happily , and the rest would hold what they possess but by a precarious Tenure , since it would depend on their Governours , ( tho they had never so many successively ) or their own not changing their Opinions , ( neither of which is in their Power to hinder ) whether they should enjoy any thing or not . Therefore it shews the greatest Indiscretion in those ( who tho they have a share in the Legislature , yet are subject to the Laws themselves ) to consent to any persecuting Ones , because they cannot be sure but that they are contriving Rods for their own Backs , or for their Childrens or near Relations : and I believe there are few Persecutors ( for all their Zeal ) but would rather Speculative Points were wholly left to the merciful and wise Judgment of God , than to have their own Families or Friends ruin'd about them . But to return ; In vain are the Magistrates required not to tyrannize over and oppress their Subjects , if they are to punish them for not being of the same Perswasion with them . It had been much happier for Men in relation to their Temporal , as well as Eternal Condition , to be in a State of Nature , than to let Tyrants deprive them of the Comforts of this Life , for no other Reason than not daring to act contrary to their Consciences in things not relating to this Life : And People , where they oppress one the other , when the Good of the Society cannot be pretended , may justly be reckoned in a worse State than that of Nature , viz. of War , which is never at an end as long as there are Men who cannot comply with all those things , that out of Ignorance , Superstition , Ambition , &c. are established as necessary to Church-Communion . 11. In a word ; Can Men oppress , ruin and kill for God's sake , and destroy all moral Honesty on pretence of Religion ? which when it serves to no other end than to enflame the Tempers of Men , and set a keener Edg on their Spirits , and to make them ten times more the Children of Wrath and Cruelty than they are by Nature , does surely lose its Nature , and ceases to be Religion ; for let Men say worse of Infidelity and Atheism if they can . But if , on the contrary , the ruining those that do nothing against the Welfare of the Society , becomes an Act of Piety , when it 's made use of to extirpate a false Religion or Opinion , there are no Crimes whatever but by the same reason will become religious and vertuous Actions , if they are equally serviceable to the same pious End ; scelera ipsa nef asque hâc mercede placent : and consequently it would be an Act of Piety and Vertue to make use of pious Frauds to calumniate , to lie , to bear false Witness , to murder , to assassinate even the Magistrate himself . 12. Thus , whereas Religion has no other Design than the Advancement of Man's Happiness , and God's Glory ; this persecuting Humour is so far from being serviceable to the former , that it 's plainly destructive of it : for whereas in order to that good End , the Scripture has directed all Stations and Relations of Men so to act , as may best tend to Love and peace , ( the true Basis of the Happiness of the Society ) this drives them all to contrary Motions ; for Magistrates are incited to ruin those for whose Good they were instituted . Subjects are tempted to disobey their Governours , and retaliate Persecution so much the more fiercely , by how much greater Influence their Opinions and Actions have upon the Community . Nor does it only destroy the Peace of a Nation within its own Bowels , but it engageth one Nation against another . And , 13. As it destroys all these Publick Obligations , by the same reason all private Ones ( which are not so great as those owing to the Publick ) must cease ; so that it embroileth private Families , subverts the mutual Duties between Parents and Children , Husbands and Wives , Masters and Servants , &c. seducing them into a belief , that the way to be serviceable to one another's Eternal Interest , is by being cruel to their Temporal ; and consequently the more Charity they owe one another , the sooner they are to use one another ill . Nor can there by any reason why the doing this of themselves is not as effectual to promote each others Eternal Happiness , as the doing the very same at the command of the Magistrate , ( who is every whit as fallible as they ) or why they need more to expect a Command to use Force , than to give Advice , if one as well as the other has a tendency to promote ( which is every ones Duty ) the Good of Souls , and the Honour of God. Now tho Persecution tends no less to the Dishonour of God , than the Unhappiness of Man ; yet because hitherto we see God's Honour no otherwise concerned than indirectly and by consequence , I shall therefore show in my next , CHAP. V. That the Doctrine of Compulsion is directly contrary to the Honour of God. 1. THE only way that Men can render immediate Honour to God , is by worshipping him according to that Method they think most agreeable to his Will : If therefore the Magistrate punisheth them for so doing , he setteth himself in direct opposition to the Honour of God : For then he must by Force endeavour to hinder them , either from worshipping God at all , which is the way to make them down-right Irreligious , or else force them to worship him in a way they believe he has forbid ; which is adding to the neglect of worshipping him as they ought , down-right Affronts , and under pretence of appeasing his Anger , ( which is the Design of their solemn Devotion ) provoking him by a notorious Dissimulation and a mock-Worship . Therefore without setting himself against God , he cannot deny them the entire liberty of worshipping him as they think best , and that publickly too ; for the more publick the Worship is , the more it tends to his Honour . To acknowledg that Men in private ought to worship God according to their Consciences , and to deny it 's their Duty to do so in Publick , is very absurd ; or if it be their Duty , to pretend to have a Right from God to hinder them from doing their Duty , is more absurd . In short , what can shew a greater Defiance of the Almighty , and relish more of the Spirit of the Devil , than to persecute Men for expressing their Love and Zeal for the Honour of God , which they can no otherwise do , than by worshipping him according to their Consciences ? And God will resent as done to himself , what-ever is done to a Child of his upon that account . And Persecutors do not come much behind that Italian in Impiety , who made his Enemy blaspheme God , and then stab'd him , when they make innocent Persons who are no ways their Enemies , or have not done them the least Injury , not only once , but for all their Lives , guilty of a most detestable Apostacy , in revolting from their Consciences , and instead of honouring , offer God nothing but Indignities and Affronts , and ready to commit ( the Ties of Conscience once broken ) all manner of Impieties and Villanies . 2. Men can no otherwise honour God , than by entertaining such Conceptions of him , as tend to make them love , reverence , and fear him . Now the more any Nation doth this , the more by it they honour him ; and since what gives one a higher Idea of God and his Perfections , may have a different Effect upon another , Men may have different Ideas , and yet equally honour God. Therefore it 's very unjust in the different Sects to condemn each the other for dishonouring God , when each Party prefer their own Opinions , because they create in them the greater Esteem , Reverence and Honour for God ; and the Opposite they apprehend , in respect of their own , as injurious and dishonourable to him . Therefore to punish Men for honouring God according to their own Ideas , or to think they can honour him any otherwise , is very absurd . 3. Besides , this Doctrine of Compulsion reflects highly on the Honour of God , in making him act inconsistently , by obliging Men to judg for themselves , and honour God according to the best of their Judgments ; and at the same time requiring the Magistrate to judg for them , and to make them act according to his , and not their own Judgments . What I pray can be more injurious to the Justice as well as Goodness of God , than to suppose he has exposed the truly Religious and Conscientious to be every-where ill used , whilst Men of no Religion will be sure to escape by outwardly complying with that of the Magistrate's ? so that none but the Conscientious , and they too for being such , are subject to perpetual Misery . Such an impious Doctrine is so far from having a Divine Original , that it could owe its Rise to no other than the grand Enemy of Mankind , it being his Contrivance to tempt Men to dishonour God by their Hypocrisy , or else gratify his Malice on those that refuse . But , 4. It 's farther dishonourable to God , in making the two grand Commands , The Honour of God , and the Good of Mankind , ( which comprehend all Religion ) to clash one with the other : Because the Magistrate cannot promote the Honour of God by using Force on all he judges to have wrong Notions in Matters of meer Religion , without acting ( as has been already proved ) contrary to the Good of Mankind . But God's Laws are so far from being inconsistent , that there 's so perfect an Agreement and Connection between them , that the breaking one is the breaking all : Nay , the Love of God , and of our Neighbour , do so evidently imply or include each other , that they are in effect the same . For as our loving God is so absolutely necessary to our well-being , that without it we should be the most miserable of all Creatures ; so our loving our Neighbour ( which includes all those Duties we owe one another ) is necessary to our loving God : For if a Man say , I love God , and hateth his Brother , he is a Liar : For he that loveth not his Brother whom he has seen , how can he love God whom he has not seen ? 1 John 4. 20. And it 's impossible we should honour God more , than by making our Love as extensive as all Mankind ; because by it we imitate him whose tender Mercies are over all his Works , and who designs that all Men , what-ever their Opinions are , should live in Love and Peace , ( Rom. 12. 18. As much as lieth in you , live peaceably with all Men ) it being the only way to promote our mutual Happiness , which is the reason we are requir'd to believe in , and honour God. For he who is infinitely happy in himself , and consequently incapable of receiving any Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction from his Creatures , could have no Motive in requiring any thing from us , but as it naturally tends to promote our general Good ; and therefore we can do nothing more agreeable to his Will , than to use one another as it requires : Nay , so infinitely great is the Love of God , that lest we should fail to be happy here , he has made our temporal Good ( which can only be procured by observing those Rules he has prescribed us ) the Means to obtain our Eternal . Hence it is that Love , which worketh no ill to his Neighbour , is the fulfilling of the Law ; and Charity is preferred before all Vertues , even Faith it self , which ( Jam. 2. 20. ) without good Works is dead , and is no better than the Faith of Devils . But the Faith of a Persecutor is not only without good Works , but the greatest Incendiary that can be to ill Ones , since nothing can qualify a Man to do so much Mischief , as believing 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 Magistrate's using Force in other Matters than those relating to the Civil Society , I shall now examine with all impartiality , the Reasons that are urged in behalf of the contrary Opinion , from Divine and Human Authority , and from Reason : But first as to Divine Authority . 1. All that can be urged from the New Testament , with the least colour of Reason , is contained in Rom. 13. where it 's said , Rulers are not a Terror to good Works , but to the Evil : Wilt thou not be afraid of the Powers ? do that which is good , and thou shalt have praise of the same . If thou dost that which is evil , be afraid ; for he beareth not the Sword in vain . Where , say they , by Evil and Good Works , not only those Actions that relate to the Civil Society , but those that are meerly Religious are meant . To make this out , they ought to prove , ( 1. ) That meer Errors of the Understanding are evil Works : So that those who act justly in all Matters of a Civil Nature , and in all others according to the best of their Understanding , are evil Doers . ( 2. ) That the Apostle means such here , which ought fully to be proved , because without it the Magistrate's Jurisdiction is not to be presumed , much less Penal Laws to be extended . But not to mention , that they whose Opinions are no wise prejudicial to others , are never for the sake of those Opinions termed Malefactors or evil Doers , it 's clear from the Text , that Evil and Good Works there spoken of , relate only to Civil Matters ; because otherwise the latter Part will not consist with the former , where it 's said , If thou wilt not fear the Power , do good , and thou shalt have praise of the same : Which , supposing Good and Evil relate to Matters simply Religious , was so far from being true , that they were at that time persecuted for doing Good , and encouraged in doing Evil ; and consequently the Apostle's Reasoning would be so far from being an Argument ( as he here intends it ) for the Christians paying Obedience and Tribute to the Powers in being , that it would have been a good one to the contrary , since they bore the Sword worse than in vain , being only a Terror to good Works , and were not God's but the Devil's Ministers , attending continually upon this very thing . The Primitive Christians ( it 's certain ) would have been loth it should have been taken in this Sense , since it would have given an unanswerable Argument to Nero ( to whom the Apostle here requires Obedience ) and the other Emperors , for punishing Christians , who according to their Notions , taking Evil in this Sense , were the most evil Doers . 2. As to the Old Testament , that 's positive , say they , that the Magistrate ought to punish for Idolatry , ( which is no Injury to the State , but an Offence simply Religious ) and consequently has a Right to use Force in those Matters : For Job ( Chap. 31. 28. ) speaking of Idolatry , saith , This were an Iniquity to be punished by the Judg. But to give no other Answer , it appears from the very Prints of our Bibles , that to be punished by the is not in the Original , which only saith , For this might be accounted to me an Iniquity ; and agreeable to the Hebrew the Septuagint renders it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It 's an easy thing to have Proofs , if Men when they cannot find them are resolved to make them . 3. But they further add , That if by the Jewish Law Idolaters , and those that denied the God of Israel , were to be put to death ; by the same Reason Christians , who ought not to be less zealous for the Honour of God , should destroy all Idolaters and Blasphemers . I answer ; The Jewish Laws oblige no Nation but that of Israel , to whom alone they were given : And if any of these Laws are now obligatory , it 's not because they were commanded them , but as they are Parts of the Law of Nature ; for there were several things requir'd under the Jewish Oeconomy , which are so far from being now Obligatory , that they are utterly unlawful . Therefore to conclude , that a thing which was binding to the Jews , is so to the Christians , it ought to be proved to be part of the Law of Nature , or at least that they are under the very same Circumstances ; and there can be no reason why it should hold in one Case , and not in another . But whoever considers this Point , will quickly perceive as vast a difference as can be : For the Jewish Common-Wealth being a perfect Theocracy , God himself was their King , and as such he gave them their whole Body of Politick Laws , with no other Sanction but what was Civil , viz. Temporal Rewards and Punishments ; and did himself judicially determine Controversies of Legal Rights , and other Matters of Moment : So that he was not to be considered by them only simply as he was the Creator of all Men , but as their King , the Laws established concerning the Worshipping of one God , being the Civil Law of the Nation , and a Fundamental of their Constitution : So that none could be a Member of that Common-Wealth , without owning the God that brought them out of the Land of Egypt ; and they that revolted from him , by disowning him for their God , ( it being impossible to own him for their King , and yet disown him for their God ) were proceeded against as Traitors and Rebels : So that such a manifest Revolt no-wise consisting with his Kingship , there was an absolute necessity that all Idolatry should be rooted out of God's peculiar Kingdom , the Land of Canaan . And that it was for this Reason , is evident from this one Consideration , because in all other Places where the Jews extended their Conquests , none were put to death , nor punished for their Idolatry , tho it were manifest all were guilty of it ; it reached only to the Members of the Jewish Common-Wealth , who as they were free People upon their coming out of Egypt , so it was not without their express Consent ( Exod. 19. ) that God became their King ; and consequently for disowning him , they were most justly treated as Rebels and Traitors . But Christ , as he had no Civil Power himself , so he did not establish those Precepts he was to deliver with any Temporal Sanctions . But as those of the Law were meerly Temporal , so those of the Gospel are purely Eternal ; He that does this shall live , and he that does it not shall be damned : Yea , Christ was so far from bestowing a Temporal Canaan on his Disciples , that he foretold they should suffer Persecution for his sake . And he , when his Disciples urged a Precedent from the Jewish Dispensation to oblige him to destroy , severely rebuked them , saying , Ye know not what Spirit you are of ; for the Son of Man is not come to destroy , but to save Mens Lives : Which is far from being true , if Men are to be punished with Death for Idolatry , or material Blasphemy ; for then the Christians would think themselves obliged to destroy the Indians and other Heathens for Idolatry , in owning more Gods than own , and all Jews and Turks for Blasphemy , in denying more than one to be God : And the Protestants the Papists , for worshipping a bit of Bread ; and the Papists them for blaspheming their breaden God : And the different Parties of the Trinitarians , not only the Antitrinitarians , but each the other , since they condemn one the other of either Idolatry or Blasphemy . But this is so far from being true , that the Gospel expresly requires the Christians so to walk in Wisdom towards those without , that they give offence neither to Jew nor Gentile ; and is so far from justifying any violent Means against them , that it requires we should not only allow them the narrow Measure of Justice , but that Charity , Liberality , and Bounty must be superadded ; we must do good , not only to the Houshold of Faith , but to all Men. And if this be the Method the Gospel requires Christians should observe to Infidels , it cannot be presumed they ought to treat one another less kindly for lesser Differences . And when the first Christians differed amongst themselves about the observation of the Mosaical Rites , &c. the Apostle Paul was not so much concerned about the Controversies themselves , as that they might not be the Occasion of any Uncharitableness , Unkindness , Variance and Strife ; therefore he frequently recommends to them Love and Peace in the most passionate Terms , and tells them , they must deal with one another in the Spirit of Meekness , bear one anothers Burdens , otherwise they could not fulfil the Law of Christ : And that we cannot walk worthy of our Vocation whereunto we are called , but with all lowliness and meekness , with long-suffering , forbearing one another in Love : And it 's evident , that the Unity of the Spirit , the Bond of Peace , Love and Concord , cannot be preserved , but by the Rule the Apostle gives , that the Strong should bear with the Weak , and the Weak not judg the Strong ; and that every one is to be fully perswaded in his own Mind , and not to judg his Brother , but to leave him to the Judgment of God ; and the Reason he gives is , because it 's a Matter that does not belong to his Judgment , but to God's , and a Man 's own Conscience : For what art thou , O Man , that judgeth the Servant of another ? to his own Master he standeth or falleth . And according to these Directions we find that the Apostle is so far from requiring the Gentile Church to excommunicate the Jewish for following their Superstition , ( tho it did in a manner make void the Death of Christ ) that he orders the Gentiles to deny themselves in several things , rather than give an Offence to their weak Brethren . This way of managing Controversies ought to have been the Measure by which the succeeding Ages of the Church ( whether the Civil Magistrate was a Member of it or not ) ought to have formed themselves . And when the Apostle , who had an infallible Assistance , thought fit to treat of these Matters in such an obliging Method , as the only way to maintain Christian Charity , and to lead Men into the Knowledg of the Truth ; those who cannot pretend to such a Direction , but are as subject to be mistaken as those they differ from , ought not imperiously to dictate , much less urge the Magistrate to force their Dictates on the Consciences of their Brethren , whom tho weak they are to receive , &c. In a word ; For the Magistrate to pretend to have a Right upon an Ecclesiastical Account , as Head of the Church , to punish Men because they are either Schismaticks , Hereticks , or Infidels , is to punish them for that very Reason for which he has nothing to do with them , because the Churches Power wholly consisting in putting Men out of her Communion , has nothing to do to judg those that are without , and consequently cannot authorize the Magistrate to use them ill : and indeed he is so far from having such a Right upon his being a Christian , that the Apostle declares , that the Weapons of our Christian Warfare are not Carnal , but Spiritual ; and the using of Violence he makes the Mark of a carnal and reprobate Mind ; for it 's he that is born after the Flesh , that persecutes him that 's born after the Spirit : But for such a one to persecute , is impossible , because the Fruits of the Spirit are Love , Joy , Peace , Long-suffering , Gentleness , Meekness , which are certainly inconsistent with the Spirit of Persecution ; which where it prevails , destroys the Fruits of the Spirit ; for it 's naturally as impossible to love Persecutors , as Persecution and the fear of Retaliation , makes Men hate those they ill use , as much as those they are ill used by . 5. To evade the almost innumerable Texts that are levelled against Persecution , and show after what manner we are to deal with those who differ in their Sentiments from us , it 's said , they concern private Christians only , but do not hinder them from using contrary Methods when the Magistrate requires them . But how can the Magistrate , by becoming subject to Christ's Laws , have a Right to oblige his Subjects to act directly against them ? No , those Gospel-Rules are eternally Obligatory , as being built , not only on the general Good of Mankind ( the only Foundation of all those Duties Men owe one another ) but upon the Honour of God ; and therefore they that would rather obey God than Man , ought to be no ways instrumental in putting any persecuting Laws in Execution , which are null and void in themselves , as being contrary to the Laws of God : and the Magistrate , and all that assist him in depriving any of their Lives or Properties on this account , are as guilty of Murder and Robbery , as if they should serve Men so for not committing Perjury , or any other Crime , that is both against the Honour of God , and the Good of Man. Besides , this Supposition renders the Christians , especially with respect to the Heathens , most vile and scandalous Hypocrites , in being kind and obliging to them only , when they could not well help it ; but no sooner were their Circumstances changed , but the Disguise is to be thrown off , and all their former most endearing Rules are to be laid aside ; and the poor Pagans , who before were to be used so tenderly , are to be stript , not only of their Properties , but even of their Lives . CHAP. II. Arguments from Humane Authority , answered . IT 's said , That the Christians ever since they had Power in their Hands , have not only punished Blasphemers , and common Swearers , but the Erroneous , whether in Matters of Faith or Discipline . 1. If by Blasphemers they mean those that are guilty of formal Blasphemy , it 's nothing to the purpose ; because the Interest of the Society requires that they should be punished , as well as Atheists , and that for the same Reason too ; which also requires that common Swearers , ( who can no more pretend Conscience than Blasphemers or Atheists ) should be restrained by Penalties , because otherwise Oaths which are the Bonds of Humane Society , will have but small Force on those who by frequent swearing , run the risque of breaking them daily , and beside give 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 given in a Publick Edict for Liberty of Worship , not only to deprive and banish those of the Clergy that professed Arianism , but even to put all Men to death on whom any of Arius his Works were found . 6. But it may be said , That if the Christian Priests in the first General Council , and all ever since , have been for Persecution , there must be some very good Reason to influence them . I answer ; Just as much as influences the Jewish Priests not to own Jesus to be the Messias : For as they were prejudiced against him , because he did not come to advance their Temporal Power , so the Christian Priests have been as much prejudiced against those Gospel-Methods of Love , Gentleness , &c. as being wholly inconsistent with their Pride , Ambition , and that Dominion over Conscience they so much affected ; as is manifest by their own Histories , which represent them after such a manner ever since Persecution prevailed , as one would imagine he was reading a Story of Devils , rather than of the Successors of the Apostles . But if there is Confusion , and every evil Work , where Envying and Strife is , it 's no wonder these should prevail in the highest manner , when Barbarity and Cruelty are superadded . And not only Ecclesiastical History , but the best of the Clergy , almost as soon as Persecution was in use , give a very scandalous Character of their Body ; as St. Jerom , St. Basil , St. Ambrose , St. Hilary , who in his Comment on the Psalms , scruples not to compare them to the Scribes and Pharisees ; and St. Gregory Nazianzen , who in his first Oration , amongst other things , saith , They are no better than Scribes and Pharisees ; that they looked on the Priesthood , not as a Ministry of which they must give an Account , but as a Magistracy which is liable to no examination ; that no Charity was observed in them , but only Anger and Passion ; that their Piety did only consist in condemning the Impiety of other Men , whose Conduct they observed , not to reclaim , but to defame ; that they blamed or praised Men , not because of their good or bad Life , but according to the Party they embraced ; that they admired in themselves what they sharply censured in another Party ; that they wrangled about Trifles , on the specious Pretences of defending the Faith ; that they were abhorred by the Heathen , and despised by all good Men among the Christians . 7. In a word ; There can be no Argument from Human Authority for Persecution , because that destroys any Argument that 's built upon Authority , even in the Judgment of the Persecutors themselves : For ask them why the Council of Ariminum , which was double in number to that of Nice , and which even the Nicene Fathers themselves subscribed , is not of any Authority ; the Answer is , Because they were not a Free Council , but were over-awed by the Emperor . But if Persecution destroyed their Authority , the Reason will hold against any other Council or Meeting of Men ever since Force has been in fashion . And it 's no wonder that the Nicene Fathers who were so divided into Parties and Factions , and full of Heats , Fewds , and Quarrels , ( as Marvel in that small , but admirable Essay of Creeds and Councils fully shows ) should revenge themselves on their Adversaries , on pretence of advancing the true Religion ; or that the Arians , when they had been so provoked , should serve them after the same manner ; or that the different Parties after these Precedents , which must necessarily encrease their Hatreds and Animosities , should be more and more for persecuting one the other . But more than enough of Human Authority . And , Now I shall examine what they urge from Reason , for the Magistrate's using Force : Which may be concluded under these three Heads . 1. That it causeth People impartially to consider the Arguments and Motives that make for the true Religion . 2. That it hinders the Propagation of Errors . 3. That the Interest of the Common-Wealth obligeth the Magistrate not to permit different Professions of Religion . CHAP. III. Object . That Compulsion tends to make People impartially consider , examined . 1. I Agree with them , that nothing can be more agreeable to the Dignity , and more apparently the Duty of Rational Creaturs , than to make a strict Inquisition , in their advanced and capable Years , into Matters of Religion ; and that of all the Uses Reason was designed for , the chief , no doubt , was in relation to our Eternal Happiness : But how can we expect that Happiness from the Hand of God , if what we are to believe or practise be by meer accident , or for the sake of Worldly Interest , and not the Effects of our own Industry and Reasoning ? for God will judg us as we are Rational Creatures , and consequently our Rewards from him will be in a just Proportion to the use we make of our Reason . This being premised , it 's evident nothing can well be a greater Crime than to hinder People from a free Exercise of their Reason in Matters of Religion , which , I say , nothing can more effectually do than Punishments and Rewards : For what can bias and prejudice more than Punishments on the one hand , and on the other not only Protection , but the Prospect of Preferment and Advantages ? for as much weight as they carry in Mens Minds , so much will they be influenced by them . And to put Discountenance and Punishment in one Scale , and Impunity and Preferment in the other , is as likely a way to make a Man judg impartially for himself , as it is to bribe and threaten a Judg to make him judg so for others . In a word ; What can be more absurd , than to suppose , that the way to make Men consider calmly , and without prejudice of those things that require their utmost attention , is to provoke them to Passion by ill usage , and to distract them on one hand by the Terrors of Punishment , and to agitate them as strongly on the other by the hopes of worldly Enjoyments ? 2. It 's usually said , Men are careless and negligent , and of themselves unapt to make a strict Inquisition into Religion ; therefore are to be forced . But Force will make them but more so , and instead of remedying , encrease the Malady : for Men will then be afraid to examine the Magistrate's Religion for fear of finding it false , and any other for fear of finding it true ; both which will equally subject them to Punishment . In such Circumstances if they examine at all , it will be very slightly and partially : for a small , a very small Reason will make most Men profess a Religion on which their worldly Happiness depends ; and it must be a monstrous one indeed , that they will not make a shift to own , rather than be all their lives subject to Punishment . In short ; What can be more unnatural than to imagine , that to terrify People into this or that Perswasion , is a more likely way to induce them to examine impartially the different Perswasions , than to let them freely examine , and as freely profess what upon examination they are perswaded is the Truth ? 3. If Men ought to be influenced in 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 , apt to teach , patient , in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves , if God will peradenture give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth . And if this be the way to make even the Obstinate acknowledg the Truth , the contrary Method can but the more prejudice and harden them ; and they must not be the Servants of the Lord , but of another Master , that either practise it themselves , or what is as bad , endeavour to perswade others to use it . It 's said , that the Apostles could work on Peoples Prejudices and Passions by Miracles , and that therefore they had no occasion for Force . But if whilst they had the Power of doing Miracles , they were obliged to make use of all those endearing Arts to gain on the Affections of those they designed to proselite , there is much more reason now to do it , and even to double the natural Means , when the supernatural Ones have ceased , as the only way that remains to cause Men to hear and consider . The contrary Method is so unlikely to produce such an Effect , that I believe there can be no Instance given of any Man being sincerely brought over by it to embrace any Religion ; tho , no doubt , there have been several , who when they have been forced to profess a Religion contrary to their Consciences , have at last made a shift ( so natural is it for Men to love their present Ease ) to stifle the Checks of their Consciences , and at last to believe it : But this is evidently wicked , because it 's doing a real Evil , on pretence that Good may come of it . 9. It has been all along the Pretence of Persecutors , to justify their Cruelty , that those they punished were obstinate and perverse , and would not impartially consider . Upon this Head Antiochus ( as Josephus in his Dominion of Reason tells us ) put to Death great numbers of the Jews , because they were so obstinate to refuse what he judged an indifferent thing , the eating Swines Flesh : And on the same Pretence of Obstinacy , Pliny ( Epist. 2. l. 10. ) murdered a great many Christians . And the Christian Persecutors have all along made use of the same Plea to persecute their Brethren . This is the chief Argument the French Clergy used for Dragooning of Protestants : And the main Topick of our late Persecutors was , that the Dissenters were obstinate and peevish , in not complying in things they judged indifferent . If such Reasoners are in earnest , it shews the height of Pride , Presumption , and Self-conceit , in supposing their Reason the Standard of all others ; and that none can differ from them , without being guilty of a most criminal Inconsideration . In a word ; Since the Magistrate cannot know whether a Man has or has not impartially considered , to punish him upon that Account is manifestly to usurp that Authority that can belong only to the Discerner of Hearts : The most he can pretend to , ( were this Matter under his Cognisance ) is to oblige those he thinks have not impartially considered , to read the Reasons , or hear unprejudiced and judicious Persons argue the Matter on both Sides ; any thing more than this is evident Injustice , and is nothing else than endeavouring to make Men act against their Consciences . 10. Another thing Persecutors agree in is , an Endeavour to disguise their Cruelty in the softest Terms imaginable , which shews that the thing it self is so very odious , that themselves are ashamed of it . The Inquisitors , when they deliver over to the Secular Magistrate those they condemn to be burnt , they intreat him after this manner ; Domine Judex rogamus vos cum omni affectu quo possimus , ut amore Dei , pietatis , & misericordiae intuitu , & nostrorum interventu precaminum , miserrimo huic nullum mortis vel mutilationis periculum inferatis . And the French Tormentors , tho they highly condemn the Cruelty of the Inquisition , yet they as much extol their own good-natur'd Tyrant for reclaiming Hereticks by Methods full of Mercy , Gentleness , and Sweetness . And our late Persecutors , tho they abhorred the Devilish Cruelty of the French Dragooners , yet they greatly magnified the Moderation and Gentleness of the Penal Laws , and wondred any should be so disingenuous as to dislike them ; which yet , with submission , equalled , if not exceeded those of France they so much exclaimed against . To mention no other than those made in the 23 , 27 , and 35 of Elizabeth ; which indeed are so very moderate , that they extend only to the loss of Estate , Country , Liberty and Life . And Bp Burnet , in his Preface to Lactantius , very justly tells those Hypocrites , that they let themselves loose to the Rage of a mad Persecution ; and adds , ( a most charitable Advice ) That they ought seriously to profess their Repentance of this Fury , in Instances that may be as visible and legible , as their Rage has been publick and destructive . But since the Protestants are forced to condemn the Severities the Papists use , they have no way to justify their own Penalties , but by pretending they are so very gentle and moderate , that they will not have those ill Effects the others produce ; that is , they will not cause Men to play the Hypocrites , nor prejudice or bias their Judgments , nor even destroy their Charity , by causing them to hate their Persecutors . But , Punishment may be reckoned severe , either upon the Account of the Length or Greatness of it . 11. As to the first ; If a Man is to continue all his Life under any Punishment , tho in it self but moderate ; or which is all one , can see no hopes of Redress , without ruining his Soul , that Punishment is certainly severe . And since Men are not always alike upon their Guard , but the World is more apt to make an Impression at one time than at another , there is a very great Danger , that some time or other they may be tempted to free themselves by a guilty Compliance . Who was more ready to lay down his Life for our Saviour , than St. Peter ? Yet his Zeal was not constant , for we find him capable of Fear to the last degree , so as to deny his Master with Oaths and Curses , when there was no other Punishment for those that believed in Christ , but turning them out of the Synagogue . Nay , at another time , he shamefully complied with the Jews to the drawing aside of many ; and this at Antioch , where the Jews had no Civil Power . And if so great a Person could be so easily wrought on , who can be secure when he lieth under constant Temptations ? And he who considers , that of the twelve Disciples one denied his Master for fear , and another denied him for a paltry Sum of Money , will not wonder that Punishments and Rewards , tho not excessive , may have too great an Influence on others . As to the second ; Perpetual Imprisonment , and little less than Outlawry , which are the inseparable Consequences of Excommunication , are severe in themselves , as well as upon the Account of the Length of them , which can scarce fail some time or other so to affect Men , as to make them desire their Liberty , tho at the Price of 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 himself , he ought not to rely upon another's Judgment , but examine himself whether they are so or not ; and it 's probable that they that are against this Freedom , maintain such Opinions : for the more they are afraid of having their Opinions examined , the more absurd it 's likely they are ; and the more any Opinion is grounded in Reason , the more willing the Professors of it are to have it undergo the Test ; it 's only those with flaws in them , that ( like crackt Titles ) cannot bear a Scrutiny . If the Bereans were for ever enobled by St. Paul for not relying on what he said , ( tho he had the Power of Miracles to confirm his Doctrin ) but for trying whether those things he affirmed were so or not ; there 's certainly as much reason now to do it , otherwise we are Slaves where we ought to be most free , in our noblest Part , our Understanding : And if in all other Matters , the more any thing is scanned , the more the strength of those Reasons appears that make for Truth , as well as the weakness of those that are pleaded in behalf of Error ; Why should it not be so in Matters of Religion , since we must judg of their Truth and Falshood , as we do of all other things , by their Agreement or Disagreement with our common Notions , especially considering Religion is no obscure and unintelligible thing , but so plain and easy , that it 's suted to the Capacity of the Simple and Ignorant , the Bulk of Mankind ? It 's to me wondrous strange , that any should have so ill an Opinion of the Reasonableness of the true Religion , or else of the Impotency of those Rational Faculties God has given Men on purpose to judg of Religion , as to suppose they would not prefer it ( were they not prejudiced by temporal Motives ) before the Inventions of Men. It 's said , the Affectation of Singularity and Novelty is apt to cause a Man ( if the Magistrate by Force does not restrain him ) to wander from the true Religion . But what Charms can there be , in being thought not only ignorant and mistaken , but also despised and hated , as he too certainly is , that differs in his Sentiments from his Neighbours ? And therefore it 's not only a sign that a Man thinks of Religion , but that he is very hearty and sincere in it , when he exposeth himself to a constant Disgrace and Disrepute by it ; for there 's not one of a thousand that 's stiff and insensible enough to bear the perpetual dislike of his Neighbours , and those he is forc'd to converse with : And therefore there 's no need of Force to make Men profess the Publick Religion , which ( for no other Reason but because it is so ) they are too apt to do . Hence it is , that not only the Careless and Negligent , but the Immoral and Vicious , are generally of the Religion established by Law , where they can best indulge their Vices , as having the Countenance of the People , and the Favour and Indulgence of the Magistrate . 5. Another Argument they usually urge is , that Mens Lusts and Passions would make them prefer false Religions before the true , had not the Magistrate a Right to hinder them by Force . But not to mention , that since the Magistrates are as much governed , as their Subjects can be supposed to be , by their Lusts and Passions , Force in their Hands will more likely promote than hinder false Religions ; I answer , As to the meerly religious , or speculative Points of the true Religion , Mens Lusts or Passions , since these are no way concerned how those are held , do not encline them to prefer Falshood before Truth . And as for those Parts of Religion wherein Mens Lusts and Passions may be supposed to sway them , those I own ( as far forth as my Adversaries ) do belong to the Magistrate's Jurisdiction , and all Men , for the sake of their common Good , are obliged to get them believed and practised ; for it 's equally the Interest of Governours and Governed , to embrace the true Religion , contrived by the infinite Wisdom of God for the Benefit of Mankind : For God , as he could not envy his Creatures any Enjoyment they are capable of , so he has forbad them nothing but what naturally tends to their Ruin and Destruction ; and were it not for Persecution , and those Opinions supported by it , which interested Men have tack'd to the Christian Religion , there can be no doubt but that it had long before now been the Universal Profession of Mankind . 6. As a free and impartial Liberty is the only way to promote Truth , so where Persecution prevails , it 's morally impossible but that Error , Ignorance , aud Superstition must do so too ; because Men when they are hindred from exercising their Reason , by being forced blindly to follow the Opinions of others , become ignorant and superstitious , and are apt to take any absurd Impressions : And the Priests themselves , where they are sure of the Force of the Magistrate to make People profess what they please , will not much trouble themselves about Reasons and Arguments ; and consequently by degrees grow very ignorant and superstitious , as we find it in Spain , Italy , Portugal , and other Popish Places where the Inquisition is settled ; tho in France ( where till of late more Liberty has been allowed ) they have not for the generality been so grosly ignorant . It 's very true what a late Author observes , That the Ministry is more learned , more diligent , and more exemplary , where a Government carries it self equally to the different Parties , than if one Party being absolute Masters , should therefore ( so much is Human Frailty more apt to be corrupted by Prosperity than by all other Snares together ) abandon it self to Licentiousness , Ignorance , Idleness , and Superstition . And this holds not only in Popish but Protestant Countries ; also in which the less there is of Liberty , the more Error , Ignorance , and Superstition abounds . 7. Besides , when Men shall be hindred from professing any Doctrin but what the Priests in their Convocations shall decree , will not these be tempted to establish such Opinions as shall tend to promote their own Power and Dominion , tho to the destruction of true Piety ? And this is no strange Supposition , considering how fond in general Mankind are to advance their own Power and Authority . And do not the Protestant Clergy own that Popery is nothing but a Politick Design to advance the Power of the Clergy under the Bishop of Rome , tho to the Ruin of Christianity ? But as Rome it self was not built in a Day , so it was not but by a long , steady and uniform Design for many Ages , that the Clergy by degrees arrived to such a Power . And it 's sufficiently evident , that long before the Pope usurped such Superiority over the rest of the Clergy , they were carrying on the Design of aggrandizing themselves , and tyrannizing over those they call the Laity . In a word ; It has been the Pride , Ambition , and Covetousness of the Priests , and the Force and Violence that by their Means and Instigation the persecuting Magistrates have used on the People to 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 say ) retorted the Arguments for Compulsion , upon pretence of advancing the true Religion , I shall next examine what is said for it upon a Civil Account ; but before I do that , I must beg leave to show , ( since it 's for Protestants this Discourse is chiefly designed ) First , That this Doctrine of Compulsion is inconsistent with the very Foundation of the Protestant Religion . And , Secondly , To lay down the true Method , consonant to Protestant Principles , of destroying ( maugre all the Differences of Opinions ) not only Schisms and Heresies , but all Hatred and Uncharitableness , and bringing People to true Christian Love and Friendship , which will in a manner prevent all that can be urged for Compulsion upon a Civil Account . CHAP. V. That all Force upon the Account of meer Religion , is inconsistent with the Principles of the Protestant Religion . 1. AS it was Persecution that advanced Popery , so it was Freedom and Toleration that ruined it , and established Protestantism ; the Essence of which consists in every one's having an impartial Right to judg for himself , and which is the necessary Consequence of it , acting according to that Judgment : And therefore , as a very worthy Person saith , A Persecutor is no where at Home but at Rome . The Papists in persecuting , act consistent with their own Principles : But Protestants , whilst they persecute any , condemn themselves . The former pretend there are Doubts and Difficulties in all , even the most important Points of Religion ; and therefore there must be ( say they ) some ultimate and external Judg to appeal to , by whose decisive Judgment all Persons must be concluded , otherwise so many Men so many Minds , and the Church will be filled with Controversy and Confusion . The Protestants on the contrary say , That God has appointed no such Judg , but that every one is to judg for himself , and to act according to that Judgment : And therefore , since they judged the Terms of Communion with the Church of Rome unlawful , they acted according to their Duty in separating from it , and in forming Religious Assemblies of their own , and endeavouring to make as many Converts as they could : And that they were obliged to do this when the Government was against them , as well as when it was for them , in Q. Mary's Days as well as Q. Elizabeth's ; according to the practice of the Primitive Christians , who held their Religious Assemblies contrary to the Commands of the Heathen Government . Grant me these Principles , or by any other justify the Reformation if you can , and shew me then how any Man , or Body of Men , can pretend to judg for others , and by Force endeavour to make them profess their Sentiments . Nay , can the persecuting Protestants any otherwise justify themselves against the Church of Rome , but by the very same Arguments their Brethren ( who desire but the same Liberty from them that they claim from the Papists ) make their Defence with , against whom they can alledg no other Reasons than the Papists use against all of them ? than which there can be nothing more disingenuous . And what is it but mocking both God and Man , first to bid Men use their Reason in Matters of Religion , then punish them if they will not act contrary to it ? To tell them they must judg for themselves , and act according to that Judgment , and yet excommunicate , imprison , and fine them for so doing , is a most fulsome Contradiction . With what Face can the Clergy tell their Hearers , that they ought not to take things on trust , but impartially examine the Reasons on all sides , and yet make it their Business to hinder the preaching or printing of any thing but what makes for their own Side ? The Author of the Perswasive to an ingenuous Trial of Opinions in Religion saith , ( Pag. 28. ) They that have a good Cause , need no disingenuous Arts ; they will not fright Men from considering what their Adversaries say , by denouncing Damnation against them ; nor forbid them to read their Books , but rather encourage them to do so , that they may see the Difference between Truth and Error , between Reason and Sophistry , with their own Eyes . This is the Effect of a well-grounded Confidence in Truth ; and there is this Sign of a good Cause apparently discernable in the Application of the Clergy of this Church both to their Friends and Enemies , they desire the one and the other to consider impartially what is said for us and against us : And whatsoever Guides of a Party do otherwise , they give just cause to those that follow them to examine their Doctrines so much the more carefully , by how much they are more unwilling to have them examined . It 's bad Sign , when Men are loth to have their Opinions seen in the Day , but love Darkness rather than Light. Whether this last does not agree to that Church which endeavours to hinder any thing from being preached or printed that is not of their own Side , as well as to the Church of Rome ; or with what Conscience he could make such a Panegyrick on that Church , whose Persecution in that very Book he attempts to justify , let the Reader judg . And it would be very diverting ( were it not on such a Subject ) to observe the miserable Shifts the Clergy make to condemn the Practice of the Popish Church , and at the same time to justify their own , which , as well as the Papists , claims a Legislative and Coercive Power in Matters of meer Religion . 2. But they say , The Papists sorbid the People from reading the Scripture , and thereby hinder them from judging for themselves . To which I answer : Which is worse , to give Men leave , by reading the Scripture , to judg for themselves , and then use Force to make them act contrary to their Judgments , or to make them follow their Guides with a blind implicit Faith ? The one tends to make Men ignorant and superstitious , the other down-right Hypocrites and Villains : if Men were above Force , they would neither blindly follow their pretended Guides , nor act against their Consciences . But however both Papists and Protestants use the Means that naturally tend to effect these wicked Ends. Besides , I ask these Protestant Persecutors , whether they think the reading of the Scripture alone , without hearing or reading some learned Men of their Party , sufficient to make them understand the controverted Points ? If they own they ought to hear them , why not the opposite Side ? If they were to hear neither , they would be more likely to form a true Judgment , than to hear the studied and elaborate Arguments on one Side only . If the People are not to be trusted to hear all that can be said on all Sides , for fear of taking a different Opinion from the licensed Guides , why shall they be more trusted with reading the Scriptures , which they may apprehend in a Sense different from that of their Guides ? except you say , that as long as these alone have the interpreting of it , and have the Force of the Magistrate on their Side , they may impose what Opinion they please on the People . In short , did the Priests of any Protestant Party act consistent with their own Principles , and had a mind that the People should not blindly follow them , they would be so far from hindering them ( by restraining the Liberty of the Press and Pulpit ) from examining the Reasonableness of those Opinions that are contrary to theirs , that they would make it their Business to perswade them to it , and obtain an entire Liberty for their Adversaries to preach and print what they think good . 3. It was the Protestant Priests acting most apparently , and most shamefully inconsistent with themselves , that put a sudden stop to the Reformation , which at first , like a mighty Torrent , overturned all that opposed it : And here it is that the Church of Rome insults , and saith , That the Principles of the Protestants , by which they endeavour to justify their Separation from her , are so absurd , that themselves are obliged to act contrary to them , and do the very same things they condemn in her . Thus the Persecution of the Popish Church has been kept in Countenance by the Protestants following her Example , which otherwise would have appeared so odious , that all must have abhorred her for it , or else obliged her to grant that Liberty which would infallibly ruin her . 4. As Persecution was the chief Cause of hindering the further spreading of the Reformation , so to that we must impute that this was not more perfect and compleat . For tho the first Reformers deserve very great Commendation for what they did , yet it cannot be imagined , that being bred up in Popish Darkness and Superstition , they should be able to discern , much less remove all those Corruptions that had been so long a gathering , ( that could only be the Work of Time , or Men inspired ) ; and therefore it 's no wonder there were so many different Opinions amongst them at first . But had those that succeeded them , instead of paying a blind implicit Submission to their Decrees , and getting them established by Penal Laws , taken the same Liberty in examining their Opinions as the Reformers did their Predecessors , all Differences , at least of any moment , would in some Time have been composed ; which became impossible by the Clergy , being obliged ( as they valued their subsistence ) to assert such Opinions , right or wrong , as were established by Law , and by Persecution causing such Animosities and Prejudices amongst the different Sects , that instead of examining one anothers Opinions sincerely and impartially , they ran daily further into Ignorance , Superstition , Narrowness and Uncharitableness . CHAP. VI. Of the Method to destroy not only Schisms and Heresies , but Hatred and Uncharitableness amongst Christians , notwithstanding their different Opinions . BUT suppose few or none of the different Opinions that are amongst Protestants , had been composed by their acting consistent with their own Principles ; yet there could not well be any Divisions or Schisms amongst them , which do wholly arise from that Antiprotestant and impious Practice in imposing on others our own uncertain and dubious Comments as necessary Terms of Communion , and requiring People to profess them on pain of Temporal or Eternal Punishment ; which is nothing less than making our own Opinions of Divine Authority , and as necessary to Salvation as the express words of the Scripture ; which if Men did only make use of in any controverted Point in the publick Forms of Worship , they might be of the same Communion for all their variety of Opinions . And indeed nothing seems more absurd , than that instead of the Expressions the infinite Wisdom of God thought fit to make use of , Men should be so zealous for imposing on their Brethren their own Conceits , especially of things they confess to be inconceivable , and their own Explications of what they acknowledg to be inexplicable , and their own Reason of what they own is above their Reason , and their own meaning of what they confess their Words cannot reach the meaning . But it 's no wonder that they that make themselves wiser than God in contriving Methods , even opposite to those he requires , to make Men embrace the Faith , should think themselves better able to express that Faith than God himself , and therefore condemn those as Hereticks who declare their Belief in the Terms of Truth , except also they will admit their Expressions and Terms , from which it 's by no means lawful to vary ; which shows that they put a greater value on them , than on the Divine Word . 2. To this they say , they oblige People to use their Expressions in order to discover Hereticks . But if God requires no more of a Christian than that he believes the Scripture , and endeavours to find out the true Sense of it , and to live according to it ; he that does this can be in no fault , but is to all intents and purposes as safe in respect to his Eternal Happiness as if he were infallible , and consequently is far from being a Schismatick or Heretick . Tho the Imposers are not only Schismaticks , by causing a needless Separation , but Hereticks by their own definition of Heresy , which is erring in Fundamentals , and erring obstinately against Knowledg ; because when they have determined the Holy Scriptures to be the only foundation of Faith , nevertheless they lay down certain Propositions as Fundamental that are not in the Scripture ; which is declaring against their own Principles , and destroying the very Foundation they have laid : so that instead of finding out others to be Hereticks , they make themselves such by requiring a Divine Faith to their own imagined Deductions ; which how clear soever they seem to themselves to be drawn from Scripture , appear quite contrary to others . If a King going a far Journey , should give certain Injunctions to his Subjects , and appoint no Judg to determine any Dispute that should happen about interpreting them , but that every one according to the best of his Skill should judg for himself , and not act until he was fully perswaded in his own Mind ; Would not they that do this , how much soever they were mistaken in interpreting his Injunctions , have done all that he required ? And would not he be justly enraged at his return to see them , for doing this , beaten and abused by their Fellow-Subjects ? And what Reason therefore can there be urged why Christ should deal otherwise , at his return to Judgment , with your persecuting Heretick Starters , and reward those Good and Faithful Servants ( the supposed Hereticks ) for following his Directions , in judging of his Will according to the best of their Abilities ? 3. If the Predestinarians and Antipredestinarians , who condemn one anothers Tenets as most impious , may , and ought , notwithstanding their different Sentiments , to continue in the same Church ; or if the Orthodox can so infinitely differ in Matters of Faith , that one Party of them shall worship but one Infinite Almighty Being or Spirit , and another three such , and yet be of the same Communion , and agree in the same Terms of Human Invention ; Why may not all ( since it 's scarce possible any should differ more widely ) join together in the same Communion , if nothing be mentioned in those Matters wherein they differ , but in Scripture-expressions , in which they all agree ? And is it not the Imposers , that not only in the Arminian Controversy ( which has caused a Schism in the Protestant Countries beyond Sea ) but in all others , that are guilty of the Separation ? For I do not see ( as that very Honest and Judicious Man Mr. Hales , in his Tract of Schism , observes ) That Opinionum varietas & Opinantium unitas are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or that Men of different Opinions may not hold Communion in Sacris , or both go to the same Church . Why may not I go , if occasion requires , to an Arian Church , so there be no Arianism expressed in their Liturgy ? and were Liturgies and publick Forms of Service so framed as they admitted no particular and private Fancies , but contained those things in which all Christians agree , Schisms on Opinions were utterly vanished . And let me add , that not only Schisms or Heresies , but all Hatred , Animosities , and Uncharitableness would be destroyed : For then the Clergy , since it would be their common Interest to unite together , would maintain Peace , Love , and Kindness amongst themselves , and preach the same to the People , who would never , were they but left to themselves , hate , or molest one another for meerly speculative Opinions ( which make but little impression on them ) especially too , when they did not create any Divisions or Schisms amongst them ; nay , then all Opinions of Moment ( I mean those which Men cannot neglect examining into without a Fault ) would , being handled without Prejudice or Passion , quickly be rightly understood ; and those of little or no Moment ( which are chiefly kept up by the Hatred and Animosities of the different Sects , and the Artifices of the Priests ) soon fall to the Ground . And this is the sense of the ablest Champion that the Protestant Religion could ever boast of , the brave Chillingworth , who tells us , Ch. 3. n. 8. If Men would be themselves , and be content that others should be , in the choice of their Religion , the Servants of God and not of Men ; if instead of being zealous Papists , earnest Calvinists , rigid Lutherans , &c. they would become themselves , and be content that others should be plain and honest Christians ; if all Men would believe the Scripture , and freeing themselves from Prejudice and Passion , would sincerely endeavour to find the true Sense of it , and live according to it , and require no more of others than to do so , not refusing their Communion to those that do so , would so order their Publick Service of God , that all may , without Scruple , or Hypocrisy , or Protestation against any part of it , join with them in it ; who does not see , that seeing all necessary Truths are plainly and evidently set down in Scripture , there would of necessity be amongst all Men in all things necessary Unity of Opinion , and ( notwithstanding any other Differences that are or could be ) Unity of Communion and Charity , and mutual Toleration ; by which Means all Schism and Heresy would be banished the World , and those wretched Contentions which now rend and tear in pieces , not the Coat , but the Members and Bowels of Christ , with mutual Pride and Tyranny , would speedily receive a most blessed Catastrophe . So , Chap. 4. n. 16. This presumptuous imposing of the Senses of Men upon the Word of God , the special Senses of Men upon the general Words of God , and laying them on Mens Consciences , under the equal Penalty of Death and Damnation ; this vain Conceit , that we can speak of the Things of God , better than the Words of God ; this deifying our own Interpretations , and tyrannous enforcing them upon others ; this restraining the Words of God from that Latitude and Generality , and the Understanding of Men from their Liberty , where Christ and his Apostles left them , is and hath been the only Fountain of all Schisms of the Church ; and that which makes them immortal , the common Incendiary of Christendom , Ridente Turca , nec dolente Judaeo . Take away these Walls of Separation , and all will quickly be one : Take away this persecuting , burning , cursing , damning of Men , for not subscribing to the Words of Men as the Words of God ; require of Christians only to believe Christ , and to call no Man Master but him only : Let those leave claiming Infallibility , that have no Title to it ; and let them that in their Words disclaim it , disclaim it likewise in their Actions . In a word , Take away Tyranny , which is the Devil's Instrument to support Errors , Superstitions , and Impieties , in the several Parts of the World , which could not otherwise long withstand the Power of Truth : I say , take away Tyranny , and restore Christians to the just and full Liberty of captivating their Understanding to Scripture only ; and ( as Rivers , when they have a free passage , run all to the Ocean ) so it may well be hoped , by God's Blessing , that Universal Liberty thus moderated , may quickly reduce Christendom to Truth and Unity . But to add a greater Authority , even that of the Apostles themselves ; who tho they were to teach the People the Christian Faith before they baptized them into it ; nay , it 's impossible any should be of the Christian Church , before he knew the Faith that must make him a Christian ; yet they required no more of those that before believed the Unity of God , to qualify them to be Members of the Church , than to believe Jesus to be the Christ , and that God has raised him from the Dead , and the Doctrine of Repentance : And upon this Belief which all Christians profess , they constantly admitted both Jews and Gentiles into the Church ; and consequently whilst this Belief remains , they are not unqualified to be Members of the Church , except Men have a Right now-a-days to disown those for Brethren and Members of the Church that the Apostles owned as such . But They are indeed ( as Mr. Chillingworth observeth ) the greatest Schismaticks , who make the Way to Heaven narrower , the Yoke of Christ heavier , the Differences of Faith greater than they were made at the beginning by Christ and his Apostles ; they talk of Unity , and aim at Tyranny , and will have Peace with none but their Slaves and Vassals . 4. But it 's said ; A Heretick , after two or three Admonitions , is to be rejected , or ( more properly ) avoided ; therefore Difference of Opinions will hinder Men from being of the same Communion . By a Heretick is not meant one that thrô the weakness of Understanding is in an Error , but an immoral Man that acts against his Conscience , for the Apostle describes him as one that 's conscious of his Crime , as being condemned of himself , on whom Admonitions might have a good Effect ; or if they should not be sufficient , yet that the Trouble and Disgrace of being shunned by his Brethren , might reclaim him ; which Methods could have no such Effect , if his Fault had been a meer Error of the Understanding : And Heresy cannot but be a Fault of the Will , because it 's called a Work of the Flesh , and damnable , which a meer Error of the Understanding by no means is : And if the Apostle had meant , that a simple erroneous Person was to be avoided , he would have contradicted himself , since ( as it has been already proved ) he requires such a One to be born with . 5. But it 's said , We are bid ( Rom. 16. 17. ) to mark and avoid those that cause Divisions and Offences . To which I answer , That bare differences of Opinions do not cause them ; for what two Men , even of the same Communion , agree in all Points of Divinity ? No , it 's Imposition that has been the unhappy Occasion of all the Offences , Schisms , Divisions , and Heresies , that have confounded the Church . Besides , it 's plain , the Apostle does not speak here of the meerly Erroneous , because he says they are those that serve not the Lord Jesus Christ , but their own Belly ; and Philip. 3. where he renews the same Discourse , he describes them as Enemies of the Cross of Christ , Whose end is Destruction , whose God is their Belly , who mind earthly Things . A Character which generally agrees but too well with those that are for Imposition , who thereby cause Divisions and Offences , contrary to the Doctrine the Apostle taught them . If Schism be ( as it 's pretended ) so great a Crime , that every one that is guilty of it is out of the ordinary way of Salvation ; what can be more Uncharitable and Impious , than to make so many things even of an indifferent Nature , necessary to Church-Communion , as tho it were on purpose to make Schismaticks ? 6. In a word , To be shunned and avoided by every one as some Pest or Plague , can be no small Punishment to so sociable a Creature as Man ; and therefore none ought to be so punished for an Error of the Understanding , an involuntary thing , and no Fault at all , when also that Punishment does not tend to convince him of his Error , but to make him act against his Conscience , and to cause Uncharitableness , and most of those other pernicious Consequences ( tho not in so high a degree ) that Force does . In a word , none can forfeit his Right to the civil Converse and Familiarity of his Fellow Creatures , so that they shall combine together to avoid him , but by his being a Man of no Conscience , or of such Principles as engage him to break those common Rules which tend to their mutual Happiness , and thereby is become their common Enemy . And if Christians would not act against the Light of Nature in doing as they would not be done unto , they ought to give to all Men ( how different soever their Religion may be ) the same Freedom of Judging and Acting according to their Judgment as they would desire from them , and impose no more on them than they would be willing to suffer themselves were they in their Power ; and require no more of their own People who have the same Rule of Faith , than to endeavour to find out the true meaning of it , and to live up to it ; and of their Clergy , than their best Diligence to discover the true Sense of it , and their Sincerity in instructing others in it . 7. Without this Freedom it 's morally impossible but that the Clergy must be the chief Promoters , not only of Schisms and Heresies , but of Uncharitableness , Envy , Strife , Fewds and Factions ; since not only their Interest , but the Method of their Education enclines them thereto . For Men that are bred in the World , as they every Day meet with variety of Opinions , so they can with ease see others differ from them , and freely give them the same Liberty they take themselves : On the contrary , they that are educated ( as the Clergy are ) in Cloisters or Colleges , where they come not to examine the Truth of such Opinions as are established by Law , but to profess them as a Trade they are to get their Living by , and consequently are all as to those Matters of the same Opinion , when they come into the World , and set up for Teachers , they cannot bear so unusual a thing as the least opposition ; whereas were they left to themselves to examine things in their own Minds , and after this to profess what they judg to be Truth ; this would teach them Patience , Modesty , and Humility , by showing how subject , not only themselves , but even the most Celebrated are to be mistaken ; and that nothing discovers Truth like a free and sincere examination ; and consequently they must abhor any Restraint to the freedom of judging . That this different way of Education has as different Effects on the Minds of Men , is so very evident , that you will scarce find a thinking Man but abhors all Imposition , and every thing that tends to hinder Freedom and Liberty of judging . On the contrary , you shall scarce meet with one who has had a different Method of Education , whose Reason generally lieth in Authority , and his Brains in his Common-place Book , that can bear with any Opposition , but is for imposing upon others by Force and Violence . And this proud imperious persecuting Spirit betrays it self in all their Writings , where , without respect to Christianity or good Manners , they stick at no Expressions , tho never so scurrilous and abusive , that will but serve to expose and vilify their Adversaries . And which not a little adds to this sort of Temper , is the Arbitrary and Despotical Government in the places of their Education ; for there is none so insolent and assuming , so apt to insult and domineer , when he has an Opportunity , as he that has been bred in an absolute Obedience , and a slavish Compliance : and Experience shows , that the longer People have lived in such Places , the readier they are to fly into Extravagance when they come abroad into the World ; and if they happen to influence the Counsels of the Magistrate , they seldom fail to press him on to illegal Arbitrary Practices , or to practise the same themselves in those Places of Power they are advanced to . And the chief Reason that makes the Regular Clergy amongst the Papists so much more for Persecution and Cruelty than the Secular , is , because the Government in their Cloisters is more Tyrannical and Arbitrary than the others : therefore it behoves all Government to take special Care that those Places where the Youth receive their Learning , should be , what they are usually called , Places of free and ingenious Education . But to return . Can it be expected from Men thus educated , that they should by their Precepts and Examples , perswade those of their own Party to any Charity and Benignity for any other Sect that looks on them ( as all Sects do on each other ) either as Schismaticks or Hereticks , and endeavours to perswade all People to do the same ? which strikes not only at the Power and Jurisdiction , but even the Maintenance the People bestow on these Priests . It 's no wonder that in this Case they possess the People with Hatred and Animosities against all Dissenters , and are continually urging the Magistrate to persecute them . But it would be as absurd for him to be governed by them , as it would have been in the Town-Clerk of Ephesus to have been ruled by Demetrius , and the rest of the Silver-Smiths in punishing Paul , whose Preaching spoiled their Trade . 8. Did the Clergy but consider the ill Effects that Persecution has all along had on them , they would not be so zealous for it . As long as the Emperors had the Power in their own Hands , there never was a Council but what was an Imperial Machine , either for or against a Trinity , or worshipping of Images , &c. as it seemed good , not to the Holy Ghost , but to those Emperors : and when the Priests , by their cunning compliance in Matters of Faith , had by Degrees advanced their own Power above the Emperors , and the Bishop of Rome , as their Head , had the summoning of Councils ; then they were meer Papal Engines , and in their Synods voted and acted as they were influenced from the Vatican . But if these things be too remote , the English History affords us fresher Examples in the Reigns of Henry the 8th , Edward the 6th , Mary and Elizabeth ; how easily and how smoothly did the Clergy then change their Articles of Faith , and Forms of Worship , nay every thing , according to the Inclinations of those Kings and Queens ? But we need not go so far back for Examples ; let us but cast our Eyes upon the present State of Religion in every part of Christendom , and we cannot but see that the Opinions of the Clergy ( as much as they pretend not to take things on trust ) are every where such as the Terms of Preferment ( appointed by the Laws of each Country ) require of them . Are they not in Italy , and in all the Dominions of Spain , zealous and thorow Roman-Catholicks ? In France Catholicks , tho with reserve to the Liberties of the Gallican Church , and the Regalities ? Or rather are they not whatever that absolute King will have them to be , as we see by their acting with the See of Rome ? And are they not in one half of Germany Papists , in the other Protestants ? In Denmark and Sweedland Lutherans , in the Alps Calvinists , & c. ? This is impossible should so universally happen , if Interest had not too great an Influence over them , which makes them very unfit Instruments to find out Truth ; or if found , sincerely to discover it . And how can they be fit Guides to others , who are not trusted to guide themselves , but , right or wrong , are obliged to assert such Opinions , or else to starve ? which certainly destroys all manner of Argument from their Authority , since interested Persons are of no Credit , and therefore are every where repelled from giving their Testimony . But , 9. The Clergy had a quite different Design by such Imposition , viz. To keep the People in a blind Obedience , and make them give an implicite Faith to what they so unanimously agree in , whether Con or Transubstantiation , or any other such Points ; which has had the designed Effect : for , to speak the Truth , the great Fault of the Laity has been in paying a servile and blind Deference to the Opinions of the Clergy ; or , as Mr. Hales , in his Tract of Schism , speaking of the Laity even of the second Century , expresseth it , Through Sloth and blind Obedience , they examined not the things that they were taught , but like Beasts of Burden , patiently couched down , and indifferently underwent whatever their Superiors laid upon them . And thus much do the Clergy of each Sect object to the Laity of those Sects they differ with : and tho the Laity are so much more numerous , and it 's their Business , as well as the Clergy's , to examine into Matters of Religion in order to know what they are to believe or practise ; yet if we look into History , we shall find that most , if not all , the Errors , Schisms , Heresies , that have confounded the Christian World , have had their Origin and chief Support from the Clergy , and that the Laity have been with much ado perverted ; and as they have held out longest against false and absurd Opinions , so they have been always the first and most forward for a Reformation . 10. It 's to the Clergy's being every where obliged to defend the established Opinions , we in a great measure owe that in the Writings of Controversial Points the Words there used are much more obscure , uncertain , and undetermined , than they are even in ordinary Conversation , by which means they are enabled to talk eternally in opposing or defending any Proposition , tho never so absurd ; for Men may wrangle perpetually if they affect an Obscurity and an Uncertainty in the Use of their Words : and in truth , the whole Learning of the Schools is only disputing about Words ; there a Man may be furnished with several Words , without Ideas annexed to them ; and nothing so common as Distinctions without any difference . But it had not been so intolerable , if this sort of Jargon had been confined to things meerly speculative , and had not obscured the material Truths of Law and Religion , nor invaded the Concernments of Human Life and Society , bringing Confusion , Disorder , and Uncertainty into all Affairs of Moment . But I shall say no more on this Point , only adding , that it was Imposition , and the consequence of it , Excommunication for matters of Opinion , which first brought in Uncharitableness , Envy , Strifes , Fewds , Factions amongst Christians ; and after that , Persecution not only heightened them , but was the occasion of the prodigious encrease of all other Wickedness , by forcing Men to break the Ties and Obligations of Conscience : and it 's impossible but that all manner of Immorality must abound whilst Imposition prevails , which eats out the very Heart and Life of Religion , and at the best makes Men profess , as a matter of Form , whatever Opinions they find necessary for their worldly Convenience . And this I think is sufficient to show the Execrableness of it , especially in Protestants , whose Principles it 's so inconsistent with . CHAP. IV. That the Good of the Society obligeth the Magistrate to hinder different Professions of Religion , examin'd . 1. AND now I am at leisure to examine the only remaining Pretence for the Magistrate's using force in Matters of meer Religion , that without this Power he would be destitute of the Means to prevent Tumults , Disturbances , Commotions , Wars ; &c. which are the necessary Consequences of a Toleration . Not to repeat what I have said , Chap. 1. § . 22. or Chapter the 4th , of the horrible Mischief of Persecution ; nor to mention that what is so directly contrary to the Honour of God , and the Good of Souls ( as I have proved it to be ) can no wise contribute to the Temporal Good of Mankind ; I say , if the professing of any Religion that in whole or part is different from that established by Law , will cause these dismal Effects , then the Protestant Perswasion in Popish Countries , and the Christian Religion in those of the Heathen , will produce them . But if Persecutors cannot affirm this , it 's false to say that any Religion , meerly because it 's different from that of the Publick , tends to create Disturbances ; therefore if they have any value for the true Religion , they ought not to make use of such an Argument for Persecution , which will make that criminal , and subjects its Professors to Persecution . And if those wide and many Differences that distinguish the Christian from all other Religions , will not cause any Commotion in Heathen Countries ; why should these fewer and minuter Differences that are among Christians themselves , produce them in Christian Countries ? Mens different Opinions , in meer Religious things , are no more apt to create those Effects , than different Opinions in Philosophical Matters , which certainly would equally cause Disturbances , did Men persecute one another about them ; and we see different Opinions in Religious Matters do not , when Men for all their different Sentiments are permitted to continue in the same Church ▪ It 's said , 't is not barely different Opinions , but the Schism and separate Meetings caused by those Opinions , that create Disturbances . If Schisms have such Effects , they are in the fault that by Imposition cause those Schisms . Yet there 's no Reason why Mens meeting at different Places , with different Forms and Ways of Worship , should sooner cause Commotions or Wars , than their meeting at different Places with the same Forms and Ways of Worship , did not Temporal Disadvantages attend one , and Advantages the other . In a word , there are no Reasons upon the account of any Danger to the State , which forbid Religious Meetings that are open and free to all , and where Men are so far from Caballing , that they do not discourse together , but do more strongly hold against all Meetings of any other sort . It 's said , those Meetings are composed of Persons of the same Opinions ; but being of the same Opinions ( except they are such as are prejudicial to the Government , and those I do not defend ) cannot be of any ill consequence to the Government . But this or any other Argument that is drawn from what is common to all Religious Assemblies , will make the Magistrates own Church as dangerous as any other ; and it can be nothing but the different Usage , that one is caressed , and the other persecuted , that makes one dangerous , and the other not . In a word ; there can be no Reason drawn from the safety of the Society , for the different Sects of Christians to condemn the Religious Assemblies of each other , if they teach nothing that 's destructive to the Civil Society , as seditious Conventicles , and Nurseries of Rebellion , but what would have justified the Heathen for treating all Christian Congregations as such . And if the differences in Opinion , and number of Sects amongst the Heathens were far greater than those amongst the Christians , and yet there was no Commotion upon the Account of Religion , there can be no Reason but that the Christians , did they allow the same Liberty , would be as free from any such Mischief , because as long as each Sect thinks it their Duty to tolerate others , no Quarrel can possibly happen upon the Account of a Toleration . It 's not therefore Error ( as the Bishop of Sarum observes ) or Mens following the Dictates of their Understandings , that has caused Disturbances , and broke the Peace and Order of their Civil Government , and of the Church ; but the Spirit of Imposing so commonly found in prevailing Parties : the Erroneous , as the stronger side think they may call them , would have been quiet if they had not been made to apprehend Inquisitions , or other Miseries , or ill Usage upon the Account of their Opinions ; but when they have cause given them to fear bad Treatment for a bare dissent in an Article of Faith , the natural and most just Principle of Self-preservation obligeth them to combine together for their necessary Defence . And from hence have risen all those Convulsions that have so violently shaken Churches and Kingdoms . 2. Seeing this is evidently so , what can be more disingenuous , as well as wicked , than to ill use and oppress People , and thereby render them justly disaffected , and then make use of that as a Pretence for the punishing them ? If Men in such cases are disaffected , take away the Cause of it by forbearing to use them ill ( which is a very easy and natural Remedy ) and you take away all pretension of Dissatisfaction . It destroys all assurance of Human Affairs to suppose Men will run the risque of losing their Lives , or being ruined by a Civil War upon the Account of Religion , when they have all the Freedom in Religious Matters they are capable of . For which unusual Obligation , they will be ever studious to show a grateful Fidelity , and endeavour by all Services imaginable to lay up a stock of Merit , to secure their future Quiet ; and the different Sects , as so many Guardians of the Publick Peace , will be very watchful over one another , and do their utmost to discover and prevent the Designs of any Party whatever , that would be innovating or changing the Form of Government , because by such Alteration they are likely to be losers , and they can hope for nothing better than what they already enjoy ; so that the more numerous the Sects are , the safer the Government is like to be . 3. But on the contrary , where they want this Liberty , the Publick Peace will never be secure ; for common Interest will oblige the persecuted Sects ( tho never so contrary in their Principles ) to combine together against their Common Enemy : and Men when they fight for their Religious as well as Civil Liberties , do it with more than ordinary Resolution ; and there 's scarce any Party so inconsiderable but what upon some Emergency or other may endanger a Government . Therefore it 's evident , 't is the Magistrates Security , as well as Duty , to grant an impartial inviolable Liberty of Conscience . The Truth of what has been said , sufficiently appears by the different Conduct of the Dissenters , who ( tho widely differing from one another ) did in the time of Persecution combine together for their just and necessary Defence against their Persecutors ; yet since they enjoy Liberty of Conscience , are most entirely Loyal , Hearty , and Zealous for the Government that grants it . And it 's visible to all that are not wilfully blind , that the quiet and peaceable Behaviour of the Sectaries , ( since each Party worships God according as they think best , without endeavouring to molest or disturb their Neighbours for doing the same ) destroys all the Arguments against Toleration upon the Account of Discord and Disturbances ; and the longer the Toleration endures , the more Peaceable and Inoffensive will the different Sects be to one another ; because by degrees all those remains of Animosities and Hatred , that Persecution did produce , will wear off . I believe there can be no Instance where ever a general and impartial Toleration did produce any Disturbances and Commotions , much less that there ever was any Government overturned by an Indifferency and Impartiality to different Sects ; but when that has happened , it has always been by a professed Partiality for one side against the others : For the People will never be so wholly void of all Humanity and Pity , as to be pleased to see their Relations , Neighbours , and 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 only way to expiate his former Guilt , would be to promote the true Religion , by depriving those that are not of it of their Possessions , and investing the Church ( that is , themselves ) with it . And to speak the Truth , it 's to such that the Clergy have been most obliged , either for destroying their Opposers , or else for endowing them with vast Riches . In a word ; It 's not meerly Speculative Matters , or Forms , or Ceremonies , wherein the Papists differ from the Protestants ; but those things ( which I have now mentioned , and wherein they agree ) that make Popery and Slavery inseparable : Nay in Church-Matters , do not the Protestant Clergy ( even those that own the Magistrate , under Christ , to be , no Causes or Persons excepted , Supream Head or Governour of the Church ) claim , as well as the Papists , a Supream Power , and assert themselves Independent and Absolute Governours of the Church ? And consequently , since there cannot be two Supreams in the same Matters , they can extend that Power , as occasion serves , even further than the Pope does , since they and not their Subject the Magistrate , will be Judg of the Extent of their own Power . And have not the Priests of the different Parties , as occasion served , enlarged their Pretences ? witness the Kirk , which as it had an Opportunity , exercised as great a Power , and with as high a Hand as the Pope himself . And had Laud and that Party conquered , there 's no doubt but the People had been as much enslaved to them , as they are in other Countries to the Pope . In short , could any one Party have extirpated by Persecution the others , ( it being the Division amongst the Clergy , which of them should lord it over God's Heritage , that has hindred each others Attempts ) we had long before now been under as great a Tyranny as the Papists ; especially had they those Revenues , which in a manner enabled the Popish Priests to effect what they had a mind to , and which our Clergy think so much their due , that they look on it no less than Sacrilege that they are hindred from enjoying them . But , 7. This is not all the Mischief that attends forcing the People to a Uniformity in all those Points the Priests get to be established as necessary to Church-Communion ; because where People are wise , knowing , and have any Value for Religion , they will be sure to employ their Thoughts about it ; which if they do , it 's morally impossible that they should be of a Mind in all those Points : Therefore such a Uniformity is only practicable in a Nation overrun with sottish Ignorance and gross Stupidity . But what can be more prejudicial to a Nation , than want of Knowledg , which is necessary to preserve a State , and encrease its Strength and Riches , by promoting all useful Arts and Trades , which we see by Experience will not thrive but where there is Liberty of Conscience ? Besides , where Ignorance and Superstition , the necessary Consequence of Persecution , prevails , it 's almost unavoidable but that Men , either of themselves will run into , or else by designing Persons be perswaded into several Opinions prejudicial to the State , as amongst the Papists so many Holy-days are ; or , which is much more prejudicial , such prodigious Numbers going into Orders , ( by which the Clergy are enabled to carry on the Common Interest , and therefore will every where design it ) which oppresseth the Common-Wealth with so many useless Persons , who no-wise contribute to the Support or the Encrease of the Riches of a Country ; who also , considering how they must be maintained , will be more burdensome than a standing Army of double the Number . These , or other as prejudicial Superstitions , are scarce possible to be avoided where Persecution reigns . 8. But I need mention no other Effects of Persecution than the Disorders , Tumults , Confusions , Wars , Desolations , which are the immediate and necessary Consequences of it , and which have always happened in persecuting Countries ; which to relate , would be to write a History of those Countries , and which alone is sufficient to convince any one how fatal it is to Human Societies . It was Persecution that so weakened and ruined the Roman Empire , that it became an easy Prey to the Barbarians : And it had done the same to the Germans , had not the Treaty of Munster put some stop to it ; since which time the Papists and Protestants ( taught by woful Experience ) are content to allow one another , in several places , not only their distinct Congregations , but to meet in the very same Churches ; and ( which is more to be wondered at ) the Preferments of those Churches are enjoyed by them alternately with the greatest Quiet and Peace imaginable . But if we have a mind to have a nearer prospect of the Advantage of Liberty of Conscience , we need not look farther than the Province of Holland ; which tho a very small Tract of Land , labouring under a great many natural Disadvantages , and in which , before a Toleration was indulged , were only a few small scattered Villages and Huts of Fishermen , is now crowded with vast Numbers of People , filled with immense Riches , and adorned with many stately and magnificent Cities ; and all this in a manner owing to its receiving those Saints and Confessors , ( for so I must call them , whatever their Opinions are ) who for their Love to God , and Zeal for his Service , were forc'd to leave their Country , and fled there for Protection . And it 's to this ( the greatest and noblest Charity ) that Amsterdam ( in a peculiar manner the Care of Heaven ) ows its Greatness . Here especially 't is that the Prophecy of Esay seems to be fulfilled , that the Wolf shall lie down with the Lamb , and the Leopard with the Kid , &c. each Sect striving to outvie one another in promoting the Interest of the City , and in being charitable to those that want it ; no Differences of Opinions causing the least distrubance to the Publick , or hindering the Friendship of private Persons ; tho it was otherwise , not only in this City , but in all Places of the Vnited Provinces , when they had the unhappiness to be influenced by the Clergy , and the weakness to call a Synod on pretence of composing the Arminian or Quinquarticularian Controversies : Which , as it usually happens , only encreased them ; and which is worse , created not only Animosities and Rancour in the Minds of Men , but Discontents , Disorders , Tumults , to almost the Ruin of the Common-Wealth ; whilst in England , the Government neither condemning or censuring either Party , the Contention had no mischievous Effect , but of it self died away . Had the Nation acted as wisely with respect to those foolish Controversies about Ceremonies and other Trifles , how much Blood and Treasure had it saved , and how happy had it been , tho now it has ( grown wiser by Experience ) clearly perceived that nothing but Liberty in those Points could quiet and compose the Minds of the People , or preserve the Nation so much exhausted by Persecution . 9. We need not look abroad for Arguments for a Toleration , since we never made a step towards it , but what has been of happy Consequence 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 a Heretick , nay an Infidel can be but so ; and the Antient Church , as Mr. Dodwell has sufficiently proved , made no difference between a Heretick , and a Schismatick that pretended to justify his Schism upon Principles . 14. Besides , the greater Moment any Point is of , the greater Reason there is for Liberty of Conscience , because Men ought not by Punishment to be hindred from examining into it , which if they do sincerely , and should be mistaken ( as we are all fallible , very fallible Men ) that Mistake will never be imputed to them . And if all that are mistaken in these nice abstruse Points of Belief should be punished , it would involve the greatest part of the now Orthodox Clergy , who are so much divided amongst themselves in these Points , that there 's no one Party equal to all the rest , and yet there can be but one Party in the right . And it ought to be observed , that the Arguments any one Party of the Dissenters formerly urged for their own Liberty , tho otherwise unanswerable , were easily evaded by saying , they would equally hold for allowing Liberty to Hereticks as well as them ; so that it 's evident , except Persecution is wholly abhorred , any little Accident or Turn may hazard the Liberty of any Sect whatever . CHAP. VIII . Some few Reasons for the Dissenters not taking the Sacramental Test but in their own Churches , and for a General Naturalization . 1. BEFORE I conclude , I must first beg leave to add a word in behalf of all the Dissenters in general , that hold no Opinions destructive to the Government , disown all Foreign Power , acknowledg the King to be Rightful and Lawful , and contribute equally to the support of the Government , that they may be capable to enjoy all Places of Trust and Profit : for how is it consistent with that Justice and Impartiality the Government ought to have for all its Subjects , to deprive any of them of the Privileges of their Countrey to which they are born , ( and for the discharge of which they have no ways incapacitated themselves ) for no other Reason , but because their Consciences will not permit them to receive the Sacrament after the manner of the Established Church , which is a Matter wholly foreign to Civil Power , and a Dispute about a thing in it self indifferent ? And since the Parliament has made them Legal Churches in other respects , why should not the receiving the Sacrament in their own Meetings qualify them as well as at any others ? The denying it them can only hinder the truly Conscientious ( of which there never was a Nation that had more need ) from supplying Places of Trust. And as this ( with humble Submission ) is a very great Hardship on them , so it is as great a Prejudice to the Publick , not only as it tends to discourage the Loyalty and Affection of those that have such marks of Suspicion and Disgrace fixed on them , but as it depriveth the Government ( which at this Time especially has need of the Hearts and Hands of all its Subjects ) of the Service of no small number of the most useful , who in spight of all the Disadvantages they lie under , are most hearty and zealous for the Government . Had they sworn to bear true Allegiance to the King , and yet looked on him as a Usurper , or ( which is all one ) a King de facto , and had made use of such foolish Equivocations , Distinctions , Reservations , ( as would even shame a Jesuit ) to evade the Force of their Oaths , and under-hand act against the Government , there might be some preten●● to exclude them from these Advantages ; but otherwise there can be no Reason for it , and those that will be disobliged by the granting it , are as much so already , as they well can be by the Liberty that is given them . In short , no Government can be well served that makes any thing a Condition of obtaining an Advantage but what evidently contributes to its Establishment , or any thing a means of Exclusion but what tends to its Ruin : and as Capacity and Fidelity should be the only just Titles to advance Men , so Incapacity and Infidelity to debar or exclude them . But when the being of this or that Sect is a step to Preferment , they will be sure to prefer the Interest of that Sect before the Publick ; and Men will be more considered for their Zeal to a Party , than for their Ability to serve their Countrey . And when they shall be commended or condemned , favoured or opposed , not according to their Merits , but as they are of this or that Sect or Party , it must fill all Places , even the chief Council of a Nation , with Confusion and Faction , and make them influenced by indirect and sinister Ends , instead of the Publick Good. But if all Sects were equally and impartially dealt with , there would be no other than a noble Emulation amongst them who should do most good to the Publick , and be most serviceable to their King and Countrey , and with respect to one another , a most laudable Contention to outvie each other in all Acts of Charity and Kindness , and all other good Offices , and a pious Strife who should be most exemplary in their Lives and Conversations , as the best way to support themselves , and gain Credit and Esteem to their Party ; which must needs bring an unexpressible Happiness to the Nation , and restore again the Golden Age , by reviving amongst us the true Spirit of Christianity . By what has been said , I think I may easily conclude , that a universal , impartial , inviolable Liberty of Conscience , ( except where the Principles of any sort of Professors tend evidently to the Prejudice of the Community , and the Ruin of the Government ) is the true Interest and great Duty , both of Governours and Governed . And , If to this Liberty a General Naturalization was added , it could not fail of causing an infinite deal of Good to the Nation , and quickly repair the Loss we have sustained , either by the War , or by Persecutions : For the Excellency of our Constitution and Laws ( not to be equalled in any other Country ) and the Happiness of the Climate abounding with so many natural Advantages , especially for Trading , will tempt , not only great Numbers of useful Handicrafts-men , but also of Merchants and trading People to settle here , and bring their Effects with them ; by which Means we should have no reason to doubt of our being Masters of those Trades we want , and improving those we have already , by making the Manufactures either cheaper or better . And then , and not till then , we shall have a sufficient number of Hands to carry on the Fishing Trade , and not want them any where else ; by all which means we should so encrease our Seamen and Shipping , that we could not fail of being Masters at Sea , tho all Europe should combine against us . And since the Success of a War does now in a manner wholly depend upon the Riches of a Nation ; and they that have most Money , are almost certain to have the better of it ; the Riches that must flow into the Nation by this Means , would 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 am obliged to submit to the Determinations of the Clergy , I may be forc'd to believe what I judg is either adding , changing , or diminishing the Law of God , as it 's manifest all Sects , by believing it to be of their own Side , do judg their Adversaries do add , &c. But if it be meant , that the Clergy have a Right to make me believe a thing whilst I doubt of the Truth of it , that is impossible ; and so it is to change my Mind , before I see Reason for it . It may be said , tho it 's not in my Power to believe as they will have me , yet I may do as they command , even whilst I doubt of the Lawfulness of the Action : But then to obey them , would be the ready way to damn my self ; for he that acts when he doubts , is damn'd . No Law , whether of God or Man , can scarce be of any use , without applying it to particular Cases , and deducing Consequences from it , and explaining Doubts that arise : But if the Laity must be determined by the Priests in all such Cases , they must become Brutes , and renounce their Reason , where they ought to make the most use of it . Our Author , I confess , says not that a Man should rest in the Determinations of the Clergy in deducing Consequences in things explicitly determined by the Law of God : But what is meant by things explicitly determined , I do not well understand ; for tho Words are explicit , yet the Things implied in those Words , are certainly implicit : And if the Clergy can oblige Men to follow ( right or wrong ) their Determinations in deducing Consequences in things implicitly determined by Scripture , they may oblige Men to add , change or diminish the Law of God in most Points . 3. The Popish Priests never carried their Pretences higher than this Author does ; they have not the Impudence to assert , they can oblige People to believe contrary to the Law of God ; but that for the sake of the Church's Peace , they have a Right to determine those Controversies that may arise among the Faithful ; and when they have done so , none ought to begin to examine those Points again . In a word , there is no Medium between the Protestant Doctrine of every one having a Right to judg for himself , and the Popish one of being obliged to believe as the Church does . But this Author is much more absurd than the Papists , in making Truth and Falshood to be decided , not by an Infallible Pope or Council , whose Decrees are to bind the Catholick Church , but by the casting Voices of a Fallible Convocation in every Nation ; which may in Spain oblige the People to believe Transubstantiation , in Sweden Consubstantiation , in England the Real Corporeal Presence ; so that a Man may be bound to change his Sentiments with his Habitation , and the Difference of a Degree or two may oblige him to opposite Opinions . And yet , as absurd as this is , since the Clergy are so infinitely divided amongst themselves , the Laity must either do so , or else judg for themselves , if it were but to know which of the Clergy were in the Right . But , 4. The Pamphleteer supposes this impossible , and ( pag. 18. where he speaks out ) he roundly tells the Commons of England , That it 's a little too much to suppose Countrey Gentlemen , Merchants , or Lawyers , to be nicely skill'd in the Languages of the Bible , Masters of all the Learning of the Fathers , or of the History of the Primitive Church , which they must in some measure be , who sit Judges of Religious Doctrines and Opinions , which ought to be left to their proper Tribunal , a Convocation . Had People at the Reformation been of this Mind , we might still have groaned under the Popish Yoke ; for the Majority of the Clergy , not only in England , but every where else , were as averse to this Reformation ( which may justly be called a Lay one ) as the Jewish Priests were to that of Christ and his Apostles . If to be Masters of all the Learning of the Fathers , be necessary to the judging of Religious Doctrines , it 's as necessary the Laity should understand them , because the Clergy are strangely divided amongst themselves about them , each Sect pretending they are on their Side ; which shows that either the Clergy are not to be trusted with giving us the Sense of those Fathers , because they make them say any thing according as it serves their present Interest ; or that the Fathers talk forward and backward , contradict themselves as well as one another ; which if so , shows great disingenuity in the Clergy not to own it : and if we may trust Mr. Chillingworth ( a Man unsuspected of the least Priestcraft ) he tells us , Chap. 6. That he sees plainly , and that with his own Eyes , that there are Councils against Councils , some Fathers against others , the same Fathers against themselves , a Consent of Fathers of one Age against a Consent of Fathers of another Age , the Church of one Age against the Church of another Age. 5. The Apostles were so far from requiring the Christians to give up their Judgments to any Number of fallible Men , that they command them all to make use of their Reason in judging of Religion , commend those ( as the Bereans ) that did so , and blame those that did not ; Why have you not judged these things of your selves ? And if Men were then obliged to try the Spirits , because there were many false Prophets gone out into the World , there is certainly much more reason to do so now . But having spoken fully to this Point in Ch. 2. Par. 1. I shall only add , that it 's a Rule authorised by common Sense , not to consent to any thing till we are capable of judging of its Truth ; nor can we , without renouncing our Reason , suppose God will have us believe any thing without seeing good Reason for it : And nothing can reflect more on the Wisdom and Goodness of God , than to suppose that he , who would have all Men come to the Knowledg of his Will , should yet make it so obscure , that not one in a thousand is capable of knowing it , because it depends upon Skill in Fathers , Criticks , Church-History , &c. A Man may therefore justly conclude , if there be any such Doctrines pretended , ( as there are in most Systems ) the impossibility of the Peoples judging of them , alone demonstrates they come not from God ; who as he was able , so his Goodness made him willing to express Truth so clearly , that all who are not wilfully blind may understand it in order to practice ; and it would seem strange that God should chuse Fishermen , and such simple Persons , to preach a Religion intelligible only to the Learned and Philosophers . There 's no need of running to Fathers , Criticks , &c. For he that will do the Will of God , shall know ( as our Saviour , John 7. saith ) of the Doctrine whether it be of God ; that is , if it be such as tends to make me love , reverence and honour God , or is beneficial to Man ; and a Doctrine cannot shew it self to be of God any 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 as make the Reformation it self criminal ; and which must unavoidably oblige a Man that acts agreeable to those Principles , to return to the Popish Yoke , as shall be demonstrated in my next Discourse . It was these Principles that made the most judicious Person the Church could ever brag of , the famous Chillingworth , return to the Church of Rome , and continue there a long time : But what his Principles were upon leaving it , and how inconsistent with that of High Church , may be learn'd by what I have quoted of him . And I could give an Instance of one who in the late Reign going into the World from the University , ( where he had a long time imbibed these Notions of the Power of the Clergy ) and meeting with the Romish Priests , who then were very busy , they quickly show'd him the Inconsistency of the Reformation and the Protestant Religion with these Powers ; which had that Influence over him , as to cause him ( who did not then suspect the falseness of those Notions owned by both Churches ) to join with them , who are consistent with themselves in the Powers they claim , until so many particular Absurdities in their Practice made him happily examine these Notions ; which had like to have cost him dear , for refusing to join with them after Candlemass 87 , and receiving the Sacrament the next Opportunity , the Easter after , in his College Chappel , it exposed him to the Malice and Revenge of the Popish Priests , ( then in the height of their Prosperity ) who of all Men will the least spare a relapsed Heretick . But why do I instance in Particulars , since it 's these extravagant Notions of the Clergy's Power the support the Romish Cause , and make thousands embrace that Religion ; for Men with scorn and contempt reject contradictory and inconsistent Opinions . But of these things more fully in my next Discourse , where I doubt not to demonstrate , as far as a thing of such a Nature is capable , that the Clergy are so far from having these Powers by the Law of God , that there is no Power or Jurisdiction whatever belongs to them by that Law. But to return ; 9. I 'll demand of this Author , Should a Convocation determine contrary to his Judgment , ( which may easily enough be supposed , since he saith , P. 7. That there is no Order , Degree , or Place amongst us , wholly free from the Infection of undermining or overthrowing the Catholick Faith ) whether he could , or ( were it in his Power ) would renounce his Faith for the sake of the casting Voice or Voices in a Convocation ? If he dares not say he will prostitute his Belief at so vile a Rate , Why should he suppose others either should or would do so ? Tho I believe he may assure himself that there 's none amongst those he calls infected , so little Christians and Protestants , but what think they ought to be able to give a better Account and Reason of their Faith than the Determination of a Convocation now-a-day , especially when they know that not only Particular but General Councils , have constantly made their Market of their Faith , and always sold it to the fairest Chapmen ; and that it was a meer Accident that established the present Orthodoxy ; Theodosius being bred that Way , and so resolved to force his Subjects to be of the same Sentiments , and his living a long time so as to survive most of the Hereticks , was the Cause that there were no more Emperors to make the Christian World become again Arian : And the Cruelty used to establish Orthodoxy , would at the same Rate have established Mahometism : So that the mere Authority of a Convocation can no ways influence Hereticks , who by being out of the Church , show how little they value the Authority of Church-men . And for any Power , by which they might be forced , he very honestly owns the Church has none over them : For ( P. 27. ) you pretend not to meddle with those without , nor to exercise any Act of Jurisdiction over them , but only to frame Rules and Decisions that shall hold within your selves , and to govern and judg your own Members . And the Design of a Convocation is , it seems , to censure some of the Church , and make them retract their Opinions : For , ( P. 13. ) as long as these Books pass uncensured and unretracted , under the Stile and Name of Men of great Place and Character in the Church , the Mischief which the Authority they have yet left with some Men may be able to do , is not sufficiently prevented , nor the Scandal wiped off from our Church and Nation . But what can be more scandalous to the Church and Nation , than to force People to lie both to God and Man , by making them retract those Opinions they believe to be true ? And nothing can be more abominable than this constant practice of the Clergy , in making Men solemnly and publickly disown what in their Hearts they still believe : and this is generally done without the least colour of convincing them , nay without giving them any new Arguments , or any further Time to consider ; and lest they should relapse , as they call it , that is , dare to be no longer Hypocrites , they threaten them with greater Punishments , and even Death it self . So that if this be the Business of a Convocation , I know not a more compendious way of making Men Villains . I have been the longer insisting on this Point , to show that the very End and Reason that the Author pretends for the Sitting of a Convocation , and the Powers , he saith , belong to them of judging of Religious Doctrines for the People , and enforcing Submission and Obedience to their Determinations concerning them , are Antiprotestant and Antichristian , and consequently not to be permitted in any Protestant Country . 10. It 's one of the most important Duties incumbent on the Clergy ( as I have shown , Par. 2. Chap. 6. ) to take care that Differences of Opinions ( which in this State of Darkness and Ignorance are unavoidable ) should not destroy Love and Charity , nor disturb the Peace of the Church , by erecting Schisms and Divisions : But the Pious Clergy , so far from doing this , have made the direct contrary their almost sole Business , by imposing their own Conceptions ( instead of the Word of God ) on the People , and by industriously contriving such Expressions as are the likeliest to create Divisions , and then cursing , damning , persecuting , and ruining them for those Divisions themselves were the sole Cause of ; and this has been their constant Practice in their Synods and Councils . And therefore it 's not at all strange that that Great and Good Man , the late ABp should say ( what , P. 8. of the Letter , is objected to him ) That he never knew any Good come from those sort of Meetings : But he is not the only Person has said it ; for Gregory Nazianzen ( Epist. 55. ) has long ago said , ( when Heresy was more universal than now it is ) That he was resolved to avoid all Assemblies of Bishops , because he never saw a Synod that had any Success , but what did rather encrease than lessen the Evil ; without any Exaggeration the Spirit of Dispute 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 only to make it the more creditable by laying it at their Door who pretend to know the King best , and to be most in his Interest , and to make them as well as his Majesty , be thought Men of no Religion , for not only once or twice , but in all Companies admiring and celebrating a Prince of no Religion as the best of Governours , but to make the King discharge his Friends from any Trust about him when he hears they suppose such dishonourable Things of him , and to imploy his Enemies , Men of our Author's Principles : So that Fenwick , it seems , is not the only Person the Party has put on this hellish Contrivance of aspersing those that are most in the King's Interest , knowing they have no way of doing their Business like creating in his Majesty a Jealousy of his true Friends . And our Author , that he might not be thought to speak without Book , endeavours to make the King guilty , not only of a Breach of his Declaration , but of his Coronation-Oath , in not causing the Convocation to sit and act as frequently as he has done the Parliament . It 's true , after this he saith , with his usual way of Hypocrisy , P. 63. We are sure his sacred Majesty did never oppose their Sitting and Acting . But how could he oppose it otherwise than by not calling them to sit and act , which our Author says by his Coronation-Oath he is bound to do ? Which brings me to his Law-part , in which ( as I shall shew in a few words ) he is as much mistaken as in his Divinity . 12. He asserts , First , That the Convocation is the highest Court of Judicature , having Jurisdiction in Crimes Ecclesiastical . Secondly , That a Convocation is not only to meet as often as the Parliament , but has the same Right to debate as freely of Ecclesiastical Matters , as the Parliament has about Temporals . Thirdly , That a Convocation is as necessary and essential to the Church and Constitution , and does bind all People in Ecclesiasticals , as a Parliament does in Civils . As to the first : If a Convocation be a Court of Judicature , they must have Cognizance of Original Causes , or of Appeals . If they had to do with any Causes in the first Instance , they would have a greater Power than either House of Parliament claims ; and our Author dares not assert that a Convocation has greater Power belonging to it than a Parliament . Besides , by 23 H. 8. none is to be cited out of his own Diocess except in some few Cases , whereof Heresy is one , for which the Arch-Bishop of the Province , and he only , can summon a Man out of his own Diocess ; by whom ( 24 H. 8. ) Causes were finally to be determined , except Causes touching the King , his Heirs and Successors , for which there was an Appeal to the Prelats , Abbots , and Priors of the Upper House , ( and this excepted Case confirms the Law in the non-excepted : ) And by a Statute made the next Year , ( C. 19. ) All manner of Appeals , of what Nature , Condition or Quality soever they be of , or what Cause or Matter soever they shall concern , shall be made according to 21 H. 8. with this further Proviso , That there lieth an Appeal from the Arch-Bishop's Courts to the King in Chancery , from whence no further Appeal is to be had or made . Which cuts off all Pretences from the Convocation of having any Jurisdiction now , whatever they had in the Popish Times . 13. As to the second ; Whether a Convocation is to be summoned as often as a Parliament ; tho he has offered nothing that looks like a Proof of it , yet that I shall not dispute with him at present , but I shall whether they have a Right to confer about making any Canons without a special Licence from the King : Which tho he asserts , he cannot bring one Lawyer of his Opinion , they being all against him , as is the constant Practice of the Clergy , as zealous as they are to maintain their Privileges , who never since 25 H. 8. attempted the making any Canons without the King's Licence first obtained under the Broad-Seal of England ; which our Author supposes to be but a meer Compliment , and a bare Mark of Respect : And he affirms , To say otherwise , is to wound the Liberties of a Parliament through those of a Convocation . But is there no difference between the Commons desiring , by the Mouth of their Speaker , Liberty of Speech ( that is , that the King would not be displeased with their Freedom in speaking of those things they have a Right to debate ) and a solemn Licence under the Broad-Seal of England , to enable the Convocation to confer about such or such particular Points ? It 's ridiculous to suppose the Broad-Seal is used with so much Formality for the sake of mere Compliments , to convey nothing but a Right the Convocation had without it : The Broad-Seal is so necessary to enable the Clergy to make Canons , that all that is done without it is null and void ; and so would it be in respect of Parliaments themselves , if they were to have such a Licence to debate of any particular Point , in order to make it a Law. As for Instance , by an Act made 10 H. 7. call'd Poining's Act , it 's provided , That all such Bills as shall be offered to the Parliament in Ireland , shall be first transcribed hither under the Great Seal of that Kingdom ; and having received Approbation , shall be put under the Broad-Seal bere , and so offered to that Parliament : And if a Parliament be held contrary to this Form , it shall be deemed null and void . And in Scotland the Parliament , until this Revolution , could debate of nothing but what the Lords of the Articles had first agreed should be debated . The Act of 25 H. 8. ( which we say forbids the Clergy to confer about making any Canons without the King's Licence first obtained ) was made at the Petition of the Clergy , and in the very words of that Petition : And certainly they were good Judges of the Sense of their own Petition , and how far they meant to restrain themselves . And we find that the Clergy * being assembled in Convocation not many Years after , 1 Ed. 6. ( therefore several of them the same Persons at whose Petition the Act was made ) do most humbly desire , that the King's Licence for them may be obtained according to the Effect of the said Statutes , ( 25 and 27 ) authorising them to attempt , entreat and commune of such Matters , and therein freely to give their Consents , which otherwise they may not do upon pain and peril premised , that is , of being fined and imprisoned during the King 's Will. And now we come to the Act it self , which recites in the Preamble the Petition and Submission of the Clergy , wherein they promise , in verbo Sacerdotii , That they never from henceforth would presume to attempt , alledg , claim , enact , &c. any new Canons , Constitutions , &c. unless the King's Licence may be to them had , to make , &c. the same , and his Majesty do give his most Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf . And be it enacted according to the Submission , &c. That the Clergy shall not presume to attempt , &c. unless they have the King 's most Royal Assent and Licence to make , &c. So that it 's evident the King's Licence is antecedently necessary to their making , or even attempting ( which includes all conferring or debating in order to the making ) any new Canons ; and that they are to be punished , unless they have the King's Authority on that behalf . And none but our Author can be so absurd as to think the King 's confirming the Canons the Convocation has made , is a Licence to them to make , or attempt the making new ones : Is the King 's signing an Act a Licence to the Parliament to make a new one ? But the Author's Ingenuity in reciting this Act , and his Reasoning upon it , is much alike . 14. The Author demands , Why are the Clergy called to a Convocation , if when they come they are not to act ? The Convocation was once a Limb of Parliament , and the Writ they are now summoned by , is not much different from that of the Commons ; and no doubt did then meet , were Adjourned , Prorogued , Dissolved with the rest of the Parliament ; and this continued till H. 8. when they lost all their Parliamentary Rights but of Taxing themselves , for the doing of which they were still summoned according to the Antient Form ; and tho they have now lost that Right too , and so the Reason of summoning wholly ceaseth , yet the Writs are issued out still after the same manner . It is not their being summoned by this Writ that alone makes them a Synod for Ecclesiastical Matters : for in the Popish Times they were always summoned with the rest of the Parliament , yet they were not a Synod , nor could not act as such without Authority from the Pope ; and instead of any such Authority now , the King makes them a Synod , and gives them Power to enact Canons by Licence under the Broad-Seal : and this with Submission I take to be the true state of the Case . 15. As to the third , that a Convocation is as essential and necessary to the Church and Constitution , and binds all People in Ecclesiasticals , as a Parliament does in Temporals : I answer . If the Clergy have another Right to make Canons besides the Will of the Legislative Power , viz. a Divine Right , their Canons would be valid without the King 's confirming them ; nor could an Act of Parliament abrogate or annul any of those Canons made by a Spiritual Authority ; which is so far from depending on theirs , that the Parliament it self is subject to them in those Matters ; nor could they hinder them from sitting when , and as long as they had a Mind to , because they that have a Divine Right to make Ecclesiastical Laws , must have the same Right to sit in order to make them , which is but necessary to the making them : and in a word , they must be as absolute and independant in all things relating to Ecclesiasticals , as the Lay-state is in Civils ; but there cannot be two Independant or Legislative Powers about the same or different things , for then People would be obliged to obey contrary Commands about the same things , or different Commands at the same Time , which is impossible ; but that Power which can annul the Commands of the other , must be able to command in all Cases , and be alone Supreme , because as great a Power is required to take off as to lay on . If therefore the Civil Power can annul any Ecclesiastical Laws , the Convocation can have no Power but what is dependant on theirs , which they can abridg , curtail , or annul , as they think fit ; therefore it 's absurd to pretend that a Convocation has the same Rights or Privileges , or is as essential to the Constitution as a Parliament , without whose Authority no Laws relating to Church or State can be made . And a Convocation is so far from being necessary to make Laws for the Church , that it 's usurping the Rights of the English Churches , or Christian People of England , who are to be tied up by no Laws about indifferent things ( which alone are subject to humane Empire ) whether of a Civil or Ecclesiastical Nature , but by their own Consent given in Parliament . And I know no Law of Christianity that deprives them of this Right , which from the first spreading of the Gospel here they have always claimed . There were no Laws in the British and Saxon Times that concerned the whole Church , but ( as our Historians testify ) were made by the same Power that made the Temporal Laws , and were put in execution by the same Persons . The tearing the Ecclesiastical Power from the Temporal was the cursed Root of Antichrist ; those Powers were not distinct in England , nor in most Nations , till the See of Rome got the Ascendant ; then , and not till then , did the Clergy attempt to bind the Laity by those Laws they never consented to : but their design was never brought to perfection , for such was the Genius of a Government built upon this noble Foundation , That no Man ought to be bound by a Law he does not consent to , that as muffled up in Darkness and Superstition as our Ancestors were , yet that Notion seemed to be so strongly engraven in their Nature that nothing could deface it ; and accordingly we often find them protesting that this and the other thing does not bind them because done without their Consent * ; that they would not be bound by any Ordinances of the Clergy without their Assent ; that they would not subject themselves to the Clergy no more than their Ancestors had done : And 25 H. 8. cap. 21. they tell the King , that besides Acts of Parliament , The People are bound by no other Laws but what they have taken at their free Liberty by their own Consent to be used amongst them , and have bound themselves by long Vse and Custom to the observance of the same . No marvel if we find this People submitting to nothing in Religion , but what was ordained by themselves . De majoribus omnes , was one of their Fundamental Constitutions before they came hither † , and so it has continued to this Day ; and Matters of Religion were amongst their Majora , even before they received Christianity . And what neither the Pagan nor Popish Priests could cheat or scare them from , our Author will find a hard Matter to harangue them out of . If no Canon is valid that is contrary to the Custom or Law of this Realm ; How can a Canon oblige contrary to this most antient Custom and Fundamental part of the Constitution of the Peoples being obliged by no Laws but of their own making ? What 's become of the boasted English Liberty , if they may be excommunicated , and consequently imprisoned for Contempt or Disobedience to a Law they never made ? This , I think , is sufficient to show the Frivolousness of our Author's Reasons for making his Majesty guilty of the breach of his Coronation-Oath , in denying those Rights to the Convocation he pretends are their due ; which I think I have proved to be contrary both to the Law of God and the Realm . I shall therefore conclude , praying that the God of Patience would grant that no Priests of this Man's Principles , in or out of Convocation , may hinder Men from being like-minded one to another , nor disturb the Peace of Church or State. FINIS . Books sold by Andrew Bell , at the Cross-Keys and Bible in Cornhil . A New History of Ecclesiastical Writers : Containing an Account of the Authors of the several Books of the Old and New Testament ; and the Lives and Writings of the Primitive Fathers ; An Abridgment and Catalogue of all their Works , &c. To which is added , A Compendious History of the Councils , &c. Written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin , Doctor of the Sorbon . In seven Volumes . Fol. A Detection of the Court and State of England during the four last Reigns , and the Interregnum . Consisting of Private Memoirs , &c. with Observations and Reflections : And an Appendix , discovering the present State of the Nation . Wherein are many Secrets never before made publick ; as also , a more impartial Account of the Civil Wars in England , than has yet been given . By Rog. Coke , Esq The third Edition much corrected , with an Alphabetical Table . Advice to the Young ; or the Reasonableness and Advantages of an Early Conversion ; In three Sermons on Eccles. 12. 1. By Joseph Stennett . — His Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. John Belcher . Scotland's Sovereignty asserted . A Dispute whether the K. of Scots owes Homage to the K. of England . Written in Latin by Sir Tho. Craig . Translated by Geo. Ridpath , with a Preface against Mr. Rymer . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A62675-e3220 Answ. 1. Notes for div A62675-e6740 * D r. Burnet 's Hist. Reform . Part 1. Col●ect . N. 17. * Rot. Parl. 40 Edw. 3. Num. 7 , 8. Rot. Parl. 5. Edw. 3. Art. 46. Rot. Parl. 6 Rich. 2. Num. 62. † Tacitus de Moribus Germanorum , C. 11.