in the Demand he would have told us so Concerning Miracles supplying the want of Force I shall need to say nothing more here but to your Answer That God would have told us so I shall in few Words state the Matter to you You first suppose Force necessary to coâ—…pel Men to hear and thereupon suppose the Magistrate invested with a Power to compel them to hear and from thence peremptorily declare that if God would not have Force used he would have told us so You suppose also that it must be only moderate Force Now may we not ask one that is so far of the Council of the Almighty that he can positively say what he would or would not have to tell us whether it be not as probable that God who knows the Temper of Man that he has made who knows how apt he is not to spare any degree of Force whâ—… he believes he has a Commission to compel Men to do any thing in their power and who knows also how prone Man is to think it reasonable to do so whether I say it is not as probable that God if he would have the Magistrate to use none but moderate Force to compel Men to hear would also have told us so Fathers are not more apt than Magistrates to strain their Power beyond what is convenient for the Education of their Children and yet it has pleased God to tell them in the New-Testament of this Moderation by a Precept more than once repeated To my demanding ` What if God would have Men left to their freedom in this Point if they will hear or if they will forbear will you constrain them Thus we are sure he did `with his own People c. You answer But those Words whether they will hear or whether they will sorbear which we find thrice used in the Prophet Ezekiel are nothing at all to my purpose For by Hearing there no Man understands the bare giving an Ear to what was to be preach'd nor yet the considering it only but the complying with it and obeying it according to the Paraphrase which Grotius gives of the Words Methinks for this once you might have allow'd me to have hit upon something to the purpose you having deny'd me it in so many other places if it were but for Pity and one other Reason which is that all you have to say against it is that by Hearing there no Man understands the bare giving an ear to what was to be preach'd nor yet the considering it but the complying with it and obeying it If I misremember not your Hypothesis pretends the use of Force to be not barely to make Men give an ear nor yet to consider but to make them consider as they ought i. e. so as not to reject and therefore though this Text out of Ezekiel be nothing to the purpose against have giving an ear yet if you please let it stand as if it were to the purpose against your Hypothesis till you can find some other Answer to it If you will give your self the pains to turn to Aâ—…s XXVIII 24 28. you will read these Words And some believed the things that were spoken and some believed not And when they agreed not among themselves they departed after that Paul had spoken one word Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the Prophet unto our Fathers saying Go unto this People and say Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand and Seeing ye shall see and not perceive For the Heart of this People is waxed gross and their Ears are dull of hearing and their Eyes have they closed lest they should see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and understand with their Heart and should be converted and I should heal them Be it known therefore unto you that the Salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and that they will hear it If one should come now and out of your Treatise call'd the Argument of the Letter concerning Toleration consider'd and answer'd reason thus It is evident that these Jews have not sought the Truth in this matter with that Application of Mind and Freedom of Judgment which was requisite whilst they suffer'd their Lusts and Passions to â—…it in judgment and manage the Enquiry The Impressions of Education the Reverence and Admiration of Persons worldly Respects and the like incompetent Motives have determin'd them Now if this be the case if these Men are averse to a due Consideration of things where they are most concern'd to use it WHAT MEANS IS THERE LEFT besides the Grace of God to reduce them out of the wrong Way they are in but to lay Thorns and Briars in it Would you not think this a good Argument to shew the necessity of using Force and Penalties upon these Men in the Acts who refused to be brought to imbrace the True Religion upon the Preaching of St. Paul For what other Means was left what humane Method could be used to bring them to make a wiser and more rational Choice but laying such Penalties upon them as might ballance the weight of such Prejudices which inclin'd them to prefer a false Way before the true Tell me I 〈◊〉 you would you not had you been a Christian Magistrate in those days have thought your self obliged to try by Force to over-ballance the Weight of those Prejudices which inclin'd them to prefer a false Way to the true for there was no other humane Means lefe and if that be not enough to prove the necessity of using it you have no Proof of any necessity of Force at all If you would have laid Penalties upon them I ask you what if God for Reasons best known to himself thought it not necessary to use any other Humane Means but Preaching and Perswasion You have a ready Answer There is no other Humane Means but Force and some other Humane Means besides Preaching is necessary i. e. in your Opinion and is it not fit your Authority should carry it For as to Miracles whether you think fit to rank them amongst Humane Means or no or whether or no there were any shew'd to these unbelieving Jews to supply the want of Force I guess in this case you will not be much help'd which ever you suppose Though to one unbiâ—…s'd who reads that Chapter it will I imagine appear most probable that St. Paul when he thus parted with them had done no Miracles amongst them But you have at the Close of the Paragraph before us provided a Salvo for all in telling us However the Penalties you defend are not skch as can any way be pretended to take away Mens Freedom in this Point The Question is Whether there be a necessity of using other Humane Means but Preaching for the bringing Men to imbrace the Truth that must save them and whether Force be it God himself seems in the Places quoted and others to teach us that he would have Men left to their freedom from any
People be wrought on without it If a Papist at Rome a Lutheran at Stockholm or a Calvinist at Geneva should argue thus for his Church would you not say that such as these look'd like the Thoughts of a poor prejudiced narrow Mind But they may mistake and you cannot they may be prejudiced but you cannot Say too if you please you are confident you are in the Right but they cannot be confident that they are so This I am sure God's Thoughts are not as Man's Thoughts nor his Ways as Man's Ways Isai. LV. 8. And it may abate any one's Confidence of the necessity or use of Punishments for not receiving our Saviour or his Religion when those who had the power of Miracles were told that they knew not what manner of Spirit they were of when they would have commanded down Fire from Heaven But you do well to take care to have the Church you are of supported by Force and Penalties whatever becomes of the Propagation of the Gospel or the Salâ—…ation of Mens Souls in other parts of the World as not coming within your Hypothesis In your next Paragraph to prove that God does bless the use of Force you say you suppose I mean by the Words you there cite that the Magistrate has no ground to hope that God will bless any Penalties that he may use to bring Men to hear and consider the Doctrine of Salvation or which is the same thing that God does not at least not ordinarily afford his Grace and Assistance to them who are brought by such Penalties to hear and consider that Doctrine to enable them to hear and consider it as they ought i. e. so as to be moved heartily to imbrace it You tell me If this be my Meaning then to let me see that it is not true you shall only desire me to tell you whether they that are so brought to hear and consider are bound to believe the Gospel or not If I say they are and you suppose I dare not say otherwise then it evidently follows that God does afford them that Grace which is requisite to enable them to believe the Gospel Because without that Grace it is impossible for them to believe it and they cannot be bound to believe what it is impossible for them to believe To which I shall only answer That by this irrefragable Argument it is evident that where-ever due Penalties have been used for those you tell us are sufficient and competent Means to make Men hear and consider as they ought there all Men were brought to believe the Gospel which whether you will resolve with your self to be true or false will be to me indifferent and on either hand equally advantage your Cause Had you appeal'd to Eperience for the Success of the use of Force by the Magistrate your Argument had not shewn half so much depth of Theological Learning But the Mischief is that if you will not make it all of a piece Scholastick and by arguing that all whom the Magistrates use Force upon are brought to consider as they ought and to all that are so wrought upon God does afford that Grace which is 〈◊〉 and so roundly conclude for a greater Success of Force to make Men believe the Gospel than ever our Saviour and the Apostles had by their Preaching and Miracles for that wrought not on all your unanswerable Argument comes to nothing And in truth as you have in this Paragraph ordered the matter by being too sparing of your abstract Metaphysical Reasoning and imploying it but by halves we are fain after all to come to the dull way of Experience and must be forced to count as the Parson does his Communicantes by his Easter-Book how many those are that are so broughs to hear and consider to know how far God blesses Penalties Indeed were it to be measur'd by conforming the Easter-Book would be a good Register to determin it But since you put it upon Believing that will be of some-what a harder Disquisition To my saying upon that place out of Isaiah VI. 10. Make the Heart of this People fat lest they understand and convert and be healed Will all the Force you can use be a means to make such People hear and understand and be converted You reply No sir it will not But what then What if God declares that he will not heal those who have long resisted all his ordinary Methods and made themselves morally speaking incurable by them Which is the utmost you say I can make of the Words I quote Will it follow from thence that no good can be done by Penalties upon others who are not so far gone in Wickedness and Obstinacy If it will not as it is evident it will not to what purpose is this said It is said to this purpose viz. to shew that Force ought not to be used at all Those ordinary Methods which resisted are punished with a Reprobate Sense are the ordinary Methods of Instruction without Force as is evident by this place and many others particularly Rom. I. From whence I argue That what State soever you will suppose Men in either as past or not yet come to the Day of Grace no Body can be justified in using Force to work upon them For till the ordinary Methods of Instruction and Persuasion can do no more Force is not necessary for you cannot say what other Means is there left and so by your own Rule not lawful For till God hath pronounced this Sentence here on any one Make his Heart fat c. the ordinary Means of Instruction and Perswasion may by the assistance of God's Grace prevail And when this Sentence is once passed upon them and God will not afford them his Grace to 〈◊〉 them I take it you confess in this place I am sure you must confess your Force to be wholly useless and so utterly 〈◊〉 Unless that can be pertinent to be used which you own can do nothing So that whether it will follow or no from Mens being given up to a Reprobate Mind for having resisted the preaching of Salvation That no good can be done by Penalties upon others this will follow that not knowing whether Preaching may not by the Grace of God yet work upon them or whether the Day of Grace be past with them neither you nor any Body else can say that Force is necessary and if it be not necessary you your self tell us it is not to be used In your next Paragraph you complain of me as representing your Argument as you say I commonly do as if you allow'd any Magistrate of what Religion soever to lay Penalties upon all that dissent from him Unhappy Magistrates that have not your allowance But to console them I imagine they will 〈◊〉 that they are all under the same Obligation one as another to propagate the Religion they believe to be the true whether you allow it them or no. For to go no farther than the first
should quit their Lusts and heartily imbrace the true Religion which iâ—… incompatible with them or else that they should avoid the Force and retain their Lusts To say the former of these is to say that it is presumable that they will quit their Lusts and heartily imbrace the true Religion for its own sake for he that heartily imbraces the true Religion because of a Force which he knows he can avoid at Pleasure without quitting his Lusts cannot be said so to imbrace it because of that Force Since a Force he can avoid without quitting his Lusts cannot be said to assist Truth in making him quit them For in this Truth has no Assistance from it at all So that this iâ—… to say there is no need of Force at all in the Case Take a coâ—…tous Wretch whose Heart is so set upon Money that he would give his First-born to save his Bags who is pursued by the Force of the Magistrate to an Arrest and compelled to hear what is alledg'd against him and the Prosecution of the Law threatning Imprisonment or other Punishment if he do not pay the just Debt which is demanded of him If he enters himself in â—…he Kiâ—…g's Bench where he can enjoy his Freedom without paying the Debt and parting with his Money will you say that it is presumable he did it to pay the Dâ—…bt and not to avoid the Force of the Law The Lust of the Flesh and Pride of Life are as strong and prevalent as the Lust of the Eye And if you will deliberately say again that it is presumable that Men are driven by Force to consider so as to part with their Lusts when no more is known of them but that they do what discharges them from the Force without any Necessity of parting with their Lusts I think I shall have occasion to send you to my Pagans and Mahometans but shall have no need to say any thing more to you of this matter my self I agree with you that there is but one only true Religion I agree too that that one only true Religion is professed and held in the Church of England and yet I deny if Force may be used to bring Men to that true Religion that upon your Principles it can lawfully be used to bring Men to the National Religion in England as established by Law because Force according to your own Rule being only lawful because it is necessary and therefore unfit to be used where not necessary i. e. necessary to bring Men to Salvation it can never be lawful to be used to bring a Man to any thing that is not necessary to Salvation as I have more fully shewn in another Place If therefore in the National Religion of England there be any thing put in as necessary to Communion that is though true yet not necessary to Salvation Force cannot be lawfully used to bring Men to that Communion though the thing so required in it self may perhaps be true There be a great many Truths contained in Scripture which a Man may be ignorant of and consequently not believe without any Danger to his Salvation or else very few would be capable of Salvation for I think I may truly say there was never any one but he that was the Wisdom of the Father who was not ignorant of some and mistaken in others of them To bring Men therefore to imbrace such Truths the Use of Force by your own Rule cannot be lawful because the Belief or Knowledg of those Truths themselves not being necessary to Salvation there can be no Necessity Men should be brought to imbrace them and so no Necessity to use Force to bring Men to imbrace them The only true Religion which is necessary to Salvation may in one National Church have that joined with it which in it self is manifestly false and repugnant to Salvation in such a Communion no Man can join without quitting the way of Salvation In another National Church with this only true Religion may be joined what is neither repugnant nor necessary to Salvation and of such there may be several Churches differing one from another in Confessions Ceremonies and Discipline which are usually call'd different Religions with either or each of which a good Man if satisfied in his own Mind may communicate without Danger whilst another not satisfied in Conscience concerning something in the Doctrine Discipline or Worship cannot safely nor without Sin communicate with this or that of them Nor can Force be lawfully used on your Principles to bring any Man to either of them because such things are required to their Communion which not being requisite to Salvation Men may seriously and conscientiously differ and be in doubt about without indangering their Souls That which here raises a Noise and gives a Credit to it whereby many are misled into an unwarrantable Zeal is that these are called different Religions and every one thinking his own the true the only true condemns all the rest as false Religions Whereas those who hold all things necessary to Salvation and add not thereto any thing in Doctrine Discipline or Worship inconsistent with Salvation are of one and the same Religion though divided into different Societies or Churches under different Forms which whether the Passion and Polity of designing or the sober and pious Intention of well-meaning Men set up they are no other than the Contrivances of Men and such they ought to be esteemed in whatsoever is required in them which God has not made necessary to Salvation however in its own Nature it may be indifferent lawful or true For none of the Articles or Confessions of any Church that I know containing in them all the Truths of Religion though they contain some that are not necessary to Salvation to garble thus the Truths of Religion and by their own Authority take some not necessary to Salvation and make them the terms of Communion and leave out others as necessary to be known and believed is purely the Contrivance of Men God never having appointed any such distinguishing System nor as I have shew'd can Force upon your Principles lawfully be used to bring Men to imbrace it Concerning Ceremonies I shall here only ask you whether you think Kneeling at the Lord's Supper or the Cross in Baptism are necessary to Salvation I mention these as having been matter of great Scrâ—…ple if you will not say they are how can you say that Force can be lawfully used to bring Men into a Communion to which these are made necessary If you say Kneeling is necessary to a decent Uniformity for of the Cross in Baptism I have spoken elsewhere though that should be true yet 't is an Argument you cannot use for it if you are of the Church of England for if a decent Uniformity may be well enough preserved without kneeling at Prayer where Decency requires it at least as much as at receiving the Sacrament why may it not well enough be preserved without kneeling