Religion as in Affairs of State They alone restrain'd and punish'd whatever tended to the subversion of the Publick and establish'd Religion they suppress'd Innovations reform'd Corruptions ordered the Decencies and Solemnities of publick Worship instituted new Laws and Ceremonies and conducted all the concerns of Religion by their own Power and Authority Now there is nothing that can be pretended against the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of Christian Magistrates that might not with as great a shew of Reason have been urged against these Jewish Kings § 13. And thus were the Affairs of Religion in all Nations govern'd by the Supreme Power till our blessed Saviour's birth who came into the world to establish new Laws of Religion and not to set up any new Models of Politie He came not to unsettle the Foundations of Government or to diminish the natural Rights of Princes and settle the conduct of humane affairs upon new Principles but left the Government of the world in the same condition he found it All his Discourses were directed to private persons and such whose duty it was to Obey and not Command and therefore though we find him every where highly solicitous to press men to Obedience in general and perhaps it would be no easie task to find out any Professors of the Art of Policy either ancient or modern that have carried the Doctrine of Obedience so high as the Sermons of our Saviour and the Writings of his Apostles yet no where he takes upon him to settle much less to limit the Prerogatives of Princes and therefore the Government of Religion being vested in them by an antecedent and natural Right must without all controversie belong to them till it is derogated from them by some Superiour Authority so that unless our Saviour had expresly disrobed the Royal Power of its Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction nothing else can alienate it from their Prerogative And therefore 't is no wonder if he left no Commands to the Civil Magistrate for the right Government of Religion for to what purpose should he give them a new Commission to exercise that Power that was already so firmly establish'd in the world by the unalterable dictates of Natural Reason and Universal Practice and Consent of Nations it being so clearly inseparable from the Supreme Power in every Common-wealth that it loses both its Supremacy and its usefulness unless it be universal and unlimited In that the end of all Government is to secure the Peace and Tranquillity of the Publick and therefore it must have Power to manage and order every thing that is serviceable to that end So that it being so clearly evident from the experience of mankind and from the nature of the thing it self that nothing has a stronger influence upon the publick Interests of a Nation than the well or ill management of Religion its conduct must needs be as certain and inseparable a Right of the Supreme Power in every Common-wealth as the Legislative Authority it self without which 't is utterly impossible there should be any Government at all And therefore the Scripture seems rather to suppose than assert the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of Princes What else means that Promise That Kings shall be nursing Fathers to the Church of God unless by their Power they may cherish and defend the true Religion and protect it from being destroyed by Hereticks and Seducers What does the Scripture mean when it styles our Saviour King of Kings and makes Princes his Vicegerents here on earth What means the Apostle when he says Kings are appointed to this end That under them we may live a quiet and peaceable life not only in all honesty but in all godliness too Where we see that the propagation of Godliness is as much the Duty of Governours as the preservation of Justice neither of which can a Prince as such effectually promote but by the proper effects of his Power Laws and Penalties Besides all which all the Power of the Common-wealth our Saviour lived in was fall'n into such mens hands that would be so far from concerning themselves in the defence protection and propagation of Christianity that he knew they would exert the utmost of their force to suppress and destroy it Now to what purpose should he entrust them with a Commission to govern his Church when he knew they would labour its utter ruine and destruction And hence was there no other peaceable method to propagate the Christian Faith in the world but by the patience and sufferings of its Professors and therefore our Saviour to secure his Religion from the reproach of being Factious and Seditious against the State was sollicitous above all things to arm them with Meekness and Patience and to this purpose he gave them glorious promises to encourage their submission to their unhappy Fate and severe Injunctions to secure their Obedience to all the Commands of lawful Superiours except when they run directly cross to the Interest of the Gospel which as the posture of Affairs then stood was incomparably the most effectual as well as most innocent way of its propagation § 14. And therefore 't is but an idle and impertinent Plea that some men make for Liberty of Conscience when they would restrain the Magistrates Power so as to make use of no other means than what our Saviour and his Apostles used to convince and convert men An Argument that much resembles that which they urge with so much popular noise and confidence against that little Grandeur Authority that is left to the Governours of our Church because forsooth the Apostles by reason of the unhappy juncture of Affairs in their times lived in a mean and persecuted condition and therefore what was their Calamity these men would make our Duty but it were to be wished they would pursue their Argument to all the purposes for which it may as rationally serve and so they must sell their Lands and bring the money and lay it at the Bishops Feet they must pass away all their Proprieties and have all things in common and part them to all men as every man has need because the Primitive Christians did so At so prodigious a rate of impertinency do men talk when their Passions dictate their Discourses and to so fine a pass would the Affairs of Christendom be brought by this trifling pretence of reducing the state of the Church to its Primitive Practice in all accidents and circumstances of things But yet I suppose these men themselves would scarce imitate the practice of our Saviour and his Apostles in this particular for if the Scribes and Pharisees were now in being I hope they would not allow them the liberty openly to blaspheme the Name of Iesus and to persecute all that would not believe him an Impostor which though they did familiarly in his own time yet he never went about to restrain their Blasphemies by Laws and Punishments and therefore I only demand Whether the Civil Magistrate may make penal Laws against Swearing and Blasphemy
above one viz. the fourth that has not divers Laws relating to Church Affairs And as for the Capitulars of Charles the Great together with the Additions of Lewis the Godly his Son and Successour they contain little else but Ecclesiastical Constitutions as may be seen in Lindembrogius his Collection of Ancient Laws together with divers other Laws of Theodorick and other Gothish Kings § 18. And next to the Divine Providence we owe the Settlement and Preservation of Christian Religion in the World to the Conduct of Christian Princes For by the time of Constantine the Primitive Spirit and Genius of Christianity was wearing out of fashion and the Meekness and Humility of its first Professours began to give place to a furious and tumultuary Zeal and no sooner did the heats of Persecution begin to abate but the Church was presently shattered into swarms of Factions by the violent Passions and Animosities of its Members about bare Speculations or useless Practices And of all the quarrels that ever disturbed the World there were never any perhaps so excuseless or so irregular as those of Christendom of which 't is hard to determine whether they were commenced with more folly and indiscretion or pursued with more passion and frowardness The rage and fierceness of Christians had kindled such a Fire in the Church that it must unavoidably have been consumed by its own Combustions had not the Christian Emperours employed all their Power to suppress the Fury of the Flames And though in spight of all their Prudence and Industry Christianity was sadly impaired by its own Tumults and Seditions yet had it not been for the care of Christian Princes it had in all humane probability been utterly destroyed and the Flames that had once caught its Superstructures must without remedy have burnt up its very Foundations And if we look into the Records and Histories of the first Christian Emperours we shall find that the most dangerous Disturbances that threatned the State had their beginnings in the Church and that the Empire was more shaken by the intestine Commotions that arose from Religion than by Foreign Wars and Invasions And upon this account is it that we find them so highly concern'd to reconcile all the Discords and allay all the Heats about Religion by silencing needless and unprofitable Controversies determining certain necessary Truths prescribing decent Rites Ceremonies of Publick Worship and all other wise and prudent Expedients to bring the minds and practices of men to Sobriety and Moderation § 19. And by this means was the outward Polity of the Church tolerably well established and the Affairs of Religion competently well grounded though better or worse according to the wisdom and vigilance of the several Emperours till the Bishops of Rome usurp'd one half of the Imperial Power and annexed the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Supremacy to their own See For taking advantage of the Distractions occasioned partly by the Incursions of the Northern Nations on the West partly by the Invasions of the Turkish Power on the East but mainly by the Division of the Empire it self they gain'd either by force or fraud the whole Dominion of Religion to themselves and by pretending to the Spirit of Infallibility usurp'd an absolute and uncontroulable Empire over the Faiths and Consciences of mankind And whilst they at first pretended no other Title to their Sovereignty but what they derived from Religion they were constrain'd to scrue up their Power to an unmeasurable Tyranny thereby to secure themselves in those Insolencies and Indignities wherewith they perpetually affronted the Princes of Christendom And knowing the Free-born Reason of men would never tamely brook to be enslaved to so ignoble a Tyranny they proclaim'd it a Traytour or what is the same a Heretick to the Catholick Faith and by their lowd noises and menaces frighted it out of Christendom In which design they at length advanced so far till Rome Christian became little less fond and superstitious than Rome Heathen and Christianity it self was almost debauched to the lowest guise of Paganism and Europe the Seat of the most refined and politest part of mankind was involved in a more than African Ignorance and Barbarity And thus did they easily usher in the grand departure and Apostasie from Religion by the falling away from Reason and founded the Roman Faith as well as Empire upon the Ruines of Humane Liberty § 20. In which sad posture continued the Affairs of Christendom till the Reformation which though it has wrought wonderful Alterations in the Christian World yet has it not been able to resettle Princes in their full natural Rights in reference to the Concerns of Religion For although the Supremacy of the Civil Power in Religious matters be expresly asserted in all the Publick Confessions of the Reformed Churches but especially in that of the Church of England which is not content barely to affirm it but denounces the Sentence of Excommunication against all that deny it Yet by reason of the exorbitant Power that some pert and pragmatical Divines have gain'd over the minds of the People this great Article has found little or no entertainment in their Practices there starting up a race of proud and imperious men about the beginning of the Reformation who not regarding the Princes Power took upon themselves to frame precise Hypotheses of Orthodoxy and to set up their own Pedantick Systems and Institutions for the Standards of Divine Truth and wanting what the other had the Authority of Prescription they pretended to the Spirit of God and this pretence not only excused but justified any wild Theorems they could not prove by sober Reason and those that would be awed with it they embraced for Orthodox and those that would not they branded for Hereticks by which little device they decoyed the silly and ignorant rabble into their own party The effect of all which has been nothing but a Brutish and Fanatick Ignorance making men to talk of little else but Raptures and Extasies and filling the World with a buzze and noise of the Divine Spirit whereby they are only impregnably possess'd with their own wild and extravagant Fansies become saucy and impudent for Religion confound Order and despise Government and will be guided by nothing but the whimsies and humours of an unaccountable Conscience § 21. And hence it comes to pass that most Protestant Princes have been frighted not to say Hector'd out of the Exercise of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by the Clamours of giddy and distemper'd Zealots Superstition and Enthusiasm have out-fac'd the Laws and put Government out of Countenance by the boldness of their Pretensions Confident men have talked so lowdly of the Inviolable Sacredness and Authority of their Consciences that Governours not throughly instructed in the nature and extent of their Power so lately restored to them have been almost scared from intermedling with any thing that could upon this score plead its Priviledge and Exemption from their Commands And how
what a cross-grain'd thing is it to restrain things only because they are matters of liberty and first to forbid Princes to command them because they are lawful and then Subjects to do them only because they are commanded But to expose the absurdity of this Principle by some more particular considerations §2 First The follies and mischiefs that issue from it are so infinite that there can be no setled Frame of things in the World that it will not overturn and if it be admitted to all intents and purposes there can never be an end of disturbances and alterations in the Church in that there never was nor ever can be any Form of Worship in the World that is to all circumstances prescribed in the World of God and therefore if this Exception be thought sufficient to destroy one there is no remedy but it may as occasion requires serve as well to cashier all and by consequence take away all possibility of settlement Thus when upon this Principle the Disciplinarians separated from the Church of England the Independents upon the same ground separated from them the Anabaptists from the Independents the Familists from the Anabaptists and the Quakers from the Familists and every Faction divided and subdivided among themselves into innumerable Sects and Undersects and as long as men act up to it there is no remedy but Innovations must be endless If it be urged against Lord-Bishops 't is as severe against Lay-Presbyters if against Musick in Churches then farewel singing of Psalms in Rhime if against the Cross why not against sprinkling in Baptism and if against Cathedral Churches then down go all Steeple-Houses If against one thing then against every thing and there is nothing in the exteriour parts of Religion but the two Sacraments that can possibly escape its impeachment All the pious Villanies that have ever disturbed the Christian World have shelter'd themselves in this grand Maxime that Iesus Christ is the only Law-maker to his Church and whoever takes upon himself to prescribe any thing in Religion invades his Kingly Office The Gnosticks of old so abused this pretence to justifie any seditious and licentious practices that they made Heathen Princes look upon Christianity as an Enemy to Government and the Fanaticks of late have so vex'd and embroil'd Christendom with the same Principle that Christian Princes themselves begin to be of the same perswasion 'T is become the only Patron and Pretext of Sedition and when any Subjects have a mind to set themselves free from the Laws of their Prince they can never want this pretence to warrant their disobedience Seeing there is no Nation in the World that has not divers Laws that are not recorded by the four Evangelists and therefore if all humane Institutions intrench upon our Saviours Kingly Prerogative they are and ever must be provided with matters of quarrel to disturb Government and justifie Rebellion § 3. Secondly Nay further this fond pretence if made use of to all the ends for which it might as wisely serve would cancel all humane Laws and make most of the divine Laws useless which have only described the general Lines of Duty but left their particular determinations to the Wisdom of humane Laws Now the Laws of God cannot be put in practice but in particular Cases and Circumstances these cannot be determin'd but by the Laws of man therefore if he can command nothing but what is already prescribed to us in the Word of God he can have no power to see the Divine Laws put in Execution For where are described all the Rules of Justice and Honesty Where are determined all doubts and questions of Conscience Where are decided all Controversies of Right and Wrong Where are recorded all the Laws of Government and Policy Why therefore should humane Authority be allowed to interpose in these great affairs and yet be denied it in the Customs of Churches and Rules of Decency There is no possible reason to be assign'd but their own humour and fond opinion they are resolved to believe it and that is Argument enough for 't is unanswerable How comes this Proposition to be now limited to matters of meer Religion but only because this serves their turn for otherwise Why are not the Holy Scriptures as perfect a Rule of Civil as of Ecclesiastical Policy Why should they not be as complete a System of Ethicks as they are a Canon of Worship Why do not these men require from the Scriptures express Commands for every Action they do in common life How dare they take any Physick but what is prescribed in the Word of God How dare they commence a Suit at Law without Warranty from Scripture How dare they do any natural action without particular advice and direction of Holy Writ § 4. Thirdly But as foolish as this Opinion is its mischief equals its folly for 't is impossible but that these Sons of strife and singularity must have been troublesom and seditious in all Churches and Common-wealths Had they lived under the Jewish Church why then Where has Moses commanded the Feast of Purim the Feast of the Dedication the Fasts of the fourth the fifth the seventh and the tenth months What Warrant for the building of Synagogues and what Command for that significant Ceremony of wearing sack-cloth and ashes in token of Humiliation If in the primitive Ages of Christianity why then where did our Saviour appoint the Love-Feasts Where has he instituted the Kiss of Charity Where has he commanded the observations of Lent and Easter Where the Lords-Day Sabbath and where all their other Commemorative Festivals Vide Tertull de Coronâ c. 3. Will they retreat to the Lutheran Churches they will there meet with not only all the same but many more Antichristian and superstitious Ceremonies to offend their tender Consciences and will find themselves subject to the same Discipline and Government saving that their Superintendents want the Antichristian Honours and Revenues of the English Bishops partly through the poverty of the Country partly through the injury of Sacriledge but mainly because the Church Revenues are in the possession of Romish Bishops Will they to France there notwithstanding the unsetled state of the Protestants of that Nation through want of the assistance of the Civil Power they shall meet with their Liturgies and establisht Forms of Prayer and Change of Apparel for Divine Service as well as at home If they will to Geneva there Mr. Calvin's Common-Prayer-Book is as much imposed as the Liturgy of the Church of England there they are enjoyn'd the use of Wafer-Cakes the Custom of Godfathers and Godmothers bidding of Prayer proper Psalms not only for days but for hours of the day with divers other Rites and Ceremonies that are no where recorded in the Word of God In a word What Church in the World can affirm these were the only Customs of the Apostolical Age and that the Primitive Church never used more or less than these So that these men
Common-wealths they could not want Prudence to Judge what Circumstances were conducive to Order and Decency in Publick Worship And if we take a Survey of all the Forms of Divine Service practised in the Christian Church there is not any of them can so much as pretend to be appointed in the Word of God but depend on the Authority of the Civil Power in the same manner as all Customs and Laws of Civil Government do And therefore to quarrel with those Forms of Publick Worship that are established by Authority only because they are Humane Institutions is at once notorious Schism and Rebellion For where a Religion is Establish'd by the Laws whoever openly refuses Obedience plainly rebels against the Government Rebellion being properly nothing else but an open denial of Obedience to the Civil Power Nor can Men of this Principle live Peaceably in any Church in Christendom in that there is not a Church in the World that has not peculiar Rites and Customs and Laws of Government and Discipline § 7. But of this I shall have occasion to account elsewhere and shall rather chuse to observe here from what I have discoursed of the Use and Nature of Outward Worship the Prodigious Impertinency of that clamour some men have for so many years kept up against the Institution of Significant Ceremonies when 't is the only Use of Ceremonies as well as all other outward Expressions of Religion to be significant In that all Worship is only an Outward Sign of Inward Honour and is indifferently perform'd either by Words or Actions for respect may as well be signified by Deeds and Postures and Visible Solemnities as by Solemn Expressions Thus to approach the Divine Majesty with such Gestures as are wont to betoken Reverence and Humility is as proper a Piece of Worship as to Celebrate his Greatness by Solemn Praises And to offer Sacrifices and Oblations was among the Ancients the same sort of Worship as to return Thanksgivings they being both equally outward Signs of Inward Love and Gratitude And therefore there can be no more Exception against the Signification of Ceremonies than of Words seeing this is the proper Office of both in the Worship of God And as all Forms and Ceremonies and Outward Actions of External Worship are in a manner equally Significant so are they equally Arbitrary only some happen to be more Universally Practised and others to be Confined to some particular Times and Places Kneeling lying Prostrate being Bare-headed Lifting up the Hands or Eyes are not more naturally Significant of Worship and Adoration than putting off the Shoes bowing the Head or bending the Body and if some are more generally used than others that proceeds not from their Natural Significancy but from Custom and Casual Prescriptions and to Bow the Body when we mention the Name of Iesus is as much a natural signification of Honour to his Person as Kneeling or being Bare-headed or lifting up the Hands or Eyes when we offer up our Prayers to him But if all Outward Actions become to betoken Honour by Institution then whatsoever Outward Signs are appointed by the Common-wealth unless they are Customary Marks of Contempt and so carry in them some Antecedent Vndecency are proper Signs of Worship for if Actions are made Significant by Agreement those are most so whose signification is ratified by Publick Consent § 8. So that all the Magistrates Power of instituting Significant Ceremonies amounts to no more than a Power of Determining what shall or shall not be Visible Signs of Honour and this certainly can be no more Usurpation upon the Consciences of men than if the Sovereign Authority should take upon it self as some Princes have done to define the Signification of Words For as Words do not naturally denote those things which they are used to represent but have their Import Stampt upon them by consent and Institution and and may if Men would agree to it among themselves be made Marks of Things quite contrary to what they now signifie So the same Gestures and Actions are indifferently capable of signifying either Honour or Contumely and therefore that they may have a certain and setled meaning 't is necessary their Signification should be Determined and unless this be done either by some Positive Command or Publick Consent or some other way there can be no such thing as Publick Worship in the World in that its proper End and Usefulness is to express Mens Agreement in giving Honour to the Divine Majesty and therefore unless the Signs by which this Honour is signified be Publick and Uniform 't is not Publick Worship because there is no Publick Signification of Honour So far is it from being unlawful for Governours to define Significant Ceremonies in Divine Worship that it is rather Necessary in that unless they were defined it would cease to be Publick Worship And when different men worship God by different Actions according to their different Fansies 't is not Publick but Private Worship in that they are not Publick but Private Signs of Honour So that Uniformity in the Outward Actions of Religious Worship is of the same Use as certainty in the Signification of Words because otherwise they were no Publick Expressions of Honour And therefore to sum up the whole Result of this Discourse If all Internal Actions of the Soul are beyond the Jurisdiction of Humane Power if by them the substance of Religious Worship be perform'd if all Outward Forms of Worship have no other Use than only to be Instruments to express Inward Religion and if the Signification of Actions be of the same Nature with that of Words then when the Civil Magistrate takes upon him to determine any particular Forms of Outward Worship 't is after all that hideous and ridiculous Noise that is raised against it of no worse Consequence than if he should go about to define the Signification of all Words used in the Worship of God CHAP. IV. Of the Nature of all Actions Intrinsecally Evil and their Exemption from the Authority of Humane Laws against Mr. Hobs with a full confutation of his whole Hypothesis of Government The Contents NO Magistrate can Command Actions Internally Evil. The Reason hereof is not because Men are in any thing free from the Supreme Authority in Earth but because they are subject to a Superiour in Heaven To take off all Obligations antecedent to Humane Laws is utterly to destroy all Government Mr. Hobs his Hypothesis concerning the Nature and Original of Government proposed It s Absurdity demonstrated from its Inconsistency with the Natural Constitution of Things The Principles of Government are to be Adapted not to an Imaginary but to the Real State of Nature This Hypothesis apparently denies either the Being of God or the Goodness and Wisdom of Providence It irrecoverably destroys the Safety of all Societies of Mankind in the World It leaves us in as miserable Condition under the State of Government as we were in his supposed Natural State of
them not discover their lamentable rawness and ignorance by laughing at its folly and meanness till they can first prove a base and selfish spirit to be more noble and generous than an universal Love and Charity Pride and Luxury to be more amiable than Sweetness and Ingenuity Revenge and Impatience more honourable than Discretion and Civility Excess and Debauchery more healthful than Temperance and Sobriety to be enslaved to their Lusts and Passions more manly than to live by the Rules of Reason and Prudence Malice and Injustice to be more graceful and becoming a gentile Behaviour than Kindness and Benignity and the horrors of an amazed Spirit to be fuller of Pleasure and Felicity than that Peace and Calmness of Mind that springs from the Reflections of an exact Conscience Till all this and much more is made good that is till all the Maxims of Folly and Wisdom are changed let them be Civil and Modest and not scorn too confidently And though all this could be done yet as for their parts they will be so far from ever performing it that they will never be at the pains of attempting it and if they should 't is God knows too great a work for their little understandings And therefore I appeal to all the wise and sober world Whether they that would make Religion ridiculous are not infinitely so themselves Whether to consute it with Raillery and Bold Iests be not as void of Wit as Reason And whether all the Folly and Madness in the World can equal this of these scoffing Atheists And thus having scourged their Ignorance and Presumption with severity enough I shall forbear either to expose them for their Pedantry or to lash them for their rudeness and ill manners though what can be more pedantick than to be so big with every little Conceit as to be in labour to vent it in every Company And a pert School-boy is scarce more troublesome with a petty Criticism against Mr. Lilly than these truantly Youths are with any singular Exception that they have picked up against the Holy Scriptures They cannot meet with a person of any Reputation for Learning but they must be pecking at him with their Objections and if he slight their impertinent Pratings as all discreet men do then the next time they meet their Dear Hearts with what triumphant shrugs do they boast their success against the man in Black and so laugh and drink themselves into Confidence and Folly And then as for their want of manners what deportment can be more course and clownish than to affect to be offensive to all discreet men and to delight to loath and nauseate all Civil Company with the filthiness of their Discourse A behaviour more irkesom to a Gentleman of any Breeding and Civility than the Buffoonry of Hostlers and Porters They can scarce meet with a Clergy-man but they must be pelting him with Oaths or Ribaldry or Atheistical Drollery i. e. they study to annoy him with such Discourse as he is obliged though he were inwardly as great a Villain as themselves to detest by his Place and Profession a piece of Breeding much like his that would have refused to entertain a Vestal with any other Discourse than by describing the Rites of Priapus or the lascivious Arts of Cleopatra And so I leave them to the Correction of the Publick Rods and 't is high time that Authority check and chastise the Wantonness of this Boyish humour For the Infection spreads and grows fashionable and creeps out of Cities into Villages To Impeach Religion is become the first exercise of Wit in which young Gentlemen are to be Disciplined and Atheism is the only knowledge and accomplishment they gain by a gentile Education and they have nothing to make them fancy themselves more witty and refined People than illiterate Peasants and Mechanicks but a readiness and pregnancy to rally upon Religion and he is a raw Youth and smells rank of his Grandame and his Catechism that cannot resolve all the Articles of his Faith into the Cheats and Impostures of Priests And thus they live here till they have sinned or fooled away all sense of Honour and Conscience and so return home useless and unserviceable to their Countrey and if they turn Sots they may prove less dangerous but if not they are prepared for any designs of Mischief and Publick Disturbance For at the same time they shake hands with Religion they bid adieu to Loyalty in that whilst they own no tyes of Conscience they know no honesty but advantage and Interest is the only endearment of their Duty to their Prince and therefore when-ever this happens to run counter to their Loyalty 't is then the strongest and most effectual inducement to any attempts of Treason and Rebellion And thus they may prove good Subjects as Rogues and Out-laws are who will be honest when 't is their Interest but when 't is not then any thing is their Duty that contributes to their Security And with these men in all Civil Wars and Dissentions of State the strongest side has always the justest Cause and if Rebels prove successful against their Lawful Prince they gain their Assistance And to these Principles we must ascribe the unhappy success of the late Rebellion the silly and well meaning Zealots were only abused by sly and crafty Incendiaries for the compassing of their own ambitious ends and by their Councils only was the Cause managed advanced and finished till they raised their own Fortunes upon the Ruines of the Royal Interest and establish'd themselves in the Royal Power and Dignity And though the men and their Designs are perished yet their Principles thrive and propagate and 't is strange yet easie to observe how the contempt of Religion works men into a dislike of Monarchy and I scarce ever met with any zealous Common-wealths-man whom I could not easily discover to have more of the Atheist than the Politician in brief all men of this Perswasion are so far from being inclined to love their Prince that they are engaged by their very Principles to hate the Vsurper For take away the Divine Institution of Government and the Obligations of Conscience to Obedience and then all Government is Vsurpation and all sense of Obedience Folly and Princes have no other Right to their Crowns but what is founded upon Force and Violence their Empire was first gain'd by Wars Butcheries and Massacres their Diadems hang upon their Swords and their Thrones stand deep in Humane Blood and all Kingdoms are nothing but Societies of Slaves and Tyrants and if any Subject can set himself free from his Sovereigns Oppression he is the braver man and when he can win his Crown he deserves to wear it And there is no man that laughs at the Folly of Religion who is not angry at the Superstition of Government And therefore I leave it to Authority to consider how much it concerns them to restrain the Insolence of this wanton Humour and to
laws of order and sobriety Religion sanctifies all their passions anger malice and bitterness are holy fervors in the Cause of God This cancels and dispenses with all the obligations of sobriety And what has prudence to do with Religion this is too hot and eager to be tyed up to its flat and dull formalities Zeal for the Glory of God will both excuse and justifie any Enormity There can be no Faction or Rebellion in carrying on the Interests of the Godly Party and the great work of a thorough Reformation must not be trusted to the care of carnal and lukewarm Politicians And by these and the like pretences do they easily destroy the reverence of all things Sacred and Civil to propagate any wild Propositions are arm'd with Religion and led on by the Spirit of God to disturb the Publick Peace kill Kings and overthrow Kingdoms And this has ever been the bane and reproach of Religion in all times and places and there is scarce a Nation in the world that has not felt the miseries and confusions of an Holy War and the Annals of all Ages are full of sad Stories to this purpose § 5. And therefore to exempt Religion and the Consciences of men from the Authority of the Supreme Power is but to expose the peace of Kingdoms to every wild and Fanatick Pretender who may when ever he pleases under pretences of Reformation thwart and unsettle Government without controul seeing no one can have any power to restrain the perswasions of his Conscience And Religion will be so far from being at liberty from the Authority of the Civil Power that nothing in the world will be found to require more of its care and Influence because there is not any other Vice to which the vulgar sort of men are more prone than to Superstition or debauched conceptions concerning God and his Worship nor any that more inclines them to an unruly and seditious temper It inflames their crazy heads with a Furious and Sectarian Zeal and adopts their rankest and most untoward passions into the Duties of Religion And when passion becomes Holy then it can never be exorbitant but the more furious and ungovernable it is so much the more vehement is their zeal for the Glory of God and they that are most peevish and refractory are upon that account the most godly And then all passion and stubbornness in Religious Quarrels must be christned Zeal all Zeal must be sacred and nothing that is sacred can be excessive And now when men act furiously upon these mistakes as all that are possessed with them must what can the issue be but eternal Miseries and Confusions Every Opinion must make a Sect and every Sect a Faction and every Faction when it is able a War and every War is the Cause of God and the Cause of God can never be prosecuted with too much violence And then all sobriety is lukewarmness to be obedient to Government carnal Complyance and not to proceed to Rebellion for carrying on the great work of a thorough Reformation is to want Zeal for the Glory of God And thus are their Vices sanctified by their Consciences malice folly and madness are ever the prevailing ingredients of their superstitious Zeal and Religion only obliges them to be more sturdy and impudent against the Laws of Government and they are now encouraged to cherish those passions in spight of Authority from which the severity of Laws might effectually have restrain'd them were it not for the cross obligations of an untoward Conscience § 6. And for this reason is it that 't is found so nice and difficult a thing to govern men in their perswasions about Religion beyond all the other affairs and transactions of humane life because erroneous Consciences are bold and confident enough to outface Authority whereas persons of debauch'd and scandalous lives being condemn'd by their own Consciences as well as the publick Laws can have nothing to bear them up against the will of their Superiors and restraints of Government But when mens minds are possest with such unhappy Principles of Religion as are more destructive of the Peace and Order of civil Society than open lewdness and debauchery and when the Vertues of the Godly are more pregnant with villany and mischief than the Vices of the wicked and when their Consciences are satisfied in their mischievous and ungovernable perswasions and when they seriously believe that they approve themselves to God by being refractory and irreclamable in their Fanatick Zeal then how easie is it to defie Authority and trample upon all its threatnings and penalities And those Laws that would awe a prophane and irreligious Person at least into an outward compliance shall but exasperate a boisterous Conscience into a more vehement and seditious disobedience Now when 't is so difficult for Magistrates either to remove these Religious Vices or to bridle their unruliness they must needs find it an incomparably harder task to restrain the extravagancies of Zeal than of Lewdness and Debauchery And therefore seeing the multitude is so inclinable to these mistakes of Religion and seeing when they are infected with them they grow so turbulent and unruly I leave it to Governours themselves to judge whether it does not concern them with as much vigilance and severity either to prevent their rise or suppress their growth as to punish any the foulest crimes of Immorality And if they would but seriously consider into what exorbitances peevish and untoward principles about Religion naturally improve themselves they could not but perceive it to be as much their concernment to punish them with the severest inflictions as any whatsoever Principles of Rebellion in the State § 7. And this certainly has ever been one of the most fatal miscarriages of all Governours in that they have not been aware of this fierce and implacable enemy but have gone about to govern unruly Consciences by more easie and remiss Laws than those that are only able to suppress scandalous and confessed villanies and have thought them sufficiently restrain'd by threatning punishments without inflicting them And indeed in most Kingdoms so little have Princes understood their own Interests in reference to Religion Ecclesiastical Laws have been set up only for Scar-crows being established rather for shew and Form sake than with any design of giving them life by putting them into Execution and if any were so hardy as not to be scared into obedience by the severity of their threatnings they have been emboldned to disobedience by the remisness of their execution till they have not only plaid with the Law it self as a sensless trifle but have scorn'd the weakness of the Power that set it up For there is nothing more certain in experience than that Impunity gives not only warranty but encouragement to Disobedience and by habituating men to controul the Edicts of Authority teaches them by degrees to despise it And this is the main reason why Ecclesiastical Laws have generally proved such
Instruments of Morality Of the Villany of those mens Religion that are wont to distinguish between Grace and Virtue They exchange the substance of true Goodness for meer Metaphors and Allegories Metaphors the only cause of our present Schism and the only ground of the different Subdivisions among the Schismaticks themselves The Vnaccountableness of Mens Conceits That when the main Ends and Designs of Religion are undoubtedly subject to the Supreme Power they should be so eager to exempt its Means and Circumstances from the same Authority The Civil Magistrate may determine new Instances of Virtue how much more new Circumstances of Worship As he may enjoyn any thing in Morality that contradicts not the ends of Morality so may be in Religious Worship if he oppose not its design He may command any thing in the Worship of God that does not tend to debauch Mens practices or their conceptions of the Deity All the subordinate Duties both of Morality and Religious Worship are equally subject to the Determinations of Humane Authority § 1. HAving in the former Chapter sufficiently made out my first Proposition viz. That 't is absolutely necessary to the Peace and Government of the World that the Supreme Magistrate of every Common-wealth should be vested with a Power to govern the Consciences of Subjects in Affairs of Religion I now proceed to the proof of the second thing proposed viz. That those who would deprive the Supreme Civil Power of its Authority in reference to the Conduct of the Worship of God are forced to allow it in other more material parts of Religion though they are both liable to the same Inconveniences and Objections Where I shall have a fair opportunity to state the true extent of the Magistrates Power over Conscience in reference to Divine Worship by shewing it to be the same with his Power over Conscience in matters of Morality and all other Affairs of Religion And here it strikes me with wonder and amazement to consider That men should be so shy of granting the Supreme Magistrate a Power over their Consciences in the Rituals and External Circumstances of Religious Worship and yet be so free of forcing it upon him in the Essential Duties of Morality which are at least as great and material Parts of Religion as pleasing to God and as indispensably necessary to Salvation as any way of Worship in the World The Precepts of the Moral Law are both perfective of our own Natures and conducive to the Happiness of others and the Practice of Vertue consists in living suitably to the Dictates of Reason Nature And this is the substance and main Design of all the Laws of Religion to oblige Mankind to behave themselvs in all their actions as becomes Creatures endued with Reason and Understanding and in ways suitable to Rational Beings to prepare and qualifie themselves for the state of Glory and Immortality And as this is the proper End of all Religion That Mankind might live happily here and happily hereafter so to this end nothing contributes more than the practice of all Moral Vertues which will effectually preserve the Peace and Happiness of Humane Societies and advance the Mind of Man to a nearer approach to the Perfection of the Divine Nature every particular Vertue being therefore such because 't is a Resemblance and Imitation of some of the Divine Attributes So that Moral Vertue having the strongest and most necessary influence upon the End of all Religion viz. Mans Happiness 't is not only its most material and useful Part but the ultimate End of all its other Duties And all true Religion can consist in nothing else but either the Practice of Vertue it self or the use of those Means and Instruments that contribute to it § 2. And this beside the Rational Account of the thing it self appears with an undeniable evidence from the best of Demonstrations i. e. an Induction of all Particulars The whole Duty of Man refers either to his Creator or his Neighbour or himself All that concerns the two last is confessedly of a Moral Nature and all that concerns the first consists either in Praising of God or Praying to him The former is a Branch of the Vertue of Gratitude and is nothing but a thankful and humble temper of mind arising from a sense of Gods Greatness in himself and his Goodness to us so that this part of Devotion issues from the same virtuous quality that is the Principle of all other Resentments and Expressions of Gratitude only those Acts of it that are terminated on God as their Object are styled Religious and therefore Gratitude and Devotion are not divers Things but only different Names of the same Thing Devotion being nothing else but the Virtue of Gratitude towards God The latter viz. Prayer is either put up in our own or other mens behalfs If for others 't is an Act of that Virtue we call Kindness or Charity If for our selves the things we pray for unless they be the Comforts and Enjoyments of this life are some or other virtuous Qualities and therefore the proper and direct use of Prayer is to be instrumental to the Virtues of Morality So that all Duties of Devotion excepting only our returns of Gratitude are not Essential parts of Religion but are only in order to it as they tend to the Practice of Virtue and moral Goodness and their Goodness is derived upon them from the moral Virtues to which they contribute and in the same proportion they are conducive to the ends of Virtue they are to be valued among the Ministeries of Religion All Religion then I mean the Practical Part is either Virtue it self or some of its Instruments and the whole Duty of man consists in being Virtuous and all that is enjoin'd him beside is in order to it And what else do we find enforc'd and recommended in our Saviour's Sermons beside heights of Morality What does St. Paul discourse of to Felix but moral matters Righteousness and Temperance and Iudgment to come And what is it that men set up against Morality but a few figurative Expressions of it self that without it are utterly insignificant 'T is not enough say they to be completely Virtuous unless we have Grace too But when we have set aside all manner of Virtue let them tell me what remains to be call'd Grace and give me any Notion of it distinct from all Morality that consists in the right order and government of our Actions in all our Relations and so comprehends all our Duty and therefore if Grace be not included in it 't is but a Phantasm and an Imaginary thing So that if we strip those Definitions that some men of late have bestowed upon it of Metaphors and Allegories it will plainly signifie nothing but a vertuous temper of mind and all that the Scripture intends by the Graces of the Spirit are only Vertuous Qualities of the Soul that are therefore styled Graces because they were derived purely from Gods
free Grace and Goodness in that in the first Ages of Christianity he was pleased out of his infinite concern for its Propagation in a miraculous manner to inspire its Converts with all sorts of Vertue Wherefore the Apostle St. Paul when he compiles a complete Catologue of the Fruits of the Spirit reckons up only Moral Vertues Gal. 5. 22. Love Joy or Chearfulness Peaceableness Patience Gentleness Goodness Faithfulness Meekness and Temperance and elsewhere Titus 2. 11. the same Apostle plainly makes the Grace of God to consist in gratitude towards God Temperance towards our selves and Justice towards our Neighbours For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Where the whole Duty of Man is comprehended in living Godlily which is the Vertue of humble Gratitude towards God Soberly which contains the Vertues of Temperance Chastity Modesty and all others that consist in the dominion of Reason over our sensual Appetites Righteously which implies all the Vertues of Justice and Charity as Affability Courtesie Meekness Candour and Ingenuity § 3. So destructive of all true and real Goodness is the very Religion of those Men that are wont to set Grace at odds with Vertue and are so far from making them the same that they make them inconsistent and though a man be exact in all the Duties of Moral Goodness yet if he be a Graceless Person i. e. void of I know not what Imaginary Godliness he is but in a cleaner way to Hell and his Conversion is more hopeless than the vilest and most notorious Sinners and the Morally Righteous Man is at a greater distance from Grace than the Profane and better be lewd and debauch'd than live an honest and vertuous life if you are not of the Godly Party Bona Opera sunt perniciosa ad salutem says Flaccus Illiricus Moral Goodness is the greatest Let to Conversion and the prophanest wretches make better Saints than your Moral Formalists And by this means they have brought into fashion a Godliness without Religion Zeal without Humanity and Grace without good Nature or good Manners have found out in lieu of Moral Virtue a Spiritual Divinity that is made up of nothing else but certain Trains and Schemes of Effeminate Follies and illiterate Enthusiasms and instead of a sober Devotion a more spiritual and intimate way of Communion with God that in truth consists in little else but meeting together in private to prate Phrases make Faces and rail at Carnal Reason i. e. in their sense all sober and sincere use of our Understandings in spiritual Matters whereby they have effectually turn'd all Religion into unaccountable Fansies and Enthusiasms drest it up with pompous and empty Schemes of Speech and so embrace a few gawdy Metaphors and Allegories instead of the substance of true and real Righteousness And herein lies the most material difference between the sober Christians of the Church of England and our modern Sectaries That we express the Precepts and Duties of the Gospel in plain and intelligible Terms whilst they trifle them away by childish Metaphors and Allegories and will not talk of Religion but in barbarous and uncouth Similitudes and what is more the different Subdivisions among the Sects themselves are not so much distinguish'd by any real diversity of Opinions as by variety of Phrases and Forms of Speech that are the peculiar Shibboleths of each Tribe One party affect to lard their Discourses with clownish and slovenly Similitudes another delights to roul in wanton and lascivious Allegories and a third is best pleased with odd unusual unitelligible and sometimes blasphemous Expressions And whoever among them can invent any new Language presently sets up for a man of new Discoveries and he that lights upon the prettiest Nonsense is thought by the ignorant Rabble to unfold new Gospel-Mysteries And thus is the Nation shattered into infinite Factions with sensless and phantastick Phrases and the most fatal miscarriage of them all lies in abusing Scripture-Expressions not only without but in contradiction to their sense So that had we but an Act of Parliament to abridge Preachers the use of fulsom and luscious Metaphors it might perhaps be an effectual Cure of all our present Distempers Let not the Reader smile at the odness of the Proposal For were men obliged to speak Sense as well as Truth all the swelling Mysteries of Fanaticism would immediately sink into flat and empty Nonsense and they would be ashamed of such jejune and ridiculous Stuff as their admired and most profound Notions would appear to be when they want the Varnish of fine Metaphors and glittering Allusions In brief were this a proper place to unravel all their affected Phrases and Forms of Speech which they have learn'd like Parrots to prate by Rote without having any Notion of the Things they signifie it would be no unpleasant Task to demonstrate That by them they either mean nothing at all or some Part or Instrument of Moral Vertue So that all Religion must of necessity be resolv'd into Enthusiasm or Morality The former is meer Imposture and therefore all that is true must be reduced to the latter and what-ever besides appertains to it must be subservient to the Ends of Vertue such are Prayer Hearing Sermons and all manner of Religious Ordinances that have directly no other place in Religion than as they are instrumental to a vertuous life § 4. 'T is certain then That the Duties of Morality are the most weighty and material concerns of Religion and 't is as certain That the Civil Magistrate has Power to bind Laws concerning them upon the Consciences of Subjects So that every mans Conscience is and must be subject to the Commands of lawful Superiours in the most important matters of Religion And therefore is it not strange that when the main Ends and designs of all Religion are avowedly subject to the Supreme Power that yet men should be so impatient to exempt its means and subordinate Instruments from the same Authority What reason can the Wit of man assign to restrain it from one that will not much more restrain it from both Is not the right practice of Moral Duties as necessary a part of Religion as any outward Form of Worship in the World Are not wrong Notions of the Divine Worship as destructive of the Peace and settlement of Common-wealths as the most vicious and licentious Debaucheries Are not the rude multitude more inclined to disturb Government by Superstition than by Licentiousness And is there not vastly greater danger of the Magistrates erring in matters of Morality than in Forms and Ceremonies of Worship in that those are the main essential and ultimate Duties of Religion whereas these are at highest but their Instruments and can challenge no other place in Religion than as they are subservient to the purposes of Morality Nay is it not still more
unaccountable that the Supreme Magistrate may not be permitted to determine the Circumstances and Appendages of the subordinate Ministeries to Moral Virtue and yet should be allowed in all Common-wealths to determine the particular Acts and Instances of these Virtues themselves For Example Justice is a prime and natural Virtue and yet its particular Cases depend upon humane Laws that determine the bounds of Meum and Tuum The Divine Law restrains Titius from invading Caius's Right and Propriety but what that is and when it is invaded only the Laws of the Society they live in can determine And there are some Cases that are Acts of Injustice in England that are not so in Italy otherwise all Places must be govern'd by the same Laws and what is a Law to one Nation must be so to all the World Whereas 't is undeniably evident That neither the Law of God nor of Nature determine the particular Instances of most Virtues but for the most part leave that to the Constitutions of National Laws They in general forbid Theft Incest Murther and Adultery but what these Crimes are they determine not in all Cases but is in most particulars to be explained by the Civil Constitutions and whatsoever the Law of the Land reckons among these Crimes that the Law of God and of Nature forbids And now is it not strangely humoursome to say That Magistrates are instrusted with so great a Power over mens Conscience in these great and weighty Designs of Religion and yet should not be trusted to govern the indifferent or at least less material Circumstances of those things that can pretend to no other Goodness than as they are Means serviceable to Moral Purposes That they should have Power to make that a Particular of the Divine Law that God has not made so and yet not be able to determine the use of an indifferent Circumstance because forsooth God has not determin'd it In a word That they should be fully impowered to declare new Instances of Vertue and Vice and to introduce new Duties in the most important parts of Religion and yet should not have Authority enough to declare the Use and decency of a few Circumstances in its subservient and less material Concerns § 5. The whole State of Affairs is briefly this Man is sent into the World to live happily here and prepare himself for happiness hereafter this is attain'd by the practice of Moral Vertues and Pious Devotions and wherein these mainly consist Almighty Goodness has declared by the Laws of Nature and Revelation but because in both there are changeable Cases and Circumstances of things therefore has God appointed his Trustees and Officials here on Earth to Act and Determine in both according to all Accidents and Emergencies of Affairs to assign new Particulars of the Divine Law to declare new Bounds of right and wrong which the Law of God neither does nor can limit because of necessity they must in a great measure depend upon the Customs and Constitutions of every Common-wealth And in the same manner are the Circumstances and outward Expressions of Divine Worship because they are variable according to the Accidents of Time and Place entrusted with less danger of Errour with the same Authority And what Ceremonies this appoints unless they are apparently repugnant to their Prime end become Religious Rites as what particular Actions it constitutes in any Species of Virtue become new Instances of that Virtue unless they apparently contradict its Nature and Tendency Now the two Primary Designs of all Religion are either to express our honourable Opinion of the Deity or to advance the Interests of Vertue and Moral Goodness so that no Rites or Ceremonies can be esteemed unlawful in the Worship of God unless they tend to debauch men either in their Practices or their Conceptions of the Deity And 't is upon one or both of these Accounts that any Rites and Forms of Worship become criminally superstitious and such were the Lupercalia the Eleusinian Mysteries the Feasts of Bacchus Flora and Venus because they were but so many Festivals of Lust and Debauchery and such were the Salvage and Bloody Sacrifices to Saturn Bellona Moloch Baal-Peor and all other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Antient Paganism because they supposed the Divine Being to take pleasure in the Miseries and Tortures of its Creatures And such is all Idolatry in that it either gives right Worship to a wrong Object or wrong Worship to a right one or at least represents an infinite Majesty by Images and Resemblances of finite things and so reflects disparagement upon some of the Divine Attributes by fastning dishonourable Weaknesses and Imperfections upon the Divine Nature As for these and the like Rites and Ceremonies of Worship no Humane Power can command them because they are directly contradictory to the Ends of Religion but as for all others that are not so any lawful Authority may as well enjoyn them as it may adopt any Actions whatsoever into the Duties of Morality that are not contrary to the Ends of Morality § 6. But a little farther to illustrate this we may observe That in matters both of Moral Vertue and Divine Worship there are some Rules of Good and Evil that are of an Eternal and Unchangeable Obligation and these can never be prejudiced or altered by any Humane Power because the Reason of their Obligation arises from a necessity and constitution of Nature and therefore must be as Perpetual as that But then there are other Rules of Duty that are alterable according to the various Accidents Changes and Conditions of Humane Life and depend chiefly upon Contracts and Positive Laws of Kingdoms these suffer Variety because their Matter and their Reason does so Thus in the matter of Murther there are some Instances of an unalterable Nature and others that are changeable according to the various Provisions of Positive Laws and Constitutions To take away the life of an innocent Person is forbidden by such an indispensable Law of Nature that no Humane Power can any way directly or indirectly make it become lawful in that no Positive Laws can so alter the Constitution of Nature as to make this Instance of Villany cease to be mischievous to Mankind and therefore 't is Capital in all Nations of the World But then there are other particular Cases of this Crime that depend upon Positive Laws and so by consequence are liable to change according to the different Constitutions of the Common-wealths men live in Thus though in England 't is Murther for an injured Husband to kill an Adulteress taken in the Act of Uncleanness because 't is forbidden by the Laws of this Kingdom yet in Spain and among the old Romans it was not because their Laws permitted it and if the Magistrate himself may punish the Crime with Death he may appoint whom he pleases to be his Executioner And the Case is the same in reference to Divine Worship in which there are some things of
Conscience in matters of Religious Worship as in Affairs of Justice and Honesty i. e. a Liberty of Iudgment but not of practice they have an inviolable freedom to examine the Goodness of all Laws Moral and Ecclesiastical and to judge of them by their suitableness to the natural Reasons of Good and Evil but as for the Practice and all outward Actions either of Virtue or Devotion they are equally governable by the Laws and Constitutions of Common-wealths and men may with the same pretences of Reason challenge an Exemption from all Humane Laws in Matters of common Honesty upon the score of the Freedom of their Consciences as they plead a liberty from all Authority in Duties of Religious Worship upon the same account because they have a freedom of Judgment in both but of Practice in neither § 2. And upon the reasonableness of this Principle is founded the Duty or rather Priviledge of Christian Liberty viz. To assert the Freedom of the Mind of Man as far as 't is not inconsistent with the Government of the World in that a sincere and impartial use of our own Understandings is the first and Fundamental Duty of Humane Nature Hence it is that the Divine Providence is so highly solicitous not to have it farther restrained than needs must and therefore in all matters of pure Speculation it leaves the mind of Man entirely free to judge of the Truth and Falshood of things and will not suffer it to be usurp'd upon by any Authority whatsoever And whatsoever Opinion any man entertains of things of this Nature he injures no man by it and therefore no man can have any reason to commence any Quarrel with him for it Every man here judges for himself and not for others and matters of meer Opinion having no reference to the Publick there is no need of any Publick Judgment to determine them But as for those Actions that are capable of having any Influence upon the Publick Good or ill of Mankind though they are liable to the Determinations of the Publick Laws yet the Law of God will not suffer them to be determin'd farther than is requisite to the Ends of Government And in those very things in which it has granted the Civil Magistrate a Power over the Practices of men it permits them not to exercise any Authority over their Judgments but leaves them utterly free to judge of them as far as they are Objects of meer Opinion and relate not to the Common Interest of mankind And hence though the Commands of our Lawful Superiours may change Indifferent things into Necessary Duties yet they cannot restrain the Liberty of our Minds from judging things thus determin'd to remain in their own Nature Indifferent and the Reason of our Obligation to do them is not fetcht from any Antecedent Necessity in themselves but from the Supervening Commands of Authority to which Obedience in all things Lawful is a Necessary Duty So that Christian Liberty or the Inward Freedom of our Judgments may be preserved inviolable under the Restraints of the Civil Magistrate which are Outward and concern only the Actions not Judgments of men because the Outward Determination to one Particular rather than another does not abrogate the Inward Indifferency of the thing it self and the Duty of our Acting according to the Laws arises not from any Opinion of the Necessity of the thing it self but either from some Emergent and Changeable Circumstances of Order and Decency or from a sense of the Absolute Indispensableness of the Duty of Obedience Therefore the whole Affair of Christian Liberty relates only to our Inward Judgment of things and provided this be kept inviolate it matters not as to that Concern what Restraints are laid upon our Cutward Actions In that though the Gospel has freed our Consciences from the Power of things yet it has not from that of Government we are free from the matter but not from the Authority of Humane Laws and as long as we obey the Determinations of our Superiours with an Opinion of the Indifferency of the things themselves we retain the Power of our Christian Liberty and are still free as to the matter of the Law though not as to the Duty of Obedience § 3. Neither is this Prerogative of our Christian Liberty so much any new Favour granted in the Gospel as the Restauration of the mind of Man to its Natural Priviledge by Exempting us from the Yoke of the Ceremonial Law whereby things in themselves indifferent were tied upon the Conscience with as indispensable an Obligation as the Rules of Essential Goodness Equity during the whole Period of the Mosaick Dispensation which being Cancell'd by the Gospel those Indifferent things that had been made necessary by a Divine positive Command return'd to their own Nature to be used or omitted only as occasion should direct And upon this Account was it that St. Paul though he were so earnest an Assertor of his Christian Liberty against the Doctrine of the Necessity of Jewish Ceremonies never scrupled to use them when ever he thought it serviceable to the Interests of Christianity as is apparent in his Circumcision of Timothy to which he would never have condescended out of Observation of the Mosaick Law and yet did not in the least scruple to do it for other Purposes as Prudence and Discretion should direct him And though in his Discourses of Christian Liberty he Instances only in Circumcision Meats and Drinks and other Ceremonial Ordinances which were then the Particulars most in Dispute between the Christians and the Jews yet by the clearest Analogy of Reason the Case is the same as to the Judicial Law and all other things commanded by Moses that were not either Rules of Eternal Goodness or expresly establish'd in the Gospel This being its clearest and most important Design to reprieve Mankind from all the burdensome and Arbitrary Impositions of Moses that were scarce capable of any other Goodness than their being Instances of Obedience and to restore us to such a Religion as was most suitable to the perfection of Humane Nature and to tye no other Laws upon us than such whose Natural and Intrinsick Goodness should carry with them their own Eternal Obligation And therefore whatsoever our Superiours impose upon us whether in Matters of Religious Worship or any other Duties of Morality it neither is nor can be any entrenchment upon our Christian Liberty provided it be not imposed with an Opinion of the Antecedent Necessity of the thing it self § 4. Now the Design of what I have discoursed upon this Article of Christian Liberty is not barely to shew the manifest Impertinency of all those little Objections men force from it against the Civil Magistrates Jurisdiction over the outward Concerns of Religion whereas this relates entirely to things of a quite different Nature and is only concern'd in the inward Actions of the Mind but withal my purpose is mainly by exempting all internal Acts of the Soul from
the Empire of Humane Laws to shew that Religion properly so called is of all Virtues the least Obnoxious to the abuse of Government in that the whole substance of Religious Worship is transacted within the Mind of Man and dwells in our Hearts and Thoughts beyond the reach of Princes the Soul is its proper Seat and Temple and there Men may worship their God as they please without offending their Prince For the Essence of Religious Worship consists in nothing else but a grateful sense and temper of Mind towards the Divine Goodness and so can reside in those Faculties only that are capable of being affected with Gratitude and Veneration And as for all that concerns External Worship 't is no part of Religion it self but only an Instrument to express the Inward Veneration of the Mind by some Outward Action or Posture of the Body Upon which account it is that the Divine Wisdom has so little concern'd it self to prescribe any particular Forms of Divine Service for though the Christian Laws command us by some exteriour Signs to express our Interiour Piety yet they have no where set down any particular Expressions of Worship and Adoration And indeed the Exteriour Significations of Honour being so changeable according to the variety of Customs and Places there could be no particular Forms or Fashions prescribed for so some would have been obliged to signifie their Honourable Sentiments of God by Marks of Scorn and Dishonour because those Fashions and Postures which in some Places are Indications of Respect are to others Signs of Contempt So mad and Seditious is the Humour of those Men who brand all those Forms of Divine Service that are not expresly enjoyn'd in the Holy Volume with the odious Titles of Superstition and Will-worship and so in one Sentence condemn all the Churches in the World seeing there is not any one that has not Peculiar Rites and Customs of its own that were never prescribed nor practised by our Saviour or his Apostles And in all Ages of the World God has left the management of his Outward Worship to the Discretion of Men unless when to determine some particular Forms has been useful to some other purposes § 5. The Ancientest and most Universally practised way of expressing Divine Worship and Adoration was by Offering of Sacrifices those First Ages of the World conceiving it a proper and natural way of acknowledging their entire Dependence upon and Gratitude towards God by publickly presenting him with a portion of the Best and most Precious things they had and God was well-pleased with them not because he at all delighted in the Blood of Bulls and Goats but because they were the Pledges and Significations of a Grateful Mind And yet this outward Expression of Divine Worship notwithstanding its Universality and Antiquity was only made choice of by good men as a fit way of intimating the pious and grateful Resentments of their Minds and cannot in the least pretend to owe its Original to any Divine Institution seeing there appears not any shadow of a Command for it and to say it was Commanded though 't is no where Recorded is to take the Liberty of saying any thing without Proof or Evidence That indeed Sacrifices became Expiatory and that the Life of a Beast should be accepted to redeem the Life of a Man depended purely upon Positive Institution Lev. 17. 11. For the life of the Flesh is in the Blood and I have given it to you upon the Altar to make an Atonement for your Souls for 't is the Blood that maketh an Atonement for the Soul Now it was a Matter of Meer Grace and Favour in God to exchange the Blood of a Beast for the Blood of a Man which was really Forfeited for every Transgression of that Law that was Establish'd upon no less Sanction than the Threatning of Death In which Commutation of the Forfeiture was an equal mixture of the Divine Mercy and Severity hereby he at once signified his Hatred to Sin and his Compassion to Sinners in that though he might have remitted the Offence without exacting the Penalty yet to shew his implacable Hatred against Sin and withal the more to affright men from its Commission he would never remit its Guilt without some sort of recompence and Expiation But setting aside this Positive Institution of Sacrifices and Consumptive Oblations their Prime and Natural Use was only to express the Significations of a Grateful Mind as sufficiently appears not only in the Religion of the Ancient Jews but Heathens too Among whom the First and Earliest Footsteps of the Worship of God appear in their Harvest Sacrifices and Oblations when they presented the Deity with a Parcel of their Annual Returns in acknowledgment of his Bounty and Providence Crying Harvest-in was their most Solemn and most Ancient Festival Arist. Nicomach l. 8. c. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Ancient Sacrifices and Festival Meeting appear to have been at first Instituted upon the Ingathering of their Fruits such were the Offering of their First-Fruits which was a decent and sutable way of acknowledging their Homage and Gratitude to their Supreme Lord and had they not been directed to a wrong Deity as probably they were to the Sun they might have been no less pleasing to the Almighty than Cornelius's Alms and Devotions because God is no respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righeousness is accepted with him § 6. In the Mosaick Dispensation indeed God took special care to prescribe the particular Rites and Ceremonies of his Worship not so much by reason of the Necessity of the thing it self as because of the Sottishness and Stupidity of that Age in that all the Religions in the World were lamentably degenerated into the most sordid and Idolatrous Superstition and the Jewish Nation were sottishly addicted to the absurd Customs of their Neighbours and therefore the Divine Wisdom enjoyn'd them the most contrary Usages as a Fence to keep them from passing over to the Religion of the Gentiles But when Mankind was grown up to a riper Understanding and could discern that Religion was something else beside Customs and Ceremonies then did God Cancel the Old Discipline of the Law and by the Ministry of Iesus Christ establish'd a more Manly and Rational Dispensation In which as he has been more solicitous to acquaint us with the Main and Fundamental Affairs of Religion so has he scarce at all concern'd himself in Exteriour Rites and Significations having Instituted only two viz. The two Sacraments that are distinguish'd from all other Ceremonies by their being Federal and peculiarly significative of the Covenant between God and Man seal'd by the First renewed and confirmed by the Second but as for all other Rites and Ceremonies of External Service he has left their entire Disposal to the Power and Discretion of the Church it self knowing that as long as Men had Wit and Reason enough to manage the Civil Affairs of
to be Rogues as soon as they can § 6. So that according to this Hypothesis Mankind is left in as ill a condition after they have by Pacts and Covenants united into Societies and a State of Peace as they were in their natural State of War For all Covenants of mutual Trust are according to its own Rules in the State of Nature invalid because under that men are under no obligations of Justice and Honesty to one another and have no other measure of their actions but their interest and therefore as that might invite them in some circumstances to enter into Bonds and Contracts so it may in others to break them So that in the State of Government all their Promises Oaths and Contracts will prove as ineffectual as in the State of Nature Partly because the force of all Contracts made in the State of Government ariseth from the validity of the first Compact that was made in the State of Nature that is in that state in which it could have no validity partly Because they have no other tye but that of self-interest and so can lay no other obligation upon us to observe them than they might have done before And therefore if Mankind be once supposed in this natural state of War they can never be delivered from it and after they have enter'd into Covenants of Peace they would remain as much as before in a posture of War and be subject to all the same dangers and miseries that would have annoyed them if they had continued in their natural state For if Justice and fidelity be not supposed to be the Law and Duty of our Natures no Covenants are of power enough to bring us under any obligation to them Now having thus clearly blown up the foundations of this Hypothesis 't were but labour in vain to make particular enquiries into all the flaws and follies of its Superstructures seeing they must of necessity stand and fall together for if its subsequent Propositions be coherently deduced from these Fundamental Principles all the evidence and certainty they can pretend to depends on them and therefore the Premisses being once convicted of falshood all pretences to truth in the conclusions must necessarily vanish And if any of them happen to be true and rational 't is not by vertue of these but other Principles Thus though the Laws of Nature he assigns may be useful to the ends of Government and Happiness of Mankind yet because upon those grounds on which he assigns them they would be no Laws that alone is sufficient evidence of the errour and vanity of his whole Hypothesis seeing how good soever they may be in themselves yet upon the Principles and in the Method in which he proposes them they are of no force In that self-interest being the only reason of their obligation the Interests of Civil Society come thereby to be no better secured with than without them because if they were not in force by vertue of any Compact all men would chuse to act according to them when they thought it advantageous and when they have the utmost force his Principles can give them no man would think they obliged him when ever he apprehended them disadvantageous So that this malignant Principle of meer self-interest running through the whole Systeme and twisting it self with every branch of his Morality it does not only eat out and enervate its native life and vigour but withal envenoms their natural truth and soundness with its own malignity Which Principle being removed and that influence it hath on other parts of this Hypothesis being prevented and withal the Foundation on which it stands ruin'd viz. his absurd and imaginary State of Nature we have perhaps cashier'd all that is either base or peculiar in it and restored the true accounts of natural Justice and right Reason viz. That all men have a natural Right to Happiness from the very design of their creation that this cannot be acquired without mutual aids and friendships and therefore right reason dictates that every man should have some concern for his Neighbour as well as himself because this is made necessary to the welfare of the World by the natural state of things and by this mutual exchange of love and kindness men support one another in the comforts of humane life CHAP. V. A Confutation of the Consequences that some men draw from Mr. Hobs's Principles in behalf of Liberty of Conscience The Contents HOw a belief of the Imposture of all Religions is become the most powerful and fashionable Argument for the Toleration of all Though Religion were a Cheat yet because the World cannot be Govern'd without it they are the most mischievous Enemies to Government that tell the World it is so Religion is useful or dangerous in a State as the temper of mind it breeds is peaceable or turbulent The dread of Invisible Powers is not of it self sufficient to awe people into subjection but tends more probably to Tumults and Seditions This largely proved by the ungovernableness of the Principles and Tempers of some Sects Fanaticism is as natural to the Common people as folly and ignorance and yet is more mischievous to Government than Vice and Debauchery How the Fanaticks of all Nations and Religions agree in the same Principles of Sedition To permit different Sects of Religion in a Common-wealth is only to keep up so many incurable pretences and occasions of publick disturbance The corrupt passions and humours of men make Toleration infinitely unsafe Toleration only cried up by opprest Parties because it gives them opportunity to overturn the settled frame of things Every man that desires indulgence is engaged by his Principles to endeavour Changes and Alterations A bare indulgence of men in any Religion different from the establish'd way of Worship does but exasperate them against the State § 1. AND now the Reason why I have thus far pursued this Principle is because 't is become the most powerful Patron of the Fanatick Interest and a Belief of the indifferency or rather Imposture of all Religion is now made the most effectual not to say most fashionable Argument for Liberty of Conscience For when men have once swallowed this Principle That Mankind is free from all obligations antecedent to the Laws of the Common-wealth and that the Will of the Sovereign Power is the only measure of Good and Evil they proceed suitably to its Consequences to believe That no Religion can obtain the force of a Law till 't is establish'd for such by Supreme Authority that the Holy Scriptures were not Laws to any man till they were enjoyned by the Christian Magistrate that no man is under any obligation to assent to their Truth unless the Governours of the Common-wealth require it and that setting aside their Commands 't is no sin to believe our Blessed Saviour a villanous and lewd Impostor and that if the Sovereign Power would declare the Alcoran to be Canonical Scripture it would be as much the
Word of God as the four Gospels Leviath p. 3. c. 33. For if Sovereigns in their own Dominions are the sole Legislators then those Books only are Canonical that is Law in every Nation which are established for such by the Sovereign Authority So that all Religions are in reality nothing but Cheats and Impostures and at best but so many Tales of Imaginary and Invisible Powers Publickly allowed and encouraged to awe the Common People to Obedience Leviath p. 1. c. 12. Who are betrayed into it by these four Follies A false Opinion of Ghosts and immaterial Substances that neither are nor ever can be Ignorance of Second Causes Devotion towards what men groundlesly fear And mistaking things Casual for Divine Prognosticks In brief all Religion is nothing but a Cheat of Policy and was at first invented by the Founders and Legislators of Common-wealths and by them obtruded upon the credulous Rabble for the Ends of Government And therefore though Princes may wisely make use of the Fables of Religion to serve their own turns upon the silly Multitude yet 't is below their Wisdom to be seriously concern'd themselves for such Fooleries so that provided their subjects will befool themselves with any one Imposture 't is not material which they single out in that all Religions equally oblige to the belief of Invisible Powers which is all that is requisite to the Designs of Policy And as long as a Prince can keep up any apprehensions of Religion in the minds of his Subjects 't is no Policy to disoblige and exasperate any of them by interessing his Power for one Party more than another and by forcing all other Sects against their own Inclinations to conform their Belief to the Perswasions of one Faction but rather to endear them all to himself by indulging them their Liberty in their different Follies and so he may with more ease secure his Government by abusing all and yet disobliging none § 2. In answer to this Objection 't is not material to my present Purpose largely to examine refute these Wild and extravagant Pretences by asserting the Truth and Divine Authority of Religion and giving a rational account of the Grounds and Principles on which it stands only let me observe that this Discourse lies under no less prejudice than this That if any of the Principles of Religion be true then is all these mens Policy false But waving this too great advantage I shall content my self only to discover of what noisom and pernicious consequence such Principles are to the Common-wealth though it were granted that all Religion were nothing but Imposture And this I shall do without reminding the Reader how I have already prevented this Objection in the first part of the Discourse when I shew'd what good or bad Influence upon the State mens perswasions about Religion have by these four ensuing Considerations First Then methinks his Majesty is bound to con these men thanks for endeavouring to render the truth of Religion suspected and to possess mens minds with apprehensions of its being false whereby they effectually rob him of the best security of his Crown and strongest inducements of obedience to his Laws There being for certain nothing so absolutely necessary to the reverence of Government the peace of Societies and common Interests of mankind as a sense of Conscience and Religion This is the strongest Bond of Laws and only support of Government without it the most absolute and unlimited Powers in the World must be for ever miserably weak and precarious and lie always at the mercy of every Subjects passion and private Interest For when the obligations of Conscience and Religion are cashier'd men can have no higher inducements to Loyalty and Obedience than the considerations of their own private Interest and security and then wherever these happen to fail and Interest and advantage invite to disobedience men may do as they please And when they have power to shake off Authority they have right too and a prosperous Usurper shall have as fair a Title to his Crown as the most lawful Prince all Government will be founded upon force and violence and Kings nothing but terrible men with long Swords But when the ties of Conscience are superinduced upon those of Secular Interest this extends the Power of Princes to the hearts of their Subjects and secures them as much from the very thoughts as attempts of Treason For nothing so strongly influences the minds of men or so authoritatively commands their passions and inclinations as Religion forasmuch as no fears are not only to the considerate part of Mankind but to the ruder sort so vehement as those of Hell nor hopes so active as those of Heaven and therefore the Commands of Religion being back'd with such mighty sanctions they must needs have infinitely more force to awe or allure the minds of men to a compliance than any Secular Interests Whereas those men that think themselves above the Follies of Conscience and either believe or regard not the evils threatned hereafter an attainment to which these our modern Politicians do not blush to pretend though it be but an odde piece of Policy openly to owne and proclaim it must make their present Interest the Rule and measure of all their actions and can have no other obligation to obey their lawful Superiours in what they command than they have to disobey them viz. their own security and self-preservation Whereas if these men lived under the restraints of Conscience and the serious apprehensions of Religion and believed the Laws of their Prince to be bound upon them by the Laws of God and that under the threatnings of everlasting misery their Loyalty would be tied upon them by all that men can either hope or fear and they would have all the engagements to obedience that the serious reflections upon a happy or miserable Eternity could lay upon them But if the Principles of Government have so essential a dependence upon those of Religion if nothing be powerful enough to secure obedience but the hopes and fears of another life if all humane Laws have their main force and efficacy from the apprehensions of Religion if Oaths Promises and Covenants and whatsoever else whereby Civil Societies are upheld are made firm by nothing but the bonds of Religion then let Authority judge how much it is beholden to those men who labour to bring it into Publick Disreputation and to possess their Subjects with an opinion of its falshood whereby they not only set them loose from their Authority but enrage them against it by perswading them they are governed by Cheats and Impostures and that the Magistrate builds his Dominion upon their folly and simplicity there being nothing more hateful to Mankind than to be imposed upon So that though Religion were a Cheat they are apparently the greatest Enemies to Government that tell the World it is so § 3. But secondly Nothing more concerns the Interest of the Civil Magistrate than to
take care what particular Doctrines of Religion are taught within his Dominions because some are peculiarly advantageous to the ends of Government and others as naturally tending to its disturbance Some incline the minds of men to candour moderation and ingenuity and work them to a gentle and peaceable temper by teaching humility charity meekness and obedience Now 't is the Interest of Princes to cherish and propagate such Doctrines among their Subjects that will make them not only quiet but useful in the Common-wealth But others there are that infect the minds of men with pride peevishness malice spight and envy that incline them to delight in detracting from Princes and speaking reproachfully of Government and breed in them such restless and seditious tempers that 't is next to an impossibility for any Prince to please or oblige them Now as for such perverse and arrogant Sects of men it certainly concers Governours to suppress them as so many Routs of Traytors and Rebels Religion then is either useful or dangerous in a Common-wealth as the temper of mind it breeds is peaceable or turbulent and as there is nothing more serviceable to the Interests of Government so there is nothing more mischievous and therefore nothing more concerns Princes than to take care what Doctrines are taught within their Dominions For seeing Religion has and will have the strongest influence upon the minds of men when that renders them averse and troublesom to Government 't is that all the Power nor Policy in the World can keep them peaceable till such perswasions are rooted out of their minds by severity of Laws and Penalties And as long as men think themselves obliged upon pain of damnation to Disobedience and Sedition not any Secular threatnings and inflictions are of force enough to bridle the Exorbitances of Conscience There is not any vice so incident to the Common People as Superstition nor any so mischievous 'T is infinitely evident from the Histories and Records of all Ages and Nations that there is nothing so vicious or absurd but may pass for Religion and what is worse the more wild and giddy Conceits of Religion are ever suckt in by the multitude with the greatest passion and eagerness and there is no one thing in the World so difficult as to bring the Common People to true Notions of God and his Worship insomuch that 't is no Paradox to affirm That Religion i. e. what is mistaken for it has been one of the greatest Principles of mischief and wickedness in the World And if so then certainly nothing requires so much care and prudence in the Civil Magistrate as its due conduct and management So that the dread of Invisible Powers is of it self no more serviceable to awe the people into subjection then to drive them into Tumults and Confusions and if it chance to be accompanied as it easily may with tumultuous and seditious perswasions 't is an invincible obligation to Villany and Rebellion And therefore it must needs above all things concern Princes to look to the Doctrines and Articles of mens Belief seeing 't is so great odds that they prove of dangerous consequence to the publick Peace and in that case the apprehensions of a Deity and a World to come makes their danger almost irresistible Sect. 4. There are some Sects whose Principles and some persons whose tempers will not suffer them to live peaceable in any Common-wealth For what if some men believe That if Princes refuse to reform Religion themselves 't is lawful for their Godly Subjects to do it and that by violence and force of Arms What if they believe That Princes are but Executioners of the Decrees of the Presbytery and that in case of disobedience to their Spiritual Governours they may be Excommunicated and by consequence Deposed What if they believe That Dominion is founded in Grace and therefore that all wicked Kings forfeit their Crowns and that it is in the power of the People of God to bestow them where they please And what if others believe That to puruse their success in villany and Rebellion is to follow Providence and that when the Event of War has deliver'd up Kings into their Power then not to depose or murther them were to slight the Guidance of Gods Providential Dispensations Are not these and the like innocent Propositions think you mightily conducive to the peace and settlement of Common-wealths Such Articles of Faith as these cannot but make brave and obedient Subjects and he must needs be a glorious and powerful Prince where such conceits are the main ingredients of his Subjects Religion Let any man shew me what Doctrines could have been more unluckily contrived to disturb Government than these And if men would study on purpose to frame and model a Rebellious Faith these must have been their Fundamental Articles and yet 't is sufficiently known where they have been both believed and practised But further Is there not a sort of Melancholy Religionists in the World whose very Genious inclines them to Quarrels and Exceptions against the State and management of Publick Affairs There is nothing so malepart as a Splenetick Religion the inward discontent and uneasiness of mens own minds maintains it self upon the faults and miscarriages of others and we may observe how this humour is ever venting it self in sighs and complaints for the badness of the times i. e. in effect of the Government and in telling and aggravating little stories that may reflect upon the wisdom and ability of their Superiours 'T is impossible to please their fretful and anxious minds the very delights and recreations of the Court shall stir their envy and the vanities of the great Ones grieve and wound their tender Souls However Princes behave themselves they can never win upon the affections of these people their very prosperity shall disoblige them and they are ready upon all occasions to bring them to Account for their misdemeanours And if any of the Grandees happen to be discontented they have here a Party ready formed for the purpose to revenge their injury and bring evil Counsellors that seduce the King to Iustice. And 't is not impossible but there may be a sort of proud and haughty men among us not over-well affected to Monarchick Government who though they scorn yet patronize this humour as a check to the insolence and presumption of Princes Again Are there not some whole Sects of men all whose Religion is made up of nothing but passion rancour and bitterness All whose Devotion is little better than a male-contentedness their Piety than a sanctified fury and their zeal than a proud and spightful malice and who by the Genius of their Principles are brought infinitely and irrecoverably under the power of their passions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now nothing imports Governours so much as to manage mens passions in that 't is these rather than our appetites that disturb the World A person that is debaucht and intemperate is indeed useless
to the Common-wealth but he that is turbulent and passionate is dangerous But then when passion is fired with religious zeal nothing can temper its outragious and Fanatick heats but it works the minds of men into rancour and bitterness and drives them into all manner of savage and inhumane practices Princes have never found any thing so restive and ungovernable as Sectarian Madness no malice so spightful and implacable as the zeal of a Godly Party nor any rage so fierce and merciless as sanctified Barbarism All the ancient Tyranny has in some places been out-done by a thorough-godly Reformation zeal for the Glory of God has often turn'd whole Nations into Shambles fill'd the World with continual Butcheries and Massacres and flesh'd it self with slaughters of Myriads of Mankind And when men think their passions warranted by their Religion how is it possible it should be otherwise For this obliges them by their greatest hopes and fears to act them to the highest and 't is easie to imagine what calm and peaceable things those men must be who think it their duty to enforce and enrage their passions with the obligations of Conscience And yet alas How few are they who have wisdom enough to keep their zeal clean from these sowre and crabbed mixtures The generality of men are scarce sensible of their spiritual wickednesses and 't is observable That in all Ages and all Religions of the world few people have taken notice of them beside their Wise men and Philosophers And even among the Professors of Christianity it self notwithstanding that our Religion has made such special provisions against all Excesses of Passion and establish'd Love Charity Moderation Patience Candor and Ingenuity as its Prime and Fundamental Duties yet the Spirit of meekness and humility soon decayed with its Primitive and Apostolical Professors and within a few Centuries of years the Church was over-run with some Sects of men much of the same temper with some of our Modern Saints So that even in true and innocent perswasions 't is necessary to asswage the distempers and indiscretions of a forward zeal The giddy multitude judge weakly fancy strongly and act passionately and unless restrain'd by wary and sober Laws will drive on so furiously in a good cause till they run their Religion into Folly and Faction and themselves into tumults and riotous proceedings What Socrates once said of Vertue That when it is not conducted by prudence it is but Pedantry and a phantastick thing is much more true of Religion which when it wants the guidance and ornament of this Vertue may be folly or madness or any thing rather than it self In brief Fanaticism is both the greatest and the easiest vice that is incident to Religion 't is a Weed that thrives in all Soils and there is the same Fanatick Spirit that mixes it self with all the Religions in the World And 't is as natural to the Common People as the proud or ignorant or perverse or factious or stubborn or eager or passionate for when ever any of these vices or follies are twisted with mens apprehensions of Religion they naturally work and ferment their minds into a boysterous and tumultuary zeal And yet how infinitely difficult it is to cure the Common Heard of these vices the Experience of all Ages is too great a demonstration so that there is nothing so apparently necessary or difficult as to govern the vulgar Rout in their conceptions of Religion seeing 't is so natural for them both to mix and heigthen yes and sanctifie their passions with their Consciences And from hence it is that though the Fanaticks in all Nations may disagree in the objects and matters of their Superstition according to the different Customs of their Country and variety of their Educations yet as for their tendency to disturbance and Sedition in the State 't is in all places the same to all intents and purposes And those unquiet Sects that have often disturb'd and sometimes subverted whole Kingdoms in Africa if they had hapned to have been born in Europe would have done the same here where though their Religion might have been different yet would their Genius have been the same as rising from the same Conjunction of Conscience and Passion And therefore it cannot but be a wonder to any man that is acquainted with the Experience of former Ages to see Governours after so many warnings so insensible of this mischief and however they may think themselves unconcern'd to restrain the opinions of any dissenting Sect as being perhaps but foolish and inconsiderable in themselves yet nothing can more highly concern them than to provide against their inclinations as being generally of a sad and dangerous consequence to the State And this at present may suffice to evince How much it concerns Authority to look to the particular Principles and Inclinations of every Sect and to prove That the meer Belief of Invisible Powers is so far from being Religion enough to awe men to obedience that unless it be temper'd with a due sense of vertue and managed with special prudence and discretion it rather tends to make the rude multitude more head-strong and ungovernable Sect. 5. Thirdly To permit different Sects of Religion in a Common-wealth is only to keep up so many pretences and occasions for publick Disturbance the Factions of Religion are ever the most seditious and the less material their difference the more implacable their hatred as the Turks think it more acceptable to God to kill one Persian than seventy Christians No hinge so vehemently alienates mens affections as variety of judgment in matters of Religion here they cannot disagree but they must quarrel too and when Religion divides mens minds no other Common Interest can unite them and where zeal dissolves friendship the ties of Nature are not strong enough to reconcile it Every Faction is at open defiance with every Faction they are always in a state and posture of War and engaged in a mortal and irreconcileable hatred against each other When ever men part Communion every Party must of necessity esteem the other impious and Heretical in that they never divide but with pretences that they could not agree without being guilty of some sin or other as Blasphemy or Idolatry or Superstition or Heresie or the like For all agree in this Principle That peace ought always to be preserved where it can without offending God and offering violence to Conscience and therefore they cannot but look upon one another as lying under the Divine Wrath and Displeasure and consequently in a damnable condition and then are both Parties engaged as they love God and the Souls of men to labour one another ruine And when the Party is form'd and men are listed into it by chance and Education the distinguishing Opinion of the Party is to them the most material and fundamental Article of their Belief and so they must account of all that either disowne or deny it as of Heathens Infidels and
that distinguish their Parties And this cannot but be a mighty endearment of their Prince to them when he neglects and discountenances his best Subjects only because they are the godly Party for so every Party is to it self to join himself to their profest and irreconcileable Enemies And they will be wonderfully forward to assist a Patron of Idolatry and Superstition or an Enemy to the power of godliness for these are the softest words that different Sects can afford one another And withal I might adde That they must needs be much in love with him when they have reason to believe that they lie perpetually under his displeasure and that he looks upon them as little better than Enemies So that if a Prince permit different Parties and interests of Religion in his Dominions however he carries himself towards them he shall have at least all Parties discontented but one for if himself be of any he displeases all but that if of none he displeases all And Zealous and Religious People of all sorts must needs be wonderfully in love with an Atheist and there is no remedy but he must at least be thought so if he be not of any distinct and visible profession CHAP. VI. Of things Indifferent and of the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Things undetermined by the Word of God The Contents THe Mystery of Puritanism lies in this Assertion That nothing ought to be established in the Worship of God but what is expresly commanded in the Word of God The Wildness Novelty and unreasonableness of this Principle It makes meer Obedience to lawful Authority sinful It takes away all possibility of Settlement in any Church or Nation It is the main pretense of all pious Villanies It cancels all Humane Laws and makes most of the Divine Laws useless and impracticable It obliges men to be seditious in all Churches in the World in that there is no Church that has not some Customs and Vsages peculiar to it self All that pretend this Principle do and must act contrary to it The exorbitancy of this Principle makes all yielding and condescension to the men that plead it unsafe and impolitick Wherein the perfection and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures consists Of the Vanity of their Distinction who tell us That the Civil Magistrate is to see the Laws of Christ executed but to make none of his own The dangerous consequents of their way of arguing who would prove That God ought to have determined all Circumstances of his own Worship 'T is scarce possible to determine all Circumstances of any outward action they are so many and so various The Magistrate has no way to make men of this perswasion comply with his will but by forbidding what he would have done The Puritans upbraided with Mr. Hooker's Book of Ecclesiastical Politie and challeng'd to answer it Their Out-cries against Popery Will-worship Superstition adding to the Law of God c. retorted upon themselves The main Objection against the Magistrates power in Religion proposed viz. That 't is possible that he may impose things sinful and superstitious This Objection lies as strongly against all manner of Government Our inquiry is after the best way of settling things not that possibly might be but that really is Though Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction may be abused yet 't is then less mischievous than Liberty of Conscience The Reason of the necessity of subjection to the worst of Governours because Tyranny is less mischievous than Rebellion or Anarchy The Author of the Book entituled Vindiciae contra Tyrannos confuted That it may and often does so happen that 't is necessary to punish men for such perswasions into which they have innocently abused themselves Actions are punishable by Humane Laws not for their sinfulness but for their ill Consequence to the Publick This applied to the Case of a well-meaning Conscience Sect. 1. ALL things as well Sacred as Civil that are not already determined as to their Morality i. e. that are not made necessary Duties by being commanded or sinful Actions by being forbidden either by the Law of Nature or positive Law of God may be lawfully determined either way by the Supreme Authority and the Conscience of every subject is tied to yield Obedience to all such Determinations This Assertion I lay down to oppose the first and the last and the great Pretence of Non-conformity and wherein as one observeth the very Mystery of Puritanism consisteth viz. That nothing ought to be established in the Worship of God but what is authorized by some Precept or Example in the Word of God that is the complete and adequate Rule of Worship and therefore Christian Magistrates are only to see that executed that Christ has appointed in Religion but to bring in nothing of their own they are tied up neither to add nor diminish neither in the matter nor manner So that whatever they injoin in Divine Worship if it be not expresly warranted by a Divine Command how innocent soever it may be in it self it presently upon that account loses not only its Liberty but its Lawfulness it being as requisite to Christian practice that things indifferent should still be kept indifferent as things necessary be held necessary This very Principle is the only Fountain and Foundation of all Puritanism from which it was at first derived and into which it is at last resolved A pretence so strangely wild and humorsom that it is to me an equal wonder either that they should be so absurd as seriously to believe it or if they do not that they should be so impudent as thus long and thus confidently to pretend it when it has not the least shadow of Foundation either from Reason or from Scripture and was scarce ever so much as thought of till some men having made an unreasonable Separation from the Church of England were forced to justifie themselves by as unreasonable Pretences For what can be more incredible than that things that were before lawful and innocent should become sinful upon no other score than their being commanded i. e. that meer obedience to lawful Authority should make innocent actions criminal For the matter of the Law is supposed of it self indifferent and therefore if obedience to the Law be unlawful it can be so for no other reason than because 't is Obedience So that if Christian Liberty be so awkard a thing as these men make it 't is nothing else but Christian Rebellion 't is a Duty that binds men to disobedience and forbids things under that formality because Authority commands them Now what a reproach to the Gospel is this that it should be made the only Plea for Sedition What a scandal to Religion that tenderness of Conscience should be made the only Principle of Disobedience and that nothing should so much incline men to be refractory to Authority as their being conscientious What a perverse folly is it to imagine That nothing but opposition to Government can secure our liberty And
of scruple that renounce Communion with the Church of England must do the same with all Churches in the World in that there is not any one Church in Christendom whose Laws and Customs are not apparently liable either to the same or as great exceptions Now Magistrates must needs be obligd to deal wonderful gently with such tender Consciences as these that are acted by such nice and unhappy Principles as must force them to be troublesom and unpeaceable in any Common-wealth in the World Nay what is more notorious than all this these men have all along in pursuit of this Principle run directly counter to their own practices and perswasions For not to puzzle them to discover in which of the Gospels is injoyn'd the form of Publick Penance in the Kirk of Scotland or to find out the Stool of Repentance either among the works of Bezaleel or the Furniture of the Temple We read indeed of Beesoms and Flesh-forks and Pots and Shovels and Candlesticks but not one syllable of Joynt-stools Let them tell me What Precept or Example they have in the Holy Scriptures for singing Psalms in Meeter Where has our Saviour or his Apostles enjoyn'd a Directory for publick Worship And that which themselves imposed What Divine Authority can it challenge beside that of an Ordinance of Lords and Commons What Precept in the Word of God can they produce for the significant Form of swearing by laying their hand upon the Bible which yet they never scrupled What Scripture Command have they for the three significant Ceremonies of the solemn League and Covenant viz. That the whole Congregation should take it 1. Uncovered 2. Standing 3. with their right hand lift up bare Now What a prodigious piece of impudence was this that when they had not only written so many Books with so much vehemence against three innocent Ceremonies of the Church only because they were significant but had also involved the Nation in a civil War in a great measure for their removal and had arm'd themselves and their Party against their Sovereign with this Holy League of Rebellion that even then they should impose three others so grosly and so apparently liable to all their own Objections What clearer evidence can we possibly have That it is not Conscience but humour and peevishness that dictates their scruples And What instance have we in any Nation of the World of any Schism and Faction so unreasonably begun and continued The Rebellion of Corah indeed may resemble but nothing can equal it And from hence we may discover how vain a thing it is to make Proposals and Condescensions to such unreasonable men when 't is so impossible to satisfie all their demands and suppose we should yield and deliver up to their zeal those harmless Ceremonies they have so long worried with so much fury and impatience it would only cherish them in their restless and ungovernable perswasions For whilst their peevish tempers are acted by this exorbitant Principle the Affairs of Religion can never be so setled as to take away all occasions and pretences of Quarrel in that there never can be any Circumstances of Religious Worship against which this Principle may not as rationally be urged and 't is impossible to perform Religious Worship without some Circumstance or other and if all men make not use of it against all particulars 't is because they are humoursom as well as seditious and so allow one thing upon the same Principle they disavow another For certainly otherwise it were impossible that any men should when they pray refuse to wear a Surplice and yet when they swear which is but another sort of Divine Worship never scruple to kiss the Gospel So that whoever seriously imbibes this perswasion and upon that account withdraws himself from the Communion of the Church he understands not the consequences of his Opinion if it does not lead him down to the lowest folly of Quakerism which after divers gradual exorbitances of other less extravagant Sects was but the last and utmost improvement of this Principle And therefore whilst men are possess'd with such a restless and untoward perswasion What can be more apparently vain than to talk of Accommodations or to hope for any possibility of quiet and setlement till Authority shall see it necessary as it will first or last to scourge them into better manners and wiser opinions So that we see the weight of the Controversie lies not so much in the particular matters in debate as in the Principles upon which 't is managed and for this very reason though we are not so fond as to believe the Constitutions of the Church unalterable yet we deem it apparently absurd to forego any of her establish'd Ceremonies out of compliance with these mens unreasonable demands which as it would be coarsly impolitick upon divers other accounts so mainly by yielding up her Laws and by consequence submitting her Authority to such Principles as must be eternal and invincible hindrances of Peace and Setlement This let them consider whom it most concerns § 5. Fourthly As for their Principle of the perfection and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures 't is undeniably certain as to the fundamental Truths and substantial Duties of Christian Religion but when this Rule that is suited only to things necessary is as confidently applied to things accessory it lays in the minds of men impregnable Principles of Folly and Superstition For confounding them in their different apprehensions between the substantial Duties and external Circumstances of Religion and making them of equal value and necessity it makes the doing or not doing of a thing necessary to procure the Divine acceptance which God himself has not made so and places a Religion in things that are not religious and possesseth the minds of men with false and groundless fears of God wherein consisteth the very Essence and Formality of Superstition Whereas were they duly instructed in the great difference between things absolutely necessary and things meerly decent and circumstantial this would not only preserve them in the right Notions of good and evil but also keep up the Purity of Religion Decency of Worship and due Reverence of Authority And therefore when these men would punctually tye up the Magistrate to add nothing to the Worship of God but what is enjoyn'd in the Word of God if their meaning be of new Articles of Belief 't is notoriously impertinent because to this no Civil Magistrate pretends But if their meaning be that the Magistrate has no Authority to determine the particular circumstances of Religion that are left undetermined by the Divine Law 't is then indeed to the purpose but as notoriously false in that we are certainly bound to obey him in all things lawful and every thing is so that is not made unlawful by some prohibition for things become evil not upon the score of their being not commanded but upon that of their being forbidden and what the Scripture forbids not it
And then as for their Declamations against adding to the Law of God to be short I appeal to the Reason of all mankind whether any men in the World are more notoriously guilty of unwarrantable Additions than these who forbid those things as sinful and consequently under pain of Damnation which the Law of God has no where forbidden What is it to teach the Commandments of men for Doctrines but to teach those things to be the Law of God that are not so And What can more charge the Divine Law of Imperfection than to teach that a man may perform all that it has commanded and yet perish for not doing something that it has not commanded And so do they who make it necessary not to do something that God has left indifferent Whereas nothing can be more Unreasonable than to tax the Church of making Additions to the Law of God because all her Laws are imposed not as Laws of God but as Laws of men and so are not more liable to this Charge than Iustinian's Institutes and Littleton's Tenures And then in the last place as for their noise against Popery a term that as well as some other angry words signifies any thing that some men dislike I shall say no more than that we have most reason to raise this out-cry when they take upon themselves as well as the old Gentleman at Rome to controul the Laws of the Secular Powers And what do they but set up a Pope in every mans Conscience whilst they vest it with a Power of countermanding the Decrees of Princes These things cannot but appear with an undeniable evidence to any man that is not invincibly either ignorant or wilful or both and therefore 't is time they should at least for shame if they will not for Conscience cease to disturb the Church with Clamour and Exceptions so miserably impertinent that I blush for having thus far pursued them with a serious Confutation And therefore leaving them and their impertinencies together for I despair of ever seeing these old and dear Acquaintances parted I shall now address my self to clear off one more material and more plausible Objection and so conclude this particular And 't is this Sect. 14. 'T is possible the Magistrate may be deceived in his Determinations and establish a Worship that is in its own nature sinful and superstitious in which case if what I contend for be true all his Subjects must either be Rebels or Idolaters if they obey they sin against God if they disobey they sin against their Sovereign This is the last Issue of all that is objected in this Controversie and the only Argument that gives gloss and colour to all their other trifling pretences And yet 't is no more than what may be as fairly objected against all Government of Moral and Political Affairs for there 't is as possible that the Supreme Power may be mistaken in its Judgment of good and evil and yet no man will deny the Civil Power of Princes because they are fallible and may perhaps abuse it And yet in this alone lies all the strength of this Objection against their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction because forsooth 't is possible they may erre and manage it to evil purposes But whatever force it carries in it it rather strikes at the Divine Providence than my Assertion and charges that of being defective in making sufficient Provisions for the due Government of mankind in that it has not set over us infallible Judges and Governours For unless all Magistrates be guided by an unerring Spirit 't is possible they may act against the ends of their Institution and if this be a sufficient Objection against their Authority it must of necessity overthrow the Power of all fallible Judicatures and make Governours as incompetent Judges in matters of Morality and Controversies of right and wrong as in Articles of Faith and Religion And therefore our Enquiry is to find out the best way of setling the world that the state of things is capable of If indeed mankind were infallible this Controversie were at an end but seeing that all men are liable to Errors and Mistakes and seeing there is an absolute necessity of a Supreme Power in all Publick Affairs our Question I say is What is the most prudent and expedient way of setling them not that possibly might be but that really is And this as I have already sufficiently proved is to devolve their management on the Supreme Civil Power which though it may be imperfect and liable to Errors and Mistakes yet 't is the least so and is a much better way to attain Publick Peace and Tranquillity than if they were entirely left to the ignorance and folly of every private man which must of necessity be pregnant with all manner of Mischiefs and Confusions So that this method I have assign'd being comparatively the best way of Government of all Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Affairs is not to be rejected because 't is liable to some inconveniences but rather to be embraced above all others because 't is liable to incomparably the fewest And if it so happen that some private persons suffer wrong from this method of proceeding yet this private injury has an ample Compensation from the Publick benefit that arises from it and when it so falls out that either the whole Society or one individual must suffer 't is easie to determine that better one honest man perish than a million The inconveniences of a bad Government are inconsiderable in comparison to Anarchy and Confusion and the evils that fall upon particular men from its unskilful or irregular Administration are vastly too little to weigh against the necessity of its institution Sect. 15. And upon this Principle stands the necessity of subjection and obedience to all Authority in that though its ill management may happen to bring many and great inconveniences upon the Publick yet they cannot equal the mischiefs of that Confusion which must necessarily arise if Subjects are warranted to disobey or resist Government whenever they shall apprehend 't is ill administred Perhaps never any Government was so good as to be administred with exact Justice and Equity nor any Governour so wise as not to be chargeable with faults and miscarriages and therefore if upon every quarrel every wise or honest man can pick against the Laws of the Common-wealth he may lawfully withdraw his obedience What can follow but a certain and unavoidable dissolution of Government when every man will be commanded by nothing but his own Perswasions that is himself And upon this account 't is that the Law of God has tied upon us such an absolute and indispensable subjection to Authority which though it may be mischievous yet 't is less so than disobedience and the world must be govern'd as it can be by Men and not as it might be by Angels The management indeed of Humane Affairs is generally bad enough but 't is as well as can probably
vain and frivolous as all their other Cavils and shuffling Pretences Sect. 2. Scandal then is a word of a large and ambiguous signification and the thing it imports is not determinately either good or evil but is sometimes innocent and sometimes criminal according to the different nature of those things from whence it arises or of those circumstances wherewith it is attended for in the full and proper extent of the word 't is any thing whether good or evil or indifferent that occasions the fall or sin of another Now if the matter of the Scandal or that which occasions anothers sin be in it self good and vertuous this casual event is not sufficient to reflect any charge or disparagement upon it and therefore 't is in Scripture frequently attributed to the best of things to the Cross of Christ to Christ himself and to the Grace of God If it be a thing in it self criminal though it be chiefly blameable upon its own account yet this usually aggravates and enhances the original guilt of the action But lastly if it be a thing indifferent and a matter of Christian liberty then is it either faultless or chargeable according to its different Cases and Circumstances as Christian prudence and discretion shall determine so various and contingent a thing not being capable to be govern'd by any fix'd and setled measures Some are scandalized out of weakness and some out of peevishness some before due information of their mistake and some after it some because they do not and some because they will not understand All which with infinite other Circumstances men ought to consider in the exercise of their Christian liberty and suitably to guide themselves by the same Rules of Wisdom and Charity that determine them in all the other affairs of humane life For the action it self is only the remote occasion and not the immediate cause of the scandal in that being in its own nature indifferent and by consequence innocent it cannot be directly and from it self productive of any criminal effect and therefore its being abused and perverted to purposes and opportunities of sin is purely accidental And the proper and immediate cause of every mans falling is something within himself 'T is either folly or malice or ignorance or wilfulness too little understanding or too much passion that betray some men into sin by occasion of other mens actions So that the Schools distinction of scandal into passive or that which is taken and active or that which is given is apparently false and impertinent and is the main thing that has perplexed and intricated all discourses of this Article Because Scandal properly so called is never given but when it is taken as being only an occasion of offence taken by one manfrom the actions of another Now if his taking offence where it was not given proceeds from weakness and ignorance then is his case pitiable and a good-natur'd man will out of tenderness and charity forbear such things as he seizes on to abuse to his own destruction For all the obligations of Scandal proceed purely from that extraordinary height of Charity and tenderness of good Nature that is so signally recommended in the Gospel which will oblige us to forbear any action that we may lawfully omit when we know it will prove an occasion of sin and mischief to some well-meaning but less knowing Christians But if it proceed from humour or pride or wilfulness or any other vicious Principle then is the man to be treated as a peevish and stubborn person and no man is bound to part with his own freedom because his Neighbour is froward and humorous and if he be resolved to fall there is no reason I should forego the use of my liberty because he is resolved to make that his stumbling-block So that we see all Scandal is equally taken but not equally criminal in that some take it only because they are weak and some because they are peevish according to which different cases we are to behave our selves with a different demeanour in this affair § 3. And for this we have variety of Examples in the practice of the Apostles whose actions were liable to the opposite Scandals of Jews and Gentiles If they complyed with the Jews in their rigorous Observation of the Mosaick Rites this was a Scandal to the Gentiles by leading them into a false and mischievous opinion of their necessity If they did not comply then that proved a Scandal to those Iews that were not as yet fully instructed in the right nature and extent of their Christian liberty and the dissolution of the Mosaick Law and so would be tempted to fall back from that Religion that inclin'd men to a scorn and contempt of the Law of Moses Now between these two extremes they were forced to walk with great prudence and wariness inclining sometimes to one and sometimes to the other as they apprehended most beneficial to the ends Interests of Christianity Thus though St. Paul condescended to the Circumcision of Timothy to humour and gratifie the Jews who could not be so suddenly wrought off from the prejudices and strong impressions of their Education and therefore were for a time indulged to the practice of their ancient Rites and Customs Yet when he was among the Gentiles he would not be perswaded to yield so far to the Jewish obstinacy as to suffer the Circumcision of Titus but opposed it with his utmost zeal and vehemence because this would in probability have frustrated the success of all his labour in propagating the Gospel among forein Nations if he who had before so vehemently asserted their Christian liberty and instructed them in their freedom from the Mosaick Law and particularly from this Ceremony should now seem inconsistent with himself by acting directly contrary to his former Doctrine and bringing men into a subjection to the Law of Moses after himself had so often declared its being revers'd and superannuated For what else could be probably expected than that his Gentile Proselytes being discouraged partly by his prevarication and partly by the weight of that Noke to which they foresaw or at least suspected they must submit should be strongly tempted to an utter Apostacy And therefore wisely weighing with himself that the scandal was less dangerous in angring the Jews than in hazarding the Gentiles he chose rather to leave them to their own peevishness than to hazard the revolt of these Gal. 2. 4 5. § 4. And this is the true reason as some learned men have observed of this great Apostles different deportment in this particular towards the Churches of Rome and Galatia because in the Roman Church there lived no small number of natural Jews who when they were first converted to Christianity were not so well instructed in the abrogation of the Mosaick Law The Method whereby the Apostles invited them at first to embrace the Christian Faith was barely to convince them of its Evidence and Divine Authority
without taking any notice whether their old Religion were thereby abrogated or continued For had they at the first attempt dealt roundly with them in that particular that had been so far from winning their assent that it had been absolutely the most effectual way to affright them from the Gospel And from hence it came to pass that there were dispersed among them so many Judaizing Christians who though they were sufficiently instructed in the positive Articles of the Christian Faith yet not being so throughly informed as to the superannuating of those legal observances they were as firmly wedded to them as if they had still continued in the Jewish Religion Therefore does the Apostle advise That these weak and uninstructed Converts should be tenderly treated and exhorts the more knowing Christians for a while to comply with their weakness and simplicity till time and better information should wear off their old prejudices and at length bring them to a better understanding of their own liberty But then as for the Galatians when they hapned to fall into the same error he thought not fit to treat them with the same tenderness and Civility But rather chides and lashes them out of their childish folly because as St. Chrysostome observes at their first Conversion they had been competently instructed in the extent of their Christian liberty and had already disclaimed all their Jewish perswasions and therefore for them to relapse into the Errours of Iudaism could not proceed from weakness and want of instruction but from lightness and giddiness of mind a vanity that deserved to be upbraided with as much briskness and vehemence of Satyr as St. Paul has us'd in that Epistle And upon this account arose the Quarrel between him and St. Peter in that St. Peter had not carried himself so prudently in the use of his Christian liberty as he might have done their Controversie was not about an Article of Faith or a prescribed Duty of Religion but purely about an occasional and changeable matter of prudence But to pass by this and divers other particular cases to the same purpose in the Writings of St. Paul whose practice in this affair is the best Comment upon his Doctrine the result of what I have discoursed from him evidently amounts to these two consequences 1. That the proper obligations of Scandal are extended only to matters of an indifferent and arbitrary Nature Those things that are absolutely necessary we are bound to do whether they offend any man or no and those that are absolutely unlawful we are bound to forbear upon the score of stronger obligations than those of Scandal and therefore its proper Scene must lie in things that are not determinately good or evil 2. That the cases in which it is concern'd are not capable of being determin'd by any unalterable Laws and Constitutions and that we have no other Rules for the Government of our actions in reference to it but those of common prudence and discretion And now from this more general account may we proceed with more clearness and security to some more close and particular considerations that immediately relate to this affair as 't is pleaded by some men in justification of their present Schism § 5. First And here in the first place let me desire them to consider how manifestly scandalously they prevaricate with the World in their management of this Apology in that the Pretence is too narrow a Covering for their Practices For however it may serve to excuse their refusal of Conformity in the Exercise of their Publick and Ministerial Function which they must renounce though to the ruine of their Families to please the Brethren yet how will this account for all the other disorders and irregularities of their separations What has this to do with their private Meetings and Conventicles against the Commands of publick Authority They plead it only to justifie themselves in laying down their Ministry and not to keep them from being present at our Assemblies in a private capacity as they sometimes are Why therefore should they keep up such an apparent Separation by gathering people into distinct Meetings of their own when they might without any criminal Scandal to their Brethren or violence to their own Consciences be constant at our Congregations When themselves were or at least thought they were in power they did not think so slightly of unnecessary Separations but provided against their very appearances and possibilities Why therefore should they now make so light of exposing the Church to all the distempers that naturally follow upon making Parties and Divisions If there were nothing but Scandal in the case they would live quietly and conformably in a private condition though this might possibly restrain them from doing so in a publick Office And one would think that such nice and tender-natur'd people that will undo themselves to please their Neighbours should be wonderfully tender of giving needless offence to their Governours And whatever other pretences they make to excuse their Non-conformity nothing can justifie their Separation but the unlawfulness of being present at our Congregations For what if they scruple to renounce the Covenant is this any reason why they should gather people into Conventicles keep their private Meetings in time of publick Service affront the Laws and Constitutions of the Common-wealth and encourage their Followers in a down-right Schism and Separation It would be a pretty way of arguing to hear one of them plead I cannot renounce the Covenant therefore I must keep a Conventicle and yet this is their method of acting And therefore they can never clear themselves of some odd suspicions unless they would frankly and openly declare their opinion of our Service If they think it unlawful then let them own and profess and plead it if lawful then let them justifie themselves in that when lawful Authority requires them and the people to keep up a just and lawful Communion with the Church yet they should notwithstanding keep up so wide a Schism by gathering people out of publick Congregations into private Meetings And could their credulous Disciples be but made sensible how coarsly they are impos'd upon by their Leaders and how lamentably they juggle and dissemble with the World they would then more abhor them for their Hypocrisie than they now admire them for their Saint-like and demure pretences For if they would perswade them to do what themselves would not scruple in their Circumstances i. e. to be of their own mind this Schism would quickly be ended and the Church setled The only reason say most of them why they forsook their Ministry was That they durst not abjure the Covenant dispense with them for this and they are Conformists But if that be the only thing they scruple then Why are they not regular and conformable in all other Particulars against which they can pretend no such Exceptions And what does renouncing the Covenant concern the people And therefore how shall that
convincing them at least of the possibility of their being deceived reduce them to a more humble and governable temper Why do they not teach them in plain terms that the establish'd way of Worship is lawful and innocent and therefore that they ought not to forsake it to the disturbance of the Church and contempt of Authority If they would but make it part of their business to undeceive the people how easily would all their stragling Followers return into the Communion of the Church But they dare not let them know their Errours lest they should forfeit both their Party and their Reputation And therefore instead of that they rather confirm them in their mistakes and in their own defence are forced to perswade them that they ought to be scandalized Insomuch that it is not unusual to hear the foolish people pretend it concerning themselves and to tell you that your action is a Scandal to them By which they mean either that it leads them into sin or that it makes them angry If the former that is a ridiculous contradiction for if they know how the snare and temptation is laid then they know how to escape it my action does not force them into the sin but only invites them to it through their own mistake and folly And therefore if they have discovered by what mistake they are likely to be betray'd they know how to provide against the danger For if they know their duty in the case how can they plead Scandal when that supposes ignorance And however I behave my self they know what they have to do themselves If they do not How can they say of themselves that they are scandalized when by so saying they confess they are not For that implies a knowledge how to do their duty and avoid the danger If the latter i. e. that they are angry then all their meaning is that I must part with my liberty and disobey my Superiors to please them that their saucy humour must give me Law that I must be their Slave because they are proud and insolent and that they must gain a power over me because they are forward to censure mine actions § 7. Thirdly We encounter Scandal with Scandal and let the guilt of all be discharged upon that side that occasions the most and the greatest offences Now all the mischief they can pretend to ensue in the present constitution of affairs upon their compliance with Authority reaches no farther than the weak Brethren of their own Party whereas by their refractory disobedience they give offence not only to them but to all both to the Jew and to the Gentile and to the Church of God And not to insist upon the advantages they give to Atheism and Popery let me only mind them that if the accidental offence of the Judgments of some well-meaning but less knowing Christians of a private capacity pass a sufficient obligation upon Conscience to restrain it from any practice in it self lawful of how much more force must that scandal be that is given to publick Authority by denying obedience to its lawful commands and by consequence infringing its just power in things not forbidden by any divine Law Now if the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England were in themselves apparently evil then their repugnancy to the Law of God were sufficient Objection both against their practice and their imposition and their scandal to weak and ignorant Christians were of small force in comparison to their intrinsick and unalterable unlawfulness But because this is not pretended in our present case What a shameful scandal and reproach to Religion is it to neglect the necessary duty of Obedience and subjection to lawful Authority under pretence of complyance with the weak and groundless scruples of some private men 'T is certainly past dispute that the reasonable offence of some weaker Brethren cannot so strongly oblige our Consciences as the indispensable command of obeying our lawful Superiors And it is a shame to demand Whether the Judgment of a lawful Magistrate have not more force and power over Conscience than the Judgment of every private Christian If not then may the Laws of Authority be cancell'd and controul'd by the folly and ignorance of those that are subject to them for meer scandal arises only from the folly and ignorance of the persons offended For if there be any just and wise occasion of dislike the action becomes primarily unlawful not because 't is scandalous but because 't is antecedently evil whereas meer and proper scandal is only concern'd in things in themselves indifferent So that in this case all the difficulty is Whether is the greater scandal to do an indifferent thing when a private Christian dislikes it or not to do it when publick Authority enjoyns it And certainly it can be no Controversie Whether it be a fouler reproach to Religion to disobey a Christian Magistrate in a thing lawful and indifferent than to offend a private Christian. And I may safely appeal to the Judgment of all wise and sober men Whether the intolerable waywardness of some nice and squeamish Consciences to the commands of just Authority be not a fouler and more notorious scandal to Religion than a modest and humble compliance with them though in things not so apparently useful and necessary And then as for their own weak Brethren of whom they seem so exceedingly tender they can no way more scandalize them than by complying with them By which they are tempted and betray'd into the greatest and most mischievous enormities for thereby they encourage their folly feed and cherish their ungrounded fancies confirm them in a false opinion of the unlawfulness of their Superiors commands and so lead them directly into the sins of unwarrantable Schism and Disobedience How many feeble and deluded Souls are enticed by the reputation of their example to violate the commands of Authority and that when themselves are not convinced of their unlawfulness and so entangle themselves in a complicated sin by disobeying their lawful Superiors and that with a doubtful and unsatisfied Conscience They cannot be ignorant that the greatest part of their zealous Disciples are offended at the Laws and Constitutions of the Church for no other reason than because they see their godly Ministers to slight them and therefore unless their example be sufficient to rescind the lawful Commands of their Governors they give them the most criminal Scandal by inviting them to the most criminal disobedience So that all circumstances fairly considered the avoiding of offences will prove the most effectual inducement to Conformity For this would take away the very Grounds and Foundations of Scandal remove all our differences prevent much trouble and more sin cure all our Schisms Quarrels and Divisions banish our mutual Jealousies Censures and Animosities and establish the Nation in a firm and lasting Peace In brief the only cause of all our troubles and disturbances is the inflexible perversness of about an hundred
proud ignorant and seditious Preachers against whom if the severity of the Laws were particularly levelled How easie would it be in some competent time to reduce the people to a quiet and peaceable temper and to make all our present Schisms that may otherwise prove eternal expire with or before the present Age The want or neglect of which method is the only thing that has given them so much strength so long a continuance § 8. Fourthly No man is bound to take notice of or give place to old and inveterate scandals but rather ought in defence of his Christian liberty to oppose them with a publick defiance and to shame those that pretend them out of their confidence For the only ground of compliance and condescension in these Cases is tenderness and compassion to some mens infirmities and as long as I have reason to think this the only cause of their being scandalized so long am I bound by charity and good nature to condescend to their weaknesses and no longer For after they have had a competent time and means of better information I have reason enough to presume that 't is not ignorance that is the gound of their taking offence but pride or peevishness or something worse So that all that is to be done in this case is to disabuse the weak by rectifying his judgment removing his scruples declaring the innocence of my action clearing it of all sinister suspicions and protesting against all those abuses he would put upon the lawful use of my Christian liberty And when I have so done I have cleared my self from all his ill-natured jealousies and surmises and discharged all the offices and obligations of Charity And if after all this my offended Neighbor shall still persevere in his perverse mis-interpretation of my actions and pretend that they still gaul and ensnare his tender Conscience the man is peevish and refractory and only makes use of this precarious pretence to justifie his uncharitable censures of my innocent liberty and then am I so far from being under any obligation to comply with the peevishness and insolence of his humour that I am strongly bound to thwart and oppose it For otherwise I should but betray my Christian liberty to the Tyranny of his wilful and imperious ignorance and give superstitious folly the advantage and Authority of Prescription For if that prevail in the practice of the World and I must yield and condescend to it because 't is stubborn and obstinate it must in process of time gain the reputation of being the custom and received opinion of the Church and when it can plead that then it becomes necessary Inveterate Errours are ever sacred and venerable and what prescription warrants it always imposes Custom ever did and ever will rule and preside in the practices of men because 't is popular and being ever attended with a numerous train of Followers it grows proud and confident and is not ashamed to upbraid free reason with singularity and Innovation So that all I could gain by an absolute resignation of my own liberty to another mans folly would be only to give him a plausible pretence to claim a right of command and dominion over me and to make my self subject to his humour by my own civility And thus though the Jews were in the beginning of Christianity for a time permitted the Rites and Customs of their Nation yet afterward when the Nature of the Christian Religion was or might be better understood the Church did not think it owed them so much civility And if the Primitive Christians had not given check to their stubborn perswasions they had given them Authority and by too long a compliance would have vouched and abetted their Errours and adopted Judaism into Christianity and Circumcision not only might but of necessity must have been conveyed down to us from age to age by as firm and uninterrupted a Tradition as Baptism And this shews us how way-ward and unreasonable those men are who still persevere to object Scandal against the Churches Constitutions after she has so often protested against this Exception by so many solemn Declarations When at first it was pretended it might perhaps for a while excuse or alleviate their disobedience but after Authority has so sufficiently satisfied their scruples and removed their suspicions and so amply cleared the innocence of its own intentions if men will still continue jealous and quarrelsom they may thank themselves if they smart for their own presumption and folly And Princes have no reason to abridge themselves in the exercise of their lawful Power only because some of their Subjects will not learn to be modest and ingenuous And if his Majesty should think good to condescend so far to these mens peevishness as to reverse his Laws against them out of compliance with them this would but feed and cherish their insolence and only encourage them to proceed if that be possible to more unreasonable demands for upon the same reason they insist upon these they may when they are granted them go on to make new remonstrances i. e. upon no reason at all And beside this would but give the countenance of Authority to their scruples and superstitious pretences and leave the Church of England under all those Calumnies to Posterity with which themselves or their followers labour to charge it and oblige future Ages to admire and celebrate these peevish and seditious persons as the Founders of a more godly and thorow Reformation Not to mention how much Princes have ever gain'd by their concessions to the demands of Fanatick Zealots they may easily embolden but hardly satisfie them and if they yield up but one Jewel of their Imperial Diadem to their importunity 't is not usual for them to rest till they have gain'd Crown and all and perhaps the head that wears it too for there is no end of the madness of unreasonable men How happy would the world be if wise men were but wise enough to be instructed by the Mistress of Fools But every Age lives as much at all adventure as if it were the first without any regard to the warnings and experiences of all former Ages Sect. 9. Fifthly The Commands of Authority and the Obligations of Obedience infinitely outweigh and utterly evacuate all the pretences of scandal For the matters wherein scandal is concern'd are only things indifferent but nothing that is not antecedently sinful remains so after the commands of lawful Authority are superinduced upon it these change things indifferent as to their Nature into necessary Duties as to their Vse and therefore place them beyond the reach of the obligations of scandal that may in many cases extend to the restraint of our Liberty but never to the prejudice and hinderance of our Duty so that no Obedience how offensive soever unless it be upon some other account faulty is capable of being made Criminal upon the score of scandal the obligations whereof are but accidental
and the certainty not the suspition of sin is to be objected that is presumption enough for any modest and sober man to conclude their innocence and still to retain the scruple is folly and peevishness and then the Conscience is not doubtful but obstinate and peremptory The man is resolved to cherish his scruple and persist in his folly and if he will not be satisfied it is not because he is weak and timorous but because he is stubborn and dis-ingenuous And then he pretends Conscience only to vouch his humour and his insolence i. e. he is a villain and an hypocrite and is so far from deserving pity especially from Authority that no offenders can more need or provoke their severity in that such men resolve to tire out their Governors by their inflexible stubbornness and to affront their Laws with trifles and contemptuous Exceptions At the first setlement of a Church or new Religion then indeed mens old follies prejudices and weaknesses ought to be charitably considered and they are not to be forced into new Customs and Usages by too much rigor and severity but ought to be gently and tenderly treated till time and better information may wear off their scruples and little exceptions And this was the case of the Iews in the first Ages of Christianity who were at first indulged in their weak and trifling conceits because then they might reasonably be presumed to arise from a pitiable ignorance and dissetlement of Conscience But as soon as the Abrogation of the Mosaick Institution was fully declared and acknowledged in the Church they were brought under the common yoke of Discipline and were not permitted to plead their Doubts and Scruples against publick Laws and Constitutions And this too is our present case men labour to support an old Schism by out-worn scruples and jealousies and will persevere in their doubts because they are resolved never to be satisfied for otherwise it were impossible that after so much time and so much satisfaction they could still remain unresolved And if whole Armies of Reason have not been sufficient to chase away all their little and imaginary fears Yet methinks so long time and so much experience might be sufficient to convince them that they are but shadows and illusions of their own melancholy Fancies for had they been real and substantial things it is impossible they should ever have escaped the discovery of so long and so severe a scrutiny But if nor time nor reason can disabuse them it is not their ignorance but their obstinacy that is invincible Thus v. g. when to kneel at the Communion is in it self an handsom and decent action in that this Sacrament is the most solemn piece of gratitude or worship in the Christian Religion and a peculiar acknowledgment of our vast and unspeakable obligations to our Redeemer and therefore to be performed with the profoundest Reverence and Humility And when these men themselves are not only ready to observe but also to enjoyn the same posture in their ordinary Prayers and other less solemn expressions of Devotion and when the power of the Church has actually determined and required this reverent posture to stamp a peculiar sacredness and solemnity upon this Duty no man can possibly now scruple its practice without affected contempt and wilful disobedience because they cannot but be convinced unless they are resolved against it of the vanity and dis-ingenuity of their old pretence Namely lest they should be interpreted to give religious Worship to the Elements and by lying prostrate before the Bread and Wine they should become guilty of Idolatry in giving Divine Worship to a sensless piece of matter For when they plead this excuse for their disobedience they cannot but be conscious to themselves that by it they do not only despise but slander and reproach the Laws that they out-face and traduce Authority and would force their Governours to believe and confess that they favour what they expresly abhor seeing the very same Law that enjoyns this Ceremony provides so expresly against this abuse and declares so industriously That it is so far from designing any reverence to the Creatures themselves that it abhors it but only requires it as it is used in all other Religious addresses to Heaven And if notwithstanding all this men will dread it as a piece of Idolatry because forsooth it has been or may be abused to that purpose I say no more than that if such thin and frivolous scruples may out-weigh the Laws and evacuate our obligations to obedience there are none in the World that are not as apparently liable to as dis-ingenuous surmises and they may as rationally forbear looking up towards Heaven in their prayers lest they should worship the Clouds or the Sun Moon and Stars But the truth of it is some men study for impertinent scruples to ensnare themselves and labour to raise great doubts from little reasons and cannot be satisfied because they will not they have enslaved themselves to their follies and boared their ears to their scruples and are resolved to grow old in a voluntary bondage to trifles and fooleries Now it is necessary for people of this humour to streighten the Laws till they have made them too severe and rigorous to be obeyed to draw their knot till it becomes troublesom and uneasie to put them upon the Wrack and stretch them beyond or beside their own intention by rare and extraordinary cases by harsh and unkind Interpretations and by far-fetch'd and disingenuous suspicions and under the shelter of such precarious pretences as no Law can possibly avoid they refuse the Liberty that is given them to obey the Laws only that they may take the Licence to disobey them In brief the main Mystery of all this niceness though themselves have not wit enough to observe its first causes is for the most part nothing but a little pride and vain-glory It is a glorious thing to suffer for a tender Conscience and therefore it is easie and natural for some people to affect some little scruples against the Commands of Authority thereby to make themselves obnoxious to some little Penalties and then what godly men are they that are so ready to be punished for a good Conscience How do such men hug and nurse their dear scruple All the reason and all the perswasion in the World shall never be able to wrest it from them It is their Ephod and their Teraphim the only mark of their Godliness and symbol of their Religion and if you rob them of that you take away their gods And what have they more Sect. 3. If my Conscience be really weak and tender What can become it more than humble obedience and submission to Authority Weakness of Conscience always proceeds in some measure from want of wit and therefore to make this the pretence of disobedience is in effect to say I will controul the wisdom of my Superiours because I have little or none my self Certainly where
persons have any serious sense of their own ignorance they can scarce have a stronger obligation to obedience And they can never be so confident in any action as when they obey because then they have the Publick Wisdom to warrant them and their own Folly to excuse them That is they follow the best guide men are capable of in their Circumstances And a Subject that is Conscious of his own weakness when he resigns up himself to the Wisdom of his Superiours in matters doubtful and disputable is in effect governed by the best and safest Dictates of his own Conscience which unless it be hardned with pride and insolence cannot but perswade him that he ought to presume them more competent Judges of the fitness and expediency of Publick Laws whose work and office it is to understand them than himself who is wholly ignorant of the management and transaction of Publick Affairs This is the most common Principle of humane life and all men practise by it in all their concerns but those of Religion And that is the reason it has ever been debauched with so many follies and frenzies because silly people will not submit their Consciences to any thing but their own giddy Imaginations Whereas if they would but condescend to the same Rules of Government in matters of Religion as they do in all their other affairs obedience to Authority might be secured without any violence to Conscience seeing no Conscience that is acted by wise and sober perswasions will ever be stiff in doubtful and uncertain Cases against the determinations of the Publick Wisdom Because such men being sensible how unable they are to govern themselves they know they can never act more safely than when they are governed by their Superiors And being they cannot pretend to trust confidently enough to their own conduct how can they proceed upon wiser and more reasonable grounds than by committing themselves to the Publick Wisdom In which though possibly they might be misguided yet they may secure themselves that God who values integrity more than subtilty will pardon their weakness and reward their meekness and humility But for a man to plead weakness of Conscience for disobedience to Government is just as if a Child in Minority should reject the advice of his Guardians because he has not wit enough to know when he is well advised or as if a Fool should refuse to be governed because he has not reason enough to discern when he is well managed or as if a Blind Man should not trust to the conduct of a Guide because he is not able to judge when he is misled Humility and Condescension are the most proper duties of weakness and ignorance and meekness and simplicity the only ornaments of a tender Conscience And one would think that men whose confidence exceeds not their wit should be strangely wary of censuring the wisdom of Authority And therefore it is but a very odd pretence to weakness of Conscience when it appears in nothing but being too strong for Government and that man that pretends to it does not seriously believe himself if he presumes he is wise enough to govern his Governors And so does every one that thinks the perswasions of his own mind of sufficient force to cancel the obligations of their commands It is an handsom piece of modesty for one who pretends to weakness of Conscience when his Prince requires his obedience to give him counsel to advise him how to govern the Kingdom to blame and correct the Laws and to tell him how this and the other might be mended And What can be more fulsom than to see men under pretences of great strictness and severity of Conscience to cherish stubbornness and vanity and to endure neither Laws nor Superiours because they are proud enough to think themselves more Holy than their Neighbours What a malapert and insolent piece of pride is it for every Prating Gossip and illiterate Mechanick that can mark themselves with some distinctive names and Characters of Godliness to scoff and jibe at the wisdom of publick Authority to affront the Laws and Constitutions of a Church to pity and disdain the lamentable ignorance of Learned Men and to Libel all sorts of people that are not of their own Rendez-vous especially their Superiors with slanders and idle stories What strange effects are these of a diffident and timorous Conscience A Conscience that knows it self to be acted by certain and infallible Principles how could it be more head-strong and confident And therefore if we compare these mens practices with their pretences What can be more evident than that it is not Tenderness of Conscience that emboldens them to fall out with all the World but pride and vanity and insolence For nothing else could possibly drive them on with so peremptory a sail against so strong and so united a torrent For a Conscience that is only weak and tender is of a yielding and pliable temper it is soft and innocent modest and teachable apt to comply with the Commands of its Superiours and easily capable of all impressions tending to Peace and Charity but when it is stubborn and confident in its own apprehensions then it is not tender but hardy and humoursom And as queasie as it is in reference to its Superiours Commands it is usually strong enough to digest Rebellion and Villany and whilst it rises against a poor innocent Ceremony it is scarce ever stirred with Schism Faction and Cruelty Now to permit these men their liberty who mistake insolence for tenderness of Conscience than which nothing more easie or more natural for people that are both proud and simple is to suffer ignorance to ride in Triumph because it is proud and confident and to indulge zealous Idiots in their folly because they threaten Authority to be peevish and scrupulous to their Laws and to infest their Government with a sullen and cross-grain'd Godliness an Artifice not much unlike the tricks of some froward Children and therefore such untoward and humoursom Saints must be lashed out of their sullenness as Children are into compliance and better manners otherwise they will be an eternal annoyance to all Government with the childish and whining pretences of a weak and crasie Conscience In brief I appeal to all mankind that have but any tolerable conception of the nature and design of Religion Whether it be not much more becoming the temper of a Christian Spirit to comply with the commands of their Superiors that are not apparently sinful in order to the Peace and Setlement of the Church than to disturb its quiet by a stubborn and peremptory adherence to our own Doubts and Scruples For What is there in Christianity of greater importance than the vertues of meekness peaceableness and humility And in what can these great duties more discover themselves than in the offices and civilities of humble Obedience that contains in it all that is most amiable and most useful in the Christian Religion 'T
distance and disproportion forasmuch as obedience is a virtue of so absolute necessity and so diffusive usefulness whereas the goodness of those little things they oppose to it is so small that it is confessedly scarce discernable and their Consciences as nice and curious as they are not able to determine positively whether they are good or evil And therefore what a prodigious madness is it to weigh such trifling and contemptible things against the vast mischiefs and inconveniences of disobedience The voice of the publick Laws cannot but drown the uncertain whispers of a tender Conscience all its scruples are hushed and silenced by the commands of Authority It dares not whimper when that forbids and the nod of a Prince aws it into silence and submission But if they dare to murmur and their proud stomachs will swell against the rebukes of their Superiors then there is no remedy but the rod and correction They must be chastised out of their peevishness and lashed into obedience In a word though Religion so highly consults the interests of Common-wealths and is the greatest instrument of the peace happiness of Kingdoms yet so monstrously has it been abused by the folly of some and wickedness of others that nothing in the world has been the mother of more mischief to Government The main cause of which has been mens not observing the due scale and subordination of duties and that in case of competition the greater always destroys the less For hence have they opposed the Laws and by consequence the peace of the Society for an Opinion or a Ceremony or a subordinate instrumental duty whereas had they soberly considered the important necessity of their obedience they would scarce have found any duty of moment enough to weigh against it For seeing almost all virtues are injoined us in order to the felicity of man and seeing there is nothing more conducive to it than that which tends to the Publick weal and good of all and seeing this is the design and natural tendency of the Publick Laws and our obedience to them that had need be hugely certainly and absolutely evil that cancels their obligation and dispences with our obedience and not a Form or a Ceremony or an outward expression or any other instrumental part of Religion But some menthink it better to be disputative than peaceable and that there is more godliness in being captious and talkative than in being humble and obedient It is a pleasure to them to be troublesome to Authority they beat about and search into every little corner for doubts exceptions against their commands And how do they triumph when they can but start a scruple They labour to stumble at Atoms to boggle at straws and shadows and cherish their scruples till they become as big as they are unreasonable and lay so much stress upon them as to make them out-weigh the greatest and most weighty things of the Law And it is prodigiously strange and yet as common too to consider how most men who pretend and that perhaps sincerely to great tenderness of Conscience and scruple postures and innocent ceremonies are so hardy as to digest the most wicked and most mischievous villanies They can dispence with spightfulness malice disobedience schism and disturbance of the Publick Peace and all to nourish a weak and an impotent scruple and in pursuit of any little conceit they will run themselves into the greatest and most palpable enormities and will cherish it till it weighs down the peace of Kingdoms and Fundamental Principles of common honesty Find me a man that is obstinately scrupulous and I will shew you one that is incurably seditious and whoever will prefer his scruples before the great duties of obedience peace quietness and humility cannot avoid being often betrayed into tumults and seditions But if we will resolve to be tender of our obedience to the great undoubted and unalterable commands of the Gospel that will defend our Consciences against the vexation of scruples and little inadvertencies protect the publick from all the disturbances of a peevish and wayward godliness and secure our acceptance with God without being so punctual and exact in the Offerings of Mint and Cummin Sect. 6. In cases and disputes of a publick concern private men are not properly sui Iuris they have no power over their own actions they are not to be directed by their own judgments or determined by their own wills but by the commands and determinations of the Publick Conscience And if there be any sin in the command he that imposed it shall answer for it and not I whose whole Duty it is to obey The commands of Authority will warrant my obedience my obedience will hallow or at least excuse my action and so secure me from sin if not from error because I follow the best guide and most probable direction I am capable of And though I may mistake my integrity shall preserve my innocence And in all doubtful and disputable cases it is better to erre with Authority than be in the right against it not only because the danger of a little error and so it is if it be disputable is out-weighed by the importance of the great duty of obedience that is more serviceable to the main ends of Religion than a more nice and exact way of acting in opposition to Government but also because they are to be supposed the fittest Judges of what tends to the Publick Good whose business it is to understand Publick Affairs And therefore in all such matters their commands are the supream Rule of Conscience as being more competent Judges of Publick Concerns than mens own private perswasions and so must have a Superior Authority over them and bind them to yield and submit to their determinations And if we take away this Condescension of our Private Consciences to Publick Authority we immediately dissolve all Government for in case of dissention unless we submit our perswasions to their commands their commands must submit to our perswasions And then let any man tell me Wherein consists the power of Princes when it may be controlled by every Subjects opinion and what can follow but perfect disorder and confusion when every man will be governed by nothing but his own conceits And if Subjects may be allowed to dispute the prudence and convenience of all Laws Government would be but a weak and helpless thing and Princes would command at the will and pleasure of their Subjects And therefore people are never curious in their exceptions against any Publick Laws unless in matters of Religion and in that case they study for Reasons to disobey because it gratifies their pride vanity to seem more knowing than their Governours in that part of wisdom that they think most valuable Self-conceit and Spiritual Pride are strange Temptations to Disobedience and were there not something of this in it men would find out other commands more liable to their exceptions For how seldom is it that
any Wars are commenced upon just and warrantable grounds And yet how few are they that take upon them to judge their lawfulness All men here think their Princes command a sufficient warrant to serve him and satisfie themselves in this that in case the cause prove to be unjust the fault liesentirely upon him that commands and not at all on him who has nothing to do but obey And if it were otherwise that no Subject were bound to take up Arms till himself had approved the justness of the cause Commonwealths must be bravely secured and their safety must lie at the mercy of every humorsome and pragmatical Fellow And yet to this piece of arrogance do men tempt themselves when they affect to be thought more godly than their Neighbors It is a gallant thing to understand Religion better than their Superiors and to pity their ignorance in the great Mysteries of the Gospel and by seeming to compassionate their weakness to despise their Authority But if Princes will suffer themselves to be controul'd by the pride and insolence of these contentious Zealots they do but tempt them to slight both their persons and their Government and if they will endure to be checked in their Laws Spiritual and Government of the Church by every Systematical Theologue and most not to say the best of our Adversaries are little better they may as well bear to see themselves affronted in their Laws Civil and Government of the State by every Village-Attorney and Solicitor Well then all men that are in a state of Government are bound in all matters doubtful and disputable to submit the dictates of Private Conscience to the determinations of Publick Authority Nor does this oblige any man to act against the dictates of his own Conscience but only by altering the case alters his perswasions i.e. though every man considered absolutely and by himself be bound to follow his own private judgment yet when he is considered as the member of a Society then must be govern'd then he must of necessity be bound to submit his own private thoughts to publick determinations And it is the dictate of every mans Conscience that is not turbulent and seditious that it ought in all things that are not of a great apparent necessity whatever its own private judgment of them is to acquiesce in the determinations of its Governors in order to publick peace and unity For unless this be done there can be nothing but eternal disorders and confusions in the Church in that it is utterly impossible that all men should have the same apprehensions of things and considering the tempers and passions of mankind as impossible that they should not pursue their differences and controversies with too much heat vehemence And therefore unless whatever their own judgments and apprehensions be they are bound in all such cases to acquiesce in the decisions and determinations of the Governors of the Church or Common-wealth in order to its peace and setlement there can be no possible way of avoiding endless squabbles and confusions And unless this be a fundamental Rule dictate of every mans Conscience that as he is bound in all doubtful cases to follow the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the best result of his own private perswasions where he neither has nor is obliged to have any other guide or rule of his actions so he is bound to forego them all provided his plain and necessary duty be secured out of obedience to Authority and in order to the due Government of the Society there never can be any peace or setlement in any Church or Common-wealth in the world And every Conscience that is not thus perswaded is upon that account to be reckoned as seditious and unpeaceable and so to be treated accordingly Sect. 7. He that with an implicite Faith and confidence resigns up his own Reason to any Superior on earth in all things is a Fool and he is as great a Fool to say no worse that will do it in nothing For as all men are immediately subject to God alone in matters of indispensable duty that are not at all concern'd in our present dispute so are they in all other things to condescend to the Decrees and determinations of their lawful Superiors Neither is this to put men upon that supream Folly of renouncing the use and guidance of their own Reasons out of obedience to any mans infallibility For by Reason we mean nothing but the mind of man making use of the wisest and most prudential methods to guid it self in all its actions and therefore it is not confined to any sort of Maxims and Principles in Philosophy but it extends it self to any knowledge that may be gained by Prudence Experience and Observation And hence right Reason when it is imploy'd about the actions of men is nothing else but Prudence and Discretion Now the Reason of any wise and sober man will tell him that it is most Prudent Discreet and Reasonable to forego his own private perswasions in things doubtful and disputable out of obedience to his lawful Superiours because without this the World can never be governed And supposing mens judgments and understandings to be never so much above the Iurisdiction of all Humane Authority and that no man can be bound to submit his Reason to any thing but the Commands of God yet every man ows at least so much civility to the will of his Prince and the peace of his Country as to bring himself to a compliance and submission to the Publick Judgment rather than to disturb the Publick Peace for the gratification of his own Fancy and Opinion Which is no enslaving of his Reason to any mans usurpation over his Faith and Conscience but only a bringing it to a modest compliance in order to the common interests of Humane Society And if it be not a duty of subjection yet it is one of peaceableness and if it be not grounded upon our obligations to the Authority it self yet it is most clearly derived from an higher Obligation that all men are under to advance the welfare of mankind and more particularly of that Society they live in that is antecedent to those of Government which is instituted only in order to the common good And therefore though our duty in such cases could not be deduced from our obligation to any humane Authority yet it clearly arises from that duty of Charity we owe to our Fellow Creatures And though we are not to submit our Vnderstandings to any Humane Power yet we are to the first and Fundamental Laws of Charity which being one of the greatest duties of mankind it is but reasonable to forego all more private and inferior obligations when they stand in competition with it And thus St. Paul notwithstanding he declaimed with so much vehemence against the observation of the Judaical Rites and Ceremonies never scrupled to use them as oft as it was serviceable to the advancement of the Christian Religion and