say retorted the Arguments for Compulsion upon pretence of advancing the true Religion I shall next examine what is said for it upon a Civil Account but before I do that I must beg leave to show since it 's for Protestants this Discourse is chiefly designed First That this Doctrine of Compulsion is inconsistent with the very Foundation of the Protestant Religion And Secondly To lay down the true Method consonant to Protestant Principles of destroying maugre all the Differences of Opinions not only Schisms and Heresies but all Hatred and Uncharitableness and bringing People to true Christian Love and Friendship which will in a manner prevent all that can be urged for Compulsion upon a Civil Account CHAP. V. That all Force upon the Account of meer Religion is inconsistent with the Principles of the Protestant Religion 1. AS it was Persecution that advanced Popery so it was Freedom and Toleration that ruined it and established Protestantism the Essence of which consists in every one's having an impartial Right to judg for himself and which is the necessary Consequence of it acting according to that Judgment And therefore as a very worthy Person saith A Persecutor is no where at Home but at Rome The Papists in persecuting act consistent with their own Principles But Protestants whilst they persecute any condemn themselves The former pretend there are Doubts and Difficulties in all even the most important Points of Religion and therefore there must be say they some ultimate and external Judg to appeal to by whose decisive Judgment all Persons must be concluded otherwise so many Men so many Minds and the Church will be filled with Controversy and Confusion The Protestants on the contrary say That God has appointed no such Judg but that every one is to judg for himself and to act according to that Judgment And therefore since they judged the Terms of Communion with the Church of Rome unlawful they acted according to their Duty in separating from it and in forming Religious Assemblies of their own and endeavouring to make as many Converts as they could And that they were obliged to do this when the Government was against them as well as when it was for them in Q. Mary's Days as well as Q. Elizabeth's according to the practice of the Primitive Christians who held their Religious Assemblies contrary to the Commands of the Heathen Government Grant me these Principles or by any other justify the Reformation if you can and shew me then how any Man or Body of Men can pretend to judg for others and by Force endeavour to make them profess their Sentiments Nay can the persecuting Protestants any otherwise justify themselves against the Church of Rome but by the very same Arguments their Brethren who desire but the same Liberty from them that they claim from the Papists make their Defence with against whom they can alledg no other Reasons than the Papists use against all of them than which there can be nothing more disingenuous And what is it but mocking both God and Man first to bid Men use their Reason in Matters of Religion then punish them if they will not act contrary to it To tell them they must judg for themselves and act according to that Judgment and yet excommunicate imprison and fine them for so doing is a most fulsome Contradiction With what Face can the Clergy tell their Hearers that they ought not to take things on trust but impartially examine the Reasons on all sides and yet make it their Business to hinder the preaching or printing of any thing but what makes for their own Side The Author of the Perswasive to an ingenuous Trial of Opinions in Religion saith Pag. 28. They that have a good Cause need no disingenuous Arts they will not fright Men from considering what their Adversaries say by denouncing Damnation against them nor forbid them to read their Books but rather encourage them to do so that they may see the Difference between Truth and Error between Reason and Sophistry with their own Eyes This is the Effect of a well-grounded Confidence in Truth and there is this Sign of a good Cause apparently discernable in the Application of the Clergy of this Church both to their Friends and Enemies they desire the one and the other to consider impartially what is said for us and against us And whatsoever Guides of a Party do otherwise they give just cause to those that follow them to examine their Doctrines so much the more carefully by how much they are more unwilling to have them examined It 's bad Sign when Men are loth to have their Opinions seen in the Day but love Darkness rather than Light Whether this last does not agree to that Church which endeavours to hinder any thing from being preached or printed that is not of their own Side as well as to the Church of Rome or with what Conscience he could make such a Panegyrick on that Church whose Persecution in that very Book he attempts to justify let the Reader judg And it would be very diverting were it not on such a Subject to observe the miserable Shifts the Clergy make to condemn the Practice of the Popish Church and at the same time to justify their own which as well as the Papists claims a Legislative and Coercive Power in Matters of meer Religion 2. But they say The Papists sorbid the People from reading the Scripture and thereby hinder them from judging for themselves To which I answer Which is worse to give Men leave by reading the Scripture to judg for themselves and then use Force to make them act contrary to their Judgments or to make them follow their Guides with a blind implicit Faith The one tends to make Men ignorant and superstitious the other down-right Hypocrites and Villains if Men were above Force they would neither blindly follow their pretended Guides nor act against their Consciences But however both Papists and Protestants use the Means that naturally tend to effect these wicked Ends. Besides I ask these Protestant Persecutors whether they think the reading of the Scripture alone without hearing or reading some learned Men of their Party sufficient to make them understand the controverted Points If they own they ought to hear them why not the opposite Side If they were to hear neither they would be more likely to form a true Judgment than to hear the studied and elaborate Arguments on one Side only If the People are not to be trusted to hear all that can be said on all Sides for fear of taking a different Opinion from the licensed Guides why shall they be more trusted with reading the Scriptures which they may apprehend in a Sense different from that of their Guides except you say that as long as these alone have the interpreting of it and have the Force of the Magistrate on their Side they may impose what Opinion they please on the People In short did the Priests of any Protestant
AN ESSAY Concerning the POWER of the MAGISTRATE and the Rights of Mankind in Matters of Religion With some Reasons in particular for the Dissenters not being obliged to take the Sacramental Test but in their own Churches and for a General Naturalization Together with a Postscript in Answer to the Letter to a Convocation-Man LONDON Printed by J. D. for Andrew Bell at the Cross-Keys and Bible in Cornhil 1697. THE CONTENTS of the CHAPTERS PART I. Chap. 1. THAT Government is from the People who had a Right to invest the Magistrate with a Power in those Matters of Religion which have an Influence on Humane Societies but not in others that are meerly Religious or have no such Influence Page 1 Chap. 2. That God has not either by the Law of Nature or his positive Law given the Magistrate a Power in Matters meerly Religious Pag. 17 Chap. 3. That a Power in the Magistrate to use Force in Matters of meer Religion tends to Mens Eternal Ruin Pag. 27 Chap. 4. That Compulsion is inconsistent with all those Duties that God for the sake of Mens Temporal Happiness requires of one towards another P. 30 Chap. 5. That the Doctrine of Compulsion is directly contrary to the Honour of God Pag. 47 PART II. Chap. 1. AN Answer to Arguments from Scripture on behalf of Persecution Pag. 68 Chap. 2. Arguments from Humane Authority answered Pag. 78 Chap. 3. Object That Compulsion tends to make People impartially consider examined Pag. 87 Chap. 4. Object That the Magistrate has a Right to use Force to prevent the Increase to those Erroneous Opinions that a Toleration would produce examined Pag. 103 Chap. 5. That all Force upon the Account of meer Religion is inconsistent with the Principles of the Protestant Religion Pag. 117 Chap. 6. Of the Method to destroy not only Schisms and Heresies but Hatred and Vncharitableness amongst Christians notwithstanding their different Opinions Pag. 124 Chap. 7. That the Good of the Society obligeth the Magistrate to hinder different Professions of Religion examined Pag. 144 Chap. 8. Some few Reasons for the Dissenters not taking the Sacramental Test but in their own Churches and for a General Naturalization Pag. 168 Postscript Pag. 176 Errata Page 28. line 5. for Truth read Lawfulness P. 42. l. 12. r. seventy times P. 48. l. ult r. Notion P. 73. l. 21. r. one P. 99. l. 19. r. betrayed him P. 103. l. 22. r. if Force should P. 144. l. 1. r. Chap. VII P. 190. l. 10. r. creating An ESSAY Concerning the Power of the MAGISTRATE c. CHAP. I. That Government is from the People who had a right to invest the Magistrate with a Power in those Matters of Religion which have an Influence on Humane Societies but not in others that are meerly Religious or have no such Influence 1. A Discourse on this Subject cannot be unseasonable whilst so many instead of shewing their Gratitude to the Government for rescuing them from the apparent Danger of Popish Persecution are so disaffected for being depriv'd of the Power of persecuting their Brethren that they had rather run the risque of the Nation 's being ruined by the French and themselves under Popish Persecution than to be without that Power and for want of it do in their daily invective Discourses and Sermons besides a great many other malicious Insinuations pretend the Church now to be nearer its Ruin than it was in the late Reign I cannot but be sensible I incur a great hazard of exposing my self by writing on a Subject in a manner wholly exhausted by the three incomparable Letters concerning Toleration which yet I had rather do than be wanting in my Endeavours to encourage impartial Liberty and mutual Toleration which instead of ruining is the only way to preserve both Church and State Yet this was not the only Motive that engag'd me in this Design for intending to write concerning what is commonly called Church or Ecclesiastical Power I thought it necessary for the better handling that Subject first to examine the Extent of the Magistrate's Power in Matters of Religion lest the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power should in my Discourse what in the World they frequently do clash one with the other I shall therefore without further prefacing attempt to shew what Power the Magistrate has in Matters of Religion Tho to prevent all occasion of Mistake or Cavil I shall first explain those Terms 2. By the Magistrate I mean the Person or Persons who in every Society have the Supream Power which consists in a Right to make Laws and by Force without which all Laws would be to no purpose to oblige the Unwilling and Disobedient to govern their Actions according to them 3. By Religion I understand the Belief of a God and the Sense and Practice of those Duties which result from the Knowledg we have of him and our selves and the Relation we stand in to him and our fellow Creatures or in short whatever appears to us from any convincing Evidence to be our Duty to believe or practise 4. In things relating to our selves or what is in our disposal any Action is lawful where there is no Law to forbid it But there is more than this required to invest a Man with a Right to deprive others of their natural Freedom and make Laws that in Conscience oblige them Whoever pretends to this must have a Commission either from God or Men but there is no Person that can pretend to have an immediate Commission from God therefore they that lay the Foundation of any Magistrate's Power not on a Humane but a Divine Right destroy all Obligation of Obedience to him for why should I be oblig'd to obey him on the account of a Divine Commission when he can neither show nor ever had any such Commission And there are none of his Subjects but what have as good a Pretence that is just none at all to a Divine Right Therefore since no Man can pretend an immediate Right from Heaven all the Right that one more than another has to command must be the Consent of the Governed either explicitly or implicitly given But it 's said the Powers that be are ordain'd of God which may very fitly and justly be said since they are chosen and appointed by those who had not only a Power from God to chuse them but were absolutely required by the Law of Self-preservation imprinted by God on their Natures to avoid the Inconveniences and Dangers of an unsafe State of Nature by placing the Power of governing them in one or more Hands in such Forms and under such Agreements as they should think fit To suppose the Powers that be to be otherwise from God than as they are the Creatures of the People made by them and for them is not only to contradict St. Peter who calls Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Creature or Contrivance of Man but the Experience of all Ages wherein Men have contrived and framed various sorts
doubt will instruct them in their own Religion whether Paganism Judaism or Mahometism yet no Man will suppose that they can justly use Force on them when they come to Years of Discretion to make them embrace those Religions or any other And yet the Case between the Magistrate and his Subjects is very different from that of Parents and Children in their Nonage because the Magistrate is not in those Matters to supply the Defects of his Subjects Understanding for a time but his Power reaches to Men of all Ages and Capacities so that it 's evident that the Reason that subjects Children in their Nonage to the use of Force does not all concern Men at Years of Discretion 10. It 's granted by all that a Heathen Magistrate has no right to judg in Matters simply Religious how then comes a Christian by the Law of Nature to obtain this Charter since that Law allows one Magistrate no more Power than another and what is done by a competent Authority tho not right yet is valid ratum si non rectum And as Civil Power is every where the same so let me add Church-Power is so too so that the Church cannot give any new Power to the Magistrate by his becoming a Member of it nor the Magistrate any new Power to the Church by his coming into it 11. It 's said the Law of Nature obligeth every one in his Station to promote the true Religion and for that reason the Magistrate is obliged to exercise a Coercive Power in Matters meerly Religious The Magistrate no doubt is to make use of his Power in things that belong to his Station but meerly religious Ones as it has been already proved do not as to those he is no more than a private Person nay the Clergy cannot own him for more without destroying their own Supremacy in Matters Spiritual which includes meerly religious Ones except there can be more than one Supream in the same thing CHAP. III. That a Power in the Magistrate to use Force in Matters of meer Religion tends to Mens Eternal Ruin 1. BUT if the Magistrate has any such Power from the Law of Nature it must be because it tends to promote either the Eternal or Temporal Good of Mankind or the Honour of God But to take away the least Colour of any Right upon these Pretences I shall show first the Exercise of such a Power is destructive of Man's Eternal Happiness 2dly Of his Temporal and contrary to all those Laws that for our mutual good God requires of us 3dly That it is directly opposite to and inconsistent with the Honour of God 2. As to the first It is of fatal Consequence to the Eternal Happiness of Mankind in having a direct tendency to make them act contrary to their Consciences For since Force can no more work a Change or Alteration on the Mind than Arguments can on Matter all that it can do is to make Men unwilling to lie under the weight of it which they have no way of avoiding but by acting as the Magistrate will have them the Truth of which Force is wholly unapt to convince them of and can only produce an outward compliance the Conscience still remaining averse For nothing is more evident than that where a thing is wholly impertinent to convince the Conscience as Violence is and yet it obligeth a Man to act it obligeth him to act contrary to his Conscience which is directly contrary to his Eternal Happiness For if he that acts when he doubts is damned he cannot certainly be in a better Condition who wholly revolts from his Conscience and basely lieth both to God and Man 3. The true Religion it self can neither judg nor punish but the Magistrate by the True Religion means his own and since all Magistrates think themselves in the right they if Force is to be used must think themselves oblig'd to use it And consequently if one useth Force to make People profess a True Doctrine or Religion there are at least five hundred who would use it to make People contrary to their Consciences profess a False Religion either in whole or part than which there can be nothing more impious nor would the Matter be much mended if the Magistrate forceth Men to profess the True Religion which yet is certainly false to them whilst they believe it so And the forcing People to profess either a true or false Religion is equally prejudicial to the Common-Wealth and consequently upon that account equally sinful because when Men by acting against their Consciences are brought to have no regard to them they will not scruple to break those moral Duties which all Religions teach and in the observing of which Man 's mutual Happiness consists therefore the Magistrate is so far from having a right to punish Men for acting according to their Consciences that it 's his Duty to see they do not violate them tho supposed never so erroneous and consequently all Force is religiously to be abstain'd from which as Mr. Chillingworth Chap. 5. n. 96. observeth may make Men counterfeit but cannot make them believe and therefore is fit to breed Form without and Atheism within Yet this is not the only fatal Consequence of this Doctrine but as I shall show in my next CHAP. IV. Compulsion is inconsistent with all those Duties that God for the sake of Mens Temporal Happiness requires of one towards another 1. NOthing can be more diametrically opposite to all those Precepts of Love Charity Kindness Gentleness Meekness Patience Forbearance the Gospel is in a manner composed of than Mens ill using one another for different Sentiments in things meerly Religious To pretend Love Kindness Friendship c. and yet vex oppress and ruin is no better than mocking and sporting with the Miseries of those we have so treated First to kiss and then betray is the basest Hypocrisy if that can pass for Hypocrisy which openly proclaims at how great a distance Mens Words and Actions are The kindest Office one Man can do to another is if he thinks him in an Error to endeavour to convince him of it who tho he continues in his former Opinion yet the Obligation to the other for his good Intention still remains and this Benefit he may obtain by it that by examining the Reasons on both Sides he is more likely to discover the Truth yet should he mistake after he has impartially examined the Point his Error would be wholly innocent since he has done what he can to find out the Truth and God requires no more but to cause a Person to be persecuted for being instrumental in this is the most unnatural and diabolical thing that can be 2. Object It 's usually said 't is not want of Charity but the greatest that can be to hinder Men by Force from professing such Opinions as are destructive to their Souls Answ. But I say first that it 's against Charity for the Magistrate to do a real Ill to
a pernicious Example to others But if Men out of Conscience worship false Gods and are thereby guilty of what is called material Blasphemy the reason for punishing them wholly ceaseth for Force cannot convince but only make them false to their Consciences and they that are so will never be true to the Publick therefore the Magistrate is so far from having a Right to hinder them from honouring those false Gods that he ought to punish those who whilst they pretend to worship them do dishonour them by Blasphemy Perjury or any other manifest Contempt nay God himself will punish such Contempts as if done to himself and consequently will punish the Magistrate for hindering them from worshipping those false Gods when they believe them to be true Ones 2. But as to Christian Magistrates punishing for Matters wherein Conscientious Persons may and do differ it shows their great Wickedness and Impiety in acting contrary to the Light of Nature and those Precepts and Practices of Christ and his Apostles and if there be any weight in meer Human Authority I may add contrary to the Sentiments of the Primitive Church for the first three hundred Years who we do not find but were all unanimous in condemning the use of Force in Matters of Religion and had they been of another Opinion nothing could be more absurd than those frequent Addresses they made to the Heathen for Liberty of Conscience For then they could not deny that it was the Duty of the Heathen Magistrate as long as they rejected what he judged to be the true Religion to punish them nor could they urge any thing for themselves but a shameless begging the thing in dispute which the Magistrate the proper Judg had determin'd against them And to hear them acknowledge that were the Power in their Hands they were oblig'd to serve them after the same manner could not but encourage the Heathen in their Persecution But they were so far from having any such Thoughts that even when the Empire became Christian the very Heathen Worship as the Bishop of Sarum observes in his most excellent Preface to Lactantius was not only tolerated for a whole Age together but the Heathens continued to be in the chief Employments of the Empire 3. Compulsion was not only against the Sense of the Primitive Christians but the rest of Mankind for tho the Differences amongst them were more in Number and wider than those amongst the Christians yet we do not find that they used Force to compel one another Socrates it's true was put to death for his Religion but were not the People tho still averse to his Principles as soon as their Fury was abated sensible of the Crime they had committed and of the Injury done him Therefore to make him what Amends they could they erected a Statue to his Memory and most of those that set them on were so abhorred that this together with their own Remorse made them become their own Executioners But what the Sense of the Heathen was about this Matter cannot be better known than from the Sentiments of Gallio the Town-Clerk of Ephesus Agrippa and Felix in the Acts of the Apostles Nay so zealous Assertors of Liberty of Conscience were the Heathens that we find Themistius and other Philosophers using all their Eloquence to perswade the Christian Emperors to give Liberty to the different Sects of Christians whilst at the same time the Bishops were urging them to persecute their Brethren If the Heathens would have persecuted any it would have been the Jewish Nation whose Religion they most disliked yet we do not find they were so used by the various Masters they were under from their first being subject unto Foreigners until the Destruction of Jerusalem and their being no longer a Nation but by the mad Antiochus who at last grievously lamented that Crime Nay Nero himself the first Persecutor of Christians durst not do it bare-fac'd but pretended they were Incendiaries and set Rome on fire and therefore were to be punished as Enemies to the State And it was their being so represented that was more than any thing else the Cause of their Sufferings For Trajan as soon as he perceived that they were Innocent and disobeyed no Laws of the Empire but those that forbad their Worship straight commanded that they should be no longer enquired after And Adrian under severe Penalties forbad any to accuse them The same did Antoninus Pius And Aurelius went further and made it Death to inform against them Nay Commodus himself as great a Tyrant as he was otherwise enacted the same most just Law so that it was then no less than a Capital Crime to cause any to be molested upon the Account of Religion tho supposed never so false 4. Nay I think I may add that Persecutors act not only contrary to the Sense of Mankind but their own Sentiments for ask any of them why the swift and sudden Encrease of the Mahometan Religion should not be as good an Argument for its Truth as 't is for that of the Christians they straightway answer That maugre its swift Progress 't is little less than a Demonstration of its Falshood that it has the Character of Persecution annexed to it and made use of Violence as a lawful Means for its promotion Which Answer of theirs shows that themselves believe Force an unlawful Means of promoting Religion for how else can that be an Argument of the Falseness of any Religion if it be a Means ordained by God to promote the True And therefore the Mahometans may justly say How can the Christians condemn them for using that Method which themselves as soon as they get Power into their Hands and the Mahometans could do it no sooner practised with far greater Cruelty even one upon the other Thus they give occasion for the Enemies of the Christian Religion to triumph and that so much the more confidently by how much less Christians suffer under them for Religion than they do under one another 5. Nay I may go further and add that there 's no Party of Christians but what have ever since Persecution has been in use expresly condemned it and have writ in defence of Liberty of Conscience And tho the Orthodox made use of Persecution as well as the Arians yet they not only condemn'd it but thought it so very odious that they supposed it as great a Crime as they could brand their Adversaries with And Athanasius in Epist. ad Solit. saith Persecution alone is a manifest Proof that they the Arians have neither Piety nor the fear of God For adds he it 's essential to Piety not to force any in imitation of our Saviour it 's the Devil that comes with violent Means And the Synod of Alexandria condemns all Force in Religion and reproaches the Arians as the Inventers and Promoters of it It 's strange they should be so very forgetful as not to mind that the Nicene Fathers over-perswaded Constantine contrary to his Faith
been ruled by Demetrius and the rest of the Silver-Smiths in punishing Paul whose Preaching spoiled their Trade 8. Did the Clergy but consider the ill Effects that Persecution has all along had on them they would not be so zealous for it As long as the Emperors had the Power in their own Hands there never was a Council but what was an Imperial Machine either for or against a Trinity or worshipping of Images c. as it seemed good not to the Holy Ghost but to those Emperors and when the Priests by their cunning compliance in Matters of Faith had by Degrees advanced their own Power above the Emperors and the Bishop of Rome as their Head had the summoning of Councils then they were meer Papal Engines and in their Synods voted and acted as they were influenced from the Vatican But if these things be too remote the English History affords us fresher Examples in the Reigns of Henry the 8th Edward the 6th Mary and Elizabeth how easily and how smoothly did the Clergy then change their Articles of Faith and Forms of Worship nay every thing according to the Inclinations of those Kings and Queens But we need not go so far back for Examples let us but cast our Eyes upon the present State of Religion in every part of Christendom and we cannot but see that the Opinions of the Clergy as much as they pretend not to take things on trust are every where such as the Terms of Preferment appointed by the Laws of each Country require of them Are they not in Italy and in all the Dominions of Spain zealous and thorow Roman-Catholicks In France Catholicks tho with reserve to the Liberties of the Gallican Church and the Regalities Or rather are they not whatever that absolute King will have them to be as we see by their acting with the See of Rome And are they not in one half of Germany Papists in the other Protestants In Denmark and Sweedland Lutherans in the Alps Calvinists c. This is impossible should so universally happen if Interest had not too great an Influence over them which makes them very unfit Instruments to find out Truth or if found sincerely to discover it And how can they be fit Guides to others who are not trusted to guide themselves but right or wrong are obliged to assert such Opinions or else to starve which certainly destroys all manner of Argument from their Authority since interested Persons are of no Credit and therefore are every where repelled from giving their Testimony But 9. The Clergy had a quite different Design by such Imposition viz. To keep the People in a blind Obedience and make them give an implicite Faith to what they so unanimously agree in whether Con or Transubstantiation or any other such Points which has had the designed Effect for to speak the Truth the great Fault of the Laity has been in paying a servile and blind Deference to the Opinions of the Clergy or as Mr. Hales in his Tract of Schism speaking of the Laity even of the second Century expresseth it Through Sloth and blind Obedience they examined not the things that they were taught but like Beasts of Burden patiently couched down and indifferently underwent whatever their Superiors laid upon them And thus much do the Clergy of each Sect object to the Laity of those Sects they differ with and tho the Laity are so much more numerous and it 's their Business as well as the Clergy's to examine into Matters of Religion in order to know what they are to believe or practise yet if we look into History we shall find that most if not all the Errors Schisms Heresies that have confounded the Christian World have had their Origin and chief Support from the Clergy and that the Laity have been with much ado perverted and as they have held out longest against false and absurd Opinions so they have been always the first and most forward for a Reformation 10. It 's to the Clergy's being every where obliged to defend the established Opinions we in a great measure owe that in the Writings of Controversial Points the Words there used are much more obscure uncertain and undetermined than they are even in ordinary Conversation by which means they are enabled to talk eternally in opposing or defending any Proposition tho never so absurd for Men may wrangle perpetually if they affect an Obscurity and an Uncertainty in the Use of their Words and in truth the whole Learning of the Schools is only disputing about Words there a Man may be furnished with several Words without Ideas annexed to them and nothing so common as Distinctions without any difference But it had not been so intolerable if this sort of Jargon had been confined to things meerly speculative and had not obscured the material Truths of Law and Religion nor invaded the Concernments of Human Life and Society bringing Confusion Disorder and Uncertainty into all Affairs of Moment But I shall say no more on this Point only adding that it was Imposition and the consequence of it Excommunication for matters of Opinion which first brought in Uncharitableness Envy Strifes Fewds Factions amongst Christians and after that Persecution not only heightened them but was the occasion of the prodigious encrease of all other Wickedness by forcing Men to break the Ties and Obligations of Conscience and it 's impossible but that all manner of Immorality must abound whilst Imposition prevails which eats out the very Heart and Life of Religion and at the best makes Men profess as a matter of Form whatever Opinions they find necessary for their worldly Convenience And this I think is sufficient to show the Execrableness of it especially in Protestants whose Principles it 's so inconsistent with CHAP. IV. That the Good of the Society obligeth the Magistrate to hinder different Professions of Religion examin'd 1. AND now I am at leisure to examine the only remaining Pretence for the Magistrate's using force in Matters of meer Religion that without this Power he would be destitute of the Means to prevent Tumults Disturbances Commotions Wars c. which are the necessary Consequences of a Toleration Not to repeat what I have said Chap. 1. § 22. or Chapter the 4th of the horrible Mischief of Persecution nor to mention that what is so directly contrary to the Honour of God and the Good of Souls as I have proved it to be can no wise contribute to the Temporal Good of Mankind I say if the professing of any Religion that in whole or part is different from that established by Law will cause these dismal Effects then the Protestant Perswasion in Popish Countries and the Christian Religion in those of the Heathen will produce them But if Persecutors cannot affirm this it 's false to say that any Religion meerly because it 's different from that of the Publick tends to create Disturbances therefore if they have any value for the true Religion they ought not to
am obliged to submit to the Determinations of the Clergy I may be forc'd to believe what I judg is either adding changing or diminishing the Law of God as it 's manifest all Sects by believing it to be of their own Side do judg their Adversaries do add c. But if it be meant that the Clergy have a Right to make me believe a thing whilst I doubt of the Truth of it that is impossible and so it is to change my Mind before I see Reason for it It may be said tho it 's not in my Power to believe as they will have me yet I may do as they command even whilst I doubt of the Lawfulness of the Action But then to obey them would be the ready way to damn my self for he that acts when he doubts is damn'd No Law whether of God or Man can scarce be of any use without applying it to particular Cases and deducing Consequences from it and explaining Doubts that arise But if the Laity must be determined by the Priests in all such Cases they must become Brutes and renounce their Reason where they ought to make the most use of it Our Author I confess says not that a Man should rest in the Determinations of the Clergy in deducing Consequences in things explicitly determined by the Law of God But what is meant by things explicitly determined I do not well understand for tho Words are explicit yet the Things implied in those Words are certainly implicit And if the Clergy can oblige Men to follow right or wrong their Determinations in deducing Consequences in things implicitly determined by Scripture they may oblige Men to add change or diminish the Law of God in most Points 3. The Popish Priests never carried their Pretences higher than this Author does they have not the Impudence to assert they can oblige People to believe contrary to the Law of God but that for the sake of the Church's Peace they have a Right to determine those Controversies that may arise among the Faithful and when they have done so none ought to begin to examine those Points again In a word there is no Medium between the Protestant Doctrine of every one having a Right to judg for himself and the Popish one of being obliged to believe as the Church does But this Author is much more absurd than the Papists in making Truth and Falshood to be decided not by an Infallible Pope or Council whose Decrees are to bind the Catholick Church but by the casting Voices of a Fallible Convocation in every Nation which may in Spain oblige the People to believe Transubstantiation in Sweden Consubstantiation in England the Real Corporeal Presence so that a Man may be bound to change his Sentiments with his Habitation and the Difference of a Degree or two may oblige him to opposite Opinions And yet as absurd as this is since the Clergy are so infinitely divided amongst themselves the Laity must either do so or else judg for themselves if it were but to know which of the Clergy were in the Right But 4. The Pamphleteer supposes this impossible and pag. 18. where he speaks out he roundly tells the Commons of England That it 's a little too much to suppose Countrey Gentlemen Merchants or Lawyers to be nicely skill'd in the Languages of the Bible Masters of all the Learning of the Fathers or of the History of the Primitive Church which they must in some measure be who sit Judges of Religious Doctrines and Opinions which ought to be left to their proper Tribunal a Convocation Had People at the Reformation been of this Mind we might still have groaned under the Popish Yoke for the Majority of the Clergy not only in England but every where else were as averse to this Reformation which may justly be called a Lay one as the Jewish Priests were to that of Christ and his Apostles If to be Masters of all the Learning of the Fathers be necessary to the judging of Religious Doctrines it 's as necessary the Laity should understand them because the Clergy are strangely divided amongst themselves about them each Sect pretending they are on their Side which shows that either the Clergy are not to be trusted with giving us the Sense of those Fathers because they make them say any thing according as it serves their present Interest or that the Fathers talk forward and backward contradict themselves as well as one another which if so shows great disingenuity in the Clergy not to own it and if we may trust Mr. Chillingworth a Man unsuspected of the least Priestcraft he tells us Chap. 6. That he sees plainly and that with his own Eyes that there are Councils against Councils some Fathers against others the same Fathers against themselves a Consent of Fathers of one Age against a Consent of Fathers of another Age the Church of one Age against the Church of another Age. 5. The Apostles were so far from requiring the Christians to give up their Judgments to any Number of fallible Men that they command them all to make use of their Reason in judging of Religion commend those as the Bereans that did so and blame those that did not Why have you not judged these things of your selves And if Men were then obliged to try the Spirits because there were many false Prophets gone out into the World there is certainly much more reason to do so now But having spoken fully to this Point in Ch. 2. Par. 1. I shall only add that it 's a Rule authorised by common Sense not to consent to any thing till we are capable of judging of its Truth nor can we without renouncing our Reason suppose God will have us believe any thing without seeing good Reason for it And nothing can reflect more on the Wisdom and Goodness of God than to suppose that he who would have all Men come to the Knowledg of his Will should yet make it so obscure that not one in a thousand is capable of knowing it because it depends upon Skill in Fathers Criticks Church-History c. A Man may therefore justly conclude if there be any such Doctrines pretended as there are in most Systems the impossibility of the Peoples judging of them alone demonstrates they come not from God who as he was able so his Goodness made him willing to express Truth so clearly that all who are not wilfully blind may understand it in order to practice and it would seem strange that God should chuse Fishermen and such simple Persons to preach a Religion intelligible only to the Learned and Philosophers There 's no need of running to Fathers Criticks c. For he that will do the Will of God shall know as our Saviour John 7. saith of the Doctrine whether it be of God that is if it be such as tends to make me love reverence and honour God or is beneficial to Man and a Doctrine cannot shew it self to be of God any
make them pay a blind Submission to the Decrees of the Clergy that has been the Cause not only of all the Mischief and Miseries that upon the account of Religion have happened in Christendom but of the great Corruption of Religion which being a thing so plain and easy in it self and suted to the Capacity of the People would never have been so much and so universally depraved had there been an entire Liberty of Conscience for tho upon several Accounts such as Prejudice of Education mistaken Philosophy Interest c. Errors might have crept into the Church yet had they not been established by Penal Laws there would have been some in all Ages who not being under the like Prejudices would have opposed them and consequently upon a free Examination Error could not long have withstood the Power of Truth Luther Calvin c. were more successful than others who before them saw the Corruptions the Clergy had introduced only because they had better Fortune in meeting with Princes that allow'd them a Liberty that was denied to the others 10. One of the chiefest Means of corrupting Religion was occasioned by the Heathen Philosophers those Pretenders to Science falsly so called who when they thought it worth their while tho few or none of them at first were converted to come into the Church and became Governours and leading Men in it brought in with them so hard it is to conquer the Prejudice of Education their absurd Metaphysical Notions wholly inconsistent with the Plainness and Simplicity of the Gospel which they wrested to their preconceived Opinions and being then unwilling to make a meaner Figure upon the account of their Learning than they did formerly they blended together two very different things Christianity and that vain Philosophy St. Paul so much cautions People against And they that succeeded them made it their Business to render Religion more and more mysterious and unintelligible that the Laity should admire them for their profound Knowledg in things past their own understanding and be wholly governed by them in Matters of Religion as being above their Apprehensions and so get their Consciences and consequently their Estates in their disposal Which Design succeeded accordingly for we find that it was wholly left to them to make what Creeds impose what Opinions they thought fit on the Laity who whenever they asserted their Natural Right of judging for themselves and acting according to that Judgment were by the Magistrate's Sword always ready forc'd to a Compliance Thus it was that Priest-craft began and Persecution compleated the Ruin of Religion And if this was the Method the Clergy took in the most early Times what reason is there to suspect that in these latter Times they are less in love with Power and Dominion 9. It 's said That the Magistrate's Force is necessary to preserve Religion because for want of it the World was quickly and universally overrun with Idolatry I answer A Right in the Magistrates to use Force would in no wise have prevented Idolatry except they had been against it when the People were inclined to it which was so far from being true that the Kings themselves as that great and good Man the Author of the Letters concerning Toleration plainly shows were the Promoters of Idolatry by introducing their Predecessors into the Divine Worship of the People to secure to themselves as descended from the Gods the greater Veneration from their Subjects and therefore erected such a Worship and such a Priesthood as might awe the seduced Multitude into the Obedience they desired And it 's much more probable that Courts by their Instruments the Priests and by their Artifices the Fables of their Gods their Mysteries and Oracles should thus advance the Honour of their Kings amongst the People for the Ends of Ambition and Power than that the People should find out those refined Ways of doing it and introduce them into Courts for enslaving themselves And it 's no wonder that Absolute and Arbitrary Monarchs as the first Introducers of Idolatry were could impose what they pleased on their Subjects bred up in Slavery and consequently in Ignorance for where Men are poor and miserable the necessary Consequence of Arbitrary Power they have no leisure to examine into Matters of Religion their Time being wholly taken up in providing necessary Subsistence and consequently they must be grosly ignorant and have mean low and abject Thoughts sutable to their Condition So that 't is not strange that these Emperors might by degrees impose on them the worshipping their Ancestors especially when they saw the Priests and Courtiers scarce forbear adoring the present Monarch which is almost unavoidable in Arbitrary Governments witness the most fulsome and blasphemous Flatteries that are offered up to the French King even by his Christian Subjects Nay how many Instances have we of such Monarchs whose Impatience would not permit them to stay till after their Death for Divine Honours which then Custom had in a manner made their Right And 10. One and not perhaps the least Reason why the generality of the Priests are for preaching up absolute Arbitrary Power to be Jure Divino is because that necessarily causes an Universal Ignorance and thereby gives them a fair Opportunity of imposing on the People what they think fit For Ignorance tho it 's far from being the Mother of Devotion to God it 's certainly so to the Church as the Priests call themselves and therefore there is nothing they dread more than a knowing Laity and to show all the Arts and Methods they have taken to keep them ignorant would require a large History And we find that in those Places where the Clergy are most numerous potent and rich the People are most ignorant and superstitious as well as most enslaved and where the Clergy are fewest in Number Religion abounds most as well as Knowledg and Liberty It was Piedmont and some such barren Places which could not well maintain many Priests and where it was scarce worth their while to advance Priest-craft that best preserved the Purity of the Gospel And not to go so far from home as nothing made way so much for the Reformation as the depriving the Priests of their Monasteries and other ill-gotten Goods so nothing has since contributed more to the continuing of it than those Possessions being out of their Hands And the Method by which they have generally corrupted Religion is by wheedling or forcing the People into a blind Submission to what they impose on them And it was by these Artifices that the Jewish Priests and Rabbies imposed on that Nation the Traditions of Men for the Commandments of God And it 's by this Method that the Mahometan Religion supports it self there being no Debate nor Discourse allowed of what the Mufties shall teach the People And every body knows that the forcing People into an implicit Faith is the Bulwark of the Popish Religion And now having answered and I think I may