given in a Publick Edict for Liberty of Worship not only to deprive and banish those of the Clergy that professed Arianism but even to put all Men to death on whom any of Arius his Works were found 6. But it may be said That if the Christian Priests in the first General Council and all ever since have been for Persecution there must be some very good Reason to influence them I answer Just as much as influences the Jewish Priests not to own Jesus to be the Messias For as they were prejudiced against him because he did not come to advance their Temporal Power so the Christian Priests have been as much prejudiced against those Gospel-Methods of Love Gentleness c. as being wholly inconsistent with their Pride Ambition and that Dominion over Conscience they so much affected as is manifest by their own Histories which represent them after such a manner ever since Persecution prevailed as one would imagine he was reading a Story of Devils rather than of the Successors of the Apostles But if there is Confusion and every evil Work where Envying and Strife is it 's no wonder these should prevail in the highest manner when Barbarity and Cruelty are superadded And not only Ecclesiastical History but the best of the Clergy almost as soon as Persecution was in use give a very scandalous Character of their Body as St. Jerom St. Basil St. Ambrose St. Hilary who in his Comment on the Psalms scruples not to compare them to the Scribes and Pharisees and St. Gregory Nazianzen who in his first Oration amongst other things saith They are no better than Scribes and Pharisees that they looked on the Priesthood not as a Ministry of which they must give an Account but as a Magistracy which is liable to no examination that no Charity was observed in them but only Anger and Passion that their Piety did only consist in condemning the Impiety of other Men whose Conduct they observed not to reclaim but to defame that they blamed or praised Men not because of their good or bad Life but according to the Party they embraced that they admired in themselves what they sharply censured in another Party that they wrangled about Trifles on the specious Pretences of defending the Faith that they were abhorred by the Heathen and despised by all good Men among the Christians 7. In a word There can be no Argument from Human Authority for Persecution because that destroys any Argument that 's built upon Authority even in the Judgment of the Persecutors themselves For ask them why the Council of Ariminum which was double in number to that of Nice and which even the Nicene Fathers themselves subscribed is not of any Authority the Answer is Because they were not a Free Council but were over-awed by the Emperor But if Persecution destroyed their Authority the Reason will hold against any other Council or Meeting of Men ever since Force has been in fashion And it 's no wonder that the Nicene Fathers who were so divided into Parties and Factions and full of Heats Fewds and Quarrels as Marvel in that small but admirable Essay of Creeds and Councils fully shows should revenge themselves on their Adversaries on pretence of advancing the true Religion or that the Arians when they had been so provoked should serve them after the same manner or that the different Parties after these Precedents which must necessarily encrease their Hatreds and Animosities should be more and more for persecuting one the other But more than enough of Human Authority And Now I shall examine what they urge from Reason for the Magistrate's using Force Which may be concluded under these three Heads 1. That it causeth People impartially to consider the Arguments and Motives that make for the true Religion 2. That it hinders the Propagation of Errors 3. That the Interest of the Common-Wealth obligeth the Magistrate not to permit different Professions of Religion CHAP. III. Object That Compulsion tends to make People impartially consider examined 1. I Agree with them that nothing can be more agreeable to the Dignity and more apparently the Duty of Rational Creaturs than to make a strict Inquisition in their advanced and capable Years into Matters of Religion and that of all the Uses Reason was designed for the chief no doubt was in relation to our Eternal Happiness But how can we expect that Happiness from the Hand of God if what we are to believe or practise be by meer accident or for the sake of Worldly Interest and not the Effects of our own Industry and Reasoning for God will judg us as we are Rational Creatures and consequently our Rewards from him will be in a just Proportion to the use we make of our Reason This being premised it 's evident nothing can well be a greater Crime than to hinder People from a free Exercise of their Reason in Matters of Religion which I say nothing can more effectually do than Punishments and Rewards For what can bias and prejudice more than Punishments on the one hand and on the other not only Protection but the Prospect of Preferment and Advantages for as much weight as they carry in Mens Minds so much will they be influenced by them And to put Discountenance and Punishment in one Scale and Impunity and Preferment in the other is as likely a way to make a Man judg impartially for himself as it is to bribe and threaten a Judg to make him judg so for others In a word What can be more absurd than to suppose that the way to make Men consider calmly and without prejudice of those things that require their utmost attention is to provoke them to Passion by ill usage and to distract them on one hand by the Terrors of Punishment and to agitate them as strongly on the other by the hopes of worldly Enjoyments 2. It 's usually said Men are careless and negligent and of themselves unapt to make a strict Inquisition into Religion therefore are to be forced But Force will make them but more so and instead of remedying encrease the Malady for Men will then be afraid to examine the Magistrate's Religion for fear of finding it false and any other for fear of finding it true both which will equally subject them to Punishment In such Circumstances if they examine at all it will be very slightly and partially for a small a very small Reason will make most Men profess a Religion on which their worldly Happiness depends and it must be a monstrous one indeed that they will not make a shift to own rather than be all their lives subject to Punishment In short What can be more unnatural than to imagine that to terrify People into this or that Perswasion is a more likely way to induce them to examine impartially the different Perswasions than to let them freely examine and as freely profess what upon examination they are perswaded is the Truth 3. If Men ought to be influenced in
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
or indeed any thing else that does not invade the Right of others or is consistent with the Welfare of the Society And if it be unreasonable that he should harass Men about these things which have some relation to the Civil Society tho not sufficient to erect Courts of Judicature about them is it not much more so to molest them about nice Controversies Speculative Points meer Ceremonies or Forms of outward Worship in which the Interest of the Society is not at all concerned In a word If the Magistrate is to punish for some things in Religion and not for others what other Rule can there be to know what belongs to his Jurisdiction and what not but that about those things of Religion which relate to the Civil Society he is to use the Force of the Society and that what do not ought wholly to be left to God and the Parties concerned For as it 's absurd that the Force of the Society should be imployed about things that do not belong to it so it 's very unjust that a Man should not be suffered to act as he judgeth best in those things wherein no other has an Interest but his own eternal Good or Ill is only concerned 11. God who does not require of Men to be infallible but to do their best to discover Truth can never be supposed to be willing that they should be punished for invincible Error But the Magistrate who by reason of the infinite Variety of Mens Parts and Apprehensions does not know what Errors are invincible and what not cannot but punish unjustly since he cannot tell whether the Person he punisheth supposing him in an Error is in a Fault or if in a Fault cannot know what degrees of Weakness or Wilfulness it has or how to proportion his Punishment according to the different Abilities of every individual Person which he ought to do since where much is given much is required and where little is given as little is required But as he is not capable of doing this so he cannot tell after he has done his best but that he has made them guilty of a much greater Fault than what he pretends to correct by forcing them to act against their Consciences All which no less than demonstrates that the Magistrate is not qualified and therefore not ordained to punish such Offences but that they are to be left to the Searcher of Hearts the great and righteous Judg of all Men who alone discerns all the Powers and Workings of Mens Minds when they sincerely seek after Truth or by what if by any Default they miss it and who alone knows whom to punish and how to proportion his Punishments 12. To suppose God has constituted the Supream Powers to judg not only concerning Civil Crimes for which he has sufficiently qualified them but also meerly Religious Ones is inconsistent with the Justice as well as Wisdom and Goodness of God For if we cannot suppose so very unjust and foolish a thing of a King on Earth as that he should constitute for his Vicegerents those of whom he certainly knew not one in a thousand but would punish his Faithful Subjects and that for no other Reason but because they were so and reward those that were not so How then can we suppose so very absurd a thing of the King of Kings that he should appoint them for his Vicars in spiritual Matters and arm them with a Coercive Power to punish those Offences that relate solely to himself who as he could not but infallibly foreknow would make use of their Power to encourage even their rebelling against him by setting up of false Gods in his stead for Idolatry was every where quickly the Publick Religion of their Dominions except amongst God's own People the Jews and even there very often it was the National Religion And after their Captivity until Constantine's Time not one of God's supposed Vicars in Matters of meer Religion but were themselves Idolaters and did all of them discountenance and several of them persecute the Worshippers of the true God And when the Christians if Persecutors deserve that Name made use of Force upon Christians what did it produce but Popish Superstition and Idolatry 13. Persecution is so far from being a Means to promote the true Religion that it must necessarily hinder its progress because the Infidels must think themselves as much obliged to hinder the preaching of the Gospel amongst them as the Christians their Religion here And in vain do we pray for their Conversion whilst we assert such a Doctrine as will not let us suffer them to live here in order to their Conversion nor them to suffer us to preach the Gospel there But this is not all for had this Doctrine of promoting the true Religion by Force been believed by the Heathen it would have obliged them to have extirpated the Christian Religion and certainly that can scarce be thought to be a Christian Doctrine which if practised would have destroy'd the very Name of Christian. 14. It may be said no Persecution could extirpate the Christian Religion because the severest Methods were so far from destroying it that they were the Occasion of its encreasing the faster Not to mention if this were so and the Magistrate was to persecute it ought to be the true Religion because it 's the way to make it increase and by Parity of Reason use a contrary Method with false Religions I say that Persecution if it continues but a short time will make any Religion to increase and flourish the more because the Bravery the Courage of those that suffer prepares People to have a good Opinion of the Cause they suffer for But if it continue for an Age or Ages so that the old Professors are all destroyed the succeeding Generations will all be of the Religion they are educated in Thus we find Christianity by the continued Cruelty of its Enemies rooted out of the greatest Part of Africa and other Places it entirely possessed And should the Persecution in France continue the next Generation would be all Papists as they are in Spain and Portugal So that the Reason why Persecution had not the like Effect under the Pagan Emperors was because God did not permit it to continue long at a time and not without great intermissions But had all those Emperors been for promoting by Force what according to their Sentiments was the true Religion they had utterly extirpated the very Name of a Christian 15. Nay had the Heathen Emperors abhorr'd Persecution as all but what were Monsters did yet they had been under an indispensible Duty as they valued the Peace and Welfare of Mankind in general and of their Subjects in particular to root out a Religion which when it got Power into its Hands would have no other measure of Justice and Equity than its own Interest and would deprive Men tho never so strict Observers of the Laws of Morality and the Society of their Properties and
the choice of their Religion by no other Motive than that of their Eternal Happiness what right can the Magistrate have to make them do otherwise by the Awes and Bribes of this World To pretend to establish a Church by Penal Laws is inconsistent with the very Nature of it because it 's essential to a Church to be a voluntary Society that meet for no other Intent than to serve God as they think most agreeable to his Will If Men therefore associate not for this Consideration but because of Penal Laws they may be called any thing sooner than a Church 4. If worldly Awes and Bribes were away there could be little or nothing to prejudice Men in their grand Choice Education would not then make half so deep an Impression For it 's Persecution that 's the Occasion that People of different Perswasions contract so early and so great an Aversion one for the other that it becomes in a manner part of their Nature and makes it so very difficult to perswade them to hear with tolerable Patience what their Adversaries have to offer but were they taught to have that Love and Kindness which is due from different Sects to each other and instead of being frightned from were heartily advised to examine and impartially consider other Perswasions besides those they were bred in Education could create little or no Prejudice in Mens Minds who when they found themselves in an Error as what thinking Men do not discover some imbibed in their greener Years would then as freely leave them for the sake of their Souls as they do now their Diet or Physick when they judg the Health of their Bodies requires it nor would others then be more disturbed or concerned at the one than at the other I am sure there is more reason to change in one Case than in the other since the professing an Opinion one believes to be false is so far from doing him good that that alone turns it to rank Poison which is otherwise in Physick where a Man may be cured by a Medicine he has no Faith in By what has been said it 's evident that Force is so far from causing People impartially to consider that it can only serve either to prejudice them as they become capable of judging or else when they have chosen make them act against their Judgments 5. But it 's urged That when the Magistrate is of the true Religion himself his using Force will contribute to make others to be so by causing them to consider since it 's their Interest so to do the Reasons and Arguments that make for the true Religion That the Magistrate's using Force when he is of the true Religion tends to make others profess it there is no doubt but that it is by making them impartially consider ought not to be taken for granted since we find it as effectual to make them imbrace a false as a true Religion else the French Tyrant had not forced above a Million to turn Papists and therefore by how much the Number of the Erroneous Magistrates is greater than of the Orthodox by so much more it causeth the Profession of false Perswasions And if we should judg what may by what has already happened not only before but since Christ's coming it 's as probable that all Magistrates may use Force to promote Error as that any one should do it to propagate Truth It 's absurd to suppose Persecution makes Men impartially consider because they generally look on it as so just a Prejudice against any Religion that useth it that it tempts them without any further looking into it to conclude it wants Reason to support it self and therefore the Professors of it have recourse to brutal Force to uphold it and the way that Persecutors take to make Men hate their Persons is a very improper way to take off the Prejudices they have to their Opinions and as Suffering prejudices them against the Religion that causeth it so it strangely endears to them the Religion for which they suffer and makes them apt to think nothing but the Grace of God could cause them to adhere so firmly to their Religion and apply to themselves the Prophecies that foretel the Persecution of true Believers And in such a Case it 's almost impossible to convince them they have suffered for being in the wrong And 7. As to the Spectators it will be very apt to produce the same Effects and fill them with Horror and Indignation against the Principles of such Men as go about to ruin innocent Persons for serving God according to Conscience and make them judg as favourably of the Sufferers for there 's a natural Compassion that follows all in Misery which creates likeness of Affection and this very often likeness of Perswasion especially when they suppose the Sufferers would not expose themselves to those Punishments which by a Compliance they might easily avoid were they not fully convinced of the Truth of their Opinions And it 's very probable that the Quakers to give no other Instance had not been so very numerous had not the Sufferings which they generally bore with more than ordinary Resolution created in many of the by-standers not only an Aversion for the Church that persecuted them but a very great Esteem of them and by degrees of their Opinions 8. That violent and rough Methods are not the way to make prejudiced Persons impartially consider is evident from the contrary Method that all Men take when they endeavour to perswade And they are but little acquainted with Mankind who do not know how absolutely necessary it is for a Man by all insinuating ways to ingratiate himself with those he endeavours to perswade especially if it be of the falseness of an Opinion they have a long time imbibed Nay I desire no body to go further than his own Breast for an Experiment whether ever Violence gained any thing on his Opinion or whether Arguments managed but with Heat did not lose somewhat of their Efficacy and have not made him even the more obstinate in his Opinion So much concern'd is Human Nature to preserve the Liberty of that Part wherein lies the Dignity of Man which could it be imposed on by Force would make him but very little different from a Beast The properest Means to maintain any thing are those that first made it grow if therefore the Gospel had owed its first Encrease and Progress to Force that had been still the best Means to support it but since it was nursed and grew up by fair Means they must be the fittest to preserve it The Apostles in conquering the almost invincible Prejudices of the Jews and Gentiles made use of all those endearing Methods that are so directly opposite to Force And St. Paul the great Converter of the Gentiles became all things to all Men that he might gain some And he tells Timothy That the Servant of the Lord must not strive but must be gentle to all Men
himself he ought not to rely upon another's Judgment but examine himself whether they are so or not and it 's probable that they that are against this Freedom maintain such Opinions for the more they are afraid of having their Opinions examined the more absurd it 's likely they are and the more any Opinion is grounded in Reason the more willing the Professors of it are to have it undergo the Test it 's only those with flaws in them that like crackt Titles cannot bear a Scrutiny If the Bereans were for ever enobled by St. Paul for not relying on what he said tho he had the Power of Miracles to confirm his Doctrin but for trying whether those things he affirmed were so or not there 's certainly as much reason now to do it otherwise we are Slaves where we ought to be most free in our noblest Part our Understanding And if in all other Matters the more any thing is scanned the more the strength of those Reasons appears that make for Truth as well as the weakness of those that are pleaded in behalf of Error Why should it not be so in Matters of Religion since we must judg of their Truth and Falshood as we do of all other things by their Agreement or Disagreement with our common Notions especially considering Religion is no obscure and unintelligible thing but so plain and easy that it 's suted to the Capacity of the Simple and Ignorant the Bulk of Mankind It 's to me wondrous strange that any should have so ill an Opinion of the Reasonableness of the true Religion or else of the Impotency of those Rational Faculties God has given Men on purpose to judg of Religion as to suppose they would not prefer it were they not prejudiced by temporal Motives before the Inventions of Men. It 's said the Affectation of Singularity and Novelty is apt to cause a Man if the Magistrate by Force does not restrain him to wander from the true Religion But what Charms can there be in being thought not only ignorant and mistaken but also despised and hated as he too certainly is that differs in his Sentiments from his Neighbours And therefore it 's not only a sign that a Man thinks of Religion but that he is very hearty and sincere in it when he exposeth himself to a constant Disgrace and Disrepute by it for there 's not one of a thousand that 's stiff and insensible enough to bear the perpetual dislike of his Neighbours and those he is forc'd to converse with And therefore there 's no need of Force to make Men profess the Publick Religion which for no other Reason but because it is so they are too apt to do Hence it is that not only the Careless and Negligent but the Immoral and Vicious are generally of the Religion established by Law where they can best indulge their Vices as having the Countenance of the People and the Favour and Indulgence of the Magistrate 5. Another Argument they usually urge is that Mens Lusts and Passions would make them prefer false Religions before the true had not the Magistrate a Right to hinder them by Force But not to mention that since the Magistrates are as much governed as their Subjects can be supposed to be by their Lusts and Passions Force in their Hands will more likely promote than hinder false Religions I answer As to the meerly religious or speculative Points of the true Religion Mens Lusts or Passions since these are no way concerned how those are held do not encline them to prefer Falshood before Truth And as for those Parts of Religion wherein Mens Lusts and Passions may be supposed to sway them those I own as far forth as my Adversaries do belong to the Magistrate's Jurisdiction and all Men for the sake of their common Good are obliged to get them believed and practised for it 's equally the Interest of Governours and Governed to embrace the true Religion contrived by the infinite Wisdom of God for the Benefit of Mankind For God as he could not envy his Creatures any Enjoyment they are capable of so he has forbad them nothing but what naturally tends to their Ruin and Destruction and were it not for Persecution and those Opinions supported by it which interested Men have tack'd to the Christian Religion there can be no doubt but that it had long before now been the Universal Profession of Mankind 6. As a free and impartial Liberty is the only way to promote Truth so where Persecution prevails it 's morally impossible but that Error Ignorance aud Superstition must do so too because Men when they are hindred from exercising their Reason by being forced blindly to follow the Opinions of others become ignorant and superstitious and are apt to take any absurd Impressions And the Priests themselves where they are sure of the Force of the Magistrate to make People profess what they please will not much trouble themselves about Reasons and Arguments and consequently by degrees grow very ignorant and superstitious as we find it in Spain Italy Portugal and other Popish Places where the Inquisition is settled tho in France where till of late more Liberty has been allowed they have not for the generality been so grosly ignorant It 's very true what a late Author observes That the Ministry is more learned more diligent and more exemplary where a Government carries it self equally to the different Parties than if one Party being absolute Masters should therefore so much is Human Frailty more apt to be corrupted by Prosperity than by all other Snares together abandon it self to Licentiousness Ignorance Idleness and Superstition And this holds not only in Popish but Protestant Countries also in which the less there is of Liberty the more Error Ignorance and Superstition abounds 7. Besides when Men shall be hindred from professing any Doctrin but what the Priests in their Convocations shall decree will not these be tempted to establish such Opinions as shall tend to promote their own Power and Dominion tho to the destruction of true Piety And this is no strange Supposition considering how fond in general Mankind are to advance their own Power and Authority And do not the Protestant Clergy own that Popery is nothing but a Politick Design to advance the Power of the Clergy under the Bishop of Rome tho to the Ruin of Christianity But as Rome it self was not built in a Day so it was not but by a long steady and uniform Design for many Ages that the Clergy by degrees arrived to such a Power And it 's sufficiently evident that long before the Pope usurped such Superiority over the rest of the Clergy they were carrying on the Design of aggrandizing themselves and tyrannizing over those they call the Laity In a word It has been the Pride Ambition and Covetousness of the Priests and the Force and Violence that by their Means and Instigation the persecuting Magistrates have used on the People to
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
for judging for others and punishing them for not acting according to their Judgments are unwilling that others when the Scales of Authority are turned should judg for them in like manner Tho then there 's nothing they can plead for themselves but what before they condemned in others and it would be as ridiculous to request those that they before ill used to have regard to the common Rules of Justice as it would have been in those Scythians who sacrificed all Strangers to their Gods to desire others to have respect to the Laws of Hospitality 5. It may be objected That the Rule of doing as you would be done unto does not hold because one Magistrate is in the Right and the other not and consequently he that is in the Right himself has a Right to judg but not vice versa Answ. But since the Dispute is who is in the Right it 's ridiculous to say he that 's only in the Right has a Power to judg except there were some Superiour to determine which of them is in the Right but there being no such Superiour every Magistrate is to judg for himself who to be sure will judg himself in the Right and consequently those that differ from him in the Wrong And there can be no reason why one Magistrate as well as another has not a Right to judg since that Right is founded in being a Magistrate which is common to them all And there can be no Reason for the Orthodox punishing Schismaticks Hereticks Mahometans Jews Pagans c. but what will equally oblige them as long as they believe themselves to be Orthodox to punish those that really are so Therefore the Defenders of any Persecution are guilty of encouraging and abetting all Persecution whatsoever even that under which themselves suffer since they can frame no Arguments to justify the using Force to promote the true Religion but what will equally serve in behalf of any Religion that 's believed to be true As we find the loose Harangues of Austin upon that Subject are urged by the Patrons of Persecution of what Sect or Denomination soever And since there can be no Argument to prosecute Error but what will be turned upon Truth it self let the Persecutors themselves judg whether it 's not better to leave all such disputable Points to the only just Judg than to take them into their own Hands who were they wholly ignorant in what part of the World their Station was to be would be glad there was no such thing as Persecution rather than run the risque of being persecuted themselves which shows that even they look on it in general as an ill thing and it 's better certainly that a particular Inconvenience supposing Toleration to be such should be permitted than such a Universal Mischief as Persecution is should prevail It 's said do as you would be done unto is not properly a Law to warrant the thing we are about but only a Rule to direct us what Measures we ought to observe in our acting with others when the thing it self is lawful Which granting to be true yet for a Man to judg which is the true Religion and act according to that Judgment all agree is not only lawful but a Duty because all agree themselves are obliged to act so and therefore if I desire this Liberty for my self I ought not to deny it to my Brother seeing he is a Man and I am no more and therefore no more infallible than he and for that reason can have no more Right to persecute him into my Opinion than he has to force me into his for between Equals there ought to be an equal Measure Now by Nature all Men are equal and have an equal and natural Right of serving God as they think best and no accidental Difference as to other Matters can deprive them of this Right In a word there can be no reason to deny the Obligation of this Rule in this Case but what will equally destroy it in any other But 6. Persecution destroys not only natural Equity and Justice but breaks all the Ties of Kindred Blood Gratitude Merit because let a Man be never so nearly related to one of persecuting Principles or have done him all the important Kindnesses imaginable or have never so much Merit be never so useful to the Publick or be never so exemplary in his Life and Conversation that will but the sooner expose him to suffer not only because People are apt to be influenced by such a one but because according to the Persecutor's Principles he is obliged to harass him sooner than another out of pure love to him it being the kindest thing he is capable of doing him So that without a Figure it may justly be said of all Persecutors that their very Mercies and Kindnesses are Cruelties But 7. This is not all this Doctrine of Compulsion annuls all Obligations of the most Sacred Oaths for if the Magistrate is obliged by God to use Force on his dissenting Subjects no Promises to indemnify them tho sworn to with the most solemn Oaths ought to be kept because all such Oaths are void from the beginning the Magistrate being under a prior Obligation to God which is not in his Power to dispense with to punish them which must make all Quarrels between the Magistrate and his dissenting Subjects immortal since there can be no Security given that they shall not be punished for their Religion when-ever it is in the Magistrate's Power and by the same Reason all Articles and Covenants that Towns or Countries make for Liberty of Conscience upon their submitting themselves are null and void and so are all the Promises which Popish Kings have made to their Protestant Subjects because they are obliged to punish Hereticks which they suppose Protestants to be and consequently cannot but think their Oaths unlawful And all our late Laws for Liberty of Conscience are in themselves void because he that has the Power of the Sword is required by God's Laws which no Human Ones can supersede to punish Dissenters from the true Church And if all these Obligations are void in themselves what Reason is there that those between Sovereign and Sovereign should be more firm when either of them judg the breaking them will tend to advance the Honour of God since as they cannot pretend to have so great a tenderness for the Right of Foreigners as of their own Subjects so they cannot but know that God is equally dishonoured by false Religions in one Place as in another And it 's but a poor Zeal for his Honour that looks no farther than such a Lake River or Mountain the usual Boundaries of Kingdoms which would be the way to set all Mankind together by the Ears But 8. Suppose it should not always have that Effect yet it must necessarily destroy all Trade and Commerce between Nations of different Perswasions for who would venture into a Foreign Nation except he were of the same Perswasion
with them if they were equally obliged to punish Men for false Religions or Doctrines as well as for Theft and Murder c which must necessarily discourage all Commerce and make Nations most inhospitable and barbarous And if Persecutors do not follow this Method it 's because they do not act according to their own Principles 9. Which root out all Mercy and take from the Magistrate all Power of pardoning any Crime whatever and from all private Persons the forgiving their Enemies For if the Magistrate is not to act as the Representative of the Civil Society only but also to punish Offences against God meerly as such tho he may forgive any Crime against himself or pardon the breach of his own Laws yet these being also Sins against God he is obliged upon God's Account to punish Men for the Breach of them as well as for Infidelity or Heresy And all private Persons tho they must forgive their Brethren not only seven but seven times seven yet the not punishing them by this Doctrine is wholly put out of their Power because it obliges them to shew their Zeal for God's Honour in getting the Magistrate to punish them who by injuring their Brethren offend against God 10. In a word this Doctrine of Force is directly contrary to the main Design of all God's Laws wherein Men are concerned one with another which is their mutual Good As for Instance The forbidding Murder is intended for the Security of Mens greatest Good their Lives which would be strangely defeated if the Supream Powers were to punish with Death those they judg do dishonour God with their false Worship because it would not fail to fill the World with Blood and Slaughter since the Governours of it are as opposite in their Judgments about these Matters as in the Fable the Man's two Wives were where his old one pluckt out his black Hairs and his young Wife his gray Ones But suppose the Supream Powers were not oblig'd to deprive People of their Lives but only of their Properties not to mention that even that would destroy great Numbers by robbing them of the Necessaries of Life the end of all those Laws which forbid all kinds of Injuries and require mutual Assistance one towards another for their common good would be in a manner destroyed since a great part of Mankind must be unavoidably miserable by being either at once or by degrees deprived of the means of subsisting happily and the rest would hold what they possess but by a precarious Tenure since it would depend on their Governours tho they had never so many successively or their own not changing their Opinions neither of which is in their Power to hinder whether they should enjoy any thing or not Therefore it shews the greatest Indiscretion in those who tho they have a share in the Legislature yet are subject to the Laws themselves to consent to any persecuting Ones because they cannot be sure but that they are contriving Rods for their own Backs or for their Childrens or near Relations and I believe there are few Persecutors for all their Zeal but would rather Speculative Points were wholly left to the merciful and wise Judgment of God than to have their own Families or Friends ruin'd about them But to return In vain are the Magistrates required not to tyrannize over and oppress their Subjects if they are to punish them for not being of the same Perswasion with them It had been much happier for Men in relation to their Temporal as well as Eternal Condition to be in a State of Nature than to let Tyrants deprive them of the Comforts of this Life for no other Reason than not daring to act contrary to their Consciences in things not relating to this Life And People where they oppress one the other when the Good of the Society cannot be pretended may justly be reckoned in a worse State than that of Nature viz. of War which is never at an end as long as there are Men who cannot comply with all those things that out of Ignorance Superstition Ambition c. are established as necessary to Church-Communion 11. In a word Can Men oppress ruin and kill for God's sake and destroy all moral Honesty on pretence of Religion which when it serves to no other end than to enflame the Tempers of Men and set a keener Edg on their Spirits and to make them ten times more the Children of Wrath and Cruelty than they are by Nature does surely lose its Nature and ceases to be Religion for let Men say worse of Infidelity and Atheism if they can But if on the contrary the ruining those that do nothing against the Welfare of the Society becomes an Act of Piety when it 's made use of to extirpate a false Religion or Opinion there are no Crimes whatever but by the same reason will become religious and vertuous Actions if they are equally serviceable to the same pious End scelera ipsa nef asque hâc mercede placent and consequently it would be an Act of Piety and Vertue to make use of pious Frauds to calumniate to lie to bear false Witness to murder to assassinate even the Magistrate himself 12. Thus whereas Religion has no other Design than the Advancement of Man's Happiness and God's Glory this persecuting Humour is so far from being serviceable to the former that it 's plainly destructive of it for whereas in order to that good End the Scripture has directed all Stations and Relations of Men so to act as may best tend to Love and peace the true Basis of the Happiness of the Society this drives them all to contrary Motions for Magistrates are incited to ruin those for whose Good they were instituted Subjects are tempted to disobey their Governours and retaliate Persecution so much the more fiercely by how much greater Influence their Opinions and Actions have upon the Community Nor does it only destroy the Peace of a Nation within its own Bowels but it engageth one Nation against another And 13. As it destroys all these Publick Obligations by the same reason all private Ones which are not so great as those owing to the Publick must cease so that it embroileth private Families subverts the mutual Duties between Parents and Children Husbands and Wives Masters and Servants c. seducing them into a belief that the way to be serviceable to one another's Eternal Interest is by being cruel to their Temporal and consequently the more Charity they owe one another the sooner they are to use one another ill Nor can there by any reason why the doing this of themselves is not as effectual to promote each others Eternal Happiness as the doing the very same at the command of the Magistrate who is every whit as fallible as they or why they need more to expect a Command to use Force than to give Advice if one as well as the other has a tendency to promote which is every ones Duty the Good
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