answer And yet God himself foretold and promised that Kings should be Nursing Fathers and Queens Nursing Mothers to his Church If we may judg of this Prophecy by what is past or present we shall have reason to think it concerns not our Days or if it does that God intended not that the Church should have many such Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers that were to nurse them up with moderate Penalties if those were to be the Swadling-Clouts of this Nursery Perhaps if you read that Chapter you will think you have little reason to build much on this Promise till the restoring of Israel And when you see the Gentiles bring Thy i. e. 〈◊〉 the stile of the Chapter seems to import the Sons of the Israelites Sons in their Arms and thy Daughters be carried upon their Shoulders as is promised in the immediately preceding Words you may conclude that then Kings shall be thy i. e. Israels Nursing Fathers and Queens thy Nursing Mothers This seems to me to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by that Prophecy and I guess to a great many others upon an attentive reading that Chapter in Isaiah And to all such this Text will do you little Service till you make out the meaning of it better than by barely quoting of it which will scarce ever prove that God hath promised that so many Princes shall be Friends to the true Religion that it will be better for the true Religion that Princes should use Force for the imposing or propagating of their Religions than not For unless it prove that it answers not the Author's Argument as an indifferent Reader must needs see For he says not Truth never but she seldom 〈◊〉 received and he fears never will receive not any but much assistance from the Power of Great Men to whom she is BVT RARELY KNOWN and more RARELY WELCOME And therefore to this of Isaiah pray join that of St. Paul to the Corinthians Not many wise not many mighty not many noble But supposing many Kings were to be Nursing Fathers to the Church and that this Prophecy were to be fulfilled in this Age and the Church were now to be their Nursery 'T is I think more proper to understand this figurative Promise that their Pains and Discipline was to be imploy'd on these in the Church and that they should feed and cherish them rather than that these Words meant that they should whip those that were out of it And therefore this Text will I suppose upon a just consideration of it signify very little against the known matter of Fact which the Author urges Unless you can find a Country where the Cudgel and the Scourge are more the Badges and Instruments of a good Nurse than the Breast and the 〈◊〉 and that she is counted a good Nurse of her own Child who 〈◊〉 her self in whiping Children not hers 〈◊〉 belonging to her Nursery The 〈◊〉 which give you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hope for any advantage from the Authors Toleration which almost all but the Church of England injoy'd in the Times of the Blessed Reformation as it was called you tell us were Sects and Heresies Here your Zeal hangs a little in your Light It is not the Author's Toleration which here you accuse That you know is universal And the universality of it is that which a little before you wondred at and complained of Had it been the Author's Toleration it could not have been almost all but the Church of England but it had been the Church of England and all others But let us take it that Sects and 〈◊〉 were or will be the Fruits of a free Toleration i. e. 〈◊〉 are divided in their opinions and ways of Worship Differences in ways of Worship wherein there is nothing mixed inconsistent with the true Religion will not hinder Men from Salvation who sincerely follow the best Light they have which they are as likely to do under Toleration as Force And as for 〈◊〉 of Opinions speculative Opinions in Religion I think I may safely say that there are 〈◊〉 any where three considering Men for 't is want of Consideration you would punish who are in their Opinions throughout of the same Mind Thus far then if Charity be preserved which it is likelier to be where there is Toleration than where there is Persecution though without Uniformity I see no great reason to complain of those ill Fruits of Toleration But Men will run as they did in the late Times into dangerous and destructive Errors and extravagant ways of Worship As to Errors in Opinion If Men upon Toleration be so apt to vary in Opinions and run so wide one from another 't is evident they are not so averse to thinking as you complain For 't is hard for Men not under Force to quit one Opinion and imbrace another without thinking of them But if there be danger of that It is most likely the National Religion should sweep and draw to its self the loose and unthinking part of Men who without Thought as well as without any contest with their corrupt Nature may imbrace the Profession of the countenanced Religion and join in outward Communion with the great and ruling Men of the Nation For he that troubles not his Head at all about Religion what other can so well suit 〈◊〉 as the National with which the Cry and Preferments go And where it being as you say presumable that he makes that his Profession upon Conviction and that he is in earnest he is sure to be Orthodox without the pains of examining and has the Law and Government on his side to make it good that he is in the right But Seducers if they be tolerated will be ready at hand and diligent and Men will hearken to them Seducers surely have no Force on their side to make People hearken And if this be so there is a Remedy at hand 〈◊〉 than Force if you and your Friends will use it which cannot but prevail And that is let the Ministers of Truth be as diligent And they bringing Truth with them Truth obvious and easy to be understand as you say what is necessary to Salvation is cannot but prevail But Seducers are hearken'd to because they teach Opinions favourable to Mens Lusts. Let the Magistrate as is his Duty hinder the Practises which their Lusts would carry them to and the Advantage will be still on the side of Truth After all Sir If as the Apostle tells the Corinthians 1 Cor. 12. 19. There must be Heresies amongst you that they which are approved may be made manifest which I beseech you is best for the Salvation of Mens Souls that they should enquire hear examine consider and then have the Liberty to profess what they are perswaded of or that having consider'd they should be forced not to own nor follow their Perswasions or else that being of the National Religion they should go ignorantly on without any Consideration at all In one case if your Penalties
inconsiâ—…tent incredible Legend They will not practise the Rules of Religion and therefore they cannot believe the Doctrines of it The ingenious Author will pardon me the change of one word which I doubt not but 〈◊〉 his Opinion though it did not so well that Argument he was then on You grant the true Religion has always Light and Strength to prevail 〈◊〉 Religions have neither Take away the satisfaction of Men Lusts and which then I pray hath the advantage Will Men against the Light of their Reason do violence to their Understandings and for sake Truth and Salvation too gratis You tell us here No Religion but the true requires of Men the difficult Task of mortifying their Lust s. This being granted you what Service will this do you to prove a necessity of Force to punish all Disseuters in England Do none of their Religions require the mortisying of Lusts as well as yours And now let us consider your Instance whereon you build so much that we hear of it over and over again For you tell us Idolatry 〈◊〉 but yet not by the help of Force as has been sufficiently 〈◊〉 And again That Truth left to shift for her self will not 〈◊〉 well enough has been sufficiently 〈◊〉 What you have done to shew this is to be seen where you tell us Within how few Generations after the â—…ood the Worship of False Gods prevail'd against the Religion which Noah professed and taught his Children which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true Religion almost to the â—…tter exclusion of it though that at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the only Religion in the World without any Aid from â—…orce or the Assistance of the Powers in being for any thing we find in the History of those Times as we may reasonably believe considering that it found an entrance into the World and entertainment in it when it could have no such Aid or Assistance Of which besides the Corruption of Humane Nature you suppose there can no other Cause be assigned or none more probable than this that the Powers then in being did not do what they might and ought to have done towards the preventing or checking that horrible Apostacy Here you tell us that the Worship of False Gods within a very few Generations after the Flood prevail'd against the true Religion almost to the â—…tter exclusion of it This you say indeed but without any Proofs and unless that be shewing you have not as you pretend any way shewn it Out of what Records I beseech you have youâ—… that the true Religion was almost wholly extirpated out of the Woâ—…ld within a few Generations after the Flood The Scripture the largest History we have of those Times says 〈◊〉 of it nor does as I remember mention any as guilty of Idolatry within 2 or 300 Years after the Flood In Canaan it self I do not think that you can out of any credible History 〈◊〉 tâ—…at thâ—…re was any Idolatry within ten or twelve Generations after Noah much less that it had so overspread the World and extirpated the true Religion out of that part of it where the Scene lay of those Actions recorded in the History of the Bible In Abraham's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was King of 〈◊〉 was also the Priest of the most High God We read that God with an immediate Hand punish'd miraculously first 〈◊〉 at the Confusion of Babel and afterward Sodom and four other Cities but in neither of these Places is there any the leâ—…st mention of Idolatry by which they provoked God and drew down Vengeance on themselves So that truly you have shewn nothing at all and what the Scripture shews is against you For besides that it is plain bâ—… Melchisedeck the King of Saleâ—… and Priest of the most High God to whom Abraham paid Tithes that all the Land of Canaan was not yet overspread with Idolatry though afterwards in the Time of 〈◊〉 by the forsciture was therefore made of it to the Israelites one may have reason to suspect it were more desiled with it than any part of the World Besides Salem I say he that reads the Story of Abimelech will have reason to think that he also and his Kingdom though Philistines were not then infected with Idolatry You think they and almost all Mankind were Idolaters but you may be mistaken and that which may serve to shew it is the Example of Elijah the Prophet who was at least as infallible a Guesser as you and was as well instructed in the State and History of his own Country and Time as you can be in the State of the whole World 3 or 4000 Years ago Elijah thought that Idolatry had wholly extirpated the true Religion out of Israel and complains thus to God The Children of Israel have for saken thy Covenant thrown down thy Altars and stain thy Prophets with the Sword and I even I alone am left and they seek my Life to take it away And he is so fully perswaded of it that he repeats it again and yet God tells him that he had there yet 7000 Knees that had not bowed to Baal 7000 that were not Idolaters though this was in the Reign of Ahab a King zealous for Idolatry and in a Kingdom set up in an Idolatrous Worship which had continued the National Religion established and promoted by the continued Succession of several Idolatrous Princes And though the National Religions soon after the Flood were false which you are far enough from proving how does it thence follow that the true Religion was near extirpated which it must needs quite have been before St. Peter's time if there were so great reason to fear as you tell us That the true Religion without the assistance of Force would in a much shorter time than any one that does not well consider the matter would imagine be most effectually extirpated throughout the World For above 2000 Years after Noah's time St. Peter tells us That in every Nation he that search God and worketh 〈◊〉 is accepted by him By which Words and by the occaâ—…ion on which they were spoken it is manifest that in Countries where for 2000 Years together no Force had been used for the support of Noah's true Religion it was not yet wholly 〈◊〉 But that you may not think it was so near that there was but one left only Cornelius if you will look into Acts XVII 4. you will find a great Multitude of them at Thessalonica And of the devoâ—…t Greeks a great Multitude believed and consorted with Paul and Silas And again more of them in Aâ—…ens a City wholly given to Idolâ—…try For that those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate devout and whereof many are mentioned in the Acts were Genâ—…iles who worshipped the true God and kept the Precepts of Noâ—… Mr. Mede has abundantly proved So that what â—…ever you â—…ho have well considered the matter may imagine of the shortness of time wherein Noah's Religion would be effectually extirpated
throughout the World without the assistance of Force we find it at Athens at Philippi at 〈◊〉 amongst the Româ—…ns in Antioch of Pisidia in Thâ—…ssalonica above 2000 Years after and that not so near being extinguish'd but that in some of those Places the Professors of it were numerous at Thessalonica they are call'd a great Multitude at 〈◊〉 many and how many of them there were in other parts of the World whereof there was no occasion to make mention in that short History of the 〈◊〉 of the Apostles who knows If they answered in other Places to what were found in these as â—…hat reason is there to suppose they should not I think we may imagine them to be as many as there were effectually of the true Religion Christians in Europe a little before the Reformation not withstanding the assistance the 〈◊〉 Religion had from Authority after the withdrawing of Miraâ—…les But you have a Salvo for you write warily and endeavour to save your self on all handâ—… you say There is great reason to fear that without God's EXTRAORDINARY PROVIDENCE it would in a much shorter time than any one who does not well consider the matter would imagine be most 〈◊〉 extirpated by it throughout the World 'T is without doubt the Provideâ—…ce of God which governs the Aâ—…airs both of the World and his Church and to that whether you call it Ordinary or Extraordinary you may trust the Preservation of his Church without the use of such Means as he has no where appointed or authorized You fancy Force necessary to preserve the True Religion and hence you conclude the Magistrate authorized without any farther Commission from God to use it if there be no other Means left and therefore that must be used If Religion should be preserved without it it is by the Extraordinary Providence of God where Extraordinary signiâ—…cs nothing but begging the thing in question The true Religion has been preserved many Ages in the Church without Force Ay say you that was by the Extraordinary Providâ—…ce of God His Providence which over-rules all Events we eaâ—…ly grant it But why Extraordinary Providence because Force was 〈◊〉 to preserve it And why was Force 〈◊〉 because otherwise without Extraordinary Providence it cannot be preserv'd In such Circles covered under good Words but misapplied one might shew you taking many a Turn in your answer if it were â—…it to waste others time to trace your Wanderings God has appointed Preaching Teaching Perswaâ—…on Instruction as a means to continue and propagate his true Religion in the World and if it were any where preserved and propagated without that we might call it his Extraordinary Providence but the means he has appointed being used we may conclude that Men have done their Duties and so may leave it to his Providence however we will call it to preserve the little Flock which he bids not to fear to the end of the World But let us return again to what you say to make good this Hypothesis of yours That Idolatry entred first into the World by the Contrivance and spread it self by the Endeavours of private Men without the Assistance of the Magistrates and those in Power To prove this you tell us That it found Entrance into the World and Entertaâ—…nment in it when it could have no such Aid or Assistance When was this I bâ—…eech you that Idolatry found this Entrance into the World Under what King's Reign was it that you are so positive it could have no such Aid or Assistance If you had named the time the thing though of no great momâ—…nt to you had been sure But now we may very justly question this bare Assertion of yours For since we find as far back as we have any History of it that the great Men of the World were always forward to set up and promote Idolatry and False Religions you ought to have given us some reason why without Authority from History you aâ—…irm that Idolatry at its entrance into the World had not that Assistance from Men in Power which it never fail'd of afterwards Who they were that made Israel to sin the Scripture tells us Their Kings were so zealous Promoters of Idolatry that there is 〈◊〉 one of them that has not that Brand left upon him in holy Writ One of the first False Religions whose rise and way of propagating we have an account of in Sacred History was by an ambitious Usurper who having rebell'd against his Master with a False Title set up a False Religion to secure his Power and Dominion Why this might not have been done before Jeroboam's days and Idols set up at other places as well as at Dan and Bethel to serve politick Ends will need some other Proof than barely saying it could not be so at first The Devil unless much more ignorant was not less busy in those days to engage Princes in his favour and to weave Religion into Affairs of State the better to introduce his Worship and support Idolatry by accommodating it to the Ambition Vanity or Superstition of Men in Power and therefore you may as well say that the Corruption of humane Nature as that the Assistance of the Powers in being did not in those days help forward False Religions because your Reading has furnish'd you with no particular mention of it out of History But you need but say that the Worship of False Gods prevail'd without any aid from Force or the assistance of the Powers in being for any thing we find in the History of those times and then you have sufficiently 〈◊〉 what even that you have just nothing to shew for your Assertion But whatever that any thing is which you find in History you may meet with Men whose reading yet I will not compare with yours who think they have found in History that Princes and those in Power first corrupted the True Religion by setting up the Images and Symbols of their Predecessors in their Temples which by their Influence and the ready Obedience of the Priests they appointed were in succession of Time propos'd to the People as Objects of their Worship Thus they think they find in History that 〈◊〉 Queen of Egypt with her Counsellor Thoth instituted the Funeral-Rites of King Osirâ—… by the Honour done to the sacred Ox. They think they find also in History that the â—…ame Thoth who was also King of Egypt in his turn invented the Figures of the first Egyptian Gods Saturn Dagon Jupiter Hammon and the rest that is the Figures of their Statues or Idols and that he instituted the Worship and Sacrifices of these Gods And his Institutions were so well assisted by thâ—…se in Authority and observed by the 〈◊〉 they set up that the Worship of those Gods soon became the Religion of that and a Pattern to other Nations And here we may perhaps with good reason place the rise and original of Idolatry after the Flood there being nothing of this kind more ancient So
the Atheists as you call them who do so give the People up in every Country to the coactive Force of the Magistrate to be employed for the assisting the Minisâ—… of his Religion And King Lewis of good right comes in with his Dragoons for 't is not much doubted that he as strongly believed his Popish Priests and Jesuits to be the Ministry which our Lord appointed as either King Charles or King James the 2d believed that of the Church of England to be so And of what use such an exercise of the coactive Power of all Magistrates is to the People or to the true Religion you are concerned to shew But 't is you know but to tell me I only trifâ—…e and this is all answered What in other places you tell us is to make Men hear consider study imbrace and bring Men to the true Religion you here do very well to tell us is to assist the Ministry and to that 't is true common Experience discovers the Magistrate's coactive Force to be useful and necessary viz. to those who taking the Reward but not over-busying themselves in the care of Souls find it for their Ease that the Magistrates coactive Power should supply their want of Pastoral Care and be made use of to bring those into an outward Consormity to the National Church whom either for want of Ability they cannot or want of due and friendly Application join'd with an exemplary Life they never so much as endeavoured to prevail on heartily to embrace it That there may be such Neglects in the best-constituted National Church in the World the Complaints of a very knowing Bishop of our Church in a late Discourse of the PASTORAL CARE is too plain an Evidence Without so great an Authority I should scarce have ventured though it lay just in my way to have taken notice of what is so visible that it is in every one's Mouth for fear you should have told me again that I made my self an occasion to shew my Good-will toward the Clergy For you will not I suppose suspect that eminent Prelate to have any Ill-will to them If this were not so that some were negligent I imagine the Preachers of the True Religion which lies as you tell us so obvious and exposed as to be easily distinguish'd from the False would need or desire no other Assistance from the Magistrates coactive Power but what should be directed against the Irregularity of Mens Lives their Lusts being that alone as you tell us that makes Force necessary to assist the true Religion which were it not for our depraved Nature would by its Light and Reasonableness have the advantage against all salâ—…e Religions You tell us too That the Magistrate may impose Creeds and Ceremonies indeed you say sound Creeds and decent Ceremonies but that helps not your Cause for who must be Judg of that sound and that decent If the Imposer then those Words signify nothing at all but that the Magistrate may impose those Creeds and Ceremonies which he thinks sound and decent which is in effect such as he thinks â—…t Indeed you telling us a little above in the same page that it is a Vice not to worship God in Ways prescribed by those to whom God has left the ordering of such Matters you seem to make other Judges of what is sound and decent and the Magistrate but the Executor of their Decrees with the Assistance of his coactive Power A pretty Foundation to establish Creeds and Ceremonies on that God has lest the ordering of them to those who cannot impose them and the imposing of them to those who cannot order them But still the same Difficulty returns for after they have prescribed must the Magistrate judg them to be sound and decent or must he impose them though he judg them not sound or decent If he must judg them so himself we are but where we were if he must impose them when prescribed though he judg them not sound nor decent 't is a pretty sort of Drudgery is put on the Magistrate And how far is this short of implicite Faith But if he must not judg what is sound and decent he must judg at least who are those to whom God has left the ordering of such Matters and then the King of France is ready again with his Dragoons for the sound Doctrine and decent Ceremonies of his Prescribers in the Council of Trent and that upon this ground with as good right as any other has for the Prescriptions of any others Do not mistake me again Sir I do not say he judges as right but I do say that whilst he judges the Council of Trent or the Clergy of Rome to be those to whom God has left the ordering of those Matters he has as much right to follow their Decrees as any other to sollow the Judgment of any other Set of mortal Men whom he believes to be so But whoever is to be Judg of what is sound or decent in the case I ask Of what Vse and Necessity is it to impose Creeds and Ceremonies for that Vse and Necâ—…ssuy iâ—… all the Commission you can sind the Magistrate hath to use his coactive Power to impose them 1. Of what Use and Necessity is it among Christians that own the Scripture to be the Word of God and Rule os Faith to make and impose a Creed What Commission for this hath the Magistrate from the Law of Nature God hath given a Revelation that contains in it all things necessary to Salvation and of this his People are all perswadâ—…d What Necessity now is there How does their Good require it that the Magistrate should single out as he thinks sit any number of those Truths as more necessary to Salvation than the rest if God himself has not done it 2. But next are these Creeds in the Words of the Scripture or not If they are they are certainly sound as containing nothing but Truth in them and so they were before as they lay in the Scripture But thus though they contain nothing but sound Truths yet they may be imperfect and so unsound Rules of Faith since they may require more or less than God requires to be believed as necessary to Salvation For what greater necessity I pray is there that a Man should believe that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate than that he was born at Bethlehem of Judah Both are certainly true and no Christian doubts of either But how comes one to be made an Article of Faith and imposed by the Magistrate as necessary to Salvation for otherwise there can be no necessity of Imposition and the other not Do not mistake me here as if I would lay by that Summary of the Christian Religion which is contained in that which is called the Apostles Creed which though no body who examines the Matter will have reason to conclude of the Apostles compiling yet is certainly of reverend Antiquity and ought still to be preserved in
understand me to say that he sins in doing it and lays himself open to divine Vengeance by it And can he be encouraged to this by hearing what others may gain by what without Repentance must cost him so dear Here your Men of Art will do well to be at hand again For it may be seasonable for you to appeal to them whether the nature of your Discourse will allow you to descend to shew ` the Magistrate the bounds of his Authority and warn him of ` the Injury he does if he misapplies his Power You say the Question there debated is Whether the Magistrate has any Right or Authority to use Force for promoting the True Religion which plainly supposes the Vnlawfulness and Injustice of using Force to promote a 〈◊〉 Religion as granted on both sides Neither is that the Question in debate nor if it were does it suppose what you pretend But the Question in debate is as you put it Whether any body has a Right to use Force in Matters of Religion You say indeed The Magistrate has to bring Men to the True Religion If thereupon you think the Magistrate has none to bring Men to a false Religion whatever your Men of Art may think 't is probable other Men would not have thought it to have been besides the nature of your Discourse to have warn'd the Magistrate that he should consider well and impartially examine the Grounds of his Religion before he use any Force to bring Men to it This is of such moment to Mens temporal and eternal Interests that it might well deserve some particular 〈◊〉 addressed to the Magistrate who might as much need to be put in mind of impartial Examination as other People And it might whatever your Men of Art may allow be justly expected from you who think it no Derivation from the Rules of Art to tell the Subjects that they must submit to the Penalties laid on them or else fall under the Sword of the Magistrate which how true soever will hardly by any body be sound to be much more to your purpose in this Discourse than it would have been to have told the Magistrate of what ill consequence it would be to him and his People if he misused his Power and warn'd him to be cautious in the Use of it But not a word that way Nay even where you mention the account he shall give for so doing it is still to satisfy the Subjects that they are well provided for and not left unfurnish'd of the Means of Salvation by the right God has put into the Magistrate's hands to use his Power to bring them to the True Religion and therefore they ought to be well content because if the Magistrate misapply it the Great Judg will punish him for it Look Sir and see whether what you say any where of the Magistrate's misuse of his Power have any other Tendency And then I appeal to the sober Reader whether if you had been as much concern'd for the Bounding as for the Exercise of Force in the Magistrates hands you would not have spoke of it 〈◊〉 another manner The next thing you say is that the Question being Whether the Magistrate has any Right to use Force to bring Men to the True Religion supposes the Vnlawfulness of using Force to promote a False Religion as granted on both sides which is so far from true that I suppose quite the contrary viz. That if the Magistrate has a Right to use Force to promote the True he must have a Right to use Force to promote his own Religion and that for Reasons I have given you elsewhere But the Supposition of a Supposition serves to excuse you from speaking any thing directly of setting Bounds to the Magistrate's Power or telling him his Duty in that point though you are very frequent in mentioning the Obligation he is under that Men should not want the Assistance of his Force and how answerable he is if any body miscarry for want of it though there be not the least Whisper of any care to be taken that no body be 〈◊〉 by it And now I recollect my self I think your Method would not allow it For if you should have put the Magistrate upon Examining it would have suppos'd him as liable to Error as other Men whereas to secure the Magistrate's acting right upon your Foundation of never using Force but for the True Religion I see no help for it but either he or you who are to licence him must be got past the State of Examination into that of certain Knowledg and Infallibility Indeed as you say you tell the Magistrate that the Power you ascribe to him in reference to Religion is given him to bring Men not to his own but to the True Religion But do you put him upon a severe and impartial Examination Which amongst the many False is the one only True Religion he must use Force to bring his Subjects to that he may not mistake and misapply his Power in a Business of that Consequence Not a Syllable of this Do you then tell him which it is he must take without Examination and promote with Force whether that of England France or Denmark This methinks is as much as the Pope with all his Infallibility could require of Princes And yet what is it less than this you do when you suppose the Religion of the Church of England to be the only True and upon this your Supposition tell the Magistrate it is his Duty by Force to bring Men to it without ever putting him upon Examining or suffering him or any body else to question whether it be the only True Religion or no For if you will stick to what you in another place say That it is enough to suppose that there is one True Religion and but one and that that Religion may be known by those who profess it What Authority will this Knowableness of the True Religion give to the King of England more than to the King of France to use Force if he does not actually know the Religion he professes to be the True or to the Magistrate more than the Subject if he has not examin'd the Grounds of his Religion But if He believes you when you tell him your Religion is the True all is well he has Authority enough to use Force and he need not examine any farther If this were not the case why you should not be careful to prepare a little Advice to make the Magistrate examine as well as you are sollicitous to provide Force to make the Subject examine will require the Skill of a Man of Art to discover Whether you are not of the Number of those Men I there mention'd for that there have been such Men in the World Instances might be given one may doubt srom your Principles For if upon a Supposition that yours is the True Religion you can give Authority to the Magistrate to 〈◊〉 Penalties on all his Subjects that
your turn to begin with Warnings and Threats of Penalties to be inflicted on those who do not reâ—…orm but continue to do that which you think they fail in To allow of Impunity to the Innocent or the Opportunity of Amendment to those who would avoid the Penalties are Formalities not worth your Notice You are for a shorter and surer Way Take a whole Tribe and punish them at all Adventures whether guilty or no of the Miscariage which you would have amended or without so much as telling them what it is you would have them do but leaving them to find it out if they can All these Absurdities are contained in your Way of proceding And are impossible to be avoided by any one who will punish Dissenters and only Dissenters to make them consider and weigh the Grounds of their Religion and impartially examine whether it be true or no and upon what Grounds they took it up that so they may find and 〈◊〉 ace the 〈◊〉 that must save them These Absurdities I fear must be remov'd before any Magistrates will find your Method practicable I having said Your Method is not altogether unlike the Plea made use of to excuse the late barbarous usage of the Protestants in France from being a Persecution for Religion viz. That it was not a Punishment for Religion but for disobeying the King's Laws which requir'd them to come to Mass So by your Rule Diâ—…enters must be punish'd not for the Religion they have imbraced and the Religion they have rejected In answer to this in the next Paragraph you take abundance of pains to prove that the King of France's Laws that require going to Mass are no Laws You were best to say so on the other side of the Water 'T is sure the Punishments were Punishments and the Dragooning was Dragooning And if you think that Plea excus'd them not I am of your Mind But nevertheless am of Opinion as I was that it will prove as good a Plea as yours Which is what you argue against in your next Paragraph in the Words following wherein you examine the likeness of your new Method to this plea. You tell me I say by your Rule the Diâ—…enters ' from the true Religion for you speak of no other must be punish'd or if I please subjected to moderate Penaltics such as shall make them uneasy but â—…uber destroy or undo them For what Indeed I thought by your 〈◊〉 Book you meant not for their Religion but to make them consider but here you ask me where it is you say that Dissenters from the true Religion are not to be punish'd for their Religion ` So then it seems in your Opinion now Dissenters from the true Religion are to be punish'd or as you are pleased to mollify the Expression for the thing is the same subjected to moderate Penalties for their Religion I think I shall not need to prove to any one but one of your nice Stile that the Execution of Penal Laws let the Penalties be great or small are Punishments If therefore the Religion of Dissenters from the true be a Fault to be punish'd by the Magistrate Who is to judg who are guilty of that Fault Must it be the Ma istrate every-where or the Magisrate in some Countries and not in others or the Magistrate no-where If the Magistrate no-where is to be judg who are Dissenters from the true Religion he can no-where punish them If he be to be every-where Judg then the King of France or the Great Turk must punish those whom they judg Dissenters from the true Religion as well as other Potentates If some Magistrates have a right to judg and others not That yet I fear how absurd soever it be should I grant it will not do your business For besides that They will hardly agree to make you their infallible Umpire in the case to determine who of them have and who have not this right to judg which is the True Religion or if they should and you should declare the King of England had that Right viz. whilst he complied to support the Orthodoxy Ecclesiastical Polity and those Ceremonies which you approve of But that the King of France and the Great Turk had it not and so could have no right to use Force on those they judg'd Dissenters from the true Religion You ought to bethink your self what you will reply to one that should use your own Words If such a degree of outward Force as has been mentioned be really of great and even necessary use for the advancing of the True Religion and Salvation of Souls then it must be acknowledg'd that in France and Turky c. there is a right somewhere to use it for the advancing those ends unless we will say what without Impiety cannot be said that the wise and benign Disposer and Governour of all things has not in France and Turky furnish'd Mankind with competent Means for the promoting his own Honour and the good of Souls You go on and tell us they are to be punish'd not for following the Light of their own Reason nor for obeying the Dictates of their own Conâ—…lences but rather for the contrary For the Light of their own Reason and the Dictates of their own Conscience if their Reason and their Consciences were not perverted and abused would undoubtedly lead them to the same thing to which the Method you speak of is designed to bring them i. e. to the same thing to which your Reason and your Conscience leads you For if you were to argue with a Papist or a Presbyterian in the case What privilege have you to tell him that his Reason and Conscience is perverted more than he has to tell you that yours is so Unless it be this insupportable Presumption that your Reason and Conscience ought to be the Measure of all Reason and Conscience in all others which how you can claim without pretending to Infallibility is not easy to discern The Diversion you give your self about the likeness and unlikeness of those two Pleas I shall not trouble my self with since when your Fit of Mirth was over you were forced to confess That as I have made your Plea for you you think there is no considerable difference as to the Fairness of them excepting what arises from the different degrees of Punishment in the French Discipline and your Method But if the French Plea be not true and that which I make to be yours be not yours I must beg your pardon Sir I did not think it was your Opinion nor do I yet remember that you any where said in your A. c. that Men were to be punish'd for their Religion but that it was purely to make Men examine the Religion they had imbraced and the Religion that they had rejected And if that were of moment I should think my self sufficiently justified for this my Mistake by what you say in your Argument c. from p. 6 to 12.
True Religion a Pault to be punish'd by the Magistrate puts an end to your Pretence to moderate Punishments which in this place you make use of to distinguish yours from the French Method saying That your Method punishes Men with Punishments which do not deserve to be called so when compared with those of the French Discipline But if the Dissenting from the True Religion be a Fault that the Magistrate is to punish and a Fault of that consequence that it draws with it the loss of a Man's Soul I do not see how other Magistrates whose Duty it is to punish Faults under his Cognizance and by punishing to amend them can be more remiss than the King of France has been and foâ—…bear declaring that they will have all their People saved and endeavour by such Ways as he has done to effect it Especially since you tell us That God now leaves Religion to the Care of Men under his ordinary Providence to try whether they will do their Duties in their several Capacities or not leaving them answerable for all that may follow from their Neglect In the correcting of Faults Malo nodo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not only what is justifiable but what is requisite But of this more fully in another place In the next place I do not see how by your Method as you explain it here the Magistrate can punish any one for not being of the True Religion though we should grant him to have a Power to do it whilst you tell us That your Method punishes Men for rejecting the True Religion propos'd to them with sufficient Evidence which certainly is a Fault By this Part of your Scheme it is plain that you allow the Magistrate to punish none but those to whom the True Religion is propos'd with sufficient Evidence And sufficient Evidence you tell us is such as will certainly win 〈◊〉 where-ever it is duty consider'd Now by this Rule there will be very few that the Magistrate will have right to punish since he cannot know whether those who dissent do it for want of due Consideration in them or want of sufficient Evidence in what is proposed unless you mean by due Consideration such Consideration that always does bring Men actually to 〈◊〉 which is in effect to say nothing at all For then your Rule amounts to thus much That sufficient Evidence is such as will certainly win Assent where-ever it is consider'd duly i. e. so as to win Assent This being like some of those other Rules we have met with and ending in a Circle Which after you have traced you at last sind your self just where you were at setting out I leave it to you to own as you think sit And tell you if by duly considering you mean considering to his utmost that then that which is propos'd to one with sufficient Evidence to win Assent may not be so to another There are Propositions extant in Geometry with their Demonstrations annexed and that with such sufficient Evidence to some Men of deep Thought and Penetration as to make them see the Demonstration and give Assent to the Truth Whilst there are many others and those no Noâ—…ices in Mathematicks who with all the Consideration and Attention they can use are never able to attain unto it 'T is so in other Parts of Truth That which hath Evidence enough to make one Man certain has not enough to make another so much as guess it to be true though he has spared no Endcavour or Application in examining it And therefore if the Magistrate be to punish none but those who reject the True Religion when it has been offer'd with sufficient Evidence I imagine he will not have many to punish if he will as he ought distinguish between the Innocent and the Guilty Upon your Forwardness to encourage the Magistrate's use of Force in Matters of Religion by its Usefulness even so far as to pretend Advantages from what your self acknowledge the Misapplication of it I say that So instead of 〈◊〉 from you give Encouragement to the Mischief which upon your Principle join'd to the natural Thirst in Man after Arbitrary Power may be carried to all manner of Exorbitancy with some Pretence of Right To which your Reply is That you speak on-where but of the Use and Necessity of Force What think you in the place mention'd of the Gain that you tell the Sufferers they shall make by the Magistrate's punishing them to bring them to a wrong Religion You do not as I remember there say that Force is necessary in that case Though they gaining as you say by it this Advantage that they know better than they did before where the Truth does 〈◊〉 You cannot but allow that such a Misapplication of Force may do some Service indirectly and at a distance towards the Salvation of Souls But that you may not think whilst I had under Consideration the dangerous Encouragement you gave to Men in Power to be very busy with their Force in Matters of Religion by all the â—…orts of Usefulness you could imagine of it however apply'd right or wrong that I declin'd mentioning the Necessity you pretend of Force because it would not as well serve to the purpose for which I mention its Usefulness I shall here take it so that the Reader may see what reason you had to complain of my not doing it before Thus then stands your System The procuring and advancing any way of the spiritual and eternal Interests of Men is one of the Ends of Civil Society And Force is put into the Magistrate's hands as necessary for the attaining those Ends where no other Means are left Who then upon your Grounds may quickly find Reason where it â—…utes his Inclination or serves his Turn to punish Men directly to bring them to his Religion For if he may use Force because it is necessary as being the only Means left to make Men consider those Reasons and Arguments which otherwise they would not consider Why may he not by the same Rule use Force as the only Means left to make Men degrees of G'ory which otherwise they would not attain and so to advance their eternal Interests For St. Paul 〈◊〉 us that the 〈◊〉 of this Life work for us a far more exceâ—…ding weight of Glory So that whether the Magistrate may not when it may serve his turn argue thus from your Principles judg you Dissenters from my Religion must be punish'd if in the wrong to bring them into the right Way if in the right to make them by their Sufferings Gainers of a far more exceeding weight of Glory But you say Unless it be as necessary for Men to attain any greater degree of Glory as it is to attain Glory it will not follow that if the Magistrate may use Force because it may be indirectly c. useful towards the procuring any degree of Glory he may by the same Rule use it where it may be in that manner