laws of order and sobriety Religion sanctifies all their passions anger malice and bitterness are holy fervors in the Cause of God This cancels and dispenses with all the obligations of sobriety And what has prudence to do with Religion this is too hot and eager to be tyed up to its flat and dull formalities Zeal for the Glory of God will both excuse and justifie any Enormity There can be no Faction or Rebellion in carrying on the Interests of the Godly Party and the great work of a thorough Reformation must not be trusted to the care of carnal and lukewarm Politicians And by these and the like pretences do they easily destroy the reverence of all things Sacred and Civil to propagate any wild Propositions are arm'd with Religion and led on by the Spirit of God to disturb the Publick Peace kill Kings and overthrow Kingdoms And this has ever been the bane and reproach of Religion in all times and places and there is scarce a Nation in the world that has not felt the miseries and confusions of an Holy War and the Annals of all Ages are full of sad Stories to this purpose § 5. And therefore to exempt Religion and the Consciences of men from the Authority of the Supreme Power is but to expose the peace of Kingdoms to every wild and Fanatick Pretender who may when ever he pleases under pretences of Reformation thwart and unsettle Government without controul seeing no one can have any power to restrain the perswasions of his Conscience And Religion will be so far from being at liberty from the Authority of the Civil Power that nothing in the world will be found to require more of its care and Influence because there is not any other Vice to which the vulgar sort of men are more prone than to Superstition or debauched conceptions concerning God and his Worship nor any that more inclines them to an unruly and seditious temper It inflames their crazy heads with a Furious and Sectarian Zeal and adopts their rankest and most untoward passions into the Duties of Religion And when passion becomes Holy then it can never be exorbitant but the more furious and ungovernable it is so much the more vehement is their zeal for the Glory of God and they that are most peevish and refractory are upon that account the most godly And then all passion and stubbornness in Religious Quarrels must be christned Zeal all Zeal must be sacred and nothing that is sacred can be excessive And now when men act furiously upon these mistakes as all that are possessed with them must what can the issue be but eternal Miseries and Confusions Every Opinion must make a Sect and every Sect a Faction and every Faction when it is able a War and every War is the Cause of God and the Cause of God can never be prosecuted with too much violence And then all sobriety is lukewarmness to be obedient to Government carnal Complyance and not to proceed to Rebellion for carrying on the great work of a thorough Reformation is to want Zeal for the Glory of God And thus are their Vices sanctified by their Consciences malice folly and madness are ever the prevailing ingredients of their superstitious Zeal and Religion only obliges them to be more sturdy and impudent against the Laws of Government and they are now encouraged to cherish those passions in spight of Authority from which the severity of Laws might effectually have restrain'd them were it not for the cross obligations of an untoward Conscience § 6. And for this reason is it that 't is found so nice and difficult a thing to govern men in their perswasions about Religion beyond all the other affairs and transactions of humane life because erroneous Consciences are bold and confident enough to outface Authority whereas persons of debauch'd and scandalous lives being condemn'd by their own Consciences as well as the publick Laws can have nothing to bear them up against the will of their Superiors and restraints of Government But when mens minds are possest with such unhappy Principles of Religion as are more destructive of the Peace and Order of civil Society than open lewdness and debauchery and when the Vertues of the Godly are more pregnant with villany and mischief than the Vices of the wicked and when their Consciences are satisfied in their mischievous and ungovernable perswasions and when they seriously believe that they approve themselves to God by being refractory and irreclamable in their Fanatick Zeal then how easie is it to defie Authority and trample upon all its threatnings and penalities And those Laws that would awe a prophane and irreligious Person at least into an outward compliance shall but exasperate a boisterous Conscience into a more vehement and seditious disobedience Now when 't is so difficult for Magistrates either to remove these Religious Vices or to bridle their unruliness they must needs find it an incomparably harder task to restrain the extravagancies of Zeal than of Lewdness and Debauchery And therefore seeing the multitude is so inclinable to these mistakes of Religion and seeing when they are infected with them they grow so turbulent and unruly I leave it to Governours themselves to judge whether it does not concern them with as much vigilance and severity either to prevent their rise or suppress their growth as to punish any the foulest crimes of Immorality And if they would but seriously consider into what exorbitances peevish and untoward principles about Religion naturally improve themselves they could not but perceive it to be as much their concernment to punish them with the severest inflictions as any whatsoever Principles of Rebellion in the State § 7. And this certainly has ever been one of the most fatal miscarriages of all Governours in that they have not been aware of this fierce and implacable enemy but have gone about to govern unruly Consciences by more easie and remiss Laws than those that are only able to suppress scandalous and confessed villanies and have thought them sufficiently restrain'd by threatning punishments without inflicting them And indeed in most Kingdoms so little have Princes understood their own Interests in reference to Religion Ecclesiastical Laws have been set up only for Scar-crows being established rather for shew and Form sake than with any design of giving them life by putting them into Execution and if any were so hardy as not to be scared into obedience by the severity of their threatnings they have been emboldned to disobedience by the remisness of their execution till they have not only plaid with the Law it self as a sensless trifle but have scorn'd the weakness of the Power that set it up For there is nothing more certain in experience than that Impunity gives not only warranty but encouragement to Disobedience and by habituating men to controul the Edicts of Authority teaches them by degrees to despise it And this is the main reason why Ecclesiastical Laws have generally proved such
to the Common-wealth but he that is turbulent and passionate is dangerous But then when passion is fired with religious zeal nothing can temper its outragious and Fanatick heats but it works the minds of men into rancour and bitterness and drives them into all manner of savage and inhumane practices Princes have never found any thing so restive and ungovernable as Sectarian Madness no malice so spightful and implacable as the zeal of a Godly Party nor any rage so fierce and merciless as sanctified Barbarism All the ancient Tyranny has in some places been out-done by a thorough-godly Reformation zeal for the Glory of God has often turn'd whole Nations into Shambles fill'd the World with continual Butcheries and Massacres and flesh'd it self with slaughters of Myriads of Mankind And when men think their passions warranted by their Religion how is it possible it should be otherwise For this obliges them by their greatest hopes and fears to act them to the highest and 't is easie to imagine what calm and peaceable things those men must be who think it their duty to enforce and enrage their passions with the obligations of Conscience And yet alas How few are they who have wisdom enough to keep their zeal clean from these sowre and crabbed mixtures The generality of men are scarce sensible of their spiritual wickednesses and 't is observable That in all Ages and all Religions of the world few people have taken notice of them beside their Wise men and Philosophers And even among the Professors of Christianity it self notwithstanding that our Religion has made such special provisions against all Excesses of Passion and establish'd Love Charity Moderation Patience Candor and Ingenuity as its Prime and Fundamental Duties yet the Spirit of meekness and humility soon decayed with its Primitive and Apostolical Professors and within a few Centuries of years the Church was over-run with some Sects of men much of the same temper with some of our Modern Saints So that even in true and innocent perswasions 't is necessary to asswage the distempers and indiscretions of a forward zeal The giddy multitude judge weakly fancy strongly and act passionately and unless restrain'd by wary and sober Laws will drive on so furiously in a good cause till they run their Religion into Folly and Faction and themselves into tumults and riotous proceedings What Socrates once said of Vertue That when it is not conducted by prudence it is but Pedantry and a phantastick thing is much more true of Religion which when it wants the guidance and ornament of this Vertue may be folly or madness or any thing rather than it self In brief Fanaticism is both the greatest and the easiest vice that is incident to Religion 't is a Weed that thrives in all Soils and there is the same Fanatick Spirit that mixes it self with all the Religions in the World And 't is as natural to the Common People as the proud or ignorant or perverse or factious or stubborn or eager or passionate for when ever any of these vices or follies are twisted with mens apprehensions of Religion they naturally work and ferment their minds into a boysterous and tumultuary zeal And yet how infinitely difficult it is to cure the Common Heard of these vices the Experience of all Ages is too great a demonstration so that there is nothing so apparently necessary or difficult as to govern the vulgar Rout in their conceptions of Religion seeing 't is so natural for them both to mix and heigthen yes and sanctifie their passions with their Consciences And from hence it is that though the Fanaticks in all Nations may disagree in the objects and matters of their Superstition according to the different Customs of their Country and variety of their Educations yet as for their tendency to disturbance and Sedition in the State 't is in all places the same to all intents and purposes And those unquiet Sects that have often disturb'd and sometimes subverted whole Kingdoms in Africa if they had hapned to have been born in Europe would have done the same here where though their Religion might have been different yet would their Genius have been the same as rising from the same Conjunction of Conscience and Passion And therefore it cannot but be a wonder to any man that is acquainted with the Experience of former Ages to see Governours after so many warnings so insensible of this mischief and however they may think themselves unconcern'd to restrain the opinions of any dissenting Sect as being perhaps but foolish and inconsiderable in themselves yet nothing can more highly concern them than to provide against their inclinations as being generally of a sad and dangerous consequence to the State And this at present may suffice to evince How much it concerns Authority to look to the particular Principles and Inclinations of every Sect and to prove That the meer Belief of Invisible Powers is so far from being Religion enough to awe men to obedience that unless it be temper'd with a due sense of vertue and managed with special prudence and discretion it rather tends to make the rude multitude more head-strong and ungovernable Sect. 5. Thirdly To permit different Sects of Religion in a Common-wealth is only to keep up so many pretences and occasions for publick Disturbance the Factions of Religion are ever the most seditious and the less material their difference the more implacable their hatred as the Turks think it more acceptable to God to kill one Persian than seventy Christians No hinge so vehemently alienates mens affections as variety of judgment in matters of Religion here they cannot disagree but they must quarrel too and when Religion divides mens minds no other Common Interest can unite them and where zeal dissolves friendship the ties of Nature are not strong enough to reconcile it Every Faction is at open defiance with every Faction they are always in a state and posture of War and engaged in a mortal and irreconcileable hatred against each other When ever men part Communion every Party must of necessity esteem the other impious and Heretical in that they never divide but with pretences that they could not agree without being guilty of some sin or other as Blasphemy or Idolatry or Superstition or Heresie or the like For all agree in this Principle That peace ought always to be preserved where it can without offending God and offering violence to Conscience and therefore they cannot but look upon one another as lying under the Divine Wrath and Displeasure and consequently in a damnable condition and then are both Parties engaged as they love God and the Souls of men to labour one another ruine And when the Party is form'd and men are listed into it by chance and Education the distinguishing Opinion of the Party is to them the most material and fundamental Article of their Belief and so they must account of all that either disowne or deny it as of Heathens Infidels and
most Learned and Inquisitive of the Philosophers could never raise Atheism above the certainty of a Grand Perhaps and therefore denied not but only doubted the Truth of Religion For none of them could ever be so utterly forsaken of his Reason as to attempt to demonstrate there could be no God but only by shewing how to solve the Phaenomena of Nature and Providence without him that possibly there might be none and therefore they were never so absurd as to affront the worship of the Deity but thought themselves as effectually obliged in Prudence to the duties of Vertue and Religion by the possibility as by the certainty of things Now I say when these men of Parts and Learning were so Modest and Diffident in their singular perswasions what an unhandsome thing is it for such empty Fops as you with so bold and frontless a Confidence to defie the Almighty to deride the wisdom of his Laws to cavil at his Sacred Oracles and to give the Lye to the Vniversal Sense of Mankind and all this at all adventure And yet methinks 't is pretty to hear one of these little Mushrome Wits Charge Religion with Credulity and easiness of Belief and talk confidently that 't is want of Iudgment and Enquiry that betrays Fools and Ignorant People to be scared with the tales and threatnings of Ambitious Priests though it be so utterly impossible that any men should be more chargeable with Credulity than themselves and no mans Faith is capable of being more implicit than their Vnbelief nor can the most illiterate Peasant take up his Countries Religion upon more slender Grounds and Motives than they do their Infidelity their being equally Ignorant forces them to be equally Credulous For not to repeat any of the forementioned particulars with what a greedy confidence do they swallow down the Principles of the Malmsbury Philosophy without any chewing or consideration How hussingly will they assert that the Notion of an Immaterial Substance implies a Contradiction for no other reason than because it does That men have no Faculties but of Sense and Imagination that Vnderstanding is Reaction and Reason a Train of Phantasmes that the Will is a Corporeal Motion that its determinations are Fatal and Mechanical and necessitated by the Impressions of External and Irresistible Causes that its Liberty of choice is as absurd and insignificant Nonsense as a round Quadrangle that Religion is the belief of Tales publickly allowed that Power is Right and justifies all Actions whatsoever whether good or bad that there is nothing just or unjust in it self that all Right and Wrong is the Result of Humane Contracts and that the Laws of Nature are nothing but Maxims and Principles of self-interest How boldly do they take up with these and other resembling Principles of Baseness and Irreligion upon the bare Authority and proofless Assertions of one proud and haughty Philosopher How much severe Study and Contemplation is required to a Competent Knowledge of these things And yet with what a stiff and peremptory Confidence are they determined by these men that cannot pretend to any other knowledge and 't is a very candid presumption to allow them so much than of the Laws of a Play or Poem In brief these empty Spunges suck in Opinions for their agreeableness with their debauched and licentious Practices without ever considering their Truth and Evidence for alas they never troubled their heads with such Enquiries And therefore whatever they pretend 't is not their Reasons but their Lusts and Vices that cavil at the Principles of Religion and they except against it not because it contradicts their understandings for that they never considered but their Appetites 't is their Sins and sensual Inclinations that prejudice and bar up their minds against it and though they were convinced of its Truth they would however be Infidels still in spight of all the Reason and Demonstration in the world Their Irreligion is an after-game of their Debauchery they are forced to it in their own Defence Their wickedness has made Infidelity their Interest and Atheism their Refuge and then they cannot will not believe for no other Reason but only because they dare not But that I may not pursue their Ignorance too unmercifully I will venture before I conclude to commend their skill For I cannot but acknowledge them guilty of one little piece of Art and Sophistry viz. That being Conscious to themselves that no tolerable exceptions can be raised against the Principles of True Goodness they affect to reproach it with forged and disingenuous Aspersions and wittingly disparage its native Beauty and Loveliness by representing it in false and uncouth Disguises For whereas there is nothing more noble and generous more cheerful and sprightly more courteous and affable more free and ingenuous more sober and rational than the Spirit and Genius of true Religion these witty Gentlemen are pleased to paint it out in sad and melancholy shapes with poor and wretched Features with soure and anxious Looks as an enemy to all Mirth and Cheerfulness and a thing that delights in nothing but Sighs and Groans and discoloured Faces They dress it up in all the Follies and Deformities of Superstition and then when they have made it ridiculous they make themselves sport with it And thus by representing it as a humour unworthy the entertainment of a generous mind that justifies their contempt of so weak a Passion and makes a sumptuous Apology for the gallantry of Atheism and Prophaneness And indeed if Religion were as mean and absurd as these men would make it and others have made it let it not only excuse but abet their practices let it be the mark of an high and gallant Spirit to be an Atheist let it be Gentility to despise and Wit to droll upon Religion let all Devotion be esteemed the Child of Folly and Weakness let it be an Argument of Wisdom to be prophane and vicious and let Vertue become a name of the greatest Reproach and Infamy But alas when 't is so demonstratively evident that true Piety though it were an Imposture is our greatest wisdom and perfection that it both adorns and advances Humane Nature that it is so highly advantageous to the peace and happiness of the World that it carries in it all that is amiable and lovely all that is cheerful and ingenuous all that is useful and profitable and that 't is whatever can advance either our Content or Interest or Reputation When all this is so amply evident What can be more unpardonably base and disingenuous than for these men in spight of all Remonstrances still to upbraid it with the Villanies of Hypocrisie and blast its Credit with the Absurdities of Superstition which is the greatest folly in the world for no other reason than because it debauches what is the greatest Wisdom And therefore they would do well to understand a little better what Religion means before they take upon them to disgrace and defame it and let
them not discover their lamentable rawness and ignorance by laughing at its folly and meanness till they can first prove a base and selfish spirit to be more noble and generous than an universal Love and Charity Pride and Luxury to be more amiable than Sweetness and Ingenuity Revenge and Impatience more honourable than Discretion and Civility Excess and Debauchery more healthful than Temperance and Sobriety to be enslaved to their Lusts and Passions more manly than to live by the Rules of Reason and Prudence Malice and Injustice to be more graceful and becoming a gentile Behaviour than Kindness and Benignity and the horrors of an amazed Spirit to be fuller of Pleasure and Felicity than that Peace and Calmness of Mind that springs from the Reflections of an exact Conscience Till all this and much more is made good that is till all the Maxims of Folly and Wisdom are changed let them be Civil and Modest and not scorn too confidently And though all this could be done yet as for their parts they will be so far from ever performing it that they will never be at the pains of attempting it and if they should 't is God knows too great a work for their little understandings And therefore I appeal to all the wise and sober world Whether they that would make Religion ridiculous are not infinitely so themselves Whether to consute it with Raillery and Bold Iests be not as void of Wit as Reason And whether all the Folly and Madness in the World can equal this of these scoffing Atheists And thus having scourged their Ignorance and Presumption with severity enough I shall forbear either to expose them for their Pedantry or to lash them for their rudeness and ill manners though what can be more pedantick than to be so big with every little Conceit as to be in labour to vent it in every Company And a pert School-boy is scarce more troublesome with a petty Criticism against Mr. Lilly than these truantly Youths are with any singular Exception that they have picked up against the Holy Scriptures They cannot meet with a person of any Reputation for Learning but they must be pecking at him with their Objections and if he slight their impertinent Pratings as all discreet men do then the next time they meet their Dear Hearts with what triumphant shrugs do they boast their success against the man in Black and so laugh and drink themselves into Confidence and Folly And then as for their want of manners what deportment can be more course and clownish than to affect to be offensive to all discreet men and to delight to loath and nauseate all Civil Company with the filthiness of their Discourse A behaviour more irkesom to a Gentleman of any Breeding and Civility than the Buffoonry of Hostlers and Porters They can scarce meet with a Clergy-man but they must be pelting him with Oaths or Ribaldry or Atheistical Drollery i. e. they study to annoy him with such Discourse as he is obliged though he were inwardly as great a Villain as themselves to detest by his Place and Profession a piece of Breeding much like his that would have refused to entertain a Vestal with any other Discourse than by describing the Rites of Priapus or the lascivious Arts of Cleopatra And so I leave them to the Correction of the Publick Rods and 't is high time that Authority check and chastise the Wantonness of this Boyish humour For the Infection spreads and grows fashionable and creeps out of Cities into Villages To Impeach Religion is become the first exercise of Wit in which young Gentlemen are to be Disciplined and Atheism is the only knowledge and accomplishment they gain by a gentile Education and they have nothing to make them fancy themselves more witty and refined People than illiterate Peasants and Mechanicks but a readiness and pregnancy to rally upon Religion and he is a raw Youth and smells rank of his Grandame and his Catechism that cannot resolve all the Articles of his Faith into the Cheats and Impostures of Priests And thus they live here till they have sinned or fooled away all sense of Honour and Conscience and so return home useless and unserviceable to their Countrey and if they turn Sots they may prove less dangerous but if not they are prepared for any designs of Mischief and Publick Disturbance For at the same time they shake hands with Religion they bid adieu to Loyalty in that whilst they own no tyes of Conscience they know no honesty but advantage and Interest is the only endearment of their Duty to their Prince and therefore when-ever this happens to run counter to their Loyalty 't is then the strongest and most effectual inducement to any attempts of Treason and Rebellion And thus they may prove good Subjects as Rogues and Out-laws are who will be honest when 't is their Interest but when 't is not then any thing is their Duty that contributes to their Security And with these men in all Civil Wars and Dissentions of State the strongest side has always the justest Cause and if Rebels prove successful against their Lawful Prince they gain their Assistance And to these Principles we must ascribe the unhappy success of the late Rebellion the silly and well meaning Zealots were only abused by sly and crafty Incendiaries for the compassing of their own ambitious ends and by their Councils only was the Cause managed advanced and finished till they raised their own Fortunes upon the Ruines of the Royal Interest and establish'd themselves in the Royal Power and Dignity And though the men and their Designs are perished yet their Principles thrive and propagate and 't is strange yet easie to observe how the contempt of Religion works men into a dislike of Monarchy and I scarce ever met with any zealous Common-wealths-man whom I could not easily discover to have more of the Atheist than the Politician in brief all men of this Perswasion are so far from being inclined to love their Prince that they are engaged by their very Principles to hate the Vsurper For take away the Divine Institution of Government and the Obligations of Conscience to Obedience and then all Government is Vsurpation and all sense of Obedience Folly and Princes have no other Right to their Crowns but what is founded upon Force and Violence their Empire was first gain'd by Wars Butcheries and Massacres their Diadems hang upon their Swords and their Thrones stand deep in Humane Blood and all Kingdoms are nothing but Societies of Slaves and Tyrants and if any Subject can set himself free from his Sovereigns Oppression he is the braver man and when he can win his Crown he deserves to wear it And there is no man that laughs at the Folly of Religion who is not angry at the Superstition of Government And therefore I leave it to Authority to consider how much it concerns them to restrain the Insolence of this wanton Humour and to
easily may they fire these heady people into tumults and outrages How eagerly will they flow into their Party in spight of all the Power and Opposition of their Governours And how prodigally will they empty their Bags and bring in even their Bodkins and Thimbles and Spoons to carry on the Cause He is a very silly man and understands nothing of the Follies Passions and Inclinations of Humane Nature who fees not that there is no Creature so ungovernable as a Wealthy Fanatick And therefore let not men flatter themselves with idle hopes of Settlement any other way than by suppressing all these dissentions and reducing the minds of men to an Agreement and Vnity in Religious Worship For it is just as impossible to keep different Factions of Religion quiet and peaceable as it is to make the common people wise men and Philosophers If indeed we could suppose them sober and discreet it were then no great danger to leave them to their Liberty but upon the same supposition we may as well let them loose from all the Laws of Government and Policy because if every private man had wit honesty enough to govern himself and his own Actions there would be no need of Publick Laws and Governours And yet upon this impossible Presumption stand all the Pretenses for Liberty of Conscience That if men were permitted it they would use it wisely and peaceably than which 't is hard to suppose a greater Impossibility For the Conscience of the multitude is the same thing with their Wisdom and Discretion and therefore 't is as natural for them to fall into the snare of an abused and vicious Conscience as 't is to be rash foolish For an erroneous Conscience is but one sort of Folly that relates to the Iudgment of their moral Actions in which they are as ignorant and as likely to mistake as in any other Affairs of Humane Life There is no Observation in the world establish'd upon a more certain and universal Experience than that the generality of mankind are not so obnoxious to any sort of Follies and Vices as to wild and unreasonable conceits of Religion and that when their heads are possess'd with them there are no principles so pregnant with mischief and disturbance as they And if Princes would but consider how liable mankind are to abuse themselves with serious and conscientious Villanies they would quickly see it to be absolutely necessary to the Peace and Happiness of their Kingdoms that there be set up a more severe Government over mens Consciences and Religious perswasions than over their Vices and Immoralities For of all Villains the well-meaning Zealot is the most dangerous Such men have no checks of Conscience nor fears of miscarriage to damp their Industry but their Godliness makes them bold and furious and however their Attempts succeed they are sure of the Rewards of Saints and Martyrs And what so glorious as to lose their lives in the Cause of God These men are ever prepared for any mischief if they have but a few active and crafty Knaves to manage and set them on and there is never want of such in any Common-wealth And there needs no other motive to engage their Zeal in any Seditious Attempt than to instil into their minds the Necessity of a thorow Reformation and then you may carry them wheresoever you please and they will never boggle at any Mischief Out-rage or Rebellion to advance the Cause And therefore it concerns the Civil Magistrate to beware of this sort of People above all others as a party that is always ready formed for any Publick Disturbance One would think the world were not now to be taught that there is nothing so difficult to be managed as Godly Zeal or to be appeased as Religious Dissentions People ever did and ever will pursue such Quarrels with their utmost rage and fury and therefore let us be content to govern the world as it ever has been and ever must be govern'd and not be so fond as to trouble our heads with contriving ways of Settling a Nation whilst 't is unsettled by Religion Agreement in this is the first if not the only foundation of Peace and therefore let that be first established upon firm and lasting Principles which it easily may by severe Laws faithfully executed but otherwise never can But till it is done 't is just as wise and safe for a Prince to enrich his Subjects with Trade and Commerce as 't is to load weak and unfinished Foundations with great and weighty Superstructures to conclude all Arguments are to be considered in their proper place and order and 't is but an unskilful and inartificial way of discoursing to argue from less weighty and considerable matters against the first and Fundamental reasons of things and yet of this preposterous Method are those men guilty who talk of the Interests of Trade in opposition to the Interests of Government And therefore for a fuller Answer to this and all other the like pretenses I shall now refer the Reader to my Book where I think I have proved enough to satisfie any man of an ordinary understanding That Indulgence and Toleration is the most absolute sort of Anarchy and that Princes may with less hazard give Liberty to mens Vices and Debaucheries than to their Consciences As for my Method 't is plain and familiar and suited to every man's Capacity I have reduced the state of the Controversie to a few easie and obvious Propositions under these I have couch'd all the particular matters concern'd in our present Debates and by Analogy to their Reasonableness have cleared off all Difficulties and Objections and have been careful all along to prove the absolute Necessity of what I assert from the most important ends and designs of Government compared with the Natural Passions and Inclinations of Mankind And whoever offers to talk of these Affairs without special regard both to the Nature of Government and to the Nature of Man may amuse himself with the fine Dreams and Hypotheses of a warm brain but shall be certain to miss the necessary Rules of Life and the most useful measures of practicable Policy that are suited only to the Humours and Passions of men and designed only to prevent their Follies and bridle their Enormities And therefore the main Notion I have pursued has been to make out how dangerous a thing Liberty of Conscience is considering the Tempers and Tendencies of Humane Nature to the most necessary ends and designs of Government A vein of which Reasoning I have been careful to run through all parts and Branches of my Discourse it being vastly the most considerable if not the only thing to be attended to in this Enquiry And as I have kept close to my main Question so have I cautiously avoided all other collateral and unnecessary Disputes and have not confined my self to any Hypothesis nor determined any Controversie in which it was not immediately concern'd but have expressed my
unaccountable that the Supreme Magistrate may not be permitted to determine the Circumstances and Appendages of the subordinate Ministeries to Moral Virtue and yet should be allowed in all Common-wealths to determine the particular Acts and Instances of these Virtues themselves For Example Justice is a prime and natural Virtue and yet its particular Cases depend upon humane Laws that determine the bounds of Meum and Tuum The Divine Law restrains Titius from invading Caius's Right and Propriety but what that is and when it is invaded only the Laws of the Society they live in can determine And there are some Cases that are Acts of Injustice in England that are not so in Italy otherwise all Places must be govern'd by the same Laws and what is a Law to one Nation must be so to all the World Whereas 't is undeniably evident That neither the Law of God nor of Nature determine the particular Instances of most Virtues but for the most part leave that to the Constitutions of National Laws They in general forbid Theft Incest Murther and Adultery but what these Crimes are they determine not in all Cases but is in most particulars to be explained by the Civil Constitutions and whatsoever the Law of the Land reckons among these Crimes that the Law of God and of Nature forbids And now is it not strangely humoursome to say That Magistrates are instrusted with so great a Power over mens Conscience in these great and weighty Designs of Religion and yet should not be trusted to govern the indifferent or at least less material Circumstances of those things that can pretend to no other Goodness than as they are Means serviceable to Moral Purposes That they should have Power to make that a Particular of the Divine Law that God has not made so and yet not be able to determine the use of an indifferent Circumstance because forsooth God has not determin'd it In a word That they should be fully impowered to declare new Instances of Vertue and Vice and to introduce new Duties in the most important parts of Religion and yet should not have Authority enough to declare the Use and decency of a few Circumstances in its subservient and less material Concerns § 5. The whole State of Affairs is briefly this Man is sent into the World to live happily here and prepare himself for happiness hereafter this is attain'd by the practice of Moral Vertues and Pious Devotions and wherein these mainly consist Almighty Goodness has declared by the Laws of Nature and Revelation but because in both there are changeable Cases and Circumstances of things therefore has God appointed his Trustees and Officials here on Earth to Act and Determine in both according to all Accidents and Emergencies of Affairs to assign new Particulars of the Divine Law to declare new Bounds of right and wrong which the Law of God neither does nor can limit because of necessity they must in a great measure depend upon the Customs and Constitutions of every Common-wealth And in the same manner are the Circumstances and outward Expressions of Divine Worship because they are variable according to the Accidents of Time and Place entrusted with less danger of Errour with the same Authority And what Ceremonies this appoints unless they are apparently repugnant to their Prime end become Religious Rites as what particular Actions it constitutes in any Species of Virtue become new Instances of that Virtue unless they apparently contradict its Nature and Tendency Now the two Primary Designs of all Religion are either to express our honourable Opinion of the Deity or to advance the Interests of Vertue and Moral Goodness so that no Rites or Ceremonies can be esteemed unlawful in the Worship of God unless they tend to debauch men either in their Practices or their Conceptions of the Deity And 't is upon one or both of these Accounts that any Rites and Forms of Worship become criminally superstitious and such were the Lupercalia the Eleusinian Mysteries the Feasts of Bacchus Flora and Venus because they were but so many Festivals of Lust and Debauchery and such were the Salvage and Bloody Sacrifices to Saturn Bellona Moloch Baal-Peor and all other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Antient Paganism because they supposed the Divine Being to take pleasure in the Miseries and Tortures of its Creatures And such is all Idolatry in that it either gives right Worship to a wrong Object or wrong Worship to a right one or at least represents an infinite Majesty by Images and Resemblances of finite things and so reflects disparagement upon some of the Divine Attributes by fastning dishonourable Weaknesses and Imperfections upon the Divine Nature As for these and the like Rites and Ceremonies of Worship no Humane Power can command them because they are directly contradictory to the Ends of Religion but as for all others that are not so any lawful Authority may as well enjoyn them as it may adopt any Actions whatsoever into the Duties of Morality that are not contrary to the Ends of Morality § 6. But a little farther to illustrate this we may observe That in matters both of Moral Vertue and Divine Worship there are some Rules of Good and Evil that are of an Eternal and Unchangeable Obligation and these can never be prejudiced or altered by any Humane Power because the Reason of their Obligation arises from a necessity and constitution of Nature and therefore must be as Perpetual as that But then there are other Rules of Duty that are alterable according to the various Accidents Changes and Conditions of Humane Life and depend chiefly upon Contracts and Positive Laws of Kingdoms these suffer Variety because their Matter and their Reason does so Thus in the matter of Murther there are some Instances of an unalterable Nature and others that are changeable according to the various Provisions of Positive Laws and Constitutions To take away the life of an innocent Person is forbidden by such an indispensable Law of Nature that no Humane Power can any way directly or indirectly make it become lawful in that no Positive Laws can so alter the Constitution of Nature as to make this Instance of Villany cease to be mischievous to Mankind and therefore 't is Capital in all Nations of the World But then there are other particular Cases of this Crime that depend upon Positive Laws and so by consequence are liable to change according to the different Constitutions of the Common-wealths men live in Thus though in England 't is Murther for an injured Husband to kill an Adulteress taken in the Act of Uncleanness because 't is forbidden by the Laws of this Kingdom yet in Spain and among the old Romans it was not because their Laws permitted it and if the Magistrate himself may punish the Crime with Death he may appoint whom he pleases to be his Executioner And the Case is the same in reference to Divine Worship in which there are some things of
to be Rogues as soon as they can § 6. So that according to this Hypothesis Mankind is left in as ill a condition after they have by Pacts and Covenants united into Societies and a State of Peace as they were in their natural State of War For all Covenants of mutual Trust are according to its own Rules in the State of Nature invalid because under that men are under no obligations of Justice and Honesty to one another and have no other measure of their actions but their interest and therefore as that might invite them in some circumstances to enter into Bonds and Contracts so it may in others to break them So that in the State of Government all their Promises Oaths and Contracts will prove as ineffectual as in the State of Nature Partly because the force of all Contracts made in the State of Government ariseth from the validity of the first Compact that was made in the State of Nature that is in that state in which it could have no validity partly Because they have no other tye but that of self-interest and so can lay no other obligation upon us to observe them than they might have done before And therefore if Mankind be once supposed in this natural state of War they can never be delivered from it and after they have enter'd into Covenants of Peace they would remain as much as before in a posture of War and be subject to all the same dangers and miseries that would have annoyed them if they had continued in their natural state For if Justice and fidelity be not supposed to be the Law and Duty of our Natures no Covenants are of power enough to bring us under any obligation to them Now having thus clearly blown up the foundations of this Hypothesis 't were but labour in vain to make particular enquiries into all the flaws and follies of its Superstructures seeing they must of necessity stand and fall together for if its subsequent Propositions be coherently deduced from these Fundamental Principles all the evidence and certainty they can pretend to depends on them and therefore the Premisses being once convicted of falshood all pretences to truth in the conclusions must necessarily vanish And if any of them happen to be true and rational 't is not by vertue of these but other Principles Thus though the Laws of Nature he assigns may be useful to the ends of Government and Happiness of Mankind yet because upon those grounds on which he assigns them they would be no Laws that alone is sufficient evidence of the errour and vanity of his whole Hypothesis seeing how good soever they may be in themselves yet upon the Principles and in the Method in which he proposes them they are of no force In that self-interest being the only reason of their obligation the Interests of Civil Society come thereby to be no better secured with than without them because if they were not in force by vertue of any Compact all men would chuse to act according to them when they thought it advantageous and when they have the utmost force his Principles can give them no man would think they obliged him when ever he apprehended them disadvantageous So that this malignant Principle of meer self-interest running through the whole Systeme and twisting it self with every branch of his Morality it does not only eat out and enervate its native life and vigour but withal envenoms their natural truth and soundness with its own malignity Which Principle being removed and that influence it hath on other parts of this Hypothesis being prevented and withal the Foundation on which it stands ruin'd viz. his absurd and imaginary State of Nature we have perhaps cashier'd all that is either base or peculiar in it and restored the true accounts of natural Justice and right Reason viz. That all men have a natural Right to Happiness from the very design of their creation that this cannot be acquired without mutual aids and friendships and therefore right reason dictates that every man should have some concern for his Neighbour as well as himself because this is made necessary to the welfare of the World by the natural state of things and by this mutual exchange of love and kindness men support one another in the comforts of humane life CHAP. V. A Confutation of the Consequences that some men draw from Mr. Hobs's Principles in behalf of Liberty of Conscience The Contents HOw a belief of the Imposture of all Religions is become the most powerful and fashionable Argument for the Toleration of all Though Religion were a Cheat yet because the World cannot be Govern'd without it they are the most mischievous Enemies to Government that tell the World it is so Religion is useful or dangerous in a State as the temper of mind it breeds is peaceable or turbulent The dread of Invisible Powers is not of it self sufficient to awe people into subjection but tends more probably to Tumults and Seditions This largely proved by the ungovernableness of the Principles and Tempers of some Sects Fanaticism is as natural to the Common people as folly and ignorance and yet is more mischievous to Government than Vice and Debauchery How the Fanaticks of all Nations and Religions agree in the same Principles of Sedition To permit different Sects of Religion in a Common-wealth is only to keep up so many incurable pretences and occasions of publick disturbance The corrupt passions and humours of men make Toleration infinitely unsafe Toleration only cried up by opprest Parties because it gives them opportunity to overturn the settled frame of things Every man that desires indulgence is engaged by his Principles to endeavour Changes and Alterations A bare indulgence of men in any Religion different from the establish'd way of Worship does but exasperate them against the State § 1. AND now the Reason why I have thus far pursued this Principle is because 't is become the most powerful Patron of the Fanatick Interest and a Belief of the indifferency or rather Imposture of all Religion is now made the most effectual not to say most fashionable Argument for Liberty of Conscience For when men have once swallowed this Principle That Mankind is free from all obligations antecedent to the Laws of the Common-wealth and that the Will of the Sovereign Power is the only measure of Good and Evil they proceed suitably to its Consequences to believe That no Religion can obtain the force of a Law till 't is establish'd for such by Supreme Authority that the Holy Scriptures were not Laws to any man till they were enjoyned by the Christian Magistrate that no man is under any obligation to assent to their Truth unless the Governours of the Common-wealth require it and that setting aside their Commands 't is no sin to believe our Blessed Saviour a villanous and lewd Impostor and that if the Sovereign Power would declare the Alcoran to be Canonical Scripture it would be as much the
take care what particular Doctrines of Religion are taught within his Dominions because some are peculiarly advantageous to the ends of Government and others as naturally tending to its disturbance Some incline the minds of men to candour moderation and ingenuity and work them to a gentle and peaceable temper by teaching humility charity meekness and obedience Now 't is the Interest of Princes to cherish and propagate such Doctrines among their Subjects that will make them not only quiet but useful in the Common-wealth But others there are that infect the minds of men with pride peevishness malice spight and envy that incline them to delight in detracting from Princes and speaking reproachfully of Government and breed in them such restless and seditious tempers that 't is next to an impossibility for any Prince to please or oblige them Now as for such perverse and arrogant Sects of men it certainly concers Governours to suppress them as so many Routs of Traytors and Rebels Religion then is either useful or dangerous in a Common-wealth as the temper of mind it breeds is peaceable or turbulent and as there is nothing more serviceable to the Interests of Government so there is nothing more mischievous and therefore nothing more concerns Princes than to take care what Doctrines are taught within their Dominions For seeing Religion has and will have the strongest influence upon the minds of men when that renders them averse and troublesom to Government 't is that all the Power nor Policy in the World can keep them peaceable till such perswasions are rooted out of their minds by severity of Laws and Penalties And as long as men think themselves obliged upon pain of damnation to Disobedience and Sedition not any Secular threatnings and inflictions are of force enough to bridle the Exorbitances of Conscience There is not any vice so incident to the Common People as Superstition nor any so mischievous 'T is infinitely evident from the Histories and Records of all Ages and Nations that there is nothing so vicious or absurd but may pass for Religion and what is worse the more wild and giddy Conceits of Religion are ever suckt in by the multitude with the greatest passion and eagerness and there is no one thing in the World so difficult as to bring the Common People to true Notions of God and his Worship insomuch that 't is no Paradox to affirm That Religion i. e. what is mistaken for it has been one of the greatest Principles of mischief and wickedness in the World And if so then certainly nothing requires so much care and prudence in the Civil Magistrate as its due conduct and management So that the dread of Invisible Powers is of it self no more serviceable to awe the people into subjection then to drive them into Tumults and Confusions and if it chance to be accompanied as it easily may with tumultuous and seditious perswasions 't is an invincible obligation to Villany and Rebellion And therefore it must needs above all things concern Princes to look to the Doctrines and Articles of mens Belief seeing 't is so great odds that they prove of dangerous consequence to the publick Peace and in that case the apprehensions of a Deity and a World to come makes their danger almost irresistible Sect. 4. There are some Sects whose Principles and some persons whose tempers will not suffer them to live peaceable in any Common-wealth For what if some men believe That if Princes refuse to reform Religion themselves 't is lawful for their Godly Subjects to do it and that by violence and force of Arms What if they believe That Princes are but Executioners of the Decrees of the Presbytery and that in case of disobedience to their Spiritual Governours they may be Excommunicated and by consequence Deposed What if they believe That Dominion is founded in Grace and therefore that all wicked Kings forfeit their Crowns and that it is in the power of the People of God to bestow them where they please And what if others believe That to puruse their success in villany and Rebellion is to follow Providence and that when the Event of War has deliver'd up Kings into their Power then not to depose or murther them were to slight the Guidance of Gods Providential Dispensations Are not these and the like innocent Propositions think you mightily conducive to the peace and settlement of Common-wealths Such Articles of Faith as these cannot but make brave and obedient Subjects and he must needs be a glorious and powerful Prince where such conceits are the main ingredients of his Subjects Religion Let any man shew me what Doctrines could have been more unluckily contrived to disturb Government than these And if men would study on purpose to frame and model a Rebellious Faith these must have been their Fundamental Articles and yet 't is sufficiently known where they have been both believed and practised But further Is there not a sort of Melancholy Religionists in the World whose very Genious inclines them to Quarrels and Exceptions against the State and management of Publick Affairs There is nothing so malepart as a Splenetick Religion the inward discontent and uneasiness of mens own minds maintains it self upon the faults and miscarriages of others and we may observe how this humour is ever venting it self in sighs and complaints for the badness of the times i. e. in effect of the Government and in telling and aggravating little stories that may reflect upon the wisdom and ability of their Superiours 'T is impossible to please their fretful and anxious minds the very delights and recreations of the Court shall stir their envy and the vanities of the great Ones grieve and wound their tender Souls However Princes behave themselves they can never win upon the affections of these people their very prosperity shall disoblige them and they are ready upon all occasions to bring them to Account for their misdemeanours And if any of the Grandees happen to be discontented they have here a Party ready formed for the purpose to revenge their injury and bring evil Counsellors that seduce the King to Iustice. And 't is not impossible but there may be a sort of proud and haughty men among us not over-well affected to Monarchick Government who though they scorn yet patronize this humour as a check to the insolence and presumption of Princes Again Are there not some whole Sects of men all whose Religion is made up of nothing but passion rancour and bitterness All whose Devotion is little better than a male-contentedness their Piety than a sanctified fury and their zeal than a proud and spightful malice and who by the Genius of their Principles are brought infinitely and irrecoverably under the power of their passions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now nothing imports Governours so much as to manage mens passions in that 't is these rather than our appetites that disturb the World A person that is debaucht and intemperate is indeed useless
that distinguish their Parties And this cannot but be a mighty endearment of their Prince to them when he neglects and discountenances his best Subjects only because they are the godly Party for so every Party is to it self to join himself to their profest and irreconcileable Enemies And they will be wonderfully forward to assist a Patron of Idolatry and Superstition or an Enemy to the power of godliness for these are the softest words that different Sects can afford one another And withal I might adde That they must needs be much in love with him when they have reason to believe that they lie perpetually under his displeasure and that he looks upon them as little better than Enemies So that if a Prince permit different Parties and interests of Religion in his Dominions however he carries himself towards them he shall have at least all Parties discontented but one for if himself be of any he displeases all but that if of none he displeases all And Zealous and Religious People of all sorts must needs be wonderfully in love with an Atheist and there is no remedy but he must at least be thought so if he be not of any distinct and visible profession CHAP. VI. Of things Indifferent and of the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Things undetermined by the Word of God The Contents THe Mystery of Puritanism lies in this Assertion That nothing ought to be established in the Worship of God but what is expresly commanded in the Word of God The Wildness Novelty and unreasonableness of this Principle It makes meer Obedience to lawful Authority sinful It takes away all possibility of Settlement in any Church or Nation It is the main pretense of all pious Villanies It cancels all Humane Laws and makes most of the Divine Laws useless and impracticable It obliges men to be seditious in all Churches in the World in that there is no Church that has not some Customs and Vsages peculiar to it self All that pretend this Principle do and must act contrary to it The exorbitancy of this Principle makes all yielding and condescension to the men that plead it unsafe and impolitick Wherein the perfection and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures consists Of the Vanity of their Distinction who tell us That the Civil Magistrate is to see the Laws of Christ executed but to make none of his own The dangerous consequents of their way of arguing who would prove That God ought to have determined all Circumstances of his own Worship 'T is scarce possible to determine all Circumstances of any outward action they are so many and so various The Magistrate has no way to make men of this perswasion comply with his will but by forbidding what he would have done The Puritans upbraided with Mr. Hooker's Book of Ecclesiastical Politie and challeng'd to answer it Their Out-cries against Popery Will-worship Superstition adding to the Law of God c. retorted upon themselves The main Objection against the Magistrates power in Religion proposed viz. That 't is possible that he may impose things sinful and superstitious This Objection lies as strongly against all manner of Government Our inquiry is after the best way of settling things not that possibly might be but that really is Though Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction may be abused yet 't is then less mischievous than Liberty of Conscience The Reason of the necessity of subjection to the worst of Governours because Tyranny is less mischievous than Rebellion or Anarchy The Author of the Book entituled Vindiciae contra Tyrannos confuted That it may and often does so happen that 't is necessary to punish men for such perswasions into which they have innocently abused themselves Actions are punishable by Humane Laws not for their sinfulness but for their ill Consequence to the Publick This applied to the Case of a well-meaning Conscience Sect. 1. ALL things as well Sacred as Civil that are not already determined as to their Morality i. e. that are not made necessary Duties by being commanded or sinful Actions by being forbidden either by the Law of Nature or positive Law of God may be lawfully determined either way by the Supreme Authority and the Conscience of every subject is tied to yield Obedience to all such Determinations This Assertion I lay down to oppose the first and the last and the great Pretence of Non-conformity and wherein as one observeth the very Mystery of Puritanism consisteth viz. That nothing ought to be established in the Worship of God but what is authorized by some Precept or Example in the Word of God that is the complete and adequate Rule of Worship and therefore Christian Magistrates are only to see that executed that Christ has appointed in Religion but to bring in nothing of their own they are tied up neither to add nor diminish neither in the matter nor manner So that whatever they injoin in Divine Worship if it be not expresly warranted by a Divine Command how innocent soever it may be in it self it presently upon that account loses not only its Liberty but its Lawfulness it being as requisite to Christian practice that things indifferent should still be kept indifferent as things necessary be held necessary This very Principle is the only Fountain and Foundation of all Puritanism from which it was at first derived and into which it is at last resolved A pretence so strangely wild and humorsom that it is to me an equal wonder either that they should be so absurd as seriously to believe it or if they do not that they should be so impudent as thus long and thus confidently to pretend it when it has not the least shadow of Foundation either from Reason or from Scripture and was scarce ever so much as thought of till some men having made an unreasonable Separation from the Church of England were forced to justifie themselves by as unreasonable Pretences For what can be more incredible than that things that were before lawful and innocent should become sinful upon no other score than their being commanded i. e. that meer obedience to lawful Authority should make innocent actions criminal For the matter of the Law is supposed of it self indifferent and therefore if obedience to the Law be unlawful it can be so for no other reason than because 't is Obedience So that if Christian Liberty be so awkard a thing as these men make it 't is nothing else but Christian Rebellion 't is a Duty that binds men to disobedience and forbids things under that formality because Authority commands them Now what a reproach to the Gospel is this that it should be made the only Plea for Sedition What a scandal to Religion that tenderness of Conscience should be made the only Principle of Disobedience and that nothing should so much incline men to be refractory to Authority as their being conscientious What a perverse folly is it to imagine That nothing but opposition to Government can secure our liberty And