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
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
A DISCOURSE OF Ecclesiastical Politie WHEREIN The Authority of the Civil Magistrate over the Consciences of Subjects in Matters of External Religion is Asserted The Mischiefs and Inconveniences OF Toleration are Represented And all Pretenses Pleaded in Behalf of Liberty of Conscience are fully Answered The Third Edition LONDON Printed for Iohn Martyn at the Bell in S t Paul's Church-yard 1671. The PREFACE TO THE READER Reader I Cannot Imagine any thing that our Dissenting Zealots will be able to object against this Ensuing Treatise unless perhaps in some Places the Vehemence and Severity of its Style for cavil I know they must and if they can raise no Tolerable Exceptions against the Reasonableness of the Discourse it self it shall suffice to pick quarrels with Words and Phrases But I will assure thee the Author is a Person of such a tame and softly humour and so cold a Complexion that he thinks himself scarce capable of hot and passionate Impressions and therefore if he has sometimes twisted Invectives with his Arguments it proceeded not from Temper but from Choice and if there be any Tart and Vpbraiding Expressions they were not the Dictates of Anger or Passion but of the Iust and Pious Resentments of his Mind And I appeal to any Man who knows upon what sober Grounds and Principles the Reformation of the Church of England stands and how that its Forms and Institutions are not only countenanced by the best and purest times of Christianity but establisht by the Fundamental Laws of the Land whether he can so perfectly Charm and Stupifie his Passions as not to be chafed into some heat briskness when he seriously considers that this Church so rightly constituted and so duely authorised should be so savagely worried by a Wild and Fanatique Rabble that this Church so soberly modelled so warrantably reformed and so handsomly settled should have been so perpetually beleaguered and be yet not out of all danger of being rifled if not utterly demolisht by Folly and Ignorance that the publick Peace and Settlement of a Nation should be so wofully discomposed upon such slender and frivolous Pretenses and that after they have been so often and so shamefully baffled that both Church and State should be so lamentably embroyl'd by the Pride and Insolence of a few peevish ignorant and malepert Preachers And lastly that these Brain-sick People if not prevented by some speedy and effectual Remedy may in a little time grow to that Power and Confidence as to be able to use their own Language to shut the Heavens that they shall not rain i. e. to restrain the Highest Powers of Church and State from their wonted Influence and to have Power over the Waters to turn them into Blood i. e. to turn the still People of a State or Nation into War and Blood or to speak in our own plain English to tye the Hands of Authority to instigate the people of God to Rebellion and once more involve the Kingdom in Blood and Confusion Let the Reader consider all this as throughly and seriously as I have done and then be a Stoick if he can But besides this let any man that is acquainted with the Wisdom and Sobriety of True Religion tell me how 't is possible not to be provoked to scorn and indignation against such proud ignorant and supercilious Hypocrites who though they utterly defeat all the main Designs of Religion yet boast themselves its only Friends and Patrons signalize their Party by distinctive Titles and Characters of Godliness and brand all others howsoever Pious and Peaceable with bad Names and worse Suspicions who I say that loves and adores the Spirit of true Religion can forbear to be sharp and severe to such thick and fulsom abuses In that there is not any thing can so much expose or traduce true Piety as this sort of Hypocrisie because whilst Folly and Phantastry appears in the Vizour of Holiness it makes that seem as ridiculous as it self And hence the greatest Friends of true Goodness have always been the severest Satyrists upon False Godliness and our Blessed Saviour scarce seemed more concern'd to plant and propagate Christianity than to explode the Pharisaick Hypocrisie i. e. Religious Pride and Insolence I know but one single Instance in which Zeal or a high Indignation is just and warrantable and that is when it vents it self against the Arrogance of haughty peevish and sullen Religionists that under higher pretences to Godliness supplant all Principles of Civility and good Nature that strip Religion of its outside to make it a covering for Spight and Malice that adorn their peevishness with the Mask of Piety and shroud their Ill Nature under the demure pretences of Godly Zeal And stroak and applaud themselves as the only Darlings and Favourites of Heaven and with a scornful pride disdain all the Residue of Mankind as a Rout of worthless and unregenerate Reprobates Thus the only hot fit of Zeal we find our Saviour in was kindled by an Indignation against the Pride and Insolence of the Iews when he whipt the Buyers and Sellers out of the outward Court of the Temple For though they bore a blind and superstitious Reverence towards that part of it that was peculiar to their own Worship yet as for the outward Court the place where the Gentiles and Proselytes worship't that was so unclean unhallowed that they thought it could not be prophaned by being turn'd into an Exchange of Vsury Now this Insolent Contempt of the Gentiles and impudent conceit of their own holiness provoked the mild Spirit of our Blessed Saviour to such an height of Impatience and Indignation as made him with a seeming fury and transport of passion whip the Tradesmen thence and overthrow the Tables So hateful is all proud testy and factious Zeal to a loving and Divine Temper of mind And indeed what can we imagine more odious or mischievous than a spirit of Pride Peevishness and Animosity adopted into the Service of God This divides Religion into Factions and Parties engenders a sullen and unsociable Niceness towards all that herd not with themselves breeds nothing but rancour malice and envy and every thing that is destructive of the Common Peace and Amity of Mankind And when People Separate and Rendevouz themselves into distinct Sects and Parties they always confine all their kind Influences to their own Faction and look with a scornful and malignant Aspect upon all the rest of Mankind become Enemies and Outlaws to Humane Society and shatter in pieces that natural Peace and common Love that preserves the Welfare and Tranquillity of Humane Nature Their minds like the savage Americans are as contracted as their Herds and all that are not within the Fold of their Church are without the Sphere of their Charity this is entirely swallowed up within their own combination and 't is no part of their duty to commiserate or supply the Wants of the Vnregenerate As the Poet describes the Jewish Bigots Non
they fool and trifle with the Almighty if true then I could easily tell them the fittest place to say their Prayers in But however 't is pity to abridge them the liberty all men have to abuse themselves but if they will extend this their Priviledge so far as to attaint other mens Reputations I shall only admonish them as a Friend before-hand that there is somebody in the world that will not fail to requite their slanders and false aspersions with their own true Character And so I take my leave of them to address my self to those for whom this Discourse was intended And though I dare not be so sawcy as to teach my Superiours how to Govern the Kingdom out of Ezekiel or the Revelations yet I will presume to put up this single Petition in order to the security of our Publick Peace and Settlement That whatsoever Freedom they may think good to Indulge to Religion they would not suffer Irreligion to share in the Favour nor permit Atheism to appear openly as it begins to do under the Protection of Liberty of Conscience I am not so utterly unacquainted with the Experience of former Ages as to be over-apt to complain of the degeneracy of our own the World I know has ever had its Vicissitudes and Periods of Vertue and Wickedness and all Common-wealths have advanced themselves to their Power and Grandeur by Sobriety and Wisdom and a tender Regard of Religion and from thence have declined again by Softness and Effeminacy by Sacrilege and Prophaneness and a proud Contempt of God and his Worship This is the Circle of Humane Affairs and on these constant Turns depend the Periods and certain Fates of Empires So that though Atheism reigns and prevails more in the present age than in some that went immediately before it yet there have been seasons when it was mounted up to a greater height of Power and Reputation than 't is yet advanced to but then those have always been black and fatal Times and have certainly brought on Changes and Dissolutions of States For the Principles of Irreligion unjoynt the Sinews and blow up the very Foundations of Government This turns all sense of Loyalty into Folly this sets men at Liberty from all the effectual Obligations to Obedience and makes Rebellion as vertuous when ever it either is or is thought as advantageous And therefore it imports Authority to nip this wanton humour in the Bud and to crush it whilst 't is young and tender for as yet it has found but slender entertainment with wise and sober Persons and is only propagated among little and unlearned People discreet men that have not more Religion have yet at least more wit and manners The only Zelots in the Cause are the young Nurslings and small Infantry of the Wits the wild and hair-brain'd Youths of the Town A sort of Creatures that study nothing but Sloth and Idleness that design nothing but Folly and Extravagance that aspire to no higher Accomplishments than fine Phrases terse Oaths and gay Plumes that pretend to no other stock of Learning but a few shavings of Wit gathered out of Plays and Comedies and these they abuse too and labour to pervert their chaste Expressions to Obscene and Irreligious Purposes and Johnson and Fletcher are prophaned as well as the Holy Scriptures They measure the Wit of their Discourse by its Prophaneness and Ribaldry and nothing sets it off so handsomly as neat and fashionable Oaths and the only thing that makes them appear more Witty then other Folk is their daring to be more wicked Their Iests are remarkable for nothing but their Presumption and the picquancy of their Conceit lies in their Boldness Men laugh not so much at the Wit as the Sawciness of their Discourse and because they dare vent such things as a discreet or civil man would scorn to say though he were an Atheist But these shallow fools are proud and ambitious to gain a Name and Reputation for Debauchery they slander themselves with false Impieties and usurp the Wickedness they were never guilty of only to get a Renown in Villany 'T is these Apes of Wit and Pedants of Gentility that would make Atheism the fashion forsooth and Prophaneness the Character of a Gentleman that think it a piece of Gallantry to scoff at Religion droll upon God and make sport with his Laws that account it an Argument of Iudgment and Ingenuity to be above the Follies of Conscience and a height of Courage and Magnanimity at all adventure to brave and defie Heaven and out-dare the Almighty and the noblest part of a gentile Behaviour to counterfeit an Haughty and Supercilious Disdain of Religious Sneeks and to beg all men that are respective to their Consciences for soft and cowardly Fools that are scared with Phantastick and Invisible Powers and easily abused with Tricks and Juglings and Publick Tales Now certainly these Phantastick Changelings must needs be wonderfully qualified to judge of the most serious and most difficult Enquiries in the world Are they not likely think you to search into the deepest Foundations of Religion to weigh and examine all the Arguments for the Being of God and Immortality of the Soul to enquire into the Grounds of the Christian Faith and to take an account of the Truth and Credibility of the Scriptures And when they have so utterly emasculated their Vnderstandings with Softness and Luxury are not they prodigiously able to examine what Agrees or Quarrels with the Dictates of Pure and Impartial Reason Are they not likely to determine what is truely Great and Generous that never heard of any other Maxims of Philosophy but what they have pick'd up at Plays out of the stiff Disputes of Love and Honour And are they not likely to give a wonderful Account of the Record of Ancient Times without which they are utterly unable to judg of the Truth or Falshood of any Religion that were never acquainted with any History unless perhaps that of the Follies and Amours of the French Court And yet how briskly do these giddy Youths determine these and a thousand other Difficult Theories that they never had Learning or Patience enough to understand much less to make an exact and satisfying search into their Truth and Evidence Alas young men you are too rash and forward your confidence swells above your Vnderstandings 'T is not for you to pretend to Atheism 't is too great a Priviledge for Boys and Novices 'T is sawsiness for you to be Prophane and to censure Religion Impudence and ill Manners and whatsoever Rational Pleas Atheism may admit of 't is not for such as you to pretend to Wit and Learning enough to understand them And therefore take heed of exposing your Vanity and Weakness and if you will not be Wise yet at least be Modest Be advised not to set up before your time and better to furnish your Vnderstandings before you vent your wit Consider what a fulsome thing it is that when the
above one viz. the fourth that has not divers Laws relating to Church Affairs And as for the Capitulars of Charles the Great together with the Additions of Lewis the Godly his Son and Successour they contain little else but Ecclesiastical Constitutions as may be seen in Lindembrogius his Collection of Ancient Laws together with divers other Laws of Theodorick and other Gothish Kings § 18. And next to the Divine Providence we owe the Settlement and Preservation of Christian Religion in the World to the Conduct of Christian Princes For by the time of Constantine the Primitive Spirit and Genius of Christianity was wearing out of fashion and the Meekness and Humility of its first Professours began to give place to a furious and tumultuary Zeal and no sooner did the heats of Persecution begin to abate but the Church was presently shattered into swarms of Factions by the violent Passions and Animosities of its Members about bare Speculations or useless Practices And of all the quarrels that ever disturbed the World there were never any perhaps so excuseless or so irregular as those of Christendom of which 't is hard to determine whether they were commenced with more folly and indiscretion or pursued with more passion and frowardness The rage and fierceness of Christians had kindled such a Fire in the Church that it must unavoidably have been consumed by its own Combustions had not the Christian Emperours employed all their Power to suppress the Fury of the Flames And though in spight of all their Prudence and Industry Christianity was sadly impaired by its own Tumults and Seditions yet had it not been for the care of Christian Princes it had in all humane probability been utterly destroyed and the Flames that had once caught its Superstructures must without remedy have burnt up its very Foundations And if we look into the Records and Histories of the first Christian Emperours we shall find that the most dangerous Disturbances that threatned the State had their beginnings in the Church and that the Empire was more shaken by the intestine Commotions that arose from Religion than by Foreign Wars and Invasions And upon this account is it that we find them so highly concern'd to reconcile all the Discords and allay all the Heats about Religion by silencing needless and unprofitable Controversies determining certain necessary Truths prescribing decent Rites Ceremonies of Publick Worship and all other wise and prudent Expedients to bring the minds and practices of men to Sobriety and Moderation § 19. And by this means was the outward Polity of the Church tolerably well established and the Affairs of Religion competently well grounded though better or worse according to the wisdom and vigilance of the several Emperours till the Bishops of Rome usurp'd one half of the Imperial Power and annexed the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Supremacy to their own See For taking advantage of the Distractions occasioned partly by the Incursions of the Northern Nations on the West partly by the Invasions of the Turkish Power on the East but mainly by the Division of the Empire it self they gain'd either by force or fraud the whole Dominion of Religion to themselves and by pretending to the Spirit of Infallibility usurp'd an absolute and uncontroulable Empire over the Faiths and Consciences of mankind And whilst they at first pretended no other Title to their Sovereignty but what they derived from Religion they were constrain'd to scrue up their Power to an unmeasurable Tyranny thereby to secure themselves in those Insolencies and Indignities wherewith they perpetually affronted the Princes of Christendom And knowing the Free-born Reason of men would never tamely brook to be enslaved to so ignoble a Tyranny they proclaim'd it a Traytour or what is the same a Heretick to the Catholick Faith and by their lowd noises and menaces frighted it out of Christendom In which design they at length advanced so far till Rome Christian became little less fond and superstitious than Rome Heathen and Christianity it self was almost debauched to the lowest guise of Paganism and Europe the Seat of the most refined and politest part of mankind was involved in a more than African Ignorance and Barbarity And thus did they easily usher in the grand departure and Apostasie from Religion by the falling away from Reason and founded the Roman Faith as well as Empire upon the Ruines of Humane Liberty § 20. In which sad posture continued the Affairs of Christendom till the Reformation which though it has wrought wonderful Alterations in the Christian World yet has it not been able to resettle Princes in their full natural Rights in reference to the Concerns of Religion For although the Supremacy of the Civil Power in Religious matters be expresly asserted in all the Publick Confessions of the Reformed Churches but especially in that of the Church of England which is not content barely to affirm it but denounces the Sentence of Excommunication against all that deny it Yet by reason of the exorbitant Power that some pert and pragmatical Divines have gain'd over the minds of the People this great Article has found little or no entertainment in their Practices there starting up a race of proud and imperious men about the beginning of the Reformation who not regarding the Princes Power took upon themselves to frame precise Hypotheses of Orthodoxy and to set up their own Pedantick Systems and Institutions for the Standards of Divine Truth and wanting what the other had the Authority of Prescription they pretended to the Spirit of God and this pretence not only excused but justified any wild Theorems they could not prove by sober Reason and those that would be awed with it they embraced for Orthodox and those that would not they branded for Hereticks by which little device they decoyed the silly and ignorant rabble into their own party The effect of all which has been nothing but a Brutish and Fanatick Ignorance making men to talk of little else but Raptures and Extasies and filling the World with a buzze and noise of the Divine Spirit whereby they are only impregnably possess'd with their own wild and extravagant Fansies become saucy and impudent for Religion confound Order and despise Government and will be guided by nothing but the whimsies and humours of an unaccountable Conscience § 21. And hence it comes to pass that most Protestant Princes have been frighted not to say Hector'd out of the Exercise of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by the Clamours of giddy and distemper'd Zealots Superstition and Enthusiasm have out-fac'd the Laws and put Government out of Countenance by the boldness of their Pretensions Confident men have talked so lowdly of the Inviolable Sacredness and Authority of their Consciences that Governours not throughly instructed in the nature and extent of their Power so lately restored to them have been almost scared from intermedling with any thing that could upon this score plead its Priviledge and Exemption from their Commands And how
Common-wealths they could not want Prudence to Judge what Circumstances were conducive to Order and Decency in Publick Worship And if we take a Survey of all the Forms of Divine Service practised in the Christian Church there is not any of them can so much as pretend to be appointed in the Word of God but depend on the Authority of the Civil Power in the same manner as all Customs and Laws of Civil Government do And therefore to quarrel with those Forms of Publick Worship that are established by Authority only because they are Humane Institutions is at once notorious Schism and Rebellion For where a Religion is Establish'd by the Laws whoever openly refuses Obedience plainly rebels against the Government Rebellion being properly nothing else but an open denial of Obedience to the Civil Power Nor can Men of this Principle live Peaceably in any Church in Christendom in that there is not a Church in the World that has not peculiar Rites and Customs and Laws of Government and Discipline § 7. But of this I shall have occasion to account elsewhere and shall rather chuse to observe here from what I have discoursed of the Use and Nature of Outward Worship the Prodigious Impertinency of that clamour some men have for so many years kept up against the Institution of Significant Ceremonies when 't is the only Use of Ceremonies as well as all other outward Expressions of Religion to be significant In that all Worship is only an Outward Sign of Inward Honour and is indifferently perform'd either by Words or Actions for respect may as well be signified by Deeds and Postures and Visible Solemnities as by Solemn Expressions Thus to approach the Divine Majesty with such Gestures as are wont to betoken Reverence and Humility is as proper a Piece of Worship as to Celebrate his Greatness by Solemn Praises And to offer Sacrifices and Oblations was among the Ancients the same sort of Worship as to return Thanksgivings they being both equally outward Signs of Inward Love and Gratitude And therefore there can be no more Exception against the Signification of Ceremonies than of Words seeing this is the proper Office of both in the Worship of God And as all Forms and Ceremonies and Outward Actions of External Worship are in a manner equally Significant so are they equally Arbitrary only some happen to be more Universally Practised and others to be Confined to some particular Times and Places Kneeling lying Prostrate being Bare-headed Lifting up the Hands or Eyes are not more naturally Significant of Worship and Adoration than putting off the Shoes bowing the Head or bending the Body and if some are more generally used than others that proceeds not from their Natural Significancy but from Custom and Casual Prescriptions and to Bow the Body when we mention the Name of Iesus is as much a natural signification of Honour to his Person as Kneeling or being Bare-headed or lifting up the Hands or Eyes when we offer up our Prayers to him But if all Outward Actions become to betoken Honour by Institution then whatsoever Outward Signs are appointed by the Common-wealth unless they are Customary Marks of Contempt and so carry in them some Antecedent Vndecency are proper Signs of Worship for if Actions are made Significant by Agreement those are most so whose signification is ratified by Publick Consent § 8. So that all the Magistrates Power of instituting Significant Ceremonies amounts to no more than a Power of Determining what shall or shall not be Visible Signs of Honour and this certainly can be no more Usurpation upon the Consciences of men than if the Sovereign Authority should take upon it self as some Princes have done to define the Signification of Words For as Words do not naturally denote those things which they are used to represent but have their Import Stampt upon them by consent and Institution and and may if Men would agree to it among themselves be made Marks of Things quite contrary to what they now signifie So the same Gestures and Actions are indifferently capable of signifying either Honour or Contumely and therefore that they may have a certain and setled meaning 't is necessary their Signification should be Determined and unless this be done either by some Positive Command or Publick Consent or some other way there can be no such thing as Publick Worship in the World in that its proper End and Usefulness is to express Mens Agreement in giving Honour to the Divine Majesty and therefore unless the Signs by which this Honour is signified be Publick and Uniform 't is not Publick Worship because there is no Publick Signification of Honour So far is it from being unlawful for Governours to define Significant Ceremonies in Divine Worship that it is rather Necessary in that unless they were defined it would cease to be Publick Worship And when different men worship God by different Actions according to their different Fansies 't is not Publick but Private Worship in that they are not Publick but Private Signs of Honour So that Uniformity in the Outward Actions of Religious Worship is of the same Use as certainty in the Signification of Words because otherwise they were no Publick Expressions of Honour And therefore to sum up the whole Result of this Discourse If all Internal Actions of the Soul are beyond the Jurisdiction of Humane Power if by them the substance of Religious Worship be perform'd if all Outward Forms of Worship have no other Use than only to be Instruments to express Inward Religion and if the Signification of Actions be of the same Nature with that of Words then when the Civil Magistrate takes upon him to determine any particular Forms of Outward Worship 't is after all that hideous and ridiculous Noise that is raised against it of no worse Consequence than if he should go about to define the Signification of all Words used in the Worship of God CHAP. IV. Of the Nature of all Actions Intrinsecally Evil and their Exemption from the Authority of Humane Laws against Mr. Hobs with a full confutation of his whole Hypothesis of Government The Contents NO Magistrate can Command Actions Internally Evil. The Reason hereof is not because Men are in any thing free from the Supreme Authority in Earth but because they are subject to a Superiour in Heaven To take off all Obligations antecedent to Humane Laws is utterly to destroy all Government Mr. Hobs his Hypothesis concerning the Nature and Original of Government proposed It s Absurdity demonstrated from its Inconsistency with the Natural Constitution of Things The Principles of Government are to be Adapted not to an Imaginary but to the Real State of Nature This Hypothesis apparently denies either the Being of God or the Goodness and Wisdom of Providence It irrecoverably destroys the Safety of all Societies of Mankind in the World It leaves us in as miserable Condition under the State of Government as we were in his supposed Natural State of
Enemies to the Faith Besides that all men are naturally more zealous about the Principles in which they differ than about those in which they agree Opposition whets and sharpens their zeal because it endangers the truths they contend for whereas those that are not opposed are secure and out of hazard of being stifled by the adverse Party that is concern'd equally with themselves for their preservation And hence we see by daily Experience that men who are tame and cool enough in the Fundamentals of Religion are yet utterly impatient about their own unlearned and impertinent Wranglings and lay a greater stress upon the Speculations of their own Sect than upon the Duties of an absolute and indispensable necessity only because those are contradicted by their Adversaries and these are not Well then seeing all dissenting Parties are possess'd with a furious and passionate zeal to promote their own perswasions and seeing they are perswaded that their zeal is in God's Cause and against the Enemies of God's Truths How vain is it to expect Peace and Settlement in a Common-wealth where their Religion keeps men in a state of War where zeal is arm'd against zeal and Conscience encounters Conscience where the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls lies at stake and where Curse ye Meroz is the Word of both Parties So that whatsoever projects fansiful men may propose to themselves if we consider the passions of humane Nature as long as Differences and Competitions in Religion are kept up it will be impossible to keep down mutual hatreds jealousies and animosities and so many divided Churches as there are in a State there will ever be so many different Armies who though they are not always in actual fighting are always in a disposition to it Beside where there are divided Interests of Religion in the same Kingdom how shall the Prince behave himself towards them If he go about to ballance them against one another this is the ready way to forfeit his Interest in them all and whilst he seems concern'd for no Party no Party will be really concern'd for him every one having so much esteem for it self as to think it ought to enjoy more of his favour and countenance than any other And withal 't is an infinite trouble and difficulty to poise them so equally but that one Party shall grow more strong and numerous than the rest and then there is no appeasing their zeal till it has destroyed and swallowed up all the weaker Interests But suppose he be able to manage them so prudently as always to keep the ballance equal he does thereby but keep up so many Parties that are ready form'd to joyn with any emergent Quarrels of State and whenever the Grandees fall out 't is but heading one of these and there is an Army And let men but reflect upon all the late Civil Wars and Rebellions of Christendom and then tell me which way they could either have been commenced or continued had it not been for different Factions of Religion If he side with one Party and by his favour mount it above the rest that not only discontents but combines all the other dissenting Factions into an united opposition against his own and it becomes their common Interest to work and contrive its ruine its prosperity does but exasperate the competition of all its Rivals into rage and indignation and as success makes it self more secure in its settlement so it makes them more restless and industrious to overturn it No Party can ever be quiet or content as long as 't is under any other but will ever be heaving and struggling to dismount the Power that keeps it down and therefore we find that all Dissenters from the establish'd frame of things are always assaulting it with open violence or undermining it by secret practices and will hazard the State and all to free themselves from oppression and oppress'd they are as long as they are the weaker Party And therefore we never find this way of Toleration put in practice under any Government but where other Exigences of State required and kept up a standing Army and by this means 't is not so difficult to prevent the Broils and Contentions of Zeal but this is only a more violent way of governing mens Consciences and instead of restraining them by Laws Penalties it does the same thing with Forts and Cittadels So that unless we are willing to put our selves to the expence and hazard of keeping up standing Forces indulgence to dissenting Zealots does but expose the State to the perpetual squabbles and Wars of Religion And we may as well suppose all men to be wise and honest and upon that account cancel all the Laws of Justice and Civil Government as imagine where there are divided Factions in Religion that men will be temperate and peaceable in the enjoyment of their own conceits and not disturb the publick Peace to promote and establish them when 't is so well known from the experience of all Ages that nothing has ever been a more effectual Engine to work popular Commotions than Changes and Reformations in Religion Sect. 6. So that though the State think it self unconcern'd to restrain mens Perswasions and Opinions yet methinks they should be a little concern'd to prevent the Tumults and Disturbances that naturally arise from their propagation And could it be secured That if all men were indulged their liberty they would use it modestly and be satisfied with their own freedom then I confess Toleration of all Opinions would not be of so fatal and dangerous consequence as if all men were as wise and honest as Socrates they might as well as he be their own Law and left entirely to their own Liberty as to all the entercourses and transactions of Humane life But alas this is made infinitely impossible from the corrupt Passions and Humours of Men All Sects ever were and ever will be fierce and unruly to inlarge their own Interests invading or supplanting whatever opposes their increase and will all certainly conspire the Ruine of that Party that prevails and triumphs over the rest every Faction ever apprehending it its due to be Supreme and there will ever be a necessity of Reformation as long as all Factions are not uppermost and it will be crime enough in any one Party to be superiour to another So that if all our dissenting Sectaries were allowed their entire liberty nothing can be expected especially from people of their complexion but that they should all plot together against the present Establishment of the Church every Combination being fully perswaded of its worthlesness in comparison to it self for unless they had apprehended their own way more excellent they had never divided from ours Beside that 't is a fundamental Principle that runs through all their Sects That they are bound under pain of Eternal Damnation to labour their utmost to establish the Worship of God in in its greatest Purity and Perfection and withal
be expected if we consider the weaknesses and imperfections of humane Nature and therefore we must bear it as well as we can because if we go about to alter any present Setlement we must almost of necessity make it worse And all the effects of such attempts have seldom ended in any thing else but perpetual Confusions till things have at length resetled in the same or as bad if not a worse condition than they were in before The miseries of Tyranny are less than those of Anarchy and therefore 't is better to submit to the unreasonable Impositions of Nero or Caligula than to hazard the dissolution of the State and consequently all the Calamities of War and Confusion by denying our subjection to Tyrants And there never was any lawful Magistrate so bad whose Laws and Government were not more conducive to the preservation of the Common Good than his Oppression was to subvert it and 't is wisely eligible to suffer a less Evil rather than lose a greater good 'T is a known and a wise saying of Tacitus Bonos Principes voto expetere debemus qualescunque pati quomodo sterilitatem aut nimios imbres caetera Naturae mala sic luxum avaritiam dominantium tolerare And this in one word is not only a satisfactory Answer but an ample Confutation of that Pestilent Book Vindiciae contra Tyrannos the scope whereof is only to invite Subjects to rebel against Tyrannical Government by representing the evils of Tyranny which though they were as great as he supposes them to be yet they are abundantly less than those that follow upon Rebellion as himself and his Party were sufficiently taught by the Event And for one Common-wealth he can instance in that has gain'd by Rebellion 't is easie to produce an hundred that it has hazarded if not utterly ruined And therefore this Author not to mention Mariana and Buchanan and others has perform'd nothing in behalf of his Cause by displaying the miseries of a Tyrannical Power unless he had withal evinced them to be more calamitous than those of War and Confusion There is nothing in this World that depends upon the freedom of man's will can be so securely establish'd as not to be liable to sad inconveniences and therefore that Constitution of Affairs is most eligible that is liable to the fewest And upon this score I say it is that the Divine Law has so severely injoin'd us to submit to the worst of Governours because notwithstanding that Tyranny is an oppressing burden of Humane life yet 't is less intolerable than a state of War and Confusion Sect. 16. But to speak more expresly to the particular matter in debate 'T is necessary the world must be govern'd govern'd it cannot be without Religion Religion as harmless and peaceable as it is in it self yet when mixt with the Follies and Passions of men it does not usually inspire them with overmuch gentleness and goodness of Nature and therefore 't is necessary that it submit to the same Authority that commands over all the other affections of the mind of man And we may as well suppose all men just and honest and upon that account cancel all the Laws of Equity as suppose them wise and sober in their Religious Conceits and upon that score take off all restraints from the excesses and enormities of Zeal 'T is therefore as necessary to the preservation of Publick Peace that men should be govern'd in matters of Religion as in all other common Affairs of Humane life And as for all the inconveniences that may follow from it they are no other than what belong to all manner of Government and such as are and must be unavoidable as long as mankind is endued with liberty of Will for so long he cannot be intrusted with any Power how good soever that he may not abuse And therefore for men to go about to abrogate the Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction of the Civil Magistrate because he may abuse it to evil and irreligious ends by establishing Idolatry instead of the true Worship of God in which case 't is pity that good men should be exposed to ruine only for preserving a good Conscience 'T is just as reasonable as if they should cashier all manner of Government and set men free from all Oaths and Obligations of Allegiance because 't is possible some Usurper may gain the Supreme Power and then force his Subjects to abjure all their former Oaths to their lawful Sovereign and 't is pity that men of the gallantest and most honest Principles should be fined decimated hanged banish'd and Murdered only for their loyalty to their Prince And thus will the Parallel run equal in all Cases between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Authority of the Supreme Powers both may be and often are lamentably abused and therefore if that be reason enough to abolish one 't is so to abolish both so that the whole result of all amounts only to this Enquiry Whether it would not be a politick course to take away all Government because all Government may be abused Sect. 17. Though this be a sufficient reply to the Objection yet it will not be altogether impertinent or unnecessary to abet it with this one consideration more That it may and often does so happen that 't is necessary to punish men for such Perswasions into which they have perhaps innocently abused themselves for 't is easily possible for well-meaning People through ignorance and inadvertency to be betrayed into such unhappy Errors as may tend to the Publick Disturbance which though it be not so much their Crime as Infelicity yet is there no remedy but it must expose them to the Correction of the Publick Rods and Axes Magistrates are to take care of the Common-wealth and not of every particular mans concerns And the end of all their Laws is to provide for the welfare of the Publick that is their Charge and that they must secure and if any harmless and well-meaning man make himself obnoxious to the Penalties of the Law that is a misfortune they cannot prevent and therefore must deal with him as they do with all other Offenders that is pity and punish him Private interest must yield to Publick Good and therefore when they cannot stand together and there is no remedy but one must suffer 't is better certainly that one or a few should perish than the whole Community Neither is it possible that any Laws should be so warily contrived but that some innocent Persons may sometimes fall under their Penalties yet because 't is more beneficial to the Publick Welfare that now and then a guiltless person should suffer than that all the guilty should escape in that the former injures but one the latter all Therefore is it necessary to govern all Societies by Laws and Penalties without regard to the ill fortune that may befal a few single persons which can hardly be avoided whilst the Laws are in force and yet 't is
convincing them at least of the possibility of their being deceived reduce them to a more humble and governable temper Why do they not teach them in plain terms that the establish'd way of Worship is lawful and innocent and therefore that they ought not to forsake it to the disturbance of the Church and contempt of Authority If they would but make it part of their business to undeceive the people how easily would all their stragling Followers return into the Communion of the Church But they dare not let them know their Errours lest they should forfeit both their Party and their Reputation And therefore instead of that they rather confirm them in their mistakes and in their own defence are forced to perswade them that they ought to be scandalized Insomuch that it is not unusual to hear the foolish people pretend it concerning themselves and to tell you that your action is a Scandal to them By which they mean either that it leads them into sin or that it makes them angry If the former that is a ridiculous contradiction for if they know how the snare and temptation is laid then they know how to escape it my action does not force them into the sin but only invites them to it through their own mistake and folly And therefore if they have discovered by what mistake they are likely to be betray'd they know how to provide against the danger For if they know their duty in the case how can they plead Scandal when that supposes ignorance And however I behave my self they know what they have to do themselves If they do not How can they say of themselves that they are scandalized when by so saying they confess they are not For that implies a knowledge how to do their duty and avoid the danger If the latter i. e. that they are angry then all their meaning is that I must part with my liberty and disobey my Superiors to please them that their saucy humour must give me Law that I must be their Slave because they are proud and insolent and that they must gain a power over me because they are forward to censure mine actions § 7. Thirdly We encounter Scandal with Scandal and let the guilt of all be discharged upon that side that occasions the most and the greatest offences Now all the mischief they can pretend to ensue in the present constitution of affairs upon their compliance with Authority reaches no farther than the weak Brethren of their own Party whereas by their refractory disobedience they give offence not only to them but to all both to the Jew and to the Gentile and to the Church of God And not to insist upon the advantages they give to Atheism and Popery let me only mind them that if the accidental offence of the Judgments of some well-meaning but less knowing Christians of a private capacity pass a sufficient obligation upon Conscience to restrain it from any practice in it self lawful of how much more force must that scandal be that is given to publick Authority by denying obedience to its lawful commands and by consequence infringing its just power in things not forbidden by any divine Law Now if the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England were in themselves apparently evil then their repugnancy to the Law of God were sufficient Objection both against their practice and their imposition and their scandal to weak and ignorant Christians were of small force in comparison to their intrinsick and unalterable unlawfulness But because this is not pretended in our present case What a shameful scandal and reproach to Religion is it to neglect the necessary duty of Obedience and subjection to lawful Authority under pretence of complyance with the weak and groundless scruples of some private men 'T is certainly past dispute that the reasonable offence of some weaker Brethren cannot so strongly oblige our Consciences as the indispensable command of obeying our lawful Superiors And it is a shame to demand Whether the Judgment of a lawful Magistrate have not more force and power over Conscience than the Judgment of every private Christian If not then may the Laws of Authority be cancell'd and controul'd by the folly and ignorance of those that are subject to them for meer scandal arises only from the folly and ignorance of the persons offended For if there be any just and wise occasion of dislike the action becomes primarily unlawful not because 't is scandalous but because 't is antecedently evil whereas meer and proper scandal is only concern'd in things in themselves indifferent So that in this case all the difficulty is Whether is the greater scandal to do an indifferent thing when a private Christian dislikes it or not to do it when publick Authority enjoyns it And certainly it can be no Controversie Whether it be a fouler reproach to Religion to disobey a Christian Magistrate in a thing lawful and indifferent than to offend a private Christian. And I may safely appeal to the Judgment of all wise and sober men Whether the intolerable waywardness of some nice and squeamish Consciences to the commands of just Authority be not a fouler and more notorious scandal to Religion than a modest and humble compliance with them though in things not so apparently useful and necessary And then as for their own weak Brethren of whom they seem so exceedingly tender they can no way more scandalize them than by complying with them By which they are tempted and betray'd into the greatest and most mischievous enormities for thereby they encourage their folly feed and cherish their ungrounded fancies confirm them in a false opinion of the unlawfulness of their Superiors commands and so lead them directly into the sins of unwarrantable Schism and Disobedience How many feeble and deluded Souls are enticed by the reputation of their example to violate the commands of Authority and that when themselves are not convinced of their unlawfulness and so entangle themselves in a complicated sin by disobeying their lawful Superiors and that with a doubtful and unsatisfied Conscience They cannot be ignorant that the greatest part of their zealous Disciples are offended at the Laws and Constitutions of the Church for no other reason than because they see their godly Ministers to slight them and therefore unless their example be sufficient to rescind the lawful Commands of their Governors they give them the most criminal Scandal by inviting them to the most criminal disobedience So that all circumstances fairly considered the avoiding of offences will prove the most effectual inducement to Conformity For this would take away the very Grounds and Foundations of Scandal remove all our differences prevent much trouble and more sin cure all our Schisms Quarrels and Divisions banish our mutual Jealousies Censures and Animosities and establish the Nation in a firm and lasting Peace In brief the only cause of all our troubles and disturbances is the inflexible perversness of about an hundred