force is used. For I desire you to name me a country, where the greatest part are really and truly Christians, such as you confidently believe Christ, at the last day, will own to be so. In England having, as you do, excluded all the dissenters; (or else why would you have them punished, to bring them to embrace the true religion?) you must, I fear, allow yourself a great latitude in thinking, if you think that the corruption of human nature does not so far prevail, even amongst conformists, as to make the ignorance, and lives, of great numbers amongst them, such as suits not at all with the spirit of true Christianity. How great their ignorance may be, in the more spiritual and elevated parts of the Christian religion, may be guessed by what the reverend bishop, before cited, says of it, in reference to a rite of the church, the most easy and obvious to be instructed in, and understood. His words are, "In the common management of that holy rite (confirmation) it is but too visible, that of those multitudes that crowd to it, the far greater part come merely as if they were to receive the bishop's blessing, without any sense of the vow made by them, and of their renewing their baptismal engagements in it." Past. Care, p. 189. And if Origen were now alive, might he not find many in our church, to whom these words of his might be applied, "Whose faith signifies only thus much, and goes no farther than this, viz. that they come duly to the church, and bow their heads to the priest?" &c. Hom. in Jos. IX. For it seems it was then the fashion to bow to the priest, as it is now to the altar. If, therefore, you say force is necessary, because without it no men will so consider as to embrace the true religion, for the salvation of their souls; that I think is manifestly false. If you say it is necessary to use such means as will make the greatest part so embrace it, you must use some other means than force, your way applied; for that does not so far work on the majority. If you say it is necessary, because possibly it may work on some, which bare preaching and persuasion will not; I answer, if possibly your moderate punishments may work on some, and therefore they are necessary, it is as possible that greater

VOL. VI.

I I

punishments may work on others, and therefore they are necessary, and so on to the utmost severities.

That the corruption of human nature is every where spread, and that it works powerfully in the children of disobedience, "who receive not the love of the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness;" and therefore God gives them up to believe a lie; nobody, I think, will deny. But that this corruption of human nature works equally in all men, or in all ages; and so that God will, or ever did, give up all men, not restrained by force, your way modified and applied, to believe a lie (as all false religions are), that I yet see no reason to grant. Nor will this instance of Noah's religion, you so much rely on, ever persuade, till you have proved, that from those eight men which brought the true reli gion with them into the new world, there were not eight thousand, or eighty thousand, which retained it in the world in the worst times of the apostasy. And secondly, till you have proved that the false religions of the world prevailed, without any aid from force, or the assistance of the powers in being. And thirdly, that the decay of the true religion was for want of force, your moderate force; neither of which you have at all proved, as I think it manifest.

One consideration more, touching Noah and his religion, give me leave to suggest, and that is, if force were so necessary for the support of true religion, as you make it, it is strange God, who gave him precepts about other things, should never reveal this to him, nor any body else, that I know. To this you, who have confessed the " Scripture not to have given the magistrate this commission," must say, that it is plain enough in the commission that he has from the law of nature, and so needed not any revelation to instruct the magistrate in the right he has to use force. I confess the magistrates have used force in matters of religion, and have been as confidently and constantly put upon it by their priests, as if they had as clear a commission from heaven, as St. Peter had to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. But yet it is plain, notwithstanding that commission from the law of nature, there

needs some farther instruction from revelation; since it does not appear that they have found out the right use of force, such as the true religion requires for its preservation; and though you have, after several thousands of years, at last discovered it, yet it is very im perfectly; you not being able to tell, if a law were now to be made against those who have not considered as they ought, what are those moderate penalties which are to be employed against them, though yet without that all the rest signifies nothing. But however doubt, ful you are in this, I am glad to find you so direct in putting men's rejecting the true religion, upon the difficulty they have to "mortify their lusts, which the true religion requires of them," and I desire you to remember it in other places, where I have occasion to mind you of it.

To conclude, That we may see the great advantage your cause will receive from that instance you so much rely on, of the apostasy after the flood, I shall oppose another to it. You say, that "idolatry prevailed in the world in a few generations, almost to the utter exclusion of the true religion, without any aid from force, or assistance of the powers in being, by reason of toleration." And, therefore, you think there is great reason to fear, that "the true religion would, by toleration, quickly be most effectually extirpated throughout the world:" And I say, that after Christianity was received for the religion of the empire, and whilst political laws and force interposed in it, a horrible apostasy prevailed, to almost the utter exclusion of true religion, and a general introducing of idolatry. And, therefore, I think there is great reason to fear more harm than good from the use of force in religion.

This I think as good an argument against, as yours for, force, and something better; since what you build on is only presumed by you, not proved from history: whereas the matter of fact here is well known; nor will you deny it, when you consider the state of religion in Christendom under the assistance of that force, which you tell us succeeded and supplied the place of withdrawn miracles, which in your opinion are so necessary

in the absence of force, that you make that the reason of their continuance; and tell us, they "were continued till force could be had, not so much for evincing the truth of the Christian religion, as to supply the want of the magistrate's assistance." So that whenever force failed, there, according to your hypothesis, are miracles to supply its want; for, without one of them, the true religion, if we may believe you, will soon be utterly extirpated; and what force, in the absence of miracles, produced in Christendom several ages before the Reformation, is so well known, that it will be hard to find what service your way of arguing will do any but the Romish religion.

But to take your argument in its full latitude, you say, but you say it without book, that there was once a toleration in the world to the almost utter extirpation of the true religion; and I say to you, that as far as records authorize either opinion, we may say force has been always used in matters of religion, to the great prejudice of the true religion, and the professors of it. And there not being an age wherein you can show me, upon a fair trial of an established national toleration, that the true religion was extirpated, or endangered, so much as you pretend by it (whereas there is no age, whereof we have sufficient history to judge of this matter, wherein it will not be easy to find that the true religion, and its followers, suffered by force): you will in vain endeavour, by instances, to prove the ill effects or uselessness of toleration, such as the author proposed; which I challenge you to show me was ever set up in the world, or that the true religion suffered by it; and it is to the want of it, and the restraints and disadvantages the true religion has laboured under, its so little spreading in the world will justly be imputed: until, from better experiments, you have something to say against it.

Our Saviour has promised that he will build his church on this fundamental truth, that he is "Christ the Son of God; so that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it:" and this I believe, though you tell us the true religion is not able to subsist without the

assistance of force, when miracles cease. I do not remember that our Saviour any where promises any other assistance but that of his Spirit; or gives his little flock any encouragement to expect much countenance or help from the great men of the world, or the coercive power of the magistrates, nor any where authorizes them to use it for the support of his church: "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble," 1 Cor. i. 26, is the style of the Gospel; and I believe will be found to belong to all ages of the church militant, past and to come, as well as to the first for God, as St. Paul tells us, has chosen the "foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty;" and this not only till miracles ceased, but ever since. "To be hated for Christ's name sake, and by much tribulation to enter into the kingdom of heaven," has been the general and constant lot of the people of God, as well as it seems to be the current strain of the New Testament; which promises nothing of secular power or greatness; says nothing of "kings being nursing fathers, or queens nursing mothers:" which prophecy, whatever meaning it have, it is like our Saviour would not have omitted to support his church with some hopes and assurance of such assistance, if it were to have any accomplishment before his second coming; when Israel shall come in again, and with the Gentiles make up the fulness of his glorious kingdom. But the tenour of the New Testament is, "All that will live godly in Jesus Christ shall suffer persecution," 2 Tim. iii. 12.

In your Argument considered, you tell us, "that no man can fail of finding the way of salvation that. seeks it as he ought." In my answer, I take notice to you, that the places of Scripture you cite to prove it, point out this way of seeking as we ought, to be a good life: as particularly that of St. John," If any one will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God:" upon which I use these words: "So that these places, if they prove what you cite them for, that no man can fail of finding the way of salvation, who seeks it as he ought;