the least colour of reason, pretend that I have a right to judge for myself, and yet punish me for using it? That is, for doing that which he acknowledges I have a right to do. To plead for it, would be a direct contradiction in terms. And if it should be said, as some have most weakly asserted, that the erroneous are to be punished, not for their opinions, but for their actions in consequence of those opinions, I would then enquire, for what actions? And how are these actions condemned? Not on account of their tendency to disturb and annoy the public; for that case has already been excluded from the charge of persecution and, when that is excluded, I repeat the question, How are those actions condemned? Why, the persecutor must say, "I know them to be contrary to the divine law." But, how do you prove, that you are not mistaken? If you allow of argument on the head, you give up the cause of persecution so far. If you wave argument, you only, in effect, say, "The actions are wrong, because I condemn them; i. c. in other words, I am infallible, I am to judge for myself and you; and, by a parity of reason, for all the world besides." And who might not make that pretence? Or, how should it ever be decided but by the sword, in the present circumstances?

:

2. Persecution is most evidently inconsistent with that obvious and fundamental principle of morality, That we should do to others, as we could reasonably desire they should do to us.

This is a rule which carries its own demonstration along with it; and it was intended on purpose to take off that bias of self-love, which would draw us aside from the strait line of equity, and lead us to be partial judges between our neighbours and ourselves. Now, I would ask the advocate of wholesome severities, How he would relish his own arguments, if they were turned upon himself! What if he were to go abroad into the world, amongst papists, if he be a protestant; amongst mahometans, if he be a christian? Supposing he was to behave like an honest man, like a good neighbour, like a peaceable subject; avoiding whatever would injure and provoke, and taking all opportunities to serve and oblige those about him: would he think that, merely because he refused to follow his neighbours to their altars, or their mosques, he should be seized and imprisoned, his goods confiscated, and his person condemned to tortures, or death? Undoubtedly, he would complain of this as a very great hardship. And what if one, who heard him plead for religious severities at home, were to remind him of it, would he not be wounded with his own arrows? What could he answer? "I am in the right and these people are in the wrong."

Nay, would the inquisitor, or the Turk, cry full as loudly as he, "But we are in the right:" and they might justly add, "With what face can you complain of us, for treating you in such a manner, as, you must confess, you should think yourself bound in conscience to treat us, if we were in your power, as you are in ours?" Surely, a man would see the absurdity and injustice of such a treatment, when it fell upon him; when, with such measure as he had meted to others, it was measured to him again. And accordingly, I must observe, as many have done, that the effect of this argument is so cogent, that those who, when they have had the power in their own hands, have been least willing to tolerate others, have immediately found new light breaking in upon them, as soon as they have needed toleration themselves.

3. Persecution is evidently absurd, as it is, by no means, calculated to answer the end which its patrons profess to intend by it.

I say, which they profess to intend: for if the priests do really intend to make the laity slaves, that they may exalt their own empire, and increase their possessions, it may indeed very probably answer that end; and these holy men may make themselves fat with the sin and plunder of the people, and purchase church-lands with the price of their blood. But, to save appearances at least, they profess to intend the glory of God, and the salvation of men; for so you know the forms of the inquisition run, "To answer to sundry questions relating to their soul's health, as well as the correction of their manners and excess." Now, I beseech you, let it be seriously considered, how persecution can be like to do good to men's souls.

To be sure, if it does them good at all, it must be, by making them truly religious. But what is true religion? Is it to repeat a creed, or subscribe a confession, to wear a name, or perform a ceremony? If it be, I am sure religion is much changed from what it was, when the scriptures were writ: and the nature of God must be entirely changed too, before such a religion can be acceptable to him, or before it can have the least value in his sight.

True religion must be founded in the inward conviction of the mind, or it is impossible it should be what yet it must be, a Reasonable service *. And pray let it be considered what violence and persecution can do, towards pro..

*Rom. xii. 1.

ducing such an inward conviction. It cannot to be sure do it immediately by its own power; because it is a demonstration, that will at the same moment suit both the parts of a contradiction. And it is certain a man might as reasonably expect to bind an immaterial spirit with a cord, or to beat down a wall by an argument, as to convince the understanding by threats or by tortures. They may indeed make a man mad, but it is the hardest thing in the world to imagine how they should ever make him wise.

Not immediately, you will say we grant that. But mediately they may; as by these severities his mind may be awakened to attend to arguments; thus a rational conviction may be introduced: and The rod and reproof may give wisdom. But I confess I cannot see how a man is the more likely to judge of an argument because he hears it on the rack, or because he sees the lash, or perhaps the sword over his head, and trembles lest he should not believe it. Far from opening the mind to fair conviction, methinks it should rather prejudice a man against it; as it would give him some aversion even to a draught otherwise agreeable, to have it forced down by such methods as a drench is given to a horse. There is, if you will pardon the expression, a kind of an elasticity in the human mind; and the more violently it is pressed down and bent, the more forcibly does it endeavour to expand itself again. But if this were to be put out of the question, we may depend upon it that none will ever have the better opinion of any religion because it makes its professors very bad men; and so they will undoubtedly think their persecutors to be.

Nay, indeed, I should rather think that if they were pretty well satisfied in the religion of their country before, the very thought of its being defended and obtruded on others in this brutish and unnatural way, would be enough to raise some secret suspicions to its disadvantage+: Suspicions which perhaps might prevail, and impress the mind more strongly, where men were not allowed to give any vent to them; or even to propose their doubts, lest it should be looked upon as a crafty way of insinuating their heresies, and should be a word spoken against their estates, or perhaps against their lives. On the whole, as you have often been told, persecution is much more likely to make men hypocrites than sincere converts. They

*Prov. xxix. 15.

If there be on earth a way to render the most sacred truth suspected, it is supporting it with threats, and pretending to terrify men into the belief Shafts. Char. Vol. III. p. 107.

of it.

may perhaps, if they have not a firm integrity, and heroic courage, change their profession, while they retain their sentiments; and, supposing them before to have been unwarily in the wrong, may learn, I will not say, to barter away honesty for truth, though that were a traffic which no wise man would covet, but rather to add falsehood and villainy to error. How glo. rious a prize after all! especially, when we consider, at what an expence it is gained. Which leads me to add,

4. That persecution evidently tends to produce a great deal of mischief and confusion in the world.

It may truly be said, where persecution is, and that zeal, and rage which is inseparable from it, There is confusion, and every evil work *. It is mischievous to those on whom it falls, and in its consequences mischievous to others too; so mischievous, that one would wonder, that any wise princes should ever have admitted it into their dominions; or that they should not immediately banish it thence. This follows, in part, from what I said under the former head of my discourse; even where it succeeds so far, as to produce a change in men's forms of worship, it generally makes them no more than hypocritical professors of what they do not believe; and this must undoubtedly debauch their characters: so that having been villains in one respect, it is very probable they will be so in another; and having brought deceit and falsehood into their religion, they will easily bring it into their conversation and commerce.

This effect persecution will have where it is yielded to. In other respects, it will be yet more immediately and apparently mischievous where it is opposed. And it is probable it will be often opposed, by those who have certainly a title to the greatest protection and favour of the government; I mean upright and conscientious men. An honest mind, zealous for what it apprehends to be the cause of truth, and animated by the thoughts of the divine presence and protection, will learn to say of bonds and imprisonments, and even of tortures, as St. Paul did, None of these things move me, in such a cause, neither count I my life dear unto me +. As Mr. Boyle very justly and finely expresses it: "Personal sufferings, which a wellmeaning man undergoes for his conscience, are but such a kind of burden to his mind, as feathers to an eagle or a falcon ; which though in themselves considered they have a weight, in the situation in which they are placed about him, enable him to soar towards heaven, and to reach a height which makes him Occas. Medit. p. 147.

* James iii. 16.
3

Acts xx. 24.

praised and wondered at by beholders." Nay, perhaps where there is no true religion, a native sense of honour in a generous mind may encourage it to endure some hardships for the cause of truth; not to say that sometimes on the principles we hinted above, "Obstinacy may rise as the understanding is oppressed, and continue its opposition for a while, merely to avenge the cause of its injured liberty*."

And it is farther to be remembered, that where the persecution is not very extreme, and sometimes even where it is, spectators are brought to judge more favourably of the cause thus violently opposed, when they observe the fortitude with which the patrons of it endure hardships and severities, from which they might otherwise deliver themselves at so easy a rate. Thus Tertullian boasts to Scapula, under all the butcheries he exercised at Carthage; "Our sect, says he, is built up by your endeavours to destroy it. The very sight of our patience in sufferings awakens men's consciences to enquire into the cause of it; and that enquiry leads them to discover the truth, and embrace it, even though it expose them to the same sufferings +." This made the blood of the martyrs, what it was so often called, the seed of the church. And something of the same spirit has appeared in succeeding ages. Now in proportion to the degree in which a prohibited religion spreads, persecution must spread and propagate itself, and its desolations. And at this rate, if the persecution be severe, as it must be in order to a victory, how many persons, how many families, must be undone by it? For it is apparent, that in many instances what one suffers for the case of his conscience, draws ruin on a family, perhaps on many families dependent on him, wherein some may hardly know their right-hand from their left. I might also mention the encouragement hereby given to informers, who generally in such cases are the vilest and most infamous of mankind: and might discourse copiously on the animosities hereby raised amongst neighbours, on the discouragement of honest industry, and the injury done to trade and commerce ‡. But I rather

*Ludolph's Ethiop. p. 358.

+ Nec tamen deficiet hæc secta quam tunc magis ædificari scias cum cædi videtur. Quisque enim tantam tolerantiam spectans, ut aliquo scrupulo percussus & inquirere accenditur, quid fit in causa, & ubi cognoverit veritatem, & ipse statim sequitur.-Tert. ad Scap. ad fin.

I doubt not but on this occasion many of my readers will recollect that the Dutch were some of the first protestant states which allowed a universal toleration; to which, as Sir William Temple most justly observes," they owe the continued and undisturbed peace of their government, and the mighty increase of their people; wherein will appear to consist chiefly the vast growth of their trade, and riches; and consequently, the strength and greatness of their state." Temple's Netherl. C. v. p. 208.