the Kingdom is not of this World, the Powers belonging to this Kingdom cannot be of this World. But how thofe, who derive all Church Power and Authority from the Magiftrate or the People, can upon their own Principles exclude temporal Punishments in Matters of Religion, I cannot well conceive: for if the Authority be of this World, the Magiftrate bears the Sword, to command Obedience to his Laws and Edicts; and the Exercise of the Sword reaches as far as his Authority goes; and therefore if the Power of the Church is founded in his Authority, it must likewife be upheld by his Sword; and confequently, those who are for throwing all spiritual Power out of the Church, and introducing into the Room of it, a Power derived from the civil Magiftrate, muft, to exempt the Confciences of Men from a fpiritual Jurifdiction, fubmit them to a temporal; and leave them to truckle to the Power of the Sword; which is in its Confequence, whatever it may be in its Principle, downright Popery.

As the Power of the Magiftrate is by fome exalted in Matters of Religion, beyond all Proportion of Reason; fo by others it is as much depreffed.

Let

Let us therefore in the second Place proceed to fhew, that the Reason of the Text does not affect the civil Magiftrate's Power, nor tie up his Hands from interpofing with the civil Sword, in Matters proper for its Jurifdiction, however they may be pretended to be allied to Religion.

The Foundation or Principle upon which the Magiftrate's Power has been both unreasonably exalted and depreffed, is Liberty of Confcience. Though, to fpeak properly, on the one side a Liberty from Confcience feems to be the Thing aimed at; for which Reason all Regard to fpiritual Matters is ftruck out, and the Magiftrate's Will fet up as the fupreme Law of Confcience; on the other Side a Liberty for Confcience to act as it pleases, is the Thing contended for; and therefore the Magiftrate's Power, in all Cafes where Confcience is concerned, is taken away, and Men fet at Liberty to act as their Confcience, how erroneous foever, fhall direct them, without Controul. But it ought to be remembered, that the Arguments drawn from the Nature of Religion, and of Chrift's fpiritual Kingdom, against the Use of temporal Punishments, are conclufive only as to the Minifters of that King

dom;

dom; and cannot extend to the civil Magiftrate: they, as they are Ministers of a Kingdom purely fpiritual, can have no Claim as fuch to any temporal Power; and therefore they can exercise none: they confider Men's Actions with respect to the Confequences of them in another World, and therefore they denounce the Punishments of another World against Offenders: Knowing the Terrors of the Lord, we perfuade Men. But the civil Magiftrate has a temporal Power; and the Peace and Order of this World are his Care and Concern: it is his proper Business to confider the Actions of Men with regard to public Peace and Order; without refpecting from what internal Principle they flow. If the Actions of Men are fuch as tend to disturb the Peace, or to deftroy the Frame of the Government over which he prefides; whether they proceed from Confcience or not, he is not bound to confider; nor indeed can he; but it is his Duty to punish and to restrain them. When-> ever Men's Religion or Confcience come to fhew themselves in Practice, they fall under the Cognizance of the civil Power: or whenever they branch out into Principles deftructive of the civil Government, they

are

are then ripe for the civil Sword, and may justly be rooted out. Upon these Principles, I presume there have been many penal Laws enacted against Popery in this Kingdom: not upon the weak Suppofition that no Man's Confcience ever led him to be a Papist; but upon this known and experienced Truth, that whenever a Man's Confcience leads him to be a Papift, it leads him to be an Enemy to the Conftitution of this Government; and therefore the Government has a Right to fecure itself against the Practices of a profeffed Enemy, by the Terror of temporal Punishments, notwithstanding the Pleas of Confcience and Religion. And fhould any Sect hereafter arife, entering into Practices, or profeffing Principles destructive of the legal Conftitution, the Magistrate would have as good a Right to unfheath the Sword against them, as at present he has to do it against the Papists: nor fhall it avail them, any more than these, to say, they act upon Principles of Religion or Conscience.

As to mere Difference in Opinion, which ends only in Speculation, or influences only the internal Acts of the Mind, or produces only fuch external Acts as no Way concern the public Peace, I fee not how the Magif

trate

trate can intereft himself in them: but wherever Difference of Opinion is attended with Consequences that may affect the State, how can it stand with Reason, or public Good, to exclude the Magiftrate's Power in fuch Cafes ?

Men often difpute against penal Laws, under the Notion of their being Laws of the Church; which of Right they never can be; for the Church has no Right or Authority to impofe penal Laws: they are, ftrictly and properly fpeaking, Laws of the State; they have for their End, as all other civil Laws have, the Good of the State, and are enacted to prevent the Growth either of Principles or Practices which are conceived to be dangerous: and I would fain know how the Subject's Confcience can bind the Magiftrate's Power from acting in its proper Sphere, which is to prevent all growing Dangers to the State. There have been thofe in this Kingdom, and there may be again, who found themselves persuaded in Confcience, that the Goods of Chriftians were common: fhould fuch a one come to fhare with you, as he would call it, in your Goods, or as the Law would term it, to rob you of them, would his Confcience and his