1555. CHAP. each fide fupported, or might have fupported, XXXVIL their scheme of policy; and fhall display the oppofite reasons, which have been employed, with regard to an argument that ever has been, and ever will be fo much canvaffed. Reasons for toleration. THE practice of perfecution, faid the defenders and against of Pole's opinion, is the fcandal of all religion; and the theological animofity, fo fierce and violent, far, from being an argument of men's conviction in their oppofite fects, is a certain proof, that they have never reached any ferious perfuafion with regard to these remote and fublime fubjects. Even thofe, who are the most impatient of contradiction in other controverfies, are mild and moderate in comparison of polemical divines; and wherever a man's knowledge and experience give him a perfect affurance in his own opinion, he regards with contempt, rather than anger, the oppofition and miftakes of others. But while men zealously maintain what they neither clearly comprehend, nor entirely believe, they are shaken in their imagined faith, by the opposite perfuafion, or even doubts of other men; and vent on their antagonists that impatience, which is the natural refult of fo difagreeable a ftate of the understanding. They then easily embrace any pretence for reprefenting opponents as impious and profane; and if they can also find a color for connecting this 'violence with the interefts of civil government, they can no longer be restrained from giving uncontrouled fcope. to vengeance and refentment. But furely never xxxvII. 1555% enterprise was more unfortunate than that of IF A P. founding perfecution upon policy, or endeavour ing, for the fake of peace, to fettle an entire uniformity of opinion, in queftions which, of all others, are leaft fubjected to the criterion of human reafon. The univerfal and uncontradicted prevalence of one opinion in religious fubjects, can be owing at firft to the ftupid ignorance alone and barbarifm of the people, who never indulge themselves in any fpeculation or inquiry; and there is no expedient for. maintaining that uniformity, fo fondly fought after, but by banish ing for ever all curiofity and all improvement in fcience and cultivation. It may not, indeed, appear difficult to check, by a steady severity, the first beginnings of controverfy; but befides that this policy expofes for ever the people to all the abject terrors of fuperftition, and the magiftrate to the endless encroachments of ecclefiaftics, it alfo renders men fo delicate, that they can never endure to hear of oppofition; and they will fome time pay dearly for that falfe tranquillity, in which they have been fo long indulged. As healthful bodies are ruined by too nice a regimen, and are thereby rendered incapable of bearing the unavoidable incidents of human life; a people, who never were allowed to imagine, that their principles could be contefted, fly out into the most outrageous violence, when any event (and fuch events are common) produces a faction among their clergy; and gives rife to any difference in tenet or opinion, But whatever XXXVII, ASSS. : CHA P. may be faid in favor of fuppreffing, by perfecu tion, the first beginnings of herefy, no folid, argument can be alledged for extending feverity towards multitudes, or endeavouring, by capital punishments, to extirpate an opinion, which has diffused itself among men of every rank and ftation. Befides the extreme barbarity of fuch an attempt, it commonly proves ineffectual to the purpose intended; and ferves only to make men more obftinate in their perfuafion, and to increase the number of their profelytes. The melancholy, with which the fear of death, torture, and perfecution infpires the fectaries, is the proper difpofition for foftering religious zeal The prospect of eternal rewards, when brought near, overpowers the dread of temporal punishments: The glory of martyrdom stimulates all the more furious zealots, especially the leaders and preachers: Where a violent animofity is excited by oppreffion, men naturally pass, from hating the perfons of their tyrants, to a more violent abhorrence of their doctrines: And the fpectators, moved with pity towards the fuppofed martyrs, are easily feduced to embrace those principles, which can inspire men with a conftancy that appears almost fupernatural. Open the door to toleration, mutual hatred relaxes among the fectaries; their attachment to their particular modes of religion decays; the common occupations and pleasures of life fucceed to the acrimony of difputation; and the fame man, who, in other circumstances, would have braved flames and 1555. tortures, is induced to change his fect from the CHA P. fmallest profpect of favor and advancement, or XXXVII. even from the frivolous hope of becoming more fashionable in his principles. If any exception can be admitted to this maxim of toleration, it will only be where a theology altogether new, nowife connected with the ancient religion of the state, is imported from foreign countries, and may eafily, at one blow at one blow, be eradicated, without leaving the feeds of future innovation. But as this exception would imply fome apology for the ancient pagan perfecutions, or for the extirpation of Christianity in China and Japan; it ought furely, on account of this detested confequence, to be rather buried in eternal filence and oblivion. THOUGH thefe arguments appear entirely fatisfactory, yet fuch is the fubtlety of human wit, that Gardiner, and the other enemies to toleration, were not reduced to filence; and they ftill found topics on which to maintain the controversy. The doctrine, faid they, of liberty of confcience, is founded on the moft flagrant impiety, and fupposes such an indifference among all religions, fuch an obscurity in theological doctrines, as to render the church and magiftrate incapable of diftinguishing, with certainty, the dictates of Heaven from the mere fictions of human imagination. If the Divinity reveals principles co mankind, he will furely give a criterion by which they may be ascertained; and a prince, who knowingly allows these principles to be perverted or adulte CHAP rated, is infinitely more criminal than if he gave XXXVII. permiffion for the vending of poifon, under the 1555. fhape of food, to all his fubjects. Perfecution may, indeed, feem better calculated to make hypocrites than converts; but experience teaches us; that the habits of hypocrify often turn into reality; and the children at least, ignorant of the diffimulation of their parents, may happily be educated in more orthodox tenets. It is abfurd, in oppofition to confiderations of fuch unfpeakable importance, to plead the temporal and frivolous interefts of civil fociety; and if matters be thoroughly examined, even that topic will not appear fo univerfally certain in favor of toleration as by fome it is reprefented. Where fects arise, whofe fundamental principle on all fides is to execrate, and abhor and damn, and extirpate each other; what choice has the magiftrate left but to take part, and by rendering one fect entirely prevalent, restore, at least for a time, the public tranquillity? The political body, being here fickly, muft not be treated as if it were in a state of found health; and an affected neutrality in the prince, or even a cool preference, may ferve only to encourage the hopes of all the fects, and keep alive their animofity. The proteftants, far from tolerating the religion of their ancestors, regard it as an impious and deteftable idolatry; and during the late minority, when they were entirely mafters, they enacted very fevere, though not capital, punishments against all exercife of the catholic worship, and evea against such as barely abstained |