17 - 3 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 Princeton, N. J. 
 
 ' ■^' 
 
 # 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Theological Seminary, 
 
 PRINCETON, N. i. 
 
 ^"•'^- ^*!::F^^- Division... 
 
 Siielf, / (^ / W Sec - 
 
 Book, _ 
 
 — ^ 
 
t^L 
 
 r 
 
 t ^i..r^^^r :^.^;/ 
 
nS 
 
A N 
 
 ESSAY 
 
 O N T H E 
 
 FIRST PRINCIPLES 
 
 O F 
 
 GOVERNME NT, 
 
 AND ON THE NATURE OF 
 
 Political, Civil, and Religious 
 LIBERTY, 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 Remarks on Dr. Brown's Code of Education, 
 
 A N D O N 
 
 Dr. Balguy's Sermon on Church Authority. 
 
 The Second Edition, corredted and enlarged, 
 
 ^ 
 
 By JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, LL.D. F.R.S. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed for J, Johnson, No. 72, In St. Paul's Church- Yard. 
 
 Msec LXXI. 
 
T O 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 DAVID, Earl of Buchan, 
 
 THIS ESSAY, &c. 
 IS, 
 WITH THE GREATEST RESPECT, 
 INSCRIBED, 
 BY HIS LORDSHIP'S 
 MOST OBEDIENT, 
 HUMBLE SERVANT, 
 
 Jojeph Prkftley. 
 
W^a//i^ 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THIS publication owes its rife to 
 xkvQ Remarks I wrote onZ)r. Broivns 
 propofal for a code of education. Several 
 perfons who were pleafed to think fa- 
 vourably of that performance, (in which 
 I was led to mention the fubjecfl of civil 
 and religious liberty) were defirous that 
 I ihould treat of it more at large, and 
 without any immediate view to the Doc- 
 tor's work. It appeared to them, that 
 fome of the views I had given of this 
 important, but difficult fubje6l, were 
 new, and fliowed it, in a clearer light 
 than any in which they had feen it re- 
 prefented before ; and they thought I had 
 placed the foundation of fome of the 
 mod valuable interefls of mankind on a 
 broader and firmer bafis, than Mr. Locke, 
 and others who had formerly written 
 upon this fubjedl. I have endeavoured 
 to anfwer the wilhes of my friends, in 
 A the 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 the bed manner I am able ; and, at the 
 fame time, I have retained the fubflance 
 of the former treatife, having diftribut- 
 ed the feveral parts of it into the body 
 of this. 
 
 In this fecond edition, I have alfo in- 
 troduced what I had written on Church- 
 authority, in anfwer to Dr. Balguys fer- 
 moh on that fubjecft, preached at Lam- 
 beth chapel, and publifhed by order of 
 the Archbilliop. As I do not mean to 
 republifli either the Remarks on Dr. Brozvn, 
 or thefe on Dr. Balguy, feparately, and 
 the fubjedls of both thofe pieces have a 
 near relation to the general one on Civil 
 and Religious Liberty, I thought there 
 would be a propriety in throwing them 
 into one treatife. 
 
 I had no thoughts of animadverting 
 vipon Dr. Warburton in this work, till I 
 was informed by fome intelligent and 
 worthy clergymen of my acquaintance, 
 that his Alliance is generally confidered 
 as the beft defence of the prefent fyftem 
 
 of 
 
p. R E F A C E. vii. 
 
 of church-authority, and that mod o- 
 ther writers took their arguments from it. 
 
 In a poftfcript to this work he informs 
 us, p. 271, that, in it, the reader iviil 
 fee confuted at large^ what he calls a puri- 
 tanical principle^ and alfo an ahfurd ajjer- 
 tion of Hooker s, by ivhich he entangled 
 himfelf and his caife in inextricable difficul- 
 ties^ viz. that cwil and ecclefiaflical poivev 
 are things feparated by nature, and more 
 efpecially by divine iii/iitution; andfo inde- 
 pendent of one another, that they muff ai- 
 rways continue independent. Whatever fuc- 
 cefs this writer may have had in pulHng 
 up other foundations, I think he had bet- 
 ter have left thofe of the church as he 
 found them : for the difficulties in which 
 the fcheme of the Alliance is entangled, 
 appear to me to be far more inextricable, 
 than thofe of any other fcheme of church- 
 authority that I, have yet feen. All that 
 can be faid in its favour is, that, having 
 lefs of the fimplicity of truth, and, con- 
 fequently, being fupported with more 
 art and fophiftry, the abfurdity of it is 
 not fo obvious at firft fight, though it be 
 
 ten 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 ten times more glaring after it has been 
 fufficiently attended to. 
 
 Sorry I am to be under the neceflity 
 of troubling my reader with the repeti- 
 tion of any thing that has been faid be- 
 fore on this fubjedl, in my remarks on 
 thofe writers ; but when the fame argu- 
 ments are urged again and again, it is 
 impoffible always to find new, or better 
 anfwers. I flatter myfelf, however, that 
 feveral of the obfervations in this treatife 
 will appear to be new, at lead, that fome 
 things will appear to be fet in a new or 
 clearer point of light. But whenever 
 the interefts of truth and liberty are at- 
 tacked, it is to be wifhed that fome 
 would {land up in their defence, whether 
 they acquit themfelves better than their 
 predeceflbrs in the fame good old caufe, or 
 not. Neiv books in defence of any prin- 
 ciples whatever, will be read by many 
 perfons, who will not look into old books, 
 for the proper anfwers to them. 
 
 Confiderable advantage cannot but ac- 
 crue to the caufe of religious, as well as 
 
 civil 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 civil liberty, from keeping the important 
 fubje(5l continually in view. We are un- 
 der great obligation, therefore, to all the 
 advocates for church-authority, when- 
 ever they are pleafed to write in its de- 
 fence. 
 
 Every attempt that has hitherto been 
 made to fliake, or undermine the foun- 
 dations of the chriflian faith, hath end- 
 ed in the firmer efta.blifhment of it. Al- 
 fo, every attempt to fupport the unjuft 
 claims of churchmen over their fellow 
 chriftians, hath been equally impotent, 
 and hath recoiled upon themfelves ; and, 
 I make no doubt, that this will be the 
 ilTue of all the future efforts of interefted 
 or mifguided men, in fo weak and un- 
 worthy a caufe. 
 
 It will be feen, that I have taken no 
 notice of any thing that has been writ- 
 ten in the controverfy about the Confef" 
 ftonal. I would only obferve, and I can- 
 not help obferving, that the violent op- 
 polition that has been made to the mo- 
 deft attempts, both of the candid difqui- 
 
 fttors 
 
% 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Jitors, and thofe of the author of the 
 ConfeJ/ionai, and his refpe(5lable friends, 
 to procure a redrefs of only a few of the 
 more intolerable grievances the clergy 
 labour under, and a removal of fome of 
 the moft obvious and capital defects in 
 the eftablifhed church, has more weight 
 than a hundred arguments drawn from 
 theory only, in demonftrating the folly 
 of eredling fuch complicated and un- 
 wieldly fyftems of policy, and in fhow- 
 ing the mifchiefs that attend them. 
 
 Little did the founders of church e- 
 ftablifliments confider, of what unfpeak- 
 able importance it is to the interefls of 
 religion, that the ambition of chriftian 
 minifters be circumfcribed within nar- 
 row limits, w^hen they left them fuch 
 unbounded fcope for courting prefer- 
 ment. But the interefts of religion have 
 been very little confidered by the foun- 
 ders of church eftablifliments. Indeed 
 if they had confidered them, how little 
 were they qualified to make provifion 
 for them ? I need not fay what I feel, 
 when I find fo much in the writings 
 
 of 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 of ingenious men concerning the ivifdom 
 of thefe conftitutions. It always brings 
 to my mind what St. Paul fays of the 
 ijuifdojn of this 'world in other refpedls. 
 
 Such, however, is the virtue of fome 
 men, that it is proof againft all the bad 
 influence of the conftituticn of which 
 they are members. Without flattering, or 
 tormenting themfelves with a vain am- 
 bitio7i^ many excellent clergymen, wor- 
 thy of a better iituation, contentedly 
 lit down to the proper duty of their fl:a- 
 tion. Their only objedl is to do good to 
 the folds of men, and their only hope of 
 reward is in that world, where they ivho 
 have been ivife fhall Jinne as the hrightnefo 
 of the firmament , and they ivho have turn-' 
 ed many to right eoufnefs as the far s for ever 
 and ever. Such charadlers as thefe I tru- 
 ly revere ; and it is chiefly for the fake 
 of forming more fuch, that I wifli the 
 eftablifliment of the church of England 
 might be reformed in fome eflential 
 points. The powers of reafon and con- 
 fcience plead for fuch a reformation, but, 
 alas ! the powers of this world are a- 
 
 gainfl: 
 
xn PREFACE. 
 
 gainfl it. This unnatural aify of religi- 
 on (or rather her imperious majler) with- 
 out whofe permifTion nothing can be 
 done, will not admit of it. 
 
 But at the fame time that, from a 
 love of truth, and a juft regard for the 
 purity of a divine religion, we bear a 
 public teflimony againft thofe abufes 
 which men have introduced into it ; let 
 us, as becomes chriflians, have the can- 
 dour to make proper allowances for the 
 prejudices and prepofTeffions, even of the 
 founders, promoters, and abettors of 
 thefc anti-chriftian fyflems ; and ftill 
 farther let us be from indulging a thought 
 to the prejudice of thofe, who have been 
 educated in a reverence for thefe modes 
 of religion, and have not flrength of 
 mind to feparate their ideas of thefe 
 fonns^ from thofe of the poiucr of it. In 
 this cafe, let us be particularly careful 
 how we give offence to any ferious and 
 well'difpofed minds, and patiently bear 
 with the wheat and the tares growing 
 together till the harvetl:. 
 
 Such 
 
PREFACE. xiri 
 
 Such is my belief in the dodlrine of 
 an over-ruling providence, that I have 
 no doubt, but that every thing in the 
 whole fyftem of nature, how noxious 
 foever it may be in fome refpedls, has 
 real, though unknown ufes ; and alfo 
 that every thing, even the grofleft abu- 
 fes in the civil or ecclefiaftical conftituti- 
 ons of particular flates, is fubfervient 
 to the wife and gracious defigns of him, 
 who, notwithftanding thefe appearances, 
 ftill rules in the kingdoms of men. 
 
 I make no apology for the freedom 
 with which I have written. The fub- 
 jedl is, in the higheft degree, intere fl- 
 ing to humanity, it is open to philofo- 
 phical difcuffion, and I have taken no 
 greater liberties than becomes a phi- 
 lofopher, a man, and an Englifliman. 
 Having no other views than to promote a 
 thorough knowledge of this important 
 fubjecft, not being fenfible of any biafs 
 to miflead me in my inquiries, and con- 
 fcious of the uprightnefs of my intentions, 
 I freely fubmit my thoughts to the exami- 
 nation of all impartial judges, and the 
 
 friends 
 
xiv P R .E F A C E. 
 
 friends of their country and of mankind. 
 They who know the fervour of generous 
 feelings v/ill be fcniible, that I have ex- 
 preffed myfelf withno more warmth than 
 the importance of the fubjed: necefTarily 
 prompted, in a breaft not naturally the 
 coldeft J and that to have appeared more 
 indifferent, I could not have beeniincere. 
 
 Befldes the freedom with which I have 
 made this defence of civil and religious 
 liberty, is fuihciently juftified by the 
 freedom with which they have been at- 
 tacked ; and though the advocates for 
 church power are very ready to accufe 
 the DiiTenters of indecency ^ when, in de- 
 fending themfelves, they refledl upon 
 the eflablifhed church ; yet I do not fee 
 why, in a judgment of equity, the fame 
 civility and decency lliould not be ob- 
 ferved on both fides ; or why infolence 
 on one iide fhould not be anfwered by 
 contempt on the other. 
 
 Notwlthftanding the ardour of mind 
 with which, it will be evident, fome 
 parts of the following treatife were 
 
 written 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 written, the warmth with which I have 
 efpoufed the caufe of liberty, and the 
 feverity with which I have animadverted 
 upon whatever I apprehend to be unfa- 
 vourable to it ; I think I cannot be juftly 
 accufed of party zeal, becaufe it will be 
 found, that I have treated all parties with 
 equal freedom. Indeed, fuch is the 
 ufual violence of human paflions, when 
 any thing interefting to them is con- 
 tended for, that the befl caufe in the 
 world is not fufEcient to prevent intem- 
 perance and excefs ; fo that it is eafy to 
 fee too much to blame in all parties : and 
 it by no means follows, that, becaufe a 
 man difapproves of the condudl of one, 
 that he muft, therefore, approve of that 
 of its oppofite. The greateft enemy of 
 popery may fee fomething he diflikes in 
 the condudl of the firfl reformers, the 
 warmefl: zeal againfl epifcopacy is con- 
 fident wath the juft fenfe of the faults of 
 the puritans, and much more may an 
 enemy of Charles the firft, be an enemy 
 of Cromwell alfo. 
 
 N. B. 
 
XVI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 N. B. Let it be obferved, that, ia 
 this treatife, I propofe no more than to 
 confider the jirji principles of civil and 
 religious liberty, and to explain fome 
 leading ideas upon the fubjecfl. For a 
 more extenfive view of it, as affedting a 
 greater variety of particulars in the fy ftem 
 of government, I refer to the courfe of 
 leSiures on hijlory and civil policy ; difylla- 
 hus of which is printed in the EJfay on a 
 courfe of liberal education for civil and 
 aBive life, and the whole of which, with 
 enlargements, I propofe to publilh in 
 due time. 
 
 SECTION 
 
 k 
 
SECTION I. 
 
 Of the Firjl Principles of Government j 
 and the different kinds of Liberty. 
 
 AN derives two capital advan- 
 tages from the fuperiority of his 
 intelledlual powers. The firfl: 
 is, that, as an individual, he pofTefles 
 a certain comprehenfion of mind, 
 whereby he contemplates and enjoys the 
 paft and the future, as well as the pre- 
 fent. This comprehenfion is enlarged 
 with the experience of every day ; and by 
 this means the happinefs of man, as he 
 advances in intelled;, is continually lels 
 dependent on temporary circumftances 
 and fenfations» 
 
 The next advantage refulting from the 
 
 fame principle, and which is, in many 
 
 refpeds, both the caufe and effedl of the 
 
 B former, 
 
2 THE FIRST PRINCIPLES 
 
 former, is, that the human fpecies itfelf 
 is capable of a fimilar and unbounded 
 improvement ; whereby mankind in a 
 later age are greatly fuperior to mankind 
 in a former age, the individuals being 
 taken at the fame time of life. Of this 
 progrefs of the fpecies, brute animals 
 are more incapable than they are of that 
 relating to individuals. No horfe of 
 this age feems to have any advantage o- 
 ver other horfes of former ages ; and if 
 there be any improvement in the fpecies, 
 it is owing to our manner of breeding 
 and training them. But a man at this 
 time, who has been tolerably well edu- 
 cated, in an improved chriflian country, 
 is a being poflefFed of much greater 
 power, to be, and to make happy, than 
 a perfon of the fame age, in the fame, or 
 any other country, fome centuries ago. 
 And, for this reafon, I make no doubt, 
 that a perfon fome centuries hence will, 
 at the fame age, be as much fuperior 
 to us. 
 
 The great inflrument in the hand of 
 divine providence, of this progrefs of the 
 
 fpecies 
 
 1^ 
 
OF GOVERNMENT. 3 
 
 fpecies towards perfedlion, isfociety^ and 
 confequently goverm?ient. In a flate of 
 nature the powers of any individual are 
 diflipated by an attention to a multipli- 
 city of objeds. The employments of all 
 are iimilar. From generation to genera- 
 tion every man does the fame that every 
 other does, or has done, and no perfon 
 begins where another ends ; at leaft, 
 general improvements are exceedingly 
 flow, and uncertain. This we fee ex- 
 emplified in all barbarous nations, and 
 efpecially in countries thinly inhabited, 
 where the conne(ftions of the people are 
 flight, and confequently fociety and go- 
 vernment very imperfedl ; and it may 
 be feen more particularly in North Ame- 
 rica, and Greenland. Whereas a ftate 
 of more perfecfl fociety admits of a pro- 
 per diflribution and divifion of the ob- 
 jects of human attention. In fuch a 
 flate, men are connected with and fub- 
 fervient to one another ; fo that, while 
 one man confines himfelf to one fingle 
 objedl, another may give the fame undi-^ 
 vided attention to another obje(5l. 
 
 B 2 Thus 
 
4 THE FIRST PRINCIPLES 
 
 Thus the powers of all have their full 
 efFedl ; and hence arife hnprovements in 
 all the conveniences of life, and in every 
 branch of knov>rledge. In this ftate of 
 things, it requires but a few years to 
 comprehend the whole preceding pro- 
 grefs of any one art or fcience ; and the 
 reft of a man's life, in which his facul- 
 ties are the moft perfed:, may be given 
 to the extenfion of it. If, by this means, 
 one art or fcience fhould grow too large 
 for an eafy comprehenfion, in a moderate 
 fpace of time, a commodious fubdivifion 
 will be made. Thus all knowledge will 
 be fubdivided and extended ; and kno-vj- 
 ledge, as Lord Bacon obferves, being 
 poijuer, the human powers will, in fa 61, 
 be enlarged ; nature, including both its 
 materials, and its laws, will be more at 
 our command ; men will make their fitua- 
 tion in this world abundantly rriore eafy 
 and comfortable ; they wall probably 
 prolong their exiftence in it, and will 
 grow daily more happy, each in himfelf, 
 and more able (and, I believe, more dif- 
 pofed) to communicate happinefs to 
 others. Thus, whatever w^as the be- 
 ginning 
 
OF GOVERNMENT. 5 
 
 ginning of this world, the end will be 
 glorious and paradifaical, beyond what 
 our imaginations can now conceive. 
 Extravagant as fome may fuppofe thefe 
 views to be, I think I could Ihow 
 them to be fairly fuggefted by the true 
 theory of human nature, and to arife 
 from the natural courfe of human affairs. 
 But, for the prefent, I wave this fubjedl, 
 the contemplation of which always 
 makes me happy. 
 
 Government being the great inflru- 
 ment of this progrefs of the human fpecies 
 tov/ards this glorious flate, that form of 
 government will have a juft claim to our 
 approbation which favours this progrefs, 
 and that mufl be condemned in which 
 it is retarded. Let us then, my fellow 
 citizens, coniider the bulinefs of govern- 
 ment wifh tliefe enlarged views, and trace 
 fome of the fundamental principles of it, 
 by an attention to what is mod conducive 
 to the happinefs of mankind at prefent, 
 and moft favourable to theincreafeof this 
 happinefs in futurity ; and, perhaps, we 
 may underfland this intricatefubjed:,with 
 B 3 fome 
 
6 THE FIRST PRINCIPLES 
 
 fome of its mod important circuinftances, 
 better than we have done ; at leaft we 
 may fee fome of them in a clearer and 
 flronger point of light. 
 
 To begin with firfl principles, we muft, 
 for the fake of gaining clear ideas on the 
 fubjecfl, do what almoft all political writ- 
 ers have done before us ; that is, we mufl 
 fuppofe a number of people exifling, who 
 experience the inconvenience of living in- 
 dependent and unconnected ; who are ex- 
 pofed, without redrefs, to infults and 
 wrongs of every kind, and are too weak to 
 procure themfelves many of the advan- 
 tages, which they are fenfible might 
 eafily be compafTed by united flrength. 
 Thefe people, if they would engage the 
 protection of the whole body, and join 
 their force in enterprizes and undertak- 
 ings calculated for their common good, 
 muft voluntarily refign fome part of their 
 natural liberty, and fubmit their con- 
 du6l to the direction of the commu- 
 nity : for without thefe conceflions, fuch 
 an alliance, attended with fuch advan- 
 t3.ges, could not be formed. 
 
 Were 
 
OF GOVERNMENT. ' 7 
 
 Were thefe people few in number, and 
 living within a fmall diftance of one 
 another, it might be eafy for them to 
 afTemble upon every occaiion, in which 
 the whole body was concerned ; and every 
 thing might be determined by the votes 
 of the majority, provided they had previ- 
 oufly agreed that the votes of a majority 
 fiiould be decifive. But v/ere the fo- 
 ciety numerous, their habitations remote, 
 and the occalions on which the whole body 
 muft interpofe frequent, it would be abfo- 
 lutely impofTible that all the members of 
 the ftate Ihould aflemble, or give their 
 attention to public buiinefs. In this cafe, 
 though, with Roujfemi, it be a giving up 
 of their liberty, there mufl be deputies, 
 or public officers, appointed to a(5l in 
 the name of the whole body ; and, in 
 a ftate of very great extent, where all 
 the people could never be alTembled, the 
 whole power of the community muft 
 neceifarily, and almoft irreverfibly, be 
 lodged in the hands of thefe deputies. 
 In England, the king, the hereditary 
 lords, and the ele(fl:ors of the houfe of 
 commons, a.rQtheihJIa7idmg deputies j and 
 
 the 
 
8 THE FIRST PRINCIPLES 
 
 the members of the houfe of commons 
 are, again, the temporary deputies of this 
 laft order of the Hate. 
 
 In all ftates, great or fmall, the fenti- 
 ments of that body of men in whofe 
 hands the fupreme power of the fociety is 
 lodged, mufl be underftood to be the 
 fentiments of the whole body, if there 
 be no other method in w^hich the fenti- 
 ments of the whole body can be ex- 
 prelTed. Thefe deputies, or reprefenta- 
 tives of the people, will make a wrong 
 judgment, and purfue wrong meafures, if 
 they confult not the good of the whole 
 fociety, whofe reprefentatives they are ; 
 juft as the people themfelves would 
 make a wrong judgment, and purfue 
 wrong meafures, if they did not confult 
 their owm good, provided they could be 
 affembled for that purpofe. No maxims 
 or rules of policy can be binding upon 
 them, but fuch as they themfelves fliall 
 judge to be conducive to the public good. 
 Their own reafon and confcience are their 
 only guide, and the people, in whofe 
 name they a(5lj their only judge. 
 
 In 
 
OF GOVERNMENT. 9 
 
 In thefe circumftances, if I be ailved 
 what I mean by liberty, I fliould chufe, 
 for the fake of greater clearnefs, to divide 
 it into two kinds, political and civil ; and 
 the importance of having clear ideas on 
 this fubjecl will be my apology for the 
 innovation. Political liberty, I 
 would fay, conjijls in the poiver, ivhich 
 the members of the Jl ate refewe to themjelves, 
 of arri'ving at the public offices, or, at leaft, 
 of having votes in the noimnation of thofe 
 ivhofll them : and I would chufe to call 
 CIVIL LIBERTY that poiver ovcr their 
 O'um anions, nvhich the members of the fate 
 referve to the?ifelves, and ivhich their of- 
 ficers muf not infringe. 
 
 Political liberty, therefore, is equiva- 
 lent to the right of magiftracy, being the 
 claim that any member of the (late hath, 
 to have his private opinion or judgment 
 become that of the public, and thereby 
 control the adlions of others ; whereas 
 civil liberty, extends no farther than to 
 a man's own condudt, and iignifies the 
 right he has to be exempt from the con- 
 trol of the fociety, or its agents j that 
 
 is. 
 
lo THE FIRST PRINCIPLES, &c. 
 
 is, the power he has of providing for his 
 own advantage and happinefs. It is a 
 man's civil liberty, which is originally in 
 its full force, and part of which he facri- 
 fices when he enters into a flate of fociety ; 
 and political liberty is that which he may, 
 or may not acquire in the compenfation 
 he receives for it. For he may either fti- 
 pulate to have a voice in the public de- 
 terminations, or, as far as the public de- 
 termination doth take place, he may fub- 
 mit to be governed wholly by others. Of 
 thefe two kinds of liberty, which it is of 
 the greateft importance to diflinguilh, I 
 fhall treat in the order in which I have 
 mentioned them. 
 
 SECTION 
 
SECTION II. 
 
 O F 
 
 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 IN countries where every member of 
 the fociety enjoys an equal power of 
 arriving at the fupreme offices, and 
 confequently of diredling the ftrength and 
 the fentiments of the whole community, 
 there is a flate of the mofl perfedl politi- 
 cal liberty. On the other hand, in coun- 
 tries where a man is, by his birth or for- 
 tune, excluded from thefe offices, or from 
 a power of voting for proper perfons to fill 
 them ; that man, whatever be the form of 
 the government, or whatever civil liberty, 
 or power over his own acflions he may 
 have, has no power over thofe of another ; 
 he has no fhare in the government, and 
 therefore has no political liberty at all. 
 
 Nay 
 
12 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 Nay his own conducft, as far as the 
 fociety does interfere, is, in all cafes, di- 
 rected by others. 
 
 It may be faid, that no fociety on earth 
 was ever formed in the manner repre- 
 fented above. 1 anfwer, it is true ; be- 
 canfe all governments whatever have 
 been, in fome meafure, compulfory, ty- 
 rannical, and oppreflive in their origin ; 
 but the method I have defcribed mufl be 
 allowed to be the only equitable and fair 
 method of forming a fociety. And iince 
 every man retains, and can never be de- 
 prived of his natural right (founded on a 
 regard to the general good) of relieving 
 himfelf from all oppreffion, that is, from 
 every thing that has been impofed upon 
 him without his own confent ; this mufl be 
 the only true and proper foundation of all 
 the governments fubiifting in the world, 
 and that to which the people who com- 
 pofe them have an unalienable right to 
 bring them back. 
 
 It mufl neceffarily be underflood, 
 therefore, whether it be exprelfed or 
 
 not. 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY. 13 
 
 not, that all people live in fociety for 
 their mutual advantage ; fo that the 
 good and happinefs of the members, that 
 is the majority of the members of any 
 ftate, is the great flandard by which 
 every thing relating to that flate mufl 
 finally be determined. And though it 
 may be fuppofed, that a body of people 
 may be bound by a voluntary refigna- 
 tion of all their interefts to a fingle per- 
 fon, or to a few, it can never be fuppofed 
 that the refignation is obligatory on their 
 pofterity ; becaufe it is manifeflly con- 
 trary to the good of the ivhole that itJJjould 
 befo. 
 
 I own it is rather matter of furprife 
 to me, that this great objed of all go- 
 vernment Ihould have been fo little in- 
 fifled on by our great writers who have 
 treated of this fubjedl, and that more 
 ufe hath not been made of it. In treat- 
 ing of particular regulations in ftates, 
 this principle neceflarily obtruded itfelf ; 
 all arguments in favour of any law being 
 always drawn from a confideration of its 
 tendency to promote the public good; 
 
 and 
 
14 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 and yet it has often efcaped the notice of 
 writers in difcourfing on the firft prin- 
 ciples of fociety, and the fubjed; of ci- 
 vil and religious liberty. 
 
 This one general idea, properly pur- 
 fued, throws the greateft light upon the 
 whole fyilem of policy, morals, and, I 
 may add, theology too. To a mind not 
 warped by theological and metaphyfical 
 fubtilties, the divine being appears to 
 be a6luated by no other views than the 
 nobleft we can conceive, the happinefs 
 of his creatures. Virtue and right con- 
 duct coniifl in thofe afre(ftions and ac- 
 tions which terminate in the public 
 good ; juftice and veracity, for inftance, 
 having nothing intrinfically excellent 
 in them, feparate from their relation to 
 the happinefs of mankind ; and the whole 
 fyftem of right to power, property, and 
 every thing elfe in fociety, muft be re- 
 gulated by the fame confideration : the 
 decifive queftion, when any of thefe 
 fubjedls are examined, being, What 
 is it that the good of the community 
 requires ? 
 
 Let 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY. 15 
 
 Let it be obferved, in this place, that 
 I by no means afTert, that the good of 
 mankind requires a ftate of the moft per- 
 fe(5l political liberty. This, indeed, is 
 not poffible, except in exceeding fmall 
 ftates ; in none, perhaps, that are fo 
 large as even the republics of ancient 
 Greece ; or as Genoa, or Geneva in 
 modern times. Such fm.all republics as 
 thefe, if they were delirable, would be 
 impradlicable ; becaufe a ftate of per- 
 fe6l equality, in communities or indi- 
 viduals, can never be preferved, while 
 fome are more powerful, more enter- 
 prifing, and more fuccefsful in their at- 
 tempts than others. And an ambitious 
 nation could not wiih for a fairer oppor- 
 tunity of arriving at extenfive empire, 
 than to find the neighbouring countries 
 cantoned out into a number of fmall go- 
 vernments ; which could have no power 
 to withftand it fingly, and which could 
 never form fufficiently extenfive confe- 
 deracies, or a 61 v/ith fufficient unani- 
 mity, and expedition, to oppofe it with 
 fuccefs. 
 
 Suppofing 
 
i6 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 Suppofing, therefore, that, in order to 
 prevent the greatell of all inconveniences, 
 very extenfive, and confequently abfolute 
 monarchies, it may be expedient to have 
 fuch flates as England, France, and 
 Spain ; political liberty mufl, in fome 
 meafure, be reftrained ; but in ivhat 
 manner a refliraint fhould be put upon it, 
 or hoiv far it fliould extend, is not ea- 
 fy to be afcertained. In general, it ihould 
 feem, that none but perfons of confi- 
 derable fortune Ihould be capable of ar- 
 riving at the higheft offices in the go- 
 vernment ; not only becaufe, all other 
 circumftances being equal, fuch perfons 
 will generally have had the befb educa- 
 tion, and confequently be the befl qua- 
 lified to a6l for the public good ; but be- 
 caufe alfo, they will neceffarily have the 
 moft property at ftake, and will, therefore, 
 be moft interefted in the fate of their 
 country. 
 
 Let it be obferved, however, that what 
 maybe called a moderate fortune (though 
 a thing of fo variable a nature cannot 
 be defined) fhould be confidered as equi- 
 valent 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY. 17 
 
 in this refpedl, to the mofh affluent one. 
 Perfons who are born to a moderate for- 
 tune, are, indeed, generally better edu- 
 cated, have, confequently, more enlarg- 
 ed minds, and are, in all refpedls, more 
 truly independent^ than thofe who are 
 born to great opulence. 
 
 For the fame reafon, it may, perhaps, 
 be more eligible, that thofe who are ex- 
 tremely dependent fhould not be al- 
 lowed to have votes in the nomination of 
 the chief magiftrates ; becaufe this might, 
 in fome inftances, be only throwing 
 more votes into the hands of thofe per- 
 fons on whom they depend. But if, in 
 every ftate of confiderable extent, we 
 fuppofe a gradation of elective oiE- 
 ces, and if we likewife fuppofe the low- 
 ed clafTes of the people to have votes 
 in the nomination of the loweft oiEcers, 
 and, as they increafe in wealth and im- 
 portance, to have afliare in the choice of 
 perfons to fill the higher polls, till they 
 themfelves be admitted candidates for 
 places of public truft ; we fhall, perhaps, 
 form an idea of as much political liberty 
 C as 
 
ig POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 as is confiflent with the flate of man- 
 kind. And I think experience fhews, 
 that the higheft offices of all, equiva- 
 lent to that of king, ought to be, in fome 
 meafure, hereditary, as in England ; elec- 
 tive monarchies having generally been 
 the theatres of cabal, confufion, and 
 mifery. 
 
 It mufh be acknov^ledged, however, to be 
 exceedingly hazardous to the liberties of 
 a people, to have any office of importance 
 frequently filled by the fame perfons, or 
 their defcendants. The boundaries of 
 very great power can never be fo exact- 
 ly defined, but that, when it becomes 
 the interefl of men to extend them, and 
 when fo flattering an objecl is kept a 
 long time in view, opportunities will be 
 found for the purpofe. What nation 
 would not have been enflaved by the un- 
 controverted fucceffion of only three fuch 
 princes as Henry IV. of France, Henry 
 VII. of England, or the prefent king of 
 Pruffia ? The more accomplifhed and 
 glorious they were as warriors, or flatcf- 
 men, the more dangerous would they 
 
 be 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY. 19 
 
 be 2LS princes, in free ftates. It is nothing 
 but the continual fear of a revolt, in fa- 
 vour of fome rival, that could keep fuch 
 princes within any bounds ; i. e. that 
 could make it their intereft to court the 
 favour of the people. 
 
 Hereditary nobles (land in the fame 
 predicament with hereditary princes. 
 The long continuance of the fame par- 
 liaments have alfo the fame tendency. 
 And had not thefe things, together with 
 an independent ecclefiaftical power, been 
 wonderfully balanced in our conftitu- 
 tion, it could never have flood fo long. 
 The more complex any machine is, and 
 the more nicely it is fitted to anfwer its 
 purpofe, the more liable it is to diforder. 
 The more avenues there are to arbitrary 
 power, the more attention it requires to 
 guard them ; and with all the vigilance 
 of the people of thefe nations, they have 
 more than once been obliged to have re- 
 courfe to the fword. The liberties we 
 now enjoy, precarious as they are, have 
 not been purchafed without blood. 
 
 Though it be very evident that no of-* 
 C z fice 
 
20 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 fice of great truft and power ihould be 
 fufFered to continue a long time in the 
 fame hands, the fucceilion might be fo 
 rapid, that the remedy would be worfe 
 than the difeafe. With refpedl to this 
 nation, it feems to be agreed, thaty^/- 
 tennlal parliaments have brought our li- 
 berties into very eminent hazard, and 
 that triennial., if not annual parliaments 
 would be better. Indeed feptennial par- 
 liaments were at firfl a dired: ufurpation 
 of the rights of the people : for, by the 
 fame authority that one parliament pro- 
 longed their own power to feven years, 
 they might have continued it to twice 
 ^tN^xi., or, like the parliament in 1641, 
 have made it perpetual. The bulk of 
 the people never fee the mod obvious 
 tendencies of things, or fo flagrant a vio- 
 lation of the conllitution would never 
 have been fufFered. But whereas a gene- 
 ral clamour might have prevented the 
 evil, it may require fomething more to 
 redrefs it. 
 
 But though the exacfl medium of po- 
 litical liberty, with refpedl either to the 
 
 property 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY. 21 
 
 property of men in ofEces of trufl, or to 
 their continuance in po%uer, be not eafily 
 fixed, it is not of much confequence to 
 do it ; iince a confiderable degree of per- 
 fection in government will admit of great 
 varieties in this refpect ; and the extreme 
 of political llavery, which excludes all 
 perfons, except one, or a very few, from 
 having accefs to the chief magiflracy, or 
 from having votes in the choice of magi- 
 ftrates, and which keeps all the power 
 of the (late in the fame hands, or the 
 fame families, is eafily marked out, and 
 the fatal effedls of it are very flriking. 
 For fuch is the flate of mankind, that 
 perfons polTefFed of unbounded power 
 will generally adl as if they forgot the 
 proper nature and defign of their ftation, 
 and purfue their own interefl, though 
 it be oppofite to that of the community 
 at large. 
 
 Provided thofe who make laws fub- 
 mit to them themfelves, and, with refpedl 
 to taxes in particular, fo long as thofe 
 who impofe them bear an equal fhare 
 with the reft of the community, there 
 C 3 will 
 
22 
 
 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 will be no complaint. But in all cafes, 
 when thofe who lay the tax upon others 
 exempt themfelves, there is tyranny ; and 
 the man who fubmits to a tax of a penny, 
 levied in this manner, is liable to have 
 the lafh penny he has extorted from him. 
 
 Men of equal rank and fortune with 
 thofe who ufually compofe tl>e Englifh 
 houfe of Commons have nothing to fear 
 from the impofition of taxes, fo long as 
 there is any thing like rotation in that of- 
 fice ; becaufe thofe who impofe them are 
 liable to pay them themfelves, and are 
 no better able to bear the burden ; but 
 perfons of lower rank, and efpecially 
 thofe who have no votes in the elecftion 
 of members, may have reafon to fear, 
 becaufe an unequal part of the burden 
 may be laid upon them. They are ne- 
 ceffarily a d'ijl'in6l order in the communi- 
 ty, and have no diredl method of con- 
 troling the meafures of the legiflature. 
 Our increafing game-laivs have all the 
 appearance of the haughty decrees of a 
 tyrant, who facrifices every thing to his 
 own pleafure and caprice. 
 
 Upon 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY. 23 
 
 Upon thefe principles it is evident, that 
 there muft have been a grofs inattention 
 to the very firfl principles of liberty, to 
 fay nothing worfe, in the firft fcheme of 
 taxing the inhabitants of America in the 
 Britifli parliament. 
 
 But if there be any truth in the prin- 
 ciples above laid down, it muft be a 
 fundamental maxim in all governments, 
 that if any man hold vvrhat is called a 
 high rank, or enjoy privileges, and pre- 
 rogatives in a ftate, it is becaufe the 
 good of the ftate requires that he fhoulcl 
 hold that rank, or enjoy thofe privi- 
 leges ; and fuch perfons, M^hether they 
 be called kings, fenators, or nobles ; or 
 by v^hatever names, or titles, they be 
 diftinguifhed, are, to all intents and pur- 
 pofes, thtferimnts of the public, and ac- 
 countable to the people for the difcharge 
 of their refpedlive offices. 
 
 If fuch magiftrates abufe their trufl, 
 in the people, therefore, lies the right 
 oidepoftng, and confequently of /)«wz//^/«^ 
 them. And the only reafon why abufes 
 
 which 
 
24 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 which have crept into offices have been 
 connived at, is, that the correcting of 
 them, by having recourfe to firfl 
 principles, and the people taking into 
 their own hands their right to appoint 
 or change their officers, and to afcer- 
 tain the bounds of their authority, is 
 far from being eafy, except in fmall 
 Hates ; fo that the remedy would often 
 be worfe than the difeafe. 
 
 But, in the largefl ftates, if the a- 
 bufes of government fliovTld, at any time 
 be great and manifeft ; if the fervants 
 of the people, forgetting their inajiers, 
 and their matters' intereft, ihould purfue 
 a feparate one of their own ; if, inftead 
 of confidering that they are made for the 
 people, they fliould confider the peo- 
 ple as made for them ; if the oppreffi- 
 ons and violations of right fliould be 
 great, flagrant, and univerfally refented ; 
 if the tyrannical governors fliould have 
 no friends but a few fycophants, who 
 Jiad long preyed upon the vitals of 
 their fellow citizens, and who might 
 be expe(5led to defer t a government, 
 
 whenever 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 25 
 
 whenever their inter efts fliould be de- 
 tached from it : if, in confequence of 
 thefe circnmflances, it Ihould become 
 manifeft, that the rifque, which would 
 be run in attempting a revolution would 
 be trilling, and the evils which might 
 be apprehended from it, were far lefs 
 than thofe which were acftually fuffered, 
 and which were daily increafing ; in 
 the name of God, I ailc, what princi- 
 ples are thofe, which ought to rellrain 
 an injured and infulted people from af- 
 ferting their natural rights, and from 
 changing, or even puniihing their go- 
 vernors, that is their few ant s^ who had 
 abufed their truft ; or from altering the 
 whole form of their government, if it 
 appeared to be of a ftrudlure fo liable 
 to abtife ? 
 
 To fay that thefe forms of govern- 
 ment have been long eflablillied, and 
 that thefe oppreffions have been long 
 fuffered, without any complaint, is to 
 fupply the ftrongeft argument for their 
 abolition. Lawyers, who are governed 
 by rules and precedents, ar^ very apt to 
 
 fall 
 
26 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 fall into miflakes, in determining what is 
 right and lawful, in cafes which are, 
 in their own nature, prior to any 
 fixed laws or precedents. The only rea- 
 fon for the authority of precedents and 
 general rules in matters of law and go- 
 vernment, is, that all perfons may know 
 what is laiv ; which they could not do 
 if the adminiftration of it was not uni- 
 form* and the fame in fimilar cafes. 
 But if the precedents and general rules 
 themfelves be a greater grievance than 
 the violation of them, and the eftablifli- 
 ment of better precedents, and better 
 general rules, what becomes of their 
 obligation ? The neceffity of the thing, 
 in the changing courfe of human affairs, 
 obliges all governments to alter their 
 general rules, and to fet up new prece- 
 dents in affairs of lefs importance ; and 
 why may not a proportionably greater 
 neceffity plead as flrongly for the alte- 
 ration of the mofl general rules, and 
 for fetting up new precedents in matters 
 of the greatefl confequence, affecfling the 
 mofl fundamental principles of any go- 
 vernment, amd the diflribution of power 
 among its feveral members ? No- 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY. 27 
 
 Nothing can more juflly excite the in- 
 dignation of an honeft and opprefTed ci- 
 tizen, than to hear a prelate, who en- 
 joys a confiderable benefice, under a cor- 
 rupt government, pleading for its fup- 
 port by thofe abominable perverfions of 
 fcripture, which have been too common 
 on this occafion ; as by urging in its fa- 
 vour that paffage of St. Paul, 77?^ poivers 
 ijuhich be are ordained of God ^ and others 
 of a fimilar import. It is a fufhcient an- 
 fwer to fuch an abfurd quotation as this, 
 that for the fame reafon, the powers 
 which 'Will he will be ordained of God 
 alfo. 
 
 Something, indeed, might have been 
 faid in favour of the doctrines oi pajfi've 
 obedience and non-rejtjiance, at the time 
 when they were firft flarted ; but a man 
 muft be infatuated who will not renounce 
 them now. The Jefuits, about two cen- 
 turies ago, in order to vindicate their 
 king-killing principles, happened, among 
 other arguments, to make ufe of this great 
 and juft principle, that all civil poiver is 
 
 ultimately 
 
I 
 
 28 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 ultimately derived from the people : and 
 their adverfaries, in England, and elfe- 
 where, inftead of fhewing how they 
 abufed and perverted that fundamental 
 principle of all government in the cafe 
 in queftion, did, v^^hat difputants warmed 
 with controverfy are very apt to do ; 
 they denied the principle itfelf, and main- 
 tained that all civil poiver is derived from 
 God, as if the Jewiih theocracy had 
 been eftabliflied throughout the whole 
 world. From this maxim it was a clear 
 confequence, that the governments, which 
 at any time fubfift, being the ordinance 
 of God, and the kings which are at any 
 time upon the throne, being the vicege- 
 rents of God, muft not be oppofed. 
 
 So long as there were recent examples 
 of good kings depofed, and fome of them 
 mafTacred by wild enthuiiafts, fome in- 
 dulgence might be allowed to thofe 
 warm, but weak friends of fociety, who 
 would lay hold of any principle, which, 
 however ill founded, would fupply an ar- 
 gument for more efFedlually preferving 
 the public peace 5 but to maintain the 
 
 fame 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY. 29 
 
 fame abfurd principles at this day, when 
 the danger from which they ferved to 
 Ihelter us is over, and the heat of contro- 
 verfy is abated, fhews the flrongefl and 
 mofi blameable prepofTeilion. Writers 
 in defence of them do not defer ve a feri- 
 rious anfwer : and to alledge thofe princi- 
 ples in favour of a corrupt government, 
 wdiich nothing canexcufe but their being 
 brought in favour of a good one, is un- 
 pardonable. 
 
 The hiflory of this controverfy about 
 the doctrine of paffive obedience and 
 non-refiflance, affords a flriking example 
 of the danger of having recourfe to 
 falfe principles in controverfy. They 
 may ferve a particular turn, but, in other 
 cafes, may be capable of the mod dan- 
 gerous application ; whereas univerfal 
 truth will, in all pofTible cafes, have the 
 befl confequences, and be ever favourable 
 to the true interefts of mankind* 
 
 It will be faid, that it is opening a door 
 to rebellion, to affert that magiftrates, 
 abufing their power, may be fet a fide by 
 
 the 
 
30 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 the people, who are of courfe their own 
 judges when that power is abufed. May 
 not the people, it is faid, abufe their 
 power, as well as their governors ? I an- 
 fwer, it is very poffible they may abufe 
 their power : it is poffible they may ima- 
 gine themfelves oppreffed when they are 
 not : it is pollible that their animofity 
 may be artfully and unreafonably in- 
 flamed, by ambitious and enterprifing 
 m^en, whofe views are often beft anfwered 
 by popular tumults and infurrecflions ; 
 and the people may fuffer in confequence 
 of their folly and precipitancy. But what 
 man is there, or what body of men 
 (whofe right to direcft their own condudl 
 was never called in queftion) but are 
 liable to be impofed upon, and to fuffer 
 in confequence of their miftaken appre- 
 henfions and precipitate condudl ? 
 
 With refpedl to large focieties, it is 
 very improbable, that the people fhould 
 be too foon alarmed, fo as to be di'iven 
 to thefe extremities. In fuch cafes, the 
 power of the government, that is, of 
 the governors, mtift be very extenfive 
 
 and 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY. 31 
 
 and arbitrary ; and the power of the peo- 
 ple fcattered, and difficult to be united; 
 ih that, if a man have common fenfe, he 
 will fee it to be madnefs to propofe, 
 or to lay any meafures for a general infur- 
 reclion againfl the government, except in 
 cafe of very general and great oppreiTi- 
 on. Even patriots, infuchcircumftances, 
 will confider, that prefent evils always ap- 
 pear greater in confequence of their being 
 prefent ; but that the future evils of a re- 
 volt, and a temporary anarchy, may be 
 much greater than are apprehended at a 
 diftance. They will, alfo, confider, that 
 unlefs their meafures be perfedlly well 
 laid, and their fuccefs decifive, ending in 
 a change, not of 7nen, but of things ; not 
 of governors, but of the rides and ad- 
 miniftration of government, they will 
 only rivet their chains the fafter, and 
 bring upon themfelves and their country 
 tenfold ruin. 
 
 So obvious are thefe difficulties, that 
 lie in the way of procuring redrefs of 
 grievances by force of arms, that I think 
 we may fay, without exception, that in 
 
 all 
 
32 
 
 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 all cafes of hoftile oppofition to govern- 
 ment, the people muft have been in the 
 right ; and that nothing but very great 
 oppreilion could drive them to fuch def- 
 perate meafures. The bulk of a people 
 feldom fo much as complain without rea- 
 fon, becaufe they never think of com- 
 plaining till they feel\ fo that, in all 
 cafes of diflatisfadlion w^ith government, 
 it is mofl probable, that the people are 
 injured. 
 
 The cafe, I own, may be otherwife in 
 Hates of fmall extent, where the power 
 of the governors is comparatively fmall, 
 and the power of the people great, and 
 foon united. Thefe fears, therefore, may 
 be prudent in Venice, in Genoa, or in the 
 fmall cantons of Switzerland ; but it were 
 to the lafl degree, abfurd to extend them 
 to Great-Britain. 
 
 The Englilh hiftory will inform us, 
 that the people of this country have 
 always borne extreme oppreilion, for a 
 longtime before there has appeared any 
 danger of a general infurreclion againfl 
 
 the 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY. ^^ 
 
 the government. What a feries of en- 
 croachments upon their rights did even 
 the feudal barons, whofe number was 
 not very confiderable, and whofe power 
 was great, bear from WilHam the Con- 
 queror, and his fucceffors, before they 
 broke out into adlual rebelHon on that ac- 
 count, as in the reigns of king John, and 
 Henry the third ! And how much were 
 the loweft orders of the poor commons 
 trampled upon with impunity by both, 
 till a much later period ; when, all the 
 while, they were fo far from attempting 
 any reliftance, or even complaining of 
 the grofs infringements of their rights, 
 that they had not fo much as the idea of 
 their having any rights to be trampled 
 upon ! After the people had begun to 
 acquire property, independence, and an 
 idea of their natural rights, how long did 
 they bear a load of old and new oppref- 
 lions under the Tudors, but more efpe- 
 cially under the Stuarts, before they 
 broke out into what the friends of arbi- 
 trary power afFedl to call the grand re- 
 bellion ! And how great did that obfli- 
 nate civil war fhow the power of the 
 D king 
 
S4- POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 king to be, notwithflanding the mafl 
 intolerable and wanton abufe of it ! At 
 the clofe of the year 1642, it was more 
 probable that the king would have pre- 
 vailed than the parliament ; and his fuc- 
 cefs would have been certain, if his con- 
 du6l had not been as weak, as it was 
 wicked. 
 
 So great was the power of the crown, 
 that after the refloration, Charles the 
 fecond was tempted to ad: the fame part 
 with his father, and aclually did it, in a 
 great meafure, with impunity ; till, at 
 lafl, he was even able to reign without 
 parliaments ; and if he had lived much 
 longer, he would, in all probability, have 
 been as arbitrary as the king of France. 
 His brother James the fecond, had al-- 
 moft fubverted both the civil and reli- 
 gious liberties of his country, in the 
 fiiort fpace of four years, and might 
 have done it completely, if he could 
 have been content to have proceeded 
 with more caution ; nay, he might have 
 fucceeded. notwithflanding his precipi- 
 tancy, if the divine being had not, at 
 
 that 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY. ^5 
 
 that critical time, raifed up William the 
 third, of glorious memory, for our deli- 
 verance. But, God be thanked, the go- 
 vernment of this country, is now fixed 
 upon fo good and firm a bafis, and is fo 
 generally acquiefced in, that they are 
 only the mere tools of a court party, or 
 the narrow minded bigots among the 
 inferior clergy, who, to ferve their own 
 low purpofes, do now and then pro- 
 mote the cry, that the church or the 
 Hate is in danger. 
 
 As to Vv^hat is called the crime of re- 
 bellion, we have nothing to do either 
 with the name, or the thing, in the cafe 
 before us. That term, if it admit of 
 any definition, is an attempt to fubvert 
 a lawful government ; but the queftion 
 is, whether an opprefTive government, 
 though it have been ever fo long efla- 
 blifhed, can be a lawful one ; or, to 
 cutoff all difpute about words, if lawful, 
 legal, and conflitutional, be maintained 
 to be the fame thing, whether the law- 
 ful, legal, and conflitutional govern- 
 ment be a good government, or one in 
 D 2 which 
 
36 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 which fufficient provifion is made for the 
 happinefs of the fubjedls of it. If it fail 
 in this efTential charadler, refpe<5ling the 
 true end and objedl of all civil govern- 
 ment, no other property or title, with 
 which it may be dignified, ought to flielter 
 it from the generous attack of the noble 
 and daring patriot. If the bold attempt 
 be precipitate, and unfuccefsful, the 
 tyrannical government, will be fure to 
 term it rebellion, but that cenfure can- 
 not make the thing itfelf lefs- glorious. 
 The memory of fuch brave, though un- 
 fuccefsful and unfortunate friends of li- 
 berty, aud of the rights of mankind, as 
 that of Plarmodius and Ariftogiton 
 among the Athenians, and Ruflel and 
 Sidney in our own country, will be 
 had in everlafling honour by their grate-, 
 ful fellow citizens ; andhiftory will fpeak 
 another language than laws. 
 
 r,If it be afked how far a people may 
 lawfully go in punifliing their chief 
 magiftrates, I anfwer that, if the enor- 
 mity of the offence (which is of the fame 
 extent as the injury done to the public) 
 
 be 
 
POLITICAL LIBER.TY. 37 
 
 be confidered, any punifliment is jufti- 
 fiable that a man can incur in human fo- 
 ciety. It may be faid, there are no 
 laws to punifli thofe governors, and we 
 muft not condemn perfons by laws made 
 expoft faSlo ; for this condu6l will vindi- 
 cate the moll: obnoxious meafures of the 
 mod tyrannical adminiftration. But I 
 anfwer, that this is a cafe, in its own na- 
 ture, prior to the eftabliiliment of any 
 laws whatever ; as it ajffedls the very 
 being of fociety, and defeats the prin- 
 cipal ends for vv^hich recourfe was origi- 
 nally had to it. There may be no fixed 
 law againfl an open invader, who iliould 
 attempt to feize upon a country, with a 
 view to enflave all its inhabitants ; but 
 niufh not the invader be apprehended, and 
 even put to death, though he have broken 
 no exprefs law then in being, or none 
 of which he was properly apprized I 
 And why fhould a man, who takes the 
 advantage of his being king, or gover- 
 nor, to fubvert the laws and liberties of 
 his country, be confidered in any other 
 light than that of a foreign invader ? 
 Nay his crime is much more atrocious, 
 
 as 
 
^S POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 as he was appointed the guardian of the 
 laws and liberties, which he fubverts, 
 and which he was, therefore, under the 
 ftrongeft obligation to maintain. 
 
 In a cafe, therefore, of this highly 
 criminal nature', falus popiili fuprema ejl 
 lex. That mud be done which the good 
 of the whole requires ; and, generally, 
 kings depofed, baniflied, or imprifoned, 
 are highly dangerous to a nation ; be- 
 caufe, let them have governed ever fo ill, 
 it will be the interefl of fome to be 
 their partifans, and to attach themfelves 
 to their caufe. 
 
 It will be fuppofed, that thefe obfer- 
 vations have a reference to what pafled 
 in England in the year 1 648. Let it be 
 fuppofed. Surely a man, and an En- 
 glifhman, may be at liberty to give his 
 opinion, freely and without difguife, con- 
 cerning a tranfadlion of fo old a date. 
 Charles the firft, whatever he was in his 
 private chara6ler, which is out of the 
 qvieftion here, was certainly a very bad 
 king of England. During a courfe of 
 
 many 
 
POLITICAL LIBE'RTY. 39 
 
 many years, and notwithftanding re- 
 peated remonftrances, he governed by 
 maxims utterly fubverfive of the funda- 
 mental and free conftitution of this 
 country ; and, therefore, he deferved 
 the fevereft punifhment. If he was 
 milled by his education, or his friends, 
 he was, like any other criminal, in the 
 fame circumftances, to be pitied, but 
 by no means to be fpared on that ac- 
 count. 
 
 From the nature of things it was ne- 
 cefTary that the oppofition Ihould begin 
 from a few, who may, therefore, be 
 ftiled a fa^ion ; but after the civil war 
 (which neceffarily enfued from the king's 
 obftinacy, and in which he had given 
 repeated inftances of diffimulation and 
 treachery) there was evidently no fafety, 
 either for the facftion or the nation, Ihort 
 of his death. It is to be regretted, that 
 the iituation of things was fuch, that the 
 fentence could not be pafTed by the whole 
 nation, or their reprefentatives, folemnly 
 affembled for that purpofe. I am fenfi- 
 ble indeed, that the generality of the na- 
 tion, 
 
40 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 tion, at that time, would not have vot- 
 ed the death of their fovereign ; but 
 this w^as not owing to any want of a juft 
 fenfe of the wrongs he had done them, 
 but to an opinion of the facredne/s ofking^ 
 ly poiver, from which very few of the 
 friends of liberty in thofe times, efpeci- 
 ally among the Prefbyterians, who were 
 the majority, could intirely divefl them- 
 felves. Such a tranfadlion would have 
 been an immortal honour to this coun- 
 try, whenever that fuperftitious notion 
 Ihall be obliterated : A notion which 
 has been extremely ufeful in the infant 
 flate of focieties ; but which, like other 
 fuperftitious, fubfifts long after it hath 
 ceafed to be of ufe. 
 
 The fum of what hath been advanced 
 upon this head, is a maxim, than which 
 nothing is more true, that every govern- 
 ment, in its original priiiciples, and antece" 
 dent to its prefent form, is an equal repub- 
 lic ; and, confequently, that every man, 
 when he comes to be fenfible of his na- 
 tural rights, and to feel his own impor- 
 t^^nce, will confider himfelf as fully e- 
 
 qual 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY. 41 
 
 qual to any other perfon whatever. The 
 confideration of riches and power, how- 
 ever acquired, mull be entirely fet afide, 
 when we come to thefe firft principles. 
 The very idea of property, or right of 
 any kind, is founded upon a regard to 
 the general good of the fociety, under 
 whofe protediion it is enjoyed ; and no- 
 thing is properly a mans oivn, but what 
 general rules, which have for their ob- 
 jedl the good of the whole, give to him. 
 To whomfoever the fociety delegates its 
 power, it is delegated to them for the 
 more eafy management of public affairs, 
 and in order to make the more effectual 
 provifion for the happinefs of the whole. 
 "Whoever enjoys property, or riches in 
 the Hate, enjoys them for the good of the 
 ftate, as well as for himfelf ; and when- 
 ever thofe powers, riches, or rights of any 
 kind, are abufed, to the injury of the 
 whole, that awful and ultimate tribu- 
 nal, in which every citizen hath an e- 
 qual voice, may demand the refignation 
 of them ; and in circumftances, where 
 regular commiflions from this abufed 
 public cannot be had, every man, who 
 
 has 
 
42 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 has power, and who is adluated with the 
 fentiments of the public, may aflume a 
 public chara(5ler, and bravely redrefs 
 public wrongs. In fuch difmal and cri- 
 tical circumftances, the ftiiled voice of 
 an opprefTed country is a loud call upon 
 every man, pofTefTed with a fpirit of pa- 
 triotifm, to exert himfelf ; and whenever 
 that voice ihall be at liberty, it will ra- 
 tify and applaud the action, which it 
 could not formally authorize. 
 
 In large ftates, this ultimate feat of 
 power, this tribunal to which lies an 
 appeal from every other, and from which 
 no appeal can even be imagined, is too 
 much hid, and kept out of light by the 
 prefent complex forms of government, 
 which derive their authority from it. 
 Hence hath arifen a want of clear- 
 nefs and confiftency in the language of 
 the friends of liberty. Hence the pre- 
 pofterous and flavifli maxim, that 
 wdiatever is enadled by that body of 
 men, in whom the fupreme power of 
 the ftate is veiled, mufl, in all cafes, be 
 implicitly obeyed j and that no attempt 
 
 to 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY. 43 
 
 to repeal an imjufl law can be vindi- 
 cated, beyond a fimple remonftrance 
 addreffed to the legiflators. A cafe, 
 which is very intelligible, but which 
 can never happen, will demonftrate the 
 abfurdity of fuch a maxim. 
 
 Suppofe the king of England, and the 
 two hoiifes of parliament, fliould make 
 a law, in all the ufual forms, to exempt 
 the members of either houfe from pay- 
 ing taxes to the government, or to take 
 to themfelves the property of their fel- 
 low citizens. A law like this would o- 
 pen the eyes of the whole nation, and 
 fliow them the true principles of go- 
 vernment, and the power of governors. 
 The nation would fee that the mod 
 regular governments may become ty- 
 rannical, and their governors opprefTive, 
 by feparating their interefl from that 
 of the people whom they govern. 
 Such a law would fliow them to be but 
 fervants, and fervants who had ftiame- 
 fuUy abufed their truft. In fuch a cafe, 
 every man for himfelf would lay his 
 hand upon his fword, and the autho- 
 rity 
 
44 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 rity of the fupreme power of the ftate 
 would be annihilated. 
 
 So plain are thefe firft principles of 
 all government, and political liberty, 
 that I will take upon me to fay, it is im- 
 poffible a man fliould not be convinced 
 of them, who brings to the fubje6l a 
 mind free from the groffeft and meaneft 
 prejudices. Whatever be the form of 
 any government, whoever be the fupreme 
 magiftrates, or whatever be their num- 
 ber ; that is, to whomfoever the power 
 of the fociety is delegated, their autho- 
 rity is, in its own nature, reverfible. No 
 man can be fuppofed to refign his na- 
 tural liberty, but on conditions, Thefe 
 conditions, whether they be exprefTed or 
 not, muil be violated, whenever the 
 plain and obvious ends of government 
 are not anfwered ; and a delegated power, 
 perverted from the intention for which 
 it was beftowed, expires of courfe. Ma- 
 giftrates therefore, who confult not the 
 good of the public, and who employ 
 their power to opprefs the people, are a 
 public nuifance, and their power is abro- 
 gated ipfo faclo. This 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY, 45 
 
 This, however, can only be the cafe 
 in extreme oppreflion ; when the blef- 
 fmgs of fociety and civil government, 
 great and important as they are, are 
 bought too dear ; when it is better not 
 to be governed at all, than to be go- 
 verned in fuch a manner ; or, at leafl, 
 when the hazard of a change of go- 
 vernment would be apparently the lefs 
 evil of the two ; and, therefore, thefe 
 occaiions rarely occur in the courfe of 
 human affairs. It may be alked, what 
 fliould a people do in cafe of lefs general 
 oppreflion, and only particular grie- 
 vances ; when the deputies of the people 
 make laws which evidently favour 
 themfelves, and bear hard upon the 
 body of the people they reprefent, and 
 flich as'they would certainly difapprove, 
 could they be affembled for that pur- 
 pofe ? I anfwer, that when this appears 
 to be very clearly the cafe, as it ought 
 by all means to do (fince, in many cafes, 
 if the government have not power to 
 enforce a bad law, it will not have 
 power to enforce a good one) the firft 
 
 ilep 
 
4.6 POLITICAL LIBERTY. 
 
 ftep which a wife and moderate people 
 will take, is to make a remonftrance to 
 the legillature ; and if that be not pradi- 
 cable, or be not heard ; flill, if the com- 
 plaints be general, and loud, a wife 
 prince and miniftry will pay regard to 
 them ; or they will, at length, be weary 
 of enforcing a penal law which is ge- 
 nerally abhorred and difregarded ; when 
 they fee the people will run the rifque 
 of the punifliment, if it cannot be evad- 
 ed, rather than quietly fubmit to the 
 injundlion. And a regard to the good 
 of fociety will certainly juftify this 
 condu(5l of the people. 
 
 If an over fcrupulous confcience 
 fliould prevent the people from ex- 
 preiling their fentiments in this man- 
 ner, there is no method left, until an 
 opportunity offers of chufing honefler 
 deputies, in which the voice of the loweft 
 ciafTes can be heard, in order to obtain 
 the repeal of an oppreflive law. 
 
 Governors will never be awed by the 
 voice of the people, fo long as it is a 
 
 mere 
 
POLITICAL LIBERTY. 47 
 
 mere voice, without overt-ad:3. The 
 confequence of thefe feemingly mode- 
 rate maxims is, that a door will be left 
 opeii to all kinds of oppreffion, without 
 any refource or redrefs, till the public 
 wrongs be accumulated to the degree 
 above mentioned, when all the world 
 would juflify the utter fubverlion of the 
 government. Thefe maxims, there- 
 fore, admit of no remedy but the lafl, 
 and moft hazardous of all. But is not 
 even a mob a lefs evil than a rebellion, 
 and ought the former to be fo feverely 
 blamed by writers on this fubjedl, when 
 it may prevent the latter ? Of two evils 
 of any kind, political as well as others, 
 it is the dicfcate of common fenfe to 
 chufe the lefs. Befides, according to 
 common notions, avowed by writers 
 upon morals on lefs general principles, 
 and by lawyers too, all penal laws give 
 a man an alternative, either to abflain 
 from the adtion prohibited, or to take 
 the penalty. 
 
 SECTION 
 
SECTION III. 
 
 O F 
 
 CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 SECT. I. 
 
 Of the nature of Civil Liberty in 
 general. 
 
 IT is a matter of the greateft impor- 
 tance, that we carefully diftinguifh 
 between xhtform and the extent ofpoiver 
 in a government ; for many maxiriis ill 
 politics depend upon the one, which 
 are too generally afcribed to the other. 
 
 It is comparatively of fmall confe- 
 quence, who, ox how many be our gover- 
 nors, 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY. 49 
 
 nors, or hoiv long their oiEce conti- 
 nues, provided their power be the fame 
 while they are in office, and the admini- 
 ftration be uniform and certain. All the 
 difference which can arife to dates from 
 diverfities, in the number or continu- 
 ance of governors, can only flow from 
 the motives and opportunities, which 
 thofe different circumflances may give 
 their deputies, of extending, or making 
 a bad ufe of their power. But whether 
 a people enjoy more or fewer of their 
 natural rights, under any form of go- 
 vernment, is a matter of the lafl impor- 
 tance ; and upon this depends, what, I 
 fhould chufe to call, the civil liberty of the 
 Hate, as diflindl from its political liberty. 
 
 If the power of government be very 
 extenlive, and the fubjecfls of it have, 
 confequently, little power over their 
 own adlions, that government is tyranni- 
 cal, and oppreflive ; whether, with re- 
 fpe^l to its form, it be a monarchy, an 
 ariflocracy, or even a republic. For the 
 government of the temporary magi- 
 ftrates of a democracy, or even the laws 
 E them- 
 
50 CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 themfelves may be as tyrannical as tire 
 maxims of the mod defpotic monarchy, 
 and the adminiftration of the govern- 
 ment may be as deflrudlive of private 
 happinefs. The only confolation that a 
 democracy fuggefts in thofe circum- 
 flances is, that every member of the ftate 
 has a chance of arriving at a fhare in the 
 chief magiflracy, and confequently of 
 playing the tyrant in his turn ; and as 
 there is no government in the world fo 
 perfcdlly democratical, as that every 
 member of the ftate, without exception, 
 has a right of being admitted into the 
 adminiftration, great numbers will be 
 in the fame condition as if they had lived 
 under the moft abfoKite monarchy ; and 
 this is, in fa 61, almoft univerfally the 
 cafe with the poor, in all governments. 
 
 For the fame reafon, if there were 
 no fixed laws, but every thing was de- 
 cided according to the will of the per- 
 fons in power ; who is there that would 
 think it of much confequence, whether 
 his life, his liberty, or his property were 
 at the mercy of one, of a few, or of a 
 
 great 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY. 51 
 
 great number of people, that is, of a 
 mob, liable to the worft of influences. 
 So far, therefore, we may fafely fay, 
 with Mr. Pope, that thofe goijernments 
 ijohich are hsji admln'ijiercd are beji : — that 
 is, provided the power of government 
 be moderate, and leave a man the mod 
 valuable of his private rights ; provided 
 the laws be certainly known to every 
 one, and the adminiftration of them be 
 uniform, it is of no confequence how 
 many, or how few perfons are employed 
 in the adminiftration. But it muft be al- 
 lowed, that there is not the fame chance 
 for the continuance of fuch laws, and of 
 fuch an adminiftration, whether the pow- 
 er be lodged in few, or in more hands. 
 
 The governments now fublifting in 
 Europe differ widely in their forms ; but 
 it is certain, that the prefent happinefs 
 of the fubjecls of them can by no means 
 be eftimated by a regard to that circum- 
 ftance only. It depends chiefly upon 
 the power, the extent, and the maxims 
 of government, refpecfling perfonal fe- 
 curity, private property, &c. and on the 
 E 2 cer- 
 
52 CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 certainty and uniformity of the admi- 
 niftration. 
 
 Civil liberty has been greatly impaired 
 by an abufe of the maxim, that the 
 joint vmderilanding of all the members 
 of a {late, properly colledled, muft be 
 preferable to that of individuals ; and 
 confequently that the more the cafes are, 
 in which mankind are governed by this 
 united reafon of the whole community, 
 fo much the better ; whereas, in truth, 
 the greater part of human acSlions are of 
 fuch a nature, that more inconvenience 
 w^ould follow from their being fixed by 
 lav/s, than from their being left to every 
 man's arbitrary will. 
 
 We may be aflifted in conceiving the 
 nature of this fpecies of liberty, by con- 
 lidering what it is that men propofe to 
 p-ain by entering into fociety. Now it 
 is evident, that we are not Jed to wifh 
 for a ftate of fociety by the want of any 
 thing that we can conveniently procure 
 for ourfelves. As a man, and a member 
 of civil fociety, I am defirous to receive 
 
 fuch 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY. 53 
 
 fuch afliftance as numbers can give to in- 
 di'viduals, but by no means that afliftance . 
 which numbers, as fuch, cannot give to 
 individuals ; and, leaft of all, fuch as in- 
 dividuals are better qualified to impart 
 to numbers. There are many things 
 refpecfting human happinefs that pro- 
 perly fall under the two laft mentioned 
 clafl^es, and the great difficulty concern- 
 ing the due extent of civil government 
 lies in diftinguiihing the objeds that be- 
 long to thefe clafTes. Little difficulty, 
 however, has, in fa (ft, arifen from the 
 nature of the things, in comparifon of 
 the difficulties that have been occafioned 
 by its being the intereft of men to com- 
 bine, confound, and perplex them. 
 
 As far as mtv^ Jlrength can go, it is e- 
 vident, that numbers may affiil an indi- 
 vidual, and this feems to have been the 
 firft, if not the only reafon for having 
 recourfe to fociety. If I be injured, and 
 not able to redrefs my own wrongs, I 
 aflc help of my neighbours and acquain- 
 tance ; and occalions may arife, in vvrhich 
 the more affiftance I can procure, the 
 
 better 
 
54 
 
 CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 better. But I can feldom want the ai^ 
 iiftance of numbers in managing my 
 domeflic affairs, which require nothing 
 but my own conftant infpecflion, and the 
 immediate application of my own facul- 
 ties. In this cafe, therefore, any attempt 
 of numbers to aflift me, would only oc- 
 cafion embarrafTment and diflrefs. 
 
 For the purpofe of finding out truth, 
 individuals are always employed to af- 
 fift multitudes ; for, notwithftanding it 
 be probable, that more difcoveries will 
 be made by a number of perfons than 
 by one perfon ; and though one perfon 
 may affifl another in fuggefling and pei*- 
 fedling any improvements in fcience ; 
 yet fiill they all adl as independent indivi- 
 duals, giving voluntary information and 
 advice. For whenever numbers have 
 truth or knowledge for their object, and 
 a6l as a collecflive body, i. e. authorita- 
 ti'vely, fo that no fingle perfon can have 
 pov/er to determine any thing till the 
 majority have been brought to agree to 
 it, the interefls of knowledge will cer- 
 tainly fufPer, there is fo little profpe(5l 
 
 of 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 B5 
 
 t)f the prejudices of the many giving 
 way to the better judgment of an indi- 
 vidual. Here, there is a cafe, in which 
 fociety mufl always be benefited by in- 
 dividuals, as fuch, and not by numbers, 
 in a collecflive capacity. It is leafl of 
 all, therefore, for the advancement of 
 knowledge, that I fhould be induced to 
 wifh for the authoritative interpolition 
 of fociety. 
 
 In this manner it might not be a very 
 difficult thing, for candid and impartial 
 perfons, to fix reafonable bounds for the 
 interpofition of laws and government. 
 They are defe(5live when they leave an 
 individual deflitute of that afliftance 
 which they could procure for him, and 
 they are burdenfome and oppreflive ; i. e. 
 injurious to the natural rights and civil 
 liberties of mankind, when they lay a 
 man under unneceiTary reftridlions, by 
 controling his conducl, and preventing 
 him from ferving himfelf, with refpe(5l 
 to thofe things, in which they can yield 
 him no real afiiflance, and in providing 
 for which he is in no danger of injuring 
 others. This 
 
56 CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 This queftion may be farther illuflrated 
 by two pretty juft comparifons. Magi- 
 ftrates are the fervants of the public, and 
 therefore the ufe of them may be illu- 
 flrated by that of fervants. Now let a 
 man's fortune or his incapacity be fuch 
 that his dependence on fervants is ever fo 
 great ; there muft be many things that 
 he will be obliged to do for himfelf, and 
 in which any attempt to affifl him would 
 only embarrafs and diftrefs him ; and in 
 many cafes in which perfons do make 
 life of fervants, they would be much 
 more at their eafe, if their fituation would 
 allow them to do without their affiftance. 
 If magiflrates be confidered in the more 
 refpedtable light of reprefentatives and 
 deputies of the people, it fhould likewife 
 be confidered, that there are many cafes, 
 in which it is more convenient for a man 
 to a(5l in per/on than by any deputation 
 whatever. 
 
 In fome refpedls, however, it muft be 
 acknowledged, that the proper extent of 
 civil government is not ealily circum- 
 
 fcribed 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY 
 
 57 
 
 fcribed within exadl limits. That the 
 happmefs of the whole community 
 is the ultimate end of government 
 can never be doubted, and all claims 
 of individuals inconliftent with the 
 public good are abfolutely null and 
 void ; but there is a real difficulty in 
 determining what general rules, refpecl- 
 ing the extent of the power of govern- 
 ment, or of governors, are mofl condu- 
 cive to the public good. 
 
 Some may think it beft, that the le- 
 giflature ihould make exprefs provilion 
 for every thing which can even indirecfl- 
 ly, remotely, and confequentially, afFedl 
 the public good ; while others may think 
 it beft, that every thing, which is not 
 properly of a civil nature, fhould be 
 entirely overlooked by the civil magi- 
 ftrate ; that it is for the advantage of 
 the fociety, upon the whole, that all 
 thofe things be left to take their own 
 natural courfe, and that the legiflature 
 cannot interfere in them, without de- 
 feating its own great objedl," the public 
 good. 
 
 We 
 
S8 CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 We are fo little capable of arguing 
 n priori in matters of government, that 
 it fhould feem, experiments only can 
 determine how far this power of the le- 
 giilature ought to extend ; and it fliould 
 likewife .fern, that, till a fufficient 
 number of experiments have been made, 
 it becomes the wifdom of the civil ma- 
 giftracy to take as little upon its hands 
 as poffible, and never to interfere, with- 
 out the greateft caution, in things that 
 do not immediately affedl the lives, li- 
 berty, or property of the members of 
 the community ; that civil magiflrates 
 fliould hardly ever be moved to exert 
 themfelves by the mere tendencies of 
 things^ thofe tendencies are generally 
 fo vague, and often fo imaginary ; and 
 that nothing but a manifefl and urgent 
 neceffity (of which, however, themfelves 
 are, to be fure, the only judges) can 
 juflify them in extending their authority 
 to whatever has no more than a tenden- 
 cy, though the ftrongeft poflible, to dis- 
 turb the tranquility and happinefs of the 
 ftate. 
 
 There 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY. 59 
 
 There can be no doubt but that 
 any people, forming themfelves into 
 a fociety, may fubjedl themfelves to 
 whatever reftridlions they pleafe; and 
 confequently, that the fupreme civil 
 magiflrates, on whom the whole power 
 of the fociety is devolved, may make 
 what laws they pleafe ; but the quellion 
 is, what reftridlions and laws are wife, 
 and calculated to promote the public 
 good ; for fuch only are juft, right, and, 
 properly fpeaking, lawful. 
 
 Political and civil liberty, as before 
 explained, though very different, have, 
 however, a very near and manifefl con- 
 nedlion ; and the former is the chief 
 guard of the latter, and on that account, 
 principally, it is valuable, and worth 
 contending for. If all the political power 
 of this country were lodged in the hands 
 of one perfon, and the government 
 thereby changed into an abfolute mo- 
 narchy, the people would find no dif- 
 ference, provided the fame laws, and 
 the fame adminiflration, which now fub- 
 
 fift, 
 
6o CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 {id, were continued. But then, the 
 people, having no political liberty, would 
 have no jccurlty for the continuance of 
 the fame laws, and the fame adminiftra- 
 tion. They would have no guard for 
 their civil liberty. The monarch, having 
 it in his option, might not chufe to con- 
 tinue the fame laws, and the fame ad- 
 miniflration. He might fancy it to be 
 for his own intereft to alter them, and 
 to abridge his fubjecfts in their private 
 rights ; and, in general, it may be de- 
 pended upon, that governors will not 
 confult the intereft of the people, except 
 it be their own intereft too, becaufe go- 
 vernors are but men. But while a num- 
 ber of the people have a fliare in the 
 legiilature, fo as to be able to control 
 the fupreme magiftrate, there is a great 
 probability that things will continue in 
 a good ftate. For the more political li- 
 berty the people have, the fafer is their 
 civil liberty. 
 
 There may, however, be fome kind of 
 guard for civil liberty, independent of 
 that which is properly called political. 
 
 For 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY. 6i 
 
 For the fupreme maglftrate, though, w 
 minally, he have all the power of the 
 flate in his hands, and, without violat- 
 ing any of the forms of the conftitution, 
 may ena<5l and execute what laws he 
 pleafes ; yet his circumftances may be 
 Ilich, as fhall lay him under what is e- 
 quivalent to a natural impojjibility of do- 
 ing what he w^ould chufe. And I do not 
 here mean that kind of reftraint, which 
 all arbitrary princes are under, from the 
 fear of a revolt of their fubjecfbs ; which 
 is often the confequence of great oppref- 
 fion ; but from what may be called the 
 fpirit of the times, 
 
 Magiftrates, being men, cannot but 
 have, in fome meafure, the feelings of 
 other men. They could not, therefore, 
 be happy themfelves, if they were con- 
 fcious that their condudl expofed them 
 to univerfal hatred and contempt. Nei- 
 ther can they be altogether indifferent to 
 the light in which their characters and 
 condudl will appear to pofterity. For 
 their own fakes, therefore, they will ge- 
 nerally pay fome regard to the fentiments 
 of their people. The 
 
62 CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 The more civilized any country is, the 
 more efFe(5lual will this kind of guard to 
 political liberty prove ; becaufe, in thofe 
 circumftances, a fenfe of juftice and ho- 
 nour have got firmer hold of the minds 
 of men ; fo that a violation of them 
 would be more feniibly felt, and more 
 generally and ftrongly refented. For 
 this reafon, a gentleman of fafliion and 
 fortune has much lefs to dread in France, 
 or in Denmark, than in Turkey. The 
 confifcation of an overgrown rich man's 
 efPedls, without any caufe affigned, 
 would make no great noife in the latter ; 
 whereas in thofe countries, in which the 
 forms of law and liberty have been long 
 eflablifhed, they necefTarily carry with 
 them more or lefs of xhtfubjiaiice alfo. 
 
 There is not, I believe, any country 
 in Europe, in which a man could be 
 condemned, and his eiFedls confifcated, 
 but a crime mulf be alledged, and a pro- 
 cefs of law be gone through. The con- 
 firmed habit of thinking in thefe coun- 
 tries is fuch, that no priace could dif- 
 
 penfe 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY. 65 
 
 penfe with thefe formalities. He wovild 
 be deemed infane, if he fliould attempt to 
 do otherwife ; the fuccefiion would be 
 fet afide in favour of the next heir, by 
 the general confent of the people, and 
 the revolution would take place without 
 blood filed. No perfon (landing near 
 any European prince would hefitate what 
 to do, if his fovereign fhould attempt to 
 cut off a man's head, out of mere wan- 
 tdnnefs and fport, a thing that would 
 only ftrike the beholders with awe in 
 fome foreign courts. 
 
 Should the Englifli government be- 
 come arbitrary, and the people, difgufb- 
 ed with the condud of their parliaments, 
 do what the people of Denmark have 
 done, chufe their fovereign for their 
 perpetual reprefentative, and furrender 
 into his hands all the power of ftate; 
 the forms of a free government have been 
 fo long eflabliflied, that the moft artful 
 tyrant would be a long time before he 
 could render life and property as preca- 
 rious as it is even in France. The trial 
 by juries, in ordinary cafes, would ftand 
 
 a 
 
'>'Cy 
 
 64 CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 a long time ; the habeas corpus would, 
 generally at lead, continue in force, and 
 all executions would be in public. 
 
 It may be queilioned whether the 
 progrefs to abfolute flavery and infecu- 
 rity would be more rapid, if the king 
 were nominally arbitrary, or only virtu- 
 ally fo, by uniformly influencing the 
 houfe of Commons. 
 
 In fome refpecfls, fo large a body of 
 men would venture upon things which 
 no fingle perfon would chufe to do of 
 his own authority ; and fo long as they 
 had little intercourfe but with one ano- 
 ther, they would not be much afFe(5led 
 with the fenfe of fear or fliame. One 
 may fafely fay, that no lingle member 
 of the houfe would have had the af- 
 furance to decide as the majority have 
 often done, in cafes of controverted e- 
 ledions. 
 
 But, on the other hand, as the mem- 
 bers of the houfe of Commons neceffa- 
 rily fpend a great part of the fummer 
 
 months 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY. 6s 
 
 months with their friends in the country, 
 they could not fhew their faces after 
 paffing an adl, by which gentlemen like 
 themfelves, or even their eledlors, lliould 
 be much aggrieved ; though they may 
 now and then opprefs the poor by un- 
 reafonable game afls, 8cc. becaufe they 
 never con verfe with any of the poor except 
 their immediate dependants, who would 
 not chufe to remonilrate on the fubjed:. 
 
 4 
 
 Befides, fo long as the members of 
 parliament are ek^ed, though only once 
 in feven years, thofe of them that are 
 really chofen by the people can have no 
 chance of being re-eleded but by pleaf- 
 ing the people ; and many of them 
 would not chufe to reduce themfelves 
 and their pofterity, out of the houfe, to 
 a worfe condition than they originally 
 were. Let them be ever fo obfequious 
 to a court, they will hardly chufe to de- 
 prive thennfelves of all power of giving 
 any thing for the future. 
 
 Independent, therefore, of all convic- 
 tion of mind, there muft be a minority 
 F in 
 
66 CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 in the houfe, whofe clamour and oppo- 
 iition will impede the progrefs of tyran- 
 ny ; whereas a king, furrounded by his 
 guards, and a cringing nobility, has no 
 check. If, however, he be a man of 
 fenfe, and read hiflory, he may compre- 
 hend the various caufes of the extreme 
 infecurity of defpotic princes ; many of 
 whom have appeared in all the pomp of 
 power in the morning, and have been 
 in prifon, without eyes, or maflacred, 
 and dragged about the ftreets before 
 night. 
 
 At all adventurer, I fliould think it 
 more w^ife to bear with a tyrannical par- 
 liament, though a more expenfive mode 
 of fervitude for the prefent, than an ar- 
 bitrary prince. So long as there is a 
 power that can nominally put a negative 
 upon the proceedings of the court, there 
 is fome chance, that circumflances may 
 arife, in which the prince may not be 
 able to influence them. They may fee 
 the neceffity, if not the iv'ifdom of com- 
 plying with the jufl defires of the peo- 
 ple \ and by pafling a few fundamentally 
 
 good 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY. 67 
 
 good laws, true freedom may be efla- 
 bliflied for ages ; whereas, were the old 
 forms of conftitutional liberty once abo- 
 liflied, as in France, there would be little 
 hope of their revival. 
 
 Whenever the houfe of Commons 
 Ihall be fo abandonedly corrupt, as to join 
 with the court in abolifliing any of the 
 effential forms of the confitution^ or effec- 
 tually defeating the great purpofes of it, 
 let every Engliiliman, before it be too late, 
 re-perufe the hiltory of his country, and 
 do what Engliflimen are renowned for 
 having formerly done in the fame cir- 
 cumftances. 
 
 Where civil liberty is intirely divefted 
 of its natural guard, political liberty, 
 Ifliould not hefitate to prefer the govern- 
 ment of one^ to that of a number \ be- 
 caufe a fenfe of fliame would have lels 
 influence upon them, and they would 
 keep one another in countenance, in 
 cafes in which any fingle perfon would 
 yield to the fenfe of the majority. 
 
 F 2 Political 
 
62> CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 Political and civil liberty have many 
 things in common, virhich indeed, is the 
 reafon why they have been fo often con- 
 founded. A fenfe both of political and 
 civil flavery, makes a man think mean- 
 ly of himfelf. The feeling of his inlig- 
 nificance debafes his mind, checks every 
 great and enterprifing fentiment ; and, in 
 fact, renders him that poor abjedl crea- 
 ture, which he fancies himfelf to be. 
 Having always fome unknown evil to 
 fear, though it fliould never come, he 
 has no perfedl enjoyment of himfelf, or 
 of any of the bleiTmgs of life ; and thus, 
 his fentiments and his enjoyments being 
 of a lov/er kind, the man finks nearer 
 to the ftate of the brute creation. 
 
 On the other hand, a fenfe of political 
 and civil liberty, though there fliould 
 be no great occafion to exert it in the 
 courfe of a man's life, gives him a con- 
 ftant feeling of his own power and im- 
 portance ; and is the foundation of his. 
 indulging a free, bold, and manly turn 
 of thinking, unreftrained by the moil 
 diftant idea of control. Being free from 
 
 all 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY. 69 
 
 all fear, he has the moffc perfe6l enjoy- 
 ment of hhnfelf, and of all the blelhngs 
 of life ; and his fentiments and enjoy- 
 ments, being raifed, his very being is ex- 
 alted, and the man makes nearer ap- 
 proaches to fuperior natures. 
 
 Without a fpirit of liberty, and a feel- 
 ing of fecurity and independence, no 
 great improvements in agriculture, or 
 any thing elfe, will ever be made by men. 
 A man has but poor encouragement to 
 beflow labour and expence upon a piece 
 of ground, in which he has no fecure 
 property ; and v/hen neither himfelf, nor 
 his pofterity, will, probably, ever derive 
 any permanent advantage from it. In 
 confirmation of this, I cannot help quot' 
 ing a few inftrucflive paiTages from Mr. 
 Die Poivres Travels of a Philofopher. 
 
 It is his general obfervation, that " a 
 *' country poorly cultivated is always 
 " inhabited by men barbarous, or op- 
 ^* preffed." p. 5. 
 
 " In a terrefbial paradife, the Siamefe 
 
 are. 
 
70 CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 " are, perhaps, the mofl wretched peo- 
 " pie in the world. The government is 
 " defpotic. The fovereign alone enjoys 
 " the true liberty which is natural to all 
 " mankind. His fubjedls are all flaves. 
 " Every one of them is annually taxed 
 " at fix months perfonal fervice, without 
 " wages, and even without food. p. $6. 
 
 On the other hand, " The Chinefe en- 
 " joy, undifturbed, their private pofTef^ 
 *• fions, as well as thofe which, being by 
 " their nature indivifible, belong to all ; 
 " and he who buys a field, or receives it 
 *' by inheritance from his anceflors, is 
 " of courfe the fole lord or mafler. The 
 *' lands are free as the people, without 
 " feudal fervices, or fines of alienation. 
 ^' A tenth part of the produce of the 
 " earth is the only tax, or tribute, in the 
 " Chinefe empire, fince the origin of the 
 *' monarchy. And fuch is the happy re- 
 " fpeft which the Chinefe have for their 
 *' antient cuftoms, that no emperor of 
 " China ever entertains the mofl diftant 
 ^' thought of augmenting it, nor his 
 " fubjeds the leafl apprehenfion of fuch 
 ^' augmentation." p. 78. In 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY. 71 
 
 In arbitrary governments the poor are 
 certainly the moft fafe, as their condi- 
 tion exhibits nothing that can attracfl 
 the notice, or tempt the violence of a 
 tyrant. If, therefore, a man afpire to 
 nothing more than to get his bread by 
 the labour of his hands, in fome cuflo- 
 mary employment, he has little to fear, 
 let him live where he will. Like the afs 
 in the fable, he can but bear his burden. 
 No governments can do without labour- 
 ers and artifans. It is their intereft to 
 protedl them, and efpecially thofe who 
 are dexterous in the more elegant arts, 
 that are fubfervient to luxury. 
 
 But the poorefl can hardly be with- 
 out fome degree of ambition, except 
 when that generous principle has been 
 long repreffed, and in a manner eradi- 
 cated by a continual habit of llavery ; 
 and the moment that a man thinks of 
 rendering himfelf in any refpecl confpicu- 
 ous, for his wealth, knowledge, or influ- 
 ence of any kind, he begins to be in 
 danger. If he have but a very hand- 
 ibme wife, he mull not live near a de- 
 
 fpotic 
 
72 
 
 CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 fpotic court, or in the neighbourhood 
 of any great man who is countenanced 
 by it. If he have wealth, he mufl hide 
 it, and enjoy it in fecret, with fear and 
 trembhng ; and if he have fenfe, and 
 think differently from his neighbours, 
 he muft do the fame, or rifque the fate 
 of Galileo. 
 
 I fliall clofe this fedlion with a few 
 extracts from travellers, and other writers, 
 which fliew the importance of political 
 and civil liberty. 
 
 " In travelling through Germany," 
 fays Lady M. W. Montague, " it is im- 
 " poffible not to obferve the difference 
 " between the free towns, and thofe 
 " under the government of abfolute 
 " princes, as all the little fovereigns of 
 " Germany are. In the firfl there ap- 
 " pears an air of commerce and plenty, 
 " the ftreets are well built, and full of 
 *' people, the fliops are loaded with 
 ^' merchandize, and the commonalty 
 " are clean and chearful. In the other, 
 
 " you 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 n 
 
 " you fee a fort of ftiabby finery, a 
 " number of people of quality tawdried 
 " out, narrow nafty ftreets, out of repair, 
 " wretchedly thin of inhabitants, and 
 " above half of the common people 
 " afldng alms." Lady M. W, Montar 
 gues Letters, vol. I. page i6. 
 
 " Every houfe in Turkey," the fame 
 excellent writer obferves, " at the death 
 " of its mafter, is at the grand feignior s 
 " difpofal ; and therefore no man cares 
 " to make a great expence, which he is 
 " not fure his family will be the better 
 " for. All their defign is to build a 
 " houfe commodious, and that will laft 
 " their LVes, and they are very indif- 
 " ferent if it falls down the next year." 
 lb. p. 70. 
 
 " The fear of the laws," fays the ad- 
 mirable author of the Effay on crimes 
 and piin'i/Jj?nentSy " is falutary, but the 
 " fear of man is a fruitful and fatal 
 ", fource of crimes. Men enflaved are 
 " more voluptuous, more debauched, 
 
 " and 
 
74 
 
 CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 '' and more cruel than thofe who are in 
 " a ftate of freedom. Thefe fliidy the 
 *' fciences, and the interefts of nations. 
 " They have great obje6ts before their 
 " eyes, and imitate them. But thofe 
 " whofe views are confined to the pre- 
 *' fent moment, endeavour, amidft the 
 " diftracftion of riot and debauchery, to 
 ^' forget their iituation. Accuftoined to 
 *' the uncertainty of all events, the con- 
 " fequences of their crimes become pro- 
 *' blematical ; which gives an additional 
 " force to the ftrength of their paffions.** 
 P. 1 65. 
 
 " The Turkifli Bafliaw once deflroyed 
 " all the fugar canes in Cyprus, to prevent 
 ^' the people having too much wealth. 
 *' This iiland is to this day the cleareft 
 " proof that can be given, how much 
 " a bad government may defeat all the 
 " kind intentions of nature : for, in fpite 
 *' of all the advantages a country can 
 " poffibly have, there never was a more 
 *' defolate place than this iiland is at this 
 " day." Thevenot in Knox's colledlion, 
 ¥ol, 6 J p. 71. There 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 75 
 
 There is hardly any greater inflance 
 of the wanton abufe of power, in the 
 invafion of the natural rights of man- 
 kind, than in the game laivs, that are in 
 force in different ftates of Europe. Eng- 
 land has jufl and great complaint to 
 make on this fubje(5l ; bvit we are not 
 yet reduced to the deplorable condition 
 of the Saxons, as it is defcribed by Han- 
 way, vol. I. p. 433' 
 
 " Hunting is the ruling paflion of the 
 " Saxon court, and fatal to the inhabi- 
 " tants. In the hard winter of 1740, it 
 " is computed, that above 30,000 deer 
 " died in the electorate of Saxony ; and 
 *' yet, in the open lands and forefts, 
 " there are now reckoned to remain a- 
 *' bove that number, of which no per- 
 " fon dares kill one, under the penalty 
 " of being condemned to the gallies. In 
 " every town of any note, there are fif- 
 " ty of the inhabitants, who watch, five 
 " every night, by rotation, and ufe bells 
 " to frighten the deer, and defend their 
 *' corn. Frequent remonftrances have 
 ^- been made to the court on this fubjecfl: ; 
 
 " but 
 
76 EFFECTSOFA 
 
 " but to no other purpofe, than to con- 
 '^ vince the people of their llavery." 
 
 Felix quern facmnt, al'iena penciila caiitum. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 In ivhat manner an aiithoritati<ve code 
 of education ivould affe^ political and 
 civil liberty, 
 
 «> 
 
 AVING confidered the nature 
 of civil liberty in general, I 
 fhall treat of two capital branches of 
 which it coniifts. Thefe are the rights 
 of education, and religion. On thefe 
 two articles much of the happinefs of 
 human life is acknowledged to depend ; 
 but they appear to me to be of fach a 
 nature, that the advantage we derive 
 from them will be raore effedlually fe- 
 cured, when they are conducfled by in- 
 dividuals, than by the ftate ; and if this 
 can be demonftrated, nothing more is 
 necefTary, to prove that the civil magi- 
 
 llrate 
 
CODE OF EDUCATION 77 
 
 ftrate has no bufiiiefs to interfere with 
 them. 
 
 This I cannot help thinking to be the 
 ihortefl, and the beft ifTue upon which 
 we can put every thing in which the ci- 
 vil magillrate pretends to a right of in- 
 terference. If it be probable that the 
 bufinefs, whatever it be, will be con- 
 du6led better, that is, more to the ad- 
 vantage of fociety, in his hands, than in 
 thofe of individuals, the right will be al- 
 lowed. In thofe circumftances, it is 
 evident, that no friend to fociety can 
 deny his claim. But if the nature of 
 the thing be fuch, that the attention of 
 individuals, with refpedl to it, can be 
 applied to more advantage than that of 
 the magifbrate ; the claim of the former 
 mufl be admitted, in preference to that 
 of the latter. 
 
 No doubt, there are examples of both 
 kinds. The avenging of injuries, or re- 
 drefling of private wrongs, is certainly 
 better trufled in the hands of the magi- 
 ftrate than in thofe of private perfons ; 
 
 but 
 
yS EFFECTS OF A 
 
 but with what advantage could a magi- 
 ftrate interfere in a thoufand particulars 
 relating to private families, and private 
 friendfhips ? Now I think it is clear, 
 that education rtiuft be ranked in the 
 latter clafs, or among thofe things in 
 which the civil magiftrate has no right 
 to interfere ; becaufe he cannot do it to 
 any good purpofe. But fince Dr. Brown 
 has lately maintained the contrary, in a 
 treatife, intitled, Thoughts on civil liber- 
 ty, Ucentioufnefs, and faclion, and in an 
 Appendix relati-ve to a propofed code of edu- 
 cation, fubjoined to a Sermon on the fe- 
 male charaBer and education. I fhall in 
 this fedlion, reply to what he has ad- 
 vanced on this fubjedl, and offer what 
 has occurred to me with relation to it. 
 
 Left it fhould be apprehended, that I 
 miftake the views of this writer, I fhall 
 fubjoin a few extracts from the work, 
 which contain the fubftance of what he 
 has advanced on thefubjedl of education. 
 He aflerts, " That, the firft and beft fe- 
 " curity of civil liberty conlifts, in im- 
 " prefling the infant mind with fuch ha- 
 
 " bits 
 
CODE OF EDUCATION. 79 
 
 " bits of thought andadlion, as may cor- 
 " refpond with, and promote the ap- 
 " pointments of pubHc law." In his 
 appendix, he fays, that, "by a code of 
 " EDUCATION, he means a fyftem of 
 " principles, religious, moral, and poli- 
 " tical, whofe tendency may be the pre- 
 '^ fervation of the bleflings of facicty, as 
 " they are enjoyed in a free flate, to be 
 " inftilled efFeclually into the infant and 
 " growing minds of the community, for 
 *' this great end of public happinefs." 
 
 In what manner the fecurity of civil 
 liberty is to be efFedled by means of this 
 code of education, may be feen in the 
 following defcription he gives of theinfti- 
 tutions of Sparta. " No father had a 
 *' right to educate his children accord- 
 " ing to the caprice of his own fancy. 
 *" They were delivered to public officers, 
 " who initiated them early in the man- 
 " ners, the maxims, the exercifes, the 
 " toils ; in a word, in all the mental and 
 *' bodily acquirements and habits which 
 " correfponded with the genius of the 
 " ftate. Family connexions had no 
 
 " place* 
 
8o EFFECTS OF A 
 
 " place. The firft and leading objecTt 
 " of their afFedlion was the general wel- 
 " fare. This tuition was carefully con- 
 " tinned till they were enrolled in the 
 " lift of men." 
 
 With refpedl to the Athenian govern- 
 ment, he fays, page 62, " The firft and 
 " ruling defe6l in the inftitution of this 
 " republic feems to have been the total 
 *' v/ant of an eftablifhed education, fui- 
 " table to the genius of the ftate. There 
 " appears not to have been any public, 
 " regular, or prcfcribed appointment of 
 *' this kind, beyond v/hat cuftom had 
 *' accidentally introduced." 
 
 He fays, page 70, *' There were three 
 " fatal circumitances admitted into the 
 " very eftence of the Roman republic, 
 *' which contained the feeds of certain 
 " ruin ; the firft of which was, the neg- 
 " lecl of inftituting public laws, by 
 *' which the education of their children 
 " might have been afcertained." 
 
 He complains, page 83, " that the 
 
 Britilh 
 
CODE OF EDUCATION. Sr 
 
 " Britifli fyfbem of policy and religion 
 " is not upheld in its native power like 
 " that of Sparta, by correfpondent and 
 *' efPedlual rules of education ; that it is 
 *' in the power of every private man to 
 " educate his child, not only without a 
 " reverence for thefe, but in abfolute 
 " contempt of them ; that, at the re- 
 " volution, p. 90, the education of 
 " youth was ftill left in an imperfedl 
 " (late ; this great revolution having 
 " confined itfelf to the reform of public 
 " inftitutions, without afcending to the 
 " great fountain of political fecurity, 
 " the private and efFedual formation of 
 "the infant mind ; and, p. 107, that 
 " education was afterwards left ftill 
 " more and more imperfedl." 
 
 Laftly, he afTerts, p. 156, " that 
 " the chief and efTential remedy of licen- 
 " tioufnefs and fa6lion, the fundamental 
 " means of the lafting and fecure efta- 
 " biifhment of civil liberty, can only be in 
 " a general and prefcribed improvement 
 " of the laws of education, to which all 
 " the members of the community lliould 
 G " legally 
 
82 EFFECTS OF A 
 
 " legally fubmit ; and that for want of 
 " a prefcribed code of education, the 
 " manners and principles, on which 
 " alone the ftate can reft, are inefFec- 
 " tually inftilled, are vague, fluduat- 
 " ing and felf contradicftory. No- 
 " thing," he fays, " is more evident, than 
 " that fome reform in this great point is 
 " neceffary for the fecurity of public free- 
 *' doin ; and that though it is an incurable 
 " defedl of our political ftate, that it has 
 " not a correfpondent and adequate code 
 " of education inwrought into its firft 
 *' eflence ; we may yet hope, that, in a 
 *' fecondary and inferior degree, fome- 
 " thing of this kind may ftill be inlaid ; 
 " that, though it cannot have that perfect 
 *' efficacy, as if it had been originally of 
 *' the piece, yet, if well condu(5led, it 
 " may ftrengthen the weak parts, and al- 
 " leviate defedls, if not completely re- 
 *' move them." 
 
 In conducting my examination of thefe 
 fentiments, I fhall make no remarks upon 
 any particular palTages in the book, but 
 t-onfider only the author's general fcheme, 
 
 and 
 
CODE OF EDUCATION. B^ 
 
 and the proper and profeiTed objedl of it. 
 And as the docflor has propofed no par- 
 ticular plan of public education, I fliall 
 be as general as he has been, and only 
 fhew the inconvenience of eftablifhing, 
 by law, any plan of education what- 
 ever. 
 
 This writer pleads for a plan of educa- 
 tion eftablifhed by the legiflature, as the 
 only effecflual method of preventing fadli- 
 on in the (late, and fecuring the perpetui- 
 ty of our excellent conftitution, ecclefia- 
 ftical and civil. I agree with him, in ac- 
 knowledging the importance of educati- 
 on, as influencing the manners and the 
 condudl of men. I alfo acknowledge, 
 that an uniform plan of education, agree- 
 able to the principles of any particular 
 form of government, civil or ecclefiafti- 
 cal, would tend to eftablifh and perpetu- 
 ate that form of government, and prevent 
 civil diflentions and factions in the flate. 
 But I fliould obje(5l to the interference of 
 the legiflature in this bufinefs of education, 
 as prejudicial to the proper defign of edu- 
 cation, and alfo to the great ends of civil 
 G 2 focieties 
 
84 EFFECTS OF A 
 
 focieties with refpedl to their prefent 
 utility. I lliall moreover fliow, that it 
 would be abfolutely inconiiftent with the 
 true principles of the Englifh govern- 
 ment, and could not be carried into exe- 
 cution, to any purpofe, without the ruin 
 of our prefent conftitution. I beg the 
 candour of the public, while I endea- 
 vour to explain, in as few words as pof- 
 fible, in what manner, I apprehend, this 
 interference of the civil magiftrate would 
 operate to obftrudl thefe great ends j and 
 I fhall coniider thefe articles feparately. 
 
 I obferved in the firft place, that a 
 legal code of education might interfere 
 with the proper defign of it. I do not 
 mean what this writer feems to confider 
 as the only objedl of education, the tran- 
 quility of the ftate, but the forming of 
 wife and virtuous men ; which is cer- 
 tainly an objedl of the greateft impor- 
 tance in every flate. If the conftitution 
 of a ilate be a good one, fuch men will 
 be the greateft bulwarks of it ; if it be 
 a bad one, they will be the moft able and 
 ready to contribute to its reformation ; 
 
 in 
 
CODE OF EDUCATION. B5 
 
 in either of which cafes they will render 
 it the greateft -fervice. 
 
 Education is as much an art (founded, 
 as all arts are, upon fcience) as hufban- 
 dry, as architedlure, or as fliip-building. 
 In all thefe cafes we have a pracftical pro- 
 blem propofed to us, which mull: be per- 
 formed by the help of data with which 
 experience and obfervation furnifh us. 
 The end of fliip-building is to make the 
 beft fliips, of architecture the beil houfes, 
 and of education, the befl men. Now, 
 of all arts, thofe fland the faireft chance 
 of being brought to perfecftion, in which 
 there is opportunity of making the moft 
 experiments and trials, and in which 
 there are the greateft number and variety 
 of perfons employed in making them. 
 Hiltory and experience fliow, that, c^te- 
 ris paribus, thofe arts have always, in 
 fact, been brought the fooneft, or the 
 neareft to perfection, v/hich have been, 
 placed in thofe favourable circumftances. 
 The reafon is, that the operations of 
 the human mind are flow ; a number of 
 falfe hypothefes and conclulions always 
 G 3 precede 
 
«ti 
 
 S6 EFFECTS OF A 
 
 precede the right one ; and in every* 
 art, manual or liberal, a number of awk- 
 ward attempts are made, before we are 
 able to execute any thing which will bear 
 to be fliown as a mafter-piece in its kind ; 
 fo that to eflablifh the methods and pro- 
 cefFes of any art, before it have arrived 
 to a ftate of perfection (of which no man 
 can be a judge) is to fix it in its infancy, 
 to perpetuate every thing that is inconve- 
 nient and awkward in it, and to cut off its 
 future growth and improvement. And 
 to eftablifli the methods and procefles of 
 any art when it has arrived to perfecftion 
 is fuperfluous. It will then recom- 
 mend and eftablifli itfelf. 
 
 Now I appeal to any perfon whether 
 any plan of education, which has yet been 
 put in execution in this kingdom, be fo 
 perfe6l as that the eftablifliing of it by 
 authority would not obflruct the great 
 ends of education ; or even whether the 
 imited genius of man could, at prefent, 
 form fo perfedl a plan. Every man who 
 is experienced in the bufinefs of education 
 well knows, that the art is in its infan- 
 cy ; 
 
tODE OF EDUCATION. 87 
 
 cy ; but advancing, it is hoped, apace to 
 a ftate of manhood. In this condition, 
 it requires the aid of every circumftance 
 favourable to its natural growth, and 
 dreads nothing fo much as being confined 
 and cramped by the unfeafonable hand of 
 power. To put it (in its prefent imper- 
 fedl ftate) into the hands of the civil ma- 
 giflrate, in order to fix the mode of it, 
 would be like fixing the drefs of a child, 
 and forbidding its cloaths ever to be made 
 wider or larger. 
 
 Manufadlm^ers and artifts of feveral 
 kinds already complain of the obftruc- 
 tion which is thrown in die way of their 
 arts, by the injudicious ad:s of former 
 parliaments ; and it is the objecfl of our 
 wifeft ftatefmen to get thefe obftru6lions 
 removed, by the repeal of thofe a(5ls. I 
 wifh it could not be faid, that the bufi- 
 nefs of education is already under too 
 many legal reftraints. Let thefe be re- 
 moved, and a few more fair experi- 
 ments made of the different methods of 
 conducing it, before the legiflature think 
 proper to interfere any more with it ; 
 
 and 
 
88 EFFECTS OF A 
 
 and by that time, it is hoped, they will 
 fee no reafon to interfere at all. The 
 bufinefs would be conducted to much 
 better purpofe, even in favour of their 
 own views, if thofe views were juft and 
 honourable, than it would be under any 
 arbitrary regulations whatever. 
 
 To fliew this fcheme of an eflabliflied 
 method of education in a clearer point of 
 light, let us imagine that what is now pro- 
 pofed had been carried into execution fome 
 centuries before this time. For no rea- 
 fon can be affigned for fixing any mode 
 of education at prefent, which might 
 not have been made ufe of, with the 
 fame appearance of reafon, for fixing ano- 
 ther approved method a thoufand years 
 ago. Suppofe Alfred, when he found- 
 ed the univerfity of Oxford, had made 
 it impofTible, that the method of inflruc- 
 tionufed in his time fliouldever have been 
 altered. Excellent as that method might 
 have been, for the time in which it was 
 inftituted, it would now have been the 
 worft method that is pradlifed in the world. 
 Suppofe the number of the arts and fci- 
 
 ences. 
 
CODE OF EDUCATION. 89 
 
 ences, with the manner of teaching 
 them, had been fixed in this kingdom, 
 before the revival of letters and of the 
 arts, it is plain they could never have ar- 
 rived at their prefent advanced ftate 
 among us. We fhould not have had 
 the honour to lead the way in the moft 
 noble difcoveries, in the mathematics, 
 philofophy, aftronomy, and, I may add, 
 divinity too. And for the fame reafon, 
 were fuch an eftablifhment to take place 
 in the prefent age, it would prevent all 
 great improvements in futurity. 
 
 I may add, in this place, that, if we 
 argue from the analogy of education to 
 other arts which are mofl fimilar to it, 
 we can never expedl to fee human nature, 
 about which it is employed, brought to 
 perfedlion, but in confequence of indulg- 
 ing unbounded liberty, and even caprice 
 in condudling it. The power of nature 
 in producing plants cannot be fliown to 
 advantage, but in all poffible circiim- 
 flances of culture. The richeft colours, the 
 moft fragrant fcents, and the moft ex- 
 quifite flavours, which our prefent gar- 
 dens 
 
EFFECTS OF A 
 
 dens and orchards exhibit, would ne- 
 ver have been known, if florifts and gar- 
 deners had been confined in the procefTes 
 of cultivation ; nay if they had not been 
 allowed the utmoftlicentioufnefs of fancy 
 in the exercife of their arts. Many of 
 the fined productions of modern garden- 
 ing have been the refult of cafual experi- 
 ment, perhaps of undefigned deviation 
 from eftablillied rules. Obfervations of 
 a fimilar nature may be made on the me- 
 thods of breeding cattle, and training 
 animals of all kinds. And why fhould 
 the rational part of the creation be depri- 
 ved of that opportunity of diverfifying 
 and improving itfelf, which the vegetable 
 and animal world enjoy ^ 
 
 From nevxT, and feemingly irregular me- 
 thods of education, perhaps fomething 
 extraordinary and imcommonly great 
 may fpring. At leafl there would be a 
 fair chance for fach productions ; and if 
 fomething odd and excentric fiiould, now 
 and then, arife from this unbounded li- 
 berty of education, the various bufinefs 
 of human life may afford proper fpheres 
 for fuch excentric geniufes. Edu- 
 
CODE OF EDUCATION. 91 
 
 Education, taken in its moft extenfive 
 fenfe, is properly that which makes the 
 man. One method of education, there- 
 fore, would only produce one kind of 
 men ; but the great excellence of human 
 nature confifls in the variety of which 
 it is capable. Inftead, then, of endea- 
 vouring, by uniform and fixed fyftems 
 of education, to keep mankind always 
 the fame, let us give free fcope to every 
 thing which may bid fair for introducing 
 more variety aipong us. The various 
 characfler of the Athenians was certainly 
 preferable to the uniform chara6ler of the 
 Spartans, or to any uniform national 
 character whatever. Is it not univerfal- 
 ly confidered as an advantage to Eng- 
 land, that it contains fo great a variety 
 of original characfters : And is it not, 
 on this account, preferred to France, 
 Spain, or Italy ? 
 
 Uniformity is the charadleriftic of 
 the brute creation. Among them every 
 fpecies of birds build their nefts with the 
 fame materials, and in the fame form ; the 
 genius and difpofition of one individual 
 
 is 
 
92 
 
 EFFECTS OF A 
 
 is that of all ; and it is only the education 
 which men give them that raifes any of 
 them much above others. But it is the 
 glory of human nature, that the operati- 
 ons of reafon, though variable, and by no 
 means infallible, are capable of infinite 
 improvement. We come into the world 
 worfe provided thanany of the brutes, and 
 for a year or two of our lives, many of 
 them go far beyond us in intelle(5lual ac- 
 compliiliments. But when their facul- 
 ties are at a full ftand, and their enjoy- 
 ments incapable of variety, or increafe, 
 our intelledlual powers are growing 
 apace j we are perpetually deriving hap- 
 pinefs from new fources, and even before 
 we leave this world are capable of tail- 
 ing the felicity of angels. 
 
 Have we, then, fo little fenfe of the 
 proper excellence of our natures, and of 
 the views of divine providence in our for- 
 mation, as to catch at a poor advantage a- 
 dapted to the lower nature of brutes. Ra- 
 ther, let us hold on in the courfe in 
 which the divine being himfelf has put 
 us, by giving reafon its full play, and 
 
 throv/ing 
 
CODE OF EDUCATION. 95 
 
 throwing ofF the fetters which fhort- 
 fighted and ill-judging men have hung 
 upon it. Though, in this courfe, we be 
 liable to more extravagancies than brutes, 
 governed by blind but unerring inftind:, 
 or than men whom miftaken iyflems of 
 policy have made as uniform in their fen- 
 timents and conduct as the brutes, we 
 fliall be in the way to attain a degree of 
 perfection and happinefs of which they 
 can have no idea. 
 
 However, as men are firft animals be- 
 fore they can be properly termed rational 
 creatures, and the analogies of individu- 
 als extend to focieties, a principle fome- 
 thing refembling the in{lin6l of animals 
 miay, perhaps, fuit mankind in their in- 
 fant ftate ; but then, as we advance in 
 the arts of life, let us, as far as we are 
 able, afTert the native freedom of our 
 fouls ; and, after having beenfervilely go- 
 verned like brutes, afpire to the noble 
 privilege of governing ourfelves like 
 men. 
 
 If it may have been neceiTary to ella- 
 
 blilli 
 
94 EFFECTS OF A 
 
 bllili fomething by law concerning edu- 
 cation, that neceflity grows lefs every 
 day, and encourages us to relax the bonds 
 of authority, rather than bind them 
 fafler. 
 
 Secondly, this fcheme of an eflablifh- 
 ed mode of education would be preju- 
 dicial to the great ends of civil fociety. 
 The great objecft of civil fociety is the 
 happinefs of the members of it, in the 
 perfecft and undifturbed enjoyment of 
 the more important of our natural rights, 
 for the fake of which, we voluntarily 
 give up others of lefs confequence to us. 
 But whatever be the bleilings of civil 
 fociety, they maybe bought too dear. It 
 is certainly poffible to facrifice too much, 
 at leafl more than is necelTary to be fa- 
 crified for them, in order to produce the 
 greateft fum of happinefs in the com- 
 munity. Elfe why do we complain of 
 tyrannical and oppreflive governments? 
 Is it not the meaning of all complaints 
 of this kind, that, in fuch governments, 
 the fubjedls are deprived of their mofl 
 important natural rights, without an 
 
 equivalent 
 
CODE OF EDUCATION. 95 
 
 equivalent recompenfe ; that all the va- 
 luable ends of civil government might 
 be efFedlually fecured, and the members 
 of particular dates be much happier 
 upon the whole, if they did not lie un- 
 der thofe reflricftions. 
 
 Now, of all the fources of happinefs 
 and enjoyment in human life, the do- 
 meftic relations are the mofl conftant 
 and copious. With our wives and chil- 
 dren we neceffarily pafs the greateft part 
 of our lives. The connedlions of friend- 
 fliip are flight in comparifon of this inti- 
 mate domeftic union. Views of interefl 
 or ambition may divide the neareil: 
 friends, but our wives and children are, 
 in general, infeparably connedled with 
 us and attached to us. With them all 
 our joys are doubled, and in their affec- 
 tion and afliduity we find confolation un- 
 der all the troubles and difquietudes of 
 life. For the enjoyments which refult 
 from this mofl delightful intercourfe, all 
 mankind, in all ages, have been ready to 
 facrifice every thing ; and for the inter- 
 ruption of this intercourfe no compenfa- 
 
 tion 
 
96 EFFECTS OF A 
 
 tion whatever can be made by man. 
 What then can be more juflly alarming, 
 to a man who has a true tafle for happi- 
 nefs, than, either that the choice of his 
 wife, or the education of his children 
 fhould be nnder the diredlion of perfons 
 who have no particular knowledge of him, 
 or particvilar afFe6lion for him, and whofe 
 views and maxims he might utterly diir- 
 like ? What profped: of happinefs could 
 a man have with fuch a wife, or fuch 
 children ? 
 
 It is poffible indeed, that the prefer- 
 vation of fome civil focieties, fuch as that 
 of Sparta, may require this facrifice j but 
 thofe civil focieties muft be wretchedly 
 confliituted to fland in need of it, and had 
 better be utterly diflblved. Were I a 
 member of fuch a flate, thankful fliould I 
 be to its governors, if they would permit 
 me peaceably to retire to any other 
 country, where fo great a facriHce was 
 not required. Indeed, it is hardly pof- 
 fible that a flate fhould require any fa- 
 crifice, which I fliould think of fo much 
 importance. And, I doubt not, fo many 
 
 others 
 
CODE OF EDUCATION. (^^ 
 
 others would be of the fame mind, that 
 there would foon be very little reafon to 
 complain of the too great increafe of 
 commerce in fuch a country. This, how- 
 ever, would render very neceffary ano- 
 ther part of our author's fcheme ; viz. 
 putting a reflraint upon travelling a- 
 broad, left too many perfons iliould be 
 willing to leave fuch a country, and have 
 no inclination to return. 
 
 If there be any natural rights which 
 ought not to be facrificed to the ends of 
 civil fociety, and no politicians or moral- 
 ifts deny but that there are fome (the 
 obligations of religion, for inftance, being 
 certainly of a fuperior nature) it is even 
 more natural to look for thefe rights 
 among thofe which refpedt a man's chil- 
 dren, than among thofe which refpecfl 
 himfelf ; becaufe natvire has generally 
 made them dearer to him than him- 
 felf. 
 
 If any truft can be faid to be of God, 
 
 and fuch as ought not to be relinquiflied 
 
 at the command of man, it is that which 
 
 H we 
 
98 EFFECTS OF A 
 
 we have of the education of our chil- 
 dren, whom the divine being feems to 
 have put under our immediate carej that 
 we may inflrudl them in fuch principles, 
 form them to fuch manners, and give 
 them fuch habits of thinking and act- 
 ing, as we fliall judge to be of the greateft 
 importance to their prefent and future 
 well being;. 
 
 o 
 
 I believe there is no father in the 
 .world (who, to a fenfe of religion, joins 
 a ftrong fenfe of parental affection) who 
 would think his own liberty above half 
 indulged to him, when abridged in fo 
 tender a point, as that of providing, to 
 his own fatisfadlion, for the good con- 
 du(5l and happinefs of his offspring. 
 Nature feems to have eftabliflied fuch a 
 flrong connexion between a parent and 
 his children, at leaft during the firll pe- 
 riod of their lives, that to drag them 
 from the afylum of their natural guardi- 
 ans, to force them to public places of 
 education, and to inftil into them religious 
 fentiments contrary to the judgment and 
 choice of their parents, would be as cruel^ 
 
 as 
 
CODE OF EDUCATION. 99 
 
 as obliging a man to make the greateft 
 perfonal facriiice, even that of his con- 
 fcience, to the civil magiftrate. 
 
 What part of the perfecution which 
 the proteftants in France underwent did 
 they complain of more feelingly, and 
 with more juflice, than that of their chil- 
 dren being forced from them, and carri- 
 ed to be edvicated in public monafleries ? 
 God forbid that the parental afFe^flions 
 of free born Britons fliould ever be put to 
 fo fevere a trial ! or to that which the 
 poor Jews in Portugal fufFered ; many of 
 whom cut the throats of their children, 
 or threw them into wells, and down pre- 
 cipices, rather than fuffer them to be 
 dragged away to be educated tinder the 
 direcflion of a popifli inquifition ; think- 
 ing the lives of their children a lefs facri- 
 iice than that of their principles. 
 
 It was a meafure fimilar to that which 
 Dr. Brown recommends, at which the 
 whole chriftian world took the greatefl 
 alarm that was ever given to it, in the 
 reign of that great man, but inveterate 
 H 2 enemy 
 
loo E F F E C T S O F A 
 
 enemy of chriftianity, the emperor Ju- 
 lian ; who would have fliut up the fchools 
 of chriflians, and have forbidden them to 
 teach rhetoric and philofophy. Similar 
 to this fcheme, in its nature and tenden- 
 cy, was the moll odious meafure of the 
 mofl odious miniftry that ever fat at the 
 helm of the Britifh government, and 
 which was providentially defeated the 
 very day that it was to have been carried 
 into execution ; I mean the scH ism bill, 
 patronized by the Tory minifters in the 
 latter end of the reign of queen Ann. 
 Should thefe meafures be refumed, and 
 purfued, Farewel, a long farewel to Eng- 
 land's greatnefs ! Nor would this be faid 
 in a hafty fit *of unreafonable defpair. 
 For, beiides that fuch a meafure as this 
 could not but have many extenfive con- 
 fequences ; it is not to be doubted, but 
 that whoever they be who do thus much, 
 they both can and ivill do more. Such 
 a fcheme as this will never be puflied 
 for its own fake only. 
 
 In examining the prefent operation 
 and utility of any fcheme of policy, we 
 
 ought 
 
CODE OF EDUCATIOi 
 
 ought to take into confideration the eai 
 or the difficulty of carrying it into exe- 
 cution. For if the dillurbance, which 
 would be occafioned by bringing it into 
 execution, would be fo great an incon- 
 venience, as to overbalance the good to 
 be efFe6ted by it, it were better never to 
 attempt it. Now, though the do6lor 
 hath laid down no particular fcheme of 
 public and eftabliflied education, and 
 therefore we cannot judge of the parti- 
 cular difficulties which would attend the 
 eftabliffiing of it ; yet, if it be fuch as 
 would anfwer the end propofed by him, 
 this difficulty v/ould appear to me abfo- 
 lutely infuperable, in fuch a country as 
 England. 
 
 Whatever be the religious, moral, and 
 political principles, which are thought 
 conducive to the good of the fociety, if 
 they mull be effectually injlilled into the 
 infant and grooving ininds of the community, 
 it can never be done without taking the 
 children very early from their parents, 
 and cutting off all communication with 
 them, till they be arrived to maturity, 
 H 3 and 
 

 FFECTS OF A 
 
 nd their judgments be abfolutely fixed. 
 And if this author judged, that the reafon 
 why a fcheme of this nature did not take 
 place in Athens, was the difficulty of 
 eftablifliing it, after the people were tole- 
 rably civilized ; he mud certainly judge 
 it to be infinitely more difficult, among 
 a people fo much farther advanced in 
 the arts of life than the Athenians. 
 
 He well obferves, p. 53, that, " to 
 " give children a public education where 
 *' no education had taken place, wasnatu- 
 " ral and pra6licable ;" but he feems to be 
 aware, that an attempt to carry any fuch 
 plan into execution, in the moft flourifli- 
 ing period of a free and civilized flate, 
 would be highly unnatural, without the 
 leafl probable hope of fuccefs, and dan- 
 gerous to fuch as took it in hand. For 
 he fays, p. 52, that, " to effi^dl a 
 " change of government only is a work 
 ^' fufficient for the abilities of the greateft 
 " legiflator ; but to overturn all the pre- 
 ^' eftablifhed habits of the head and 
 *' heart, to deflroy or reverfe all the 
 ^^ fixed affociations, maxims, manners, 
 
 *' and 
 
CODE OF 
 
 " and principles, were a labour^w 
 " might well be ranked among 
 " moft extravagant legends of fabulous 
 " Greece." 
 
 What might be expecfled from the bu- 
 (inefs of education being lodged by the 
 ftate in the hands of any one fet of men, 
 may be imagined from the alarm which 
 the Newtonian fyflem gave to all phi- 
 lofophers at the time of its firft publica- 
 tion ; and from what palTed at Oxford 
 with refpe(5l to Locke's EJfay on the hu- 
 man underjianding, which hath done fo 
 much honour to the Engliili nation in 
 the eyes of all the learned world. We 
 are told by the authors of Biographia 
 Britannica, in the life of Mr. Locke, 
 that " there was a meeting of the heads 
 " of houfes at Oxford, where it v/as pro- 
 " pofed to cenfure, and difcourage the 
 " reading of this EfTay ; and that, after 
 " various debates, it was concluded, that, 
 " without any public cenfure, each head 
 " of a houfe fhall endeavour to prevent 
 " its being read in his own college." 
 This paffedbut a little before Mr. Locke's 
 
 death, 
 
FECTS OF A 
 
 ^atK, a^d''ja^bout fourteen years after 
 le firft publication of the EfTay. 
 
 Hitherto I have argued againft efta- 
 blilhed modes of education upon general 
 principles, fliewing how unfavourable 
 they are to the great ends of civil fo- 
 ciety, with only occafional references to 
 the Englifh conftitution ; and in thefe 
 arguments I have, likewife, fuppofed 
 thefe methods of education, whatever 
 they be, atftually eflabliflied, and to have 
 operated to their full extent. I fliall 
 now add, that, before thefe methods can 
 be eftabliilied, and produce their full 
 effedl, they mufl occafion a very confi- 
 derable alteration in the Englifli confti- 
 tution, and almoft inevitably deftroy the 
 freedom of it ; fo that the thing which 
 would, in fa(5l, be perpetuated, would 
 not be the prefent conftitution of Eng- 
 land, but fomething very different from 
 it, and more defpotic. An alteration of 
 fo great importance, which tends to de- 
 feat one of the principal objecfts of this 
 government, cannot but give juft gaufe 
 of alarm to every friend of the prefent 
 
 happy 
 
CODE OF EDUCATION. 105 
 
 happy conftitution and liberties of this 
 country. In fupport of this affertion, 
 I defire no other argument than that 
 with which Dr. Brown Kimfelf furnifhes 
 me, from the influence he allows to 
 education, operating, likewife, in the 
 very manner which he defcribes, and to 
 the very end for which he advifes the 
 eftablifhing of its mode. 
 
 Education is confidered by the do6lor 
 only in a political view, as ufeful to inftil 
 into the minds of youth particular max- 
 ims of policy, and to give them an at- 
 tachment to particular forms of it ; or 
 as tending to fuperinduce fuch habits of 
 mind, and to give fuch a general turn of 
 thinking, as would correfpond with the 
 genius of a particular ftate. This edu- 
 cation he woulcl have to be univerfal and 
 uniform ; and indeed, if it were not fo, 
 it could not poilibly anfwer the end pro- 
 pofed. It mufl, therefore, be conducted 
 by one fet of men. But it is impofTible 
 to find any fet of men, who fliall have 
 an equal regard to all the parts of our 
 conftitution j and whatever part is n^g- 
 
 leded 
 
io6 EFFECTS OF A 
 
 ledled in fuch a fyftem of education, it 
 cannot fail to be a fufFerer. 
 
 The Englifli government is a mixture 
 of regal, ariflocratical, and democratical 
 power ; and if the public education 
 Ihould be more favourable to any one of 
 thefe than to another, or more than its 
 prefent importance in the conflitution 
 requires, the balance of the w^hole would 
 neceflarily be loft. Too much weight 
 would be thrown into fome of the fcales, 
 and the conftitution be overturned. If 
 the Commons, reprefenting the body of 
 the people, had the choice of thefe pub- 
 lic inftrudlors, which is almoft impoili- 
 ble, we fliould fee a republic rife out of 
 the ruins of our prefent government ; if 
 the Lords, which is highly improbable, 
 we ihould, in the end, have an arifto- 
 cracy ; and if the court had this nomi- 
 nation, which it may be taken for grant- 
 ed would be the cafe (as all the execu- 
 tive povvTcr of the ilate is already lodged 
 in the hands of the fovereign) it could 
 not but occafion a very dangerous accef- 
 fion of power to the crown ; and we 
 
 might 
 
CODE OF EDUCATION. 107 
 
 might juftly expedl afyflem of education, 
 principles, and manners favourable to 
 defpotifm. Every man would be edu- 
 cated with principles, which would lead 
 him to concur with the views of the 
 court. All that oppofition from the 
 country, which is fo falutary in this na- 
 tion, and fo effential to the liberties of 
 England, would be at an end. And 
 when once the fpirit of defpotifm was 
 thus eftabliihed, and had triumphed over 
 all oppofition, we might foon expecfl to 
 fee the forms of it eftabliihed too, and 
 thereby the very doors fliut againft old 
 Englifli liberty, and effecflually guarded 
 againft the poflibility of its return, ex- 
 cept by violence ; which would then be 
 the only method of its re-entrance. 
 
 It is evident to common underftand- 
 ing, that the true fpirit and maxims 
 of a mixed government can no otherwife 
 be continued, than by every man's edu- 
 cating his children in his own way ; 
 and that if any one part provided for 
 the education of the whole, that part 
 would foon gain the afcendancy 5 and, 
 
 if 
 
io8 E F F E C T S O F A 
 
 if it were capable of it, would become 
 the whole. Were a ftate, for inliance, 
 to confifl of papifls and proteftants, and 
 the papifts to have the fole power of edu- 
 cation, proteftantifm would expire with 
 that generation : whereas, if the papifls 
 and proteftants educated each their own 
 children, the fame proportion would 
 continue to fubfift between them, and 
 the balance of power would remain the 
 fame. For the fame reafon the only 
 method of preferving the balance, which 
 at prefent fublifts among the feveral po- 
 litical and religious parties in Great-Bri- 
 tain, is for each to provide for the edu- 
 cation of their own children. 
 
 In this way, there will be a fair pro- 
 fpec5l of things continuing nearly upon 
 their prefent footing, for a confiderable 
 time ; but fubjecfl: to thofe gradual alterati- 
 ons which, it may be hoped, will prove 
 fiivourable to the befl interefts of the fo- 
 ciety upon the whole. Whereas, were 
 the direction of the whole bufinefs of edu- 
 cation thrown into tlie hands of the 
 court, it would be fuch an acceiiion of 
 
 povv'er 
 
CODE OF EDUCATION. 109 
 
 power to the regal part of our conftitu- 
 tion, as could not fail to alarm all the 
 friends of civil liberty ; as all the friends 
 of religious liberty would be juftly 
 alarmed, if it fliould devolve upon the 
 eflabliilied clergy. And it were the 
 o-reateft injuftice to the good fenfe of free 
 born Britons, to fuppofe the noble fpirit 
 of religious liberty, and a zeal for the 
 rights of free inquiry confined within 
 the narrow circle of Proteftant DilTenters. 
 
 Confidering the whole of what hath 
 been advanced in this fedion, I think it 
 fufficiently appears, that education is a 
 branch of civil liberty, which ought by 
 no means to be furrenderedinto the hands 
 of the magiflrate ; and that the beft in- 
 terefls of fociety require, that the right 
 of conducing it fliould be inviolably 
 preferved to individuals. 
 
 SECTION 
 
SECTION V. 
 
 Of Religious Liberty^ a7td Tolera^ 
 tion in generaL 
 
 TH E moft important queftion con- 
 cerning the extent of civil go- 
 vernment is, whether the civil magiflrate 
 ought to extend his authority to matters 
 of religion ; and the only method of 
 deciding this important queftion, as it 
 appears to me, is to have recourfe at 
 once to firft principles, and the ultimate 
 rule concerning every thing that refpects 
 a fociety ; viz. v^hether fuch interference 
 of the civil magiftrate appear to be for 
 the public good. And as all arguments 
 a priori^ in matters of policy, are apt to 
 be fallacious, faSi and experience feem to 
 be our only fafe guides. Now thefe, as 
 far as our knowledge of hiftory extends, 
 declare clearly for no interference in this 
 cafe at all, or, at leaft, for as little as is 
 pofTible. Thofe focieties have ever en- 
 joyed 
 
AND TOLERATION. ni 
 
 joyed the mofl happinefs, and have been, 
 ceteris paribus, in the moft ilourifhing 
 ilate, where the civil magiftrates have 
 meddled the lead with religion, and 
 where they have the mod clofely con- 
 fined their attention to what immediate- 
 ly afFe6ls the civil interefls of their fel- 
 low citizens. 
 
 Civil and religious matters (taking 
 the words in their ufual acceptation) 
 feem to be fo diftincft, that it can only 
 be in very uncommon emergencies, 
 where, for inflance, religious quarrels 
 among the members of the ftate rife very 
 high, that the civil magiftrate can have 
 any call, or pretence, for interfering, 
 with religion. 
 
 It is, indeed, impoiTible to name any 
 two things, about which men are con- 
 cerned, fo remote in their nature, but 
 that they have fome connedlions and mu- 
 tual influences ; but were I afked what 
 two things I fliould think to be in the 
 leaji danger of being confounded, and 
 which even the ingenuity of man could 
 
 find 
 
112 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 
 
 find the leajl pretence for involving toge- 
 ther, I fliould fay the things that relate 
 to this life, and thofe that relate to the 
 life to come. Defining the objecl of civil 
 government, in the moft extenfive fenfe, 
 to be the making provifion for the fecure 
 and comfortable enjoyment of this life, 
 by preventing one man from injuring 
 another in his perfon or property ; I 
 fliould think the office of the civil ma- 
 giftrate to be in no great danger of being 
 incroached upon, by the methods that 
 men might think proper to take, to pro- 
 vide for their happinefs after death. 
 
 All the civil focieties we enter into in 
 this life will be diiTolved by death. 
 "When this life is over, I fliall not be 
 able to claim any of the privileges of 
 an Engliihman ; I fliall not be bound by 
 any of the laws of England, nor fliall 
 I owe any allegiance to its fovereign. 
 When, therefore, my fituation in a fu- 
 ture life fhall have no connedlion with 
 my privileges or obligations as an Eng- 
 lifliman, why fliould thofe perfons who 
 make laws for Engliilimen interfere with 
 
 my 
 
AND TOLERATION. u^ 
 
 my condudl, with refpecft to a ftate, to 
 which their power does not extend. Be- 
 fides, we know that infinite mifchiefs 
 have arifen from this interference of 
 government in the bnfinefs of religion ; 
 and we have yet feen no inconvenience 
 to have arifen from the want, or the re- 
 laxation of it. 
 
 The fine country of Flanders, the mofl 
 flourifhing and opulent then in Europe, 
 was abfolutely ruined, paft recovery, by 
 the mad attempt of Philip the fecond, 
 to introduce the popifh inquifition into 
 that country. France was greatly hurt 
 by the revocation of the edid: of Nantz ; 
 whereas England was a great gainer on 
 both occafions, by granting an afylum 
 for thofe perfecuted induftrious people ; 
 who repaid us for our kindnefs, by the 
 introducSlion of many ufeful arts and ma- 
 nufadlures, which were the foundation 
 of our prefent commerce, riches, and 
 power. 
 
 Penfylvania flourifhed much more 
 
 than New England, or than any other of 
 
 I the 
 
ii4 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, 
 
 the Englifli fettlements in North Ame- 
 rica, evidently in confequence of giving 
 more liberty in matters of religion, at its 
 firft eftabliihment. Holland has fonnd 
 its advantage in the indulgence fhe gives 
 to a great variety of religious perfuahons. 
 England has alfo been much more flou- 
 rifliing and happy, fince the efiabl'ijh- 
 ment, as it may properly enough be ftiled, 
 of the diffenting method of worfliip, by 
 what is commonly called the aB of toU- 
 ration. And all the fenfible part of Eu- 
 rope concur in thinking, both that the 
 Polilh diflidents have a right to all the 
 privileges of other Polifli citizens ; and 
 that it would be much happier for that 
 country if their claims were quietly ad- 
 mitted ; and none but interefled bigots 
 oppofed their demands. 
 
 If we look a little farther off from 
 home, let it be faid, what inconvenience 
 did Jenghis khan, Tamerlane, and other 
 eaftern conquerors ever find fromleaving 
 religion to its natural courfe in the 
 
 ' countries they fubdued, and from having 
 chrillians, mahometans, and a variety of 
 
 V- pagans 
 
AND TOLERATION. 115. 
 
 pagans under the fame form of civil go- 
 vernment ? Are not both chriftianity and 
 mohammedanifm, in fadl, eflablifhed 
 (the former at leafl fully tolerated) in, 
 Turkey ; and what inconvenience, worth , 
 mentioning, has ever arifen from it ? 
 
 Pity it is then, that more and fairer, 
 experiments are not made ; when, judg- 
 ing from what is pafl, the confequences 
 of unbounded liberty, in matters of reli- 
 gion, promife to be fo very favourable to 
 the befl interefts of mankind. 
 
 I am aware, that the connexion be- 
 tween civil and religious affairs, will be^ 
 urged for the neceflity of fome inter- 
 ference of the legillature with religion ;, 
 and, as I obferved before, I do not deny 
 the connedlion. But as this connecflion 
 has always been found to be the greateft 
 in barbarous nations, and imperfedl go- 
 vernments, to which it lends an ufeful 
 aid ; it may be prefumed, that it is gra- 
 dually growing lefs neceflary ; and that, 
 in the prefent advanced flate of human 
 focicty, there is very little occafion for 
 I 2 it. 
 
ii6 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, 
 
 it. For my own part, I have no appre- 
 henfion, but that, at this day, the laws 
 might be obeyed very well without any 
 eccleriaftical fandions, enforced by the 
 civil magillrate. 
 
 Not that I think religion will ever be 
 a matter of indifference in civil fociety : 
 that is impoilible, if the word be un- 
 derftood in its greatell latitude, and by 
 religion we mean that principle where- 
 by men are influenced by the dread of 
 evil, or the hope of revvard from any 
 unknown and invifible caufes, whether 
 the good or evil be expecfbed to take 
 place in this world or another ; compre- 
 hending enthufiafm, fuperflition, and 
 every Ipecies of falfe religion, as well as 
 the true. Nor is fuch an event at all de- 
 lirable ; nay, the more juft motives men 
 have to the fame good aiflions, the bet- 
 ter ; but religious motives may flill ope- 
 rate in favour of the civil laws, without 
 fuch a connection as has been formed 
 between them in ecclefiaftical eftablifli- 
 ments ; and, I think, this end would be 
 anfwered even better without that con- 
 nection. In 
 
AND TOLERATION. n; 
 
 In all the modes of religion, which 
 fvibfift among mankind, however fub- 
 verfive of virtue they may be in theory, 
 there is fome fal-vo for good morals ; fo 
 that, in fadl, they enforce the more ef- 
 fential parts, at leaft, of that condudl, 
 v\rhich the good order of fociety requires. 
 Befides, it might be expelled, that if all 
 the modes of religion were equally pro- 
 tecfted by the civil magiftrate, they v/ould 
 all vie with one another, which fliould 
 beft deferve that protedlion. This, 
 however, is, in fa61:, all the alliance 
 that can take place between religion and 
 civil policy, each enforcing the fame 
 condu6l by diiferent motives. Any other 
 alliance betiveen church and ft ate is only 
 the alliance of diiferent forts of worldly 
 minded men, for their temporal emo- 
 lument. 
 
 If I be urged with the horrid excefTes 
 of the anabaptifts in Germany, about 
 the time of the reformation ; of the Le- 
 vellers in England, during the civil wars ; 
 and the fhocking pradices of that peo- 
 ple in Afia, from whom we borrow the 
 I 3 term 
 
ii8 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, 
 
 term ajfajjin ; I anfwer, that, befides its 
 being abfolutely cliimerical to apprehend 
 any fuch extravagances at prefent, and 
 that they can never fubfift long ; fuch 
 outrages as thefe, againft the peace of fo- 
 cifety, may be reflrained by the civil ma- 
 giftrate, without his troubling himfelf 
 about religious opinions. If a man com- 
 mit murder, let him be puniflied as a 
 murderer, and let no regard be paid to 
 his plea of confcience for committing 
 the adlion ; but let not the opinions, 
 ■which led to the action be meddled 
 with : for then, it is probable, that more 
 harm will be done than good, and, that 
 for a fmall evident advantage, rifque will 
 be run of endlefs and unknown evils ; or 
 if the civil magiftrate never interfere in 
 religion but in fuch cafes as thofe before 
 mentioned, the friends of liberty will 
 have no great reafon to complain. Con- 
 fidering what great encroachments have 
 been made upon their rights in feveral 
 countries of Europe, they will be fatis- 
 fied if part of the load be removed. 
 They will fupport themfelves with. the 
 hope, that, as the flate will certainly 
 
 find 
 
AND TOLERATION. 119 
 
 find a folid advantage in every relaxation 
 of its claim upon men's confciences, it 
 will relax more and more of its pre- 
 tended rights ; till, at lad, religious opi- 
 nions, and religious adlions, be as free as 
 the air we .breathe, or the light of the 
 common fun. 
 
 I acknowledge, with the ftatefman, that 
 the proper objecfl of the civil magiilrate is 
 the peace and well being of fociety, and 
 that vv^hatever tends to difturb that peace 
 and well being, properly comes under his 
 cognifance. I acknowledge feveral religi- 
 ous and moral, as well as political princi- 
 ples have a near connedlion vvith the well 
 being of fociety. But, as was more fully 
 explained before, there are many cafes, 
 in which the happinefs of fociety is near- 
 ly concerned, in which it would, never- 
 thelefs, be the greateft impropriety for 
 the civil magiftrate to interfere ; as in 
 many of the duties of private life, the 
 obligations of gratitude, &c. In all fuch 
 cafes, where the well being of fociety is 
 mofl nearly concerned, the civil magi- 
 ftrate has no right to interfere, unlefs he 
 
 can 
 
120 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, 
 
 can do it to good purpofe. There is no 
 difference, I apprehend, to be made in 
 this cafe, between the rights and the ivif- 
 dom of interference. If the interference 
 wonld be for the good of the fociety up- 
 on the whole, it is wife, and right ; if it 
 would do more harm than good, it is 
 foolifh and wrong. Let the fagacious 
 llatefman, therefore, confider, whether 
 the interference of the civil magiftrate 
 be, in its own nature, calculated to pre- 
 vent the violation of the religious and 
 moral principles he may wifh to enforce. 
 I think it is clear, that when they are in 
 danger of being violated, his prefence is 
 fo far from tending to remedy the evil, 
 that it muft necelTarily inflame it, and 
 make it worfe. 
 
 It is univerfally underftood, that rea- 
 son and AUTHORiTYaretwo things, and 
 that they have generally been oppofed to 
 one another. The hand of power, there- 
 fore, on the fide of any fet of principles 
 cannot but be a fufpicious circumflance. 
 And though the injundlion of the ma- 
 giftrate may filence voicp.s^ it multiplies 
 
 ivhifpers j 
 
AND TOLERATION. 121 
 
 nvhifpers ; and thofe whlfpers are the 
 things at which he has the mofl reafon 
 to be alarmed, 
 
 Befides, it is "aniverfally true, that 
 where the civil magiflrate has the greateft 
 pretence for interfering in religious and 
 moral principles, his interference (fuppof- 
 ing there were no impropriety in it) is 
 the leaft necefTary. If the opinions and 
 principles in queflion, be evidently fub- 
 verfive of all religion and all civil fociety, 
 they mufl be evidently falfe, and eafy to 
 refute ; fo that there can be no danger 
 of their fpreading ; and the patrons of 
 them may fafely be fuffered to maintain 
 them in the moft open manner they 
 chufe. 
 
 To mention thofe religious and moral 
 principles which Dr. Brown produces, as 
 the moft deftru6live to the well being of 
 fociety ; namely, that there is no God, 
 and that there is no faith to be kept ivith 
 heretics. So far am I from being of his 
 opinion, that it is necefTary to guard 
 againft thefe principles by fevere penal- 
 ties, 
 
S22 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, 
 
 ties, and not to tolerate thofe who main- 
 tain them,' that I think, of all opinions, 
 furely fuch as thefe have nothing formi- 
 dable or alarming in them. They can 
 have no terrors but v\rhat the magiftrate 
 himfelf, by his ill-judged oppofition, 
 may give them. Perfecution may pro- 
 cure friends to any caufe, and poflibly to 
 this, but hardly any thing elfe can do it. 
 It is unqueflionable, that there are more 
 atheifls and infidels of all kinds in Spain 
 and Italy, where religion is fo well 
 guarded, than in England ; and it is, per- 
 haps, principally owing to the laws in 
 favour of chriflianity, that there are fo 
 many deifts in this country. 
 
 For my own part, I cannot help think - 
 ing the principles of Dr. Brown very 
 dangerous in a free ftate, and therefore 
 cannot but wifli they were exterminated. 
 But I fliould not think that filencing him 
 would be the beft method of doing it. 
 No, let him, by all means, be encourag- 
 ed in making his fentiments public ; both 
 that their dangerous tendency, and 
 their futility may more clearly appear. 
 
 Had 
 
AND TOLERATION. 123 
 
 Had I the diredlion of the prefs, he 
 fliould be welcome to my imprimatur for 
 any thing he ihould pleafe to favour the 
 world with ; and ready, if I know my- 
 felf, fliould I be, to furniih him with 
 every convenience in my power for that 
 purpofe. It is for the interefl of truth 
 that every thing be viewed in fair and 
 open day light, and it can only be fome 
 finifter purpofe that is favoured by dark- 
 nefs or concealment of any kind. My 
 fentiments may be fallacious, but if no 
 body were allowed to write againft me, 
 how could that fallacy be made to ap- 
 pear ? Be the prayer of the magnanimous 
 Ajax ever mine, 
 
 Ev Jh faej Hai ohsaaov Homer. Lib. 17. V, 646. 
 
 This writer artfully mentions only 
 three opinions or principles, one under 
 each clafs of religion, morals, and politics, 
 as neceflary to be guarded by civil penal- 
 ties, and not to be tolerated ; and, no 
 doubt, he has chofen thofc principles 
 which a friend to his country would 
 moft wifh to have fupprelTed, and with 
 
 regard 
 
124 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, 
 
 Kegard to which, he would lead fcrupu- 
 loufly examine the means that might be 
 iifed to fupprefs them. This, Britons, 
 is the method in which arbitrary power 
 has ever been introduced j and is well 
 known to have been the method ufed 
 by the thirty tyrants of Athens. They 
 firft cut off perfons the mofl generally 
 obnoxious, and fuch as the {landing laws 
 could not reach ; and even that intel- 
 ligent people were fo far duped by their 
 refentment, that they were not aware, 
 that the very fame methods might be 
 employed to take off the worthieft men 
 in the city. And if ever arbitrary 
 power fliould gain ground in England, 
 it will be by means of the feeming 
 neceffity of having recourfe to illegal 
 methods, in order to come at opinions 
 or perfons generally obnoxious. But 
 when thefe illegal pradlices have once 
 been authorized, and have paffed into pre- 
 cedents, all perfons, and all opinions will 
 lie at the mercy of the prime minifler, 
 who will animadvert upon whatever 
 gives him umbrage. 
 
 Happy 
 
AND TOLJfcRATION. 125 
 
 Happy would it be for the iinfufped- 
 ing fons of liberty, if their enemies 
 would fay, at firft, how far they meant 
 to proceed againfl them. To fay, as 
 Dr. Brown does, that there are many 
 opinions and principles which ought not 
 to be tolerated, and to inflance only in 
 three, is very fufpicious and alarming. 
 Let him fay, in the name of all the 
 friends of liberty, I challenge him, or 
 any of his friends to fay, how many 
 more he has thought proper not to men- 
 tion, and what they are ; that we may 
 not admit the foot of arbitrary power, 
 before we fee what fize of a body the 
 monfter has to follow it. 
 
 Such is the conneclion and gradation 
 of opinions, that if once we admit there 
 are fotne which ought to be guarded by 
 civil penalties, it will ever be impoffible 
 to diftinguifli, to general fatisfadlion, be- 
 tween thofe which may be tolerated, and 
 thofe which may not. No two men liv- 
 ing, were they queflioned ftridly, 
 would give the fame lift of fuch funda- 
 mentals. Far eafier were it to diftin- 
 guifli 
 
126 REL I GIO^^ LIBERTY, 
 
 guifli the exadl boundaries of the ani- 
 mal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms 
 in nature, which yet naturalifts find to 
 be impoITible. But a happy circum- 
 ftance it is for human fociety, that, in 
 religion and morals, there is no neceflity. 
 to diilinguifli them at all. The more 
 important will guard themfelves by their 
 own evidence, and the lefs important 
 do not deferve to be guarded. 
 
 Political principles, indeed, may re- 
 quire penal fancflions ; but then it is for 
 the very fame reafon that religious and 
 moral principles require none. It is be-f 
 caufe they do not carry their own evi- 
 dence along with them. Governments 
 adlually eftablifhed muft guard them- 
 felves by penalties and intolerance, be- 
 caufe forms of government, and perfons 
 prefiding in them, being nearly arbitrary, 
 it may not be very evident that a diffe- 
 rent government, or different gover- 
 nors, would not be better for a flate,. 
 Laws relating to treafon are to be con- 
 sidered as arifing from the principle of 
 felf-prefervation. But even with re- 
 
 fped: 
 
AND TOuAaTION. ii'j 
 
 fpedl to civil government, it is better not 
 to guard every thing fo flrongly as that 
 no alteration can ever be made in it. 
 Nay, alterations are daily propofed, and 
 daily take place in our civil government, 
 in things both of great and fmall confe- 
 quence. They are improvements in 
 religion only that receive no counte- 
 nance from the flate : a fate fingular and 
 hard ! 
 
 Befides, fo many are the fubtle dif- 
 
 tindlions relating to religion and morals, 
 
 that no magiftrate or body of magi- 
 
 itrates, could be fuppofed to enter into 
 
 them ; and yet, without entering into 
 
 them, no laws they could make would 
 
 be efFeclual. To inftance in the firft of 
 
 Dr. Brown's principles, and the moil 
 
 effential of them, viz. the being of a 
 
 God. The magiftrate muft define ftri6l- 
 
 ly what he means by the term God, for 
 
 otherwife Epicureans and Spinozifts 
 
 might be no atheifts ; or Arians or Atha- 
 
 nafians might be obnoxious to the law. 
 
 The magiftrate muft likewife punifli, not 
 
 only thofe who diredly maintain the 
 
 - principles 
 
128 RELIGIOlSl LIBERTY, 
 
 principles of Atheifm (for evalions are 
 fo eafy to find, that fuch laws would 
 hurt no body) but he muft puniili thofe 
 who do it indireclly ; and what opinions 
 are there not, in religion, morals, and 
 even natural philofophy, which might 
 not be faid to lead to Atheifm ? The 
 dodlrine of equivocal generation, for 
 inftance, might certainly be thought of 
 this kind, as well as many others., 
 which have been very harmlefsly main- 
 tained by many good chriftians.. 
 
 I am fenfible, that in the few par- 
 ticulars which Dr. Brown has thought 
 proper to mention, his intolerant prin- 
 ciples are countenanced by Mr. Locke ; 
 but, as far as I can recolledl, thefe are 
 all the opinions which he would 
 not tolerate ; whereas this writer af- 
 ferts there are many ; fo that he muft 
 provide himfelf with fome other au- 
 thority for the reft. Befides I make 
 no doubt, the great Mr. Locke would, 
 without the leaft reludlance, have given 
 up any of his affertions, upon find- 
 ing fo bad an ufe made of them, and 
 
 thac 
 
AND TOLIj^ATION. 129 
 
 that the confequenees of them were fo 
 very unfavourable to his own great ob- 
 jedl, and contradidlory to his leading- 
 principles ; and that he v/ould, wath 
 indignation, have given up any adhe- 
 rents to arbitrary power, who, fromfuch 
 a pretence as this, JQiould have claimed 
 his protedlion from the generous pur- 
 fuit of the friends of liberty, of rea- 
 fon, and of mankind. After all, the 
 controvcrfy is not about men, but prin- 
 ciples. And fo great an enemy as Mr. 
 LockCj to all authority in matters of 
 opinion, would not have been fo incon- 
 hflent as to have excepted his own. 
 
 It will be faid, that a regard to liberty 
 itfelf mull plead for one exception to the 
 principles of toleration. The papifts, it 
 is alledged, are fuch determined enemies 
 to liberty, civil and eccleiiaflical, and fo 
 GxFeclually alienated from the interefts 
 of a proteflant country and government, 
 that proteftants, who have a regard for 
 their own fafety, and the great caufe in 
 which they are engaged, cannot tolerate 
 • them. If they do it, it is at their own 
 K peril 5 
 
130 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, 
 
 peril ; fo that the perfecution of papifts 
 is, in facft, nothing more than a didlate 
 of felf-prefervation. 
 
 This plea, I own, is plaufible ; and 
 two centuries ago it is no wonder it had 
 conhderable weight ; but perfecution by 
 protejiants, in this enlightened age, ap- 
 pears fo utterly repugnant to the great 
 principle of their caufe, that I wifli they 
 would view it in every point of light, 
 before they ferioufly adopt any fuch 
 meafure. And I cannot help thinking, 
 that the refult of a more mature confi- 
 deration of this fubjed: will not be to 
 render evil for evil to our old mother 
 church, but rather a more indulgent 
 treatment than we have as yet vouch- 
 fafed to afford her. 
 
 In the firfl place, I cannot imagine 
 that the increafe of popery, in thefe 
 kingdoms, will ever be lb confiderable, 
 as to give any jufl alarm to the friends 
 of liberty. All the addrefs and afliduity 
 of man cannot, certainly, recommend fo 
 abfurd a fyflem of faith and pracftice to 
 
 any 
 
AND TOLERATION. 13I 
 
 any but the loweft and mofl illiterate of 
 our common people, who can never 
 have any degree of influence in the flate. 
 The number of popifh gentry muft grow 
 lefs ; partly through the influence of 
 fafhion, and partly through the con- 
 vidlion of thofe who have a liberal 
 education, which will necefTarily throw 
 proteflant books into their hands. 
 
 The French tranflator of Warburton's 
 Alliance, in an addrefs to Cardinal Fleury, 
 (in which he recommends fuch a fyfteni 
 of church eflablifliment and toleration 
 as this of the Bifliop of Gloucefter) ob- 
 ferves, that the number of Roman ca- 
 tholicks in England diminiihes every 
 day, and that the only reafon why they 
 are not fo good fubjecfls in this country, 
 as they are in Holland, is, that they are 
 under more reftraints here. 
 
 If the popifii priefls and miflionaries 
 have the fuccefs which it is pretended 
 they have, I am almoft perfuaded, that 
 the moft efFe(5lual arguments they have 
 employed for this purpofe, have been 
 K 2 drawn 
 
132 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, 
 
 drawn from the rigour of our prefent 
 laws refpedling the papifls. They tell 
 the people, that, confcious of the weak- 
 nefs of our caufe, we dare not give them 
 full liberty to teach and exercife their 
 religion ; knowing that the excellency of 
 it is fuch, that, if it were publicly exhi- 
 bited, it would attradl univerfal admira- 
 tion ; and that what we are not able to 
 filence by argument, we fupprefs by 
 force. 
 
 Belides, the traces and remains of 
 popery are fo flriking in the book of 
 common prayer, and in the whole of 
 our ecclehaftical eflablifliment, that the 
 derivation of it from the popilh fyftem 
 cannot be concealed ; and hence it may 
 not be difhcult for an artful papifl, to 
 perfuade many of the common people 
 to quit the fliadow, and have recourfe to 
 the fubftance ; to abandon the interefts 
 of an apellate child, and adopt that of 
 its ancient and venerable parent. 
 
 Let the church of England then, be- 
 fore it be too late, make a farther re- 
 formation 
 
AND TOLERATION. 135 
 
 formation froin popery, and leave fewer 
 of the fymbols of the Romilli church 
 about her ; and the ideas of her mem- 
 bers being more remote from every thing 
 that has any connecflion with popery, 
 the popifh mifTionaries will have much 
 more difficulty in making them compre- 
 hend and reliili it. A convert to popery 
 from any of the feels of proteflant diffen- 
 ters (who are farther removed from the 
 popifh fyftem than the church of Eng- 
 land) is very rarely heard of. And 
 this efFedl is not owing to any particular 
 care of their minifrers to guard their 
 hearers againft popery ; but becaufe the 
 whole fyftem of their faith and practice 
 is fo contrary to it, that even the com- 
 mon people among them, would as foon 
 turn mahometans, or pagans, as become 
 papifts. 
 
 Inftead, then, of ufing more rigour 
 with the papifts, let us allovsr them a full 
 toleration. We fliould, at leaft, by this 
 means, be better judges of their num- 
 ber, and increafe. And I alfo think 
 they would be much lefs formidable in 
 K 3 thefe 
 
134 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, 
 
 thefe circumftances, than they are at 
 prefent. If they be enemies, an open 
 enemy is lefs dangerous than a fecret one. 
 And if our ecclefiaftical eflabUfhment 
 muft not be reformed, and removed far- 
 ther from popery ; let the clergy, as the 
 beft fuccedaneiim for fuch an effedlual 
 antidote againft their poifon, fhow 
 more zeal in the diicharge of their pa- 
 rochial duties, and give more attention 
 to their flocks. Half the zeal w^hich 
 the papifts employ, to make converts, 
 v^^ould be more than fufficient to prevent 
 any from being made. Whofe bufinefs 
 is it to counteract the endeavours of the 
 popifh emiflfaries, but thofe whom the 
 ftate has appointed the guardians of the 
 people in fpiritual matters ; and what is 
 their calling in the aid of the civil pow- 
 er, but an acknowledgement of a neg- 
 lect of their proper duty ? ^ 
 
 It may be faid, that the particular 
 iituation of this country fliould be a 
 motive with all the friends of our happy 
 conftitution, to keep a watchful eye over 
 the papifts ; fince a popiih religion may, 
 
 at 
 
AND TOLERATION. 135 
 
 at length, fix a popifh pretender upon 
 the throne of thefe kingdoms. Serioufly 
 as this argument for perfecution might 
 have been urged formerly, I cannot help 
 thinking that, ever fmce the Lift rebellion, 
 the apprehenfion on wdiich it is ground- 
 ed, is become abfolutely chimerical, and 
 therefore that it does notdeferve a ferious 
 anfwer. After the pope himfelf has re- 
 fufed to acknowledge the heir of the Stu- 
 art family to be king of England, what 
 can a papift, as fuch, have to plead for 
 him ? And, for my own part, I make no 
 doubt, there are men of good fcnfc s.- 
 mong the popifh gentry, at leaft, and 
 perfons of property of that perfuafion, 
 as well as among perfons of other reli- 
 gious profeiTions ; and therefore, that if 
 they lay under fewer civil difadvantages, 
 they would not only chearfully acquiefce 
 in, but would become zealoufly attached 
 'to our excellent form of free government ; 
 and that, upon any emergency, thev 
 would bravely ftand up for it, proteftant 
 as it is, in oppofition to any popifli fyftem 
 of arbitrary poiver whatever. 
 
 Befides, 
 
136 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, 
 
 Beiides, when a popifli country is at 
 this very time,* lliowing ns an example 
 of a toleration, more perfect, in feveral 
 refpe6ls, than any which the church of 
 England allows to thofe whodifTent from 
 her, is it not time to advance a little 
 farther ? Political confiderations may 
 juftly be allowed to have fome weight 
 in this cafe. France may reafonably be 
 expedled to follow, and improve upon 
 the example of Poland ; and if we do 
 not make fome fpeedy improvement of 
 liberty, that great and indefatigable 
 rival power, by one mafler ftroke of 
 policy, may almoft depopulate this great 
 and ilourfliing kingdom. 
 
 We often hear it faid, that if France 
 grov\rs wife, and admits of toleration, 
 England is undone. Novelty, and a 
 milder climate, will, no doubt, attract- 
 multitudes ; and whenever the French 
 make a reformation, as their minds are 
 much more enlightened, than ^ thofe of 
 the Englifli reformers were, when our 
 
 prefent 
 
 * Written in 1768. 
 
AND TOLERATION. 137 
 
 prefent eilablifliment was fixed, their 
 reformation will, in all probability, be 
 much more perfed; than ours. And if 
 the French through our folly, and the 
 ambition, avarice, or bafenefs of Ibme 
 fpiritual dignitaries, Ihould be permitted 
 to take the lead in this noble work, and 
 our emulation be not roufed by their ex- 
 ample, the future motto of England 
 may, with too much propriety, be taken 
 from Bacon's fpeaking ftatue, Time is 
 
 PAST. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 So7?ie diJii7iciio/2s that have been 
 made on the fiihjeci of religious 
 liberty^ and toleratio7t confide red, 
 
 IN order to illufcrate fome of the fun- 
 damental principles of religious liber- 
 ty, I beg the reader's indulgence w^hile I 
 animadvert on a fevvr diftindlions that 
 have been fuggefledby fome perfons who 
 
 have 
 
'W^ 
 
 138 DISTINCTIONS CANCER 
 
 have written, at different times, oh this 
 fubjedl:, and which I think have tended 
 to introduce confufion into our ideas 
 concerning it. Many of my readers may 
 think fome of the cafes I ihall mention, 
 unworthy of the notice I have taken of 
 them, but I hope they will excufe my 
 giving them a place in this fedlion, when 
 they confider that it is, at leafl, poiTible 
 they may have occafioned fome difficulty 
 to other perfons, unufed to thefe fpecula- 
 tions. 
 
 I. Religion is fometimes coniidered as 
 of a perfonal, and fometimes as of a po- 
 litical nature. In fome meafure, indeed, 
 every thing that concerns individuals 
 mull afiedl the focieties which they com- 
 pofe ; but it by no means follows, that 
 it is, therefore, right, or itnfe for foci- 
 eties (i. e. mankind collectively taken) 
 to intermeddle with every thing, fo as 
 to make laws, and appoint fandlions 
 concerning every thing ; becaufe, in 
 numberlefs cafes, more confufion and 
 inconvenience would neceffarily arife 
 from the interference, than from the 
 
 want 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 139 
 
 want of it ; iince individuals are, in many 
 refpecfls, better iituated for the purpofe 
 of judging aad providing for themfelves 
 than magiftrates, as fuch, can be. 
 
 Thefe, and many other reafons, lead 
 me to conlider the bufmefs of religion, 
 and every thing fairly conne(fled with 
 it, as intirely a perfonal concern^ and al- 
 together foreign to the nature, objedl, 
 and ufe of civil magiftracy. 
 
 Belides, there is fomething in the na- 
 ture of religion that makes it more than 
 out of the proper fphere, or province of 
 the civil magiflrate to intermeddle with 
 it. The duties of religion, properly un- 
 derftood, feem to be, in fome meafure, 
 incompatible with the interference of 
 the civil power. For the purpofe and 
 obje(5l of religion necelTarily fuppofe the 
 poivers of indi'vidiials, and a refponfbility, 
 which is the confequence of thofe pow- 
 ers ; fo that the civil magiflrate, by 
 taking any of thofe powers from indi- 
 viduals, and alTuming them to himfelf, 
 doth fo far incapacitate them for the 
 
 duties 
 
';r40 DISTINCTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 duties of religion. If, for inflance, I 
 be commanded by divine authority to 
 fearch the fcriptures^ and flie magiftrate 
 forbid me the ufe of them, how can I 
 discharge my duty ? And for the fame 
 reafon, I mufl think the authority of 
 the magiftrates oppofed to that of God, 
 in every cafe in which human la.ws im- 
 pede the ufe of my facukies in matters 
 of religion., 
 
 As a being capable of immortal life 
 (vv^liich is a thing of infinitely more con- 
 fequence to me than all the political 
 coniiderations of this v^^orld) I muft en- 
 deavour to render myfelf acceptable to 
 God, by fuch difpoiitions and fuch con- 
 dudl, as he has required, in order to fit 
 me for future happinefs. For this pur- 
 pofe, it is evidently requifite, that I dili- 
 gently ufe my reafon, in order to make 
 myfelf acquainted with the will of God ; 
 and alfo that I have liberty to diO what- 
 ever I believe he requires, provided I do 
 not moleft my fellovN/^ creatures by fuch 
 affumed liberty. But all human efla- 
 blifliments, as fuch, obftrudl freedom of 
 
 inquiry 
 
^m 
 
 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 141 
 
 inquiry in matters of religion, by lay- 
 ing an undue bias upon the mind, if 
 they be not fuch, as by their exprefs 
 conftitutions prevent all inquiry, and 
 preclud.e every poilible efredl of it. 
 
 Chriftianity, by being a more fpiritual 
 and moral conflitution than any other 
 form of religion that ever appeared in 
 the world, requires men to think and adl 
 for themfelves more accurately than any 
 other. But human eflablifhments, by 
 calling off men's attention from the 
 commandments of God to thofe of men, 
 tend to defeat the great ends of religion. 
 They are, therefore, incompatible with 
 the genius of chriftianity. 
 
 II. In examining the right of the civil 
 magiftrate to eftabliili any mode of reli- 
 gion, or that of the fubjedl to oppofe it, 
 the goodnefs of the religion, or of the 
 mode of it, is not to be taken into the 
 queflion ; but only xht propriety (which is 
 the fame with the utility) of the civil ma- 
 giftrate as fuch, interfering in the buiinefs. 
 For what the^magiftrate may think to be 
 
 very 
 
142 DISTINCTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 very jiift, and even conducive to the good 
 of fociety, the fubjedl may thmk to be 
 wrong, and hurtful to it. If a chrlfllan 
 niagiftrate hath a right to eftablifh any 
 mode of the chriftian religion, or the 
 chriilian religion in general, a Mahome- 
 tan governor muft have the fame right 
 to eilablifli the Mahometan religion j 
 and no liberty can be claimed by a chri- 
 ftian under a Mahometan government, 
 to exercife the chriftian religion, that 
 may not, in the fame degree, be claimed 
 by a Mahometan fubjecSt of a chriftian 
 government, to exercife the Mahometan 
 religion. Alfo, if it be unreafonable and 
 oppreftive to oblige chriftian fubjecls to 
 fupport the Mahometan religion, it is 
 equally unreafonable and oppreiTive to 
 oblige a Mahometan to fupport the chri- 
 ftian religion, in the place v^here he re- 
 fides ; or to oblige chriftians of one de- 
 nomination to fupport another mode of 
 it, v/hich they do not approve. 
 
 The authority of God and confcience 
 inay always, with equal juftice, be op- 
 pofed to human authority 5 iind the ap- 
 peal 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 145 
 
 peal of Peter and John to the Jewifli 
 magiftrates, concernmg their obligation 
 to obey God leather than man^ will equally 
 ferve a Proteftant in a Popifh eflabliih- 
 ment, or a Diffenter of any kind in a 
 Proteftant one. It is of no avail to the 
 Papift, or the Proteftant, in any eftablifh- 
 iTient, to pretend that the religion they 
 enforce is triie^ or that it is the fame, in 
 general, with that which thofe who dif^ 
 fent from them profefs ; becaufe the Pro- 
 teftant and the Diftenter do not objecfl 
 to the eftablifliment in thofe refpetfts in 
 which they believe it to be true, but in 
 thofe in which they believe it to h^falfe^ 
 and to require them to believe and do 
 what their confcience difapproves. And 
 for a Proteftant of any denomination 
 whatever, to maintain his own right to 
 refift the impofitions of a Popifh govern- 
 ment, and at the fame time to infift up- 
 on a right to impofe upon his fellow 
 chriftians of other Proteftant denomina- 
 tions, is too abfurd to admit of a formal 
 refutation. 
 
 IIL 
 
144 DISTINCTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 III. Some perfons, of narrow minds, 
 may be ready to admit of a plea for the 
 toleration of all fe6ls of Protejiants. 
 They may bear them fome degree of 
 good will, iis brethren^ or at leaft, as 
 dijlant relations, though the blood in their 
 veins be not equally pure with their own; 
 but, in order to demonflrate that there 
 may be a licentioufnefs in toleration, 
 and that we muft ftop fomewhere, they 
 fay, " What mufl we do with heathens 
 " and athe'ifisy I anfwer, the very fame 
 that you, chriftians, would wifli that 
 heathens and atheifhs, in your lituation, 
 ihould do to you, being in theirs. If 
 your party has been fo long in power, 
 that you cannot, even in fuppofition, fe- 
 parate the idea of it from that of the 
 authority which has been fo long con- 
 nedled with it ; read the hiflory of the 
 primitive church, and fee what it was 
 that the firft chriftians wiflied and plead- 
 ed for, under the Pagan emperors. Read 
 the antient chriftian apologies ; and do 
 the infidels of the prefent age the juftice 
 to put them, or at leaft part of them, in- 
 to their mouths. 
 
 IV, 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 145 
 
 IV. Others have the moderation and 
 good fenle to admit the rcafonablenefs of 
 perfons being allowed to judge for them- 
 felves, and to think as they pleafe in mat- 
 ters of religion, and even to exercife 
 whatever mode of religion their confci- 
 ences approve of ; but they will not ad- 
 mit of any thing that has a tendency to 
 increafe the obnoxious fedl ; no publi- 
 cation of books, or other attempts to 
 make profelytes ; not even a reflecflion 
 upon the eftablifhed religion, though it 
 be neceiTa-ry to a vindication of their 
 own. But what fignifies a privilege of 
 judging for ourfelves, if we have not the 
 neceilary means of forming a right judg- 
 ment, by the perufal of books contain- 
 ing the evidence of both fides of the 
 queflion ? What fome diftinguilli by the 
 names of aBive and pajjive oppofition to 
 an eftablifhed religion, differ only in 
 name and degree. To defend myfelf, 
 and to attack my adverfary, is, in many 
 cafes, the very fame thing, and the one 
 cannot be done without the other. 
 
 Befides, 
 
146 DISTINCTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 Befides, the perfons who make ufe of 
 this diftin(5lion, fliould confider that, for 
 the reafons they alledge, the Jewifli ru- 
 lers did right to forbid Peter and John 
 to preach, or to teach, in the name of 
 Jefus of Nazareth, and that Peter and 
 John did wrong in not fubmitting to that 
 prohibition. They fhould confider that 
 the primitive chriftians, under heathen 
 governments, had no right, according 
 to their maxims, to any thing more than 
 the private exercife of their worfhip, and 
 that they offended againft the ponjoers 
 that then ivere, and that were ordained of 
 God, when they wrote their excellent 
 books, and took the pains they did to 
 propagate their religion among all ranks 
 of men, and among all nations of the 
 world ; though they atfted in obedience 
 to the folemn injun(5lion of our Lord, 
 who bade them go and preach the go/pel 
 to every creature. 
 
 By the go/pel every chriflian will, and 
 inuft underftand, the gofpel in its puri- 
 ty; i. e. what he apprehends to be the 
 pure gofpel; in oppofition, not only to 
 
 heathenifm 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, 147 
 
 heathenifm, and religions fundamentally 
 falje, but to erroneous chriftianity, or 
 to religions that are in part true. What- 
 ever be the religious opinions, therefore, 
 that I ferioully think are agreeable to 
 the word of God, and of importance to 
 the happinefs of mankind, I look upon 
 myfelf as obliged to take every prudent 
 naethod of propagating them, both by 
 the ufe of fpeech and writing ; and the 
 man who refrains from doing this, when 
 he is convinced that he fliould do good 
 upon the whole by attempting it, what- 
 ever rifque he might run in confequence 
 of oppofmg anti-chriftian eftablifhments, 
 is a traitor to his proper lord and mafter, 
 and fhows that he fears more them ivho 
 can only kill the body (whether by the 
 heathen methods of beheading, crucify- 
 ing, throwing to the wild beads, &c. 
 or the chriftian methods of burning a- 
 live, and roafting before a flow fire) 
 than him, ijuho can cajl both foul and body 
 into helL 
 
 V. It is faid by fome, who think them- 
 
 felves obliged to vindicate the condvid: of 
 
 L 2 Chrift 
 
148 DISTINCTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 Chrifl and his apotlles, that, though no 
 general plea to oppofe an eftabUflied re- 
 ligion can be admitted, in excufe of a 
 pretended reformer, yet that a fpecial 
 plea, fuch as a belief of a divine coni- 
 miilion, will excufe him. But I can fee 
 no material difference in thefe cafes. 
 The voice of conjcience is, in all cafes, as 
 the 'voice of God to every man. It is, 
 therefore, my duty to endeavour to en- 
 lighten the minds of my friends, my 
 countrymen, and mankind in general, 
 as far as I have ability and opportunity ; 
 and to exert myfelf with more or lefs 
 zeal, in proportion, as I myfelf fliall , 
 judge the importance of the occafion 
 requires ; let my honed endeavours be 
 conhdered as ever fo fadlious and fediti- 
 ous, by thofe who are aggrieved bv 
 them. It is no new cry among the ene- 
 mies of reformation. The men tvho have 
 turned the ivorld upfide do^wn are come 
 hither alfo. 
 
 VI. There are fome who confine the 
 obligation to propagate chriftianity to 
 the clergy^ and even to thofe of themi 
 
 who 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 149 
 
 who have a regular comrn'iffion for that 
 purpofe, according to the form of efta- 
 blifhed churches ; and fay that laymen 
 cannot be under any obhgation to trouble 
 themfelves about it, in whatever part of 
 the world they be cafl ; and what they 
 fay concerning the propagation of chri- 
 ftianity they w^ould extend to the refor- 
 mation of it. But I can fee no founda- 
 tion for this diftindlion, either in reafon, 
 or in the fcriptures. The propagation, 
 or reformation of chriftianity, is com- 
 prehended in the general idea of pro- 
 moting ufefiil knoivledge of any kind, and 
 this is certainly the duty of every man, 
 in proportion to his ability and oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 Our Saviour gives no hint of any dif- 
 ference between clergy and laity amon.o- 
 his difciples. The twelve apoftles were 
 only diftinguifhed by him as appointed 
 witnelTes of his life, death, and refur- 
 redion. After the defcent of the Holy 
 Ghoft, fupernatural gifts v,^ere equally 
 communicated to all chriftian converts. 
 The diftindlion of elders was only fuch 
 L 3 as 
 
ISO DISTINCTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 as years and experience intltled men to, 
 and only refpe6led the internal govern- 
 ment of particular churches. As to the 
 propagation of chriflianity abroad, or 
 the reformation of corruptions in it at 
 home, there is nothing in the fcriptures, 
 that can lead us to imagine it to be the 
 duty of one man more than another. 
 Every man who underflands the chri- 
 flian religion, I confider as having the 
 fame commiiTion to teach it, as that of 
 any bifliop, in England, or in Rome. 
 
 VII. Some of the advocates for efla- 
 blifliments lay great ftrefs on the diftinc-* 
 tion between pofitivc and negative re- 
 flraints put upon diffenters. The for- 
 mer they affedl to difclaim, but the lat- 
 ter they avow, and pretend that it is no 
 perfecution. But here I can find no real 
 difference, except in degree. An exclu- 
 fionfrom an advantage, and a fubjedlion 
 to a po(itive difadvantage agree in this, 
 that a man who is fubjedl to either of 
 them is in a njuorfe condition on that ac- 
 count, than he would otherwife have 
 been. If a man, for confcience fake, be 
 
 excluded 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 151 
 
 excluded from a lucrative office, to 
 which another perfon, of a different per- 
 fuafion, has accefs ; he fuifers as much, 
 as if the office had been open to him, 
 and a fine, equal to the advantage he 
 would have gained by it, impofed upon 
 him. Nay, it is eafy to fuppofe cafes, 
 in which negative refhraints may be a 
 greater hardfliip than politive ones. 
 The interdiclioii of fire and ivater is not a 
 fentence of pofitive punifhment, and yet 
 banifliment, or death muft be the con- 
 fequence. Notwithftanding all this, ne- 
 gative reftraints, however fevere, muft 
 . not be called perfecution, while pofitive 
 reftraints, how light foever, cannot be 
 denied to fall under that obnoxious ap- 
 pellation. 
 
 In reality thofe who defend the neceffi- 
 ty and propriety of laying difiTenters under 
 negative reftraints, without chufing to be 
 advocates for pofitive ones, are only a - 
 fraid of the term perfecution^ which, hap- 
 pily for the friends of liberty, lies under 
 an odium at prefent ; but their arguments 
 would be much clearer, and lofe nothing 
 
 of 
 
152 THE EXTENT OF 
 
 of their flrength ; and their ideas would 
 be more free from confulion, if they 
 would openly maintain, that a certain 
 degree of perfecution was jufl, though 
 certain degrees of it were unjuft ; and 
 they might eafily fay, that they could 
 not pretend to fix any precife boundary 
 in this cafe, but mull leave it to be deter- 
 mined by circumftances. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 Farther ohfervations concerning the 
 exteiit of ecclefmfikal authority^ 
 and the power of civil gover?tors 
 in matters of religion, 
 
 IT is faid that a chr'ijl'ian churchy or a 
 chriftian fociety, and the power of 
 chriftian focieties, are certainly fpoken 
 of in the New Teftament ; that focieties 
 cannot fubfift without officers and lanvs, 
 
 nor 
 
«» 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY 153 
 
 nor can laws be enforced without /^^m^^/z/Vj-. 
 All this, and every confequence of the 
 like nature, is readily granted ; but the 
 fandlions of the church of Chrift in this 
 world are, like itfelf, and like the ivea- 
 pons of the chrijlian ivarfare, not carnal, 
 and temporal, but of a fpiritual nature ; 
 and do not affecfl a man's perfon, life, 
 liberty, or eftate. All that our Saviour 
 diredls, in cafe of the greateft refra(5lo- 
 rinefs, is to confider fuch obdinate of- 
 fenders as heathen men and publicans ; that 
 is, we are juflified in ceafing to look up- 
 on them as brethren and fellow chrifti- 
 ans ; and they are not intitled to our pe- 
 culiar affedlion, and attention, as fuch. 
 
 The delivering over to Satan, which St. 
 Paul mentions, as a punifliment for the 
 greateft offence that could be committed 
 in the chriftian church, is not a deliver- 
 ing over to the civil magijlrate, or to the 
 executioner. In fhort, all that the New 
 Teftament authorizes a chriftian church, 
 or its officers, to do, is to exclude from 
 their fociety thofe perfons whom they 
 deem unworthy of it. There is no hint 
 
 of 
 
154 THE EXTENT OF 
 
 of fuch excluded members lying under 
 any civil difqualification. If they were 
 not to be confidered as chri/iians, and pro- 
 per members of chriftian focieties ; they 
 were+ftill nien^ proper meinbers of civil 
 fociety, and not liable to civil penalties, 
 unlefsthey had, likew^ife, offended againft 
 the lav^s of the flate. 
 
 The horrid fentence o£ exco-mmunication, 
 as it is in ufe in the church of Rome, or 
 the church of England, is well known 
 not to have been introduced into the 
 chriftian church, till the Roman Em- 
 perors became chriftians ; and was not 
 eftabliflied in its full extent till about the 
 fifth century, when it vfas adopted by 
 the barbarous Celtes, and other Germa- 
 nic nations, and made fimilar to what 
 they had pradlifed in their own Druidi- 
 cal religion ; which was, in this refpecl, 
 analogous to that of the Hindoos. In 
 both of them^excommunication was the 
 heavieft puniiliment that could be in- 
 curred in human fociety, as it cut a man 
 off from all the benefits of it. 
 
 It 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY 155 
 
 It will be faid that, in the times of St. 
 Paul, temporal penalties were inilided 
 upon members of the chriflian church, 
 for their irregularities committed in it. 
 For this caufe, fays the apollile, fome are 
 lueak and Jickly among fou, and fome Jleep ; 
 which is generally underftood to refer to 
 licknefs and death, as a punifliment for 
 their lliameful abufe of the inftitution 
 of the Lord's fupper. But it lliould be 
 coniidered, that thefe punifhments were 
 the immediate a^ of God, and in the 
 ftridleft fenfe miraculous, like the death 
 of Ananias and Sapphira, Or the blind- 
 nefs of Elymas the forcerer. Thefe 
 cafes, therefore, will not authorize pu- 
 nifliments inflided by men. All that 
 can be done to thofe who are guilty of 
 contempt againfl church power, is to 
 leave them to xhtjtidgfiient of God, who will 
 fufhciently protect his church, and who 
 is a better judge of its real danger than 
 man can be ; and if he chufe to bear with 
 fuch offenders, what have we to do to 
 obftrucl the effeds of his long fuffering 
 and mercy ? 
 
 I have 
 
156' THE EXTENT OF 
 
 I have no objedlion, however, on my 
 own account, to allowing eccleiiaflical 
 officers to do more than Chrift, than St. 
 Paul, or the other apoftles ever pretend- 
 ed to. Let them not only predicl, but, 
 if their zeal prompt them to it, let them 
 imprecate divine jvidgments. Let them 
 pray that God ivould fpeedily plead his 
 ouon caiife, taking it for granted to be 
 their own. Were I the obnoxious per- 
 fon, I fhould be very eafy upon the oc- 
 cafion, provided their own cruel and 
 mercilefs hands were not upon me. 
 
 It is allov/ed by many, that chriflian 
 churches, as fuch, and its officers, as 
 fuch, have no right to infli61: civil pmiifli- 
 ments ; but they fay the civil magiflrate 
 may embrace the chriftian religion, and 
 enforce its precepts by civil penalties. 
 But have civil magiftrates, when they 
 become chriftians, a power of altering, 
 or new modelling the chriftian religion, 
 any more than other members of the 
 chriftian church? If not, its laws and 
 fandlions rem.ain juft as they did before, 
 fuch as Tefus Chrift and his apoftles left 
 
 them J 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. iS7 
 
 them ; and the things that may have 
 been fubftituted m their place, cannot 
 be called chriftianity, but are fomething 
 elfe. 
 
 If the civil magiftrate chufe to become 
 a chriftian, by all means let the doors of 
 the chriftian church be open to him, as 
 they ought to be to all, without diftinc- 
 tion or refpecfl of perfons ; but when he 
 is in, let him be conlidered as no more 
 than any other private chriftian. Give 
 him a vote in all cafes in which the 
 whole afiembly is concerned, but let him, 
 like others, be fubje(5l to church cenfures, 
 and even to be excommunicated, or ex- 
 cluded for notorious ill behaviour. 
 
 It is, certainly, contrary to all ideas 
 of common fenfe, to fuppofe that civil 
 magiftrates embracing chriftianity have, 
 therefore, a power of making laws for 
 the chriftian church, and enforcing the 
 obfervance of them by fanclions alto- 
 gether unfuitable- to its nature. The 
 idea cannot be admitted without fup- 
 pofing a total change in the very firft 
 
 principles 
 
158 THE EXTENT OF 
 
 principles and effentials of chriftianity. 
 If civil penalties be introduced into the 
 chriflian church, it is, in every fenfe, 
 and to every purpofe, making it a king- 
 dom of this ivorld. Its governors then 
 affume a power over men's perfons and 
 property, a power unknown in the infti- 
 tutes of our religion. If, moreover, the 
 civil magiflrate take upon him to pre- 
 fcribe creeds and confeffions of faith, as 
 is the cafe in England, what is it but to 
 ufurp a dominion over the faith of chri- 
 fians, a power, which the apoflles them- 
 felves exprefsly difclaimed. 
 
 It may be faid, that the civil magi- 
 flrate, upon embracing chriftianity, and 
 being convinced of the excellency of its 
 precepts, may chufe to incorporate them 
 into his fcheme of civil policy, and en- 
 force them by civil penalties, not as 
 matters of religion, but as belonging to 
 civil government. Thus Chrift has for- 
 bidden polygamy, and the civil magi- 
 flrate (a Turk for inftance) being con- 
 verted to chriftianity, in order to put 
 an end to the former cuftom, may make 
 
 it 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. 159 
 
 it death to marry two wives. He may 
 alfo think the minifters of the chriftian 
 church a very refpedtable order of men, 
 and inveft them with civil power ; where- 
 by they may be enabled to infli6t civil 
 punifhments, in cafes where, before, 
 they conld only make ufe of admoniti- 
 ons ; and he may tax the people for their 
 fupport. Thinking one mode of chri- 
 flianity preferable to another, may he 
 not alfo, arm its minifters, with a civil 
 power for fuppreffmg the reft ; when, be- 
 fore, they could only have ufed argu- 
 ments for this purpofe ? Are civil and 
 eccleliaftical powers fo very incompatible 
 that the fame perfons may not be invert- 
 ed with both ? Were not all heads of fa- 
 milies, both kings and priefis, in the pa- 
 triarchal times ? 
 
 I anfwer, that, whatever regulations 
 the civil magiftrate may adopt, yet, as 
 his adopting of them, and enforcing 
 them by civil penalties makes them, con- 
 feffedly, to be of a civil nature, he is 
 not intitled to obedience with refped to 
 them, fo far as they are of a religious 
 
 nature. 
 
i6o THE EXTENT OF 
 
 nature. If, therefore, any private chri- 
 ftian fhonld differ in opinion from his 
 civil magiftrate, or thofe inverted by him 
 with civil power, with refpedl to thofe 
 things^ which are of a religious nature, 
 he cannot confider himfelf as under any 
 more obligation to fubmit to him, than 
 he would be to fubmit to a heathen ma- 
 gillrate in the fame cafe. A confcienti- 
 ous chriftian will never helitate about 
 obeying God rather than man, though 
 that man fliould be a magiftrate, or 
 though he fhould be a chriftian, and af- 
 fume the title of fupreme head of the 
 whole, or any part of the chriftian church. 
 Any other maxims than thefe, it is evi- 
 dent, might be attended with the utter 
 fubverfion of the chriftian religion. For 
 the civil magiftrate would have nothing 
 to do but to adopt chriftianity into his 
 fyftem of civil policy ; and then, hav- 
 ing the whole within his own cogni- 
 zance, he might add and alter at plea- 
 fure, till he had made it quite a diffe- 
 rent thing from what he found it. 
 
 It 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. i6i 
 
 It is upon this principle of the civil ■ 
 magiftrate converting chriflianity into 
 civil policy, or fomething limilar to it, 
 that Dr. Balguy, and, I believe, moft of 
 the advocates for church power in Eng- 
 land at prefent, found their claim to ec- 
 clefiaflical authority. The clergy of 
 former ages went upon quite another 
 ground. They claimed authority jure 
 diuinoy and fcorned to derive their pow- 
 er from the civil magiftrate. Thefe two 
 fpecies of authority were perpetually op- 
 pofed to one another ; and the church 
 encroached upon the ftate, or the ftate 
 upon the church, as opportunity favour- 
 ed their refpecflive attempts ; infomuch 
 that the hiftory of Europe, in the dark 
 ages, is little more than an account of 
 the violent ftruggles between thefe two 
 contrary powers. 
 
 The Romifli clergy ftill keep up the 
 fame pretences, and fo did the clergy of 
 the church of England, till they were 
 fairly argued, or laughed out of them. 
 Upon this, they have, lately, fet up ano- 
 ther claim to power, not contrary to, but 
 M under 
 
i62 THE EXTENT OF 
 
 under that of the civil magi (Irate. In 
 their prefent ideas, the ecclefiaftical efta- 
 bliiliiTient is a creature of the fiat e. They 
 confider themfelves as c'l'vil officers^ em- 
 ployed by the king to teach the religion 
 the ftate has adopted, and they receive 
 their v^ages, as other fervants of the 
 crown. 
 
 Nov^, admitting all this, what have 
 the people to do with them as minifters 
 of the gofpel, and fervants of Jefus 
 Chrifl ; iince they teach for docir'ines the 
 coynmandments of men ? Hitherto the chri- 
 ftian people of this country have ima- 
 gined, that their minifters came to them 
 with a commiffion from Chrift, to teach 
 them the things that relate to their ever- 
 lafling happinefs, and thereby fecure 
 the falvation of their immortal fouls. 
 Hitherto they have held them in reve- 
 rence as fucceifors of the apoftles, and 
 fuhmitted themfelves to them, as to per- 
 fons, "duho nvatched for their fouls, as thofe 
 <who mufi give an account to their chief 
 ffjepherd, ivhen he fhall appear, and who, 
 for their good, were invefled with fpiri- 
 
 tual 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL AUTAORITY. 163 
 
 tual power, independent of all human 
 authority. 
 
 Should they not now, therefore, be 
 apprized, that their ghoflly fuperiors 
 have, of late, renounced the principle on 
 which they have hitherto yielded them 
 obedience, and that their clergy chufe 
 to rank with juflices of the peace, and 
 other civil and crown officers, that they 
 may, accordingly, change the mode of 
 refpetlH: they have hitherto paid them ? 
 
 Not that I wonder that the advocates 
 for the church of England have changed 
 the ground of their defence, and that 
 they are not a little embaraffed with 
 their temporal fiipr erne head. It was a 
 thing that was quite neiv in the chriftian 
 church, a thing that was by no means 
 their own choice, originally, but was 
 forced upon them, and what they are 
 now obliged to make the beft of ; fo that 
 if one hypothefis will not fupport the in- 
 novation, they muil have recourfe to a- 
 nother. 
 
 Ma At 
 
i64 THE EXTENT OF 
 
 At this day, articles of faith, and 
 rules of church difcipline are enadled, 
 and liable to be abrogated by adls of 
 parliament ; whereas all this bufinefs 
 \^as formerly done in fynods, and gene- 
 ral councils, which acknowledged lefs 
 dependence on the civil power ; and, low 
 as is my opinion of the perfons who com- 
 pofed the fynods, and general councils 
 of former times, I cannot help thinking 
 them more competent judges of articles 
 of chriftian faith than any king of Eng- 
 land^ affifted, or not affifted by an Eng~ 
 Tijld parliament. When thefe temporal 
 powers ihall think proper to enacl any 
 more ecclefiaftical canons, or confellions 
 of faith, I hope that, for the fake of de- 
 cency, they will purge the two houfes 
 of thofe members who cannot give fatis- 
 facflory evidence that they are chriftian s 
 at all. But, upon recolledlion, Dr. Bal- 
 guy will not think this circumftance ne- 
 ceflary, fince, according to his deter- 
 mination, the civil magiftrate is not to 
 provide for himfelf, but for the largeji 
 fed among his fubjecSls j and therefore a 
 Mahometan magiftrate might be as fafe- 
 
 Iv 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. 165 
 
 ly trufted to make chriftian conftitutlons 
 as any chriftian magiftrate whatever. 
 Perhaps he might be thought more pro- 
 per, iince, having no bias in favour of 
 any particular fed; of chriftians, he 
 might be expedled to be a more impar- 
 tial judge in the cafe. 
 
 The reafon which the Billiop of Glou- 
 cefler gives for the propriety of making 
 the civil magiitrate the fupreme head of 
 the church, " whereby he becomes pof- 
 " felTed of the fole right of ordering and 
 " decreeing every thing that the minifters 
 " and officers of the church had before 
 " a power of doing, (fo that even all 
 " matters of opinion are out of the juriP- 
 " didlion of the church)"* is really cu- 
 " rious. " The church," it feems, " wants 
 *' protedion from external violence. This 
 " protedlion the date only can give to it ; 
 *' but," fays this author, " protection 
 " not being to be afforded to any perfon 
 *' or body, without power over that per- 
 *' fon or body, in the perfon or body 
 
 * Alliance p. 64, 81, 87. 
 
 pro- 
 
i66 THE EXTENT OF 
 
 " protecting, it neceffarily follows, that 
 " the civil magiftrate muft be fupreme." 
 
 I cannot help thinking that the church, 
 according to this author, made a very- 
 hard bargain, and paid very dear for 
 protedlion. Might not the flate have 
 been content to protetl the church, with- 
 out diflating to her in ecclefiaftical mat- 
 ters ? Certainly at the time this famous 
 alliance was made, the agents for the 
 church were under a panick, and muft 
 have forgotten that Chrift himfelf had . 
 promifed to protedl his church, to be 
 with it to the end of the world, and 
 that the gates of hell fliould not prevail 
 againft it. 
 
 "Were it not for the power to favour 
 the profefTors of religion with which 
 magiftrates are invefted, one might won- 
 der how, of all mankind, they fliould 
 ever have been thought of, as proper to 
 take the lead in an affair of this nature. 
 I Ihould much fooner have thought of 
 applying to them to fuperintend the bu- 
 finefs of medicine, in which the healths 
 
 and 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. 167 
 
 and lives of their fubjeds are fo mucli 
 concerned. But, happily for mankind, 
 they have not taken it into their heads to 
 intermeddle fo much v^ith it. The rea- 
 fon is, that there is nothing in the bufi- 
 nefs of medicine, of which they could 
 avail themfelves ; whereas a league with 
 priejis, who have always a great influ- 
 ence over mankind, has often been ex- 
 tremely convenient for them. 
 
 Of all mankind, furely magiflrates 
 have the leaft leifure, and the ieafl capa- 
 city for judging in matters of religion. 
 Confequently, they are mod likely to de- 
 termine raflily, and in fuch a manner 
 as beft fuits with their worldly views. 
 Of this we have a notable example in 
 the Hampton- Court conference. There 
 the advocates for prefbyterianifm and 
 epifcopacy had a folemn meeting, to de- 
 bate on the merits of their refpedlive 
 modes of church government, in the 
 prefence of King James I. (of bleffed 
 memory in the church of England) at a 
 time, when, perhaps, a majority of the 
 nation were difpofed in favour of prefby- 
 terianifm. 
 
i68 THE EXTENT OF 
 
 terianifm. But was a king, with his 
 head full of the notions of arbitrary 
 power, in a proper difpofition to decide 
 a controverfy of this nature : and might 
 it not have been expe6led, that-the max- 
 im No hifldop no king would be fufficient 
 to determine his choice, againfl the 
 weight of a thoufand folid arguments. 
 The ilTue of the conference is well knovv^n, 
 but no better than it was before it took 
 place. Such caufe have the advocates 
 for epifcopacy to boaft of their triumph ! 
 
 The hiftory of this Hampton-Court 
 controverfy, fo admirably exemplifies 
 the reafoning of the Bifliop of Gloucef- 
 ter, that I wonder it was not adduced by 
 him, in aid of his argument, to prove, 
 that the civil magiftrate is more likely 
 to decide according to truth in matters 
 of religion than churchmen. Let us 
 hear the great champion himfclf on this 
 fubjedl, as this part of his argument 
 feems to be the great hinge on which 
 the moft important part of the contro- 
 verfy concerning eftablifliments, turns.* 
 
 * Alliance, p. 51. 
 
 " Church 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. 169 
 
 " Church faiKftity being acquired by fe- 
 " ceiTion, and retirement from human 
 " affairs, and that feceffion rendering 
 " men ignorant of civil fociety, its rights 
 " and intereils (in the place of which 
 " will fucceed all the follies of fuperfli- 
 " tion and fanaticifm) we muft needs 
 " conclude that religion, under fuch di- 
 " rectors and reformers, will deviate 
 " from truth, and confequently a capa- 
 " city, in proportion, of ferving fociety. 
 *' On the other hand, v/hen religion 
 " coines under the inagi Urate's diredli- 
 " ons, its purity muil needs bewellfup- 
 " ported and prefcrved. For truth and 
 " public utility coinciding, the civil ma- 
 " gillrate, as fuch, will fee it for his in- 
 " terefl to feek after and promote truth 
 " in religion, and by means of public 
 " utility, which his office enables him fo 
 " well to underftand, he Vx^ill never be at 
 " a lofs to know where fuch truth is to 
 " be found, fo that it is impoffible, un- 
 " der this civil influence, for religion 
 " ever to deviate far from truth." Rijmn 
 teneatis amici! 
 
 I fhall 
 
170 THE EXTENT OF 
 
 I fhall only obferve, in anfwer to this 
 curious piece of reafoning, that in an ad~ 
 'vertifement prefixed to this very work, he 
 fays, " It is a trite obfervation, that di- 
 " vines make bad politicians. I believe 
 " it is more generally true, that politicians 
 " are but bad divines. ' A confeffion 
 which, I own, I fliould not have expecfl- 
 ed from a man who, in the very fame 
 book, pleads for the propriety of mak- 
 ing thefe fame politicians^ alias had di- 
 'Vines, the final judges in all ecclefiaflical 
 caufes, and for giving them a power of 
 enadling articles of faith and ecclefiafli- 
 cal canons. 
 
 This author, indeed, thinks there is 
 a neceffity for churchmen making part 
 the legiflativc body, lefl, inftead of ht- 
 ingfubjecls, they fliould be the Jla'ves of 
 the flate, p. 78. But fo long as the bi- 
 fliops in parliament have no negative up- 
 on the refolutions of the houfe (a pri- 
 vilege which this biiliop himfelf would 
 not allow them) I do not fee what their 
 feat there would avail them, if all the 
 laity fliould differ from them in their o- 
 
 pinion 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. 171 
 
 pinion concerning religious matters. In 
 this cafe, ecclefiaftical canons would be 
 made, and articles of faith enabled, as 
 contrary to their inclinations, as if they 
 had not been confuked at all. So that, 
 in cafe of an oppofition between the two 
 powers, the clergy are fliil entirely at 
 the mercy of the laity, and therefore 
 their flaves. 
 
 Upon the whole, coniidering every 
 thing relating to this new bulinefs of a 
 temporal head over chriftians, who are 
 exprefsly commanded to call no man madder 
 upon earth ; and confidering how averfe 
 the clergy alv/ays were to fuch a cataf- 
 trophe in their affairs, and how little 
 they were prepared for it ; I cannot help 
 thinking, that they have given very 
 llriking proofs of their acutenefs, and 
 prefence of mind, in defending it fo 
 plaufibly as they have done. 
 
 To make this cafe of a temporal head 
 toafpiritual church the more intelligible, 
 let us fuppofe there are, in any country, 
 a number of perfons, who have formed 
 
 them- 
 
172 THE EXTENT OF 
 
 themfelves into a fociety for promoting 
 natural philofophy; that the civil magi- 
 ftrate hears of it, and, having a tafte 
 for the fludy, becomes a member. If, 
 upon this, he fliould take upon him to 
 make laws for the fociety, and to enforce 
 them with civil penalties ; or if he Iliould 
 compel the members to fubfcribe to par- 
 ticular proportions, and hypothefes, 
 fhould we not pronounce that the philo- 
 fophical fociety was, to all intents and 
 purpofes, dilTolved? In like manner a 
 chriilian inagiilrate, pretending to make 
 laws to the chriftian church, is to be 
 confidered as doing every thing in his 
 power to aboliili chriilianity, and fetting 
 up fomething elfe in its place, that may 
 be more or lefs like it, juft as it fliall 
 happen. 
 
 It may be faid that an union of civil 
 and ecclefiaftical power may take place 
 in another manner, namely by a nation 
 of chriflians voluntarily chuiing the 
 civil magiftrate to be their protector or 
 head, and to make laws for them. So 
 alfo a fociety of philofophers may chufe 
 
 the 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY 173 
 
 the civil magiflrate for their protedor 
 and head ; but if, in this cafe, he fliould 
 compel their alTent to his own opinions, 
 would it not be thought that, notwith- 
 ftanding their choice of the civil magi- 
 ftrate for their head, if they fubmitted 
 to his impofitions, they ceafed to be what 
 they were before, and the fociety chang- 
 ed its nature and chara(5ler ! In like man- 
 ner, chriftians ad altogether out of cha- 
 racter in chufing a temporal head ; and 
 no perfon who has a juft regard to his 
 religion, and the liberty ^wherewith Chr'ijl 
 has made hhnfree^ will ever acknowledge 
 iiich a dependence on the civil power. 
 
 Whenever, therefore, the civil magi- 
 flrate, either in confequence of becom- 
 ing a member of the chriflian church, 
 by incorporating chriftianity into his 
 fyftem of civil policy, or by being cho- 
 fen fupreme head of the cnurch in a 
 chriilian nation, introduces into the goP- 
 pel fuch laws and fan6lions as are evi- 
 dently unfuitable to the nature of it ; 
 as, for inftance, when, inftead of vo- 
 luntary contributions to the church 
 
 flock, 
 
174 THE EXTENT OF 
 
 flock, he appoints the compulfory pay- 
 ment of dues ; and when, for exhorta- 
 tion and reproof, he fubftitutes fines and 
 confifcations, torture and death, this 
 new modelled fcheme cannot be called 
 chriftianity. Thus when the poor in 
 England became intitled to a legal main- 
 tenance, charity, on which they before 
 fubfifted, was fo far precluded ; for a 
 man who now pays a poor rate is not to 
 be ranked with him who gives alms of 
 that ivhich he pojfejfes. In all cafes a 
 change in the fundamental maxims of 
 government, efpecially a change both in 
 the laws themfelves, and in the fan6lions 
 of them, cannot be deemed lefs than a 
 change in the conflitution. 
 
 For my own part, I can conceive no 
 method whatever, in which the civil 
 magiflrate can be invefled with ecclefi- 
 aftical power, or ecclefiaftics with civil 
 power, fo that a confcientious chriftian 
 fhall confider himfelf as under any ob- 
 ligation to yield them obedience in their 
 new character. In civil matters he will 
 obey the civil magiftrate, and where re- 
 ligion 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. 175 
 
 ligion is concerned, he will liftcn to no- 
 thing but the dictates of his own con- 
 fcience, or the admonitions of his cho- 
 fen fpiritnal guide ; and to him no far- 
 ther than he is fatisfied he has a better 
 authority than his own for what he fays. 
 However they agree to change or mix 
 their powers, their alliance and ftipula- 
 tions will have no weight with him. He 
 will flill give to defar the things that are 
 Cddfars, and unto God the things that are 
 God's ; and he will judge for himfelf, 
 what are the things that are due to the 
 one or the other. If he ihould make 
 any miftake in this cafe, it will be fome 
 apology for him, that his fuperiors had 
 confounded his underftanding, by the 
 unnatural mixture they had made of 
 things of fuch different natures. 
 
 Had there been fuch a connedlion be- 
 tween ecclefiaftical and civil matters, as 
 the advocates for church power contend 
 for ; had it been the proper office of the 
 civil magiflrate to fuperintend the affairs 
 of religion, and had it been unlawful, 
 as fome alfert, for private perfons to at- 
 tempt 
 
176 THE EXTENT OF 
 
 tempt any alteration in it, except by ap- 
 plication to the civil governor ; is it not 
 unaccountable, that our Lord, and his 
 apoftles, did not make their firft propo- 
 fals to the fupreme niagiflrates among 
 the Jews or Romans ? They certainly had 
 no idea of the peculiar obligation of naa- 
 giftrates to attend to this bulinefs, and 
 to chnfe a religion for the people, fince we 
 never hear of their making application 
 to them on any fuch account. It was 
 their conflant cuftom to preach the gof- 
 pel wherever they came, in all compa- 
 nies, and to all perfons promifcuoufly ; 
 and almoft all the intercourfe they had 
 with magiftrates, feems to have been on 
 occafion of their being brought before 
 them as criminals. 
 
 Our Lord fent out, both his twelve 
 apoftles, and alfo feventy difciples, a- 
 mong all the cities of Ifrael, but we do 
 not read of his fending any deputation 
 to the rulers of the Jews. John the Bap- 
 till feems to have confined his preaching 
 to the wildernefs of Judea, and the terri- 
 tory in the neighbourhood of the river 
 
 Jordan j 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. 177 
 
 fordan ; where he gave his exhortations 
 to all that came to hear him, without 
 cliftindlion of perfons. St. Paul, indeed, 
 made an appeal to Cxfar, but it was in 
 order to obtain his liberty in an unjufl 
 profecution. We are not informed that 
 he, or any of the apoftles, ever took any 
 meafures to lay the evidences of the 
 chriftian religion before the Roman em- 
 peror, or the Roman fenate, in order to 
 convince them of the truth and excel- 
 lency of it, and induce them to abolifh 
 heathenifm, in favour of it, throughout 
 the Roman empire ; which many perfons 
 would now think to have been the readi- 
 eft, the mod proper, and the beft mefthod 
 of chriflianizing the world. On the 
 contrary, their whole condu(5l fliows, that 
 they confidered religion as the proper 
 and immediate concern of every fingle 
 perfon, and that there was no occaiion 
 whatever to confult, or advife with any 
 earthly fuperior in a cafe of this nature. 
 
 If magiftrates had a right to chufe 
 
 a mode of religion for their people, much 
 
 more, one would think, had mafters a 
 
 N right 
 
178 THE EXTENT OF 
 
 right to cliufe for thtiv Jla'ves in this cafe ; 
 yet we find great numbers of converts 
 were made amongfl: this moft dependent 
 part of mankind, without any account 
 of their mafters being confulted, or ap- 
 plied to about it. The contrary is clear- 
 ly inferred, from the firft view of things, 
 in primitive times. 
 
 Though it be true, that we muft not 
 expedl to find in the fcriptures an ac- 
 curate account of every thing belonging 
 to a chriflian church, including a minute 
 defcription of the rank and power of its 
 ofiicers, it does not therefore follow, that 
 it is not worth our w^hile to confult them 
 on this fubje(5t ; for we fliall find fuch a 
 general view of the mutual relations, 
 and reciprocal duties of chriftians, as 
 may prevent our making any confider- 
 able miftake, with refpedl to the autho- 
 rity of fome, or the liibjec^ion of others. 
 
 It cannot be inferred from any thing 
 that our Saviour has delivered, that any 
 one cliriPcian has a right authoritatively 
 to didlate or prefcribe to another, but I 
 
 think 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. 179 
 
 think the very contrary, if it be in the 
 power of words to convey fuch a mean- 
 ing. 
 
 If we confider the plan of the primi- 
 tive church, we Ihall fee that it was evi- 
 dently formed upon that of the Jewifh 
 fynagogue ; in which the elders (all of 
 whom promifcuoully inftrucled the refl) 
 were perfons of the greatefl age and ex- 
 perience, and he that is called the ruler 
 of the fynagogue (to which the office of 
 the chriflian bifhop correfponds) was on- 
 ly one of them, diftinguifhed, indeed, 
 by fome titles of honour, but with no 
 fuperior power worth mentioning. This 
 is the reafon why both the rulers of the 
 fynagogues among the Jews, and bifhops 
 in chriftian churches, are generally cal- 
 led elders, in common with the reft. 
 The office of deacon was alfo the fame 
 in both, and needs no defcription in this 
 place. 
 
 The apoftles always reprefent them- 
 
 felves as appointed witnelTes of the life, 
 
 fufFerings, and refurredion of Chrift ; 
 
 N 2 but, 
 
i8o THE EXTENT OF 
 
 but, feem not to have arrogated any do- 
 minion over the faith of their fellow 
 chriftians. 
 
 So far were they from affuming any 
 authority over their brethren, or per- 
 emptorily enjoining any thing of them- 
 felves, except they were authorized to 
 do it by the immediate direction of the 
 Holy Ghoft, that they virtually difclaim- 
 ed all fuch power j and when their ad- 
 vice was not taken, and their defigns 
 obilru(5led, they wrote as perfons who 
 had nothing but reafon on their fide, 
 without di(5lating, or giving themfelves 
 fuch airs as modern dignitaries in the 
 church would allume, in cafe of fuch. 
 oppofition. 
 
 SECTION 
 
SECTION VIII. 
 
 Of the necejjttjy or utility^ of ecck- 
 Jiafiical eJIabliJiDments, 
 
 ■^ HE friends and advocates for church 
 power, generally found then' fy- 
 llem on the neceffity of eftabliflaing fome 
 religion or other, agreeably, they fay, to 
 the cuftom of all wife nations. This 
 being admitted, it is evident, they think, 
 that the fupreme civil magiftrate mud 
 have the choice of this religion, and be- 
 ing thus lodged in the hands of the chief 
 magiftrate, it is eafily and efFedlually 
 guarded. Thus the propriety of a moft 
 rigid mtolerance, and the moft abje6l paf- 
 Jive obedience are prefently, and clearly 
 inferred ; fo that the people have no 
 right to relieve themfelves from eccleli- 
 N 3 aftical 
 
i82 UTILITY OF 
 
 allical oppreffions, except by petition to 
 their temporal and fpiritual governors, 
 whofe intereft it generally is to continue 
 every abufe that the people can complain 
 of. 
 
 But before this admirably connected 
 fyftem can be admitted, a few things 
 flioald be previoufly conlidered. And I 
 am aware that, if they had been duly 
 attended to, the fyftem either would ne- 
 ver have taken place, or it wovild have 
 been fo moderated, when put into exe- 
 cution, as that it would never have been 
 worth the while of its advocates to con- 
 tend fo zealoufly for it. 
 
 I. All the rational plea for eccleliafti- 
 cal eftablifhments, is founded on the ne- 
 ceflity of them, in order to enforce obe- 
 dience to civil laws ; but though religi- 
 ous confiderations be allowed to be an 
 excellent aid to civil fandlions, it will 
 not, therefore, follow, as fome would 
 gladly have it underftood, that, there- 
 fore, the bufinefs of civil government 
 could not have been carried on at all 
 
 with- 
 
ESTABLISHMENTS. 183 
 
 without them. I do not know how it is, 
 that this pofition feems, in general, to 
 have pafled without difpute or examina- 
 tion ; but, for my own part, I fee no 
 reafon to think that civil fociety could 
 not have fubfifted, and even have fub- 
 fifled very well, without the aid of any 
 foreign fandlions. I am even fatisfied 
 that, in many countries, the juncSlion of 
 civil and ecclefiaftical powers hath done 
 much mifchief, and that it would have 
 been a great bleffing to the bulk of the 
 people, if their magiflrates had never 
 interfered in matters of religion at all, 
 but had left them to provide for them- 
 felves in that rcfpedt, as they generally 
 do, with regard to medicine. 
 
 " There are," fiiys the bifliop of Glou- 
 cefter,* " a numerous fet of duties of 
 " iniperfe6l obligation, which human laws 
 " could not reach. This can only be 
 " done by an ecclefiaftical jurifdi^lion, 
 " intruded by the ftate with coercive 
 *' power. And indeed the fupplying that 
 
 * Alliance, p. 81. 
 
 *' defed 
 
i84 UTILITY OF 
 
 " defecfl, which thefe courts do fxipply, 
 " was the original and fundamental mo- 
 " tive of the ftate feeking this alliance." 
 But I would a.{k, Are not ecclefiaftical 
 officers men, mere human beings, pof- 
 feifed of only a limited power of difcern- 
 ment, as well as civil officers ? Will 
 they not, therefore, find themfelves un- 
 der the fame difficulty in enforcing the 
 duties of imperfe6l obligation, that the 
 civil officers would have done, notwith- 
 ftanding the coercive power they receive 
 from the flate for that purpofe ? In fhort, 
 I do not fee what an ecclefiaftical court 
 can do in this cafe, more than a civil 
 court of equity. Is not this, in fadl, 
 confefTed by this author, when he allows, 
 p. 87, that " there rnuft be an appeal 
 *' froiTL thefe courts to the civil, in all 
 " cafes." For, if the civil courts be qua- 
 lified to judge of thefe things, by appeal, 
 why could they not have done it in the 
 firil infiance ? 
 
 2. If the expediency of ecclefiaftical 
 eftablifliments be allowed, it is allowed 
 on account of their titiiitj only ; and 
 
 there- 
 
ESTABLISHMENTS. 185 
 
 therefore, as there are infinite differences 
 in the coercive power of thefe eftablifh- 
 ments, this reafon will not juftify their 
 being carried to a greater extent than the 
 good of fociety requires. And though 
 it may be produ(ftive of, or, at leaft, con- 
 fiflent with the good of fociety, that the 
 civil magiftrate fhould give fome degree 
 of countenance to the profefTors of one 
 feci of religion (which, with nie, how- 
 ever, is extremely problematical) it were 
 a grofs perverfion of all reafoning and 
 common fenfe, to infer from thence, that 
 the people fhould not have free liberty to 
 cUfTent from this religion of their civil 
 governor, or even to ufe any lioneft and 
 fair method of gaining converts to what 
 they iliould think to be the truth. Be- 
 caufe whatever utility there may be in 
 ecclefiajiical efiahl'iJJjments^ there is certain- 
 ly utility in truth^ efpecially moral and 
 religious truth ; and truth can never 
 have a fair chance of being difcovered, 
 or propagated, without the moft perfect 
 freedom of inquiry and debate. 
 
 Though 
 
iS6 UTILITY OF 
 
 Though it may be true, that there ne- 
 ver was any country without fonie na- 
 tional religion, it is not true that thefe 
 religions were always adopted with a 
 view to aid the civil government. It ap- 
 pears to me that, with refpecl to theftates 
 of Greece, and other barbarous nations 
 (for the Greeks were no better than their 
 neighbours in this refpedl) motives of a 
 very different nature from thefe ; motives 
 derived from nothing but the mod blind 
 and abjecfl: fuperllition, and the moft 
 groundlefs apprehenfions, were thofe 
 that really induced them to make fuch ri- 
 gid provifion for the perpetuity of their fe- 
 veral religions. Their laws have not, in 
 fadl, any fuch intermixture of civil and 
 religious matters, as is nov/ found in the 
 fyflems of European flates. We do not 
 find in them, that duties properly reli - 
 gious are enforced by civil fancSllons, nor 
 duties properly civil enforced by religi- 
 ous ones, in the fenfes in which we now 
 vSe thofe terms, as if thefe things had, 
 naturally, fo necelfary a connedlion. But 
 in thefe ignorant and fuperftitious ages, 
 men fancied there was what we fliould 
 
 call 
 
ESTABLISHMENTS. 187 
 
 call an arbitrary connexion between the 
 obfervance of certain religious rites, and 
 the continuance of certain ftates ; and 
 that the gods, who were particularly at- 
 tentive to their prefervation, would with- 
 draw their prote6lion, upon the difufe 
 of thofe ceremonies. 
 
 The Bifhop of Gloucefter feems to a- 
 gree with me in this, for he fays,* 
 " The unity of the object of faith, and 
 " conformity to a formulary of dogma- 
 " tick theology, as the terms of com- 
 " munion, is the great foundation and 
 *' bond of religious fociety. Now this 
 " the feveral focieties of pagan religion 
 " wanted, in which there was only a 
 " conformity in national ceremonies." 
 
 Had the antlent heathens entertained 
 any fuch notion of the dire^ fubfervien- 
 cy of religion to civil policy (i. e. in a 
 moral 'uieivj as the advocates for church 
 power endeavour to avail themfelves of 
 at this day, they would have made a 
 
 * Alliance p. 99. 
 
 diflindion 
 
i88 UTILITY OF 
 
 diftindion among religions. Whereas, 
 it is plain they had no idea of the excel- 
 lence of one mode of religion above a- 
 nother, as more conducive to the hap- 
 pinefs of mankind (unlefs there was 
 fomething peculiarly Hiocking in fonle 
 of their rites, as that of facrificing hu- 
 man victims) but they imagined that 
 different rites, rites differing not in mo- 
 ral excellence, but in mere form, were 
 neceffary for different flates ; and that 
 it was wrong, and hazardous, for two 
 nations to interchange their religions. 
 
 Indeed, after tliefe eftablifliments had 
 taken place, it is probable that fome of 
 the defenders of them, in ranfacking their 
 imaginations for arguments, might hit 
 upon fome fuch reafons as inodern high 
 churchmen have uro;ed ; • but it no more 
 follows from thence, that the eftabliili- 
 ments were originally founded on thofe 
 principles, than that becaufe plaufible 
 reafons may (for any thing I kno^v) be 
 alledged for the ufe of a ivhite JurpUcc 
 in reading the prayers of the church, 
 and for biihops wearing mitres and laivn 
 
 Jleeves 
 
ESTABLISHMENTS. 189 
 
 Jleeves, that, therefore, Jefus Chrifl and 
 his apoflles ufed them. 
 
 4. Though there may be no chriflian 
 country in which fome fpecies of chri- 
 llianity is not, more or lefs, eilabliihed, 
 i, e, more or lefs favoured by tlie govern- 
 ment ; yet there are countries in which 
 lefs favour is fliown to the prevaihng 
 mode than in others, and in which much 
 lefs care is taken to guard it, as in Hol- 
 land, Ruflia, Penfilvania, and I believe 
 others of our American colonies. Now, 
 let an enquiry be made into the ftate of 
 thefe countries, and fee whether the re- 
 fult of it will be favourable, or unfa- 
 vourable to eftablilhments. What ten- 
 dency to inconve7iience has there been ob- 
 ferved in thofe llates in which church 
 government is moft relaxed, and what 
 fuperior advmitages, in point of real hap- 
 pinefs, are enjoyed in thofe countries in 
 which it is llrained to the higheil: pitch. 
 I have no doubt of the refult of fucli an 
 inquiry turning out greatly in favour of 
 the relaxation of religious eftablilhments, 
 if not of their total fuppreflion. A juft 
 
 view 
 
190 UTILITY OF 
 
 * 
 
 view of all the real evils that attend the 
 ecclefiaftical eftablifliment in England, 
 with refpedl to knoivledge, 'virtue, com- 
 merce^ and many other things with which 
 the happinefs of ftates is connedled, but 
 more efpecially with refpecfl to liberty^ 
 would be fufhcient to deter any legifla- 
 tor from introducing any thing like it 
 into a new ftate ; unlefs, without think- 
 ing at all, he took it for granted that 
 there was no doing without one, or was 
 fo weak as to be frighted by the mere 
 clamour of bigots. 
 
 5". Though it may be true, that incon- 
 venience would arife from the immediate 
 fuppreffion of religious eftablifhments, 
 it doth not therefore follow, that they 
 "were either necefiary or expedient ; that 
 the nation would have been in a worfe 
 ftate if they had never exifted ; and that 
 no meafures ought to be taken to relax 
 or diflblve them. Were the religion of 
 Mahomet abolifhed every where at once, 
 no doubt much confufion would be oc- 
 cafioned ; yet what chriftian would, for 
 that reafon, wiih for the perpetuity of 
 
 that 
 
ESTABLISHMENTS. 191 
 
 that fuperflition ? The fame may be fald 
 of popery, and many other kinds of cor- 
 rupt religion. Cuftoms, of whatever 
 kind, that have prevailed fo long as to 
 have influenced the genius and manners 
 of a whole nation, cannot be changed 
 without trouble. Such a Ihock to men's 
 prejudices would neceffarily give them 
 pain, and unhinge them for a time. It 
 is the fame with vicious habits of the 
 body, -which terminate in difeafes and 
 death ; but mufl they be indulged, and 
 the fatal confequences calmly expedled, 
 becaufe the patient would find it pain- 
 ful and difficult to alter his method of 
 livins;? Ecclefiaftical eftablifliments, there- 
 fore, may be a real evil, and a difeafe in 
 civil fociety, and a dangerous one too, 
 notwithflanding all the arguments for the 
 fupport of them, derived from the con- 
 fuiion and inconvenience attending their 
 diffolution ; fo far is this confideration 
 from proving them to be things excel- 
 lent or ufeful in themfelves. 
 
 Even the mifchiefs that might be 
 apprehended from attempts to amend or 
 
 diflblve 
 
192 UTILITY OF 
 
 difTolve eflablifliments, are much aggra- 
 vated by writers. Much lefs oppofition, 
 I am perfuaded, would arife from the 
 fource of real bigotry, than from the 
 quarter of intereji, and the bigotry that 
 was fet in motion by perfons who were 
 not themfelves bigots. 
 
 It is imagined by fome, that chriftia- 
 nity could not have fubfifled without the 
 aid of the civil powers, and that the dif- 
 folution of its eflabliihment would en- 
 danger its very being. The Bifliop of 
 Gloucefler, fays, that '' the ftate was in- 
 *' duced to feek an alliance with the 
 " church, as the necelFary means of pre- 
 ferving the being of religion ;" ^ and 
 that " all the advantage the church ex- 
 pe6ls from the alliance with the ftate, 
 can be no other than fecurity from all 
 outward violence ;" § " it being imper- 
 tinent," as he juftly obferves, if " in the 
 church to aim at riches, honours, and 
 power ; becaufe thefe are things which, 
 as a church, flie can neither ufe, nor 
 
 '^"Alliance, p. 59. § lb. p. 67. % lb. p. 6g. 
 
 " receive 
 
ESTABLISHMENTS. 193 
 
 *' receive profit from," He alfo fays, f 
 " that religion could not operate for 
 " want of a common arbiter, who had 
 " impartiality to apply the rule of right, 
 " and power to enforce its operations." 
 But thefe perfons feem not to be ac- 
 quainted with its proper internal fir ength, 
 or they would not lay fo much flrefs on 
 fuch poor and heterogeneous fupports. 
 They fliould coniider how the chriflian 
 religion was fupported, without the help 
 of any eftablilliment, before the time of 
 Conftantine. Is it not true, in fa(5l, that 
 it not only fubfifled, but amazingly in- 
 creafed in all that period ; when it was 
 fo far from being protected by civil au- 
 thority, that all human powers were 
 combined againil it \ 
 
 If they fay it was fupported by mi- 
 racles in all that interval, it behoves 
 them to make good the aiTertion. On 
 the contrary, it appears from church 
 hiflory, that when chriftianity was once 
 eftablilhed, (if I may ufe that term) by 
 
 t Alliance, p. 5. 
 
 O the 
 
194 
 
 UTILITY OF 
 
 the preaching and miracles of the a- 
 poftles, it was able afterwards to fiip- 
 port itfelf by its own evidence. And 
 this evidence is ftill fufficient to fupport 
 it, though all the powers on earth, and 
 the gates of hell, were combined againft 
 it. Certainly thofe who make nfe of 
 this plea forchriflianeftablifhments feem 
 to infinuate, that chriftianity is deftitute 
 of fufficient e'uidence ; and could not ad- 
 vance any thing more favourable to the 
 purpofe of its mod inveterate enemies. 
 
 One circumftance in favour of my 
 argument is very evident. If the fupport 
 of chriftianity had not been pioufly un- 
 dertaken by Conftantine, and the fuc- 
 ceeding Roman emperors, the Popifh 
 hierarchy, that great myjiery of iniquity ^ 
 and abomination, could never have exift- 
 ed. And I think, all the advocates for 
 church power, will not be able to men- 
 tion any evil attending the want of ec- 
 clefiaftical eftablifhments, equal to this, 
 which flowed from one. 
 
 All 
 
ESTABLISHMENTS. t^s 
 
 All other ecclefiaflical eftablilliments 
 among chriftians, partake more or lefs 
 of the nature of this, the firfl and great- 
 eft of them, being nothing more than 
 corre(5lions and emendations of it. Many 
 of the abufes in it have been recSlified, 
 but many of them, alfo, are retained 
 in them all. That there are fome things 
 good and ufeful in them all is true, but 
 it is no difficult matter to point out many 
 things that are good (that is, which have 
 been attended v^ith confequences benefi- 
 cial to mankind) in the grolTeft abufes 
 of popery. Thofe who ftudy hiftory 
 cannot fail to be acquainted with them, 
 and there is no occafion to point them 
 out in this place. 
 
 Thanks to the excellent conftitution of 
 things, that there is no acknowledged 
 evil in the whole courfe of nature, or 
 providence, that is without a beneficial 
 operation, fufficient to juftify the ap- 
 pointment or permiffion of it, by that 
 great and good Being who made, and 
 who fuperintends all things. But be- 
 caufe tempefts by land and fea, poifon- 
 O 2 ous 
 
196 . UTILITY OF 
 
 ous plants and animals, &c. do good, 
 confidered as parts of the whole fyftem ; 
 and becaufe it certamly feems better in 
 the fight of God, that they lliould exifl: 
 than not, mufl we not, therefore, guard 
 againfl their pernicious efFedls to our- 
 felves ? 
 
 Let this be applied to the cafe of civil 
 and ecclefiaftical tyranny in every form. 
 The Divine Being, for wife and good 
 ends, permits them ; but he has given 
 us a power to oppofe them, and to guard 
 ourfelves againft them. And we need 
 not doubt, but that things vs^ill be fo 
 guided by his unfeen hand, that the 
 good they were intended to anfwer will 
 be anfwered, notwithftanding our juft 
 oppoiition ; or will appear to have been 
 anfwered, if we fucceed in putting a 
 final end to them. He makes ufe of 
 men, as his inflruments, both in efta- 
 blifliing, and removing all thefe abufes, 
 in civil and ecclefiaftical government. 
 
 Ecclefiaflical authority may have been 
 necefTary in the infant ftate of fociety y 
 
 and 
 
ESTABLISHMENTS. 197 
 
 and, for the fame reafon, it may, per- 
 haps, continue to be, in fome degree, 
 neceJTary as long as fociety is imper- 
 fedl ; and therefore may not be entirely 
 aboliflied, till civil government have ar- 
 rived at a much greater degree of per- 
 fedlion. 
 
 If, therefore, I were allied, whe- 
 ther I fliould approve of the imme- 
 diate diflblution of all the ecclefiaflical 
 eftablifhments in Europe, I fhould an- 
 fwer, no. This might, poilibly, efpe- 
 cially in fome countries, for reafons that 
 cannot be forefeen, be too hazardous an 
 experiment. To begin with due cau- 
 tion, let experiments be nrfl made of 
 alterations ; or, vvrhich is the fame thing, 
 of better eJlabliJJoments than the prefent. 
 Let them be reformed in many effential 
 articles, and then not thrown afide en- 
 tirely, till it be found by experience, that 
 no good can be made of them. If I be 
 afked in what particulars I imagine them 
 to be moft deficient, and what kind of 
 reformation I could wilh to have made 
 in them ; I anfwer, I could wiili they 
 
 were 
 
198 UTILITY OF 
 
 were reformed in the four following re- 
 fpedls, which are all of a capital nature, 
 and in which almofl all our prefent efta- 
 blifhments are fundamentally wrong ; 
 as I make no doubt will appear to every 
 man, of common fenfe, who fliall give 
 the lead attention to this fubjedl. 
 
 I. Let the articles of faith, to be fub- 
 fcribed by candidates for the miniflry, 
 be greatly reduced. In the formulary 
 of the church of England, might not 
 thirty-eight out of the thirty- nine be 
 very well fpared? It is a reproach to any 
 chriftian eftablifliment, if every man 
 cannot claim the benefit of it, who can 
 fay, that he believes in the religion of 
 '^efiis Chriji, as it is fet forth in the Nczv 
 T ejl advent . You fay the terms are fo 
 general, that even deifts would quibble, 
 and infinuatethemfelves. I anfwer, that 
 all the articles which are fubfcribed at 
 prefent, by no means exclude deifts who 
 will prevaricate ; and upon this fcheme 
 vou would at leaft exclude fewer honeft 
 men. But all temptation to prevaricate 
 will be taken away if the next article of 
 refprmation be attended to. 2. Let 
 
ESTABLISHMENTS. 199 
 
 2. Let the livings of the clergy be 
 made more equal, in proportion to the 
 duty required of each: and when the 
 ftipend is fettled, let not the importance 
 of the office be eftiinated above its real 
 value. Let nothing be confidered but 
 the work, and the necelTary expences of 
 a liberal education. 
 
 ^^. Let the clergy be confined to their 
 ecclefiaflical duty, and have nothing to 
 do in condu(5ling affairs of ftate. Is not 
 their prefence in the cabinet rather dan- 
 gerous ? The feat of our bifhops in par- 
 liament is a relick of the popifh uflir- 
 pations over the temporal rights of the 
 fovereigns of Europe ; and is not every 
 thing of this nature jufll}'- confidered as 
 a great abfurdity in modern government I 
 The queftion, by what right they fit, 
 need not be difcufled. As teachers of 
 the religion of Chrift, whofe kingdom 
 was not of this world, can they have any 
 bufinefs to meddle with civil govern- 
 ment ? However, if they be allowed to 
 fit in the great council of the nation, as 
 members of the community at large; 
 
 fuppofe 
 
200 U T I L I T Y O F 
 
 fuppofe they were fairly elecled like 
 other members ; but let not fuch a civil 
 power as they now have devolve upon 
 them, as a matter of courfe, on any pre- 
 tence whatever. 
 
 4. Let the fyflem of toleration be com- 
 pletely carried into execution : and let 
 every member of the community en- 
 ioy every right of a citizen, whether 
 he chufe to conform to the eftabliflied 
 religion or not. Let every man, who 
 has fufEcient abilities, be deemed qua- 
 lified to ferve his country in any civil 
 capacity. Becaufe a man cannot be a 
 hi/hop, mull he therefore ht iiothhig in 
 the (late, and his country derive no be- 
 nefit from his talents ? Befides, let it be 
 confidered, that thofe who depart the 
 farthefl from eftablifhed opinions will 
 have more at flake in a country where 
 they enjoy thefefingular privileges ; and, 
 confequently, will be more attached to 
 it. 
 
 The toleration in England, notwith- 
 flanding our boa fled liberty, is far from 
 
 being. 
 
ESTABLISHMENTS. 201 
 
 being complete. Our preient laws do 
 not tolerate thofe more rational diiTen- 
 ters, whom the biihop of Glouceiler 
 looks upon as brethren. It is known to 
 every body, that if the toleration a6l was 
 ftricSIly put in execution, it would filence 
 all thofe dilfenting miniilers who are held 
 in any degree of efteem by the church ; 
 in the fame manner as a truly confcien- 
 tious fubfcripclon to the thirty nine ar- 
 ticles would filence almoft all that are 
 rational, and free from enthufiafm, among 
 themfelves. It is not the law, but the 
 mildnefs of the adminiftration, and the 
 fpirit of the times, to which we are in- 
 debted for our prefent liberties. But the 
 man who fliould attempt 'to abufe the 
 letter of the law, contrary to the fpirit 
 of the times, and in order to trample 
 upon the facred rights of humanity, will 
 ever be infamous. 
 
 The moft unexceptionable eftablifli- 
 ment of religion that I have yet heard 
 of is that of fome of our North-Ame- 
 rican colonies, in which all the inhabi- 
 tants are obliged to pay a tax for the 
 
 fupport 
 
:2oz U T I L I T Y O F 
 
 fupport of fome form of the chriftian 
 religion, but every man's contribution is 
 faithfully applied to the ufe of what- 
 ever church, or fociety, he himfelf fliall 
 chufe. To fuch an ecclefiaftical efta- 
 blifhment as this, fev\r perfons, I believe, 
 in the prefent ftate of things would have 
 much objedlion. It would not indeed be 
 perfcvfi and unbounded liberty in mat- 
 ters of religion ; but it would be pretty 
 near it, and might make way for it. 
 
 I do not mean, therefore, to plead a- 
 gainfl religious eftablifliments in all 
 cafes J but only argue againfl fixing e- 
 very thing . fo unalterably, that if a 
 change, in any particular, iliould be de- 
 fired by a great majority of the clergy, 
 or laity themfelves, they fhould not be 
 able to accompliili it, without the dan- 
 ger of throwing every thing into confufi- 
 on. Such rigid eflablillmients imply the 
 authors of them to have been well perfuad- 
 ed of their own infallibility ; or rather 
 that they were determined to enforce e- 
 very meafure once adopted, notwithftand- 
 ing the fulled convidion of its being a 
 
 bad 
 
ESTABLISHMENTS. 203 
 
 bad one. For no man, who could fup- 
 pofeit pofTible for himfelf to be miftaken, 
 would think of fetting up his opinions 
 as the invariable llandard for pofterity ; 
 and none but the founder of a Median 
 or Perfian eftabliihment would think it was 
 reafonable, that, after a miflake was dis- 
 covered in his fyflem, and univerfally 
 acknowledged to be fuch, all perfons (if 
 they would enjoy any advantage under 
 it) fhould be obliged to affirm, that they 
 believed it to be no miftake, but perfecSl- 
 iy agreeable to truth. 
 
 How far this is the cafe with the 
 church of England, let thofe of her 
 clergy fay, who may underftand the 
 fubjed of religion a little better than the 
 firfl reformers, jufl emerging from the 
 darknefs of popery ; who may have 
 fome reludance to fubfcribe what they 
 do not believe, and who may feel, not- 
 withflanding every evalion to which 
 they can have recourfe, that a church 
 preferment is dearly bought at the ex- 
 pence of a folemn falfehood. I do not 
 appeal to thofe who may really believe 
 
 all 
 
204 
 
 u T 1 1; n Y OF 
 
 i 
 
 all they fubfcribe, or to thofe who may 
 lubfcribe v/ithout thinking at all, or to 
 thofe who would wait upon any minifler 
 of flate in the world with a carte blanche 
 ready figned. In faying this, I even 
 hint no more than what many of the 
 greateft ornaments of the church have 
 laid again and again ; that fome things, 
 in our prefent eilablifliment, are wrong, 
 and want reformation ; and that there 
 are thinking and unthinking, honed and 
 diflionefl men in this, as well as in every 
 other profeiiion. 
 
 I doubt not, the wifefl and the mofl 
 worthy of the Englifli prelates would ra- 
 ther fee the privileges of the diifenters en- 
 larged than abridged, in any important 
 article ; for, allowing their diiTent to be 
 ever fo unreafonable, there is no man who 
 has the lead knowledge of hidory or of 
 human nature, but mud be fenfible, that 
 the very didinguiflied reputation which 
 the body of the Englifli clergy enjoy at 
 prefent . is, not a little, owing to the 
 exidence and refpcvftable figure of the 
 protedant diflenters. Several of the mod 
 
 dif- 
 
ESTABLISHMENTS. 205 
 
 difcerning of the Engliili bifliops have 
 given their teftimony, diredlly or in- 
 diredlly, to this truth; particviiarly, if 
 I remember right, bifliop Gibfon, in his 
 charges to the clergy of his diocefe. The 
 prefent (late of the diflenting intereft can 
 give no alarm to the eitablifhed clergy 
 with refpecfl to their temporalities ; and, 
 certainly, the interefts of religious know- 
 ledge, which all wife and good men of 
 every denomination have mofc at heart, 
 cannot fail to be promoted by that fpirit 
 of emulation, which will always fubfifl: 
 betv/ixt fcholars and writers in two op- 
 pofite periuafions. 
 
 There is no power on earth, but has 
 grown exorbitant v^^hen it has met with' 
 no control. What was the charadler of 
 the Romiih clergy before the reforma- 
 tion ? how Ihamefully ignorant, imperi- 
 ous, lazy, and debauched were the bulk 
 of them ! whereas very great numbers 
 of them are now feniible, moderate, and 
 virtuous ; and little, in comparifon, of 
 the old leaven rem.ains, except in Spain 
 and Portugal, where the clergy have no 
 
 inter- 
 
2o6 U T I L I T Y O F 
 
 intercourfe with proteftants, which might 
 call forth an exertion of their faculties, 
 and check the extravagance of their ap- 
 petites and paffions. To fay that the 
 Engliih clergy, in future time, would 
 not run into the vices, and fink into the 
 contempt, into which the Romifh clergy 
 were funk before the reformation, when 
 they were in the fame circumilances, 
 would be to fay they were not men. 
 
 It is Puffendorf, I think, who accounts 
 for the great fuperiority of the Englifli 
 clergy over the Swedifh upon this princi- 
 ple. In Sweden, though it be aproteflant 
 country, no diifenters are allowed; and 
 their clergy have never produced any 
 thing, in ethics or divinity, that de- 
 ferves notice. Whoever made the ob- 
 fervation, there is no doubt of the fad:. 
 
 A few among the inferior clergy may 
 wifli the extinction of the diifenting in- 
 tereft, and might be ready to gratify 
 their zeal, by perfecuting thofe of their 
 brethren whofe confciences are, more 
 tender than their ownj but, certainly, 
 
 there 
 
ESTABLISHMENTS. 207 
 
 there would not be wanting, in this age, 
 men enow of more humanity, of jufber 
 fentiments, and of more enlarged views, 
 among the higher ranks in the church, 
 who would, with indignation, fnatch the 
 torch from their mifguided hands. The 
 indelible infamy which would, to the 
 lateft pofterity, purfue the man, who 
 Ihould form, countenance, or even con- 
 nive at, perfecuting meafures, in this 
 age of moderation and good fenfe, will 
 effedlually deter men of underftanding, 
 and of a juft knowledge of the world 
 from thefe meafures ; and it is hoped, 
 that men of zeal without knowledge 
 will want abilities and influence to car- 
 ry fuch fchemes into execution. 
 
 SECTION 
 
SECTION IX. 
 
 A review of Jome pm^ticular pojitions 
 of Dr, BalguyV 07i the fubjeSl of 
 church -authority, 
 
 SEVERAL of the confiderations men- 
 tioned in the preceding fedlion were 
 fuggefted by the perufal of Dr. Balguy s 
 fermon ; and. I flatter myfelf, are fuffici- 
 ent to refute any arguments that he has 
 produced in favour of church- authority, 
 I fliall, however, jufl defcant upon a few 
 paflages in his performance, where we 
 difcover the great hinges on which his 
 whole fcheme turns. 
 
 " Not only," fays he, p. 8. " muft per- 
 " fons be appointed for the performance 
 " of religious duties, but the manner al- 
 " fo is to be prefcribed. The aflembiy 
 
 " may 
 
POSITIONS. 209 
 
 " may not unfrequently be deceived in 
 " their choice, and the miniflers, if fub- 
 " jecl to no reftraint, may introduce 
 " principles and practices which the peo- 
 " pie condemn. Or it may happen that 
 " one minifter fliall purfue a different 
 *' plan from another, perhaps a contrary 
 " plan ; which muft evidently tend to 
 " confound the minds of the people, and 
 " weaken the impreflions of religion. If 
 " the difference be not in form only, but 
 " in do6lrine, the cafe will flill be worfe ; 
 " for nothing is fo apt to root out all re- 
 *' ligion, both from men's heads and 
 *' hearts, as religious controverfy. Here 
 " then," fays he, " we have the iirfl 
 " fketch of what may be called, not im- 
 " properly, church- authority J' 
 
 As the inconveniences arifing from the 
 want of church-authority are here refer- 
 red to, as the reafon for ecclefiaftical e- 
 flablifhments, let us briefly examine whe- 
 ther they are not much exaggerated by 
 this author ; and, on the other hand, 
 jufl point out a few of the inconveniences 
 attending eftablifhments, which he has 
 P not 
 
2IO Dr. B a L G U Y^ 
 
 not fo much as liinted at, that the one 
 maybe fairly weighed againft the other. 
 In this I fliall not content myfelf with 
 mere theory, as Dr. Balguy does, fince 
 there are known y^^j" to refer to, as ex- 
 amples in both cafes. 
 
 Among the DifTenters, if a minifter 
 introduce principles and pradlices which 
 the people condemn, they difmifs him 
 from, their fervice, and chufe another 
 m.ore agreeable to them. If his diffe- 
 rence of fentiment occafion any debate, 
 the fubjedl of the debate is thereby more 
 thoroughly underftood; and the worfl: 
 that can happen is, that fome of them 
 feparate, and form themfelves into a new 
 fociety, or join another in their neigh- 
 bourhood, that is more to their liking. 
 In this, as in all other contefls, fome 
 ill blood is produced, the effedls of which 
 may remain for fome time ; but the 
 minds of the people in general are not 
 fo much confounded, nor the impreflions 
 of religion, as a principle of moral con- 
 duct, i'o much weakened as this writer 
 imagines. 
 
 Among 
 
POSITIONS. 2ii 
 
 Among DifTenters, church emoluments 
 are not worth contending for, and there- 
 fore thofe fierce contefts about places, or 
 ift places, but feldom happen. A mini- 
 fter feldom chufes to be conne(5led with 
 a fociety whofe general fentiments are 
 much different from his own, nor do fo- 
 cieties often invite a perfon to officiate 
 among them without having previoufly 
 fufficient reafon to depend upon his be- 
 ing agreeable to them. Upon the whole, 
 I am willing to appeal to any perfon who 
 is well acquainted with the (late of Dif- 
 fenters in England, whether difagreeable 
 events happy fo often, or whether the 
 word effects are of fo much confequence, 
 as to bear being put in the balance with 
 the capital advantages of their fituation, 
 for improving in religious knowledge 
 and virtue. 
 
 Something of the fpirit of controverfy 
 feems neceffary to keep vip men's atten- 
 tion to religion in general, as well as to 
 other things ; and, notwithilanding a 
 fondnefs for debate may be of fome dif- 
 fervice to practical religion, it is far lefs 
 P 2 fo 
 
212 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 fo than a total inattention to the fubjed:. 
 In theological and fcriptural inquiries, 
 the pradical truths of chriftianity muft 
 necefTarily prefent themfelves to the 
 mind. Befides there is hardly any 
 branch of chriftian knowledge but is 
 more or lefs of a pradical nature, and 
 fuggefts confiderations that are of ufe to 
 mend the heart and reform the life. 
 Religious knowledge is, however, itfelf 
 as valuable an acquifition as knowledge 
 of any other kind. 
 
 Some may think it an unhappinefs 
 that the common people fhould be fo 
 knowing in matters of religion. But 
 this complaint is to be coniidered in the 
 fame light with the complaint of flatef- 
 men, in free countries, of the common 
 people troubling themfelves fo much a- 
 bout politics ; while the friend of his coun- 
 try and of mankind will not, upon the 
 whole, be difpleafed with either of thefe 
 circumflances ; being fenfible, that the 
 one is fome guard againft the incroach- 
 ments of civil, and the other of ecclefi- 
 ailical tyranny. 
 
 As 
 
POSITIONS. 213 
 
 As to the confufion that is occafioned 
 in congregations, when they happen to 
 be dilTatisfied with their minifters, it is 
 not to be compared, for its pernicio^us 
 efFedls, to theahnoft perpetual fqnabbles, 
 between the eftablifhed clergy and their 
 parifliioners, about tythes. Few parillies 
 in the country are without difputes upon 
 tliis fubjedl, which create a (landing op- 
 polition of intered between the people 
 and their fpiritual guides. 
 
 Laflly, What inconvenience can be 
 pointed out, as having actually taken place 
 among DilTenters for want of a (landing 
 confejjion of faith, that can be named with 
 the dreadful mifchiefs that have arifen 
 from enforcing fubfcription in the church 
 of England. This precludes all free in- 
 quiry upon fubjeds of religion, and en- 
 tails every error and abufe from genera- 
 tion to generation, fo that a reformation 
 can hardly take place without violence 
 and blood. 
 
 If the emoluments of church livings 
 
 be con(iderable, the temptation to pre- 
 
 P 3 varicate 
 
214 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 varicate with confcience is, by this 
 means, made too ftrong for the genera- 
 lity of thofe who have been educated for 
 the church, and who are now incapable 
 of getting their bread, at leafl, of mak- 
 ing their fortune, in any other way. 
 Alfo, what muft the people think, to fee 
 thofe who are appointed to inftrudl them 
 in the principles of religion and mora- 
 lity, folemnly fubfcribing to articles of 
 faith which they are known to difbelieve 
 and abhor ; and who among the clergy, 
 that read and think at all, are fuppofed 
 to believe one-third of the thirty-nine 
 articles of the church of England ? I 
 have fo good an opinion of Dr. Balguy's 
 good fenfe, notwithftanding the futility 
 of his reafoning in this performance, as 
 to think it is a thoufandto one, but that 
 he himfelf is an unbeliever in many of 
 them. 
 
 One would have thought that the 
 fhocking abufes of the church of Rome 
 might have ferved as a ftanding monu- 
 ment of the danger of church eftablifli- 
 ments J wh.Qnih.a.t rnvjiery of iniquity flands 
 
 upon 
 
POSITIONS. 215 
 
 xipcn record, as having thereby got fo 
 firm a footing, as, for fo many ages, to 
 have fet all the civil powers of Europe, 
 and all the powers of reafon too, at de- 
 fiance. 
 
 Having feen what this author has been 
 able to advance in favour of the neceffi- 
 ty of ecclefiaftical eftablifhments, and 
 church-authority, I fliall follow him a 
 little farther ; and obferve what he has 
 to alledge for bringing a number of 
 chriftian focieties into one common fyf- 
 tem, in order to lay a broader and firmer 
 foundation for the power of the church. 
 From this combination he expecfts, p. 1 1, 
 12, more ivijdom, and uniformity^ a great- 
 er variety of candidates for church offi- 
 cers, and a better choice of them. " Thefe 
 " focieties," he well obferves, " muft ne- 
 " cefTarily a6l by deputies, fo that, at 
 " leaft, either fmgle men, or fmall bo- 
 " dies of men, mud be authorized to 
 " govern the church. There is no ne- 
 " cefTity," fays he, " that the miniflers 
 *' of religion iliould be appointed by 
 " the people, and much expedience in a 
 " different method of appointment." To 
 
2i6 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 To me, all this appears mere imagi- 
 nation, and the fuppofed advantages of 
 this elaborate fcheme to be altogether 
 contrary to fa6l. I lliould much fooner 
 have imagined there might be much ex- 
 pedience in town officers not being cho- 
 fen by their townfmen, than in the mi- 
 niflers of a chriflian church not being 
 chofen by the congregation. 
 
 The nomination to church livings, ex- 
 cept by the members of the church them- 
 felves, is a thing fo abfurd, that the idea 
 of it never occurred for many centuries 
 in the chriflian world ; and we may 
 venture to fay, that it never could have 
 entered into the head of any man, had 
 not the revenues of the church grown 
 fo confiderable, as to become worth the 
 notice of the civil magiftrate, who took 
 advantage of them to oblige his crea- 
 tures and dependents. The fruits of 
 this methc>d of proceeding are fuch as 
 might have been expecfled from the man- 
 ner of its introdudlion. The people be- 
 longing to the eftabliflied church, are 
 like the %w.jTah of the Polilli nobility, 
 
 or 
 
POSITIONS. 217 
 
 or the mere live feck of a farm, delivered 
 Over, as parcel of the ejlate, to every fuc- 
 ceflive incumbent. 
 
 As to the v^ifdom of choice among 
 candidates for the miniftry, we fee, in 
 fad, that the intereft of the people is 
 not at all confidered in it. The fame in- 
 terell is openly made for church livings 
 as for places, or emoluments of any o- 
 ther kind ; and being procured by the 
 fame means, they are enjoyed in the fame 
 manner, without any idea of obligation 
 to the people from whom their revenue 
 arifes. 
 
 What reafon there is, or would be, to 
 boafc of the happy effecls of uniformity 
 in a great number ofjocieties, comprehend-* 
 ing a whole kingdom, or the whole chri- 
 ftian world, we m^ay judge from the hor- 
 rible evils, before recited, that attend 
 the neceffary methods of enforcing this 
 uniformity in a fingle fociety ; for thefe 
 muft be multiplied in proportion to the 
 number. We fee, in fad:, much more 
 good than harm is found to refult from 
 
 the 
 
2i8 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 the diverfitie's in dilTenting congregati- 
 ons. They are extremely favourable to 
 the advancement of religious knowledge, 
 and they afford a fine opportunity for 
 the exercife of chriflian candour and 
 charity ; the very poflibility of which 
 would be excluded in, what Dr. Balguy 
 would call, a complete and perfedl eila- 
 blilhment. Some inconveniences can- 
 not fail to a rife from the moil favour- 
 able fituation of things ; but in this 
 ftate of trial, the Divine Being has not 
 provided for the prevention of vice by 
 cutting off all occafions of virtue. 
 
 Beiides, fo wife is the conflitution of 
 human nature, that differences of opi- 
 nion cannot be prevented by any human 
 means. It is labour in vain to attempt 
 it. It is our v/ifdom, therefore, not to 
 irritate one another by oppofition, but 
 to derive every advantage v.^e poffibly 
 can from a circun:iilance that will necef- 
 farily take place. There is as much di- 
 verlity of fentiment, and confequent a- 
 nimoiity in the church of England (as 
 far as the members of it think for them- 
 
 felves 
 
POSITIONS. 219 
 
 felves at all) and even in the church of 
 Rome, (notwithftanding the infallibility 
 they pretend to in the deciiion of contro- 
 verfies) as among DiJTenters, but with- 
 out the advantage which they derive 
 from their fituation, of unconfined free- 
 dom of debate, and not having their in- 
 quiries reftridled within certain limits 
 only. 
 
 " We have now feen," fays this au- 
 thor, p, 13. " on what principles the au- 
 " thority of a religious community, both 
 " over the minifters, and members of 
 " particular congregations, may be fe- 
 " curely maintained, whether refiding 
 " in the community at large, or delegat- 
 " ed to fome certain perfons." We fliall 
 now examine in what manner he would 
 join the authority of the civil inagiftrate 
 to this fyftem of church authority. Here, 
 as he is wandering Hill farther from the 
 fimplicity of the gofpel, we may natural- 
 ly expe6l more wildnefs in his fuppofiti- 
 ons, and greater confufion in his rea- 
 
 foning. 
 
 Be- 
 
220 
 
 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 Becanfe we fee," fays he, p. 14. " by 
 " the hiftory of all ages, that religion, 
 " in the hands of felfifhand factious men, 
 " is a very dangerous inflrument ; it, 
 " therefore, greatly concerns the public 
 " peace and fafety, that all church au- 
 " thority fliould be under the control of 
 " the civil governor ; that religious aiTem- 
 *' blies, as v^ell as others, fhould be fub- 
 *' je6l to his infpeclion, and bound by 
 " fuch rules as he fhall fee fit to impofe. 
 " The moil effedlual method of obtain- 
 " ing this fecurity, is to inveft the fu- 
 *' preme pov/er, civil and ecclefiaftical, 
 *' in the fame perfon. There are, indeed, 
 *' good reafons why the ofHces of reli- 
 *' gion ought not to be adminiftered by 
 *' the majriftrate. Both the education 
 " of his youth, and the attention of his 
 *' riper years, have been employed on 
 '' very different objedls; and amidfl the 
 *' numberlefs toils and cares of govern- 
 " ment, it is impoifible he lliould find 
 " leifure for any inferior profefTion." 
 
 P. 12. " To obtain completely the be- 
 *' nefits propofed from this union of ci- 
 
 '' vil 
 
POSITIONS. 221 
 
 *' vll and eccleliaflical autlioritj'-, all the 
 " members of the fame community 
 " {liould be members alfo of tiie fame 
 " church ; variety of feds having a na- 
 " tm^al tendency both to weaken the in- 
 " fiuence of public religion, and to give 
 " difturbance to the public peace. Where 
 " this is impradicable, not the hejl^ but 
 " the largej}. fedl will naturally demand 
 " the protection of the magiftrate. 
 
 P. 19. " As miniflers, while employed 
 ''' by public authority, are not at liberty 
 " to depart from eftabiiilied forms, or to 
 " afTembie feparate congregations ; fo 
 " neither are the people at liberty, v/hile 
 " they remain in fociety, to defert at plea- 
 " fure, their lawful pallors, and flock in 
 " crowds to receive inftrudlion from 
 " thofe who have no authority to give it. 
 *' If they cannot lawfully comply with 
 " the terms of communion, let them 
 " make an open feparation. In vain do 
 *' men unite in civil or religious com- 
 " munities, if each individual is to re- 
 " tain intire liberty of judging and adl- 
 " ing for himfelf." 
 
 Con • 
 
222 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 Concerning the impropriety and ab- 
 furdity of making a civil magiflrate the 
 fupreme head of a chriftian church, I 
 think enough has been advanced above. 
 1 fhould, indeed, have thought that the 
 fame reafons which this author gives, 
 why the civil magiflrate fhould not be 
 concerned in the offices of religion, might 
 have made him, at leaft, fufpecl his qua- 
 lifications for fuper-intending the whole 
 bufinefs of religion, and direcfling all 
 the officers in it. According to this 
 maxim, a perfon might be very fit for 
 the office of a bifhop, and efpecially an 
 archbifhop, who was by no means qua- 
 lified to be a common curate. But to 
 prevent difturbances, the civil magiftrate 
 niufl have fecurity for the good behavi- 
 our of ail his fubje(5ls, whatever be their 
 religious perfuafion ; and, as he obferves, 
 the moji effecliial method (he does not fay 
 the only J'lff.cient method, though it be 
 precifely the thing that his argument re- 
 quires) of obtaining this fecurity is to 
 invefl the fupreme power, civil and eccle- 
 fiaflical, in the fame perfon, be they 
 ever fo incompatible, and the fame per- 
 fon 
 
POSITIONS. 223 
 
 fon ever fo ill qualified to condudl them 
 both. 
 
 But is not this, as I have hinted (in 
 the parenthefis in the laft paragraph) 
 giving the civil magiftrate much more 
 power than, upon his own premifes, is 
 neceflary ? Is it not poiTible that all 
 church-authority fliould be fufficiently 
 under the control of the civil govern- 
 ment, and that religious afTemblies, as 
 well as others, fhould be fubjec^t to his 
 infpedlion, and even be bound by many 
 of his rules, fo far as v/as necejflary to 
 prevent any breach of the publick peace, 
 without invefting him with fupreme ec- 
 cleiiaftical power. For my own part, I 
 lliould have no objedlion to the prefence 
 of an infpe(5lor from the civil magiftrate 
 in a religious aflembly, or the attendance 
 of as many conftables, or even foldiers, 
 as might be judged neceflary to keep the 
 peace, upon all occafions in which reli- 
 gion is concerned ; and, if the civil 
 magiftrate be no more concerned in this 
 buiinefs than the public peace and fafety 
 is concerned (and this writer himfelf does 
 
 not 
 
224 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 not fo much as hint at any thing more) 
 I fhould think this might fatisfy him. 
 But both he, and the civil magiflrate 
 want much more than this, when the lat- 
 ter mufl needs pafs out pf his proper cha- 
 racler, and infift upon being the fupreme 
 head of the church. The avowed ob- 
 jedl and end of the union of civil and 
 ecclefiaftical power will not juftify this 
 claim, for it may be compafTed at a 
 much lefs expence. If I want a houfe 
 that will not be blown down by the 
 wind, and two feet of thicknefs in the wall 
 will fufiiciently anfwer my purpofe, 
 fhould i make it twenty feet thick, be- 
 caufe this would be a more effectual, or 
 the moji effeBual fecurity ? hjufficiciit fe- 
 curity is enough for me. 
 
 The Dodlor's reafonlng in this cafe, is 
 of a piece with the obligation which he 
 lays upon the magiflrate to countenance 
 the largejl fedl ot his difcordant fubjedls, 
 in preference to the hejl. This, indeed, 
 might tend to reconcile the DifTenters in 
 his jdominions to their fituation, by con- 
 fidering that their magiflrate himfelf, the 
 
 fupreme 
 
POSITIONS. 225 
 
 fupreme head of the eflablifhed church, 
 could not command the religion of his 
 choice any more than they could ; for 
 though he prefcribed to one part of his 
 fubjecls, the other part of them didlated 
 to him ; and that he was under the dif- 
 agreeable neceffity of ena{5ling the ar- 
 ticles of a religion which he himfelf did 
 not believe. 
 
 The Bifliop of Gloucefter too, Dr. 
 Balguy's mafter in the fcience of defence, 
 fays, that " the ftate mufl make an al- 
 *' liance with the large/} of the religious 
 " focieties." I wifh that either of thefe 
 gentlemen, or any perfon for them, 
 would tell us what ought to be the efla- 
 bliflied religion of Ireland on thefe prin- 
 ciples. Certainly, not that of the church 
 of England ; for, if I be rightly inform- 
 ed, there are many pariflies in that king- 
 dom, in which the clergy of the efla- 
 blifhed church do no duty at all, be- 
 caufe they can find none of their pariflii- 
 oners who would attend their miniflra- 
 tions. Had Conflantine the Great been 
 aware of the force of this reafoning, 
 (^ though 
 
226 Dr. B a L G U Y*s 
 
 though a chriflian hlmfelf, he would 
 have thought himfelf obliged to flreng- 
 then the eftabUfliment of the heathen 
 worfliip, and to difcountenance the pro- 
 feflion of chriftianity in the Roman em- 
 pire. For the fame reafon, alfo, a Pro- 
 teftant king of France would be obliged 
 to continue the revocation of the edicft 
 of Nantz. It is really very difficult to 
 animadvert upon fuch pofitions as thefe, 
 and retain one's gravity at the fame 
 time. 
 
 There is fomething one cannot help 
 fmiling at in the reafons which Dr. Balguy 
 gives for the legal jnaintenance of chriftian 
 minifters. " This provifion," he fays, p. 
 1 6. " is of great importance to them and 
 *' the public, as we may eafily judge 
 *' from the wretched and precarious con- 
 " dition of thofe who want it ; a condi- 
 " tion which feldom fails to produce a 
 " flavilh dependence, highly unbecom- 
 *' ing a public teacher, and in fome mea- 
 " fure difqualifying him for the dif- 
 " charge of his office." 
 
 If 
 
POSITIONS. 227 
 
 If our Lord had imagined that any 
 real advantage would have accrued to 
 the minilters of his gofpel from a legal 
 provilion, I do not fee v/hy we might 
 not (either in his difcourfes or parables) 
 have expe(fl:ed fome hint of it, and fome 
 recommendation of an alliance of his 
 kingdom with thofe of this world, in 
 order to fecure it to them. But no idea 
 of fuch policy as this can be colledled 
 from the New Teftament. For my part, 
 I wonder how any man can read it, and 
 retain the idea of any fuch worldly po- 
 licy ; fo far am I from thinking it could 
 have been colle(5led from it. 
 
 Upon the whole, when I conlider my 
 fituation as a minifter of the gofpel, or a 
 member of a chriflian fociety, I do not 
 fee what either the ftate, or myfelf, could 
 get by an alliance, admitting there was 
 nothing unnatural, and abfurd in the 
 idea of fuch a connecftion. I want no- 
 thing that the ftate can give me (except 
 to be unmolefted by it) for I want nei- 
 ther a legal maintenance, nor poiver to eii'* 
 force my admonitions, I look upon both 
 Q^ 2 thefe. 
 
228 Dr. B a L G U Y*s 
 
 tliefe things as unfuitable to, and de- 
 ftrucftive of, the proper ends of my mi- 
 niilry. And, without any hire from the 
 civil powers, I fliall think it my duty to 
 do all I can towards making my hearers 
 good fubjedls, by making them good 
 men, and goodchriftians. I fhall, there- 
 fore, never court any alUance with the 
 ftate ; and fliould the flate be fo abfurd 
 as to make any propofals of alliance 
 with me, I hope I fliould have virtue 
 enough to reject them with indignation, 
 as Peter did the not very diffimilar offer 
 of Simon Magus. Let the men of this 
 world, and the powers of this world 
 know, that there are fome things that 
 cannot be purchafed with money. 
 
 In the fame fpiritare this writer's rea- 
 fons for the difference of ranks among 
 the clergy, and for a provifion fuitable 
 to thofe ranks. " And will not the fame 
 reafons, p. 1 6. ferve peculiarly to re- 
 commend thofe forms of government, 
 in vv^hich the clergy, as well as the laity, 
 are diflributed into different ranks, and 
 enabled to fupport thofe ranks in a be- 
 coming 
 
POSITIONS. 
 
 229 
 
 " coming manner ; that both the lower 
 " orders may avoid contempt, and the 
 *' higher obtain diflindtion and regard ? 
 " Were all the minifters placed in low 
 " ftations of life, it is eafy to fee with 
 " what negledl they would be treated, 
 " and with what prejudice their dodlrine 
 " would be received. Poverty, aukward- 
 " nefs, and ignorance of what is called 
 " the world, are difad vantages, for which 
 " the highefl attainments in learning and 
 " virtue could never atone." 
 
 I fliall clofe my remarks on this wai- 
 ter's method of defending the eftabliih- 
 nient, with repeating a trite obfervation, 
 that there is, generally, both a true, and 
 an ojlenftbk reafon for men's condu(5l, and 
 that thefe are often very different from 
 one another ; becaufe I cannot help 
 thinking, that it is verified in the caf^ 
 before us. The oflenfible, and plaufible 
 reafons for church eftablifliments, are 
 fuch as this writer has reprefented, de- 
 rived from the imaginary evils attend- 
 ing the want of them ; but the true rea- 
 fon with refpedl to the minifters, may 
 Q. 3 be 
 
230 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 be the fcantinefs and uncertainty of their 
 provifion without them ; and, with re- 
 fped: to the civil niagiftrate, the vaft ad- 
 dition of influence he thereby acquires, 
 in confequence, both of having fo many 
 benefices at his difpofal, and likewife, of 
 retaining in his pay the public inftru6lors 
 of the people ; men, who being kept in 
 continual expectation, by the exhibition 
 of higher preferment and greater emo- 
 lument, will not fail to inculcate max- 
 ims the mofh favourable to the eftablifli- 
 ment, and increafe of that power on 
 which they depend. 
 
 But firm as the connection feems to be 
 between the civil and ecclefiaftical power, 
 a connection cemented by inutual 'world- 
 ly advantage^ this high alliance may yet 
 be broken, and intereft divide what in- 
 tereft has united. It has often feemed 
 good to divine wifdom to take the ivife in 
 their ozvii craftinefs^ and to bring about 
 his own defigns by the very means that 
 were ufed to defeat them. Of this we 
 have a recent example in France, in which 
 we have feen the nccefiities of the fi:ate 
 
 com- 
 
POSITIONS. 231 
 
 compelling its governors to abolifli the 
 richeft of the religious orders. Did not 
 the Engliih miniftry, who have not fo 
 large ^ijianding army as the French, want 
 more dependents of other kinds, fo that 
 honours, penftons, and church preferments, 
 are extremely convenient to them, fome- 
 thing fimilar to this might take place in 
 England : and who can tell what may 
 be the cafe, when fome future tyranni- 
 cal adminiftration fhall not be able to 
 ride the ftorm they have raifed, or to 
 ftruggle, without unufual refources, with 
 the difficulties in which they fnall have 
 involved themfelves. 
 
 The remainder of the largefl quotation 
 I lately made from this writer, plainly 
 refpetfls the Methodijls, at whofe condud: 
 he feems to have taken great offence. I 
 agree with him, that min'ijiers, while they 
 are employed by public authority, are 
 not at liberty to depart from eftablifhed 
 forms ; but I can fee no reafon in the 
 world why, in a country that admits of 
 toleration, the people may not defert their 
 ufual places of public worfliip, and re- 
 turn 
 
232 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 turn to them whenever they pleafe. 
 Have the laity iiibfcribed to any articles 
 of faith, or formulary of religious wor- 
 fliip ? If not, they are clearly at liberty 
 to adl as they fhall think moft conveni- 
 ent, and to difTent partially or totally, 
 fecretly or openly, as they like bell. 
 But it is probable, that this author may 
 not mean being at liberty with refpecfl 
 to the la'ws of this country, but with re- 
 fpe(5l to confcience ; fo that though the 
 law allows a man to quit the worfliip of 
 the church of England, either occafion- 
 ally or entirely, his confcience iliould 
 dictate to him to do it intirely and whol- 
 ly, if at all J which, to me, founds ftrange 
 and paradoxical enough. 
 
 The fituation of confcientious laymen 
 in the church of England, according to 
 the cafuiflry of Dr. Balguy, is truly re- 
 markable, and fuch as, I dare fay, few, 
 or none of them are aware of. If they 
 were, eafily as the common people are 
 generally led by the priefts, I think the 
 fpirit of an Engll/hnian would revolt at 
 it. For this writer abfolutely declares, 
 
 that 
 
POSITIONS. 23s 
 
 that " the union of civil and ecclefiafti- 
 " cal powers in the eftablifhment is in 
 " vain, if each individual is to retain 
 " entire liberty of judging and ading 
 " for himfelf." Certainly a churchman 
 ought to infill upon receiving fome very 
 great advantage in the eftablifliment, as 
 an equivalent for the furrender of this 
 great and important natural right, to 
 judge and aSl for himfelf. Upon the prin- 
 ciples of this writer, a profefTed church- 
 man is not at liberty fo much as to hear 
 a fingle fermon by thofe who have no 
 legal authority to preach, i. e. Dijfenters 
 and Methodifs (or, as he chufes to call 
 them, fedaries^ and enthifiafts ;) fo that 
 he is cut off from the very means of 
 judging for himfelf: for certainly this 
 writer cannot have lefs objection to his 
 parifhioners reading the difcourfes of 
 fetflaries and Methodifls, than to their 
 hearing them. 
 
 This v^riter, indeed, is inconfiftent 
 enough to allow the members of the efta- 
 blifhed church to make an open feparati- 
 on from it, if they cannot lavufuHy com- 
 ply 
 
234 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 ply with the terms of communion. But 
 were the terms ever Co unlawful, what 
 chance has any perfon for coming at the 
 knowledge of it? Can it be fuppofed 
 that a man fliould at once, of himfelf, 
 and without any means of information, 
 become fo dilTatisfied with the fervice of 
 the church, that he fhould think it un- 
 lawful to join in it ? I dare fay the Doctor 
 imagined no fuch event. But, in point 
 of confcience, why may not a perfon 
 think himfelf at liberty to leave the com- 
 munion of the church, though he fhould 
 not think it unlaivful. May it not be 
 fufficient that he thinks another form of 
 religion preferable to it ? 
 
 Take the whole paragraph that I have 
 quoted, and I really think it a curiofity 
 boch in point of fentiment and reafon- 
 ing ; but, withal, one of the greateft in- 
 fuks that I have yet feen offered to the 
 underftandings and fpirit of men. And 
 yet this is from an Englifliman, to Eng- 
 lifhmen. 
 
 The 
 
POSITIONS. 235 
 
 The Diflenters are obliged to this wri- 
 ter for the good-will he feems to bear 
 them, in being an advocate for toleration 
 in general ; but I cannot help faying, I 
 think him a very aukward, and incon- 
 fiflent advocate in the cafe, and that in- 
 tolerance would be much more agreeable 
 to his general principles. If it be true, 
 as he fays, p. 17. that " a variety of fetfls 
 " has a natural tendency both to weaken 
 " the influence of public religion, and 
 " to give diflurbance to the public peace," 
 how is the magiflrate " unqualified, or 
 " uncommiflioned, to perfecute for con- 
 " fcience fake ?" Is he not conflituted the 
 guardian of the public peace, and muft 
 he not ufe the mofl effedlual means to 
 prevent the difturbance of it: If, " in 
 *' order to obtain completely the benefits 
 " propofed from the union of civil and 
 " ecclefiaftical authority, all the members 
 " of the fame common- wealth fliould be 
 " members alfo of the fame church," a 
 confcientious civil magiflrate might think 
 it his duty, and well worth his while, to 
 hazard fomething, with a profpedl of in- 
 furing fo great an advantage j efpecially 
 
 as. 
 
236 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 as, according to this writer, it is only 
 when the union of all the members of 
 the commonwealth in one church is ini- 
 praSiicable, that toleration is necefTary. I 
 own I fhould be very forry to trufl the 
 civil magiftrate with Dr. Balguy's gene- 
 ral maxims of civil and ecclefiaftical po- 
 licy. I would not even trull Dr. Balguy 
 himfelf in certain circumftances, when 
 his principles give me fo uncertain a hold 
 of him. But toleration, very fortunate- 
 ly, happens to be xho. faJJoionahle do(5lrine 
 at prefent ; and it iTiufl be incorporated 
 into every fyflem, how ill foever it may 
 conned: with it. 
 
 An example of one of the mifchiefs at- 
 tending eftabliiliments Dr. Balguy has 
 given in himfelf, in the concluiion of 
 this fermon, in which he refledls very 
 feverely upon the author of the Confef- 
 Jional^ and his friends ; for I think it is 
 very evident, that his cenfures refpedl 
 nobody elfe. " There is," fays this wri- 
 ter, p. 20. " one clafs of men, to whom 
 " this plea for compaflion" (due to Me- 
 thodifls, as out of the reach of rational 
 
 con- 
 
POSITIONS. 237 
 
 convicftion) " will not extend. Thofe I 
 *' mean who, without any pretence to 
 " infpiration, live in open war with the 
 " national church ; with that very church 
 " of which they profefs themfelves mi- 
 " niflers, and whofe wages they continue 
 " to take, though in a6lua.l fervice againft 
 " her. Whether this conducH: proceed 
 " from a dillike to all eflabliihments, or 
 " from a defire of creeling a new one, on 
 " the ruins of that which fublifts at pre- 
 " fent, in either cafe, it is contrary to 
 " the mod evident principles of juflice 
 " and honour." 
 
 We fee then, that when religion has 
 once been eftablifhed, all the minifters 
 of it are to be coniidered as fervants in 
 her pay^ and bound to fight for her and 
 fupport her. The very propofal of a re- 
 formation by any member of an efta- 
 blilhment, is contrary to the moft evi- 
 dent principles of juftice and honour; a 
 maxim that fliuts the door againfl all 
 reformations that may not be called 
 violent ones. Every diforder, how fla- 
 grant foever, mud be winked at, fo long 
 
 as 
 
238 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 as a perfon continues in the church ; and 
 in order to put himfelf into a fituation 
 to propojh an amendment, he muft quit 
 his preferments, and declare war as an 
 alien. This fufficiently j uftifies the com- 
 mon complaint againft eftabliihments, 
 that they never reform themfelves, but 
 that all reformations have ever been 
 forced upon them ab extra. This has, 
 hitherto, been matter of furprife to many 
 perfons, and fome (ainong whom, I 
 think, is the Bilhop of Gloucefter) have 
 pretended to deny the charge, but now 
 it appears to be rather a matter of boaft- 
 ing ; for it would have been contrary to 
 the mofl evident principles of juftice and 
 honour, for the clergy to have made the 
 attempt. 
 
 It is not improbable, but that Dr. 
 Balguy and his friends, if they w^ould 
 explain themfelves freely, might carry 
 this point of honour a Uttle farther, and 
 fay, that no perfon who has ever eaten 
 the breads or tajled the fait of the church, 
 Ihould lift up his heel againft her ; nor 
 perhaps' the man whofe father, or grand- 
 father had eaten of it. I 
 
POSITIONS. 239 
 
 I fliovild think the mofl fcrupulous ca- 
 fuift might allow a clergyman, who is 
 dilTatisfied with the church, to make a 
 fair attempt to procure the reformation 
 of thole abufes that are intolerable to 
 him ; and, confequently, to wait a pro- 
 per time, to fee the effeS: of his endea- 
 vours, before he abfolutely quitted his 
 ftation in the church. For if his endea- 
 vours fucceed, he will have no occafion 
 to quit it at all ; and, in the mean time, 
 the remonftrances of a perfon who is a 
 member of the church, may be expe<5led 
 to have a more favourable hearing, than 
 thofe of one who has no connedlion 
 with it. 
 
 So far am I from j oining with Dr Balguy, 
 in his harfli cenfures of the author of the 
 Confejfional^ that I rather think that every 
 principle of juftice and honour fliould 
 prompt a man to ufe his bell: endeavours 
 for the benefit of any community of 
 which he is a member, and of whofe pri- 
 vileges he partakes. If, therefore, there 
 be any thing wrong in the conftitution 
 of it, thofe principles require him to pro- 
 mote 
 
240 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 mote a reformation of the abufe ; and 
 it would be manifeftly contrary to the 
 principles of juflice and honour, to be 
 an unconcerned fpecftator of fo great a 
 misfortune to it. I cannot help com- 
 paring the author of the ConfeJJional to a 
 man who would endeavour to flop a leak 
 he perceived in the vefTel in which he 
 was embarked, and Dr. Balguy to a man 
 who would run the rifque of its finking 
 all at once, rather than infinuate that 
 there was any thing amifs with it. 
 
 Strange as this author's declamation 
 againft the friends of the Confeffional is, 
 it follows directly from his avowed prin- 
 ciple, that authority once ejiahTiJhed mujl 
 be obeyed. Speaking of " the founders 
 '' of our holy religion," he fays, p. i8. 
 *' They eftabliflied a form of church go- 
 " vernment ; for the church imiji be go- 
 " verned mfome form, or there could be 
 " no government. But their direclions 
 " to us are, for the mofh part, very ge- 
 " neral. Even their example mufl be 
 " cautioufly urged, in different times, 
 " and under different circumftances. In 
 
 " this 
 
POSITIONS. 241 
 
 *' this one point they are clear and ex- 
 *' plicit, that authority once eJlahl'iJJjed 
 *' mull be obeyed^ 
 
 But was not popery once ejlahlijhed in 
 this ifland ? How then is it pofTible, up- 
 on thefe principles oipajfi've obedience and 
 non-rejifuince, to vindicate the reformati- 
 on ? Whatever it be that is once eftablifh- 
 ed, and in whatever manner it is once 
 eftablilhed, it muft, it feems, be fub- 
 mitted to. If this principle be applied 
 without reflri6lion, it will vindicate the 
 continuance of every fyflem, the mofl 
 abfurd and mifchievous in the world ; 
 and if it do admit of reftridion and limi- 
 tation, it could fignify nothing to this 
 author's purpofe to alledge it. 
 
 It might have been expecfled, that a 
 writer who is fo extremely fevere upon 
 thofe who propofe a reformation in the 
 church, while they continue in it, fhould 
 have expreffed fome degree of indigna- 
 tion againfl thofe who intrude themfelves 
 into it hj falfe oaths and pretences, flib- 
 fcribing the articles and canons, &c. 
 R when 
 
242 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 when they difbeiieve and ridicule them. 
 But I fancy that I can put my reader in- 
 to poiTeflion of the fecret rcafon, why no- 
 thing of this kind occurs in the writings 
 of the friends of church authority. Men 
 who have come this %vay into the church 
 have always proved its firmed friends. 
 Having made no bones of their own 
 fcruples, they pay no regard to the 
 fcruples of others. A confcientious bi- 
 got to the church is not half fo much 
 to be depended upon, as the man who 
 believes not a fingle word of the matter, 
 nor is he fo fit to be admitted into the 
 cabinet council of church- power. 
 
 Such, my gentle reader, are the max- 
 ims, and fuch the reafoning with which 
 this writer (lands forth to fupport the 
 declining caufe of church-authority. For 
 he juftly complains, p. 5. that " notwith- 
 " {landing the members of the church 
 " of England have, from its foundation, 
 " been carefully in{lru(fted in thefe points, 
 " by its ableil; defenders, yet, fo capri- 
 " cious is the public tafle, that thefe 
 " great writers have gradually fallen in- 
 
 " to 
 
POSITIONS. 243 
 
 *' to ncgledl. Their dodlrlnes are now, 
 " in a manner, forgotten, and enthufialls 
 " and fe(5laries revive the fame folhes, 
 " and defend them by the fame argu- 
 " ments, which were once efFe(flually 
 " overthrown." In this deplorable fitu- 
 ation of things, this great champion 
 has judged it " not to be improper to 
 *' refume the beaten fubjedl, and to ex- 
 " plain, on rational principles, the foun- 
 " dation of church authority." 
 
 It is, indeed, truly deplorable, that 
 thefe great authors fhould have fallen in- 
 to neglecl, and that their excellent doc- 
 trines iliould be, in a manner, forgot- 
 ten ; but this misfortune has been ow- 
 ing, chiefly, to themfelves. The truth 
 is, that thefe great writers have been 
 very inconfiflent with one another, which 
 is a very unfavourable and fufpicious 
 circumftance for the caufe they are fo 
 zealoufly labouring to fupport. While 
 each of them is bufily purfuing his own 
 feparate fcheme, and they are applying 
 their very different methods to gain the 
 
 R 2 fame 
 
244 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 fame end, they only obftrudl and em- 
 barrafs one another. 
 
 In reality, the principles of the Dif- 
 fenters are not more oppofite, either to 
 thofe of Hooker or Warburton, than 
 thofe of thefe tvfo great champions for 
 church-authority are to one another ; 
 and other writers have propofed other 
 fchemes of church power quite different 
 from them both. Now if three perfons 
 be building a houfe, and one of them 
 will have it of brick, another of ftone, 
 and the third of wood ; and if each be 
 fo obftinate, that he will pull down what 
 the others build, how can it be expe(5led 
 that the edifice fhould be completed ? or 
 how can the fpeclators refrain from 
 laughing to fee them fo laborioufly em- 
 ployed ? If I may be indulged another 
 comparifon, I would fay, that when the 
 fchemes of the different writers, in de- 
 fence of ecelefiaftlcal eftablifliments, are 
 confidered together, they make fuch kind 
 of harmony, as would refult from a num • 
 ber of perfons linging the fame words, 
 each to his own favourite tune, at the 
 fame time. In 
 
POSITIONS. 245 
 
 In thefe circumflances, I cannot help 
 thinking that Dr. Balguy is unreafon- 
 ably fevere upon the members of his own 
 church, and expedls too much from them, 
 when he fays, p. 4. " It might well have 
 " been expedled, that the members of 
 " the Englifh church fliould have feen 
 " farther, and judged better (than to con- 
 '^ /lilt the fcriptures Jor uohat is not to be 
 ''''found in it, with refpe6l to church go- 
 " vernment) becaufe this church, even 
 " from its foundation, has been carefully 
 " inftrucSled on thefe very points by fome 
 " of its ableft defenders. But fo capri- 
 *' cious is the public tafte," &c. Had 
 thefe ablejl defenders of the church de- 
 fended her upon the fame principles, and 
 upon the fame general maxims of church 
 power, this writer's cenfures might have 
 been juft ; for, by a proper degree of at- 
 tention and deference to fuch infriiBors, 
 they might have been long ago well 
 grounded in this important branch of 
 knowledge. But he only fays that fome 
 of the ahlefi defenders of the church, not 
 all of them have inflru(5led her fo care- 
 fully. And were the members of the 
 R q churcii 
 
246 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 church ever fo defirous of receiving in- 
 ftrudlion, either for their own benefit, 
 or that of their teachers, what proficien- 
 cy could they be expelled to make, when 
 their ableft tnajiers did not teach the fame 
 general docftrines ? 
 
 If this hath been the cafe, even from. 
 the foundation of this church (which, 
 in proportion to its occafions, has been 
 bleft with fo many able defenders) how 
 much more embarrafled mud her mem- 
 bers have been fince the publication of 
 the Confeffional^ v/hen (if I be rightly in- 
 formed, for I have not yet read any of 
 them myfelf ) almoft every oppugner of 
 that excellent work has adopted a diffe- 
 rent fyftem of church- authority ; fo that, 
 as the controverfy proceeds, w^e may ex- 
 pedl to be entertained with the exhibition 
 of as "many crude fyflems of church 
 power, as there are faid to have been un- 
 formed miimals in Egypt, after an inun- 
 dation of the Nile. I do not know what 
 we fliould do after fuch another inunda- 
 tion, but that thefe half-formed beings 
 generally perilli as foon as they have 
 fiiewn any figns of life. Since, 
 
POSITIONS. 247 
 
 Since, however, the ableft defenders of 
 the church ivill, each, go their own way 
 to work, fuppofe that, in order to make 
 the bell of this unfavourable circum- 
 ftance, thofe who are to be iriftru6led by 
 thefe able mafters be diflributed into 
 dijiinfl clajfes, and that care be taken, that 
 they do not intermix with one another. 
 Provided the fame end be anfwered, and 
 the church be fupported, what doth it 
 lignify how different, or inconiiftent are 
 the means by which it is effedled ? When 
 this experiment has been made, that 
 mode of inftrudiion may be adopted, in 
 exclufion of the reft, which fhall be found 
 in fad:, to make the moft zealous church- 
 men. In the iffue, I fufpedt, that though 
 the modem impro'vements in the fcience of 
 church government may appear to be the 
 befl for the politer and more free-think- 
 ing part of the nation, nothing v/ill be 
 found to anfwer fo well with the com- 
 mon people, who do not eafily enter in- 
 to refinements, as the old-fafliionedj«r^ 
 d'l^'ino dodrines, I am afraid Dr. War- 
 burton has been rather impolitic in de- 
 crying thofe old fiipports of the caufe, 
 
 rotten 
 
248 Dr. B a L G U Y's 
 
 rotten as he thinks them to be. They 
 have been of excellent fervice in their day. 
 
 To conclude this fe(5lion with perfecfl 
 ferioufnefs. I congratulate my reader, 
 and the age in which we live, that the 
 great ivriters (as Dr. Balguy calls them) 
 in defence of church power, have fallen 
 into negie(5l, and that their dodlrines are, 
 in a manner, forgotten. To account for 
 this remarkable facft, in an age, in which 
 knowledge of all other kinds (and efpeci- 
 ally the knowledge of govenijiiejit and 
 laivs^ and I think the knowledge of r^/i^/o;z 
 too) has been fo greatly advanced, may 
 furprife the Do(fl:or and his friends, and 
 therefore they may refolve it into caprice 
 or chance ; but it is no furprife to me, 
 or my friends. Magna eji 'Veritas, ^'c, 
 the tranflation of which faying I fliall 
 give my reader in the words of this au- 
 thor, p. 9. " Truth can never fuffer 
 " from a free inquiry. The combat may 
 " be fliarp, but flie is fure to conquer in 
 " the end.'' And though the perfor- 
 mance I am animadverting upon be an 
 attempt to revive the memory of fome 
 
 of 
 
POSITIONS. 249 
 
 of the arguments in defence of church- 
 authority, I trufl it will only ferve to 
 hold them forth once more to the gene- 
 rous contempt and deteftation of men of 
 fenfe and reflection ; and accelerate their 
 being finally configned to everlafting 
 oblivion, as the dilgrace of human rea- 
 fon, and human nature. 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 Of the Progrefs of Civil Societies 
 to a State of g?^eater PerfeEiion^ 
 jhowing that it is retarded by Rn- 
 croadmtents on Civil and Reli^i- 
 ous Liberty, 
 
 THE great argument in favour of 
 the perpetuation of ecclefiaftical 
 eftablifliments is, that as they fuit the 
 feveral forms of civil government under 
 which they have taken place, the one 
 
 cannot 
 
150 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 cannot be touched without endangering 
 the other. I am not infenfible of the 
 truth there is in the principle on which 
 this apprehenfion is grounded ; but I 
 think the connedlion (artfully as thofe 
 things have been interwoven) is not fo 
 ftricft, but that they may be feparated, at 
 leaft, in a courfe of time. But allowing 
 that fome change might take place in our 
 civil conflitution, in confequence of the 
 abolition, or reformation of the ecclefiafhi- 
 cal part, it is more than an equal chance, 
 that the alteration will be for the better ; 
 and no real friend to his country can 
 vnih to perpetuate its prefent conflitu- 
 tion in church or ftate, fo far as to inter- 
 rupt its progrefs to greater perfection 
 than it has yet attained to. 
 
 I can heartily join with the greatefl 
 admirers of the Engliili conflitution, in 
 their encomiums upon it, when it is 
 compared with that of any other country 
 in the world. I really think it to be the 
 befl acftual fcheme of civil policy ; but 
 if any perfon Ihould fliy, that it is per- 
 fedl, and that no alteration can be made 
 
 in 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 251 
 
 in it for the better, I beg leave to with- 
 hold my affent. Dr. Brown himfelf doth 
 not hefitate to acknowledge, that there 
 are imperfecflions in it. How then can a 
 real friend to his country wiih to fix its 
 imperfecflions upon it, and make them 
 perpetual ? 
 
 It will be faid, that alterations may, 
 indeed, be made, but cannot be made 
 with fafety, and without the danger of 
 throwing every thing into confufion ; 
 fo that, upon the whole, things had bet- 
 ter remain as they are : but, allowing 
 this, for the prefent, why fliould they 
 be perpetuated as they are ? If the pro- 
 pofed alterations were 'violent ones, that 
 is, introduced by violent meafures, they 
 might juflly give alarm to all good citi- 
 zens. I would endeavour to flop the 
 ablefl hand that iliould attempt to re- 
 form in this manner ; -becaufe it is 
 hardly poffible but that a remedy fo ef- 
 fe(fled mufl be worfe than the difeafe. 
 But flill, why fliould we objed: to any 
 date's gradually reforming itfelf, or throw 
 obftacles in the way of fuch reforma- 
 tions ? All 
 
252 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 All civil focieties, and the whole fcience 
 of civil government, on which they are 
 founded, are yet in their infancy. Like 
 other arts and fciences, this is gradually 
 improving ; but it improves more flowly, 
 becaiife opportunities for making experi- 
 ments are fewer. Indeed, hardly any 
 trials in legiilation have ever been made 
 by perfons who had knowledge and abi- 
 lity to coliecl: from hiftory, and to com- 
 pare the obfervations v^^hich might be 
 of ufe for this purpofe, or had leifure to 
 digeft them properly at the time. Tak- 
 ing it for granted, therefore, that our con- 
 ftitution and lav/s have not efcaped the 
 imperfedlions which we fee to be inci- 
 dent to every thing human; by all means, 
 let the clofefi attention be given to them, 
 let their excellencies and defedls be tho- 
 roughly laid open, and let improvements 
 of every kind be made ; but not fuch as 
 wovild prevent all farther improveinents : 
 becaufe it is not probable, that any im- 
 provements, which the utmoft fagacity 
 of man could now fuggeft, would be an 
 equivalent for the prevention of all that 
 might be made hereafter. Were the beil 
 
 formed 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 25-j 
 
 formed ftate in the world to be fixed in 
 its prefent condition, I make no doubt 
 but that, in a courfe of time, it would be 
 the worif . 
 
 Hiftory demonfirates this truth with 
 refpecl to all the celebrated ftates of anti- 
 quity ; and as all things (and particularly 
 whatever depends upon fcience) have of 
 late years been in a quicker progreis to- 
 wards perfection than ever ; we may fafely 
 conclude the fame with refpecl to any po- 
 litical ftate now in being. What advan- 
 tage did Sparta (the conftitutionof whofe 
 government was fo much admired by the 
 ancients, and many moderns) reap from 
 thofe inftitutionsv/hich contributed to its 
 longevity, but the longer continuance of, 
 what I fliouldnotfcruple to call, the worfl 
 government we read of in the world ; a 
 government which fecured to a man the 
 feweftof his natural rights, and of which 
 a man who had a tafte for life would leaft 
 of all chufe to be a member. While 
 the arts of life were improving in all the 
 neighbouring nations, Sparta derived 
 this noble prerogative from her conftitu- 
 
 tion. 
 
254 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 tion, that fhe continued the neareft to her 
 priftine barbarity ; and in the fpace of 
 near a thonlaiid years (which includes the 
 whole period in which letters and the 
 arts were the moft cultivated in the reft 
 of Greece) produced no one poet, orator, 
 hiftorian, or artift of any kind. The 
 convulfions of Athens, where life was in 
 fome meafure enjoyed, and the faculties 
 of body and mind had their proper exer- 
 cife and gratification, were, in my opi- 
 nion, far preferable to the favage uni- 
 formity of Sparta. 
 
 The conftitution of Egypt was fimilar 
 to that of Sparta, and the advantages that 
 country received from it were fimilar. 
 Egypt was the mother of the arts to the 
 jftates of Greece ; but the rigid inftituti- 
 ons of this mother of the arts kept them 
 in their infancy ; fo that the ftates of 
 Greece, being more favourably fituated 
 for improvements of all kinds, foon went 
 beyond their inftru(5lrefs ; and no im- 
 provements of any kind were ever made 
 in Egypt, till it was fubdued by a fo- 
 reign power. What would have been 
 
 the 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 255 
 
 the flate of agriculture, fliip-building, or 
 war, if thofe arts had been fixed in Eng- 
 land two or three centuries ago ? 
 
 Dr. Brown will urge me with the au- 
 thority of Plutarch, who largely extols 
 the regulations of Egypt and of Sparta, 
 and cenfures the Roman legiflators for 
 adopting nothing fimilar to them. But 
 I beg leave to appeal from the authority 
 of Plutarch, and of all the ancients, as by 
 no means competent judges in this cafe. 
 Imperfect as the fcience of government 
 is at prefent, it is certainly much more 
 perfed: than it was in their time. On 
 the authority of the ancients, Dr. Brown 
 might as well contend for another inftitu- 
 tion of the famed Egyptians ; viz. their 
 obliging all perfons to follow the occu- 
 pations of their fathers ; and perhaps this 
 might be no bad auxiliary to his pre- 
 fcribed mode of education, and prevent 
 the fpringing up of fadlion in a flate. It 
 would likewife favour another objedl, 
 which the doclTbor has profeffedly in 
 view, viz, checking the growth of 
 commerce. 
 
 Sup- 
 
255 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 Suppofing this wife fyftem of perpetua- 
 tion had occurred to our anceflors in the 
 feudal times, and that an afTembly of old 
 EngUili barons, with their heads full of 
 their feudal rights and fervices, had imi- 
 tated the wife Spartans, and perpetuated 
 the fevere feudal inflitutions j what would 
 England at this day have been (with the 
 unrivalled reputation of uniformity and 
 conftancy in its laws) but the moil bar- 
 barous, the weakeft, and moft diftracfted 
 ftate in Europe? It is plain from fadV, 
 that divine providence had greater things 
 in view in favour of thefe kingdoms ; and 
 has been condu6ling them through a fe- 
 ries of gradual changes (arifing from in- 
 ternal and external caufes) which have 
 brought us to our prefent happy condi- 
 tion ; and which, if fuiFered to go on, 
 may carry us to a pitch of happinefs 
 of which we ■ can yet form no con- 
 ception. 
 
 Had the religious fyftem of our oldell 
 forefathers been eftabiiflied on thefe wife 
 and perpetual foundations, we had now 
 been pagans, and our priefts druids. 
 
 Had 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 
 
 ^Sl 
 
 Had our Saxon conquerors been endued 
 with the fame wifdom and forefight, we 
 had been worfhipping Thor and Woden ; 
 and had our anceftors, three centuries 
 ago, perfevered in this fpirit, we had 
 been bhnd and priefl-ridden papifts. 
 The greateft blefling that can befall a 
 flate, which is fo rigid and inflexible 
 in its inftitutions, is to be conquered by 
 a people, who have a better govern- 
 ment, and have made farther advances 
 in the arts of life. And it is undoubt- 
 edly a great advantage which the divine 
 being has provided for this world, that 
 conquefls and revolutions fliould give 
 mankind thofe opportunities of reforming 
 their fyftems of government, and of im- 
 proving the fcience of it, which they 
 would never have found themfelves. 
 
 In the excellent conftitution of nature, 
 evils of all kinds, fome way or other, 
 £nd their proper remedy j and when 
 government, religion, education, and 
 every thing that is valuable in fociety 
 feems to be in fo fine a progrefs towards 
 a more perfect flate, is it not our wif- 
 S doni 
 
258 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 dom to favour this progrefs ;| and to 
 allow the remedies of all diforders to 
 operate gradually and eafily, rather than, 
 by a violent fydem of perpetviation, to 
 retain all diforders till they force a re- 
 medy? In the excellent conftitution of 
 the human body, a variety of outlets are 
 provided for noxious humours, by means 
 of vmich the fyftem relieves itfelf when 
 any flight diforders happen to it. But, 
 if thefe outlets be obflrudled, the whole 
 fyflem is endangered by the convulfions 
 which enfue. • 
 
 Some things in civil fociety do, in 
 their own nature, require to be efta- 
 bliihed, or fixed by law for a confider- 
 able time ; but that part of the fyftem, 
 for the reafons mentioned above, will 
 certainly be the mod imperfe(5l ; and 
 therefore it is tlie wifdom of the legiila- 
 ture to make that part as fmall as pofli- 
 ble, and to let the eftablifhments, which 
 are neceiTary, be as eafy as is confiftent 
 with the tolerable order of fociety. It 
 is an univerfal maxim, that the more 
 liberty is given to every thing which is 
 
 in 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 259 
 
 in a ftate of growth, the more perfect it 
 will become ; and when it is grown to 
 its full fize, the more amply will it repay 
 its wife parent, for the indulgence given 
 to it in its infant ftate. A judicious 
 father will bear with the frowardnefs of 
 his children, and overlook many flights 
 of youth ; which can give him no plea- 
 fure, but from the profpedl they afford 
 of his children becoming ufeful and va- 
 luable men, when the fire of youth is 
 abated. 
 
 I do not pretend to define what degree 
 of eftablifhment is neceffary for many 
 things relating to civil fociety : but 
 thus much I think .is clear, that e- 
 very fyflem of policy is too flricft and 
 violent, in which any thing that may 
 be the inflrument of general happi- 
 nefs, is under fo much reftraint, that 
 it can never reform itfelf from the dif- 
 orders which may be incident to it j 
 when it is fo circumflanced, that it can- 
 not improve as far as it is capable of im- 
 provement, but that every reformation 
 muft necefTarily be introduced fromfome 
 S 2 other 
 
i6o THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 other quarter ; in which cafe it mufl 
 generally be brought about by force. 
 Is it not a Handing argument that reli- 
 gion, in particular, has been too much 
 confined, in all countries, that the body 
 of the clergy have never reformed them- 
 felves ; and that all reformations have 
 ever been forced upon them, and have 
 generally been attended vs^ith the moft 
 horrible perfecutions, and dangerous 
 convullions in the ftate ? I cannot help 
 thinking alfo, that every fyftem of go- 
 vernment is violent and tyrannical, which 
 incapacitates men of the beft abihties, 
 and of the greateft integrity, from ren- 
 dering their country any fervice in their 
 power, while thofe who pay no regard 
 to confcience may have free accefs to all 
 places of power and profit. 
 
 It feems to be the uniform intention 
 of divine providence, to lead mankind 
 to happinefs in a progrellive, which is 
 the fureft, though the floweft method. 
 Evil always leads to good, and imperfed; 
 to perfect. The divine being might, 
 no doubt, have adopted a different plan, 
 
 have 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 261 
 
 have made human nature and human 
 governments perfect from thebegmning. 
 He might have formed the human mhid 
 with an intuitive knowledge of truth, 
 without leading men through fo many- 
 labyrinths of error. He might have 
 made man perfectly virtuous, without 
 giving fo much exercife to his pailions 
 in his ftruggles with the habits of vice. 
 He might have fent an angel, or have 
 commiiTioned a man to eftablifli a per- 
 fedl form of civil government ; and, 
 a priori^ this woi^ld feem to have been 
 almoft as elFential to human happi- 
 nefs as any fyftem of truth ; at leaft, 
 that it would have been a valuable ad- 
 dition to a fyflem of religious truth : 
 but though it would be impiety in u^ 
 to pretend to fathom the depths of the 
 divine councils, I think we may fairly 
 conclude, that if this method of pro- 
 ceeding had been the befl for us, he, 
 whom we cannot conceive to be influ- 
 enced by any thing but his defire to pro- 
 mote the happinefs of his creatures, 
 would have purfued it. But a contrary 
 
 S 3 method 
 
262 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 method has been adopted in every thing 
 relating to us. 
 
 How many falls does a child get be- 
 fore it learns to walk fecure. How many 
 inarticulate founds precede thofe which 
 are articulate. How often are we im- 
 pofed upon by all our felifes before we 
 learn to form a right judgment of the 
 proper objeclHis of them. How often do 
 our paiTions miflead us, and involve us 
 in difficulties, before we reap the ad- 
 vantage they were intended to bring us 
 in our purfuit of happinefs ; and how 
 many falfe judgments do we make, in 
 the inveftigation of all kinds of truth, 
 before we come to a right concluiion. 
 How many ages do errors and prejudices 
 of all kinds prevail, before they are difli- 
 pated by the light of truth, and how 
 general, and how long was the reign of 
 falfe religion before the propagation of 
 the true ! How late v/as chriftianity, 
 that great remedy of vice and ignorance, 
 introduced ! How flow and how confined 
 its progrefs ! 
 
 In 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 263 
 
 In fliort, it ieems to have been the in- 
 tention of divine providence, that man- 
 kind {hould be, as far as polTible, fdj 
 taught', that we fhould attain to every 
 thing excellent and ufeful, as the refult 
 of our own experience and obfervation ; 
 that our judgments Ihould be formed 
 by the appearances which are prefented 
 to them, and our hearts inflrucled by 
 their own feelings. But by the unna- 
 tural fyflem of rigid unalterable efla- 
 blifhments, we put it out of our power 
 to inflrucl ourfelves, or to derive any 
 advantage from the lights we acquire 
 from experience and obfervation ; and 
 thereby, as far as is in our pov/er, we 
 counteract the kind intentions of the 
 deity in the conflitution of the world, 
 and in providing for a flate of conflant, 
 though flow improvement in every 
 thing. 
 
 A variety of ufeful lefTons may be 
 learned from our attention to the con- 
 dudl of divine providence refpecling us. 
 When hiflory and experience demon- 
 flrate the uniform method of divine 
 
 pro- 
 
264 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 providence to have been what has been 
 above reprefented, let us learn from it 
 to be content with the natural, though 
 flow progrefs we are in to a more perfect 
 ftate. But let us always endeavour to 
 keep things in this progrefs. Let us, 
 however, beware, left by attempting to 
 accelerate, we in fad; retard our progrefs 
 in happinefs. But more efpecially, let 
 us take heed, left, by endeavouring to 
 fecure and perpetuate the great ends of 
 fociety, we in fa6l defeat thofe ends. 
 We fliall have a thoufand times more 
 enjoyment of a happy and perfe(51: form 
 of government, when we can fee in 
 hiftory the long progrefs of our confti- 
 tution through barbarous and imperfed: 
 fyftems of policy ; as we are more con- 
 firmed in the truth, and have more en- 
 joyment of it, by reviewing tlie many 
 errors by w^hich we were milled in our 
 purfuit of it. If the divine being faw 
 that the beft form of government, that 
 even he could have prefcribed for us, 
 would not have anfwered the end of its 
 inftitution, if it had been impofed by 
 himfelf J much Icfs can we imagine it 
 
 could 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 265 
 
 could anfvver any valuable purpofe, to 
 have the crude fyftems (for they can be 
 nothing more) of fhort-fighted men for 
 ever impofed upon us. 
 
 Eftabliiliments, be they ever fo ex- 
 cellent, flill fix thmgs fomewhere ; and 
 this circumflance, which is all that is 
 pleaded for them amounts to, is with 
 me the greateft objection to them. I 
 wilh to fee things in a progrefs to a better 
 ftate, and no ob{lrud:ions thrown in the 
 way of reformation. 
 
 In fpite of all the fetters we can lay 
 upon the human mind, notwithftanding 
 all pollible difcouragements in the way 
 of free inquiry, knowledge of all kinds, 
 and religious knowledge among the reft, 
 will increafe. The wifdom of one gene- 
 ration will ever be folly in the next. 
 And yet, though we have feen this veri- 
 fied in the hiftory of near two thou- 
 fand years, we perfift in the abfurd 
 maxim of making a preceding generation 
 diclate to a fucceeding one, which is 
 the fame thing as making the foolifli in- 
 
 ftrua 
 
266 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 firu(5l the wife ; for what is a lower 
 degree of wifdoni but comparative folly ? 
 
 Had even Locke, Clarke, Hoadley, and 
 others, who have gained immortal repu- 
 tation by their freedom of thinking, but 
 about half a century ago, been ap- 
 pointed to draw up a creed, they would 
 have inferted in it fuch articles of faith, 
 as myfelf, and hundreds more, fnould 
 nov/ think unfcriptural, and abfurd : 
 nay, articles, which they would have 
 thought of great importance, we ihould 
 think conveyed a reflection upon the 
 moral government of God, and were in- 
 jurious to virtue among men. And can we 
 think that wifdom will die with us ! No, 
 our creeds, could we be fo inconfiftent 
 with ourfelves as to draw up any, would, 
 I make no doubt, be rejefled vfith equah 
 difdain by our pofterity. 
 
 That ecclefiaflical eiiablilliments have 
 really retarded the reformation from po- 
 pery is evident from the face of things in 
 Europe. Can it be thought that ail the 
 errors and abufcs w^hich had been accu- 
 mulating 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 267 
 
 Ululating in the fpace of fifteen hundred 
 years, fhould be rectified in lefs than fifty, 
 by men educated with Itrong prejudices 
 in favour of them all ? and yet the Augf- 
 burg confefiion, I believe, (lands unre- 
 pealed; the church of England is the 
 fame now that it was in the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth ; and the church of 
 Scotland is to this day in that imperfect: 
 and crude Hate in which 'john Knox 
 left it. 
 
 Little did thofe great reformers, whofe 
 memory I revere, think what burdens 
 they, vs^ho had boldly fliaken off the load 
 from their own ilioulders, were laying 
 on thofe of others ; and that the moment 
 they had nobly freed themfelves from the 
 yoke of fervitude, they were figning an 
 acl to enflave all that fliould come after 
 them ; forgetting the golden rule of the 
 gofpel, to do to others as we would that 
 they fliould do to us. 
 
 Could religious knowledge have re- 
 mained in the ftate in which the firfl 
 reformers left it \ could the ftone they 
 
 had 
 
268 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 had otice iTloved from its feat, on the top 
 of a precipice, have been flopped in its 
 courfe, their provifions for perpetuation 
 would have been wife and excellent ; 
 but their eyes were hardly clofed, before 
 their children found that their fathers 
 had been too precipitate. They found 
 their own hands tied up by their un- 
 thinking parents, and the knots too 
 many, and too tight for them to un- 
 loofe. 
 
 The great misfortune is, that the 
 progrefs of knowledge is chiefly among 
 the thinking few. The bulk of man- 
 kind being educated in a reverence for 
 eftabiilhed modes of thinking and adling, 
 in confequence of their being eftabliilied, 
 will not hear of a reformation proceed- 
 ing even fo far as they could really Vv^ifli, 
 led, in time, it lliould go farther than 
 they could v/iili, and the end be worfe 
 than the beginning. And where there 
 are great emoluments in a church, it is 
 poflefTed of the firongeft internal guard 
 againft all innovations whatever. Church 
 livings muil not be touched, and they 
 
 may, 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 269 
 
 may, if any thing elfe be meddled with. 
 This makes the htuation of fenfible and 
 confcienfious men, in all eftablifhments, 
 truly deplorable. Before I had read that 
 excellent work, intitled the Confejfional, 
 but much more fince, it has grieved me 
 to fee the miferable lliifts that fuch per- 
 fons {whether in the church of England, 
 or of Scotland) are obliged to have re- 
 courfe to, in order to gild the pill, 
 which they muft fwallow or ftarve ; and 
 to obferve their poor contrivances to 
 conceal the chains that gall them. But 
 it grieves one no lefs, to fee the reft of 
 their brethren, hugging their chains and 
 proud of them . 
 
 But let thofe gentlemen in the church, 
 who oppofe every flep towards reforma- 
 tion, take care, left they overacl their 
 parts, and left fome enterprizing per- 
 fons, finding themfelves unable to 7intie 
 the Gordian knots of authority, fliould, 
 like another Alexander the Great, boldly 
 cut them all. Let them take care, left, 
 for want of permitting a few repairs in 
 their ruinous houfe, it ilioiild at laft fall 
 
 all 
 
270 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 all together about their ears. A num- 
 ber of fpirited and confcientious men, 
 openly refufing to enter into the church, 
 or throwing up the livings which they 
 hold upon thofe iniquitous and enflaving 
 terms (and fuch men there have been 
 in this country) would roufe the atten- 
 tion of the temporal heads of the fpiritual 
 part of our conftitution. They would 
 fee the neceflity of an immediate and 
 compleat reformation ; and then the a- 
 larm of churchmen, with their paultry 
 expedients and compromifes, would come 
 too late. The temper of thefe times 
 would not bear another St. Bartholo- 
 mew. 
 
 If only one or t-wo perfons, of known 
 probity and good fenfe, did now and 
 then, a6l this heroic part, it would ferve 
 to keep up an attention to the fubjedl. 
 If every man who doth not in his confci- 
 ence believe the articles he has fubfcrib- 
 ed, would magnanimoufly throw up the 
 emoluments he enjoys in confequence of 
 his fubfcription, it can hardly be doubt- 
 ed, but that a reformation of, at leail, 
 
 the 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 271 
 
 the capital abufes in the eccleliafcical 
 fyftem would take place the very next 
 feflion of parliament. This nation would 
 never fuffer all her pulpits to be filled 
 by fuch clergymen, as would then re- 
 main in the church. 
 
 In the mean time, let the friends of 
 liberty by no means give way to impa- 
 tience. The longer it may be before this 
 reformation takes place, the more effec- 
 tual it will probably be. The times 
 may not yet be ripe for fuch an one as 
 you would vsalh to acquiefce in, conii- 
 dering that, whenever it is made, it 
 will probably continue as long as the 
 lad has done. 
 
 It w^as well for the caufe of truth and 
 liberty, that the Romiih clergy at the 
 beginning of the reformation, held out 
 with fo much obftinacy againft the 
 fmalleft concefFions ; for had they but 
 granted the cup to the laity, and been a 
 little more decent in the article of in- 
 dulgences, the reft of popery might 
 have continued 
 
 "To 
 
272 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 " To fcourge mankind for ten dark ages more." 
 
 And at the reftoration here in England, 
 had a few, a very few triHing alterations 
 been complied with, fuch numbers of 
 the Prelbyterians would have hearti- 
 ly united to the eftabliilied church, as 
 would have enabled it entirely to crufh 
 every other fedl, to prevent the growing 
 liberty of the prefs, and to have main- 
 tained for ages the moft rigid unifor- 
 mity. This obfervation may, perhaps, 
 teach patience to one party, and pru- 
 dence to the other. 
 
 DiiTenters, even of the prefbyterian 
 perfiiafion, have, by no means, been 
 free from the general infatuation of 
 other reformers. All the denominations 
 of dilTenters have made attempts to fix 
 things by their own narrow ftandard ; 
 and prefcribed confeffions of faith, even 
 with fubfcriptions, have been intro- 
 duced among them. But happily for us, 
 there have always been m.en of generous 
 and enlarged minds, who, having no civil 
 power to contend v/ith, have had cou- 
 I'age to ftem the torrent ; and now, 
 
 among 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 
 
 273 
 
 among thofe who are called the more 
 rational part of the dilTenters, things are 
 not, upon the whole, to be complained of. 
 No fubfcriptions to any articles of faith, 
 or even to the new teflament, is now 
 required ; and miniilers are excufed, if 
 they chufe not to give any confefiion of 
 their own. To have preached and be- 
 haved like a chriftian, is deemed fuffi- 
 cient to recommend a man to the chrif- 
 tian miniftry. Unfettered by authority, 
 they can purfue the moft liberal plans 
 of education. The whole bufinefs is 
 to give the faculties of the mind their 
 free play, and to point out proper ob- 
 jects of attention to ftvidents, without 
 any concern what may be the refult of 
 their inquiries ; the defign being to make 
 wife and ufeful men, and not the tools 
 and abetters of any particular party. 
 
 If any perfon fhould think that reli- 
 gion is not to be put upon the fame foot- 
 ing with other branches of knowledge 
 (which they allow to require the aid of 
 every circumftance favourable to their 
 future growth) that fince the whole of 
 T chrif- 
 
274 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 chriftianity was delivered at once, and is 
 contained in the books of the new 
 teftanicnt, there is no reafon to expe6l 
 more Hght than we already have with 
 regard to it ; and, therefore, that they 
 are juftified in fixing the knowledge af 
 it where it noiv ftands, I fliall only fay, 
 that I fincerely pity their weaknefs and 
 prejudice ; as fuch an opinion can only 
 proceed from a total ignorance of what 
 has paiTed in the chriflian world, or from 
 a bigotted attachment to the authorita- 
 tive inflitutions of fallible men. 
 
 To recur to Dr. Brown ; he would raife 
 the terms on which we are to live in fo- 
 ciety ; fo that, under hisadminiftration, a 
 man could enjoy little more than bare 
 fecurity in the poiTeflion of his propert}^, 
 and that upon very hard conditions. 
 The care he would take to fhackle men's 
 minds, in the firft formation of their 
 thinking powers, and to check their 
 exertions when they were formed, would, 
 I apprehend, put an effedlual (top to all 
 the noble improvements of which fociety 
 is capable. Knowledge, particularly of 
 
 the 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 275 
 
 the more fublime kinds, in the fciences 
 of morals and religion, could expedl no 
 encouragement. He would have more 
 reflri6lions laid upon the publication of 
 books. He complains, p. 103, that, in 
 the late reign, deiftical publications pro- 
 ceeded almoft without cognifance from 
 the civil magiflrate ; and ailerts (Ap- 
 pendix, p. 29) that there are many 
 opinions or principles tending evidently 
 to the deftruclion of fociety or free- 
 dom', and which, therefore, ought not 
 to be tolerated in a well ordered free 
 community. 
 
 The civil magiflrate then, according 
 to this writer, ought to control the 
 prefs, and therefore prevent, by means 
 of effecflual penalties (or elfe he doth 
 nothing) the publication of any thing, 
 that might diredlly or indiredlly, thwart 
 his views of civil policy ; which, in 
 England, comprehends the prefent form 
 of our eftabliflied religion. But fo ex- 
 tenfive is the connecflion of all kinds of 
 truth, that if a man would keep effec- 
 tually clear of the fubjed: of religion, he 
 T 2 mufl 
 
276 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 muft not indulge a free range of thought 
 near the confines of it. The fubjedls 
 of metaphyfics, morals, and natural 
 religion would be highly dangerous. 
 There might be herefy, or the founda- 
 tion of herefy, without coming near 
 revelation, or any of the peculiar doc- 
 trines of chrillianity. We muft only 
 be allowed to think for ourfelves, with- 
 out having the liberty of divulging, or, 
 in any form, publifliing our thoughts 
 to others, not even to our children, 
 A mighty privilege indeed ! and for 
 which we might think ourfelves obliged 
 to Dr. Brown, if it were in the power of 
 man to deprive us of it. This is a pri- 
 vilege which the poor wretch enjoys 
 who lives under the fame roof with a 
 Spanifli inquiiitor. Even the fubjecfls of 
 the grand feignior enjoy far greater pri- 
 vileges than thofe which Dr. Brown would 
 indulge to Engliflimen. For the greater 
 part of them are allowed to educate 
 their children in a religion, which teaches 
 them to regard Mohammed as an im- 
 poftor. Nay, the pope himfelf permits 
 thofe to live unmolefted, and under his 
 
 pro- 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 277 
 
 prote(5lion at R.ome, who look upon that 
 church, of which he calls himfelf the 
 head, as founded on fraud and falfehood, 
 and to educate their children in the 
 fame principles. Nor hath the pope, or 
 the grand feignior, ever feen reafon to 
 repent of their indulgence. 
 
 Were any more laws reflraining the 
 liberty of the prefs in force, it is impof- 
 fible to fay how far they might be con- 
 ftrued to extend. Thofe already in be- 
 ing are more than are requiiite, and in- 
 confiftent with the interefts of truth. 
 Were they to extend farther, every au- 
 thor would lie at the mercy of the mi- 
 nifters of ftate, who might condemn in- 
 difcriminately, upon fome pretence or 
 other, every work that gave them um- 
 brage ; under which circumflances might 
 fall fome of the greateft and nobleft pro- 
 duclions of the human mind, if fuch 
 works could be produced in thofe cir- 
 cumflances. For if men of genius 
 knew they could not publifli the difco- 
 veries they made, they could not give 
 free fcope to their faculties in making 
 T 3 and 
 
278 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 and purfuing thofe difcoveries. It is the 
 thought of pubhcation, and the pro- 
 fpedl of fame which is, generally, the 
 great incentive to men of genius to exert 
 their faculties, in attempting the untrod- 
 den paths of fpeculation. 
 
 In thofe unhappy circumftances, wri- 
 ters would entertain a dread of every new 
 fubje6l. No man could fafely indulge 
 liimfelf in any thing bold, enterprizing, 
 and out of the vulgar road ; and in all 
 publications we fliould fee a timidity in- 
 compatible with the fpirit of difcovery. 
 If any towering genius fliould arife in 
 thofe unfavourable circumftances, a 
 Newton in the natural world, or a Locke, 
 a Hutchefon, a Clarke, or a Hartley in the 
 moral, the only effedlual method to pre- 
 vent their diffuiing a fpirit of enterprife 
 and innovation, which is natural to fuch 
 great fouls, could be no other than that 
 which Tarquin fo fignificantly expreffed, 
 by taking off the heads of all thofe pop- 
 pies which overlooked the reft. Such men 
 could not but be dangerous, and give 
 umbrage in a country v/here it was the 
 
 maxim 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 279 
 
 maxim of the government, that every- 
 thing of importance fliould for ever re- 
 main unalterably fixed. 
 
 The v/hole of this fyflem of uniformity 
 appears to me to be founded on very nar- 
 row and fliort-fighted views of policy. 
 A man of extenfive views will overlook 
 temporary evils, with a profpe(5l of the 
 greater good which may often refult 
 from, or be infeparably connecfled with 
 them. He will bear with a few tares, 
 left, in attempting to root them out, he 
 endanger rooting up the wheat with 
 them. Unbounded free enquiry upon 
 all kinds of fubjedls may certainly be at- 
 tended with fome inconvenience, but it 
 cannot be reftrained without infinitely 
 greater inconvenience. The deiftical per- 
 formances Dr. Brown is fo much of- 
 fended at may have unfettled the minds 
 of fome people, but the minds of many 
 have been more firmly fettled, and up- 
 on better foundations than ever. The 
 fcheme of chriftianity has been far bet- 
 ter underftood, fince thofe deiftical wri- 
 tings have occafioned the fubje(5l to be 
 
 more 
 
28o THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 more thoroughly difcufTed than it had 
 been before. 
 
 Befides, if truth fland upon the falfe 
 foundation of prejudice or error, it is an 
 advantage to it to be unfettled ; and the 
 man who doth no more, and even means 
 to do no more, is, in fa(5t, its friend. 
 Another perfon feeing its deftitute and 
 bafelefs condition, may be induced to fet 
 it upon its proper foundation. Far bet- 
 ter poUcy would it be to remove the dif- 
 ficulties which ftill lie in the way of 
 free enquiry, than to throw frefh ones 
 into it. Infidels would then be deprived 
 of their mofl fuccefsful method of at- 
 tacking chriftianity, namely, infinuation ; 
 and chriflian divines might, with a more 
 manly grace, engage with the champi- 
 ons of deifm, and in fadl engage with 
 more advantage, when they both fought 
 on the fame equal ground. As things 
 are at prefent, I fhould be ailiamed to 
 fight under the flicker of the civil power, 
 while I fliw my adverfary expofed to all 
 the feveritv of it. 
 
 1^0 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 281 
 
 To the fame purpofe, I cannot help 
 quoting the authority.of Dr. Warburton, 
 Nor lefs friendly is this liberty to the 
 generous advocate of religion. For 
 how could fuch an one, when in earnefl: 
 convinced of the ftrength of evidence 
 in his caufe, defire an adverfary whoin 
 the laws had before difarmed, or value 
 a victory where the magiftrate mull 
 triumph with him ? even I, the 
 meaneftinthis controverfy, Ihouldhave 
 been afliamed of projedling the defence 
 of the great Jewifli legillator, did not I 
 know, that his alTailants and defenders 
 fkirmiflied under one equal law of li- 
 berty. And if my diflenting, in the 
 courfe of this defence, from fome com- 
 mon opinions needs an apology, I 
 fhould delire it may be thought, that 
 I ventured into this train with greater 
 confidence, that I might fliew, by not 
 intrenching myfelf in authorized fpe- 
 culations, I put myfelf upon the fame 
 footing with you [the deifls] and would- 
 claim no privilege that was not enjoy- 
 ed in common." Divine Legation, 
 
 ' 7. 
 
 But 
 
282 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 But forry I am, that the paragraph 
 which immediately follows, how proper 
 foever it might be when it was written, 
 looks like a tantalizing of his unfortu- 
 nate adverfaries. " This liberty, then, 
 may you long poflefs, know how to 
 ufe, and gratefully to acknowlege it. 
 I fay this, becaufe one cannot, with- 
 out indignation, obferve, that, amidfl 
 the full enjoyrrient of it, you (till con- 
 tinue, with the meanell afFec5lation, 
 to fill your prefaces with repeated 
 clamours againfl: the difficulties and 
 difcouragements attending the exer- 
 cife of free thinking ; and in a pe- 
 culiar fcrain of modefty and reafon- 
 ing, make ufe of this very liberty to 
 perfuade the world you flill want it. 
 In extolling liberty we can join with 
 you, in the vanity of pretending to 
 have contributed moft to its eftablifli- 
 ment we can bear with you, but in the 
 low cunning of pretending lUll to lie 
 under reftraints, we can neither join 
 nor bear with you. There vv^as, indeed, 
 a time, and that within our memo- 
 ries, when fuch complaints were fea- 
 
 " fonable 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 283 
 
 " fonable, and meritorious ; but, happy 
 " for you gentlemen, you have outlived 
 '' it. All the reft is merely fir Martin, 
 " it is continuing to fumble at the 
 " lute though the mufic has been long 
 " over." 
 
 Let Peter Annet * (if he dare) write a 
 comment on this pafliige. So far are 
 deifts from having free liberty to publifli 
 their fentiments, that even many^chrif- 
 tians cannot fpeak out with fafety. In 
 prefent circumftances, every chriftian di- 
 vine is not at liberty to make ufe of thofe 
 arguments which, he may think, would 
 fupply the beft defence of chriftianity. 
 What are, in the opinion of many, the 
 very foundations of our faith, are in a 
 ruinous condition, and muft be repaired 
 before it will be to any purpofe to beau- 
 tify and adorn the fuperftrudure ; but 
 the man who fhould have the truecourao-e 
 and judgment, to go near enough to fuch 
 
 rot- 
 
 * Written in 1765, when that unfortunate man was 
 juft come out of Bridewell, where he had fuffered a 
 year's imprifonment and hard labour, for making 
 fome free remarks on the books of Mofes. 
 
2^4 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 rotten foundations, would be thought to 
 mean nothing lefs than to underiTirine 
 them, and intirely deftroy the whole fa- 
 bric. His very brethren would ftand oiF 
 from him, thinking him in league with 
 their adveriaries ; and, by an ill judging 
 zeal, might call in the deftraclive aid of 
 the civil power to flop his hand. In con- 
 fequence of v/hich, notwithftanding his 
 moil laudable zeal in favour of our holy 
 religion, he might ftand upon the fame 
 pillory, and be thrown into the fame 
 prifon with" wretched and harmlefs infi- 
 dels. Many undoubted friends of chrif- 
 tianity, and men of the moft enlarged 
 minds, will know and feel what I inean. 
 
 Hitherto, indeed, few of the friends 
 of free inquiry among chriftians have 
 been more than partial advocates for it. 
 If they find themfelves under any diffi- 
 culty with refpc(5L to their own fenti- 
 ments, they complain, and plead ftrong- 
 ly for the rights of confcience, of private 
 iudgment, and of free inquiry ; but 
 when they have gotten room enough for 
 themfelves, they are quite eafy, and in 
 
 no 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 285 
 
 no pain for others. The papifl mud 
 have Uberty to write againft Pagans, 
 Mohammedans, and Jews ; but he can- 
 not bear with protePtants. Writers in 
 defence of the church of England juflify 
 their feparation from the church of 
 Rome, but, with the moft glaring in- 
 confiflency, call the protellant diflenters, 
 fchifmatics ; and many diffenters, for- 
 getting the fundamental principles of 
 their diilent, which are the fame that are 
 afferted by all chrifhians and proteftants 
 in fimilar circumltances, difcourage every 
 degree of liberty greater than they them- 
 felves have taken, and have as great an 
 averfion to thofe whom they are pleafed to 
 call heretics, as papilfs have for protef- 
 tants, or as Laud had for the old puritans. 
 
 But why fhould we confine our neigh- 
 bour, who may want more room, in the 
 fame narrow limits with ourfelves. The 
 wider we make the common circle of 
 liberty, the more of its friends will it re- 
 ceive, and the ftronger will be the com- 
 mon intereft. Whatever be the parti- 
 cular views of the numerous tribes of 
 
 fearchers 
 
 lr=^ 
 
286 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 fearchers after truth, under whatever 
 denomination we may be ranked ; whe- 
 ther we be called, or call ourfelves chrif- 
 tians, papifts, proteftants, diffenters, he- 
 retics, or even deifls (for all are equal 
 here, all are acfluated by the fame fpirit, 
 and all engaged in the fame caufe) we 
 flandin need of the fame liberty of think- 
 ing, debating, and publifliing. Let us, 
 then, as far as our intereft is the fame, 
 with one heart and voice. Hand up for it. 
 Not one of us can hurt his neighbour, 
 without ufing a weapon which, in the 
 hand of power, might as well ferve to 
 chaftife himfelf. The prefent ftate of 
 the Englifli government (including both 
 the laws, and the adminifhration, which 
 often corrects the rigour of the law) may, 
 perhaps, bear my own opinions without 
 taking much umbrage ; but I could wifh 
 to congratulate many of my brother free- 
 thinkers, on the greater indulgence which 
 their more heretical fentiments may re- 
 quire. 
 
 To the honour of the Quakers be it 
 fpoken, that they are the only body of 
 
 chriflians 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 287 
 
 cliriftians wlio have tiniformly main- 
 tained the principles of chriftian Hberty, 
 and toleration. Every other body of men 
 have turned perfeciitors Vv4ien they had 
 povv^er. Papifts have perfecuted the pro- 
 teftants, the church of England has perfe- 
 cuted the dilTenters, and other diffenters, in 
 loiing their name, loll: that fpirit of chrif- 
 tian charity, which feemed to be efTential 
 to them. Short was their fun-fhine of 
 power, and thankful may Britain, and 
 the prefent diffenters be, that it was fo. 
 But the Quakers, though eftabliflied in 
 Penfylvania, have perfecuted none. This 
 glorious principle fecms fo intimately 
 connected with the fundamental maxims 
 of their fe6l, that it may be fairly pre- 
 fumed, the moderation they have hither- 
 to fliown is not to be afcribed to the 
 fmallnefs of their party, or to their fear 
 of reprilals. For this reafon, if I were 
 to pray for the general prevalence of any 
 one feci of chriftians (vv^hlch I Ihould 
 not think it for the interefb of chriftiani- 
 ty to take place, even though I fhould 
 fettle the articles rf it myfelf ) it fliould 
 be that of the Quakers 5 becaufe, diffe- 
 rent 
 
288 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 rent as my opinions are from theirs, I 
 have fo much confidence in their m^ode- 
 ration, that I behcve they would let me 
 live, v/rite, and publilh what I pleafed 
 nnmolelled among them. And this I 
 own, is more than I could promife rny- 
 feif from any other body of chriflians 
 whatever ; the preihyterians by no means 
 excepted. 
 
 The objedl of this forced uniformity 
 is narrow and illiberal, unworthy of 
 human nature. Suppoiing it accom- 
 plifiied, what is it poiiible to gain by it, 
 but, perhaps, a more obflinate and blind 
 belief in the vulgar ; while men of fenfe, 
 feeing thenifel ves debarred the very means 
 of convi(ftion, muft of courfe be infidels ? 
 In thofe circumitances, it would really be 
 an argument of a man's want of fpirit, of 
 fenfe, and even of virtue to be a believer, 
 becaufe he v^^ould believe without fuffi- 
 clent evidence. Who would not, with 
 every appearance of judice, fufpedl any 
 caufe, when he was not allowed to exa- 
 mine the arguments againft it, and was 
 only preffed with thofe in its favour ? 
 
 What 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 2^ 
 
 What fenfible and upright judge would 
 decide a caufe, where all the witneiles on 
 one fide were by violence prevented from 
 giving their evidence ? Thofe who con- 
 verfe with deifts well know, that one of 
 their ftrongeft objedlions to chrillianity 
 arifes from hence, that none of the early 
 writings againfl it are preferved. How 
 much ftronger, and even unanfwerable, 
 M^ould that obje6lion have been, if chrif- 
 tianity had been, from the beginning, fo 
 efFeclually protected by the civil magi- 
 flrate, that no perfon had dared to write 
 againft it at all. Such friends to the evi- 
 dence and true interefls of chriftianity, 
 are all thofe who would fupprefs deillical 
 writings at this day ! 
 
 Suppofe any article in a fyfcem of 
 faith, fo eftabliilied and guarded, to be 
 wrong, which is certainly a very modeft 
 fuppofition ; let any of the advocates of 
 this fcheme fay, how it is poflible it 
 fhould ever be redlified ; or that, if the 
 truth fhould infinuate itfelf, by any a- 
 venue which they had not fufEciently 
 guarded, how it could bring its evidence 
 V along 
 
290 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 along with it, fo as to command the at- 
 tention and acceptance which it deferved. 
 
 Indeed, it is not fo much from the 
 miflaken friends of truth that we appre- 
 hend thefe meafures of rigid uniformity ; 
 but rather fromthofe who would facrifice 
 truth, and every other coniideration to 
 public tranquility ; from thofe mere 
 STATESMEN who, lookiug upou all 
 fyilems of religion to be equally falfe, 
 and not able to bear examination, will 
 not fufxer that examination to take place ; 
 for fear of deftroying a fyflem, which, 
 however falfe, they imagine to be ne- 
 cefTary to the peace and well being of 
 the (late. The moft unrelenting perfe- 
 cution is to be apprehended, not from 
 bigots, but from infidels. A bigot, who 
 is fo from a principle of confcience, may 
 poiiibly be moved by a regard to the 
 coniciences of others ; but the man who 
 thinks that confcience ought always to 
 be facrificed to political views, has no 
 principle on which an argument in fa- 
 vour of moderation can lay hold. Was 
 not Bolingbroke the greatefi promoter of 
 
 the 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 291 
 
 the fchifm bill in England, and Richlieu 
 of the perfecution of the proteflants in 
 France t 
 
 Befides, as was, in fome meafure, ob- 
 ferved before, all thefe fyflems of uni- 
 formity, in political or religious in- 
 flitutions, are the higheft injuftice to 
 pofterity. What natural right have we 
 to judge for them, any more than 
 our anceflors had to judge for tis ? 
 Our anceftors, from the time of the 
 Britons, had, no doubt, as high an opi- 
 nion of their political and religious in- 
 flitutions as we can have of ours. But 
 fliould we not have thought the fate 
 of Great-Britain fingularly unhappy, if 
 they had been entailed upon us? and 
 the very fame reafon of complaint will 
 our pofterity have, if we take any me- 
 thods to perpetuate what we approve, 
 as beft for ourfelves in our prefent 
 circumftances ; for farther than this we 
 cannot pretend to fee. 
 
 Let us, by all means, make our own 
 circumftances aseafy as pofliblej but let 
 
 V 2 MB 
 
292 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 us lay pofterity under no difficulty in 
 improving theirs, if they fee it con- 
 venient : rather, let all plans of policy 
 be fuch as w411 eaiily admit of exten- 
 fion, and improvements of all kinds, 
 and that the leaft violence, or difficulty 
 of any kind, may attend the making 
 of them. This is, at leaf!:, very de- 
 firable, and I believe it is far from be- 
 ing impradlicable. However, though it 
 fliouldnoL be thought proper to unfix any 
 thing which is at prefent eftabliflied, 
 let us proceed no farther than is ma- 
 nifeftly neceiTary in thofe eflablilliments. 
 
 Poflerity, it may be faid, will never 
 complain of our inftitutions, when they 
 have been educated in a ftrong and invin- 
 cible attachment to them. It is true ; and 
 had we been pagans or papifts, through 
 a fimilar fyftem of education, fixed in 
 a more early period, we fliould not 
 have complained. We, like the old 
 Spartans, or the fons of bigotry in Spain 
 and Portugal at prefent, might have been 
 hugging our chains, and even proud of 
 them. But other perfons, who could 
 
 have 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 293 
 
 have made a comparifon between our 
 adlual condition, and what it would have 
 been, had thofe inftitutions not been 
 made, would have complained for us. 
 They would have feen us to be a lefs 
 great, wife, and happy people ; which 
 affords the fame argument againfl 
 throwing difliculties in the way of fu- 
 ture improvements. 
 
 Highly as we think of the wifdom of 
 our anceftors, we juflly think ourfelves, 
 of the prefent age, wifer, and, if we be 
 not blinded by the mere prejudice of 
 education, mufh fee, that we can, in 
 many refpedls, improve upon the inili- 
 tutions they have tranfmitted to us. Let 
 us not doubt, but that every generation 
 in pofterity will be as much fuperior to 
 us in political, and in all kinds of know- 
 ledge, and that they will be able to im- 
 prove upon the bell civil and religious in- 
 ftitutions that we can prefcribe for 
 them. Inftead then of adding to the dif- 
 ficulties, which we ourfelves find in mak- 
 ing the improvements we wifli to intro- 
 
 V 3 duce, 
 
294 
 
 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 duce, let us make this great and defirable 
 work eafier to them than it has been to us. 
 
 However, fuch is the progrefs of 
 knowledge, and the enlargement of the 
 human mind, that, in future time, not- 
 withftanding all pofTible obftru(5lions 
 thrown in the way of human genius, 
 men of great and exalted views will un- 
 doubtedly arife, who will fee through and 
 deteft our narrow politics ; when the ill- 
 advifers and ill-advifed authors of thefe 
 illiberal and contradled fchemes will be 
 remembered with infamy and execration ; 
 and when, notwithftanding their talents 
 as itatefmen or writers, and though they 
 may have purfued the fame mind-enflav- 
 ing' fchemes by more artful, and lefs 
 fanguinary methods, they will be rank- 
 ed among the Bonners and the Gardi- 
 ners of pad ages. They muft be worfe 
 than Bonners and Gardiners, who could 
 purfue the fame ends by the fame means, 
 in this more humane and more enlight- 
 ened age. 
 
 The 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 295 
 
 The time may come, when this coun- 
 try of Great- Britain lliall lofe her liber- 
 ty. There are, who think they perceive 
 too many fymptoms of this approach - 
 ing lofs ; but while the precious moments 
 of freedoin remain, let us, at leaft, in- 
 dulge ourfelves in the gloomy fatisfac- 
 tion of predicting the infamy, that will 
 certainly overwhelm the authors of our 
 fervitude ; whether they be future kings, 
 and their tools the minifters, or mini- 
 flers, and their tools the kings. 
 
 Indeed, minifters are much more to 
 be fufpe(5led of defigns upon the liberties 
 of a people than kings. For, in all ar- 
 bitrary governments, it is the minifler 
 that is, in fadl, poireiFed of the power of 
 the ftate, the prince having nothing but 
 the name, and the burdenfome pagean- 
 try of it. Thofe princes, therefore, v/ho 
 liften to fuch pernicious advice, are, iu 
 reality, fubmitting their own necks, and 
 thofe of their poflerity, to the yoke of 
 their fervants. For, fuch is the condi- 
 tion of human affairs, that, in all the 
 fuccefiions of arbitrary princes, 7iine have 
 
 been 
 
296 THE PROGRESS o;F 
 
 been weak, and governed by others, for 
 one who has been able to govern him- 
 felf ; and in defpotic monarchies, the 
 chance of having able fovereigns is, on 
 many accounts, much lefs than in others. 
 
 This feems to be the time, when the 
 minds of men are opening to large and 
 generous views of things. Politics are 
 more extended in pradlice, and better 
 underitood in theory. Religious know- 
 ledge is greatly advanced, and the prin- 
 ciple of uni'uerfal toleration is gaining 
 ground apace. Schemes of ecclefiaftical 
 policy, which, in times of barbarity, 
 ignorance, and fuperftition, were inti- 
 mately interwoven with fchemes of civil 
 policy, and which, in fa(fl, made the 
 greateft part of the old political mixed 
 conftitution, have been gradually ex- 
 cluded ; till, at prefent, though eccle- 
 fiaftical power be looked upon as an ufe- 
 ful fiipport and auxiliary of civil govern- 
 ment, it is pretty much detached from 
 it. And the more fenfible part of man- 
 kind are evidently in a progrefs to the be- 
 lief, that ecclefiaftical and civil jurifdidli- 
 
 on. 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 297 
 
 on, being things of a totally difFerent na- 
 ture, ought, if polTible, to be wholly difen- 
 gaged from one another. Religious fenti- 
 ments, with refpedl to their iniluence on 
 civil fociety, will perhaps be regarded, in 
 time, as a theory of morals, only of a 
 higher and more perfed kind, excellent 
 to enforce a regard to magiftracy, and 
 the political duties, but improperly 
 adopted into the fame fyftem and en- 
 forced by the fame penalties. Till we 
 know whether this work, which feems 
 to be going forward in feveral parts of 
 Europe, be of God, or not, let us not 
 take, at leafh any rigid and violent me- 
 thods to oppofeit, but patiently wait the 
 iffue ; unlefs, in the mean time, the dif- 
 orders of the flate abfolutely force us in- 
 to violent meafures. At prefent, not- 
 withflanding fome trifling alarm, per- 
 haps artfully raifed and propagated, 
 miay feem to give a handle to the friends 
 of arbitrary power to make ufe of fome 
 degree of coercion, more gentle mea- 
 fures feem better adapted to enfure tran- 
 quility. 
 
 England 
 
298 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 England hath hitherto taken the lead 
 in almofh eyeiy thing great and good, 
 and her citizens ftand foiemoft in the 
 annals of fame, as having fhaken ofi^ the 
 fetters which hung upon the human 
 mind, and called it forth to the exertion 
 of its nobleft powers ; and her con- 
 ftitution has been fo far from receiving 
 any injury from the efforts of thefe her 
 free born enterprifing fons, that fhe is, 
 in part, indebted to them for the unri- 
 valled reputation fhe now enjoys, of hav- 
 ing the befl fyfcem of policy in Europe. 
 After weathering fo many real ftorms, 
 let us not quit the helm at the appre- 
 henfion of imaginary dangers, but ftea- 
 dily hold on in v/hat, I truil, is the moil 
 9-lorious courfe that a human j^overn- 
 
 o p 
 
 ment can be in. Let all the friends of 
 liberty and human nature join to free 
 the minds of men from the fliackles of 
 narrow and impolitic laws. Let us be 
 free ourfelves, and leave the bleiTmgs of 
 freedom to our pofterity. 
 
 No nation ever was, or can be truly 
 great, powerful, and happy by purfaing 
 
 oppreiUve 
 
CIVIL SOCIETIES. 
 
 299 
 
 oppreflive and perfecuting meafures. And 
 a fovereign, who has a true ienfe of his 
 prefent and fuiure glory, mufl fee it can 
 only arife from his being the head of a 
 great, powerful, and happy nation, made, 
 or continued fo, by himfelf. His bed 
 friends are thofe who would raife his 
 greatnefs, by augmenting the great- 
 nefs of the people over whom he pre- 
 fides. He himfelf muft fee the ab- 
 surdity of every fcheme which propofes 
 to raife his characfter at the expence of 
 that of his country ; as if it were pofTible 
 to deprefs the people to the condition of 
 Haves, without finking the fovereign 
 into a mafler of fuch (laves. Poor pre- 
 eminence ! Such maxims may have in- 
 fluence with Aliatic monarclis, but can 
 never impofe on a fovereign of Great- 
 Britain, educated in Britilh principles, 
 and with a jufl regard to the privileges 
 of his fubjecls, v/ith which his ovt/n true 
 dignity is infeparably connedled. 
 
 The nation will execrate, and the dif- 
 cerning prince will fee through, and de- 
 teflthemeannefs of that adulation, which, 
 
 however 
 
300 THE PROGRESS OF 
 
 however difguifed, would tend to enflave 
 the kingdom, and debafe the king. The 
 meaneft tool of the meanefl party may 
 exclaim againft licentioufnefs and facflion; 
 men of genius, learning, and integrity 
 may, through the force of prejudice, be 
 induced to join in the cry ; and courtiers 
 may think to recommend themfelves to 
 a fovereign by any meafures which tend 
 to quiet the clamours of the people ; but 
 the true enemy of fedition, and he who 
 moft efFedlually pays his court to a wife 
 and good prince, is the man, who, with- 
 out any views of preferment, propofes, 
 with a manly freedom, whatever he 
 thinks conducive to the greatnefs and 
 glory of his country. This condudl 
 cannot fail, both to give fatisfadiion to 
 his fellov/ citizens, and enfure him the 
 efteem of his prince ; becaufe flich mea- 
 fures will proportionably raife the luftre 
 of all ranks of men in the flate, will 
 make a wife prince the idol of a grateful 
 nation, and endear his memory to the 
 iateft poflerity. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
THE 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 C E C T I O N I. — Of thefirjl principles of go- 
 vernment^ and the different kinds of liberty, 
 
 II. Of political liberty, — — - ii 
 
 III. Of civil liberty, — — 48 
 
 IV. In what manner an authoritative code of edu- 
 
 cation would affe5i political and civil li- 
 berty, — — — 76 
 
 V. Of religious liberty and toleration in general, 
 
 VI. Some difiinEiions that have been made on the 
 
 fiibjeti of religious liberty and toleration 
 conjidered, — — 137 
 
 VII. Farther obfervations concerning the extent of 
 
 ecclefiaftical authority, and the power of 
 civil governors in matters of religion, ic^t. 
 
 VIII. Of the neceffity or utility of ecclejtajiical 
 eftablifhments, — — — 181 
 
 IX. A review of fame particular pofitions of Dr. 
 
 Balguy'^s, on the fubje£i of church autho- 
 rity, — — 208 
 
 X. Of the progrefs of civil focieties, to a fiate of 
 
 greater perfection, fhewing that it is re- 
 tarded by encroachments on civil and religious 
 liberty, — . — 249 
 
BOOKS written 
 By JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, L.L. D. F.R. S. 
 
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