214 CIVIL POWER IN THINGS SACRED. sonable and lawful for aheathen governor to impose uponChris.. tians ; because the religion of Christ ¿lakes no change in the nature of civil power. IV. Nor do I know how to vindicate a Christian state in propagating their own religion by any such methods of corn- pulsion or penalty, which a heathen state might not also use for the support and encouragement of theirs : And therefore I cannot see it lawful for any civil power in christendom to suppress the publication of any new, strange, or foreign sects or parties in religion, where they promise and pay due 'alle- giance to the rulers, support the government, maintain the public peace, and molest not the state ': Nor do I see good reason to make any such laws, or execute any such punish- ments against the peaceable preachers of any sect or party, which we Christians should have thought unreasonableor unlaw- ful for the civil powers of Athens to have made and executed against St. Paul, when in the midst of a heathen nation on Mars-hill he preached Jesus and the resurrection Acts xvii. 22. In all our reasonings and writings on this important subject, let us take heed to allow no such power or dominion to men, which would have excluded the best of religions, that is, the religion of Christ out ofthe world. V. I know it has been said upon these occasions, that the christian magistrate has right to persecute or suppress the Pagan religion, because it is false, whereas the Pagan magistrate has no right to suppress Christianity, because it is true: And though these pretences to truth may be contended on both sides, yet since one may be proved to be true, and the other to be false, truth lias always a right on its side which falsehood can never have. I answer, Every one who sets up for a persecutor, will pretend he is orthodox, and has the right on his side, and there is no common supreme court of judicature that can decide this matter, till the Supreme Judge of all appears in the last great day: And therefore since the pretences on either side are not sufficient to determine the jus- tice of the persecution, or suppression of the other side, and since there is no common supreme court to which they can both appeal in this world, it follows evidently that each profession must allow liberty and toleration to the other, where the welfare of the state is secure, and brought into no danger by the prac- tices of the inferior party. I might on this occasion recommend a book of Mr. Payle's, entitled "a Philosophical Commentary on Luke xiv. 23, compelthem to come in," written in two volumes octavo, wherein after he has gone through all the controversy about persecution, lie adds a supplement to prove'heretics have as much right to persecute the orthodox, as the orthodox have to persecute them.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=