APPENDIX. 217 before the civil magistrate, in order to be punished as the laws of the land direct. And if I were to speak here peculiarly of thecbristian church, I would say, that it has no power to punish its own officersor members according to scripture,far any crime whatsoever, but one of these three ways, viz. byan admonition or reproof given publicly in the church, by suspension or exclu- sion from the office they bore therein, or from the communionof the church for a season, or by utter exclusion of them from the church, which is called excommunication: Andthe civil magistrate may punish the same persons, if their crimes affect the public welfare, with death or imprisonment, or any other civil penalty which the law of the land appoints. VII. If nothing be found in any of these societies or their members, contrary to the interests of thestateor welfare of the people, then they may by their professed allegiance to the state, claim protection of the state ; the rulers of the state have no proper power nor authority to hinder them from meeting in their several societies, which were instituted for different purposes, but they are bound to defend them as good subjects. Nor have magistrates any power todetermine the greateror the lesser offices, rules, actions, circum- stances, otany affairs relating purely to these distinctsocieties: They have no power to appoint the painters, who should be their president, or when they shall meet, or what sort of pencils, or what colours they shall use; nor have the rulersof thestate any right to require the philosophers to change anyof their opinions, orto read Plato, or Zeno, or Aristotle, onto alter the courseof their lectures ; nor can they impose rules on the assembly of deists, when to sit, or stand, or kneel ; nor should they command the Jews when theyshall wash themselves, or what flesh they shall eat ; nor impose upon the chris- tians, who shall. be theirteachers, or what habits orgarments they shall wear, or what gestures they shall use in their preaching or singing, or any other parts of their worship. In these things the state has no power to interpose, where the public welfare of the city or nation receives no danger or damage. VIII. It is granted indeed, that if the necessity or welfare of any such city or state require that foreign silk shall not be worn, nor any foreign paperbe used, in order to encourage a national manufacture, or that no person shall appear without a woollen garment upon them, to promote the breeding of sheep; or that veal shall not be eaten, nor calves be slain for a twelve- month, inorder to maintain a breed of cattle after a great murrain, &c. All these societies ought to submit their particular rules and their personal liberty to these laws of the state,and to complywith them as the state enjoins. Bot where the affairs, exigencies or benefits of the statedo not require such commands or prohibitions, there these private societies and their actions are not to he modelled and determined by the mere humour, or caprice, or arbi- trary will of a magistrate. IX. Perhaps you will say, are not civil magistrates to be obeyed " in omnibus licitis & honestis," that is, " in all things that are lawful and honest ?" And if magistrates require several of these particular actions or circumstances of action to be performed according to their will in these several societies, ought not the societies to obey them, provided there is nothing commanded but what is honest andlawful? To this I answer, X. That I have read of an oath of obedience `yin omnibus licitis 8c honestis," " in all things lawful and honest," required and imposed by eccle- siastical superiors, whether justly or no,.Lsay not: but I never knew that this was the just limitation of obedience due to civil powers : For since the authority of the civil power reaches only to the common welfare and safety of the stateand people, the sworn obedience of subjects can be required only in thingsthat relate to the welfareof the peopleand the state. I never heard that those famous words loyalty and allegiance which are suoften used in our nation, signified any moro than our obligation and our readiness to obey the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=