Now, I am mistaken if this principle, that the civil magistrate ought to condemn, suppress, and persecute every one that he is con- vinced to err, though in smaller things, do not at length, in things of gi-eater importance, make Christendom a very theatre of bloody murders, killing, slaying, imprisoning men round in a compass ; until the strongest becomes dictator to the rest, and he alone be supposed to have infallible guidance, — all the rest to be heretics, because over- come and subdued. (When I speak of death and killing in this dis- course, I understand not only forcible death itself, but that also which is equivalent thereunto, as banishment, or perpetual imprisonment.) I had almost said, that it is the interest of mortality to consent generally to the j)ersecution of a man maintaining such a destrvictive opinion.
7. That whatsoever restraint or other punishment may be allowed in case of grosser en'ors, yet slaying of heretics for simple heresy, as they call it, for my part I cannot close withal ; nor shall ever give my
64- A COUNTRY ESSAY
vote to the burning, hanging, or killing of a man, otherwise upright, honest, and peaceable in the state, merely because he misbelieveth any point of Christian faith. Let what pretences you please be pro- duced, or colours flourished, I should be very unwilling to pronounce the sentence of blood in the case of heresy. I do not intend here to dispute ; but if any one will, upon Protestant principles and Scripture gi'ounds, undertake to assert it, I promise (if God grant me life) he shall not want a convert or an antagonist. I know the usual pre- tences: Such a thing is blasphemy. — But search the Scripture, look upon the definitions of divines, and by all men's consent you will find heresy, in what head of religion soever it be, and blasphemy properly so called, to be exceedingly distant. Let a blasphemer undergo the law of blasphemy ; but yet I think we cannot be too cautious how we place men in that damnable series calling heaven and earth to witness the contrary. But again: To spread such errors will be destructive to souls. — So are many things, which yet are not punishable with forcible death. Let him that thinks so go kill Pagans and Mohammedans. As such heresy is a canker, but a spiritual one, let it be prevented by spiritual means. Cutting off men's heads is no proper remedy for it. If state physicians think otherwise, I say no more, but that I am not of the college, and what I have already said I submit to better judgments.
8. It may be seriously considered, upon a view of the state and condition of Christians, since their name was known in the world, whether this doctrine of punishing erring persons with death, impri- sonment, banishment, and the like, under the name of heretics, hath not been as useful and advantageous for error as truth ; nay, whether it hath not appeared the most pernicious invention that ever was broached. In the first, second, and third ages, we hear little of it, — nothing for it, — something against it : — much afterward against it, in Austin and others.^ Marlinus, the famous French bishop, rejected the communion of a company of his associate bishops, because they had consented, with Maximus the emperor, unto the death of the Priscillianists, — as vile heretics as ever breathed. At the end of the fourth and l)eginning of the fifth century, when the Arians and ortho- dox had successively procured the suju'cme magistrate to join with them, men were killed and dismembered like beasts: banishments, imprisonments, plunderings, especially by the Arians, were as frequent as in new subdued kingdoms. But never was this tragedy so acted to the life, as by the worshippers of images on the one side, and their adversaries on the other :^ which difference rose about the year 130,
' Tcv; //.urouvTct; rev ©tov, ftiiruv XP'I ""' ^/»«f, xa) IwJ to~s ix^P"'' a^"^"" ix-rriKiirSar ch f/.hv xai TVTTiiv avrovs »i "hiuKiiv, xa^ag to, eVvo to. fiii iiioTct 'rot Kvpiiii xxi 0iiiv' aX\ iX^povs fiiv iiySirdai, xai X'^P'i'-'^^^' "■■^' '^u'r^'- — IgUilt. Fji)ist. ad Philivd.
■■' Tlieopluiiics. llistor. ftliscol., lib. xxii. cap. 30.
FOE THE PRACTICE OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 65
and was earned on with that barbarous outrage on both sides, espe- cially by the Iconolatras (as the worst were ever best at such proceed- ings), as is wonderful to consider. Now, excepting only tliose idola- trous heretics in the last, who were paid home in their own coin for a thousand years together, this doctrine was put in practice against none almost but the martyrs of Jesus. The Roman stories of the killing of heretics, are all martyi'ologies ; thousands slain for heretics now lie under the altar, crying for vengeance, and shall one day sit upon thrones, judging their judges. So that where one man hath suffered for an error, under the name of a heretic, five himdred under the same notion have suffered for truth ; a principle would seem more befitting Christians to spare five hundred for the saving of one guilt- less person. Truth hath felt more of the teeth of this scorpion than error; and clearly it grew up by degrees, with the whole mysteiy of iniquity. In the gospel we have nothing like it: the acts of Christ purg'ing the temple, Peter pronouncing the fate of Ananias, and Paul smiting Ely mas with blindness, seem to me heterogeneous. The first laws of Constantino speak liberty and freedom.' Pecuniaiy mulcts afterward were added, and general edicts against all sects; and so it IS put over into the hands of the Arians, who exceedingly cherished it: yet for a good while pretences must be sought out,— Eustathius of Antioch must be accused of adultery,— Athanasius of sedition, magic, and I know not what,— that a colour might be had for their persecu- tion.' The Arian kings in Africa were the first that owned it, yuju.v^ xB(paXfi\ and acted according to their persuasions. Methinks I hear the cries of poor dismembered, mangled creatures, for the faith of the holy Trinity ! Next to these, through a few civil constitutions of some weak emperors, it wholly comes to reside in the hands of the pope; kings and princes are made his executioners, and he plays his game to the purpose. Single persons serve not this Bel and dragon, —whole nations'* must be slaughtered, that he may be drunk with blood. He sends whole armies to crucify Christ afresh,— he gives every one of his soldiers a cross; hence followed cruel sights, bloody battles, wastmg of kingdoms, raging against the names, ashes, sepulchres of the dead, with more than heathenish cruelty. Such evil fruits hath this bitter root sent forth, the streams of this fountain have all been blood ; so that it cannot be denied but that a judicature of truth, and the contrary assumed, with a forcible backing of the sen- tence, was the bottom-stone in the foundation and highest in the corner of the tower of Babel: and I believe that upon search it will appear, that error hath not been advanced by anything m the world so much as by usurping a power for its suppression. In divers con-