第21章

That this has been hitherto the ordinary course of things is abundantly evident in history,and that it will continue to be so hereafter is but too apparent in reason.It cannot indeed,be otherwise so long as the principle of persecution for religion shall prevail,as it has done hitherto,with magistrate and people,and so long as those that ought to be the preachers of peace and concord shall continue with all their art and strength to excite men to arms and sound the trumpet of war.But that magistrates should thus suffer these incendiaries and disturbers of the public peace might justly be wondered at if it did not appear that they have been invited by them unto a participation of the spoil,and have therefore thought fit to make use of their covetousness and pride as means whereby to increase their own power.For who does not see that these good men are,indeed,more ministers of the government than ministers of the Gospel and that,by flattering the ambition and favouring the dominion of princes and men in authority,they endeavour with all their might to promote that tyranny in the commonwealth which otherwise they should not be able to establish in the Church?This is the unhappy agreement that we see between the Church and State.Whereas if each of them would contain itself within its own bounds-the one attending to the worldly welfare of the commonwealth,the other to the salvation of souls-it is impossible that any discord should ever have happened between them.Sed pudet hoec opprobria.etc.God Almighty grant,I beseech Him,that the gospel of peace may at length be preached,and that civil magistrates,growing more careful to conform their own consciences to the law of God and less solicitous about the binding of other men's consciences by human laws,may,like fathers of their country,direct all their counsels and endeavours to promote universally the civil welfare of all their children,except only of such as are arrogant,ungovernable,and injurious to their brethren;and that all ecclesiastical men,who boast themselves to be the successors of the Apostles,walking peaceably and modestly in the Apostles'steps,without intermeddling with State Affairs,may apply themselves wholly to promote the salvation of souls.FAREWELL.PERHAPS it may not be amiss to add a few things concerning heresy and schism.A Turk is not,nor can be,either heretic or schismatic to a Christian;and if any man fall off from the Christian faith to Mahometism,he does not thereby become a heretic or schismatic,but an apostate and an infidel.

This nobody doubts of;and by this it appears that men of different religions cannot be heretics or schismatics to one another.We are to inquire,therefore,what men are of the same religion.Concerning which it is manifest that those who have one and the same rule of faith and worship are of the same religion;and those who have not the same rule of faith and worship are of different religions.For since all things that belong unto that religion are contained in that rule,it follows necessarily that those who agree in one rule are of one and the same religion,and vice versa.Thus Turks and Christians are of different religions,because these take the Holy Scriptures to be the rule of their religion,and those the Alcoran.And for the same reason there may be different religions also even amongst Christians.