whatsoever, as fad experience hath made manifeft. Governours invading this particular natural right of men's examining and judging for themselves, has been the original spring and fountain from whence have flowed all thofe cruel and lamentable barbarities of imprisonment and banishment, burnings and maffecres, wars and bloodfhed, confifcating of goods, laying cities and countries wafte, and all the miseries that attend it; I fay, all these that have been practifed by the chriftian world, upon the account of religion, have been caused by governours invading the aforefaid natural proper ty of their people.

If it fhould be objected, that the allowing all men a liberty to examine and judge for themselves, as aforefaid, has a tendency to pervert men's minds, by opening a door to all forts of errors and berefies; and therefore fuch a liberty ought to be reftrained, by obliging all focieties to fubmit their judgments to the judgment of thofe to whofe care and government they are committed, who are fuppofed to be better qualified to examine and judge for them, than they are for themselves.

Anfwer, firft, that governours are better qualified to examine and judge what is truth, and what is error, than thofe focieties committed to their care, is not always true in fact; but fuppofing it were, yet ftill every man muft examine and judge for himself, because every man is accountable for himself, and muft anfwer for his own opinions and actions at the day of judgment; no man being there fubftituted to anfwer, or to be punished or rewarded for another man's actions, any farther then he hath been an acceffory in thofe actions; and in that cafe he answers only for that part which he was an acceffory in, and the acter himself must give an account for all the part he bore in thofe acts.

Answer,

Anfwer, fecondly, that men's enjoying their. right and property, in examining and judging for themselves, has a tendency to pervert men's minds is not true; becaufe examination is a friend and not an enemy to truth. Error and falfhood are what will not abide examination; and therefore they fly from it, and feek to human laws for fanctuary and propagation. How many errors are there in the Church of Rome, which probably would foon vanish, were they not defended and propagated by human laws? whereas truth loves the light, and comes to the light, and submits herself to every man's examination. Truth will bear examination, and thrives by it, and never fuffers more than when the is furrounded with darkness. Truth is beft guarded and propagated by free examination, and has no need or propagation by human laws, becaufe fhe can better recommend herself without them; and therefore the allowing all men a liberty to examine and judge for themselves, has not a tendency, i itself to pervert men's minds, as the objection fuppofes.

Answer, thirdly, allowing that fuch a liberty, opens a door to all forts of errors, as the objection fets forth, yet it does not follow that therefore it ought to be taken away; it being very unreafonable and unjuft to infer, that because fome men have mifapplied and abufed their property, therefore all. property muft be taken away; fuch kind of reafoning as this would deprive all mankind of every priviledge and comfort they enjoy, yea, even of life it felf; to allow men the ufe of fpeech, opens a door to lying, perjury, flander, blafphemy, and a multitude of other diforders of the tongue; and therefore 'tis neceffary (according to this fort of reafoning) that the ufe of fpeech fhould be taken away from fociety. Eating and drinking opens a door to gluttony and drunkenness, to riots and difer L 2

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eating and drinking ought to be allowed only to thofe who are the governours of fociety, who are fuppofed to have a better command of their appetites than to abuse their liberty, as aforefaid. But fuch kind of reasoning as this is monftrous. Every man ought to be fecure in the enjoyment of his property, and if men, at any time, abuse their liberty, they are accountable to God for that abufe; and fo far as fuch an abufe affects the fociety to which they belong, fo far they are accountable for it to that fociety. And therefore, fuppofing that a man fhould fo far mifapply his property in the prefent cafe, as to draw any wrong conclufions in his reasoning upon any subject, and fhould be led into an error hereby, and fhould likewife propofe that error as a truth to others, together with the grounds and reafons upon which he affents to it, in fuch a cafe, he ought, in reafon, not only to be tolerated herein, but alfo to be protected and fecured in the ufe of this his natural property (provided he is not injurious to the perfonal character or property of others, or the common rights of mankind) because truth is what every man has an equal right to, and intereft in, and what every man has a natural right to be an advocate for; and therefore every man ought in reafon to be fecure, both in his enquiries after truth, and in his offering his arguments and reafons for what he judges to be fo and tho' he mistakes herein, he ought not to be perfecuted for his error, but to be protected in the enjoyment of his property. If his error leads him to practice that which is hurtful to fociety, then the government is to restrain and keep him from fuch practices; and as this is a fecuring the property of others, which he would invade, fo it is not an invasion of his property, be, caufe no man hath a right and property to invade

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the right and property of others, tho' he should be never strongly perfuaded that he has; his error makes no alteration in the cafe: and therefore, tho' he is to be protected in his examining and judging for himself, and tho' he ought to deter mine his practice from his own, and not from other men's judgments of things, yet he is not to be protected in, but prevented from invading the right and property of others.

Again, As man is made a free accountable crea ture, and as he is accountable to God, who is the author of his being, and as his happiness or misery depend upon the good or bad ufe he makes of his liberty, in his approving or disapproving himfelf to God, and as it is his natural underived right to examine and judge for himself, what is truth, and what is error in every cafe, except his liberty be restrained, either by the light of nature, or divine revelation; fo it is his natural right to chuse for himself that way and method of ferving God, and recommending himfelf to his favour which, upon a thorough examination, appears to him to be most agreeable to God's will (which we commonly call religion) I fay, that it is the natural and underived right of every man to chufe his own religion, because his own eternal happiness or mifery. depend upon that choice. This is as much his natural right, as his right to his natural life. This is a right that he can never forfeit, as he may fome other natural rights. The naturl right to life may be forfeited, as he that invades the life of his neighbour forfeits his own life, to the fociety to which he belongs. Gen. ix 6. He that heddeth man's blood, by man fhall his blood be fhed; but a man's right to chufe his own religion, is what he can never forfeit; and as this is the natural right of every man, fo it is the bufinefs of government, not only to tolerate, but to keep every man in the

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quiet poffeffion of this his natural property, and te defend aud guard him from every injury which he is liable to, in the ufe and enjoyment of it. So likewise on the other fide, if governours fhould be to far from fecuring the people, committed to their care, in the enjoyment of this their natural property, that on the contrary they chufe a religion for their people, and require them to fubmit to their choice, and perfecute thofe that do not; this is a very great invafion of men's natural property, and is highly criminal in any government, and has moft fatal confequences attending it; becaufe if a falfe religion happens to be established, it is propagated as far as the power of the eftablifhers can extend it, and is continued down from generation to generation.

If it fhould be objected, first, that fuch liberty would throw all things into confufion, by opening a door to fchifm and faction, and therefore fuch a liberty ought not to be allowed. Anfwer, The aforefaid liberty hath no fuch tendency, because fuch a liberty is a friend, and not an enemy to peace. and unity; there is nothing in the nature of the thing which can more tend to the peace and unity of any fociety, nor to the fecurity of any govern'ment, than for every one of that fociety to have the free ufe and enjoyment of all their rights and properties, and to be fecured from every invader; whereas on the other fide, when men's rights and properties are invaded, it is very difficult for them to be eafy under fuch oppreffions, and this lays a foundation for fchifm and faction; and tho' to avoid the perfecution which attends refufing to fubmit to the established religion, men do play the bypocrite for a time; yet when time and opportunity ferve, they are apt to caft off the yoke from their neck, and that often proves very fatal both to the governours and to the fociety. But allowing what

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