rity. The methods of managing it may differ a little; yet the ART. power is the fame, and is built upon the fame foundations. And XXXVII. though the term head is left out by the Article, yet even that is founded on an expreffion of Samuel's to Saul, as was formerly cited. It is a figure, and all figures may be used either more loosely or more ftrictly. In the ftricteft fenfe, as the bead communicates vital influences to the whole body, Chrift is the only head of his Church; he only ought to be in all things obeyed, fubmitted to, and depended on; and from him all the functions and offices of the Church derive their usefulness and virtue. But as head may in a figure ftand for the fountain of order and government, of protection and conduct, the King or Queen may well be called, the head of the Church.

The next paragraph in this Article is concerning the lawfulness of capital punishments in Chriftian focieties. It has an appearance of compaffion and charity, to think that men ought not to be put to death for their crimes, but to be kept alive, that they may repent of them. Some, both ancients and moderns, have thought that there was a cruelty in all capital punishments, that was inconfiftent with the gentleness of the Gospel : but when we confider that God, in that law which he himself delivered to the Jews by the hand of Mofes, did appoint so many capital punishments, even for offences against pofitive precepts, we cannot think that these are contrary to justice or true goodnefs; fince they were dictated by God himfelf, who is eternally the fame, unalterable in his perfections. This fhews that God, who knows moft perfectly our frame and difpofition, knows that the love of life is planted fo deep in our natures, and that it has such a root there, that nothing can work fo powerfully on us, to govern and reftrain us, as the fear of death. And therefore, fince the main thing that is to be confidered in government, is the good of the whole body; and fince a feeble indulgence and impunity may fet mankind loose into great diforders, from which the terror of feverer laws, together with fuch examples as are made on the incorrigible, will naturally restrain them, it seems neceflary, for the preservation of mankind and of fociety, to have recourfe fometimes to capital punishments.

The precedent that God fet in the Mofaical Law feems a full juftification of fuch punishments under the Gofpel. The charity, which the Gospel prefcribes, does not take away the rules of justice and equity, by which we may maintain our poffeffions, or recover them out of the hands of violent aggreffors: only it obliges us to do that in a soft and gentle manner, without rigour or refentment. The fame charity, though it obliges us, as Chriftians, not to keep up hatred or anger in our hearts, but to pardon, as to our own parts, the wrongs that

are

AR T. are done us; yet it does not oblige us to throw up the order XXXVII. and peace of mankind, and abandon it to the injuftice and

violence of wicked men. We owe to human fociety, and to the safety and order of the world, our endeavours to put a ftop to the wickedness of men; which a good man may do with great inward tenderness to the fouls of those whom he profecutes. It is highly probable, that as nothing befides fuch a method could ftop the progrefs of injuftice and wickedness, fo nothing is so likely a mean to bring the criminal to repent of his fins, and to fit him to die as a Chriftian, as to condemn him to die for his crimes: if any thing can awaken his conscience, and strike terror in him, that will do it. Therefore, as capital punishments are neceflary to human fociety, fo they are often real bleffings to those on whom they fall; and it may be affirmed very pofitively, that a man who can harden himself against the terrors of death, when they come upon him fo folemnly, fo flowly, and fo certainly, he being in full health, and well able to reflect on the confequences of it, is not like to be wrought on by a longer continuance of life, or by the methods of a natural death.

It is not poffible to fix rules, to which capital punishments ought to be proportioned. It is certain, that in a full equality, life only can be fet against life: but there may be many other crimes, that muft end in the ruin of society, and in the diffolution of all order, and all the commerce that ought to be among men, if they go unpunished. In this all princes and ftates muft judge, according to the real exigencies and neceffities that appear to them. Nor can any general rule be made, fave only this, that fince man was made after the image of God, and that the life of man is precious, and when once extinguished, it ceases for ever more; therefore all due care and tenderness ought to be had in preserving it; and fince the end of government is the preservation of mankind, therefore the lives of men ought not to be too lightly taken, except as it appears to be necessary for the prefervation and fafety of the fociety.

Under the Gospel, as well as under the Law, the magiRom. xiii. ftrate is the minifter of God, and has the fword put in his hand; which he beareth not in vain, for he is appointed to be a revenger, to execute wrath on him that doth evil. The natural fignification of his carrying the fword, is, that he has an authority for punishing capitally; fince it is upon those occafions only that he can be faid to use the fword as a revenger. Nor can Chriftian charity oblige a man, whom the law has made to be the avenger of blood, or of other crimes, to refufe to comply with that obligation, which is laid upon him by the conftitution under which he his born: he can only forgive that of which he is the mafter, but the other is a debt which he

Owes

done ART.

owes the fociety; and his private forgiving of the wrong himself, does not reach to that other obligation, which is not XXXVII. in his own power to give away.

39.

The laft paragraph in this Article, is concerning the lawfulness of wars. Some have thought all wars to be contrary to Chriftian charity, to be inhuman and barbarous; and that therefore men ought, according to the rule fet us by our Saviour, not to refift evil; but when one injury is done, not Matth. v. only to bear it, but to fhew a readiness rather to receive new ones; turning the other cheek to him that fmites us on the one; going two miles with him that shall compel us to go one with him; and giving our cloak to him that shall take away our coat. It 40. feems juft, that, by a parity of reafon, focieties fhould be under the fame obligations to bear from other focieties, that single perfons are under to other fingle perfons. This must be acknowledged to be a very great difficulty; for as, on the one hand, the words of our Saviour feem to be very exprefs and full; fo, on the other hand, if they are to be understood literally, they must caft the world loose, and expose it to the injuftice and infolence of wicked perfons, who would not fail to take advantages from fuch a compliance and fubmiffion. Therefore these words must be confidered, first, as addressed to private perfons; then, as relating to smaller injuries, which can more eafily be borne; and finally, as phrafes and forms of speech, that are not to be carried to the utmoft extent, but to be construed with that softening, that is to be allowed to the use of a phrase. So that the meaning of that section of our Saviour's fermon is to be taken thus; that private perfons ought to be fo far from pursuing injuries, to the equal retaliation of an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth, that they ought in many cases to bear injuries, without either refifting them, or making returns of evil for evil; fhewing a patience to bear even repeated injuries, when the matter is fmall, and the wrong tolerable.

Under all this, fecret conditions are to be understood, fuch as when by fuch our patience we may hope to overcome evil with good; or at leaft to fhew to the world the power that religion has over us, to check and fubdue our refentments. In this cafe certainly we ought to facrifice our juft rights, either of defence or of feeking reparation, to the honour of religion,, and to the gaining of men by such an heroical instance of virtue. But it cannot be supposed that our Saviour meant that good men fhould deliver themselves up to be a prey to be devoured by bad men; or to oblige his followers to renouce their claims to the protection and reparations of law and justice.

In this St. Paul gives us a clear commentary on our Saviour's words: He reproves the Corinthians for going to law with one another, and that before unbelievers; when it was fo great a

fcandal

ART. fcandal to the Christian religion in its firft infancy. He fays, XXXVII. Why do not ye take wrong? Why do not ye fuffer yourselves to be defrauded? Yet he does not deny, but that they might claim 1 Cor. vi. their rights, and feek for redrefs; therefore he proposes their do

6, 7.

ing it by arbitration among themselves, and only urges the scandal of fuing before Heathen magiftrates; fo that his reproof did not fall on their fuing one another, but on the scandalous manner of doing it. Therefore men are not bound up by the Gospel from seeking relief before a Chriftian judge, and, by confequence, those words of our Saviour's are not to be urged in the utmost extent of which they are capable. If private perfons may seek reparation of one another, they may also seek reparations of the wrongs that are done by those who are under another obedience; and every Prince owes a protection to his people in such cases; for he beareth not the fword in vain; he is their avenger. He may demand reparation by fuch forms as are agreed on among nations; and when that is not granted, he may take fuch reparation from any that are under that obedience, as may oblige the whole body to repair the injury. Much more may he ufe the fword to protect his subjects, if any other comes to invade them. For this end chiefly he has both the fword given him, and those taxes paid him, that may enable him to fupport the charge to which the use of it may put him. And as a private man owes, by the ties of humanity, affiftance to a man whom he fees in the hands of thieves and murderers; fo Princes may affift fuch other Princes as are unjustly fallen upon; both out of humanity to him who is so ill ufed, and to reprefs the infolence of an unjuft aggreffor, and alfo to fecure the whole neighbourhood from the effects of fuccefs in fuch unlawful conquefts. Upon all these accounts we do not doubt but that wars, which are thus originally as to the firft occafion of them defenfive, though in the progress of them they must be often offenfive, may be lawful.

God allowed of wars in that policy which he himself constituted; in which we are to make a great difference between those things that were permitted by reafon of the hardness of their hearts, and those things which were exprefsly commanded of God. These last can never be supposed to be immoral, fince commanded by God, whofe precepts and judgments are altogeLuke iii. 14. ther righteous. When the foldiers came to be baptized of St. John, he did not charge them to relinquish that course of life, but only to do violence to no man, to accuse no man falfely, and to be content with their wages. Nor did St. Peter charge Cornelius to forfake his poft when he baptized him. The primitive Chriftians thought they might continue in military employments, in which they preferved the purity of their religion entire; as appears both from Tertullian's works, and from the hiftory of

Acts x.

Julian's

Julian's fhort reign. But though wars that are in their own ART. nature only defenfive, are lawful, and a part of the protection XXXVII. that princes owe their people; yet unjust wars defigned for making conquefts, for the enlargement of empire, and the raifing the glory of princes, are certainly public robberies, and the highest acts of injuftice and violence poffible; in which men facrifice to their pride or humour, the peace of the world, and the lives of all those that die in the quarrel, whose blood God will require at their hands. Such princes become accountable to God in the highest degree imaginable, for all the rapine and bloodshed, that is occafioned by their pride and injuftice.

When it is vifible that a war is unjuft, certainly no man of confcience can ferve in it, unless it be in the defensive part: for though no man can owe that to his prince, to go and murder other perfons at his command, yet he may owe it to his country to affift towards its prefervation, from being over-run even by those whom his prince has provoked by making war on them unjustly. For even in fuch a war, though it is unlawful to ferve in the attacks that are made on others, it is still lawful for the people of every nation to defend themselves against foreigners.

There is no cause of war more unjuft, than the propagating the true religion, or the deftroying a falfe one. That is to be left to the providence of God, who can change the hearts of men, and bring them to the knowledge of the truth, when he will. Ambition, and the defire of empire, muft never pretend to carry on God's work. The wrath of man worketh not out the righteousness of God. And, it were better barefacedly to own, that men are fet on by carnal motives, than to profane religion, and the name of God, by making it the pre

sence.

K k

ARTICLE