maffacred a great number of Hugonots, and the Hugonots in their turn have murdered a great number of Catholics, therefore there is no God: that certain bad men have made ufe of confeffion, the holy communion, and all the other facraments, as a means for perpetrating the most atrocious crimes, and therefore there is no God. For my part, I, on the contrary, fhould conclude from hence, that there is a God, who after this tranfitory life, in which we have wandered fo far from the true knowledge of him, and have feen fo many crimes. committed under the fan&tion of his holy name, will at length deign to comfort us for the many dreadful calamities we have fuffered in this life; for if we confider the many religious wars, and the forty papal fchifms, which have almost all of them been bloody; if we reflect upon the multitude of impoftures, which have almost all proved fatal; the irreconcileable animofities excited by differences in opinions, and the numberless evils occafioned by falfe zeal; I cannot but believe that men have for a long time had their hell in this world.

CHAP.

CHA P. XI.

The ill Confequences of NON-TOLERATION.

WH

HAT then, it may be demanded, fhall every one be allowed to believe only his own reason, and to think that that reafon, whether true or falfe, fhould be the guide of his actions? Yes, certainly, provided he does not difturb the peace of community; for man has it not in his power to believe or difbelieve * ; but he has it in his power to pay a proper refpect to the established cuftoms of his country; and if we say that it is a crime not to believe in the established religion, we ourselves condemn the primitive Chriftians our forefathers, and juftify thofe whom we accufe of having put them to death.

It may be replied, that the difference here is very great, because all other religions are of men, whereas the Catholic, Apoftolic and Roman church is of God alone. But let me feriously afk, Whether the divine origin of our

religion is a reafon for establishing it by hatred, rage, banishment, confifcation of goods, imprisonment, tortures, and murder, and by folemn acts of thanksgiving to the Deity for fuch outrages ? The more affured we are of the divine authority of the Chriftian religion, the lefs does it become weak man to enforce the observance of it: if it is truly of God, God will fupport it without his affiftance. Perfecution never makes any but hypocrites or rebels; a fhocking alternative! Besides, ought we to endeavour to establish, by the bloody hand of the executioner, the religion of that God who fell by fuch hands, and who, while on earth, taught only mercy and forbearance?

And here let us confider a while the dreadful confequences of the right of non-toleration; if it was permitted us to ftrip of his poffeffions, to throw into prifon, or to take away the life of a fellow-creature, who, born under a certain degree of latitude, did not profess the generally received religion of that latitude, what is there would exempt the principal persons of the state from falling under the like punishments? Religion equally binds the monarch and the beggar. Accordingly, we know that upwards of fifty doctors or monks have maintained this ex

ecrable

ecrable doctrine, That it was lawful to depose, or even to kill, fuch princes who did not agree with the established church; and we also know, that the feveral parliaments of the kingdom have on every occafion condemned these abominable decifions of ftill more abominable divines t.

The jefuit Bufembaum, and his commentator the Jefuit La Croix, tells us, that it "is lawful to "kill any prince excommunicated by the pope, of "whatsoever country, because the whole world "belongs to the pope; and that whoever accepts

of, or executes fuch commiffion does a meritori66 ous and charitable act." It is this maxim which feems to have been invented in the mad-houses of hell, that has almoft ftirred up all France against the Jefuits, who are now more than ever reproached for this doctrine, which they have so often. preached up, and as often difavowed. They have endeavoured to justify themselves by producing nearly the fame maxims in the writings of St. Thomas D'Acquinas and feveral Dominicans . It is true indeed, that this St. Thomas, the angelic Doctor and Interpreter of the Divine Will, advan

Perufe, if you can get it, the letter of a layman to a divine on the subject of St. Thomas, a jefuitical phamphlet published in 1762.

ces

The blood of Henry the Great was still reeking on the sword of his murderer, when the

ces, that an apoftate prince lofes his right to the crown, and forfeits the obedience due to him from his fubjects that the church may condemn him to death: that the emperor Julian was permitted to reign only, because he was too powerful to be refifted that we ought to kill every heretick ‡: that those who deliver a people from the government of a tyrannical prince, &c. &c. We have, doubtless, a great respect for the angel of the fchools; but if he had preached up fuch maxims in France at the time of his brother James Clement, and the mendicant Ravaillac, his angelical doctorship would have met with but a fcurvy recep

tion.

It must be confeffed, that John Gerfon, chancellor of the university, carried the matter yet farther than St. Thomas; and John Pettit, the Francifcan, ftill farther than Gerfon. Several of the order openly maintained the deteftable maxims of their brother Pettit. It must be acknowledged, that this hellish doctrine of king-killing proceeds wholly from the ridiculous notion which has so long

* Lib. ii. partii. question 12.

Ibid. Queft. 11 and 12.

pre