II. To this I answer, I fee nothing in it inconfiftent with the Rites or just Liberties

of Mankind: and upon this account I would afk, May not a Chriftian Prince appoint a certain Hour of the firft Day of the Week which Chriftians efteem facred, to be employ'd in hearing these Lectures? and for the fame reafon might not a Jewish Prince appoint fome part of the laft Day of the Week, which the Jews count facred, for Perfons to hear fuch Lectures? and a Turkish Prince appoint his Lectures of the fame kind upon a Friday for the fame reason?

III. And I might add further, that if the State judge it neceffary, that one Day in feven or nine or twelve, or twice in a Month People fhould be restrain'd from their usual Labors in publick, partly to give reft to the laboring Part of a Nation, both Man and Beast, and partly that they may be more at leifure for thefe publick Lectures in their regular Courfe, I do not at prefent fee any thing in it inconfiftent with the just Liberties of the People: provided always that the time or times appointed for fuch publick Lectures, are not fo numerous nor fo large as to hinder the common Welfare of the People in their feveral particular Employ

ments,

ments, or to obftruct or prevent or too much curtail and diminish religious Services, or the neceffary Duties wherein Conscience obliges each of them to pay special Honors to the God they profefs; of which hereafter..

IV. 'Tis granted indeed, that the Jews fo long as they were a Nation under a distinct Government of their own, were actually under a Theocracy; God was their political Head and their King; and therefore the Civil and the Religious Concerns of that Nation were more intermingled one with another in the fame Pages of the Bible; and the religious Observation of certain Days and Times was appointed by God, as the particular Governor of that Land as well as the univerfal Lord of Confcience; which Land was not very large in its whole extent. But these Peculiarities of Government cannot be apply'd to any other Nation or People whatfoever; nor even to the Jews at present, who are now no united Nation, but are abandon'd by God their King to be a fcatter'd People throughout the Earth. Tho' nothing can be inferr'd from the special Laws of the Jews about Days appointed for publick Worship under fevere Penalties, which would justify other Magistrates in enacting fuch Laws, yet

the

the nature of the thing (if fuch Lectures of Civil and Moral Laws must be read) will certainly require certain times to be appointed for reading them and attendance upon them. And therefore it will be abfolutely neceffary. that fuch Days, or Hours at least, be legally settled by publick Authority, fince the Welfare of the State requires it.

V. It will be faid perhaps, that however these Attendances are required by a Law, it is not to be fuppofed they will be punctually perform'd nor this Law obey'd, unless there be fome Penalty annex'd to the Neglect. I acknowledge it, and therefore the Penalty fhould in fuch Cafes be fo wifely framed and limited, that it may not exceed the Damage the Publick may be fuppofed to sustain by fuch a Neglect.

As for the neglect of attending these publick Lectures, I fear it will hardly be efteem'd a fufficient Penalty, that Persons by this neglect will continue ignorant of the Laws Moral and Civil, and thereby be more exposed to incur the feveral Penalties to which the breaking of thofe Laws will fubject them. If any other Penalties be needful, let others propofe them. I would be

very

ات

very cautious in appointing Penalties, tho' a Law has but small force without them.

VI. But it will be objected here in oppofition to any fuch Penalties, fince God only is the Lord of Confcience, no Government has any Right or Authority to impofe any thing on the Confciences of its Subjects, which they folemnly declare or fwear they believe to be unlawful or offenfive to God, (as fhall be more particularly fhewn afterward:) fuppofe then any Perfons should pretend their Conscience does not permit them to attend upon these establish'd moral Lectures of the Veneration due to a God, and the various Civil Duties to Men on those Days or at thofe Seasons that are appointed by the State for thefe Lectures: as for inftance, fuppofe a Chriftian in a Turkish Country be appointed to attend on these publick Lectures on the Lord's Day or Sunday which he accounts facred; or fuppofe a few should be required to give his attention to them on a Saturday, which is his Sabbath; would not this be a Violation of the Rights of Confcience, if this attendance on these establish'd Lectures were impofed with a Penalty?

I must answer ftill, that Confcience in things relating to God must not be imposed F

upon,

upon, nor can Men be obliged to alienate Sacred Time to meer Civil Purposes, but where the real neceffities of the State require it; and there I fuppofe God will not account it criminal to comply with the neceffities of the State on his own facred Day; as for inftance, to stop a Flood, to quench a Fire, or to repel an Invafion.

And as the Confciences of the Subjects fhould not without neceffity be imposed upon to hear thefe national Statutes or Civil Lectures, where they think the facred time is profan'd hereby; fo it is ftill more evident that no Perfon should be constrain'd against his Confcience to be a Reader of these Civil Lectures, who thinks either the reading itfelf or the time of reading to be unlawful or offenfive to God. And I think it can never be fuppofed that the neceffities of the State can be fuch, as to require thofe very Perfons to read these things who think it unlawful to do it. Surely others fhould do that office.

Yet if I may speak my most free and reafonable Thoughts here, I can hardly believe the Great God would account it a Violation of feme part of his appointed Sabbath, whether Saturday or Sunday, to hear fuch Lef fons of Morality and Vertue, or Leffons of

the