below, by the Instinct of their own Hunger to • feed upon the Church.

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*

• St. Paul, tho' born of no mean Parents, a • free Citizen of the Roman Empire, fo little did ⚫ his Trade debase him, that it rather enabled him to use that Magnanimity of Preaching the • Gospel through Afia and Europe at his own Charges: Thus thofe Preachers among the Waldenfes, the ancient Stock of our Reforma⚫tion, without thefe Helps which I fpeak of, bred 6 up themselves in Trades, and efpecially in Phyfick and Surgery, as well as in the Study of Scrip"ture (which is the only true Theology) that they might be no Burden to the Church; and by the Example of Chrift, might cure both Soul and Body; through Induftry, joining that to their Ministry, which he join'd to his by Gift of the Spirit. Thus relates Peter Gilles in his History • of the Waldenfes in Piemont. But our Ministers think Scorn to use a Trade, and count it the Reproach of this Age, that Tradefmen preach the Gofpel. It were to be wifh'd they were all • Tradefmen; they would not then fo many of them, for Want of another Trade, make a • Trade of their Preaching: And yet they clamour that Tradesmen preach; and yet they preach, while they themselves are the worft • Tradesmen of all. As for Church-Endowments and Poffeffions, I meet with none confiderable be'fore Conftantine, but the Houses and Gardens ' where

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*What Milton calls Magnanimity of Preaching, John Locke takes to be the Glorying which the Apoftle Speaks of in 1 Cor. ix. 15. for it were better for me to die, than that any Man fhould make my Glorying void. F. Locke's Paraphrafe, For I had rather perifh for Want, than be depriv'd of what I glory in, viz. Preaching the Gospel freely.

where they met, and the Places of Burial: And I perfwade me, that from them the ancient Waldenfes, whom defervedly I cite fo often, held, that to endow Churches is an evil Thing and, that the Church then fell off and turn'd • Whore fitting on that Beaft in the Revelation, when under Pope Sylvefter fhe receiv'd thofe temporal Donations. So the forecited Tractate of their Doctrine teftifies.

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< THIS alfo their own Traditions of that heavenly Voice witneffed, and fome of the ancient Fathers then living forefaw and deplored. And indeed, how could thefe Endowments thrive. better with the Church, being unjustly taken by thofe Emperors, without Suffrage of the People, out of the Tributes and publick Lands of each City, whereby the People became liable to be oppreffed with other Taxes. Being there"fore given for the most Part by Kings and other publick Perfons, and fo likelieft out of the Publick, and if without the Peoples Confent, unjustly; however to publick Ends of much Concernment to the Good or Evil of a CommonWealth, and in that Regard made publick, tho' given by private Perfons; or which is worse, given, as the Clergy then perfwaded Men, for their Soul's Health, a pious Gift, but as the Truth was, oft-times a Bribe to God, or to • Chrift for Abfolution, as they were then taught, • from Murders, Adulteries, and other heinous Crimes; what fhall be found heretofore given by Kings or Princes out of the Publick, may juftly by the Magiftrate be recalled and reappropriated to the Civil Revenue: What by private or publick Perfons out of their own, the Price of Blood or Luft, or to fome fuch Purgatorious or Superftitious Ufes, not only may, but ought

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⚫ to be taken off from Chrift, as a foul Dishonour laid upon Him; or not impiously given, nor in particular to any one, but in general to the Church's Good, may be converted to that Use, which shall be judg'd more directly to that general End. Thus did the Princes and Cities of Germany in the first Reformation; and de⚫fended their fo doing by many Reasons, which ⚫ are fet down at large in Sleidan, l. 6. Ann. 1526, and l. 11. Ann. 1537, and l. 13. Ann. 1540. • But that the Magistrate either out of that Church Revenue which remains yet in his Hand, or establishing any other Maintenance inftead of Tithe, fhould take into his own Power the Sti⚫ pendiary Maintenance of Church-Minifters, or compel it by Law, can ftand neither with the People's Right, nor with Christian Liberty, but would fufpend the Church wholly upon the State, and turn her Ministers into State-Penfi

oners:

BUT to proceed farther in the Truth yet more freely; feeing the Chriftian Church is not National, but confifting of many particular Congregations, fubject to many Changes, as well through Civil Accidents as through Schifm ⚫ and various Opinions, not to be decided by any outward Judge, being Matters of Confcience, whereby these pretended Church Revenues, as < they have been ever, fo are like to continue endless Matter of Diffention both between the Church and Magiftrate, and the Churches aC mong themselves, there will be found no better Remedy to these Evils, otherwise incurable, than by the incorrupteft Counsel of thofe Waldenfes, our firft Reformers, to remove them as a Peft, an Apple of Difcord in the Church, (for what elfe can be the Effect of Riches, and

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• the

the Snare of Money in Religion?) and to convert them to thofe more profitable Ufes above expreffed, or other fuch as fhall be judg❜d most neceffary; confidering, that the Church of Chrift was founded in Poverty rather than in Revenues, flood pureft, and profpered beft without them, receiv'd them unlawfully from them, who both erroneously and unjustly,fometimes impiously, gave them, and fo juftly was enfnared and corrupted by them.

AND left it be thought that these Revenues withdrawn and better employed, the Magiftrate ought instead to fettle by Statute fome Mainte⚫nance of Minifters, let this be confider'd first, That it concerns every Man's Confcience to what Religion he contributes; and that the Civil Magiftrate is intrufted with Civil Rights only, not with Confcience, which can have no Deputy or Reprefenter of it self, but only of the fame Mind. *

• Next

* This Argument of Milton's may be carried farther, thus, In a State of Nature, none had a Right to oblige others to the support of a Religion they judg'd was difpleafing toGod: And none upon the entring into Civil Society, or Bodies Politick, could be fuppos'd to be willing to impower the Magiftrate to oblige them to beftow their Labour, or give any Part of their Property for the Maintenance of a Religi on they thought God difliked; on the contrary, their entring into Society was to be protected from this as well as any other Impofition. And,

If it be unlawful for a private Perfon to promote a Religion, by doing of which they think they fhould offend God; how can it be lawful for the Magiftrate, either directly or indirectly to compel them to it.

If the Magiftrate has no Right to deprive People of what they gain by their Labour and Induftry for not being of his Religion, we fhould be glad to know, how he comes to have a Right to compel them to do this for the Maintenance of his Religion.

If

• Next, that what each Man gives to the Minifter, he gives either as to God, or as to his • Teacher; if as to God, no Civil Power canjustly confecrate to religious Ufes any Part either of Civil Revenue, which is the People's, ⚫ and must save them from other Taxes, or of any Man's Propriety, but God by special Command, as he did by Mofes, or the Owner himfelf by voluntary Intention, and the Perfwasion of his giving it to God: Forc'd Confecrations • out of another Man's Estate, are no better than 'forc'd Vows; hateful to God, who loves a cheerful Giver; but much more hateful, wrung out of Men's Purses to maintain a difapproved Miniftry against their Confcience; however unholy, infamous and difhonourable to his Minifters and the free Gospel, maintained in fuch unworthy Manner as by Violence and Extortion: If he give it as to his Teacher, what Juftice or Equity compels him to pay for learning that 'Religion

If the Magiftrate is oblig'd to put all his Subjects who alike contribute to the publick Good (and hold no Opinions inconfiftent with it) upon an equal Foot, how can he force Part of his Subjects to contribute to the Support of a Religion they cannot in Confcience comply with. Surely, they that infift upon this, do not do as they would be done unto.

Bifhop Hoadly, fays in his Answer to the Representation of the Committee of the Lower-Houfe of Convocation. p. 172. "The Magiftrate (as I have often remark'd) can reach with "all his Power, no farther than outward Practice; And the "outward Actions of Men, as they affect Humane Society, -The Ma

are the Objects of his Care and Concern.

"giftrate is not by Temporal Punishments or Sanctions, to "determine or concern himself with Any Man's Religion as "Religion, but to hinder Any Man's Religion or Confci"ence from being hurtful to Humane Society, by punish"ing those outward Practices which may proceed from his "Confcience, for ought he knows, if they are such as are "prejudicial to the Publick, which is his peculiar Care.p.255.