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Absurdity of the Comparison between a Heretick one wou’d convert, and a Madman one prevents from breaking his Neck.
In what Sense God can’t save us by Force.
V. St. Austin’s Words.
You’l tell me, there are those on whom we don’t gain an inch of ground by these Methods; I believe it: but must we forgo the Medicine, because there are some incurable Patients?
<xix> Success of the Pagan Persecutions against Christians in the first Ages.
Remedys shou’d be adapted to the Nature of Diseases.
St. Austin’s Receit leads to all sorts of Crimes.
VI. St. Austin’s Words.
Did we only lift the Rod over ’em, and not take the pains to instruct ’em, our Conduct might justly appear tyrannical; but on the other hand, did we content our selves with instructing ’em, without working on their Fears, they’d ne’er be able to surmount a kind of Listlessness in ’em, contracted by Use and Custom.
Persecution hinders a fair Examination.
VII. St. Austin’s Words.
All those who sooth and spare us are not therefore our Friends, nor all who chastize us our Enemys: Faithful are the Wounds of a Friend, but the Kisses of an Enemy are deceitful. The Severitys of those who love us are wholesomer than the soft Addresses of those who deceive us; and there’s more Charity in taking a man’s Bread from him, be he ever so hungry, if while he is full fed he neglects the Dutys of Righteousness, than in spreading his Table with the greatest Daintys to make him consent to a Sin.
Difference between a Flatterer and a Friend.
A Pastor has not the same Right upon Strangers as upon his own Flock.
’Tis not lawful to let any Man starve, however dissolute.
Princes have not the same Right over Opinions as over Actions.
VIII. St. Austin’s Words.
To bind one in a Phrensy, or awake one in a Lethargy, is vexatious indeed; yet it’s friendly at the same time. God loves us with a truer Love than any Man can do; yet he joins the salutary Terrors of his Threats to the Lenity of his Counsels, and we find that he thought fit to exercise the most religious Patriarchs by a Famine.
<xx> The Question is not, whether we may love those we chastise, but whether ’tis just to deprive a Man of his Goods and Liberty because of his Belief.
God’s chastising his Servants includes nothing in favor of St. Austin.
The sad Consequences to the Clergy of France, if their King shou’d exercise ’em in the same manner as God did the Patriarchs.
IX. St. Austin’s Words.
You are of opinion, that no one shou’d be compel’d to do well; but have you never read, that the Father of the Family commanded his Servants to compel all they met with to come in to the Feast? Han’t you seen with what Violence Saul was forc’d by Jesus Christ to acknowledg and embrace the Truth? … Don’t you know, that Shepherds sometimes make use of the Rod to force their Sheep into the Fold? Don’t you know that Sarah, according to the Power committed to her, subdu’d the stubborn Spirit of her Servant by the harshest Treatment, not from any hatred she bore to Agar, since she lov’d her so far as to wish that Abraham wou’d make her a Mother, but purely to humble the Pride of her Heart? Now you can’t be ignorant, that Sarah and her Son Isaac are Figures of spiritual, and Agar and Ishmael of carnal things. Notwithstanding, tho the Scripture informs us that Sarah made Agar and Ishmael suffer a great deal; St. Paul does not stick to say, that ’twas Ishmael persecuted Isaac, to signify, that tho the Catholick Church endeavors to reclaim carnal Men by temporal Punishments, yet it is they persecute her, rather than she them.
God ought not nor cannot be imitated in the Conversion of Hereticks.
St. Austin’s Doctrine furnishes Expedients to justify the most criminal Actions.
Disparity of the Comparison between forcing Sheep into the Fold, and converting a Heretick by Violence.
<xxi> Comparison between a Man injoin’d the Penance of standing two Hours in the Rain, and a Heretick who follows his Conscience.
The Source of persecuting Maxims arises from this ridiculous Prejudice, That to please God ’tis sufficient to be enrolled in a certain Communion.
Absurdity of St. Austin’s Thought upon Sarah and Hagar.
X. St. Austin’s Words.
The Good and the Bad do and suffer very often the same things; nor ought we to judg of the nature of their Actions by what either does, or what either suffers, but from the Motives on which they act or suffer. Pharaoh oppress’d the People of God with excessive Labor: Moses, on the other hand, punish’d the Transgressions of the same People by the most severe Punishments. The Actions of each side were much alike, but their Ends very different: One was an errant Tyrant, bloated with Pride and Power; the other a Father fill’d with Charity. Jezabel put the Prophets to death, and Elias the false Prophets; but that which put Arms into the hands of one and t’other, was no less different than that which drew on the deaths of each. In the same Book, where we find St. Paul scourg’d by the Jews, we find the Jew Sosthenes scourg’d by the Greeks for St. Paul; there’s no difference between ’em if we only look at the Surface of the Action, but there’s a great deal if we look at the Occasion and Motive. St. Paul is deliver’d to the Jailor to be cast into Irons, and St. Paul himself delivers the incestuous Corinthian to Satan, whose Cruelty much exceeds that of the most barbarous Jailors; yet he delivers this Man to Satan, only that his
