Evil. Not that any one becomes a better Man by mere Force; but the dread of what People are loth to suffer, makes ’em open their Eyes to the Truth.
Constraint is always a wicked Action, and opposite to the Genius of the Gospel.
St. Austin begs Principles.
Every Sect may challenge the Right of using Violence.
XVIII. St. Austin’s Words.
I cou’d instance you not only in private Persons, but intire Citys, which of Donatists, as they formerly <xxv> were, are become good Catholicks, and detest the diabolical Sin of their old Separation; who yet wou’d never have bin Catholicks, but for the Laws which you are so displeas’d with.
If Success be a Rule to judg by, Mahomet’s Constraints were just.
XIX. St. Austin’s Words.
Ought I to prevent the confiscating what you call your Goods, while you with impunity proscribe Jesus Christ? The barring you the liberty of disposing ’em by your last Testament, according to the Roman Law, while you by your slanderous Accusations tread under foot the Testament which God himself has made in favor of our Fathers, &c?
These Antitheses arm all Sects perpetually against each other.
XX. St. Austin’s Words.
If there be any among us who abuse the Laws which the Emperors have enacted against you (Donatists) and who make ’em a handle for exercising their private Spite, instead of employing ’em as an Instrument and Means of Charity to rescue you from Error; we disapprove their Proceedings, and think of ’em with Grief. Not that any Man can call this or that thing his Property, at least unless intitled to it by a divine Right, by the which all belongs to the Just; or by a Right founded on human Laws, and which depends on the Pleasure of the temporal Powers: so that you, for your parts, can call nothing your own, because not entitled to it, as being of the number of the Just, and because the Laws of the Emperors deprive you of all: consequently you can’t properly say, This thing is ours, and we have got it by our Industry; since it is written, Prov. 13.22. The Wealth of the Sinner is laid up for the Just. Notwithstanding, when under color of these Laws Men invade your Possessions, we disapprove the Practice, and it troubles us exceedingly. In like manner, we condemn all those who are mov’d more <xxvi> by Avarice than Zeal, to take from you, either the Funds for your Poor, or the Places of your Assemblys; tho you enjoy neither one nor t’other but under the Notion of the Church, and tho only the true Church of Jesus Christ has an unalienable Right to these things.
Strange Consequences of this abominable Doctrine, That all belongs to the Godly by Divine Right.
Every Prince who destroys the Partition establish’d in the World, is a Tyrant.
As he is who punishes Disobedience to unjust Laws.
Usurpation of a Tyrant prov’d by the Example of Ahab.
In what sense we ought to understand the Passage of Solomon alledg’d by St. Austin.
Confutation of what he affirms, That only the true Church of Christ has a Right to Temporal Possessions.
XXI. St. Austin’s Words.
But tho you will always be complaining of this kind of Treatment, you find it a hard matter to prove it upon any one; and tho you shou’d, it is not always in our Power to correct or punish those you complain of, and we are sometimes oblig’d to tolerate ’em.
Why the Violences of Persecutors can’t be prov’d from the Tenor of the Edicts.
XXII. St. Austin’s Words.
When Nebuchodonosor ordain’d, That whoever blasphem’d the Name of the God of the Hebrews, shou’d be destroy’d with his whole House; had any of his Subjects incur’d the Punishment, by the violating this Law, cou’d they have said, as these (Donatists) do now, that they were righteous, and alledg’d the Persecution by the King’s Authority, as a Proof of their Innocence?
The Example of Nebuchodonosor not to be follow’d.
Tho the persecuted Party be not always just, the Persecutors are always wicked.
<xxvii> XXIII. St. Austin’s Words.
Was not Hagar persecuted by Sarah? Yet she that persecuted was holy, and she who suffer’d Persecution was wicked.
Difference between Sarah’s Persecution of Hagar, and that for Religious Opinions.
XXIV. St. Austin’s Words.
If the Good may not persecute, and if they are only to suffer Persecution, he was neither a good Man nor a Saint, who speaks thus in the 17th Psalm, I will persecute mine Enemys, I will pursue them and attack them and will give them no Rest &c.
Misapplication of this Passage of David.
Sophism in exaggerating the Fury of the Donatists, and the moderate Chastisements of the Catholicks.
XXV. St. Austin’s Words.
The Service which Kings perform to God as they are Men, is one thing; and that which they perform as Kings, is another. As Men they serve him, by leading Lives as becomes the truly Faithful: but as Kings they serve him, only by enacting righteous Laws, which tend to the promoting Good, and punishing Evil; and by maintaining these Laws with Firmness and Vigor.
Definition of Just Laws, and of Good and Evil, being laid down, St. Austin’s Thought becomes favorable to Toleration.
