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party * renders it a subject of interesting inquiry to ascertain what the op inions were which they really entertained an ( l publicly professed respecting religious liberty . It is proposed to devote the following Essay to this investigation . It is intended that it should be chiefly historical , and be , for the greater paHv restricted to a statement of the sentiments of those eminent persons on this point ,
as they are to be collected from * their printed works * or are itlii&trated in particular instances by their treatment of certain individuals who dissented from their creeds .
The Reformers , whose sentiments will be here noticed , may be conveniently divided into tSie four following classes . The first will comprise those of Germany , with Luther at their
head : the second will envbrace those of Switzerland , who range under Zuinglius and Calvin : the third will comprehend those of Holland * whose religion emanated from the Helvetic school , and was adopted by the state : and the fourth will comprise the Autitriiiitarinns of the same period .
Luther , the father of the German Reformation , will demand the first attention . The writings of this justly celebrated person contain many liberal sentiments on the subject under
consideration , which well accord with the honourable part he acted in his arduous struggle against the power of the Koman see . ** The soul / ' he observes , * ' is not subject to the authority of Caesar : for this it cannot
instruct or lead , can neither kill nor make alive , can neiiher bind nor loose , can neither judge nor condemn , nor detain , nor send away . " * "
Heretics , * he elsewhere remarks , " - cannot he restrained by external force . It * i i * s therefore , necessary to deal with them in some other way than with < l > e severity of the sword . This
business must be managed with the word ° f ( iod . If , it * this way , you fail of success , you will in vain resort to worldly power , even though you should fill all places with blood . Heresy is something spiritual , which no Luther , de Sublim . Mundi Postcstate , ™" . 20 . Minus , Cels « s , de Htcreticis J-f A rpitaU Supplie j o iion flfcciendw , foi . 2 , ° edit , lecnnd . ] &g 4 ..
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iron can cut to pieces , no fire cobsutne , no worldly water wash out or overwhelm * " * It must not be supposed , however , that with these just views of the in * - efficacy of the civil power to affect the convictions of the mind , he would leave men at full liberty to disseminate their sentiments , if they were ii *
opposition to the established creedv *• As no one / 1 he writes , *« ought to be compelled by force to faith and the gospel , so neither must they be permitted by the magistrate ta blaspheme : but , being summoned , let them be heard arid let them hear ; and
when they are unable to answer , and refuse to believe , they ought inmiediately to be forced to silence / 1 f " The magistrate , " he again states , " is the keeper , not only of the second , but most of all of the first table of the law . He is to punish idolatries , blasphemies , execrations and perjuries
Heretics , when brought before him , as contumelious against the true God , Jteaching others their blasphemies , he is to restrain /* But though Luther was for coercing and silencing heretics , by whom we are to understand in this inquiry all who held doctrines which were at
variance with the popular faith , he was not disposed to take a % vay their lives . It will be seen , however , that his reason for this is grounded upon considerations of policy , rather than upon the broad principle of justice , whicli . knows no distinction of persons
or creeds , but would grant to all alike the equal privilege of thinking as they pleased , and speaking what they thought . On the question , whether it be lawful to put false prophets to death , he thus expresses himself : " I am reluctant to punish with death , even where it has been abundantly
merited . What frightens me in this case is , the train of consequences which we behold in the Papists , Antichrists , and the Jews , among whom , when it had been decreed , that false propl \ and Jews should be put to death , it came to pass in the course of time ,
* Minns Cefsus , ubt supra , fol . 106 , h f Bock , Hist . Antititrin . II . 290 . f Bezu , de Haereticis k Civili Dfag-istratu punienciift Libel I us , &c . ( # vo . 1554 ) fol . 201 .
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Tl * Nonconformist . No . XV . 6 » 1
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1819, page 681, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1778/page/29/
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