PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

4S0
of Rcligl?us Establishments,
state, between temporals and spirituals. The magistrate
i~ not to be obe}~ed in temporals more than in
spirituals, where a repugnancy is perceived between
his commands, and any credited manifestations of
the divine will ; but such repugnanCies are much less
likely to arise in one case than the other.
When we grant that it is la\vfuJ for the magistrate
to interfere in Ireligion as often as his interferen ce
appears to him to conduce, in its general tendency,
to the public happiness; it may be argued, from ihis
concession, that, since salvation is the Ilighe~t interest
of mankind, and since, consequently, to advance that
is to promote the public happiness in the be~t .\.v ay •
and in the greatest degree, in which it can be pro.
j moted, it follows, that it is not only the right~ but
! the duty of every magistrate, invested with supr~me
power, to enforce upon his ,;uhject5 the reception of
that relJgion, which he deems IIlost acceptable to
God; and to enforce it by such methods as may appear
most effectual for the end proposed. A popish
king, for example, who should believe that salvation
i'i not attainable out of the precincts of the Romisb
church~ would derive a right from our principles (not
to say that he would . be bound by them) to; employ
the power· with which the constitlltion intrusted
him, and which power, in absolute monarchies, commands
the lives and fortunes of every subject of the
empire, in redu-ing his people within that communimi.
We confess that this consequence is inferred
trom the principit"s we have laid down concerning
the foundation of civil authority, not without !he
resemblance of a regular deducti~)n: we confess aisu
that it is a conclusion which it behoves U5 to dispose
of ; because, if it really fol~o\v from our theory of
J
•
~overnment .. the theory itsdf ought to be gl~en up.
No\v it will be reInenlbct~.?d, that the terlns of our
proposition are these: " That it i, lawful for the
j magistrate to intc~'fcr2 in the atfa:r~; Gf !Oeligion, when·
ever his interference appear:~ to him to conduce, by
{ its general tendency, to the public happine~s." The
clause of" gcnt'ra1 tendl"ncy/' when thi::: rule comet:.