William Temple

“ And whosoever designs the change of Religion in a Country, or Government, by any other means than that of a general conversion of the People, or the greatest part of them, designs all the Mischiefs to a Nation, that use to usher in, or attend, the two greatest Distempers of a State, Civil War, or Tyranny; Which are Violence, Oppression, Cruelty, Rapine, Intemperance, Injustice, and, in short, the miserable Effusion of Human Blood, and the Confusion of all Laws, Orders, and Virtues, among Men. ”

“ Nor will it at all derogate from the Honour of a Religion, to have been planted in a Country, by Secular means, or Civil Revolutions, which have, long since, succeeded to those Miraculous Operations that made way for Christianity in the World. 'Tis enough, that God Almighty infuses belief into the Hearts of Men, or else, ordains it to grow out of Religious Enquiries and Instructions; And that wherever the generality of a Nation come by these means to be of a belief, it is by the force of this concurrence introduced into the Government, and becomes the establisht Religion of That Country. ”

“ And what Man, or Party soever, can gain the common and firm belief, of being most immediately inspired, instructed, or favoured of God, will easily obtain the Prerogative of being most honour'd and obey'd by Men.
But in this Commonwealth, no Man having any reason to complain of oppression in Conscience; and no Man having hopes, by advancing his Religion, to form a Party, or break in upon the State, the differences in Opinion make none in Affections, and little in Conversation, where it serves but for entertainment and variety. They argue without interest or anger ”

“ A man that tells me, my Opinions are absurd or ridiculous, impertinent or unreasonable, because they differ from His, seems to intend a Quarrel instead of a Dispute; and calls me Fool, or Mad-man, with a little more circumstance; though, perhaps, I pass for one as well in my senses as he, as pertinent in talk, and as prudent in life: Yet these are the common Civilities, in Religious Argument, of sufficient and conceited men, who talk much of Right Reason, and mean always their own; and make their private imagination the measure of general Truth. ”

“ However it is, Religion may possibly do more good in other places, but it does less hurt here; And where-ever the invisible effects of it are the greatest and most advantageous, I am sure, the visible are so in this Country, by the continual and undisturbed Civil Peace of their Government for so long a course of years; And by so mighty an encrease of their people, wherein will appear to consist chiefly the vast growth of their Trade and Riches, and consequently the strength and greatness of their State. ”

“ The other great End of Religion, which is our Happiness here, has been generally agreed on by all Mankind, as appears in the Records of all their Laws, as well as all their Religions, which come to be establisht by the concurrence of Men's Customs and Opinions [1] ; though in the latter, that concurrence may have been produced by Divine Impressions or Inspirations. For all agree in Teaching and Commanding, in Planting and Improving, not only those Moral Virtues, which conduce to the felicity and tranquillity of every private Man's Life ”

“ I intend not here to speak of Religion at all as a Divine, but as a mere Secular Man, when I observe the occasions that seem to have establisht it in the Forms, or with the Liberties, wherewith it is now attended in the United Provinces. I believe, the Reformed Religion was introduced there, as well as in England, and the many other Countries where it is profess'd, by the operation of Divine Will and Providence ”

“ Yet, such was the care of this State to give all men ease in this point, who ask no more than to serve God, and save their own Souls, in their own Way and Forms; that what was not provided for by the Constitutions of their Government, was so, in a very great degree, by the Connivance of their Officers, Who, upon certain constant Payments from every Family, suffer the exercise of the Roman-Catholick Religion in their several jurisdictions, as free and easie, though not so cheap and so avowed, as the rest. ”

“ No man can here complain of pressure in his Conscience; Of being forced to any publick profession of his private Faith; Of being restrained from his own manner of worship in his House, or obliged to any other abroad: And whoever asks more in point of Religion, without the undisputed evidence of a particular Mission from Heaven, may be justly suspected, not to ask for God's sake, but for his own; since pretending to Sovereignty, instead of Liberty, in Opinion, is indeed pretending the same in Authority too, which consists chiefly in Opinion ”

“ One of the great Causes of the first Revolt in the Low-Countries, appeared to be, The Oppression of Mens Consciences, or Persecution in their Liberties, their Estates and their Lives, upon pretence of Religion. ”

“ And in the first, almost all Sects, that are known among Christians, have their publick Meeting-places; and some whose Names are almost worn out in all other parts, as the Brownists, Familists, and others: The Arminians, though they make a great Name among them, by being rather the distinction of a Party in the State, than a Sect in the Church; yet are, in comparison of others, but few in number, though considerable by the persons, who are of the better quality, the more learned and intelligent Men, and many of them in the Government. ”

“ Since this Establishment, as well as before, the great care of this State has ever been, to favour no particular or curious Inquisition into the Faith or Religious Principles of any peaceable Man, who came to live under the protection of their Laws, and to suffer no Violence or Oppression upon any Mans Conscience, whose Opinions broke not out into Expressions or Actions of ill consequence to the State. A free Form of Government either making way for more freedom in Religion ”

“ And no Man checks or takes offence at Faces, or Customs, or Ceremonies, he sees every day, as at those he hears of in places far distant, and perhaps by partial relations, and comes to see late in his life, and after he has long been possest by passion or prejudice against them. ”

“ As first, because by the Persecutions arrived in France, (where all the Reformed were Calvinists) multitudes of People had retired out of that Kingdom into the Low-Countrys; And by the great commerce and continual intercourse with England, where the Reformation agreed much with the Calvinists in point of Doctrine, though more with the Lutherans in point of Discipline, Those Opinions came to be credited and propagated more than any other, among the people of these Provinces, so as the numbers were grown to be greater far in the Cities of This than of any other Profession. ”

“ Perhaps while they were so threatned and endanger'd by Foreign Armies, they thought it the more necessary to provide against discontents within, which can never be dangerous, where they are not grounded or fathered upon Oppression in point either of Religion or Liberty. ”

“ Of all other Religions, every Man enjoys the free exercise in his own Chamber, or his own House, unquestioned and unespied: And if the Followers of any Sect grow so numerous in any place, that they affect a publick Congregation, and are content to purchase a place of Assembly, to bear the charge of a Pastor or Teacher, and to pay for this Liberty to the Publick; They go and propose their desire to the Magistrates of the place where they reside, who inform themselves of their Opinions, and manners of Worship ”

“ The Calvinists make the Body of the people, and are possessed of all the publick Churches in the Dominions of the State, as well as of the only Ministers or Pastors, who are maintained by the Publick; But these have neither Lands, nor Tithes, nor any authorized Contributions from the people, but certain Salaries from the State, upon whom they wholly depend: And though they are often very bold in taxing and preaching publickly against the Vices, and somtimes the innocent Entertainments, of persons most considerable in the Government, as well as of the Vulgar ”

“ The appearance of it is but like a piece of Humanity, by which every one falls most into the company or conversation of those, whose customs and Humours, whose Talk and Dispositions, he likes best: And as in other places, 'tis in every Man's choice with whom he will eat or lodge, with whom go to Market, or to Court ”

“ Such Consequences as these, I doubt, are something more than the disputed Opinions of any Man, or any particular Assembly of Men, can be worth; since the great and general End of all Religion, next to Men's Happiness hereafter, is their Happiness here ”

“ I believe the force of Commerce, Alliances, and Acquaintance, spreading so far as they do in small Circuits, (such as the Province of Holland) may contribute much to make conversation and all the Offices of common life, so easie, among so different Opinions, of which so many several persons are often in every Man's Eye ”