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A third Letter for Toleration

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“ men to be convinced.” Which hath produced this warm reply of yours ;“ And will you ever pretend to conscience or modesty after this ? For I be-" seech you, Sir, what words could I have used more express or effectual to" signify, that in my opinion no Dissenters from the true religion ought to" be punislied with the lword, but such as chuse rather to rebel against the“ magistrate, than to submit to lesser penalties ? (For how any should refuse“ to submit to those penalties, but by rebelling against the magistrate, I fup-" pose you will not undertake to tell me.) It was for this very purpose that“ I used those words to prevent cavils j (as I was then so simple as to think I" might:) and I dare appeal to any man of common sense and common“ honesty, whether they are capable of any other meaning. And yet the" very thing which I so plainly disclaim in them you pretend (without so" much as offering to shew how) to collect from them. Thither, you say," at last, viz. to the taking away men’s lives for the saving of their souls ;“ persecution must come : as you fear, notwithstanding my talk of moderate“ punishments, I myself intimate in those words : and if I mean any thing" in them to the business in hand, I seem to have a reserve for greater“ punishments, when lesser are not sufficient to bring men to be convinced.“ Sir, I should expect fairer dealing from one of your Pagans or Mahometans.“ But I shall only add, that I would never wish that any man who has un-“ dertaken a bad cause should more plainly confess it than by serving it, as“ here (and not here only) you serve yours.” Good Sir, be not so angry,lest to observing men you increase the suspicion. One may, without for-feiture of modesty or conscience, fear what men’s principles threaten, thoughtheir words disclaim it. Nonconformity to the national, when it is the truereligion, as in England, is a fault, a vice, fay you, to be corrected by the co-active power of the magistrate. If so, and force be the proper remedy, hemust increase it, till it be strong enough to work the cure j and must notneglect his duty ; for so you make it, when he has force enough in his handto make this remedy more powerful. For wherever force is proper to workon men, and bring them to a compliance, its not producing that effect canonly be imputed to its being too little : and if so, whither at last must itcome, but to the late methods of procuring Conformity ; and as his mostChristian Majesty called it, saving of souls, in France, or severities like them,when more moderate ones cannot produce it ? For to continue inefficaciouspenalties, insufficient upon trial to master the fault they are applied to, isunjustifiable cruelty ; and that which no-body can have a right to use, itserving only to disease and harm people, without amending them : for youtell us, they should be such penalties as should make them uneasy.

He that should vex and pain a sore you had, with frequent dressing itwith some moderate, painful, but inefficacious plaister, that promoted notthe cure ; would justly be thought, not only an ignorant, but a dishonestsurgeon. If you are in the surgeon’s hands, and his help is requisite, andthe cure that way to be wrought; corrosives and fire are the most merciful,as well as only justifiable way of cure, when the cafe needs them. Andtherefore I hope I may still pretend to modesty and conscience, though I should

have