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First Letter Concerning Toleration/19 


himself, and by meditation, study, search, and his own endeavours, at- 
tain the knowledge of, cannot be looked upon as the peculiar possession 
of any sort of men. Princes, indeed, are born superior unto other men in 
power, but in nature equal. Neither the right nor the art of ruling does 
necessarily carry along with it the certain knowledge of other things, 
and least of all of true religion. For if it were so, how could it come to 
pass that the lords of the earth should differ so vastly as they do in 
religious matters? But let us grant that it is probable the way to eternal 
life may be better known by a prince than by his subjects, or at least that 
in this incertitude of things the safest and most commodious way for 
private persons is to follow his dictates. You will say: “What then?” If 
he should bid you follow merchandise for your livelihood, would you 
decline that course for fear it should not succeed? I answer: I would turn 
merchant upon the prince’s command, because, in case I should have 
ill-success in trade, he is abundantly able to make up my loss some 
other way. If it be true, as he pretends, that he desires I should thrive and 
grow rich, he can set me up again when unsuccessful voyages have 
broken me. But this is not the case in the things that regard the life to 
come; if there I take a wrong course, if in that respect I am once undone, 
it is not in the magistrate’s power to repair my loss, to ease my suffer- 
ing, nor to restore me in any measure, much less entirely, to a good 
estate. What security can be given for the Kingdom of Fleaven? 

Perhaps some will say that they do not suppose this infallible judge- 
ment, that all men are bound to follow in the affairs of religion, to be in 
the civil magistrate, but in the Church. What the Church has deter- 
mined, that the civil magistrate orders to be observed; and he provides 
by his authority that nobody shall either act or believe in the business of 
religion otherwise than the Church teaches. So that the judgement of 
those things is in the Church; the magistrate himself yields obedience 
thereunto and requires the like obedience from others. I answer: Who 
sees not how frequently the name of the Church, which was venerable in 
time of the apostles, has been made use of to throw dust in the people’s 
eyes in the following ages? But, however, in the present case it helps us 
not. The one only narrow way which leads to heaven is not better known 
to the magistrate than to private persons, and therefore I cannot safely 
take him for my guide, who may probably be as ignorant of the way as 
myself, and who certainly is less concerned for my salvation than I 
myself am. Amongst so many kings of the Jews, how many of them 
were there whom any Israelite, thus blindly following, had not fallen