not so much as hint at any thing more) I should think this might satisfy him. But both he, and the civil magistrate want much more than this, when the latter must needs pass out of his proper character, and insist upon being the supreme head of the church. The avowed object and end of the union of civil and ecclesiastical power will not justify this claim, for it may be compassed at a much less expence. If I want a house that will not be blown down by the wind, and two feet of thickness in the wall will sufficiently answer my purpose, should I make it twenty feet thick, because this would be a more effectual, or the most effectual security? A sufficient security is enough for me.
The Doctor’s reasoning in this case, is of a piece with the obligation which he lays upon the magistrate to countenance the largest sect of his discordant subjects, in preference to the best. This, indeed, might tend to reconcile the Dissenters in his dominions to their situation, by considering that their magistrate himself, the
