The absurdity of permitting the civil magistrate to regulate the conscience, is shown by the fact, that the magistrate will make his own views the standard of orthodoxy; and, consequently, it has happened, that successive rulers have maintained, by force, totally opposite systems of faith and practice. Mr. Williams says, on this point, “Who knows not, that within the compass of one poor span of twelve years’ revolution, all England hath become from half Papist, half Protestant, to be absolute Protestants; from absolute Protestants to be absolute Papists; from absolute Papists, (changing as fashions) to absolute Protestants.”[372] The magistrate must be infallible, in order to be a safe guide to the consciences of men. This consideration is a sufficient answer to Mr. Cotton’s sophism, that a man must not be persecuted for his opinions, but he may be punished for acting in contradiction to his own conscience. But who is to be the judge? Fundamentals, says Mr. Cotton, are so clear, that a man must be criminally blind and obstinate, who does not receive and obey them. But what are these fundamentals? is a question which different magistrates will decide differently; and men may be successively rewarded and punished, by successive administrations, for the same opinions. The great and true principle, then, is, that men are not responsible to each other, for their religious opinions or practices, as such; and that every man has a right, as a citizen, to hold any opinions, and to practise any ceremonies, which he pleases, unless he disturbs the civil peace. The duty of the magistrate, in relation to religion, consists in personal obedience to the truth, and impartial protection to all the citizens in the exercise of their religious privileges. Mr. Williams has well stated this point. In answer to the question, “What may the magistrate lawfully do with his civil power in matters of religion?” he says: “The civil magistrate either respecteth that religion and worship, which his conscience is persuaded is true and upon which he ventures his soul; or else, that and those which he is persuaded are false. Concerning the first, if that which the magistrate believeth to be true, be true, I say he owes a three-fold duty to it. “First, approbation and countenance, a reverent esteem and honorable testimony (according to Isaiah 49, and Rev. 31) with a tender respect of truth, and of the professors of it. “Secondly, personal submission of his own soul to the power of the Lord Jesus, in that spiritual government and kingdom, according to Matt. 18, and 1 Cor. 5. “Thirdly, protection of such true professors of Christ, whether apart, or met together, as also of their estates, from violence or injury, according to Rom. 13. “Now, secondly, if it be a false religion (unto which the civil magistrate dare not adjoin,) yet he owes: