designedly written by a Romanist to strike our Author dead I read it over and found it fill'd up with Arguments of Universality Tradition and Infallibility of that Church Peter's Authority c. and all these larded with Zeal to persuade me into a Dependance and Reliance upon the Roman Church as the true one in which Treatise that Author boldly said my Reason ought to Acquiesce 't is well that side also makes Reason the Judge I was pleas'd with the sound of the Word more than with his reasons for they did not satisfie my Understanding yet had I known that Authors Genius inclin'd to Poetry I would have recommended him for Instruction to my old Friend the Parson of Pentlow And now I begin to think my self fortunate having hitherto sided with a noble Captain for so I account Humane Reason which 't is confest every side pretends to and which may possibly be beaten from it's Posts by the clatter of some Coffee-house but it will always recover and baffle its greatest Antagonists at the long run for Truth is strongest but Reason does assure it without whose gentle Mediation and Midwifry we had still remain'd in the State of War and consequently had been miserable THE END A RE-VIEW AND APPENDIX OUR Reply having been written now above two years I have re-consider'd it and from the past Circumstances of Affairs and present do think it necessary to add this Re-view and other Amplifications as either subservient to the Design or otherwise material insisting upon the Prospect of Reason and the ill consequence of neglecting its guidance viz. That from the Petulancy Heat and unseasonable Eagerness of some not very Discreet nor Learned and of others Learned Honest and generally Prudent but not infallible occasion is taken by the other side to answer upon such Provocations as they can alledging that their Sufferings are and have been all along for Conscience-sake and for well-doing though the Letters of the Laws are against them a Plea ever favour'd in all Ages That these Disputes about Externals onely for both Parties agree in Substance of Doctrine are mischievous to us at home and scandalous to the Protestant Churches abroad beyond the Seas That the Roman Church if it gets no Proselytes from these unseasonable Heats yet it has great reason to be pleas'd therewith for she thrives by our Divisions and can thrive by no other means here now That that Church was more Politick while she had as fair hopes as ever to prevail after the Queens death by complying outwardly with our Laws for till the 12th of Q. Eliz. all or most Romanists in England did and were permitted by the Pope to go to our Protestant Churches to hear the Service receive the Sacrament and take the Oath of Allegeance though since the Jesuits procur'd a Bull of Inhibition for their own profit yet 't was never accounted any Crime for a Romanist at that time not to go or to go to the Protestant Church whence our want of Charity to the Dissenters appears less than that of the Roman Church our Policy less and our uneasiness too visible thereby Neither are the Dissenters altogether excusable in their too stiff Separation and boggling at small things but I will be sparing in judging tender Consciences nevertheless it is obvious That from our pernicious Divisions so dangerous to our Religion and because tho the first Reformers went a good step yet no great progress has lately been made towards the Reason of our departure from Rome and reforming things amiss moderate men on both sides here do wish for some new Laws to consolidate the Conformists and Non-conformists in some measure or at least that some Ceremonies might be left and for the Explanation of some Laws now in force or limiting the force of others and particularly of that for imposing twenty pounds per Month for not coming to Church which Law I suppose no Lawyer doubts was originally intended against the Romanists and not against Protestant Dissenters who were few then and 't was the Roman Party at that time which confronted the Laws and begot the Statute The next Observation relates to Excommunications which how familiarly decreed and for what slight Causes and upon what gainful Designs and consequently how prejudicial to many of his Majestie 's good Subjects and how contrary to its Primitive and Grave Institution all Wise and Honest men of this Nation are and have been long very sensible of and of the ruine of some Families and the inriching of ill Officers by such Methods But may some say the Statute of Q. Mary against disturbers of Preachers is partly in force and of Use which was principally intended against Protestants for they were the Persons likely to disturb the Romanish Preachers then wherefore they say Why is not that of Eliz. also to be put in constant practise it being a general Law and provides for Peace Our Answer is The Case is alter'd for though equal Principles do lead to equal Ends 't is but when the matter about which we are conversant is equal And now the Papists are the most dangerous to our Peace and do plot to that end if we may credit King and Parliament or our own Eyes therefore that Law of Elizabeth against Recusancy stands in force yet it seems to want some Discrimination and that of Mary being in part repeal'd is continu'd as to the disturbing of Preachers the true Definition of Law being the Will of the Legislator There are many other antiquated and as things are inconvenient Laws Civil and Ecclesiastical which I have not room to remark here and as to the brangling practick part of both Courts the Judges may at least they ought to correct it tho one said wittily yet truly that no body but themselves meaning the Civil Practisers understands their Practise I had almost said Laws nor themselves neither The like may be said of the Practise at Common Law depending upon great Officers as some say if so 't is all dark This however since we are upon Discourse of Reason I 'll venture to say 't is evident that too often the Clients are tortur'd betwixt Prohibitions and Consultations so dangerous and troublesome it is where Courts do strive for Jurisdiction so also where the Judge's Power increases and the Jury's decreases or is over-aw'd for where Judges as has been our Case in Richard the Second's time presume to determine or delay by discretion or border upon the thing call'd perversion upon misapply'd Maxims which I hope will not be our Case Those Nations are more at ease where their Laws are unwritten supposing the Eternity of the Laws of Reason and which minds me of the familiar and exorbitant Practise of some as a wise Lord lately call'd them Trading Justices by their granting Warrants upon easie or unprov'd Suggestions above 10000 having been made out in one year by one of them lately which I can prove insomuch as few honest modest men can be free from their discretional
trouble it self with humane Affairs but if Providence had been exploded out of the minds of men it had been impossible to have persuaded us that God was ever displeas'd at the Fall of Aâ—an and consequently there would have appear'd no need at all of Restauration by Christ But the Gent. flyeth yet higher in the very same page by charging the Author that he hath busied himself to prove Humane Reason may with Safety to eternal Happiness tolerate Atheism it self and consequently all kind of Lusts and Wickedness whatsoever Really a most irrational and degenerous Objection such an Objection as no man who pretendeth to be a Gentleman but would blush to make to cancel which I need do no more than repeat the Author 's own Words pag. 31. which are these I believe first that Reason it self will declare to every man in the World that he ought to adhere to the Christian rather than to any other Religion in the World Now if Christian Religion ought to be adhered to it followeth necessarily that Vertue ought to be embrac'd and Vice detested because that Religion doth engage men to Holiness without the Practise whereof none can be happy according to the very Elements of that Religion The next things quarrell'd at are those Positive and undeniable Arguments which the Author propoundeth to establish the Excellency of Humane Reason taking it with it's due Helps that is by comparing it with other Guides standing in Competition with it in the Prosecution whereof how learnedly accurately and judiciously the Author hath particularly demonstrated the Uncertainty of many other pretended Guides and the Improbability of their being able to satisfie a solid Inquisition after Truth and which we are commanded to make and for which the Bereans were called noble appeareth so clearly from the 62 pag. of his book to pag. 64. that I dare say no unprejudiced Reader having considered them will suppose less than this that his Arguments need not any other Proof but the bare Prolation But however to give the Gent. fair Play I will go back a little to the Author's page 63. where he proveth Authority less safe than humane Reason out of which the Gent. would very fain squeeze something like a Face of Contradiction to which I answer He that believeth any thing because enjoyned by Authority is not nor cannot in his own Conscience be so fase as he that believeth and obeyeth Authority because he is rationally convinc'd he ought to obey it having commanded a rational thing As to the Gentleman's Instance of the Judges passing Sentence Secundum allegata probata he is mistaken for our Judges do not so judge nor will our municipal Law bear it nor is it any thing pertinent to the Business in hand for it is the Jury that groundeth the Sentence here the Judge only pronouncing it And touching the Gentleman's Instance about Adam's Fall from want of following of the Dictates of his own Reason asserted by the Author and which the Gent. would elude by saying that Adam's Crime was for believing Eve rather than his own Reason insisting that the Inhibition was not a Law of Nature or Reason but a mere positive Law I answer if the Law were merely positive Adam had the greater Reason to observe it and therefore it was irrationally done to follow the Persuasions of his Wife you may call it Authority if you please considering our Wives now in England before the Command of his Maker and indeed a thing altogether unbecoming his masculine Superiority and by the Gentleman's Favour Eve did not plead the Authority but Fraud of the Serpent which beguiled her nor did the Serpent pretend to any Dominion over her But I see the Gent. groweth angry by his Excursions in the upper part of his 96. pag. being nothing civil at all to the Author nor indeed pertinent to the Controversie which for the Gentleman 's own sake because possibly 't was but the effect of mere Passion I shall forbear to mention here particularly and now I must look backwards To what is objected against the Author's Words which are That they who commit themselves to the Guidance of their own Reason if they do commit themselves wholly to it are as safe on the Left band as on the Right as secure of Happiness in their Errors as others are who are otherwise guided ev'n in the Truths which they happ'n to fall into I suppose it is no more than if he had said that Councils Doctors Fathers Schoolmen Churches c. have erred both ways and therefore I am in as great Danger in submitting to such fallible and blind Guides every whit nay greater than if I happ'n to err after having searcht with all the imaginable Strength of my Reason for Truth for saith the Author There is no danger of perishing but for Disobedience to what to God's Commands and I am commanded to offer a reasonable Service I am to give a reason of my Faith and that Hope which is in me and doth it look like a good Plea to say that I did search and pray'd to God to direct me in that Search by his Spirit or is it better to say and more tolerable that I believ'd as the Church believ'd and rested there as safe I thought as a Thief in a Mill but this last Plea can never hold for me to pretend I did so with other men's Eyes when God hath giv'n me Eyes of mine own and this made Luther stir and H. 8. too who being King of a Kingdom independent of Rome properly though many ways usurpt by the Pope was not à parte rei obliged to refer himself to the Decision of any foreign Potentate about that which he alledg'd troubl'd his Conscience or if it were from any other Motive yet it was generously done upon the main and God can bring Good out of Evil whence the Author's Assumption that there is in man a natural Ability of searching for spiritual Truths and that it can be nothing else but the Vnderstanding neither to any thing else can the Command of searching be directed c. cannot be shaken by what is objected besides that the Author has the Suffrage of the best learned in all Ages to back him As to what fell in betwixt the Author and Master Hobbs it doth not much concern me to meddle with in this place T. H. will shift for himself but I will tell the Gent. he is the first Christian that ever interpreted the fifth of Matthew Let your Light so shine before men that they may see your good works to warrant the Necessity of Obedience to external Worship nor will the Scope of that Chapter bear it the Apostle intending to explain thereby the blessed State of Christianity in Suffering for Christ c. And that it is impossible Humane Reason so guided as the Author hath told us should lead men into those Sins of Theft Murder c. and all other Villanies appeareth from this that nothing else besides it
have cause to value their Force the first being fathomable by the easiest capacity and the second prevented by the vigilancy of the Government And to my solid comfort I well remember the resolution of my good Friend Bishop Gawden while he was Parson of Bocking in Essex to my Question Whether if I believ'd in God and Christ I were obliged to be a Member of any particular Church or no which was this That if I were one of God's Vniversal Church 't was no great matter whether I were joyn'd to any petty Church Policy upon Earth or no. A golden saying and I must not belye the dead and this Doctor kept his Parsonage all along till the Restauration of his Majesty and knew well 't was not necessary for him to be a Martyr of State in those ugly convulsions of Government tho he was so bravely honest as by an excellent and Loyal Protestation in Print to dissuade those bad men who then were about destroying of the King and did do it from so horrid a Crime but when 't was done he sat still and liv'd splendidly never opposing the Usurpation to no purpose as all wise men do who wheel about when there is reason And 't is best to be silent where Force tho usurped runs high and beyond the help of private men and this made the Judges act in t'other times for Right and Property must be maintain'd and made Bishop Juxon fall to hunting And I never knew any man very wise who shew'd himself eager to punish others for not complying with Externals about Religion So the Peace be not violated which is the greatest of Earthly Blessings and which we have enjoy'd at home ever since the King was restor'd and whereof I suppose there will not in his time and long may he live be any want if this great Animal the Empire of Great Britain be but true to its own Interest the Protestant Religion And to prove the truth of that Maxime let it be noted how for now above an hundred years experience by the Sufferings of good men in Q. Maries days and otherwise it has been from Scripture and Reason warranted and defended against all the Wit and Machinations of the other side ev'n to a plain baffle of late by D. Stillingfleet which deserves all imaginable thankful respects And let it be considered that our Religion is most consonant to the Genius of the best and most of his Majesties Subjects to our Common Laws and our Form of Monarchy and has been more than once signaliz'd with Blessings from Heaven against all its dangerous Opponents This I say is the prop of our Peace and the proper Antidote against Profaneness Atheism and Popery which are unseparable when it is secur'd by wholsom Laws and their due Execution the Life of all Laws unto which Sanctions all Romanists from their Protection under them are oblig'd by the Laws of Reason to render obedience at least they should not endeavour to pervert others from it Whence this conclusion naturally arises That the Disturbers of our Peace at this time in England of what sort soever so protected are unreasonable men where there is such plenty and where all Arts and Sciences flourish to a degree beyond any part of the habitable World and thence it follows that if any ingenious Person is uneasie here he ought to consider if his want of Humility severity of Opinion upon begg'd Principles Credulity or too great an esteem of his own Wisdom have not made him so uneasie But further If neither the searching Wits of the Rainbow Coffee-house the generous Learning of Covent-garden the Politick Gown-men at Paul's Cross the fixible Mercury of Fuller's Rents the Presumptions of Charing Cross nor the huge strength of the new Chappel near the great Arch can reduce us to Moderation nor satisfie our Doubts and Fears if the Ludicrous Drolls of future Fortune cannot be foreseen by the highest Star-gazing Philosophers no nor by the Magick of honest Fl. If the quaintest Lawyers cannot agree whether a Pardon after an Impeachment c. by the Publick hand signifie something or nothing If some rank high Ecclesiasticks cannot be cur'd of their Melancholy without vent'ring to take that Ignatian Powder which will never do their Business and does but suspend the Fever Nevertheless let the Winds shift as they may the Lee Port is at hand and safe Humane Reason which will shelter us from storms if men in their stations will discreetly follow its guidance as the safest Rule for Self-preservation for the examination of all Doctrines obtruded by Humane Authority and of every miraculous pretension as the best measure of Conscience because of Scripture without whose free Use I mean of Reasons Impudence will pass for Sense Stupidity for Discretion Fury for Valour the Town Bullies and Cullies for the most accomplisht Gentlemen hagg'd Curtezans for modest Ladies and the most sensless infatuated Bigots for the most Religious therefore to avoid mistakes of such natures or at least to allay the sharpness of our Epidemical Distempers I hope I have in this Reply and by the favour of Reason not only defeated the Forlorn but the united Phalanx of the Gentleman 's best disciplin'd Infantry and his Body of Horse also who durst oppose Reason's Bravery and Strength It remains that I come off as civilly with him as he does with the Author where at last he says that he the Author could not be angry with him upon his own Principles for says the Gent. I have guided my self in my Answer wholly by my own Reason which I thank him for he having thereby justifi'd the whole Treatise of the Author's and thereby shrivl'd his Answer into waste Paper and serves to shew that my Replying is no greater Crime than his was who was charged to say O. Cromwel's Horse was shod with Iron and far short of Banks his sin who shod his with Gold tho the one escapt the High Court of Justice yet the other could not the Star Chamber the Usurpt Dominion of the first dissolving naturally for defect of essential Rights to sustain it and the second being abolisht for Exorbitancy which Defect can never justifie Disobedience to Lawful Sovereignty as ours is and whereunto if Calvin's Case had ne're been printed I should have rationally submitted because my obligation lyes in the nature of my Submission Oaths adding nothing to it and our Laws say Obedience is due from Nature wherein Sir R. F. my Countrey man is right tho out in other things and tho Paul advises Obedience not for Fear but Conscience yet is an equivocal word never us'd in the Old Testament and more subject to Errour than Reason because less supported by solid Argument and too often dazl'd by Enthusiasm the Disease of Reason and Conscience also which first to speak humanely must yet be admitted to be the elder considering God's Inhibition probational to Adam c. But to let that Mystery alone and yet to leave nothing unweigh'd which the