A RATIONAL METHOD For proving the Truth of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION As it is Professed in the Church of England In Answer to A Rational Compendious Way to Convince without Dispute all persons whatsoever Dissenting from the true Religion By I. K. By Gilbert Burnet LONDON Printed for Richard Royston Bookseller to His most Excellent Majesty M DC LXXV To I. K. SIR ABout two or three months ago a Noble Lady gave me your Book with a Letter that addressed it to me wherein after some civilities I was desired to peruse the Book and made hope I should reap great advantages from it and indeed if I had not learned from the Inspired Preacher that there is nothing new under the Sun or had been easily catched to believe Novelties a Title and Preface that promised so much should have made me apprehend I had got sent me the Philosophers stone in Divinity and truly so short so sure so easie and so general a Method as you think you offer for curing and preventing all distempers about Religion deserved to be entertained with equal degrees of Joy and Astonishment What a happiness were it to Mankind after all the expence of Bloud all the toyl and sweat of Care all the Speculations and Labours of the Learned and the Industry and endeavours of Statesmen for resolving the doubts and difficulties about Religion to find a shorter and a safer way to get out of that trouble But as the high pretences and promises of the Spagiricks make sober people afraid to meddle with them and do oft bring disesteem and neglect on the Medicines because they are overvalued so I am afraid your Book shall have the same fate with clearer and unpossessed minds And I must confess my self strongly prejudiced against these hudling Methods so that I always apprehend some Legerdemain from them And the Title of your Book did very naturally lead me to this thought it being a form of Speech we in England call a Bull A Rational way to convince without any Dispute for a Rational way of Conviction is when upon a full hearing and considering all can be said on both sides of any debate the evidence of Reason determines our perswasion And to form an opinion after we have only considered the grounds of one side is as unequal and unjust as for a Judge to pass sentence when he has heard but one party Now Disputing is only the considering with an even ballance what all parties say and the suspending our Verdict till they have finished their Evidence It is therefore no Rational way but a blind and unreasonable one that bars Disputing nor can it be a Conviction but only a prepossession when we are led into any Opinion before all that can in reason be said hath been examined by us But I suppose by Dispute you meant the eager and hot contests of wrangling Disputants who espousing a party do with all the tricks and disingenuities of Sophistry and the petulant Incivilities of rude treatment manage debates as persons more concerned for glory and victory than for truth and rather than confess an escape and disclaim an error will with all the trifling arts of their embased Logick defend every thing which either they themselves have once said or that party they adhere to has maintained But as I passed from your Title through your Preface to your Book I must freely confess I did not find in it such fair and clear Reasoning as you promised and I saw you had a great deal of reason to avoid Disputing for nothing but a blind easie yielding to what you delivered could save your Book from being rejected And this seemed to me so obvious that I judged it needless to engage in any Answer to it and so laid it aside But a few days ago a worthy and learned friend of mine told me many wished some would be at the pains to Answer it and desired me to do it and when I told him how it was brought to my hands he thought I was under some obligation to send you the reasons that lay in my way and kept me from yielding to this new Method of Conviction I was the more easily perswaded to it that my present circumstances did leave me at a greater freedom of disposing of my time than I have enjoyed for some years The starched formality of Dedications is as much out of esteem with me as out of date in this freer age but it was natural to address this to your self though utterly unknown to me by any other Character than what your Book gives of you and so I am in no hazard of making personal reflections I shall first give you my sense of your Method in all the Six points you go through before I take any notice of what is in your Preface which I shall consider last of all and with the same breath shall offer a Rational way of managing all Disputes about Religion so that after a full hearing of what may be said we may arrive at a clear and well grounded Conviction in matters of Religion I hope you will consider what I go to lay before you with a mind calm and undisturbed and believe that in this I am acting the part of one who is sincerely Your Friend and Servant Gilbert Burnet IMPRIMATUR Guliel Wigan Feb. 27. 1674 5. THE CONTENTS CHap. I. It is considered if J. K. does prove convincingly that there is a God Page 1. Chap. II. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that there must be some true Religion p. 11. Chap. III. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that there must be some true Revealed Religion p. 17. Chap. IV. It is considered if J. K. hath proved convincingly the truth of the Christian Religion p. 23. Chap. V. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that the Roman Catholick Religion is true p. 33. Chap. VI. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that every thing the Roman Church teaches as an Article of Faith must be true p. 57. Chap. VII Of the supposed inconveniences J. K. imagines in the want of a true Church to judge Infallibly and of the right methods of finding truth p. 65. THE INTRODUCTION NOthing doth give both occasion and nourishment to Error and Mistake more than the being prevailed on by the heats of fancy without bringing them under the severer tryal of Reason nor do our Imaginative powers in any case more certainly impose upon us than when they present Notions to us which do at once surprise with their novelty and delight with their apparent usefulness and none are sooner catch'd with such a bait than men of Speculative heads accustomed to Disputes and to the little tricks of Logick for they being habituated to so many Axioms which pass among them for sacred Truths think if they can found a discourse on some received Maxim all is sure work and have not distinguished aright betwixt the Colours of Truth which Wit Eloquence and Sophistry can by a
propagated as it was it could not have been made out that it was true and if so what must have been the strong Arguments used for it before it was so propagated Either these were convincing or not if they were not convincing then it being propagated by weak and unconcluding Arguments we cannot be bound to submit to it or believe it if these Arguments were convincing we either know them or we know them not if we know them not how can we judge they were convincing if we know them then we may be as well convinced by them as those were to whom they were at first proposed The great Argument the Apostles offered was that our Blessed Saviour wrought many Miracles in the sight of the Iews and that he being dead and laid in the grave was raised from the dead and after a long stay with them on earth they saw him ascend with great glory to Heaven of all which they were witnesses Now these being matters of Fact so positively attested by so many eye-witnesses who were men of great probity that could not be cast on the pretence of their being hired or bribed there being no interest could lead them to give that testimony but only truth all other considerations deterring them from it there was good reason then and remains so still to believe this true whether the world had embraced it or not And I will ask I. K. what if the Gentiles had rejected their testimony as well as the Iews did yet if these sacred writings had been with a most Religious care conveyed down to us had we not been bound to believe the Gospel certainly we had for the Apostles were men who upon the strictest tryal of Law must be admitted as competent witnesses they were well informed of what they heard and saw for a tract of three or four years they were plain simple men who could not in reason be suspect of deep designs or contrivances they in the testimonies they gave do not only vouch private stories that were transacted in corners but publick matters seen and known of many hundreds they all agreed in their testimony so that the fumes of melancholy could not lead so many into such an agreement of mistakes Their testimonies if false might have been easily disproved the chief power being in the hands of their enemies who neither wanted power cunning nor malice And in fine the truth of their testimony appears in their constant adhering to it from which neither imprisonments whippings tortures no not death it self could divert them From all which it is as evident as is possible any matter of Fact can be that their testimony was true and this discourse must hold good whether the world had received and believed their report or not Which was the more fully confirmed by the miraculous operations of the Apostles in the name of Christ by which they did cast out Devils and cure all manner of diseases and to this they appeal in their Epistles and Acts which were published at that time wherein had the matter of Fact not been true they had been branded as bold and impudent Impostors We have also a Series of Books in all Ages citing the Writings wherein these Testimonies are contained by which we know they were written at that very time And the Apologists for the Christian Faith in their Apologies appeal to the wonders that were still wrought for confirmation of the Faith nor can we imagine that men of common sense not to say Modesty and Ingenuity would have appealed to proofs that were slender and false in matter of Fact Thus we see that great confirmation of our Saviour from his Miracles is made good by another way of proof than by the propagation of it which I do not deny doth very strongly make out the truth of all yet is rather a consequent confirmation of what hath been said than an antecedent argument for proving it So though it be far from my thoughts to weaken this way of confirming Christian Religion yet it is plain that an extraordinary propagation will not infer the truth of the Doctrine though it be allowed it was done by Miracles since we cannot be assured these Miracles are wrought by a good Spirit till we first consider the Doctrines they confirm whether they be good or not It doth also appear that the truth of these Miracles is made out abundantly to us abstracting from the way of propagating them But in end we must a little examine what this way of propagating them was and we shall find that notwithstanding all the calumnies and lesser persecutions of the Iews of the derision of the Philosophers of the prejudice carnal lusts and appetites laid in the way and above all of the violent oppositions given it by the Roman Emperors who spared no cruelty for a Succession of three Ages and ten Persecutions that hell or hellish men could devise for destroying it yet it prevailed and in a few years did spread to the astonishment of the world and all other Religions were not only overthrown by the many Converts were daily flocking in to the Christian Church but by the ruine of these very Religions Judaism fell to the ground by the subversion of their Temple and the total ruine and dispersion of their State begun by Vespasian and Titus and compleated by Trajan and Hadrian nor could their attempts though cherished by an apostate Emperour succeed for the rebuilding their Temple Heaven and Earth combining to break off the work Heathenism did also receive a mortal blow by the silencing the Oracles upon the beginnings of Christianity which were the great supports of that Religion with the vulgar And the exemplary lives the heavenly Doctrines the mutual Charity and the noble Constancy of the first Witnesses and Martyrs of the Christian Faith wrought not a little on all that beheld thâ—m even on such as were very partial and byassed against them And the Christian Religion being thus universally received as it is a very full demonstration that these Miracles were no forgeries but known and approved truths So also it confirms in us a belief that there was an extraordinary presence of God in these beginnings of Christianity assisting and animating those Converts of all Ages Sexes and Qualities to adhere to it under all the discouragements and sufferings they were to pass through whether occasioned by the irregular appetites of their own carnal lusts or by the outward oppositions they met with And thus far I have considered how the truth of Christian Religion can be made out against the opposition of Atheists Infidels or Deists Hitherto I have waited on I. K. in the survey of these Truths about which we are agreed and I hope upon a review of what we have both performed he will not deny but I have strengthened his Positions with the accession of many more and better Arguments than any he brought So that if he be in earnest zealous for these four great Truths he will rejoyce to
of those Ages and the chief preservative of Piety and good manners so as they have it among them it hath been one of the greatest engines of Hell for driving out of the minds of men all sense of the duties of a holy and good life I do not deny but some Priests among them make good use of it but those being very few it does give but a small allay to the gross corruptions which even many grave and pious Writers of their own Communion complain of and condemn Shall I here mention the giving Absolution and admitting to the Sacrament upon Confession before any part of the Penance be performed the trifling Penances are often enjoyned the taking Confessions from persons unknown the receiving it when it is apparent they are only reciting their sins without any Compunction And for Contrition they confess it is not necessary Now the generality of that Church being perswaded that if they Confess with a little Attrition and be Absolved and receive the Sacrament they stand clear and innocent in the presence of God whatever their former life have been or their present temper may be Is not here a very sure way to defeat the whole design of Religion and Holiness when men are taught so eaâ—ie a way of getting into the favour of God without repenting of and forsaking their sins And thus it appears that in the Roman Church Confession is no severity but a thing very grateful to flesh and blood The last particular I. K. instances is the prohibition of Priests to Marry Truly if to reckon that impure which the holy Spirit of God hath declared honourable in all without exception be a great sublimity they may well glory in it Our Saviour recommended Cellbate only to those who were able to receive it but the Roman Church will force all in Orders to receive it whether they can or not And though S. Paul makes it one of the Characters of a person fit to be a Bishop that he has been married and educated his children well which I shall not stretch so far as either the Greek or the Russian Churches do now and does not at all command him to abandon her and has elsewhere condemned that in all persons without exception except it be for a time in order to fasting and prayer and conform to this the primitive Church did not require the Clergy to abandon their wives but on the contrary did condemn such as did yet the Roman Church has most tyrannically imposed this on all the Clergy And although we read that God will judge Whoremongers and Adulterers but no where that he will judge the Married yet they have been very gentle to these crying scandals which continue to this day and have allowed the Concubinate when they condemned the Marriage of the Clergy By which they shew they prefer the Traditions of men to the Command of God And thus far I have examined this Branch of the parallel I. K. makes between the Roman and the Christian Religion wherein I have been longer than I intended but as short as the particulars he named did allow When he brings the rest of his c. I doubt not it shall appear they are a sequel of such things which the same or the like considerations will clear But I must follow his next step that the Roman Religion hath been propagated over a great part of the world without the help of Arms or humane enticements by strangers who converted many from Paganism that allowed liberty to their Religion that teaches Severities and Mortification To all which I reply That since the Roman Church is still Christian I deny not but God may bless the honest endeavours of a great many of that Communion so that their labours may have great success on Infidels in converting them to Christianity herein God blessing them as he did the Hebrew Midwives whose charitable tender hearts God rewarded building them Houses passing over their lie But I. K. must not insist on this as a good Argument otherways he will be driven into great absurdities Did not the Arrians by Ulphilas his means who was a stranger to the Goths that were a barbarous cruel and yet vastly numerous people convert them both to Christianity and Arrianism at once From whence we find the whole Roman Empire very soon overrun by Arrianism upon the Incursion of the Goths Vandals and Longobards Philostorgius does also inform us that Theophilus an Arrian converted the Indians to the Christian Faith Did not the Greek Church when it was broke from the Roman convert many Nations the Bulgars the Muscovites and many other northern Kingdoms In fine what will I. K. answer according to his own Argument to the great progress of the Doctrine of Luther and Zuinglius who notwithstanding all the opposition they met and all the persecutions their followers suffered yet did so strangely propagate their Doctrine that before half an Age went about the greater half of the Roman Church fell off from the Obedience of that See to their Doctrine which holds all the Mysteries of the Christian Religion and there was no need of more and instead of all the Juglings the Roman Priests had brought in teaching men an easie way to Heaven did preach all the severities of a holy Life which our Saviour and his Apostles taught And as they taught a severer course of Life to all Christians I do not speak of the particular severities of some Orders in the Roman Church but what must be the necessary conditions upon which all may hope for Salvation so they advanced this without Arms and under great Persecutions And here I. K. must think how he will answer his own Dilemma That either this was done with Miracles or without them if with them the Doctrine must be true that was confirmed by Miracles if without them that propagation was a great Miracle and thus I. K. will find it hard to avoid the dint of his own Argument Besides when I. K. speaks of the propagation of the Roman Religion he must not prove that from the propagation of Christianity by persons of that Religion though the same Instruments might at the same time have engaged their new Converts to the particular conceits of that Church For as it was observed before God blessing the sincerity of their Labours so that they made Converts to the Christian Doctrine that has so much to be said for it that it is a wonder all the world did not receive it it was not strange if those so converted seeing the foundation of the Divine Mission of Iesus Christ to be true did either in humble gratitude to their charitable Instructors pay them all the returns of acknowledgment and Obedience or being ignorant of that Doctrine which was wholly new to them did easily receive and imbibe any particular Opinions they might infuse in them and so at the same time became Votaries to Christ and to Rome But if I. K. will deal fairly and satisfyingly he must
shew us how their Religion as it is distinct from the commonly received truths of Christianity was so miraculously propagated and that in the points which we chiefly challenge as the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome with his being the Universal Bishop of the Church the forbidding the use of the Scripture to the Laicks and the Worship in an unknown tongue the use of Images in the Worship of God the Invocating of Saints and Angels the belief of Transubstantiation the Sacrifice of the Mass and the taking the Chalice from the people the belief of Purgatory the Treasure of the Church and Indulgences with a long c. I. K. knows well that many have given very particular and full Histories of the rise and progress of these abuses with which we charge the Roman Church and for which she having obstinately refused to reform them on the contrary binding them on the Consciences of all with new and heavier Anathema's we have separated our selves from her Communion That those are not in the Scripture it is plain enough and we will not decline a tryal upon all hazards by the verdict of the first four Ages It is true in the fifth Century the Incursion of the Goths and Vandals did very much change the face of things and bring on a black night of ignorance on the greater part of Christendom which made way for gross Superstition and the bold pretences of the Bishops of Rome And I. K. is very much out in his accounts that says the propagation of the Roman Religion was without Arms. Was not that dearest part of it the authority of the Popes the occasion of many long and bloody wars in Germany and Italy And for their conversion of Hereticks the third Decree of the Council of Lateran and the practises of the Inquisitions were the surest means of effectuating it And what humane enticements were wanting to draw men into their Religion The cherishing of such Kings as were firm to them and the making over to them the Rights of their Neighbouring Princes were pretty enticing baits Witness their getting Pipin into the Throne of France their inviting him and his Son to the Conquest of the Lombards with many other Instances And was there ever found out such an enticement for men of carnal tempers who yet retained some belief of Religion as the power of pardoning indulging and exchanging of penances So that this whole account of I. K's fails him when put to the issue of a severe tryal though it looked pretty smooth and fair to an overly considerer But in end I will add a few considerations of the methods of the first propagation of Christianity and from these it will appear how different those were from any thing the Roman Church can pretend to First the Propagators of Christianity went witnessing the truth of what was publickly seen and known without any other design of their own either to engross power or riches Now whether this be the method of the Roman Church I refer it even to their own Histories if their great care hath not always been to get Ambassadors sent to Rome with the offer of their obedience and great submissions of which nothing appears in the first conversion of the world to Christianity Secondly the first Converters of the world studied to draw Mankind to a great acknowledgement of the inestimable Blessings we received by Iesus Christ and to the making sutable returns by addressing our selves to the Father by him and living according to his Gospel Now the greatest care of most of the Apostles of the Roman Church was to propagare the worship of Creatures to give Patrons to whole Nations and teach them to build Churches to those and above all to the blessed Virgin of which no footsteps appear in the first Conversion to Christianity And instead of the strictness of a holy life and an humble charitable temper they have set up a vast multitude of little observances which may be received and yet the life of sin remain still strong and in vigour Thirdly the first Propagators of Christianity studied by all possible means to wean people from all kind of Idolatry and to make theâ— serve the living God and worship him in Spirit and in Truth Now how far the Roman Church hath declined from this is apparent and that they have studied rather to change than overthrow their Idolatry giving them little Pictures Medals and Agnus Dei's and Reliques for their worship Fourthly those that laboured first to convert the world to the Christian Religion studied to make all understand what they taught them gave them the Scriptures in their own tongue and forms of Worship which they understood and could well make use of But the Emissaries of Rome deny their Converts these helps and so would hood them into a blind receiving of all they shall propose to them and keep them still under their Authority and so teach them Prayers in a tongue they do not understand Fifthly those that first converted the world did by many Miracles wrought in the sight of all convince and convert them to the Faith and these Miracles were grave useful actions as the curing of diseases the casting out of devils the procuring them good seasons and other temporal blessings and all this was done in the name and to the honour of Jesus Christ. But the Roman Agents wanting these real Miracles have betaken themselves to the shameful forgeries of strange Visions and Apparitions and of ridiculous Miracles with so vast a superfetation of them that few even of their own Communion can read these Legends of their grand Apostles â—ithout a just disdain at such palpâ—â—â—â— impostures â—â—xthly the first propagation of Christianity was when there was no Secular power to support it or those who laboured in it so that they exposed themselves to all the dangers of hunger and cold of scorn and reproach being assured of no supply not assistance from men and yet God appeared so â—xtraordinarily with them that their success was plainly the work of Heaven But the Bishops of Rome becoming great Princes sent out Agents to make new Conquests well furnished and powerfully supported so that they went like Ambassadors from one Prince to another to treat an Alliance wherein there was little hazard and great hope of success by the advantageous terms were offered on both sides And therefore after Charles the great had conquered Germany and was become a terror to the Northern Kings the Bishops of Rome sent their Agents to labour in their Conversion which was an easie matter and had no difficulty in it And Seventhly the first Conversion of the world to Christianity was signally the finger of God since though it met with the greatest Opposition from the Secular powers and was persecuted every where and for many Ages yet it prevailed and though the first Converts were poor mechanical and simple persons yet great wisdom and constancy appeared in them to the amazement of the Philosophers and other
an Infallible Judge and of the great and visible inconveniencies that appear from the want of it in those Churches that have departed from the Roman Communion I have not long ago proposed a great many Queries to one of I. K's brethren in which I have set before him the many difficulties they must needs be involved in by clearing who this Infallible Judge must be and I shall here repeat nothing of what I said then but shall go on to shew upon what clear and certain grounds we may rest our perswasions about Articles of Faith and divine Truths All Arts and Sciences must be acquired by some rules and methods by which a progress may be made from plainer things to those that are more involved and difficult and if any would desire to understand any Theorem or Problem in Geometry without beginning at the Elements and advancing by Euclid or some other such methods he labours in vain So also if any would without more ado study to know a secret in Chymistry having neither learned to know the terms of Art nor the course of a process he shall not be the wiser though one deliver him their best secrets In like manner if a man will enter into the knowledge of Divine truth without any of those preparations which are necessary he is in a wrong way and the further he engages he is the more out of the way nor can he be ever in the right way till he begin afresh It may justly seem strange that Christian Religion was so plain a thing when the Apostles first delivered it that mean simple people poor women and an illiterate company should have understood it and that it subdued a great part of the Roman Empire before men of great Learning were Converted to the belief of it and all the knowledge they then had of it was by the Sermons and Epistles of the holy Apostles which remain to this day And though at this distance from that time we may have lost the true meaning of some phrases and we have not so particular a History of the state of the first Churches as might help us to understand many passages that seem very dark to us yet for the main of those Books they seem very easie and plain We have also still so perfect a knowledge of the Greek tongue as clearly to understand them But after all this Christian Religion is now become such a strange kind of secret that men with all their Learning and Study can scarce understand it Certainly we must have either changed Religion from what it was at first so that it hath now put on a new face or we are much mistaken in our methods of enquiring into it and examining what things are revealed to us by God S. Paul tells us the Natural man receives not the things of God neither indeed can be for they are spiritually discerned From which it appears that a Renovation of the mind from its natural mould and its being transformed into a spiritual temper are necessary as well for the understanding and discerning as the obeying the things of God Now all natural men may be divided into three Classes either they are so immersed in senses and sensible things that all their apprehensions are tinctured with the figures and phantasms which their senses and imaginations present to them or they rise a little above this but are so governed by the heats of nature and passion that either their minds are rendred quite incapable of all serious thoughts or so distorted in them that they do not discern them truly But the highest elevation of the natural man is Reason which hath a fairer appearance and if rightly managed would certainly advance him to a spiritual temper but being fed only with dry Notions and trying them by a false touchstone does strenghthen our errors fortifie our prejudices and swell us with pride and fret us with the itch of an unsatisfiable and useless curiosity Now it will not be ungrateful it is hoped to propose the great hinderances all these several Modifications of the Natural man have given to the right understanding Divine truths and to begin with those of the lowest form One whose mind is immersed in sense either believes nothing but what his senses propose to him or at least tinctures all his Notions with sensible objects Thus the Atheist believes no God because he cannot see him and those of the heathens over whom the power of their senses was strong yet not such as to overcome the Impressions of a Deity left on their Souls did believe the Sun Moon and Stars were Gods being both dazled with the brighter splendor of the day and delighted with the fainter shinings of the night And finding both the pleasant Lightsomness the warm Benignity and fruitful usefulness of their Beams they did adore them as gods and seeing strange effects answering some of their positions and aspects they came to imagine all humane things were governed by them and so framed an entire Theory if so ill grounded a thing can deserve that name of Astrology Others much taken with the greatness and glory of brave Commanders and Princes and having some Notion of the Souls Immortality on their minds did think that after their death they governed this inferiour world and to those Heroes they assigned Stars to dwell in and those gods they represented either by some Symbols the chief whereof was Fire or by some Statues Pillars or other pieces of Sculpture which at least represented that Deity to their Senses if it had not some strangely Magical and Divine influence united or affixed to it They did also prognosticate all future things either by the flight or feeding of Birds or by the inwards of Animals Here then a Religion entirely framed from the Conceptions of the Natural man in its lowest depression and their gross Notions of Religion made them both prejudiced against the Iews who worshipped nothing but a Celestial Deity and more against the Christians whom they called Atheists because they had none of those sensible representations or ways of Worship but their Faith was plain and simple But as the Natural man did thus corrupt the notices of natural Religion it did no less embase the Christian Religion When many natural men were engaged in the profession of it either by Education Custom or Interest who loathing its simple purity did study so to dress it up that it might gratifie their natural minds by bringing in the worship of deceased men and by worshipping them by Images Pictures Reliques and at length making Pictures for the Deity it self and by dressing up all the parts of Religious Worship so as to amuse and delight the senses by affecting an outward grandeur in Processions and other Festivals and in the greatness of their Priests chiefly of their high Priest all which were visibly the effects of minds deeply engaged in sensible things to whom nothing appeared sacred or solemn without it had been adorned with all the
or writing such Characters as shall convey into the ears or eyes of others Corporeal Impressions from which they may judge of our thoughts which is a great way about and much more unintelligible though we are very sure it is true then that a spirit shall communicate its thoughts to our understandings which it may either do by such outward impressions on our senses as bring the thoughts of other men to our knowledge or without these outward objects may make the same Impressions on our Brain And like to this are the impressions made on us in sleep in which we imagine we converse with the objects of sense Or finally without the means of any Corporeal phantasms a spirit especiaally the supreme and soveraign spirit may immediately convey to our understanding its pleasure as well as our understandings do receive hints from gross phantasms which is a great deal harder to conceive than this Thus the Atheist can propose nothing that will prove there can be no Inspiration but there is great necessity of guarding this both from the juglings of Impostors and the more innocent though no less hurtful deceits of our heated fancies which may obtrude their Notions on us as Divine especially in some in whom the Spleen or hysterical distempers may produce strange effects therefore this must be well proved and warranted before others are bound to acknowledge or submit to it nor must the great heats and divine Raptures of the inspired person ingage our belief We know how the Sibylls were said to be inspired and with what Bacchick fury many heathen Priests delivered some of their Impostures and it is dayly seen what strange appearances of inspiration are in hysterical persons Therefore it must be accompanied with such other extraordinary Characters as can neither be the forgeries of Juglers nor the vapours of the Spleen or Mother and these are Miracles or Prophecies which are certain indications of some extraordinary and supernatural presence with the inspired persons And thus far I have helped I. K. to prove the necessity of Revelation for the ascertaining mankind of the Worship and Obedience that God requires and have met with the great objections which Deists and other enemies to Revelation bring against it But I now follow him to his fourth proposition about the truth of the Christian Religion CHAP. IV. It is considered if J. K. hath proved convincingly the truth of the Christian Religion J. K. goes on in his Series of truths and his next attempt is to prove the truth of Christian Religion And indeed the Atheism that hath of late broke out in the world and in upon us hath engaged so many excellent pens of all the parties and divisions of Christendom to stand up in vindication of our most holy Faith with so much closeness of Reason that it may be justly a problem whether that pestiferous contagion hath not occasioned as much good to Christian Religion by the many admirable Treatises have been writ for it upon that account as it hath done hurt by its own venome But to see I. K. manage so glorious a Cause so poorly and so faintly after all that light which these Books offer does justly raise Indignation and it is plain he was afraid to bring out the strongest proofs for it lest it should appear there was much more to be said for the Verity of the Christian Religion than can be for the Roman but I. K. being resolved to prove there was no more to be said for the one than for the other and therefore would manage this Cause faintly that he might maintain the other more strongly and so it seems cares not with how slender Evidence â—e assert the truth of Christianity so that the truth of the Roman Religion be but as undisputed His great Argument for its truth is That it hath been miraculously propagated which could not have been without true and real Miracles and these are manifest proofs of that truth which they confirm Now since Christian Religion though it contains Mysteries far above the reach of humane reason and severities contrary to humane Inclinations yet has been propagated without the help of Arms or humane enticements by men of themselves unfit for so great a work and hath overcome other Religions which were both well established and preached liberty and pleasures Then this was either done with Miracles or without them if with them it is confessed there were Miracles if without them such a propagation must be confessed to be a Miracle This is the substance of what I. K. brings for the proof of the Christian Religion But this alone cannot satisfie a considering mind For it is acknowledged by all who believe any Religion that the power of evil spirits is very great and far above ours so that Miracles cannot determine my belief since there must go somewhat previous to that Therefore Moses told the people of Israel that though a Prophet by a Sign or wonder did amuse them and upon that perswaded them to go after other gods they should not hearken to that Prophet but put him to Death And S. Paul tells us that if an Angel from heaven should preach another Gospel he must be anathematized So that Miracles or other extraordinary apparitions do not prove a Prophet Therefore the first and great Argument for the proof of the Christian Religion is the purity of the Doctrine and the holiness of its precepts which are all so congruous to the common Impressions of nature and reason and this must prove as our Saviour himself taught us that his Miracles were true ones and not wrought by the Prince of Devils since his Doctrine is opposite and destructive of his Interest and Kingdom And our Saviour also asserts the truth of what he said most commonly from this Topick that he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him that he sought not himself nor his own honour but his Father's Again our Saviour asserts his authority from the Prophecies of Moses and the other inspired persons of that Dispensation whose predictions of the Messias did all agree to him and receive completion in him And from these our Saviour often silenced the Iews and this is to us still a strong Argument that these Books which the enemies and blasphemers of our Religion have still kept as sacred and had among them for some thousands of years do give such clear and evident Characters of our Saviour as their Messias as must needs convince every serious and sober enquirer These are the chief and great proofs of the authority of our Saviour by which we are assured that all the mighty works he did were by the presence and wonderful assistance of a Divine spirit And for the Miracles themselves I. K. would resolve all our certainty concerning them into a miraculous propagation of Christianity So that if there be no other certain way to prove them then if Christian Religion had not been so
see such a supplement to what he had so scantly proposed But I am afraid and perhaps not without reason that he knowing how weak his Arguments must needs be for the two positions that follow and yet designing to impose on the Reader all the Six as equally certain he would needs disguise the first Four and propose them so weakly guarded that the proofs of all the Six might be of a piece But I have hitherto helped I. K. henceforth I quit that part and go to enter in a down-right opposition to him in what remains CHAP V. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that the Roman Catholick Religion is true J. K. now comes to that which he drove at all along and proves it thus If Christian Religion be true then that Religion which has the same proofs that it hath at least any of them that are solid must needs be true Since then the miraculous propagation of Christianity is a common solid and evident proof of its truth therefore the Roman Catholick Religion must be true since it is solidly proved by the like propagation for though it contains very hard Mysteries in it above the reach of humane reason as Transubstantiation and some very hard Precepts and Counsells as Vows Fasts Confession prohibition for Priests to marry c. yet it hath been propagated over a great part of the world without the help of Arms or humane Enticements by strangers who have converted Nations from Paganism to embrace the Christian Faith as S. Austin the Monk did in England and Xaverius in the Indies and many others in other places which can be manifestly proved from History nor can any exception be made against it which the enemies of Christianity may not make against the same proâ—f brought for the Christian Religion And to use S. Austin's dilemma This propagation of Roman Catholick Religion was either with or without Miracles if with Miracles it must be true since confirmed by Miracles if without them then no Miracle is greater than this propagation By which it appears we have as good ground to be Roman Catholicks as we have to be Christians By this time I suppose it is clear enough why I. K. would bring no better proofs for the Truth of the Christian Religion and now he thinks he has gained his design but what I said in the former Section has undermined this Fabrick since it is made out that the miraculous propagation is neither the only nor the chief proof of Christianity but that before we believe even the Miracles of our Saviour to be of God two things were to be made out the one that his Doctrine was all holy and such as tended to the glory of God the other was that all he said and delivered agreed with the Prophecies had gone before So by the same rule of proceeding we must first see that all the parts of the Roman Religion are holy and such as tend to the glory of God and then that they 〈◊〉 as fully with both the Testaments as our Saviours Doctrine did with 〈◊〉 and the Prophets If this Method be taken I am afraid I. K. will find it a hard task to prove the holinâ—â—s of all the Roman Doctrines What a Sanctuary for all manner of Vice and Impiety is the 〈◊〉 power of Dispensing Pardoning and giving Indulgences for all sins upon such trifling accounts Witness the present year with all the favours and Indulgences to such as go to the thresholds of the Apostles What a patrociny to impenitence is their Opinion of a simple Attrition being sufficient for the Sacrament And the whole trade of their penances and absolutions looks like a design to quiet all mens Consciences let them lead as bad lives as they will Besides who can believe that to be a true Religion that has tolerated a great many Casuists who have found out distinctions to excuse men from all the duties they owe God and their Neighbour and have studied to satisfie men in the most impious and immoral practises A woman that entertains common and avowed Prostitutes will never be thought an honest woman though none could prove her self guilty of any base act So that Church that not only entertains but cherishes those who have studied to discharge mankind of all sense of Religion and Vertue can never pass for a pure Church Nor does the Doctrine of that Church tend wholly to the glory of God as our Saviours did for what greater dishonour can be done him than to Worship him in a way which himself has so often condemned and never since allowed by the representations of Pictures and Images And that instead of addressing their Adorations and Prayers to him by his Son have found out a great many other Mediators both Angels and Saints and the Blessed Virgin Surely this is highly to the dishonour of God when the Souls of people are turned off from their Faith and dependence on him and his blessed Son into a trusting to and calling on Creatures and when instead of that plain simple and rational Worship that is sutable to the Divine nature and pleasing to him the mimical pageantry of a Thousand little apish practises and an unknown Worship are brought into his Church If we likewise consider and measure the Roman Religion by the second great Topick by which our Saviour cleared himself which was his appealing to the Scriptures we will quickly find good reason to suspect them guilty there since they study nothing more than the suppressing and concealing the Scripture and by all means labour to prove it an incompetent rule to decide Controversies by And yet I am sure I. K. will give me no reason to prove the Scriptures an unproper rule for deciding Controversies and that we must submit to the verdict and decree of the Church that might not with more strength been made use of by the Iews against our Saviour And if I carry this consideration as far as it will go it must necessarily lead me to compare all the Doctrines of the Roman Religion with the Scriptures And as if our Saviours Doctrine had been contrary to the Law of Moses there had been no reason to have believed him for all his mighty deeds which in that case might justly have been imputed to evil spirits so now should an Angel from heaven teach any thing contrary to this Doctrine and Gospel he must be anathematized even though he wrought mighty wonders Therefore we are with the Bereans to examine all new Doctrines by their conformity to the Scriptures and till that appear we are not to look on any thing they do as miraculous And thus far I hope I have said enough to convince I. K. that though what he says of the miraculous propagation of the Roman Religion were true it does not from that follow that the Religion it self must be true But I go next to convince him how much he mistook himself in his account when he asserted that the Christian and the
Roman Religion were propagated in the same manner and shall first examine his grounds His first Branch of the Comparison is that as the Christian Religion contains some high Mysteries in it above the reach of humane Reason so does the Roman Religion in holding Transubstantiation He did well to distinguish this from the Mysteries of the Christian Religion for it is indeed none of them nor is it above humane Reason as he calls it but contrary to it and not at all to be compared to the Mysteries of Christian Religion as the Trinity the Incarnation and the Resurrection The last of these contains nothing in it that may not be Rationally enough conceived as very possible and easy to Divine Omnipotence for the other Mysteries that concern God it is no wonder those be above our understandings since the divine Nature is so vastly exalted above all our depressed Notions of things and therefore is not a proper object for our Faculties So no wonder we cannot frame such clear conceptions of his Nature as to give a distinct account of it to our Reasons But a material object proposed to our senses is proportioned to our Faculties And therefore we must either believe the clear evidence our Faculties give us of the Bread and of the Wine after the Consecration or turn Scepticks for ever since full evidence to our Faculties is all can possibly be offered for our conviction and if that in any case fail it is in no case certain So that if our Senses fail in this we have no reason to receive any thing upon their Testimony for a noted Liar in one thing is to be believed in nothing even though his lie had been discovered by a divine Revelation Now if we weaken the evidence of Sense all the authority of the Christian Religion which it received from the Miracles will be weakned for these were only known by the Senses of the spectators And so far of the first branch of the parallel The Second branch of the parallel is that as the Christian Religion enjoyns diverse severities to embrace Crosses to Love our enemies and to Mortifie our passions so also the Roman teaches very hard precepts and Counsels as Vows Fasts Confession prohibition for Priests to Marry to which I. K. adds an c. The Christian Religion does indeed command diverse duties contrary to our natural appetites but those are things of themselves Morally good and such as do highly perfect our Natures But the Roman Religion has made a shift to find means for voiding all these Sacred obligations and to set a great many little trifling performances instead of them which have no tendency to the purifying of our Natures or the bettering of Mankind How much they have detracted from the obligation to all the severer and unalterably Moral Duties of Christianity hath been already and shall be more fully laid open if it be called for though that be needless it being so clearly done by many better Pens but for those they have substituted in their room let us a little consider these I. K. mentions and to begin with Vows We do not deny that the first design of Monasteries in the primitive Church was excellent but it quickly began to degenerate into idleness and superstition which S. Ierome though inclined enough to the severities of that course of Life hath fully told us But how they did afterwards sink into all the Corruptions imaginable all Histories inform us And whatever may be said for such Houses as either Seminaries for the Church or Sanctuaries for those that are no more able to labour in it yet certainly the entanglements of Vows is a yoke which none can be assured he shall be able to bear We ought to Vow and pay our Vows unto God and therefore should be sure to Vow nothing but that whereof the execution is in our power Now when we Vow to serve God which we do in the Sacraments we are assured of the aid of the Divine Grace to assist us in the performance But to Vow things which we are not sure to perform our tempers being so liable to Change that what agrees with them at one time becomes an intolerable burden and snare at another is certainly to cast our selves headlong into many temptations And what unnatural and brutal lusts have abounded in these Houses we read a great deal more than I am willing to repeat What a cheat is the pretence to poverty in those Orders which have got such vast Riches that they are become the envy of the world as the Benedictine the Caâ—â—husians and the Iesuits And for the begâ—ing Orders it is both against the rules of Chrisâ—iâ—n Religion and all good Government to allow much more to encourage such swarms of idle fellows who shall always go rambling and begging about and do not work that they may eat And for their obedience what a rack it may be under a Tyrannical Superiour and what an engine it may prove for Sedition and disturbance I leave to all to judge In a word all such severities as tend to the subduing our lusts and passions are good and sutable to the spirit of Christianity but for overcharging men with new burdens which signifie nothing but to create a perpetual trouble and constant scrupulosity is to abridge them of their Christian liberty without cause and tends to swell them up with pride and a lofty opinion of their meriting by such practises and a contempt of others who though they bear none of these voluntary assumed burdens yet are more meek more humble and more charitable and in all things more conformable to the life and doctrine of our Blessed Saviour And if voluntary severities be a character of a true Religion the Priests of Baal the worshippers of Diana Taurica the Ebionites the Montanists the Eâ—cratites and many other heresies might have put in a fair claim since they abounded in them From your Vows I go to your Fasts God forbid we should disclaim Fasting which our Saviour did so much recommend both by his example and Commands we acknowledge it a powerful mean both for mortifying all bodily lusts and for disposing the mind to prayer and all other spiritual exercises and therefore we do not allow these to the Roman Church as peculiar to them And I do not believe any of them will justifie the corruptions they are palpably guilty of in the observance of their Fasts which are generally only a change of diet wherein no severity nor strictness is to be seen Wine is liberally drunk the most delicate Fishes with the most exquisite way of dressing them are sought for and no other mixtures of higher Devotion appear on these weekly or annual returns For Confession I know no Christians that deny the usefulness of it but the setting up the necessity of Auricular Confession as it hath driven out of their Church the primitive and publick Confession with all the ancient discipline which was indeed the great glory
and endless wranglings of the Schools in matters of Philosophy in which men being accustomed to that game of disputing and subtilising about nothing and going from those studies to Divinity and carrying that same temper and fiery edge along with them they made all that work about it which hath now so long divided the world They being also by a long practice habituated to many Maxims and Axioms which were laid down for rules not to be enquired into or denyed came really to believe those were true and to carry them along with them to all their Theological debates All which will appear very evident to any that compares their Philosophical and Theological works from which many of their strange inferences and positions did take their rise and I am afraid do still receive their nourishment Thus far I have discoursed of the several prejudices the powers of the natural man do lay in the way of our apprehending and judging aright of Divine truths and the common notions of the moral Philosophy will concur to teach all men that before their minds can be rightly qualified for the understanding any intellectual truth but most chiefly Divine truth we must abstract from all those figures of things which our senses present to us and rise above all grosser phantasms It is no less necessary that our thoughts be serene and free of passion that we may freely and at leisure consider what lies before us without the Byass of preconceived opinions or interests And it is equally rational with these that we have modest minds not vainly puffed up with an opinion of our own knowledge but tractable and docile such as will not stick after clear conviction to confess and retract an error and that we proceed in our reasonings closely and on sure grounds not on vain conjectures and maxims taken up meerly on trust but by a clear progress advance from one truth to another as the Series of them shall lead A man who is thus prepared must next consider all was said in the first four Sections with a great deal more to the same purpose That he be on good grounds perswaded there is a God that there is a true revealed Religion that the Christian Religion is the true Religion These things being laid down he is in the first place by earnest Prayers to beg God's direction to go along with him in all his enquiries which certainly will not be wanting if he bring with him a sincere well prepared mind not byassed nor prepossessed and of this we may be well assured both from the Divine goodness and veracity For as he hath promised that whoso seek shall find so it is a necessary consequent of infinite goodness to assist all that sincerely seek after life and happiness but if any come to this study without he be duly prepared he has himself to thank if he fall into errors and mistakes The next thing an exact searcher into Religion must labour in is once to observe the nature of Christianity and the great designs of it and in this he is not to follow the small game of some particular and obscure passages but to observe through the whole New Testament what was the great end of all our Saviour spoke and did and his disciples testified and wrote If once we comprehend this a right it will be a thread to carry us through particular disquisitions For as there be many natural truths of which we are well assured though Philosophy offers us some Arguments against them in the answering which we are not able to satisfie our Reasons so there may be some divine truths very certainly made out to us and yet there may be places of Scripture which seem so to contradict those truths that they cannot be well answered Again a serious Enquirer will see good reason to believe the Scriptures must be plain evident and clear since they were at first directed to men of very ordinary parts and of no profound understandings and learning therefore he may well conclude those strange Superstructures some have reared up for amusing the world can be none of the Articles of Faith necessary to be believed And as the first Converts were honest simple men so our Saviour and the Apostles spoke in a plain easie stile therefore all these forced Criticisms and Inferences by which some more ingenious than candid Writers would expound them in a sence favourable to their Opinions aâ—e not to be received since these do often represent the divine discourses rather like the little tricks of double-dealing and Sophistry for which an honest Tutor would severely chide his Pupil words are to be understood in their plain meaning and not as Logick or a nicety of Criticism may distort and throw them If then a man will in this method which no honest man can except against go to the search of the Scriptures with a mind prepared as hath been already said he cannot fail of finding out all that is necessary for his Salvation Nor is he to be doubtfully anxious concerning the true Books for none denies but the Churches care in all Ages hath been the great conveyance of this the many various Translations of all Ages and Languages nay and different Religions agreeing in all material points and the Citations out of those Books which we find in a Series of Authors who have lived in the several Ages since they were written agreeing likewise with the Books themselves together with many ancient Manuscripts which do yet remain of a great many Languages may abundantly satisfie even the most severe Inquirer that these be the very Books which the Apostles delivered and were universally received by all Christians The matter of Fact being thus cleared without any necessity of running to the authority of the Church all those scruples which I. K. with the rest of his Brethren would needs raise do vanish since they never distinguish exactly between a Witness and a Judge For the former nothing is required but honesty and good information and we have the agreeing suffrages of many witnesses that do all agree in their Testimony of these Books who though they differed very much in their Expositions of them yet concurred in their verdict about the Books and were checks on one another in the faithful preserving and transcribing them In this sence we do receive the Churches Testimony as the necessary means of conveying these Books to us But an Authority Sacred and Solemnly declared is required in a Judge and this no Church can so much as pretend to but from the Scriptures Therefore the Scriptures being received as Divine cannot depend on the sentence of the Church as a Judge since all its Jurisdiction is derived from Scripture which therefore must be acknowledged before it can be believed But because there be persons of a meaner Condition and not Educated so as to make all the inquiry which is necessary in so important a Business there is therefore a shorter method for such
the disorder of our understandings through the corruptions of the natural man we be brought under Errors we have our selves to blame Next to this we are to associate our selves with all who Worship God as long as there is not some great corruption in it so that we can no longer continue in it without sin If others be formal or guilty in it that is none of our fault and can never warrant our departure from that Communion of Saints in worship Therefore the particular Forms of Worship are to be agreed on by the Guides and Pastors of the Church which must still be received by all till they put us to act or assist in somewhat that is evil or be defective in some necessary part of Divine worship And the great rule by which the Guides of the Church ought to compose these Forms is the constant and universal practice of the Churches of God in their best times Calculating these as near as may be to the present Constitutions and tempers of men so as to avoid all unnecessary scandal and to edifie the people by them Therefore we dare appeal to all just and impartial Judges if our Church have not observed this rule in all the parts of our Worship to bring things as near as could be to the Primitive Forms and if in some particulars we have departed from them such as the not Commemorating expresly the dead or receiving gifts in their Names in the holy Communion the not using the Chrism in Confirmation nor the sign of the Cross on all occasions or if we kneel in Churches on Sundays and betwixt Easter and Pentecost which are the most considerable things that now occurr to me in which we are not exactly conform to the Primitive Church these are both things of less importance and by the following Superstition and other abuses were very much corrupted And it is certain that all things not Necessary when much abused how innocent nay how useful soever they may be yet may very reasonably be left out and laid aside as the Pastors of the Church see cause If after all this Evidence there be great divisions among us we owe these next to the corruption or manners to the daily practises of such as I. K. who as is offered to be made out by many have under all disguises laboured the renting us to pieces and our sins are such that these wicked designs prove daily but too successful But after all the mist and dust any may study to raise I doubt not but to serious considerers it will appear that we of this Church are in a clear and safe way and that our doctrine is no other than what our Saviour and his Apostles delivered and what the first Christians and their Successors for many Ages believed and that we are in the same Method of finding out the true Faith which they followed all which I shall conclude with these excellent and divinely Charitable Versicles of our Litany That it may please thee to give to all thy people increase of Grace to hear meekly thy Word and to receive it with pure affection and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit That it may please thee to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived and that it may please thee to have mercy upon all men We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. THE END A Brief Catalogue of Books newly Printed and Reprinted for R. Royston Bookseller to his Most Sacred Majesty THE Works of the Reverend and Learned Henry Hammond D. D. containing a Collection of Discourses chiefly Practical with many Additions and Corrections from the Author 's own hand together with the Life of the Author enlarged by the Reverend Dr. Fell Dean of Christ-Church in Oxford In large Folio A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament Briefly explaining all the difficult Places thereof The Fourth Edition corrected By H. Hammond D. D. In Folio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or a Collection of Polemical Discourses addressed against the Enemies of the Church of England both Papists and Fanaticks in large Folio by Ier. Taylor Chaplain in Ordinary to K. Charles the First of Blessed Memory and late Lord Bishop of Down and Conner Antiquitates Christianae or The History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus as also The Lives Acts and Martyrdoms of his Apostles In two parts The first part containing the Life of Christ Written by Ieremy Taylor late Lord Bishop of Down and Conner The second containing the Lives of the Apostles by William Cave D. D. Chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty The Second Part of the Practical Christian consisting of Meditations and Psalms illustrated with Notes or Paraphrased relating to the Hours of Prayer the ordinary Actions of Day and Night and several Dispositions of Men. By R. Sherlock D. D. Rector of Winwick The Royal Martyr and the Dutiful Subject in two Sermons By Gilbert Burnet New The Christian Sacrifice a Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of Receiving the Holy Communion c. The Devout Christian instructed how to Pray and give Thanks to God or a Book of Devotions c. Both written by the Reverend S. Patrick D. D. in 12. A Serious and Compassionate Enquiry into the Causes of the present Neglect and Contempt of the Protestant Religion and Church of England c. Considerations concerning Comprehension Toleration and the Renouncing the Covenant In Octavo New Animadversions upon a Book Entituled Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church by Dr. Stillingfleet and the Imputation Refuted and Retorted by S. C. The Second Edition By a Person of Honour In Octavo Reflections upon the Devotions of the Roman Church With the Prayers Hymns and Lessons themselves taken out of their Authentick Authors In Three Parts In Octavo Deut. 13 1. Gal. 1. 8 9. S. Mat. 12. 24 to 31. 1 Thess. 2. 11. 2 Thess. 3. 10. 1 Cor. 7. 4 5.