have already undeniably demonstrated What then remains but that that he doth ingenuously acknowledge he was in an errour and that he was led into it by an over-high conceit of his own parts me thinks it would be a far greater testimony of his ingenuity then any he has given if he would labour speedily to undeceive as far as he can his unwary Readers who have been too much venom'd by his poysonous and pernicious opinions by dealing honestly and plainly with them and by explaining himself in such sort as that we may have no longer just reason to suspect the whole design of his Book was directly intended against the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England and indeed to patronize all irreligion and Atheism This consideration I refer to the Gentleman 's own great humility and good nature though I must confess I have but little hopes that this advice will have any tolerable effect or influence upon him since he tells us that it is as great a Martyrdom to acknowledge an errour as it is to lay down ones life for the Truth and I am very confident this Author hath no great maw to Martyrdom Wherefore I onely refer it to our Governors whether it is not necessary to make him do it Since therefore without Religion no Society can be preserved and since all confusion would follow all Religions and that of all the Religions in the whole World this of our Church of England is the most peaceable in its Doctrine and most moderate in its Discipline Let all that love the Peace of the Nation joyn in our mutual prayers and endeavours for the Peace and Unity of the Church But these endeavours are all vain saith our Sir Pol. for both Reason and Experience tells us that the hopes of Unity in Religion are impossible But I pray you Sir what Reason what Experience tells us so All the Reason that I know of is onely because your Worship would have it so Have we not such Laws as if they were executed would easily guard our Religion and prevent Schismaticks from making Parties and Factions in our Nation Did they not do it in Queen Elizabeths time and at the first return of his Sacred Majesty that now reigns and what should hinder but they might do it now were there but the same true English spirits to execute them Oh! but now the Sectaries are grown too humerous to be suppressed But what 's the reason of their encrease amongst us was it not because our Laws by a malevolent juncture of Affairs have been lately laid asleep and were never yet awakened by a due execution of them Shall we then because they are numerous let their numbers still encrease they must be suppressed at last or else all things must run into confusion And I onely desire our English Nobility and Gentry whose duty it is according to their oaths and his Majesties late Proclamations to see them executed to consider that if they will not suppress them by the execution of the Laws they will soon arrive at that heighth that the Long Sword must do it or else there shall be no Government at all in our Nation and when an Army hath once got into pay we know how hard it will be to get rid of it and how dangerous it will prove to the Liberty and Propriety of the Subject as well as to the Prerogatives of the Crown For a standing Army is much like Foreign Aids which if they are Victors most commonly prove worse to the Nation that they come to assist then the worst of their Enemies For they soon grow so insolent that the King himself must be subject to the Favourite Officer amongst the Souldiers and wear his Crown no longer then he pleaseth and all the Proprieties and Estates of the Subjects shall be held in a new kind of tennor in capite so that they may be disseized when our Lords of the Sword please and that not by any Law but onely plain force But neither is this true that they are so numerous as they seem to be but that they would as easily decrease by a brisk execution of our Laws as they did encrease by their neglect For the greatest part of our Conventiclers go to Meetings not out of any opinion in Religion but to carry on some trade or little interest and design or to vindicate the reputation of their former rebellious actions which Reasons would all soon cease if our Laws were vigorously executed For if we seriously take a view of our Nation we shall find that by our divisions men rather turn Atheists then Phanaticks and that out of pretence of going to private Meetings they onely take an occasion to be absent from the publick Congregations and to spend the Lords day either in sleeping at home or else in their daily employments in the Field or in what is worse in Ale houses in drunkenness and debauchery For I can speak it by my own sad experience that in a place which hath been an ancient Seat of Divisions ever since the late wars began where they see no probability that the Laws should be executed against them a third part at least if not one half of the Parish are in their practise absolute Atheists and worship God publickly no where at all These are the blessed and inevitable Effects of separation and of every ones enjoying his own Religion I shall say no more concerning the possibility of suppressing Divisions amongst us but onely propose these sew Questions First Whether if the Presbyterians were by some expedient comprehension joyned with the Church the Laws might not easily reclaim the rest Secondly Whether many are not dissenters because they would pretend Conscience for not paying Tythes and whether such a Law as should compel them to pay all Tythes and Dues to the Church would not reclaim many of them and hinder a great many more from running over to their party Thirdly Whether some better provision for Vicars in great Corporation-towns might not much secure the Unity of the Church by keeping the Clergy in a capacity to subsist without an absolute dependence upon the people For hereby they would be encouraged to defend the Church and its Institutions without fear of starving themselves and their Families and would be kept from poverty and necessity which brings a contempt not onely upon their persons but their professions and by consequence upon Religion it self Fourthly Whether the present and imminent danger of Popery and Atheism may not be thought a sufficient motive to the Presbyterians to joyn with the Church of England upon fair proposals of a reconciliation And whether it would not be convenient to make this the first Proposal that they should first agree amongst themselves concerning those things in which they would be dispens'd withall Fifthly Whether they that shall persist in a wilful separation after these Endeavours of Reconciliation shall not as justly deserve to be quite put out of the protection of all the
day in Spain and Italy and the practice of the other Party in New-England where they punish Dissenters from them even with Capital Punishments Which are both so apparent to all the World that they must have Faces of Brass that dare to deny them And though now whilst they are entangled and restrain'd by the Law they are very quiet and tame like the Lion in the net yet let them but loose and they will soon shew their natural inclinations and fall to their old wont of tearing and devouring all others that stand in their way Thirdly That it will be altogether as hard a restraint to most men to be held by Law from acting in Religion contrary to our Authors opinion which he would have universal as it is for them to be kept to an uniformity in Doctrine Discipline and Worship So that this Opinion without Law is but a rope of Sand which can never hold men together in Peace and Unity But this I shall I think demonstrate afterwards The Fourth Objection he would answer is this Pag. 14. That if we guide our selves wholly by our own Reason we shall differ from our selves as well as all others and change our Religion as often as our Habits To which the Author answers p. 15. that He cannot conceive that the fear of this scandal obligeth us to a blind and unalterable observance of those Laws and Opinions to which either the fate of our Birth and Education or other accidents have engaged us Truly nor I neither For hath not every one a Liberty either to act according to the Laws he lives under or else to suffer the penalties appointed by them or else to leave that place and Countrey in which those Laws are in force What need then of any such blind obedience I protest I do not understand it any more then I do conceive how all those Heresies Schisms Factions and Debaucheries to which every man is exposed who guides himself wholly by his own Reason are onely a scandal as this Gentleman calls them and not actual and damnable sins Sure I am they are so accounted by St. Paul and St. Peter in their Epistles but it may be this Author 's Humane Reason doth not lead him to consult the Sacred Scriptures But this he excuses p 18 c. by saying that If after all our industry and humility it be our ill fortune to give away a Truth for a Falshood it will be at the worst but an Errour by chance medley and will find nay even claim mercy from God and deserve pity from Men. In answer to which I shall say no more but this That there is nothing but invincible ignorance that can possibly excuse the breach of a known Law if the matter of it be neither impossible nor sinful and therefore where the Matter is doubtful the Authority should oversway us For in all doubtful Cases the safer part is to be taken and it is much safer to err in obedience to God's Vicegerents then it is to err on the contrary side For if we err in doubtful matters with authority it is but a base Errour at the most and that on the right hand but if we should be mistaken and thereby disobey our lawful Magistrates our Errour is then joined with disobedience to the Ordinance of God as the Apostle calls every Ordinance of Man Rom. 13. 1 2. and if we persist in this Errour and act according to the consequence of it we are too easily before we are aware hurried into those horrid sins of Schism Here sie Sedition and Rebellion It therefore behoveth every one that separateth from our Church seriously to examine his own Soul whether or no he doth believe after he hath used his utmost industry in informing himself both from his own Reason and from the Reason of others especially of his lawful Ministers that the Church of England doth enjoyn him any thing that is sinful in it self and if he cannot find her guilty of any such command then his separation can be no ways excusable This I more particularly refer to the consideration of those persons who but a year or two since joyn'd in her Communion and especially of those who communicated with her upon the late Act of Parliament for the conviction of Romanists and yet did separate themselves immediately from her publick Congregations and continue still in their separation For if it was not sin in them to receive the Sacrament according to her Rites of Administration of it which was the highest act of Communion and Conformity with her could it be sin in them the next day to join with her in her publick Liturgy so that their own practice must convince them that their's is a wilful sin not an Errour by chance-medley But their great Friend our Author will find them out an Expedient to take away that concern from them Alas poor tender-conscienced people Why should they be put to touch their consciences so hard there is danger in it it may make them quite sore since they are so tender already No no onely come but to this excellent Physician and do but see him well and he will give you a Plaister for your tender Consciences that shall without any pain or trouble heal them immediately The Receit you have p 18. of his Book about the end For He there finds you out a way how you may be Papists one seven years and Protestants another and yet your Faith still the very same though I had thought the Romanists Creed had been directly contrary in many things to the Protestants but it is no matter for that this Gentleman hath one Panpharmacon that cures all Diseases whatsoever though never so contrary one to another viz. a pretty-littlebalsamick similitude and this it is There is such an identity in their faith as there is in the eye which changes eyery seven years and if their Faith be but actuated by the same soul of Faith that is Conscience if they keep but their Consciences inviolable they may say with this very Faith as well as with these Eyes I shall see my Redeemer If this Gentleman had pleas'd he might as well have said that they might be Heathens one seven years and Christians another and their Faith still the same For the same Plaister well applied would have heal'd this wound in the conscience as well as the other every jot For do but suppose that their Consciences were but erroneous they might still keep their consciences inviolable under both these contrary Religions i. e. they might be sincere both when they were Christians and when Heathens and yet can any on think that the Christian Faith and the Belief of the Heathens is the same Faith Yes Quoth our Author they are the very same exactly in effect both as to the Heathen and the Christian let him change as often as he will so he keep his conscience but inviolable he shall go as safe to Heaven as those poor ignorant well-meaning Martyrs
must be fully satisfied as to this point that there can be no excuse for Atheists Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewn it to them For the invisible things of him are clearly seen from the Creation of the world by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead From whence the Apostle concludes so that they are left without excuse But it is no matter with our Author what the Apostle saith For his Guide i. e. his Reason tells him that Jews Turks Heathens and Atheists are in an equal possibility of salvation with the unerring Christian. Now I may appeal even to this Author himself whether I have done him any wrong in comparing his Book with Fiat Lux since it is so plainly apparent by his words that his Design is if not the same much worse then the Design of that Book For who would have gone about to defend such a Question in a tract so exactly fitted for the reading of the common people that had not a Design to wheadle them into an indifferency in all matters of Religion and even to Atheism it self But surely if they have any consideration left in them this very discourse would be enough to make them mistrustful and fearful of such a Guide which may be so easily mistaken as this of Humane Reason and when it is mistaken does so easily lead them into the most damnable of Errours even into the contempt of all Religion But now we see by this Author what kind of Animals they are who are Factors for Rome and a Toleration and by what excellent means they carry on their Design viz. by first perswading men â—o Atheism by an indifferency in all Religion From whence I cannot but take an occasion to remind our Dissenters how much they promote Popery and destroy Christianity by joyning with the Papists and the debauchees of our Nation in promoting a toleration and our Governours that if they think of keeping their Necks from the Roman Yoke they must then maintain the established Religion of the Church in its true Christian practise and Primitive Discipline For how much Atheism and an Universal neglect of all Religion hath encreased since our Laws have been laid to sleep he must be stark blind that doth not see To our Author I shall onely add this That I am sorry with all my heart that a person of his parts and Reason should give any occasion to be thought a Favourer of Atheism For who can think that he is not very much a well-willer to Atheists who endeavours to prove that they are in an equal possibility of salvation with the unerring Christian It may be he may think to shift off this just suspition of Atheism by the help of his Parenthesis viz. if there be any such For who can suspect him to be an Atheist or a Favourer of them who scarce supposeth that there can be any such men as Atheists in the world But we know every Animal will most strive to defend that part which is sore and will winch and kick when any thing comes near it The Fifth Object which our Author would shake off is that of Schism Which saith he is the ordinary railing word in all Controversies and a slander c. Is there then good Sir no such thing as Schism because that word is often abused and misapplied you might if you had pleas'd as well have said there is no such thing as Humane Reason because your Book hath abused and misapplied those words to countenance your Errours Are all Schismaticks to be excused because some have been slander'd with that Title As well may all Thieves and Murderers be excused because some have been slandered and falsly accused of those Crimes It will be then necessary to know who Schismaticks are and the danger they run themselves and draw others into and then we shall see what an absolute necessity there is to put a stop to them both for their own good and the good of the Church The First this Gentleman tells us himself p. 37. They are truly guilty of Schism the word it self bearing witness against them who break the precious Unity of the Christian Church They therefore that break the Unity of the Christian Church either by enjoyning new Articles of Faith or things sinful in their practise contrary to the Doctrine and Practise of the Universal Church in its Primitive purity are guilty of Schism as the Romanists are who amongst the rest which are many more enjoyn the Beleif of Transubstantiation as an Article of Faith which was never heard of in the Christian Church for many hundred years and the worshipping the Host as the consequence of that Doctrine together with Prayers to Saints and the half Communion c. which are practices no less sinful and novel then the former Doctrine Secondly They are Schismaticks who separate from that particular Christian Church into which they were baptized when it commands nothing that is sinful in it self as all those are who separate from the Church of England For they can never excuse themselves from Schism unless they can prove which I challenge them to do if they can that our Church enjoyns them any thing that is a sin but neither would this excuse them from communicating with her in things lawful that are commanded by both their temporal as well as their spiritual Governours Now that Schism is a very heinous sin is most evident because it is a breach of all those commands of the Gospel that enjoyn us Peace and Unity then which I scarce know any more frequently repeated in the New Testament and it will be most evident from the words of St. Paul 1 Cor. 3. 4. For there the Apostle saith that Schismaticks are carnal For saith he while one saith I am of Paul another I am of Apollos are ye not carnal By which interrogation he doth most strongly affirm it and make themselves the Judges in that Case against themselves From whence we may thus argue That if the Apostle saith that the Corinthians were carnal for dividing themselves into Factions and espousing particular Names and Parties though they chose no other persons then himself and Cepbas and Apollos then those that divide the Church into Parties and espouse particular Names and Persons in opposition to the Church of God into which they were baptized and set up a Church within a Church and particular ways of publick worship contradictory to those that are enjoyn'd by that Church of which they are Members without any just cause of separation from her are guilty of carnality by the judgment of the Apostle St. Paul whatsoever their pretensions are of piety in themselves or of powerfulness and godliness in their Teachers And the greatness of the sin of these persons doth appear in that the Apostle calls them carnal since the same Apostle Rom 8. 6 7. makes any canal sin to be mortal and damnable For to be carnally
that it might be impossible to make Religion a pretence of Rebellion and this directly leads me to the next Reason against our Author's Politicks viz Thirdly That there is no Religion under Heaven doth better I might say so well secure the publick Peace as ours of the Church of England For can any Religion be more peaceable then that which makes resistance to Magistrates in any case whatsoever to be a most damnable crime then that Doctrine that tends to the highest perfection of our Humane Natures that brings our bodies under the subjection of our souls and both under subjection to God that exalts our nature from being like the Beasts that perish and makes us partakers of the Divine nature by rooting our those lusts and vices that cause war and strife amongst us and by planting in us all those heavenly Graces that would secure the peace of the world and make us like unto God and fit to enjoy him to all Eternity that most conduceth to the good of all Mankind that establisheth peace unity and universal charity amongst all men that preserves the quiet of Families the tranquility of our Souls and the health of our bodies In sum can any Religion better promote the peace of our Nation then that which commands every man to do all the good he can to every man and proposeth infinite and eternal Rewards to those that obey it that forbids all manner of evil towards any man under pain of the greatest most inevitable and eternal torments and makes not the least allowance for the least of evils either in thought word or deed Have we not seen the peaceable effects of our Church and her Doctrine in the time of the late miserable wars amongst us For not one true Son of the Church of England could ever be forced by the fear of penalties or ever be allured by the hopes of Reward to take up Arms against his Sovereign Whereas there is no other sort of men in England but too many of them were guilty even of actual Rebellion being led into it even by the very Principles of their Religion Why then should this Religion be removed from the minds of men would it promote peace to take away that which is the grand Foundation of it and to implant in the room of it principles of all kind of sedition and disobedience Would it preserve his sacred Majesty and our Laws to destroy that Church which is their greatest defence Is it forgotten already how true our late sad experience prov'd it No Church no King and no King no Laws May not our Church therefore justly say to those that would destroy her as our Saviour did to those that would have ston'd him for which of these good works tâ—at I have done amongst you would you now kill me This our Politician saw well enough and is forced to confess it in that he saith Unity in Religion would produce the same effect as that Principle which he propos'd But now let us consider that which is the main Design of his Book which he proposeth instead of the Church of England to maintain peace and quietness in our Nation Which we have p. 79. viz. That this should be made the main and general Ground of all Religions that every man should quietly enjoy his own I remember a Fable in AEsop to this purpose The Mice were in a grand consultation how to preserve themselves from their mortal Foes the Cats at length after a long and serious Debate one of them who like our Author thought himself a better Politician then all the rest very gravely gives them this wise advice That every Cat should wear a Bell about his Neck that so they might be warn'd of his coming by the Sound and might have time to provide for their safety This Advice no doubt was approv'd as very safe by all the company as this Gentlemans Proposal is by all his wise Admirers but at last one sawcy Mouse spoils all with onely asking this Question as a man might ask our Author viz. How this Advice should be put in Execution which made them all break up their Council-board with a loud laughter at the folly of their Counsellour whose great wisdom they did just before so much admire Against our Sir Pol's Advice besides the impossibility of the Proposal I may urge the General consent of all or most of the Nations in the whole world For let him or any man produce if he can any one Monarchy under Heaven in which the publick exercise of every mans particular Religion is allowed him where there is no standing Army to keep the people in obedience so that it is most evident that in every Nation either a standing Army or the establishment of an Unity in Religion is absolutely necessary for publick Peace and Safety Now whether it will be thought more convenient for the Peace of England to uphold the Church or to submit to the Long Sword I refer it to all English Gentlemen to judge If our Author shall say he means onely the private exercise of every man's Religion I answer that no Nation nor Church in the whole world allows a greater liberty in the private exercise of Religion then we have For is it not established by Act of Parliament that every man shall have liberty to exercise his own Religion not only with those of his own family but with five more strangers so that it is not for Religion but for the contempt of the Laws and for endangering by unlawful and numerous assemblies the peace and welfare of our nation that any one is or can be punished by our Laws This our Politician cannot be ignorant of and therefore he must mean not the private but the publick exercise of every mans Religion It may be this Gentleman is an experimental Philosopher and is therefore induced to try experiments in Religion and Politicks as well as in Naturals though he thereby hazards the safety of a whole Nation I will now as far as can be try it with him by granting him what he would have as to the last part of it for the first is altogether impossible and by letting him see the consequence of it in those Sects amongst us Suppose then that some men onely pretend Religion to gather parties together to set up a Common-wealth instead of the best Form of Government in the whole world which we now have established amongst us as it is to be feared most of our Phanaticks do especially the main leaders and abettors of them for though I will not say all dissenters from the Church are for a Commonwealth in the State yet this I believe our experience and observation may prove true that all Common-wealths-men are Schismaticks or at least favourers of Schism and Faction and great sticklers for a Toleration and are not these precious Youths think you to be tolerated in a Monarchy and would not it much conduce to the safety of the Monarchy to let them meet by
thousands in a company till they have drawn in all the Common People to their Party who are too easily seduced with Noise and Action and an appearance of Zeal joyned with some few wheedling Doctrines that are preached to them which tend more to make them have an opinion of their own holiness then to make them really holy to perswade them that they are Saints rather then to shew them how they must be so Secondly Suppose others pretend Religion onely to countenance their former Rebellion is it not very fit that ' these should be suffered to meet as often and as many as they please and yet that there are too many of this sort amongst our Conventiclers is too probable in that we see very few others unless the poor ignorant Women who are constant Meeters but such as either were themselves actually engaged in the late Rebellion or else are very nearly related to them that were or else have lost some unjust or sacrilegious advantage which they had got in the late Times Now is not his Majesty bound to let these good people have their wills in gratitude to them for what they did on that Fatal 30 th of January never to be thought on without horrour and amazement Or Is he not bound to give them back again the Bishops and the Loyal Gentries and Nobilities Lands which they had sequestred onely out of pure kindness to them for the good service they have done him Thirdly Suppose others are downright Atheists and will worship God no ways at all but make it their business to root out all Religion out of mens minds and so to dissolve the main bond of Humane Society as too many such we have amongst us and shall soon have more if our Laws be not executed Are these persons to be let alone in the enjoyment of their Atheism Have I not already proved that they are the most dangerous Enemies to all Government Fourthly Suppose others have a design of setting up some Foreign Power in all Spiritual Causes and in all Causes that tend in order to Spirituals i. e. in plain English in all Causes that they please to which the King must submit his Crown enjoying it onely as in Fee from the Pope and therefore must be his Holiness's slave and Pack-horse Is it not very safe for the Kings Authority and for the Peace of the Nation to tolerate These and yet these are the two grand Sects of our Nation viz. the Papists who subject the King to the Pope and the Presbyterians who make him truckle to the Kirk Nay all our Sectaries have already got the distinction in their mouths That they ought to obey the Kings Authority in Civil matters but not in Ecclesiastical So that They onely want a little improvement of that distinction to make them enlarge Ecclesiastical matters so far as the Papists usually do and then they shall not need to think themselves obliged to pay the King any obedience at all onely in such things as they please to call Civil Matters which I am sure will not be in any thing that thwarts their own humours and interests for whatsoever does but in the least contradict them will be thought very Uncivil by them For Suppose others as the Scotch Presbyterians hold That every man ought to fight for his Religion against whoever doth oppose him Are not those peaceable harmless souls to be tolerated to propagate this so meek and quiet a Doctrine Sixthly Suppose others are Millenaries and from thence proceed to be Vennerists and think that Christ shall raign a thousand years personally upon the Earth and that they shall raign with him and be his Vicegerents and in order thereto think it is their duty to use Fire and Sword those excellent Spiritual weapons of their Christian warfare to kill all men for King Jesus his sake These surely are very fit to be tolerated in the bloudy exercise of their Religion Seventhly Suppose to mention no more that some are Adamists and Levellers that think there ought to be no distinction of persons because none should be higher then themselves and consequently no order should be observed nor respect paid to Governours Nobles and Gentlemen that they pretend to be governed by the Light within them i. e. whatsoever they please to call so whether their Phantasies or their Passions Would not the Publick allowance of all these Sects and their several practises according to their different Opinions make a most profound and everlasting Peace in a Nation I might instance in many more but here are enough already to let our Author see by experiment the grand folly and madness of his Proposal I know he will say that he supposeth not only that every man should enjoy the quiet exercise of his own Religion but that his Religion should be this that every man else as well as himself should have the same liberty In answer to this I would fain know how he can implant this Principle into mens minds or whether it is not much easier to make all Sects comply with the established Religion of the Church of England then to consent in his Principle for this Principle is as directly contrary to the most if not to all the Sects amongst us as is the Religion of our Church For there is no Sect but does endeavour to promote its Party and Opinions above all others and to implant its own Doctrine in the minds of all men with whom they converse For this must needs be in all persons that do sincerely think their way to be the best to Eternal happiness which all men must do that are reasonable and not apparent Hypocrites So that the Religion of all men that have truly any Religion must oblige them to propagate those Truths which they think necessary or at least convenient for men to know for their salvation and to promote that which they think the pure Worship of God in opposition to all false and superstitious ways of his worship i. e. in opposition to all other ways but their own Wherefore this Gentleman 's politick Proposal is just such another as that of the Politick Mouse in the Fable before mentioned viz. altogether impracticable if not an absolute contradiction to it self and an impossibility nay herein it is much worse then it for it is most destructive to those to whom it is given For were all men allowed to preach what Doctrines they pleased the Laws and Government of our Nation could never be maintained or executed without a constant force and violence for the minds of men would soon be debauched with such Principles as are inconsistent with all Propriety and Government and yet Preaching and Hearing must be the least liberty that must be allowed them according to our Authors sage advice But to this I know he will answer That the Civil Laws should take such care as no man should dare to speak any thing against the established Government of the Nation But I pray you Sir would
Laws of the Realm as the Clergy did who would not take the Oath of Supremacy And whether this would not be the best Expedient to reclaim them without giving our Magistrates the trouble of executing the Laws against them Sixthly Whether the reviving of our Laws against Blasphemy and Atheism Uncleanness and Debauchery and profaning the Lords day would not very much put a stop to the growth of Schism and Faction amongst us But our Author answers all these Questions at once For he tells us that though they might be compell'd to an outward Uniformity yet every publick disturbance breaks all those Bounds and then such compulsions beget and ripen all Disorders Is not the same thing always evident in all other Laws whatsoever Does not every Rebellion break all the Bonds of Humane Society and make Liberty to be the main pretense to draw in the people What then shall our Magistrates to prevent this pretense give every man a Liberty at all times to be govern'd by what Laws he pleaseth and so at once cancel all the Laws of the Nation Or will they not notwithstanding this fear of begetting or ripening disorders in times of publick disturbance rather endeavour to preserve the peace at all times as far as they can by a due execution of the Laws Why then should this Reason hold to destroy Religion by letting all men enjoy their own Are there not ten to one more Rebellions caused out of the pretense of Liberty then of Religion Or is it expedient that men be left to their Liberty to destroy one anothers Souls by running into Schism Heresie Judaism Infidelity and Atheism if so be that they be restrained by laws from injuring one another in their Goods and their Bodies Nay would not all kind of present injuries to mens persons in a small time without a Rod of Iron be the necessary and unavoidable consequence of a toleration of all Religions Have I not already demonstrated that every mans enjoying his own Religion would soon bring men either into Atheism or else into mutual and irreconcilable Disputes and Quarrels which would destroy all Government He therefore as his last shift seems to insinuate that this may be prevented by the manner of establishing this Liberty in a Commonwealth which he saith would require an entire discourse by it self when I see that discourse I shall consider of it and make no doubt to answer it fully In the mean time I shall onely tell him this That if he can propose such a way of an universal Toleration that shall neither contradict his own Principle of every man enjoying his own Religion nor require a standing Army to keep the Nation in obedience Erit mihl magnus Apollo For till I see it done I must believe it absolutely impossible I have more particularly examined all that can appear with any shew of Argument for a general Toleration of all Religions because I suspect this is our Authors great Diana even the main design of his whole Book For it is printed in a distinct Character from the rest of his Book that every man should enjoy his own Religion as though it was intended that every Reader should take a more particular notice of those words then of any thing else in his whole Book His Fourth and last Argument or Defence of his Cause which he thinks so strong that it needs not the assistance of any other I must beg his pardon if I deal plainly with him and tell him that it is the most sensless and ridiculous consequence that ever I met with in my life either in his Book or in any other The sum of it I shall as near as I can set down in his own words viz. It is impossible that ever any man should have been is or hereafter can be guided by any thing else but his own Reason as in all other things so in matters of Religion He saith it over again and gives Reasons for it I say impossible For in all belief and in all other actions the last appeal is to Reason For I choose to believe this or that Doctrine or to do this or that Action because I have some Reason for it Now the consequence he aims at in all this must be this or nothing to his purpose therefore every man ought to be left only and wholly to his own Reason as in all other things so in Religion quietly to enjoy his own Now let us but consider how far men are left to their own Reason in all other matters and it will soon appear that our Author hath overthrown his whole Book by this Argument which he thinks so impregnable a defence of it The inward sentiments of every mans Reason in all Affairs whatsoever notwithstanding any Law are ever were and always must be free For nothing is freer then thought All men are left to their own judgments to think what they will of the Wisdom or Folly Justice or Injustice Convenience or Inconvenience of those Laws they live under because it is impossible for men to know their thoughts much more to restrain them And hath not every man the very same liberty in matters of Religion in the Church of England to think what he will of any of her injunctions So far I suppose we are agreed But now as in all other concerns though men have a liberty to think what they please so long as they keep their thoughts to themselves yet their words and actions are and must be restrained by laws because by either of these the Common-wealth might be damnified and our mutual peace disturb'd So in all concerns of Religion there is not nor can be any restraint upon our thoughts so long as we keep them within our own breast but if they shew themselves in words or actions contrary to the Laws of the church because the Unity of the Church and consequently of the State is endangered and mens eternal salvation hazarded by the propagation of false Religions therefore penalties are absolutely necessary to restrain mens words and actions in matters of Religion as well as in any other affairs whatsoever Lastly As no further use of reason is or can be allowed to every man in any Common-wealth in those things which are determined by Laws but onely so far as to judge whether he can or will obey them or whether he will suffer the penalties of them so no other liberty can be allowed in the Church to every man onely so far as to judge whether it is most reasonable for him to obey her Canons or to suffer her Censures and the penalties consequential upon them and as no good subject or member fit to live in a Commonwealth can think this restraint unreasonable in civil affairs because the peace of the society does necessarily require it so for the same reason ought no man to think such a restraint unreasonable in religious affairs because I have already proved that an absolute liberty in religion would be equally dangerous
to pay obedience to them upon this pretence that he is to be guided only by his own Reason I appeal to this Author himself whether he would be satisfied with this answer or whether he would not if it lay in his power turn such a refractory Fellow out of his society unless he did conform himself to the Orders and Statutes of it If not it would be impossible for him to maintain the Society if he would expel him he clearly proves that the Principle on which he seems to build his whole Book is not to be allowed to any person that is subject to the Laws of any Society If he shall say that therefore he added those limitations if it take such directions as it ought and may do c. I would fain know in any Society who shall be Judge whether or no every Member of it doth rightly limit his Reason shall the Person himself or the Governour of the Society If the Person himself then the limitations signifie nothing and the Society would soon signifie as little if the Governour must be so far Judge as to punish those Actions that are done contrary to the Statutes and Orders of the place then why should not the Governours of the Church be allowed the same power I cannot see any Reason at all unless we are arrived at that madness to think it indifferent whether the Church be dissolved or up held or whether we have any Religion in our Nation or none at all I would not be one of that number who should dispute against the power and priviledges of Humane Reason for no man loves Reason better then my self nor would I assert any such Priviledge to exempt men from Laws or from the publick exercise of Religion For I think nothing can be more unreasonable and yet I am deceived if I have not proved that this Assertion which is the whole sum of our Authors Book is of that nature But he hath one killing Argument that like a two-edged Sword doth execution both ways with which he strikes all dead that dare oppose him And this it is page 3. They that dispute most against Reason do it because their own Reason perswades them to that belief c. This is just such a mortal Argument as the Papists use to prove that the Church is the onely Rule of Faith For say they whoso denies this and asserts the Scripture to be the Rule of Faith can have no Authority nor Ground for their belief of the Scripture but the Authority of the Church and therefore we ought to believe as the Church teacheth us and not as the Scripture But the Answer is not very hard to be made to the Romanists It is true indeed the reason why we believe the four Gospels and the Epistles to be the Writings of those Divinely-inspired persons whose Names they bear must be this because they have been so received by the Church in all Ages and the reason why we believe those Miracles were done as they are related in Scripture must be from the constant Testimony of the Universal Church and from these Miracles we are sure they were written by persons inspired by God and consequently that they are the Rule by which we are to walk Thus the Authority of the Church onely leads us to the Scriptures as an infallible Rule and leaves us there to be guided by them and not by the Church any further then her Commands are agreeable to the Commands of God contained in the Scriptures Neither is the Answer much different nor much more difficult to our Authors dead-doing Demonstration for though Reason must direct us to a Rule by which we are to act yet when we have once found out such a Rule as our Reason assures us is Infallible we then ought to govern our selves no longer by our bare Reason but by our Reason guided by that Rule and to act those things not that Reason onely doth direct us but such things as our Infallible Rule commands us So that we see Reason is so far from being our onely Guide that it directly leads us to the Scriptures and leaves us to be directed by them by which it confesseth that it self ought to be guided If the Author shall now say that I have mistaken his Notion and that his intention in this Book was onely to bring Men into their right wits and make Men consider the reasonableness of the Religion of the Church of England and consequently conform themselves to it I shall say no more then this to him that I wish he had made this Design more apparent that our Dissenters might not have joyn'd in the mistake of his Book and have construed it to the countenancing all Divisions and that he had not given by the whole contrivance of his Book so just cause of this scandal to them For the Book hath in most parts a double face that like Janus his looks two directly contrary ways at once and therefore we may justly suspect a double mind and some double dealings in the Author but this I must needs say for him that he hath ingeniously contrived it for like an armed Amazonian beauty it casts a pleasing look and seems to smile upon every one that looks on it and yet it bears about it the instruments of death I onely make this my request to him if he writes again that he would shew the World more of his honesty though less of his ingenuity by speaking plain truth but not Oracles that may be interpreted to comply with contradictions and lest he should mistake my Design I will deal plainly and tell him what it is viz. to do the duty of an honest English Gentleman and a good Christian by doing my endeavours according to my small abilities to preserve the Unity of the Church of England into which I was baptized I shall therefore endeavour to free the minds of all impartial Readers from those mistakes that might arise from this Book I am now examining To which end because some may perhaps be drawn into a maze by reading it as the Author was in writing it I shall endeavour to shew them the way out of it by walking along with them step by step and so letting them see the way back again by the same steps as they were at first led into it And now to my Task The Gentleman foreseeing as well he might that many Objections would be raised against him in the first place applies himself to ward them off Pag. 3. 4. Object 1. He thus proposeth That many of the greatest Wits have by following their own Opinions encreased the Catalogue of Heresies To this he answers That these men either followed not their own Reason but their Wills or first hood-winkt their Reason by interest and prejudice or passion c. All this I easily grant is truth but now I appeal to this Author himself whether he doth not believe that the number of those that follow their Wills more then their
Reasons that are blinded with interest prejudice or passion that are wanting in qualifications necessary to inform themselves in matters of Religion or that are capable of being deceived by some one or all of these causes or else by the weakness of their understanding does far exceed the number of those that are wise sober and learned If he must affirm that he doth believe it why then would he have every man left to be guided by his own Reason Which is the best way to prevent Heresies for the Magistrates to let their Subjects follow their own wills and passions c. the greatest part of which they must know will thereby be exposed to irreligion and Atheism as well as all kind of heresie and debauchery or else to restrain them by moderate penalties within the pale and limits of the best and most Christian Church in the world But saith our Author it is no great matter for falling into heresies by the weakness of their understanding For saith he pag. 4. They are neither hurtful to themselves nor others But hold Sir I beseech you I had always thought that wilful ignorance had been so far from excusing a fault that it made it much greater so that the weakness of the understanding if it might have been remedied by our industry and humility will in no wise excuse us for heresie Nay I also thought that supposing our ignorance that leads into any crime was invincible and therefore the sin might not be damnable to us yet it might chance to be as this of heresie especially is very hurtful nay damnable to others by leading them into it after our example for which they could have no excuse but their own folly I always therefore thought it a very great duty in a Gentleman to abstain from common and scandalous vices not onely for fear of his own danger but for fear of endangering other men who I know are more led by the examples of the Nobility and Gentry then by the Precepts of the Clergy though they should speak like Gods or live like Angels There being then so much danger from heresies it behoveth all persons seriously to consider whether their weakness of understanding by which they are led into errours and by which this Gentleman would excuse all heresies does not proceed from their own wills and whether they are not ignorant because they will not be better inform'd For if their errours and weakness do proceed from their obstinate perverse and contumacious resistance of authority this turns even the least of errours into the most damnable and worst of heresies And this I heartily refer to the serious consideration of all those that seperate from the Church of England as they tender the publick peace and welfare of the Nation or the eternal safety of their own or other mens souls that they examine themselves impartially whether ever they did inform themselves concerning that which they dislike in the Church and if they did not let them do it speedily and sincerely For otherwise they will be guilty of speaking evil of those things which they understand not and of wilful Schism and Heresie As for that which our Author saith That to relie upon the Church was to add perpetuity and universality to our Errours It is nothing at all to us of the Church of England since I am sure the worst of her Enemies cannot accuse her of enjoyning the belief of any Errour If they can let them do it and I will promise them if it cannot be answered fully and satisfactorily to any unprejudiced judgment I my self will give them publick thanks for their information If they cannot accuse her of any Errour in all her Doctrine certainly it must be a piece of the greatest folly not to say contumacy to continue in a wilful breach of her Communion The Second Objection which he endeavours to hit off is The frailty uncertainty and disproportion of Divine Truths to our understanding c. pag. 5 6. I shall not quarrel with him as to the main of his Answer to this Objection but I cannot agree with him in saying as he doth That every mans soul hath in it self so much light as is requisite for our travel towards Heaven Pag. 5. For this I apprehend to be down-right Pelagianism an Heresie long since condemned by Saint Augustine and the concurring Votes of the whole Church or if it be not Pelagianism sure I am it is a much worse Heresie if not the very renouncing of Christianity What luck the Gentleman had to excuse the Heresie just in the last Paragraph since he falls into it him self in this God help the weakness of his understanding But perhaps he will tell us that he doth not believe it an Heresie notwithstanding it is condemned by the Church or contrary to the Christian Religion But Sir what would you say if it be condemned by Humane Reason Surely then you will consess it an Heresie Therefore that you may be convinced be pleased to look back but three Pages and you will find it directly contradictory to what that Book tells us Pag. 2. l. 14. That to guide him in the right way one had great need of a better Guide then that which was left us by the Fall of our first Forefather But what reed I pray you Sir is there when you your self tell us That every mans Soul hath in it self so much light as is requisite for our travel towards Heaven Is not this a sufficient Example of the frailty and uncertainty of Humane Reason since this Author who is the greatest pretender to it even in that Book in which he makes it his business to perswade others to follow it and nothing else doth so readily fall into so apparent an Heresie and contradiction to himself though by his Book in which he hath so well managed so ill a cause we must acknowledge him to have the advantage of most men in strength of Reason Is not this enough to abate our overweening confidence in our own opinions and make us a little afraid how we follow so uncertain a Guide as our own Reason which hath so palpably deceived our Author This I do acknowledge to him that by God's Free-grace and Mercy concurring with the Ministry of the Gospel every man hath sufficient Light to show him the way to Heaven if he will use those Helps which God hath prepared for him to that purpose but as for his direction that we must seek Truth in the centre and heart of our selves if he gives it universally to all Men and concerning all Truths as he seems to do in that he hath not at all limited it he might as well have bid men search there for all the demonstrations of Euclid though they never had time nor education enough to make them understand so much as one of the most ordinary operations in Arithmetick nor one Mathematical Definition or postulatum And he had as good damn such a man to the centre of
that sacrificed their lives rather then they would admit of the least appearance of any change in their Religion Pity it is this Gentleman was not living some 1500 years agone what abundance of good Men might have been saved by this his Plaister which for want of it bled to death For our Author could have told them as long as their mind and intentions had been but to have still continued Christians or if they had been mistaken in their judgments and had thought they might have done it they had been as good Christians and as happy as any Martyr of them all though they had sacrificed to the Devil himself For that still if a mans conscience be erroneous he may possibly all this while act according to his conscience and so keep his conscience still inviolable But I pray you Sir do you believe your own Doctrine Can you think that an erroneous conscience shall excuse all crimes whatsoever then I assure you I should be very loth to trust my life in your hands For you might think your self a very good Christian and yet cut my throat For according to your Argument a man may murder his Prince or his Father if his erroneous conscience tell him he may do it as I shall afterwards prove it may and yet be a very good Christian. If this be true sure our Author hath said enough to awaken our Magistrates to take care how mens consciences are inform'd and taught and not to let men alone to their own Reasons unless they have a mind to have their throats cut by good conscientious Christians But an erroneous conscience can in no case certainly excuse but where the Errour proceeds from such causes as the person could no ways help as in the case of natural Fools and Mad-men and in them it onely frees from the guilt and crime in foro interno but not from the punishment in foro externo For we have a Bedlam and a Whip for Mad-men and Fools as well as Stocks and Prisons and Gallows for Knaves and Rogues Therefore let not our Separatists think that their Errours shall excuse them before God unless they think themselves stark Fools or Mad-men that it is impossible for them to be better inform'd nor that they ought to be pardoned before Men. For let them pretend to what conscience they will for their actions if they act contrary to the Laws the Magistrate is bound in consciene to punish them because of his Oath according to the sentence of the Law otherwise should mens Errours excuse them from penalty all the crimes in the world would thereby be tolerated and Christianity quite destroyed For men that were led into Errours might deny Christ and yet need not fear any punishment for it because they might in it act according to their erroneous consciences and so keep their consciences still inviolable What a company of Fools are we that take pains in studying to free our selves from Errour whereas if this be true which our Author hath here endevoured to prove it is much more safe for us not to trouble our consciences at all with information for if we do but act according to our consciences all 's well enough though they are never so wilfully erroneous This it seems is the new and módish way of drilling in Popery amongst us by bringing Men to renounce Christianity by accounting all Religions indifferent as is evident by the Jesuites practise upon the Quakers and Hectors of the Town and that general Design of theirs of debauching our young Nobility and Gentry wherever they can with a contempt of Religion He that doubts of this may be fully satisfied by a late Treatise call'd Fiat Lux in which this Design is most conspicuous from which I cannot but believe this Author hath taken the main of his Humane Reason And indeed there can be no readier way possibly found out of bringing in the Romish Religion then this of rooting out Christianity for as long'as the Christian Principles remain firm in mens minds it is impossible any one should change from the Church of England to the so palpable Errours Juggles Phantacism and Idolatry of the Church of Rome But to argue with these Gentlemen upon their own Principles If all kinds of Religion are so indifferent to them why then should they not keep close to that of their own Country since the consent of all Nations shews us that alterations in Religion are very dangerous to the publick peace and safety of any Kingdom Now that the Design of this Author is the very same with that of Fiat Lux will be evident to any attentive Reader that will but seriously consider what he saith from p. 20. to the 37. or else I must confess that I am most grosly mistaken For having foreseen that it was possible for men by an erroneous conscience to excuse according to his Doctrine even the renouncing Christianity and the denying of Christ himself He answereth that Objection not by recanting an opinion of so horrid a consequence to the Christian Religion but by endeavouring to prove that the same might possibly follow that Men might deny Christ by following any other guide as well as this of Humane Reason Nay to show the advantage of his principle above all others he declaims at a most prodigious rate of the great charitableness of His Opinion that would set Heaven Gates so wide open that Turks Jews Heathens nay Atheists themselves might find an entrance thereat Now what doth this tend to in the direct consequence but the very same as that other Treatise before mentioned viz. to prove that Men may be saved by any kind of Religion whatsoever And herein the two good wits jump exactly onely this Gentleman doth alittle out-do the former by not excluding Atheists from the Kingdom of Heaven and by consequence he insinuates into the minds of men that as to the main end which all aim at viz. Happiness It is indifferent whether men be Christians Jews Turks Heathens or Atheists that is in a word whether Men have any Religion or none at all Is not this an admirable advantage that this Gentleman hath above all others in his Humane Reason But I shall not spend time in declaiming against it but will endeavour throughly to answer his Reasons for it He endeavours to prove this first Assertion by a particular Examination of other Principles The first Principle he examines is that of the private Spirit or new Light This I easily grant is in its direct consequence a flat denial of the whole Gospel but then this is our Authors own Opinion For put but the Question home to any Quaker what he means by the Light within him and his Answer shall be either an evasion of the Question by running into railing or else by some other terms of Art amongst them as Christ within them c. or else they must be forced to confess that they mean nothing else but natural Conscience i. e. Humane Reason by
minded is death and the Reason he gives sussiciently backs it for the carnal mind is enmity against God c. Nay from Reason it self I think that saying of St. Cyprian de Unit. Eccles. that the Schismaticks sin is greater then the Apostates may be made more then probable For a sin is so much the greater by how much more mischief it does to the Church of God Now the Schismatick may do more mischief to the Church of God by drawing numbers of well-meaning Christians after him then the Apostate can For all that are sincere Christians will avoid the latter who cannot have such plausible and fair pretences for his renouncing the Christian Religion as the other may have for his Divisions Let me now ask this Gentleman whether Schism is nothing else but an ordinary railing word in all Controversies But our Author will shift for one I 'le warrant him his old Plaister of an erroneous conscience will presently cure his sore but he values not that he hath a trick worth ten of it and that is this Assertion viz. That the Unity of the Church is not broken by them who differ in Opinions but by them who will not allow of such a difference If the Author means only difference in Opinions in mens own minds that never shews it self by any disserent action from the Church I know no body will oppose him in this Assertion But if he means such a difference of Opinions as do disturb the publick exercise of Religion by drawing others away from it then he must charge the Apostle with Schism for according to this Assertion how St. Paul willquit himself from Schism I cannot tell for he no where allows of such a difference in Opinions but doth with most earnest zeal exhort against Divisions and condemns them and their Authors as the most dangerous crimes and persons and yet who would ever have thought the Apostle a Schismatick It is a little to be admired that St. Paul should so passionately exhort us to peace and unity and yet that he himself should break the Unity of the Church Again this Assertion is altogether new and sensless and just such another as this That The Unity of a Family is not broken by the malepertness and obstinacy of those Servants and Children that will not obey and submit to the Orders in it but will set up Orders for themselves no by no means but onely by the pride and peevishness of the Master of the Family who will force them to observe his Orders and will not let them alone to do what they please For the future therefore let Governours of Societies and Masters of Families learn of this Author to give all their Subjects and Servants a free toleration to follow their own inventions lest they be guilty of breaking the precious unity of their Societies and Families Would it not be a brave world would they all but follow this advice Oh what an admirable peace and harmony would then bless us Yet this is the natural consequence of this Gentlemans Doctrine For however he talks onely of a liberty of Opinions this is but a copy of his countenance for it is a liberty of practice according to those Opinions that he pleads for as most manifestly appears by his following Discourse For thus he argues p. 37. Who knows whether that God who liked best that no mans body should have the same complexion c. may not as well be pleased with variety in his worship and adoration I answer Every body knows it that knows any thing of the Christian Religion Since we know that the Apostle prays that we may all glorifie God with one heart and with one mouth Rom. 15. 6. we must know that it is Gods will that such an Unity should be preserved in his Worship Since the Apostle beseeches as well as commands us to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Ephes. 4. 2. and to walk by the same Rule and to mind the same things Phil. 3. 16. and that all things be done in decency and in order and to edification which is impossible without Unity we must then necessarily know that he is not pleased with variety in his Worship as he is in the variety of his Works and that therefore an orderly and uniform way of Worship is expected because we have commands of that nature But if this trick will not do the Authour will shew you another as good viz. That the Rule which God hath given us is capable of various interpretations whereas God might have made them if he had pleased as plain to every man in one sense as now they are to every man in his own But how do we know that I beseech you Sir How could God have made them so unless he had unmade man and had made him an Angel incapable of the least errours But what if the rule be capable of various interpretations and of all the three senses he cites the Divines for What 's this to his purpose Oh surely quoth our Author very much for then we have no uniform commands and consequently there can be no necessity of an uniform Worship But Sir I must tell you freely that you have as bad luck in consequences in this Book as I have ordinarily met withall For Sir may not nay ought not the commands of God concerning his Worship be interpreted in the litteral sense when they are so plain as nothing can be more plainly expressed according to the letter of them What need any body have recourse to the Typical and Anagogical sense of those words of the Apostles Let all things be done in decency and order and to edification when they are so plain and perspicuous in the literal and so hardly admit of any other that I believe it would a little trouble our Author as well as all his Divines to fix any Typical or Anagogical sense upon them How then can this person have the confidence to insinuate by little similitudes that the commands of God are as well obeyed by the various expressions of our adorations of him as the Sun is obeyed by the contrary effects it hath upon the Mud and Wax c. for this he must mean by all that discourse or else it is nothing to the purpose when he must know if he believe the Gospel that God hath revealed to us that it is his will that we should glorifie him with one heart and with one mouth But perhaps this Gentleman thinks he knows better how to worship God then God knows how to direct him Oh the more then Divinity of Humane Reason that guides a man to think himself wiser then God Almighty but our Author hath more of the same sort of similes which are his grand Arguments Pag. 40. The Unity of the Church of God is not compared to the Unity of one man but to the Unity of man and woman joyned in marriage Now this Unity is of one part more weak then the
humility in us to hold to nothing at all but to be like a wave of the Sea tossed with every wind of Doctrine I appeal to any man living whether he doth not think him more humble who submits to the Judgment of his Magistrates in all indifferent things which is all that the Church of England requires then he that is dogmatical in his own opinions about them and onely rests satisfied according to our Authors meek and humble Doctrine in the sole dictates of his own Humane Reason And now who does not admire our Authors great humility in vouchsafing an Answer to this Argument But these are the common Objections Now follows the extraordinary one objected by extraordinary Mr. Hobbs He that pleaseth may read it p. 46. for I am not at leisure to transcribe it The Seventh Object is that of T. H. The sum of which is this That because all publick Worship of God consists in outward significations of our honour of him different ways of Worship must needs be scandalous to others in making them think that we dishonour God in stead of honouring him But this Gentleman dissents from him What pity it is that two such extraordinary Friends should fall out But let us see the Reason why he will contradict his old Master and this it is For the same Argument would as well hold against the diverse ways of Worship in several Commonwealths as in the same because none would be spectators of the Worship but such as believe it Honourable for were there an hundred several Religions in the same City still their Religious Congregations would be made up of none but those of the same Opinion I shall undertake to defend T. H. in his Assertion not for any extraordinary opinion I have of the Man or his Argument but because I believe he speaks truth in it and therefore I think it hard that he which speaketh truth so very seldom should be run down with meer words or metaphors when he doth but chiefly because our Author through him strikes at the injunctions of our Church and our Uniform and decent Ceremonies in the worship of God But do you think Sir that men of the same City would be as much strangers to the Religions of their next neighbours as they are to those of forraign Nations Certainly I should think that it was much easier for them to go a few steps to satisfie their curiosity then to cross the seas for it and would not their trade and interest one amongst another in the same town more oblige them to a religious interview then when they were at some hundreds of miles distance and had little or no concerns that should draw them thither Most probable it is that to carry on a trade with all sorts of men some would so far comply with all sorts of Religions to go to all their publick Assemblies since they might do it without giving themselves the trouble of going further then the limits of their own walls So that the case is much different which our Author would make the very same But our Author hath more Arguments then one and more Answers too or else he was in a poor case He adds That those that are for a toleration of all ways of worship in the same Common-wealth would not think any of those ways which differed from their own to be dishonourable to God But I beseech you Sir did they all tell you so or how do you know it by instinct or new light But Sir if they had I know no body is bound to believe them any more then your self For I dare be so confident as to assert that there is scarce any Sect in all England unless they be Atheists that do in their hearts allow of a toleration of all ways of worship in this Kingdome Hath not this been made appear by all our grand Separatists do the Papists allow it where they have power did the Presbyterian or the Independant allow any such thing when they were uppermost and have not the Quakers themselves set up a discipline amongst them which whosoever will not submit to is presently cast out of the Brotherhood so that we see our Author will find his own party very small when he comes to tell Noses unless he thinks he might find Atheists and Hypocrites enough amongst all or any of the other Parties For otherwise it is absolutely impossible that any man that is sincere in the choice of his Religion should not think that way of worship which is contrary to his to be less honourable to God then his own i. e. comparatively dishonourable to him For Instance I do sincerely choose to pray to God publickly on my knees because I do really believe that this is the most proper way of expressing before those men I converse withall that honour which I owe to God Almighty Now when I see others when they should worship God set on their tails like Dogs or wallow and loll and grunt and groan like Swine or stand up and wriggle and make ugly faces and grin and make mows like Apes or Baboons I must needs confess I cannot for my soul but think their way of Worship ridiculous and contrary to the due expressions of the reverence they owe to the infinite God of Heaven and Earth So that this Gentleman must suppose that all men in our Nation or the greatest part at least are meer Atheists or Hypocrites which no man but he that is one of these himself can possibly suppose or else that there must arise strange thoughts of one another from their contrarieties in the performance of their Publick Devotion and how soon these would break out into Disputes Contentions and Feuds and the Consequences of these Tumults and Seditions I leave it to any one to judge that is not prejudiced But if this Gentleman cannot carry his cause by Reason he knows another way still and that is Railing And therefore he sets full drive on the Clergy of the Church of England they being now exposed as the ancient Christians were amongst the Beasts in the Amphitheatres without any guard but their own generous courage and innocence he therefore ventures to give them the first Essay of his good natured and Gentile Doctrine by very civilly calling them by those most obliging titles of Ignorant or Malicious Physicians For that he speaks of them is evident because there are no other Spiritual Physicians which he there must mean but onely they that do publickly oppose his beloved toleration And is this all they have for their reward for setting themselves in the breach against that Flood of Popery and Atheism which is just ready to overflow our Nation Is not this rare encouragement to our Noblemen and Gentlemen to bestow a thousand or five hundred pounds in the Education of a Son to expose him when all is done to be abused by every Bussoon Is not our Nation come to a fair pass for Religion that though the most barbarous
Nations in the whole World have an honour and reverence for their Priests and always had so yet that Sacred and Honourable Office amongst Us must render the Person contemptible I cannot but be concern'd as I am a Gentleman and so I think ought every one that bears that title to see those who have many of them by their Birth all of them by their Education Degrees and Orders merited a just title to the honour of the English Gentry and that Profession which was in all Ages before this last accounted in this Nation the most Honourable of all other and is so still accounted by our Laws to be now become so despicable that he passes for a Wit that can but cast an affront upon the Professors of it For how can our Nobility and Gentry dispose of their younger Sons unless they will make the Ottoman Law to maintain their Families when the most delightfull most honourable and formerly the most usuall way for them is blocked up by such grand discouragements But what 's the Reason now why this Gentleman treats them so Gentilely and civilly in the titles and in the faults he casts upon them onely this because like good Shepherds they will not desert their Flocks which are committed to their care to be devoured by the subtle Foxes of Rome or by those Wolves the sacrilegious Atheists and Schismaticks of England Thus the Fox and the Woolf had they this Author's Humane Reason and his way of expressing it would first endeavour to make the silly Sheep hate their Shepherds by telling them how malitious they have been to them in restraining them from playing or feeding in what pastures they pleased and then tell them that if they would follow them they should have a general liberty of conscience to do what they pleased But what would be the event should the Sheep stray from their Shepherds to go along with these good natur'd guides would they not all soon be devoured without any body to help them and would they not soon find by their sad experience that it had been much better for them to have continued under the restraint of their old plain honest Shepherds then to have enjoyed for a few minutes their liberty which their new masters flattered them withall on purpose that they might devour them aye but saith this sweet-natured Gentleman they might by Writing Disputing Preaching and Living c. reduce the World in a short time to its ancient healthfull and natural temper If the Author means the ancient and healthfull temper of Popery or the pure natural temper of Heathenism I am very much of his opinion that if toleration be once set up the World will in a short time be reduced to one of these For let the Clergy do what they could by writing preaching and living c. were they not defended by Laws and the Nation guarded from those swarms of Caterpillars that would be sent from Rome to devour our Nation I mean Priests and Friars to convert souls to pay the old Gentlemans Peter-pence and the rest of St. Peter's Patrimony their preaching and disputing would never be heard but would be quite drown'd with the noise of Papists and other Dissenters neither would the piety of their lives were they Angels be taken notice of amongst that croud of pretenders to it who would all strive by outward shews of it especially the Papists by their magnificent processions and their specious pretences of Miracles which must necessarily take with the common people to draw all mens eyes from the true English Clergy unlese it were thâ—se who were set as Spies over them to discover their faults and to divulge them nay if they had no faults which is not to be conceived of meer men rather then the people should believe them innocent they would invent stories and lyes enough of them to take away all their reputation For this some of our Sects especially the Papists would think themselves bound to do from the very Principles of their Religion the main of which is this to promote their cause by any means whatsoever So that this Gentleman may be fully satisfied that without the restraints of Law or else the Sword it would be impossible to maintain any settlement in Religion but that we must necessarily be hurried into Popery Atheism and all Confusion Neither let our dissenting Brethren flatter themselves with the hopes that they shall easily run down the Papists with the cry of Antichrist Superstition and Idolatry For as to the two First They will easily retort them upon their accusers and will raise a far greater cry for themselves of Christian Peace and Vnity of their Church its antiquity universality infallibility and the most inexhaustible Treasure of Charity in her Pardon and Indulgences by which the people shall be allowed underhand a toleration of all kind of debauchery so that they will but make a leg to the kind old Doctor of St. Peter's Chair And as for Idolatry they will easily answer that by the effects of divisions in the words of St. Paul Rom. 2. 21 22. Thou therefore that teachest another teachest thou not thy self thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge There can be then but one way that can possibly preserve us from Popery without the present execution of our Laws and that is a standing Army but I believe most true English Gentlemen will think this Remedy little better then the Disease If it shall be answered that the Laws might be executed against Papists but a Liberty allowed to all others I answer First that this is very unequitable and severe that those persons who suffered most of any except those of the Church of England for his Majesties Cause should now he is return'd be the onely Sufferers Secondly That were others tolerated it will be impossible to discover the Papists who will hide themselves under their coverings there being no ready ways of convicting them but onely this their not joyning with the Church of England in her constant publick Liturgy every Lords day and in receiving the Sacraments with her three times a year which can never be consistent with the toleration of all other Religions amongst us I refer it therefore since his Majesty hath commanded the execution of his Laws to the serious consideration of our Nobles and Gentlemen whether they will choose to give themselves the trouble to execute our Laws and to enjoy their Proprieties under the protection of them or whether they will turn their throats to the longest Sword or submit their necks to the Roman yoke which our wise fathers thought too hard for them to bear For one of these must be endured it will in a short time be past all help to prevent the two latter without a speedy recourse to the former For if our Sectaries grow more numerous and seditious amongst us as they may easily be managed into any thing and as long as the world hath more knaves then wise men and honest
to be excused for his contempt of authority because the different Ceremonies which he used in God's Worship did agree and consent in God's Glory For what he saith p. 53. viz. That as well may different thoughts represent the Worship of God and his Son Jesus Christ as different words can represent the same thought I cannot tell what he would have by it But this I know take it in the litteral sence of it it is as extravagant an assertion as one can easily meet withall For different words may signifie the same things because neither the things nor mens notions of things do alter by the various words or languages in which they are expressed But it is impossible it should be so in the Worship of God For the Worship of God being essentially placed in the thoughts different thoughts must make different Worships But perhaps this is to be typically or anagogically interpreted As for that lash he gives the Roman Church p. 53. The old Gentleman of the infallible Chair may well pardon him for it since he makes him amends very speedily after p. 56. by drawing in Henry the Eighth by the head and shoulders first to be lashed for his Adultery and then for deserting his good old friend the Pope The last Object He answers from p. 54. to p. 62. Is that by which some would prove him guilty of the Error of the Greeks by several Texts of Scripture The Error of the Greeks I suppose was this Their following vain and Heathen Philosophy or meer Humane Reason against the Divine Revelation of the Christian Religion by the Miracles and Preaching of Christ and his Apostles For from hence was it that the Doctrine of the Resurrection was derided amongst them that the Apostles Preaching was thought foolishness and the Cross a stumbling-block Now I appeal to any judicious and impartial Reader whether this Author hath not driven on this same or a worse design in no small part of his Book For he hath endeavoured to prove that a man may be excusable though he follows his Humane Reason to the denial of Christianity i. e. in a direct opposition to the Divine Revelation Nay he hath endeavoured to prove that Jews Heathens and Atheists are in an equal possibility of salvation with the unerring Christian. Now I desire this Author to prove that ever the Heathen Greeks had amongst them any question which they did defend more directly contrary to the Christian Religion then His is Which if he cannot do he must acknowledge that he hath out-done them all at the wisdom of enticing words to draw others from Christianity and that he doth not come far short of them at the wisdom of the flesh and the wisdom of the Princes of this World will appear in that he hath so much busied himself to prove that Humane Reason may tolerate Atheism it self and consequently all kind of lusts and wickedness whatsoever Away with you dull Greeks for a company of old fools that could not improve your reason further then to the denial of Christ meer Gregory-grey-beards are you all in comparison of our Author who can tell you presently how to deny the Being of a God by Humane Reason and to excuse your selves when you have done so exquisitely hath he found out a guide to happiness and so gentilely hath he followed the directions of his own Reason The Gentleman in the next place proceeds to establish his Doctrine by positive Arguments And his first Argument is from the safety of it which he endeavours to prove by comparing his guide viz. every mans own Reason with others that stand in competition with it As first with the apprehension of a Vision or Revelation extrinsecally coming into the Soul p. 62. If he means nothing but Enthusiasme hereby I shall onely leave it to be disputed betwixt him and his gratefull friends the Quakers For I know no Christian that will follow or expect new lights since God hath given us the Gospel a positive law to govern our lives and actions and since the Apostle tells us Gal. 1. 8. That if he or an Angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel he ought to be held accursed If he means all revelation in general even that of the Gospel not excepted as what may not a man venture at who is indued with his Humane Reason which hath already taught him to excuse Infidelity and Atheism I desire him to consider that since he himself hath proved in the latter end of his Book that we have Reason enough to believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God What strange kind of blasphemous aspersion he must cast upon the divine Wisdom if he dares to assert that every mans own Reason is a safer rule to walk by then that rule which God hath particularly revealed to us from heaven for that purpose Unless therefore he can think our own Reason more infallible then the Reason of God himself he must conclude if he believes the Gospel to be Gods Word as he professeth to do that it is much safer to follow that law which God hath been pleased to give us then the law of our own Reason For otherwise the Divine Revelation had been altogether vain and useless Secondly The next guide he endeavours to prove less safe then Humane Reason is Authority Pag. 63. By which he hath not explained what he means so that by this Discourse since he hath no ways limited the signification of the word we may justly judge he intended to set up every mans Reason as a safer guide then all Authority His reason is this For if that Anthority prescribe truth we have good fortune and meerly good fortune in our obedience But I pray you Sir Are there not many truths that can be no ways made evident or at least not so evident as is convenient but by the suffrage of Authority as the distinction of persons in the sacred Trinity the Deity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost For if the universal consent of the Church in these points did not clearly prove that those Texts of Scripture which are urged for them were to be so interpreted it would not perhaps be so easie a matter to stop a subtile Socinians mouth by meer Scripture and much less by meer Reason If we take Authority in the other common acceptation of the word for lawful power the Authors assertion is still worse and much more false For in all indifferent things and doubtful matters the Authority of the Magistrate is to prescribe to us not our own Reason only it being much safer for us to follow authority in those cases then to be guided onely by our selves So that Sir you see by this time that in most actions of our lives for most of them do concern indifferent things we have not only good fortune but good reason in our obedience to authority Nay in some cases and those not a few authority is the onely reason of our assent as in all
was true which he can never prove that God would not punish us for our wilful errours yet since the consequence of errours doth naturally lead us into the most damnable sins it therefore behooveth us if we tender our eternal happiness to take care to preserve our selves from errour which may be not only of dangerous but of damnable consequence to us What then is the wisest way for the most of men to guard themselves from these dangers This is a question well worth our consideration if we think we have such souls in us as are endangered by errour to be eternally lost and miserable What then must the common people here amongst us the greatest part of which have scarce reason enough to demonstrate themselves to be men do to secure themselves I answer It is the safest way for them to relie upon the Church especially in all matters of indifferency and of unnecessary disputes and upon some of those Guides which the Church hath lawfully called and authorized in all cases of conscience For since as this Gentleman tells us many nay most of men and the wisest of men have erred though they have had all the advantages to improve their reasons that this world could afford them how should any ordinary man who is void of all helps but his own natural reason dare to rely upon it alone in business of so great concern as his eternal happiness or misery Especially since he doth not think it convenient to rely upon it in business of lesser concern viz. That of his health or estate Now I appeal to all men that in difficult cases do consult their Lawyer and Physician whether they do not think it safer to rely upon their judgements then to be governed only by themselves they must say they do so else they were mad to consult them and give them mony for nothing So that this Author hath the suffrage of all wise men against his opinion when he tells us that upon the account of safety we ought to commit our selves wholly to our own reason in the search of truth Nay I will refer it to himself and challenge him upon his reputation if he hath any left to tell me whether his own practise doth not contradict his opinion that is whether or n◠he consults his own reason and commits himself wholly to the guidance of it in cases that concern his life and estate or whether he is guided by the Doctor and the Barrister To this perhaps he will answer that he limits his discourse to the serch of Religious truths in which it is most safe for us to rely upon our own Reason But I pray you Sir why not then in all other can you shew me any cause of difference If you say because Religion is grounded upon probabilities I Answer so is Physick upon much more uncertainty then Religion and the Law is no less built upon uncertainties in many cases which have not been determined by presidents But suppose that religious matters are more intricate and obscure and less certain then other things since errours in Religion are no less dangerous to our Souls then errours in Law and Physick are to our Estates and Lives if we believe we have any souls We ought then to be more carefull to consult our Guides of Conscience then we are to take advice of our Lawyer or Physician But experience and practise is the best teacher Let us now suppose every private person to be wholly committed to the guidance of his own reason according to this Author's Doctrine and let us see what safety he enjoys thereby For then supposing he meets with a cunning Gentleman from Rome that hath been brought up in all advantages of Learning and Education that should baffle his reason for the defence of Protestantism then if he will act rationally he must presently turn Papist and so vice versâ The same thing would also hold if he should be baffled by any Jesuit under the disguise of any other Sectary whatsoever for he must so often change his Religion as he meets with more crafty Disputants than himself By which means he might every hour have a several religion and change so often till at last he had quitted all religion and turn'd Atheist which we see to be the ordinary consequence of frequent changes Nay further suppose he meets with some subtle Jesuit in disguise whose business it is to convert men first to debauchery then to Atheism and so by degrees to Popery who should baffle all his reasons for the practice of vertue nay for the immortality of his Soul and for the being of God as it may well be suppos'd where there is so great a difference in the advantages of the persons What then will become of him if he commits himself only to the guidance of his own reason he must then presently commence Brute and believe that he hath no more soul then his horse or any other beast and that he shall die and perish like one of them nay he must turn Atheist and not only deny the Lord that bought him but that God that made him and so be left altogether without any excuse Is not this person now very safe think you under the guidance of his own reason If therefore it be safe for us to run into Popery Heresie and Atheism let us follow our own Reasons and wholly commit our selves to our own guidance if not Let us follow the Church of England and those guides which she hath set over us in all difficult cases of which we our selves can be no competent judges and when we are press'd with any argument for a change in our religion which we are not able to answer let us repair to our own lawful Minister or to some other that shall direct us for a satisfaction of our doubts and objections And though this may seem a Paradox in this Age of Schism and Faction yet the relying on the Church is the very same direction that St. Paul gives 2 Tim. 3. 15. where he calls the Church of God The pillar and ground of truth For if so then all that are Christians ought to rely upon this pillar and to build their faith upon that which is the ground of truth But I know he there means the Universal Church But you 'l say how should I who am an illiterate person or a private Gentleman and understand not the languages in which the Scriptures and other Church writings are pen'd know what the Doctrine of the Universal Church is for I am not able to search for the Christian Doctrine my self I answer Read the Scriptures in English and practise those things that are plain and easie in them and as for difficult disputes either let them quite alone or else consult in all difficulties the directions of your own Church the Church of England by those guides which she hath set over you But may not these deceive me too as well as my own Reason I Answer It is
probable that they whose business it is to study those things must know them more certainly then I who have never had time nor convenience to study them But supposing they should deceive me as long as I am in this life I shall always be subject to errour and if I do follow these directions sure I am it is their fault and not mine if they lâ—ad me into errour for I have done what I could to prevent it and sure I am I cannot this way be led into Popery Infidelity and Atheism as I may be if I wholly commit my self to the sole guidance of my own reason since our Church hath so plainly guarded us against the Idolatry of Rome in its plain Homilies and against Infidelity and Atheism by her full and short Catechism and by allowing us the use of the Scriptures I dare confidently aver that there is no ways in the world left for us that are unlearned to keep us without a miracle from Heresie and Schism or Popery and Atheism but only by this method that I have now laid down If I am mistaken I shall be very thankful to any one that will shew me wherein If I am not mistaken I must desire our Author to give me leave to think that the Authority of the Church is a safer Guide to me then my own Reason and consequently that all his boast of safety is nothing else but meer impertinence and falshood Several things it is possible will be objected against this method which I have laid down for the safety of all private Gentlemen and men of ordinary capacity especially for common people which was this That every one should rely upon the Church of England and those Guides of Conscience which she hath authorized in all difficult cases and doubtful matters which surpass his own abilities to judge of Against this it may be objected First That this is ro run into the same implicit Faith which we condemn in the Romanists and put out our own eyes that we may see with other mens I answer Not at all for I allow every one the free use of the Scriptures and their own Reasons in all matters that are within the reach of their capacity and within their proper sphear of Action and for all others that are above them I have shewn them I am sure the safest guide I can possibly find If any body can produce a safer Iet them and they will do very good service to the publick Secondly It may be objected That by this Direction they that are Papists especially the common sort of them are in no possibility to be freed from the Roman Yoke and consequently must continue in Idolatry and therefore in most imminent peril of damnation I answer I gave not this direction to Papists or those that are without our Church For what have I to do to judge them that are without But to those who are or ought to be obedient Children of the most Christian and tender Mother the Church of England who is guilty of no corruption from the Primitive Christianity either in Doctrine or Worship who enjoyns the Belief of no new Articles of Faith nor no Idolatrous Worship nor commands any thing that is sinful to be obeyed the contrary to which the Church of Rome is most apparently guilty of Now I refer it to any man or to all mankind to judge which is the safest way for us of the Church of England whether to perswade all of our Communion to be governed by their own Reason and so to endanger the loss of the greatest part of them that are now free and must continue so so long as they continue in obedience to our Church from all fear of Popish Idolatry and thereby to expose them not onely to all false Religions but even to be of no Religion at all for fear of using such Arguments to secure them as might if used to ignorant Papists continue them in their Errours and obstruct their conversion to our Church of which we cannot have half so great a probability as there is of losing or at least hazarding their Souls who now are not nor never can be in any danger so long as they continue in obedience to their own Church or whether it is safer for them to be kept by Laws in the Communion of the Church of England and in obedience to her Injunctions in all honest and lawful things which is all that our Church requires even of the Clergy themselves Thirdly Another Objection may be this That possible it is our Church may in time as well as the Church of Rome which formerly was a Church as free from all corruption as ours is now degenerate into the very same Crimes which we now blame Rome for I answer That then our Church must be quite altered from what it is at present and I onely propose my Method of Safety to all illiterate Persons in Her present Communion and therefore am not at all concerned for future contingencies But if ever She should be changed from her Primitive Purity which God forbid then and not till then will this Objection deserve an Answer For if possibilities of Errour may render Separation allowable we must never be fixt in any Church till we can come to that which is triumphat in Heaven nay neither can any man be free from a possibility of Errour as long as he is here on Earth let him propose to himself what Guide he can And I dare appeal to any man that is rational whether he must not think that his own Reason may in all probability lead him into Errours much sooner then the Guides of the Church especially in such things as he is not a capable Judge of For surely every mans own Reason is much more subject to a possibility of Errors then an whole Church is to a possibility of a total change and alteration So that it must still remain much safer to rely upon the Church according to the Rule I have laid down then it is to rely wholly upon our own Reason 4. The last Objection I shall answer is this That if we that are illiterate must rely upon our Church in all things above our capacity that then we ought to have practised the same Rule when we were Members of the Church of Rome and consequently ought never to have separated from it and therefore that our Reformers were Schismaticks To this I answer That the Romish Doctrine of Transubstantiation and their Idolatry in worshipping the Host c. besides the Popes Usurpation upon our Regal Authority was so directly contradictory to the Word of God that he must needs see it that doth not wilfully shut his eyes Secondly Our Reformation was carried on not by Private Persons but by the Publick Power of the Nation and by all the wisest and most learned Men in it And consequently it could be no Schism it being granted upon so warrantable a Cause and done in so orderly a manner To conclude
all this Discourse Let all Circumstances be impartially considered as they are now in the Church of England and I dare refer the Question to the Writer of Humane Reason himself whether it is not a much safer way for the common People especially to relie upon her judgment then upon their own And whether it is safer for the Publick to maintain the established Religion by the execution of our Laws or to let Hell break loose amongst us by a general Toleration of all Religions and by consequence of all debauchery and Atheism I refer to our Government to consider Now for our Authors next Argument by which he would prove his Opinion to be most natural if he had said purely natural we might well have granted it him for it is as foolish an one as one would wish The Argument is grounded upon a pretty similitude which our Author loves as dearly as he doth his Mistress they that have a mind may read it at length p. 72. to the 78. for I have something else to do then to bestow time to transcribe it The sum of it is this viz. That as in all visible Objects we appeal to the eye and sense of seeing and make no appeals from it either to other senses or to revelation so in all rational Objects we must have recourse onely to our Reasons and must in no case appeal from thence and especially in matters of Religion For Religion was the main design of mans Creation But now if in visible Objects there is an appeal to our higher faculties then by vertue of this Gentleman 's own Metaphor there may and ought to be an appeal from our Reason even in rational Objects to some more certain Judge where it may be had That there is such an appeal in visible Objects from our sense of seeing to our understanding is evident in all those Cases in which either the Eye or the medium is defective or disturbed as he himself doth acknowledge p. 74. to which I need add but this one Instance The Stars appear to our eyes to be no bigger then the Nails in the Spoak of a Cart-wheel though they are as Astronomers do demonstrate vastly greater then the whole Earth Now then it is as clear as the Sun that there must be an appeal from our senses otherwise we must believe that the Stars are very inconsiderable things and that the Sun it self is no bigger then a Bushel because we see them appear of no greater Dimensions From whence there can be nothing more evident then this That as in visible Objects the Soul can make no certain judgment when the Sense is diseas'd or defective or the Medium is disturb'd and that as when the appearance of visible Objects to our Senses doth contradict our rational Faculties we believe our Reason rather then our Eyes so our Souls can pass no certain sentence concerning intelligible things when her understanding is any way s disturb'd and when the Object is too high for our Reason and that we ought therefore to appeal from our Reason when it contradicts any higher and better Demonstration particularly when it seems to contradict Divine revelation because we must be assured that the Reason of God is much more certain and infallible then the Reason of man unless Humane Reason teacheth us to think our selves wiser then God So that from this Metaphor if similitudes may pass for Arguments as they do with our Author who scarce useth any other it sollows that as in visible Objects we must not always believe our eyes so neither in intelligible Objects must we always believe our Reason Wherefore all that this Gentleman hath got by this Argument is That he hath made a Rod for his own Breech For he hath hereby fully demonstrated the folly of his whole Book for the Reason of most men being depraved and blinded with prejudice and passion ignorance and interest is no more to be believed then the eye that is distempered with the Jaundise or any other Disease and therefore that is a madness for most men to give themselves up wholly to the guidance of their own Reasons Nay it further follows from hence that as he would be thought a mad man or at least a very pragmatical fellow who will believe his own eyes against the testimony of thousands of others who have greater advantages of seeing the object then himself so he must be thought very pragmatical if not mad who will believe onely his own Reason against the judgment of thousands of others who are all wiser then himself he then must be a pragmatical fool that will believe his own Reason when it contradicts the Universal testimony of the whole Church So that our Authors singularity in renouncing all Authority his own Argument proves is a piece of the greatest pride and folly Now Sir you see how easie it is to retort your little similies upon your self and what a great advantage you gain to your Cause by making true comparisons of things I do believe your wit is good but your luck is stark naught at similitudes since therefore they have proved so unlucky to you let me advise you as a friend not to use them any more for demonstrations and then I am very confident that the world will not be troubled with any more of your scribling But now let us suppose our Author's consequence to be good and his metaphors to be demonstrative and let us but observe the natural tendency of it and if that will not be sufficient to demonstrate the danger and folly of his opinion I know not what can For if because God hath given us our reason to be our guide in all intelligible matters and consequently in matters of Religion as he hath given us our eyes to guide us in all visible objects and that therefore there must lie no appeal from our reason in any matters of saith or religion why then doth it not hold in all matters of Law and Justice I challenge him to shew me any reason if he can for is it not the office of our reason to guide us as well in all other matters as in the concerns of religion and yet surely there is no man unless it be this Author can be so sensless to think otherwise then that he which lives in a society must submit the external exercise of his own private reason to the publick laws or else that he ought to be cast out of the protection of that society and to have no benefit of those laws which he will not submit to and yet is it not natural for every man to govern himself by his own Reason in every particular concern and action of his life as well as in Religion Must then our Governours out of pure good nature cancel all our Laws and give every man leave to follow the guidance of his own Reason alone in all things because it is most natural to every man to be so guided What an unnatural Parliament have
to the quiet of a Nation as an absolute licentiousness or freedom from all laws Neither is any mans reason restrained hereby for he is left to his own free choice as in all civil laws so in all laws of the Church to consult his own reason whether he will obey them or whether he will venture all the punishments of soul and body which may be the consequence of his contempt and disobedience or whether he will quit the place where they are in force and execution Wherefore there is no need of any alteration of the present State of the Church of England by Ietting every man enjoy his own Religion to allow him the same liberty in Religion as he hath in all other matters For as we see it evidently in the State that was every man left free in every thing to be guided by his own Reason only the most of men being so much blinded as they are with ignorance passion and interest c. the which they would necessarily mistake for their Reason the whole Nation would be turned into a Field of Blood and an heap of skulls and dead mens bones and in a short time be rendred more desolate then the habitations of the fiercest Beasts by the frequent crimes of debauched persons was it not for the due execution of wholsom Laws to restrain their debauchery so in matters of Religion if there were no Laws to keep men in due bounds but every man should be left to be guided onely by himself through the many mistakes of his own Reason which every man is subject to the whole Nation would soon be over-run with our Authors good Clients Jews Turks Heathens and Atheists and by consequence with Bawds Thieves and Murderers and all kind of Debauchees and Hectors For my part I am not in love with such company and therefore desire that men might be held within the due bounds of Law But if this Gentleman be so in love with them that he would have them encouraged by taking away any Laws that might restrain them I shall leave it to our Governours to consider whether it is resonable to grant him his request and whether he hath not well deserved the publick thanks of the King and Privy Council and both Houses of Parliament for the great pains he hath taken in his Book and for hâ— most safe most natural and most peaceable Politick Proposals he hath made in it for the reconciling all differences in matters of Religion Thus I take my leave of this Author and his Book together onely adding this one word to him that I have in no part of my Examination of his Pamphlet said any thing but what my own Reason dictated to me and therefore he cannot be angry with me upon his own Principles because I have guided my self wholly by my own Reason And I am sure I shall never be angry with my self for any thing that I have here written because I know I have writ nothing but what became an honest Plain dealing Country Gentleman Wherefore let the event be what it will I remain fully satisfied in my own Conscience by having endeavoured to do my Duty and to shew my self a sincere Lover of Peace Religion and the true interest of England THE END Advertisement to the Reader and the Writer of Humane Reason I Onely desire that they would do me justice in fully considering every Paragraph of HUMANE REASON with my particular Examination of it and in comparing them impartially and then let them censure me how they will I shall not be much concerned at it but shall still remain Their humble Servant A. M.
so they might enjoy their Estates that would descend to them by Inheritance Now was there not a Conscience and secret dread of Religion that awed the minds of Children from the thoughts of so horrid Villanies it would be too easie for those that live under the same roof and have all opportunities of secresie in their crimes to act any Villany so privately that their interest should lead them to as that they should never without a Miracle be discovered But supposing they should be discovered it is onely death which is the utmost punishment they can fear which according to the Atheists Principles would be no such dreadful matter for it would onely put an end to all those troubles and disquiets they here labour under Now that this would be the consequence that would ensue if mens minds were free from Religious dreads is evident from the practice of debauched persons who have run themselves into Atheism For we see they stick not to hazard their lives daily for the satisfaction of their lusts by the perpetration of any Villanies even Theft and Murder not excepted for hopes of a very small and inconsiderable gain in comparison of that which the death of a Father would afford the next Heir nay we see that amongst wise and sober men the Merchant doth expose his life and estate to the most uncertain of all things even the Winds and the Wave sor the hopes of a far more uncertain gain then this would be to the Heir and the Souldier doth daily bid defiance to Death in the open Field onely for the sake of a poor livelyhood What then could preserve our Houses Towns and Cities from Fire our Lives or our Estates from perjury or our Persons from poyson and poniard ot our Wives from abusing our Beds or our Neighbours from cheating us was all Religion rooted out of the World Would not a Commonwealth of Men be soon worse then a Desert of Beasts Reason enabling men to do more mischief one to another and to act it more privately and effectually then the Brutes We cannot then but see by this time how absolutely necessary Religion is to the good and welfare of all Mankind and all Societies Wherefore those Gentlemen that delight to promote Atheistical Discourses sorry I am to think this Age should afford any such of that quality do expose themselves to be thought Enemies to all Mankind by all wise men and never to be trusted by any but inconsiderate Fools Had they therefore a true sense of their own reputation they would never be guilty of that gross folly to say there is no God or openly to countenance Atheism I hope this Gentleman our Author hath no such Design though by his excusing Atheism before as well as by his words in this place he hath given me too much Reason to suspect it I pray God our Magistrates may take care to revive those Laws that may put a stop to the growth of Atheism amongst us which they are obliged to do even for their own present preservation unless they can think it safe that our Nation should be quite overrun with such a sort of Villains that will stick at nothing though never so hellish a crime when their present interest or the satisfaction of some bruitish lust shall prompt them to it For if these grow numerous they themselves will not be in a much safer condition then the meanest Subject For they that once come to that heighth of madness to contemn their own lives and estates out of Atheistical Principles are Masters of the lives and estates of all other men Secondly To come to something more directly in answer to our grand Politician I must be forced to tell him as he did his extraordinary friend T. H. in plain English rhat it is false that Religion hath been so much as the pretence of all Wars that have been of late years amongst us Was it not a dispute betwixt the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and the prerogatives of the Crown that was the first pretence of the late dismal and unnatural War amongst our selves though it is never to be forgotten that Religion was afterwards drawn in to countenance Rebellion even by some of those very persons that are still Praters in unlawful Conventicles and do as far as they can still continue Leaders of Faction and Sedition Was it Religion or the vindication of our just Rights that was the cause or so much as the pretence of our late Wars against the Dutch Is it Religion or Interest and desire of Dominion that at this present sets the greatest part of Christendome in a Flame and causeth so much effusion of Christian Blood by the French Armies From whence nothing can be clearer then this That it is Interest and Propriety Right and Liberty Power and Dominion that are the Causes and Pretenses of Wars not Religion Shall we therefore acrording to the Reason of our Author 's grand Politicks remove all Power and Dominion and all Right Liberty and Propriety out of the world because if they were removed the people could never thereby be drawn into a civil or forreign War Are not the most necessary the best of things always most ready to be abused and the most destructive when they are so Go thy ways Sir Politick for if thou hast not deserved to be knighted for this Book I believe thou art very much mistaken in thy own modest thoughts of thy self What pity is it thou art not a Privy Councellour Ingrateful age that will not raise him fifty Cubits higher then other men who hath well deserved it certainly it is a great deal of pity that the Gentleman should not be preferr'd according to his Merits Plato in his Phaedo tells us that nothing drives us to fightings wars and feditions but the body and its lusts And does not St. James if happily he may be of any credit or authority with this Gentleman tell us the very same thing James 4. 1. From whence says he come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your Members c. So then all wars brawlings seditions strifes dissentions are raised and promoted not properly and truly for Religions sake which does not cannot authorize or countenance any thing of that nature but for the sake of mony ambition or profit or some such like temporary worldly and carnal consideration and yet I suppose our Sir Pol. loves his body his lusts and his mony a little too well to have them removed out of the world lest they should be the cause of wars and seditions But supposing what he saith was true viz. That Religion was really or at least in pretence the cause of all Wars since I have demonstrated it so absolutely necessary to the peace of all Societies what ought to be done with it ought it to be removed out of the world or rather ought not such care to be taken by establishing the Church of England