can preserve us from the Commission of them for no man while he used his own Reason rightly ever committed any of them it being impossible to suppose it could be the Effect of Reason to be impious but it may be the effect of the enslaving of our Reason to the brutish part of a man which is his sensual Appetite or the like which indeed is too familiar while Youth lasteth It is true which the Gent. affirmeth that whoever faileth by the willfull neglect of finding out of Truth which was in his Power to help is therefore inexcusable but he that persecutes those who have searcht according to their best means and yet cannot satisfie their own Consciences is more inexcusable by doing that to others which he would for no man would be persecuted not have done to himself But the Gentleman excepts against the Author's asserting That we ought not to believe Errors of Faith to be damnable it being unreasonable to teach men that Errors overthrow our Hopes of Salvation unless we could likewise give them a Catalogue of those Errors which are so Paul indeed saith there are damnable Heresies and Peter but names none in particular but denying of the Lord that bought us thereby bringing swift Destruction c. it is very plain thereby Peter defin'd or rather determin'd the denying of the Lord that bought them to be the only damnable Heresie which indeed I take to be Apostacy However the Gent. adventureth to give us another manner of Catalogue of damnable Heresies which he saith are all such as are continued in in Opposition to the Authority of the Church perversely and obstinately I grant it true But if all are guilty of damnable Errors or damnable Heresie who do not obey what the Church enjoyneth that is the Law in England and Scotland considering the Indifferency of some and the dissenting of others there will be but a few compar'd to the guilty in any Possibility of Salvation in those two Kingdoms and it must needs invite all lukewarm Protestants to the Roman Religion rather than to stick to the Religion of that people so generally infected with damnable Errors the Papists have reason to thank him for it Yet again the Gent. quarrelleth at the Author for saying Where we do not know our Fault we have no means of Repenting of it and consequently cannot expect Pardon for it there being no Forgiveness without Repentance and Repentance is impossible without knowledge of our Fault To which the Gentleman's answer is if this be true it would damn all Mankind and my Reply is If it be not true it must damn most of Mankind for confident I am there 's not one in a thousand that thinketh himself obliged to repent of Sins he never knew of it being enough and more than most men do to repent of known sins Pardon implyeth a Guilt Guilt is a Breach of the Law The old Testament condemneth none but for actual Sins the new maketh few new Sins more than the old for Thoughts if transient and not reduc'd into Act are not Sins and what David saith Who can understand his Errors there is not any more meant by it than that it is difficult to understand them and when he prayeth to be pardon'd his secret Sins he intended not any other than such Sins as were only known to God and himself so against presumptuous Sins which are intended against Light against Reason no man having ever had greater Reason to be thankful to God than he who had been preferr'd and preserved in so admirable a manner more than once from his Enemies c. And the Gent. cannot forget who prayed to be deliver'd from unreasonable men nor who fought with Beasts at Ephesus Again the Author having said the great Probability of Truth on all sides ev'n in the erring ones ought to make us believe that God will pardon those Errors the Gentleman answers thus If our Errors be such as are not the Effects or Causes of any Sin we have no Reason to think but God will pardon them and I say If our Sins be the Causes of our Errors we have no Reason to think that God will pardon them and that Sin is for the most part the Cause of Errors is plain to any man who shall observe the Effects of Debauchery for how is it possible any man can act rationally who drowneth his Reason or believe as convinc'd by Reason when he will offer Violence to it and brutifie himself But saith the Gent. if our Errors are the Effect of willfull Ignorance Pride or Idleness if they have lead us into Schism and Heresie and thereby into Contempt of Authority then we can have no Hopes of Pardon without Amendment wherefore Sin being most commonly the Cause or the Effect of Errors or both it proveth there is no small Danger in them I must mind the Reader here how the Gentleman runneth the Wild-goose Chase one while putting an erroneous person in hope of Pardon in which he implieth Guilt or else why Pardon Another while no Pardon without Amendment as if Amendment were not the tacite Condition of every pardon which if it were not true men might presume to sin daily upon Assurance of daily Pardon or at least upon Presumption of it I suppose he should rather have said no Pardon was to be had without Repentance in any Case which he was afraid or unwilling to say least he should have admitted the Truth of the Author's Assertion which was that true Repentance could not be without fore-knowledge of the Fault and I think as concerning Errors to mend is no more than to repent of them But for that the Gent. makes Wilful Ignorance a damnable sin I do not well understand what he meaneth by the term Wilful there it being as absurd to my apprehension to call Ignorance Wilful as to talk of Free Will the Will alwayes following and being acted by the last Dictate of the Understanding so that it not only seemeth to be but is necessitated being no Faculty in it self men cannot therefore believe what they please nor think what they please that such or such an Opinion or thing is true or false Indeed a man may act contrary to his Understanding which is Hypocrisie and which if the Gent. pleaseth he may call Wilful Hypocrisie nor do I know a fitter man to make Hypocrites than himself who is so fierce nay fiercer than our Laws are themselves to have all men compelled to Conformity whether it be with or against their Reasons after the way Carters use by the Whip to teach their poor Horses obedience Now again the Author having said and truly that there is no such great danger from Errors since there is but one true way for a thousand false ones and that there 's no mark set upon that true way to distinguish it from others Reason being the Judge the Gent. argueth that where the difficulty surpasseth the Faculty that God hath given us Reason still for we have no
Gent. has offer'd against Humane Reason Upon Review of his Answer I am oblig'd to say once more that one part of three in it swells with illogical Consequences and is against constant Experience for he undertakes to shew what mischiefs must come to pass if Liberty of Conscience were permitted as to that 't is plainly otherwise for since Liberty has been generally assum'd the Nation has been very peaceable and obedient every way otherwise this I say is another experimental confutation of the main part of his Answer Therefore I would not have the Gent. spoil the Tone of his Stomach by Choler if I do discomply with him in not granting the not so horrible consequences of such a Liberty as he presumes contrary to Reason and Experience For if the Gent's desire had been seconded with Execution rigorously against the Dissenters it might have hazarded the putting of the English Nation into great Disorder by this time his words being Pag. 152 of Plain Dealing That if the Nobility and Gentry will not suppress the Sectaries by the Execution of the Laws they will soon arrive at that height that the Sword must do it or else there will be no Government at all in our Nation but what if it be impracticable to suppress them because the People will not accuse one another 'T is true Reason of State has been forc'd to strike smartly that other sort of men who by their barbarous and impolitick Actions have dared to confront the Government but I hope they will be made wiser hereafter by the late Examples of publick and infamous Inflictions for it seems the Common Law is in many Cases in the breasts of the Judges de Modo Poenae And let the Event be what it will to use the Gent's own words in the close of his Answer I must also with him profess that I have fully satisfi'd not only my Conscience but my Reason also which is the surer way and from better motives in this Reply by shewing my self according to my Duty a sincere Lover of Peace of Religion in general and of that particular Religion the support whereof I have asserted to be the true Interest of England and was alwayes so esteem'd since the Reformation And I will add my promise to the Gent. and that upon the word of a Gentleman which ought to be as sacred as that of a Priest that if he shall please to give me a Rejoynder without departure from his first Plea I will not demurr for want of Form but leave the Dispute to the Censure of indifferent Judges upon the whole Argument viz. Whether Humane Reason be not the best and safest Guide with its due helps beyond Popes Councils Fathers Canons and all Books whatsoever the Scripture excepted which yet if any man will ask me how I think to understand I can give him no other Answer but this that I must do it by Reason which is the only Talent God has indu'd me with for my preservation here and hereafter and by which and no other mediation it 's possible for a man of good Vnderstanding and not clogg'd with false Principles to be satisfy'd that the natural Dictates of God Reason carry no repugnancy to the Law and Will of God revealed in the Scripture the study of which Learning is the foundation of all true Ratiocination and the most generous and most useful Science for all men to aspire unto who would know their respective Duties as Christians and Subjects and upon the Presumtion of which Axiome it is that our Law of England if it were well digested into Method certainly the best in the World does say that if any Law shall be enacted contrary to Reason it is void eo instante because contrary to God's undoubted Eternal Law the Law of Reason my Province to maintain wherein if any thing have slipt from my Pen not consistent with the Duty of a good Subject or true Christian I do submissively and heartily beg pardon for it And to compleat my candid and at present sole Design of supporting Reason's Energy and for the justification of H. the Eighth's forsaking the Roman Church and thereby to justifie the Reformed Protestant Religion let the Reader consult the Decretory Council held under and by the Command of Pope Paul the Third 1538 Printed 1609 at London and taken out of Mr. Crashaw's Library then Preacher of the Temple wherein the Abuses of the Roman Ecclesiasticks are manifested under the Certificate of Nine of the most Eminent Cardinals then living whereof Pool was one and Sadolete another to whose Inspection the Inquiry was then referr'd by the said Pope which Abuses the Court of Rome would not then correct nor are they yet corrected the Book being suppress'd by Order of that Church and coming to my hands something late from a worthy Bencher of Grayes Inn which otherwise had sooner been made Use of to prove Reason a safer Guide than that Church which pretends to Infallibility and may serve for Answer to that Romanist who published some weak Reflections upon our Author's Discourse of Humane Reason who if he fail'd in any thing handled in his Book 't was in his a little too slightly referring the Cause of H. the Eighth's deserting of the Roman See to his Wantonness c. For that there were many other concurring motives to his Desertion is very probable from some Speeches I have seen of his in Parliament and from Histories about him who was tho a severe yet withal a very stout and inquisitive Prince and fitted thereby for the Work he so worthily began and whereof the Advantage accrues to us at this time Such are the unsearchable depths of Providence which tho few observe and fewer are willing to resign their Wills unto will do what is best for good men Lastly Because some men are most guided by Book Authorities I think fit to add that Montaigne Erasmus Raymond Sebond Charone Cassauder Chillingworth Cartesius Milton Gell Baxter and Hobbs also with others of Fame as D. Stillingfleet not to forget Bishop Tayler have unanimously approv'd of Reason as the best Guide and favour'd or cooly advis'd a circumscrib'd Toleration I having named Grotius before but I refer the ingenuous Reader once for all to that excellent Discourse of the Rise and Power of Parliaments Laws Courts c. and of Religion printed 1677. by way of Letter to a Parliament-man wherein a Toleration in Religion here for all but the Jesuits and Seculars is argued to be not onely Political but highly Rational and consonant to the Doctrine of the Holy Jesus of which Opinion till I am convinc'd otherwise by Reason I am resolv'd to be and no longer for I cannot Mean time as a Corollary to this Reply I subjoyn with submission that it appears plainly by his Majesties Royal Father 's Golden Book he was not much averrse to it and that ev'n Charles the Fifth during the Interim see Sleydan did allow a kind of Toleration in Germany where I leave the Cause but really unwillingly for further Proofs crowd so fast into me that to forbear venting them is a kind of Disease upon me tho I hope not Mortal Neither do I stand in awe of any Censure upon my Conclusions already publish'd by the future Impressions of any Bigotical Opponent whatsoever Epitaphium Cliffordianum HIC jacet insignis Cliffordi capsula terrae Reddita sed melior pars resoluta Polo Carmine non opus est famam celebrare polite Ni fallor Libro gloria certa micat Humanae Rationis opus munivit ultro Esse ducem vitae subsidiumque viae Si quae praeterea superaddere vota Poēsis Auderet nitida sacrificanda manu Englished HEre snatcht by Death Clifford interr'd does lye Whose Nobler Part is vehicl'd on high There needs no Muse to celebrate his Fame Whose Book eterniz'd has his gen'rous Name He proved Humane Reason's worth so well From other Arts it bears away the Bell. If any Poet superadds to this With impure hands his Holocaust's amiss His Character AS to his Person 't was little his Face rather flat than oval his Eye serious Countenance Leonine his Constitution Cholerick Sanguine tinctur'd with Melancholy of a facetious Conversation yet a great Humorist of quick Parts so of quick Passions and Venereal thence Lazy he was learned very critical positive and proud charitable enough and scorn'd to be rich he had a will to be just would drink to excess sometimes His Religion was that of his Countrey he was always Loyal to his King and a very good Poet. He died 'twixt 50 and 60 at Sutton's Hospital whose Master he then was not much lamented by the Pensioners few knew him well He was a man strangely compos'd 't is question'd whether his Virtues or Vices were most I incline to the last yet he departed peaceably and piously FINIS
restrain'd themselves As too furious Use of Power has endanger'd many States so the want of Power has ruin'd others But as there is nothing weaker than to think that any Government will be baffled by Private men so upon this Discretion the Peace of every Nation depends which is the greatest Earthly Blessing And if I do say the Peace of most men depends upon the Use of their own Reason I think 't is no Paradox 't is the want thereof puts us many times uncompell'd upon accidental Juries where very often Passion Malice or secret Interest swayes or the corruption of Judges or their cowardise or want of Patience to hear or which is too frequent the mercenary impudence of some Pleaders or which happens sometimes in Courts of Equity where unless the Judge be very able the Barr will run round him and abuse his Intentions to the ruin of the unfortunate Plaintiff or Defendant And though I may appeal to most men of Business for the Warranty of these general Instances yet because the Gent. is guilty of uncivil Excursions from the Text he undertakes to confute I will discover the Fox that Vulgar Eyes may see his unkind wiles to evade the Author's fair Intentions with labour'd Fallacies Pursuant to which Design the Reader may please to observe what Pains he takes in half a dozen Pages of his Plain Dealing to tell our Author the necessary Consequences of taking Religion quite away from the World by removing it as he calls it out of the minds of men which no man will deny if it were possible to banish it but whether he had any reason to huff with all that Harangue from any slip of the Author's I leave all Ingenuous Persons to judge considering the whole thread of the Author's Book for where the Author sayes if such Pretences meaning Pretences of Religion not Religion it self were removed by granting Liberty of Conscience every where I say such Liberty as do's not hinder Peace and Trade the cause of most Wars and Bloodshed would be removed the Cause I say again of most Foreign and Civil Wars This to prove I may instance the War by the Spaniard in 88. against England the Irish Rebellion in the Queens time and more dreadful in ours the direful Effects of the Scotish Covenant the present Stirs in Hungary c. all which evince the Truth of our Author's Argument As to the French King's Actions be they the effects of Ambition or otherwise yet this is plain there is a Kingdom of Darkness endeavour'd to be impos'd by the dark cunning and indefatigable Industry of it's Emissaries and Bigots every where and very wise loyal persons do ascribe much of our peace since the happy Restauration of our present King to his being freed from humouring of uncharitable Zealots even amongst our selves at home Nor need I reckon up Zisca's Actions nor the Ravage of the Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus in Germany the Effusion of Blood by Duke D'alva who put 18000. to death in cold Blood having toucht the indiscreet Zeal of his Master Philip already nor the misguided Zeal of our Queen Mary nor the prodigious Fortune of O. C. in his Pretences for Religion nor his Actions complying with such a Vizard yet it may not be amiss to remember the Breach of that League the Hungarians had made with Amarath the third the Turkish King how 't was broken by the religious heat of the Pope's Legate which was the cause of shedding so much Christian Blood and God was pleas'd to give the Turk Victory after three days Fight and the Othoman's appeal to Christ for Justice and we must not forget the Sufferings in Peimont of late years upon the score of Religion not to speak of particular Massacres occasion'd from Biggotism whereof Histories are so full 't is not necessary to insert them in this Paper nor would I have so far waded in Particulars but to shew and expose the Gent's unreasonable Confidence on the other hand inferring that most of our late Wars have arisen upon purely politick Pretensions and not upon religious Colors And I not only hope but am really persuaded it will never be within the Power nor Design of any dissenting party in England so men be not too much prosecuted for Nonconformity to stir up my Country-men into actual Disobedience against his Majesties Laws farther than to suffer for the Scars of the late intestine Wars remaining still being fresh in Memory the greatest Convulsions the British Empire ever felt which I hope never will be renew'd being hardly yet shak'd off But because this general Toleration to all Protestants which I seem to plead for at least wish if Authority shall think fit may seem of Right indulgigible to that sort of men who claim their Religion under a foreign Head The Answer is easie viz. That 't is not for their Religion but for designing to alter the Government and for drawing off his Majesty's Subjects to the Allegiance of the Roman See they are corrected by our Laws which Laws when strain'd by passionate Judges beyond the Intention of former Legislators to the Oppression of peaceable dissenting Protestants gratifie ill men hinder Trade scandalize the Protestant Churches beyond the Seas and seem to deserve a Parliamentary Explanation However our Diffenters are to know there must always be and ever since Christianity was embrac'd by Princes there has been general Rules authorized for the Church whereby Indecencies have been punish'd which are judg'd so to be such by the Supreme Authority in all States relating to the external way of honouring God and because Peace is the end of Government men's opinions when publickly vented and found inconsistent with Peace must be regulated by the Magistrate which is not to make men see double by being dazl'd betwixt Ecclesiastical and Temporal powers for all Power is temporal as Power Nevertheless as T. H. saith Paul or Cephas or Apollo may he followed perhaps as the best way according to a mans liking so it be done without Contention and without measuring the Doctrine of Christ by our Affection to the person of the Minister the Fault which Paul reprehended in the Corinthians his Reasons follow See the Leviathan ch 47. pag. 385. and they are such as no man has ever hitherto presum'd to refute though his sworn Enemies have assaulted him otherwise by Shoals The English are loth to venture their Salvations at Cross and Pile which Becanus urges in his Chapter de fide a little too eagerly Let us take heed Since the Tares must grow up with the Wheat till the Harvest least by furious Zeal we be found guilty of plucking up the Wheat with the Tares And let us remember our blessed Saviour's Censure of those who requir'd Fire from Heaven to consume the apparent Unkindnesses of perhaps in some measure ignorant men he tells his Disciples they knew not what Spirit they were of 'T is as hard to be virtuous as to be whipt into any particular Religion because
the Author hath done already to my hand which is the not giving Obedience to and not exercising of that Light wherewith the infinite Goodness of God hath indued men as men However certain it is let a man suppose him Christian hold what Opinion he will and we find as great Differences amongst the Learned as the Unlearned if he followeth his Conscience that is his Reason he shall at last enjoy all the possible Advantage that Opinion can yield him living morally vertuous and that any Separatists amongst us in terminis do hold any Opinion which doth necessarily exclude them from Salvation through Christ is more than I believe the Gent. can prove and the Dissenters generally obeying all Laws besides the matters of Conformity to the external way of Worship publickly commanded and declaring it to be their Principle as I know and they also it is their Interest to obey in all other things I presume to say it seemeth not that the Magistrate is obliged to vex and disturb so numerous a party of peaceable and considerable Persons merely to gratifie a few in respect of the Whole and further to alleviate the matter we know very well there is a Due to God and a Due to Caesar But to come closer to the Causes of Nonconformity of late years it seemeth not the least that it is contrary to the Principles of Many nay most men's Education in the Southern parts of England all the times of the Civil Wars other Opinions having gradually been instilled into them and the Examples of their Parents and Masters confirming their Aversion to Conformity or these Ministers or Heads of Parties who pretended to have a Call to instruct them and whom they thought they had reason to believe whence hath arisen that tenacity of Prejudice against our Church-Government and it being grown a Chronical Distemper it is harder to be cured I may add the Act which ejected so many Ministers for Non abjuration of that lawless but nevertheless as they were persuaded obliging Covenant which produced Effects quite contrary to the Project of those who so earnestly advanced it For the People being in Love with the Plausibility of their Teachers and their zealous Urgency to Strictness of Life their Detestation of the Roman Church by them call'd and believed to be idolatrous and other captivating Insinuations did really apprehend upon their Pastors Leaving of the Pulpits all Religion went away with them who if they had stay'd there would in all Probability have kept them closer and whom they since either conscientiously followed to other Meetings or for want of being united as before under some kind of Order they moulder'd away into Indifferency or other more wild Excursions And that these now last mentioned which make up or from whence are spawn'd a very considerable part of Dissenters do necessarily involve many others in point of Interest depending upon them to the Humour of Nonconformity is easily conceivable which humour if it were no more at first was easily cultivated by more subtle heads into the reverend name of Conscience and may gradually possess the well-meaning part of these men into a real Belief that to conform is sinful where they must be left till otherwise convinc'd for Force will not do it if Reason cannot I do freely confess we are at this hour very happy in the admirable Learning and Virtues of many of our Clergy and as for my self I do say That neither the length of our Service my Love of Variety as an Englishman nor being an Islander nor the Vices of some Clergy-men nor the Weakness of others nor Laziness of many nor any Exceptions that can be taken against our Liturgy either as to Matter or Form seem together Ground enough to me for to leave going to hear the publick Service at Church which Calvin did not dislike who persuaded Bishop Hooper to Conformity and which is so unanswerably defended by incomparable Hooker but for all that some of these Objections may sway with others my Superiours in point of Learning and Wit with others of more tender Consciences with others in respect of Interest all which I dare not condemn because I would not be condemned and we must allow some Grains to Persons Times Infirmities and mens Lively-hoods or dissolve Commerce the very Life and Strength of every Body Politick From whence I have reason to hope no Gentleman who hath taken but a cursory View of the Design of Fiat Lux which is to captivate our Reasons to the Will of the old Gent. who pretendeth to Infallibility and which I. O. as it is evident hath discover'd to be a pious Cheat but will excuse me from a particular Replication to our Gentleman 's impertinent Comparison betwixt the Author's Intention and the Project of Fiat Lux not to say how much the Gentleman seems pleas'd with those Shadows he hath raised and the pretty mock Fights naturally arising from them Let I. O. defend his Book himself I reply to the Gentleman's next Objection and say it is not so wonderful an Impossibility but that men may be thought to renownce Christ as soon by other Guides as by following their own Reason whereof the Arrian Heresie is abundant Testimony settled by Council under Constantius who saith the Gent. was wheadl'd into that Party and that it was not a general Council which is a piece of Confidence only due to the Gentleman I suppose and crave Pardon if I am mistaken Whether the Holy Ghost was sent to Trent in a Cloak-bag from Rome as the Covenant was in Mr. Marshal's Portmantua from Scotland to England I think it scarce worth while to enquire However since General Councils have erred damnably that they may do so again is probable enough which doth evidence that particular Reason is safer sometimes otherwise how come those Errors to be discover'd And if Luther had not follow'd his own Reason the Reformation would not have been in all humane Probability brought to pass for either it was Reason which satisfy'd him then and others since who forsook the Roman Church or they were unreasonable that did forsake her and we as unreasonable nay more who follow their Examples which I hope the Gent. will not affirm But the Gent. designedly hath slipt over the Author 's pertinent Question viz. what it is for something it must be which is properly placed in the same Ecclesiastical Authority with Reason it being evident from the very Elements of Councils and their frequent Declinations from Truth that If God had not stirred up Persons of extraordinary Abilities to examine by the Rules of their own Reasons those Follies and dangerous Errors in Religion which by the Ignorance or Interest of men or the insensible Advances of ill Customs were blindly embraced by the World the Christian World before this time from the Adoration of Images and the boundless Increase of vain and superstitious Ceremonies might have past to its vain and abominable worship of several Deities To which I
designedly written by a Romanist to strike our Author dead I read it over and found it fill'd up with Arguments of Universality Tradition and Infallibility of that Church Peter's Authority c. and all these larded with Zeal to persuade me into a Dependance and Reliance upon the Roman Church as the true one in which Treatise that Author boldly said my Reason ought to Acquiesce 't is well that side also makes Reason the Judge I was pleas'd with the sound of the Word more than with his reasons for they did not satisfie my Understanding yet had I known that Authors Genius inclin'd to Poetry I would have recommended him for Instruction to my old Friend the Parson of Pentlow And now I begin to think my self fortunate having hitherto sided with a noble Captain for so I account Humane Reason which 't is confest every side pretends to and which may possibly be beaten from it's Posts by the clatter of some Coffee-house but it will always recover and baffle its greatest Antagonists at the long run for Truth is strongest but Reason does assure it without whose gentle Mediation and Midwifry we had still remain'd in the State of War and consequently had been miserable THE END A RE-VIEW AND APPENDIX OUR Reply having been written now above two years I have re-consider'd it and from the past Circumstances of Affairs and present do think it necessary to add this Re-view and other Amplifications as either subservient to the Design or otherwise material insisting upon the Prospect of Reason and the ill consequence of neglecting its guidance viz. That from the Petulancy Heat and unseasonable Eagerness of some not very Discreet nor Learned and of others Learned Honest and generally Prudent but not infallible occasion is taken by the other side to answer upon such Provocations as they can alledging that their Sufferings are and have been all along for Conscience-sake and for well-doing though the Letters of the Laws are against them a Plea ever favour'd in all Ages That these Disputes about Externals onely for both Parties agree in Substance of Doctrine are mischievous to us at home and scandalous to the Protestant Churches abroad beyond the Seas That the Roman Church if it gets no Proselytes from these unseasonable Heats yet it has great reason to be pleas'd therewith for she thrives by our Divisions and can thrive by no other means here now That that Church was more Politick while she had as fair hopes as ever to prevail after the Queens death by complying outwardly with our Laws for till the 12th of Q. Eliz. all or most Romanists in England did and were permitted by the Pope to go to our Protestant Churches to hear the Service receive the Sacrament and take the Oath of Allegeance though since the Jesuits procur'd a Bull of Inhibition for their own profit yet 't was never accounted any Crime for a Romanist at that time not to go or to go to the Protestant Church whence our want of Charity to the Dissenters appears less than that of the Roman Church our Policy less and our uneasiness too visible thereby Neither are the Dissenters altogether excusable in their too stiff Separation and boggling at small things but I will be sparing in judging tender Consciences nevertheless it is obvious That from our pernicious Divisions so dangerous to our Religion and because tho the first Reformers went a good step yet no great progress has lately been made towards the Reason of our departure from Rome and reforming things amiss moderate men on both sides here do wish for some new Laws to consolidate the Conformists and Non-conformists in some measure or at least that some Ceremonies might be left and for the Explanation of some Laws now in force or limiting the force of others and particularly of that for imposing twenty pounds per Month for not coming to Church which Law I suppose no Lawyer doubts was originally intended against the Romanists and not against Protestant Dissenters who were few then and 't was the Roman Party at that time which confronted the Laws and begot the Statute The next Observation relates to Excommunications which how familiarly decreed and for what slight Causes and upon what gainful Designs and consequently how prejudicial to many of his Majestie 's good Subjects and how contrary to its Primitive and Grave Institution all Wise and Honest men of this Nation are and have been long very sensible of and of the ruine of some Families and the inriching of ill Officers by such Methods But may some say the Statute of Q. Mary against disturbers of Preachers is partly in force and of Use which was principally intended against Protestants for they were the Persons likely to disturb the Romanish Preachers then wherefore they say Why is not that of Eliz. also to be put in constant practise it being a general Law and provides for Peace Our Answer is The Case is alter'd for though equal Principles do lead to equal Ends 't is but when the matter about which we are conversant is equal And now the Papists are the most dangerous to our Peace and do plot to that end if we may credit King and Parliament or our own Eyes therefore that Law of Elizabeth against Recusancy stands in force yet it seems to want some Discrimination and that of Mary being in part repeal'd is continu'd as to the disturbing of Preachers the true Definition of Law being the Will of the Legislator There are many other antiquated and as things are inconvenient Laws Civil and Ecclesiastical which I have not room to remark here and as to the brangling practick part of both Courts the Judges may at least they ought to correct it tho one said wittily yet truly that no body but themselves meaning the Civil Practisers understands their Practise I had almost said Laws nor themselves neither The like may be said of the Practise at Common Law depending upon great Officers as some say if so 't is all dark This however since we are upon Discourse of Reason I 'll venture to say 't is evident that too often the Clients are tortur'd betwixt Prohibitions and Consultations so dangerous and troublesome it is where Courts do strive for Jurisdiction so also where the Judge's Power increases and the Jury's decreases or is over-aw'd for where Judges as has been our Case in Richard the Second's time presume to determine or delay by discretion or border upon the thing call'd perversion upon misapply'd Maxims which I hope will not be our Case Those Nations are more at ease where their Laws are unwritten supposing the Eternity of the Laws of Reason and which minds me of the familiar and exorbitant Practise of some as a wise Lord lately call'd them Trading Justices by their granting Warrants upon easie or unprov'd Suggestions above 10000 having been made out in one year by one of them lately which I can prove insomuch as few honest modest men can be free from their discretional
have made all men see and his very Antagonists confess the prodigious Strength of his Reason and Wit whereof his golden Book de Cive so valu'd by all Lawyers at home and abroad to speak it for the Honour of England and his Objections against Worthy Des Cartes about his Meditations concerning the Question Whether we can have a proper Idaea of God or not are such evident Proofs that to deny it is to be accounted stupid or short-sighted And for his Arguments about Liberty and Necessity against Bishop Bramhall they are so hugely fine and so curiously yet naturally cogent that for the future 't will be judg'd mere Presumption to superadd any thing upon that Subject so briskly canvass'd betwixt that Learned Prelate and him and of what great weight and yet hardly fathom'd consequence those Arguments are and how far the dilucidation of those Points there handled will operate in present and future Ages the sharpest Eyes now alive cannot penetrate tho this inquiring time has shrewdly guess'd at it and already improv'd those undeniable Proofs to no small Advantage ev'n to the Exposing of the School-men and the old mistaken Physicks as waste Paper and Judicial Astrology to a Ridicule Let the Reader conclude what becomes of all the stuff which is laid as a foundation to build upon by the two first and may easily see besides the inconsistency of the third if the Will be free I am glad however the Learned have left us the Faculty of Deliberation and for such men's positive imposing I take it to be for want of breeding But why should our present great Pretenders to all the Wit and Learning be troubled at our diffidence in their Judgments when 't is plain Let them take out of Books when they do find themselves gall'd never so imperiously Private Preachers do every where for Fortune equalize the Pulpits Quacks and old Women Physicians and Sollicitors Lawyers So hard a thing it is for Pedantick men or for any others who are too much affected with that pitiful Disease of keeping of themselves in favour with themselves by referring to Books in Company not to be tiresome as well to their Opposers as often to their best Friends indeed such Dogmatizers who would brow-beat others of better breeding with such endless Vanities or a Spanish shrug are the most incorrigible Fops about the Town and had need for all their Noise and flatteries of their Friends be cut of that Disease which in Essex is call'd the Simples but 't is hard to find a fit Surgeon where the wounded Party will not believe he is in danger 't were happy for such men if they had but just so much Wit as to know themselves to be half-witted But the breed of these Teazers is Clerical they are too eager scuddle and ranging Nor is it less difficult to cure the itch of those who on the one hand contend to prove the grand sinfulness of Separation and on the other hand for the Alleviation of that Crime whenas at this time to my knowledge two parts of three of the most knowing Gentlemen and others about London are sensible a man may be very safe without inclining to the one side or other the whole Discourse being about little or at best indifferent Stuff the Quarrel I say is about things of no great moment if any at all as to man's future happiness However I would have those eager ones for Conformity well consider the present Genius of the People occasion'd by the late mutinous Times whose tinctures and infusions as to Religion are still growing and therefore render it wholly impracticable here to force a Conformity unless 't were possible to reduce England to that state it was in before H. the Eighth's time when so great a part of the Land was in the Churches and the Nobilities possession whereas now it is in a great measure come into the hands of Trading men who set the meaner sort at work who are thereby oblig'd to be or at least seem to be of their Employer's Opinion who love Power as all men do and since in other things their Education or other Incapacity bars them from the exercise thereof they are pleas'd with such homage as their Dependents do and cannot avoid giving of them and this translation of Estates if it have made the Church weaker it has made the King stronger for it has Enrich'd the Body of the Nation in whose riches his Majesties Strength consists And further to speak freely I much question whether the Roman Religion could have hitherto been kept out at least not so easily if much of those Lands and other noble Estates since had not been dispers'd into Trading hands and as for the present prospect of Affairs where the one Party endeavours which is Natural to introduce the Religion shut out by Laws and the other Party for it 's now wholly reduc'd to whether Papist or Protestant to keep their own in I may conclude 't is London which stands in the way of the first under his Majesty and is the Buckler for the Second London I say the very Eye of the Three Nations and Envy of the World and will so continue if she be so happy as to be sensible of her own Happiness and wherein it consists which is so obvious that if any of her worthy Citizens be ignorant of it they want that very thing I have so much magnify'd and will confess it upon better consideration when Time or their own Experience shall furnish 'em with a Glass to inspect the Fidelity and Discretion of their Friends and the ill projects and weak ev'n of all those also who upon what specious colours soever fall from the common Interest of this great City and Kingdom into a discontented Humour or dangerous Neutrality which is worse But there is reason to hope a short time will produce such serene Winds from the Agreement of our Superiours as will dissipate those dull Meteors which seem to threaten our Peace tho as the Seas after a Storm will boyl a while so it is impossible the Fears of the People from the Provocations of ill men should vanish in an instant but while the Groundsels are good and the Studs sound there is no fear the Building will fall tho it may rock to some degree Let us patiently wait upon that Providence which never fails the just man tho sometims it seems to be unconcern'd in these Sublunary matters but we are better instructed and since we have liv'd to see the uselesness of all the old Philosophy which consisted merely in Words of that kind of whifling Theology which was compos'd most what of insignificant Notions and of that Physick which by its dull activity was for the most part more tedious than the Disease so we may hope that Time and the Exigency of Affairs will bring us into such a fresh Composition and new Fabrick of Laws as shall chear up the hearts of all true English Protestants and render his Sacred
Majesty more secure at home and more formidable abroad which that it may be effected is so reasonable a Prayer that I am confident all those who but pretend to so Excellent a Ladies Favour as Reason is and love their Native Soil or enjoy the Repose of England must cordially second it and will shew the Obduration of that sort of men whom neither the long and prosperous Reign of that Queen who baffl'd the then greatest Prince and greatest Bishop can yet convince 't was God's special Favour to a very good Cause nor that the Preservation of his Majesties Grandfather and the Body of the State from that black Design was beyond Humane Wit and the mere Blessing of the Divine Power nor that the Counsels of such who in the late unhappy Times produc'd such deplorable Effects were influenc'd by that very Society which is not only troublesome now to us as Protestants but to the rest of the Romanists of milder tempers these I say unconvinc'd of these Truths I must leave to their own Weakness for it can be no other unless it be mere obstinacy or ill Will and they must thank themselves if thereby they at last oblige our Government to a smarter Execution of Laws against them and that deservedly tho I confess 't is the less wonder to me that Persons of inferiour degree among the Romanists should grope in the dark who are the proper Subjects of the Kingdom of Darkness since Day-light from the present Mists interposing at home can hardly appear tho it may be pious to suppose God may be pleas'd even by the Contests and alternate Disputes of our own Clergy to cancel all beggarly Rudiments of indifferent Forms so much too much contended for and perhaps too eagerly oppos'd at this instant Mean time 't is observable what inveterate Enmity there has alwayes been betwixt those who claim their Spiritual Commission to preach from Heaven and those who either do or should know the Laws are their best Commission witness the Violence and very fatal to our Peace of the high Church-men before the Great Parliament against the old Puritan Ministers then the hard usage of these last when they got into the Power towards the Episcopal Party during the Civil Wars the present eagerness of some to punish the Nonconforming Ministers which is not to do as we would be done unto but the Jesuits and Seculars do the same such is the general Disease of Ecclesiasticks every where The truth is here is great clamour in some Pulpits and otherwise against the sin of Separation to prove it so tho 't is by others as briskly defended not to be a Sin but how little is said there against the publick Sins of the Nation Many exclaim against Petitioning but how few stand right as to the Publick Interest as if the Laity were so blind as not to observe these things and that they that are not for truth are against it Further It has been often known in England and in our time that Souldiers of different sides upon Renditions of Garrisons Acts of Grace c. have contracted Friendships and lov'd one another afterwards that Complainants and Defendants after long and exasperated Chancery Suits have agreed lovingly to a high degree of Friendship that Trades-men have lov'd and help'd one another who have been Competitors when there was room for both to live that the greatest Hectors and Huffs after the Vapours of Wine were spent have forgot their Quarrels and hugg'd one another Nay our Women who so seldome agree the fair ones when Preferment has been open'd to each of two have lov'd one another but the Anger and Jealousies of that other sort of men is unappeasable and will be so while one side rubs old sores too much and the other side gives uncivil Language ev'n to those who have best defended the main Posts against the Romanists who also pretend to Reason and take advantage by these interferings But what 's the Reason of this Heat at home Is it not for Power and from Ambition contrary to their Master's Doctrine 't were better if they would let these Disputes alone and according to their Duties teach men Virtue properly consisting in obedience to Laws but these janglings will be endless to the disquiet of the People while both sides violate by their Reflections the Act of Grace so solemnly penn'd which retrospects to 1637 and extends to 1661. For my part I know not why any wise man should concern himself which side speaks most to the purpose for 't is all to me good purpose since in other things about Religion the more we know the worse they like us But 't is well we have at last found out that Ignorance can never in England be the true Parent of either Civil or Theological Devotion and 't is plain that unless the little but notable Weekly Describer of the Roman Devices which out-does all the Theaters how glorious soever since the Fire I had almost said Pulpits if that Pen I say cannot be corrected which is true as to matter of Fact we shall yet infinitely improve our Understandings and if the Coffee-houses those open Enemies and dangerous to the sick Kingdom of Fairies be not suppress'd the solid truth of our Author's Assertion which the Gent. carped at but weakly will shine still brighter viz. That it is impossible any man should have been is or hereafter can be guided by any other thing but his own Reason as in all other things so in matters of Religion I say sayes the Author impossible for in all Belief and in all other Actions the last Appeal is to Reason for I believe this or that Doctrine or do this or that action because I have some Reason for it and that this does justifie the whole Doctrine of his Treatise and my Reply is evident enough Wherefore this Apologetick Review and Appendix is written by me who am one of those very loth to be bestridden by the Gallopers of either side tho I should rejoyce to see our Clergy love another and the Dissenting Ministers also to love the other which can never be whilst the Paper skirmishing grows ranker and ranker and to speak out there can never be any cordial Affection ev'n amongst the Conforming Ministers while Preferments and maintenance Ecclesiastical are so unequally divided while so many worthy men can scarce get Bread or must live too meanly for the Clergy-man of an indifferent Living is pinch't too much and mean time too many others abound with various Preferments 't is high time to reform this Evil and specially now when the Harvest is great the Labourers are too many or might be enough if they were paid for their Work which they are ready to do or have done and ought to be retain'd to do while the Vermin are hov'ring about to devour and spoil the Crop by wide Mouths and sharp Talons But curst Cows have short Horns and we begin neither to admire the Policies of that Party nor