Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A32853
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Mr. Chillingworth's judgment of the religion of Protestants, &c.; Religion of Protestants a safe way to salvation. Selections
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Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing C3887; ESTC R323
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9,088
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17
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Mr. Chillingworth 's Judgment OF THE RELIGION OF PROTESTANTS c. The PREFACE SInce the Parliament is now upon a Bill of Comprehension and another of Indulgence or Toleration I cannot but think it seasonable to publish these Passages which I have collected out of Mr. Chillingworth's Book intituled The Religion of Protestants a safe Way to Salvation Not but that I suppose there are few Lords or Members of the House of Commons that were so little concern'd in the Controversie between Papists and Protestants as not to have read so famous a Book of that Subject which in order to printing had the high Approbation of the then Vice-Chancellor and both the King 's and Margaret Professors of Divinity in the Vniversity of Oxon and since its publication has had the highest Commendation of most if not all Learned Protestants as the most learned and judicious Book of any that had been publish'd before upon those great Controverted Points yet even to such it will not be unpleasing to be reminded of these few useful Things Here the Reader will find in brief what the Religion of Protestants is what Errors are dangerous what not That differing Protestants agree in all Things necessary to Salvation that it 's Vnchristian to use Force in Matters meerly Religious What is the Fountain of all the Schisms of the Church and the Calamities that have infested Christendom about Opinions of Religion and that Vniversal Liberty well moderated is the way to reduce Christians to Truth and Vnity This Book was first printed in the Year 1637 and dedicated to his Majesty Charles the First and reprinted 1663 and for more common Vse made shorter by leaving out personal Matters printed again Anno 1685. Of the Religion of Protestants CHap. 6. Nom. 56. Know then Sir that when I say the Religion of Protestants is in prudence to be preferred before yours as on the one side I do not understand by your Religion the Doctrine of Bellarmine or Baronius or any other private Man amongst you nor the Doctrine of the Sorbon or of the Jesuits or of the Dominicans or of any other particular Company amongst you but that wherein you all agree or profess to agree The Doctrine of the Council of Trent So accordingly on the other side by The Religion of Protestants I do not understand the Doctrine of Luther or Calvin or Melancton nor the Confession of Augusta or Geneva nor the Catechism of Heidelberg nor the Articles of the Church of England no nor the Harmony of Protestant Confessions but that wherein they all agree and which they all subscribe with a greater Harmony as a perfect Rule of their Faith and Actions that is the Bible the Bible I say the Bible only is the Religion of Protestants Whatsoever else they believe besides it and the plain irrefragable indubitable consequences of it well may they hold it as a matter of Opinion but not as a matter of Faith and Religion neither can they with coherence to their own grounds believe it themselves nor require the belief of it of others without most high and most schismatical Presumption I for my part after a long and as I verily believe and hope impartial search of the true way to eternal Happiness do profess plainly that I cannot find any rest for the sole of my foot but upon this Rock only I see plainly and with mine own eyes that there are Popes against Popes Councils against Councils some Fathers against others the same Fathers against themselves a Consent of Fathers of one Age against a Consent of Fathers of another Age the Church of one Age against the Church of another Age Traditive Interpretations of Scripture are pretended but there are few or none to be found No Tradition but only of Scripture can derive it self from the Fountain but may be plainly proved either to have been brought in in such an Age after Christ or that in such an Age it was not in In a word there is no sufficient certainty but of the Scripture only for any considering Man to build upon This therefore and this only I have reason to believe this I will profess according to this I will live and for this if there be occasion I will not only willingly but even gladly lose my Life though I should be sorry that Christians should take it from me Propose me any thing out of this Book and require whether I believe it or no and seem it never so incomprehensible to Humane Reason I will subscribe it with Hand and Heart as knowing no demonstration can be stronger than this God hath said so therefore it is true In other things I will take no Man's Liberty of Judgment from him neither shall any Man take mine from me I will think no Man the worse Man or the worse Christian I will love no Man the less for differing in Opinion from me and what measure I meet to others I expect from them again I am fully assured that God does not and therefore that Men ought not to require any more of any Man than this To believe the Scripture to be God's Word to endeavour to find the true sence of it and to live according to it N. 57. This is the Religion which I have chosen after a long deliberation and I am verily perswaded that I have chosen wisely much more wisely than if I had guided my self according to your Churches Authority for the Scripture being all true I am secured by believing nothing else that I shall believe no falshood as Matter of Faith And if I mistake the sense of Scripture and so fall into Error yet I am secure from any danger thereby if but your Grounds be true because endeavouring to find the true Sense of Scripture I cannot but hold my Error without pertinacy and be ready to forsake it when a more true and a more probable sense shall appear unto me And then all necessary Truth being as I have proved plainly set down in Scripture I am certain by believing Scripture to believe all necessary Truth and he that does so if his Life be answerable to his Faith how is it possible he should fail of Salvation Scripture the only Rule whereby to judg of Controversies Chap. 2. N. 11. To speak properly as Men should speak when they write of Controversies in Religion the Scripture is not a Judg of Controversies but a Rule only and the only Rule for Christians to judg them by Every Man is to judg for himself with the Judgment of Discretion and to chuse either his Religion first and then his Church as we say or as you his Church first and then his Religion But by the Consent of both sides every Man is to judg and chuse and the Rule whereby he is to direct his choice if he be a natural Man is Reason if he be already a Christian Scripture which we say is the Rule to judg all Controversies by yet not all simply but all the Controversies of
that he conform his Life unto it either by Obedience or Repentance He that does so and all Protestants according to the Dictamen of their Religion should do so may be secured that he cannot err Fundamentally so that notwithstanding their Differences and your Presumption the same Heaven may receive them all Ib. N. 29. Who can find fault with him Dr. Potter for saying If through want of means of Instruction Incapacity invincible or probable Ignorance a Man die in Error he may be saved But if he be negligent in seeking Truth unwilling to find it either doth see it and will not or might see it and will not that his Case is dangerous and without Repentance desperate Ch. 1. N. 11. Methinks with much more Reason and much more Charity you must suppose that many of these Controversies which are now disputed among Christians all which profess themselves Lovers of Christ and truly desirous to know his Will and do it are either not decidable by that means which God hath provided and so not necessary to be decided or if they be yet not so plainly and evidently as to oblige Men to hold one way Or lastly if decidable and evidently decided yet you may hope that the erring part by reason of some Veil before their Eyes some execusable Ignorance or unavoidable Prejudice does not see the Question to be decided against him and so opposes not that which he doth know to be the Word of God but only that which you know to be so and which he might know were he void of Prejudice which is a Fault I confess but a Fault which is incident even to good and honest Men very often and not of such a Gigantick Disposition as you make it to fly directly upon God Almighty and to give him the Lie to his Face Of the Necessity of a Visible Judg in Controversies of Religion as well as in Civil Matters Ch. 2. N. 17. In Civil Controversies we are obliged only to external Passive Obedience and not to an Internal and Active We are bound to obey the Sentence of the Judg or not to resist it but not always to believe it just But in Matters of Religion such a Judg is required whom we should be obliged to believe to have judged right so that in Civil Controversies every honest and understanding Man is fit to be a Judg but in Religion none but he that is infallible 5. In Civil Causes there is Means and Power when the Judg has decreed to compel Men to obey his Sentence otherwise I believe Laws alone would be to as much purpose for the ending of Differences as Laws and Judges both But all the Power in the World is neither fit to convince nor able to compel a Man's Conscience to consent to any thing Worldly Terror may prevail so far as to make Men profess a Religion which they believe not such Men I mean who know not that there is a Heaven provided for Martyrs and a Hell for those that dissemble such Truths as are necessary to be professed but to force either any Man to believe what he believes not or any honest Man to dissemble what he does believe if God commands him to profess it or to profess what he does not believe all the Powers in the World are too weak with all the Powers of Hell to assist them 7. In Civil Matters it is impossible Titius should hold the Land in question and Sempronius too and therefore either the Plaintiff must injure the Defendant by disquieting his Possession or the Defendant wrong the Plaintiff by keeping his Right from him But in Controversies of Religion the Case is otherwise I may hold my Opinion and do you no wrong and you yours and do me none Nay we may both of us hold our Opinion and yet do our selves no harm provided the Difference be not touching any thing necessary to Salvation and that we love Truth so well as to be diligent to inform our Conscience and constant in following it Concerning Errors Damnable or not Damnable Ch. 3. N. 52. I Answer that these Differences between Protestants concerning Errors Damnable and not Damnable Truths Fundamental and not Fundamental may be easily reconciled for either the Error they speak of may be purely and simply involuntary or it may be in respect of the cause of it voluntary If the Cause of it be some voluntary and unavoidable Fault the Error is it self sinful and consequently in its own Nature damnable as if by negligence in seeking the Truth by unwillingness to find it by Pride by Obstinacy by desiring that Religion should be true which suits best with my Ends by fear of Mens ill Opinion or any other worldly Fear or any worldly Hope I betray my self to any Error contrary to any Divine revealed Truth that Error may be justly stiled a Sin and consequently of it self to such an one damnable but if I be guilty of none of these Faults but be desirous to know the Truth and diligent in seeking it and advise not at all with Flesh and Blood about the choice of my Opinions but only with God and that Reason that he hath given me If I be thus qualified and yet through humane Infirmity fall into Error that Error cannot be damnable Again the Party erring may be conceived either to die with Contrition for all his Sins known and unknown or without it If he die without it this Error in it self if damnable will be likewise so unto him if he die with Contrition as his Error can be no Impediment but he may his Error though in it self damnable to him according to your Doctrine will not prove so Of using Force in Matters of Religion Ch. 5. N. 96. But they endeavoured to force the Society whereof they were parts to be healed and reformed as they were and if it refused they did when they had Power drive them away even their Superiors both Spiritual and Temporal as is notorious The Proofs hereof are wanting and therefore I might defer my Answer until they were produced yet take this before-hand If they did so then herein in my Opinion they did amiss for I have learnt from the Ancient Fathers of the Church that Nothing is more against Religion than to force Religion and of St. Paul The Weapons of the Christian Warfare are not Carnal And great Reason For humane Violence may make Men counterfeit but cannot make them believe and is therefore fit for nothing but to breed Form without and Atheism within Besides if this means of bringing Men to embrace any Religion were generally used as if it may be justly used in any place by those that have Power and think they have Truth certainly they cannot with reason deny but that it may be used in every place by those that have Power as well as they and think they have Truth as well as they what could follow but the maintenance perhaps of Truth but perhaps only of the profession of it in