and when it has conveyed it self into all the Recesses of their Souls seised on all their Powers infected their best and purest Thoughts and swoln up even their Zeal into vanity and ostentation 't is a less wonder they should be so insensible of their distemper when this Vice works like other poisons it stupifies whilst it infects and what in Nature so difficult as to convince a man of this inward Leprosie 'T is not like common diseases that discover themselves by outward spots and blemishes but 't is a Plague that lodges in the heart and vital Powers and sooner destroys than it appears The proudest man on Earth is insensible of this Illusion and though he is ready to burst with his own inward swellings yet he defies and disclaims this hated vice with as much confidence as the meekest Saint in Heaven and all the world knows his folly except himself But above all Pride Spiritual Pride is the most dangerous and incurable 't is an Apoplexy that dazzles the Judgment infatuates the Mind and intercepts all the passages of light and conviction and confounds all pure and impartial Reasonings and disables men from making any ingenuous Reflections upon their own Actions it makes them confident in their own Impostures and self-illusions and bears them up against all Reproofs by Zeal and Conscience and Religion Their Faith their Zeal their Prayers their Fastings their constant Communion with God their diligent Attendance upon Ordinances their Love of the Lord Jesus their hatred of Antichrist or their spleen against the Pope are impregnable Fences against all Assaults and Answers to all Arguments They are so dotingly enamoured of themselves for these signs of Grace and characters of God's People that you may more easily induce them to suspect the Truth of all things than their own Godliness And nothing in Nature so impossible as that such strict and serious Professors such humble melting and broken-hearted Christians should in the issue prove no better than Proud and Pharisaick Hypocrites And though their Pride discover it self in their opinionative Confidence in their bitter Censoriousness in their impatience of Affronts and Reproofs in their Rage and Revenge against all that undervalue them in their haughty and disdainful Comparisons and in their inflexible Waywardness especially to the Will of Superiours and Commands of Authority And though these are the most natural Results and most obvious Symptoms of this inward Plague yet are they not able to discern such certain appearances of them in themselves because they are aforehand from other accounts so abundantly satisfied in their own Humility and Broken-heartedness and the strength of this conceit so blinds their minds that they cannot see the clearest and most palpable Indications of this Vice But they are all adorn'd with soft and gentle Titles and those excesses and irregularities that in an unregenerate man must have been accounted Eruptions of Pride and Passion are now to be ascribed to the warmness and vehemence of holy Zeal § 3. In brief sad is the condition of those men that abuse themselves with this naughty Godliness 't is this and not moral Goodness that is the greatest lett to Conversion not only because it seals men up in impenitence by false prejudices and bars up their minds against all thoughts of Reformation by perswading them they are good enough already But besides that it prevents the efficacy of the means of Grace it does withal what is more mischievous directly oppose and contradict them It rots and putrifies the soul in its whole constitution it gangrenes all its faculties it breeds a base and caitive temper of mind it introduces a direct contrariety to all worthy and ingenuous inclinations and delivers the man over to the power and possession of the blackest and most accursed sins 't is detraction 't is spite 't is rancour 't is a malicious contempt to all wise and honest Counsels 't is a wilful frowardness to all sober and rational convictions and in a word 't is all spiritual wickedness And for this Reason it was that I profess't to despair of any success upon this sort of men I was assured that as long as Pride over-ruled their Consciences all Reproofs would certainly exasperate but could never correct the Fanatique humour and therefore what hopes could I conceive to make any breach upon their prejudices whilst they were guarded by such a sturdy and unyielding Principle For if it be so difficult either to convince men of this Vice or whilst this remains of any other it were a vain thing to expect that all the Reasonings and Attempts of conviction in the world should ever make any impressions upon such unapproachable minds And as long as Professors will continue regardless and insensible of this leading sin I shall never hope to see them reformed to a more calm and more governable temper But if instead of amusing themselves with experiences and phantastick observations about the unaccountable workings of the Spirit of Grace about the difference between the Convictions of the Spirit and those of natural Conscience about the degrees and due measures of Humiliation with innumerable other wise conceits of their modern Theology if I say instead of attending to these dreams and crazy fancies they would be at leisure to observe the risings and workings of this deceitful vice to study its symptoms and indications and to keep a constant and habitual restraint upon its motions and attempts we should quickly see the lovely fruits and effects of true Religion in the world instead of the unruly blusters and juglings of Enthusiasm But till men will be induced in good earnest to set themselves with a parcicular concern against the Inclinations of this Lust and till they will be careful to lay humility at the bottom of all their goodness instead of their yielding to the power of truth conviction shall only enrage their malice and all the requital they shall give you for disabusing them shall be to abuse you with incivility and foul language And here Sir give me leave to present you with a short account of their deportment towards my self and all that ever yet opposed or endeavoured to undeceive them which you may peruse as a further Character of their modesty and good humour § 4. I. Reproach and contumely is their first reply to all Arguments and to revile the Author the first Confutation of his Book whoever dares to despise or discover their wretched delusions is immediately answer'd with volleys of slanders and Calumnies and utterly oppressed with multitude of lyes and detracting stories Their dissolute and unruly tongues are let loose to tear in pieces his good name What abusive Tales and Legends do they invent With what bold and audacious slanders do they assail his Innocence and with what crafty and oblique ways of detraction do they undermine his Reputation with what eagerness do they listen to any spiteful and mischievous report With what zeal do they spread and propagate and improve
the future Judgment of God and therefore seeing it is so immediately subject to his Authority it must of necessity be priviledg'd from all the power of all other Laws and Jurisdictions But if this be a fair and logical Deduction there is no avoiding to conclude that every mans Conscience is in all its actions exempt from all humane Authority and ought not to be subject or accountable to any other Power but the Divine Majesty seeing in all the other Affairs of humane life 't is as much obliged to regard the future Judgment of God as in matters of Divine Worship and therefore if its reference to its future Accounts be sufficient in any one case to give it Protection against the Power of Princes 't is so in all § 18. But further what if it so happen that Conscience is abused by false and evil Perswasions then it unavoidably leads into all manner of lewd and vicious Practices and there is nothing so mischievous or so exorbitant to which an erroneous Conscience will not betray us For when it has once entertain'd wicked and Seditious Principles there mischief becomes irresistible Rogues and Outlaws are under some possibility of Reformation because they never think themselves obliged in duty to their Villanies and are convinced in their own Thoughts of the baseness of their Practices and stand in some awe of the Penalties of the Laws Whereas debauch'd Consciences are bold and confident in their Wickedness and their Guilt is in their own Opinion their Innocence and their Crime their Duty And if Authority ever punish their Disobedience and Rebellion they suffer with the confidence of Martyrs and they dye for preserving a good Conscience and following the best Light God has given them If they rebel 't is their Zeal for the Lord of Hosts God and Religion are ever concern'd in their Quarrels and when they fight against their lawful Superiours they only oppose the Enemies of the Gospel and when they embroil Kingdoms in Wars and Confusions they only wage War against Babylon and Antichrist and whatever they attempt be it never so vile and wicked 't is still in the Cause of God And now considering how few they are that pursue the right methods of knowledge and upon what innumerable Accounts the minds of men may be abused and misguided vulgar Conscience will be found the most mistaken most mischievous and most unreasonable Guide in the world For as a right Conscience is acquired only by a sincere regular and impartial use of our Faculties so is a wrong one by all the possible ways and causes of Errour viz. Ignorance Fancy Prejudice Partiality Self-love Envy Ambition Pride Passion and Superstition Any of which though they are the greatest Principles of Disturbance in the World may corrupt and debauch the minds of men and then challenge to themselves the sacredness and authority of Conscience For every mans Errour in matters of Religion becomes his Duty and Pride and Folly and Ignorance and Malice and any thing else if it were a Religious Dress immediately becomes sacred and inviolable And now when the principles of natural Reason are debauch'd with absurd and seditious Prejudices the Contradictories of moral truth and goodness become the only Rule of Conscience and men think themselves directly obliged to what directly opposes the highest Interests of mankind and the main obligations of Religion And from hence it is so vulgar a Phaenomenon in the world that Sacriledge is transformed into Reformation Inhumanity into Zeal Perjury into Religion Faction into Humility and Rebellion it self into Loyalty So that 't is no unusual thing for the Perswasions of Conscience to cancel the very Laws of Nature and pervert all the differences of Good and Evil and then are men brought under all the obligations that Conscience can lay upon them to the practice of Wickedness and Villany And then to leave them to their own liberty is not only to allow them to be wicked but in effect to oblige them to be so because this delivers them up to the guidance and authority of a profligate Conscience that effectually binds them to follow its own wretched and unreasonable Dictates So that the result of all is that there is no folly or wickedness how lewd or extravagant soever that may not patronize it self under mistakes of Conscience Sometimes and always unless by a mighty chance 't is ignorance and popular Folly for 't is natural to the Multitude to be ignorant and foolish or to use false and incompetent methods of knowledge and to determine their notions of things upon unreasonable grounds and motives Their Judgments are disposed of by chance and accidental Principles and their fancies and fond Perswasions are the measures of their Consciences and they pursue things for their agreeableness with weak and vulgar Prejudices without ever proceeding to an impartial deliberation of their Truth and Goodness Opinion they say is the guide of fools and such is the vulgar and ignorant sort of mankind that generally judge of things by trifling and impertinent Conceits and then force their Reasons to follow as chance and folly shall command them And then all this is their Conscience that must in spight of all its exorbitances be suffer'd to do as it please Folly especially in divine matters is always in conjunction with confidence and there is nothing in the world more obstinate and inflexible then religious Ignorance And men never play the fool with greater assurance and satisfaction then in sacred matters insomuch that some who are always telling tragical stories of the ruines and desperate Corruptions of humane nature as if it had irrecoverably lost all power of discerning between truth and falshood and are so far from having any pretence to infallibility that if they would understand the necessary and unavoidable Consequences of their own Principles they cannot pretend to any such thing as certainty yet are as confident in all their Perswasions as if all their thoughts were Oracles and a Person that knows himself to be acted by an unerring spirit could not be more peremptory in his sentiments of things than they are in their rash and ungrounded Prejudices Now 't is the Consciences of the vulgar rout or the drove of Ignorance and Prejudice that are wont to be so troublesom and wayward to Government they are zealous and confident because they are ignorant and they are therefore impatient of all contradiction in their mistakes because they have fastned upon them at all adventure Are not Commonwealths then likely to be admirably govern'd when their peace and setlement must lie at the mercy of every cross-grain'd and insolent Fool Sometimes 't is superstition and nothing more vulgar than for men to abuse their Consciences with this unquiet and impotent Passion For when their minds are possessed and 't is an epidemical Malady with wrong notions of God and hard jealousies and suspicions of his Government of the World this cannot but make them apprehend hir Laws
Vanity of his Attempt who would demonstrate out of the Canticles that the Saints enjoy distinct Communion with the three Persons of the Trinity it exasperates some bold and confident Men that are fond of their own thin and crazy Conceits as much as if we should pervert the first Chapter of St. Iohn's Gospel And we scoff at Justification by Faith if we despise a Thousand vain and empty Speculations wherewith they have involved that Article As whether Faith justifies from any peculiar Excellency of its own nature or barely from the Divine Appointment whether it be an instrumental Cause of Justification or onely a Procatarctick Cause if instrumental whether an active or a passive Instrument if Procatarctick whether Procatarctick formal or Procatarctick objective with a multitude more of the like wise and important Enquiries that could never have enter'd into the most curious and whimsical Understanding had not some idle people loved to amuse themselves with inventing profound and curious Nothings and had not one Keckerman and some other dull Fellows been at leisure to write foolish Books of Logick and Metaphysicks whose Theorems must be blended with the Doctrines and Propositions of St. Paul and then Mens little Quarrels about this Motley-Divinity must make new Sects and Opinions in Religion and they must measure the Orthodoxy of their Faith by their subtilty in wrangling and their power in disputing by their skill and dexterity in Terms of Art and by their being able to understand the precise and Orthodox Notion of a Procatarctick Cause These are the useful and wonderful Profundities to which the disputing Men of this Age are such zealous Votaries they value their Learning by their skill in these dry and sapless Enquiries and their Agility in the Combats of Disputation and a Disputant with them signifies the same thing as a great Scholar To this purpose they furnish their Memories with abundance of notional Querks and Subtilties to keep up their pert and talkative Humour and spend all their time in learning Distinctions that may maintain and reconcile palpable Contradictions With what fetches of Wit will they distinguish themselves round about till they come at last to affirm what at first they denied And with what severity of Judgment will they spin out a long train of wary Aphorisms and subtile Propositions to prove that 't is Faith alone that justifies and yet so explain the Notion of justifying Faith as to make it imply and include in it all other parts of the Condition of the New Covenant i. e. Good Works and those that are able Divines can write whole Volumes of Problems and Disputations to make out this important Mystery That Faith alone justifies i. e. as 't is not alone And now if you compare the vanity of the Opinions with the talkative Humour of the Opiniators you will cease to wonder at their rude Carriage toward persons that profess to pursue more useful and less difficult Studies they are brim-full of talk and no Man that pretends to Learning can come in their way but they immediately engage him in Disputation and if he with some Railery expose their learned and studied Ignorance and confute the silliness of their Systematick Notions 't is a bold affront to the Orthodox Faith and he drolls upon the most Fundamental Articles of Divinity for they lay no less weight upon their own Subtilties and singular Conceits then on the plain and practical Precepts of the Gospel so that you cannot sweep away their Cobwebs but down drops the whole Fabrick of Religion Neither does this pragmatical Humour run onely among the Pretenders to Learning but the Infection spreads among the People every sage Trades-man sets up for a deep and an able Divine and talks as confidently of Predestination as if he had served his Apprenticeship to a Dutch Professour Every zealous Shop-keeper understands the management of Ecclesiastical Discipline as well as the Nicene Fathers and a Jury of Button-sellers shall determine a Controversie of Faith with more assurance then a General Council These of all others are the fiercest and most implacable Assertors because their Zeal is proportion'd to their Ignorance and therefore you cannot make your self pleasant with their pert and conceited Pedantry and 't is a piece of Railery that is hardly to be forborn but you draw upon your self whole Volleys of Anathema's and hard Names they can endure any Indignity rather then an affront to their Clerkship and you may with more safety play with a Spaniard's Beard then sport with their grave Ignorance That is an Insolence that can never pass unrevenged but your Reputation is immediately stabbed with some ugly word or poisoned with some malicious Report and it becomes the great business of their Zeal to brand you with foul imputations and in all places and upon all occasions to blazon abroad your gross Errours and your horrid Blasphemies This short Character of their Humour may serve for a satisfactory account of their dirty and disingenuous Demeanour towards such persons as pretend to so much knowledge as to despise the Ignorance of their Learning I design it not for an Apology either for my self or any of my Friends I know none so poor-spirited as to stand in awe of such petty Arts the most pertinent Reply to such a poor and beggarly Malice is Neglect and Disdain though in truth such Wretches as stick not upon every slight occasion to sacrifice not onely our Good-Names but our Livelyhoods for that is our Case to their own Childish Picks deserve to be answered by the Pillory and the Whipping-Post § 8. Many other ugly Insinuations he has as if I were prompted to this Undertaking by lewd and naughty Intentions or as if he knew some Stories that he can but out of Tenderness and Civility to my Reputation will not vent I will not so much assist his Malice as to transcribe all his white-liver'd Suggestions to this purpose but whether in this way of proceeding he has discover'd more Boldness or more Imprudence is hard to determine when he knows himself to lie under such vast disadvantages at this Weapon by lying open to so many stabbing and inevitable Hits But this is one of their Topicks and comes in by the Rules of their Method and Ingenuity and all the Defenders and Champions of the Church of England have ever been thus accosted by their civil and unpassionate Adversaries And never did any Man give them a smart and severe Blow but immediately they threatned to tell Tales And where Men have not the advantage of Truth Calumny is their best and surest Weapon For though its Wounds do not always fester yet they usually leave a scar behind them at least he gains the Advantage of his Enemy that gives him the diversion to wipe off Reproaches and all Apologies in defence of a Man 's own Innocence leave behind them through the common Ill-nature of Mankind some ill-contrived suspicion of Guilt in the Minds of Men. And therefore I
of this nature I will undertake in his behalf he shall make them publick satisfaction But when Aristophanes is exemplified to make good the surmise that is plausible and taking with the Common People for they imagine all who write Greek and Latin to be grave and serious Men and therefore if Aristophanes could by the smartness of his Drolling and Satyrical Wit cast Contempt upon the brightest Example of Vertue that ever appear'd in the Heathen World why may not the Author of the Friendly Debate by the same Arts and Advantages expose Nonconformists and the Profession of the Gospel for they are always ventured in the same Bottom to the same popular Scorn and Abuse But any one that is acquainted with the Genius of the Grecian Comedy in general and with the Humour of Aristophanes in particular will be ashamed to compare such wild Satyrs and extravagant Farces with the Friendly Debate That Poet never defign'd any appearance of Truth he represents not Socrates his Opinions nor confutes them by sober and Philosophick Reasonings he intended nothing but onely to abuse him by Buffoonry and Apish Tricks and the most taking piece of Wit in the whole Farce was to bring the grave Philosopher upon the Stage dancing in a Sieve But as for the Friendly Debate if it has represented any of them ridiculous it has onely painted them in their own real Colours There is no Poetick Invention nor Comical Extravagance and it takes no advantage but from Truth and Reason so that if he make any of their Opinions appear ridiculous he does it not by the unluckiness of his Wit as Aristophanes did but by the strength of his Arguments Our Author adds indeed to strengthen this faint Exception That 't is a facile thing to take the wisest Man living after he is lime-twigged with Ink and Paper and gagg'd with a Quill so that he can neither move nor speak to clap a Fools Coat on his back and turn him out to be laughed at in the streets This is lofty and Comical but yet neither true nor witty For the wisest Men will never be lime-twigged with Ink and Paper nor gagg themselves with Quills or if they should be so rash and unadvised yet I see not how the strong Metaphor can restrain them either from opening their Mouths or moving their Hands For the plain English of all this lofty rumbling of Lime-twigs and Gaggs is no more then to be in Print and how can that hinder any Man from justifying his own Writings For if Men Publish Sense all the World can never make them ridiculous if Non-sense they make themselves so And no Gaggs nor Lime-twigs can disable them from defending their Books against any Adversary but either a bad Cause or an ill Management or what is their case both so that if they are lime-twigged with Ink and Paper 't is with Rods of their own laying and if they are exposed in a Fools Coat 't is with one of their own making § 13. His last Remark upon the case of Socrates is extraordinary when he insinuates as if the Crime for which he suffered was Nonconformity to and Separation from the National Church of Athens as if he were the Proto-Martyr of Independency And the People are wonderfully taken with these sly and oblique Strokes and as wofully impertinent as this is they admire it for a notable Essay of Wit And yet if this trifling were of any importance the advantage would run vastly on our side so easie is it to make it appear that Socrates suffered not so much as a Nonconformist as an Enemy to Fanaticks and that his Offence was no other then an Endeavour to perswade the Men of Athens that Grace and Vertue were the same thing The Story is briefly this All the former Ages of Greece were led rather by a giddy and ignorant Enthusiasm then the sober Dictates of a wary and well-advised Reason And though some of the more ancient Vertuosi seem'd to have made some handsome use of their intellectual Faculties in Physiological Enquiries yet as for matters of Religion they either altogether neglected their Speculations or treated of them with as much wildness and vanity as their Poets who pretended to derive their Theological Theories from Enthusiasm and Prophetick Frenzies imagining Reason and Devotion to be things incompetent and that Religion consisted barely in Enthusiastick Raptures and Prophetick Heats and therefore they depended more upon the Information of their Dreams and Fancies then their consistent and waking Faculties and the best Visionist was the ablest Divine Their most celebrated Professors of Divinity who pretended to the more inward practical and experimental Mysteries of Religion were a sort of silly fanatick and illiterate Poets who being Men of giddy and over-heated Imaginations pretended to derive all their Knowledge as others do their Ignorance from Inspirations and Divine Illapses and thereby so entirely engross't the Profession of Divinity that they gain'd an absolute Soveraignty over the Faith not onely of the rude and Vulgar sort of Mankind but also of the Sages and Professors of Wisdom the Philosophers themselves howsoever otherwise Men of eminent Parts and Ingenuity resigning up their own Reasons to the Authority of these Fellows Whimsies and Inspirations Then comes Socrates and preaches down all their pretended Mysteries for raw and lamentable Impostures and endeavours to draw them off from the Pageantry of their Superstition to the habitual Practice of Vertuous Actions And to this purpose he teaches his Fellow-Citizens that they must gain an Interest in the favour of the Gods not by their diligent Attendance upon the Eleusinian Ordinances but by a Life of Vertue and Goodness and that Love Humility Meekness Obedience Chastity and Temperance are more acceptable to the Eternal Deity then all their Mysterious Solemnities in honour of the Mother of the Gods This alarms the Zealots and hot Spirits of the City and the Good Man is immediately cited before the Consistory of the Areopagitical Elders and is by them condemn'd as an Heretick to their Orthodox Faith for setting up Carnal Reason against the Spirit of God and for presuming to fathom the sacred Depths of their Eleusinian Mysteries with the Line of his short and shallow Understanding for how exorbitant soever they might appear to his Fleshly Reasonings they were derived from the Off-spring of the Gods and own'd by the most Practical and Spiritual Preachers of their Religion And though his private and depraved Reason might judge them the brutishest and most licentious Practices in the World for so they really were yet in spight of all their seeming Beastliness they were the highest strains of Godliness and Spiritual Devotion This was represented to the zealous and giddy Multitude and then the Cry is Crucifie him crucifie him And thus fell this great Man a Sacrifice to the Zeal and Fury of a Fanatick Rabble You see with what vain and succesless Attempts they fasten upon those Discourses and the truth is in so
Objection upon the Truth and Reality of my Perswasion To what purpose does he tell us in the close of this Enquiry that we can give no other imaginable answer to it than that Men who plead for Indulgence and Liberty of Conscience in the Worship of God according to his Word and the Light which he has given them therein have indeed no Conscience at all When this answer is so infinitely silly that we can scarce suppose any Man in his wits so extravagant as to pretend it and when there are other very pertinent Replys so easie and so obvious viz. That they may possibly have no Conscience at all whatever they pretend or at least such an one as is abused with foolish or debauch't with wicked Principles and so may plot or practise Sedition against the State under pretence or mistake of Conscience and for that reason ought not to be allowed to plead its Authority against the Commands of lawful Superiours In fine to what purpose does he so briskly taunt me for thwarting my own Principles because I have censured the impertinency of a needless Provision in an Act of Parliament I may obey the Law though I may be of a different Perswasion from the Lawgivers in an Opinion remote and impertinent to the matter of the Law it self nay I may condemn the wisdom of Enacting it and yet at the same time think my self to lie under an indispensable Obligation to obey it for the formal reason of its Obligatory Power as any Casuist will inform him is not the Judgment and Opinion of the Lawgiver but the Declaration of his Will and Pleasure There is abundance more of this slender stuff wherewith as himself brags he has loaded this Principle though alas were its Foundations never so weak and trembling it might securely enough support so light a Burthen and though it were really bottom'd upon the Sands there is but little danger that such a shallow Stream of Talk should overturn it so that though I stand upon such advantageous ground if I should descend to a strict and particular examination of all the Flaws and Follies of his Tattle yet they are so apparently false or impertinent or both and afford so little occasion for useful and material Discourse that I had rather chuse to forego my own advantage than spoil my Book and tire my Reader by insisting too tediously upon such empty trifles and dreams of shadows To conclude this Author is so accustomed to popular impertinency that he seems to hate severe Discourse as much as carnal Reason and both as much as Idolatry so that he onely prates when he should argue and inveighs when he should confute Give him what advantage you will he regards it not but jogs on in his road of talking and 't is no matter whether you take the right or wrong handle of the Question it may be either for any thing material that he has to except against it Nay you may suffer him to Limetwig you with Ink and Paper and gagg you with a Quill and put what words he pleases into your mouth and yet easily defend your self against all his faint assaults and impertinent Objections In so much that I durst undertake the defence of the thickest and most defenceless Impostures in the World against his weak and miserable way of Confutation And I doubt not but I could produce as strong and enforcing evidence for the Divine Original and Authority of the Alcoran as some body has for the Self-evidencing light and power of the holy Scriptures CHAP. IV. The Contents NO difference among the Ancients between Moral Vertue and Evangelical Grace The Vanity and Novelty of our late Spiritual Divinity Our Authors fond Tittle-tattle against my Scheme of Religion Religion is now the same for design and substance as it was in the state of Innocence The Gospel is chiefly design'd as a Restitution of the Law of Nature Our Duty to God best described by Gratitude Repentance Conversion Humiliation Self-denial Mortification Faith and other Duties of the Gospel proved to be Moral Vertues Our Author after his rate of cavilling would have quarrell'd our Saviour for his short account of the Duty of Man His intolerable slander in charging me of confining the Influence of the Spirit of God to the first Ages of the Church His prodigious impudence in ascribing all his own Follies to the Spirit of God The extraordinary concurrence of the Spirit proved it self by some evident Miracle the ordinary works in the same manner as if it were performed purely by the strength of our own Reason Our Author himself is not able to assign any real difference between Grace and Vertue Their meer distinguishing between them is destructive of the practice of all real goodness An account of the Mechanical Enthusiasm of their Spiritual Divinity Our Authors own account of their Spiritual Godliness is a clear instance of its Folly Moral Vertue is so far from being any hindrance that 't is the best preparative to Conversion It was not Moral Goodness but Immoral Godliness that kept off the Pharisees from closing with the Terms of the Gospel The Argument from the Magistrates Power over Moral Duties to his Power over Religious Worship clear'd and vindicated The difference assign'd for this purpose between the Laws of Nature and Revelation false and impertinent Their vain Resolution to find out particular Rules of instituted Worship in the Word of God is the Original of all their folly Religious Worship is subject to the Authority of Earthly Powers for the same Reason as Moral Vertue is A short account of some of our Authors fainter Essays § 1. HAving in the former Chapter given an account large enough of our Authors way of Confutation by shuffling Cavils and bold Calumnies I shall hereafter forbear to cloy the Reader or tire my self with any farther regard to such trifling Exceptions as are not capable of more useful and edifying Discourse and shall onely insist upon such particulars as may be considerable enough to recompence the pains of our Enquiry My design then in the next Chapter which our wise Objector excepts against was to draw a Parallel between matters of Religious Worship and Duties of Morality and to remonstrate to the World how they were equally subject to the Jurisdiction of the Civil Magistrate And for a more ample Confirmation of this Argument I gave such an intelligible account of the Nature and Design of Religion as reduced all its parts and branches either to the Vertues or the Instruments of Moral Goodness From whence I concluded as I thought fairly enough That seeing Princes are allowed by the avowed Principles of all Mankind a Soveraign Power in reference to Moral Vertues that are the most material Duties of Religion 't is but reasonable they should be allowed at least the same Authority over the outward matters of Religious Worship that are but Circumstances of Religion or Instruments of Morality But our Author startles at the strangeness
These Slanders that he has so often and so familiarly hurl'd at me upon all occasions are as big as Steeples and had they faln where they were aim'd had for ever quash't me to death and nothing But the censures he now spits are not discharged with that impetuous fury but that they may be received without danger of being kill'd and buried at once And the mistakes he invents are so vulgar and ordinary that they might have been contrived by Sancho his Scribe But thus it happens that the greatest Flowers of Chivalry have in their declining Age flag'd and wither'd and their last Performances have faln so much short of the Miracles of their first Atchievments that their new Conquests have not so much increas't the number as eclips't the glory of the old And that matchless Wight that in his youthful days scorn'd to accept of any Adventures unless upon Wind-mills Painim Giants and Infernal Necromancers yet when Age had slaked the rage of his blood and folly was content to spend his last Exploits upon Goat-herds Lackeys and Plow-men of his own Parish And such pitiful attempts are our Authors Remarks upon the passages of this Chapter so pitiful that they would sooner raise an Adversaries Compassion than Choler and are so far from the appearance of a just Reply that they will not amount to a competent Denial The whole drift of my Discourse is neglected my four Fundamental Assertions of which and their Proofs the main Body of the Chapter consists are slipped over only a few subordinate and dependant Propositions glanced at with slight mistakes and positive censures without so much as attempting to defeat any of my Arguments or in their stead to suggest any of his own 'T is such lank and slender talk and so apparently unequal to the small reason of the Discourse it would oppose that I should never have deign'd it a Rejoinder in my own defence but that it gives occasion to gratifie the Reader with some farther proofs of our Authors Candour and Ingenuity and some more not unuseful Considerations upon the matters of our present debate though what I have already remarked has evidence more than enough without the help of new Lights to scatter all his thin and vanishing Exceptions And should I represent to the Reader what material things he has gently passed over I must transcribe almost the whole Chapter And our Author himself seems so conscious of the meanness of his Exploits in this part of his Adventures that he concludes the whole Performance with a new Challenge and turns me over Coward as he is to a new Champion that has already poor Man been rebuked to purpose But let him take his Fortune I am resolved to keep my Man In the first place then he informs us this Chapter is inconsistent with it self and other parts of the Treatise but that is none of his Concernment No doubt of it he is only concern'd to defame and disparage other Mens Writings and not at all to make good his slanders and incivilities No Man that had not laid waste all sense of modesty and ingenuity would so easily sputter abroad his rude and abusive censures without thinking himself somewhat concern'd to justifie the matters of his charge though it were only to clear the Reputation of his good manners For all Men are apt enough to suspect ill-nature in detracting suggestions and therefore no discreet or civil Man would venture to dart them without apparent proof and would not accept the favour of being credited till he has produced evidence at least equal to the Indictment So that our Author would more consult the credit of his discretion if he would not be so free of his censures but when he is at leisure to warrant their truth There are vast multitudes of them scatter'd up and down in all parts of his Surveigh that I have purposely waved because they are so wretchedly insignificant This one friendly check upon this particular occasion may serve for a sufficient correction to all the rest That is the first impertinence the second for here they are very thick sown is this In the beginning of this Chapter I represented how a belief of the indifferency or rather Imposture of all Religion is of late become among some persons the most effectual and most fashionable Argument for Liberty of Conscience Away says our Author it is impossible this pretence could ever be made use of to that purpose It is suited directly to oppose and overthrow it for if there be no such thing as Religion in the World it is certainly a very foolish thing to have differences perpetuated amongst Men upon account of Conscience This he says because he is resolved to say something no matter whether to or beside the purpose For what is this to a Man that defies and laughs at the silliness of an upright Conscience and looks upon all Stories of Religion as the tales and tricks of covetous Priests contrived to awe the People and to inrich themselves He will say that 't is indeed a very foolish thing to perpetuate differences in the World about Conscience and Religion but seeing it is so full of softly and conscientious Fops that will be impatient for their own follies and Impostures what in this case is the best method to govern such zealous Sots Not by severity for 't is pity to punish silly People for their ignorance and credulity and 't is more generous to humour them in their several Frenzies and Fairy-imaginations and as long as they are willing to be abused with the belief of invisible Powers and the dread of Infernal Goblins that shall after death torment wicked and disloyal Subjects in burning Vaults below 't is unbecoming the wisdom of a Prince that understands the Juggle to vex or punish such weak and deluded people for any of their other fond and little conceits but rather to allow them the Liberty of gratifying their childish fancies with what phantasms shall most please affect their folly Now what Discourse can be more suited to the Principles of these young Cubs of the Leviathan than not to punish credulous and unreflecting People for being cheated and abused And therefore though they believe all the different Religions in the World to be in reality but so many different Impostures yet they may judge it the wisest course for Government to permit such differences as Fools are resolved to perpetuate rather than to exasperate their zealous madness by attempting to restrain their phantastick mistakes with violence and force of Penalties so that supposing these Mens perswasions nothing could be more agreeable to their small Politicks than this Principle of the indifferency of all Religions in behalf of Liberty of Conscience And of this our Author could not be ignorant both by what I had discoursed in that Paragraph and in several others but he was resolved to cavil and 't is his way as I have often told you to overlook Arguments and then
declared by what they have done and what they are desirous to do That the true state of the Cause and Quarrel is Religion in Reformation whereof they are so forward and zealous that there is nothing expressed in the Scots Declarations former or later which they have not seriously taken to heart and endeavoured to effect c. And in a Letter from the Assembly of Divines to them by order of the House of Commons they call it twice The Cause of Religion And the Assembly in answer to the Parliament desire it may be more and more cleared Religion to be the true state of the differences in England and to be uncessantly prosecuted first above all things giving no sleep to their eyes or slumber to their eye-lids until it be setled In their Declaration and Protestation to the whole World Octob. 22. 1642. They are fully convinced that the Kings Resolutions are so engaged to the Popish Party for the suppression and extirpation of the true Religion that all hopes of peace and protection are excluded that it is fully intended to give satisfaction to the Papists by alteration of Religion c. That great means are made to take up the differences betwixt some Princes of the Roman Religion that so they might unite their strength to the extirpation of the Protestant Cause wherein principally this Kingdom and the Kingdom of Scotland are concerned as making the greatest Body of the Reformed Religion in Christendom c. For all which Reasons we are resolved to enter into a Solemn Oath and Covenant with God to give up our Selves our Lives and Fortunes into his hands and that we will to the utmost of our Power and Judgment maintain his Truth and conform our selves to his Will And in the Declaration upon the Votes of no further Address to be made to the King by themselves or any one else Feb. 17. 1647. the Lords and Commons make Religion one of the great Motives upon which they proceeded for say they the torture of our Bodies by most cruel Whippings slitting of Noses c. might be the sooner forgotten had not our Souls been Lorded over led captive into Superstition and Idolatry triumphed over by Oaths ex Officio Excommunications Ceremonious Articles new Canons Canon-Oaths c. p. 19. And in the last Paper to the Scotch Commissioners Feb. 24. 1648. they declare that the Army of the Houses of Parliament were raised for maintenance of the true Religion and that they invited them to come to their assistance and declared the true state of the Quarrel to be Religion and they earnestly desire the General Assembly to further and expedite the assistance desired from the Kingdom of Scotland upon this ground and motive that thereby they shall do great service to God and great honour may redound to themselves by becoming Instruments of a Glorious Reformation c. This was the stile of all their Papers from 42 to 48 till some of the Grandees of the Independent Faction had by their hypocritical Prayers malicious Preachings counterfeit Tears unmanly Whinings false Protestations and execrable Perjuries scrued themselves up into a Supremacy of Power and Interest and then they alter'd the stile of their Pretences with the change of their Affairs and suited their Remonstrances to their Fortunes and so stopt not at their old demands of Reformation and purity of Ordinances these Pretexts were too low for the greatness of their Attempts and Resolutions and were not sufficient to warrant the Murther of their lawful Sovereign and therefore it was necessary for them to take up with new Pleas suitable to the wickedness of their new Purposes and then nothing was big enough to Arreign or Condemn their Prince but the Charge of Treason and Tyranny and the Sentence of Death was passed and executed upon him as a publick Enemy to the Commonwealth So that though Pretences of Secular and Political Interest were necessary to cut off his Head yet it was purely Zeal and Reformation that brought him to the Block To these Declarations from the Press I might add their Declarations from the Pulpit their Preachers incessantly encouraging the People to fight against the King as the most acceptable service to God and the People accordingly fought against him because they were perswaded that he was a Papist and would bring in Popery that the Common-Prayer was the Mass in English Organs were Idolatry and Episcopacy Antichristian It was nothing but the purity of the Gospel to which they so cheerfully sacrificed their Thimbles and Bodkins And though here it were easie to collect vast Volumes there being scarce a Parliament-exercise for which the Preacher had the Thanks of the House in which some sands and sweat were not wasted in crying up the piety of their Intentions for the Reformation of Gospel-Ordinances But because this would prove a Work too Voluminous I will therefore put off my Reader and satisfie my Adversary too with two or three passages out of the inspired Homilies of I. O. in his several Dispensations In his Sermon preached before the Parliament April 29. 1646. he thus bespeaks them From the beginning of these Troubles Right Honourable you have held forth Religion and the Gospel as whose Preservation and Restauration was principally in your Aims and I presume malice it self is not able to discover any insincerity in this the fruits we behold proclaim to all the Conformity of your Words and Hearts Now the God of Heaven grant that the same mind be in you still in every particular Member of this Honourable Assembly in the whole Nation especially in the Magistracy and Ministry of it that we be not like the Boat-men look one way and row another cry Gospel and mean the other thing Lord Lord and advance our own ends that the Lord may not stir up the staff of his anger and the rod of his indignation against us as an hypocritical People And Feb. 28. 1649. he tells them again Gods Work whereunto ye are ingaged is the propagating of the Kingdom of Christ and the setting up of the Standard of the Gospel And Octob. 13. 1652. From the beginning of the Contests in this Nation when God had caused your Spirits to resolve that the Liberties Priviledges and Rights of this Nation wherewith you were intrusted should not by his assistance be wrested out of your hands by Violence Oppression and Injustice this he also put upon your hearts to vindicate and assert the Gospel of Jesus Christ his Ways and his Ordinances against all Opposition though you were but inquiring the way to Sion for then they were little better than Presbyterians with your faces thitherwardâ— God secretly entwining the Interest of Christ with yours wrapt up with you the whole Generation of them that seek his face and prosper'd your Affairs on that account And lastly Feb. 4. 1658. Give me leave to remember you as one that had opportunity to make Observations of the passages of Providence in those
upon the Rights of Religion So that there is no other effectual Artifice to decoy Christian Subjects into Mutiny and Rebellion but the taking Pretences of Godliness and Reformation They are all agreed in the Belief of the necessity of subjection to their lawful Superiours in all things that concern their civil rights but where the Glory of God and Purity of his Worship lie at stake there they must whet and sharpen their Zeal in his Cause and not betray the true Religion by their neglect and stupidity And let but a few crafty men whisper abroad their suspicions of Popery or any other hated name and the Rabble are immediately alarm'd and they will raise a War and embroil the Nation against an Heretical Word And to this Purpose their Leaders are ever provided with such jugling and seditious Maxims as effectually over-rule all Oaths of Allegiance and all Obligations to Obedience as that all Good Subjects may with just Arms at least defend themselves if question'd or assaulted for the cause of Religion though when they send their Armies into the Field they are as well arm'd with Offensive Weapons as their Enemies and are furnish'd with Swords and Musquets to annoy them as well as Shields and Bucklers to defend themselves That the maintenance of pure Religion passes an Obligation upon their Consciences of force enough to evacuate all Oaths and Contracts whatsoever that may stand in the way of its advancement and then how naturally does this not only warrant but enforce their Resistance to their Lawful Prince in defence of the cause of God and to extort the Free exercise of Religion by force of Arms which if they should lay down at his Command that were to betray the Gospel to the Power of its profess'd and implacable Enemies by their own neglect and cowardize Not that they fight against the King himself God forbid their intention is nothing else then to rescue him out of the Power and Possession of evil Counsellors You must not believe them such disloyal Wretches as to rebel against his Sacred Majesty alas they design nothing but the discharge of their Duty and Allegiance and though they take up Arms against his Person yet 't is in defence of his Crown and they fight against him in his Personal Capacity only to serve him in his Political That in the management and Reformation of Religion there is no respect to be had to carnal and worldly Wisdom and therefore when the Propagation of the Gospel lies at stake 't is but a vain thing for men to tie themselves to the Laws of Policy and Discretion Civil Affairs are to be conducted by secular Artifices but matters of the Church are to be directed purely by the Will of God the Warrant of Scripture and the Guidance of Providence Now what exorbitances will not this wild principle excuse and qualifie In all their disorderly and irregular Proceedings they do but neglect the Rules of carnal Policy for the better carrying on of the work of the Lord where there is no place for moderation and complyance and nothing must satisfie or appease their Zeal but a full Ratification of all their demands Though these and infinite other as vulgar Artifices are as old as Rebellion it self and though wise men can easily wash off their false Colours yet the Common People will suffer themselves to be abused by them to the end of the World partly because they are rash and heady and apt to favour all Changes and Innovations partly because they are foolish and credulous and apt to believe all fair and plausible stories but mainly because they are proud and envious and apt to suspect the Actions of their Superiours So easie a thing is it for your crafty Achitophels to arm Faction with Zeal and to draw the Multitude into Tumults and Seditions under colour of Religion whilst themselves have their designs and projects apart and influence the great turns of Affairs for their own private Ends and so manage the zealous fools as to make them work Journey-work to their ambition and imploy seditious Preachers to Gospellize their Conspiracies and sanctifie their Rapines and Sacriledges to display the piety of their Intentions and cry up the Interest of a State-faction for the Cause of God and sound an Alarm to Rebellion with the Trumpet of the Sanctuary § 15. Thus to omit the known Arts of the Grandees and Junto-men in our late Confusions were the Confederate Lords of France that involved their Native Country in such a long and bloody War during the Reign of four or five Kings at first to seek for a plausible pretence to secure and justifie their Resolution of taking up Arms against their lawful Sovereign till the Admiral Coligny hit upon that unhappy counsel to make themselves Heads of the Hugonot Faction and then they had not only a strong party to assert but a fair pretence to warrant the Rebellion And the War that was first set on foot by the envy and ambition of some Male-contents in the State was prosecuted with greater rage and fury by Zeal for the true Religion In all their Manifests and Declarations they protested for nothing with so much seeming Resolution as their Demands of Liberty and Indulgence for tender Consciences And when either Party fortun'd to be worsted they re-inforced themselves and their Cause by Religious Leagues and Covenants and then the heady multitude flowed into the assistance of the different Factions according to their different Inclinations So that by degrees to use the words of the Historian the discords of great men were confounded with the dissentions of Religion and the Factions were no more called the discontented Princes and the Guisarts but more truly and by more significant Names one the Catholique and the other the Hugonot Party Factions which under colour of Piety administred such pernicious matter to all the following mischiefs and distractions Which how sad and how tedious they were I need not inform you only this both Parties being balanced and successively encouraged by the inconstancy of Government the change of Interests of State and the windings of an ambitious Woman the publick Broils and Disorders were kept up through so many Kings Reigns and might have been perpetuated till this day had not the equality quality of the Factions been broken and the power and interest of the Hugonot Party absolutely vanquish't So that though these two opposite Parties might if let alone to themselves have lived peaceably together in the same Commonwealth yet when headed and encouraged by great Men in the State they immediately became two fighting Armies and when they were once enraged against each other by Zeal and Religion it was not possible for all the Arts of Policy to allay the storm but by the utter ruine and overthrow of one of the contending Factions Dissembled Pacifications and plaister'd Reconcilements proved more bloody and mischievous in the event than the Prosecution of an open War This would have