appropriate to some extraordinary Circumstances wherewith they were attended So that in answer to his severe Interrogatory seeing my Reputation and something else lies at stake I must profess that though I believe the visible and miraculous Immissions of the Holy Ghost to have been peculiar to the first Ages of Christianity yet am I as far and perhaps farther than himself from denying that its ordinary Assistances are equally bestowed upon and continued to all successive Periods of the Church For not to mention that the Conditions upon which the Promise of the Spirit is entail'd agree equally to Christians of all times and places I know not to what purpose men should address their Devotions to Heaven either for Grace or Vertue I care not which when there is no possible way of effecting them but by the Impressions of the Spirit of God upon the spirits of men And did I not believe its Influence upon the minds of men I would list my self among the Followers of I. O. and explode the Lords Prayer it self as a foolish and insignificant Form seeing the greatest part of its Petitions are things of that Nature as that they cannot be accomplish'd any other way than by the efficacy of the divine Spirit upon ours In short the whole state of this Question is plainly this That in the days of the Apostles the divine Spirit proved it self by some clear and unquestionable Miracle and that was the rational evidence of its Truth and divine Authority but in our days it proceeds in an humane and a rational way and does neither drive nor second us with unaccountable Raptures and Inspirations but joyns in with our Understandings and leads us forward by the Rules of Reason and Sobriety by threatnings and by promises by instructing our Faculties in the right Perception of things and by discovering a fuller Evidence and stronger Connexion of Truths So that whatever Assistances the Spirit of God may now afford us they work in the same way and after the same manner as if all were perform'd by the strength of our own Reason and therefore Men are not to be allowed to pretend to its guidance unless they can prove it by some evident Miracle or at least justifie it either by some clear Text of Scripture or some Rational Argument and then it is that which warrants the Action and not the pretence of the Spirit But as for those that talk of its immediate and unaccountable Workings and confine them not to the ordinary Rules of Reason and Methods of Prudence they unavoidably fall into all the mischiefs and frenzies of Enthusiasm and there is nothing so absurd that they may not believe or so wicked that they may not practise by the instigation of the Spirit of God And now after all this Noise and Cavil I and my Adversary are fully agreed in the main matter of the Quarrel viz. That Grace and Vertue are the same thing For all the difference he assigns between them relates not to the Nature of the things themselves but to the Principles from whence they issue viz. That the same Instances and Duties of Moral Goodness that are called Vertues when they proceed from the strength and improvement of our own Natural Abilities are called Graces when they proceed from the assistances and impressions of the Spirit of God so that even in his account Grace is nothing but infused Vertue and infused Vertue is Vertue still and this is the only difference that I assign'd between them and thus my Challenge that is the Cause and Object of all this Zeal and Indignation stands firm and unattempted viz. That when they have set aside all manner of Vertue they would tell me what remains to be called Grace and give me any notion of it distinct from all Morality He that can do this shall be greater than Apollo and all his Muses And whereas for a farther proof that the Graces or the fruits of the Spirit were nothing but Moral or to speak in the home-spun Language of our Fore-fathers Ghostly Vertues I alledged two evident Texts of Scripture to that purpose with the first he quarrels in the first place that I have not either through my own or the Printers neglect expressed the words in a different Character though I have quoted both Chapter and Verse and if this be a fault I must beg his pardon and seeing it is the first he has been able to discover I hope I may easily obtain it In the next place he excepts that in rendring the words I use Peaceableness in stead of Peace and Cheerfulness as equivalent with Ioy. The Cavil is but a little one and the Fortunes of Caesar and the Roman Empire depend not upon it and therefore I will not trouble the Reader with a Critical Account of the Reason of my Translation 't is enough that these words may and often are used promiscuously and differ no more than Reason and Reasoning The other Text was Tit. 2.11 In which I affirm that the Apostle makes the Grace of God to consist in Gratitude towards God Temperance towards our selves and Justice towards our Neighbours No says he the Apostle says not that Grace consists in these things but that it teaches these things I must confess I was not so subtle and Scholastical as to distinguish between subjective Grace as he there speaks and effective Grace because they are but different terms of Logick for the same thing and that Grace that teacheth us these things consists in doing them they differ only as the Principle and Effect of the same Vertue and whatever the Apostle might there intend by Grace nothing can be more pat to my Purpose than that he places its whole design in teaching and promoting the practice of those Moral Vertues This is obvious to every vulgar eye but our Author is forced for want of better employment to saw the Air. § 5. My last crime is that I slander them with the Truth and charge them of making Vertue and Grace inconsistent whilst they teach that though a man may be exact in the duties of moral goodness yet if he be a graceless Person i. e. void of I know not what imaginary Godliness he is but in a cleaner way to Hell and the morally Righteous man is at a greater distance from grace than the Prophane Though were I destitute of all other proof their very distinguishing between Grace and Vertue or the Spiritual and the Moral Duties of the Gospel is in it self directly destructive of all true and real goodness for if they are the same thing under different Appellations then whilst this Doctrine presses men to a pursuit and acquisition of Excellencies of Grace and spiritual holiness over and above the common vertues of Morality it engages their main industry and their biggest endeavours in the pursuit of dreams and shadows because there is nothing beyond the bounds of Moral Vertue but Chimera's and flying Dragons Illusions of Fancy and Impostures of
abating Words for if it were but a seeming Transport that directly implies it was no real or criminal excess and this word seeming has such a soft and qualified signification that it evacuates the malignity of the hardest Expressions for it is properly of a Negative Import and serves onely to supplant and remove the Affirmation to which it is prefixt so that a seeming fury is in propriety of Speech no fury at all and therefore I cannot see how I could have described this Action in more tender and cautious words for I think a kind of Fury as Doctor Hammond phraseth it that is not wont to speak irreverently of his Saviour is not near so soft Language as seeming Fury But the true Reason why I used these Expressions was because our blessed Saviour did in that Action take upon him the Person and the Priviledge of the Jewish Zealots a sort of Men that profest to be transported by some extraordinary impulse beyond the ordinary Rules of Law and Decency and by consequence must be acted with a greater heat and vehemence of spirit and therefore when our Saviour imitated their way of proceeding it must needs carry in it a great appearance of their passionate and extatick Zeal And I think the reflection of the Disciples themselves upon this Fact has more seeming harshness in it then my Remark for upon this occasion they call to mind that passage in the Psalms The Zeal of thy House hath eaten me up or has fed and gnaw'd upon me and that is an angry and fretting thing But says our Author this Attempt could not be performed with a seeming transport of passion because it was a Miracle and done with the evidence of the Divine Presence upon him as if he could not exert an Act of Omnipotence with an appearance of passion when 't is inseparable from all Actions of Justice and Severity You see how upon all turns I am forced to invalidate weak and slender Cavils because they are urged for mighty and vehement Informations 't is their method to astonish the People with frightful words and every Objection must be pursued as high as Atheism and Blasphemy Their wide Mouths scorn to indict for petty Crimes and therefore they are resolved to charge every misprision and little miscarriage of High Treason But the main design of his Assault upon this passage is not so much to beat down my Fences as to let us see his deep Stores of Ammunition in Jewish Learning for some Men are mighty Rabbies at the second hand and can furnish great Volumes with a power of Hebrew as Brokers do their Shops with old Cloaths And I have read a famous Writer though he shall be nameless that abounds with Rabbinical Quotations all which if you would trace them are trivial in Modern Authors But though Men by such borrowed Gays may make the Vulgar gaze and admire them yet they do but expose their Ignorance and Vain-glory to the Learned World And what a flourish does our Author make here with his description of the Temple and its several Courts and Apartments though 't is known to every School-Boy that has read Godwin's Antiquities And therefore he might have supposed as I did the known difference between the inward Court of the Jews and the outward Court of the Gentiles as distinct from the Court of the Priests and Levites and not have lavish't away two whole Pages to describe them before he made his approach towards the purpose viz. To prove that it was not the Gentiles Court out of which our Saviour whipt the Buyers and Sellers as I affirm'd but the other that is proper and peculiar to the Jews And here what a gaudy shew of Learning might I make what Sholes of Hebrew Greek and Latin Quotations might I heap up in my own defence there being so great a multitude of late Writers that have collected Variety of Proofs out of the Ancients in defence of my Opinion But I shall rather chuse to leave this superannuated Pedantry to those who more affect it and perhaps more need it and shall content my self with the Reasons of one plain English Author more then in the bare Authority of twenty Latin ones and that is Mr. Mede in his first Book and second Discourse where the Reader may peruse an excellent Account of the Truth and Reasonableness of my Opinion I shall only transcribe two passages that are most material to my purpose the first to prove it could not be the Court of the Jews and the second that it must of necessity be that of the Gentiles 1. Those who were so chary that no uncircumcised or unclean Person should come into their place of Worship who trod the Pavement thereof with so much Religious Observance and Curiosity who would not suffer as Iosephus relates any other Building no not the Palace of Agrippa their King to have any prospect into it lest it should be polluted by a prophane Look how unlikely is it they would endure it to be made a place of Buying Selling and Bartering yea a Market for Sheep and Oxen as Iohn 2.14 it is expresly said to have been Neither will it serve the turn to excuse it by saying It was to furnish such as came thither with Offerings for the Sheep and Oxen whilst they were yet to be bought to that purpose were not sacred but prophane and so not to come within the sacred limits 2. The place alledged to avow the Fact speaks expresly of Gentile-Worshippers not in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely but in the whole Body of the Context Hear the Prophet speak Esay Chap. 56. Vers. 6 7. and then judge The sons of the stranger that joyn themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the Name of the Lord to be his servants every one that keepeth the Sabboth from polluting it and taketh hold of my Covenant namely that I alone shall be his God even them will I bring to my holy Mountain and make them joyful in my house of Prayer their Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices accepted upon mine Altar Then follow the words of my Text For my house shall be called i. e. shall be it is an Hebraism a house of Prayer for all people What is this but a Description of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gentile-Worshippers And this place alone makes good all that I have said before viz. That this Vindication was of the Gentiles Court otherwise the Allegation of this Scripture had been impertinent for the Gentiles of whom the Prophet speaks Worshipped in no place but this You see the prodigious trifling of this Man that runs after such wild and stragling Impertinencies to so little purpose One would have thought that when he insisted so severely on a matter so remote from my main Design he would have been secure of mighty Advantages on his own side and not have blunder'd so horribly in such far-fetcht Digressions § 10. His next great Assault and 't
same design as they say Aristotle writ some of his Books onely to be understood by the Sons of Art and Mystery However by this Artifice they inveigle the silly and unwary People both to follow and admire them for when they are perswaded the outward Element of the Text is but the Cabinet to the Jewel and the precious Mystery they so manage the business as to possess them with an apprehension that no Key can open it but what is made at their own Forges And if any of us attempt to explain a Text by the Coherence of the Discourse by the Propriety of the Phrase and by the Idiom of the Language we are Moral Men and dull Literalists and utter strangers to the inwardness of the Spirit but 't is they that are the practical experimental Preachers and that see into the depths of the Mystery of the Covenant of Grace And by this means do they gain the advantage to obtrude upon the People whatever can neither be proved nor understood as Profound Divinity § 7. But whatsoever Truth Candor and Ingenuity there is in my Character of these Men of the Flock he knows how to revenge their wrongs by bold and confident Recriminations if Reproaches be the Weapon he understands his advantage and when Controversies come to be managed by mutual Accusations there they never want for Ammunition their Magazine is inexhaustible Thus our Author stands amazed that Heresie should complain of Schism Quis tulerit Gracchos c. Shall the Pot call the Pan Burnt And is it not strange that whilst one writes against Original Sin another preaches up Iustification by Works and scoffs at the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ to them that believe Yea whilst some can openly dispute against the Doctrine of the Trinity the Deity of Christ and the Holy Ghost Whilst Instances may be collected of some Mens impeaching all the Articles almost throughout there should be no reflection in the least on these things Some Mens guilt in this nature might rather mind them of pulling out the beam out of their own eyes then to act with such fury to pull out the eyes of others for the motes which they think they espy in them c. What a strain of Flattery is here There is questionless no Poison nor Calumny in these leering Suggestions it is an harmless Character and strikes at no Mans Reputation no doubt he nev'r intended to relieve himself and his Party from my foul Reproaches by false or fierce Recriminations nor to write any thing that might disadvantage me in my Reputation or Esteem But some Mens Tongues traduce by instinct and are so venomous that they cannot touch but they will poison your Reputation Their Throats are open Sepulchres and the poison of Asps is under their Lips and they cannot open their Mouths but out flie stings and blasting vapours So that I am now forced to confess my self a dull and trifling Satyrist that have charged them with nothing but their own avowed Principles and notorious Practices and never use tart Language but to express vile Things and go far about to convict them of their Guilt before I dare venture to lash and chastise them for their Folly and all my Satyrical Reflections are the natural Results and Inferences of some foregoing Reasonings But this Man strikes with more sure and deadly Blows he can stab with a doubtful Intimation and dispatch with an oblique Look 't is no matter for evidence of Argument and certainty of Fact this fending and proving is a tedious course 't is but dropping a Train of sly and malicious suspicions and that is enough to blow up your Reputation He knows all Men have a touch of Ill-nature and are apt enough to make the hardest surmises upon these ugly suggestions Nothing sets an handsomer Gloss upon a Lye then to shew it by these dark Lights and indirect Insinuations are the most artificial Schemes of Slandering they heighten and enrage Mens Curiosity and then leave it to their ill Humour to finish the Story and then it shall never be spoil'd for want of spiteful and ill contrived Suspicions And every Man has Wit enough to pick out the Categorical meaning of these oblique Reproaches and had he in direct terms charged me for impeaching the most Fundamental Articles of Christianity it had not been more familiar and intelligible English But as for my own part I am no more moved with the Charge then I am concern'd in the Crime I know none in the Church of England that publish any such false and Heretical Doctrines or if there be any that vent them in Corners and Conventicles I can onely say as one did that was treated as I am Let him be Anathema But the Ingenuity of these Men can dispose of other Mens Faith and Religion at their pleasure and they can with as much ease make Heretiques as they once could Witches and Malignants if a Neighbour incur their displeasure that is enough to make the Indictment and to be charged is enough to make it good Thus you know they dealt with the Ghost of the great Hugo Grotius one would needs have him a rank Socinian and another a thorough Papist though how he could be both can never be unriddled unless Hugo were one and Grotius the other though the evident reason why he might be either is no other then that he was no Calvinian and then he might be any thing what they pleased This way of aspersing has ever been the offensive Weapon of peevish and angry Disputers though never did any Man weild it with more Dexterity then our Author he never encountred Adversary that he did not transform either into Atheist or Papist or Socinian But it seems the Charge of Socinianism is become the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our Age and many Men suffer under its imputation though as it always happens in Cases of Slander I know none more clear from the Infection then those that have been most suspected and avoided for it Of which Injustice I can conceive no other imaginable account then some Mens proud imperious Confidence that have adopted their own unlearned Wranglings into the Articles of Religion and put as great a weight upon their own novel Doctrines as upon the plain and easie Propositions of Scripture Now if a sober Man discard their wild and unwarrantable additions 't is all one as if he renounced the Article it self They will not endure a contradiction nor suffer you to suspect the infallible certainty of their Resolutions and if you doubt or dispute the Ius Divinum of a Systematick Subtilty you make them impatient and they make you an Heretick If we are not confident that our blessed Saviour suffered the extremity of Hell-torments at the hour of his Passion even to the Horrours of Despair 't is with some positive people the same thing as if we called in question the Merits of his Death and Sufferings If we smile at the
will not so far submit my self to the power of his Malice as to make Protestations to the World or Appeals to Heaven as some tender Constitutions would have done But I defie all the weak Attempts of malevolent Tongues False Slanders as they spread so they vanish like Lightning and to Men wise and honest the flash appears and dis-appears at once and he that is concerned for the good Opinion of such as are neither puts himself upon an harder Game then I am willing to play or able to manage And though in three Lines I could not onely answer but shame his base and proofless Surmises of the Unworthiness of my Aims by making it appear that so far I was from having any ill design that I was not in a Capacity of having any at all yet I will rather chuse utterly to neglect this and all his other mean and unworthy Arts of Malice as being satisfied that when Men would discredit their Adversaries by such unhandsom Reflections upon their Persons and private Affairs as are altogether impertinent to the Matters in debate they prove nothing but the strength of their Malice and weakness of their Cause Nay so outragious is our Author that when he comes to reflect upon my Satyr against Atheism he blows upon it with as much scorn and rancour as upon the sharpest and most pointed Invectives against themselves As if no Man could write against their Party but he must immediately be stricken with a Spirit of Infatuation and forfeit all use of his Reason and his Understanding and were not able to discourse pertinently upon the most pregnant and most noble Argument in the World But so it is though you speak with the Tongues of Men and Angels and though you understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge yet if you have not Charity for them you are no better then sounding Brass and a tinkling Cymbal And yet had he onely slighted and scorn'd my weak Essay upon this Theme it would have been none of the most remarkable Instances of his Incivility but to spit his rankest Venom at it is unexemplified Candour and Ingenuity And among all the ugly Suggestions he has darted at me he has not aimed any with more malice and bitterness of spirit then those he has bolted upon this occasion but whatsoever foul Language I may deserve upon other accounts I appeal to the hottest Zealot of his own Dispensation whether it were discreetly or civilly done to cast Reproaches at me whilst I was exposing Prophaneness and Irreligion to publick shame A man that had not been utterly transported with Rage and Envy would have had the discretion to have vented his Choler upon more seasonable opportunities for now alas he effectually defeats his own Malice by treating me with the same rudeness when I deserve well as when I deserve ill from which way of procedure what else can the World conclude but that the Man raves and cares not what he says so he may abuse and defame me But upon this occasion he has intimated a considerable Truth viz. That there is less danger in this kind of Atheism that vents its self in little Efforts of Wit and Drollery then in those Attempts that under Pretences of sober Reason propagate such Opinions and Principles as have a direct Tendency to the Subversion of the Grounds of Religion It is well advised and they would do well to consider it that invalidate the Rational Accounts of the Christian Faith and destroy all sober Grounds of the Divine Authority of the holy Scriptures that undermine the Evidence of Miracles and Universal Tradition and resolve the Motives of its Credibility into vain and frivolous Pretences What greater Advantage can any Man give to the Enemies of Religion then to inform them That the Alcoran may vie Miracles and Traditions with the Scripture and then in their stead produce no other proof of its Divine Authority then what the Alcoran may as well plead without their concurrence and such is the Testimony of the Spirit if it convince not in a rational way and by the use of Motives and Arguments for remove their Evidence and then all pretences to Inspiration become uncertain and unaccountable and there remains no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to distinguish between a true and a false Testimony And what greater disservice can any man do to the Interest of Religion then to draw bold and horrid Consequences in behalf of Atheists Papists and Antiscripturists from every petty Controversie Does not he effectually invite Men to a neglect of the holy Scriptures that tells them they can have neither Truth nor Certainty if there be various Readings in the Original Texts and yet confesseth that Ocular Inspection makes it manifest that there are various Readings both in the Old Testament and the New and it 's confessed there have been failings in the Transcribers who have often mistaken and that it is impossible it should be otherwise I must acknowledge my self a little surprised to hear our Author question whether there be such a thing as speculative Atheism in the World and yet himself can discover a wide door to it in every Proposition even in the Lords Prayer it self It is somewhat prodigious that when so many Men in all Ages have made so many Attempts to enter at this Door they should never be able to light upon such an easie and such an open passage § 9. Another passage that he chides and cavils at is the account I gave why I instill'd so much tartness and severity into some Expressions from the Example of our Saviours behaviour in the Temple where I observed that there was but one single instance in which Zeal or an high Indignation might be just and warrantable and that is when it vents its self against the Arrogance of haughty peevish and sullen Religionists The Rashness of this Assertion he checks and controuls with authentick Precedents and Examples out of the old Testament though every illiterate Peasant could have inform'd him of the vast difference between the Jewish and the Christian Oeconomy theirs was a more harsh and severe institution the temper of their Zeal was more fierce and warlike and in some Cases to kill a Brother out of hatred to Idolatry was a commendable Action and at some times Swords and Daggers were the means of Grace as they lately were of Reformation Their Zealots were priviledged to execute any more notorious Offender without the Forms and Solemnities of Legal Process But their Examples are no warrantable Precedents for our Practice and our Author might as pertinently have prescribed to my imitation the Act of Elias for a blameless and a justifiable instance of Zeal as that of Phinehas And as for the Example of our blessed Saviour he pretends grievous Resentments for the Irreverence of my Expressions towards him such as hot fit of Zeal seeming Fury and transport of Passion though I know not how I could have expressed my self in more
is a furious one too is upon the Author of the Friendly Debate And here he flings down his Glove bids defiance to the stoutest He of us all and sends a bold Challenge to all Men of Learning Reading and Ingenuity To what purpose does this Author press his Wit and Parts to write Dialogues and endeavour to make the Nonconformists ridiculous by his Comical Representations Let him come forth if he be a Man of Skill and Confidence Leave off his Dramatick Railery and encounter me in Scholastick and Logical Disputation What a Flower of Chivalry is this Is there nothing to take down his Stomach and asswage his Courage Still courting Dangers and still swaggering after so many Foils and Disgraces Will not Age slake the Heats of his flaming Blood 'T is time to enjoy his Glories and his Laurels and not to hazard his Renown with future Adventures This Fortune is a fickle thing and the World full of Tartars And yet methinks after all this Bravery this Challenge savours not a little of Cowardize and betrays some Qualms and frosty Apprehensions 'T is a meer shift to discharge themselves of their Engagements to do Reason to the Friendly Debate by beginning his Controveâ—sie afresh upon other Grounds and in other Methods and 't is a certain sign of a baffled person when he Challenges at a new Weapon that is sufficient Confession of his being master'd at the old And thus because they are not able to stand against the Wit and Reason of that Author they except against his way of Procedure and refuse to hear any thing we can urge against them unless we will fling up all we have gain'd by his smart Discourses and yield to Treat and Dispute with them in the Language of the Budge Doctors of the Schools As if we could not discourse as coherently in Dialogues as in Syllogisms Reason is equally certain with what dress soever it be cloathed and in what method soever it is deduced if the Train of Consequences be aptly connected to Premises 't is pertinent and according to the Arts of Logick and the Laws of Reasoning but if there be any flaw or incoherence between Principles and Conclusions the Chain of the Discourse ceases and 't is easie to discover where the Break begins And therefore if there be any Non-consequences and Impertinences in the Friendly Debate let them specifie the Particulars but till then 't is ridiculous to tell the People 't is no Rational Discourse because composed in a Dramatick not a Logical method for if it is true and pertinent 't is Logical if not it is not Dramatick the Rules of Reasoning are the same in both so much do they shuffle by these general Exceptions till they can discover particular Defects and Impertinences and to so little purpose does our Author challenge that Gentleman to argue according to Rules of Method and Art for if that be to state the matters in difference between them to confirm his own Judgement and to confute theirs with substantial Reasons and Arguments that is it he has undertaken and if he have not performed they are able to shew it if he has there wants nothing of the exactness of Logical and Scholastick procedure but the dull formality of Ob. and Sol. and videtur quod non But 't is unmanly to carp at Phrases Expressions Manners of the Declaration of Mens Conceptions collected from or falsely father'd upon particular Persons the greatest guilt of some whereof it may be is onely their too near approach to the Expressions used in the Scripture to the same purpose Behold the confident Arts of these Men When an Author has collected so many pregnant Instances of their Folly and has warranted the Truth of his Testimonies by particular References to the Original Authors they can defeat a thousand Authorities with a May-be and a Perhaps 't is but saying those absurd passages he produceth out of the Writings of the Nonconformists may be falsely father'd upon them and then all is well What a strange Man is this Author of the Friendly Debate to amass together so many Quotations out of W. B may they not be falsely father'd upon him And what though he has justified the faithfulness of his Collections by the most exact and scrupulous References Let him not think I am bound to examine the sincerity of his Relations If a Man of my Confidence tell him at all adventure that perhaps he has abused them and the World too by his own Forgeries that is enough for ever to abate their Certainty and evacuate their Authority Nay farther The greatest guilt of some of the Phrases carpt at it may be is onely their too near approach to the Expressions used in Scripture to the same purpose And it may be their guilt is that they abuse the words of Scripture to set off their own wild and unwarrantable Fancies and it may be the Sky will fall to morrow and it may be Saint Paul's Steeple as soon as it is re-built will remove it self to the East-Indies To what purpose is it for us to write Books if they can invalidate all our Evidences and arrest all our Demonstrations with these pitiful May-be's Or rather what a confident Man is this to expect his groundless Supposals should have credit enough in the World to put a Baffle upon clear and undeniable Proofs But 't is time for shame to leave off this intolerable trifling they have been sufficiently teased for it already by the Author of the Friendly Debate and yet they cannot support their desperate Cause but by words that may salve any thing But is it not a mean design for a Man to press his Wits and Parts to carp at other Mens Expressions No for if Men place Mystery and Spirituality in uncouth and affected Phrases if they trifle away the most weighty Arguments in Religion with childish Fancies and feed the People with nothing but empty Words and insignificant Phrases they may deserve to be exposed though not to be confuted because they have not sense enough to be capable either of Truth or Falshood and therefore though they can never be proved false yet they may and ought to bemade ridiculous And what other course can be taken with such Triflers as T. W. and R. V. that have labour'd to burlesque the Gospel and to turn the Holy Scriptures into clinch and quibble Would it become a serious Man to confute Jingles with grave and Scholastick Arguments to encounter a wretched Fancy with a Rational Discourse and baffle a School-Boys Phrase out of the Word of God And when the poor People are ravish't with the chiming of empty words and hug such phantastick Triflings for Gospel-Mysteries what other way is there to undeceive them then by letting them see that they are not suited to the spiritual Condition of any Professours that are not still under the Dispensation of Rattles But though to expose the silliness of their Expressions be a part of his design and
the same thing in reference to Government can pretend to tenderness and want of satisfaction shall be allowed to plead Exemption from the Duty of Obedience to the will of his lawful Superiours there will be no avoiding the Coâ—sequence at least as to the practice of the World but that all the Power and Wisdom of Authority must submit to the Follies Passions and Extravagances of the Multitude and howsoever Men may wind themselves up and down in Mazes of endless Niceties and Distinctions they will never clear themselves from the unavoidable event of Anarchy and Confusion as long as they promiscuously admit the Pretensions of an unsatisfied Conscience and yet that they will be forced to do if they stop not at the plain the easie and the discernable Measures of Duty and therefore Men must not be allowed to excuse themselves from the Authority of Humane Laws upon slender grounds and weak surmises nor conclude the matter of the Law to be antecedently unlawful unless it be certainly and apparently so And this will farther appear highly reasonable from the Nature of Gods Laws that are always plain and easie and the Nature of the Matters about which they are employed that are always of a great and evident necessity so that things really liable to doubt and disputation are not of importance enough to be reckoned in the number of indispensable Duties and unless they are clearly and apparently evil that is an unquestionable evidence that they are not intrinsecally so the perspicuity of the Law and the importance of the Duty are to an ingenuous Mind uncapable of doubt and uncertainty and therefore where there appears no certain and express Repugnancy to the Law of God that is presumption enough to satisfie any sober and peaceable Man in their lawfulness § 7. But that which is most material to the Determination of Conscience in this Enquiry is this That there is no Rule of Life and Manners more express and unavoidable nor any Duty in the Gospel enjoined in more positive Terms and under more severe Penalties than this of Obedience to the Commands of Supreme Authority and God has tied all their just Laws upon our Consciences by vertue of his own Authority and under pain of his own displeasure and as Men would acquit themselves in their Obedience to his Laws they are bound under the same Sanctions to acquit themselves in their Obedience to theirs And now upon this Principle no truly upright and conscientious Man will ever go about to riggle himself out of his Duty to his lawful Superiours out of any regard to any Law of God when he is not as clearly and abundantly satisfied of the certainty and necessity of its Obligation Nay he cannot with safety and without violence to his own Conscience remonstrate to the Commands of lawful Authority unless upon Reasons more bright and forcible than the express words of St. Paul It is necessary that ye be subject not onely for wrath but also for Conscience sake And if Men would as they ought suspend their Scruples and Exceptions till they can make it out to themselves that they are as certain as necessary and as universal Duties of Religion as Obedience to the Commands of lawful Superiours we could not desire a more effectual Bar to all our Schisms and Distractions For none of the matters of our difference can either pretend to or are indeed capable of equal evidence with this express Proposition of the blessed Apostle and therefore if they would stand firm and loyal to this Doctrine till they can produce more clear and convincing Scriptures to vouch their own singular Conceits that must for ever stifle all former Quarrels and prevent all farther Dissentions v.g. Whereas our Author is required by his lawful Superiours to use the Sign of the Cross in the Sacrament of Baptism he puts in his Exception against the lawfulness of the Command in that it enjoins a Symbolical Ceremony and every Symbolical Ceremony is of the Nature of a Sacrament and no Sacrament can or ought to be instituted but by Divine Authority and therefore for any Humane Power to establish new Symbolical Ceremonies is to invade Gods own peculiar Royalty and Jurisdiction In which Cavil are involved a great number of dark uncertain and perhaps indeterminable Enquiries yet however to keep to the main pretence let him but conform to this Injunction till he can alledge any Text of Scripture that affirms in as clear and dogmatical words that every Symbolical Ceremony is of the Nature of a Sacrament as are those of St. Peter Be ye subject to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake And then we shall neither need nor desire any farther security to prevent his defection from the establish't Discipline of the Church in that Affair So that if Men would learn to be peaceable and ingenuous this plain and obvious Principle would either forestal or supersede all their scruples And in truth the Commands of Authority so much surmount their Obligation and anticipate their Pretence that the very Plea of a tender and unsatisfied Conscience in Opposition to Publick Laws is in it self a direct Principle of Sedition and an open Affront to Government and therefore whoever they are that vouch and pretend its prohibition to the proceedings of lawful Authority deserve for that reason alone the shame and correction of sturdy and irreclaimable Schismaticks And here 't is a woful Impertinence for Men to oppose as our Author has done the Authority of God and of Conscience to that of Men for that is to plead God and Conscience against themselves in that Humane Laws are as much tied upon us by his own immediate Command as his own immediate Institutions and whatsoever lawful Superiours impose upon our Practice that he binds upon our Conscience and though their Decrees pass no direct Obligation upon the Consciences of Men yet the Laws of God directly and immediately bind their Consciences to Obedience and he has threatned the same Eternal Penalties to our contempt of and disobedience to their Laws as he has annext to his own Commands 'T is enough therefore that the Conscience is bound by the Laws of Men though that Obligation be tied upon it by the Laws of God So that it is not the different Obligations of Humane and Divine Laws that are to be considered in this Enquiry for the Authority of God is equally concerned in both and all the Contest lies entirely between the Matters of the Command viz. Whether God have by as certain as absolute and as indispensable a Law restrained us from the practice of what our Superiours enjoin as he has enjoined us to yield all ready and cheerful Obedience to their Commands And when the state of the Controversie is shifted to this Enquiry 't is another woful Impertinence to plead the Rule of St. Paul He that doubteth is damned if he eat to countenance and warrant their suspension of Obedience for where the doubt has but
take it ill in good earnest if we only deny them the Liberty and free Exercise of their Religion till they are willing to give us some security of their being governable § 12. The second part of Protestancy is the Reformation of Doctrine and here the design was to abolish the Corruptions and unwarrantable Innovations of the Church of Rome and to retrieve the pure and primitive Christianity It was not their aim to exchange Thomas Aquinas his Sums for Calvin's Institutions or Bodies of School-Divinity for Dutch Systems but to reduce Christianity to the prescript of the Word of God and the practice of the first and uncorrupted Ages of the Church to clear the Foundations of our Faith from all false and groundless Superstructures and once more recover into the Christian World a pure and Apostolical Religion And therefore the only Rule of our Churches Reformation were the Scriptures and four first general Councils She admits not of any upstart Doctrines and new Models of Orthodoxy but all the Articles of her Belief are ancient and Apostolical and if she her self should teach any other Propositions she protests against their being matters of Faith and of necessity to Salvation And for this reason she imposes not her own Articles as Articles of Faith but of Peace and Communion Nor does she censure other Churches for their different Confessions but allows them the Liberty she takes to establish more or less Conditions of Communion as the Governours of the Church shall deem most expedient for peace and unity And she only requires of such as are admitted to any Office Imployment in the Church subscription to them as certain Theological Verities not repugnant to the Word of God which she has particularly selected from among many other to be publickly taught and maintain'd within her Communion as necessary or highly conducive to the preservation of Truth and prevention of Schism and for this reason she passes no other censure upon the Impugners of her Articles than what she has provided against the Impugners of the Publick Liturgy Episcopal Government and the Rites Ceremonies of Worship because they are all intended to the same end the avoiding Disorders and Confusions These then are the conditional Articles of the Communion of the Church of England and they are necessary and excellent provisions for peace and unity For among all the Disputes and Divisions of Christendom it is but reasonable she should take security of those Mens Doctrines and Opinions whom she intrusts in publick Imployments to prevent her being embroil'd in perpetual Quarrels and Controversies So that Subscriptions to the Articles is required chiefly upon the same account as the Oath of Supremacy whose Penalty is That such who refuse it shall be excluded such places of Honour and Profit as they hold in the Church or Commonwealth And 't is very reasonable that Princes should be particularly secured of the Fidelity of those Subjects that they entrust with their publick Offices And thus all the punishment that the Church of England is willing to have inflicted upon Dissenters from her Articles is to deprive them of their Ecclesiastical Preferments as being unfit for Ecclesiastical Imployments For though she is not so careless of her own peace as to impower Men in the exercise of her publick Offices at all adventure so neither is she so rigorous as to make Inquisition into their private Thoughts And therefore we are not so harsh and unmerciful as somebody you wot of who would be thought a warm Bigot for Toleration and yet has sometime profest he would give his Vote to banish any Man the Kingdom that should refuse their Subscription But as for the absolute Articles of the Faith of the Church of England they are of a more ancient date they were not of her own contriving but such as she found establish't in the purest and most uncorrupted Ages of the Church and in the times nearest to the primitive and Apostolical simplicity That is the measure of her Faith and the standard of her Reformation here she fixes the bounds of her Belief and seals up the Symbol of her Creed to prevent the danger of endless Additions and Innovations But as for all other matters I say with the late Learned Archbishop as he discourses against Fisher If any Errour which might fall into this as any other Reformation can be found then I say and 't is most true Reformation especially in cases of Religion is so difficult a work and subject to so many Pretensions that 't is almost impossible but the Reformers should step too far or fall too short in some smaller things or other which in regard of the far greater benefit coming by the Reformation it self may well be passed over and born withal And withal by virtue of this Fundamental Maxim may in due time and manner be redrest By the wisdom and moderation of this Principle the Church secures her self against the Prescription of Errour So that if she should at any time hereafter discover any defect in any particular instance of her Laws and Constitutions and in a work so great so various and so difficult 't is not impossible as the Archbishop observes for the greatest caution and prudence to be overseen in some smaller things she has reserved a just power in her self to reform and amend it This in brief is a true and honest account of the Protestancy of the Church of England But so it hapned that beyond the Seas there arose another Generation of pert and forward Men the vehemence of whose Zeal and Passion transported them from extream to extream so that they immediately began to measure Truth not by its agreement with the Scriptures and the purest Ages of the Church but by its distance from the See of Rome and the Apostacy of latter times whereby it so came to pass that they did but barter Errours in stead of reforming Corruptions and in lieu of the old Popish Tenets only set up some of their own new-fangled conceits But above all the rest there sprung up a mighty Bramble on the South-bank of the Lake Lemane that such is the rankness of the Soil spred and flourish't with such a sudden growth that in a few days partly by the industry of its Agents abroad and partly by its own indefatigable pains and pragmaticalness it quite over run the whole Reformation and in a short time the right Protestant Cause was almost irrecoverably lost under the more prevailing Power and Interest of Calvinism That proud and busie Man had erected a new Chair of Infallibility and enthroned himself in it and had he been acknowledged their Supreme Pastour he could not have obtruded his Decrees in a more peremptory and definitive way upon the Reformed Churches Nothing can be rightly done in any Foreign Church or State but by his Counsels and Directions He must thrust himself in for the Master-workman where-ever they were hammering Reformation He must be privy to all the Counsels