Theology and was counted the only Spiritual Doctrine In those days Men were taught that we are justifi'd only by the Jmputed Righteousness of Christ by which they said we are formally Righteous That Faith justifi'd only as it laid hold of that as they phrased it and that Inherent Righteousness was to be renounc'd and had nothing to do here These were the great dear Mysteries of their Theology that season'd all their Doctrines and Instructions which by this means also were rendred exceedingly fanciful and dangerous Therefore in this likewise those Divines interposed and demonstrated the vanity and mischief of such fulsome and groundless Conceits They stated the true and warrantable sense in which Christ's Righteousness is imputed viz. Metonymically and as to Effects That is That for the sake of his Righteousness God was pleas'd to pardon Penitents and to deal with them upon their Faith and sincere Obedience as if they had been Righteous themselves Not as if he past false and mistaken Judgements and looked on Christ's Righteousness as really and properly theirs but that for his sake He pardon'd their sins and accepted of their personal imperfect righteousness as if it had been perfect They shew'd that this account was agreeable to Scripture and the Analogy of sound Faith and Practice and that the other sense was no-where deliver'd in the holy Oracles but was a meer imagination contrary to the Attributes of God and to the Doctrines and designs of the Gospel and exceedingly pernicious to Christian Life and Vertue They alledg'd that Christ's Righteousness is no-where in Scripture said to be imputed That he is no otherwise made Righteousness to us then he is made Sanctification and Redemption that is He is the great Author and procurer of them and that in that sense he is the Lord our Righteousness They took notice how that by this odd Fanatick principle Personal Righteousness was undermin'd and disparaged and one of the first things the people were taught was to renounce their own Righteousness without restriction or limitation in which Counsel there is much shew of humility but much non-sense and much danger if it be not deliver'd and taken in a cautious sense For the Apostles and primitive Believers never renounc'd any Righteousness but that of the Mosaical dispensation in which some of them had gloried much before their conversion But after it were convinc'd It was nothing worth and counted it as dross and dung in respect of that Righteousness that Christ taught They never disparaged real inward Righteousness Yea they took ground of confidence and rejoycing from it viz. from the simplicity and sincerity of their conversation from their having a good Conscience in all things from their stedfastness amidst Tribulations and patience in their Sufferings and they plainly tell us That Religion was doing Righteousness and consisted in visiting the Widow and Fatherless and being unspotted with the World in denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts and living soberly righteously and Godly They warn us to beware of those deceivers that would perswade a man may be righteous withouâ—… doing righteously yea they declare the promises to be entail'd upon those that by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Immortality But said He I forget my self and run out too far into this Discourse in which I suppose I need not inform you the Scriptures being so full in it Here I took liberty to move a Question and ask'd him Whether those Divines did teach or allow Mens relying and depending on their own inward Vertues or outward Works To this he said They had not the least imagination that there was either Merit or Perfection in our qualifications or performances but that in those respects they renounc'd their own righteousness and obedience That they acknowledg'd and declared that our highest best services could never deserve the divine notice or acceptance by any worthiness in them But then added He They said also that Christ's obedience was Perfect and Meritorious and that God was so well satisfied with it that for his sake he promised to pardon the failings of our duties and to accept of Sincerity instead of Perfection That on this account our short defective righteousness was receiv'd as if it had been adaequate and compleat we being through Christ under a Covenant of Grace and Pardon and our obedience not judg'd according to strict measures and proportions but by the rules of mercy and favour Thus they stated that matter clearly and struck at the root of Antinomian follies and impostures ANd because Morality was despised by those elevated Fantasticks that talk'd so much of Imputed Righteousness in the false sense and accounted by them as a dull and low thing therefore those Divines labour'd in the asserting and vindicating of this Teaching the necessity of Moral Vertues That Christianity is the highest improvement of them That the meer first-table Religion is nothing without the works of the second That Zeal and Devoutness and delight in Hearing Prayer and other externals of worship may be in very evil men That Imitation and Custom and Pride and Self-love may produce these That these are no more then the Forms of Godliness That the power of it consists in subduing self-will and ruling our passions and moderating our appetites and doing the works of real Righteousness towards God and our Neighbour And because there was a Religion that had got into credit that did not make Men better but worse in all relations worse Governours and worse Subjects and worse Parents and worse Neighbours more sower and morose and fierce and censorious Therefore They prest Men to consider That the design of Religion was to perfect humane Nature To restore the empire of our minds over the will and affections To make them more temperate and contented in reference to themselves and more humble meek courteous charitable and just towards others On such things as these performed sincerely by the assistance and encouragement of Faith in Christ and from a desire to be ruled by his Laws they lay'd the whole stress ANd being the Age was unhappily dispos'd to place much Religion in their conceited Orthodoxy and Systems of Opinion to the destruction of Charity and Peace To the dissetlement of Religion and great hinderance of real Godliness They therefore zealously decryed this superstition of Opinions and smartly reproved Disputings and eagerness of contest about Notions and lesser Truths Shewing the inconveniencies and mischiefs of that spirit and it's inconsistency with Charity and the peace of Mankind They perswaded modestly in all extraessential Doctrines and suspence of judgement in things that were not absolutely certain and readiness to pardon the mistakes of those that differ from us in matters of speculation In order hereunto They made this one of their main Doctrines That The principles which are necessary to Salvation are very few and very plain and generally acknowledg'd among Christians This they taught and were earnest in it because they saw it would secure Charity
well learn'd to apply the Doctrines they had been taught that he that should endeavour to undeceive them was sure to hear what an Enemy this Reason this Carnal Reason this Vain Philosophy was to Free Grace and Faith and how little able to judge of those Rich those Precious those Spiritual Enjoyments 'T was time now in such an Age as this to assert the sober use of Reason and to rescue Religion by it And They did this happily and shamed all false pretences to the Spirit shewing That there was nothing but Nature and Complexion in the Illuminations Incomes Raptures Prophesies New Lights fluency of Expression mysteriousness of Phrase and other wonderful things of the Enthusiasts which were ignorantly taken to be Divine Communications to the great abuse of Religion and the Souls of Men Perceiving I say that this dangerous Phanatick Spirit was the evil Genius of the Age they bent all their force against it and detected the imposture and labour'd zealously to disabuse the credulous People who were exceeding apt to be taken with such glorious Nothings But of this I shall have another occasion to speak more ANd because the wildness of Enthusiasm and reproaches of Reason had expos'd Christianity it self to the Suspicions of some and Contempts of others as if it were a precarious unreasonable thing that depended only upon Mens Fancies Therefore here They labour'd also with very pious pains to demonstrate the Truth and Reasonableness of the Christian Religion The Beeing of God The Immortality of Humane Souls And Authority of Scripture which they did with much Zeal and much Judgment And these Doctrines were too seasonable and necessary in that Age in which the most glorious Professors laid the whole stress of Religion upon Fancies and thereby undermin'd the Foundations of Faith and Truth and by many Vanities and endless Divisions had made so many Infidels and unhappily dispos'd so many others to go the same way Against these therefore They bent their strength and rescued multitudes especially those of the springing Generation from the hands both of the Enthusiast and the Infidel Answering and discrediting all the new Pretensions and Objections both of the one and the other And their Endeavours here were very needful because the Ancient Books of those kinds were despis'd and neglected by the concern'd Parties and they were not so suitable to the Guize and Fashion of our Age and many Exceptions were started a-new and many other vain things boasted of to which those elder Discourses did not apply their force But these new Defenders of the Christian Truths met them all and spake the things that were suitable as well as those that were strong and true By these means the reasonable sober Spirit began to propagate and the Enthusiast who took notice of it and knew it would destroy his Glorious Imaginations rais'd a loud clamour against these Men as Socinians and advancers of Proud Reason above Free Grace and Faith From this envious and foolish Charge they sufficiently justified themselves by several Sermons and publick Determinations in their Academical Solemnities against the chief Principles of Socinianism sirenously asserting the Deity of Christ and Immortality of Humane Souls c. and vigorously opposing the main Socinian Tenents In consequence of which they shew'd the sure and safe ways to destroy those Opinions without hurting the Catholick Doctrines which many had wounded to do them spight and in this Design some of them appeared in publick with great success HAving thus asserted the Honour of our Faculties and maintain'd the Fundamental Interests of Religion They took notice what unworthy and dishonourable Opinions were publish'd abroad concerning God to the disparagement of all his Attributes and discouragement of vertuous Endeavours and great trouble and dejection of many pious Minds and therefore here they appear'd also to assert and vindicate the Divine Goodness and love of Men in its freedom and extent against those Doctrines that made his Love Fondness and his Justice Cruelty and represented God as the Eternal Hater of the far greatest part of his reasonable Creatures and the designer of their Ruine for the exaltation of meer Power and arbitrary Will Against these sowr and dismal Opinions They stood up stoutly in a time when the Assertors of the Divine Purity and Goodness were persecuted bitterly with nick-names of Reproach and popular Hatred They gave sober Accounts of the Nature of God and his Attributes suitable to those Declarations of himself he hath made by the Scriptures and our Reasons They shew'd continually how impossible it was that Infinite Goodness should design or delight in the misery of his Creatures That God never acts by meer arbitrary Will but by a Will directed by the Perfections of his Nature That to act arbitrarily is Imperfection and Impotence That he is tyed by the excellency of his Beeing to the Laws of Right and Just and that there are independent Relations of True and Good among things antecedent to all Will and Vnderstanding which are indispensible and eternal That Goodness is the Fountain of all his Communications and Actions ad extra That to glorifie God is rightly to apprehend and celebrate his Perfections by our Words and by our Actions That Goodness is the chief moral Perfection That Power without Goodness is Tyranny and Wisdom without it is but Craft and Subtilty and Justice Cruelty when destitute of Goodness That God is not pleased with our Praises otherwise than as they are the suitable Actings of his Creatures and tend to make them love him in order to their being happy in him By such Principles as These which are wonderfully fertile and big of many great Truths they undermined and from the bottom overthrew the fierce and churlish Reprobatarian Doctrines And those Truths they proved from the Scripture and the Nature of God and Reason of Things with all possible clearness and strength of Evidence OBserving further That Faith was preach'd up as the whole of Religion and that represented variously phantastickly and after an unintelligible manner drest up in Metaphors and Phrases and dangerous Notions that prescinded it from Good Works and made them unnecessary Here they appeared also and detected the vanity and canting of this Airy Divinity Stating the Notion of Faith plainly and clearly and stripping it out of its Chymerical cloathing Teaching That Faith in the general is the Belief of a Proposition affirm'd and Divine Faith the belief of a Divine Testimony and Evangelical Saving Faith such a Belief as works on the Will and Affections and produceth the Works of Righteousness So that the Faith that is said to justifie in the forensick sense is a complex thing and takes in an Holy Life and all the Graces of the Spirit which are call'd by the name of Faith because that is the Root of all the rest Thus they asserted the necessity of a real inward Righteousness against the Solifidian and Antinomian Heresies which had poison'd the whole Body of the then Current
name of Philosophers as if those Ages as the Turks now had a reverence for Madmen For many of their Actions and Opinions were very wild freaks of Fancy and Humour and would gain Men in these days as foolish and bad as they are no better name than that of Lunaticks or Bedlams This will appear to any one that shall impartially survey the Histories of their Lives if those Accounts were true that are given of them But indeed there is reason enough to doubt that For the Relations we have of old times are usually very fabulous and uncertain and where the Grecians were concern'd as much as any where for they had the same Character given them that the Apostle bestows upon the Cretians Graecia mendax Which among other things shews how little reason there is we should be superstitiously fond of the broken dublous imperfect Remains of those days But methinks those Philosophers should be greater Men than they were made in those Histories of their Lives and Doctrines or else one may justly wonder how their Names come down to us with so much Renown and Glory But to return to more particular Discourse of the Scepticks Besides Those anciently that had that name without just ground sometimes affixt on them several worthy Moderns have suffer'd under the imputation and indeed by some all Men are accounted Scepticks who dare dissent from the Aristotelian Doctrines and will not slavishly subscribe all the Tenents of that Dictator in Philosophy which they esteem the only true and certain Foundations of Knowledg This learned Man seems to be one of those for the great Gassendus is charged with so much Scepticism on this account that he writ an Exercitation against Aristotle p. 2. and those that slight Aristotle's Grounds saith our Author in his Preface to the Universities must of necessity being always in quest of Principles ever fall short of Science Aristotle's Works it seems are the infallibe Canon of Truth and Certainty in him are hid all the Treasures of natural Wisdom and Knowledg and there is no name given under Heaven by which we can be saved from Scepticism and everlasting uncertainty but his If this be so all the modern Free Philosophers must be Scepticks and there is no help and the Author of the Vanity of Dogmatizing hath no way to escape the imputation nor indeed if this be all hath he any concern to avoid it But the Learned Man may be remembred that in one respect they are not Scepticks being confident in this belief that the Principles of Aristotle are not such Certainties but that 't is possible succeeding Mankind may sometime or other find error and imperfection in them and discover if it have not been done already that they are not the infallible Measures of Truth and Nature But the Free Philosophers are by others accounted Scepticks from their way of enquiry which is not to continue still poring upon the Writings and Opinions of Philosophers but to seek Truth in the Great Book of Nature and in that search to proceed with wariness and circumspection without too much forwardness in establishing Maxims and positive Doctrines To propose their Opinions as Hypotheseis that may probably be the true accounts without peremptorily affirming that they are This among others hath been the way of those Great Men the Lord Bacon and Des-Cartes and is now the method of the Royal Society of London whose Motto is Nutâ—…ius in Verba This is Scepticism with some and if it be so indeed 't is such Scepticism as is the only way to sure and grounded Knowledge to which confidence in uncertain Opinions is the most fatal Enemy Nor doth the Learned Man accuse me of any more than this in his Preface in which he thus speaks I am not angry with the Man who with a great deal of Wit and an unfordable stream of Eloquence excessive courtesie which will ripen with his years prosecutes what he proposeth to himself and takes for a truth not without some savour of modesty For neither doth he derogate from Faith the power of teaching its Tenents nor disclaim all hopes of attaining Science hereafter through a laborious amasement of Experiments Here I am absolv'd from being a Sceptick in the ill sense For I neither derogate from Faith nor despair of Science and the Opinions of those of that character are directly destructive of the one and everlasting discouragements of the other Or if I should affirm that I despair of Science strictly and properly so call'd in the Affairs of Philosophy and Nature If I should say we are to expect no more from our Experiments and Inquiries than great likelyhood and such degrees of probability as might deserve an hopeful assent yet thus much of diffidence and uncertainty would not make me a Sceptick since They taught That no one thing was more probable than an other and so with-held assent from all things So that upon the whole I cannot but wonder that this Philosopher who seems to be so concern'd for the advancement of Knowledg should oppose me in a Design that hath the same end only we differ in the Means and Method For he thinks it is best promoted by perswading that Science is not Vncertainty and I suppose that Men need to be convinc'd that Vncertainties are not Science Now the progress of Knowledg being stopt by extreme Confidence on the one hand and Diffidence on the other I think that both are necessary though perhaps one is more seasonable For to believe that every thing is certain is as great a disinterest to Science as to conceive that nothing is so Opinion of Fulness being as my Lord Bacon notes among the Causes of Want So that after all we differ but in this That the Learned Man thinks it more sutable to the necessities of the present Age to depress Scepticism and it may be I look on Dogmatizing and confident Belief as the more dangerous and common Evil And indeed between the Slaves of Superstition and Enthusiasm Education and Interest almost all the World are Dogmatists while Scepticks are but some more desperate Renegado's whose Intellects are either debauched by Vice or turn'd out of the way by the unreasonable Confidence of vain Opiniators In opposing whose Presumptions I designed also against the neutrality of the Scepticks and did not conceited Scioluts ascribe so much to their Opinions there would be no need of SCIRI'S or Perswasives to easie and peremptory Assents which indeed have more need of Restraints than Incentives since 't is the nature of Man to be far more apt to confide in his Conceptions than to distrust them and 't is a question whether there be any Scepticks in good earnest So that I am so far from deserving Reproof from the Adversaries of Intellectual Diffidence that were there reason for either I might expect Acknowledgments For Confidence in Uncertainties is the greatest Enemy to what is certain and were I a Sceptick I would plead for Dogmatizing the way to bring Men
his Nature The belief of these is necessary to all the parts of Religion He that comes unto God in any way of Worship or Address must know that he is and in some measure what Namely he must know and own the commonly acknowledg'd Attributes of his Being 2. A second necessary Principle is The Providenee of God viz. the Knowledge That he made us and not we our selves that he preserves us and daily provides for us the good things we enjoy This is necessary to the Duties of Prayer Praise and Adoration And if there be no Providence Prayer and Thanksgiving and other Acts of Worship are in vain 3. A third Fundamental is Moral Good and Evil. Without this there can be no confession of Sin no respect to Charity Humility Justice Purity or the rest that we call Vertues These will be confes'd to be Fundamentals of Religion And I shall not dispute how many more may be admitted into the number These we are sure are such in the strictest sense for all Religion supposeth and stands upon them And they have been acknowledg'd by Mankind in all Ages and Places of the World But besides these there are other Principles of Religion which are not in the same degree of absolute necessity with the former but yet are highly serviceable by way of incouragement and assistance I reckon four viz. 1 That God will pardon us if we repent 2. That he will assist us if we endeavour 3. That he will accept of Services that are imperfect if they are sincere 4. That he will righteously reward and punish in another World These contain the Matter and Substance of the Gospel more clearly and explicitly reveal'd to the Christian Church but in some measure owned also by the Gentiles So that I may reckon that the Principles I have mention'd are the sum of the Religion of Mankind I mean as to the Doctrinal Part of it and the Duties recited before are the Substance of the Practical which primarily and most essentially is Religion And Christianity takes in all these Duties and all these Principles advancing the Duties to higher degrees of Excellency and Perfection incouraging them by new Motives and Assistances and superadding two other Instances Baptism and the Lord's Supper And for the Principles it confirms those of Natural Religion it explains them further and discovers some few new ones And all these both of the former and the latter sort are contain'd in the Creed Here are all the Fundamentals of Religion and the main Assisting Principles also And though our Church require our assent to more Propositions yet those are only Articles of Communion not Doctrines absolutely necessary to Salvation And if we go beyond the Creed for the Essentials of Faith who can tell where we shall stop The sum is Religion primarily is Duty And Duty is All that which God hath commanded to be done by his Word or our Reasons and we have the substance of these in the Commandments Religion also in a secondary sense consists in some Principles relating to the Worship of God and of his Son in the ways of devout and vertuous living and these are comprised in that Summary of Belief called the Apostles Creed This I take to be Religion and this Religion I shall prove to be reasonable But I cannot undertake for all the Opinions some Men are pleased to call Orthodox nor for all those that by many private Persons and some Churches are accounted essential Articles of Faith and Salvation Thus I have stated what I mean by Religion The OTHER thing to be determined and fixt is the proper Notion of Reason For this we may consider that Reason is sometimes taken for Reason in the Faculty which is the Vnderstanding and at other times for Reason in the Object which consists in those Principles and Conclusions by which the Understanding is informed This latter is meant in the Dispute concerning the Agreement or Disagreement of Reason and Religion And Reason in this sense is the same with natural Truth which I said is made up of Principles and Conclusions By the Principles of Reason we are not to understand the Grounds of any Man's Philosophy nor the Critical Rules of Syllogism but those imbred Fundamental Notices that God hath implanted in our Souls such as arise not from external Objects nor particular Humours or Imaginations but are immediately lodged in our Minds independent upon other Principles or Deductions commanding a sudden assent and acknowledged by all sober Mankind Of this sort are these That God is a Being of all Perfection That nothing hath no Attributes That a Thing cannot be and not be That the Whole is greater than any of its Parts These and such-like are unto Vs what Instincts are to other Creatures And these I call the Principles of Reason The Conclusions are those other Notices that are inferred rightly from these and by their help from the Observations of Sense And the remotest of them that can be conceived if it be duly inferred from the Principles of Reason or rightly circumstantiated Sense is as well to be reckoned a Part and Branch of Reason as the more immediate Conclusions that are Principles in respect of those distant Truths And thus I have given an account also of the proper Notion and Nature of Reason I AM to shew next 2. That Religion is reasonable and this implies two things viz. That Reason is a Friend to Religion and that Religion is so to Reason I begin with the FIRST and here I might easily shew the great congruity that there is between that Light and those Laws that God hath placed in our Souls and the Duties of Religion that by the expressness of his written Word he requires from us and demonstrate that Reason teacheth All those excepting only the two Positives Baptism and the Holy Eucharist But there is not so much need of turning my Discourse that way and therefore I shall confine it to the Principles of Religion which are called Faith and prove that Reason exceedingly befriends these It doth this I. By proving some of those Principles And II. By defending all For the clearing both let us consider That the Principles of Religion are of two sorts Either 1. Such as are presupposed to Faith or such as 2. are formal Articles of it Of the first are The Being of a God and the Authority of the Scripture And of the second such as are expresly declared by Divine Testimony as the Attributes of God the Incarnation of his Son and such like I. For the former they are proved by Reason and by Reason only The others we shall consider after 1. That the Being of a God the Foundation of all is proved by Reason the Apostle acknowledgeth when he saith That what was to be known of God was manifest and to the Heathen Rom. 1. 19. and he adds vers 20. That the invisible Things from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the Things that are
that relate such Matters and that it doth in the present case proving the Authority of Scripture and thereby in a remoter way it demonstrates all the Mysteries of Faith which the Divine Oracles immediately discover And it is no more disparagement to our Reasons that they cannot evince those Sacred Articles by their own unaided force than it is a disgrace unto them that they cannot know that there are such things as Colours without the help of our Eyes or that there are Sounds without the faculty of Hearing And if Reason must be called blind upon this account because it cannot know of it self such things as belong to Testimony to discover the best Eyes in the World may be so accounted because they cannot see Sounds and the best Palate dull and dead because it cannot taste the Sun-Beams But though I have said That Reason cannot of it self immediately prove the Truths of pure Revelation Yet 1. it demonstrates the Divine Authority of the Testimony that declares them and that way proves even these Articles If this be not enough I add thesecond Assertion 2. That Reason defends all the Mysteries of Faith and Religion And for this I must desire it be noted That there are two ways whereby any thing may be defended viz. Either 1. by shewing the manner how the thing is Or if that cannot be done by shewing 2. That it ought to be believed though the manner of it be not known For instance if any one denies That all sorts of Creatures were in the Ark under pretence that it is impossible they should be contained within such a space He that can shew how this might be by a distinct enumeration of the kinds of Animals with due allowance for the unknown Species and a computation of the particular capacity of the Ark he defends the Sacred History the first way But if another denies the conversion of Aaron's Rod into a Serpent upon the same account of the unconceivableness of the manner how it was done this cannot indeed be defended the former way But then it may by representing that the Power of God is infinite and can easily do what we cannot comprehend and that we ought to believe upon the credit of the Testimony that being well proved to us though the manner of this miraculous performance and such others as it relates be unknown And as it is in this last case so it is in all the Mysteries of Faith and Religion Reason cannot defend them indeed the first way But it doth the second by shewing That the Divine Nature is infinite and our Conceptions very shallow and finite that 't is therefore very unreasonable in us to indeavour to pry into the Secrets of his Being and Actions and to think that we can measure and comprehend them That we know not the Essence and Ways of acting of the most ordinary and obvious Things of Nature and therefore must not expect throughly to understand the deeper Things of God That God hath revealed those Holy Mysteries unto us and that 't is the highest reason in the World to believe That what be saith is true though we do not know how these things are These are all Considerations of Reason and by the proposal of them it sufficiently defends all the Mysteries that can be proved to be contained in the Sacred Volume and shews that they ought to be received by us though they cannot be comprehended Thus if any one should ask me How the Divine Nature is united to the Humane and declare himself unwilling to believe the Article till he could be satisfied how My answer would be in short That I cannot tell and yet I believe it is so and he ought to believe the same upon the credit of the Testimony though we are both ignorant of the Manner In order to which I would suggest that we believe innumerable things upon the evidence of our Senses whose Nature and Properties we do not know How the parts of Matter cohere and how the Soul is united to the Body are Questions we cannot answer and yet that such things are we do not doubt And why saith Reason should we not believe God's Revelation of things we cannot comprehend as well as we do our Senses about Matters as little understood by us 'T is no doubt reasonable that we should and by proving it is so Reason defends all the Propositions of Faith and Religion And when some of these are said to be above Reason no more is meant Than that Reason cannot conceive how those things are and in that sense many of the Affairs of Nature are above it too Thus I have shewn how serviceable Reason is to Religion I am next to prove That II. Religion befriends it And here I offer some Testimonies from the Holy Oracles to make that good and in them we shall see how God himself and Christ and his Apostles do own and acknowledge Reason I consider 1. that God Isa. 1. 18. calls the rebellious Israelites to reason with him Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord and by Reason he convinceth the People of the vanity of Idols Isa. 44.9 And he expostulates with their Reasons Ezek. 18. 31. Why will ye die O ye House of Israel And Mich. 6. 3. O my People what have I done unto thee And wherein have I wearied thee Testifie against me He appeals unto their Reasons to judge of his proceedings Isa. 5. 3. And now O inhabitants of Jerusalem and Men of Judah judge I pray you between me and my vineyard are not my ways equal and are not your ways unequal In this he intimates the competency of their Reasons to judge of the equity of his Ways and the iniquity of their own And 2. our Saviour commands the Disciples of the Pharisees to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's implying the ability of their Reasons to distinguish between the things that belonged to God and those that appertained to Caesar. And he in divers places argues from the Principles and Topicks of Reason From that which we call à majori ad minus from the greater to the less John 13. 14. He shews it to be the duty of his Disciples to serve their Brethren in the meanest Offices and to wash one another's feet because he had washed theirs Vers. 14. inforcing it by this consideration of Reason For the Servant is not greater than his Lord Vers. 26. and useth the same John 15. 20. to shew that they must expect Persecution because He their Lord was persecuted And Luke 12. 23. He endeavours to take them off from carking care and sollicitude about Meat and Raiment by this consideration from Reason That the Life is more than Meat and the Body than Raiment intimating that God having given them the greater there was no doubt but he would bestow the less which was necessary for the preservation of it To these Instances I add some few from the Topick
deduce some Corollaries that may be of use for the better understanding of the whole Matter 1. Reason is certain and infallible This follows from the state I gave of the Nature and Notion of Reason in the beginning It consists in First Principles and the Conclusions that are raised from them and the Observations of Sense Now first Principles are certain or nothing can be so for every possible Conclusion must be drawn from those or by their help and every Article of Faith supposeth them And for the Propositions that arise from those certain Principles they are certain likewise For nothing can follow from Truth but Truth in the longest Series of Deduction If Error creep in there is ill consequence in the case And the sort of Conclusions that arise from the Observations of Sense if the Sense be rightly circumstantiated and the Inference rightly made are certain also For if our Senses in all their due Circumstances deceive us All is a delusion and we are sure of nothing But we know that first Principles are certain and that our Senses do not deceive us because God that bestowed them upon us is True and Good and we are as much assured that whatever we duly conclude from either of them is certain because whatever is drawn from any Principle was virtually contained in it 2. I infer That Reason is in a sense the Word of God viz. That which he hath written upon our Minds and Hearts as Scripture is that which is written in a Book The former is the Word whereby he hath spoken to all Mankind the latter is that whereby he hath declared his Will to the Church and his peculiar People Reason is that Candle of the Lord of which Solomon speaks Prov. 20. 27. That Light whereby Christ hath enlightned every one that cometh into the World John 1. 9. And that Law whereby the Consciences of the Heathen either accuse or excuse one another Rom. 2. 15. So that Hierocles spoke well when he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be perswaded by God and right Reason is one and the same thing And Luther called Philosophy within its own bounds The Truth of God 3. The belief of our Reason is an Exercise of Faith and Faith is an Act of Reason The former part is clear from the last Particular and we believe our Reasons because we have them from God who cannot mistake and will not deceive So that relying on them in things clearly perceived is trust in God's veracity and goodness and that is an exercise of Faith Thus Luke 12. The not belief of Reason that suggests from God's clothing the Lillies that He will provide for us is made by our Saviour a defect of Faith Vers. 28. O ye of little Faith And for the other part that Faith is an Act of Reason that is evident also For 'T is the highest Reason to believe in God revealing 4. No Principle of Reason contradicts any Articles of Faith This follows upon the whole Faith befriends Reason and Reason serves Religion and therefore they cannot clash They are both certain both the Truths of God and one Truth doth not interfere with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle Truth agrees with all things that are Whatsoever contradicts Faith is opposite to Reason for 't is a Fundamental Principle of that That God is to be believed Indeed sometimes there is a seeming contradiction between them But then either something is taken for Faith that is but Phansie or something for Reason that is but Sophistry or the supposed contradiction is an Error and Mistake 5. When any thing is pretended from Reason against any Article of Faith we ought not to cut the Knot by denying Reason but endeavour to unite it by answering the Argument and 't is certain it may be fairly answered For all Hereticks argue either from false Principles or fallaciously conclude from true ones So that our Faith is to be defended not by declaiming against Reason in such a case which strengthens the Enemy and to the great prejudice of Religion allows Reason on his side But we must endeavour to defend it either by discovering the falshood of the Principles he useth in the name of Reason or the ill Consequence which he calls Proof 6. When any thing is offered us for an Article of Faith that seems to contradict Reason we ought to see that there be good cause to believe that this is divinely revealed and in the sense propounded If it be we may be assured from the former Aphorisms that the Contradiction is but an Appearance and it may be discovered to be so But if the Contradiction be real This can be no Article of Revelation or the Revelation hath not this sense For God cannot be the Author of Contradictions and we have seen that Reason as well as Faith is his I mean the Principles of Natural Truth as well as those of Revelation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith Aristotle Truth is throughout contrary to falshood and what is true in Divinity cannot be false in Reason 'T is said indeed in the Talmud If two Rabbins differ in Contradictories yet both have their Opinions from Moses and from God But we are not obliged to such an irrational kind of Faith And ought not to receive any thing as an Article of it in a sense that palpably contradicts Reason no more than we may receive any sense that contradicts the direct Scriptures Faith and Reason accord as well as the Old Testament and the New and the Analogy of Reason is to be heeded also because even that is Divine and Sacred 7. There is nothing that God hath revealed to oblige our Faith but he hath given us reason to believe that he hath revealed it For though the thing be never so clearly told me if I have not reason to think that God is the Revealer of what is so declared I am not bound to believe it except there be evidence in the thing it self For 't is not Faith but vain credulity to believe every thing that pretends to be from God So that we ought to ask our selves a Reason why we believe the Scripture to be the Revelation of God's Will and ought not to assent to any sense put upon it till we have ground to think that that sense is his mind I say we must have ground either from our particular Reasons or the Authority of the Church otherwise our Faith is vain Credulity and not Faith in God 8. A Man may hold an erroneous Opinion from a mistaken sense of Scripture and deny what is the truth of the Proposition and what is the right meaning of the Text and yet not err in Faith For Faith is a belief of God revealing And if God have not so revealed this or that as to give us certain ground to believe this to be his sense he hath not sufficiently revealed it to oblige our Faith So that though I deny such or such a sense while I believe
it is not from God his veracity and Authority is not concerned since I am ready however to give a chearful assent to what-ever is clearly and sufficiently revealed This Proposition follows from the former and must be understood only of those Doctrines that are difficult and obscurely delivered And that many things are so delivered in Scripture is certain For some are only hinted and spoken occasionally some figuratively and by way of Parable and Allegory some according to Mens Conceptions and some in Ambiguous and Aenigmatical Phrases which Obscurities may occasion mistake in those who are very ready to believe what-ever God saith and when they do I should be loth to say that such err in Faith Though those that wrest plain Texts to a compliance with their Interests and their Lusts Though their Affections may bring their Judgments to vote with them yet theirs is Error in Faith with a witness and capable of no benefit from this Proposition 9. In searching after the sense of Scripture we ought to consult the Principles of Reason as we do other Scriptures For we have shewn That Reason is another part of God's Word And though the Scripture be sufficient for its own end yet Reason must be presupposed unto it for without this Scripture cannot be used nor compared nor applied nor understood 10. The Essentials of Religion are so plainly revealed that no Man can miss them that hath not a mighty corrupt bias in his Will and Affections to infatuate and blind his Vnderstanding Those Essentials are contained in the Decalogue and the Creed Many speculative remoter Doctrines may be true but not Fundamental For 't is not agreeable to the goodness or justice of God that Mens eternal Interests should depend upon things that are difficult to be understood and easily mistaken If they did No Man could be secure but that do what he could he should perish everlastingly for not believing or believing amiss some of those difficult Points that are supposed necessary to Salvation and all those that are ignorant and of weak understanding must perish without help or they must be saved by implicit Faith in unknown Fundamentals THESE are some Propositions that follow from my Discourse and from one another The better they are considered the more their force will be perceived and I think they may serve for many very considerable purposes of Religion Charity and the peace of Mankind ANd now as a Conclusion to the whole I shall add some Considerations of the dangerous tendency of the common practice at least among the Sects of declaiming against Reason as an Enemy to Religion 1. It tends to the introduction of Atheism Infidelity and Scepticism and hath already brought in a flood of these upon us For what advantage can the Atheist and Infidel expect greater than this That Reason is against Religion What do they pretend What can they propose more If so there will be no proving That there is a God or That the Scripture is his Word and then we believe gratis and our Faith hangs upon Humour and Imagination and that Religion that depends upon a warm Phansie and an ungrounded belief stands but till a Disease or a new Conceit alter the Scene of Imagination and then down falls the Castle whose Foundation was in the Air. 'T was the charge of Julian the Apostate against the Primitive Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That their Wisdom was to believe as if they had no ground for their Faith And those that renounce and decry Reason justifie Julian in his Charge If this be so Religion will have no bottom but the Phansie of every one that professeth it and how various and inconstant a thing Imagination is every Man knows These are the Consequences of defamations of Reason on the pretended account of Religion and we have seen in multitudes of deplorable Instances That they follow in practice as well as reasoning Men of corrupt inclinations suspect that there is no Reason for our Faith and Religion and so are upon the borders of quitting it And the Enthusiast that pretends to know Religion best tells them that these Suspicions are very true and thence the Debauchee gladly makes the desperate Conclusion Or at least when they hear that Reason is uncertain various and fallacious they deny all credit to their Faculties and become confounded Scepticks that settle in nothing This I take to have been one of the greatest and most deadly occasions of the Atheism of our days and he that hath rejected Reason may be one when he pleaseth and cannot reprehend or reduce any one that is so already 2. The denial of Reason in Religion hath been the principal Engine that Hereticks and Enthusiasts have used against the Faith and that which lays us open to infinite follies and impostures Thus the Arrians quarrelled with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was deduced by consequence but not expressed in Scripture The Apollinarists would by no means allow of Reason And St. Austin saith of the Donatists that they did calumniate and decry It to raise prejudice against the Catholick Faith and elsewhere Doctores vestri Hominem dialecticum fugiendum potius cavendum quà m refellendum censuerunt The Vbiquitarians defend their Errors by denying the judgment of Reason and the Macedonians would not have the Deity of the Holy Ghost proved by Consequence The later Enthusiasts in Germany and other places set up loud and vehement out-cries against Reason and the Lunaticks among us that agree in nothing else do yet sweetly accord in opposing this Carnal Reason and this indeed is their common Interest The impostures of Mens Phansies must not be seen in too much light and we cannot dream with our eyes open Reason would discover the nakedness of Sacred Whimsies and the vanity of Mysterious Non-sense This would disparage the Darlings of the Brain and cool the pleasant heats of kindled Imagination And therefore Reason must be decryed because an enemy to madness and Phansie set up under the Notion of Faith and Inspiration Hence Men had got the trick to call every thing that was Consequent and Reasonable Vain Philosophy and every thing that was Sober Carnal Reasoning Religion is set so far above Reason that at length it is put beyond Sobriety and Sense and then 't was fit to be believed when 't was impossible to be proved or understood The way to be a Christian is first to be a Brute and to be a true Believer in this Divinity is to be fit for Bedlam Men have been taught to put out their eyes that they might see and to hoodwink themselves that they might avoid the Precipices Thus have all Extravagancies been brought into Religion beyond the Imaginations of a Fever and the Conceits of Midnight Whatever is phansied is certain and whatever is vehement is Sacred every thing must be believed that is dream'd and every thing that is absurd is a Mystery And by this way Men in our days have been prepared to swallow
God and had eminently his Superscription on them shall be ascribed to the Agency of Evil Spirits and Diabolical Compact as they were by the malicious and spightful Pharisees when those great and last Testimonies against Infidelity shall be said to be but the Tricks of Sorcery and Complotment with Hellish Confederates This is Blasphemy in the highest against the Power and Spirit of God and such as cuts of all means of Conviction and puts the Unbeliever beyond all possibilities of Cure For Miracles are God's Seal and the great and last Evidence of the truth of any Doctrine And though while these are only dis-believed as to the Fact there remains a possibility of Perswasion yet when the Fact shall be acknowledg'd but the Power Blasphemed and the Effects of the Adorable Spirit maliciously imputed to the Devils such a Blasphemy such an Infidelity is incurable and consequently unpardonable I say in sum the Sin against the Holy Ghost seems to be a malicious imputation of the Miracles wrought by the Spirit of God in our Saviour to Satanical Confederacy and the Power of Apostate Spirits Then which nothing is more blasphemous and nothing is more like to provoke the Holy Spirit that is so abused to an Eternal Dereliction of so Vile and so Incurable an Unbeliever This account as 't is clear and reasonable in it self so it is plainly lodg'd in the mention'd Discourse of our Saviour And most of those that speak other things about it seem to me to talk at random and perfectly without Book I Have thus endeavoured to remove the Main Prejudices against the belief of Witches and Apparitions and I 'me sure I have suggested much more against what I defend than ever I heard or saw in any that opposed it whose Discourses for the most part have seemed to me inspired by a lofty scorn of common belief and some trivial Notions of Vulgar Philosophy And in despising the Common Faith about Matters of Fact and fondly adhering to it in things of Speculation they very grosly and absurdly mistake For in things of Fact the People are as much to be believ'd as the most subtile Philosophers and Speculators since here Sense is the Judge But in Matters of Notion and Theory They are not at all to be heeded because Reason is to be Judge of these and this they know not how to use And yet thus it is with those wise Philosophers that will deny the plain Evidence of the Senses of Mankind because they cannot reconcile Appearances to the fond Fancies of a Philosophy which they lighted on in the High-way by Chance and will adhere to at adventure So that I profess for mine own part I never yet heard any of the confident Declaimers against Witchcraft and Apparitions speak any thing that might move a Mind in any degree instructed in the generous kinds of Philosophy and Nature of things And for the Objections I have recited they are most of them such as rose out of mine own Thoughts which I obliged to consider what might be to be said upon this occasion For though I have examined Scot's Discovery sancying that there I should find the strong Reasons of Mens dis-belief in this Matter Yet I met not with any thing in that Farrago that was considerable For the Author doth little but tell odd Tales and silly Legends which he confutes and laughs at and pretends this to be a Confuration of the Being of Witches and Apparitions In all which His Reasonings are Trifling and Childish and when He ventures at Philosophy He is little better than absurd So that I should wonder much if any but Boys and Buffoons should imbibe Prejudices against a Belief so infinitely confirmed from the loose and impotent Suggestions of so weak a Discourser But however observing two things in that Discourse that would pretend to be more than ordinary Reasons I shall do them the civility to examine them It is said 1. THat the Gospel is silent as to the Being of Witches and 't is not likely if there were such but that our Saviour or his Apostles had given intimations of their Existence The other is 2. MIracles are ceased and therefore the prodigious things ascribed to Witchcraft are supposed Dreams and Impostures For Answer to the First in order I consider 1. That though the History of the New Testament were granted to be silent in the Business of Witches and Compacts yet the Records of the Old have a frequent mention of them The Law Euod 22. 18. against permitting them to live is famous And we have another remarkable prohibition of them Deut. 18. 10. 11. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his Son or his Daughter pass through the Fire or that useth Divination or an Observer of Times or an Enchanter or 〈◊〉 Witch or a Charmer or a Consulter with Familiar Spirits or a Wizard or a Necromaneer Now this accumulation of Names some of which are of the same sense and import is a plain indication that the Hebrew Witch was one that practised by compact with evil Spirits And many of the same Expressions are put together in the Charge against Manasses 2 Chron. 33. viz. That he caused his Children to pass through the Fire observed Times used Inchantments and Witchcraft and dealt with Familiar Spirits and with Wizards So that though the Original word which we render Witch and Witchcraft should as our Sadduces urge signifie only a Cheat and a Poisoner yet those others mention'd plainly enough speak the thing and I have given an account in the former Considerations how a Witch in the common Notion is a Poisoner But why meer poisoning should have a distinct Law against it and not be concluded under the general one against Murder why meer Legerdemain and Cheating should be so severely animadverted on as to be reckon'd with Inchantments converse with Devils and Idolatrous Practices I believe the denyer of Witches will find it hard to give a reason To which I may add some other Passages of Scripture that yield sufficient evidence in the Case The Nations are forbid to hearken to the Diviners Dreamers Inchanters and Sorcerers Jer. 27. 9. The Chaldaeans are deeply threatned for their Sorceries and Inchantments Isa. 47.9 And we read that Nebuchadnezzar called the Magicians Astrologers Sorcerers and Chaldaeans to tell his Dream My mention of which last minds me to say that for ought I have to the contrary there may be a sort of Witches and Magicians that have no Familiars that they know nor any express Compact with Apostate Spirits who yet may perhaps act strange things by Diabolick Aids which they procure by the use of those Forms and wicked Arts that the Devil did first impart to his Confederates And we know not but the Laws of that Dark Kingdom may injoyn a particular attendance upon all those that practise their Mysteries whether they know them to be theirs or not For a great interest of their Empire may be served
Religion different from that of other Catholick Christians but were faithful adherers to the old acknowledg'd Christianity as it was taught by the Church of Bensalem To this Church they conform'd heartily though they were distinguishable from some others of her Sons by the application of their Genius and Endeavours I have told you They grew up among the Sects They were Born and Bred in that Age which they could not help But as they order'd the Matter it was no hurt to the Church or them that they were educated in bad times They had the occasion thence of understanding the Genius Humour and Principles of the Parties which those that stood always at distance from them could not so thorowly and inwardly know By that means they had great advantage for providing and applying the Remedies and Confutations that were proper and effectual And by daily Converse and near Observation they setled in their Minds a dislike of those ways that was greater and juster than the Antipathy of some others who saw only their out-sides that in many things were specious and plausible They studied in the Places where some of the chief of the Sects govern'd and those that were ripe for the Service preach'd publickly as other Academical Divines did This they scrupled not because they were young and had been under no explicit ingagements to those Laws that were then unhappily over-ruled But in those and in their other Vniversity-Exercises they much serv'd the Interest of the Church of Bensalem by undermining the Ataxites so the Sectaries are here call'd and propagating the Anti-fanatical Doctrines which they had entertain'd and improved So that I cannot look upon that Spirit otherwise than as an Antidote that Providence then seasonably provided against the deadly Infection of those days On which account they were by some call'd the Anti-fanites because of their peculiar opposition of the Fans or Fanites as the Ataxites were sometimes named And though some Persons thought fit to judge and spoke of Them as a new Sort of Divines Yet they were not to be so accounted in any sense of disparagement since the new Things they taught were but contradictions of the new Things that were introduced and new Errors and Pretences will occasion new ways of Opposition and Defence I have now I doubt said the Governor almost tired you with prefacing but these things were fit to be premised I exprest my self well-pleased both with the Matters he related and the order which he thought convenient to declare them in and so he proceeded to the second main Head Their particular Principles and Practices I MUST tell you then said He first That they took notice of the loud Out-cries and Declamations that were among all the Sects against Reason and observ'd how by that means all Vanities and Phanatick Devices were brought into Religion They saw There was no likelyhood any stop should be put to those Extravagancies of Fansie that were impudently obtruding themselves upon the World but by vindicating and asserting the use of Reason in Religion and therefore their private Discourses and publick Exercises ran much this way to maintain the sober use of our Faculties and to expose and shame all vain Enthusiasms And as Socrates of old first began the Reformation of his Age and reduced Men from the wildness of Fansie and Enthusiastick Fegaries with which they were overgrown by pleading for Reason and shewing the necessity and Religion that there is in hearkning to its Dictates So They in order to the cure of the madness of their Age were zealous to make Men sensible That Reason is a Branch and Beam of the Divine Wisdom That Light which he hath put into our Minds and that Law which he hath writ upon our Hearts That the Revelations of God in Scripture do not contradict what he hath engraven upon our Natures That Faith it self is an Act of Reason and is built upon these two Reasonable Principles That there is a God and That what he saith is true That our Erroneous Deductions are not to be call'd Reason but Sophistry Ignorance and Mistake That nothing can follow from Reason but Reason and that what so follows is as true and certain as Revelation That God never disparageth Reason in Scripture but that the vain Philosophy and Wisdom of this World there spoken against were Worldly Policies Jewish Genealogies Traditions and the Notional Philosophy of some Gentiles That Carnal Reason is the Reason of Appetite and Passion and not the Dictates of our Minds That Reason proves some Main and Fundamental Articles of Faith and defends all by proving the Authority of Holy Scripture That we have no cause to take any thing for an Article of Faith till we see Reason to believe that God said it and in the sense wherein we receive such a Doctrine That to decry and disgrace Reason is to strike up Religion by the Roots and to prepare the World for Atheism According to such Principles as these They managed their Discourses about this Subject They stated the Notions of Faith and Reason clearly and endeavour'd to deliver the Minds of Men from that confusedness in those Matters which blind Zeal had brought upon them that so they might not call Vain Sophistry by the name of Humane Reason and rail at this for the sake of Fallacy and the Impostures of Ignorance and Fancy Hereby they made some amends for the dangerous rashness of those inconsiderate Men who having heard others defame Reason as an Enemy to Faith set up the same Cry and fill'd their Oratories with the terrible noise of Carnal Reason Vain Philosophy and such other misapplyed words of reproach without having ever clearly or distinctly consider'd what they said or whereof they affirm'd And this they did too at a time when the World was posting a-pace into all kinds of madness as if they were afraid the half-distracted Religionists would not run fast enough out of their Wits without their Encouragement and Assistance And as if their Design had been to credit Phrensie and Enthusiasm and to disable all proof that could be brought against them This I believe many of those well-meaning Canters against Reason did not think of though what they did had a direct tendency that way And accordingly it succeeded For the conceited People hearing much of Incomes Illuminations Communions Lights Discoveries Sealings Manifestations and Impressions as the Heights of Religion and then being told that Reason is a low Carnal Thing and not to judge in these Spiritual Matters That it is a Stranger to them and at enmity with the Things of God I say the People that were so taught could not chuse but be taken with the wild Exstatical Enthusiasts who made the greatest boasts of these glorious Priviledges nor could they easily avoid looking upon the glarings of their own Imaginations and the warmths and impulses of their Melancholy as Divine Revelations and Illapses To this dangerous pass thousands were brought by such Preachments and had so
of his affirmations and the strange effects of his distemper others are perswaded into the same vain opinion of him that he hath of himself to the great disparagement of Religion and deception of the simple This whole mystery of vanity and delusion They lay'd open to the World and shew'd that all was but a natural disease and far enough from being sacred or supernatural That very evil Men and even the Heathen Priests have felt all those effects and pretended to the same wonderâ—… and were as much inspired and divinely acted as those exstatical Dreamers 5. And whereas those high flown Enthusiasts talk'd much of mysteries and the Sects generally contending which should out-do the other here made up their schemes of divinity of absurdities and strange unintelligible fancies and then counted their groundless belief of those wild freaks a great sign and exercise of Faith and spirituality The Divines of whom I am speaking imploy'd themselves worthily to detect this taking imposture also They gave the true senses in in which the Gospel is a mystery viz. A secret hid in the councils of God and not discoverable by reason or humane enquiries till he was pleased in the fulness of time to unfold it clearly and explicitly by his Son and by his Spirit who revealed the mystery that had been hid from ages That Religion may yet be call'd a mystery as it is an Art that hath difficulty in the practice of it And though all it 's main necessary Articles are asserted so clearly that they may be known by every sincere Inquirer and in that respect have no darkness or obscurity upon them Yet They asserted that some of those propositions may be styled mysterious being inconceiveable as to the manner of them Thus the Immaculate Conception of our Saviour for instance is very plain as to the thing being reveal'd clearly That it was Though unexplicable and unreveal'd as to the mode How They said That our Faith is not concern'd in the manner which way this or that is except where it is expressly and plainly taught in Scripture but that the belief of the simple Article is sufficient So that we are not to puzzle our selves with contradictions and knots of subtilty and fancy and then call them by the name of mysteries That to affect these is dangerous vanity and to believe them is silliness and credulity That by and on the occasion of such pretended mysteries The simplicity of the Gospel hath been destroy'd the minds of Men infatuated sober Christians despis'd the peace of the Church disturb'd the honour of Religion expos'd the practice of holiness and vertue neglected and the World dispos'd to Infidelity and Atheism it self 6. And since the being Orthodox in Doctrine and sound in their new concâ—…ed Faith was in those times a great matter and one mark of Saint-ship as errour on the other hand was of unregeneracy and Reprobation They shew'd That bare knowledge of points of Doctrine was nothing worth in comparison of Charity Humility and Meckness That it did not signify in the divine esteem without these and such other concomitant Graces That a man was never the better for being in the right opinion if he were proud contentious and ungovernable with it That ignorance and mistake in lesser things when joyn'd with modesty and submission to God and our Governours was much to be prefer'd before empty turbulent and conceited Orthodoxy That errors of judgment are truly infirmities that will not be imputed if there be no corrupt and vicious mixture with them That they are not hurt to him whom they do not seduce and mislead nor do they make any alteration in our state That God pardons them in us and we ought to overlook and pass them by in one another By such ways and representations as these They disabl'd the main works wherby the fond Ataxites concluded themselves to be the Godly and destroy'd the chief grounds on which they built their proudest pretences So that their wings being clipt they came down to the ordinary level with other mortals leaving the title of Godliness and Saint-ship to be made out by quiet devotion and self-government by Meekness and Charity Justice and Patience Modesty and Humility Vniversal Obedience to Gods Commands Reverence to Superiours and Submission to Governours and not by the other fantastical and cheap things consisting but of imaginations and phrases and mystical nothings ANd for as much as each Sect confin'd the Church Saintship and Godliness to it self and entail'd the Promises and Priviledges of the Gospel upon it's own People Therefore here They stood up and reprov'd the Anti-christian pride and vanity of that cruel and unjust humour Shewing That the Church consists of all those that agree in the profession and acknowledgment of the Scripture and the first comprehensive plain Creeds however scatter'd through the World and distinguish'd by names of Nations and Parties under various degrees of light and divers particular models and forms of Worship as to circumstance and order That every lover of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity who lives according to the few great acknowledg'd Doctrines and Rules of a vertuous and holy life is a true Christian and will be happy though he be ignorant of many points that some reckon for Articles of Faith and err in some which others account sacred and fundamental By which Catholick principle foundation is lay'd for universal Charity and Union and would Christian men be perswaded to govern themselves according to it all unnecessary Schisms and Separations would be prevented and those Hatreds and Animosities cur'd that arise from lesser disagreements AGain whereas as the Ataxites had made Religion a fantastick and unintelligible thing as I have told you and drest it up in an odd mumming and ridiculous disguise Those Divines labour'd much to reduce it to it 's native plainness and simplicity purging it from sensless phrases conceited mysteries and unnecessary words of Art Laying down the genuine notions of Theology and all things relating to Faith or Practice with all possible perspicuity and plainness By which means many scandals were remov'd and vain disputes discredited divisions stop'd Religious practice promoted and the peace of the Church at last establish'd They told the Ataxites that though they talk'd much of closing with Christ getting in to Christ rolling upon Christ relying upon Christ and having an interest in Christ and made silly people believe that there was something of Divine Mystery or extraordinary spirituality under the sound of these words That yet in good earnest either they understood not what they said and mean'd nothing at all by them or else the sense of them was but believing Christ's Doctrines obeying his Laws and depending upon his Promises plain and known things They shew'd that all the other singular phrases which they us'd and which the people were so taken with were either non-sense and falsehood or but some very common and ordinary matter at the bottom That
what he had related before concerning Faith and the false notions of it among the Fanites and then said Justification is either taken for the making us just or the dealing with us as if we were such And that Faith is taken as a single Grace viz. The belief of the Gospel or complexly as it comprehends all the rest viz. The whole body of Holiness Having premis'd which necessary distinctions He told me That Faith in the single acception of it was the great instrument of the Gospel to make us just and so justified in the proper Physical sense But that as it compriseth the other Graces it justifies in the forensick and less proper sense viz. That God deals with the Faithful namely those that are sincerely obedient to the Gospel as if they had been strictly and perfectly just and had fulfill'd his Laws By the help of which short and plain state of the controversie methought I saw clearly into the whole matter and was free'd from many perplexities and confusions in which I was wont to be involv'd And being thus inform'd of the principles of those Divines in those chief heads of Doctrine I had a curiosity to have an account of their mind concerning the Form of Ecclesiastical Government about which there had been so much stir in our European parts of Christendom and therefore intreated him to represent their opinion to me in this subject To which he answer'd me thus The Antient Form of Church Government in this Island ever since the plantation of Christianity in it hath been Episcopal But of later years it was very much hated and opposed by the Ataxites who set up new Modells every sect it 's own fancy as the only divine Government and Discipline of Christ So that the Scriptures were rack'd and every little word and point forc'd and many subtilties of interpretation suborn'd to declare for the beloved imagination and then the whimsie was voted to be of divine right and the only Scripture-Government and the advancing of it made no less then the Interest of Gods Glory and the promoting of Christs Kingdom On the other side the antient Government was decry'd as superstitious Church Tyranny Humane Invention a limb of Antichrist to be extirpated root and branch by a thorow Godly Reformation In which design as I told you they succeeded to the subversion both of the Civil and Ecclesiastical state But when they had destroy'd they knew not how to build for they could never agree upon the Platform to be erected in the room of that which they had subverted For every Sect was for setting up it 's own frame and every one had a different Model from every other and each was confident that it's Form was Christs Institution and so by no means to be receded from in the least point The effects of which were endless Animosities Hatreds and Struglings against each other and the greatest rage and violence of them altogether against the Church of Bensalem and all Episcopal constitutions Amidst these Bandyings some Antifanatick Divines taught That there was no reason to think that any particular Model was prescrib'd in Scripture so as to be unalterable and universal That it was necessary there should be a Government in the Church That the Apostles had appointed General Officers and General Rules such as God's Glory Edification Decency Order avoidance of Offence and the like but that it did not appear they had determined the particular Circumstances and Form That there was no express command of them and that the plea of Apostolical example could it be made out would not hold for an universal Law to the Church in all ages except where there was some intrinsick necessary goodness in the things practised or some annext Precept to inforce it That there was neither of these in the present case and therefore they urged That the Form and Circumstances of Government was to be left to the Ruling Powers in the Church to be order'd by them so as should seem best to suit with the General Rules and Ends of Government By the means of which Principles Foundation was lay'd for Peace and Obedience and that age was prepared for the reception of the old Legal establish'd Government when it should be restored Concerning This those Divines taught That it was of all the most venerable Form and greatly to be rever'd for its Antiquity Vniversality and the Authority it had from Apostolical Practice and our Fundamental Laws That on these and other accounts it was infinitely to be prefer'd and chosen before any new-fangled Model upon the score of which declarations and discourses in the Ataxites times great complaint was made by them among the foolish Zealots of their party that the Vniversities were over-run with a Prelatical spirit than which nothing was more odious in those days But the prudent men took no notice of their clamours but went on with the design of propagating such sober Principles as tended to the healing of the Nation When the publick Government of the Church was restor'd They most chearfully put themselves under it and submitted to its Orders heartily upon the belief of its being the most Primitive Catholick Prudent Legal Government in the world I Have now said the Governour past over the particulars in which you desir'd to be inform'd much more might have been said of them but I know your own thoughts will improve these suggestions which are enough to give light to the main Notions I returned him my humble acknowledgements for the care and pains he had taken to satisfy and inform me in these and the other heads of those Mens Doctrines To which he answer'd That it was a great pleasure and satisfaction to him if he had given me any content by his relation and then will'd me that if there were ought in the Theological part that I had any query about I would propose it freely For said he we have a little time more to spare in talking of this first General if you have any curiosity to be inform'd further of any thing belonging to it I answer'd that he added to his favours by the liberty of Questioning he was pleased to allow me and that I had one thing more to desire a few words of if he so pleas'd which was what Way of Preaching those Divines followed This said He I should have minded my self and am very glad you remember me of it You must know then continued He That there was not a greater diversity in any thing in Bensalem in the Age of which I now speak than in the Modes of Preaching of which amongst other evils this was one and not the least That the people distasted and contemn'd all the Doctrines and Instructions that were not deliver'd after their own fashion though otherwise never so seasonable and wholesome and inordinately admiring their own men who spoke in the Phrase and Mode that they fancied they vilified and despis'd those others that us'd another method though it were never so