all this Discourse Let all Circumstances be impartially considered as they are now in the Church of England and I dare refer the Question to the Writer of Humane Reason himself whether it is not a much safer way for the common People especially to relie upon her judgment then upon their own And whether it is safer for the Publick to maintain the established Religion by the execution of our Laws or to let Hell break loose amongst us by a general Toleration of all Religions and by consequence of all debauchery and Atheism I refer to our Government to consider Now for our Authors next Argument by which he would prove his Opinion to be most natural if he had said purely natural we might well have granted it him for it is as foolish an one as one would wish The Argument is grounded upon a pretty similitude which our Author loves as dearly as he doth his Mistress they that have a mind may read it at length p. 72. to the 78. for I have something else to do then to bestow time to transcribe it The sum of it is this viz. That as in all visible Objects we appeal to the eye and sense of seeing and make no appeals from it either to other senses or to revelation so in all rational Objects we must have recourse onely to our Reasons and must in no case appeal from thence and especially in matters of Religion For Religion was the main design of mans Creation But now if in visible Objects there is an appeal to our higher faculties then by vertue of this Gentleman 's own Metaphor there may and ought to be an appeal from our Reason even in rational Objects to some more certain Judge where it may be had That there is such an appeal in visible Objects from our sense of seeing to our understanding is evident in all those Cases in which either the Eye or the medium is defective or disturbed as he himself doth acknowledge p. 74. to which I need add but this one Instance The Stars appear to our eyes to be no bigger then the Nails in the Spoak of a Cart-wheel though they are as Astronomers do demonstrate vastly greater then the whole Earth Now then it is as clear as the Sun that there must be an appeal from our senses otherwise we must believe that the Stars are very inconsiderable things and that the Sun it self is no bigger then a Bushel because we see them appear of no greater Dimensions From whence there can be nothing more evident then this That as in visible Objects the Soul can make no certain judgment when the Sense is diseas'd or defective or the Medium is disturb'd and that as when the appearance of visible Objects to our Senses doth contradict our rational Faculties we believe our Reason rather then our Eyes so our Souls can pass no certain sentence concerning intelligible things when her understanding is any way s disturb'd and when the Object is too high for our Reason and that we ought therefore to appeal from our Reason when it contradicts any higher and better Demonstration particularly when it seems to contradict Divine revelation because we must be assured that the Reason of God is much more certain and infallible then the Reason of man unless Humane Reason teacheth us to think our selves wiser then God So that from this Metaphor if similitudes may pass for Arguments as they do with our Author who scarce useth any other it sollows that as in visible Objects we must not always believe our eyes so neither in intelligible Objects must we always believe our Reason Wherefore all that this Gentleman hath got by this Argument is That he hath made a Rod for his own Breech For he hath hereby fully demonstrated the folly of his whole Book for the Reason of most men being depraved and blinded with prejudice and passion ignorance and interest is no more to be believed then the eye that is distempered with the Jaundise or any other Disease and therefore that is a madness for most men to give themselves up wholly to the guidance of their own Reasons Nay it further follows from hence that as he would be thought a mad man or at least a very pragmatical fellow who will believe his own eyes against the testimony of thousands of others who have greater advantages of seeing the object then himself so he must be thought very pragmatical if not mad who will believe onely his own Reason against the judgment of thousands of others who are all wiser then himself he then must be a pragmatical fool that will believe his own Reason when it contradicts the Universal testimony of the whole Church So that our Authors singularity in renouncing all Authority his own Argument proves is a piece of the greatest pride and folly Now Sir you see how easie it is to retort your little similies upon your self and what a great advantage you gain to your Cause by making true comparisons of things I do believe your wit is good but your luck is stark naught at similitudes since therefore they have proved so unlucky to you let me advise you as a friend not to use them any more for demonstrations and then I am very confident that the world will not be troubled with any more of your scribling But now let us suppose our Author's consequence to be good and his metaphors to be demonstrative and let us but observe the natural tendency of it and if that will not be sufficient to demonstrate the danger and folly of his opinion I know not what can For if because God hath given us our reason to be our guide in all intelligible matters and consequently in matters of Religion as he hath given us our eyes to guide us in all visible objects and that therefore there must lie no appeal from our reason in any matters of saith or religion why then doth it not hold in all matters of Law and Justice I challenge him to shew me any reason if he can for is it not the office of our reason to guide us as well in all other matters as in the concerns of religion and yet surely there is no man unless it be this Author can be so sensless to think otherwise then that he which lives in a society must submit the external exercise of his own private reason to the publick laws or else that he ought to be cast out of the protection of that society and to have no benefit of those laws which he will not submit to and yet is it not natural for every man to govern himself by his own Reason in every particular concern and action of his life as well as in Religion Must then our Governours out of pure good nature cancel all our Laws and give every man leave to follow the guidance of his own Reason alone in all things because it is most natural to every man to be so guided What an unnatural Parliament have
High-Commission amongst them Was ever man thus confident to assert things thus palpably false which he and every one else must know to be so unless he knows nothing of any History I suppose this was one of those Truths which he smelt out from the bottom viz. That this quiet and happiness which was enjoyed four thousand years amongst the Heathen continued so long and so uninterrupted because every man following the rules of his own judgment allowed that liberty to others which he found so necessary for himself as he saith pag. 9. in fine For the Reason is onely the quite contrary viz. because they were so careful to preserve the Publick Unity of Religion by the execution of their Laws For I think I may justly challenge our Author to shew me if he can any of the ancient Heathens that ever gave a publick toleration of all Religions though if he could prove it Christians ought not to follow their Examples because we have a positive and stated Religion given us by God in a most clear and infallible Revelation which our Governors ought to establish and maintain so that whatsoever he hath said to the contrary it is evident by the consent of the whole World that were there not Laws to restrain particular mens publick discourses there would soon be as many Religions as there are men and so the Argument remains as tragical as ever it did For it appears by the Votes of all Nations that varieties and alterations in Religion were always thought to be inconsistent with the publick peace and safety As for that slie insinuation with which he concludes that Paragraph pag. 10. That even the Stoicks themselves that enslaved the Will durst never attempt this violence to the understanding I would fain know of this Gentleman whether the Church of England goes about to enslave any mans understanding hath not every one in her Communion a liberty of thinking what he pleases All that the Church of England enjoyns us is that we shall worship God decently and orderly and shall consent to the Articles of the Christian Faith and not contradict those few Articles which she hath given us but for peace sake shall quietly submit to them and to her most moderate Discipline I appeal even to this Author himself whether the Members of any Society in the World either Heathen or Christian have a greater freedom of exercising their understandings then those of the Church of England If he cannot produce me any that have then to what purpose doth he talk to English men of violence to their understandings unless it be fortiter calumniari ut aliquid haereret which is a practice so much below a Gentleman that sure our Author should be ashamed of it or else he is a shame to the Honourable Title of an English Gentleman I pray you Sir tell me upon your Reputation what you meant and of whom you spáke those things Pag. 12 13. If you meant the Church of England I must tell you that you do not know any thing of Her though She be your own Mother Doth the Church of England teach her Followers to damn all that are not of their way So far is She from it and so prodigiously charitable that She doth not exempt even those that die in a wilful separation from her unless they be actually excommunicated from Her most Christian Form of Burial in which She professeth to hope of their salvation Is there any Son of the Church of England that believes some Errours that are the inseparable companions of Humane Nature do exclude men from the Communion of the present Church or the hope of the future And as for that which he saith that then we could not be so cruel to persecute those faults to which God is so merciful and from which we our selves are not exempt I answer That our Church punisheth no man for any Errour unless it be accompanied with contumacy and contempt of Authority and does not every Society in the World do the same If then he will needs call this cruelty and Persecution he not onely accuseth our Church but all the Nations of the World of those hard words He might I think well have spared all that Discourse from Pag. 10 to the 14. about the causes of so much bloudshed since the Reformation unless he intended to make the Reformation guilty of all the bloud shed ever since it first-began However sure I am he cannot lay it at the door of our Church since there is none of her true Sons that ever was so mad to be guilty of any of those Causes which he gives of it As for his confident Assertion with which he concludes that Section it is much more applicable to the Papists and Fanaticks then to the truly Reformed For there are no men living that so much tie Infallibility to what they think Truth and Damnation to what they think Errours as they do at Rome and Geneva and such amongst us who have listed themselves under their Banners As for his peaceable Doctrine he so much boasts of Pag. 11 12. viz. That every man should be suffered quietly to enjoy his own Opinion and his own Opinion is this that he should suffer others to do the same As to the first part of it I answer it is granted him For there is no Society in the World that can take notice of matters of meer opinion but when those Opinions break out into practice so as to disturb the publick peace or at least to endanger a disturbance when men make use of them to draw Parties after them and to make Factions in a Nation then those Governours must be blind that will not see to suppress them And this is not punishing men for their Opinions but their Practices in divulging and propagating those Opinions which are contrary to the Laws and publick safety As for the second Part of it that every man should have that Opinion implanted in him to suffer all others to enjoy their Opinions I answer First That it is almost impossible to suppose this to be or that it ever can be the Opinion of every man For if men do sincerely believe that their Opinion is the Truth and necessary to Happiness then they must also think themselves bound to propagate it to all others But Secondly Could we suppose this Opinion to be in every man yet this would not maintain the Peace of a Nation if there were no Laws to restrain men from being led by their Passions and Interest to act contrary to their Opinions For I appeal to themselves to know whether the Papists and Presbyterians do not act contrary to their own Principles in promoting a toleration of all Opinions If they dare deny it it will be easily proved against them For the Grand Turk himself doth not more violently persecute the Christians then both these do all such as differ from them in Religion where they have power enough to do it Witness the Inquisition at this
rib-roasted by his Master for searching for the Hare at the top of the House because he did not look for her in the proper place to find her The third Reason p. 68. Because we ought not to believe Errours of faith to be damnable But if these Errours be fundamental and obstinately continued in against plain means of conviction in opposition to authority in spight of our Authors Reason I must believe them damnable Oh! no saith he for this is most wildly uncharitable but why so because this was to damn millions of men for one that shall be saved But this damns none but such as wilfully and obstinately continue in their errours and thereby become Hereticks nor them neither for it is possible they may live to repent and amend but if they die in heresie that they die in damable sins we must believe if we will believe either St. Paul Gal. 5. 19 20 c. who reckons up Seditions and Heresies amongst the rest of the Black Catalogue which shall shut us out from the Kingdom of Heaven or S Peter who plainly tells us that there are damnable Heresies 2 Pet. â— 1. Now if this be contrary to charity to assert I cannot help it I have very good company in my uncharitableness for S. Peter and S. Paul are both guilty of it as well as I. Oh uncharitable Apostles that had no more pity nor love nor compassion in you to those millions of dissenters that were hereticks in your time but that you must not onely believe but pronounce the Errours in faith of the greatest part of the World to be damnable Heresies even shift for your selves good Apostles for this Author hath charged you home with wild uncharitableness His fourth Reason Ibid. and p. 69. We ought not to teach men that any Errours in belief overthrow our hopes of salvation unless we could give them a catalogue of those Errours that do so But why Because this would be more uncomfortable then the other is uncharitable for it would necessarily lead men into despair What then Must we teach them to throw away their Bibles and renounce all the Articles of the Christian Faith and wholly to commit themselves to the guidance of their own Reason as our Author seems to do p. 65. and that then they shall be safe enough and need not further trouble their heads with matters of Faith or Religion No surely there is a middle way which is plain for all men to walk in which ought to be shewn them i. e. this That some errours of Faith are damnable though not all and we may easily give them a general Catalogue of what errours are so by which they may judge of particulars Those Errours of Faith are damnable which are wilfully run into and all such as are continued in in opposition to the Authority of the Church perversly and obstinately and thus our Author hath a general Catalogue of what Errours are damnable let him make what use of it he can The fifth Reason p. 69. and 70. is this Because we cannot know our fault and therefore have no means of repenting of it and consequently cannot expect pardon for it there being no forgiveness without repentance and repentance impossible without knowledge of our fault But if this be true it would damn all mankind For who is there that hath ever had a particular knowledge of all the sins that he hath committed so that there must be many of them according to this Gentlemans reason unrepented off and consequently unpardoned What 's become of this Gentlemans great charity which he hath always boasted of for this opinion is much more uncharitable then any of those whose uncharitableness he hath so much declaimed against But thanks be to God this is not true For sure we are David doth repent him of those faults which he had no knowledge of Ps. 19. 12. in that Prayer of his who can understand his errours cleanse thou me from my secret faults By which the Royal Prophet must mean such faults as he himself had forgotten and had no knowledge of else the first part of the verse which is the reason of the following petition could have no coherence with the latter which is the petition it self grounded upon the former Besides Why can we have no knowledge of our fault unless it be committed against our own Reason For though we err only against Authority and are for a time blinded with prejudice so that we cannot at present see our errour is it not possible that the prejudice afterwards may be removed by a duâ— information from others or by our own serious consideration assisted by the Grace of God If it is possible then there is nothing of truth nor consequence in this Reason His sixth Reason p. 70. is this The great probability of truth on all sides even the erring ones ought to make us believe that God will not punish those that err To this I answer If our errours be such as are not the effects or causes of any sin in us we have no reason to think but God will pardon them But if our errours are the effects of wilful ignorance pride or idleness or if they have led us into schism and heresie and contempt of authority then we can have no hopes of pardon without amendment wherefore sin being most commonly either the cause or the effect of our errours or both it proves that there is no small danger in them But there is no such great danger from errours saith this Gentleman p. 71. For it is not consistent with the goodness of God to have made truth so difficult to be found out if he intended to punish the miss of it with eternal punishments To this I answer That where the difficulty surpasseth the helps that God hath given us we need not fear that God will punish us eternally for not finding out such truths For if they had been necessary to be known for our salvation they should have been suited to our capacity But if we are wilfully ignorant of any necessary truths then it is not contrary to the goodness of God to punish us eternally for it as well as for any other sin which we die in without repentance For the same thing might as well be urged to free men from eternal punishment for most other sins as well as this of wilful errour For since it is so very difficult to flesh and blood to abstain from those sins which profit and pleasure tempts us to and so easie to run into them nay since there is but one way of exact vertue which is the middle way for those many hundreds that lead to vitious extreams and as he saith of truth there is no certain mark set upon that one to distinguish it from others he may therefore as well think it inconsistent with the divine goodness to punish men eternally for their vices as for their errours since the reason is the very same in both But now supposing it
we that will hang men for Stealing or Murder for hath not Nature given every man hands to take such things as he hath need of and why should he not kill any man who opposeth him in making use of his natural right to preserve his life Thus our Authors natural Argument serves in its direct consequence to dissolve all society and to destroy all Law and Right or else to demonstrate himself to be a meer Natural in not seeing the so obvious and pernicious consequence of it or something worse if he did see it and yet dared to insinuate it by little similies into the fickle heads of the self-conceited multitude But perhaps it was onely pure good nature in him For is it not a great deal of pity that men should be restrained from the free use of that which is so natural to every one as is his own Reason But I cannot for my life imagine what should put our Author into so sudden a Fit of good nature for if I am not deceived in the person the Gentleman is not always guilty of it certainly there was some particular cause for it at present and perhaps it was this To draw in the Women for Toleration that so they might draw in the men For So Indians draw in the Female Elephant t'inveigle the Male. And one good turn requires another so that those kind souls of that Sex that know themselves apt to mistake another man for their own husband are extreamly obliged to this Gentlemans Humane Reason and good nature and therefore they ought to be of his Party for he hath most effectually and demonstratively pleaded their cause For when the good man peeps through his horns and sees something that makes them begin to stand on an end for anger at his Wife she need but onely tell him that she did but make that natural use of her parts which her own Reason did dictate to her and that she truly knows no reason to the contrary why she might not make that natural use of her tail to get a livelyhood by as well as others do of their hands or their tongues and the poor Cuckold must rest fully satisfied with this answer of his wife and put his horns in his Pocket and sneak away for fear of being accounted an irrational Coxcomb for not understanding Humane Reason I wonder now that all the Whores and Rogues as well as the Quakers did not come and return this Author thanks for his Book It is a great deal of pity they did not What a goodly company of Friends would there have met together and how lovingly would they have greeted and embraced one another with the close hug Now I have done with this Gentlemans Naturals and must proceed to take a view of his Politicks and it would be very strange if these should not be as like the former as ever any Child was to the Parents His third Argument p. 78. is this That it is likewise most agreeable to the good and interest of Humane Society for all Wars of late Years have been either really for Religion or at least that hath been one of the chief pretences which if it were quite taken away the people could not thereby be drawn into a civil or foreign War Fare you well for a Politician What! must all Religion be removed out of the World Surely never any man in the heathen Politicks ever found such an assertion as this much less amongst any that did but so much as pretend to the name of a Christian. Neither is this assertion more contrary to Christianity then it is to true Politicks For I dare undertake to demonstrate that no other Principle whatsoever onely Religion can be the main support and foundation of Society So that if Religion be removed the Society must necessarily fall and consequently whoever endeavours to undermine and destroy Religion is a publick enemy to all mankind For setting aside Religion there is no other Principle that can keep men good subjects good children or good servants nay to go higher still nothing but Religion implanted in the minds of men can preserve Princes in their Thrones or Parents or Masters in their Families There can be but two Principles that can pretend to do it that I know of besides Religion and those are First Sense of Honour and Reputation Secondly Fear of Laws and Temporal Punishments But that neither of these can do it without the help of Religion will be evident to any man that will but allow himself a due consideration of it For supposing all men were rid of Religion then the grand Maxim by which they must rationally govern their actions must be only their own present preservation and welfare So that whatsoever makes for their present advantage can be no ways dishonourable for them in their own thoughts and as for a disesteem or dishonour from others it would only oblige them to act their crimes in secret not at all to avoid them For if they did but act their Villanies though never so horrid so privately that other men could not know them to be the Actors or the Authors of them they would thereby be secure enough from all dishonour from their Actions And as for the fear of Laws the very same thing viz. secresie in their actions would equally secure them from the punishment of the Laws as from disgrace So that if I can prove that the horridst murders may possibly be committed so privately that the World shall not know the Authors nor the Actors of them which is easily demonstrable to him that considers how easie it is to be guilty of Perjury and Forgery and that there are such things as Fire Poisons and Poniards in the World and that in most Kingdoms and Families mens present interest would incite them had they no better principle to govern them to the worst of Villanies even such as would ruine all Government either of Nations or Families it will follow that neither sense of honor nor fear of Laws could keep men from them Now that mens present interest would prompt them to the murder of their Prince is most evident in the next heir to the Crown for would it not prompt him to remove his Father that he might ascend the Throne and sway the Scepter which he could not hope to do as long as his father lived Neither could disgrace keep him from this murder if it was but done privately and much less could fear of temporal punishments in the least deter him from this horrid murder of his Prince and Father unless it were fear of those that might be supposed from religious Principles For his Father is no sooner dead but in all hereditary Monarchies the next Heir is actually Supream and therefore above all Humane Judicature of the Laws and all corporal or capital punishments from his Subjects Neither would the Governours of Families be much more secure from their next Heirs whose Interest would lead them to murder their Fathers that