men though he cannot be so much a fool to follow it himself viz. the relying on our naked reason so far as to exclude other more necessary helps especially in such matters as these of History concerning which Reason alone can be no competent Judge But yet this Gentleman is so confident positively to affirm pag. 26. that They that build their Faith upon past or present Ages are in much greater danger of being drawn from the Christian Faith then those who remit the judgment of these things wholly to their own Reason Whereas if he had considered things aright he must needs have seen that the main cause why our Reason will dictate to us that Christianity is the true Religion must be from the constant Tradition of the former Ages of the Church For from hence it is that we believe the Gospel to be the Writings of the Apostles from hence it is that we believe the Historical part of it and by consequence from hence it must proceed that we believe the Doctrines contained in it But let us hear his Reason for this bold Assertion it is nothing else but this that There hath been the Authority of an hundred to one against Christianity and that backed with the Universal Agreement of three thousand years before Certainly it is not possible for him to believe that this is any thing of a satisfactory Argument For did ever any body reckon the Tradition of the Heathens and Jews for the ground of the Christian Faith Does he not know that by Tradition every Christian that knows what he saith means the Tradition of the Church of Christ Can this then be any Reason against it that the Heathens and Jews did not assert it I am altogether of his Opinion that Reason will demonstrate the Christian above any other Riligion but still the Authority of the Christian Church together with the Gospel must acquaint us what Christianity is otherwise meer Reason could never know it So that let Reason alone though it be never so well followed with constancy diligence and sobriety it can demonstrate nothing of Christianity if it is not backed with the Authority of the Church Now I appeal to the Author himself to know how it is possible that the Universal Tradition of the Christian Church should lead us into such Errours as should cause us to deny Christ Was there ever any Age of Christians which did generally fall into the denial of Christ How could they then be called Christians who renounced the very essence of Christianity Now because this Author hath not told us what Helps and Directions a Christian must make use of to inform his Reason in matters of Religion I shall lay him down such a Rule as can never fail him in his main end his future happiness unless he be false to his Rule The Rule in general is this The Scriptures rightly interpreted To the interpretation of which is necessary a due meditation and apprehension of the scope and coherence of the words with a knowledge of the Original Languages and the peculiar Idioms of them together with the knowledge of the Customs of those times and places in which those things were done spoken and written which makes all Judaick and Ecclesiastical Authors especially Historians to be very requisite especially as to the understanding the New Testament For many things are but cursorily mentioned in the Gospel and therefore are best explained by the Writings of those that were conversant with the Apostles and their Successors who did converse with them and so on which calls in the assistance of all Antiquity especially the ancient Fathers of the three first Centuries and the four first General Councils and after all a sound rational Soul as necessary to lay these together where they agree and to judge which is most to be relied on where they differ and to draw well grounded consequences from them together with the Divine assistance concurring with all these means so that the common people that have not these advantages though they may have as good and sound rational Faculties as the greatest Scholars and can exercise them as judiciously in other things in which they have had convenience rightly to inform themselves are no more fit to interpret Scripture then they are to Comment on Euclid or Archimedes For that they have not those helps which are necessary for such a Work But what then must they do they must use the best means that God hath given them i. e. the Directions of the Church and of those Persons whom the Church hath by Gods Commission ordained over them to be their Guides and Instructers And though perhaps by their Guides unskilfulness or the corruption of the Church they are members of though this last cannot be supposed in the Church of England because it is free from all corruption in Doctrine they may be led into Errours yet since they have made use of the best means God hath given them he doth not require impossibilities at their hands and therefore will not impute those Errours to their Faults which he hath never given them power to help Whereas on the contrary if every one of the common people must be left wholly to the guidance of his own Reason they must necessarily run into as many Religions as there are men and worship a several Deity not onely every day of the week but every hour of the day and by thinking themselves as wise as their Teachers come to despise and contemn them and to trample under foot all Order and Decency to scorn the Laws of their Magistrates and in a word to run themselves into all confusion danger and wickedness This some men see well enough to be the natural consequence of this Opinion and therefore they who have a mind to make divisions amongst us do nothing else but cry up Conscience and every mans own Reason For if they can but thus separate the Sheep from the Shepherds they will soon make them stray so far till they get them into their own Pound These are the mighty advantages that the most of men would obtain by following no other Guide but their own Reason The next advantage of his Opinion is the great charitableness of it viz. That It sets the Gate of Heaven so wide open that all persons whatsoever may enter This is Charity indeed with a Witness to fill Heaven like Noab's Ark with all sorts of Beasts both clean and unclear But I am afraid there 's something else in the case besides altogether Charity that prompts the Author to this opinion he tells us so himself and therefore we may believe him that the humble consideration of his own weakness was another strong motive to him It seems the Gentleman begins to think that if there be no entrance into Heaven for Jews Turks Heathens and Atheists he himself shall scarce ever come there As for his Opinion that all these are in an equal possibility of salvation with the unerring Christian certainly
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
Nations in the whole World have an honour and reverence for their Priests and always had so yet that Sacred and Honourable Office amongst Us must render the Person contemptible I cannot but be concern'd as I am a Gentleman and so I think ought every one that bears that title to see those who have many of them by their Birth all of them by their Education Degrees and Orders merited a just title to the honour of the English Gentry and that Profession which was in all Ages before this last accounted in this Nation the most Honourable of all other and is so still accounted by our Laws to be now become so despicable that he passes for a Wit that can but cast an affront upon the Professors of it For how can our Nobility and Gentry dispose of their younger Sons unless they will make the Ottoman Law to maintain their Families when the most delightfull most honourable and formerly the most usuall way for them is blocked up by such grand discouragements But what 's the Reason now why this Gentleman treats them so Gentilely and civilly in the titles and in the faults he casts upon them onely this because like good Shepherds they will not desert their Flocks which are committed to their care to be devoured by the subtle Foxes of Rome or by those Wolves the sacrilegious Atheists and Schismaticks of England Thus the Fox and the Woolf had they this Author's Humane Reason and his way of expressing it would first endeavour to make the silly Sheep hate their Shepherds by telling them how malitious they have been to them in restraining them from playing or feeding in what pastures they pleased and then tell them that if they would follow them they should have a general liberty of conscience to do what they pleased But what would be the event should the Sheep stray from their Shepherds to go along with these good natur'd guides would they not all soon be devoured without any body to help them and would they not soon find by their sad experience that it had been much better for them to have continued under the restraint of their old plain honest Shepherds then to have enjoyed for a few minutes their liberty which their new masters flattered them withall on purpose that they might devour them aye but saith this sweet-natured Gentleman they might by Writing Disputing Preaching and Living c. reduce the World in a short time to its ancient healthfull and natural temper If the Author means the ancient and healthfull temper of Popery or the pure natural temper of Heathenism I am very much of his opinion that if toleration be once set up the World will in a short time be reduced to one of these For let the Clergy do what they could by writing preaching and living c. were they not defended by Laws and the Nation guarded from those swarms of Caterpillars that would be sent from Rome to devour our Nation I mean Priests and Friars to convert souls to pay the old Gentlemans Peter-pence and the rest of St. Peter's Patrimony their preaching and disputing would never be heard but would be quite drown'd with the noise of Papists and other Dissenters neither would the piety of their lives were they Angels be taken notice of amongst that croud of pretenders to it who would all strive by outward shews of it especially the Papists by their magnificent processions and their specious pretences of Miracles which must necessarily take with the common people to draw all mens eyes from the true English Clergy unlese it were thâ—se who were set as Spies over them to discover their faults and to divulge them nay if they had no faults which is not to be conceived of meer men rather then the people should believe them innocent they would invent stories and lyes enough of them to take away all their reputation For this some of our Sects especially the Papists would think themselves bound to do from the very Principles of their Religion the main of which is this to promote their cause by any means whatsoever So that this Gentleman may be fully satisfied that without the restraints of Law or else the Sword it would be impossible to maintain any settlement in Religion but that we must necessarily be hurried into Popery Atheism and all Confusion Neither let our dissenting Brethren flatter themselves with the hopes that they shall easily run down the Papists with the cry of Antichrist Superstition and Idolatry For as to the two First They will easily retort them upon their accusers and will raise a far greater cry for themselves of Christian Peace and Vnity of their Church its antiquity universality infallibility and the most inexhaustible Treasure of Charity in her Pardon and Indulgences by which the people shall be allowed underhand a toleration of all kind of debauchery so that they will but make a leg to the kind old Doctor of St. Peter's Chair And as for Idolatry they will easily answer that by the effects of divisions in the words of St. Paul Rom. 2. 21 22. Thou therefore that teachest another teachest thou not thy self thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge There can be then but one way that can possibly preserve us from Popery without the present execution of our Laws and that is a standing Army but I believe most true English Gentlemen will think this Remedy little better then the Disease If it shall be answered that the Laws might be executed against Papists but a Liberty allowed to all others I answer First that this is very unequitable and severe that those persons who suffered most of any except those of the Church of England for his Majesties Cause should now he is return'd be the onely Sufferers Secondly That were others tolerated it will be impossible to discover the Papists who will hide themselves under their coverings there being no ready ways of convicting them but onely this their not joyning with the Church of England in her constant publick Liturgy every Lords day and in receiving the Sacraments with her three times a year which can never be consistent with the toleration of all other Religions amongst us I refer it therefore since his Majesty hath commanded the execution of his Laws to the serious consideration of our Nobles and Gentlemen whether they will choose to give themselves the trouble to execute our Laws and to enjoy their Proprieties under the protection of them or whether they will turn their throats to the longest Sword or submit their necks to the Roman yoke which our wise fathers thought too hard for them to bear For one of these must be endured it will in a short time be past all help to prevent the two latter without a speedy recourse to the former For if our Sectaries grow more numerous and seditious amongst us as they may easily be managed into any thing and as long as the world hath more knaves then wise men and honest
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
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
so they might enjoy their Estates that would descend to them by Inheritance Now was there not a Conscience and secret dread of Religion that awed the minds of Children from the thoughts of so horrid Villanies it would be too easie for those that live under the same roof and have all opportunities of secresie in their crimes to act any Villany so privately that their interest should lead them to as that they should never without a Miracle be discovered But supposing they should be discovered it is onely death which is the utmost punishment they can fear which according to the Atheists Principles would be no such dreadful matter for it would onely put an end to all those troubles and disquiets they here labour under Now that this would be the consequence that would ensue if mens minds were free from Religious dreads is evident from the practice of debauched persons who have run themselves into Atheism For we see they stick not to hazard their lives daily for the satisfaction of their lusts by the perpetration of any Villanies even Theft and Murder not excepted for hopes of a very small and inconsiderable gain in comparison of that which the death of a Father would afford the next Heir nay we see that amongst wise and sober men the Merchant doth expose his life and estate to the most uncertain of all things even the Winds and the Wave sor the hopes of a far more uncertain gain then this would be to the Heir and the Souldier doth daily bid defiance to Death in the open Field onely for the sake of a poor livelyhood What then could preserve our Houses Towns and Cities from Fire our Lives or our Estates from perjury or our Persons from poyson and poniard ot our Wives from abusing our Beds or our Neighbours from cheating us was all Religion rooted out of the World Would not a Commonwealth of Men be soon worse then a Desert of Beasts Reason enabling men to do more mischief one to another and to act it more privately and effectually then the Brutes We cannot then but see by this time how absolutely necessary Religion is to the good and welfare of all Mankind and all Societies Wherefore those Gentlemen that delight to promote Atheistical Discourses sorry I am to think this Age should afford any such of that quality do expose themselves to be thought Enemies to all Mankind by all wise men and never to be trusted by any but inconsiderate Fools Had they therefore a true sense of their own reputation they would never be guilty of that gross folly to say there is no God or openly to countenance Atheism I hope this Gentleman our Author hath no such Design though by his excusing Atheism before as well as by his words in this place he hath given me too much Reason to suspect it I pray God our Magistrates may take care to revive those Laws that may put a stop to the growth of Atheism amongst us which they are obliged to do even for their own present preservation unless they can think it safe that our Nation should be quite overrun with such a sort of Villains that will stick at nothing though never so hellish a crime when their present interest or the satisfaction of some bruitish lust shall prompt them to it For if these grow numerous they themselves will not be in a much safer condition then the meanest Subject For they that once come to that heighth of madness to contemn their own lives and estates out of Atheistical Principles are Masters of the lives and estates of all other men Secondly To come to something more directly in answer to our grand Politician I must be forced to tell him as he did his extraordinary friend T. H. in plain English rhat it is false that Religion hath been so much as the pretence of all Wars that have been of late years amongst us Was it not a dispute betwixt the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and the prerogatives of the Crown that was the first pretence of the late dismal and unnatural War amongst our selves though it is never to be forgotten that Religion was afterwards drawn in to countenance Rebellion even by some of those very persons that are still Praters in unlawful Conventicles and do as far as they can still continue Leaders of Faction and Sedition Was it Religion or the vindication of our just Rights that was the cause or so much as the pretence of our late Wars against the Dutch Is it Religion or Interest and desire of Dominion that at this present sets the greatest part of Christendome in a Flame and causeth so much effusion of Christian Blood by the French Armies From whence nothing can be clearer then this That it is Interest and Propriety Right and Liberty Power and Dominion that are the Causes and Pretenses of Wars not Religion Shall we therefore acrording to the Reason of our Author 's grand Politicks remove all Power and Dominion and all Right Liberty and Propriety out of the world because if they were removed the people could never thereby be drawn into a civil or forreign War Are not the most necessary the best of things always most ready to be abused and the most destructive when they are so Go thy ways Sir Politick for if thou hast not deserved to be knighted for this Book I believe thou art very much mistaken in thy own modest thoughts of thy self What pity is it thou art not a Privy Councellour Ingrateful age that will not raise him fifty Cubits higher then other men who hath well deserved it certainly it is a great deal of pity that the Gentleman should not be preferr'd according to his Merits Plato in his Phaedo tells us that nothing drives us to fightings wars and feditions but the body and its lusts And does not St. James if happily he may be of any credit or authority with this Gentleman tell us the very same thing James 4. 1. From whence says he come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your Members c. So then all wars brawlings seditions strifes dissentions are raised and promoted not properly and truly for Religions sake which does not cannot authorize or countenance any thing of that nature but for the sake of mony ambition or profit or some such like temporary worldly and carnal consideration and yet I suppose our Sir Pol. loves his body his lusts and his mony a little too well to have them removed out of the world lest they should be the cause of wars and seditions But supposing what he saith was true viz. That Religion was really or at least in pretence the cause of all Wars since I have demonstrated it so absolutely necessary to the peace of all Societies what ought to be done with it ought it to be removed out of the world or rather ought not such care to be taken by establishing the Church of England
to pay obedience to them upon this pretence that he is to be guided only by his own Reason I appeal to this Author himself whether he would be satisfied with this answer or whether he would not if it lay in his power turn such a refractory Fellow out of his society unless he did conform himself to the Orders and Statutes of it If not it would be impossible for him to maintain the Society if he would expel him he clearly proves that the Principle on which he seems to build his whole Book is not to be allowed to any person that is subject to the Laws of any Society If he shall say that therefore he added those limitations if it take such directions as it ought and may do c. I would fain know in any Society who shall be Judge whether or no every Member of it doth rightly limit his Reason shall the Person himself or the Governour of the Society If the Person himself then the limitations signifie nothing and the Society would soon signifie as little if the Governour must be so far Judge as to punish those Actions that are done contrary to the Statutes and Orders of the place then why should not the Governours of the Church be allowed the same power I cannot see any Reason at all unless we are arrived at that madness to think it indifferent whether the Church be dissolved or up held or whether we have any Religion in our Nation or none at all I would not be one of that number who should dispute against the power and priviledges of Humane Reason for no man loves Reason better then my self nor would I assert any such Priviledge to exempt men from Laws or from the publick exercise of Religion For I think nothing can be more unreasonable and yet I am deceived if I have not proved that this Assertion which is the whole sum of our Authors Book is of that nature But he hath one killing Argument that like a two-edged Sword doth execution both ways with which he strikes all dead that dare oppose him And this it is page 3. They that dispute most against Reason do it because their own Reason perswades them to that belief c. This is just such a mortal Argument as the Papists use to prove that the Church is the onely Rule of Faith For say they whoso denies this and asserts the Scripture to be the Rule of Faith can have no Authority nor Ground for their belief of the Scripture but the Authority of the Church and therefore we ought to believe as the Church teacheth us and not as the Scripture But the Answer is not very hard to be made to the Romanists It is true indeed the reason why we believe the four Gospels and the Epistles to be the Writings of those Divinely-inspired persons whose Names they bear must be this because they have been so received by the Church in all Ages and the reason why we believe those Miracles were done as they are related in Scripture must be from the constant Testimony of the Universal Church and from these Miracles we are sure they were written by persons inspired by God and consequently that they are the Rule by which we are to walk Thus the Authority of the Church onely leads us to the Scriptures as an infallible Rule and leaves us there to be guided by them and not by the Church any further then her Commands are agreeable to the Commands of God contained in the Scriptures Neither is the Answer much different nor much more difficult to our Authors dead-doing Demonstration for though Reason must direct us to a Rule by which we are to act yet when we have once found out such a Rule as our Reason assures us is Infallible we then ought to govern our selves no longer by our bare Reason but by our Reason guided by that Rule and to act those things not that Reason onely doth direct us but such things as our Infallible Rule commands us So that we see Reason is so far from being our onely Guide that it directly leads us to the Scriptures and leaves us to be directed by them by which it confesseth that it self ought to be guided If the Author shall now say that I have mistaken his Notion and that his intention in this Book was onely to bring Men into their right wits and make Men consider the reasonableness of the Religion of the Church of England and consequently conform themselves to it I shall say no more then this to him that I wish he had made this Design more apparent that our Dissenters might not have joyn'd in the mistake of his Book and have construed it to the countenancing all Divisions and that he had not given by the whole contrivance of his Book so just cause of this scandal to them For the Book hath in most parts a double face that like Janus his looks two directly contrary ways at once and therefore we may justly suspect a double mind and some double dealings in the Author but this I must needs say for him that he hath ingeniously contrived it for like an armed Amazonian beauty it casts a pleasing look and seems to smile upon every one that looks on it and yet it bears about it the instruments of death I onely make this my request to him if he writes again that he would shew the World more of his honesty though less of his ingenuity by speaking plain truth but not Oracles that may be interpreted to comply with contradictions and lest he should mistake my Design I will deal plainly and tell him what it is viz. to do the duty of an honest English Gentleman and a good Christian by doing my endeavours according to my small abilities to preserve the Unity of the Church of England into which I was baptized I shall therefore endeavour to free the minds of all impartial Readers from those mistakes that might arise from this Book I am now examining To which end because some may perhaps be drawn into a maze by reading it as the Author was in writing it I shall endeavour to shew them the way out of it by walking along with them step by step and so letting them see the way back again by the same steps as they were at first led into it And now to my Task The Gentleman foreseeing as well he might that many Objections would be raised against him in the first place applies himself to ward them off Pag. 3. 4. Object 1. He thus proposeth That many of the greatest Wits have by following their own Opinions encreased the Catalogue of Heresies To this he answers That these men either followed not their own Reason but their Wills or first hood-winkt their Reason by interest and prejudice or passion c. All this I easily grant is truth but now I appeal to this Author himself whether he doth not believe that the number of those that follow their Wills more then their
Reasons that are blinded with interest prejudice or passion that are wanting in qualifications necessary to inform themselves in matters of Religion or that are capable of being deceived by some one or all of these causes or else by the weakness of their understanding does far exceed the number of those that are wise sober and learned If he must affirm that he doth believe it why then would he have every man left to be guided by his own Reason Which is the best way to prevent Heresies for the Magistrates to let their Subjects follow their own wills and passions c. the greatest part of which they must know will thereby be exposed to irreligion and Atheism as well as all kind of heresie and debauchery or else to restrain them by moderate penalties within the pale and limits of the best and most Christian Church in the world But saith our Author it is no great matter for falling into heresies by the weakness of their understanding For saith he pag. 4. They are neither hurtful to themselves nor others But hold Sir I beseech you I had always thought that wilful ignorance had been so far from excusing a fault that it made it much greater so that the weakness of the understanding if it might have been remedied by our industry and humility will in no wise excuse us for heresie Nay I also thought that supposing our ignorance that leads into any crime was invincible and therefore the sin might not be damnable to us yet it might chance to be as this of heresie especially is very hurtful nay damnable to others by leading them into it after our example for which they could have no excuse but their own folly I always therefore thought it a very great duty in a Gentleman to abstain from common and scandalous vices not onely for fear of his own danger but for fear of endangering other men who I know are more led by the examples of the Nobility and Gentry then by the Precepts of the Clergy though they should speak like Gods or live like Angels There being then so much danger from heresies it behoveth all persons seriously to consider whether their weakness of understanding by which they are led into errours and by which this Gentleman would excuse all heresies does not proceed from their own wills and whether they are not ignorant because they will not be better inform'd For if their errours and weakness do proceed from their obstinate perverse and contumacious resistance of authority this turns even the least of errours into the most damnable and worst of heresies And this I heartily refer to the serious consideration of all those that seperate from the Church of England as they tender the publick peace and welfare of the Nation or the eternal safety of their own or other mens souls that they examine themselves impartially whether ever they did inform themselves concerning that which they dislike in the Church and if they did not let them do it speedily and sincerely For otherwise they will be guilty of speaking evil of those things which they understand not and of wilful Schism and Heresie As for that which our Author saith That to relie upon the Church was to add perpetuity and universality to our Errours It is nothing at all to us of the Church of England since I am sure the worst of her Enemies cannot accuse her of enjoyning the belief of any Errour If they can let them do it and I will promise them if it cannot be answered fully and satisfactorily to any unprejudiced judgment I my self will give them publick thanks for their information If they cannot accuse her of any Errour in all her Doctrine certainly it must be a piece of the greatest folly not to say contumacy to continue in a wilful breach of her Communion The Second Objection which he endeavours to hit off is The frailty uncertainty and disproportion of Divine Truths to our understanding c. pag. 5 6. I shall not quarrel with him as to the main of his Answer to this Objection but I cannot agree with him in saying as he doth That every mans soul hath in it self so much light as is requisite for our travel towards Heaven Pag. 5. For this I apprehend to be down-right Pelagianism an Heresie long since condemned by Saint Augustine and the concurring Votes of the whole Church or if it be not Pelagianism sure I am it is a much worse Heresie if not the very renouncing of Christianity What luck the Gentleman had to excuse the Heresie just in the last Paragraph since he falls into it him self in this God help the weakness of his understanding But perhaps he will tell us that he doth not believe it an Heresie notwithstanding it is condemned by the Church or contrary to the Christian Religion But Sir what would you say if it be condemned by Humane Reason Surely then you will consess it an Heresie Therefore that you may be convinced be pleased to look back but three Pages and you will find it directly contradictory to what that Book tells us Pag. 2. l. 14. That to guide him in the right way one had great need of a better Guide then that which was left us by the Fall of our first Forefather But what reed I pray you Sir is there when you your self tell us That every mans Soul hath in it self so much light as is requisite for our travel towards Heaven Is not this a sufficient Example of the frailty and uncertainty of Humane Reason since this Author who is the greatest pretender to it even in that Book in which he makes it his business to perswade others to follow it and nothing else doth so readily fall into so apparent an Heresie and contradiction to himself though by his Book in which he hath so well managed so ill a cause we must acknowledge him to have the advantage of most men in strength of Reason Is not this enough to abate our overweening confidence in our own opinions and make us a little afraid how we follow so uncertain a Guide as our own Reason which hath so palpably deceived our Author This I do acknowledge to him that by God's Free-grace and Mercy concurring with the Ministry of the Gospel every man hath sufficient Light to show him the way to Heaven if he will use those Helps which God hath prepared for him to that purpose but as for his direction that we must seek Truth in the centre and heart of our selves if he gives it universally to all Men and concerning all Truths as he seems to do in that he hath not at all limited it he might as well have bid men search there for all the demonstrations of Euclid though they never had time nor education enough to make them understand so much as one of the most ordinary operations in Arithmetick nor one Mathematical Definition or postulatum And he had as good damn such a man to the centre of