led to a Practice where there is danger of such a complicated sin 3. I am to consider that differences in Religion and Worship do dangerously affect the Peace of Kingdoms and all other Societies especially where the interests of Church and State are so mixed and interwoven together as they are in England They that agree in Religion are the most likely to be at peace and to agree together in other things But it seldom happens that they maintain hearty correspondence in any thing who are of opposite Communions in the service of God When the Unity of the Church is broken there is a foundation laid of those uncharitable censures and animosities which for the most part end in violence and bloudshed very often to the dissolation of Kingdoms and Nations It were easie to put this out of question by several instances of the sad experience which Christendom hath had of it But the late and sad Example hereof at home is enough to make all others needless for our conviction The Rebellion here was supported by nothing more than by difference about Religion This was the principal cause that brought together so many People against the King and that inslamed them with anger and resolution to venture all till they had secured the King and enslaved the Kingdom I need not say for sure every body must be sensible of that how diversity of Religions weaken the Government and render a People unable to do well for themselves to oppose foreign Enemies and to use the most likely opportunities for the common safety and prosperity Therefore in love to our Country and for the sake of Peace at home and of success in all just Enterprizes abroad we should be very backward to violate the present Constitution of the Church and to unsettle the state of Religion and never separate from the establish'd Communion till we find our selves forced to it by Reasons so plain and weighty that there is no avoiding of it if we would keep our selves honest men and good Christians 4. The setting of a bad example to others should in this case be most considered For if where a necessary Reformation in things of Religion is made by just Authority or a lawful separation made by private persons from a Communion polluted with unlawful conditions it is yet very hard to keep the Example from being abused by others in reforming or separating without any such cause and will still be of worse consequence to set an example of wanton and unjustifiable separation for this is so plain a contempt of Authority Order and Unity that others will be afraid to subdivide into more Parties as Self-conceit Ambition or Revenge or the like evil dispositions shall prompt them 5. If separation should not be made but with very great caution for fear of incurring the guilt of Schism by a causeless and unlawful departure from the Assemblies of the Church and setting up other Assemblies in opposition to them This in the judgment of the ancient Christians was no less than for a man to cut himself off from the Catholick Church of Christ and if the body of Christ be but one as the Scripture plainly tells us he that divides himself from any particular Church that is a Member of this Body divides himself from the whole Body And therefore Schismaticks were not accounted by the Ancients to be within the Church although they retained the profession of the Common Faith And surely a man would well advise with himself about an action whereby he may be in danger of putting himself into that condition The Vnity of Christians in one Body and Communion was instituted by our Lord for very great and weighty reasons and particularly for the securing of Brotherly kindness amongst his Disciples who being Members of the Body of Christ should therefore love and care for one another more than other men are wont to do and for the retaining of Professors within the Rules of a true Christian life from which if they should break away by any scandalous practice they were to be punished for it by the shame of being turned out of the Communion of the Church and by the loss of the great advantages thereof But it is evident that they who are guilty of dividing the Communion of Christians and setting up one Communion in opposition to another without necessary cause do what in them lies to render this provision for the maintenance of Charity and purity of Manners amongst Believers altogether ineffectual And we see by experience that hatred and ill will and looseness of life gains ground more by the Schisms that are amongst Christians than by any thing else and no wonder since men that are of different and opposite Communions do not use to love one another and vicious persons do not value the Communion of a true Church nor care if for their ill manners they be turned out of it when they can take Sanctuary in a pretended Church of another Communion that makes as loud a claim to all the Priviledges of a Chruch-Society as that Church can do from which they have divided themselves Which things being considered we are not to wonder that in St. Cyprian's time Schism was accounted no less but rather a greater fault than to sacrifice to Idols for the avoiding of persecution For though Idolatry simply considered be in it self worse yet Schism in its consequences is more pernicious He that is the Head of a Schism does more mischief to the Church than if he turned a Pagan or a Mahometan The conclusion from hence is this That it concerns every man that separates himself from an established Church it concerns him I say as much as his Soul is worth to look to it that the cause of his separation be just and necessary and such as will throw the guilt of Schism upon that Church from which he separates But alas how few are they that examine the reasons upon which they have broken away from the Church of England How many that when they are pressed in good earnest can say no more for themselves than that they have better preaching and more spiritual praying elsewhere than in our Parish-Churches How will they abuse our Prayers and call them Porridge and such other vile names who never in all their lives so much as read them and are not ashamed to own that they have not They call the Bishops Antichristian and the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church Idolatrous or Superstitious who yet never well considered what Antichrist means what is Idolatry or Superstition who have little or nothing to say if they be asked what evil is in Bishops in Liturgies and in the Rites of our Worship How many others are there who read the Books written to defend the separation but will not vouchsafe so much as to look upon any one that is published in behalf of the Communion of our Church God of his mercy give a better Spirit to such people and Repentance to those that
have misled them Fourthly We should not easily believe those men in matters of Religion who would keep us from examining their Doctrines by fair ways of tryal and would affright us into an implicit Faith by pronouncing damnation against all that are not of their own way If men use violence or subtlety to hinder us from judging for ourselves there is great reason to suspect that they are conscious to themselves of a bad Cause which will not bear the tryal I need not say how this reaches the Roman Church which forbids the Laity to read the Scriptures unless some one Lay-man has that special favour granted him of leave so to do from his Ordinary who commonly is wise enough not to give this license but where he is sure the party is fast enough to the Cause of that Church Those of the separate Congregations best know what Arts are used to keep the people that go that way from informing themselves by reading our Books or discoursing with our Ministers about the matters in controversie between them and us But we are not ignorant of all of them some of their Leaders teach them to pity our ignorance and want of illumination Alas poor wretches that we are we know not the things of the Spirit of God! we are strangers to the life and power of Godliness Thus they use to represent us They take all the good names and promises of the Scripture to themselves and leave the threatnings of God and the punishments inflicted upon his enemies to us Now this is but a cunning and indirect way to keep the People from hearkning to any thing we can say to 'em and to teach them how to conclude against us without thinking it to any purpose to examine what is offered on both sides They that have a good Cause need not use those disingenuous Arts they will not fright men from considering what their adversaries say by denouncing damnation against them nor forbid them to read their Books but rather encourage them to do so that they may see the difference between Truth and Errour between Reason and Sophistry with their own eyes This is the effect of a well-grounded confidence in the Truth and there is this signe of a good Cause apparently discernable in the Application of the Clergy of this Church both to their friends and enemies They desire both the one and the other to consider impartially what is said for us and against us And whatever Guides of a Party do otherwise they give just cause to those that follow them to examine their Doctrines so much the more by how much they are unwilling to have them examined It is a bad signe when men are loath to have their Opinions seen in the day but love darkness rather than light Thus I have shewn in what cases we are most concerned to examine the Doctrines of those that undertake to inftruct and guide us § 5. II. Because the duty of proving all things supposes certain Rules and Tests by which Doctrines are to be examined and tryed I proceed to shew what they are Now it is very certain that the Rules by which we are to try Doctrines for our own satisfaction about them are no other than those want of Argument by which a wise man would prove the truth of his Perswasion to others for their satisfaction And therefore it is plain that those Rules must be common to me and to other men whom I would also guide so into the knowledge of that Truth to which I have attained And they are these three 1. Reason which is a common Rule to all men 2. Scripture which is a common Rule to all Christians 3. Antiquity or the uniform Judgment and Practice of the Church in the first Ages of Christianity which is a common Rule to those who are verst in the Histories of the Primitive Church and in the Writings of the Fathers The two former Rules are the principal and most necessary and we are safe if our Perswasions in Religion will bear the Test of Reason and Scripture and withal those Rules are near at hand for every mans use amongst us But the last Rule is also of good use to those that can use it for their own confirmation in the truth and stopping the mouths of gain-sayers But more particularly 1. By Reason I do not understand that Faculty by which we are men and can compare one thing with another and argue and conclude c. for this is that Natural Power by which we use any kind of Rule whereby to judge of the truth or falshood of Opinions in Religion but I understand by it those common Truths which are natural to the minds of men and to which we give a ready assent without any need of having them proved by any thing else For by these fundamental Truths we are to prove all things else and if there were none such we could prove nothing And they are such as these That nothing can make it self That the same thing cannot be and not be at the same time That common sence is to be trusted That God is a being absolutely perfect That the Good is to be chosen and the Evil to be refused and that Contradictions cannot be true and the like Now whatever is by true consequence deduced from such Principles is thereby proved to be true and whatsoever is repugnant to them or can be disproved by them is false They are the forementioned Propositions with others as self-evident as they which make up that which we call the Light of Nature or of Reason And I mention this Rule in the first place because it must be presupposed to all other ways and means of enquiring after Truth and without which nothing could be done in it insomuch that the belief of that Truth which is not to be deduced from mere natural Reason but depends upon a divine Testimony is at last resolved into a rational Act and relies upon this natural Principle that God cannot lye Wherefore they that cry down Reason as if it were at no hand to be trusted in matters of Religion and call it carnal blind and foolish Reason and such-like vile names if they are in good earnest they are incapable of searching after Truth themselves and of receiving any satisfaction from others While they are in this humour I may as well take a Beast to dispute with as go about to convince them And if all men were thus senseless it were impossible that men should be serviceable to instruct one another in the things of God But to abandon the use of Reason in matters of Religion and to scorn a man when he speaks consistently and argues clearly from common Principles of Truth is such a wretched sort of unmanliness that I cannot but think it is for the most part taken up in designe by those men that have brought Nonsence and Contradictions and absurd Opinions into Religion which no man can admit without doing violence to his own
A PERSWASIVE TO AN Ingenuous Tryal OF OPINIONS IN RELIGION LONDON Printed for Tho. Basset at the George near St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet 1685. A PERSWASIVE TO AN Ingenuous TRYAL OF Opinions in Religion § 1. THE great reason why they are few in comparison who come to a right understanding and a well-grounded Perswasion in matters of Religion is because they are not many who make a due inquiry into them Were this done more generally there would not be so much ignorance and errour in the world nor so great a variety of Opinions and Sects as there is and for the most part hath been in the world And there are three sorts of men who fail of knowing the truth for want of due endeavours to find it out Some there are who want ability or opportunity to inquire others who wanting neither do utterly neglect it and will not apply their minds to it at all a third sort make but a very imperfect search after truth And so all ignorance or mistake in things of moment that concern the salvation of men or the peace of the Church may be attributed either to want of power and means to inquire after truth or to unwillingness and perfect negligence where it may be sought and attained to or to laziness inactivity and partiality in seeking it To the first sort we are not onely to reckon Ideots who want a competent measure of Reason and Understanding wherewith to judge but those also that having the same common natural gifts of the mind with others are yet by reason of their outward circumstances kept almost invincibly ignorant having very little or no occasion given them to inquire into things that they might know them better And thousands who sit in Pagan or Mahumetan or Popish darkness are thus detained in gross errours and remediless ignorance as the case at present stands with them But blessed be God this is not our case who live in such a time and place as put no man under circumstances of incurable ignorance As for the second sort of men who have plentiful means and fair opportunities of being better informed but utterly neglect to use them they are either such who remain under the power of those false Principles which were instilled into them in their Education or who blindly follow erring Guides whose persons they have in admiration resolving never to trouble themselves with a free and impartial use of their own reason concerning those Doctrines which they have in their own opinion wisely and safely taken upon trust It happens likewise very often that men are led away by lofty conceits of their own judgment and the extravagant opinion they have of themselves will not suffer them to attempt such an ingenuous examination of things as implies a possibility of their being deceived But I believe they are more who take up Opinions and engage in Parties for worldly ends and carnal interests and these of all others are farthest from inquiring conviction because it is a great uneasiness to a mans mind to find himself mistaken in those opinions which are for his profit or pleasure in this world And mostly the power of custom strengthens all these causes of obstinacy in neglecting to inquire Men are not willing to quit the Perswasions they have for a long time entertained but had rather keep where they are without troubling themselves to begin all anew and to inquire whether they have not been all along deceived And where most of these obstructions meet together as they often do in the same person if he be not succoured mightily by the grace of God his mind is barred up for ever against the knowledge of the truth A third sort miss of the truth not that they make no inquiry but because they do this very imperfectly and superficially and that either through sloth and laziness being not willing to take that pains and care which is requisite for the discovery of truth or through partiality whence it comes to pass that they examine and 〈◊〉 onely or chiesly what is offered in favour of their own side and make it the great end of their search not to follow what shall appear to be true upon inquiry but to be confirmed in their present Perswasion And because diligence and honesty are very necessary dispositions in order to the right understanding of a great many things in Religion no wonder that they who inquire without these advantages are rather hardned in Errour than convinced of the Truth Now these being the common causes of ignorance and errour amongst us at this day and since they all center in want of due inquiry I shall set my self to excite all sorts of people who are not made incapable by natural weakness of understanding to prove and examine things which concern their own Souls and the peace of Christians with that diligence and ingenuity which becomes reasonable creatures And though I know 't is a hard task that I am undertaking by reason of the prejudices and corrupt interests of men which I must encounter yet I am sure no advice can be more rational than this that we would be perswaded to use our Reason which if we do not we lay up the common Talent of our natures in a Napkin For God hath endued us with Faculties whereby we can discern between Truth and Errour and moreover with a natural desire to know the truth so that the use of these Faculties is inexcusably neglected and this desire is foully corrupted and debased if we are easily imposed upon in things of great moment God in our creation hath enabled and inclined us to seek the knowledge of Truth and to inquire into the grounds of our Belief and Practice And therefore to neglect this is to abuse the first Gifts of God and to sin against Nature And it should be every mans care to find out that truth which concerns Religion and another life 〈◊〉 this is every mans greatest interest we should 〈◊〉 most diligence there where to be deceived is of most dangerous consequence But because there are some plausible Pretences against a due and impartial enquiry in matters of Religion I shall prepare my way by endeavouring to remove those Prejudices that lie against it and in order hereunto I shall consider these three Questions 1. Whether it be dangerous to private men to leave them to use their own judgment and to be led by it in matters of Faith and Religion 2. Whether a general liberty of examining and judging in those things doth mischief in the Church and be the cause of Schisms and Heresies 3. Whether if every one have a just Right to examine for himself this be not a good reason for Toleration or the universal liberty of practising according to a mans Conscience or Perswasion after examination § 2. 1. Whether it be dangerous to private men to allow them the use of their own judgment in matters of Religion Now to leave men wholly to themselves