the plain things they are taught without busie intermedling in Speculative Opinions and things beyond their reach Such a Liberty of Judgment as this they taught and such was necessary for the Age in which the Minds of Men were inthrall'd by the Masters of Sects and the Opinions then stil'd Orthodox from which it was accounted Heresie and Damnatiou to recede So that nothing could be done to set them at large from those vain Fancies and Ways till they were perswaded to examine them with freedom and indifference and to conclude according to the Report of their Faculties They knew That Truth would have the advantage could it but procure an impartial Tryal That the False Doctrines and Fanatical Practices of the Times would be detected and sham'd were it not for the superstitious straightness that supprest all Enquiry and that those Old Truths that were exploded with so much abhorrence would in all likelyhood gain upon the Judgments and Assents of all that were free and durst to be inquisitive On such accounts they prest the Liberty of Judgment and in a time when it was very seasonable and no hurt could directly arise from it Since 2. They taught and urged much modesty together with it and allow'd not Dogmatical Affirmations but in things that were most fundamental and certain They consider'd That our Understandings at best are very weak and that the search of Truth is difficult that we are very liable to be imposed on by our Complexions Imaginations Interests and Affections That whole Ages and great Kingdoms and Christian Churches and Learned Counsels have joyn'd in Common Errors and obtruded false and absurd Conceits upon the World with great severity and flaming Zeal That much Folly and great Non-sense have many times generally obtain'd and been held for certain and Sacred That all Mankind are puzled and bafled in the disquisition of the seeming plainest and most obvious things In the Objects of Sense and Motions of our own Souls That in earnest we cannot tell How we speak a Word or move a Finger How the Soul is united to the Body or the Parts of Bodies to one another how our own were framed at first or how afterwards they are nourish'd That these nearest things and a thousand more are hid from our deepest Enquiries Thus they consider'd often and fill'd their Thoughts with a great sense of the narrowness of humane Capacity and the Imperfections of our largest Knowledge which they used not to any purposes of unwarrantable Scepticism or absolute neutrality of Judgement but to ingage their Minds to a greater wariness in Enquiry and more shiness of Assent to things not very clear and evident to more reservedness in their Affirmations and more modesty in their Arguings After this manner they practised themselves and thus they discours'd to others and nothing could be more proper for those times in which everyone almost was immoderately confident of his own way and thereby rendred insolent in his Dictates and incurable in his Errors scornful to opposite Judgments and ready to quarrel all Dissenters So that the World was hereby fill'd with Animosity and Clamours whereas modesty in Opinions would have prevented those Mischiefs and it was taught by those Men as the likelyest way of Cure For there is no hopes either of Truth or Peace while every one of the divided thinks himself infallible But when they come to grant a possibility of their being out in their Beloved Tenents there is something then to work upon towards their better Information But 3. there was still less danger in the Liberty they promoted for as much as they practised and perswaded much prudence to be us'd in the publishing of their Tenents They allowed not any declaration of private Sentiments when such a Declaration might tend to the disgrace or dissettlement of Legal Appointments or any Articles of the Establish'd Religion provided there were no Idolatry or direct Heresie in the things injoin'd But believ'd and taught That Men ought to content themselves with their own Satisfactions in the Supposed Truths they have discover'd without clamorous Disputes or Wranglings And though in the large compass of Enquiry they took and the Considerations they had of all sorts of Idaea's that enter into the various Minds of thinking Men it could not be but that they should have several Apprehensions different from vulgar Thoughts Yet they were very cautious in discovering their Conceptions among the illiterate and unqualified They had no delight in speaking strange things or in appearing to be singular and extraordinary They were not so fond of their own Opinions as to think them necessary for all others Nor were they infected with the Common Zeal to spread and propagate every Truth they thought they knew No they consider'd there were Truths which the World would not bear and that some of the greatest would be receiv'd here with the bitterest contempt and derision So that to publish would be but to expose them to popular scorn and themselves also Their main Design was to make Men good not notional and knowing and therefore though they conceal'd no practical Verities that were proper and seasonable yet they were sparing in their Speculations except where they tended to the necessary vindication of the Honour of God or the directing the Lives of Men They spoke of other Matters of Notion only among their known Friends and such as were well prepar'd able to examine and dispos'd to pardon or receive them Among these they discours'd the greatest freest Speculations with as much liberty in their Words as in their Thoughts and though they differ'd in many Notions yet those Differences did nothing but serve the pleasure of Conversation and exercise of Reasoning They begot no estrangements or distasts no noise or trouble abroad Such was the prudence that They practised and taught and this also was very proper for those Times when every Man vented his Conceits for Articles of Faith and told his Dreams for Revelations and then pretended he was extraordinarily enlightned and strove to make Proselites and quarrel'd with all that did not embrace his Fancies and separated from the Communion of the Church and endeavour'd to involve the World in Hurries and Distractions and all this for the sake of a few pittiful needless sensless Trifles In such a time this prudent Spirit and Practice was singularly seasonable and useful But though they were thus cauteous and wary about Theories more remote and not necessary yet they were not altogether indifferent to what Men believ'd and thought No They were concern'd and zealous against the Fanatick Conceits and Humours of the Age which were the occasions of so much Folly Irregularity and Disturbance And my next Business is to declare in some great Instances how they demeaned Themselves in opposing of them This was the second thing I undertook to relate namely Their particular endeavours in the Affairs of Religion But before I fall on it I must declare to you That They had not any
But these things were common to them All hated the former Constitutions All cried up their own Clan as the only Saints and People of God All vilified Reason as Carnal and Incompetent and an Enemy to the things of the Spirit All had confident false and perverse Notions of the Divine Attributes and Counsels All decry'd Vertue and Morality as a dull thing that was nothing in the account of God All fill'd their Discourses with the words of Light Faith Grace the Spirit and all talk'd in set Phrases phancifully and ignorantly about them All pretended to great Heights in Knowledge though that consisted in nothing but an ability to repeat those Phrases of their Sect like Parrots All talk'd of their extraordinary communion with God their special Experiences Illuminations and Discoveries and accordingly all demean'd themselves with much sawciness and irreverence towards God and contempt of those that were not of the same phantastical Fashion All were zealous in their proper set of Doctrines and Opinions and all bitterly oppos'd and vilified every different Judgment These are some of the main things that made up the common Nature of the Parties In particulars as I have said they were infinitely at variance While things were in this condition some of our Missionaries in Forreign Parts returned and among the other Books and Rarities from the World they brought the Works of some of your Episcopal Divines and other Learned Men particularly those of Hammondus Taylorus Grotius c. Such of them that were written in English they translated into Latin the rather because they judg'd those Discourses very seasonable and proper to obviate the Evil Genius of the unhappy Age. As soon as they came abroad in the general Language they were read by the sober sort of our Divines with great approbation and acceptance and from them they had Light and Advantage for the detecting the Follies and Extravagancies of the Times For my part I was then a Student in the University and therefore shall chuse to relate what effect those Writings had there and particularly upon divers of my mine own Acquaintance who are now very considerable in this Church and have done great Service in it It was one Advantage that the Young Academians had from that unhappy Season that they were stirr'd up by the general Fermentation that was then in Mens Thoughts and the vast variety that was in their Opinions to a great activity in the search of sober Principles and Rules of Life I shall not undertake to describe the Spirit and Temper of all the Theologues and Students of those Times but shall give you an account of some that I knew who have been very useful to the Church in confuting and exposing the Fanatical Principles and Genius and who derived much of their Spirit and Doctrines from those excellent Authors of your Country Here I told the Governor that things had been lately also in our parts much after the manner he had described the Condition of theirs and that therefore I was very desirous to know by what Ways and Doctrines the People were reduced to a better temper I said also that I had relation to one of our Universities and on that account likewise was sollicitous to understand how those Academical Divines were formed and what they did when they came abroad He answer'd that he was ready to gratifie my desires but then said he I would not have you think that I magnifie the Persons I shall describe to you or their Learning and Performances above all our other Clergy No thanks be to God we have numbers of Excellent Men famous for their Piety Learning and Usefulness in the Church of whom by reason of my distance and constant Imployments in this place I have no personal knowledge and therefore I choose to speak only of those that were bred in the University about mine own Time and the rather that you may observe the Providence of God in raising Men so serviceable to his Church in the very worst of Days Having premis'd which he fell immediately to an account of their Preparations in the University and thence to a Relation of their Performances after Of the former he spoke thus THose Divines of whom I have undertaken to say something went through the usual course of Studies in the University with much applause and success But did not think themselves perfect as soon as they were acquainted with the knowledge contain'd in Systems No they past from those Institutions to converse with the most Ancient and Original Authors in all sorts of profitable Learning They begun at the top with the Philosophers of the Eldest Times that were before the days of Aristotle They perused the Histories of their Lives and Doctrines and then read all the remains of them that are extant They consider'd their Principles only as Hypotheseis with Minds free and untainted They studied them to know the several Scheams of their Opinions without passing Judgments yet upon their Truth or Falshood They read Plato and convers'd much with that Divine Philosopher They acquainted themselves with Aristotle his great Scholar and by his Original Writings they found how much he had been misrepresented and abused by his Commentators especially by those of later Times and saw how different a thing Aristotelian Philosophy was in his own Works from that which they had met in compendiums and the Disputing Books that pretended to it They made themselves intimate with Plutarch and Cicero And dealt much with the other chief Writers both Greeks and Romans By which means they were well instructed in the History of Philosophy and the various Thoughts and Opinions of the greatest Men among the Ancients But yet notwithstanding this Conversation with those Sages They were not so pedantically and superstitiously fond of Antiquity as to sit down there in contempt of all later Helps and Advancements They were sensible That Knowledge was still imperfect and capable of further growth and therefore they looked forward into the Moderns also who about their time had imployed themselves in discovering the Defects of the Ancients in reviving some of their neglected Doctrines and advancing them by new Thoughts and Conceptions They read and consider'd all sorts of late Improvements in Anatomy Mathematicks Natural History and Mechanicks and acquainted themselves with the Experimental Philosophy of Solomon's House and the other Promoters of it So that there was not any valuable Discovery made or Notion started in any part of Real Learning but they got considerable knowledge of it And by this Vniversal way of proceeding They furnish'd their Minds with great variety of Conceptions and rendred themselves more capable of judging of the Truth or likelyhood of any propos'd Hypothesis Nor did they content themselves with Reading and the knowledge of Books but join'd Contemplation and much thoughtfulness with it They exercised their Minds upon what they read They consider'd compar'd and inferr'd They had the felicity of clear and distinct thinking and had large compass
Religion different from that of other Catholick Christians but were faithful adherers to the old acknowledg'd Christianity as it was taught by the Church of Bensalem To this Church they conform'd heartily though they were distinguishable from some others of her Sons by the application of their Genius and Endeavours I have told you They grew up among the Sects They were Born and Bred in that Age which they could not help But as they order'd the Matter it was no hurt to the Church or them that they were educated in bad times They had the occasion thence of understanding the Genius Humour and Principles of the Parties which those that stood always at distance from them could not so thorowly and inwardly know By that means they had great advantage for providing and applying the Remedies and Confutations that were proper and effectual And by daily Converse and near Observation they setled in their Minds a dislike of those ways that was greater and juster than the Antipathy of some others who saw only their out-sides that in many things were specious and plausible They studied in the Places where some of the chief of the Sects govern'd and those that were ripe for the Service preach'd publickly as other Academical Divines did This they scrupled not because they were young and had been under no explicit ingagements to those Laws that were then unhappily over-ruled But in those and in their other Vniversity-Exercises they much serv'd the Interest of the Church of Bensalem by undermining the Ataxites so the Sectaries are here call'd and propagating the Anti-fanatical Doctrines which they had entertain'd and improved So that I cannot look upon that Spirit otherwise than as an Antidote that Providence then seasonably provided against the deadly Infection of those days On which account they were by some call'd the Anti-fanites because of their peculiar opposition of the Fans or Fanites as the Ataxites were sometimes named And though some Persons thought fit to judge and spoke of Them as a new Sort of Divines Yet they were not to be so accounted in any sense of disparagement since the new Things they taught were but contradictions of the new Things that were introduced and new Errors and Pretences will occasion new ways of Opposition and Defence I have now I doubt said the Governor almost tired you with prefacing but these things were fit to be premised I exprest my self well-pleased both with the Matters he related and the order which he thought convenient to declare them in and so he proceeded to the second main Head Their particular Principles and Practices I MUST tell you then said He first That they took notice of the loud Out-cries and Declamations that were among all the Sects against Reason and observ'd how by that means all Vanities and Phanatick Devices were brought into Religion They saw There was no likelyhood any stop should be put to those Extravagancies of Fansie that were impudently obtruding themselves upon the World but by vindicating and asserting the use of Reason in Religion and therefore their private Discourses and publick Exercises ran much this way to maintain the sober use of our Faculties and to expose and shame all vain Enthusiasms And as Socrates of old first began the Reformation of his Age and reduced Men from the wildness of Fansie and Enthusiastick Fegaries with which they were overgrown by pleading for Reason and shewing the necessity and Religion that there is in hearkning to its Dictates So They in order to the cure of the madness of their Age were zealous to make Men sensible That Reason is a Branch and Beam of the Divine Wisdom That Light which he hath put into our Minds and that Law which he hath writ upon our Hearts That the Revelations of God in Scripture do not contradict what he hath engraven upon our Natures That Faith it self is an Act of Reason and is built upon these two Reasonable Principles That there is a God and That what he saith is true That our Erroneous Deductions are not to be call'd Reason but Sophistry Ignorance and Mistake That nothing can follow from Reason but Reason and that what so follows is as true and certain as Revelation That God never disparageth Reason in Scripture but that the vain Philosophy and Wisdom of this World there spoken against were Worldly Policies Jewish Genealogies Traditions and the Notional Philosophy of some Gentiles That Carnal Reason is the Reason of Appetite and Passion and not the Dictates of our Minds That Reason proves some Main and Fundamental Articles of Faith and defends all by proving the Authority of Holy Scripture That we have no cause to take any thing for an Article of Faith till we see Reason to believe that God said it and in the sense wherein we receive such a Doctrine That to decry and disgrace Reason is to strike up Religion by the Roots and to prepare the World for Atheism According to such Principles as these They managed their Discourses about this Subject They stated the Notions of Faith and Reason clearly and endeavour'd to deliver the Minds of Men from that confusedness in those Matters which blind Zeal had brought upon them that so they might not call Vain Sophistry by the name of Humane Reason and rail at this for the sake of Fallacy and the Impostures of Ignorance and Fancy Hereby they made some amends for the dangerous rashness of those inconsiderate Men who having heard others defame Reason as an Enemy to Faith set up the same Cry and fill'd their Oratories with the terrible noise of Carnal Reason Vain Philosophy and such other misapplyed words of reproach without having ever clearly or distinctly consider'd what they said or whereof they affirm'd And this they did too at a time when the World was posting a-pace into all kinds of madness as if they were afraid the half-distracted Religionists would not run fast enough out of their Wits without their Encouragement and Assistance And as if their Design had been to credit Phrensie and Enthusiasm and to disable all proof that could be brought against them This I believe many of those well-meaning Canters against Reason did not think of though what they did had a direct tendency that way And accordingly it succeeded For the conceited People hearing much of Incomes Illuminations Communions Lights Discoveries Sealings Manifestations and Impressions as the Heights of Religion and then being told that Reason is a low Carnal Thing and not to judge in these Spiritual Matters That it is a Stranger to them and at enmity with the Things of God I say the People that were so taught could not chuse but be taken with the wild Exstatical Enthusiasts who made the greatest boasts of these glorious Priviledges nor could they easily avoid looking upon the glarings of their own Imaginations and the warmths and impulses of their Melancholy as Divine Revelations and Illapses To this dangerous pass thousands were brought by such Preachments and had so
of his affirmations and the strange effects of his distemper others are perswaded into the same vain opinion of him that he hath of himself to the great disparagement of Religion and deception of the simple This whole mystery of vanity and delusion They lay'd open to the World and shew'd that all was but a natural disease and far enough from being sacred or supernatural That very evil Men and even the Heathen Priests have felt all those effects and pretended to the same wonderâ—… and were as much inspired and divinely acted as those exstatical Dreamers 5. And whereas those high flown Enthusiasts talk'd much of mysteries and the Sects generally contending which should out-do the other here made up their schemes of divinity of absurdities and strange unintelligible fancies and then counted their groundless belief of those wild freaks a great sign and exercise of Faith and spirituality The Divines of whom I am speaking imploy'd themselves worthily to detect this taking imposture also They gave the true senses in in which the Gospel is a mystery viz. A secret hid in the councils of God and not discoverable by reason or humane enquiries till he was pleased in the fulness of time to unfold it clearly and explicitly by his Son and by his Spirit who revealed the mystery that had been hid from ages That Religion may yet be call'd a mystery as it is an Art that hath difficulty in the practice of it And though all it 's main necessary Articles are asserted so clearly that they may be known by every sincere Inquirer and in that respect have no darkness or obscurity upon them Yet They asserted that some of those propositions may be styled mysterious being inconceiveable as to the manner of them Thus the Immaculate Conception of our Saviour for instance is very plain as to the thing being reveal'd clearly That it was Though unexplicable and unreveal'd as to the mode How They said That our Faith is not concern'd in the manner which way this or that is except where it is expressly and plainly taught in Scripture but that the belief of the simple Article is sufficient So that we are not to puzzle our selves with contradictions and knots of subtilty and fancy and then call them by the name of mysteries That to affect these is dangerous vanity and to believe them is silliness and credulity That by and on the occasion of such pretended mysteries The simplicity of the Gospel hath been destroy'd the minds of Men infatuated sober Christians despis'd the peace of the Church disturb'd the honour of Religion expos'd the practice of holiness and vertue neglected and the World dispos'd to Infidelity and Atheism it self 6. And since the being Orthodox in Doctrine and sound in their new concâ—…ed Faith was in those times a great matter and one mark of Saint-ship as errour on the other hand was of unregeneracy and Reprobation They shew'd That bare knowledge of points of Doctrine was nothing worth in comparison of Charity Humility and Meckness That it did not signify in the divine esteem without these and such other concomitant Graces That a man was never the better for being in the right opinion if he were proud contentious and ungovernable with it That ignorance and mistake in lesser things when joyn'd with modesty and submission to God and our Governours was much to be prefer'd before empty turbulent and conceited Orthodoxy That errors of judgment are truly infirmities that will not be imputed if there be no corrupt and vicious mixture with them That they are not hurt to him whom they do not seduce and mislead nor do they make any alteration in our state That God pardons them in us and we ought to overlook and pass them by in one another By such ways and representations as these They disabl'd the main works wherby the fond Ataxites concluded themselves to be the Godly and destroy'd the chief grounds on which they built their proudest pretences So that their wings being clipt they came down to the ordinary level with other mortals leaving the title of Godliness and Saint-ship to be made out by quiet devotion and self-government by Meekness and Charity Justice and Patience Modesty and Humility Vniversal Obedience to Gods Commands Reverence to Superiours and Submission to Governours and not by the other fantastical and cheap things consisting but of imaginations and phrases and mystical nothings ANd for as much as each Sect confin'd the Church Saintship and Godliness to it self and entail'd the Promises and Priviledges of the Gospel upon it's own People Therefore here They stood up and reprov'd the Anti-christian pride and vanity of that cruel and unjust humour Shewing That the Church consists of all those that agree in the profession and acknowledgment of the Scripture and the first comprehensive plain Creeds however scatter'd through the World and distinguish'd by names of Nations and Parties under various degrees of light and divers particular models and forms of Worship as to circumstance and order That every lover of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity who lives according to the few great acknowledg'd Doctrines and Rules of a vertuous and holy life is a true Christian and will be happy though he be ignorant of many points that some reckon for Articles of Faith and err in some which others account sacred and fundamental By which Catholick principle foundation is lay'd for universal Charity and Union and would Christian men be perswaded to govern themselves according to it all unnecessary Schisms and Separations would be prevented and those Hatreds and Animosities cur'd that arise from lesser disagreements AGain whereas as the Ataxites had made Religion a fantastick and unintelligible thing as I have told you and drest it up in an odd mumming and ridiculous disguise Those Divines labour'd much to reduce it to it 's native plainness and simplicity purging it from sensless phrases conceited mysteries and unnecessary words of Art Laying down the genuine notions of Theology and all things relating to Faith or Practice with all possible perspicuity and plainness By which means many scandals were remov'd and vain disputes discredited divisions stop'd Religious practice promoted and the peace of the Church at last establish'd They told the Ataxites that though they talk'd much of closing with Christ getting in to Christ rolling upon Christ relying upon Christ and having an interest in Christ and made silly people believe that there was something of Divine Mystery or extraordinary spirituality under the sound of these words That yet in good earnest either they understood not what they said and mean'd nothing at all by them or else the sense of them was but believing Christ's Doctrines obeying his Laws and depending upon his Promises plain and known things They shew'd that all the other singular phrases which they us'd and which the people were so taken with were either non-sense and falsehood or but some very common and ordinary matter at the bottom That
they had generally silly and fantastick conceptions of Free Grace Gospel-liberty Saving knowledge Pure Ordinances The motions of the Spirit Workings of Corruption Powerful preaching Liberty of Conscience Illuminations and Indwellings That their Admirers generally talk'd those words by rote without knowing the meaning of them and that the Teachers themselves understood them in a false and erroneous sense That bating such words and the talk of Outgoings Incommings Givings-in Dawnings Refinings Withdrawings and other Metaphors there was nothing extraordinary in their whole Divinity but the non-sense and absurdities of it Thus They declar'd freely against the Gibberish of that Age and stated the right Notion of those points of Religion which the others had so transformed and abused FUrther Whereas the Sects kept up loud cryes against the Church of Bensalem as guilty of Superstition Will-worship undue Impositions and Persecution They took them to task here also and declar'd That Superstition in the properest sense of it imports An over-timerous and dreadful apprehension of God which presents him as rigid and apt to be angry on the one hand and as easie to be pleas'd with flattering devotions on the other so that Superstition works two wayes viz. by begetting fears of things in which there is no hurt and fondness of such as have no good in them on both which accounts they declar'd the Ataxites to be some of the most superstitious people in the World They shew'd That their dreadful notions of God which represented him as one that by peremptory unavoidable decrees had bound over the greatest part of men to everlasting Torments without any consideration of their sin only to shew the absoluteness of his power over them I say They declar'd that those black thoughts of Him were the Fountain of numerous superstitions That their causless fears of the innocent Rites and usages of the Church of Bensalem which were only matters of order and decency appointed by the Governours of the Church and not pretending any thing in particular to divine Institution was very gross and silly superstition That they were very superstitious in being afraid and bogling at prescribed Forms of Prayer kneeling at the holy Sacrament the Cross in Baptism and the like becomming and decent Institutions That 't was Ignorance and Superstition to fly off with such dread from a few injoyn'd Ceremonies because forsooth they were symbolical and significant That the Ceremonies that are not so are vain and impertinent That the Ruling Powers may appoint such for the visible instruction and edification of the People and for the more reverence and solemnity of Worship That the current principle among them That Nothing is to be done in the Worship of God but what is particularly commanded and prescribed in Scripture is a foolish groundless conceit and the occasion of many Superstitions That though this is always pretended and said yet it was never proved That to observe the Church in such appointments without any opinion of their antecedent necessity is a due act of obedience to it But to fly from them as sinful and Anti-christian is great Superstition These things they declar'd and prov'd against the negative Superstitions of Taste not Touch not handle not And They shew'd also how justly chargeable the Ataxites were with many Positive ones in that they doated upon little needless foolish things and lay'd a great stress of Religion upon them That the keeping such stir about pretended Orthodox opinions and the placing them in their Creeds among the most sacred and fundamental Doctrines was a dangerous and mischievous Superstition That it was very superstitious to dignify private conceits or uncertain tenents with the style of Gospel-light Gods Truths precious Truths and the like expressions of admiration and fondness That to intitle the Spirit of God to the effects of our imaginations and the motions of natural passions was Superstition and that so was the opinion of the necessity and spirituality of suddain conceiv'd prayer That there was much Superstition in their Idolizing their particular ways of Worship and models of Discipline as the pure Ordinances and Christs Government and Scripture Rules And that in these and many other respects they that talk'd so much against Superstition were themselves most notoriously guilty of it As to Will-worship They taught after your most learned Hammondus That the Apostle in the only place where it is mention'd Col. 2. doth not speak of it in an evil sense But that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports a free and unconstrain'd worship which is the more acceptable for being so That Sacrifices before the Law Free-will-offerings under it The feasts of Purim and Dedication Davids design of building the Temple the Austerities of the Rechabites and St. Paul's refusing hire for his labour among the Corinthians were of this sort That men are not to be blamed for Will-worship except they would impose it without Authority as necessary That when they thus teach for Doctrines their own Traditions and grow so proud and conceited with them as to separate from the publick Communion upon the fancy that they are more pure and holy then others That this their Will-worship is sinful and Pharisaical which was the case of the Ataxites who therefore were Will-worshippers in the evil sense But the Anti-fanites shewed that the pious Institutions of just Authority were no way lyable to any such imputation That such might impose particular Circumstances and Decencies and that those Impositions were no way contrary to Gospel Liberty That that was only Freedom from the Jewish yoke from the bondage of sin and power of Sathan not Liberty from the Injunctions and Appointments of Civil or Ecclesiastical Governours That all or the chief power of these conconsisted in fixing and appointing circumstances of order and decorum that were left undetermined and not prescrib'd in Scripture That if they may not do this they are in a manner useless That the Church of Bensalem impos'd nothing that was grievous or prohibited They minded the Ataxites that themselves were great Imposers That they imposed Oaths and Ceremonies in that part of Religious Worship a form of words the lifting up of the hand and That they would have impos'd numerous doubtful and false opinions to have been subscrib'd as a necessary Confession of Faith making thereby their own private tenents of equal moment and certainty with the great fundamental Articles which is proper imposing upon the Conscience That they would not by any means allow Liberty of Conscience when they were in power that this then was the great Abomination and the most accursed thing in the world That they persecuted the Bensalemites for their Consciences with wonderful inhumanity That when other power is taken from them they are grievous persecutors with their Tongues and are continually shooting the Arrows of bitter scornful words against all that are of different judgment Thus Those Divines disabled all the charges and pretences of the Fanites and turn'd the points and edge upon themselves And
inclinations in meer Humane Knowledge But as to their way of Learning as Divines something may be added And with Relation to this I may say 1. That they are not much taken with the School-men but rather think That those subtile and Angelical Doctors have done Religion no small disservice by the numerous disputes niceties and distinctions they have rais'd about things otherwise plain enough By which The natural and genuine conceptions of mens minds are perverted and the clear light of Reason and Truth intercepted and obscur'd And they judg'd There was less cause in the latter ages to reckon of School-Divinity since the Peripatetick Philosophy on which it was grounded grew every where into discredit So that they thought it not safe to have Religion concern'd in that which did not truly help it and which was not now able to help it self 2. They did not admire many of the Commentators and Expositors of the Scripture For though they praised those Industrious Men for their Zeal and Devotion to the holy Writings Yet they did not think much due to divers of their performances For a considering Man could not but observe how they kept voluminous stir about the plain Places which they never left till they had made Obscure while they let the difficult ones pass without notice Besides which the manifold Impertinencies Phancies Disputes Contradictions to one another and the Scriptures which were observable among those Writers rendred divers of them of mean account in the Judgment of those Men. However they had a just esteem of many of the Critical Interpreters and particularly of those famous Lights of your end the World well known to us also Grotius and Hammondus whose learned works and expositions they beheld with great respect and veneration 3. As for the ANTIENT FATHERS They valued those greatly of the first 300 yea 500 years who lived before Christianity was so much mingled with Opinions and corrupted by disputes and the various devices of Men Their works they reverenced because there was much holiness in those venerable persons and much simplicity in their writings and among others there are two particular reasons why they had those sages in so much esteem 1. Because the Controversies they handle are mostly such as Concern the main things of Religion in opposition to the Jews Heathens and some gross Hereticks who undermined the Foundations of Faith and Life These were undertakings worthy the zeal and pains of those holy Ancients who did not multiply unnecessary quarrels and occasions of dispute or make speculative opinions Articles of Faith and fundamentals of Religion and presently denounce thick Anathema's against all that differed from them in lesser matters But they stuck firmly to the few plain things and placed their Religion principally in a holy Life and lived in Charity and Love and frequent communion Those days and those Men the Antifanites celebrated much and prayed and endeavour'd for the Restauration of Christianity to that Primitive Temper 2. They reverenc'd those Fathers because living nearer the times of the Apostles they had more advantages to know their Doctrines and Government and Usages than the ages at a greater remove have on which Accounts They attend more to their practises and opinions then to those of succeeding times when pride ambition covetousness and disputes had lead Men aside into the various ways of phancy and faction These then they accounted excellent witnesses of Christianity and our best Interpreters of it's Dectrines and Constitutions though they did not make them Judges in affairs of Faith and Religion or reckon all to be infallible that they did or said Thus were they dispos'd towards the first Fathers For Those of the following ages They esteem'd their piety and zeal and praised God for the good they did in their Generations and gave all due acknowledgments to their pious endeavours and were ready to imbrace their instructions in the ways of Godliness and Vertue and willing to receive the evidence of any truth from them But They did not equal them in their estimation with the Elder Fathers nor superstitiously doat on all their sayings nor take them for the best Guides in all the Doctrines of Religion For those Fathers lived in the disputing ages when pride and interest and prevailing faction had espoused opinions as essentials of Faith and made Men quarrel and divide and break the peace of the Church of the World for Trifles They much differ'd from one another and some of them at times from themselves and many of them in some things from Scripture and Reason and more primitive Antiquity They disputed often with much eagerness and were very angry with each other about things of no great moment and vented unseemly passions and were too often very impatient of Contradiction and different judgment They some of them spoke hastily and determined too soon in a heat against one kind of opposites and then forgot at another time and affirm'd the quite contrary against an other sort of Adversaries They made too much of their opinions and were many times too severe to harmless dissenters These and divers more such were the weaknesses of many of those Reverend Men which I do not mention said He to detract from their worth in other things or to lessen their just honour and valuation but to shew you some of the things which 't is like were the reasons why those Divines did not esteem of the latter as they did of the most ancient Fathers These and such like I say I judg might be the reasons But They themselves were very cautious in saying any thing that might look like detractions or disesteem of those venerable Persons They contented themselves to omit poring on such of them as They thought there might be less cause to admire or less need to study without discovering their nakedness and imperfections or discouraging others from following their inclinations to converse with them Yea they neglected not to read them themselves as they had time and occasion But then they read them not with design to gather fine sentences to adorn their discourses nor to gain Authorities in speculative matters to confirm their opinions But to improve their reasons to get direction from their pioâ—…s councils and to inform themselves of the Genius Principles and Customes of the Times in which they successively lived That they might not be imposed on by the pretenders to Antiquity who endeavour'd to gain pretence to their Innovations by pretence of ancient 〈◊〉 And this is enough of their Inclinations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have now said He 〈◊〉 a word to speak mâ—… under this Head and that shall be briefly 4. About their opinion of the Rabinical Learning Among the Authors of this sort diverse of them were very conversant not out of any great esteem of the Men or their Learning but from a desire to acquaint themselves by Them with the Doctrines Terms of speech and Customes of the Jews in order to their better understanding of the Scriptures