in this business without directing them to use the best helps they can to find out the truth is very dangerous indeed and no wise man will contend for this liberty of judgment in behalf of Christian people or of any sort of men whatsoever for this were not so much to advise them to judge for themselves as to conclude for themselves before they had taken any pains to judge For I do not see how men can be said to judge who refuse the means without which they can make no tryal Now the assistance of men of greater knowledge and ability than themselves have is one very necessary means by which private and unlearned persons are to examine and judge in matters of Religion And God hath not onely given us ability to find out some truths by our selves but also to weigh and consider what others offer to us And therefore he hath appointed Governours and Guides of Souls that are to feed the Flock and to instruct Christian people in the way to Heaven And one part of their work is to enable them to give an answer to every one that asketh a reason of the hope that is in them I Pet. 3. 15. which I conceive they cannot do without informing and helping them to judge for themselves So that liberty of examining in order to private judgment does by no means exclude advising with and hearkening to men of greater skill and ability than our selves especially to the publick Guides of Souls but rather makes it necessary so to do this being one means of Gods appointment by which we are to inform our selves And I grant that without very good and clear reason we are not to depart from their Doctrine but in all doubtful cases to presume in favour of it But that it should be dangerous to private persons to weigh and consider as well as they can what their Guides teach them to believe or to do this is that which I can by no means understand unless it were a dangerous thing to follow our Guides like men that have Reason and not like beasts that have none It is at any time as safe to follow a Guide with our eyes open as to suffer our selves to be blindfolded and then to follow him by a string God hath referred us to Guides Heb. 13. 17. but yet he hath trusted us to our selves too and we are to try the spirits whether they be of God otherwise we may follow Guides that want Guides themselves And if the blind lead the blind both fall into the ditch To say that inquiries after truth with the best endeavours and means that we have in our power is the way to be mistaken is to reproach our own Reason and God the Author of it since as it seems the more we exercise and improve our Reason the more likely we are to be in the wrong and to deceive and abuse our selves At the great day of Accounts Seducers shall answer for those whom they have deceived And therefore the Guides of the Church are strongly obliged that they do not through wilfulness or negligence mislead us But if they mislead us in things that touch our eternal state I do not sind that all the blame will lie upon them but rather that we also shall answer for it our selves Otherwise why should our Saviour say Why of your selves do ye not judge that which is right Luke 12. 57. and St. John Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits c. 1 Joh. 4. 1. and St. Paul Prove all things hold fast that which is good 1 Thess 5. 21. and Let no man deceive you 2 Thess 2. 3. Again if it be dangerous to permit men to judge for themselves in that sense wherein I contend for it then these are not wholsom but very dangerous Exhortations And yet if a Church which pretends to be an Infallible Guide in Religion could make it out clearly and plainly that she is so I should without much examination of her particular Doctrines receive them as the Oracles of God But then I must have stronger Arguments to assure me that she is infallible than those which at present make me certain that she is actually deceived For to submit to a pretended infallible Authority without knowing why I do so is to put it into the power of others for ought I know to lead me into the most damnable errours and to call Virtue Vice and Vice Virtue Therefore they must be very convincing Reasons upon which I am to believe that of my Guide which being once admitted I must take his bare word afterward for all things else I think none of the Roman Communion will deny this And then it will follow that for my own safety I am to use my own Reason and Judgment as severely as I can before I admit this fundamental Article of their Faith And this will amount to what I say that it is so far from being dangerous for men to use their own Judgment in matters of Religion that it is very dangerous for them not to do so since otherwise they are likely to follow men of the greatest confidence as they for the most part are who have the least reason for it Besides if I am led into errour by the Authority of a Church that does not pretend to Infallibility I may hope to recover the knowledge of the truth especially if it be a matter of great consequence more than if she pretended and I believed her infallible For such a Church will not so readily deny me the means of examining her Doctrine and so I may be able to discover the errour my self If not I have this comfort at least that my Guides being not engaged to contend that they are infallible are themselves in the way of detecting their own mistake and will more easily come off from it But they that pretend to Infallibility are stak'd down to their Opinions and though their Cause be never so bad they are engaged to serve it And therefore this Pretence is so far from discharging me of the pains of using my own Judgment and Reason in matters of Religion that I make the most foolish venture in the world if I do not use my Reason as strictly as I can in examining that very Pretence before I admit it And though a Churches claim to Infallibility were in it self never so just and well-grounded it is to me but a Pretence till I understand the grounds of it Nor can any man blame me if before I am convinced of the Infallibility of that Church I take those particular Doctrines into consideration which are to be believed upon this account that I may this way also judge of the reasonableness of that Pretence for 't is not for nothing that men would be thought infallible If I find the Doctrine they would put off with such authority to be indeed divine and heavenly rational and scriptural tending to the reformation and salvation of Mankind this will incline me to
wrong way while they never use that liberty of examining the grounds of their Perswasion to which the Church so vehemently perswades them by her Ministers If it be urged that when a man sets himself with honesty and diligence to examine the Case of Communion with the Chnrch and doth all that he can to inform himself aright in this matter but cannot be satisfied that he may lawfully conform and this through mere weakness of understanding it is not reasonable that he should suffer any thing for that It may be said on the other side that there are many more who fail of understanding their duty in this kind for want of examination and inquiry and through the prevalency of Prejudice and passion than there are of those who continue erroneously perswaded through mere weakness of understanding But as for those who in perfect weakness remain unconvinced if I may suppose any such I wish the Laws could distinguish them from the rest and that they could be known by some visible characters that they might be exempted from undergoing any penalties But since this cannot be it must be endured that a few or none in comparison come to have hard measure by means of that which is necessary for the common and publick good § 4. Having premised thus much concerning this subject I shall proceed in this method following I. To consider in what cases we are to enquire most of all into the Truth II. To shew how or by what Rules or Tests we are to try and examine Opinions in Religion III. How we ought to be disposed and qualified that our Inquiries may be profitable and successful IV. To lay down some Motives whereby to perswade men to such Inquiry and examination V. To consider what becomes us and is our duty after the discovery and knowledge of the Truth I. I shall consider in what cases we ought to be most careful in making inquiries after the Truth lest we be imposed upon or mistaken All inquiries about Religion are either concerning the truth of Religion in the general or supposing the existence and providence of God which is the true Religion whether the Pagan or the Jewish or the Mahometan or the Christian or the truth of the Christian Religion being granted what Communion of men professing Christianity is to be chosen for instance whether the Church of Rome or the Church of England or the Communion of the Dissenters who separate from this Church But now all things are not alike needful to be proved or are equally proper matters of inqniry For 1. Every man is not bound to know all the false ways of Religion that are in the World and therefore not to try and examine every one of them It is sufficient for most men that they well consider the Faith and Profession to which they have been educated that if it be the Truth they may be well-grounded in it if it be false that they may upon good reason depart from it 2. Things that are self-evident need not to be examined for no Argument can make them plainer to us than they are already We may without any hesitation assent to such Principles as these That God cannot lie That men ought to observe fidelity and justice to one another and the like If there were not some Principles that needed no proving it were impossible to prove any thing and the more plain any thing is in it self the less need there is to examine it If I am told that white is black I shall not go about to disprove it because the thing is evidently false of it self and I can use no Argument that can make the matter plainer than it was at first In like manner if any man pretends that there is no difference between Vice and Virtue but in name and that all things are equally lawful this shall not put me to the trouble of examining the thing because 't is contrary to the common sense of mankind And for this reason any man is to be excused that dismisses the Doctrine of Transubstantiation without taking much pains about it because upon a very little consideration there appears so many gross contradictions and inconsistencies in it that I can have no greater reason to believe any thing is true than I have to believe that is false 3. Some things are hardly worth the examining and it signifies little or nothing to understand the right side of the Question If the Doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary were true yet it were not worth a quarter of the pains they have taken about it in the Church of Rome It is by no means true that an infallible living Judge is necessary upon Earth and that for the deciding of all Controversies in Religion since all such Controversies are not necessary to be decided some of them being of so little concern to us that it is no great matter if they remain Controversies to the Worlds end But we ought to use our Reason as well as we can to find out the truth in all those cases wherein it will be dangerous to be deceived and therefore in these four First When any man or company of men would gain us over to their way by lofty and extraordinary Pretences Secondly When Doctrines are propounded to us with considerable Authority which seem to encourage licentiousness and to render all care of living well needless Thirdly When we are tempted to separate from the Communion of the establish'd Church where we live or if we are in a state of Separation from it Fourthly When Opinions in Religion are propounded to us by those that would get us to yield up our Judgments wholly unto them and do what they can to keep us from examining them A prudent man would examine in all these cases First When men make extraordinary Pretences The reasonableness of which I have already shewn with reference to that Pretence of the Church of Rome to Infallibility And the like is to be said of those that pretend to work Miracles or that talk of immediate Revelations of knowing the Truth by Inspiration and of more than ordinary Illuminations For it is not onely a childish thing to be frighted with big words from looking what is under them but a very dangerous sort of cowardize to be afraid of calling those things into question which are set off with such highflown Pretences For from hence it has come to pass that Superstition and Idolatry Enthusiasms and Impostures have prevailed so much in the World It is somewhat strange that we should believe men the more for that very reason upon which we should believe them less that is for magnifying themselves And yet if this had not been common Mahomet had not imposed upon so great a part of the World nor the Church of Rome upon so great a part of Christendom nor our Enthusiasts upon so many People in England as they have I would not be backward to give that man a hearing that
yield more easily to the antecedent Arguments of the Infallibility of that Church But if the Doctrine for which she vouches this Authority does upon the most impartial tryal that I can make appear to be worldly unscriptural or contrary to common sence then I am bound to examine the grounds of her Pretence more severely than in the former case And there is no question but such Doctrines may be taught by men pretending to Inspiration or Infallibility which will justifie a man in rejecting that Pretence out of hand and troubling himself no more about it If a Physician of never so great name should tell me that he would infallibly cure my Disease and then prescribe a dose of Arsenick I think Reason would advise rather to question his Infallibility because he goes thus madly to work than to take his Poyson because he promises an Infallible Cure Now if I am not to do violence to my own understanding in things that concern my bodily health much less should I do the same in things that regard my everlasting state And they are a strange sort of men who will allow people the liberty of using their Reason as well as they can for the security of their worldly interests but will have them be led in the great affairs of Religion and Eternity as if they had no reason at all For to judge aright and to know the truth in matters of Religion which is our highest concernment was the principal end for which we have Reason and are Creatures of judgment and choice And they may as well say that 't is dangerous for a man to walk abroad with his eyes open as that 't is dangerous for him to take upon himself to judge as well as he can whether he be in the right way to Heaven or not § 2. If we consider what has been already said it will not be difficult to answer the second Question 2. Whether a liberty of examining and judging in matters of Religion doth mischief in the Church and be the cause of Heresies and Schisms To which I answer that To affirm this is in effect to say that it had been much better in order to the peace of the Church and the prevailing of Truth that men had been nearer to stocks and stones than endued with natural Abilities of judging and natural propensions to use those Abilities which I think would be to reflect upon the Wisdom of our Maker For certainly it had been better for men to have wanted the faculties of judging and proving if it be so dangerous a thing to the Church to make use of them Nor is it much for the credit of the Church that it should be against her interest for men to examine her Doctrine and use their Reason about it as well as they can To speak to the thing It is not the liberty of examination and judgment in order to the knowledge of the Truth that causeth Heresies and Schisms but the not making a right use of this liberty i. e. mens entring upon this work with Pride and the prevalency of Lust and Passion and worldly interest their want of care and diligence and of proving things sufficiently their taking up Opinions without reasonable examination and then seeking for Pretences to colour their obstinacy The Lusts and Vices of men are against the peace of the Church and the interest of Truth but not the use of that Reason which is the divine part of our Natures and which God hath given us to restrain and govern our inferiour Faculties 'T is true indeed that if few or none troubled themselves at all to judge in matters of Religion there would be no Heresies But 't is true too that if they had no reason to judge of these things at all there would have been no Heresies and 't is as true that if there had been no Religion at all it were impossible that there should be Heresies in Religion But will any men say that Reason or Religion is therefore the cause of Heresies And yet there is as much reason to say this as to conclude that the use of our own understandings in the things of God is the cause of Heresies These things are too gross to need a Confutation And yet this Pretence against the liberty of proving what is propounded to us in Religion is intended chiefly against private and ordinary persons but not against the publick Guides and Officers of the Church whereas in truth if there be any thing in it it holds more strongly against these than against the other And that because the most pernicious Heresies that ever came into the Church were brought in by men of Learning and Authority in the Church And if this Pretence be good they of all men should be forbidden to inquire into matters of Religion because if they fall into any dangerous mistake their Authority is likely to give reputation to it and to make it go down more easily with the common People than if it had been started by one of themselves So that we must not lay the Heresies that have been in the Church to the liberty we have been contending for unless we will be content to exclude all from the duty of proving what they have been taught to 〈◊〉 And no man can think this reasonable unless he 〈◊〉 all Religions to be equally true that is every one to be alike false And he that believes this needs not care what Heresie he is of § 3. 3. But if every man hath a just liberty and right to examine for himself is not this a good reason for Toleration or for the universal liberty of practising according to a mans Conscience or Perswasion For to what purpose is liberty of enquiry if after all I must be concluded by the Authority of my Superiours or else suffer under those Laws by which they provide for Uniformity in Religion To this I answer That every mans right and duty to judge for himself in matters of Religion is no good reason for Toleration unless it were also apparent that every man used that Right as he ought to do i. e. with industry deliberation and impartiality If all men were sincere and would examine without prejudice without that byass to one side which is made by lust and passion and worldly interest if they all intended to know the truth that they might do their duty then doubtless it were very fit that all should enjoy an undisturbed liberty of practice according to their Judgment for then no man would err in things plain and necessary to his own salvation and the peace of Church and State For our Lord hath assured us that if any man will do the will of God he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God But so long as there is that Hypocrisie in the World whereof men are conscious to themselves so long as all those Vices also reign which insensibly corrupt the Judgment and make men disloyal to the Truth
pretends to great things in teaching Religion but then I should be something forward to give him a tryal too for otherwise I might encourage a very impudent Hypocrite to be more impudent still and to play upon my easiness till I had swallowed all the foolish and damnable Opinions which he would have me believe for his own advantage Secondly When we meet with Doctrines that seem to strike at the foundations of Morality and good living we are to examine them too before we yield our assent though they be recommended by men of name and authority For the end of divine truth is a good and holy life and therefore I should suspect that to be false Doctrine which in my judgment either takes away the necessity of Piety and Virtue or discourages men from endeavouring to attain them For instance I find this Doctrine maintained by some men of great note That God hath from all eternity absolutely chosen some men to salvation and reprobated the rest without respect to any personal qualifications Now if this be true I cannot see for my life how the obtaining of eternal happiness and the avoiding of damnation depends upon any care of mine or upon any thing that I can do since every mans state is absolutely over-ruled by predestination and an irreversible decree so that let me do what I please all that I can do for another world will be but lost labour and might as well be spared But if I am sensible of this it is but reasonable that I should not rely upon the credit of the Author or of the Preacher for so perilous a Doctrine but because it is pretended to be grounded upon the ninth Chapter to the Romans I should go to the Apostle my self and carefully inquire into his meaning in that place by the best Rules of interpretation that I can learn And whoever goes thus impartially to work will find that the Apostle in that place was discoursing of another Question and indeed upon a subject that has nothing to do with this Question of absolute Election or Reprobation of the persons of men and that though the words sound that way to a man that is already prepossess'd yet the meaning of them is nothing to the purpose Suspicion of Doctrines when it is grounded upon so good a reason as we are now speaking of should cause inquiry and then that inquiry will discover on which side the truth lies He that would be a Libertine and live as he lists may be pleased when he meets with any pretended Doctrine of Religion that will excuse a wicked life or discourage Virtue and holiness and therefore it is likely that he will rest satisfied and examine no farther But an honest mind will not let a man deceive himself in this manner but if it does not cause him to reject such Opinions as soon as ever he has well satisfied himself of their consequences it will at least keep him from admitting them till he has tried them every way that he can Thirdly We ought also to be very well satisfied and that upon much consideration of the matter before we separate from the Communion of the Church where we live For whatever some men may think of it this is a business of so weighty a nature and consequence that it is not to be resolved upon or continued in till we are sure we are in the right and that upon most plain and evident reasons And if there be any case in which a Christian ought not to go rashly to work this is one And therefore it is greatly to be lamented that so many amongst us pretending to the power of Godliness should make so light a matter as they plainly do of running into separate Congregations it being very notorious when one discourses the point with them that they never enquired why the Church-Assemblies were to be forsaken and what it is in the establish'd Forms of Worship or in the Terms of our Communion that makes it needful for an honest and wise Christian to depart from it And this is an Argument that they take it to be a matter of very little consequence for otherwise they would have applied themselves with more diligence to weigh it in all the particulars that belong to it And therefore I shall offer some Reasons in behalf of such inconsiderate People to convince them how bold and dangerous a thing it is to separate from this Church of England unless they were fully satisfied upon mature examination that there are just and necessary causes for separation such namely as will make them sinners against God if they do not separate 1. If without just cause I separate from this Church I do wilfully reject the great blessings and advantages of Communion with it and must be answerable to God for slighting that merciful providence of his through which I happened to be born and bred in a place where I might enjoy the benefits of Church-Communion without venturing at any disorderly and sinful practice for them Surely it is no small blessing if my lot has been cast where so great a blessing did as it were lie in wait for me where the true Christian Doctrine and way of Worship was recommended to me by publick Authority and establish'd by Law and Custom and defended to my hand by clear and strong Arguments If this be our Case in the Church of England then my separation from her I say it again makes me guilty of a stupid and ungrateful contempt of Gods exceeding mercies in disposing my condition in this World so to my advantage that I was born baptized and bred in a place where the Truth invited me and was ready to receive me before I made one step towards a search after her Indeed to be baptized within the Communion of a particular Church and to have been born and to live under that Authority which requires me to keep close to it is of it self no sufficient reason why we should continue to be of it but it is a mighty reason why we should examine things carefully before we leave it or take up a resolution never to return to it if we have left it already because if there be no just reason for separation we shall have the more to answer to God For it is a great fault to neglect searching after the Truth in matters of this concern even when it lies a great way off from a man but it is much more inexcusable to reject it when it lies at our doors 2. I had need be very careful and impartial in this case since if the reasons upon which I separate be not really weighty and substantial I am at once guilty of throwing off that subordination and subjection to the Pastors and Guides of the Church which the Christian Profession requires and of contemning the lawful commands of my Superiours in the State contrary to the Rule of the Gospel which obliges me to submit to their Ordinances I should not easily be
their Opinions whose persons they admire and mostly to that degree as not to hear with any patience an Argument against them Such a Precious man said this or that and therefore no body must say otherwise But it is at once disingenuous and silly to entertain such an opinion of any man as to take all that he says for Gospel for the best men are fallible and 't is easie for an Hypocrite to make himself pass for a Saint in the opinion of ordinary people and therefore men may be led into great errours whose judgments are captivated in this manner To this we may adde that Prejudice which arises from conceiving hard things of mens persons which an ingenuous man will by no means yield to but will consider what another says though he does not fancy the man It is reason enough with some people to reject all that their Minister says to convince them of their mistakes if he be called a High Church-man or goes for an Arminian and all this while they stand in their own light and will not suffer themselves to be instructed in many profitable Truths which they might learn Thus the Jews though they were astonished at our Saviour's Doctrine and Works yet believed not and this because they were offended at him for the meanness of his Parentage Some are so weak as to be prejudiced against Opinions and Practices meerly because they have heard them often abused nicknamed and inveighed against in a rude and reproachful manner And this goes a great way with some Dissenters to make them deaf to all our Reasons that when they are got together they hear the Rites and Prayers of our Church scoffed at and called by vile names But it stands not with the least ingenuity to run away with prejudice against things that are abused and laugh'd at without examining whether there be reason for it Sincerity is opposed to those Prejudices that arise from vicious affections and worldly interests and it consists in a firm resolution to do the Will of God and a vehement desire to know it for that end And this is a most necessary preparation to know the Truth because nothing is more common than the perverting of mens judgments by the inordinacy of their lusts and the serving of a corrupt interest The love of any Vice makes a man partial and insincere in examining the truth of that Doctrine by which he stands condemned The belief of it is uneasie to him it is not for his interest that it should be true This is the reason why the fool saith in his heart There is no God The worldly interests of men do strangely byass and fashion their Judgments It were a thing never enough to be admired that so many men of Parts and Learning should not be ashamed of those pitiful grounds upon which they maintain the Supremacy of the Pope the Doctrine of Purgatory the Half Communion the Sacrifice of the Mass the Invocation of Saints and the like but that those things do notoriously serve the Wealth and Grandeur of the Roman Church If it be needful to go to a Conventicle for the getting of a rich Fortune or the bettering of a mans Trade a little enquiry will for the most part serve his turn and satisfie him that the Separation is lawful and the Causes of it are just A man ought to set aside all consideration of his worldly interest and to propound eternal life to himself as the end of his inquiry when he labours to know the Truth The affectation of Popularity and the love of Praise and Flattery cannot consist with a sincere love of the Truth and does very often hinder the attainment of it It is hard to convince men of those things that check their vainglorious ends and purposes And therefore says our Saviour How can ye believe in me that receive honour one of another and seek not that honour which cometh of God onely The wise man exhorts us to buy the truth intimating thereby that we must quit all our sinful lusts and affections and our carnal interests in prosecuting of it In a word we must be in mind prepared to believe all truth by being resolved to do whatsoever appears to be the Will of God let what will come of it in this World having our hearts evermore fixed upon the great concernment of eternal life And this is more necessary for the best knowledge than vastness of Parts and Learning Where the mind is thus prepared there will be little need to press the two remaining Dispositions whereof the former is 2. Competent diligence Errour is sometimes made to look so like the Truth that a superficial examination will not serve to distinguish one from the other Sometimes the Truth must be had by laying a great many things together and the proof does not lie in one but in many Arguments pointing the same way Sometimes also a conclusion is offered with the shew of many Motives of credibility which neither singly nor joyntly prove what is intended And here patience and industry commonly helpeth more than quickness of judgement Our Saviour bad the Jews search the Scriptures those very men who in all probability had read them but as it seemeth not with diligence enough It were very well if those that begin to study Divinity would not presume upon the diligence and honesty of others whose Books they see full of Citations of Scripture but take some pains to judge whether that be the true sence in which they are quoted For want of this several have miscarried in their first entrance upon this work and the errours of men of name and authority have been propagated It would also be very happy for this Church and for themselves too if the dissenting people would not presently conclude that what they read in the Books of their own way is all agreeable to Gods Word because they see abundance of Scripture in them but would use some diligence to judge whether that be the true meaning in which the Scripture is there understood It was doubtless with designe to catch such slothful people that the Catechism of H. T. was published in our Language wherein he pretends to prove all the lewd Doctrines of the Romish Religion by Texts of Scripture But if any man will take the pains to examine his pr̄oofs he shall find such miserable wresting and perverting of the Scripture that he will never trust a Book more merely for store of Scripture-Phrases and Citations but go to the Fountain of Truth it self the pure Word of God to see whether the interpretations of men are indeed the unpolluted streams of that Spring from whence they are said to come We must be willing to sift things to the bottom if we would not be imposed upon A very little pains will serve to make a man confident but 't is not a little that will make him confident upon safe grounds 3. To Diligence we must adde Prayer for the divine Illumination