have cause to value their Force the first being fathomable by the easiest capacity and the second prevented by the vigilancy of the Government And to my solid comfort I well remember the resolution of my good Friend Bishop Gawden while he was Parson of Bocking in Essex to my Question Whether if I believ'd in God and Christ I were obliged to be a Member of any particular Church or no which was this That if I were one of God's Vniversal Church 't was no great matter whether I were joyn'd to any petty Church Policy upon Earth or no. A golden saying and I must not belye the dead and this Doctor kept his Parsonage all along till the Restauration of his Majesty and knew well 't was not necessary for him to be a Martyr of State in those ugly convulsions of Government tho he was so bravely honest as by an excellent and Loyal Protestation in Print to dissuade those bad men who then were about destroying of the King and did do it from so horrid a Crime but when 't was done he sat still and liv'd splendidly never opposing the Usurpation to no purpose as all wise men do who wheel about when there is reason And 't is best to be silent where Force tho usurped runs high and beyond the help of private men and this made the Judges act in t'other times for Right and Property must be maintain'd and made Bishop Juxon fall to hunting And I never knew any man very wise who shew'd himself eager to punish others for not complying with Externals about Religion So the Peace be not violated which is the greatest of Earthly Blessings and which we have enjoy'd at home ever since the King was restor'd and whereof I suppose there will not in his time and long may he live be any want if this great Animal the Empire of Great Britain be but true to its own Interest the Protestant Religion And to prove the truth of that Maxime let it be noted how for now above an hundred years experience by the Sufferings of good men in Q. Maries days and otherwise it has been from Scripture and Reason warranted and defended against all the Wit and Machinations of the other side ev'n to a plain baffle of late by D. Stillingfleet which deserves all imaginable thankful respects And let it be considered that our Religion is most consonant to the Genius of the best and most of his Majesties Subjects to our Common Laws and our Form of Monarchy and has been more than once signaliz'd with Blessings from Heaven against all its dangerous Opponents This I say is the prop of our Peace and the proper Antidote against Profaneness Atheism and Popery which are unseparable when it is secur'd by wholsom Laws and their due Execution the Life of all Laws unto which Sanctions all Romanists from their Protection under them are oblig'd by the Laws of Reason to render obedience at least they should not endeavour to pervert others from it Whence this conclusion naturally arises That the Disturbers of our Peace at this time in England of what sort soever so protected are unreasonable men where there is such plenty and where all Arts and Sciences flourish to a degree beyond any part of the habitable World and thence it follows that if any ingenious Person is uneasie here he ought to consider if his want of Humility severity of Opinion upon begg'd Principles Credulity or too great an esteem of his own Wisdom have not made him so uneasie But further If neither the searching Wits of the Rainbow Coffee-house the generous Learning of Covent-garden the Politick Gown-men at Paul's Cross the fixible Mercury of Fuller's Rents the Presumptions of Charing Cross nor the huge strength of the new Chappel near the great Arch can reduce us to Moderation nor satisfie our Doubts and Fears if the Ludicrous Drolls of future Fortune cannot be foreseen by the highest Star-gazing Philosophers no nor by the Magick of honest Fl. If the quaintest Lawyers cannot agree whether a Pardon after an Impeachment c. by the Publick hand signifie something or nothing If some rank high Ecclesiasticks cannot be cur'd of their Melancholy without vent'ring to take that Ignatian Powder which will never do their Business and does but suspend the Fever Nevertheless let the Winds shift as they may the Lee Port is at hand and safe Humane Reason which will shelter us from storms if men in their stations will discreetly follow its guidance as the safest Rule for Self-preservation for the examination of all Doctrines obtruded by Humane Authority and of every miraculous pretension as the best measure of Conscience because of Scripture without whose free Use I mean of Reasons Impudence will pass for Sense Stupidity for Discretion Fury for Valour the Town Bullies and Cullies for the most accomplisht Gentlemen hagg'd Curtezans for modest Ladies and the most sensless infatuated Bigots for the most Religious therefore to avoid mistakes of such natures or at least to allay the sharpness of our Epidemical Distempers I hope I have in this Reply and by the favour of Reason not only defeated the Forlorn but the united Phalanx of the Gentleman 's best disciplin'd Infantry and his Body of Horse also who durst oppose Reason's Bravery and Strength It remains that I come off as civilly with him as he does with the Author where at last he says that he the Author could not be angry with him upon his own Principles for says the Gent. I have guided my self in my Answer wholly by my own Reason which I thank him for he having thereby justifi'd the whole Treatise of the Author's and thereby shrivl'd his Answer into waste Paper and serves to shew that my Replying is no greater Crime than his was who was charged to say O. Cromwel's Horse was shod with Iron and far short of Banks his sin who shod his with Gold tho the one escapt the High Court of Justice yet the other could not the Star Chamber the Usurpt Dominion of the first dissolving naturally for defect of essential Rights to sustain it and the second being abolisht for Exorbitancy which Defect can never justifie Disobedience to Lawful Sovereignty as ours is and whereunto if Calvin's Case had ne're been printed I should have rationally submitted because my obligation lyes in the nature of my Submission Oaths adding nothing to it and our Laws say Obedience is due from Nature wherein Sir R. F. my Countrey man is right tho out in other things and tho Paul advises Obedience not for Fear but Conscience yet is an equivocal word never us'd in the Old Testament and more subject to Errour than Reason because less supported by solid Argument and too often dazl'd by Enthusiasm the Disease of Reason and Conscience also which first to speak humanely must yet be admitted to be the elder considering God's Inhibition probational to Adam c. But to let that Mystery alone and yet to leave nothing unweigh'd which the
still be obliged to rejoin that I also have left him in the dark I make this Explanation of what I think the Author meant by the other Guide which was that after the Laws of Nature the onely Rule for ought appeareth afforded by God to govern the World by for some thousands of years at first became either neglected or forgotten Moses was commanded to publish the Decalogue and some other Laws partly repeating the Laws of Nature and in part superadding upon the Complexion of all which and of Christ our Saviour we have rationally inform'd our selves of the Way to Happiness As to what the Gent. saith of our bruise in our Reason upon the Fall of Adam that it cannot now take directions fit for our Journey and that it is a Supposition as improbable as to assume that if the Sky falleth we shall catch Larks I think the Simile Ridiculous I am sure it is improper and shall only desire to be resolved by him if Reason be not the most probable way to Happiness what is But we come now having pass'd all his Out-guards to his main Posts upon the Front whereof he boldly pretendeth to prove that the Author's Assertions are impracticable and destructive to all Arts Orders and Corporate Societies of men taking a Leap from the Happiness there intended by the Author after this Life head and shoulders into the Politick Interests and Concerns in this World which how foreign soever to the Author's Design in that place though afterwards considered by him I intend to refute in every Instance worthy my consideration The first Instance the Gent. giveth is this that if every man must make Use of no other Guide but his own Reason suppose in Cases which concern his Life and Estate and must take Directions from himself only which the Author hath not yet said the honourable Professions of Physick and Law would be useless and that it is impossible Private men should understand so well those things as the Professors thereof I answer That the Use of Temperance hath preserved and still doth preserve many in constant Health that Laws are begotten and continued most-what from the Vices of men but because some are either from the Infirmities of their Parents their own Constitutions or other accidental Causes valetudinary Reason teacheth men to find out proper Remedies by Physick and it is only Reason which teacheth men the Use of it or to apply to such other Persons as they suppose can ease their Distempers which also instructeth others to apply themselves to such Lawyers for Advice whose proper Study it is not but that Rational men have a great deal of Law in themselves so the particular Persons in each Science being chosen by Reason of man's own or by the Advice of some others upon whose Judgment they depend it cannot thence be supposed that the exercise of Reason is any way destructive to either of those two honourable Sciences But saith the Gent. this also holdeth as to Divinity for if men were as careful of their Souls as of their Bodies and Estates they would in all difficulties of Confcience take the Advice of Divines as frequently as of the Judge and Doctor in Cases proper to them and then concludeth we must not be governed by our own Reason exclusively taken from all other helps for this would destroy all the Chief Professions of the Nation we might pull down all our Inns of Courts and Chancery all Colledges the Charter-house the Royal Society and all Schools of Learning and that it would destroy all Laws and Order if every man with the Author were resolved to have no other Guide than his own Reason which the Author never said A Charge with a witness but let us examine it a little the Gent. complaineth of men's not being careful to advise with Divines in difficulties of Conscience As to the point of Conscience I presume every Sober man doth or should advise himself and can finally have no other Adviser yet not exclusive of others Advice and of others Reason for the Author never said so but on the contrary told us of fit helps for Reason's Assistance and surely Advice must be one of them If the Gent. mean about matters of Faith which is but Reason reciify'd the Assent any man giveth to any Proposition of that kind must be from Causes otherwise he believeth he knoweth not what nor why who can believe so Now I think there are very few men of Understanding but do one time or other consult with others about their Scruples of Conscience or at least their Consciences were not fixt to any Credentials without Observation Advice or Reading however I know no Law of God or Man which obligeth me to be totally govern'd in my Conscience by any particular Classis of men now in Being upon Earth If I am satisfy'd it is well with me having used all Rational means to satisfie my self and I wish it were not true which the Judicious Author hath observed viz. that if men had used their own Reasons so many had not been mis-led by the Errors and Deceits of others And as to the other Point of taking direction from a Judge the Gent. speaks without Reason for he is to know that for any Judge to speak extrajudicially is many times Criminal in the Judge and uncivil in him that desireth his Opinion and for that Inference as if the Use of Reason would dissolve Orders and Bodies Politick it is a non sequitur for all Rational Persons are presum'd to know their Constitutions are founded upon Reason and Law and it is for the interest and safety of the Members to obey their Superiours because their Disobedience naturally begets Exclusion so far is any thing or all the Gent. hath objected against the reliance upon Reason been from proving it destructive or prejudicial to any of those Noble Professions as it appears it is the onely thing which fortifies and consolidateth them or all Artificial Corporate Bodies whatsoever The next thing the Gent. objecteth is that the Author hath said They that dispute against Reason do it because their own Reason persuadeth them to that Belief c. and this he calls Ironically a killing Argument But for the Truth of it I appeal to every man's Reason viz. If I dispute against any Proposition either I do it really or feignedly if feignedly it 's idle if really is it not because I conceive it irrational neither can the Gentleman's Instance help him out which is and he borrowed it out of Mr. Chillingworth that though Reason must direct us to the Rule by which we are to act yet when we have found out such a Rule as our Reason assureth us is infallible we ought no longer to govern our selves by our bare Reason but by our Reason guided by that Rule and to act such things not that Reason doth direct but such as our infallible Rule doth command us so that we see saith he that Reason is so far from being our Guide
other we need not fear he will punish us for not finding out such Truths Where 's Wilful Ignorance now for saith he if they had been necessary I wish he had told us what are necessary for our Salvation they would have been suited to our Capacities but if we are wilfully ignorant of necessary Truths then it is not more contrary to the Goodness of God to punish us Eternally for that than for any other sin which we dye in without Repentance I reply That in all Cases where I cannot assent to any Proposition about Faith because unconvinc'd having search'd and try'd what possibly I could to convince or inform my self I need not fear God will punish me eternally for in this case I cannot be guilty of that he calleth Wilful Ignorance for it followeth that all Truths which I assent not to having so search'd by my Reason do either surpass my Understanding or they do not if they do I am not punishable saith the Gent. eternally and I say If they do I am not punishable eternally because I could not know they were Truths Punishment alwayes presupposing Guilt and it is no Crime not to be able to know but a natural Infirmity indeed it is a Crime not to search for Truth but none to think such a Position false Neither do I know that men are any were in Scripture said to be condemned eternally for any other but unrepented actual Sins But if I should grant that some Errors are damnable how shall I know which are so one Church condemning another must not my Reason judge for me Yet higher If it be hard to say which a Great Author saith not yet answer'd nor perhaps ever will that God who is the Father of Mercies that doeth in Heaven and Earth all that he will that hath the Hearts of all men in his disposing that Worketh in men both to Will and to Do and without whose free gift a man hath neither inclination to Good nor repentance of Evil should punish mens Transgressions without any end of Time and with all the extremity of Torture that men can imagine and more it seemeth hard to think which I add that he will punish men eternally for not being able to find out the Truth harder for their Errors which they believe to be Truth but hardest of all for not conforming to the External Modes of honouring him which are alterable and many times accommodated to the Interest of a Nation and are only honourable towards him because they are legally declar'd to be honourable in one place not so in another How much therefore doth it concern the Supreme Power every where to consider and weigh the present Genius of the People before they make Ecclesiastical Laws for they alwayes touch the Consciences of men not so other Laws for they are for Publick Peace strictly and must be obey'd they are I say to be considered especially there where in the very Nature of the People there is much pity for Sufferers about Religious concerns and in whom there is a general abhorrence as with us about Religion from Persecution which His Majesty well understood when he afforded that Gracious Condescention besides all men know Persuasion was the Method of the Apostles not Rigor nor will Rigor prevail here And we have lived to see once more to say it the Profit of that demonstrative and rational way of Preaching and Printing used of late whereof D. Stillingfleet's Book Entitled Origines Sacrae that most Excellent Book proving the Being of God the Immortality of the Soul and the truth of Scripture is no mean Example nor are D. Tillotson's Printed Sermons less considerable against Atheism From whence I pass by as granted on all hands the Gentleman's long Harangue which he before play'd with of the Rationability of Men's being obliged to consult with Divines Lawyers and Physicians as answered before Though I may pertinently subjoyn what great Reason our Author had to mention the Ignorance or Malice of one sort of our spiritual Phisicians together with their too visible Vices I mean in some of them as none more likely to let in a Flood of Atheism and Popery than the Disobedience of Dissenters from whence I pass to the Gentleman's next Argument against our Relyance upon Reason he putting the case of meeting with a Jesuit or Sectary who shall attaque me how I will avoid being made either of those two To which I must reply and can give no other than this that in such a Case I must fly to Reason as my safest Guard all other Guides being fallible which no man in his Wits was ever yet so irrational as to say of Reason nor the Gentleman neither Yet to speak freely I cannot think otherwise but that I am obliged to yield to either of those two if they appear either of them to have greater Reason than mine and that I may be safe with either of them the Gent. allows so there 's no Danger at all in meeting with either the one or the other but a possible Profit So great is the use of Reason and so great is the Force and Defence of it The plain Truth is it is the thinking man that is wise As for Books they may be useful yet 't is dangerous relying upon them 't is true a few Books well chosen and digested may open and establish the Understanding when as too much reading dazles it how many Persons of good Natural Parts acquired Wit and Learning wear out their dayes in a perpetual hurry of reading is obvious to every man of general Conversation such are alwayes learning and never come at truth So that every Humane Excellency resolves into Reason or shrowds under its Umbrage Reason which as a Light Divine govern'd the World before the Metaphorical word Conscience was known This begot Government teaches Obedience and first of all oblig'd men to Natural Religion which can never be cancell'd or forgotten All the Lawyers in the World cannot make any Case Law which is not Reasonable 't is not Precedents will do it they are but Opinions Nor can any Divine preach me into a belief of any Proposition unless he be able to convince my Reason that what he sayes is true Nor any Politician warrant the soundness of his Advice to his Sovereign till the Event has justified the Rationability of his Counsel which is the Reason why it has been observed that some wary men in Counsels endeavour to speak last 'T is hard to conceive what that thing is which the Learned call Physicum Fatum so many little and impossible to be foreseen intervening Accidents may and do often alter the most subtile Projections On the other side a Rational and Prudent man may live in Peace in most Times under the changes of Government by complying as Judge Hale did in the times of Usurpation to maintain Property 'T is true Subjects have Liberty in all things where they are not restrain'd by Laws and in such things they have
Gent. has offer'd against Humane Reason Upon Review of his Answer I am oblig'd to say once more that one part of three in it swells with illogical Consequences and is against constant Experience for he undertakes to shew what mischiefs must come to pass if Liberty of Conscience were permitted as to that 't is plainly otherwise for since Liberty has been generally assum'd the Nation has been very peaceable and obedient every way otherwise this I say is another experimental confutation of the main part of his Answer Therefore I would not have the Gent. spoil the Tone of his Stomach by Choler if I do discomply with him in not granting the not so horrible consequences of such a Liberty as he presumes contrary to Reason and Experience For if the Gent's desire had been seconded with Execution rigorously against the Dissenters it might have hazarded the putting of the English Nation into great Disorder by this time his words being Pag. 152 of Plain Dealing That if the Nobility and Gentry will not suppress the Sectaries by the Execution of the Laws they will soon arrive at that height that the Sword must do it or else there will be no Government at all in our Nation but what if it be impracticable to suppress them because the People will not accuse one another 'T is true Reason of State has been forc'd to strike smartly that other sort of men who by their barbarous and impolitick Actions have dared to confront the Government but I hope they will be made wiser hereafter by the late Examples of publick and infamous Inflictions for it seems the Common Law is in many Cases in the breasts of the Judges de Modo Poenae And let the Event be what it will to use the Gent's own words in the close of his Answer I must also with him profess that I have fully satisfi'd not only my Conscience but my Reason also which is the surer way and from better motives in this Reply by shewing my self according to my Duty a sincere Lover of Peace of Religion in general and of that particular Religion the support whereof I have asserted to be the true Interest of England and was alwayes so esteem'd since the Reformation And I will add my promise to the Gent. and that upon the word of a Gentleman which ought to be as sacred as that of a Priest that if he shall please to give me a Rejoynder without departure from his first Plea I will not demurr for want of Form but leave the Dispute to the Censure of indifferent Judges upon the whole Argument viz. Whether Humane Reason be not the best and safest Guide with its due helps beyond Popes Councils Fathers Canons and all Books whatsoever the Scripture excepted which yet if any man will ask me how I think to understand I can give him no other Answer but this that I must do it by Reason which is the only Talent God has indu'd me with for my preservation here and hereafter and by which and no other mediation it 's possible for a man of good Vnderstanding and not clogg'd with false Principles to be satisfy'd that the natural Dictates of God Reason carry no repugnancy to the Law and Will of God revealed in the Scripture the study of which Learning is the foundation of all true Ratiocination and the most generous and most useful Science for all men to aspire unto who would know their respective Duties as Christians and Subjects and upon the Presumtion of which Axiome it is that our Law of England if it were well digested into Method certainly the best in the World does say that if any Law shall be enacted contrary to Reason it is void eo instante because contrary to God's undoubted Eternal Law the Law of Reason my Province to maintain wherein if any thing have slipt from my Pen not consistent with the Duty of a good Subject or true Christian I do submissively and heartily beg pardon for it And to compleat my candid and at present sole Design of supporting Reason's Energy and for the justification of H. the Eighth's forsaking the Roman Church and thereby to justifie the Reformed Protestant Religion let the Reader consult the Decretory Council held under and by the Command of Pope Paul the Third 1538 Printed 1609 at London and taken out of Mr. Crashaw's Library then Preacher of the Temple wherein the Abuses of the Roman Ecclesiasticks are manifested under the Certificate of Nine of the most Eminent Cardinals then living whereof Pool was one and Sadolete another to whose Inspection the Inquiry was then referr'd by the said Pope which Abuses the Court of Rome would not then correct nor are they yet corrected the Book being suppress'd by Order of that Church and coming to my hands something late from a worthy Bencher of Grayes Inn which otherwise had sooner been made Use of to prove Reason a safer Guide than that Church which pretends to Infallibility and may serve for Answer to that Romanist who published some weak Reflections upon our Author's Discourse of Humane Reason who if he fail'd in any thing handled in his Book 't was in his a little too slightly referring the Cause of H. the Eighth's deserting of the Roman See to his Wantonness c. For that there were many other concurring motives to his Desertion is very probable from some Speeches I have seen of his in Parliament and from Histories about him who was tho a severe yet withal a very stout and inquisitive Prince and fitted thereby for the Work he so worthily began and whereof the Advantage accrues to us at this time Such are the unsearchable depths of Providence which tho few observe and fewer are willing to resign their Wills unto will do what is best for good men Lastly Because some men are most guided by Book Authorities I think fit to add that Montaigne Erasmus Raymond Sebond Charone Cassauder Chillingworth Cartesius Milton Gell Baxter and Hobbs also with others of Fame as D. Stillingfleet not to forget Bishop Tayler have unanimously approv'd of Reason as the best Guide and favour'd or cooly advis'd a circumscrib'd Toleration I having named Grotius before but I refer the ingenuous Reader once for all to that excellent Discourse of the Rise and Power of Parliaments Laws Courts c. and of Religion printed 1677. by way of Letter to a Parliament-man wherein a Toleration in Religion here for all but the Jesuits and Seculars is argued to be not onely Political but highly Rational and consonant to the Doctrine of the Holy Jesus of which Opinion till I am convinc'd otherwise by Reason I am resolv'd to be and no longer for I cannot Mean time as a Corollary to this Reply I subjoyn with submission that it appears plainly by his Majesties Royal Father 's Golden Book he was not much averrse to it and that ev'n Charles the Fifth during the Interim see Sleydan did allow a kind of Toleration in Germany where I leave the Cause but really unwillingly for further Proofs crowd so fast into me that to forbear venting them is a kind of Disease upon me tho I hope not Mortal Neither do I stand in awe of any Censure upon my Conclusions already publish'd by the future Impressions of any Bigotical Opponent whatsoever Epitaphium Cliffordianum HIC jacet insignis Cliffordi capsula terrae Reddita sed melior pars resoluta Polo Carmine non opus est famam celebrare polite Ni fallor Libro gloria certa micat Humanae Rationis opus munivit ultro Esse ducem vitae subsidiumque viae Si quae praeterea superaddere vota Poēsis Auderet nitida sacrificanda manu Englished HEre snatcht by Death Clifford interr'd does lye Whose Nobler Part is vehicl'd on high There needs no Muse to celebrate his Fame Whose Book eterniz'd has his gen'rous Name He proved Humane Reason's worth so well From other Arts it bears away the Bell. If any Poet superadds to this With impure hands his Holocaust's amiss His Character AS to his Person 't was little his Face rather flat than oval his Eye serious Countenance Leonine his Constitution Cholerick Sanguine tinctur'd with Melancholy of a facetious Conversation yet a great Humorist of quick Parts so of quick Passions and Venereal thence Lazy he was learned very critical positive and proud charitable enough and scorn'd to be rich he had a will to be just would drink to excess sometimes His Religion was that of his Countrey he was always Loyal to his King and a very good Poet. He died 'twixt 50 and 60 at Sutton's Hospital whose Master he then was not much lamented by the Pensioners few knew him well He was a man strangely compos'd 't is question'd whether his Virtues or Vices were most I incline to the last yet he departed peaceably and piously FINIS