thereby render them uncapable to make good their Oath of Allegiance in yielding their Aid and Assistance Nor do's he find that the Presbytery claims any inferior Powers each Party alledge Scriptures and Fathers on their side and for ought I can see says this Gentleman they are all in the right Through an excess of Prejudice thus occasion'd he makes a further step towards Deism and Reasons after this manner 'T is not impossible continues he that the ancient Clergy might be possess'd with the same Spirit of Pride which has prevail'd over the modern If those Writings which they call Holy Scriptures are of their side as they all say they are I make no doubt but they were of their own inventing and if Jesus Christ their Patron laid the Foundation of those Powers which both Popish and Protestant Clergy claim to themselves from under him I think the old Romans did him right in punishing him with the death of a Slave After this manner I have heard it said of late by another of the same Constitution that as the Church of Rome was a modelled Faction against all other Christians so was the Church of England by Law Established against all other Protestants who were by Law excluded from every Office of Profit and Trust who were made subject to the Piques and Malice of every Church-man and became a constant Revenue to Apparitors and Spiritual Catch-poles And though at present there be a Toleraration by Law granted yet 't is still opposed by the Spirit of the Church as appears by Sermons Preached at Visitations and the constant ordinary Discourses of the Clergy in which the Church of England is always represented as at this time in greater danger than ever it was though I should think the danger had been as great in King James's Time And notwithstanding the Toleration said he no Man can enjoy a place of Profit or Trust though he be ever so dutiful a Subject and ever so able or honest a Man unless he hath a Conscience by Law Established By which Church-device Men are deprived of the Privileges of their Country to which they are born and for the discharge whereof they never did in any respect incapacitate themselves and hereby it comes to pass that the Nation cannot act vigorously in its own defence being debarr'd the Use of one Moiety of it self and notwithstanding this they have the Confidence to tell us Lay-men that we ought to love our Neighbours as our selves Now if this be the way of the Christians concluded he let my Soul be with the Philosophers 2. And this brings to my Thoughts what another Deist said jestingly to me viz. That since I was a Christian 't was lucky for me that I was of the Bishop's Church for though you were ever so Loyal said he to the King yet if you did not pay as dutiful an Allegiance to the Bishops you could not hold the Place you now enjoy for as certain as the Cross is above the Crown so sure a thing is it that the Bishop will be above the King which he undertook would appear to me if I looked back to King Charles's Restoration or King William's Revolution The Presbyterians though they quarrelled with Charles the First yet became the loving Subjects of Charles the Second joined with the Episcopalians in assisting him to the Throne and made no scruple of Swearing their Allegiance to him and owning his Supremacy But after all this the King was not able to support these his Loving Subjects against the Power of the Bishops who in two Years time outed 'em of their Livelihoods and after that drove 'em five Miles distance from all Market-Towns and at last the Acts made against Papists were extended to them But since King William's Revolution the Case is alter'd for the Jacobite Clergy though turn'd out of their Livings by Law for refusing Allegiance to the King yet from the Allegiance they bare to the Bishops they find such Favour from their Lordships that if the Livings they lose are in the Bishops gift he shall present any Friend which the dispossessed Jacobite shall recommend now what can be more by them desired than to enjoy the Profits of their Livings and put in what Curate they please And after all that they may enjoy the full Profits of their Livings and pay their Curates another way these Jacobites may hold their Conventicles where they please nay Preach publickly and seditiously in an open Church near Cheap-side London without the least offence to the Spiritual Power And is it not plain said this Gentleman from all this that on this side the Water as well as on the other the Clergies Zeal for their Communion Church and Religion is only meant to support their own Party Dominion and Empire 3. Now the oldest Deists of my Acquaintance having conceiv'd so great a Prejudice against the Christian Faith from the Behaviour of the Clergy and having levened their Disciples therewith it has fal'n out unhappily that the late Revolution has by another way also confirmed them in this their Prejudice For the late happy Revolution which came on too soon and was cut off too short though it was not so highly beneficial to us as was by some expected was yet of very great Importance But as there is nothing in this World ever so good but what hath some appending disadvantage so by meer Accident this Revolution which has saved not only the Church of England but as I hope the whole Protestant Interest throughout the World has wonderfully encreased Mens Prejudices against the Clergy and so by false Consequence such as Men through Resentment will make against the Truth of Religion it self The old Deists tell those of their Pupils who never travelled abroad that there is now no need of going over the Water to discover that the name Church signifieth only a Self-interested Party and that the Clergy have no Godliness but Gain Have you not say they for many Years together heard them Preach up the Divine Right and indefeizable Authority of Kings together with Passive Obedience as the chief distinguishing Doctrines whereby their Church approved it self Apostolick beyond all other Churches Nay were not the Doctrines of Loyalty to the King insisted upon more than Faith in Christ and yet when their particular Interest required it their Doctrine of Non-Resistance was qualify'd by Non-Assistance the whole Stream of Loyalty was turn'd from the King to the Church the indefeizable Right was superseded by a miraculous Conquest without Blood the Oath of Allegiance to the Divinely Rightful King James has its force allay'd by another Oath of the same Importance made to the de facto King William and Queen Mary and all this is Sanctify'd by the name of the Church i. e. their own Party and Interest for the sake whereof it is done This is indeed keeping to the Text Rem rem quocunque modo rem And the wretched Defence they make for this their Apostacy say the Deists
Religion that is distinguished from their particular Interest To what end have so many Perfecutions and Penal Laws been set a foot by the Clergy in Christendom was it to bring Men to any one Point of that full Description of Christian Religion which you cited from Sir Matthew Hale or only to bring them to that short Article of their Clergy Religion i. e. to submit to their Power Did not the Honourable Sir R. H. lately write a Treatise wherein with great Learning and accurate Judgment he distinguished betwixt Religion and Priest-craft and was he not treated for it with a true Priestly Insolence and Malice in the Pulpit at White-hall by A. one of their Majesties Chaplains and represented as a Scorner and an Atheist because he scorns to submit to any Religion but what is of Christ's Institution Suppose a Man should govern himself by the Law of Christ and go no further is there any Christian Church which would own such an one for a Member If you will be a Son of the Church of England you must hold Kings and Bishops to be jure divino the Apostolical Doctrine of Passive Obedience you must not be indifferent to their Ceremonies though declar'd but indifferent things and the Reason is because you must have a profound Respect for the Power of the Bishops by which these Ceremonies were ordain'd And besides this you must shew a perfect Abhorrence of all who do not submit to the Spiritual Royalties of their Diocesan Bishops for your Churchmanship will not appear by any Mark so well as by the Hatred you bear to all Dissenters in Conjunction with a deep aversion to all the ancient Rights and just Liberties of your Native Country In fine said he when your Clergy Preach the Law of Christ without turning it to any By-end or false Interest you shall meet me at Church You know the Clergy love Precedency of the Laity Let them turn Christians first and I can follow 6. I have known some who have alledged as a Reason why they have forsaken the Christian Faith the impossibility of Believing Many Doctrines say these are made necessary to Salvation which 't is impossible to believe because they are in their nature Absurdities I replied That these things were Mysteries and so above our Understanding But he asked me to what end could an unintelligible Doctrine be revealed not to instruct but to puzzle and amuse What can be the effect of an unintelligible Mystery upon our Minds but only Amusement That which is only above Reason must be above a rational Belief and must I be Saved by an irrational Belief If a Proposition be inconsistent with it self I cannot but believe it to be false 'T was once to serve a Turn against the Papists your Church held all Doctrines necessary to save Souls were plainly revealed in Scripture How could you say plainly revealed unless you understood the Revelation Besides I cannot think that the belief of any unprofitable Doctrines i. e. such as admit of no Application to Moral Duties can be a saving Faith so much as in part nor can I imagine that Faith tends to save a Soul because what we believe is only True for so the belief of Euclids Elements might have a saving Effect upon Souls but because our Belief is Good it has a practical Effect and tends to make us better Men. Besides you all agree the Belief of your Trinity is absolutely necessary to Salvation and yet widely differ in what we must believe concerning it whether three Minds or Modes or Properties or internal Relations or Oeconomies or Manifestations or external Denominations or else no more than a Holy Three or Three Somewhats or otherwise only one of these Three to be God in the highest Sense and each of the other two to be a God without Self-subsistence and Independence I am confident if I should be perswaded that an Explanation of the Trinity were necessary to save my Soul and see the Learned so widely differing and hotly disputing what it is I must believe concerning it I should certainly run mad through despair of finding out the Truth But since these Doctors cannot agree which Party of 'em shall captivate my Belief in Obedience to his Faith I will reserve it to be the Hand-maid of Truth whenever she appears she shall command it 7. I remember one Gentleman objected to the Christian Faith that it made Men insolent quarrelsom and ill-natur'd From whence I concluded as I told him that he had never read over the Gospels truly he could not say that he had read 'em carefully but yet that in reading the History of what had passed in Christendom he observed that most of the Quarrels in which this part of the World had been engaged arose from Contentions among the Christian Priesthood Church-History is chiefly a Relation of Church-mens Wrangles and D. Cave in a late Book of his had denominated every Century from some eminent Quarrel which arose among the Clergy But besides this what was the Holy War what all the holy Massacres and Croisados which filled Europe with Blood but the Inventions of Holy Church And what is holy Inquisition but a perpetual Series of Murthers carry'd on in barbarous Forms of Law against the common Sense of Mankind Does History account for any Barbarities so great as those committed by the Popes Any Cruelties so savage as those of the Holy Inquisition Any Murthers so solemn and religiously brutal as the Acts of Faith Any Pragmaticalness so insufferable as that of the Jesuits is not their Humanity extinguished by their Christian Religion such is their Malice that no Man can eat Bread where they have to do unless he submit his Faith to their guidance witness the present French Persecution Nor can any Sovereign Prince keep his Word or Oath though he had only sworn to maintain those Laws by which he Reigns as King any longer than this Spiritual Fatherhood will give him leave as Lewis XIV of France and James II. of England do witness Let these Inhumanities be considered as supported and carried on by the name of Catholick Church and if the Devils believe you may as decently say Church of Hell as Church of Rome And as Devotion continu'd our Deist to holy Church is the center upon which all things turn on the other side the Water so is it the same thing here Do not our Priesthood of England make as high Pretences to dispose of all Offices and Trusts in the Kingdom to those of their own Faction as those of Rome Have they not long since got their Bill of Exclusion to be passed into a Law whereby no Man can enjoy a Place of Profit or Trust in the State but whom they qualify at their Altars where Men were capacitated to be Bumbails keep Gaming-houses and sell Ale What was it but the Insolence of the Priesthood that brought about Father Laud's and Father Peter's Revolutions Besides said he do you not observe what a keen Edge
Christian Faith puts upon the ill-nature of Divines when they are disputing about matters of Religion 'T is common for Philosophers Lawyers Physicians c. to differ about matters which concern their Professions and write one against another But you will find some Temper and Decorum observed in their Writings But let the Controversy be about any Branch of Christian Faith and then see the Odium Theologorum the Malice of Divines in the late Writings of two of your Church Doctors against each other at least this shews that Christian Faith doth not improve the Temper of such Men who are of mean Birth and narrow Education And I cannot but observe that your Protestant Malice is under a worse Management than the Popish they only thirst for the Blood of Protestants but you are for sucking one anothers Blood as when for the Service of King Charles the II. who was Head of your Church and his Popish Brother the Blood of the best Protestants in England and some of them of your own Church was to be spilt the Court Blood-suckers viz. Attorney general and Judges besides Juries and Evidence were all of 'em chosen Men out of your own Church and the Posse of the Clergy was raised to hold their Heads to the Block by Preaching the Doctrine of Passive Obedience But in requital it must be confessed that your Clergy require the King to do their Persecuting Journey-work with the same Insolence as the Popish Priesthood use For must not the Sovereign Monarch of England Scotland France and Ireland by his Authority Royal execute the Decrees and Anathema's of the Arch-deacons and Bishops Chancellors by Imprisoning his loyal and useful Subjects for not conforming to their Ceremonies If a King will submit to this Drudgery he shall have the vox Cleri of his side and be as great as Noise and fulsom Flattery can make him but in the mean time is really King but of one Moiety of his People whilst the danger which the other half apprehend from the Secular Arm directed by Spiritual Power of Necessity weaneth their Hearts from the Government Thus Charles the II. who for two Years after his Return reigned in the Hearts of all his People was by the Act of Uniformity reduced to be King of the Church-party and at last whilst the Popish and Protestant Priesthood zealously contended whose Property he should be like the Truth among Controversial Divines he was lost in the Scuffle He instanced in likewise the late King James who said he had it in his power to be universally beloved and obey'd beyond any King of England this Age has produced His Right to the Crown was owned by all his Wilfulness had passed upon the Church of England Party for Magnanimous Resolution which struck such an Awe upon them that they were coming to a Temper and would have consented to a Toleration of Protestant Dissenters and Roman Catholicks too provided their Maintenance might be continued to them Thus the Heart of all England had been set upon the King but the Popish Priesthood would be content with nothing less than delivering the whole Nation to Satan and their King must execute the dreadful Anathema though 't was manifest that he must thereby lessen himself to the size of one of the 7 Kings of Kent for he could be Sovereign of no more than the Two hundredth part of the People For King Charles in numbering the People had found that the Proportion between Papist and Protestant was as 1 to 200 whereas had his own Priesthood been so favourable to him as to have excused him from executing that Satanical Power which by a Right purely Divine was vested in Sacred Majesty his Reign might have been happy and his Memory precious What an unhappy Effect had the Spirit of Father Laud upon King Charles the First And what hath brought Lewis the XIV to the present Diminution of his Glory but that haughty Insolence and unnatural Cruelty in Persecuting his own Subjects which Father la Chaise has inspired him with What Figure will this Grand Monarch make in Story His Name will pollute the Annals of this Age and his cowardly Conquests be the Scorn of Posterity Now from all that he had said he concluded that for Luck-sake as well as to preserve his good Nature he would be cautious of being at least a zealous Christian 8. 'T was not long since I met one of my old Acquaintance who told me that he had lately cast off these Prejudices he had conceived against the Christian Faith by the Assistance of a Book called The Five Letters of Inspiration By the last of those Letters he was convinced of the reality of reveal'd Religion from the Intrinsick value and Excellency thereof and he was fully confirmed in his Judgment by a late Book called The Reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scripture Upon this he had read over the Old-Testament once and the New several times with great attention of Mind Indeed he always thought the Moral part of the Bible very good but then he also thought that by the strength of his own Reason he could have written as good a Moral himself But by the last of these Books he was convinced that he was indebted to Revelation more than he thought of and considering how long the Ceremonial Law had obtain'd among the Jews and what a profound respect they paid to the Scribes Pharisees and Spiritual Guides and Rulers he plainly saw that there was need enough of Miracle to bear down their Prejudices to make 'em leave their Ceremonies and listen to that excellent Moral which Christ gave 'em nay he was convinced that no Miracles were strong enough to prevail over the Priest or a Priest-ridden People to become Proselytes to the Doctrine of universal Love and Charity for said he if a Teacher should now be sent from Heaven with this Message that all the Protestant Parties in England should be reconciled and live well with one another making nothing necessary to their religious Communion but what Christ had appointed and such Circumstances as Time and Place and what in the nature of the thing was needful and if this Teacher's Mission were confirm'd by Miracle it would have as he thought no better effect upon our several Sects of Clergy and those who are bigotted to their Parties than it had upon the Pharisees and their Disciples of old Having heard him speak so sharply against the Clergy after his old way I could not but tell him that I perceived he was but almost a Christian for he who loveth the Institution of Christ cannot but respect those who are the Ministers thereof at least I hoped that he would pay a respect to the Clergy of the Church of England which was the best Reformed Church in the World and therefore I expected that he was already a Member of our Church He reply'd that he should always be ready to pay his respect to every good Man of what Order or Degree
soever he should always be willing to hear a good Minister Preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to him and exhort him to the sincere Practice of it That he was ready to contribute his share to the Maintenance of such Ministers and to join with that Church-of England Congregation near to which he liv'd in publick Worship but yet he could not condemn the Worship of other Congregations nor exclude himself from joyning with them as occasion should serve him So that as to Church-membership he could be a Member of any Church which would own him upon the terms of Faith and Practice contained in the Book he mentioned concerning the Reasonableness of the Christian Religion c. But still he conceiv'd that Church-Communion in holy Offices was designed only to raise his Devotion towards God not towards the Clergy which made him admire the unparallell'd Impudence of the Roman Priesthood who measure the Religion of all Christians by their Devotion to the See of Rome i. e. indeed to themselves and he doubted whether any Church were sufficiently Reformed from Popery which made any Doctrines of Faith necessary to Salvation that were not declared so in the Gospels and where the Clergy would always distinguish between Church and State and give the Precedency to themselves But yet he would join with any Church as far as it promoted the Honour of God and separate from it wherein on pretence of Religion he saw â—â—at it aimed at a By-end of its own Here I urged him again to joyn to our Church which had no other design but God's Glory To this he said that he should be glad that the Church of England would own him though he could not be of their Party He would willingly pass as a Church-man for his Credit-sake for said he though a Man doth ever so firmly believe Jesus Christ to be the Messiah whom God had of old promised and in due time sent to give us a perfect Rule of Life in order to make us truly religious here and ever happy hereafter and though a Man should shew forth his Faith by an agreeable course of Life in doing Justice loving Mercy and an humble walking with God yet if he were not owned as a Member of some Church he would by all Churches be accounted if not an Atheist yet a Sceptic a Man of no settled Principle but own who has his Religion to choose For if you look over the State of Religion as it standeth in Christendom there is no Church whatsoever which will accept you as a Member of its Communion but upon some particular terms of Belief or Practice which Christ never appointed and it may be such as an honest and a wise Christian cannot consent to I am not more able to give up my Reason to the Church of England than to give up my Senses to the Church of Rome it looks like a Trick in all Churches to take away the use of Mens Reason that they may render us Vassals and Slaves to all their Dictates and Commands But what greater slavery than to force on Men a Belief of such things as necessary to Salvation of which 't is not possible to form any Idea Though I am satisfied there is no such thing as a change of Bread into the Flesh of Christ yet I can form an Idea that such a thing may be that the same Power which changed Earth into a Man may change Bread into Flesh But I can frame to my self no Idea of what your Church Teacheth in the Sacrament that the Body and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received of the faithful And when I ask how can this be understood by a Protestant who believeth that there is no other Body but that of Bread I am told that the Church meaneth it in a Spiritual Sense Now I have try'd and find it impossible for me to form to my self an Idea of a Body verily and indeed in a Spiritual Sense And therefore I must say 't is an unwise and a hard Thing for any Church to impose absurd or unintelligible Notions especially such Speculations which tend to make no body the better as necessary to Salvation for Wise Men and such who will take Courage to examine what they Believe will not submit to such an Usurpation and weak Men are kept all their Life long in Fears and Doubts of their Eternal State as being always uncertain whether they firmly believe such Doctrines or no. Besides this said he your Church will require me to believe other Absurdities as bad as these as that Kings and Bishops have a Divine Right to that Power which they exercise over us whereas with my own Eyes I saw our Great and Gracious King accept the Crown of England as the Gift of the People And I see as plainly that Bishops are an Order of Men of their own not of Christ's making I was told that our Bishops Order was founded in that of the 12 Apostles and the Presbyters Order in the 70 Disciples Upon this I resolved to see if the 12 and the 70 were different Orders or no and read over the 10th Chap. of Matthew the 3d and 6th of Mark and the 9th of Luke in which places the Power which Christ gave to the 12 is set forth which amounteth to this viz. a Charge to Preach the Gospel a Power to work Miracles in casting out Devils healing the Sick c. And I also read in the 10th Chapter of Luke that the 70 were sent forth for the same Reason and with the same express Power as were the 12 viz. To preach the Gospel heal the Sick and cast out Devils vers 2.9.17 And he telleth the 70 at the 16th Verse That he who heareth them heareth him and he who despiseth them despiseth him as he had said to the 12 in Matthew 10.40 Indeed they were only added to the number of the 12 Because as 't is said there the Harvest was great and the Labourers few i. e. because Multitudes followed Christ and were disposed to become Christians therefore he encreased the number of his Apostles or Teaching Disciples I can find no Footsteps of any Jurisdiction given to the 12 over the 70 or indeed over any body else and in the 18th Chapter of Matthew where Christ speaketh of binding and loosing 't is manifest from the first Verse that his discourse was made to his Disciples So in the 20th of John the Holy-Ghost and Power of remitting and retaining Sins was given to the Disciples which met together after Christ's death vers 19. in which meeting there might be some of the 70 as well as some of the 12 'T is certain the 70 received the Holy-Ghost and if Baptism be a Key of Admission into the Church they had it If binding or loosing be declaring wherein we are bound in duty and wherein we may use our liberty if remitting and retaining Sins be declaring what Iniquity God will forgive and what he will not the 70 shared
to shew 'em any kindness And this they submit to as being Self-conscious that the Jacobites have a Right to reproach them so that they are willing to appease the anger of their old Friends by their best Services Now the Jacobites having always an innate Hatred to the Whigs as they now stile all those who think themselves obliged to own the King for their rightful Sovereign and being willing to keep up their old Master's Right to the Crown to which the Whigs are irreconcileable Enemies easily prevail upon these de factos to oppress those other sort of Men which is an Office they are as willing to undertake as the Jacobites can be to put it upon ' em Thus it cometh to pass that according as an open professed Enemy to the Government shall dictate a Church-man shall strenuously exert that Power the King has given him to discourage and oppress his Dutiful and Loyal Subjects I will only said a certain Person make a Supposition to shew you how this may be suppose the King should bestow a Bishoprick upon a de facto Doctor and this Doctor should there find his old Acquaintance Dr. H. and being a Stranger in his Diocese should be willing to instruct himself in the Characters of Men from the good D. would it not fall out so that the Clergy of that Diocese must be used well or ill as the most open and notorious Enemy the Government hath shall design And was it not possible that the E. of N. might oblige his old Friends in the same manner Thus though King James be at last excluded his Subjects reign in his stead And whether an Oath of Abjuration laid upon the Jacobites Proxy-men will put an end to this Corruption Time must tell us 5. But to return to the Reasons or Prejudices I may rather call 'em which occasion Deism It hath been observed to me that where the Notion of a Church hath been carried on with the highest Tide there even natural Religion is at the lowest Ebb as in Italy of old and lately in France where gross Immoralities and Atheism are at the greatest height And though in our Reformation we discarded some Idolatrous and Superstitious Doctrines and Practices which were grown scandalous among the People yet still Christ was made to serve that turn which his Holy Vicar can no longer do viz. Support an Holy Order of Men in as haughty Insolences in as proud ambitious and malicious Designs as those which King Henry though a Son of the Church and his Times could not bear Now in answer to this I bid these Deists only read the Bible and see if the Spirit of that Book be not as good as their Thoughts can reach to or let 'em read the Character of the Christian Religion given by Sir Matthew Hale in the first of his Three Letters concerning Religion where he saith It teacheth and tuters the Soul to a high Reverence and Veneration of Almighty God a sincere and upright Walking as in the Presence of the invisible all-seeing God It makes a Man truly love to Honour to Obey him and therefore careful to know what his Will is It renders the Heart highly thankful to him both as his Creator Redeemer and Benefactor It makes a Man entirely to depend upon to seek to him for Guidance and Direction and Protection to submit to his Will with all Patience and Resignation of Soul It gives the Law not only to his Words and Actions but to his very Thoughts and Purposes It bringeth a Man to such a Deportment both of External and Internal Sobriety as may be decent in the Presence of God and his holy Angels It crusheth and casts down all Pride and Haughtiness both in a Man's Heart and Carriage and gives him an humble frame of Soul and Life both in the sight of God and Men It regulates and governs the Passions of the Mind and brings them into due moderation and frame It gives a Man a right estimate of this present World and sets the Heart and Hopes above it so that he never loves it more than it deserves It makes the Wealth and Glory of this World high Places and great Preferments but of a low and little value to him so that he is neither covetous nor ambitious nor over-sollicitous concerning the advantages of it It brings a Man to that frame that Righteousness Justice Honesty and Fidelity is as 't were part of his Nature he can sooner dye than commit or purpose that which is unjust dishonest or unworthy a good Man It makes him value the love of God and Peace of Conscience above all the Wealth and Honours in the World and be very vigilant to keep it inviolably Though he be under a due Apprehension of the Love of God yet it keeps him humble and watchful and free from all Presumption so that he dares not under a vain Confidence of the Indulgence of God commit or purpose the least injury to man He performs all his Duties to God in Sincerity Integrity and Constancy and while he lives on Earth his Conversation his Hopes his Treasure and the Flower of his Expectation is in Heaven and he entirely endeavours to walk suitably to such a Hope In Sum it restores the Image of God unto the Soul in Righteousness and true Holiness I prevail'd upon one of my Friends a Deist to read those three Letters because therein the Substance of the Christian Religion is distinguish'd from the Circumstantials and Appendages for want of which distinction being well understood Deism has arose as that great Man in the fore-cited Letter hath observed When Men says he see so much Religion placed by Professors of Christianity in these things which every intelligent Man values but as Forms or Inventions or Modes or Artifices and yet as great weight laid upon them as great fervour and animosity us'd for or against them as almost for any Points of Christian Religion They are apt presently to censure and throw off all Religion and reckon all of the same make Thus that Upright Judge whose three Letters my Friend having read did well approve of 'em acknowledging that with great Exactness he had distinguished between Religion and Priest-craft And he added If you will shew me Sir any Christian Church where that distinction is observed I will become a Member of it I recommended the Church of England he presently told me that he had read the 39 Articles and observed that 3 of them were wholly design'd to uphold the Power of the Clergy over the People And then he bad me only compare the Design which has been and still is carrying on under the Name of the Church of England with the Design of the Christian Religion as 't is described by Sir Matthew Hale and I should find the one in all its parts a Contradiction to the other 'T is plain said he the Clergy do not allow of Sir Matthew's Notions nor will they suffer us to take any thing for
this Power with the 12. As for delivering up to Satan and inflicting Diseases since 't was a miraculous Power which we read not that Christ appropriated to the 12 we have no reason to think 't was detained from the 70. If then Christ appointed but one Order viz. that of Teachers the Order of Rulers dignified themselves above and distinguished themselves from their Brothren yet I am willing to submit to those Powers which the Laws of England have given to the Bishops though what they claim by Divine Right I esteem as an Usurpation Moreover says he although I am become a Christian I have not ceased to be an English-man and for that reason cannot be in party with the Bishops who by their false-prerogative Doctrines and other shameful Assistances so lately betray'd the Charters and Liberties Rights and Privileges of their Country were setting up an absolute irresistible Power in K. Charles II. which being demised to K. James endangered not only the Liberty and Property but Body and Soul of the Nation Nor can I so soon forget how their long debates about admitting the P. of Orange our Good and Great King to the Sovereignty was the occasion of spilling so much Protestant Blood in Ireland nor the late Protestation of some of the chief of their Party against his Majesties Right to the Crown nor how careful they have been since that as it now falls out he should have no pretence to any rightful Title If any Clergy-man was so honest as to Preach up his Right as justly grounded on the Consent of the People as Mr. Johnson for instance he must lie under pain of the Church's highest displeasure though otherwise ever so Orthodox and Conformable so that since the beloved Title of Conquest is burnt by the Parliament and the Matrimonial Title is to the great grief of all good Men dead and buried with the Queen it remaineth according to Holy Church that he hath no Title at all but only bare Possession and this they mean when they call him de facto But I cannot find that they will allow him to be King of the Clergy so much as de facto Alas his Livings whereby alone he is capable to oblige them to call to mind their now forgotten Loyalty which of late years they preached up as the summ of the Law and the Prophets Alas these good Things are taken out of his hands by the Conquering Bishops that the Clergy may have a separate Interest from the State on this side the Water and be led to pay an intire Allegiance to the holy Order When Hen. VIII came to know that his Bishops swore Allegiance to the Pope he began to think of some ways and means how to make himself King of his Clergy which he saw could not be done but by casting out the Pope's Power and hence sprung that King's Reformation of his Politicks rather than Religion And if our good King were sensible of the Reasons why an English Papacy is settled in a Committee of Six viz. to fix the Obedience of the Clergy on themselves exclusively for no Man can serve two Masters I doubt not but he would think fit to demand what is so much wanted viz. the Allegiance of the Clergy to their King if he dissolves this Committee he may ask and have for where their Treasure is there their Hearts will be also For these Reasons said he I shall be cautious how I enter into Church-membership since I plainly see that every Party of Christians embodied organized clergy'd and modelled into a National Church casteth an awe upon the Sovereign Power and suffereth it not to provide equally for the Common Good of the Subject but will appropriate the salus publica and influence the Government to serve its own particular it s own private Ends. Thus Sir I have given you an account of those Prejudices which have brought forth Deism But yet these very Prejudices without a strong assistance of Passion could never have wrought upon Men to cast off Revelation for you see the same Prejudices remain in the Deist turn'd Christian Whosoever therefore upon the fore-mentioned Reasons turneth Deist cannot be excused tho' I could heartily wish all these Pretences could be taken away from ' em I am far from begrudging the Bishops and Clergy that small Maintenance which by Law is settled upon them and I hope they have no other aim in discharging their Offices but to save our Souls by imprinting on our Hearts the Reason the Excellency and Advantages of the Law of Christ I hope also that they comport themselves to the Common Interest of their Native Country and of the Protestant Religion throughout the World Truly I could wish that Notional Divinity were laid aside for Practical and that unintelligible Mysteries were not insisted on as matters of necessary Belief He who lately wrote his Thoughts of the Causes and Occasions of Atheism might have consider'd that he who cloggeth the Notion of God with Absurdities mis-leadeth Men beyond Deism I pray God give me his Grace by which I may sincerely conform my self to the Law of Christ and I will never concern my self with the Speculative Drs. in Divinity And I heartily join with our Church in that Petition Give grace O heavenly Father to all Bishops and Curates that they may both by their Life and Doctrine set forth thy true and lively Word and rightly and duly Administer thy holy Sacraments By this they would bring Souls to Heaven gain the Love of all good People secure their own Temporal Interests stop the Mouths of their Adversaries and compel the Deists to become Christians I am Sir Your Affectionate c. FINIS If your Curiosity should lead you to be an Ear witness of such Discourses I have here Written to you when I come to Town which will be as soon as the Parliament Sits I will endeavour to give you that Satisfaction