Scripture that belongeth to a Discourse be agreeable to the designe and scope of that Discourse to which it belongeth This Rule as it is necessary for all to observe so it is especially to be urged upon men that are apt to interpret places that are not of themselves plain by those Opinions that they are already possessed with a belief of but for which they have little ground besides the mere sound of some Texts which at first hearing seem to be of their side but which if they were compared with the designe of the holy Writer in that Chapter or Book would be found to mean quite another thing All that I shall say besides of this Rule is that the difficulty of many places that are not of themselves plain will be removed by observing it For instance by this way we shall easily be satisfied that that forementioned place of St. Paul Who maketh thee to differ from another was chiefly meant of those extraordinary gifts which were distributed amongst believers in the first Ages of the Church and therefore though in a qualified sence this is true of all saving Graces it is very consistent with all those Scriptures that suppose the difference between the righteous and the wicked to depend upon something which is in the power of the righteous If we mangle coherent Discourses and take a shred or a phrase of Scripture by it self without regard to the main scope of the place and this to prove what what we would have we do not try our Opinions by Scripture but we interpret Scripture by our own Opinions Thus I have shewn what Cautions are to be observed in judging by Scripture I doubt not but all will acknowledge them to be very reasonable and equal and if all men had observed them who have a just veneration for the Scriptures the Word of God had been better understood and less wrested unsound Divinity had not easily passed for Scriptural Truth and all occasion of those unjust Reproaches had been taken away which the Church of Rome throws upon us for allowing to all Christians the free use of Gods Holy Book And thus much for the Rules of Reason and Scripture 3. The third I mentioned was Antiquity and Catholick Tradition Now if this Rule as I said at first be of excellent use then they are in the best way to find out what is the true Christian Religion by it who stick to the Holy Scriptures though they are not capable of using it otherwise For if that be true which was most anciently taught and believed in the Church and which was received all along in the best Ages of the Church then he that can prove his Faith by Scripture has the Argument of Antiquity and Catholick Tradition unquestionably on his side because the Scriptures are the most ancient Records of our Religion and they have been delivered down to us as such from the beginning through all Ages to our present times But we acknowledge also the testimony of Antiquity of something of a later date that is of the antient Fathers of the Church to be of very good use for the clearing of some places in Scripture for shewing what Order and Discipline was left in the Church by the Apostles for confirming us in points of Faith grounded upon the Scriptures but which have been disputed and opposed by Hereticks and likewise for confuting those gross errours in Belief or Practice which of later days have been brought in amongst Christians especially those of the Church of Rome But how things are to be examined by this Rule I shall not here direct because this is the subject of an excellent Discourse already published And thus much concerning Rules whereby to try Opinions in Religion § 7. III. The Dispositions wherewith we are to search for the Truth by these means are also of necessary consideration for whatever other advantages we have if we be greatly defective in these we shall very often lose our labour and fall into mistakes of dangerous consequence To qualifie a man for receiving Truth when propounded with sufficient evidence or to find it out by his own search there must be these three things 1. A prepared mind 2. Competent Diligence 3. Prayer to God for his blessing upon that Diligence 1. A prepared mind which our Saviour calls a good and honest heart Now this consists in Humility Ingenuity and Sincerity Humility is necessary because overweening and self-concit makes a man apt to despise what those of a different Perswasion can say for themselves before their Arguments are considered and in general to neglect that help which may be had by the advice and reasoning of others So likewise vain-glory fixeth a man in an errour he hath once defended and while he is unwilling to acknowledge a mistake he strains all his Wit to delude himself into a stronger belief of it and of his ability to defend it In Controversies he is desirous of victory and would fain be thought some-body and therefore he studies more to expose an adversary than to inform himself And if he be yet to chuse his side of a Question he takes the wrong one if it be more fashionable than the right Therefore says our Saviour Whosoever doth not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child i. e. with a meek and pliable spirit shall not enter therein Again says he My sheep hear my voice intimating that they would be easily convinced who were of tractable and humble minds And therefore he adds concerning the Pharisees that they rejected him because they were not of his Sheep i. e. because of their haughty and inflexible dispositions Prejudice is apt to bar the mind against conviction as well as Pride and therefore to Humility we must adde Ingenuity and Sincerity by which a man is qualified to distinguish between the suggestions of Prejudice on the one side and the force of good Reasons on the other Ingenuity is opposed to those Prejudices that are either unavoidably contracted or taken up through weakness of understanding Of the former sort are the Prejudices of Education or conversing altogether with our own Party Men are generally prepossess'd with great favour to those Opinions in which they have been all along trained up and which have been instilled into them by all that they have conversed with And therefore we cannot be meet Inquirers after Truth if we want the ingenuity of suspecting our selves on this side and trying those Perswasions in which we have been bred up with the greater impartiality and severity Some men are prejudiced by an unaccountable inclination toward an Opinion or an antipathy against it and these ought the more carefully to distinguish between the warmth of their imaginations on the one side and the force of Arguments on the other and not to take a passionate fondness for a conclusion or an aversion from it to be a Reason one way or other It is very incident to weak minds to prejudg in favour of
understanding For when Hypocrites have for their worldly interest debauched Religion in this manner they know that the meanest people will never swallow their gross absurdities unless they can first prevail with them to believe that 't is a dangerous thing to trust their own eyes or to hearken to any discourse from Principles of Reason though it be never so clear and strong and that it is a kind of merit to believe things incredible and to stick to a conclusion the faster the more impossible it seems to be true But by the way if Reason be one and that the first means by which we are to judge for our selves in matters of Religion as I shall make bold to say it is I should vehemently suspect without farther examination that they know their Opinions to be very foolish who at first dash renounce the most general and necessary Rule by which they are to be tried I shall onely adde that because the fundamental Principles of Reason are the same all the World over Reason is therefore the most publick Rule and Test whereby to judge between Truth and Errour And therefore if a Council defines things in that manner that I must forsake right Reason to follow its Definitions when I make this plain this is not opposing a private Spirit to a publick Judgment but appealing from a less publick Judgment to the most publick Sence and Judgment of mankind § 6. 2. As Reason is a Rule to all men so is Scripture a Rule to all Christians at least it ought to be so and all pretend to make it a Rule for their Judgment by appealing to it The Church of Rome indeed allows it to be but part of the Rule of Faith we say it is an intire and perfect Rule thereof However so long as she acknowledges the Scriptures to be a Rule though she pretends there is another Rule besides that she is to be concluded by the authority of the Scriptures and so we are to be acquitted by her in not believing her against the Scriptures Now every body must grant that we do not judge rightly by the Scriptures where we mistake the meaning of the Text. And we ought to be sure that the sence wherein we take any place is the true sence before we make our interpretation of it a Rule whereby to examine other things Where the sence is very plain it requires nothing more than common sence and common honesty to understand it and it is very reasonable to suppose that God hath revealed all points necessary to salvation so clearly and plainly that it is not difficult for an honest man to understand what they are But because there are many obscure places in the Scriptures we must be very careful not to ground any Doctrine upon them till we have well weighed and examined the meaning of those places and the way to be secure from any dangerous mistake in concluding from places of Scripture that are more or less hard to be understood is to observe such cautions as these are which I think all Christians must allow to be reasonable 1. That we take no Text in a sence which is repugnant to common Sense and natural Reason 2. That we put no sence upon a place of Scripture that is repugnant to the general scope and designe of the whole Word of God 3. That we understand no difficult places in a sence that is contrary to to those places whose meaning is plain and manifest to all men 4. That we mistake not those places for plain which are not so 5. That we put no other sence upon a Text than what agrees with the scope and designe of that particular Discourse wherein we find it 1. Before we conclude upon the sence of a Text so as to prove any thing by it we must be sure that sence is not repugnant to natural Reason For if it be it cannot be the true meaning of the Scripture For God is the Original of natural Truth as well as of that which comes by particular Revelation and as Hierocles saith to believe and obey right Reason and to follow God are the same thing And therefore no Proposition that is repugnant to the fundamental Principles of Reason can be the sence of any part of Gods Book and that which is false and contrary to Reason can no more be true and agreeable to the revelations of Scripture than God who is the Author of one as well as the other can contradict himself From hence it is evident that these words This is my body are not to be understood in that sence which makes for the Doctrine of Transubstantiation because it is impossible that contradictions should be true and we cannot be more certain that any thing is true than we are that that Doctrine is false There are some other Doctrines maintained by men of Name in the World that they have no better grounds for than obscure Texts interpreted contrary to the Principles of natural Reason and Religion This caution therefore is to be minded in the first place 2. We must put no sence upon a difficult place which contradicts the great end and drift of the whole Bible Now that is to work Faith in men and thereby to bring them to repentance and to a holy life And therefore whatsoever Doctrine does naturally tend to take men off from the care of holy living by nourishing them in foolish presumption or driving them to miserable despair cannot be the Doctrine of the Scriptures and therefore such a Doctrine cannot be proved from any obscure Text of the Bible and by consequence that sence of an obsure Text from which it may be proved is not the true sence unless we can believe that some part of the holy Books teaches something that undermines the great end of the whole There are too many Opinions amongst some Christians that have no other colour for them than Scripture interpreted without this necessary caution which must therefore be added to the former 3. We must not understand a difficult place in a sence that is contrary to those places whose meaning is plain and manifest to all men For the Scripture cannot teach one thing plainly in one place and the quite contrary obscurely in another It is but reasonable therefore in trying to understand a difficult place or in going about to prove any thing from it that we should compare Scripture with Scripture and the obscure places with those that are plain not to interpret the plain by the obscure which is contrary to all Rules of Discourse but the obscure by the plain especially because the plain places contain things that are most necessary to be understood and believed by us and therefore we cannot without great danger forsake the Doctrine which they teach as every man in effect does who takes a difficult place in a sence contrary to that Doctrine In a word the Scripture is our Rule principally where it is easiest to be understood and the
led to a Practice where there is danger of such a complicated sin 3. I am to consider that differences in Religion and Worship do dangerously affect the Peace of Kingdoms and all other Societies especially where the interests of Church and State are so mixed and interwoven together as they are in England They that agree in Religion are the most likely to be at peace and to agree together in other things But it seldom happens that they maintain hearty correspondence in any thing who are of opposite Communions in the service of God When the Unity of the Church is broken there is a foundation laid of those uncharitable censures and animosities which for the most part end in violence and bloudshed very often to the dissolation of Kingdoms and Nations It were easie to put this out of question by several instances of the sad experience which Christendom hath had of it But the late and sad Example hereof at home is enough to make all others needless for our conviction The Rebellion here was supported by nothing more than by difference about Religion This was the principal cause that brought together so many People against the King and that inslamed them with anger and resolution to venture all till they had secured the King and enslaved the Kingdom I need not say for sure every body must be sensible of that how diversity of Religions weaken the Government and render a People unable to do well for themselves to oppose foreign Enemies and to use the most likely opportunities for the common safety and prosperity Therefore in love to our Country and for the sake of Peace at home and of success in all just Enterprizes abroad we should be very backward to violate the present Constitution of the Church and to unsettle the state of Religion and never separate from the establish'd Communion till we find our selves forced to it by Reasons so plain and weighty that there is no avoiding of it if we would keep our selves honest men and good Christians 4. The setting of a bad example to others should in this case be most considered For if where a necessary Reformation in things of Religion is made by just Authority or a lawful separation made by private persons from a Communion polluted with unlawful conditions it is yet very hard to keep the Example from being abused by others in reforming or separating without any such cause and will still be of worse consequence to set an example of wanton and unjustifiable separation for this is so plain a contempt of Authority Order and Unity that others will be afraid to subdivide into more Parties as Self-conceit Ambition or Revenge or the like evil dispositions shall prompt them 5. If separation should not be made but with very great caution for fear of incurring the guilt of Schism by a causeless and unlawful departure from the Assemblies of the Church and setting up other Assemblies in opposition to them This in the judgment of the ancient Christians was no less than for a man to cut himself off from the Catholick Church of Christ and if the body of Christ be but one as the Scripture plainly tells us he that divides himself from any particular Church that is a Member of this Body divides himself from the whole Body And therefore Schismaticks were not accounted by the Ancients to be within the Church although they retained the profession of the Common Faith And surely a man would well advise with himself about an action whereby he may be in danger of putting himself into that condition The Vnity of Christians in one Body and Communion was instituted by our Lord for very great and weighty reasons and particularly for the securing of Brotherly kindness amongst his Disciples who being Members of the Body of Christ should therefore love and care for one another more than other men are wont to do and for the retaining of Professors within the Rules of a true Christian life from which if they should break away by any scandalous practice they were to be punished for it by the shame of being turned out of the Communion of the Church and by the loss of the great advantages thereof But it is evident that they who are guilty of dividing the Communion of Christians and setting up one Communion in opposition to another without necessary cause do what in them lies to render this provision for the maintenance of Charity and purity of Manners amongst Believers altogether ineffectual And we see by experience that hatred and ill will and looseness of life gains ground more by the Schisms that are amongst Christians than by any thing else and no wonder since men that are of different and opposite Communions do not use to love one another and vicious persons do not value the Communion of a true Church nor care if for their ill manners they be turned out of it when they can take Sanctuary in a pretended Church of another Communion that makes as loud a claim to all the Priviledges of a Chruch-Society as that Church can do from which they have divided themselves Which things being considered we are not to wonder that in St. Cyprian's time Schism was accounted no less but rather a greater fault than to sacrifice to Idols for the avoiding of persecution For though Idolatry simply considered be in it self worse yet Schism in its consequences is more pernicious He that is the Head of a Schism does more mischief to the Church than if he turned a Pagan or a Mahometan The conclusion from hence is this That it concerns every man that separates himself from an established Church it concerns him I say as much as his Soul is worth to look to it that the cause of his separation be just and necessary and such as will throw the guilt of Schism upon that Church from which he separates But alas how few are they that examine the reasons upon which they have broken away from the Church of England How many that when they are pressed in good earnest can say no more for themselves than that they have better preaching and more spiritual praying elsewhere than in our Parish-Churches How will they abuse our Prayers and call them Porridge and such other vile names who never in all their lives so much as read them and are not ashamed to own that they have not They call the Bishops Antichristian and the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church Idolatrous or Superstitious who yet never well considered what Antichrist means what is Idolatry or Superstition who have little or nothing to say if they be asked what evil is in Bishops in Liturgies and in the Rites of our Worship How many others are there who read the Books written to defend the separation but will not vouchsafe so much as to look upon any one that is published in behalf of the Communion of our Church God of his mercy give a better Spirit to such people and Repentance to those that
do this good office and that because God would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth This was that which our Lord said to Peter When thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren and if those who are not thoroughly confirmed in the Truth are to be farther instructed there is the same reason for endeavouring to recover those that are quite out of the way Therefore if any of our Friends and Acquaintance or others whom at any time we have a good opportunity of instructing remain under those errours that we have forsaken and have discerned good cause to forsake we must remember that though it was chiefly by the grace and disposal of God that we came to a right understanding yet it was also by humane means by conversing with others or by reading their Books And therefore we should take our selves to be fit Instruments under God for the reducing of them by desiring them earnestly either to hear what we have learned from others or to read those Books by which we have been convinced And we should be the more earnestly engaged in this charity because those whom we may prevail withal will thereby be engaged to help others also and by this means our diligence and charity will be blessed with the good success of propagating the knowledge of Truth so far that we shall not be able to see to the end of it If therefore thou art convinced that thy former Perswasions were erroneous and thy Practices grounded upon them unjustifiable be not ashamed to confess thy mistake but shew thy self glad that thou art now better informed and go to thy Friend and tell him that thou art fully perswaded thy was has been wrong all this while and shew him these Arguments that have set thee right that he as well as thy self may rejoyce in the discovery of the Truth and have the same reason to bless God that thou hast Now when we are thus resolved let us by no means forget in what manner we are to apply our selves to our mistaken Brother for his information i. e. in meekness of wisdom in the spirit of meekness without railing and bitterness though we should meet with unhandsome opposition remembring that we our selves not long since were under the same mistakes and had the like fondness for those erroneous Opinions which we would now rescue our Brother from If he does not take information and receive instruction as fast as we did we must not presently grow into passion for some mens prejudices are greater and stronger than others and all men have not the same capacity of understanding and quickness of apprehension and therefore more time is to be allowed and more patience is to be used for the recovery of one man than may be needful in the case of another And because nothing puts a slow or a prejudiced man more backward than rough and bitter discourse therefore more meekness and gentleness and patience is requisite in dealing with him than if we had to do with one of better wit or less prejudice When we would bring a man to the Truth we must avoid all things that will be sure to drive him at a farther distance from it as clamour fierceness and railing will certainly do For this carriage does but harden the obstinate and confound the simple 3. When we are convinced of the Truth as we must not be ashamed so neither must we be afraid to own it but constantly adhere to it by professing it and practising according to it whatever we lose or suffer for so doing For otherwise we are convinced to no other purpose than the increasing of our guilt for he that knows his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes If therefore thou hast hitherto been a Papist but art now convinced of the impious Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome or a Dissenter but art now satisfied that there is no just ground for separation from the Church of England be not afraid of the Reproaches and Accusations of those whose errours thou hast left no not though your dependance be in a great measure upon them or your expectations of worldly advantage from them be never so great Consider that thy salvation lies at stake and that the question is whether Gods love is not to be preferred before their favour and that you are now to shew that you do not love the praise of men more than the praise of God Tell them that you will be still glad of their friendship but that you cannot purchase it at so dear a rate as to sin against God for it either by renouncing that which you are throughly convinced is Gods Truth or by going contrary to a Conscience well informed of your duty Let them know that you have been at a great deal of pains to discover the truth in these matters and more than they have been at that you value that knowledge of your duty to which the Grace and Providence of God hath led you at a more just rate than to sacrifice it to every worldly interest and that the industry you have used to inform your self aright would turn to a very evil account if after all you should play the Hypocrite When we have the Truth our loins must be girt about with it we must love it heartily profess it sincerely and contend for it earnestly and practise it honestly When we have bought the Truth by diligent and impartial enquiry we we must not sell it for the gain of worldly Wealth or Honour or any other secular advantage no not for the safety of our lives The sum of all is this Prove all things hold fast that which is good FINIS A Catalogue of several Tracts written by some Divines in and about the City of London for the satisfaction of the Protestant Dissenters 1. A Perswasive to Communion with the Church of England 2. A Resolution of some Cases of Conscience which respect Church-Communion 3. A Letter to Anonymus in answer to his three Letters to Dr. Sherlock about Church-Communion 4. The Case of Lay-Communion 5. The Case of mixt Communion Whether it be Lawful to Separate from a Church upon the account of promiscuous Congregations and mixt Communions 6. The Case of Indifferent things used in the Worship of God proposed and Stated 7. A Vindication of it 8. A Discourse of Conscience 9. A Discourse about a Scrupulous Conscience 10. Some Considerations about the Case of Scandal or giving Offence to Weak Brethren 11. Certain Cases of Conscience resolved concerning the Lawfulness of joyning with Forms of Prayer in Publick Worship In two Parts 12. An Answer to the Dissenters Objections against the Common Prayers and some other parts of Divine Service prescribed in the Liturgy of the Church of England 13. The Resolution of this Case of Conscience Whether the Church of Englands Symbolizing so far as it doth with the Church of Rome makes it unlawful to hold Communion with the Church of England 14. A Defence of it 15. The Case of Infant-Baptism in Five Questions 16. The Case of the Cross in Baptism 17. A Perswasive to frequent Communion in the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper 18. The Case of Kneeling at the Holy Sacrament stated and resolved In two Parts 29. A Discourse about Edification 20. A Discourse of Profiting by Sermons and of going to hear where men think they can profit most 21. An Argument to Union taken from the true Interest of those Dissenters in England who profess and call themselves Protestants 22. A serious Exhortation with some important Advices relating to the late Cases about Conformity recommended to the present Dissenters from the Church of England Against Popery these 1. A Discourse about the charge of Novelty upon the Reformed Church of England made by the Papists asking of us the Question Where was our Religion before Luther 2. Discourse about Tradition shewing what is meant by it and what Tradition is to be received and what Tradition is to be rejected 3. The difference of the Case between the Separation of Protestants from the Church of Rome and the Separation of Dissenters from the Church of England 4. The Protestant Resolution of Faith 5. A Discourse concerning a Guide in matters of Faith 6. A Discourse concerning Invocation of Saints 7. A Discourse concerning the Unity of the Catholick Church maintained in the Church of England 8. A Discourse of Auricular Confession 9. A Discourse against Transubstantiation A Catalogue of some Books printed for T. BASSET SPeed's Maps and Geography of Great Britain and Ireland and of foreign parts Hooker's Ecclesiastical Politie Guillim's Heraldry Bishop Sanderson's Sermons Mezaray's History of France Dr. Howell's History of the World In 2 Vol. Dr. Littleton's Dictionary Compleat Clerk Dr. Sherlock's Sermon on the Discovery of the Plot. Medicina Curiosa Miege's French Dictionary Willis's London Tract of Physick Bishop Wilkin's Sermons Principle and duty of Natural Religion Bishop Land's Devotions ☞ All the Works newly printed of Doctor JOHN LIGHTFOOT in two Volumes in folio Illustrated with Maps and several Tables to the Whole with some things never before printed Phil. 2. 12. 1 Cor. 12. 24. 1 Cor 4. 7. Rom. 12. 2. Discourse about Tradition shewing c. Abridgment of Christian Doctrine printed at Doway
have misled them Fourthly We should not easily believe those men in matters of Religion who would keep us from examining their Doctrines by fair ways of tryal and would affright us into an implicit Faith by pronouncing damnation against all that are not of their own way If men use violence or subtlety to hinder us from judging for ourselves there is great reason to suspect that they are conscious to themselves of a bad Cause which will not bear the tryal I need not say how this reaches the Roman Church which forbids the Laity to read the Scriptures unless some one Lay-man has that special favour granted him of leave so to do from his Ordinary who commonly is wise enough not to give this license but where he is sure the party is fast enough to the Cause of that Church Those of the separate Congregations best know what Arts are used to keep the people that go that way from informing themselves by reading our Books or discoursing with our Ministers about the matters in controversie between them and us But we are not ignorant of all of them some of their Leaders teach them to pity our ignorance and want of illumination Alas poor wretches that we are we know not the things of the Spirit of God! we are strangers to the life and power of Godliness Thus they use to represent us They take all the good names and promises of the Scripture to themselves and leave the threatnings of God and the punishments inflicted upon his enemies to us Now this is but a cunning and indirect way to keep the People from hearkning to any thing we can say to 'em and to teach them how to conclude against us without thinking it to any purpose to examine what is offered on both sides They that have a good Cause need not use those disingenuous Arts they will not fright men from considering what their adversaries say by denouncing damnation against them nor forbid them to read their Books but rather encourage them to do so that they may see the difference between Truth and Errour between Reason and Sophistry with their own eyes This is the effect of a well-grounded confidence in the Truth and there is this signe of a good Cause apparently discernable in the Application of the Clergy of this Church both to their friends and enemies They desire both the one and the other to consider impartially what is said for us and against us And whatever Guides of a Party do otherwise they give just cause to those that follow them to examine their Doctrines so much the more by how much they are unwilling to have them examined It is a bad signe when men are loath to have their Opinions seen in the day but love darkness rather than light Thus I have shewn in what cases we are most concerned to examine the Doctrines of those that undertake to inftruct and guide us § 5. II. Because the duty of proving all things supposes certain Rules and Tests by which Doctrines are to be examined and tryed I proceed to shew what they are Now it is very certain that the Rules by which we are to try Doctrines for our own satisfaction about them are no other than those want of Argument by which a wise man would prove the truth of his Perswasion to others for their satisfaction And therefore it is plain that those Rules must be common to me and to other men whom I would also guide so into the knowledge of that Truth to which I have attained And they are these three 1. Reason which is a common Rule to all men 2. Scripture which is a common Rule to all Christians 3. Antiquity or the uniform Judgment and Practice of the Church in the first Ages of Christianity which is a common Rule to those who are verst in the Histories of the Primitive Church and in the Writings of the Fathers The two former Rules are the principal and most necessary and we are safe if our Perswasions in Religion will bear the Test of Reason and Scripture and withal those Rules are near at hand for every mans use amongst us But the last Rule is also of good use to those that can use it for their own confirmation in the truth and stopping the mouths of gain-sayers But more particularly 1. By Reason I do not understand that Faculty by which we are men and can compare one thing with another and argue and conclude c. for this is that Natural Power by which we use any kind of Rule whereby to judge of the truth or falshood of Opinions in Religion but I understand by it those common Truths which are natural to the minds of men and to which we give a ready assent without any need of having them proved by any thing else For by these fundamental Truths we are to prove all things else and if there were none such we could prove nothing And they are such as these That nothing can make it self That the same thing cannot be and not be at the same time That common sence is to be trusted That God is a being absolutely perfect That the Good is to be chosen and the Evil to be refused and that Contradictions cannot be true and the like Now whatever is by true consequence deduced from such Principles is thereby proved to be true and whatsoever is repugnant to them or can be disproved by them is false They are the forementioned Propositions with others as self-evident as they which make up that which we call the Light of Nature or of Reason And I mention this Rule in the first place because it must be presupposed to all other ways and means of enquiring after Truth and without which nothing could be done in it insomuch that the belief of that Truth which is not to be deduced from mere natural Reason but depends upon a divine Testimony is at last resolved into a rational Act and relies upon this natural Principle that God cannot lye Wherefore they that cry down Reason as if it were at no hand to be trusted in matters of Religion and call it carnal blind and foolish Reason and such-like vile names if they are in good earnest they are incapable of searching after Truth themselves and of receiving any satisfaction from others While they are in this humour I may as well take a Beast to dispute with as go about to convince them And if all men were thus senseless it were impossible that men should be serviceable to instruct one another in the things of God But to abandon the use of Reason in matters of Religion and to scorn a man when he speaks consistently and argues clearly from common Principles of Truth is such a wretched sort of unmanliness that I cannot but think it is for the most part taken up in designe by those men that have brought Nonsence and Contradictions and absurd Opinions into Religion which no man can admit without doing violence to his own