Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n
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A60057
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A Short answer to His Grace the D. of Buckingham's paper concerning religion, toleration, and liberty of conscience
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1685
(1685)
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Wing S3561; ESTC R10573
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14,126
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40
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Minority I should suspect the Pensilvanian had Tutor'd him with this Quakeristical Divinity But whether it be so or not here are these inevitable Consequences will follow from this Position First that Reason is the sole Guide of every mans Religion Secondly that Divine Revelation is not necessary to Salvation Thirdly that it is a most horrid Sin to lead men out of the Errours to which Natural Religion and bare Reason must of necessity lead men since its depravation Fourthly That men who believe a God and follow the dictates of Reason in his Worship may be saved in any in all Religions provided they know not a better For Reason will never can never lead us to the knowledge of the belief of a Trinity the Incarnation Death Passion Resurrection Ascention or Divinity of the Son of God the Saviour of the World And how prolifick a Parent of Idolatry Superstition Will-worship and a thousand absurdities in Religion Humane Reason is all times all places all ages of the World convince us in Fact beyond the possibility of a Denial Now had I been to follow his Graces blow upon the gaining of the Postulatum of the Being of a Supreme and Perfect Power and his Justice Goodness and Mercy being such superlative Attributes of his Essence I should have sent my Enquirer another Road. And first upon his granting a God his perfections and the obligations of Humane Nature to him I should have told him that he could not but grant by the strength of his own Reason that this excellent Supreme Being ought to be worshipped and Adored as the greatest Benefactor to Mankind that his Favour was to be had at any Rate as the most Supreme degree of Happiness and Satisfaction From his Justice I should have argued that so great Goodness and Justice the Rewarder of Virtue and Punisher of Vice who loves those that love him and therefore serve him could not possibly leave that Noble Creature Man to whom he had communicated something so near a kin to his own Nature without some manifestation of his will and pleasure and how he might be served acceptably I should have sent him to inquire if any such thing were to be found and among all the variety recommended those writings which have Antiquity and the greatest agreeableness to the Divine Nature as the Genuine Results of the benignity of that just and merciful God I mean the Holy Writings of the Inspired Pen-men Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Evangelists who give such illuminations to the Soul and such advances to Reason such Rules of Piety and Devotion as are no where else to be found and which suit so exactly with the Idea of a Pure and Perfect Being And in regard there may be some things difficult to be understood I would for the sence and meaning of those places have directed him to the Opinion of that Society of Men called Christians their universal sence and practice and to the Golden Rule of Vincentius Lirinensis Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus id verè quidem Catholicum est This would have shewed him a thousand Errours of times past and as many of the present in deviating either from the Letter or Publick Interpretation of the Revealed Will of God This would have taught him to avoid the Errours of Rome in transgressing an Apostolical Canon by praying publickly in an unknown Tongue locking the door of Knowledge from the People forbidding Religious Orders to Marry which is honourable in all men denying the Cup to the Laiety against the Institution and practice of the first and best Ages of Religion and the very Letters of the Command Drink ye all of this and a many more which I shall not insist upon This would have taught him to avoid the Cruel and Inhumane Divinity of Calvinists which his Grace lashes with so much Truth and Justice and the barbarous Principles and horrid Practices of Rebelling Covenanting Associating Excluding Pretended Protestants who act so directly contrary to the Innocent Religion of those who are Christs Sheep that they are onely a Herd of Wolves and Foxes Bears and Lions and the most Savage Animals in Protestant Skins And it may be it would have led him into the Communion of the Church of England the most Catholick Society of Men in the world both in Doctrine and Practice the best Christians and the best Subjects that the Sun sees in all his Travails round the Universe and here would I leave my Inquirer as in safe hands wishing all Mankind in the same condition and capacity of attaining Salvation and the fruition of the God of love Whereas a Jew a Turk a Pagan may all according to my Lords Hypothesis be safe so long as they believe in their own either weak or obstinate Reason which must not be imposed upon for fear of Antichristianism that they are in the Right and Worship God and with his Graces pardon even Mahomet himself will lay as good a claim to Heaven at this rate of arguing as St. Peter and St. Paul and therefore I will leave this matter to his second and his better thoughts In the next place I think the Maxime concerning Persecution for Differences in Opinion concerning Religion and the fixing the Character of Antichristianism upon all such Prosecutions of Dissenters is built upon a mistake of the Reason Nature and Necessity of those Humane Laws which Dissenters call Persecuting Now first I take it to be true That punishing the Professors and Practicers of a True Religion purely for that Religion whilst they continue such by living innocently and inoffensively in all things to the Civil Government is real Persecution and truely Antichristian as being directly opposite to the Spirit of that Religion and impossible to be done by any but such as are Enemies to that Religion and thus the Heathen Emperours of Rome and their subordinate Officers were truely Persecutors and the Primitive Christians truely Persecuted But secondly I take it also to be as true that the punishing of Offenders whose Religion is false or seigned and who onely make a colour or shew of it to carry on other Designes is not onely Lawful but just and necessary May not a Christian Government endeavour by Penalties to hinder Mahometanisme or Paganisme from rooting out Christianity without being Antichristian for so doing Certainly this is a very illogical Principle and so far from overthrowing Atheism that it is the high Road to establish it And if Magistrates are to take care by vertue of their Office to support the Government of the World the Peace and Happiness of their People they must do it by Rewards and Punishments the Methods of Heaven better than which his Grace would do well if he would oblige us in shewing us others and what and wherein they consist Now if Men will set up Religions destructive of Peace Charity Order Government Obedience and the Happiness of Humane Society not onely all Religion but Society is come to its Conclamatum
Name of Jesus the Saviour of the World Again It is most certain that as there is but one God so there is but one Faith and one Truth Whereas there are many Errours and Doctrines of Devils in all dresses even that of Christian Religion Now these will all plead as strongly for Toleration and Liberty of Conscience as the true Religion and upon my Lords Hypothesis will have as undoubted a Right to it So that the whole World must be suffered to continue in damnable Errours and Heresies which they call Religion and no Person under Penalty of being guilty of one of the greatest Crimes and being Antichristian must punish them for their blasphemous Tenents or charitably indeavour by the fear and terrour of Humane Laws and Penalties as well as by Reasons and Arguments to oblige them to procure a better information of their Understanding and a clearer Notion of these necessary Truths wherein they have been by their folly and obstinacy mightily and it may be long mistaken for want of the Rod of Correction to cure them of that folly which is naturally bound up in the Hearts of the Children of Men. Now if it be true as it must if we believe every Word of God is true That no Man can be saved but by comming to the knowledge of the Truth by Supernatural Revelation and that they must all be damned who believe a lie that there is but one Name to give Salvation and one Truth to be believed Is it not a very fine way of leading Men to that glorious Truth and Light to tell them all who pretend to it have it how far remote from it soever and to render it almost morally impossible among so many authoriz'd Counterfeits to find the real Truth And is it not a charitable Doctrine to give Men Liberty of Conscience to go headlong to the Devil for God's sake without endeavouring to stop their Carreer when we see them mounted upon the blackest and most furious Steeds of damnable Errours and Heresies Will his Grace think it convenient to Tolerate the Conscience of a Calvinist who rides Whip and Spur upon the Pegasus of his Sanguinary Divinity and has the blasphemous impudence to compare Almighty Mercy which he says Gods Revealed Will seems to offer to all to be only like the Artifice of a little Vermin-catcher who baits his Trap with it only that by their refusal to which they are precondemned by his secret Will he may have something to say against them And were I at leisure to write or his Grace to read I could furnish him with a Bill of Items of this Nature in the Opinions of our several Dissenters longer then a Taylor of the greatest Faith ever trusted a promising Courtier for But let this pass only with this Remark that if it were for my life that I indeavoured either to make a witty Man an Atheist or to propagate Atheism in the World I would desire no other Favour or Foundation but a Toleration of all Opinions and Liberty of Conscience to effect it Nor is Toleration worse Divinity then Politicks I cannot say how it may stand with the Nature of a Commonwealth though because our Republicans are so fond of it one would think it calculated for their Meridian but certainly not onely Reason but dreadful Experience have assured us it is inconsistent with Monarchy Nothing can make a Monarchy Great and August but the Love and Union of the People and if his Grace will enquire of Lewis the Fourteenth he will inform him that is his Opinion and indeed nothing begets greater Divisions and Animosities in a Kingdom then Religious Feuds which weaken its Power at home and Reputation abroad but where these diversities in Opinion about Religion all meet as in a Center in the Point of the Lawfulness for the Sake or Name or Cause of Religion for Subjects to take up Arms to Dethrone and Assassinate privately or publickly to Murder their Prince and subvert the Government as the Principles of all Covenanters Associators and Excluders do I appeal to all Crowned Heads to all Persons who have any share in Government to all Ministers of State and Polititians nay even to his Grace himself whether such dangerous Principles and Persons Poisoned with them are not so far from deserving Toleration as to be most pernicious and intolerable in any Monarchy that desires or expects to be safe But what need we to argue from Reason when Fact is so evident Has not Indulgence Toleration and Liberty of Conscience murdered one King set up a thousand Usurpers made England suffer a thousand miseries and cost this Nation many thousand Lives many Millions of Treasure His Grace had a share and a large one in the effects of that Liberty of Conscience It was a Conscientious Felton that robbed him of a Noble Father and the World of a most Illustrious Life it was a Conscientious Rebel that slew his Brother it was Conscientious Rebels that Sequestred his Estate Imprisoned his Person and would have taken away his Life and if he has a mind to run the Gantlet again through all those Risques of Fortune I would recommend him to a Toleration and Liberty of Conscience to gratifie his desires for I dare assure him a Ducal Coronet is no more a Protection against Conscience when once it takes the Field then an Imperial Crown or a much hated though Innocent Mitre Were that late Rebellion onely the single dismal Extravagance of Conscience grown Frantick by Indulgence or wantonly Cruel by too much Liberty something might be alledged in mitigation of its Crimes But it is a Wild Creature in Dissenters whose Chain is no sooner loose but it flies at the Throat of its Keeper And no Man can doubt of this who reflects upon the Troubles and Dangers which have befallen our late Sovereign and His Illustrious Brother our most Gracious King which must date their Aera from the last Indulgence for no sooner had the Dissenters gained that Point but they threw at all and the good and loyal Subjects of the Church of England the best Supporters of the Crown being discouraged the Faction grew Rampant to the highest Degrees of Insolence imaginable and wanted but little of pushing on a more dreadful Revolution than that of Forty one For who were the Petitioners the Addressers the Life and Fortune Men the Associators the Exclusioners the Rye-house Conspirators but the great Friends to the Dissenters to Liberty of Conscience and Toleration And who were to assist these mighty Undertakers but the Dissenters the Band of Pensioners to this pretended Conscience And whoever Indulges those who plead Conscience opens a secret Sally-port to let in Traytors disguised under the Name of Tender Conscience betrays a Principal Gate of the Government to his Enemies and for one Conscience really Tender will find a thousand as hard as Iron and as sharp as Steel and as mortal too in a Dissenters Hand And I cannot but infinitely admire at that Passage