material Parts of Religion than any outward Expressions of Worship whatsoever And from hence I thought it but a very modest and reasonable Demand That Men would but yield to allow to Supreme Power the same Authority and Dominion over the Means and subordinate Instruments of Religion as they are ready enough to ascribe to it over its more important Ends and Designs and so agree to set the same Bounds and Measures to both Jurisdictions And now having reduced them to this Equality of Power I advanced to a more particular state of the whole Controversie by shewing to what Affairs in both kinds the Exercise of all Humane Authority is extended where it is limited and in what cases it is restrained And here I first exempted all the inward Actions of the Mind from the Cognizance and Jurisdiction of all Humane Authority and withal shewed how the substantial part of Religious Worship is performed within and so is in its own Nature beyond the reach of the Civil Magistrate and how all Expressions of External Worship as such are no Essential Parts of Religion and therefore that he is not in any capacity of doing direct and immediate Violence to Religion it self The Controversie being thus stated as to the inward Actions of the Mind the next Enquiry is concerning outward Practices and they are of two sorts either such as are apparently and antecedently evil and these are above the reach and beyond the Obligation of all Humane Laws their Morality is already so determined that no Humane Power can alter their Nature or rescind their Obligation but every thing forbidden becomes an intrinsecal and unalterable Sin and every thing commanded an eternal and unchangeable Duty Or else they are such as still remain in the state of indifferency and are left undetermined as to their Morality either by any certain Law of Nature or any clear positive Law of God and these are liable to the Commands and Determinations of Supreme Authority and are the proper Objects of Humane Laws in that there is no other restraint set to the extent of their Jurisdiction but the Countermand of a Superiour Power and therefore whatsoever Matters are left at Liberty by the Divine Law must be supposed determinable either way by the Commands of Soveraign Authority These are the most distinct Rules of Conscience in this Enquiry in reference to the Nature of the Actions themselves But besides these there are other accessional Reasons of Good and Evil that arise from the apprehensions of the Minds of Men concerning them and they also are of two sorts either such as relate to the Conceptions of other Men which may in some cases lay a restraint upon our Practices as in cases of meer scandal and this by some is pretended to excuse their disobedience to the Churches Constitutions and therefore I have distinctly examined the Nature and the Reasonableness of this Pretence and shewn how the Commands of Authority abolish all the Pretences and supersede all the Obligations of scandal Or else they are such as relate to a Man 's own apprehensions and this takes in the pretence of a doubtful and unsatisfied Conscience which is so zealously pleaded by most of our Separatists in justification of their Schism and therefore because I deem'd it was of more close and immediate Concernment to our present Affairs I have with greater exactness examined and stated the Obligatory Power of a weak and a tender Conscience and have largely proved the manifest absurdity of pleading Doubts and Scruples in opposition to the Commands of Authority and shewn that nothing can or ought to check with our Obligations to Obedience unless it cross with Matters of certain and apparent Duty and that all cases capable of Doubt and Uncertainty cannot be supposed of importance enough to weigh against the great Sin and Mischief of Disobedience So that the Result of my whole Discourse will at last run it self into this plain and easie Proposition That Obedience is indispensably due to all the Commands of Supreme Authority that are not certainly and apparently sinful And now tell me how I could have drawn up the state of this Controversie in a plainer or more familiar Method For the Propositions you see are distinct and comprehensive they take in all the particular Actions and Affairs of Humane Life and I cannot think of any imaginable Difficulty or Objection relating to the present matter in debate that does not apparently fall in under one of the forementioned Heads of Action Or how I could better have avoided the Inconveniences of both extreams and which way else I might have determined the matter by such easie and moderate Principles as may fairly satisfie all Mens Consciences that are ingenuous and condemn all that are not § 5. For 1. to vest the Supreme Magistrate in an unlimited and unaccountable Power is clearly to defeat the Efficacy and Obligatory Force of all his Laws that cannot possibly have any binding Vertue upon the Minds of Men when they have no other inducement to Obedience than barely to avoid the Penalty But if the Supreme Power be absolute and unlimited it does for that very Reason remove and evacuate all other Obligations for otherwise it is restrained and conditional and if Men lie under no other Impulsive than that of the Law it self they lie under no Obligation than that of Prudence and Self-interest and it remains entirely at the choice of their own discretion whether they shall or shall not obey and then there is neither Government nor Obligation to Obedience and the Principle of Mens Complyance with the Mind of Superiours is not the Declaration of their will and pleasure but purely the Determination of their own Judgments And therefore 't is necessary for the security of Government though for nothing else to set bounds to its Jurisdiction otherwise like the Roman Empire it sinks and dissolves by its own weight no Humane Power is able to support it self and the Thrones of Princes are establish't upon the Dominion of God remove his Authority and the force derived upon their Laws by vertue of his Commands and you untie all the Bands of Government and set Men at Liberty from all Obligations to the Duty of Obedience Or else 2. to grant Subjects a lawless and uncontroulable Liberty in all matters and pretences of Religion is to dissolve one half of the Government into to perfect Anarchy and yield up the Constitution of all Publick Affairs to the Humour and the Insolence of every wild Enthusiast and every pert Fellow that can abuse either himself or others with Fanatick Whimsies has it always in his own power to expose the setled frame of Government to the zealous folly of the Multitude If he have but a warm Brain and a bold Face with what ease may he fire the Rabble into Tumults and Godly Seditions 'T is but pouring forth dark Prophesies and Scripture-Allegories and declaiming against the Oppression of Earthly Powers and then with what
equally subject to the decisions and determinations of the Civil Power I should rather have concluded and so I am sure any wise Governour that seeing the Laws of Nature are so bravely vouch'd by the common consent and suffrage of Mankind and seeing 't is impossible men should mistake in them unless they will do it wilfully let them in Gods name please their fancies and themselves in a Liberty of Practice and Perswasion concerning them because here there is little or no hazard of any dangerous mistake But seeing as to what concerns the Worship of God they are all at variance and seeing there is no such evidence in these things no such common suffrage about them as to free any absolutely from failings and mistakes so that in respect of them and not of the other lies the principal danger of miscarrying I will be sure to have a more watchful and vigilant eye to their due order and setlement here is danger of Schisms and Dissentions and men will run into Parties and differences about uncertain and ambiguous things and above all things I must be careful to prevent religious Factions these of all others are incomparably the most dangerous and therefore here I will not fail to interpose the utmost of my care and power where-ever I neglect it and if any man will be so bold and fool-hardy as to affront my Judgment and Determination of things so uncertain with his own private and doubtful perswasions let him take what follows And so I have brought our Disputer to my old Advantage with which he dares no more venture to close than with a Cornish hug viz. That 't is but reasonable and necessary too for modest and peaceable Subjects to submit in all Matters capable of doubt and uncertainty to the determinations of their Lawful Superiours and therefore if this be the case of the Rules of Instituted Worship as is pretended this is so far from abridging the Jurisdiction of the Civil Power over their disposal that 't is the very Reason why they should be entirely subject to and determinable by the Judgment and discretion of Supreme Authority 2. There is as great a variety and uncertainty of Opinion concerning the Laws of Nature as there is concerning those of Institution and about them the Errors of publick Government have always been as many and much more pernicious and there is scarce one Instance of Natures Laws that has not been some where or other revers'd by National Constitutions Has not our Author read of Laws for he is sans doubt a man of Reading though I dare not vouch for his Learning and Ingenuity that reward Thieves and Pyrates that prostitute virgin Brides to the publick Lust that bind Children to murder their decrepit Parents that permit Sons to commit Incest with nay that enjoyn them to marry their own Mothers Numberless are the Stories of the debauch'd and accursed Laws of the horrible and unnatural Customs of the barbarous Nations in the World So that however Moral Vertues may be establish'd among Mankind by the Light of Nature Yet alas that is infinitely too weak and dim to preserve men from the numberless mistakes of Error and Ignorance And 't is not a little strange to me that our Author when he has so strong an Opinion of the woful decay and utter dissolution of all that was good in humane Nature by the fall of Adam should yet apprehend the Dictates of so debauch'd and corrupted a Principle to make a clearer discovery of the duty of Mankind than the express Revelation of God himself especially when this was chiefly intended to supply and repair the defects of the Light of Nature For in the last and real Issue of things the best discovery and the strongest Obligation of all Natures Laws will be found to depend on their positive Institution The Gospel is the only perfect and accurate Systeme of the Laws of Nature it has not omitted any the least part of our Duty and what it has not enjoyn'd is no part either of the Law of Revelation or of the Law of Nature And in truth were it not for the collected Body of the Laws of Christianity at what a woful loss should we be for an exact Catalogue of the Laws of Nature And it would be an infinitely vain attempt to find out their set and certain Number for alas that must vary according to the unconceivable difference of mens Capacities and Apprehensions Persons of greater sagacity and more improved Reasons would be able to perceive many moral Notices of things that would never have occurr'd to the Thoughts of ruder and more illiterate People and therefore our safest as well as our shortest way to discover their Nature and Obligation is without any more ado to search the Records of all Gods Revelations to Mankind upon which their greatest certainty and by consequence their chiefest Obligation depends So little does this this man consider what he talks when he ascribes so much evidence to the Rules of moral Goodness beyond the duty of Institution when Institution is incomparably their greatest and most pregnant Evidence Nay what is worse than all the rest after all this Noise of instituted Worship nothing will ever be found concerned in it save only the two Sacraments they are the only matters of outward Worship prescribed in the Gospel and thus has he run himself into his old Premunire and so is brought under an Obligation to assign any other particular Rituals and Ceremonies of External Religion injoin'd and determined in the Word of God a thing of which they much and often talk but never offer to prove or specifie And the truth is here lies the main mystery of all their Impertinencies in Disputes of this nature that they are resolved to find some things in the Holy Scriptures which 't is impossible for the wit of Man to discover there and hence all this Clamour concerning the particular Rules of instituted Worship in the Word of God though when they come to consult it there is nothing more determined than barely the two Sacraments But this will not serve their turn they must and will have a Ius Divinum for their own singular fancies and fashions and therefore away they fling and about they beat and no passage of Holy Writ shall be left unransackt for Proofs and Texts to their purpose And to this end they find out some Words and Expressions that may possibly seem to carry some resemblance to their Prejudices and ungrounded Conceits and then by what violent and strein'd Analogies will they force them to countenance their Dreams and by what odd and impertinent methods will they pack and huddle Scriptures together till they seem to chime to the tune of their own foolish Imaginations And you would bless your self to consider what spiritual ways of arguing they have of late invented in Opposition to common Sense and natural Reason to justifie their own phantastick and unwarrantable Hypotheses of things but
more especially to abet this wild and unaccountable Principle That the Word of God is the onely adequate Rule of instituted Worship which they lay down in their Positive Divinity at which they are incomparably the greatest Doctors in the World as the onely unquestionable Postulatum of all their Discourses yet when they are urged to make it out by Rational Arguments and particular Instances they talk it and talk it but as for proof and evidence they never could nor ever will be brought to produce any other beside the Proleptick certainty of the Maxim it self and therefore I will for ever bar their general Pleas and Pretences drawn from this Principle That the New Testament is the adequate Rule of Instituted Worship to the Church of Christ unless in case of the two Sacraments though as to them too all the outward Circumstances and Postures of Celebration are wholly undetermined in the Scripture till they shall specifie some particular Instances there directed and prescribed under a standing Obligation however it is not to be attended to in our present Controversie when it is as I have proved as certain and complete a Rule of moral Vertue as they can suppose it to be of Instituted Worship and therefore that cannot be any ground of Exception that whilst the former is subject to the latter should be exempt from the disposal of the Civil Jurisdiction So lamentably absurd are the main and darling Principles of these men that 't is not in the Power of Logick or Sophistry to do them any kindness and the more they stir in their Defence the more they expose their Folly § 9. And now having so wofully hurt and prejudiced his own Cause by this rash and indiscreet Attempt upon my Inference in the next place he rushes with a fierce and angry Dilemma upon my Assertion viz. That the Magistrate has Power over the Consciences of men in reference to moral Duties which are the principal Parts of Religion This Power says he is either over moral Vertue as Vertue and as a part of Religion or on some other Account as it relates to humane Society The former he gores through and through and that horn of the Dilemma is above two Pages long and here he has exactly observed the Rules and Customs of Scholastick Dispute that is always prodigal of Confutation where there is no need and niggardly where there is For when he proceeds to the latter which he knows is the only thing I all along asserted he freely grants all I can desire or demand For moral Vertues notwithstanding their peculiar Tendency unto God and Religion are appointed to be Instruments and Ligaments of humane Society also now the Power of the Magistrate in respect of Moral Vertues is in their latter use Very good And the Case is absolutely the same as to all reasons and circumstances of things in matters of Religion for though they as well as moral Vertue chiefly relate to our future Concerns yet have they also a powerful Influence upon our present welfare and if rightly managed are the best and most effectual Instruments of publick Happiness and there lies the very strength and sinew of my Argument that if Magistrates are vested with so much Power over moral Vertues that are the most weighty and essential Parts of Religion as they shall judge it needful to the Peace of Societies and the security of Government how much more reasonable is it that they should be entrusted with the same Power over matters of external Worship that are but its subordinate Instruments and outward Circumstances whenever they are serviceable to the same ends and purposes And if there be any advantage and disparity of Reason 't is apparently on this side for it were an easie Task to prove that moral Vertue is much more necessary to procure the divine Acceptance and Religion much more likely to create publick Disturbance but that is not the subject matter of our present Enquiry 't is enough that both have in some measure a Relation to these different Ends and therefore that both must in some measure be subject to these different Powers You see how shamefully this man is repuls'd by his own Attempts and that there is nothing needful to beat back his Answers but the Arguments themselves against which they are directed And now having spent his main strength in this succesless shock 't is piteous to observe how he faints in his following Assays He inquires whether this Power of the Civil Magistrate over moral Vertue be such as to make that Vertue which was not Vertue before or which was Vice 'T is of the same extent with his Authority over Affairs of Religion as I have already stated it But however to this Impertinent Enquiry he need not have sought far for a pertinent Answer it lay before his eyes when he objected it if he did not write blindfold viz. That in matters both of moral Vertue and divine Worship there are some Rules of Good and Evil that are of an eternal and unchangeable Obligation and these can be never prejudiced or altered by any humane Power But then there are other Rules that are alterable according to the various Accidents Changes and Conditions of humane life and in things of this Nature I asserted that the Magistrate has Power to make that a Particular of the divine Law which God has not made so In answer to which he wishes I had declared my self how and wherein So I have viz. in all the peculiar and positive Laws of Nations and gave him Instances in no less matters than of Murther Theft and Incest and produced several particular Cases in which the Civil Power superinduced new obligations upon the Divine Law Which 't is in vain to repeat to one that winks against the Light you know where to find them if you think it needful But is not this a bold man to challenge me with such a scornful Assurance to do what he could not but see I had already performed Some men are confident enough to put out the day in spite of the Sun He adds The divine Law is divine and so is every particular of it and therefore 't is impossible for a man to make new Particulars and yet in the same Breath grants my Assertion as an ordinary and familiar truth if I only intend by making a thing a Particular of the divine Law no more than to make the divine Law require that in particular of a man which it did not require of him before Though that man must have a wild understanding that can mean any thing more or less There is a vast difference is there not between making a new Particular of the Divine Law and making the Divine Law require that in particular which it did not require before But says he these new particulars refer only to the acting and occasion of these things in particular 'T is no matter for that whatever they refer
the Repeal or the Perpetuity of Moses Law And all the Discourses we meet with in the Writings of the Apostles upon this subject relate purely to the abrogation of the Mosaick Institution And all their Exhortations to the Primitive Christians to stand stifly upon their Priviledges were to perswade them not to suffer themselves to be abused into a slavish opinion of the Eternity and unalterable Obligation of the Law of Moses but to rest assured that the Gospel had rescinded all the positive and ceremonial Commands of the Jews that the things themselves were returned to their native Indifferency and by consequence that they were at liberty from their observance any former Law or Precept to the contrary notwithstanding Well then the precise Notion of Christian Liberty consists in the rescue of the Consciences of men from the divine Imposition of the Yoke of Moses and therefore 't is not to be pretended against any Restraints whatsoever that do not challenge an absolute and indispensable obligation over the Consciences of men by vertue of a divine Authority So that Subjects are not to be permitted to put in this Pretence in bar of any Impositions of our lawful Superiours because it relates purely to our immediate duty and entercourse with God and is not in the least concern'd in our Engagements and Relations to men And upon this Account is it that St. Paul so smartly encourageth the Galatians to stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free and not to be entangled again with the Yoke of Bondage because if they are circumcised Christ shall profit them nothing in that they are Debtors to keep the whole Law For if the Seal of Circumcision be still in force then is not the Law disannull'd of which this is the Sacrament and the Sanction but if the Law be not disannull'd then are you still under an obligation to the same Obedience as was required by the Conditions of the old Covenant and so by consequence forfeit all the Favours and Benefits of the new But setting aside the necessity of Circumcision by vertue of a divine Command then its use was no Intrenchment upon Christian Liberty and therefore though this blessed Apostle declaimed with so much zeal and vehemence against its use and continuance out of respect to the obligatory Power of the Law of Moses yet upon other Grounds and for different Purposes he was content to condescend to its practice and observation as is notorious in the Circumcision of Timothy So that you see 't is apparent his Christian Liberty consisted not in an indispensable forbearance of Circumcision for so to have used it in any Case had been a manifest Forfeiture of his Priviledge and violation of his Duty but only in not doing it with an opinion of its Necessity by reason of the perpetual obligation of the Law of Moses This is the plain and the only Account of Christian Liberty in the holy Scriptures and therefore these men do but prate their own obstinate presumptions whilst they persist in this vulgar Clamour till they can either prove that we pretend to any divine Authority for our Ecclesiastical Institutions or that Christian Liberty is of any concernment in any Cases that pretend not to divine Authority These things if they will undertake to make good they may talk to our Purpose but otherwise they will but talk to their own and that is to none at all § 3. And this discovers the Impertinency of our Authors next demand what I mean by the Restauration of the mind to its natural Priviledge If the Priviledge of the mind in its condition of natural Purity it is false if any priviledge of the mind in its corrupt Condition it is no less untrue Why so Because in things of this Nature the mind is in Bondage and not capable of Liberty I cannot divine what things he here intends nor of what Concernment the Purity and Corruption of humane Nature is to this enquiry the only Liberty I treated of was an exemption from the Obligatory Power of the Ceremonial Institutions of Moses so that the Restauration of the mind to its natural Priviledge can signifie nothing else than its being rescued from the Yoke Bondage of positive arbitrary Laws to be govern'd by the Laws and Dictates of its own Nature And what Relation this has to our natural Purity or Corruption is past my skill to understand And so is the Reason he subjoyns to confirm his Assertion no better than a grave and profound Piece of Non-sense For it is a thing ridiculous to confound the meer natural Liberty of our wills which is an Affection inseparable from that Faculty with a moral or spiritual Liberty of mind relating unto God and his Worship It is so but what in the name of Sphinx is this to our Enquiry what has Liberty from the Law of Moses to do with Liberty of will 't is perfect Riddle to me where either the force or the sense of the Argument lies But free-will is an old word of Contention and the bare mention of it is enough to amuse his unlearned Readers and to make them suspect some depth of Learning or Reason that their shallow Capacities are not able to fathom And if the Argument have any subtilty there it lies But his bravest and most serviceable Artifice is still behind when an Argument is neither to be withstood nor avoided he can slur its force and evidence by perverting it and entertain his Reader by imposing a false sense upon it when he is not able to confute the true one Thus he tells us That this whole Paragraph runs upon no small mistake namely that the Yoke of Mosaical Institutions consisted in their Imposition on the minds and judgments of men with an Opinion of the Antecedent Necessity of them This indeed is somewhat strange Divinity and not altogether uncapable of Confutation especially as to my particular Case it being such a square Contradiction to that account I have given of the matters of the Ceremonial Law viz. That they were things indifferent in their own Natures that the Necessity of their Use and Exercise was superinduced upon them purely by vertue of a divine positive Command that this being rescinded their Necessity immediately ceased and they return to the state of their original Indifferency to be governed as Circumstances should require and prudence direct so that it is evident I have denied the matters of the Ceremonial Law to have been at all necessary to be observed from their own Intrinsick Nature antecedent to their positive Institution and therefore if any where else I have affirmed it I have no way to avoid the charge of speaking Daggers and Contradictions But says he that this is my sense intended is evident from the Conclusion of this Paragraph viz. that whatever and in what matters soever our Superiours impose upon us it is no intrenchment upon our Christian Liberty provided it be not imposed
the same thing in reference to Government can pretend to tenderness and want of satisfaction shall be allowed to plead Exemption from the Duty of Obedience to the will of his lawful Superiours there will be no avoiding the Coâ—sequence at least as to the practice of the World but that all the Power and Wisdom of Authority must submit to the Follies Passions and Extravagances of the Multitude and howsoever Men may wind themselves up and down in Mazes of endless Niceties and Distinctions they will never clear themselves from the unavoidable event of Anarchy and Confusion as long as they promiscuously admit the Pretensions of an unsatisfied Conscience and yet that they will be forced to do if they stop not at the plain the easie and the discernable Measures of Duty and therefore Men must not be allowed to excuse themselves from the Authority of Humane Laws upon slender grounds and weak surmises nor conclude the matter of the Law to be antecedently unlawful unless it be certainly and apparently so And this will farther appear highly reasonable from the Nature of Gods Laws that are always plain and easie and the Nature of the Matters about which they are employed that are always of a great and evident necessity so that things really liable to doubt and disputation are not of importance enough to be reckoned in the number of indispensable Duties and unless they are clearly and apparently evil that is an unquestionable evidence that they are not intrinsecally so the perspicuity of the Law and the importance of the Duty are to an ingenuous Mind uncapable of doubt and uncertainty and therefore where there appears no certain and express Repugnancy to the Law of God that is presumption enough to satisfie any sober and peaceable Man in their lawfulness § 7. But that which is most material to the Determination of Conscience in this Enquiry is this That there is no Rule of Life and Manners more express and unavoidable nor any Duty in the Gospel enjoined in more positive Terms and under more severe Penalties than this of Obedience to the Commands of Supreme Authority and God has tied all their just Laws upon our Consciences by vertue of his own Authority and under pain of his own displeasure and as Men would acquit themselves in their Obedience to his Laws they are bound under the same Sanctions to acquit themselves in their Obedience to theirs And now upon this Principle no truly upright and conscientious Man will ever go about to riggle himself out of his Duty to his lawful Superiours out of any regard to any Law of God when he is not as clearly and abundantly satisfied of the certainty and necessity of its Obligation Nay he cannot with safety and without violence to his own Conscience remonstrate to the Commands of lawful Authority unless upon Reasons more bright and forcible than the express words of St. Paul It is necessary that ye be subject not onely for wrath but also for Conscience sake And if Men would as they ought suspend their Scruples and Exceptions till they can make it out to themselves that they are as certain as necessary and as universal Duties of Religion as Obedience to the Commands of lawful Superiours we could not desire a more effectual Bar to all our Schisms and Distractions For none of the matters of our difference can either pretend to or are indeed capable of equal evidence with this express Proposition of the blessed Apostle and therefore if they would stand firm and loyal to this Doctrine till they can produce more clear and convincing Scriptures to vouch their own singular Conceits that must for ever stifle all former Quarrels and prevent all farther Dissentions v.g. Whereas our Author is required by his lawful Superiours to use the Sign of the Cross in the Sacrament of Baptism he puts in his Exception against the lawfulness of the Command in that it enjoins a Symbolical Ceremony and every Symbolical Ceremony is of the Nature of a Sacrament and no Sacrament can or ought to be instituted but by Divine Authority and therefore for any Humane Power to establish new Symbolical Ceremonies is to invade Gods own peculiar Royalty and Jurisdiction In which Cavil are involved a great number of dark uncertain and perhaps indeterminable Enquiries yet however to keep to the main pretence let him but conform to this Injunction till he can alledge any Text of Scripture that affirms in as clear and dogmatical words that every Symbolical Ceremony is of the Nature of a Sacrament as are those of St. Peter Be ye subject to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake And then we shall neither need nor desire any farther security to prevent his defection from the establish't Discipline of the Church in that Affair So that if Men would learn to be peaceable and ingenuous this plain and obvious Principle would either forestal or supersede all their scruples And in truth the Commands of Authority so much surmount their Obligation and anticipate their Pretence that the very Plea of a tender and unsatisfied Conscience in Opposition to Publick Laws is in it self a direct Principle of Sedition and an open Affront to Government and therefore whoever they are that vouch and pretend its prohibition to the proceedings of lawful Authority deserve for that reason alone the shame and correction of sturdy and irreclaimable Schismaticks And here 't is a woful Impertinence for Men to oppose as our Author has done the Authority of God and of Conscience to that of Men for that is to plead God and Conscience against themselves in that Humane Laws are as much tied upon us by his own immediate Command as his own immediate Institutions and whatsoever lawful Superiours impose upon our Practice that he binds upon our Conscience and though their Decrees pass no direct Obligation upon the Consciences of Men yet the Laws of God directly and immediately bind their Consciences to Obedience and he has threatned the same Eternal Penalties to our contempt of and disobedience to their Laws as he has annext to his own Commands 'T is enough therefore that the Conscience is bound by the Laws of Men though that Obligation be tied upon it by the Laws of God So that it is not the different Obligations of Humane and Divine Laws that are to be considered in this Enquiry for the Authority of God is equally concerned in both and all the Contest lies entirely between the Matters of the Command viz. Whether God have by as certain as absolute and as indispensable a Law restrained us from the practice of what our Superiours enjoin as he has enjoined us to yield all ready and cheerful Obedience to their Commands And when the state of the Controversie is shifted to this Enquiry 't is another woful Impertinence to plead the Rule of St. Paul He that doubteth is damned if he eat to countenance and warrant their suspension of Obedience for where the doubt has but
one handle there it concerns us to hold that fast but where it has more 't is the safest way to hold by the strongest my meaning is where the danger of Sin lies but upon one side of the Action 't is no doubt a Mans Wisdom to determine his choice on the other that is undoubtedly safe and innocent but when there lies danger on both sides of the Enquiry then the doubt ceases to bind from Action and onely binds to Enquiry and 't is his Duty to resolve with the weightiest and most important Reasons and the strongest Obligation always cancels the doubt and determines the Judgment And this is the palpable difference of our case from that of St. Paul There all the Jealousie lay on the side of the Action and there was no ground or pretence for any suspicion of Sin in the forbearance and therefore it was a safe and easie Determination of the Scruple to resolve that way where there is neither doubt nor danger and in that case a total suspension of Action is our proper Duty But this is widely remote from the posture of our present Affairs where there lies some hazard of miscarriage on all sides and therefore the doubt is no warranty for the suspension of Obedience because if the matter of the Command be not certainly unlawful 't is certain that is so and therefore it can have no more Power to suspend than it has to bind to Action and there remains no other way to appease and satisfie the Conscience but to apply it self to depose the doubt and resolve to discard its unreasonable and trifling suspicions and confidently follow the guidance of its most probable Judgment and Determination And here the safest course as to the case under our present enquiry is to follow my former advice of joining in with the Commands of Authority that are not certainly and apparently sinful for nothing can out-balance their Obligation unless evident and unquestionable disobedience to God himself so that where this is not either plainly apparent or very forcibly proved there 't is but reasonable to sink the Scale and determine the Balance on the side of Authority and 't is a safe and an useful Rule of Life that in all disputable Cases the Commands of Authority abrogate the Irresolution and oblige to Action But if after they have determined the Case the Conscience will still remain stubborn or timorous so that it will not or dare not venture upon a Determination 't is either such a troublesome Infirmity as must be corrected or such an head-strong Humour as must be broken otherwise there is no conceivable way of governing Men that are either proud or peevish or ignorant This is plain and down-right Sense and if I mistake not Reason too And I know but one Exception that seems to carry in it any colour or appearance of difficulty against this way of stating the Government of Humane Affairs and 't is this § 8. When we come to apply particular Actions to these general Rules of Life and Government who shall judge of their Agreement with the Limits and Measures assign'd if this must be left to the different Judgments of the Prince and the Subject this Fabrick falls to pieces again and Men are still left at liberty to judge of the lawfulness of their Superiours Command by the best Light God has given them and they may be absolved from their Obligation by the Countermand of their private Judgment and so we are just as before and this great Engine for Publick Tranquillity vanisheth into Air and Smoak But this Cavil if it be of any strength or value concerns not in particular my state of the Controversie and lies indifferently against all Setlement of Humane Affairs and strikes equally at all Hypotheses of Government for upon what Principles soever Men shall setle and determine this Enquiry it will return upon them with as much if not more force than upon my Determinations For whatever Bounds and Limits they assign to the extent of Humane Power all its Commands must still be liable to the different Judgments of the Person that enjoins and the Person that obeys about which 't is as possible and as likely they may disagree as about those that I have prescribed and therefore I never design'd to prevent such Inconveniences as are unavoidable to Humane Affairs but onely to setle their management upon the best and safest Principles that the Nature of things is capable of For either Religion is entirely exempted from the Cognizance of Humane Powers and the Obligation of Humane Laws or else 't is in some cases obnoxious to their Jurisdiction The former is an Opinion so wild and intolerable as that it was never heretofore own'd by any but such perverse People as renounced all Subjection to Earthly Princes nor indeed can it be admitted without dissolving the whole Fabrick of Humane Government For that Prince must needs be vested with an absolute and uncontroulable Power whose Subjects can challenge an Exemption from his Authority as to all matters and pretences of Religion i. e. as to all things in that it extends its influence to all the affairs of Humane Life and therefore its Exemption is no less than flat Anarchy a Dissolution of all Laws and Subversion of all Societies The truth whereof is so infinitely certain from the Reason of Things and so universally confessed by the Experience of Mankind that it could never enter the Minds of any Men unless a few savage and inhumane Wretches that would have voted to break up Humane Society that they might betake themselves to the Woods and Desarts and there live after the Manners and Customs of unsociable Creatures and wild Vermin But of this I have treated largely enough and it is not contradicted by our Author he grants as all Men do that are not utterly revolted from the first Principles and Fundamental Laws of Humane Nature that in some cases and upon some occasions 't is necessary for the Supreme Magistrate to interpose his Power to setle and govern the things of Religion Thus far we are agreed and only differ in marking out the distinct Bounds and stating the particular Cases of his Jurisdiction and here whatsoever Determinations he may propose they must fall under the different Opinions of the Prince and the Subject v. g. Whereas he conceits he has sufficiently stated the Controversie in the general words of our blessed Saviour spoken to another purpose and upon a different occasion Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods I demand who shall determine the particular Rights of God and of Caesar Who shall assign the just Limits of their respective Dominions and who shall judge when Caesar passes beyond the Bounds of his Imperial Jurisdiction and when he intrenches upon Gods Authority by taking upon him a Dominion in such Matters as God has reserved for his own proper Cognizance and immediate Royalty So that in this
Consciences of Men yet 't is an Inference like the rest of our Authors from thence to conclude that they therefore affect them by their own direct and immediate Sanction But this is not all 't is as false as foolish I have indeed asserted the absolute Power of the Civil Magistrate over Affairs of Religion in Opposition to the Pretences of a distinct Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction For having first asserted the necessity of a Soveraign Power over these matters from their Concernment in the Peace and Government of the World I thence proceeded to enquire where and in whom it ought to reside and having shewn the Inconsistency of erecting two Supreme Powers one over Civil the other over Ecclesiastical Affairs I concluded that the Supreme Government of every Commonwealth must of necessity be universal absolute and uncontroulable in that it extends its Jurisdiction as well to Affairs of Religion as to Affairs of State because they are so strongly influential upon the Interests of Mankind the Ends of Government And now is this to make the Ecclesiastical Authority of the Civil Magistrate absolutely paramount without regard to any other Jurisdiction of what nature soever when I onely maintain it in defiance to the Claims of any other Humane Power This was the subject of that Enquiry And when I asserted the Soveraign Power to be absolute and uncontroulable 't is apparent nothing else could be intended than that it ought not to be controul'd by any distinct Power whether of the Pope or the Presbytery and when I asserted it to be universal and unlimited it could be understood in no other sense than that it was not confined to matters purely Civil but extended its Jurisdiction to matters of an Ecclesiastical importance upon which account alone I determined it to be absolute universal and uncontroulable This is the main and the Fundamental Article of the Reformation and that which distinguishes the truly Orthodox and Catholick Protestant both from Popish and Presbyterian Recusants and is the onely fence to secure the Thrones of Princes against the dangerous Encroachments of those bold and daring Sects and therefore from so avowed a truth to charge me for ascribing in general Terms an absolute universal uncontroulable Power to the Civil Magistrate over the Consciences of Men in matters of Religion argues more boldness than wit and discretion and gives us ground to suspect that these Men are not less forsaken of shame and modesty than they are of Providence for it must needs be a very bold Face and a very hard Forehead that could ever venture to obtrude such palpable and disingenuous Abuses upon the World § 11. But our Author proceeds in his Method and his Charge and his Confidence advance together and before you fin◠him at the end of this Paragraph you will find him bravely attempting the highest degree of boldness The next proof he singles out for his purpose is a passage of the twelfth Section of my first Chapter He the Magistrate may if he please reserve the exercise of the Priesthood to himself From whence it clearly follows as he dreams that Queen Elizabeth might if she pleased have exercised the Priestly Function in her own Person And he takes frequent occasion to insult over the weakness of this Assertion and triumph in the wit of this Inference But I shall not insist upon its woful impertinency to the Conclusion wherewith he confidently winds up this heap of Calumnies viz. That from hence it follows that whatever the Magistrate commands in Religion his Authority does so immediately affect the Consciences of Men that they are bound to observe it on the pain of the greatest sin and punishment For how is it possible for any Man to infer from his Right to the Priestly Office an unlimited and immediate Power over Religion unless it could be proved that this absolute Soveraignty is unalienable from the Priesthood and when that is pretended or performed we will farther consider the Validity of this Inference Nor shall I mind him what an ill piece of Policy it is for him to disavow the Authority of the Female Sex in the Conduct of Religion when the chief and most important Affairs of the separate Churches are transacted and govern'd by their Zeal and when the Apron-strings are the strongest Bond of the Congregational Union and when as they manage the business St. Peter's Keys are hang'd at their Girdles and every conceited Sister assumes to her self if not the Infallibility of Pope Ioan yet at least the Power and Authority of Donna Olympia Nor lastly shall I present the Salique Law of the Christian Church that devests that Sex of all right and pretence of Succession to the Priesthood by which they are restrain'd from intermedling with any Offices of the Sacred Function though it should descend by right of Inheritance to the Heirs Male of the Blood Royal. Such a trifling Objection is not worth so much pains 't is sufficient to inform you that in the Paragraph aforesaid I undertook to give an account of the true Original of all Civil and Ecclesiastical Government where I shewed how in the first Ages of the World they were vested in the same Person and founded upon the same Right of Paternal Authority and in this state of things antecedent to all superinduced Restraints and positive Institutions I asserted the Supreme Magistrate might if he pleased reserve the exercise of the Priesthood to himself though afterwards the Priestly Office was in the Jewish Commonwealth expresly derogated from the Kingly Power by being setled upon the Tribe of Levi and the Line of Aaron and so likewise in the Christian Church by being appropriated to the Apostles and their Successours that derive their Ministerial Office for that of Priesthood our Author will not admit of under the Gospel from our blessed Saviours express and immediate Commission Now what I affirm'd of things in the bare state of Nature without the guidance of Revelation for our Author to represent it as if I had applied it indifferently to all Ages and Periods of the Church by whatsoever positive Laws and different Institutions they may be govern'd is wonderfully suitable to the Genius of his own Wit and Ingenuity and sufficiently discovers who he is though we had no other evidence of the Man and his Humour 't is his way and method and betrays him as much as the word Entanglement that is the Shibboleth of all his Writings But I must not think to escape thus he is resolved to bear me down for an illiterate Dunce with Face and downright Confidence and to this purpose he tells the Reader that the Young Man as pert and peremptory as he is seems not much acquainted with the rise of the Office of the Priesthood amongst Men as shall be demonstrated if farther occasion be given thereunto This he affirms boldly and when it is proved it shall be granted but till then let me beg the Reader to suspend his
the disingenuity of his Cavils and that is all that is needful in answer to his way of proceeding which you see was not to confute but to pervert my Discourse And if I should pursue all Advantages examine all Miscarriages and lay open all Follies and Impertinencies I should presume too much upon the Publick Patience and swell my Reply to too unreasonable a Bulk so many so vain and so impertinent are his Topicks of Cavil However the remainder of his Talk is built upon the supposition of the Truth and Reality of these Falsifications and therefore by what I have already discoursed in answer to their Forgery I have made it altogether needless to take any farther notice of his wild and rambling Harangues For if they are pertinent to their Premises they are impertinent to my Discourse if they are not they are impertinent to his own Though the truth is should I grant him the priviledge he is resolved to take of falsifying yet he deduceâ— things so loosly and incoherently that I might easily make good my Cause against him if I should undertake the defence of those Untruths and Monstrous Absurdities he fastens on me I might demand of him to what purpose he here acquaints us with that solemn and systematick distinction of the Declaration of Gods Will either by the Light of Nature or by the Light of Revelation unless it be to inform the World of this new and important Mystery that a positive Command of God may as to any particular instance suspend the Obligation of the greatest Command of the Law of Nature and so it actually did in the Precept given to Abraham for sacrificing his Son For whatever any School-men may determine in this case 't is apparent here neither was nor could be any suspension of the Law of Nature whose Obligation is so eternal and unchangeable that nothing can suspend it for one moment without doing violence to the antecedent Reasons of Good and Evil but onely a positive Command to execute a Divine Decree by vertue of a Divine Commission i. e. to put his Son to death by his Authority that is absolute Lord of Life a matter against which the Law of Nature never had or could have any Prohibition For though possibly it restrained Abraham from attempting his Sons Life by vertue of his own Dominion yet when he was warranted to it by a special Command of God himself to have refused its execution had been to remonstrate to the Justice of one of the most Fundamental Laws of Nature so that there was no suspension of the Law but an alteration of the Case and a Command to do something which that neither did nor could forbid To what purpose does he twit me for asserting Magistratical Omnipotency rather than the Divine Right of Episcopacy I am at Age and Liberty as young as he would make me to chuse my own Theme and perhaps the next Book I publish that shall be the Argument of my Discourse and then I doubt not but he will as much correct me for leaving the pursuit of my former subject as he does now for pursuing it To what purpose does he preach to Soveraign Princes not to take upon themselves that absolute Power I have for my own advantage ascribed to them unless he had also proved it is not for theirs 'T is a strong Motive no doubt to encourage his Majesty to listen to his advice by informing him it was not the Acclamation of the Multitude unto Herod The Voice of God and not of Man but his own arrogant satisfaction in that Blasphemous Assignation of Divine Glory to him that exposed him to the Iudgments and Vengeance of God For certainly Princes will require more forcible Reasons to part with the absoluteness of their Soveraign Power than such Preaching Impertinencies To what purpose does he add That never any Magistrate unless Nebuchadnezzar Caligula Domitian and persons like to them ever pretended to exercise the Power here assign'd unto them I will not be so froward as to tell him that now he is as much too free in his Concessions as he is at other times too stingy for should I put him upon the proof he would want Records to make it good that all these Princes ever claimed such a bold and unlimited Jurisdiction though perhaps others have for what thinks he of Artaxerxes's Commission to Ezra Whosoever will not do the Law of thy God and the Law of the King let Iudgment be executed speedily upon him whether it be unto Death or to Banishment or to Confiscation of Goods or to Imprisonment I know not how any Prince can challenge or assume a more severe absolute and uncontroulable Power than this granted in this Commission and yet Ezra reflects upon it as a special and immediate issue of Divine Providence To what purpose does he tell us the Power I ascribe to Magistrates is none other but that which is claimed by the Pope of Rome That may be his Usurpation upon the Rights of Princes but 't is no proof that they may not challenge the Supremacy over the Consciences of their own Subjects because he usurps it To what purpose does he tell us That the Mormo here made use of is the same in substance that has been set up by the Papists ever since the Reformation When nothing can be justly pleaded in behalf of lawful Government but what may be unjustly pretended to by Tyrants and Usurpers and in the happy days of Oliver Cromwel the same Arguments and Texts of Scripture were prest for Obedience and Subjection to the Rebel as were onely design'd to secure Loyalty to rightful Soveraigns Let the Romanists make out the Justice of their Title of Supremacy over the Kingdom of England and the Equity of their Cause in the due management of their Power and then we will listen to their Pretences but in the mean while from the necessity of an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to plead the Right of a Papal Soveraignty is an impertinency onely wild enough to serve our Authors turn and signifies no more than because there is Tyranny practised in the World under fair and plausible Pretences that therefore there must be no just Grounds and Principles for lawful Government To what purpose does he waste so many Pages to enquire wherefore the Power of the Magistrate should not be extended to the inward Thoughts and Apprehensions of Men about the Worship of God as well as to Expressions of them in pure spiritual Acts of that Worship For not to catch at the ridiculous canting and mysterious Non-sense of the Expression of our inward Thoughts in pure spiritual Acts when all Expression of them is outward and corporal 't is sufficient that God has not been pleased to vest them with any Power over our Thoughts but for what cause himself best knows and therefore though I could give no account for his so doing that would not cast the least shadow of an
so little proof and so much confusion as will at least tempt any Impartial Enquirer to suspect the probable truth and reasonableness of both their different accounts Those who would fetch their Obligation from Natural Light seem at last to resolve the Reason of their Assertion into the naked Testimonies and Opinions of some of the ancient Greeks who were willing enough to deduce the Authority of their Practice from so creditable a Fountain in favour of the Rites and Customs of their own Country they being almost the onely Symbols of Divine Worship among the Grecians And all the outward appearances of Religion among them consisting in the solemnities of their publick and private Sacrifices their Writers as all Learned Men are partial enough for the honour of their Native Soil thought themselves concern'd to perswade the World that their National Usages were tied upon Mankind upon the same natural Reason and with the same natural Necessity as Religion it self And therefore as they were wont to derive the Municipal Ceremonies of their own City from some Divine Institution for so Plato in his Timaeus pleads in the Person of an Orthodox Athenian that the particular Rites and Customs of Athens were first delivered by the Off-spring of the Gods and from them conveyed down to that present Age by an uninterrupted and unquestionable Tradition so for the same reason did they refer the more Catholick Customs of the whole Nation to the Obligations of Nature especially if confirmed by the concurrent suffrage of their Asiatick Neighbors for that to them was of the same import with the consent of Mankind Now some critical Men that rather read than use Authors if they hapned to meet with any passage in any of the Grecian Writers to this purpose because it served for an ostentation of their Reading they immediately subscribed to their Opinion out of respect to their bare Authority and if they could alledge an Assertion for it out of Strabo Plutarch and Aristotle whom it was once a brave thing to quote they passed it without any more ado for sufficient proof and demonstration though in matters of such remote Antiquity their naked testimonies unless they had withal given us some higher proofs and rational motives to engage our Assent are of little more validity than the Conjectures and Opinions of modern Writers And therefore when our Author alledges the School-Doctors for this Perswasion he falls as much short of its first Original as T.W. did when he quoted Peter Martyr for the Story of the Judges in Hell § 7. But now they on the other side who deduce the Religion of Sacrifices from divine Institution prove it thus Because that the Light of Nature 1. could not dictate that God would accept the destruction of other Creatures as the sign and token of mans Obedience nor 2. that the Bloud of Beasts should expiate the Sins of men or appease the Wrath of God for the Pardon and Remission of sin being matter of meer Grace and arbitrary Favour it must of necessity depend upon divine appointment to determine by what means we may procure it and upon what conditions he will grant it But the first of these Reasons proceeds upon a supposition that all outward significations of Religious Worship must needs be warranted either by the Law of Nature or some positive Law of God which being a direct contradiction to my Principle I shall desire to see it better proved before I shall be willing to yield it for a granted Truth Especially when in my conception of things the formal nature of divine Worship consists not so properly in Acts of Obedience as in Offices of Love and Gratitude The former indeed suppose an express and positive Institution and 't is their Conformity to the Command that gives them the formality of their goodness but I cannot understand why the latter may not be warrantable in themselves and acceptable to God without the express Authority of his own appointment provided they are sutable to the nature of the thing which they signifie and worthy of the Person to whom they are address'd And it cannot be supposed either from the Reason of the thing it self or the Nature of the divine Goodness that God should be offended with his Creatures for making him any decent Returns of the grateful Resentments of their minds for the Obligations of his infinite Love and Bounty And therefore 't is not necessary from the nature of Religious Worship it self that it should be demanded as matter of positive duty and obligation and if it be required for any other regard then have I gain'd a fresh advantage of my Adversary and it is incumbent upon him not only to produce a positive Command for the Institution of Eucharistical Sacrifices but an express Prohibition to the Patriarchs to perform divine Worship by any other outward expressions of honour than what God himself had particularly determined and appointed This perhaps our Author may out of the abundance of his Reading attempt to prove from the fond Traditions of the Jews and Easterlings by which he may prove all the Fables in the World but I am secure he shall never be able to discover the least shadow of an Argument in the sacred Records to countenance so vain a Fancy Nay so far is the Duty of Obedience from being the original Reason and taking in the adequate Notion of natural Religion that 't is only consequential upon and deducible from the Obligations of Gratitude For from hence result our Engagements of subjection to Gods will and submission to his Government And as from his Bounty and Goodness arises the Duty of Gratitude so from Gratitude follows the Necessity of Obedience chearful compliance with the Will of a Benefactor being one of its most eminent Instances and indispensable Duties As for the second Reason in behalf of this Opinion it proceeds upon no less mistake than the first for want of attending to the obvious difference between Eucharistical Oblations and Expiatory Sacrifices the latter whereof must indeed of necessity owe their Original to divine Institution because it was an Act of Gods free-goodness that he would accept the substitution of a Sacrifice in place of the Offender by way of Expiation for the Offence and therefore the use and nature of Expiatory Oblations having their absolute dependence on the voluntary acceptance of Gods it was necessary he should signifie this Result and Resolution of his good pleasure to mankind before they had any reasonable ground to suppose he would accept the substituted Expiation in lieu of the real Forfeiture Now as for this sort of Sacrifices I had already acknowledged and proved that they must depend upon divine Institution for all that Religion that resolves it self into the Will of God must suppose Revelation in that nothing else can discover its Obligation to mankind but as for all that flows from the Nature and the Attributes of God it requires no other discovery than the Light and
them to his Government and oblige them to their Duty i. e. If he will set them at perfect Liberty from all Subjection and absolve them from all Obligations to Allegiance they will promise to be his most Loyal Subjects For if you consider it you will find nothing in Humane Nature capable of the Obligation of Laws beside Conscience For Obligation is but a tie to Duty and all Duty is tied upon the Conscience i. e. the Mind of Man as 't is capable of Moral Actions or of being govern'd by the Rules of Good and Evil. Conscience then to omit the equally nice and useless Definitions of the Schools is nothing but the Soul or Mind of Man that undergoes various Denominations from its various Powers and Abilities as when it conceives of things 't is called Understanding when it discourses Reason when it determines Judgment when it chuses Will and when it reflects upon it self and its own actions Conscience Every Mans Mind is his Judgment his Reason his Will and his Conscience that are but several Names of the same Being according to its several Functions and Ways of Acting Now though Conscience in the Grammatical sense of the word may indifferently signifie all reflex Knowledge yet 't is by common use appropriated to the Mind as it is imployed about Good or Evil and capable of being guided and governed in reference to its Moral Actions I say of being guided and governed because though it is its own Judge yet it is not its own Rule but all the Laws whereby it is conducted are derived from other Principles First There are the natural Reasons and Proportions of Good and Evil that arise from the unalterable Respects and Relations of Things to Things in acting suitably to which consists the natural Morality of all prime and essential Goodness Thus from the relation between God and his Creatures springs the natural Duty of Divine Worship and Religion i. e. of making grateful Returns and Acknowledgments to Him for all the Communications of his Bounty and Goodness to us in which there is a natural Decency and Agreeableness that obliges every Rational Creature to its performance antecedently to all superinduced obligations of Laws It being therefore commanded because 't is good and not therefore good because 't is commanded And from the like Reasons and Correspondencies of Nature arise all the Duties in reference to our Neighbours and our Selves whereby we are to conduct all our moral Actions and are obliged to every thing that is either perfective of our own Natures or conducive to the Happiness of others Now these essential Reasons of Good and Evil are either the subject matter or the end of all Laws that are enacted only to prescribe and enforce either the practice of these natural Duties themselves or of something else subservient to them But as these are the only Rule of Laws so are Laws the only Rule of Conscience 't is not left at liberty to follow its own inclinations but 't is bound to guide it self and all its Actions by the Rules prescribed to it by its Superiours i. e. by Divine and Humane Laws Though indeed without these an upright Conscience left to it self would be an excellent Guide of all our Actions and if rightly observed and attended to sufficient to secure the Peace and Welfare of Mankind For an honest Mind that prudently and impartially attends to the natural Reasons of Good and Evil and endeavours to make them the Rules and Measures of its Actions can never fail of some competent Performance of its main Duties in all its Relations And if all Mens Consciences might have been trusted with their own Wisdom and Integrity all other Government would have been useless and superfluous in that every man would have govern'd himself by the Laws of essential Justice and Equity i. e. if all men might be supposed wise and good they would stand in need of no Governours but themselves and what they now do in Obedience to the Laws of the Common-wealth they would then do out of choice and in obedience to the Obligations of Conscience But because this supposition is become impossible and proved so by experience through the universal Depravation of humane Nature and because few Persons have either leisure or ability to search out the original Reasons of Good and Evil that are discoverable no other way then Mathematical Problems and Propositions are by serious and attentive meditation and laborious trains and deductions of Reason mankind are not left to the workings and discoveries of their own Minds for the Rule of their Actions But our whole Duty is digested to our hands in bodies and digests of Laws and nothing is required of us but what is prescribed by express and particular Constitutions And therefore men consider not what they would have in their general demands of Liberty and Exemption of Conscience because Conscience it self is an indefinite Principle and undetermined to Good or Evil and becomes so respectively according to its agreement or disagreement with its Rule If it act conformably to that its action is good if it do not its evil how bold and confident soever it may be in its Perswasions so that 't is no competent Justification of any action to plead that it agrees with the Perswasions of my Conscience unless I can first prove that the Perswasions of my Conscience agree with the Rules of my Duty and therefore Conscience alone is no sufficient warrant of its Lawfulness because a man may act according to his Conscience and yet do very ill by acting contrary to his Rule But Conscience when it is rightly instructed and well acquainted with the Rule of its Duty then 't is a true guide of mens Actions but this takes in all the Dictates of right reason as they lie couched under divine and humane Laws Both which in their several Proportions make up the adequate Rule of Conscience that without them signifies nothing else then an unaccountable will humour or inclination And therefore 't is ridiculous to oppose the Pretences of Conscience to the Prescriptions of Lawful Superiours unless by virtue of some express command of an higher and over-ruling Authority because 't is the Law it self that directs and warrants our Actions And therefore in any case to plead Restraints of Conscience without producing some particular Law is in effect to plead nothing at all or at best nothing but humour and peevishness for by what name soever men may call it 't is nothing else when it lies not under the direction of Law And therefore their claim of Liberty from the nature of Conscience which they lay down in all their Discourses as the Fundamental Principle and first Postulatum of this Controversie is too exorbitant for their purpose and abates the whole plea by the intolerable unreasonableness of the Pretence For they challenge this Prerogative upon this Account that 't is such a Judgment of a mans Actions as carries in it a relation to
have scared and discouraged all Readers from venturing upon its perusal For this man never stands guilty of single Errors every Period he dictates is pregnant with Absurdities He defiles every truth he handles and though it be not in his Power to make it false yet he will be sure to manage it in such an awkerd and uncouth way as shall make it appear absurd and ridiculous But I have studiously over-lookt his little Indecencies and have been careful not to nauseate the Reader with too tedious a Pursuit of his meer Impertinencies and though I have not altogether spared to expose the Triflingness of his Cavils yet I have not so severely tied my self to their Examination as not to take frequent Occasion to cast in some more useful Discourses then the matter of such starved Pretences would afford I understand by the Information of my Friends and Acquaintance that this Rejoinder was sooner expected but to spare excuses the plain and undisguised Truth is it is finisht excepting only some little disappointment of the Press as soon as it was design'd and design'd I think as soon as it was seasonable And methinks once a year supposing a man has leisure is often enough if People will be reasonable to find publick Talk but if be has not it is too often for one that is willing to enjoy the Innocent Comforts as well as to endure the Common Drudgeries of humane life However I am not able as my Adversary is to write Books at Idle Hours and Spare Minutes and though I were I have them not And had I as many Talents of Dispatch as he thinks himself Master of I should think it my wisdom if not my Duty that I may borrow a Phrase of J. O. to Napkin them for some Season For I have not observed any thing that has so much spoil'd and debauch't the Stile of our English Writers as this hasty and preposterous way of writing and had I not exceeded the number of my Pages and should I not involve some Authors that deserve as much Admiration for writing well on the sudden as most do Correction for writing ill I should be tempted to digress into Satyrical Remarks upon this Vanity because from that alone have issued those prodigious Swarms of dull Books of Fanatick and bombast Divinity Beside all which I might represent under what mighty disadvantages and distractions this discourse was written but that smells somewhat of my Adversaries bragging Humour and therefore I had rather confess the down-right Troth that though I believe I could have dispatched it somewhat sooner yet I was easily inclined to allow my self as large a Compass of time for its Publication as I thought I could reasonably Excuse partly because I was not much enamour'd either of the Glory or the Pleasure of my Undertaking and took all Occasions to truant from such an Irksom Task partly because I stand in no little awe of my Adversary for though I have given him Rebuke enough to satisfie any modest man yet one may as soon put a Statue of Brass out of Countenance as convince or silence People of some Complexions And some men have the Face to bragg and insult most where they are most foil'd and to erect their Trophies where their Misadventures are most Remarkable so that nothing more inclines me to suspect this mans Readiness to Reply then the notorious badness of his Cause and shamefulness of his Baffle But if he should be so ill-advised what will become of me for he is gifted with such a fluent Impertinency that nothing can ever stop the Career of his Pen but the want of Ink and Paper and Confidence in the World And I doubt not but he is able to pour forth more pages of empty words in six days than I can hope to compose of coherent Sense in so many weeks Beside that he has the Advantage both of practice and inclination wrangling is the humour and genius of the man and he has been all his days up to the Elbows in Controversial Adventures and as much Reluctancy as he counterfeits to this Heroick Trade it had beâ—n as easie to cure the Knight of the Mâ—ncha of his Errantry as 't is him of his scribling folly and he cannot encounter counter 〈◊〉 honest man upon the high way but his 〈…〉 transforms him into a 〈…〉 though for no other Reason than that he may have some shew of pretence to excuse or justifie the rudeness and incivility of his pragmatical Assaults and therefore seâ—ing he is so incurably quarrelsom no man can justly blame me if I am so very desirous to rid my hands of him But to conclude if this be the Penance I must undergo for the wantonness of my Pen to answer the impertinent and slender Exceptions of every peevish and disingenuous Caviller Reader I am reformed from my incontinency of scribling and do here heartily bid thee an eternal Farewell CHAP. I. The Contents AN Account of the Fanatique Stubbornness Spiritual Pride an Impregnable humour A description of its Nature and Properties 'T is the refuge of dull People No vice so incident to humane nature as Pride Nor any Pride as that of Religion Men discern not its most obvious symptoms in themselves and why 'T is the greatest hindrance of Reformation Till 't is mortified all reproofs do but exasperate mens Passions A Character of the Fanatique deportment towards all Adversaries Their first reply to all Books is to slander and revile their Authors A description of their way of breeding and propagating stories An account of the baseness of this humour 'T is the most spiteful sort of persecution The malignity of the fanatique Spirit It drives away all good humour and good manners A character of the Fanatique behaviour towards Clergy-men particularly of the Pride and Insolence of professing Gossips A difference made between modest Dissenters and pragmatical Zealots 'T is this proud and petulant humour that is the only Cause of all our Divisions and humility that must be the only Cure This would make them ashamed of their brawling and contentious Humour Their second Reply to all Books is to pervert and falsifie their meaning The horrid Rudeness and Disingenuity of their wilful falsifications A notorious instance of it from that advantage they have taken to abuse my discourse of Trade By which no Trade is endangered but that of Conventicles An account of the design of my discourse upon that subject It s true intent vindicated against the bold and shameless Cavils of our Author The factious Partiality of the N. C. in behalf of their own Writers Our Authors careless way of Writing At his very entrance he defeats the design of his whole performance He confesseth that all who plead for Liberty of Conscience dissemble The most effectual Argument in the world against Toleration is the fundamental Principle of the Non-Conformists How their Language alters when they speak out The mystery of the Independents being for Indulgence A further
account of our Authors rude and hasty way of scribling He every where leaves the main drift of my discourse to pursue occasional Remarks The impertinency and tediousness of his complaints against the tartness of my expressions Hypocrisie is to be treated more roughly then naked Vice The Non-Conformists have two Names for all things a black one for us and a white one for themselves They are not to be suffered to debauch Christianity with their own follys Their way of loading Adversaries with odious Consequences An instance of this in the writings of J. O. Our Authors shreds of Latin and superannuated Pedantry Another little stratagem he makes use of to abuse the Common People SIR § 1. WHat you foretold and I expected is come to pass our zealous Brethren are angry at me A sad disappointment this When 't is so obvious I design'd to court and flatter their Holiness But it seems 't is no less difficult to oblige than to convince them They are proof against soft and friendly Counsels as well as rough and impartial Satyrs They are like the great Fabricius neither to be caress't nor to be vanquish't Their Resolutions are invincible Nor force nor flattery can make impression upon such constant and unyielding Tempers They are all Anvil and Adamant Their minds are not so sheepish as to be wheedled or so fickle as to be argued out of their Eternal Principles Attempt fugitive and unsetled Spirits but their constancy is impregnable 'T is not an humane Enterprise to shake the Vigour of their minds Their hearts are of a true Roman Composition neither to be broke nor to be softned So stubborn a thing is holy Zeal when blended with spiritual Pride it quickly eats out all sense of common Modesty and Ingenuity it hardens every prejudice into flat presumption and steels the Understanding against all the force and power of Conviction so that you can neither soften it into any pliable temper by gentle Reproofs or hammer it to an ingenuous attention by hard Arguments 'T is shameless and impudent and can outface all the confidence of Truth and all the evidence of Demonstration It was this that sear'd the Consciences of the Scribes and Pharisees of old against the force of Miracles and the feats of Omnipotence and made their Errors incurable and their Reformation desperate they would rather choose to defie and blaspheme the most undeniable Effects of Almighty Power than be prevailed upon so much as to suspect their own Hypocrisie And this is the bloated Complexion of our Modern Pharisees they are puft up with windy conceits of their own dear Sanctity their fancies are enamour'd of themselves and ravisht with gay reflections upon their own beauty and bravery and Saintship and are satisfied with a fair opinion of their own way and Party and admire them as the most splendid and gorgeous sect of Professors and appropriate to them all the titles of a more choice and illustrious Godliness And whilst they stroak and applaud themselves as the peculiar darlings of Heaven and keep their habitation in the Clouds with what contempt do they look down upon the residue of Mankind and disdain all out of their own Herd as Carnal Gospellers and Formal Professors and if they will allow us the titles of Civil and Moral men they will not endure that any but themselves should pretend acquaintance with the great and spiritual Mysteries of the Gospel This affords them that pleasing satisfaction of sawcy and ill-natured Comparisons this raises them to some advantage and preheminence above their Betters every mean Fellow may be enabled through Mercy to fancy himself a better man than his Governors and a Begger that has Grace may think within that he ought to take the wall of a Gentleman that is unregenerate and how luscious is it to Clowns and rude Mechanicks to look upon their Superiours with pity and disdain For no passion is either so natural or so pleasing to Mankind as Pride and Self-conceitedness and every man would have something to swell himself up in his own Opinion and to enable him to scorn and trample upon his Neighbours And therefore those People that can never pretend to any other Abilities to â—eed this Humour can easily support it by Singularities and Affectations in Religion And he that neither is nor can be honourable nor beautiful nor witty nor learned can easily be Religious and when he pretends to be so with what Confidence may he despise all those other Accomplishments that he can never have With what a scornful state shall some supercilious Saints trample upon all the great and all the learned men in the World And with what Disdain shall they look down from aloft as they conceit like Lazarus from Abraham's Bosom upon these reprobate and unregenerate Wretches § 2. And now when haughty men are thus bravely perch't and plumed in their own Conceits is it think you an easie task to strip them of so fair a disguise and to take them down to the pitch of ordinary Mortals For suppose it your own case that you sate at ease in a fair Opinion of your own high Attainments in the ways of Godliness and had long lull'd your self up in a pleasant security of your special Interest in the love and favour of God would you take it well to be rudely awakened out of this transporting dream Would it much edifie with you to be roundly told that you befool your self How would you stomach a smart reproof How would it sting and inrage and grate upon your soul And with what Impatience would you swagger at the Man that should dare to impeach you of Hypocrisie You would infinitely disdain his Presumption and hardly ever after vouchsafe him good look or kind thought What greater displeasure can you possibly do a man then to rob him of his self-complacency Or what complacency so delightful as that which springs from spiritual Pride No sensual delight so charming as its gratifications 't is the strongest and the most impetuous appetite of humane nature so that to be defeated of such an infinite satisfaction is a disappointment neither to be pardoned nor to be endured And therefore wonder not to see some men so tender and impatient of Reproof because there is no reproach so upbraiding to Pride as Correction nor any Pride so incorrigible as that of Religion This Vice has been the bane and dishonour of all Institutions in the World and is the only essential Ingredient of the Hypocrisie of all Ages And the truth is if we consider how incident and delightful this vanity is to humane nature how difficult for a wise man to escape its smooth and pleasant temptations how secret and undiscernable its workings how incurious most men are of the inward thoughts of their minds and how unacquainted with the first springs and motives of their Actions If I say we consider all this 't is no wonder they should be so easily intoxicated with this sweet and luscious poison
the most clamorous of the Herd are not able to give the least tolerable Account of their Zeal and Displeasure but run away with any pitiful and unintelligible Pretences and resolve to make good the Cause at all adventure by heat and noise and passion How do they dread the Superstition of a Symbolical Ceremony though they as little understand the true signification of that word as they do the Orthodox Notion of a Procatarctick Cause And therefore 't is not this hard word that scares them from the Churches Communion but 't is their own conceited and pragmatical Humour that affects and triumphs in Contradiction They think it a gallant thing to make a Noise in the World and to correct the Wisdom and Discretion of Publick Authority and that is a fine thing indeed This extravagant Pride is strangely agreeable to the Original Itch and Vanity of Humane Nature and is more natural to Mankind then the Follies of Lust and Wantonness and there is no Inclination that is so difficult either to govern or to vanquish as this petulancy of spirit And men had need to be very watchful and very serious to get the mastery of so fierce and impetuous an Instinct And therefore if we consider how insensible the People are of the Enticements of this Spiritual Lewdness and how unconcern'd to resist the Importunity of its desires or to subdue the force and vigour of its Inclinations 't is no wonder if so vehement a Passion gain without their own express Allowance so entire and absolute a Power over all their Thoughts and Actions So easie you see it is for well-meaning Men to mistake Humour for Conscience though not out of deliberate Malice yet through Ignorance and Inadvertency And therefore think not Sir that 't is the scope of my Design to scoff at their Faults and upbraid their Follies 't is nothing but a Cordial Love to Vertue and Themselves that put me upon these free open and ingenuous Reprehensions For could we but affect the Minds of Men with a serious sense of their Spiritual Wickednesses and prevail with them to make use of all the ordinary methods of Reason and Christian Prudence for the Mortification of their Original Pride and Sullenness and could we but reduce them to the softness and gentleness of a Christian Temper how ashamed would they be of this brawling and contentious Humour And they would then scarce think it decent to be bold and malapert to their Superiours for any cause of Religion nor would they think it worth the while to sacrifice the indispensable Duties of the Gospel for every scruple and weak Proposition nor disturb the Publick Peace nor affront the Publick Laws for Impertinencies and trifling Opinions They would then live quietly in their own Families and Neighbourhoods and pursue the Interest and Employment of their Callings instead of carrying Tales and sowing Dissentions And the precious time they now wast in quarrelling for Opinions and in arguings and disputings for Trifles and impotent Fancies they would then improve in Offices of Love and Charity among their Neighbours in relieving the Necessitous in reconciling Differences in stifling Slanders and in clearing injured Reputations To conclude so far would Tenderness of Conscience be from pleading Scruple and Nicety in Opposition to the Commands of Publick Authority that it would not be more tender and curious of any Duty then Obedience and Humility The serious sense of its own Weakness its Reverence to the Persons and Authority of Superiours its love of Modesty Meekness Humility Peace and Ingenuity would easily prevail with it to offer up all its private Conceits and uncertain Opinions to so many Advantages of Peace and so many Vertues of Obedience § 10. II. They are not content to run down the Author with Lyes and Calumnies but to make sure work they will slander his Reasonings and raise false witness against his Arguments They will alter and pervert his smartest and most convictive Proofs till they have made them as weak and trifling as their own Pretences With whatsoever plainness and perspicuity he express his Thoughts 't is all one for that they are a People of an undaunted and shameless Brow they will look Truth and Reason out of Countenance they will insult over his Modesty will triumph in their own Insolence and silence all the Reason in the World with Affronts and rude Behaviour They are resolved to joyn Throats to Vote him down and if they do to what purpose is it to Complain or Remonstrate all he shall gain by it is to be laugh't at for the vanity of his Attempt They blush not to commit a publick Rape upon the Understandings of Mankind and will impose upon us with that boisterous Rudeness as if they conspired to force all the World out of their common senses No Author must challenge the liberty of being his own Interpreter the Power of Expounding Assertions is the Priviledge of the Subject and the Prerogative of the Multitude and if they please they can enforce any Writer to accept a sense that contradicts his words And if they do there is neither Remedy nor Appeal their Judgement is final and arbitrary and what they will have they will have No Caution is sufficient to prevent their Clamours their Leaders can easily descry a foul Design under the fairest Disguise and 't is but setting themselves to contrive some dull and malicious Mistakes and obtruding them upon their blind and sturdy Proselytes and then they are confident and impatient against his whole Discourse and the poor Man without any more ado is knockt down with grievous and dead-doing Objections If Mas Iohn do but whisper some ugly and ill-contrived suggestion away 't is carried with Clamour and Tragical Declamation the Noise propagates like Thunder and spreads like Lightning and the whole City is filled with Tumult and Uproar And now after all this 't is no less impossible to perswade them not to rail at my Book then it is to read it No! 't is prophane 't is stuft with wicked and ungodly Opinions it strikes at the whole Power of Godliness and the very Foundations of Religion and then let me affirm and deny say and prove what I can the People must and will persist in their Anger and their Clamour they will refuse to be satisfied affront their own Consciences and turn Recusants to their own Convictions onely that they may not want pretences and opportunities to rail at me Now what shall a Man do in this case You will say there is no Remedy but Patience that is the onely Antidote against the Venome of malicious Tongues and let your own Innocence be your Defence and Apology But alas this Morality is too high a Cordial for my present exigence my Spirits are not so fainting as to stand in need of Philosophy to relieve and support them I am too proud you know to be affected with all the assaults of Noise and Clamour nothing but Reason can ever move or
Consent of all Members of the Assembly For the peculiar end and usefulness of this part of Religion is no other than that Men should agree and join together in the Worship of God so that it is not so properly the Office of particular Persons as of the whole Communion and therefore ought so to be managed as to take in the joint Devotion of the whole Society And when it descends to the particular Regards of private Persons it is then no Office of publick Worship but private Prayer a Duty that is not proper for open Congregations but for Closets and private Retirements where if any Person have any blacker and more enormous Crimes in his Calendar he may be more particular in his Confessions without shame and scandal But it is an odd and preposterous course when Men associate themselves together to join in an Office of Devotion that they should divide into so many separate and distinct Parties or Congregations and every individual Member should pick and cull his share of the Duty and lie at catch for some particular passage to which he may be able to bob in his Amen But without this sleight they could never be able to keep up their affected Singularity of Pharisaick Length and Lowdness To conclude This is a New Light newly discovered by this Man of Revelations for I am confident it was never before heard of in the Christian World that when Men assemble together for the joint performance of Publick Worship every individual Person has his Oratory apart and joins not with the Community but casts in a distinct Symbol of his own in which the residue are not more concern'd then in the private Devotions of his own Closet However this faint Evasion were it to any purpose as I have shewn it is to none is a secret to the common People they are not wont to weigh and examine every Confession before they assent and seal to its Truth but swallow all that the Minister pours out with an implicite Confidence they will confess any thing that he puts into their Mouths and those that are serious and most in good earnest make the rufullest faces at the ugliest Crimes and groan most powerfully at the lowdest and most thwacking Confessions Now when the People are accustomed to such large and foul Catalogues of sin and when they hear such sad Stories from their own Mouths and when it is confessed in their Name that they have broken every Commandment of both Tables to which are reduced all the kinds and instances of Wickedness and when this vast heap of vile things is exaggerated with the heinousest and most emphatical circumstances of Baseness in brief when they are grown familiar with the Confessions of such lewd Offences as are not fit to be named any where but in an Indictment what will they more probably conclude with themselves but that 't is common for Gods People to fall into these foul Miscarriages and yet never fall from Grace Especially when these Confessions are generally clogged with some unlucky words that appropriate their guilt to the best and most holy Professors and when it is the most vulgar Scheme of their Eloquence to enhanse the heinousness of the Offences in that they were committed in the days of Regeneracy and Profession And if the Lives of the Regenerate be stained with so many faults and such foul blemishes what is the Conclusion but that the difference is not so wide between them and the wicked as is imagined Alas the righteousness of the holiest Men is as filthy rags 't is not for the Sons of Adam to think of performing a good Action and we deserve Eternal Wrath for the most Vertuous Work we were ever guilty of attempting What is Man that he should be clean or he that is born of a Woman that he should be righteous And now what remarkable difference remains there between the Infirmities of the Children of God and the Impieties of the Wicked and Unregenerate when it is the unavoidable fate of Humane Nature to be enslaved to a necessity as well as to a body of Sin and after we are brought into a state of Grace there remains a Law in our Members rebelling against the Law of our Minds bringing us into captivity to the Law of Sin so that even the Children of God are Slaves to their Lusts and Passions and by reason of the invincible power of indwelling Sin are as vehemently inclined and as frequently betrayed into actual and outward Transgressions as lewd and graceless Persons onely with this difference that they enter upon the commission of their Sins with more regret and reluctancy in that they do what they would not i. e. they act more boisterously against the Light of Reason and do greater violence to the Convictions of their own Conscience And now upon this Principle what plausible reason and title have Men to pretend to Grace and Saintship though they sin habitually frequently and easily upon every opportunity and every temptation 'T is but crying out against the weakness of Nature the body of Death and the invincibleness of indwelling Sin and to be sensible of that is the Character of Saints and true Believers CHAP. III. The Contents VArious Instances of our Authors pitiful and disingenuous way of Cavilling His Arts of darkning and perplexing the plain design of my Discourse in sundry notorious particulars A brief and plain Account of the Parts Coherence and Design of the former Treatise to prevent all future Mistakes and Pervertings My state of the Controversie provides against the Inconveniences of both Extreams an unlimited Power on one hand and an unbounded Licence on the other The bounds it sets to the Power of the Civil Magistrate are easie to be observed and unnecessary to be transgrest viz. That Governours take care not to impose things apparently evil and that Subjects be not allowed to plead Conscience for disobedience in any other case The Duty of Obedience surmounts the Obligation of Doubts and Scruples and in doubtful cases obliges to Action 'T is impossible to prevent all manner of Inconveniences that may follow upon any Hypothesis of Government My middle way lyable to the fewest and therefore most eligible The bare pretence of a tender Conscience against the Commands of Authority is an impregnable Principle of Sedition A cluster of our Author 's shameless Falsifications His forgery of my ascribing to the Civil Magistrate an universal and immediate Power over Conscience His impudent shuffling in applying what was affirm'd of a doubtful Conscience in particular to Conscience in general Another instance of this in applying what was affirm'd of the Rituals and External Circumstances of Worship to the Principles of Faith and Fundamentals of Religion His change of the state of the Question viz. Not whether Magistrates have any Power over Conscience but whether I have asserted it to be absolute and immediate Some short Glances upon some lesser Impertinencies § 1. HEre his first Attempt is to
eagerness will the Capricious People flow into Cabals of Zeal and Musters of Reformation What Maxime in Policy is so fully ratified by the Histories of all Nations as that there is nothing equally dangerous to the Publick Tranquillity with the Zeal of the Multitude and 't is not easie to determine whether Mankind have smarted more deeply by the Ambition of Tyrants or the Impostures of Religion However 't is sufficiently verified by the experience of Ages that there is not any Passion so incident to Humane Nature as Popular Zeal nor any Madness so ungovernable as that of Religion and therefore what can more become or import the Wisdom of Governours than to keep a watchful eye upon all its designs and pretences But these things I have already represented in smarter and more elaborate Periods and therefore I will forbear to abate their evidence by these crude and hasty Suggestions But onely supposing it is not impossible what our Author has not gain-said nor indeed can without out-facing the experience of Mankind but that the Factions and Hypocrisies of Religion may create Publick Disturbances the deduction is easie and natural that to grant it a total exemption from the Soveraign Authority is at all times to expose the Commonwealth to great Disorders and oftentimes to unavoidable Dissolution And therefore seeing an unbounded Licence on one hand and an unlimited Power on the other are so pregnant with Mischiefs and intolerable Inconveniences the onely proper Determination that this Enquiry is capable of is to assign the just extent of a limited Jurisdiction and to state as distinctly as the Nature of the thing debated will admit how far in what cases and over what matters it may be safely exercised and within what Limits it ought to be restrained and he that prescribes the most useful and practicable Measures makes the fairest Essay at the Decision and Atonement of this Controversie This was the Attempt whatever was the Success of my Discourse and to say nothing of some more particular Rules and Directions the two great Lines wherein I have enclosed all matters of Humane Laws are of such a wide and comprehensive extent that in the midst of all the variety and intricacy of Humane Affairs 't is both easie to discern their lawful Bounds and unnecessary to transgress them For 1. let Authority beware of imposing things certainly and apparently evil and then there is no danger of their doing any violence to the Consciences of peaceable and sober Men or of their suffering any disturbance from them For the proper Office of Humane Power is to consult the Peace and Interest of Humane Society and the only immediate use of Publick Laws is to secure and provide for the Publick Good 'T is no part of their Concernment to institute Rules of Moral Good and Evil that is the Care and the Prerogative of a Superiour Lawgiver and therefore provided they do not cross with the express Declaration of his indispensable Will and Pleasure all other matters fall within the Verge of their Legislative Power For as nothing that carries with it an antecedent Irregularity can ever be supposed either necessary or advantageous to the Publick Good and therefore may without any danger of impairing the strength of its Power be lopt off from the Rights of Soveraign Jurisdiction so also many things left altogether indifferent and uncommanded by the Law of God may in all the various postures and turns and circumstances of Humane Affairs prove sometimes beneficial and sometimes pernicious to the Commonwealth and therefore the Supreme Magistrate being appointed the Supreme Judge of the Publick Good there is no remedy but they must fall under the Guidance of his Laws and Conduct of his Government Now 't is very easie for Christian Princes to move within so fair a compass and if any go beyond it as it is not for their Advantage so it is not of our Concernment For that Man must talk after a wild rate that should pretend to discover an evident Opposition in any of the Laws of our Kingdom to the plain and indispensable Duties of the Gospel or if they will be so precipitate as to pretend this we are very well content to devolve the issue of the Controversie upon that Undertaking and then are they brought under an engagement to prove a certain and undeniable repugnancy between the Laws of our Church and the Laws of God and to suspend their disobedience to them till they can warrant its necessity by some plain and express Text of Scripture And if they will but persevere in Conformity till they are indeed able thoroughly and satisfactorily to convince themselves of its evident unlawfulness that would for ever prevent all thoughts and attempts of Separation And this crosses me over to the opposite Bound of this Enquiry from the Power of the Magistrate to the Duty of the Subject Viz. That they would not scruple or deny Obedience to the Commands of lawful Superiours till they are sincerely not in pretence onely convinced of the certain and apparent unlawfulness of the Command § 6. And if we stop not the Subjects Liberty to remonstrate to the Commands of Authority at this Principle we shall be for ever at an utter loss to set any certain Bounds to the just and allowable Pretensions of Conscience For if they will not consent to have their Pleas of Exemption confined within the certain and evident Measures of Good and Evil but desire to be excused as to all other Pretexts and Perswasions of Conscience howsoever doubtful and uncertain then must every Conceit that may either be mistaken or pretended for a Conviction of Conscience be permitted to over-rule all the Power and baffle all the Wisdom of Government For be it never so wild or so extravagant if they are strongly or seriously possest with the Phantasm that and onely that shall ever exercise any Authority over their Thoughts and Actions and if Magistrates shall in any case think good to curb its heats and exorbitances they offer violence to the sacred and indispensable Obligations of Conscience and this unavoidably exposes the Peace of Kingdoms to all the Follies of Zeal and Impostures of Enthusiasm and prostitutes the Power of Princes to the stubbornness and insolence of Popular Folly Every one that is timorous or melancholy that has an indisposed Body or a troubled Mind that wants Sleep or wants Company that has an hard Spleen or a soft Head that has a strong Fancy or a weak Judgment a bold Ignorance or a conceited Knowledge an impertinent Opinion or a restless Humour a Whimsie in the Crown or a Vapour in the Hypocondria may upon that account exempt himself from all the Authority of the Laws and all the Obligations of Obedience For you know what a vulgar Phaenomenon it is for these and the like effects of folly and weakness to abuse the Consciences of well-meaning Men into Scruple and Irresolution and therefore if every Man that has or what is
positive Precepts because they are in themselves so essentially serviceable to the design of our Creation And therefore our Saviour came not into the world to give any new Precepts of moral goodness but only to retrive the old Rules of Nature from the evil Customs of the World and to reinforce their Obligation by endearing our duty with better Promises and urging our Obedience upon severer Penalties And as the Gospel is nothing but a Restitution of the Religion of Nature so are all its positive Commands and instituted duties either mediately or immediately subservient to that end Thus the Sacraments though they are matters of pure Institution yet are they of a subordinate Usefulness and design'd only for the greater advantage and Improvement of moral Righteousness For as the Gospel is the Restitution of the Law of Nature so are these outward Rites and Solemnities a great security of the Gospel they are solemn engagements and stipulations of obedience to all its Commands and are appointed to express and signifie our grateful sense of Gods goodness in the Redemption of the World and our serious Resolutions of performing the Conditions of this new Contract and Entercourse with mankind So that though they are duties of a prime importance in the Christian Religion 't is not because they are in themselves matters of any Essential Goodness but because of that peculiar Relation they have to the very being and the whole design of its Institution Forasmuch as he that establish'd this Covenant requires of all that are willing to own and submit to its Conditions to profess and avow their Assent to it by these Rites and Instruments of stipulation so that to refuse their Use is interpreted the same thing as to reject the whole Religion But if the entire Usefulness of these and any other instituted Mysteries consists in their great subserviency to the designs of the Gospel and if the great design of the Gospel consists in the Restitution of the Law of Nature and the advancement of all kinds of Moral Goodness then does it naturally resolve it self into that short Analysis I have given of Religion and whether we suppose the Apostasie of Mankind or suppose it not every thing that appertains to it will in the last issue of things prove either a part or an instrument of Moral Vertue § 3. But we must proceed to particulars In the first place Gratitude is a very imperfect description of Natural Religion for says he it has respect onely to Gods Benefits and not to his Nature and therefore omits all those Duties that are eternally necessary upon the Consideration of himself such as fear love trust affiance Perhaps this word may not in its rigorous acceptation express all the distinct parts and duties of Religion yet the Definition that I immediately subjoin'd to explain its meaning might abundantly have prevented this Cavil were not our Author resolved to draw his saw upon words viz. A thankful and humble temper of Mind arising from a sense of Gods Greatness in himself and his Goodness to us And the truth is I know not any one Term that so fully expresses that Duty and Homage we owe to God as this of Gratitude For by what other Name soever we may call it this will be its main and most Fundamental Ingredient and therefore 't is more pertinent to describe its Nature by that than by any other Property that is more remote and less material Because the Divine Bounty is the first Reason of our Obligation to Divine Worship in that natural Justice obliges every Man to a grateful and ingenuous sense of Favours and Benefits and therefore God being the sole Author of our Beings and our Happiness that ought without any farther regard to affect our Minds with worthy resentments of his love and kindness and this is all that which is properly exprest by the word Piety which in its genuine acceptation denotes a grateful and observant temper and behaviour towards Benefactors and for that cause it was made use of as the most proper Expression of that Duty that is owing from Children to Parents but because God by reason of the eminency of his Bounty more peculiarly deserves our Respect and Observation 't is in a more signal and remarkable sense appropriated to him so that Gratitude is the first property and radical Ingredient of Religion and all its other Acts and Offices are but secondary and consequential and that Veneration we give the Divine Majesty for the excellency of his Nature and Attributes follows that Gratitude we owe him for the Communication of his Bounty and Goodness 'T is this that brings us to a knowledge of all his other Endowments 't is this that endears his Nature to us and from this result all those Duties we owe him upon the account of his own Perfections and by that experience we have of his Bounty and by that knowledge we have of his other Attributes into which we are led by this experience come we to be obliged to trust and affiance in him so that Gratitude expresly implies all the Acts and Offices of Religion and though it chiefly denotes its prime and most essential Duty yet in that it fully expresses the Reason and Original Obligation of all other parts of Religious Worship But in the next place he reckons up Repentance Conversion Conviction of Sin Humiliation Godly Sorrow as deficient Graces in my Scheme and Duties peculiar to the Gospel Though as for Repentance what is it but an exchange of vicious customs of Life for an habitual course of Vertue I will allow it to be a new species of Duty in the Christian Religion when he can inform me what Men repent of beside their Vices and what they reform in their Repentance beside their Moral Iniquities it has neither end nor object but Moral Vertue and is onely another word peculiarly appropriated to signifie its first beginnings And as for Conversion the next deficient 't is co-incident with Repentance and he will find it no less difficult to discover any difference between them than between Grace and Vertue And as for the other remaining Graces of the Gospel Conviction Humiliation Godly Sorrow and he might as well have added Compunction Self-abhorrency Self-despair and threescore words more that are frequent in their mouths they are all but different Expressions of the same thing and are either parts or concomitant Circumstances of Repentance After so crude and careless a rate does this Man of Words pour forth his talk In the next rank comes in Self-denial a Readiness to bear the Cross and Mortification as new Laws of Religion But as for Self-denial 't is nothing else than to restrain our appetites within the limits of Nature and to sacrifice our brutish Pleasures to the interests of Vertue As for a Readiness to bear the Cross 't is nothing but a constant and generous Loyalty to the Doctrine of the Gospel and a Resolution to suffer any thing
branch of Godliness and Duty of Religion signifies as much as all the rest that is nothing at all As for Spiritual Evangelical Obedience 't is but a canting Phrase if by it he intend any thing more than a sincere and habitual Conformity to the Moral Precepts of the Gospel Moral Obedience to the Gospel and Spiritual Evangelical Obedience are but coincident Expressions of the same thing And lastly as for the Tenour of the Covenant as they are wont to discourse of it it requires nothing but a bold Confidence setting up with Gods irrespective Decrees and trading in his absolute Promises For I. O. as well as W. B. informs us That the Promises comprehensive of the Covenant of Grace are absolute which as to all those that belong to that Covenant do hold out thus much of the Mind of God that they shall be certainly accomplished in and towards them all But who are they that belong to this Covenant He answers Every poor Soul that will venture to trust it self on these absosolute Promises Faith in the Promises and the Accomplishment of the Promises are inseparable He that believeth shall enjoy and this wholly shuts up the Spirit from any occasion of staggering O ye of little Faith wherefore do ye doubt Ah! lest our share be not in this Promise Poor Creatures there is but one way of keeping you off from it i. e. disputing it in your selves by unbelief So that the onely Condition he requires to vest Men in a right to these absolute Promises is nothing but meer Confidence Though there cannot be more horrid Non-sense in the World than that Faith or Boldness should be required as the Condition of absolute Promises yet it were as well if they were altogether absolute as demand no better Qualification for their accomplishment than a Bold Face And suitable to this it follows some Pages after that there neither is nor can be any other Ground or Reason of Doubtings but Unbelief It is not the greatness of Sin nor continuance in Sin nor backsliding into Sin that is the true cause of thy staggering whatever thou pretendest but solely from thy Vnbelief So that though a Man persevere in an habitual course of the greatest Wickednesses yet for all that he has an undeniable claim to all the Promises of the Gospel if he will at all-adventure resolve to be stomachful in his Conceit that they were particularly made and designed to himself Now if this be one as 't is the choicest one of the Mysteries of their New Godliness I leave it to you to judge whether it be possible to invent any Doctrine more apparently destructive of an Holy Life or repugnant to the Tenour of the New Covenant which is plainly nor more nor less than Gods Stipulation of Eternal Life upon no other Condition than of an habitual and uniform Obedience to the Gospel So that all these Spiritual Graces resolving themselves so easily either into Duties or Helps or Hindrances of Morality he has given us an abundant proof of their canting and imaginary Godliness when he produces these Instances as things of a more precious and spiritual Nature than Moral Vertues and yet unless they signifie them they signifie nothing § 6. But this is not all the main ground of my Charge against them for making an inconsistency between Grace and Vertue is That they make Moral Goodness the greatest Let to Conversion insomuch that in their Case-Divinity the Conversion of a morally Righteous Man is judged more hopeless than that of the vilest and most notorious Sinners Than which our Author affirms there is nothing more openly taught in the Gospel Than which I affirm there is no Blasphemy more grosly false and wicked For what viler and more dishonourable Representation can Men make of the Doctrine of the Gospel than to make Vertue the greatest Prejudice to its Entertainment Is that Institution worthy the Divine Contrivance that is more befriended by Debauchery and Prophaneness than by sincere Obedience to the best and most essential Laws of Goodness Nothing can be more suitable to the Design and the Doctrine of the Gospel than the practice of Moral Vertues and is it not strange that it should be destructive of its own Ends and purposes and that Men should indispose themselves for the Discipline of Christianity by being adorn'd with its best and choicest Qualifications We never read of any Man that was hindred from embracing the Christian Faith by any of his Good Qualities Cornelius's Integrity in fearing God and working Righteousness was the onely thing that prepared and disposed him to Conversion and the young Gentleman in the Gospel wanted but one Moral Vertue to make him an entire Christian he was upon the Borders of the Kingdom of Heaven one step more would have placed him in it The onely thing that kept him out was Covetousness which though it may in some persons escape for an Infirmity was never yet rank't in the Catalogue of Moral Vertues The usefulness the purity the excellency of the Doctrine of the Gospel cannot but endear it to a Mind that is inclined to Goodness and to a Vertuous Soul the Beauty and Perfection of its Laws is its strongest and most effectual Obligation It was this that ravish't some of the first Fathers out of their state of Heathenism into the Bosom of the Church their Minds were prepared to embrace true Goodness by the study of Wisdom and Philosophy they were onely at a loss where to find it and therefore when they met with such a Divine Religion and that establish't upon such firm and undeniable Principles 't is scarce to be conceived with what transports of Joy and Zeal they run into its Profession In brief the Gospel is all that tends to the Glory of God to the Perfection of Humane Nature to the Relief of my Neighbor and to the Security and Happiness of Societies and all this it enforces under the severest Penalties and endears by the noblest Promises And now let any Man tell me which way 't is possible for Vertue to tempt aside from such an admirable and Godlike Institution How says our Author were not the Pharisees a People morally righteous and yet were they not at a farther distance from the Kingdom of God than Publicans and Harlots the vilest and most notorious Sinners because they trusted in their own Righteousness Yes yes they were right-worthy Moral Men bright and shining Examples of the great Vertues of Pride Peevishness Malice Revenge Injustice Covetousness Rapine Cruelty and Unmercifulness These were the Graces and the Ornaments of those precious and holy ones Go thy way for a woful Guesser no Man living beside thy self could ever have had the ill fortune to pitch upon the Scribes and Pharisees for Moral Philosophers And Sir were any of them now alive they would tell him to his teeth they are no more Moralists than himself Their Parts and Vertues lay another way They were a fasting and
Civil Power as far as they concern the ends and interests of Publick Tranquillity though how far that may reach as it was here asserted so it was in the following Chapters more largely proved and stated However 't is apparent from the manifest scope and the last issue of my whole Discourse that I stand not obliged to ascribe any more absolute Power to the Civil Magistrate than what is necessary to warrant that Authority they exercise in prescribing those Rites and Ceremonies of Worship that are injoin'd and practised in the Church of England that is all I contend for at present and will as for what concerns this Dispute be content to lop off any other Branches of their Jurisdiction that relate not to this Enquiry And if this cannot be justified unless it be granted that the Commands of Soveraign Power must always over-rule all Obligations of Conscience then I confess I must submit to this disadvantage that this Man would impose upon me but if it can 't is no part either of my Duty or my Interest to assert any thing that is neither true in it self or pertinent to my purpose But whether it can or cannot I have already sufficiently accounted for both in that Treatise and in this Rejoinder For what our Author would here charge upon me as my Duty is no more than what he has heretofore charged upon me as my Doctrine viz. That the Magistrate has Power to bind the Consciences of his Subjects to observe what is by him appointed to be professed and observed in Religion and nothing else are they to observe making it their Duty in Conscience so to do and the highest crime or sin to do any thing to the contrary and whatever the precise truth in these matters be or whatever be the apprehensions of their own Consciences concerning them The falshood of which horrid Calumny I have there baffled with so much evidence and reproved with so much severity that after that it were an affront to the Readers Understanding to warn him against every Repetition of so foul and groundless a slander though it is the Burthen of every Page § 2. In the next Paragraph I proceeded to account for the nature and extent of Christian Liberty where I both founded our Right to it upon this natural and inward Freedom of our Minds and also proved it to be sometimes coincident with it But says our Nicodemus for he is very thick of Understanding when he pleases How can these things be When Christian Liberty as I have stated it is a priviledge whereas Liberty of Conscience is common unto all Mankind This Liberty is necessary unto Humane Nature and cannot be divested of it and so it is not a priviledge that includes a specialty in it To this I answer That Natural Liberty is a freedom of the Mind and Judgment from all Humane Laws in general and Christian Liberty is the same freedom from the Mosaick Law in particular which because it was bound upon the Jews by virtue of a Divine Authority it was a restraint not onely upon their Practices but upon their Minds and Consciences and prescribed to their inward Thoughts and Opinions as well as their outward Actions they had no Liberty to judge of their Goodness but were bound to submit their Understandings to the Wisdom of God And this is the main difference between the Obligation of Divine and Humane Laws that these reach onely to our Wills and those affect our Judgments and determine our Apprehensions to whatsoever they command our Obedience and we are bound to acquiesce in the Counsels of God though we understand not their Reasons and therefore whatever Law comes with the impress of Divine Authority it bears down all before it and supersedes all the weak Disputes and Reasonings of our little Understandings and as long as we are assured it proceeds from God that alone without any farther enquiry gives our Minds infinite satisfaction of its Wisdom and Goodness So that during the whole Period of the Mosaick Institution all freedom of Judgment in reference to the particular Commands of his Law was retrenched by the Authority of God but when their Obligation was repeal'd and the impress of his Authority was taken off then did the things themselves return of their own accord to the indifferency of their own Natures and so were restored to the Judgment of the Minds of Men and therefore though Christian Liberty be a Priviledge with a specialty yet 't is a Branch of that Liberty that is natural to Mankind in that 't is nothing but a Restauration of the Mind of Man from the restraints of the Law of Moses to its native freedom which though it cannot be devested by any Humane Power yet it may then was and always is abridged by Divine Commands in that they pass an equal Obligation upon the Judgments and the Practices of Men upon which account alone all matters of the Law of God are absolutely exempt both from our Natural and our Christian Liberty but when he is pleased to reverse his own Obligation and to leave things to their Original indifferency that is a restitution to our natural Liberty and that is our Christian Liberty But for a more full and exact Account of the nature and true signification of this Pretence 't is necessary to examine how 't is stated in the Word of God and as it is there discoursed of it is certain it relates meerly to those Priviledges that are granted or restored to the minds of men by the Repeal and Abrogation of the Law of Moses The whole Case whereof is plainly this This Law was establish'd in the Jewish Common-wealth by Divine Authority and was the only Covenant and Revelation of God to mankind that was at first consign'd with mighty Miracles and ratified to after-Ages with their great Sacrament of Circumcision upon which Accounts the Jews concluded it to be of an Eternal and Immutable Obligation But God sends his Son into the World to take down this whole frame and fabrick of the Mosaick Religion and in its stead to set up a better and more manly Institution of things to repeal the Laws and Obligations of the old Covenant and to govern his Church by new measures of Duty and new Conditions of Obedience And this is properly the Priviledge of Christian Liberty and it comprehends all the peculiar Advantages and Exemptions granted to mankind by vertue of the Christian Institution It is a deliverance from the Dominion of Sin from the Curse of the Law from the severity of a Covenant of Works and from the Yoke of Ceremonial observances These are the matters of our Christian Liberty and those Doctrines that tend to bring us under any of these old Fetters and hard services are attempts of Jewish Bondage And this was the plain state of the Question in the Apostolical Age and the whole dispute of Christian Liberty was only a Controversie between the Jews and the Christians concerning
no other determination than the choice of natural Reason So that though it be necessary to Instituted Worship that it should be appointed yet 't is not necessary to divine Worship that it should be instituted And now though Attendance to this Distinction would have avoided all Ambiguity and Confusion in this Enquiry yet our Author stifly over-looks it and solemnly confutes my Assertion concerning Eucharistical Offerings by Instances of Expiatory Sacrifices which I had before proved to his hand must rely upon positive appointment from their peculiar Use and Nature and not because this was necessary to the Being and Design of Religion it self But if we will confine our Talk to the subject matter of my Assertion viz. Eucharistical Oblations or any other outward significations of the natural Worship of God in the first Ages of the World I before affirmed and do still maintain that they who say they were enjoyn'd and warranted by divine Command take the Liberty of saying any thing without proof or evidence § 8. But if they are Arbitrary Inventions of men our Author desires to have a Rational Account of their Catholicism in the World and one Instance more of any thing not natural or divine that ever prevail'd to such an absolute universal acceptance amongst mankind As for the latter part of his demand I think festival solemnities may challenge as great Antiquity and Universality as Sacrifices There being no Nation in the World that ever was known to be altogether destitute of set and publick Festivals in honour of their Gods and as I before observed the Anniversary Sacrifices of their First-fruits was the most ancient and most universal solemnity of Worship in the World And some learned men conjecture with as much Probability as the nature of the thing will bear that such were the Sacrifices of Cain and Abel and that from the Propriety of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the end of days which say they implies some set and solemn season of the year and there is no Idiom more frequent in the holy Scriptures than to express set and anniversary seasons by Days To omit innumerable other Texts 1 Sam. 2.9 The Yearly Sacrifice is called Sacrificium Dierum so that the End of Days implies the Revolution of the Year when Abel offer'd the First-born of his Flocks and Cain the First-fruits of his Fields But however this may be 't is attested by all the best Records of ancient Times that Harvest Sacrifices and Festivals of First-fruits were the most Ancient most Catholick and perhaps only Publick Solemnities of Religion And yet it will be as impossible to discover any Obligation from Nature or any Warranty from divine Institution for their Practice as for the Original of Idolatry which yet had universally prevail'd over the Religion of mankind and for ought I know might have done so still had not divine Providence been pleased to disabuse the wretched World by so many Revelations and miraculous discoveries of himself so that it is possible some things may acquire to themselves a Catholick Credit and Reputation that never had it bestowed upon them by God or by Nature especially if they chance to have any near Relation or Connexion with universal and unabolishable Truths But seeing our Author desires a particular account of the Catholicism of Sacrifices thus it hapned The first Ages of Mankind having a full and certain knowledge of the Being of God and a strong sense of the necessity of his Worship in that they had the same assurance then of the first cause of their Beings as we have now of our Fore-fathers and Progenitors From hence they became obliged from the instinct of Nature and the dictates of Right Reason to acknowledge and celebrate their Creators Bounty and to return some Expressions of Gratitude to him for his Favours and Benefits Divine Worship then being so clear a dictate of Humane Nature it was but agreeable to the Reason of Mankind to express their sense of this Duty by outward Rites and Significations Now what Symbol could be more natural and obvious to the Minds of Men whereby to signifie their homage and thankfulness to the Author of all their Happiness than by presenting him with some of the choicest Portions of his own Gifts for they had nothing else to present in acknowledgment of that Bounty and Providence that had bestowed them And this was so far from arguing any pregnancy of Invention that to have missed it would in my conceit have been flat stupidity For though all sensible signs derive their significancy from positive Institution yet the ground and reason of their Institution is usually unless they are inept and irregular some natural suitableness they have in them to denote the thing signified Now I will challenge our Authors wit to pitch upon any thing in Nature that could be so easie and proper to express by way of outward action their thankfulness to God as these Eucharistical Oblations so easie a thing is it to fetch their beginning from Humane Agreement without recourse to the Authority of Nature or Divine Prescription The Religion of Sacrifices then being the most conspicuous Symbol and Signification of the Worship of God among the first Fathers of Mankind it descended to their Posterity together with their natural sense of Religion of which these were the onely visible signs and indications and therefore without them it could have had no outward and sensible appearance in the World because these were its onely practical way of conveyance and by continuing to observe the Rites and Customs of their Ancestors they kept up their dictates of Religion And thus the Idea of God and the use of Sacrifices were propagated together into all Societies of Mankind by their observance of the Customs and Traditions of their Progenitors Now so easie and unforced is the probability of this account of their Catholicism though they owe their original purely to the Choice and Institution of men that as long as their Off-spring kept up any belief of the Notion of a Deity or any Reverence for the wisdom of their Fore-fathers it was morally impossible in the ordinary course of humane Affairs the Tradition of Sacrifices should ever be lost in the World And this may suffice to shew how it came to pass that they found such a Catholick entertainment in all Societies of Mankind and it was all one as to that whether they had their first beginning from humane invention or divine Institution for when once they had acquired the Esteem and Reverence of Religion Use and Custom would ever after keep up their Practice and Reputation in the World So that though it was impossible they should ever obtain such an universal use and credit by their own strength and upon their own account yet when they had once obtain'd such an inseparable Connexion with mens natural indelible sense of Religion it was then as impossible without such an extraordinary change of things as was brought
for coming so near home and loves to keep aloof off from present Transactions A Man may talk confident Conjectures of things that hapned so many thousand years ago and tell fine Stories of Men that begot Sons and Daughters before the Flood But 't is dangerous to talk of the History and Constitution of Affairs in the present World a Man may possibly contradict known and undeniable experience and every Novice that is never so little acquainted with the present state of Forreign Churches will be able to check and shame our confidence And there are two unhappy Books of Mr. Durel that plainly demonstrate that we are a new Race of Men in the World that are not yet sufficiently polish't and civilized for Humane Society and such as whilst we continue fond of our wild and barbarous Principles must be banish't all establish't Churches and Commonwealths in Europe § 10. In the close of this Chapter I gave an account of the nature and use of significant Ceremonies that are the same thing with external Worship under a different Name outward Worship consisting in nothing else but signifying our inward thoughts and sentiments of Religion either by Words or Actions where I shewed that it might be indifferently exprest and performed by either and that Gestures of Reverence were of the same use in the Worship of God as solemn Praises and Acknowledgements and that to bow the Body at the mentioning the Name of Jesus was the same kind of honour to his Person as to celebrate his Name with Hymns and Thanksgivings and therefore that the Magistrates Prerogative of instituting significant Ceremonies amounted to nothing more than a Power of defining the import of words and by consequence that 't is no other Usurpation upon his Subjects Consciences than if he should take upon him to refine their Language and determine the proper signification of all Phrases imployed in Divine Worship as well as in Trades Arts and Sciences and therefore I could not but profess my admiration at the prodigious confidence and impertinence of those Men that could raise such hideous Noises and Out-cries against the Laws of a setled Church and State upon such slender grounds and pretences But here our Author quickly requites me with a counter-wonder That I cannot express my dissent from others in controverted Points of the meanest and lowest concernment but with crying out Prodigies Clamours Impertinencies and the like Expressions of astonishment in my self and contempt of others I might reserve some of these great words for more important occasions And the truth is these are not any matters of the greatest importance and were our Dispute meerly concern'd in their Speculation I could discourse as coolly and carelesly about them as about a Mechanical Hypothesis or a Metaphysical Notion and should not be more eagerly concern'd to resolve the truth of the Question than I am to determine the Principle of Individuation But when the establish't Government of a Nation shall be subverted by such nice and new-invented Subtilties when never any Church in the World was more rudely treated by her own Children than the Church of England by the Puritan Schismaticks when Men shall cry out Antichrist Popery and Superstition and all for the Idolatry of a significant Ceremony and when this clamorous Exception is so vain so groundless and impertinent is it not infinitely prodigious to see Men so confident and troublesom upon such slight and vanishing appearances What scurrilous Language do they continually pour forth against the Church of England What ignominious Titles do they fasten upon her Friends and Followers And with what disdain and insolence do they spit at her way of Worship and Devotion Into what woful and endless Schisms do they drive their Proselytes from her Communion What Disturbances do they create in the State and what Ruptures in the Church And how do they imbroil and discompose the peaceable setlement of a flourishing Kingdom and all this meerly out of hatred to the Popery and Paganism of a Symbolical Rite For ever since the Scepter of Jesus Christ as they stiled their Presbyterial Consistory has been wrested from them by force of Argument and ever since the divine Right of the holy Discipline has been so shamefully exploded and that time and experience have put a baffle upon the confidence of their old Pleas and Pretences all the out-cry has been against the unwarrantableness of instituted Ceremonies which after innumerable Trains of Distinctions and Limitations about Natural and Customary and Topical Signs still spends it self against the Superstition of mystical and significant Rites so that the substance of this whole Contest is now at length resolved into this single Enquiry and upon this all their deeper and more subtle Men of Controversie spend all their Choler and Metaphysicks 'T is true they defend themselves with the Pleas of Scandal Tenderness of Conscience c. but when they use their Offensive Weapons they scarce annoy us with any other Objections than what are levell'd against the Churches Usurpation in taking upon her to appoint new Ceremonies and Institutions of Worship And therefore if ever I had reason to cry out Prodigies Clamours and Impertinencies it was upon this subject and this occasion when my Thoughts were warm with reflecting upon those mighty Troubles and Inconveniences under which these Men have brought the best establish't Church in the World by their unreasonable folly and curiosity For tell me Sir is it nothing to shake the Foundations and hazard the Overthrow of a setled Church Is it nothing to discompose the Publick Peace and Tranquillity of a setled State Is it nothing for Subjects to withdraw their assistance from their Prince and their Country Is it nothing to violate the Fundamental Laws of Love and Peace and Charity Is it nothing to rend the Body of a Church into numberless Schisms and Contentions Is it nothing to keep up implacable Feuds and Animosities among Members of the same Commonwealths Is it nothing to harden debauch't and ungodly Men against Religion it self by giving them too much reason to suspect it as a thing that is troublesom and mischievous to Government Is it nothing to encourage the designs of sacrilegious Wretches by giving them advantage under the disguise of Zeal and Purity to prey upon the Churches Antichristian Patrimony In a word Is it nothing to gore the Bowels of a Kingdom with everlasting Changes and Reformations and all this upon Pretences as thin as Sope-bubbles and as brittle as Glass-drops § 11. But let us take a brief Surveigh of their particular Reasonings and Exceptions and then our wonder at these Mens confidence will be so far from abating that it will swell into ecstasie and downright astonishment For first says our Author To say that the Magistrate has Power to institute visible signs of Gods honour to be observed in the outward Worship of God is upon the matter to say that he has Power to institute new Sacraments for so
swoln his Fancy with admiring at the boldness of such lewd Assertions he at last bursts forth into an impetuous fit of preaching against them But seeing he has so lamentably mistaken his Text he may talk his Lungs and his heart out and never talk to the purpose and therefore let him take his full Career of Impertinency it concerns not me either to stop or follow him only this let me tell him for his comfort that I have there proved and here defie him and all the World to disprove it that whoever shall contradict that proposition as I have laid it down viz. that in all doubtful and disputable Cases of a publick Concernment Subjects are not to attend to the Results of their own private Judgment but to acquiesce entirely in the determinations of publick Authority whoever I say shall contradict this is an enemy to the peace of mankind and a Traitor to all Societies in the World For Government is a word that signifies nothing if it be not a Power to determine and appoint what it judges most useful and expedient for the Concerns and Interests of the Common-wealth and if you will cancel this Authority of the publick Judgment whatever you may call it 't is really nothing but Anarchy And this is the last and unavoidable Issue of all their Pretences For as to their general Pleas for Indulgence they still press for an entire and absolute exemption of Conscience from all the Commands of Authority and in effect vest it in a Power Paramount to the supremacy of Princes so that in case of Competition its Dictates must over-rule all their Laws and therefore no Government shall ever be able to pass an Obligation upon it but by its own consent and this if any thing is perfect Anarchy every man is entirely left to the guidance of his own discretion and is as much at liberty whether he will or will not obey as if he were absolutely free from all Superiority and Jurisdiction And then as to their particular Exceptions their scruples are so nice and delicate so peevish and splenetick so giddy and phantastick so impossible to be prevented of redressed that no form of setlement can ever be contrived upon which they will not beat with equal fury for they are indifferently applicable to all Cases and their strength depends not at all upon the Reasons of things but the Humours of men And if the offence of a weak Brother or the scruple of a Tender Conscience are sufficient exceptions against the Power and Efficacy of Laws then farewell all the Reverence and Authority of Government for setle things with never so much Exactness it will be impossible upon these Principles to avoid these Cavils as long as there are either Fools or Knaves in the World And do but observe the untenable weakness of all their Pretences apart and how they shuffle from their general Demands to their particular exceptions and then when they are pursued to their defence how they rowl back to their general Demands and so dance perpetually in a manifest circle of shifting and disingenuous Cavil and you need no farther proof to satisfie you of the Intolerable Impertinency of their Clamours and unexemplified Peevishness of the Men. CHAP. VII The Contents THat some Men from a Belief of the Imposture of all Religions argue for the Liberty of all farther clear'd and justified That some Sects of Men are strongly inclined to Sedition proved by their Practices and Principles Our Authors intolerable Confidence in denying his own Principles especially that that to pursue Success though in Villany and Rebellion is to follow Providence This proved by various Instances out of the Writings of J. O. The Arguments whereby they drew in Providence and the Rabble were 1. By applying old Prophesies to present Transactions 2. By believing God is obliged to do the same things for his People now that he ever did for his People in all former Ages 3. By believing Providence is in good earnest for them though it is in all appearance against them 4. By flat Presumption and down-right Enthusiasm That the Interest of Religion was pretended as a cause of our late Civil Wars proved at large against our Author from the Declarations of Lords and Commons and the Sermons of J. O. The Nonconformists are bound to give us assurance of their Repentance before they may presume to offer us any security of their Allegiance Their Plea for Toleration because Protestants invalid An Account of the Reformation of the Church of England both as to Doctrine and Discipline The manifest Apostacy of the Nonconformists from both The Reformation in most places over-run and destroyed by Calvinism Our Adversaries Notion of Protestancy is nothing else than a Zeal for the Calvinian Rigours Religion is not onely the best but a necessary disguise for Rebellion Men cannot gain an opportunity of committing any more enormous Wickednesses but under shews and pretences of Piety The danger and vanity of balancing different Parties of Religion The Civil Wars of France an eminent instance of this An account of the Original of all peevish and ill-natured Religion The Nonconformists loose way of discoursing of Conscience as if it were a Principle of Action distinct from the Man himself Conscience is nothing but the Soul or Mind of Man Nothing in Humane Nature beside Conscience is capable of subjection to Humane Laws Conscience is not its own Rule nor of it self any Plea of Exemption from Obedience If it be abused by evil Principles nothing more mischievous Vulgar Conscience the most mistaken Guid in the World In the common People 't is for the most part either Ignorance or Pride or Superstition or Peevishness or Enthusiasm The Conclusion § 1. OUr Authors Adventures in this Chapter are such ordinary and possible things that now to reherse Enterprizes so lank of prodigy after all these wonders were to darken the lustre and abate the admiration of his former Performances Many faint Essays we may observe of his ancient Courage and Confidence but alas Deeds of a greater strain and more stupendious Prowess are kept for Holy-day Atchievments Now and then we may meet with a lowd and rapping Falsification but every Page does not entertain our wonder with Forgeries of a Garagantuan bulk and boldness Once indeed we are inform'd how I discourse that the use and exercise of Conscience will certainly overthrow all Government and fill the World with confusion yet however the old Calumnies are not continually ratling in our Ears as That the Civil Magistrate is vested in an absolute and immediate Soveraignty over Conscience in all Affairs of Religion in so much that whatever the precise truth of the thing may be he has power to order and appoint what Religion his Subjects shall profess and observe That Conscience has nothing to do beyond the inward Thoughts of Mens Minds and That as to all their outward Actions the Commands of Authority over-rule all its Obligations c.
put a certain period to the publick Miseries by the Conquest of a Party but in the other the times were broken by various changes and turns of Fortune the State miserably involved and entangled in perpetual Revolutions and the short Intervals of peace were but Preparations to War Accommodations were only offer'd and procured by the weaker Faction thereby to gain advantages of mustering stronger Forces and when they had power enough to look the Enemy in the face the counterfeit Peace dissolved of its own accord and upon the first occasion they brake out into wider and more obstinate Ruptures So natural is it for Dissentions of Religion to heighten themselves into implacable hatreds and animosities and 't is as natural for them when drawn to an head by any unlucky conjuncture of Affairs to break out into open Wars and Rebellions Popular Zeal is always heady and presumptuous and when let loose from the restraints of Government and the dread of Punishment it knows not how to contain it self within the limits of reason and modesty Connivence does but encourage its peevishness and presumption and it strengthens and supports it self upon the slightest and most ungrounded Encouragements Not to check the tumultuous proceedings of the multitude by Laws and Penalties is to make them insolent and if the State be not concern'd to suppress them with rigour and severity they immediately conclude themselves its greatest Friends and Favourites and the inconsiderate Rabble are easily perswaded that they are secretly countenanced by Authority and that as soon as the circumstances of Affairs will permit that will openly declare for the Interest of their Faction And then they cannot rest satisfied in the enjoyment of their own Liberty but grow insolent toward the predominant Party and by all the acts of a sawcy and unpleasing deportment exasperate their rage and indignation Who on the other side looking on them as a mean and despicable people are apt to trample upon them especially when provoked by their insolence with the greater scorn and disdain whereas nothing so inflames and so embitters proud minds as to be despised and therefore this again puts them upon all endeavours to rescue themselves from so unpleasing a condition and whenever they grow to any confidence of their strength and their numbers they are presently grappling with the Power that oppresses them and thus by counterpoising of Parties their differences swell and increase like angry Biles till they break out into open dissentions So easily are publick Tumults and Factions kindled and Kingdoms set all on fire with Fanatick Wars and Combustions 'T is but for one of the Parties to enter into Covenants and Combinations under pretence of publick Good and this without any more ado alarms the other to provide for its own security and then do all things immediately dissolve into confusion and disorder for Confederacies are but the Openings and Declarations of Wars and entring into Leagues is no less in effect than Listing of Armies all the Confederates being under a sacred Obligation to assert the Cause against all Opposition by force of Arms. And this shews the vain Policy of the Counter-balance a Project too nice and subtle for the vehement and boisterous passions of Humane Nature and however it might strike the fancy of a capricious Woman no trick of Policy has ever proved it self more unsuccessful than this whilst practised in the same Kingdom and the issue has ever been that the Common-wealth has struggled with mutual Opposition and totter'd with Civil Wars till it has either recover'd it self by an absolute suppression of one of the Factions or sunk into utter ruine and confusion As indeed the Popes of Rome have managed this artifice to balance the Princes of Christendom it was neither unuseful nor unpracticable because the equality was kept up between two different and independent States that could not suddenly work each others destruction or if they should attempt it he could easily over-rule the contest by the intervention of a third Power But when mutual dissentions are kept up under the same Government it is always in hazard of being torn in pieces by its own intestine Quarrels And whenever there happens an open Eruption the Prince is not provided with a third Power to give check to the growth and exorbitances of the predominant Faction and can now no longer juggle and dissemble between both but must of necessity declare for one Party and cast himself and his Crown upon their fortune and if he chance to hit upon the wrong Faction he is lost and remains a prey to the Conqueror Whether this speculation of the balancing project be profound and political as our Author reflects upon it 't is no great matter I am sure 't is founded upon the plainest and most obvious experience of Humane Nature and Humane Affairs And when he can make differences in Religion without making distinct parties and interests in the Commonwealth then and not till then may he be able to prove Toleration consistent with publick peace and tranquillity i. e. when he is able to abolish all the follies and passions of Mankind But for that we must stay to the coming of the Fifth-Monarchy though when those golden days shall come it will then be our turn as some of our Adversaries have cast up our Reckoning to beg and to be denied Indulgence for that as they cast up their own Accounts too shall be the time of their revenge and then you may be sure they will not fail to be even with us for all our hard measure and King Iesus shall make us feel what it is to persecute his Favourites and will not neglect his Friends to reward his Enemies But then the Saints as I. O. speaks shall take Vengeance of the Whore for all her former rage and cruelty and the Rochets of the Prelates together with the Robes of persecuting Kings and Princes shall be rolled up in Blood § 16. This may suffice to discover the danger of Knavish and Political Hypocrisie but this is founded upon Atheism and Irreligion and 't is such a lewd affront to the Almighty and such a desperate attempt of Impiety that 't is not every one can arrive to boldness or wickedness enough to put it in practice And therefore the more dangerous because more frequent sort of Hypocrisie is that which is more serious more confident and more incurable When Men put a Cheat upon themselves as well as upon the World in that having no right understanding of the Nature and Properties of true Religion they embrace something else that looks like it for its substance and reality and by this fond mistake flatter and abuse themselves into a strong and serious conceit of their own Saintship This is the Pharisaick Leven that as I have often suggested to you has in all Ages of the World been the most fatal and epidemical miscarriage of Religion Because when well-meaning Men have once satisfied their Consciences in a false
and mistaken Godliness this becomes not only a strong prejudice upon their minds against the admission of all true and real Goodness but a fatal snare to betray them into all those vices that are most destructive of the Peace and Government of the World In that notwithstanding this they may continue proud peevish insolent passionate self-will'd and malicious and yet be highly satisfied and conceited of their own Integrity So that these Vices that are the strongest and most ungovernable passions of Humane Nature escaping unregarded and unmortified under the protection of this self-chosen Godliness 't is unavoidable but that they will mix with their religious Zeal as well as any other Concernments whatsoever For there being nothing to discover or restrain their Irregularities what should hinder but that they will as much vent themselves in the Cause of Religion as in any other Affair of Humane Life And because they are there more passionately concerned their excesses cannot but be proportionably more vehement insomuch that he that is spightful will be more so for the Glory of God he that is factious will be more so for the Godly Party he that is peevish will be more so for his Orthodox or what is the same to him his own Opinion and he that is malicious will be more so against the enemies of the power of Godliness So that when Mens passions are as you easily see they may be infused into their Religion that does but make them more eager and turbulent and 't is so far from abating their rage that it heightens and imbitters their malice And therefore to me 't is no wonder to observe how some Men will pray with the ardours of an Angel love God with raptures of joy and delight be transported with deep and pathetick Devotions talk of nothing but the unspeakable pleasures of Communion with the Lord Jesus be ravish't with devout and Seraphick Meditations of Heaven and like the blest Spirits there seem to relish nothing but spiritual delights and entertainments who yet when they return from their Transfiguration to their ordinary converse with Men are churlish as a Cynick passionate as an angry Wasp envious as a studious Dunce and insolent as a Female Tyrant proud and haughty in their deportment peevish petulant and self-will'd impatient of contradiction implacable in their anger rude and imperious in all their Conversation and made up of nothing but pride malice and peevishness The reason is obvious because whilst they are so mighty warm and zealous in the Duties of Godliness and so exceedingly busie in the Instruments and Ministeries of Religion and their Consciences so fairly satisfied by this wonderful strictness in the Performances of Devotion they hug themselves in a dear Opinion of their own Saintship and resting content in the Formalities of Religion they are never concern'd to proceed to the habitual Mortification of their passions and depraved dispositions which being neglected will of their own accord grow upon them and over-run the whole habit of their Minds and if Men are not careful to correct and subdue the petulancy of their Natures it thrives and increases under their neglect because 't is natural so that where it is not opposed with a constant and resolute Industry Men will by instinct and natural tendency be untoward and intractable but much more in concerns of Religion because this superinduces an Obligation of Conscience upon the malignity of Nature and consecrates all their scurvy and unkind Offices into Duties of Zeal And this is the true Original of all that peevish and ill-natured Religion that is so common in the World And now are not Kingdoms likely to be bravely govern'd if Authority must indulge Men such exorbitant and pernicious Vices as directly tend to the disturbance of all Society because their well-meaning ignorance may imagine them to be symptoms and results of Godly Zeal And therefore supposing all that pretend to Conscience to be serious and upright in their pretensions yet that is so far from being any Argument for Indulgence that 't is the most powerful disswasive against it it being such great odds that it engages them to be troublesom to Government And this is the plain reason of my Assertion over which our Author has so frequently and so ridiculously insulted viz. That Princes may with less hazard to their Government give Liberty to Mens Vices and Debaucheries than to Fanatick Consciences because though they are both justly punishable yet they are not equally mischievous in that the sins of Debauchery make Men useless in a Commonwealth but those of Religion make them dangerous because when their passions are warranted by their Religion that obliges them by their greatest hopes and fears to act them to the highest and then it is easie to imagine what calm and peaceable things those Men must be who think it their Duty to enforce and enrage their passions with the Obligations of Conscience § 17. But for a more accurate and satisfactory proof of this sober Truth we will a little consider and explain what is the true and real meaning of Conscience and that will abundantly evince that there is nothing in Nature more uncertain or ungovernable than vulgar Conscience First then these Men are wont to discourse of it as if it were a principle of Action distinct from the Man himself according to their loose way of talking to discharge the guilt and imputation of their Crimes upon any thing but themselves Thus does a Child of God fall into any scandalous miscarriage the mortified Man is only foil'd by the strength and subtlety of Indwelling sin Is he perfidious to his Engagements and does he violate all the Obligations of his Faith and Honesty the Vpright Man is imposed upon by the deceitfulness of his Heart And after the same rate do they discourse of Conscience as if it were some infallible thing within that presides over all a Mans thoughts and directs all his Actions so that whatever they attempt to do if they shall pretend the Warranty of Conscience that shall excuse and justifie their Action and how unaccountable soever it may prove let Conscience look to that they are innocent And though they themselves Good Men do not desire to be excused their Obedience from the Commands of lawful Authority yet 't is neither he nor they that can force Conscience to Subjection And when the Magistrate drives if they grow resty and skittish 't is because Conscience stands in their way like the Angel before Balaams Ass and then 't is nor in their power to move one step forward But this is downright Juggling for in plain English a Man and his Conscience are but one and the same thing and such as the Man is such is his Conscience So subtle are these Men when they declare themselves his Majesties most humble Servants and only beg he would spare their Consciences and if he will grant them but that one reasonable demand Ah! how will that endear
the future Judgment of God and therefore seeing it is so immediately subject to his Authority it must of necessity be priviledg'd from all the power of all other Laws and Jurisdictions But if this be a fair and logical Deduction there is no avoiding to conclude that every mans Conscience is in all its actions exempt from all humane Authority and ought not to be subject or accountable to any other Power but the Divine Majesty seeing in all the other Affairs of humane life 't is as much obliged to regard the future Judgment of God as in matters of Divine Worship and therefore if its reference to its future Accounts be sufficient in any one case to give it Protection against the Power of Princes 't is so in all § 18. But further what if it so happen that Conscience is abused by false and evil Perswasions then it unavoidably leads into all manner of lewd and vicious Practices and there is nothing so mischievous or so exorbitant to which an erroneous Conscience will not betray us For when it has once entertain'd wicked and Seditious Principles there mischief becomes irresistible Rogues and Outlaws are under some possibility of Reformation because they never think themselves obliged in duty to their Villanies and are convinced in their own Thoughts of the baseness of their Practices and stand in some awe of the Penalties of the Laws Whereas debauch'd Consciences are bold and confident in their Wickedness and their Guilt is in their own Opinion their Innocence and their Crime their Duty And if Authority ever punish their Disobedience and Rebellion they suffer with the confidence of Martyrs and they dye for preserving a good Conscience and following the best Light God has given them If they rebel 't is their Zeal for the Lord of Hosts God and Religion are ever concern'd in their Quarrels and when they fight against their lawful Superiours they only oppose the Enemies of the Gospel and when they embroil Kingdoms in Wars and Confusions they only wage War against Babylon and Antichrist and whatever they attempt be it never so vile and wicked 't is still in the Cause of God And now considering how few they are that pursue the right methods of knowledge and upon what innumerable Accounts the minds of men may be abused and misguided vulgar Conscience will be found the most mistaken most mischievous and most unreasonable Guide in the world For as a right Conscience is acquired only by a sincere regular and impartial use of our Faculties so is a wrong one by all the possible ways and causes of Errour viz. Ignorance Fancy Prejudice Partiality Self-love Envy Ambition Pride Passion and Superstition Any of which though they are the greatest Principles of Disturbance in the World may corrupt and debauch the minds of men and then challenge to themselves the sacredness and authority of Conscience For every mans Errour in matters of Religion becomes his Duty and Pride and Folly and Ignorance and Malice and any thing else if it were a Religious Dress immediately becomes sacred and inviolable And now when the principles of natural Reason are debauch'd with absurd and seditious Prejudices the Contradictories of moral truth and goodness become the only Rule of Conscience and men think themselves directly obliged to what directly opposes the highest Interests of mankind and the main obligations of Religion And from hence it is so vulgar a Phaenomenon in the world that Sacriledge is transformed into Reformation Inhumanity into Zeal Perjury into Religion Faction into Humility and Rebellion it self into Loyalty So that 't is no unusual thing for the Perswasions of Conscience to cancel the very Laws of Nature and pervert all the differences of Good and Evil and then are men brought under all the obligations that Conscience can lay upon them to the practice of Wickedness and Villany And then to leave them to their own liberty is not only to allow them to be wicked but in effect to oblige them to be so because this delivers them up to the guidance and authority of a profligate Conscience that effectually binds them to follow its own wretched and unreasonable Dictates So that the result of all is that there is no folly or wickedness how lewd or extravagant soever that may not patronize it self under mistakes of Conscience Sometimes and always unless by a mighty chance 't is ignorance and popular Folly for 't is natural to the Multitude to be ignorant and foolish or to use false and incompetent methods of knowledge and to determine their notions of things upon unreasonable grounds and motives Their Judgments are disposed of by chance and accidental Principles and their fancies and fond Perswasions are the measures of their Consciences and they pursue things for their agreeableness with weak and vulgar Prejudices without ever proceeding to an impartial deliberation of their Truth and Goodness Opinion they say is the guide of fools and such is the vulgar and ignorant sort of mankind that generally judge of things by trifling and impertinent Conceits and then force their Reasons to follow as chance and folly shall command them And then all this is their Conscience that must in spight of all its exorbitances be suffer'd to do as it please Folly especially in divine matters is always in conjunction with confidence and there is nothing in the world more obstinate and inflexible then religious Ignorance And men never play the fool with greater assurance and satisfaction then in sacred matters insomuch that some who are always telling tragical stories of the ruines and desperate Corruptions of humane nature as if it had irrecoverably lost all power of discerning between truth and falshood and are so far from having any pretence to infallibility that if they would understand the necessary and unavoidable Consequences of their own Principles they cannot pretend to any such thing as certainty yet are as confident in all their Perswasions as if all their thoughts were Oracles and a Person that knows himself to be acted by an unerring spirit could not be more peremptory in his sentiments of things than they are in their rash and ungrounded Prejudices Now 't is the Consciences of the vulgar rout or the drove of Ignorance and Prejudice that are wont to be so troublesom and wayward to Government they are zealous and confident because they are ignorant and they are therefore impatient of all contradiction in their mistakes because they have fastned upon them at all adventure Are not Commonwealths then likely to be admirably govern'd when their peace and setlement must lie at the mercy of every cross-grain'd and insolent Fool Sometimes 't is superstition and nothing more vulgar than for men to abuse their Consciences with this unquiet and impotent Passion For when their minds are possessed and 't is an epidemical Malady with wrong notions of God and hard jealousies and suspicions of his Government of the World this cannot but make them apprehend hir Laws
Womb and again pass through all the scenes and workings of Conviction in which state of formation all new Converts must continue their appointed Time and when the days are accomplish'd they may then proceed to the next Operation of the Spirit i. e. to get a longing panting and breathing frame of soul upon which follows the proper season of Delivery and they may then break loose from the Enclosures of the spirit of Bondage and creep out from those dark Retirements wherein the Law detein'd them into the Light of the Gospel and the Liberty of the spirit of Adoption But of this perhaps our Author may understand more before he and I part in the mean time let us follow our present Chase and we shall have pleasant sport enough for never did wily Reynard shew greater variety of shifts windings and doublings than this subtle Disputant § 2. The Antichristian Errors of this Chapter he has reduced to four general heads the first whereof he confesseth to be a great and important Truth viz. that Moral Vertue consists in the observance of the Laws of Nature and the Dictates of Right Reason and therefore he only transcribes my Proof and Account of the Reasonableness of the Assertion and repeats it again in his own obscure Words and flat Expressions and so immediately proceeds to the second viz That the substance yea the whole of Religion consists in moral vertues and to prove it he repeats that short Scheme that I have drawn up of the most material parts and branches of Religion and in answer to it he first talks and then objects He wishes I would give him a summary of the Credenda of my Religion as I have done of its Agenda And so I will when I shall think my self obliged to write impertinently for his humour but should I be so civil as to gratifie him in this Request though perhaps the positive Articles of my Belief are not altogether so numerous as his Systematick Orthodoxes nor my Creed so bulky as his gross Bodies of Dutch-divinity Yet I could give him in such a large Negative Confession of Faith as would both satisfie and make him repent his Curiosity In the next place he tells us the ten Commandments would have done twice as well on this occasion But 't is no disparagement to my Account of Religion if it be but half as good as the ten Commandments though I am apt to believe the Decalogue was never intended for a perfect Systeme of the Moral Law I cannot imagine that by thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image is meant thou shalt not institute Symbolical Ceremonies or that by Thou shalt not murther Alms and fraternal Correption are enjoyned nor can I fancy that when only one Particular is express'd twenty more are intended that may any way be reduced to it by strein'd and far-fetch'd Analogies But if we add the Explication of the Church-Catechism for which our Author has no doubt a mighty fondness it would make up a much more perfect Scheme of Religion than what I have represented I confess 't is contrived with a great deal of wisdom and judgment and its Exposition is easie natural and useful and not made out by forced and uncertain Deductions and therefore has admirably attain'd the End it aimed at which is chiefly a plain and intelligible Account of the main scope and intent of the Decalogue and not an intire Institution of Christian Theology But upon this he takes a civil and seasonable occasion to remark that he fears the very Catechism it self may ere long be esteemed Phanatical though if it should meet with such ill Usage it would not be much worse treated than it was ere long when it was esteemed Popish However his Fears are of no more force than his Arguments they are equally wise and reasonable and prove nothing but his Ill-nature or something worse And now to all this he subjoyns a tedious story of a foolish and half-witted fellow that from this Opinion that all Religion consists in Morality proceeded to a full Renunciation of the Gospel If either the man himself had made good this Consequence or our Author for him this tale might have been of more use than all his Arguments that is it might have been to the purpose but otherwise 't is as meer Tittle-tattle as when he tells us the Papists make use of our Pleas for Government in behalf of their Tyranny and Usurpation I can no more prevent some men from streining absurd Conclusions from the wisest and most Reasonable Premisses than I can hinder others from preaching Treason or Blasphemy from the divine Oracles But all this is no more than Skirmish the main Battel follows and he draws up all his Forces in three Objections i. e. in repeating the same Objection three times 1. My Representation of Religion is suited to the state of Innocence 2. It carries in it neither supposition nor assertion of sin 3. It omits some of the most important duties of the Christian Religion Repentance Humiliation Godly sorrow c. Whereas its being suited to the state of Innocence it s not implying a supposition of sin and its omitting the duty of Repentance is apparently one and the same thing For 't is nothing but meerly a supposition of sin that makes our present Condition differ from the state of Innocence and that infers the necessity of Repentance and therefore in answer to this great Objection in its united strength I humbly crave leave to remonstrate that Religion for the substance and main design of it which is the only thing I designed to represent is the same now as it was in the state of Innocence For as then the whole duty of man consisted in the Practice of all those moral Vertues that arose from his natural Relation to God and man so all that is super-induced upon us since the Fall is nothing but helps and contrivances to supply our natural defects and recover our decayed Powers and restore us to a better ability to discharge those duties we stand engaged to by the Law of our Nature and the design of our Creation So that the Christian Institution is not for the substance of it any new Religion but only a more perfect digest of the Eternal Rules of Nature and Right Reason For it commands nothing but what is some way suitable to and perfective of Rational Beings and all its duties are either Instances or Instruments of moral Goodness it prescribes no new rules and proportions of Morality and all its additions to the Eternal and Unchangeable Laws of Nature are but only means and Instruments to discover their Obligation and improve their Practice in the World All men I think are agreed that the real end of Religion is the Happiness and Perfection of Mankind and this end is obtain'd by living up to the Dictates of Reason and according to the Laws of Nature which the Gospel has framed into