A RATIONAL METHOD For proving the Truth of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION As it is Professed in the Church of England In Answer to A Rational Compendious Way to Convince without Dispute all persons whatsoever Dissenting from the true Religion By I. K. By Gilbert Burnet LONDON Printed for Richard Royston Bookseller to His most Excellent Majesty M DC LXXV To I. K. SIR ABout two or three months ago a Noble Lady gave me your Book with a Letter that addressed it to me wherein after some civilities I was desired to peruse the Book and made hope I should reap great advantages from it and indeed if I had not learned from the Inspired Preacher that there is nothing new under the Sun or had been easily catched to believe Novelties a Title and Preface that promised so much should have made me apprehend I had got sent me the Philosophers stone in Divinity and truly so short so sure so easie and so general a Method as you think you offer for curing and preventing all distempers about Religion deserved to be entertained with equal degrees of Joy and Astonishment What a happiness were it to Mankind after all the expence of Bloud all the toyl and sweat of Care all the Speculations and Labours of the Learned and the Industry and endeavours of Statesmen for resolving the doubts and difficulties about Religion to find a shorter and a safer way to get out of that trouble But as the high pretences and promises of the Spagiricks make sober people afraid to meddle with them and do oft bring disesteem and neglect on the Medicines because they are overvalued so I am afraid your Book shall have the same fate with clearer and unpossessed minds And I must confess my self strongly prejudiced against these hudling Methods so that I always apprehend some Legerdemain from them And the Title of your Book did very naturally lead me to this thought it being a form of Speech we in England call a Bull A Rational way to convince without any Dispute for a Rational way of Conviction is when upon a full hearing and considering all can be said on both sides of any debate the evidence of Reason determines our perswasion And to form an opinion after we have only considered the grounds of one side is as unequal and unjust as for a Judge to pass sentence when he has heard but one party Now Disputing is only the considering with an even ballance what all parties say and the suspending our Verdict till they have finished their Evidence It is therefore no Rational way but a blind and unreasonable one that bars Disputing nor can it be a Conviction but only a prepossession when we are led into any Opinion before all that can in reason be said hath been examined by us But I suppose by Dispute you meant the eager and hot contests of wrangling Disputants who espousing a party do with all the tricks and disingenuities of Sophistry and the petulant Incivilities of rude treatment manage debates as persons more concerned for glory and victory than for truth and rather than confess an escape and disclaim an error will with all the trifling arts of their embased Logick defend every thing which either they themselves have once said or that party they adhere to has maintained But as I passed from your Title through your Preface to your Book I must freely confess I did not find in it such fair and clear Reasoning as you promised and I saw you had a great deal of reason to avoid Disputing for nothing but a blind easie yielding to what you delivered could save your Book from being rejected And this seemed to me so obvious that I judged it needless to engage in any Answer to it and so laid it aside But a few days ago a worthy and learned friend of mine told me many wished some would be at the pains to Answer it and desired me to do it and when I told him how it was brought to my hands he thought I was under some obligation to send you the reasons that lay in my way and kept me from yielding to this new Method of Conviction I was the more easily perswaded to it that my present circumstances did leave me at a greater freedom of disposing of my time than I have enjoyed for some years The starched formality of Dedications is as much out of esteem with me as out of date in this freer age but it was natural to address this to your self though utterly unknown to me by any other Character than what your Book gives of you and so I am in no hazard of making personal reflections I shall first give you my sense of your Method in all the Six points you go through before I take any notice of what is in your Preface which I shall consider last of all and with the same breath shall offer a Rational way of managing all Disputes about Religion so that after a full hearing of what may be said we may arrive at a clear and well grounded Conviction in matters of Religion I hope you will consider what I go to lay before you with a mind calm and undisturbed and believe that in this I am acting the part of one who is sincerely Your Friend and Servant Gilbert Burnet IMPRIMATUR Guliel Wigan Feb. 27. 1674 5. THE CONTENTS CHap. I. It is considered if J. K. does prove convincingly that there is a God Page 1. Chap. II. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that there must be some true Religion p. 11. Chap. III. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that there must be some true Revealed Religion p. 17. Chap. IV. It is considered if J. K. hath proved convincingly the truth of the Christian Religion p. 23. Chap. V. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that the Roman Catholick Religion is true p. 33. Chap. VI. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that every thing the Roman Church teaches as an Article of Faith must be true p. 57. Chap. VII Of the supposed inconveniences J. K. imagines in the want of a true Church to judge Infallibly and of the right methods of finding truth p. 65. THE INTRODUCTION NOthing doth give both occasion and nourishment to Error and Mistake more than the being prevailed on by the heats of fancy without bringing them under the severer tryal of Reason nor do our Imaginative powers in any case more certainly impose upon us than when they present Notions to us which do at once surprise with their novelty and delight with their apparent usefulness and none are sooner catch'd with such a bait than men of Speculative heads accustomed to Disputes and to the little tricks of Logick for they being habituated to so many Axioms which pass among them for sacred Truths think if they can found a discourse on some received Maxim all is sure work and have not distinguished aright betwixt the Colours of Truth which Wit Eloquence and Sophistry can by a
persons of Eminence and Authority But this hath not been the method of the Roman Conversions which begun in a kind of Alliance with the Prince who being convinced of his advantage in the Change did upon that oblige his subjects to it not without severely punishing sometimes such as refused it so far were they from being persecuted for it If any one were by a fury or tumult killed that does not alter the case nor make it a persecution And thus it is apparent that for all the noise the Roman Church makes of their Conversions they have managed them in a method very different from the way of the primitive Christians How basely and barbarously it hath been carried on in the West Indies the Bishop of Guatimala did inform the world and the Bishop of Angelopolis did within these few years inform the Pope how wretchedly the Jesuits continue to manage it to this day And though we have little reason to believe the accounts given us from the Indies since we see those who publish them are guilty of such Impostures in things nearer us and easily discovered that we have no reason to credit them in things at so great a distance where the forgeries of their account cannot be found out yet even from these a great many of the observations made upon the methods of the Emissaries of the Roman Church may be proved But as for Austin the Monk I. K. cannot sure be so ignorant as to think we owe our Conversion to him for whatever truth may be in the story of Glastenbury it is undoubted we received the Faith at farthest in the second Century and that it did overrun our Island farther than the Roman Conquest Tertullian witnesses The Rites of our observing Easter do also prove we had not the Christian Faith by any sent from Rome so that long before the time of Avstin the Monk this Island was converted And that famed story of the Monks of Bangor as it proves what footing Christianity had then so it shews how proud and insolently cruel that pretended Apostle was And it is apparent he was a man of an Ambitious temper his great design on those of Bangor being to engage them to a subjection to the Pope and to comply with their Rites in the observation of Easter But if what is delivered by ancient Historians of his setting on the King of the Northumberlands to destroy these Monks be true he is to be looked on as an Emissary of Hell rather than an Apostle of Christ. Besides the King of Kent to whom he came was so favourable to the Christian Faith that as he had married a Christian Queen so he allowed the Christians a Church near Canterbury And so it is no wonder if a Prince so prepared was soon prevailed on But Austins first coming to him with all that pomp of Crosses carried before him has nothing primitive in it and the fabulous Legends of the Monks are little to be credited Thus far I have examined I. K's proofs for the truth of the Roman Religion and I doubt not upon a sober review of what hath been said he himself will acknowledge he must see for other and better Arguments before he can oblige any to believe the Roman Religion to be the true Catholick and Apostolical Religion CHAP VI. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that every thing the Roman Church teaches as an Article of Faith must be true J. K. advances to his last attempt which is the finishing of the whole contrivance to perswade the belief of every thing the Roman Church delivers as an Article of Faith for if that Religion be a true Religion then it is free from all fundamental errors and does erre against no fundamental point of Religion and if that be acknowledged then it does not erre against this point that God is not the Author of any error or corruption whatsoever that being unquestionably a fundamentâ—l point Now if the Roman Religion does not eâ—re against this it does not teach that God is the Author of any error or corruption and if it do not that then it teaches nothing as an Article of Faith which is either error or corruption for whatever it teaches as an Article of Faith is teaches as that which hath been delivered by God This then may be applied to every particular Article of Faith which the Roman Church teacheth for if that be either error or corruption it teaching God to be the Author of it makes him to be the Author of error or corruption which is to erre against a fundamental point and by consequence that Religion shall be no true Religion If by true Religion I. K. understands a Religion that has no mixture of error or corruption in it then it is needless to prove that if the Roman Religion be true it hath neither error or corruption in it for the proving it a true Religion must carry the other along with it But if by true Religion be only meant a Religion that holds all the fundamentals of Christianity so that Salvation may be had in its Communion then it is a most wretched Inference that it must be true in all itâ— definitions of Faith And to confute this I shall for once turn the Tables on I. K. and become an Advocate for the Roman Church to shew they may be still a true Church and a true Religion though they have a large mixture of errors and corruptions And this I do not so much out of love to them but from a general principle of charity to overthrow this unmerciful Opinion that damns all men as erring fundamentally for believing any error in a matter of Faith And let me first ask I. K. whether he takes the Church of Corinth to have had a true Religion when S. Paul wrote to it This sure he cannot deny if he read but S. Pauls first salutation and yet in that Church there were various parties some for Cephas some for Apollo some for Paul and some for Christ and great difference of opinion there was whether Moses Law did oblige or not Now these questions concerning Circumcision and the Law were matters of Faith and in all contradictory opinions one must be true another false those therefore that were of the false side must by I. K's doctrine be all irrecoverably lost as being in a fundamental error for each side believed his Opinion was of God But S. Paul taught another doctrine that whoso builds on the foundation Jesus Christ shall be saved though he build upon it wood hay and stubble And the distinction he there makes between those who build Gold Silver and precious stones and wood hay and stubble can only relate to sound and unsound Doctors the one building good and useful Superstructures upon the foundation the other teaching trifling Doctrines that will not bear the Tryal and yet that both may be saved is a plain demonstration against I. K. The same Apostle also tells us that neither Circumcision
nor uncircumcision availed any thing and that in the new Creature there was neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision but Christ was all in all and that one God did both justifie the Circumcision by Faith and the uncircumcision through Faith from all which it is evident that those of the Circumcision might be saved and by consequence that their Religion was a true Religion and yet that their doctrine of Circumcision was an error can be disputed by none who read the Epistles of S. Paul And it is no less clear that they held it an Article of Faith delivered to Abraham by God So here it is plain that S. Paul in one breath both condemns this Opinion as erroneous and yet allows Salvation to such as believed it With how many errors doth S. Iohn charge some of the seven Churches yet they were still the Churches of Christ. The Church in the second Century did generally believe the Millennium as a thing revealed by God which the Roman Church now calls an error yet I hope I. K. will not condemn that Church as holding a false Religion The African Churches held it necessary for Infants to receive the Eucharist from these words Except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man you have no life in you and this was approved by P. Innocent and was continued many Ages in the Roman Church as appears from the Ordo Romanus and yet that Church has declared that not to be necessary by which the Opinion the former Ages had of its necessity is declared an error But it were a strange thing from that to condemn these as holding a false Religion The Franciscans and Dominicans had hot contests about the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin and both pretended Divine authority and Revelations so that one of those must have held an error The Dominicans and Iansenists believe Predestination and Grace efficacious of it self this the Molinists deny both vouch Scriptures and the definitions of the Church The Canonists Courtiers of Rome and Iesuits have asserted the Popes Infallibility from Scripture and Councils the Sorbon hath always rejected this Now of all these different Opinions the one must be true and the other false since they stand in the terms of a contradiction and they have all vouched God and Scriptures for them therefore those who hold the false side of the contradiction according to I. K's reasoning must be of a false Religion which I believe when he considers more maturely he will find he mistook his measures in this And in fine his Argument will also hold as strong to prove that every Individual of a true Religion must be exempt from all errors in every Opinion whereof he takes God to be the Author For I. K's Argument will be as strong for every thing whereof God is believed the Author as for Articles of Faith So that every mistaken sense of Scripture will turn one to be of a false Religion since every mistaken exposition is an error and yet that being thought the meaning of the place God is believed the author of that meaning and by I. K's consequence of the error it self From all which I may I hope even by I. K's leave infer the necessary distinction between things that are believed to be errors and those that are believed to be Truths For the former to vouch God the Author of what we know to be an error and corruption is certainly so criminal that none of the true Religion can be guilty of it But there be many things which though errors yet any one may very innocently mistake for truths I do not say the mistake does quite excuse the error if the error be fundamental the mistake must be so too But if the error be in a lesser matter it is a lesser error and it will never be made out That if one apprehending an Opinion true embrace it as come from God and as an Article of Faith if he is mistaken in that he strikes at the divine veracity for among men who thinks that any wronged his veracity if another mistook his meaning and understood his words in a different sense from what he intended and expressed Certainly he who so mistakes after the true meaning is cleared cannot be understood to have fastned any reproach upon the Candor of him whose words he mistook all the blame being to be cast only on his want of right understanding This were indeed a hard case if all our mistakings of divine Revelations did infer a charging God with error or corruption But the thing is so clear that I am afraid I have spent too many words about it and this Argument of I. K's cannot but upon first reading appear to all that are accustomed to weigh and examine truth to be a piece of crude ill digested and ill palliated Sophistry Thus far have I followed I. K. through those six points he imagines he has demonstrated and have shewed how true the first four were but how little reason there was to account them such for any thing he said for their proof and how false the other two are And I suppose he will acknowledge that if what is already set down hold true and be founded on good reason I need not follow him through the rest of his Book it being only a direction to his gentle courteous Reader how to manage this method of arguing so as to convince all persons that dissent from the true Religion which he thinks is a Mathematical and sure way of proceeding and such as no man can decline or avoid and in end must be either convinced by it or be forced to confess himself no better than an Ass or a block which concludes him a mad man I will not follow this with a railery that is as obvious as severe but I love not to mix matters of sport with such serious purposes therefore I follow I. K. no more through the rest of his Book But come next to consider the great support of that cause which he manages both in his Preface and through the rest of his Book that there can be no certainty neither about the true books of Scripture the Decrees of Councils or writings of Fathers without there be a true Church and Religion agreed on which shall both declare to us what Books are true and what not and shall deliver their true meaning to us otherwise endless confusions must follow which plainly appears in the many divisions of the Protestants and the uncertainties they are in about all Controverted points From which the necessity of a true Church appears as much as in a well ordered State there is not only a necessity of clear and good Laws but of Judges to expound them CHAP. VII Of the supposed Inconveniencies J. K. imagines in the want of a true Church to Iudge Infallibly and of the right methods of finding Truth THere is nothing about which those of the Roman Church make more noise than the necessity of
and endless wranglings of the Schools in matters of Philosophy in which men being accustomed to that game of disputing and subtilising about nothing and going from those studies to Divinity and carrying that same temper and fiery edge along with them they made all that work about it which hath now so long divided the world They being also by a long practice habituated to many Maxims and Axioms which were laid down for rules not to be enquired into or denyed came really to believe those were true and to carry them along with them to all their Theological debates All which will appear very evident to any that compares their Philosophical and Theological works from which many of their strange inferences and positions did take their rise and I am afraid do still receive their nourishment Thus far I have discoursed of the several prejudices the powers of the natural man do lay in the way of our apprehending and judging aright of Divine truths and the common notions of the moral Philosophy will concur to teach all men that before their minds can be rightly qualified for the understanding any intellectual truth but most chiefly Divine truth we must abstract from all those figures of things which our senses present to us and rise above all grosser phantasms It is no less necessary that our thoughts be serene and free of passion that we may freely and at leisure consider what lies before us without the Byass of preconceived opinions or interests And it is equally rational with these that we have modest minds not vainly puffed up with an opinion of our own knowledge but tractable and docile such as will not stick after clear conviction to confess and retract an error and that we proceed in our reasonings closely and on sure grounds not on vain conjectures and maxims taken up meerly on trust but by a clear progress advance from one truth to another as the Series of them shall lead A man who is thus prepared must next consider all was said in the first four Sections with a great deal more to the same purpose That he be on good grounds perswaded there is a God that there is a true revealed Religion that the Christian Religion is the true Religion These things being laid down he is in the first place by earnest Prayers to beg God's direction to go along with him in all his enquiries which certainly will not be wanting if he bring with him a sincere well prepared mind not byassed nor prepossessed and of this we may be well assured both from the Divine goodness and veracity For as he hath promised that whoso seek shall find so it is a necessary consequent of infinite goodness to assist all that sincerely seek after life and happiness but if any come to this study without he be duly prepared he has himself to thank if he fall into errors and mistakes The next thing an exact searcher into Religion must labour in is once to observe the nature of Christianity and the great designs of it and in this he is not to follow the small game of some particular and obscure passages but to observe through the whole New Testament what was the great end of all our Saviour spoke and did and his disciples testified and wrote If once we comprehend this a right it will be a thread to carry us through particular disquisitions For as there be many natural truths of which we are well assured though Philosophy offers us some Arguments against them in the answering which we are not able to satisfie our Reasons so there may be some divine truths very certainly made out to us and yet there may be places of Scripture which seem so to contradict those truths that they cannot be well answered Again a serious Enquirer will see good reason to believe the Scriptures must be plain evident and clear since they were at first directed to men of very ordinary parts and of no profound understandings and learning therefore he may well conclude those strange Superstructures some have reared up for amusing the world can be none of the Articles of Faith necessary to be believed And as the first Converts were honest simple men so our Saviour and the Apostles spoke in a plain easie stile therefore all these forced Criticisms and Inferences by which some more ingenious than candid Writers would expound them in a sence favourable to their Opinions aâ—e not to be received since these do often represent the divine discourses rather like the little tricks of double-dealing and Sophistry for which an honest Tutor would severely chide his Pupil words are to be understood in their plain meaning and not as Logick or a nicety of Criticism may distort and throw them If then a man will in this method which no honest man can except against go to the search of the Scriptures with a mind prepared as hath been already said he cannot fail of finding out all that is necessary for his Salvation Nor is he to be doubtfully anxious concerning the true Books for none denies but the Churches care in all Ages hath been the great conveyance of this the many various Translations of all Ages and Languages nay and different Religions agreeing in all material points and the Citations out of those Books which we find in a Series of Authors who have lived in the several Ages since they were written agreeing likewise with the Books themselves together with many ancient Manuscripts which do yet remain of a great many Languages may abundantly satisfie even the most severe Inquirer that these be the very Books which the Apostles delivered and were universally received by all Christians The matter of Fact being thus cleared without any necessity of running to the authority of the Church all those scruples which I. K. with the rest of his Brethren would needs raise do vanish since they never distinguish exactly between a Witness and a Judge For the former nothing is required but honesty and good information and we have the agreeing suffrages of many witnesses that do all agree in their Testimony of these Books who though they differed very much in their Expositions of them yet concurred in their verdict about the Books and were checks on one another in the faithful preserving and transcribing them In this sence we do receive the Churches Testimony as the necessary means of conveying these Books to us But an Authority Sacred and Solemnly declared is required in a Judge and this no Church can so much as pretend to but from the Scriptures Therefore the Scriptures being received as Divine cannot depend on the sentence of the Church as a Judge since all its Jurisdiction is derived from Scripture which therefore must be acknowledged before it can be believed But because there be persons of a meaner Condition and not Educated so as to make all the inquiry which is necessary in so important a Business there is therefore a shorter method for such
which yet is as morally certain as any thing can be Let then the simplest man in England provide himself of two New Testaments one published by the Church of England another by the Church of Rome as was that of Rheims Now he knows well what animosities be betwixt the Divines of these Churches and that they are engaged so hotly one against another that they agree in nothing but where the Evidence of truth especially in matters of Fact does bind them And yet he comparing these New Testaments will find that though the phrase the position of words and in some few places perhaps the sence varies but upon a survey of the whole he finds that they do plainly agree in all matters of moment So that from this he is perswaded that both have the same true Book which the Apostles did deliver to the Church and the Iews agreeing with us as to the Old Testament is the same Evidence to him that we have those very Books which were held Sacred by the Iews in our Saviour's time And thus by I. K's leave a man may be satisfied what be the true Books without being assured which is the true Church or the true Religion Being then assured about the Books and studying them in the method already set down he shall be certainly directed by God to find out every thing necessary to Salvation and this is far from setting up a private Spirit to lead us Enthusiastically but is an appeal to the Reason and ingenuity that is common to all men For let me ask I. K. how the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent are to be understood He himself says the meaning of those is plainly and certainly to be known yet every Reader must expound them to himself in that easie and clear sence which best agrees with the words Is this therefore to set up a private spirit to enterpret these Canons I know he will say and with good reason too that it is far from it and with the same warrant do I assert that the considering of Scripture according to the method proposed is not to interpret it by a private Spirit but by the clear conduct of our understandings directed by the divine Grace which is freely given to all that ask it If after all this it be replyed How is it then that there are such different Expositors and Expositions of Scripture the Answer is plain by sending back the Reader to what hath been said of the corruption of mens minds and as long as men live so ill as they do it is to no purpose to expect they shall think or understand aright Besides there be a great many things in the Scriptures which are not Articles of Faith which every man is not bound to know and conceive aright under the hazard of Damnation and about which there may be disputings and different Opinions without any hazard If any set up particular Opinions in matters justly controvertible and of less moment and impose these on all with severe Sanctions and if he have Authority to cast all out of the Church Society that do not agree with him or if he have not that Authority if he do separate from the Communion of the Church because they will not receive or hearken to his conceits he is a Schismatick for a dogmatizing and dictating spirit if strengthned with power doth always lead to persecution and if it want it to separation And thus I think enough is said for proving that the way to Salvation is not at all uncertain in our Church since it is no other but that new and living way which our Saviour did Consecrate through his flesh But in this we are strongly confirmed when we find the ancient Martyrs Fathers and Doctors of the Church going in the same Method and by it Converting the Nations enduring Martyrdome and giving glory to their most holy Faith and to its most holy Author whose Decrees when met in Councils and Doctrines delivered in their writings do so agree with Ours in all matters of Faith that we decline not to put the whole debates between us and them to this Tryal I. K. thinks we cannot know what Fathers or what Councils to receive but by first acknowledging a true Church which must tell what Fathers and Councils to receive But this being a matter of Fact we are to judge of it as of all matters of Fact that were transacted some Ages ago and by the evidence of Testimonies are to find out the truth concerning the Fathers and Councils and their Writings and Decrees We have good reason to decline the writers of the latter Ages since we plainly see that upon the overthrow of the Western Empire by the Goths and Vandals and other Northern Nations and of the Eastern Empire by the Saracens and other Mahometans Religion and Learning were quickly brought under sad and lasting decays which is confest by writers on all sides And what I. K. says That we may as well expect the whole Gospel in the first Chapter of S. Matthew as all Faith of the Church in the first four General Councils is very impertinently alledged Did we ask for all the definitions of the Church in the first Canon of Nice his comparison might well take place but it cannot be fitly used in our case who say we are the true Catholick Apostolick Christians because we in all things agree with the Churches of God as they were during their greatest purity both in the persecutions and after those for two Ages Certainly if we hold all that Faith they then held and if they were saved we may be so too and you cannot pass a severe sentence on us which will not likewise take hold of them I. K. cannot deny but they stated the Christian Faith in very formal Creeds and one of them expresly decreed That no new addition should be made to the Creed and so we who receive that Creed though at all this distance from them are really in Communion with them from which those have departed who have made such vast additions to the Creed And thus it appears we are in the same way which our Saviour first opened and in which that glorious cloud of witnesses followed him and are still in Communion with Rome as she was when her Faith was spoken of through the whole world and therefore we are in a safe way to Salvation But because Christians must live together in Unity and Charity and in order to that end must associate together in the Worship of God in mutual Councils and other necessary parts of Government and some External rites for maintaining the visible acknowledgment of the Faith therefore we have rules given in Scripture no less express for obeying the Civil powers in all their Commands that are not plainly contrary either to Natural or revealed Religion which is a clear and constant rule by which we may be satisfied if our minds be right prepared and qualified as was before set down And if by
propagated as it was it could not have been made out that it was true and if so what must have been the strong Arguments used for it before it was so propagated Either these were convincing or not if they were not convincing then it being propagated by weak and unconcluding Arguments we cannot be bound to submit to it or believe it if these Arguments were convincing we either know them or we know them not if we know them not how can we judge they were convincing if we know them then we may be as well convinced by them as those were to whom they were at first proposed The great Argument the Apostles offered was that our Blessed Saviour wrought many Miracles in the sight of the Iews and that he being dead and laid in the grave was raised from the dead and after a long stay with them on earth they saw him ascend with great glory to Heaven of all which they were witnesses Now these being matters of Fact so positively attested by so many eye-witnesses who were men of great probity that could not be cast on the pretence of their being hired or bribed there being no interest could lead them to give that testimony but only truth all other considerations deterring them from it there was good reason then and remains so still to believe this true whether the world had embraced it or not And I will ask I. K. what if the Gentiles had rejected their testimony as well as the Iews did yet if these sacred writings had been with a most Religious care conveyed down to us had we not been bound to believe the Gospel certainly we had for the Apostles were men who upon the strictest tryal of Law must be admitted as competent witnesses they were well informed of what they heard and saw for a tract of three or four years they were plain simple men who could not in reason be suspect of deep designs or contrivances they in the testimonies they gave do not only vouch private stories that were transacted in corners but publick matters seen and known of many hundreds they all agreed in their testimony so that the fumes of melancholy could not lead so many into such an agreement of mistakes Their testimonies if false might have been easily disproved the chief power being in the hands of their enemies who neither wanted power cunning nor malice And in fine the truth of their testimony appears in their constant adhering to it from which neither imprisonments whippings tortures no not death it self could divert them From all which it is as evident as is possible any matter of Fact can be that their testimony was true and this discourse must hold good whether the world had received and believed their report or not Which was the more fully confirmed by the miraculous operations of the Apostles in the name of Christ by which they did cast out Devils and cure all manner of diseases and to this they appeal in their Epistles and Acts which were published at that time wherein had the matter of Fact not been true they had been branded as bold and impudent Impostors We have also a Series of Books in all Ages citing the Writings wherein these Testimonies are contained by which we know they were written at that very time And the Apologists for the Christian Faith in their Apologies appeal to the wonders that were still wrought for confirmation of the Faith nor can we imagine that men of common sense not to say Modesty and Ingenuity would have appealed to proofs that were slender and false in matter of Fact Thus we see that great confirmation of our Saviour from his Miracles is made good by another way of proof than by the propagation of it which I do not deny doth very strongly make out the truth of all yet is rather a consequent confirmation of what hath been said than an antecedent argument for proving it So though it be far from my thoughts to weaken this way of confirming Christian Religion yet it is plain that an extraordinary propagation will not infer the truth of the Doctrine though it be allowed it was done by Miracles since we cannot be assured these Miracles are wrought by a good Spirit till we first consider the Doctrines they confirm whether they be good or not It doth also appear that the truth of these Miracles is made out abundantly to us abstracting from the way of propagating them But in end we must a little examine what this way of propagating them was and we shall find that notwithstanding all the calumnies and lesser persecutions of the Iews of the derision of the Philosophers of the prejudice carnal lusts and appetites laid in the way and above all of the violent oppositions given it by the Roman Emperors who spared no cruelty for a Succession of three Ages and ten Persecutions that hell or hellish men could devise for destroying it yet it prevailed and in a few years did spread to the astonishment of the world and all other Religions were not only overthrown by the many Converts were daily flocking in to the Christian Church but by the ruine of these very Religions Judaism fell to the ground by the subversion of their Temple and the total ruine and dispersion of their State begun by Vespasian and Titus and compleated by Trajan and Hadrian nor could their attempts though cherished by an apostate Emperour succeed for the rebuilding their Temple Heaven and Earth combining to break off the work Heathenism did also receive a mortal blow by the silencing the Oracles upon the beginnings of Christianity which were the great supports of that Religion with the vulgar And the exemplary lives the heavenly Doctrines the mutual Charity and the noble Constancy of the first Witnesses and Martyrs of the Christian Faith wrought not a little on all that beheld thâ—m even on such as were very partial and byassed against them And the Christian Religion being thus universally received as it is a very full demonstration that these Miracles were no forgeries but known and approved truths So also it confirms in us a belief that there was an extraordinary presence of God in these beginnings of Christianity assisting and animating those Converts of all Ages Sexes and Qualities to adhere to it under all the discouragements and sufferings they were to pass through whether occasioned by the irregular appetites of their own carnal lusts or by the outward oppositions they met with And thus far I have considered how the truth of Christian Religion can be made out against the opposition of Atheists Infidels or Deists Hitherto I have waited on I. K. in the survey of these Truths about which we are agreed and I hope upon a review of what we have both performed he will not deny but I have strengthened his Positions with the accession of many more and better Arguments than any he brought So that if he be in earnest zealous for these four great Truths he will rejoyce to
see such a supplement to what he had so scantly proposed But I am afraid and perhaps not without reason that he knowing how weak his Arguments must needs be for the two positions that follow and yet designing to impose on the Reader all the Six as equally certain he would needs disguise the first Four and propose them so weakly guarded that the proofs of all the Six might be of a piece But I have hitherto helped I. K. henceforth I quit that part and go to enter in a down-right opposition to him in what remains CHAP V. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that the Roman Catholick Religion is true J. K. now comes to that which he drove at all along and proves it thus If Christian Religion be true then that Religion which has the same proofs that it hath at least any of them that are solid must needs be true Since then the miraculous propagation of Christianity is a common solid and evident proof of its truth therefore the Roman Catholick Religion must be true since it is solidly proved by the like propagation for though it contains very hard Mysteries in it above the reach of humane reason as Transubstantiation and some very hard Precepts and Counsells as Vows Fasts Confession prohibition for Priests to marry c. yet it hath been propagated over a great part of the world without the help of Arms or humane Enticements by strangers who have converted Nations from Paganism to embrace the Christian Faith as S. Austin the Monk did in England and Xaverius in the Indies and many others in other places which can be manifestly proved from History nor can any exception be made against it which the enemies of Christianity may not make against the same proâ—f brought for the Christian Religion And to use S. Austin's dilemma This propagation of Roman Catholick Religion was either with or without Miracles if with Miracles it must be true since confirmed by Miracles if without them then no Miracle is greater than this propagation By which it appears we have as good ground to be Roman Catholicks as we have to be Christians By this time I suppose it is clear enough why I. K. would bring no better proofs for the Truth of the Christian Religion and now he thinks he has gained his design but what I said in the former Section has undermined this Fabrick since it is made out that the miraculous propagation is neither the only nor the chief proof of Christianity but that before we believe even the Miracles of our Saviour to be of God two things were to be made out the one that his Doctrine was all holy and such as tended to the glory of God the other was that all he said and delivered agreed with the Prophecies had gone before So by the same rule of proceeding we must first see that all the parts of the Roman Religion are holy and such as tend to the glory of God and then that they 〈◊〉 as fully with both the Testaments as our Saviours Doctrine did with 〈◊〉 and the Prophets If this Method be taken I am afraid I. K. will find it a hard task to prove the holinâ—â—s of all the Roman Doctrines What a Sanctuary for all manner of Vice and Impiety is the 〈◊〉 power of Dispensing Pardoning and giving Indulgences for all sins upon such trifling accounts Witness the present year with all the favours and Indulgences to such as go to the thresholds of the Apostles What a patrociny to impenitence is their Opinion of a simple Attrition being sufficient for the Sacrament And the whole trade of their penances and absolutions looks like a design to quiet all mens Consciences let them lead as bad lives as they will Besides who can believe that to be a true Religion that has tolerated a great many Casuists who have found out distinctions to excuse men from all the duties they owe God and their Neighbour and have studied to satisfie men in the most impious and immoral practises A woman that entertains common and avowed Prostitutes will never be thought an honest woman though none could prove her self guilty of any base act So that Church that not only entertains but cherishes those who have studied to discharge mankind of all sense of Religion and Vertue can never pass for a pure Church Nor does the Doctrine of that Church tend wholly to the glory of God as our Saviours did for what greater dishonour can be done him than to Worship him in a way which himself has so often condemned and never since allowed by the representations of Pictures and Images And that instead of addressing their Adorations and Prayers to him by his Son have found out a great many other Mediators both Angels and Saints and the Blessed Virgin Surely this is highly to the dishonour of God when the Souls of people are turned off from their Faith and dependence on him and his blessed Son into a trusting to and calling on Creatures and when instead of that plain simple and rational Worship that is sutable to the Divine nature and pleasing to him the mimical pageantry of a Thousand little apish practises and an unknown Worship are brought into his Church If we likewise consider and measure the Roman Religion by the second great Topick by which our Saviour cleared himself which was his appealing to the Scriptures we will quickly find good reason to suspect them guilty there since they study nothing more than the suppressing and concealing the Scripture and by all means labour to prove it an incompetent rule to decide Controversies by And yet I am sure I. K. will give me no reason to prove the Scriptures an unproper rule for deciding Controversies and that we must submit to the verdict and decree of the Church that might not with more strength been made use of by the Iews against our Saviour And if I carry this consideration as far as it will go it must necessarily lead me to compare all the Doctrines of the Roman Religion with the Scriptures And as if our Saviours Doctrine had been contrary to the Law of Moses there had been no reason to have believed him for all his mighty deeds which in that case might justly have been imputed to evil spirits so now should an Angel from heaven teach any thing contrary to this Doctrine and Gospel he must be anathematized even though he wrought mighty wonders Therefore we are with the Bereans to examine all new Doctrines by their conformity to the Scriptures and till that appear we are not to look on any thing they do as miraculous And thus far I hope I have said enough to convince I. K. that though what he says of the miraculous propagation of the Roman Religion were true it does not from that follow that the Religion it self must be true But I go next to convince him how much he mistook himself in his account when he asserted that the Christian and the
of those Ages and the chief preservative of Piety and good manners so as they have it among them it hath been one of the greatest engines of Hell for driving out of the minds of men all sense of the duties of a holy and good life I do not deny but some Priests among them make good use of it but those being very few it does give but a small allay to the gross corruptions which even many grave and pious Writers of their own Communion complain of and condemn Shall I here mention the giving Absolution and admitting to the Sacrament upon Confession before any part of the Penance be performed the trifling Penances are often enjoyned the taking Confessions from persons unknown the receiving it when it is apparent they are only reciting their sins without any Compunction And for Contrition they confess it is not necessary Now the generality of that Church being perswaded that if they Confess with a little Attrition and be Absolved and receive the Sacrament they stand clear and innocent in the presence of God whatever their former life have been or their present temper may be Is not here a very sure way to defeat the whole design of Religion and Holiness when men are taught so eaâ—ie a way of getting into the favour of God without repenting of and forsaking their sins And thus it appears that in the Roman Church Confession is no severity but a thing very grateful to flesh and blood The last particular I. K. instances is the prohibition of Priests to Marry Truly if to reckon that impure which the holy Spirit of God hath declared honourable in all without exception be a great sublimity they may well glory in it Our Saviour recommended Cellbate only to those who were able to receive it but the Roman Church will force all in Orders to receive it whether they can or not And though S. Paul makes it one of the Characters of a person fit to be a Bishop that he has been married and educated his children well which I shall not stretch so far as either the Greek or the Russian Churches do now and does not at all command him to abandon her and has elsewhere condemned that in all persons without exception except it be for a time in order to fasting and prayer and conform to this the primitive Church did not require the Clergy to abandon their wives but on the contrary did condemn such as did yet the Roman Church has most tyrannically imposed this on all the Clergy And although we read that God will judge Whoremongers and Adulterers but no where that he will judge the Married yet they have been very gentle to these crying scandals which continue to this day and have allowed the Concubinate when they condemned the Marriage of the Clergy By which they shew they prefer the Traditions of men to the Command of God And thus far I have examined this Branch of the parallel I. K. makes between the Roman and the Christian Religion wherein I have been longer than I intended but as short as the particulars he named did allow When he brings the rest of his c. I doubt not it shall appear they are a sequel of such things which the same or the like considerations will clear But I must follow his next step that the Roman Religion hath been propagated over a great part of the world without the help of Arms or humane enticements by strangers who converted many from Paganism that allowed liberty to their Religion that teaches Severities and Mortification To all which I reply That since the Roman Church is still Christian I deny not but God may bless the honest endeavours of a great many of that Communion so that their labours may have great success on Infidels in converting them to Christianity herein God blessing them as he did the Hebrew Midwives whose charitable tender hearts God rewarded building them Houses passing over their lie But I. K. must not insist on this as a good Argument otherways he will be driven into great absurdities Did not the Arrians by Ulphilas his means who was a stranger to the Goths that were a barbarous cruel and yet vastly numerous people convert them both to Christianity and Arrianism at once From whence we find the whole Roman Empire very soon overrun by Arrianism upon the Incursion of the Goths Vandals and Longobards Philostorgius does also inform us that Theophilus an Arrian converted the Indians to the Christian Faith Did not the Greek Church when it was broke from the Roman convert many Nations the Bulgars the Muscovites and many other northern Kingdoms In fine what will I. K. answer according to his own Argument to the great progress of the Doctrine of Luther and Zuinglius who notwithstanding all the opposition they met and all the persecutions their followers suffered yet did so strangely propagate their Doctrine that before half an Age went about the greater half of the Roman Church fell off from the Obedience of that See to their Doctrine which holds all the Mysteries of the Christian Religion and there was no need of more and instead of all the Juglings the Roman Priests had brought in teaching men an easie way to Heaven did preach all the severities of a holy Life which our Saviour and his Apostles taught And as they taught a severer course of Life to all Christians I do not speak of the particular severities of some Orders in the Roman Church but what must be the necessary conditions upon which all may hope for Salvation so they advanced this without Arms and under great Persecutions And here I. K. must think how he will answer his own Dilemma That either this was done with Miracles or without them if with them the Doctrine must be true that was confirmed by Miracles if without them that propagation was a great Miracle and thus I. K. will find it hard to avoid the dint of his own Argument Besides when I. K. speaks of the propagation of the Roman Religion he must not prove that from the propagation of Christianity by persons of that Religion though the same Instruments might at the same time have engaged their new Converts to the particular conceits of that Church For as it was observed before God blessing the sincerity of their Labours so that they made Converts to the Christian Doctrine that has so much to be said for it that it is a wonder all the world did not receive it it was not strange if those so converted seeing the foundation of the Divine Mission of Iesus Christ to be true did either in humble gratitude to their charitable Instructors pay them all the returns of acknowledgment and Obedience or being ignorant of that Doctrine which was wholly new to them did easily receive and imbibe any particular Opinions they might infuse in them and so at the same time became Votaries to Christ and to Rome But if I. K. will deal fairly and satisfyingly he must
shew us how their Religion as it is distinct from the commonly received truths of Christianity was so miraculously propagated and that in the points which we chiefly challenge as the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome with his being the Universal Bishop of the Church the forbidding the use of the Scripture to the Laicks and the Worship in an unknown tongue the use of Images in the Worship of God the Invocating of Saints and Angels the belief of Transubstantiation the Sacrifice of the Mass and the taking the Chalice from the people the belief of Purgatory the Treasure of the Church and Indulgences with a long c. I. K. knows well that many have given very particular and full Histories of the rise and progress of these abuses with which we charge the Roman Church and for which she having obstinately refused to reform them on the contrary binding them on the Consciences of all with new and heavier Anathema's we have separated our selves from her Communion That those are not in the Scripture it is plain enough and we will not decline a tryal upon all hazards by the verdict of the first four Ages It is true in the fifth Century the Incursion of the Goths and Vandals did very much change the face of things and bring on a black night of ignorance on the greater part of Christendom which made way for gross Superstition and the bold pretences of the Bishops of Rome And I. K. is very much out in his accounts that says the propagation of the Roman Religion was without Arms. Was not that dearest part of it the authority of the Popes the occasion of many long and bloody wars in Germany and Italy And for their conversion of Hereticks the third Decree of the Council of Lateran and the practises of the Inquisitions were the surest means of effectuating it And what humane enticements were wanting to draw men into their Religion The cherishing of such Kings as were firm to them and the making over to them the Rights of their Neighbouring Princes were pretty enticing baits Witness their getting Pipin into the Throne of France their inviting him and his Son to the Conquest of the Lombards with many other Instances And was there ever found out such an enticement for men of carnal tempers who yet retained some belief of Religion as the power of pardoning indulging and exchanging of penances So that this whole account of I. K's fails him when put to the issue of a severe tryal though it looked pretty smooth and fair to an overly considerer But in end I will add a few considerations of the methods of the first propagation of Christianity and from these it will appear how different those were from any thing the Roman Church can pretend to First the Propagators of Christianity went witnessing the truth of what was publickly seen and known without any other design of their own either to engross power or riches Now whether this be the method of the Roman Church I refer it even to their own Histories if their great care hath not always been to get Ambassadors sent to Rome with the offer of their obedience and great submissions of which nothing appears in the first conversion of the world to Christianity Secondly the first Converters of the world studied to draw Mankind to a great acknowledgement of the inestimable Blessings we received by Iesus Christ and to the making sutable returns by addressing our selves to the Father by him and living according to his Gospel Now the greatest care of most of the Apostles of the Roman Church was to propagare the worship of Creatures to give Patrons to whole Nations and teach them to build Churches to those and above all to the blessed Virgin of which no footsteps appear in the first Conversion to Christianity And instead of the strictness of a holy life and an humble charitable temper they have set up a vast multitude of little observances which may be received and yet the life of sin remain still strong and in vigour Thirdly the first Propagators of Christianity studied by all possible means to wean people from all kind of Idolatry and to make theâ— serve the living God and worship him in Spirit and in Truth Now how far the Roman Church hath declined from this is apparent and that they have studied rather to change than overthrow their Idolatry giving them little Pictures Medals and Agnus Dei's and Reliques for their worship Fourthly those that laboured first to convert the world to the Christian Religion studied to make all understand what they taught them gave them the Scriptures in their own tongue and forms of Worship which they understood and could well make use of But the Emissaries of Rome deny their Converts these helps and so would hood them into a blind receiving of all they shall propose to them and keep them still under their Authority and so teach them Prayers in a tongue they do not understand Fifthly those that first converted the world did by many Miracles wrought in the sight of all convince and convert them to the Faith and these Miracles were grave useful actions as the curing of diseases the casting out of devils the procuring them good seasons and other temporal blessings and all this was done in the name and to the honour of Jesus Christ. But the Roman Agents wanting these real Miracles have betaken themselves to the shameful forgeries of strange Visions and Apparitions and of ridiculous Miracles with so vast a superfetation of them that few even of their own Communion can read these Legends of their grand Apostles â—ithout a just disdain at such palpâ—â—â—â— impostures â—â—xthly the first propagation of Christianity was when there was no Secular power to support it or those who laboured in it so that they exposed themselves to all the dangers of hunger and cold of scorn and reproach being assured of no supply not assistance from men and yet God appeared so â—xtraordinarily with them that their success was plainly the work of Heaven But the Bishops of Rome becoming great Princes sent out Agents to make new Conquests well furnished and powerfully supported so that they went like Ambassadors from one Prince to another to treat an Alliance wherein there was little hazard and great hope of success by the advantageous terms were offered on both sides And therefore after Charles the great had conquered Germany and was become a terror to the Northern Kings the Bishops of Rome sent their Agents to labour in their Conversion which was an easie matter and had no difficulty in it And Seventhly the first Conversion of the world to Christianity was signally the finger of God since though it met with the greatest Opposition from the Secular powers and was persecuted every where and for many Ages yet it prevailed and though the first Converts were poor mechanical and simple persons yet great wisdom and constancy appeared in them to the amazement of the Philosophers and other
an Infallible Judge and of the great and visible inconveniencies that appear from the want of it in those Churches that have departed from the Roman Communion I have not long ago proposed a great many Queries to one of I. K's brethren in which I have set before him the many difficulties they must needs be involved in by clearing who this Infallible Judge must be and I shall here repeat nothing of what I said then but shall go on to shew upon what clear and certain grounds we may rest our perswasions about Articles of Faith and divine Truths All Arts and Sciences must be acquired by some rules and methods by which a progress may be made from plainer things to those that are more involved and difficult and if any would desire to understand any Theorem or Problem in Geometry without beginning at the Elements and advancing by Euclid or some other such methods he labours in vain So also if any would without more ado study to know a secret in Chymistry having neither learned to know the terms of Art nor the course of a process he shall not be the wiser though one deliver him their best secrets In like manner if a man will enter into the knowledge of Divine truth without any of those preparations which are necessary he is in a wrong way and the further he engages he is the more out of the way nor can he be ever in the right way till he begin afresh It may justly seem strange that Christian Religion was so plain a thing when the Apostles first delivered it that mean simple people poor women and an illiterate company should have understood it and that it subdued a great part of the Roman Empire before men of great Learning were Converted to the belief of it and all the knowledge they then had of it was by the Sermons and Epistles of the holy Apostles which remain to this day And though at this distance from that time we may have lost the true meaning of some phrases and we have not so particular a History of the state of the first Churches as might help us to understand many passages that seem very dark to us yet for the main of those Books they seem very easie and plain We have also still so perfect a knowledge of the Greek tongue as clearly to understand them But after all this Christian Religion is now become such a strange kind of secret that men with all their Learning and Study can scarce understand it Certainly we must have either changed Religion from what it was at first so that it hath now put on a new face or we are much mistaken in our methods of enquiring into it and examining what things are revealed to us by God S. Paul tells us the Natural man receives not the things of God neither indeed can be for they are spiritually discerned From which it appears that a Renovation of the mind from its natural mould and its being transformed into a spiritual temper are necessary as well for the understanding and discerning as the obeying the things of God Now all natural men may be divided into three Classes either they are so immersed in senses and sensible things that all their apprehensions are tinctured with the figures and phantasms which their senses and imaginations present to them or they rise a little above this but are so governed by the heats of nature and passion that either their minds are rendred quite incapable of all serious thoughts or so distorted in them that they do not discern them truly But the highest elevation of the natural man is Reason which hath a fairer appearance and if rightly managed would certainly advance him to a spiritual temper but being fed only with dry Notions and trying them by a false touchstone does strenghthen our errors fortifie our prejudices and swell us with pride and fret us with the itch of an unsatisfiable and useless curiosity Now it will not be ungrateful it is hoped to propose the great hinderances all these several Modifications of the Natural man have given to the right understanding Divine truths and to begin with those of the lowest form One whose mind is immersed in sense either believes nothing but what his senses propose to him or at least tinctures all his Notions with sensible objects Thus the Atheist believes no God because he cannot see him and those of the heathens over whom the power of their senses was strong yet not such as to overcome the Impressions of a Deity left on their Souls did believe the Sun Moon and Stars were Gods being both dazled with the brighter splendor of the day and delighted with the fainter shinings of the night And finding both the pleasant Lightsomness the warm Benignity and fruitful usefulness of their Beams they did adore them as gods and seeing strange effects answering some of their positions and aspects they came to imagine all humane things were governed by them and so framed an entire Theory if so ill grounded a thing can deserve that name of Astrology Others much taken with the greatness and glory of brave Commanders and Princes and having some Notion of the Souls Immortality on their minds did think that after their death they governed this inferiour world and to those Heroes they assigned Stars to dwell in and those gods they represented either by some Symbols the chief whereof was Fire or by some Statues Pillars or other pieces of Sculpture which at least represented that Deity to their Senses if it had not some strangely Magical and Divine influence united or affixed to it They did also prognosticate all future things either by the flight or feeding of Birds or by the inwards of Animals Here then a Religion entirely framed from the Conceptions of the Natural man in its lowest depression and their gross Notions of Religion made them both prejudiced against the Iews who worshipped nothing but a Celestial Deity and more against the Christians whom they called Atheists because they had none of those sensible representations or ways of Worship but their Faith was plain and simple But as the Natural man did thus corrupt the notices of natural Religion it did no less embase the Christian Religion When many natural men were engaged in the profession of it either by Education Custom or Interest who loathing its simple purity did study so to dress it up that it might gratifie their natural minds by bringing in the worship of deceased men and by worshipping them by Images Pictures Reliques and at length making Pictures for the Deity it self and by dressing up all the parts of Religious Worship so as to amuse and delight the senses by affecting an outward grandeur in Processions and other Festivals and in the greatness of their Priests chiefly of their high Priest all which were visibly the effects of minds deeply engaged in sensible things to whom nothing appeared sacred or solemn without it had been adorned with all the
by a curious improving those hoped that their other faults should be more easily forgiven both by God and man Afterwards a great many notions were found out if not for a direct defence of those disorders yet for palliating them and allaying the grief for them A devotion to Saints was one great Engine the opinion of many sins being expiated in Purgatory together with the belief of the Popes power of Redeeming from it was an universal Medicine for all diseases of Conscience Then the dispensing with Vowes Covenants and most of all Duties was a great ease to the natural man There were also some new coined duties of Religion which did agree well with their passions such as fighting for Religion against Infidels Hereticks and others that were excommunicated by the Pope and a violent persecuting of all who in any point departed from the received Opinions And their Auricular Confessions easie Penances and ready Absolutions were sure and Infallible means to reconcile them to Religion after it was so debased as to meet them more than half way But when a great part of Europe was delivered from those more apparent Impostures the natural man did not for all that give over his practising upon Religion to frame it to his own taste and a fondness on some reformed Opinions with a Reverence for the Persons of the Teachers came to be set up by many as all they drave at But cunninger Arts were also found out and some sacred truths did insensibly become so abused as to be made the excuses of sins especially as they were stretched by the corruptions of men which were much encouraged by many unwary expressions of some hot Divines who in the eagerness of dispute had said many things that were not to be justified Hence it was that the Doctrine of Christs dying for sinners and being their Sacrifice by which the guilt of their sins was expiated and they reconciled to God was used by many for a security for men to sin as pleased them so they but trusted to Christ and because perfection was not attained in this life it was held unattainable and sin insuperable Nor could men be much afflicted for sin nor guard diligently against it who believed they were inevitably led and determined to it especially when that was thought done by God himself and fighting for Religion against the supream Authority was also by many made a great demonstration of their zeal for God and Religion and a surious bitter zeal against all who departed from their Opinions whether to the one hand or to the other was looked on as a great evidence of Grace and Love to God And it is plain in many persons Religion does not so much mortifie their passions and lusts as palliate and disguise them or at most change their object but not their nature Men of Cholerick dispositions placing all Religion in an eager violent yea and if need be a bloody maintaining all their Opinions about matters of Faith The melancholy men put it all in abstraction and recluseness valuing themselves much upon it and undervaluing others that were not so retired Others of a more sanguine Complexion finding either great excuses for all their levities and follies or if more serious turning all their thoughts to the dressing up some pretty Notion And thus men not forming their minds by the dictates and precepts of Religion but framing it according to their own tempers so as might best suit their inclinations did hold the truth in unrighteousness And thus again the natural man did adulterate the notions of Religion which are spiritually discerned But the last and greatest because both strongest and subtilest assault that Nature made upon Religion was by the misguidings of ill directed and ill managed Reason The former prejudices were more visible and could not be so well defended but this was managed with a deeper cunning And first the great value that the Masters and pretenders to Learning and Reason had of themselves made them scornfully reject all Instruction stiffly maintain all they had once asserted and despise every one that differed from them Hence it was that the Philosophers broke into so many divisions being as is apparent mightily swelled in self-conceit so that they scorned to yield to one another but employed all their wit and eloquence to justifie their own Notions how absurd soever Now this is the temper in the world the most incapable of instruction and this their pride they carried higher laughing at all Inspiration as a kind of madness which therefore they despised and thought that their Reason was able to penetrate into the deepest and secretest mysteries And as this occasioned a numberless variety of opinions so it made them despise the first preachings of Christianity in which as there was none of their Metaphysical canting so poor illiterate men delivering it they who valued themselves on their Learning and their noble generous tempers rejected it with scorn which was fed with the contempt they had for the first Converts who were either such as they called Barbarians or men of mean Education and Employments But after an Age or two many of those were by the prevailing progress of Christianity Converted to the Faith and did for some Ages very good service to it But diverse of their Successors retaining the old temper of the Philosophers the debates about Religion begun to be managed with an unyielding ambition and Anathema's were the common sanctions with which they imposed their Opinions And at length one of the Bishops assumed to himself and Successors the absolute authority of judging and deciding all Controversies which though the most unreasonable opinion in the world and that which destroys the free and right use of Reason yet was brought in on the highest pretences of Reason as the only mean to end all disputes And when a great many errors were visibly got into their Church and some rose who with all the evidence of Reason imaginable laid open these and pressed them to disown and reform them they continued in their stubborness multiplied their Anathema's and wreathed all their errors in one Chain as S. Iames had done the Law of God and imposed all without mercy And for doing this they brought their Janizaries whom they had educated in Nurseries at fencing cudgelling and the other discipline of Pen-slaughter and Ink-shed These Schoolmen who had been well trained to dispute about every thing and stubbornly to maintain every position how trifling or how false soever with all confidence and earnestness were brought to give Battel and they as Mercenaries who expected good preferments did fight it out most obstinately nothing was too disingenious for their confidence no Author was so spurious but they would vouch his testimony no place of Scripture sounded favourably to their Opinions but though it had been never so plain that it was to be understood in a different sence was brought as a certain proof no maxim of the Schools no old fustian distinction was