to dissenters and prevent all vehemencies of captious dispute all schisms and unnecessary separations and many Wars and Persecutions upon the account of Religion For if the things in which Men differ be not Religion be not Faith and Fundamental If this be true and this truth acknowledg'd All these would want pretence and so Peace and Vnity would possess the spirits of Men. They saw that Religion which was shaken by divisions and rendred suspected of uncertainty through the mixture of uncertain things would stand safe and firm when 't was lay'd only upon the plain infallible undoubted propositions That holiness would thrive when Mens zeal was taken off from talking and disputing against others and directed inwards to the government of themselves and the reformation of their own hearts and lives That Papism which in those times of distraction began to spread even here would drop to the ground if it were believed That the necessary principles of Religion were few and plain and those agreed on For then there would be no need of an Infallible Interpreter and Judge I say They were sensible that all the great Interests of Religion and Mankind might be served by the acknowledgment of this one Reasonable Principle which they saw was the only way to bring us to stability and consistence â—…o Peace and Vnion In Consequence of this Spirit and Doctrine they discours'd the things wherein they differ'd from others with mildness and modesty without anger and damning sentences and afforded their converses to all sorts of good Men though they believ'd them mistaken They never exprest rage in their conversations or discourses against bare errours and mistakes of judgment But for the pride and confidence censoriousness and groundless separations that are the frequent attendants of different opinions These sometimes mov'd them to anger and expression of just resentment because they look'd on them as great Immoralities and very pernicious sins And on the occasion of these spiritual vices they were warmed with zeal against the Sectaries and Bigots for the taking down of whose pride and confidence They thought it necessary to detect the Impostors and to expose their vanities which they did successfully and shew'd That their Divinity consisted most in Phrases and their boasted spirituality in fond affections That their new lights were but freakish fancies and old Heresies revived and the precious Mysteries of their Theology but conceited absurdities and non-sense in a fantastick dress They happily drew the parallel between our Separatists and those antient ones the Pharisees and proved that the same spirit acted the Ataxites that govern'd those Jewish Fanaticks And because their pretences were taking and specious and had caught great numbers of the easie well meaning people of Bensalem Therefore to disabuse them they labour'd much to shew the shortness of their kind of Godliness and the danger of placing all Religion in Praying Hearing Zeal Rapture Mysteries and Opinions Accordingly they declar'd and prov'd That 1. Fluency and Pathetick eloquence in suddain Prayer may proceed and doth many time from excited passion and warm imagination from a peculiar temper and heated melancholly That these are no sign that a man prays by the spirit nor do they argue him to be one jot the better then those that want the faculty or any whit the more accepted of God for it That to pray by the spirit is to pray with Faith Desire and Love and that a Man may pray by the spirit and with a Form 2. That people may delight to hear from other causes then conscience and a desire to be directed in the government of their Lives That hearing is very grateful to some because it feeds their opinions and furnisheth their tongues and inables them to make a great shew of extraordinary Saint-ship They represented that meer animal Men and fond lovers of themselves may be much taken with hearing of the Gracious promises and Glorious priviledges of the Gospel when at the same time they are told they are all theirs and theirs peculiarly and exclusively to the rest of Mankind That pride and vanity and self-love will recommend and indear such preaching That it is most luscious to fond and conceited men to hear how much better and more precious they are then their Neighbours how much dearer to God and more favour'd by him what an interest they have in free distinguishing Grace and how very few have a share in it besides themselves How their enemies are hated of God and how sad a condition they are in who differ from them in practices and opinions To doat on such preaching and admiringly to follow such Preachers They shew'd was but to be in love with flattery and self-deceit That it was no sign of Godliness but an evident argument of pride malice and immoderate selfishness That these are the true causes of the zeal and earnestness of many after Sermons and of the pleasure that they have in hearing though they would perswade others and believe themselves that the love of Religion and sence of duty are the only motives that prevail with them 3. Concerning zeal They taught That zeal in it self is indifferent and made good or bad as it's objects and incentives are That meer education and custom natural conscience and particular complexion do sometimes make Men very zealous about things of Religion That though the fervours of the Ataxites for their Doctrines and ways were not all feigned but real and sincere Yet their zeal was nothing worth being but meer natural passion kindled by a fond delight in their own self chosen practices and opinions That their coldness to the great known necessary duties of Justice Charity Obedience Modesty and Humility was an evident sign that their heat for pretended Orthodox tenents and modes of worship had nothing Divine in it That true zeal begins at home with self-reformation and that where it was imployed altogether about amendments of external Religion and publick Government it was pernicious not only to the World but to a Mans self also 4. And because the heights of zeal ran up sometimes into raptures and exstacies which were look'd on as wonderful appearances of God in the thus transported persons Therefore here also They undeceived the people as I said in the general before by shewing That these alienations may be caused naturally by the power of a strong fancy working upon violent affections That they together may and do oft produce deliquiums of sense That the Imagination working then freely and without contradiction or disturbance from the external senses and being wholly imploy'd about Religious matters may form to it self strange Images of extraordinary apparitions of God and Angels of Voices and Revelations which being forcibly imprest on the fancy may beget a firm belief in the exstaticall person that all these were divine manifestations and discoveries and so he confidently thinks himself a Prophet and an inspired Man and vents all his conceits for Seraphick truths and holy Mysteries And by the vehemency
highly pleased with those Engagements I found as much diversion in them as in my dearest Recreations But after I had spent some years in those Notional Studies perhaps with as good success as some others I began to think CVI BONO and to consider what these things would signifie in the World of Action and Business I say I thought but I could find no encouragement to proceed from the Answer my thoughts made me I ask'd my self what Accounts I could give of the Works of God by my Philosophy more than those that have none and found that I could amaze and astonish Ignorance with Distinctions and Words of Art but not satisfie ingenious Inquiry by any considerable and material Resolutions I consider'd I had got nothing all this while but a certain readiness in talking and that about things which I could not use abroad without being Pedantick and ridiculous I perceived that that Philosophy aimed at no more than the instructing Men in Notion and Dispute That its Design was mean and its Principles at the best uncertain and precarious That they did not agree among themselves nor at all with Nature I examined the best Records I could meet with about the Author of those current Hypotheses but could not be assured that Aristotle was he I saw many Reasons to believe that most of the Books that bear his Name are none of his and those that are most strongly presumed to be so are mightily altered and corrupted by Time Ignorance Carelesness and Design I perceived that the Commentators and late Disputers had exceedingly disguised and changed the Sense of those very Writings and made up a Philosophy that was quite another thing from that which those Books contain So that by these means I was by degrees taken off from the implicit Veneration I had for that Learning upon the account of the great Name of Aristotle which it bore And thus the great impediment was removed and the prejudice of Education overcome when I thought further That useful Knowledge was to be look'd for in God's great Book the Vniverse and among those generous Men that had convers'd with real Nature undisguised with Art and Notion And still I saw more of the justice of the excellent Poet's Censure of those Notional Philosophers when he saith They stand Lock'd up together hand in hand Every one leads as he is led The same bare Path they tread And dance like Fairies a phantastick Round But neither change their Motion nor their Ground From this Philosophy therefore and these Men I diverted my Eyes and Hopes and fixt them upon those Methods that I have recommended which I am sure are liable to none of those Imputations And here I think fit to add a Caution which I have given in another Discourse and do it once more to prevent a dangerous misunderstanding viz. And it is That I have said nothing of this to discourage young Academians from applying themselves to those first Studies which are in use in the Vniversities Their Statutes require Exercises in that way of Learning and so much knowledge of it as inables for those Duties is very fit Nor do I deny but that those Speculations raise quicken and whet the Vnderstanding and on that account may not be altogether unprofitable with respect to the more useful Inquisitious provided it keep it self from being nice airy and addicted too much to general Notions But this is the danger and the greatest part run upon the Rock The hazard of which might in great measure be avoided if the Mathematicks and Natural History were mingled with these other Studies which would indeed be excellent Preparatives and Dispositions to future Improvements And I add further That the young Philosophers must take care of looking on their Systematick Notious as the bounds and perfections of Knowledge nor make account to fix eternally upon those Theories as establish'd and infallible Certainties But consider them in the modest sense of Hypotheses and as things they are to take in their passage to others that are more valuable and important I say The Peri-patetick Studies thus temper'd will not I suppose be disal-lowed by those who are for the Practical Methods and so the Vniversity-Establishments can receive no prejudice from the Spirit that dislikes a perpetual acquiescence in the Philosophy of the present Schools The USEFULNESS OF Real Philosophy TO RELIGION Essay IV. Essay IV. THE USEFULNESS OF Real Philosophy TO RELIGION IT is the perverse Opinion of hasty inconsiderate Men that the study of Nature is prejudicial to the Interests of Religion And some who are more zealous than they are wise endeavour to render the Naturalist suspected of holding secret correspondence with the Atheist which things if really they were so 't were fit that the Writings of Philosophers should be sent after the Books of curious Arts that were voted to Destruction by Apostolick Authority and Zeal and then were they all laid together in a fired heap and one Drop from my Finger would quench the Flames I would not let fall that Drop But 't is to be hoped there is no such guilt or danger in the case we may suppose rather that those unkind surmisals concerning natural Wisdom are the effects of superstitious Ignorance yea I doubt they are some of the Reliques of that Barbarism that made Magick of Mathematicks and Heresie of Greek and Hebrew And now were this gross conceit about the Knowledge of Nature only the fear and fancy of the meer vulgar it were to be pardon'd easily and lightly to be consider'd but the worst is the infection of the weak jealousie hath spread it self among some of those whose Lips should preserve Knowledge and there are I doubt divers of the Instructers of the People who should endeavour to deliver them from the vain Images of Fancy that foment those fears in their own Imaginations and theirs For the sake of such and those others who are capable of Conviction I shall endeavour to justific sober Inquisitions into God's Works and to shew that they are not only innocent but very useful in most of the Affairs wherein Religion is concerned This I shall do for more clearness of proof by a gradual motion of Discourse from things that are plain and acknowledg'd which I shall touch briefly to the main Matter I would enforce In this order I. That God is to be praised for his Works II. That his Works are to be studied by those that would praise him for them III. That the study of Nature and God's Works is very serviceable to Religion IV. That the Ministers and Professors of Religion ought not to discourage but promote the knowledge of Nature and the Works of its Author THe FIRST contains two things viz. That God is to be praised and particularly for his Works The former is the constant Voice of Scripture and Universal Nature He is worthy to be praised saith the Kingly Prophet 2 Sam. 22. 4. Greatly to be praised saith the same Royal Saint 1
delivered to the Saints and hereby Heresies are said to be confuted and overthrown So that the disabling and suppressing of Disputes seems to be a weakening rather than any advantage to Religion and the Concernments of it To this I say That by the Faith we are to contend for I conceive the Essentials and certain Articles are meant These we may and we ought to endeavour to defend and promote as there is occasion and we have seen how the Real Philosophy will help our Reasons in that Service But pious Contentions for these are not the disputings of which I am now discoursing those are stiff Contests about uncertain Opinions And such I dare very boldly say are no Contentions for the Faith but the Instruments of the greatest mischiefs to it As for those other Disputes that are used to convince Men of the Truths of the Gospel and the great Articles thereof and for the disproving Infidelity and Heresie they are necessary and Philosophy is an excellent help in such Contests So that those other Objections pleadable from the necessity of proving and trying our Faith and convincing Hereticks From the Example of our Saviour's disputing with the Doctors and the Sadduces and of St. Paul at Athens with the Jews These and such other little Cavils can signifie nothing to the disadvantage of what I have said about the Humour of Disputing in Matters of doubtful and uncertain Opinions against which the Real Philosophy is an Antidote ANd thus I have shewn under five material Heads That the knowledge of Nature and the Works of God promotes the greatest Interests of Religion and by the three last it appears how fundamentally opposite it is to all Schism and Fanaticism which are made up and occasioned by Superstition Enthusiasm and ignorant perverse Disputings So that for Atheists and Sadduces and Fanaticks to detest and inveigh against Philosophy is not at all strange 'T is no more than what may well be expected from Men of that sort Philosophy is their Enemy and it concerns them to disparage and reproach it But for the Sober and Religious to do any thing so unadvised and so prejudicial to Religion is wonderful and deplorable To set these right in their Judgment about Philosophical Inquiry into God's Works is the Principal design of these Papers and in order to the further promoting of it I advance to the last Head of Discourse proposed viz. IV. THat the Ministers and Professors of Religion ought not to discourage but promote the knowledge of Nature and the Works of its Author This is the result of the whole Matter and follows evidently upon it And though it will not infer a necessity of all Mens deep search into Nature yet this it will That no Friend or Servant of Religion should hinder or discountenance such Inquiries And though most private Christians and some publick Ministers have neither leisure nor ability to look into Matters of natural Research and Inquisition yet they ought to think candidly and wish well to the endeavours of those that have and 't is a sin and a folly either in the one or other to censure or discourage those worthy Undertakings So that I cannot without trouble observe how apt some are that pretend much to Religion and some that minister in it to load those that are studious of God's Works with all the studious Names that contempt and spight can suggest The Irreligion of which injurious carriage nothing can excuse but their ignorance And I will rather hope that they neither know what they say nor what they do than believe that they have any direct design against the Glory of their Maker or against any laudable endeavours to promote it I know well what mischief Prejudice will do even upon Minds that otherwise are very honest and intelligent enough And there are many common slanders and some plausible Objections in the Mouths of the Zealous against Philosophy which have begot an ill Opinion of it in well-meaning Men who have never examined things with any depth of Inquiry For the sake of such I shall produce the most considerable Allegations of both sorts and I hope make such returns to them as may be sufficient to satisfie those whose Minds are not barr'd by Obstinacy or Ignorance I speak first of the bold and broad Slanders among which that I. Of Atbeism is one of the most ordinary But certainly 't is one of the most unjust Accusations that Malice and Ignorance could have invented This I need not be industrious to prove here having made it appear that Philosophy is one of the best Weapons in the World to defend Religion against it and my whole Discourse is a confutation of this envious and foolish charge Concerning it I take notice That Philosophical Men are usually dealt with by the Zealous as the greatest Patrons of the Protestant Cause are by the Sects For as the Bishops and other Learned Persons who have most strongly oppugned the Romish Faith have had the ill luck to be accused of Popery themselves in like manner it happens to the humblest and deepest Inquisitors into the Works of God who have the most and fullest Arguments of his Existence have raised impregnable Ramparts with much industry and pious pains against the Atheists and are the only Men that can with success serve Religion against the Godless Rout These Superstitious Ignorance hath always made the loudest out-cry against as if themselves were guilty of that which they have most happily oppugned and defeated And the certain way to be esteemed an Atheist by the fierce and ignorant Devoto's is to study to lay the Foundations of Religion sure and to be able to speak groundedly and to purpose against the desperate Cause of the black Conspirators against Heaven And the greatest Men that have imploy'd their Time and Thoughts this way have been pelted with this Dirt while they have been labouring in the Trenches and indeavouring to secure the Foundations of the Holy Fabrick But besides I observe That narrow angry People take occasion to charge the freer Spirits with Atheism because they move in a larger Circle and have no such fond adherence to some Opinions which they adore and count Sacred And for my own part I confess I have not Superstition enough in my Spirit or Nature to incline me to doat upon all the Principles I judge true or to speak so dogmatically about them as I perceive confident and disputing Men are wont But contenting my self with a firm assent to the few practical Fundamentals of Faith and having fix'd that end of the Compass I desire to preserve my Liberty as to the rest holding the other in such a posture as may be ready to draw those Lines my Judgment informed by the Holy Oracles the Articles of our Church the Apprehensions of wise Antiquity and my particular Reason shall direct me to describe And when I do that 't is for my self and my own satisfaction but am not concern'd to impose my Sentiments
Countenance He had on a long Robe of Purple Silk and a kind of Turban on his Head of the same colour which had a Star of Gold wrought on it worn just before He imbraced me with much affection expressing great satisfaction in the opportunity of entertaining me alone He enquired after the welfare of our People and whether we wanted any Accommodation either for our Whole or Sick I bowed with a low reverence and answer'd That we wanted nothing but an occasion to speak our acknowledgments of the Bounty and Humanity of that blessed Place and particularly to express how much we were oblidg'd to his Lordships generous favours He replyed smiling That Complements were not in use in Bensalem and taking me by the hand he led me into an handsome square Chamber wainscotted with Cedar which fill'd the Room with a very grateful odour It was richly painted gilt and full of Inscriptions in Letters of Gold He sate him down on a Couch of Green Velvet and made me take my place by him After some more particular inquiry into the condition of our Sick of whom I gave him an account he told me That the Father of Solomon's House commanded him to acquaint me with the state of Religion in Bensalem as himself had with the condition of Philosophy there and that he would have done this too but that the urgent Business of the Publick State which lay upon him would not afford him time I rose up at these words and answered with a low submission That I knew not in what terms to express my sense of the Father's Condescention and Goodness and that his excellent Relation of the state of Philosophy and its ways of improvement in that Kingdom had inflamed me with desire to know what I might concerning the Affairs of its Religion since the so miraculous plantation of Christianity in it And particularly Whether it had kept its ancient Purity and Simplicity in that Realm which was lost in most other places This Question replyed He making me sit down again by him I shall fully answer in the things I have to say to you and having paused a little to settle his Thoughts he began his Narrative in this manner AFTER the Conversion of this Land by the Evangelism of St. Bartholomew of which you have heard Religion underwent some Revolutions that I shall not mention But take my ground from the last which hapned no very long time since For the understanding which you must know That upon the South-West of this place in the unknown Ocean also lies an Island famous for the rise it gave to a very spreading Sect in Religion From this unfortunate Country came certain Zealous Persons hither that pretended to extraordinary Illuminations and to more purity strictness and Spirituality than other Christians They taught That our Rites and Government were Superstitious and Anti-christian That we wanted Pure Ordinances and Gospel-Worship That our Good Works and Christian Vertues were nothing worth That the best of our People were but Formalists and meer moral Men That our Priests were uninlightned strangers to the Power of Godliness and Mysteries of Religion and that there was a necessity of a thorow Godly Reformation of our Government and Worship The Men at first were only gazed upon by our People as strange Persons But at length by the vehemence of their Zeal and glory of their Pretences they began to make impression on some who had more Affection than Judgment By them and the continuance of their own restless Importunities they wrought upon others And in process of time and endeavour through the secret Judgment and Permission of God prevail'd so far that the great Body of the People especially of those that were of warm and Enthusiastick Tempers was leaven'd more or less with their Spirit and Doctrines Here he stopt a little and then said 'T is wonderful to consider how some Ages and Times are dispos'd to changes some to one sort of alteration and some to another In this Age one Sect and Genius spreads like Infection as if the publick Air were poisoned with it and again in that those same Doctrines and Fancies will not thrive at all but die in the hands of their Teachers while a contrary or very different sort flies and prevails mightily There is something extraordinary in this the contemplation of which would be noble Exercise but not for our present purpose 'T is enough to note That the Age at the coming of those Seducers hither was inclined to Innovation and to such particular sorts of it So that in few years the generality of the Zealous and less considerate were tainted with those new and gay Notions And so pâ—…ssest they were with the conceit of the divineness and necessity of their Fancies and Models that they despised and vilified the Ecclesiastical Government and Governors and vehemently assaulted our most excellent SALOMONA the King of this Realm with continual Petitions and Addresses to establish them by Law and to change the whole Constitution of Religion in complyance with their Imaginations But he was a Wise and Religious Prince He saw the folly and danger of such Alterations and endeavour'd by all the ways of Lenity and Goodness to allay the heat of their unreasonable Prosecutions But they being the more emboldned by this moderate Course and provoked by the little inclination the good King shew'd to their New Models broke out after some less violent struglings into down-right Rebellion which after many Revolutions too long to be mention'd now succeeded so far at last that the Pious Prince was depos'd and murder'd the Government usurp'd by the prevailing Tyrants And not to mention the disorders of the Civil State that follow'd the Ecclesiastical was most miserable For now all the Sects that have a Name in History in any part of the known World started up in this Church as if they had all been transplanted hither They arose as it were out of the Earth which seem'd to bring forth nothing but Monsters full grown at their Birth with Weapons in their hands ready for Battel and accordingly they fell one upon another with strange rage and fierceness For having torn and destroyed the Ancient Doctrine and Government every one contended to set up its own and to have its beloved Opinions and Models entertain'd and worship'd as the infallible Truths and Ways of God So that all places were fill'd with New Lights and those Lights were so many Wild-Fires that put all into Combustion We saw nothing of Religion but glaring Appearances and Contention about the Shells and Shadows of it It seem'd to run out wholly into Chaff and Straw into Disputes and Vain Notions which were not only unprofitable but destructive to Charity Peace and every pious Practice All was Controversie and Dissention full of Animosity and Bitterness For though they agreed in some common Falshoods and Follies yet that made no Vnion every dissent in smallest Matters was ground enough for a Quarrel and Separation
Religion different from that of other Catholick Christians but were faithful adherers to the old acknowledg'd Christianity as it was taught by the Church of Bensalem To this Church they conform'd heartily though they were distinguishable from some others of her Sons by the application of their Genius and Endeavours I have told you They grew up among the Sects They were Born and Bred in that Age which they could not help But as they order'd the Matter it was no hurt to the Church or them that they were educated in bad times They had the occasion thence of understanding the Genius Humour and Principles of the Parties which those that stood always at distance from them could not so thorowly and inwardly know By that means they had great advantage for providing and applying the Remedies and Confutations that were proper and effectual And by daily Converse and near Observation they setled in their Minds a dislike of those ways that was greater and juster than the Antipathy of some others who saw only their out-sides that in many things were specious and plausible They studied in the Places where some of the chief of the Sects govern'd and those that were ripe for the Service preach'd publickly as other Academical Divines did This they scrupled not because they were young and had been under no explicit ingagements to those Laws that were then unhappily over-ruled But in those and in their other Vniversity-Exercises they much serv'd the Interest of the Church of Bensalem by undermining the Ataxites so the Sectaries are here call'd and propagating the Anti-fanatical Doctrines which they had entertain'd and improved So that I cannot look upon that Spirit otherwise than as an Antidote that Providence then seasonably provided against the deadly Infection of those days On which account they were by some call'd the Anti-fanites because of their peculiar opposition of the Fans or Fanites as the Ataxites were sometimes named And though some Persons thought fit to judge and spoke of Them as a new Sort of Divines Yet they were not to be so accounted in any sense of disparagement since the new Things they taught were but contradictions of the new Things that were introduced and new Errors and Pretences will occasion new ways of Opposition and Defence I have now I doubt said the Governor almost tired you with prefacing but these things were fit to be premised I exprest my self well-pleased both with the Matters he related and the order which he thought convenient to declare them in and so he proceeded to the second main Head Their particular Principles and Practices I MUST tell you then said He first That they took notice of the loud Out-cries and Declamations that were among all the Sects against Reason and observ'd how by that means all Vanities and Phanatick Devices were brought into Religion They saw There was no likelyhood any stop should be put to those Extravagancies of Fansie that were impudently obtruding themselves upon the World but by vindicating and asserting the use of Reason in Religion and therefore their private Discourses and publick Exercises ran much this way to maintain the sober use of our Faculties and to expose and shame all vain Enthusiasms And as Socrates of old first began the Reformation of his Age and reduced Men from the wildness of Fansie and Enthusiastick Fegaries with which they were overgrown by pleading for Reason and shewing the necessity and Religion that there is in hearkning to its Dictates So They in order to the cure of the madness of their Age were zealous to make Men sensible That Reason is a Branch and Beam of the Divine Wisdom That Light which he hath put into our Minds and that Law which he hath writ upon our Hearts That the Revelations of God in Scripture do not contradict what he hath engraven upon our Natures That Faith it self is an Act of Reason and is built upon these two Reasonable Principles That there is a God and That what he saith is true That our Erroneous Deductions are not to be call'd Reason but Sophistry Ignorance and Mistake That nothing can follow from Reason but Reason and that what so follows is as true and certain as Revelation That God never disparageth Reason in Scripture but that the vain Philosophy and Wisdom of this World there spoken against were Worldly Policies Jewish Genealogies Traditions and the Notional Philosophy of some Gentiles That Carnal Reason is the Reason of Appetite and Passion and not the Dictates of our Minds That Reason proves some Main and Fundamental Articles of Faith and defends all by proving the Authority of Holy Scripture That we have no cause to take any thing for an Article of Faith till we see Reason to believe that God said it and in the sense wherein we receive such a Doctrine That to decry and disgrace Reason is to strike up Religion by the Roots and to prepare the World for Atheism According to such Principles as these They managed their Discourses about this Subject They stated the Notions of Faith and Reason clearly and endeavour'd to deliver the Minds of Men from that confusedness in those Matters which blind Zeal had brought upon them that so they might not call Vain Sophistry by the name of Humane Reason and rail at this for the sake of Fallacy and the Impostures of Ignorance and Fancy Hereby they made some amends for the dangerous rashness of those inconsiderate Men who having heard others defame Reason as an Enemy to Faith set up the same Cry and fill'd their Oratories with the terrible noise of Carnal Reason Vain Philosophy and such other misapplyed words of reproach without having ever clearly or distinctly consider'd what they said or whereof they affirm'd And this they did too at a time when the World was posting a-pace into all kinds of madness as if they were afraid the half-distracted Religionists would not run fast enough out of their Wits without their Encouragement and Assistance And as if their Design had been to credit Phrensie and Enthusiasm and to disable all proof that could be brought against them This I believe many of those well-meaning Canters against Reason did not think of though what they did had a direct tendency that way And accordingly it succeeded For the conceited People hearing much of Incomes Illuminations Communions Lights Discoveries Sealings Manifestations and Impressions as the Heights of Religion and then being told that Reason is a low Carnal Thing and not to judge in these Spiritual Matters That it is a Stranger to them and at enmity with the Things of God I say the People that were so taught could not chuse but be taken with the wild Exstatical Enthusiasts who made the greatest boasts of these glorious Priviledges nor could they easily avoid looking upon the glarings of their own Imaginations and the warmths and impulses of their Melancholy as Divine Revelations and Illapses To this dangerous pass thousands were brought by such Preachments and had so
Theology and was counted the only Spiritual Doctrine In those days Men were taught that we are justifi'd only by the Jmputed Righteousness of Christ by which they said we are formally Righteous That Faith justifi'd only as it laid hold of that as they phrased it and that Inherent Righteousness was to be renounc'd and had nothing to do here These were the great dear Mysteries of their Theology that season'd all their Doctrines and Instructions which by this means also were rendred exceedingly fanciful and dangerous Therefore in this likewise those Divines interposed and demonstrated the vanity and mischief of such fulsome and groundless Conceits They stated the true and warrantable sense in which Christ's Righteousness is imputed viz. Metonymically and as to Effects That is That for the sake of his Righteousness God was pleas'd to pardon Penitents and to deal with them upon their Faith and sincere Obedience as if they had been Righteous themselves Not as if he past false and mistaken Judgements and looked on Christ's Righteousness as really and properly theirs but that for his sake He pardon'd their sins and accepted of their personal imperfect righteousness as if it had been perfect They shew'd that this account was agreeable to Scripture and the Analogy of sound Faith and Practice and that the other sense was no-where deliver'd in the holy Oracles but was a meer imagination contrary to the Attributes of God and to the Doctrines and designs of the Gospel and exceedingly pernicious to Christian Life and Vertue They alledg'd that Christ's Righteousness is no-where in Scripture said to be imputed That he is no otherwise made Righteousness to us then he is made Sanctification and Redemption that is He is the great Author and procurer of them and that in that sense he is the Lord our Righteousness They took notice how that by this odd Fanatick principle Personal Righteousness was undermin'd and disparaged and one of the first things the people were taught was to renounce their own Righteousness without restriction or limitation in which Counsel there is much shew of humility but much non-sense and much danger if it be not deliver'd and taken in a cautious sense For the Apostles and primitive Believers never renounc'd any Righteousness but that of the Mosaical dispensation in which some of them had gloried much before their conversion But after it were convinc'd It was nothing worth and counted it as dross and dung in respect of that Righteousness that Christ taught They never disparaged real inward Righteousness Yea they took ground of confidence and rejoycing from it viz. from the simplicity and sincerity of their conversation from their having a good Conscience in all things from their stedfastness amidst Tribulations and patience in their Sufferings and they plainly tell us That Religion was doing Righteousness and consisted in visiting the Widow and Fatherless and being unspotted with the World in denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts and living soberly righteously and Godly They warn us to beware of those deceivers that would perswade a man may be righteous withouâ—… doing righteously yea they declare the promises to be entail'd upon those that by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Immortality But said He I forget my self and run out too far into this Discourse in which I suppose I need not inform you the Scriptures being so full in it Here I took liberty to move a Question and ask'd him Whether those Divines did teach or allow Mens relying and depending on their own inward Vertues or outward Works To this he said They had not the least imagination that there was either Merit or Perfection in our qualifications or performances but that in those respects they renounc'd their own righteousness and obedience That they acknowledg'd and declared that our highest best services could never deserve the divine notice or acceptance by any worthiness in them But then added He They said also that Christ's obedience was Perfect and Meritorious and that God was so well satisfied with it that for his sake he promised to pardon the failings of our duties and to accept of Sincerity instead of Perfection That on this account our short defective righteousness was receiv'd as if it had been adaequate and compleat we being through Christ under a Covenant of Grace and Pardon and our obedience not judg'd according to strict measures and proportions but by the rules of mercy and favour Thus they stated that matter clearly and struck at the root of Antinomian follies and impostures ANd because Morality was despised by those elevated Fantasticks that talk'd so much of Imputed Righteousness in the false sense and accounted by them as a dull and low thing therefore those Divines labour'd in the asserting and vindicating of this Teaching the necessity of Moral Vertues That Christianity is the highest improvement of them That the meer first-table Religion is nothing without the works of the second That Zeal and Devoutness and delight in Hearing Prayer and other externals of worship may be in very evil men That Imitation and Custom and Pride and Self-love may produce these That these are no more then the Forms of Godliness That the power of it consists in subduing self-will and ruling our passions and moderating our appetites and doing the works of real Righteousness towards God and our Neighbour And because there was a Religion that had got into credit that did not make Men better but worse in all relations worse Governours and worse Subjects and worse Parents and worse Neighbours more sower and morose and fierce and censorious Therefore They prest Men to consider That the design of Religion was to perfect humane Nature To restore the empire of our minds over the will and affections To make them more temperate and contented in reference to themselves and more humble meek courteous charitable and just towards others On such things as these performed sincerely by the assistance and encouragement of Faith in Christ and from a desire to be ruled by his Laws they lay'd the whole stress ANd being the Age was unhappily dispos'd to place much Religion in their conceited Orthodoxy and Systems of Opinion to the destruction of Charity and Peace To the dissetlement of Religion and great hinderance of real Godliness They therefore zealously decryed this superstition of Opinions and smartly reproved Disputings and eagerness of contest about Notions and lesser Truths Shewing the inconveniencies and mischiefs of that spirit and it's inconsistency with Charity and the peace of Mankind They perswaded modestly in all extraessential Doctrines and suspence of judgement in things that were not absolutely certain and readiness to pardon the mistakes of those that differ from us in matters of speculation In order hereunto They made this one of their main Doctrines That The principles which are necessary to Salvation are very few and very plain and generally acknowledg'd among Christians This they taught and were earnest in it because they saw it would secure Charity