they are condemned by some who without any reason take themselves to be the only Sons of the Church as false Friends to her And that as by acknowledging no more they anger that extream so by granting so much they no less displease the other But to proceed These persons are not more for obedience to all lawful Commands of Authority than desirous that Mercy and Indulgence should be shewn towards those whose Consciences will not permit them to comply with the Will of their Governours in some things disputable Philal. But do they not conceive it to be most unfit that Seditious Practices should pass unpunisht Theoph. Yes that they do And do believe that those Dissenters from the establisht way of Religion ought not to be esteemed or dealt with as men of tender Consciences who are not quiet and peaceable modest and charitable in their behaviour towards those that are not of their Way and Mind And that think it not enough not to obey but they must needs be likewise confronting Authority and refuse to yeeld Obedience in those things against the lawfulness of which there can be no pretence that carrieth any shew of Reason Philal. I suppose they cannot but look upon it as extreamly desirable that if our Governours shall see it good the tearms of Communion with the Church of England and likewise of exercising the Ministerial Function therein may be so inlarged as to take in all that are of any Reason Sobriety and Moderation Theoph. I wonder that all wise men should not it being so very plain a case that this would tend exceedingly to the Churches security and the strengthening of her hands against unreasonable ill-minded and wild-headed men of divers sorts who would rejoyce in nothing more than in her utter Ruine and are ready to catch at all advantages to effect it And for that end I presume they would be very glad if our Church Doors were set wider open I mean if some things that most offend were taken out of the way and that no such weight may be laid on any little things as that they should be insisted on to the endangering those of an higher nature and hazarding the Churches prosperity and peace And particularly that there might be no Expressions in our Forms of Prayer that contain disputable uncertain Doctrines and so give occasion to those that are dissatisfied concerning the truth of them to refuse to joyn with us in those Forms And in a word that there might be nothing in our Ecclesiastical Constitution that may give any plausible pretence for Separation or Non-conformity This I say they cannot I am perswaded but heartily desire but with submission to the wisdom of their Governors And now Philalethes I have performed my promise of giving you an impartial Representation of those our Friends and I pray tell me your thoughts in a few words upon the whole matter Philal. From the account you have I thank you given me I cannot but confidently conclude that were many more tongues let loose against them than there are there would need no other Solution of the Phoenomenon than that of the Philosopher A wise man is the greatest Prodigy And I believe them the only sort of men that are in any likely-hood of or qualified for the repairing of our present dangerous Breaches and curing our very ill presaging Animosities Theoph. For my part I must profess to you that I could scarcely perswade my self once to hope that there may be any prevention of our utter Confusion but that it hath pleased the Divine Providence to raise up among us so considerable a number of such good spirited and generously minded Persons the thoughts whereof are my best Antidote against Despondence Philal. That they chiefly design the propagation of Truth and true Goodness and not any private selfish interest from what hath been said I have cause to conclude For the Practices and Principles that distinguish them from other men have never yet in any times been the way to raise any but the contrary Theoph. 'T is certain they have not And the great reason why the Bigots of our several Parties do chiefly set themselves against them must needs be because they are aware that of all their other Adversaries there are none that do them so much disservice as do these by shewing that those things they raise such a dust about and make such a hideous stir and noise signifie nothing what ere they pretend to the promoting of true Religion the advancement of Christ's Kingdom and the real and true welfare of his Church but are available only to the carrying on of such little narrow and low designs as the making strengthning of Sects and Parties and gaining to themselves Greatness and Popularity Those high and hot Gentlemen know very well that if these persons Principles should once get good footing among the People they must either grow more cool in those matters that do most exercise their Zeal or there will be little for them to do Philal. The truth is those men trouble themselves most about matters which as an excellent Person saith are neither Religion nor the Body of Religion nor scarcely the Garment of the Body of Religion but are rather the Fringes of the Garment of the Body of Religion They are Things or rather Circumstances and manners of things wherein the Soul and Spirit are not at all concerned Theoph. But yet as great an Antipathy as those kind of men profess against these Persons I observe there are Prudent and Moderate Men in some of the Parties that have a reverend esteem of them and look upon them as men very valuable Which Sober Persons are no less honoured and loved by them also between whom the difference in Opinion is so inconsiderable that it is pity there should be any distinction of Names between them Philal. And if the generality of each of our Parties were as true to the Cause of Christ Jesus and so self-denying as to prefer his Interest before their own I question not but that they and their Principles would find incomparably more Friends among them than they do now Enemies Theoph. But whereas I now spake of the distinction of Names I must desire you to take notice that if others were not better at Coining them than these our Friends are they would be known by no other than the good old Antiochian one viz. Christians or if they must have one that is more discriminating Obedient Sons of the Church of England Philal. To which Church I cannot better express the sincerity of my affection than by wishing that all those who are ambitious of being accounted her most genuine Off-spring were of the Temper and Principles of these here Children if they were I doubt not but that her Circumstances would be far less sad than now they are Theoph. Nay it is not at all then improbable but that in due time her condition as seemingly desperate
that will con a Preacher little thanks for insisting on that Topick for they tell us very weakly that onely Faith is to be set on work in matters of Religion not Reason Theoph. Very weakly indeed it seems those men would have us believe our Religion we know not why and so we shall be wise believers in the mean time Were I of their opinion I doubt I should be shrewdly tempted to prefer no one Religion before another and to think none so absurd as that I should need to stick upon that account at entertaining it Philal. I greatly fear that Mahometanism it self would bid as fair for my belief as Christianity did I think as they do But I am so far from imagining that Reason hath nothing to do in Religion that I am most assured that it is no-where to so good purpose employed as it is there But how do you understand that place which these enemies of Reason I think lay the greatest stress on in their cavils against it viz. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Where by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is I know not why translated the natural man they understand the Rational or as some of them love to word it the Souly man but mean the same thing Theoph. Those words of S. Paul are strangely misunderstood by them nor is there any thing in them that with the least shew of probability tends to serve those mens absurd Hypothesis For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie Animalis and this word never signifieth a Souly man in their sense but in the quite contrary For an Animal man is such a one as gives himself up to the government of his inferiour Faculties or a carnal sensual man so that he is so far from being a man of Reason that he is most irrational 'T is such a man as this that the Apostle saith receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God he being drowned in sensuality can have no gusto of cannot relish such things that is while he remains so They are foolishness unto him neither can he know them he can have no right understanding no clear perception of them and they sound in his ears like very odde things also And it is to be imputed to this that he understands by his Affections more than by his Reason like the Wolf in the Fable that went to School to learn to Spell whatsoever letters were told him because he minded nothing but his belly he could never make any thing but Agnus of them He cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned that is by vertue of a higher principle than that which is predominant in this man who is as was said a meer fleshly wretch So that this place is so far from condemning the use of Reason in the matters of our Faith that the necessity thereof in those things is rather to be concluded from it and that men cannot receive the things of Gods Spirit till by the Assistance thereof their Reason hath regained its authority and be able to keep under their bruitish affections Philal. But they say that we must believe the Scriptures not because Reason tells us they are true but because they are Gods Word Theoph. I perceive you are hard put to it to retain your wonted gravity in propounding this Objection but however I will very gravely answer you If we must believe the Scriptures because they are Gods Word then I trow there is a reason on which we are to found our Faith and that a good one too But again why must we believe what God saith to be true must we believe this because we believe it None sure will speak so absurdly but whatsoever answer these men will give to that Question it is apparent that this is grounded upon a principle of Reason also than which there is none more evident viz. That God cannot lye Philal. I presume that they themselvs would give that answer Theoph. Then they would give another Reason and so still contradict their own Doctrine Philal. But they will tell you that all is at last resolved into Gods meer testimony for we must believe that he cannot lye because he himself hath said so Theoph. And what if he had never said so what they would do I will not undertake to conjecture but I should not therefore have one jot the less believed it For Gods saying that he cannot lye cannot be a sufficient argument to me to believe it if I did not know that to lye is unworthy of God and dis-becoming him for how else could I tell but that he designed to deceive me in that very saying that he cannot lye This therefore is the reason why I doubt not of that great truth because the reason of my minde tells me that God must be a Being absolutely perfect or he can't be God and being so it tells me that he cannot be without any moral no more than physical perfections and to lye the same Reason of my minde assures me is a moral imperfection Philal. This no man can once doubt that hath to any purpose employed his considerative faculty But to personate these stiff opposers of Reason a little farther To what purpose is it to go about to demonstrate the Reasonableness of the Christian precepts when it is once taken for granted that they are divine For nothing is more undoubted than that whatsoever God commands is therefore to be done because he commands it Theoph. That is a truth beyond all dispute and by the way let me tell you it is so because nothing is more highly reasonable than that God must be obeyed in all things But however I would have these men know that to demonstrate the Reasonableness of the duties of Christianity is to do excellent service to the Christian Religion for First it is no small confirmation of our Faith in the truth thereof to understand the Reasonableness of what is therein enjoyned I remember a good saying of Origen to this purpose saith he to Celsus in his third Book against him See whether or no the agreeableness of the precepts of our Faith with the common notions of humane nature be not that which hath caused them to to be so readily entertained by the ingenuous hearers of them And I must profess to you Philalethes that I lay no less weight upon the goodness that my Reason apprehendeth in the Doctrine the Gospel containeth than upon the Miracles whereby 't was confirmed Nor do I believe the Miracles unaccompanied with that other consideration a sufficiently-satisfying Argument that our Saviour was sent from God as infinitely wonderful as they were but both these together most fully demonstrate to us that Proposition and neither singly and abstracted from each other Philal. I have in this particular thought as you do ever since I well
is time to have done with the First Advantage that I told you is gotten by having the Reasonableness of the precepts of the Gospel demonstrated to us viz. That it is no small confirmation of our faith in the truth thereof Secondly Another Advantage we get hereby is that by this means we learn the incomparable excellencie of our Saviours Religion not to say above the Heathen Gods impositions on their worshippers their Religion being for a great part not onely most ridiculous but also full of unnatural villainy and filthiness such as a modest tongue would find it difficult to utter and chaste ears to hear Witness the Rites of Cybele the Feasts of Bacchus Flora Venus and Priapus and likewise 't was full of Cruelty and bloudy Tyranny I say passing by the Religion of the Heathens as not worthy to be named on the same day with that of the Gospel we do by this means understand the incomparable excellencie of our Saviours Religion even above that given by God himself to his own people the Israelites under the Mosaical dispensation For we know it consisted of almost innumerable Injunctions the reason of which is not at all obvious We may see our way before us in obeying Gospel-Precepts they are enjoyned because good whereas these were good onely because enjoyned And though we may guess at reasons for Gods giving those people such a kinde of Religion in the general yet we can say nothing for most of the particular instances of obedience but that it was the divine will to make choice of them They were in themselvs of a perfectly-indifferent nature and neither good nor evil nor had they any thing I say that we know of to commend them and set them off but the meer Legislators pleasure Now except we understand the vast difference betwixt the Law and the Gospel and how greatly the later especially in this point of Reasonableness excels the former we shall be insensible of that much larger share we have in the Goodness of God than the Iews had and so want a most exciting motive to chearful obedience to him in the present notices of his will we are under the obligation of Philal. What you say is too evident to be denied or so much as disputed but I pray inform me more particularly what you mean when you say that the Precepts of the Gospel are highly reasonable Theoph. You have less need Philalethes than most I know to ask me that Question but yet because I am gotten into a vein of talking I will satisfie you for discourse sake in that demand I mean that they are such as our Reason tells us are highly fitting and becoming us considering what kinde of creatures we are and the Circumstances and Relations we stand in to God our selvs and each other Nay they are so becoming us that our Reason will also assure us that the contrary are no less unworthy of us Philal. But before you proceed farther give me leave so far to interrupt you as to desire a clear description of Reason from you Whatever I do I can scarcely think that the great Decryers of it do distinctly understand what it is Theoph. If they did I cannot imagine what should incline them to such extravagant and strange prattle as is heard from them But to your Question Reason is that power whereby men are enabled to draw clear Inferences from evident Principles And therefore when the Preachers we are discoursing of and others demonstrate the reasonableness of the Precepts of the Gospel they prove that there are those self-evident Principles from whence what the Gospel requires may be inferred to be our duty although God had never declared his minde concerning them Philal. But surely they cannot think that there are no precepts in the Christian Religion but what are such what say you to those that enjoyn the two Sacraments Theoph. I will in short tell you all that I think is necessary to be said in this matter in these two Propositions First All those things wherein doth consist the substance of the Christian Religion are good and necessary in themselvs to be done and the contrary evil and necessary in themselvs to be avoided Those are such as it would be a contradiction to suppose them not our duty considering as was said what creatures we are and our several Circumstances and Relations and so would it be to suppose these not disbecoming us and unworthy of us Our Saviour you know sums up our whole duty in the love of God and our Neighbour the substance of which as is easie to be shewn by enumerating particulars is reducible to these two Heads nay to the former namely the love of God And there is no Principle we do more naturally assent to than that he in whom we live move and have our being from whom we receive all we enjoy and expect all that we can hope for of good should be beloved by us nay and made also the object of our chief love And an imitation of all Gods imitable perfections is a necessary consequent of such a love of God such as his Holiness Justice Goodness Hierocles hath told us that whom a man loves he will as much as lyeth in him imitate and that therefore it is necessary that there should be not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the knowledge of Gods nature and essence but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All possible likeness thereunto Now the imitation of the Divine Nature is the whole designe of the Christian Religion which St. Gregory Nyssen makes to be its very definition as no one that consideratively reads the Books wherein it is contained can at all doubt Secondly The other duties of the Gospel which are but few are imposed as helps to the performance of those forementioned They are not required for themselvs but for the sake of the great Essentials of Religion And it may be easily made good that there are none of them of a meerly positive nature except the two Sacraments which yet are appointed for very great ends and purposes and are most excellent helps to the attaining of true holiness and that wherein the power and life of Religion consisteth and not onely tryals of obedience Meditation Prayer Reading and Hearing Gods Word the observation of the Lords day good Conference c. are in themselvs helps and Baptism and the Lords Supper are so through the divine ordination And indeed to speak properly they are no less our priviledge than our duty as being Seals of Gods Covenant and Pledges to assure us of the divine grace for which we are no less obliged to him than we are for his gracious Promises Philal. But what think you of believing in Christ Jesus for the Remission of Sins could Reason ever have prompted this as mens duty Theoph. Yes as soon as any thing enjoyned in the Gospel when once it was demonstrated that him hath God exalted to be our
the Gospel our Saviour having given a sensible demonstration of it by his own Resurrection and Ascension as well as in the plainest terms preached it Now you need not be told that several of the Learned Heathens have by Arguments drawn from the nature of humane souls made that Doctrine highly probable and that even the more Brutish sort of them had generally if not universally a sense of a life to come You know also that the Doctrine of a day of Judgment they were no strangers to Iustin Martyr truly tells the Greeks in his Oration to them That not onely the Prophets and other Divine persons of the Old Testament but also those that were accounted wise among the Heathens both the Poets and Philosophers did acknowledge a judgement to come after death And their Poets tell us of three persons whose Office it is to judge men in the other world viz. Minos Rhadamanthus and Aeacus And mens being adjudged to rewards and punishments in the other suitable to their actions in this world was a Doctrine that accompanied that other and as generally received Nor are you ignorant what excellent Discourses divers of the Philosophers have of the nature of true happiness The forementioned Iustin saith That it seemed probable to him that Plato had entertained the doctrine of the Resurrection of the body but I must leave him there because I finde that he gives an insufficient reason for that Conjecture Nay even the Doctrine of the Trinity was as to the substance of it embraced by the Pythagoraeans and Platonists Several other instances of this nature may be produced And there are other Particulars I might present you with of notions the Heathens had resembling several other Doctrines reveled in the Gospel which are not less generally known than the forementioned As they held a Doctrine somewhat like that of the divine Conception of our Saviour for it was their opinion that divers of their eminent Benefactors were born of more than Humane race and that they were ex stirpe Deorum and accordingly gave Divine honour to them Their sacrificing of men for the attoning of their Gods shewed that they believed what is somewhat of kin to the Doctrine of Satisfaction or Christs reconciling us to God by offering himself up as a Propitiatory Sacrifice As Grotius among others hath fully shewn in his Book of Satisfaction They had another opinion that beareth resemblance to our Saviours Mediatorship for they held the intercession of Daemons of which Mr Mede hath discoursed in his Apostacie of the later times and I finde that Celsus calls our Saviour the Christians Daemon Philal. By these instances it should seem that the Heathens did of their own accords give credit to as strange Doctrines as any our Saviour requires our belief of and that several of the strangest of them are so far from sounding like uncouth and absurd ones that they are rather gratifications of the natural propensions of Mankinde Theoph. That the Learned Dr. More hath well observed in his Mystery of Godliness Though no question the Fathers did upon good grounds conclude that the Heathens received many Notions from the Jews and some from a more ancient Tradition and therefore we have no cause to judge that all the forementioned were the products of their own reasoning yet that makes not at all against the assertion that occasioned these instances but on the contrary clearly proves it For I did not say that many of the weightiest Points of meer belief may be certainly concluded from principles of Reason or that without the help of Revelation men might have been acquainted with them but that they are suitable to the Reason of mens Mindes being reveled and several of them very taking too which appeareth by the Heathens being so tenacious of some and so readily catching at others upon the first news of them Philal. I give you my heartiest thanks Theophilus for the full satisfaction you have given me concerning those Friends of ours endeavours to perswade men of the Reasonableness of Christianity Which doth much adde to my esteem of them though I know many are offended with them upon this account and by way of contempt call them The Rational Preachers for this Subject is most necessary to be handled in this our Age especially wherein Atheism and Irreligion are to the grief of all good men gotten into the Principles as well as Practices of very many And I hope that I shall be better able for the future to vindicate them than I have been when I hear them reproached for bringing so much Reason into points of Faith I must desire you now to proceed to inform me of other things that are in their Preaching most worthy of observation Theoph. I think it not amiss Philalethes to let you understand in the next place that they affect not Bâ—mbaste words trifling Strains of Wit foolish Quibling and making pretty sport with Letters and Syllables in their Preaching but despise those doings as pedantick and unmanly But on the contrary they use a Style that is very grave and no less significant Philal. This undoubtedly must needs be best pleasing to the more understanding part of our Congregations and to all incomparably most profitable As much as that pretty toying is cryed up by many as a most rare Accomplishment and conciliates to the most dextrous in that Knack the repute of the Ablest Preachers and makes them greatly plausible Theoph. But certainly it can do so among none but very little-soul'd and childish people and such as whose judgement in Sermons no wise man will make any account of I will adde also that it is their endeavour to make the Doctrines of the Gospel as easie and intelligible as well they may wherein none have been more successful They are far from those mens untoward genius that delight to exercise their Wits in finding out Mystical and Cabalistical sences in the plainest parts of Scripture and in turning every thing almost into Allegories Philal. I am greatly apt to fear that those men are far from being hearty friends of our Saviour and his Religion and that some not daring openly to decry the Gospel take this course to undermine it and to make a meer Trifle of it Theoph. They give us great cause for such a suspicion Observe moreover that those Preachers are no less averse to their temper who most admiring that which they least understand and thinking there is very little in that which is quickly intelligible please themselvs exceedingly with making Mysteries of the easiest points of Faith and such Mysteries too as they tell us no man though he be master of never so clear a Reason can have an insight into without the special illumination of the Holy Ghost That because the Apostle saith Great is the mystery of godliness would make every thing so that the Gospel hath reveled and that so high as was now said whereas in those words S. Paul means no more than
jot as high a favour and as great an expression of the Divine grace to be dealt with as if we were perfectly righteous as to be so judged and esteemed Philal. I should think him as blinde as a Beetle that doth not see it is But though I said the Antinomian notion of imputed righteousness is of dangerous consequence yet now I remember me the defenders thereof have a way to evade it for they say that though a real inward righteousness is no qualification required to this imputation of Christs righteousness and so to our justification yet it will follow of it self by way of gratitude and therefore will be found in men before their Salvation Theoph. I will answer you to this in the words of an excellent Doctor This is like to prove but a slippery hold when it is believed that gratitude it self as well as all other graces is in them already by imputation What Reply they can make hereunto I am not able to imagine Philal. I am not like to help you To say the truth it is a most sottish and mischievous Doctrine and must needs do a world of hurt among people that are glad of any pretence for their carnality and disobedience Theoph. I know too many that make use of it to patronize their ungodly practices and no question it is the grand support of most if not of all hypocrites A very worthy person preaching some time since upon the words of Zacheus the necessity of Restitution where there is ability in case of fraud one of his Auditors was heard to say as he was going out of the Church If the Doctrine now taught us be true how are we beholden to Iesus Christ And multitudes I fear of our meerly imputatively-righteous men think what that Gentleman had the face to speak Philal. You may well fear it for there is no consequence more natural from any Doctrine than is this from those mens viz. That real righteousness or inherent holiness is a needless thing in order to eternal happiness Theoph. The light at noon-day is not clearer than is that inference for if a person may have in his unregenerate or sinful state Christs righteousness made his and so be esteemed by God as perfectly righteous what should hinder but that in the same state he may be admitted to enjoy the reward of a righteous man If an ungodly man may be justified and declared righteous why may he not also be saved and made happie Philal. But they will tell you that it is expresly asserted by S. Paul That God justifieth the ungodly Theoph. I cannot conceive why it may not be admitted that the word that signifieth to justifie is in divers places to be understood for making really just or sanctifying for because it is sometimes to be taken in a forensick sence it doth not therefore follow that it must always be so But I will willingly grant that it is to be so understood here if that by the ungodly may be meant those that were once so that is before not at the same time when they were justified For to say that God can pronounce a person just righteous that is unjust and unrighteous is the greatest contradiction imaginable to his own justice his own righteousness This makes him to pronounce a perfectly false sentence and to do that which Prov. 17. 5. he himself had declared an abomination Nor can we entertain a more unworthy thought of the Holy God than to conceive that he hath no greater antipathy against sin than to make him that alloweth and liveth in it an object of his complacential love Philal. But Theophilus to say the truth I have observed that those men make such a thing of sin as that it may become God well enough to reconcile himself thereunto as well as to him that lives in it For they make it a meer indifferent thing in it self and to depend onely upon arbitrary laws the evil of which is founded upon the alone will of God as you gave me an intimation at our entrance on this Discourse Which account of sin doth plainly as you said undermine all Religion and therefore the Antinomian opinion of imputed righteousness as absurd and of as wretched consequence as it is may if that be so very well be true Theoph. It may with as great shew of reason be questioned whether God be essentially good as whether sin be intrinsecally evil And I admire what those men have done to themselvs to enable them once to doubt the later more than the former Philal. I hope they will call it Blasphemy to deny Gods essential goodness yet in acknowledging no vertue or vice independent upon all will they dwindle it away to a perfect nothing Theoph. I have not a more undoubted assurance of mine own being than of the truth of what you say Well Philalethes those whose stomacks can digest such filthy stuff and such as I can shew you even Heathens did nauseate need not stick at swallowing the Phancie of imputed righteousness in that gross sence as absurd and dangerous as it is but we that know how contrary sin is to the Nature as well as the Will of God cannot question that no man that is in love with it can by vertue of anothers Righteousness be esteemed or dealt with by God as righteous Philal. When I can once see a diseased or lame man made well and sound by anothers imputed health and soundness I may imagine a wicked man made righteous by the imputation of anothers righteousness but before I cannot as well knowing that wickedness is as really a moral as sickness or lameness is a natural evil Theoph. If you don't fancie it till then to be sure you never will Philal. They are both alike contradictions But I pray Theophilus now I think on 't how can those that hug and are so fond of this ill-favoured notion have any opinion of Christs Expiatory Sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins for how can there be any sin to be pardoned where a perfect and most complete righteousness is imputed Theoph. That question is put by the last mentioned Doctor but I believe he will wait long enough for a satisfactory answer to it Philal. Is it possible think you that there should be any good men of this Perswasion Theoph. As apt as I am to censure and condemn some doctrines I would be as backward to pass sentence on the persons of those that hold them And I must tell you I verily hope that there are pious men of that opinion we are now perstringing but know too that those of them that are so are so weak as not to understand the true consequences of their Doctrine and so honest as at first hearing to abhor them And were led to like well of it not out of a designe to gratifie any base lust but because it seemed to them to have a shew of humility and self-denial and to advance Gods grace Philal.
sin what other end can they serve by this means besides rendering the Religion of Christ Jesus most amiable and effectual as to its great intent Philal. For my part I am not able to imagine how they can propose to themselvs any other And what you said last brings to my remembrance another Argument that will convince any candid person that it is at least most highly probable that they are in being represented as was said very unjustly dealt with viz. That none have with more strength of reason demonstrated that the grand designe of the Gospel is to make men good not to intoxicate their brains with notions or furnish their heads with a systeme of opinions but to reform mens lives and purifie their natures which noble principle together with the former doth utterly overthrow that Latitudinarianism they are accused of as he must be blind or shut his eyes that doth not see it And if it were well minded and improved by our angry men it would no question turn the edge of their zeal quite another way and convince them that there are too many things they lay a heavier stress upon than they can ever bear Theoph. This was excellently well observed of you and as you say if the designe of the Gospel were well understood and as well considered by those men they would think their precious time may be much more profitably spent than in contending about meer speculations or such practices as neither serve nor disserve that designe and have no influence either into the bettering or depraving the souls of men Philal. But Theophilus I could be glad to know more distinctly than I do how it comes to pass that it is the ill fate of those our Friends to have the worst character given them by the Rigid men of all Perswasions what unluckie stars are they born under that of all others they should meet with the worst usage and foulest play if they have given no occasion to those people to think and speak so ill of them nor by any default of their own have exposed and laid themselves open to their censures Theoph. I shall willingly gratifie you in this request which I will do in giving you an impartial representation of them wherein by the way as we pass along you will clearly perceive what you are already I know inclined to believe that some things at least not blame-worthy and others very highly deserving praise have made them the objects of so much spite and that 't is occasioned by none but such things Philal. The account in general that from men worthy to be credited I have had of them and particularly that they are persons of great Moderation hath prepared me were you a perfect stranger not to question your veracity let the character be never so good you shall give of them Theoph. I assure you Philalethes I am under no temptation to tell you a tittle more than I know to be true concerning them nor do I think it can be my interest to tell at any time a lye for God himself Philal. You might have reserved this for one to whom you are less known than you are to me and therefore I pray proceed but if you please I will make so bold as to set you your Method and desire you first to give an account of their Practices and then of their Opinions Theoph. You may if you will call this freedom which I acknowledge a great favour but by no means boldness And the Order you prescribe I shall as willingly proceed in as if it had been mine own choice but I will not promise you to keep my self over-exactly to it and never to confound these two Philal. I do not expect you should Theoph. Well then Philalethes as to their Practices the familiarity that divers of them have honoured me with assures me that there are none among whom more true goodness is to be found than is in them observable Nor have their aspersers as I can learn ever convicted any of them as persons offensive in their behaviour either towards God or men nor can I tell that any of those that are most maligned have been so much as accused of such actions in particular as are plain and undoubted transgressions of the first or second Table Philal. I perceive you put an Emphasis upon undoubted and that therefore they are charged with those things that their Adversaries judge Transgressions of the one or the other Table Theoph. The reason of that Emphasis you have well guessed at for they are accused of some such things as divers look upon as breaches of the first Table and particularly of the second Commandment which are by others esteemed not onely not so but in certain cases to be so far from being prohibited that they are their duty In short the grand fault that is found by some in their practice is their Conformity to the present Ecclesiastical Laws which enjoyn some Rites in the Worship of God which there is no express warrant from the Scriptures for But whether this be well or ill done of them I must not now stand to determine Philal. Nor will I desire you it being a Controversie that will take up too much time and besides the driest and most unpleasant that ever I engaged in Theoph. I have the same opinion of it and therefore you shall not hire me to consent to the spending of any part of the time we have together upon such an Argument All that need be done now will be to consider whether the persons we are discoursing of can possibly be guilty of so great an offence in their Conformity as may not admit a charitable interpretation For none can think except such as are grosly silly that it is indisputable that the matters now enjoyned are unlawful Philal. Those must be very ignorant that so judge when as men as famous both for Learning and Piety as the Church of England hath ever been blessed with have both by their own Conformity declared their allowance of them and also defended their Lawfulness against those of a contrary perswasion Theoph. Nay more than so Philalethes you know that divers of the most eminent Protestant Divines of the best Reformed Churches beyond the Seas such as Calvin Beza Zanchy and others have declared their judgements for Conformity to them and some of them their earnest desire that the Ministers of this Church would comply with the will of their Governours in observing them while they shall think it fit to impose them Philal. I am not ignorant of it And me-thinks the Authority of those men who were our great Champions in the Anti-Romane Cause should be of no small account with us all but much less contemned by any of us Theoph. Me-thinks it should not there being this moreover to say for their being competent judges in the case that they were not onely men of great Learning and Godliness but also uninterested and therefore under no
of people of prostituted Consciences let them live never so exactly according to all the notices of Gods will clearly expressed in his Word which as I said those Friends of ours are so far from living in contradiction to that I hear of no clamours against them upon that account which I am confident I should with both ears if any thing of immorality did discover it self in their conversations Philal. But now I think of it don't you believe that there are those Conformable persons that have given too good cause for such a severe Censure Theoph. I don't think that any have done so by their bare Conformity but whereas there are those that in all our Changes have been observed to be zealous still for that which was most countenanced by the Authority that bare the sway and have been taken notice of to leap out of one extreme into another that is from the hight of Fanaticism to that of Conformity these I confess may thank themselvs for the hard words that are heapt upon them but they did not merit them or gave occasion for them by their meer Conforming their former actings might have rendered their Honesty too liable to suspicion though they had never Conformed nor may their doing what is now enjoyned considered as such adde to the suspicion but onely considered as diametrically opposite to former actings And now I have this occasion I must tell you that I know none of our Friends in the number of those that have merited the opprobrious name of Turncoats But under the late Usurpers they did so behave themselvs as that some of them were great Sufferers for his Majestie and the Church and the rest of those I was acquainted with though they were so prudent as to keep as much as they could out of harms way and not to expose themselvs to needless sufferings and such of which there could come no good yet were they no less consciencious and had a care to preserve themselvs unspotted from the guilt of the then wilde extravagances Philal. You have told me no more than I have often before heard but I am glad of its confirmation from your mouth I pray pardon my occasioning so many digressions from the main business and be pleased now again to return to it Theoph. You shall not have my pardon but thanks for the digressions you have occasioned they being none of them I think impertinent To go on then They are not onely not scandalous but very lovely also in their behaviour and greatly obliging I never in any one sort of men observed so much of openheartedness and ingenuity freedom sociableness and affability as in these generally They have nothing of that Crabbed austerity foolish affectation or sullen gravity that render too many of their Censurers to wise men not a little contemptible But as the Pharisees bare our Saviour a grudge upon the account of his being contrary to their humour in this very particular so I have reason to believe that by this means these persons do not a little distaste divers of their Adversaries because they look so unlike them and condemn those their follies by a quite contrary carriage But with any Sarcastical smartness to perstringe those fooleries which some of them have done is looked on as an expression of a profane spirit as if to dislike that which makes Religion ridiculous were to be an enemy to Religion it self Philal. Nay I have thought that there is too much cause to suspect that what they themselvs cannot but acknowledge very commendable in those our Friends is a great motive to them so much the more to traduce them as being jealous that they may thereby gain with many too great esteem For there was one some time since that took occasion to commend a Reverend and most worthy person that is called by the Long name to an eminent Pastor of a Separated Congregation in London from whom he received this answer That Iesus Christ hath not in this Nation a greater enemy and that the goodness of his life was that which put him into a capacity of doing so much the more mischief Theoph. The story you have told me I should have looked upon as not incredible had a less faithworthy person related it than your self For I have often observed that Scandalous Ministers of which there are too many the more is the pity though the number of them is computed by those that gladly take all advantages to bespatter and fling dirt in the faces of their Civil and Ecclesiastical Governours to be far greater than I am verily perswaded it is I say I have often observed that scandalous Ministers have the good luck better to escape the tongues of our Carping people than the most painful and consciencious Philal. Any man may if he will make this observation And truly I have too good reason to fear that not a few of those men are more sorry that all Conforming Ministers are not persons of debauched lives than that any are so for if they hear but an ugly tale of any one of them they never stand to examine whether it be true or false but with great greediness catch at it and send it flying Theoph. Would you have me in the next place to inform you how those Divines in their Pulpits demean themselvs I dare affirm that if our Separating people would be but perswaded to make their own ears judges and for some time deign to be their Auditors if they could also leave all prejudice behinde them they would confess that they cannot in any of their private Meetings at least better spend their time I am sure it must be their own fault if their experience doth not convince them that there are no Preachers by whom they may gain more real profit For none can give their hearers better instructions or back them on with more cogent and effectual motives and arguments than they do I have my self been as constant a hearer of them before I betook my self to this solitary way of living as any man but never was my judgement more convinced my will perswaded nor my affections more powerfully wrought upon by any Sermons than by theirs I found that in their Discourses generally they handled those subjects that are of weightiest and most necessary importance I mean such as have the greatest influence into the reformation of mens lives and purification of their souls Nor had I ever so lovely an idaea of the divine nature which is the most powerful incentive to obedience to the divine will nor so clear a sense of the excellency of the Christian Religion the Reasonableness of its precepts the nobleness and generosity of its designe and its admirable fitness for the accomplishment of it as through the blessing of God I have gained by the hearing of these men Philal. You say Theophilus that you have gained by these men a clearer sense of the Reasonableness of the Gospel-precepts there are many now-a-days
Prince and Saviour Men would have of themselvs concluded Faith in him their duty when they were convinced of that truth though there had been no precept to make it so Which is so plain that I shall disparage your intellectuals in using more words to clear it to you Philal. It is indeed so plain that I am ashamed I ask'd the Question Theoph. But if you please Philalethes I will more particularly and distinctly though very briefly demonstrate that the duties of the Gospel are such as Reason would we consult it would prompt to us Philal. You cannot shew the strength of your own Reason upon a nobler Subject Theoph. A very small pittance of it that is so little as I am master of is sufficient to enable any one with ease to perform this successfully Now then as our Saviour referreth our whole duty to two Heads viz. the love of God and our Neighbour so doth the Apostle to three Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness Now for Godliness which contains all our duty immediately relating to God all the instances thereof which the Gospel enjoyns may be learnt by improving but that one natural Principle of Gods existence and that thus There being a God he must necessarily be absolutely perfect He being absolutely perfect is to be acknowledged the Creator Preserver Benefactor and Governour of the whole world for it is unreasonable to attribute our Creation preservation c. to any besides such a Being And then God having all perfections in himself and being so related to us this will necessarily follow that we ought to make him the object of our highest Admiration our greatest love we ought to offer up Sacrifices of Prayer and Praises to him to trust in him and depend upon him in all our ways to acknowledge him chearfully to do what he commands patiently to submit to his dispose c. And there is no duty immediately relating to God but is in those included setting aside that of doing what he commands for that alone takes in our whole duty in reference not onely to God but also to our Neighbour and our Selvs God being such a one in himself and to the world as you heard this must be eternally true that it is the duty of all Reasonable creatures to carry themselvs towards him as was shewn There is so close a connexion between those Premises and these Conclusions that a man cannot believe the one and except he were stark mad doubt the other We cannot more easily apprehend this Argument to be necessarily true viz. This Figure is a Circle therefore all its parts are equally distant from the Center than this God is our Creator Preserver c. therefore we ought so as was now said to behave our selves towards him Nay we can hardly think of that premiss but this conclusion will come into our mindes whether we will or no. And then for Righteousness which implieth our duty to our Neighbour that Rule of our Saviour What ye would that men should do to you that do ye to them which Severus expresseth in Negative terms Quod tibi fieri non vis altâ—â—â— ne feceris it is as self-evident 〈◊〉 Principle as any is to be found in Morals And this will teach us to be just most severely just to every body and to be kinde and merciful to those that are in need Now these two include all that the Gospel requires in reference to one another And then for Sobriety that comprehendeth our whole duty to our selvs The meer principle of Self-love will teach a man that he may not be intemperate in any kinde he by this means abusing himself And the very knowledge of our selvs and what excellent creatures we are will convince us that we ought not to set our heart upon or place our happiness in any earthly thing Therefore this was one Rule among the several excellent ones in the Pythagoraean Golden Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Above all things Revere thy self There is no man but does or may know that his soul is too Noble a creature to glut it self with base Corporeal Pleasures and that his understanding is too sublime a faculty to subject it self to his brutish appetite And that God as the Philosopher speaks indued him with that to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Prince and Ruler within him and with this to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Subject and Ruled to be the Servant not Master of his Minde There is no man but feels his soul too big for these terrestrial things and that they are never able to fill its vast capacities Now what are we enjoyned in the Christian Religion as relating to our selvs but is to be reduced to one of these nay to this one head of inordinate affection And in short for I am sensible that we have protracted our discourse upon this Subject to too great a length I know no duties enjoyned in the Gospel besides that of Faith in Christ and the two Sacraments but may be found as to the substance of them at least commended as noble perfections in some one or other of the Heathenish writings as may be particularly shewn but that it will take up too much time Philal. What say you to meek bearing and putting up affronts but especially to loving malicious enemies and rendering good for evil Theoph. Both these may be found in them if not under the notion of indispensable duties yet as greatly becoming us most highly commendable and significations of a bravely generous and virtuous Minde The instances of the former are so many that you cannot be a stranger to them nor any that have read but that little Book that is worn out in School-boys hands Tully's Offices Nay Plato brings in Socrates speaking of it as that to which all men are absolutely obliged Injury saith he is to be done by no means vely by no means nor may it be repayed to him that doth an injury as the vulgar think for that it is to be committed upon no pretence And what think you of that speech of Cato If an Ass kicks me shall I again kick him He thereby intimated that it was unworthy of him to be revengeful at least towards some sort of people And as to the later I remember that Origen in his eighth Book against Celsus gives two notable instances of it the one of Lycurgus and the other of Zeno. One being delivered into the hands of Lycurgus that had put out one of his eyes he was so far from revenging the injury as very great as it was that he never left giving him wholsome Counsel till he had made him in love with Philosophy And he brings in Zeno making this Reply to his enemy that said Let me perish if I do thee not a mischief viz. And let me perish if I do not reconcile thee to me Both these shew sufficiently what those Heathens thought of returning good for evil Philal. But have you observed that the
Believers and threatnings of the most dismal punishment to those that shall persist in impenitence and unbelief c. Philal. You need say no more than you have done to make the Christian a most incomparable Religion but did you not say too much under the former Head in affirming that therein is contained our whole duty so as that we need do no more than read the Gospel to come to the knowledge of it For there are very many Moral cases wherein men are forced to use their Reason to the utmost and also to call in the assistance of other mens for the understanding of their duty in them Theoph. Surely Philalethes you could not think me so extremely weak as to mean by what I said that the Scriptures descend minutely to determine all possible cases in particular for this cannot be done in Books they being infinite and varying with mens innumerable circumstances But this was my meaning that the particular duties men are constantly obliged to are all plainly there reveled and in the most express terms And I adde that there are also general Rules laid down whereby all emergent cases may be determined and such as ordinarily occur at least for the most part with the greatest ease But to go on To say that there is nothing required but what is most sutable to our Rational faculties tends as much to magnifie Gods goodness to us and to commend the Gospel as any thing that can be said And should it consist much of perfectly new Precepts which the world could never before so much as once have dreamt of or of any thing like to them and the reasonableness of which could not be at all or not without great difficulty apprehended it would be exceedingly less easie to believe it to be a Religion sent from God than now it is This also makes it a Religion as easie to be practised by Mankinde as can be for all the Duties wherein consisteth the substance of it must have continued to oblige us whether they were therein expressed or no. From what hath been said it is most manifest that while we continue to be men they cannot cease to be our duty and therefore whatsoever other precepts the Gospel might have consisted of they would have been an addition to our Burthen And we may be hereby convinced that Gods designe in giving us the Gospel is purely our own good seeing the impositions wherein as I said consists the substance of it are but just so many as obedience to which is absolutely necessary in themselvs considered much more then to the qualifying of us for the full enjoyment of himself in blessedness and the rest are enjoyned onely as helps to enable us to obey them Philal. But do those Preachers content themselvs to shew that the duties of the Gospel are very reasonable I have been informed that they rise higher in this attempt and that sometimes they undertake to demonstrate that the points of meer belief and even the most mysterious too are so and endeavour to level them with mens shallow Capacities Theoph. This Philalethes is partly true and partly as false It is in a sense true that they have proved sometimes that all the points of meer belief are reasonable that is consistent with Reason so that we can have no temptation to dis-believe any upon the account of their contrariety to the innate and natural notions of our mindes They some of them at least endeavour to convince their Auditors that our Saviour hath not imposed upon our Faculties in requiring our assent to Contradictions that he puts not his disciples as his pretended Vicegerent doth his proselytes upon offering violence to their understandings in any thing as a matter of Faith proposed by him Philal. This is no more in my opinion than is necessary for men to know For though our best Reason could never have proved to us divers Gospel-truths had they not been reveled yet they being reveled there is nothing surely in them that rightly understood sounds so harshly but that our Reason may admit of it and close with it But do they not as I said I have heard go about to bring down all such points to mens capacities Theoph. That be you assured is a notorious Calumny for they onely say that the Doctrines of the Gospel are all such as we may be able to make sence of and that there is nothing in them that is opposite to our Reason But they most freely acknowledge that there are such Mysteries as are so sublime as much to exceed our apprehensions and that can by no means be comprehended by the most rational persons And this acknowledgement they have well proved is no disparagement to our Saviours Religion but rather procures to it the greater veneration there being no wise man but will willingly confess that there are even in Nature innumerable things which he knows to be but yet is not able to imagine how they are and that his very Senses do assure him of many such things as no faculty of his can give him a satisfactory account of Philal. I have often thought it to be very fit that there should be some such Points in our Religion as are not comprehensible and adaequate objects of our Understandings that so as we are to take occasion from the consideration of those Doctrines that God hath made facile and adapted to our understandings to admire his gracious condescention so from the consideration of those which we finde surpass our reach we may no less adore his wisdom But Theophilus do those Divines ever undertake to demonstrate the consistency of some Mysterious points with our Reason as they are by the School-men and other over subtile Gentlemen made out Theoph. No I hope you think them wiser men than to adventure upon a Task so desperate They consider those Points as they are delivered in the Scriptures and not as dressed up with the Metaphysical Subtilties of Wanton Wits who have been so far from doing service to those Doctrines that they have rendered them much more doubtful to many inquisitive persons and such as are not easily imposed upon by confident Sayings and great Names Philal. But now it comes to my minde I am confident I have been told by some of their good Friends that they assert more concerning the reasonableness of the Speculative Doctrines of Christianity than that they are onely not inconsistent with Reason but moreover that they are very suitable to its dictates Theoph. I thank you for helping my Memory in this as well as in many other particulars your information is very true as to many of the weightiest Points and there is no wise man but will assert the same For it is well known that the Heathens had a notion of them Life and immortality are said to be brought to light by the Gospel i. e. to give Mankinde full satisfaction in that Article of Faith is the sole prerogative of
that divers Doctrines of the Gospel such as he there enumerates viz. God manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit c. are so high and admirable that we cannot dive to the bottom of them or fully comprehend them nor could have so much as once thought of them had they not been from Heaven made known but that being reveled they are still to Reason unintelligible and cannot be sufficiently understood thereby he hath asserted no such thing Now of these as well as of the former those Preachers have no less than any discovered the great weakness and vanity and when they have occasion make it plainly appear that those whose notions of divers Articles of Faith are so expressed as that no man that makes good use of his Reason can tell what to make of them deserve nothing less than the Titles of Spiritual Preachers and profound Divines as they are by many accounted and that they in stead of being so bewray very great ignorance of the Gospel Philal. And without question they do no small mischief but render our Religion which you have shewn is so highly reasonable greatly suspected by many of the warier sort of people Theoph. I remember that Erasmus complaineth of the times of the Nicene Council that it was then a matter of great Wit and Cunning to be a Christian. And a matter it was most worthy to be complained of for evident it is that our Saviour never made it so He hath made Christianity so much at least as is necessary to carry men to heaven so plain that an honest heart is a sufficient prerequisite to the understanding of it Philal. 'T is not to be doubted but that he hath delivered all those points that are absolutely necessary to be rightly understood in the plainest and most intelligible manner and so condescended to the weakest capacities that they cannot but apprehend his meaning in them if it be not their own fault Theoph. I count that onely those Doctrines that contain the terms of Mans Salvation are of absolute necessity to be by all rightly understood and that all such are delivered with that perspicuity and clearness that nothing but mens shutting their eyes against the light can keep them from discerning their true meaning Philal. S. Austin hath a good saying to this purpose in his Book of Christian Doctrine viz. That all those things that contain faith and manners of life are found among those Doctrines that are plainly laid down in Scripture Theoph. This is so true that Celsus is brought in by Origen in his Sixth Book finding great fault with the Scriptures upon the account of their plainness and great simplicity To whom he returneth this answer That Iesus and his Apostles made use of such a Style as was best suited to the vulgar sort and that Plato and other of their Philosophers were greatly to blame for expressing themselves in so lofty a manner as they did for that by this means none could make use of them but Learned men And I remember that in his seventh Book he tells Celsus that Plato and the other wise Greeks were like to Physicians that took care of persons of the better rank but neglected ordinary Plebeians and the meaner sort whereas the Prophets and Disciples of Iesus did no less carefully apply themselvs to the good of simple than of wise people Philal. Surely Christ will never condemn men at the last day for not believing those things they could not by any means understand to be reveled and it is matter of admiration to me that any should judge the Gospel to be obscure in matters necessary when the Apostle accounted it so sad a Judgement not to understand it for saith he If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost Theoph. And in the words following he saith that those that understand it not have their eyes blinded by the God of this world Isaiah prophesying of the Gospel and expressing it by the Metaphor of a way saith that it is so plain that wayfaring men though fools shall not erre therein 'T is true indeed it is so deep a Sea as S. Hierome saith that the Elephant may swim there there is that and much of that too that putteth the strongest Brains and most searching Wits hard to it but as the same Father addes 't is so shallow a brook also that is as to all things necessary to salvation that the Lamb may wade in it So that all those Philalethes that affect to make such Truths as subtil and mysterious as they can do what lyeth in them to cross and make ineffectual the designe that our Saviour and his Apostles had in the delivery of them and these and all other Preachers that like them do condemn such doings do no less advance it And I will adde that those that affect to make any points as obscure as they can whether they are necessary or not are too injurious to the Christian Religion And by what hath been said I am likewise put in minde to tell you that these persons look upon no Preaching as truly powerful but that which worketh upon the affections by first conquering the judgement and convinceth men of their duty by solid Reasons and Arguments and excites them thereunto by perswasive Motives they esteeming that which affects people so as they can give no account why it should to be so far from powerful that it doth not deserve to be called Preaching Now upon these accounts as well as those forementioned do many inconsiderate people despise them as men of dry Reason and void of Gods Spirit as if to be a spiritual Preacher were to be an irrational one and none were capable of divine illuminations but such as have bid adieu to the guidance of their intellectuals Which is as much as to say that we must cease to be Men and be metamorphos'd into Brutes before we can hope to become Christians Philal. What confused and gross thoughts have such people in the matters of Religion as not to be able to distinguish between that which is truly carnal which they talk so much against and spiritual Reason and not to understand that the former is that onely which is governed by fleshly and corrupt affections and the later that which is submitted to and directed by our Saviours Gospel and designeth nothing so much as promoting the ends of it Theoph. There are a few things more Philalethes I would advertise you of concerning the Preaching of these our Friends namely that they are very careful so to handle the Doctrine of Justifying Faith as not onely to make obedience to follow it but likewise to include a hearty willingness to submit to all Christs precepts in the nature of it And to shew the falsity and defectiveness of some descriptions of Faith that have had too general an entertainment and still have This they look upon themselvs as greatly obliged to do as being well aware of what dangerous
God with all their heart and with all their soul and before shewed that it was their duty to love the Lord their God with all their heart and soul which you know containeth the substance of what is enjoyned in the new Covenant and was no part of that which was required by the Law that is called in a strict sence the Iewish Mosaical which as the Apostle saith was added because of transgression till the seed should come to whom the promises were made not as any new condition whereby they were to attain to the promises but that they should till they were fulfilled be restrained and kept under a strict outward discipline backt on by temporal rewards and punishments I say having over and above his own Law exhorted them to the observance of those duties wherein the substance of those commanded in the Gospel consisteth and which may be found sprinkled up and down in the other Prophets as well as his writings and doubtless were more compleatly delivered to them by tradition from their fathers he thus saith in the 11 verse and the three following For this commandment which I command thee this day it is not hidden from thee neither is it far off it is not in heaven that thou shouldest say Who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it Neither is it beyond the sea that thou shouldest say Who shall go over the sea for us and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it But the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayst do it By the word in their heart at least we are certainly to understand the forementioned spiritual and essentially good precepts for so is it interpreted by S. Paul Rom. 10. 6 7 8. Philal. I am hugely pleased with the Paraphrase you have given and must needs say that of these two considering the context it seemeth the most natural Theoph. But however their interpretation of this place that endeavour to prove from it the nonconditionality of the new Covenant is by no means to be endured it being of so very ill consequence and also so flatly contradicting the apparent sence of multitudes of Scriptures as it doth whereby we are assured that God expects that the working of his and our own spirits should go together and be conjunct causes co-operating one and the self-same effect Philal. If men have no power as those people say to co-operate at all with the grace of God in the mortification of their lusts or the renovation of their natures S. Iames did very strangely forget himself when he said Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double minded Theoph. The truth is the Scripture seems one while to give all to God in the work of Regeneration and Conversion and another while to make it wholly mens own act And as in that place to the Hebrews it may seem at first sight that all is to be done by God so doth God in other places express himself as if man were to do all in this work as Cast away from you all your iniquities Make you a new heart and a new spirit turn your selves and live ye Wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well And you know that I could tire you with sayings to the same purpose Philal. Therefore we must interpret such places so as to reconcile them to each other Theoph. And to this end we must go in a middle way and avoid the extremes on both hands or we shall never do so I mean that where God speaks as if he did all in this great work we are to judge that he supposeth mens endeavours and where he speaks as if men were to do all that he supposeth the concurrence and assistance of his own grace But as I said that nothing is more evident than that the new Covenant is conditional so secondly there is nothing more plainly or frequently expressed than that Faith is the condition of it and therefore I shall not need to insist upon it Philal. You said that those Preachers are accused by many Hot men for this doctrine as persons Popishly affected and holding Justification by works and therefore enemies to the freeness of Gods grace Theoph. I foresaw that in this part of our discourse you would put me upon vindicating them from this high charge and therefore when I had occasion given me to do it I chose as you may remember to defer it longer because this is the properest place for it Philal. But suppose the consequences of this doctrine were so very foul as those men think they are would it not be notwithstanding very uncharitably done of them to censure the Preachers of it so highly upon that account Theoph. Yes verily Philalethes this would not excuse them at all from unchristian uncharitableness for they ought to hope seeing they profess to magnifie free grace no less than themselvs and concern themselvs to confute the Papists as much as any not to say more that they do not understand the evil consequences of their Doctrine and that if they did they would most willingly and freely renounce it Philal. If those Preachers should retaliate as I hope they are better Christians than to do so they might call these their censurers worse than Papists I mean Libertines and Ranters for they are as strongly perswaded that their notions about justifying Faith and some other lead to Looseness and Libertinism as these are that theirs lead to Popery Theoph. But they dare not I hope so much as suspect that those of them that seem to make any conscience of their ways are at all aware of the Poison that is in some of their Opinions but judge that their meaning is much better than their Faith Philal. I for my part can truly say that I think not at all hardly of them for the sake of their false Tenets so long as I do not observe that they practise upon them but I am sometimes very shrewdly tempted to fear upon the account of the Reviling and Censuring not a few of them are guilty of that they are no better than meer pretenders to Religion as great a profession as they make of it For S. Iames hath taught me that He that seemeth to be religious and bridleth not his tongue that mans Religion is vain Theoph. But perhaps they may mean as honestly in the one as in the other and 't is possible that their angry expressions may not be the effects of malice but of a certain kinde of zeal Philal. Well Theophilus I will endeavour after more of your charitable temper If you judge too well of those people it is a safe and good extreme Charity I confess hopeth all things and believeth all things even there where are too great temptations to the contrary
you so I must confess I can never think of this Mischief but I am apt to be much moved and to say the truth I give my self leave to be angry upon such accounts I wish that no much slighter occasions could ever make me so and then of all my sins I should least bewail that of Passion Well Philalethes I am sure that our doctrine is a mighty incentive to holiness and the other a no less obstacle as many as there are whose true goodness doth antidote them against the poison of it And this is the great Test and Standard whereby I examine points of Controversie I consider which of the opposites tends most to the advancement of real holiness which I have more than once had occasion to tell you is the great designe of the Christian Religion and that I think my self bound to prefer which I finde doth this but that which apparently tends to make men careless in their prosecutions of it I account my self obliged to reject as false as great shews as it may have of probability Nor is it any thing in the world but the clear sense I have that this doctrine doth so as also that it with its unavoidable consequents shamefully misrepresents our blessed Creator and Redeemer that makes me oppose it as I sometimes do and conclude it to be erroneous Philal. But you likewise reject it because it contradicts as was said such an innumerable company of Scriptures Theoph. The forementioned considerations make me interpret those few Scriptures that seem to make for it by these many and not these many by those few Philal. I believe this doctrine would quickly be exploded by all good men if they could once be perswaded to think that the Ninth to the Romans is capable of another Exposition than that which is commonly given to it For I know no other Scriptures urged for it but may be answered with ease enough Theoph. Though I will not say that it is easie to give the true sense of every verse in that Chapter any more than it is in many others of S. Paul's Epistles whose style is often the most obscure I ever read the connexions in many places being not to be found without extreme difficulty which is occasioned I think chiefly by his many tacite Answers to Objections and Questions made to him by those to whom he wrote which we are unacquainted with as also having a very curt and short way of expressing himself observing very much in the Greek Tongue the Hebrew way of speaking and besides making so many excursions as he doth and very long Parentheses upon which accounts if not more no Apostle hath been so misunderstood as he and if you observe it you shall finde that they are S. Paul's Epistles out of which almost all our wilde opinions have principally had their original through the ignorance of men or what is worse The Apostle S. Peter observeth that even in his days when they were much more easily intelligible than now they are there were some things in them hard to be understood which those that were unlearned and unstable wrested as they did the other Scriptures also to their own destruction I say therefore though it may not be easie to give the true sence of every verse in that Ninth to the Romans yet I count it far less difficult to vindicate it from patronizing Absolute Reprobation than to prove it doth so Philal. If it be not too great a trouble I could wish that you would run it over with a brief Paraphrase Theoph. That I need not do nor above half that Chapter there being but about so much of it that signifieth any thing towards the countenancing of that opinion And so far I will comply with your desire The Apostle having in the five first verses expressed his great sorrow for his Country-men the Jews in that by their killing the Messiah and most obstinate persisting in unbelief they had provoked God to resolve upon the casting off and rejecting their Nation in general that is to put them into the same circumstances with the rest of the world and in some respects into worse viz to deprive them of their good land and even to cause them to cease to be a Nation or Body Politick but to be dispersed here and there up and down the world and therefore necessarily deprived of the extraordinary advantages for their souls they had an enjoyment of which are there summed up together with not a few temporal ones they having been a people owned by God above all other and his most special Favourites I say having done this in the five first verses it followeth In the 6. Not as though the Word of God had taken none effect for they are not all Israel that are of Israel In which words he answers an Objection they might make against the possibility of Gods rejecting them viz. If this be so how can the promise of God to Abraham concerning his seed be performed And he replieth They are not all Israel that are of Israel i. e. God hath reserved to himself a liberty of determining at several times according to his pleasure who shall be esteemed that seed of Abraham to whom the promise belongeth and therefore he may restrain it to those that were never the seed of his loyns but of his faith onely And he sheweth next that this liberty God did use immediately after the promise for saith he in V. 7. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called i. e. Those which came from Abrahams loyns were not all accounted those sons of Abraham that should have a share in the promise but those onely which he should have by Isaac And he saith in V. 8. That is they which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the promise are accounted for the seed i. e. They that descended from Abraham by carnal generation were not all heirs of the promised Blessing but onely those children he had by vertue of the promise were accounted for the seed that should so be Then it followeth V. 9. For this is the word of promise At this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son i. e. The birth of Isaac was a special effect of Gods promise he being miraculously born of a naturally-barren woman and according to the ordinary course of nature past childbearing had she been never so fruitful and his father being a very old man Then saith he V. 10 11 12. And not onely this but when Rebecca also had conceived by one even by our father Isaac for the children being yet unborn nor having done good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth it was said unto her The elder shall serve the younger i. e. Neither did God at one time onely declare that he reserved to himself
as at present it is may be very good I need not tell you Philalethes that these mens temper and free Principles are of no late standing for they are no whit younger than Christianity it self nor yet than the Blessed Founder of it Who were he now upon the Earth and conversant here among us would I doubt narrowly escape the reproach of the Long Name as much as those that in spite and contempt use it pretend to be his only Friends and Followers For I might shew in several Instances that it was upon the account of his being such a one as they are accused for being that the Zealous Pharisees could by no means endure him As particularly his Free Conversation void of all Sourness Starchtness Affectation his condemning their Ostentatious shews of Sanctimony their base Censuring and Judging their Scrupulous straining at Gnats when in the mean time they swallowed Camels Their teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men and making more species or kinds of duties and sins than God hath made Their Zeal for Mens Traditions more than for Gods Commandments Their great exactness in little things such as Tything Mint Anice and Cummin and preferring them before the weightier matters of the Law Judgement Mercy and Faith Their placing Religion mostly in Externals Their cloaking their Naughtiness with Long Prayers Their accounting themselves defiled by any thing without them c. And moreover his forbidding to call none Master upon Earth or to pin their Faith on any mens sleeves His freely and ingenuously shewing them wherein the power of godliness consisteth viz. in inward Purity and Holiness And preaching up only an inward real and truly Moral Righteousness Philal. And to be sure the Apostles did in all things follow the Example of their Great Master Theoph. Yes no question as far as they were able And among other it may be shewn they did so in such instances as the forementioned And I fear were they alive now that there are many pretended Christians that would quickly change their Opinion of them and upon such accounts carry themselves towards them as much as now they profess to admire them as our Saviour intimated to the Jews they would towards the Prophets were they then living as great honour as in garnishing their Sepulchres and otherwise they professed to have for them And for many years after our Saviour and his Apostles did the temper and spirit we have been describing mightily prevail but as the Christian World grew worse and worse which was especially after it came to be freed from Persecution and to enjoy rest and prosperity it more and more decayed And the generality of Christians grew miserably narrow Soul'd and contentious with each other about little matters and rigorously to impose their own private Conceits upon their Brethren and pronounce those Hereticks that would not receive and admit of them To lay a greater stress upon that which they pleased to call Orthodoxy than upon an innocent and holy Life To evaporate Religion into meer Air and Speculations To burthen the Worship of God with unprofitable needless Ceremonies and by overmuch pomp and gaudery to rob it of its Primitive Simplicity and Spirituality And in a word quite to forget the great end and design of Christ's Gospel So that the excellent Spirit we awhile since commended seems to be utterly lost in those Places where the Bishop of Rome bears the sway the very great decay of it being that to which he was first beholden for his Power But blessed be God it hath been much revived in the Churches which have thrown off his Yoak though there are yet but few in these neither in whom it is in that measure and degree discernable that it was in the most Ancient Christians And the generality of our greatest Professors are still very defective in it And even most good men in too many Instances yet to seek for it Philal. If it were once in some good measure prevalent in the Protestant World I am perswaded we should soon see those very Blessed Dayes that have been so much talked of and that all pious Souls and good Christians long for Theoph. I verily believe we should And that we shall not much longer wait for the downfal of the Visible Antichrist if the Spiritual and Invisible One whose Seat is erected in our own Breasts were once fallen This being that which is like as long as it continueth to keep the other in his Chair in spight of all our Prayers and other endeavours to pluck him thence But my dear Philalethes 't is high time now to conclude this Discourse and refresh our selves with a short Supper for we cannot but be both of us sufficiently tyred and hungry too Philal. If I am tyred then well may you Theoph. Yes truly am I and as sharp set as one that hath lost his Dinner Wee 'l therefore no longer exercise each others patience than while we put up our most earnest Prayer that at length it may please the God of Peace to guide all our Feet into the way of Peace That he would give us teachable Tempers modest and meek Spirits and that the differences in our Sentiments may cease to have so ill an influence upon our minds as to create such uncharitable heats among us and unchristian Animosities to the great dishonour of God the no less Scandal and Reproach of our most Excellent Religion the raising of Jealousies in our Governours the Exposing our Church and State to the Common Enemies and the greatly endangering our Immortal Souls That the Profession and Practice of Christianity may not so rarely go hand in hand And that we may place our Religion in doing rather than in talking and disputing And may behave our selves as those that understand wherein the Life and Power of Godliness doth indeed consist That Non magna loquimur sed vivimus may be ours as it was the Ancient Christians Motto and that the old Primitive Spirit may now at last prevail among us That we may not peremptorily pursue our own private Humours and the Concerns of Parties and prefer them before indifferent and impartial Enquiries after Truth or oppose them to the publick Peace Reason and Interest That we may hate a selfish private Spirit as unworthy of the benignity and generosity of the Christian Religion And lastly that we may contend with each other about nothing more than who shall express in the midst of our different Perswasions most Charity and most Candour God grant that our Jerusalem may at length be made a praise in the Earth by a confluence of these infinitely above all other desirable Blessings Philal. Amen FINIS Part I. I. The entrance into the Discourse II. The hateful character given by some to certain Friends of Theophilus Philalethes III. An Argument of their being greatly abused in that Character IV. That Character due to the broachers of Hobbian Doctrine V. But that doctrine by