to pay obedience to them upon this pretence that he is to be guided only by his own Reason I appeal to this Author himself whether he would be satisfied with this answer or whether he would not if it lay in his power turn such a refractory Fellow out of his society unless he did conform himself to the Orders and Statutes of it If not it would be impossible for him to maintain the Society if he would expel him he clearly proves that the Principle on which he seems to build his whole Book is not to be allowed to any person that is subject to the Laws of any Society If he shall say that therefore he added those limitations if it take such directions as it ought and may do c. I would fain know in any Society who shall be Judge whether or no every Member of it doth rightly limit his Reason shall the Person himself or the Governour of the Society If the Person himself then the limitations signifie nothing and the Society would soon signifie as little if the Governour must be so far Judge as to punish those Actions that are done contrary to the Statutes and Orders of the place then why should not the Governours of the Church be allowed the same power I cannot see any Reason at all unless we are arrived at that madness to think it indifferent whether the Church be dissolved or up held or whether we have any Religion in our Nation or none at all I would not be one of that number who should dispute against the power and priviledges of Humane Reason for no man loves Reason better then my self nor would I assert any such Priviledge to exempt men from Laws or from the publick exercise of Religion For I think nothing can be more unreasonable and yet I am deceived if I have not proved that this Assertion which is the whole sum of our Authors Book is of that nature But he hath one killing Argument that like a two-edged Sword doth execution both ways with which he strikes all dead that dare oppose him And this it is page 3. They that dispute most against Reason do it because their own Reason perswades them to that belief c. This is just such a mortal Argument as the Papists use to prove that the Church is the onely Rule of Faith For say they whoso denies this and asserts the Scripture to be the Rule of Faith can have no Authority nor Ground for their belief of the Scripture but the Authority of the Church and therefore we ought to believe as the Church teacheth us and not as the Scripture But the Answer is not very hard to be made to the Romanists It is true indeed the reason why we believe the four Gospels and the Epistles to be the Writings of those Divinely-inspired persons whose Names they bear must be this because they have been so received by the Church in all Ages and the reason why we believe those Miracles were done as they are related in Scripture must be from the constant Testimony of the Universal Church and from these Miracles we are sure they were written by persons inspired by God and consequently that they are the Rule by which we are to walk Thus the Authority of the Church onely leads us to the Scriptures as an infallible Rule and leaves us there to be guided by them and not by the Church any further then her Commands are agreeable to the Commands of God contained in the Scriptures Neither is the Answer much different nor much more difficult to our Authors dead-doing Demonstration for though Reason must direct us to a Rule by which we are to act yet when we have once found out such a Rule as our Reason assures us is Infallible we then ought to govern our selves no longer by our bare Reason but by our Reason guided by that Rule and to act those things not that Reason onely doth direct us but such things as our Infallible Rule commands us So that we see Reason is so far from being our onely Guide that it directly leads us to the Scriptures and leaves us to be directed by them by which it confesseth that it self ought to be guided If the Author shall now say that I have mistaken his Notion and that his intention in this Book was onely to bring Men into their right wits and make Men consider the reasonableness of the Religion of the Church of England and consequently conform themselves to it I shall say no more then this to him that I wish he had made this Design more apparent that our Dissenters might not have joyn'd in the mistake of his Book and have construed it to the countenancing all Divisions and that he had not given by the whole contrivance of his Book so just cause of this scandal to them For the Book hath in most parts a double face that like Janus his looks two directly contrary ways at once and therefore we may justly suspect a double mind and some double dealings in the Author but this I must needs say for him that he hath ingeniously contrived it for like an armed Amazonian beauty it casts a pleasing look and seems to smile upon every one that looks on it and yet it bears about it the instruments of death I onely make this my request to him if he writes again that he would shew the World more of his honesty though less of his ingenuity by speaking plain truth but not Oracles that may be interpreted to comply with contradictions and lest he should mistake my Design I will deal plainly and tell him what it is viz. to do the duty of an honest English Gentleman and a good Christian by doing my endeavours according to my small abilities to preserve the Unity of the Church of England into which I was baptized I shall therefore endeavour to free the minds of all impartial Readers from those mistakes that might arise from this Book I am now examining To which end because some may perhaps be drawn into a maze by reading it as the Author was in writing it I shall endeavour to shew them the way out of it by walking along with them step by step and so letting them see the way back again by the same steps as they were at first led into it And now to my Task The Gentleman foreseeing as well he might that many Objections would be raised against him in the first place applies himself to ward them off Pag. 3. 4. Object 1. He thus proposeth That many of the greatest Wits have by following their own Opinions encreased the Catalogue of Heresies To this he answers That these men either followed not their own Reason but their Wills or first hood-winkt their Reason by interest and prejudice or passion c. All this I easily grant is truth but now I appeal to this Author himself whether he doth not believe that the number of those that follow their Wills more then their
men though he cannot be so much a fool to follow it himself viz. the relying on our naked reason so far as to exclude other more necessary helps especially in such matters as these of History concerning which Reason alone can be no competent Judge But yet this Gentleman is so confident positively to affirm pag. 26. that They that build their Faith upon past or present Ages are in much greater danger of being drawn from the Christian Faith then those who remit the judgment of these things wholly to their own Reason Whereas if he had considered things aright he must needs have seen that the main cause why our Reason will dictate to us that Christianity is the true Religion must be from the constant Tradition of the former Ages of the Church For from hence it is that we believe the Gospel to be the Writings of the Apostles from hence it is that we believe the Historical part of it and by consequence from hence it must proceed that we believe the Doctrines contained in it But let us hear his Reason for this bold Assertion it is nothing else but this that There hath been the Authority of an hundred to one against Christianity and that backed with the Universal Agreement of three thousand years before Certainly it is not possible for him to believe that this is any thing of a satisfactory Argument For did ever any body reckon the Tradition of the Heathens and Jews for the ground of the Christian Faith Does he not know that by Tradition every Christian that knows what he saith means the Tradition of the Church of Christ Can this then be any Reason against it that the Heathens and Jews did not assert it I am altogether of his Opinion that Reason will demonstrate the Christian above any other Riligion but still the Authority of the Christian Church together with the Gospel must acquaint us what Christianity is otherwise meer Reason could never know it So that let Reason alone though it be never so well followed with constancy diligence and sobriety it can demonstrate nothing of Christianity if it is not backed with the Authority of the Church Now I appeal to the Author himself to know how it is possible that the Universal Tradition of the Christian Church should lead us into such Errours as should cause us to deny Christ Was there ever any Age of Christians which did generally fall into the denial of Christ How could they then be called Christians who renounced the very essence of Christianity Now because this Author hath not told us what Helps and Directions a Christian must make use of to inform his Reason in matters of Religion I shall lay him down such a Rule as can never fail him in his main end his future happiness unless he be false to his Rule The Rule in general is this The Scriptures rightly interpreted To the interpretation of which is necessary a due meditation and apprehension of the scope and coherence of the words with a knowledge of the Original Languages and the peculiar Idioms of them together with the knowledge of the Customs of those times and places in which those things were done spoken and written which makes all Judaick and Ecclesiastical Authors especially Historians to be very requisite especially as to the understanding the New Testament For many things are but cursorily mentioned in the Gospel and therefore are best explained by the Writings of those that were conversant with the Apostles and their Successors who did converse with them and so on which calls in the assistance of all Antiquity especially the ancient Fathers of the three first Centuries and the four first General Councils and after all a sound rational Soul as necessary to lay these together where they agree and to judge which is most to be relied on where they differ and to draw well grounded consequences from them together with the Divine assistance concurring with all these means so that the common people that have not these advantages though they may have as good and sound rational Faculties as the greatest Scholars and can exercise them as judiciously in other things in which they have had convenience rightly to inform themselves are no more fit to interpret Scripture then they are to Comment on Euclid or Archimedes For that they have not those helps which are necessary for such a Work But what then must they do they must use the best means that God hath given them i. e. the Directions of the Church and of those Persons whom the Church hath by Gods Commission ordained over them to be their Guides and Instructers And though perhaps by their Guides unskilfulness or the corruption of the Church they are members of though this last cannot be supposed in the Church of England because it is free from all corruption in Doctrine they may be led into Errours yet since they have made use of the best means God hath given them he doth not require impossibilities at their hands and therefore will not impute those Errours to their Faults which he hath never given them power to help Whereas on the contrary if every one of the common people must be left wholly to the guidance of his own Reason they must necessarily run into as many Religions as there are men and worship a several Deity not onely every day of the week but every hour of the day and by thinking themselves as wise as their Teachers come to despise and contemn them and to trample under foot all Order and Decency to scorn the Laws of their Magistrates and in a word to run themselves into all confusion danger and wickedness This some men see well enough to be the natural consequence of this Opinion and therefore they who have a mind to make divisions amongst us do nothing else but cry up Conscience and every mans own Reason For if they can but thus separate the Sheep from the Shepherds they will soon make them stray so far till they get them into their own Pound These are the mighty advantages that the most of men would obtain by following no other Guide but their own Reason The next advantage of his Opinion is the great charitableness of it viz. That It sets the Gate of Heaven so wide open that all persons whatsoever may enter This is Charity indeed with a Witness to fill Heaven like Noab's Ark with all sorts of Beasts both clean and unclear But I am afraid there 's something else in the case besides altogether Charity that prompts the Author to this opinion he tells us so himself and therefore we may believe him that the humble consideration of his own weakness was another strong motive to him It seems the Gentleman begins to think that if there be no entrance into Heaven for Jews Turks Heathens and Atheists he himself shall scarce ever come there As for his Opinion that all these are in an equal possibility of salvation with the unerring Christian certainly
to be excused for his contempt of authority because the different Ceremonies which he used in God's Worship did agree and consent in God's Glory For what he saith p. 53. viz. That as well may different thoughts represent the Worship of God and his Son Jesus Christ as different words can represent the same thought I cannot tell what he would have by it But this I know take it in the litteral sence of it it is as extravagant an assertion as one can easily meet withall For different words may signifie the same things because neither the things nor mens notions of things do alter by the various words or languages in which they are expressed But it is impossible it should be so in the Worship of God For the Worship of God being essentially placed in the thoughts different thoughts must make different Worships But perhaps this is to be typically or anagogically interpreted As for that lash he gives the Roman Church p. 53. The old Gentleman of the infallible Chair may well pardon him for it since he makes him amends very speedily after p. 56. by drawing in Henry the Eighth by the head and shoulders first to be lashed for his Adultery and then for deserting his good old friend the Pope The last Object He answers from p. 54. to p. 62. Is that by which some would prove him guilty of the Error of the Greeks by several Texts of Scripture The Error of the Greeks I suppose was this Their following vain and Heathen Philosophy or meer Humane Reason against the Divine Revelation of the Christian Religion by the Miracles and Preaching of Christ and his Apostles For from hence was it that the Doctrine of the Resurrection was derided amongst them that the Apostles Preaching was thought foolishness and the Cross a stumbling-block Now I appeal to any judicious and impartial Reader whether this Author hath not driven on this same or a worse design in no small part of his Book For he hath endeavoured to prove that a man may be excusable though he follows his Humane Reason to the denial of Christianity i. e. in a direct opposition to the Divine Revelation Nay he hath endeavoured to prove that Jews Heathens and Atheists are in an equal possibility of salvation with the unerring Christian. Now I desire this Author to prove that ever the Heathen Greeks had amongst them any question which they did defend more directly contrary to the Christian Religion then His is Which if he cannot do he must acknowledge that he hath out-done them all at the wisdom of enticing words to draw others from Christianity and that he doth not come far short of them at the wisdom of the flesh and the wisdom of the Princes of this World will appear in that he hath so much busied himself to prove that Humane Reason may tolerate Atheism it self and consequently all kind of lusts and wickedness whatsoever Away with you dull Greeks for a company of old fools that could not improve your reason further then to the denial of Christ meer Gregory-grey-beards are you all in comparison of our Author who can tell you presently how to deny the Being of a God by Humane Reason and to excuse your selves when you have done so exquisitely hath he found out a guide to happiness and so gentilely hath he followed the directions of his own Reason The Gentleman in the next place proceeds to establish his Doctrine by positive Arguments And his first Argument is from the safety of it which he endeavours to prove by comparing his guide viz. every mans own Reason with others that stand in competition with it As first with the apprehension of a Vision or Revelation extrinsecally coming into the Soul p. 62. If he means nothing but Enthusiasme hereby I shall onely leave it to be disputed betwixt him and his gratefull friends the Quakers For I know no Christian that will follow or expect new lights since God hath given us the Gospel a positive law to govern our lives and actions and since the Apostle tells us Gal. 1. 8. That if he or an Angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel he ought to be held accursed If he means all revelation in general even that of the Gospel not excepted as what may not a man venture at who is indued with his Humane Reason which hath already taught him to excuse Infidelity and Atheism I desire him to consider that since he himself hath proved in the latter end of his Book that we have Reason enough to believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God What strange kind of blasphemous aspersion he must cast upon the divine Wisdom if he dares to assert that every mans own Reason is a safer rule to walk by then that rule which God hath particularly revealed to us from heaven for that purpose Unless therefore he can think our own Reason more infallible then the Reason of God himself he must conclude if he believes the Gospel to be Gods Word as he professeth to do that it is much safer to follow that law which God hath been pleased to give us then the law of our own Reason For otherwise the Divine Revelation had been altogether vain and useless Secondly The next guide he endeavours to prove less safe then Humane Reason is Authority Pag. 63. By which he hath not explained what he means so that by this Discourse since he hath no ways limited the signification of the word we may justly judge he intended to set up every mans Reason as a safer guide then all Authority His reason is this For if that Anthority prescribe truth we have good fortune and meerly good fortune in our obedience But I pray you Sir Are there not many truths that can be no ways made evident or at least not so evident as is convenient but by the suffrage of Authority as the distinction of persons in the sacred Trinity the Deity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost For if the universal consent of the Church in these points did not clearly prove that those Texts of Scripture which are urged for them were to be so interpreted it would not perhaps be so easie a matter to stop a subtile Socinians mouth by meer Scripture and much less by meer Reason If we take Authority in the other common acceptation of the word for lawful power the Authors assertion is still worse and much more false For in all indifferent things and doubtful matters the Authority of the Magistrate is to prescribe to us not our own Reason only it being much safer for us to follow authority in those cases then to be guided onely by our selves So that Sir you see by this time that in most actions of our lives for most of them do concern indifferent things we have not only good fortune but good reason in our obedience to authority Nay in some cases and those not a few authority is the onely reason of our assent as in all
it not be much more easie to prevent by the execution of our Laws any such unlawful Meetings then when they are met to hinder them by Law from speaking Treason or any thing else that they please For is it not easie to wire-draw it in by such consequence as their own people shall easily understand what they mean though no Law can possibly take hold of the expression For instance Suppose in times when Rebellion is prosperous or at least when it is hoped there may be such a time to prepare the people before hand to be Rebels or to continue them in their Rebellion It is but telling the People that they are Gods Dear Ones which he will not nor he cannot forsake but is bound to fight for them against all their Enemies and then if they have but a little success it is but pressing home that peaceable Doctrine of J. O. D. D. that to follow Success is to follow Providence and the People shall be sure to follow you though you lead them to storm Hell it self and to take it by violence and yet what Law can condemn any word of J. O's Doctrine Again Suppose a man hath a mind to preach Treason to his Party it is but taking that Text in the 149 Psalm Let the Saints be joyful in glory c. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged Sword in their hands to execute vengeance upon the Heathen and punishment upon the People to bind their Kings in Chains and their Nobles with links of Iron to execute upon them the judgment written This honour have all his Saints Now the godly people being before-hand well prepared with that constant conceit that they are Gods Saints which they are always taught in all Conventicles they must apply all those words to themselves and consequently conclude as they have done formerly that the power of binding their Kings in Chains and their Nobles in Links of Iron and of executing vengeance upon them c. belongs absolutely to every one of them and therefore that if the Scepter be in the hands of any other person whom they please to call the Wicked or Unregenerate that he is but an Usurper of Dominion over them and that he holds by force that Scepter and Power which is their right and by consequence that as soon as they can do it they ought to bind him in Chains and all his Loyal Nobility in Fetters of Iron and to execute vengeance upon them or if they be a little dull of understanding it is but helping them out by telling them that God created the Heavens and the Earth and all things onely for the sake of the Saints and the Godly Party and they will as readily run into all the rest as an Ass to his Provender nay and it fats them as much And yet it is impossible for any Law to punish a man for any thing that I have supposed him to preach because there is nothing which he need say to the people to perswade them to Treason that the Law can interpret to be treasonable There are several Texts of Scripture that will do the same feat by the help of their Glosses As we know Curse ye Meroz hath most effectually done it already and all those Texts where God is said to blame or punish his People for the breach of any Covenant whatsoever if applied to those persons that ignorantly and superstitiously were drawn in to take that damnable and accursed Covenant in the late Times they shall presently think that the most heavy judgments will suddenly fall upon their heads if they should break the least syllable of that abominable Oath nay the most scrupulous of them shall think themselves bound for fear of the most signal calamities to be inflicted on them by God if they neglect their covenant with him to be vigorous in acting any thing which that rebellious Oath leads them to And yet how easily this may be wheadled into such people without ever coming under the lash of the Law is most visible to any man that hath but common sense Another Text of Scripture which can do them Knights-service if seasonably exercised upon is the whole second Psalm On which not long since as I am inform'd there was a six hours Exercise at a numerous meeting of all sorts of Phanaticks together not far from London The occasion of their meeting was a Solemn Fast appointed by their Leaders to pray God to avert Persecution from them only because the King had set out His last Proclamations to put his Laws in Execution Now if this was not a seasonable Text for their purpose I am mistaken for if we take this for granted as they themselves always do That they are all Gods Saints and his Anointed how could they interpret this Text but to this purpose viz. That now the Kings of the Earth that is our King and the Rulers that is the Governours of our Nation take counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed that is against them and their Conventicles He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision that is according to their gloss on that occasion that though our King and Council do lay their heads together against them and their meetings yet God shall make all their designs vain and a derision nay he shall inflict most heavy punishments upon them For he shall speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure And therefore that our King and our Judges that would execute the Laws upon them do but oppose Christ wherefore they triumph over them in the words of that Psalm Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the Earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling that is Serve him by quaking and wrigling in a Conventicle Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish that is Submit your Authority to Christ that is to them that preach Christ in an unlawful Meeting house or else be sure ye shall all perish Now I do not say that they did thus apply this Scripture but I appeal to any man whether the common people being before prejudiced with those Opinions that most of the Phanaticks are hearing these words upon that occasion might not naturally and almost necessarily run themselves into such an interpretation of them and judge whether their Teachers had not such a Design when though they could appoint a Fast to cry down the execution of our national Laws as persecution yet never in the least take notice of any Fast upon the 30 of January Are not these think you Excellent Subjects And are they not very thankfull to the King for his former Indulgence to them Other Doctrines there are which no Civil Law can lay hold on and yet are most pernicious to all Society As that of a good intention For suppose a man tells his people they must look well to