Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n
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A25701
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An apology for the Parliament, humbly representing to Mr. John Gailhard some reasons why they did not at his request enact sanguinary laws against Protestants in their last session in two letters by different hands.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing A3552; ESTC R170358
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34,745
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43
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as he doth He will interpret these words of St. John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as from thence to infer that the only one Great God was incarnate the Unitarian interprets the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by ratio rather than verbum because it signifies Reason more primarily than Word or Speech for it signifies a Word or Speech only as that Word or Speech proceeds from reasonable Creatures and then all he infers from that Text the Word was made Flesh is that the Reason or Wisdom of God was communicated to Jesus Christ and we all know that Divine Wisdom may be communicated to Men without the Incarnation of God So that if the Unitarians must be sent to Smithfield it is not for blaspheming God or his holy Word but because they according to the best of their Judgment interpret and infer otherwise than Mr. Gailhard doth But Bonner had this Advantage that the Roman Clergy of his Days were agreed together with him in the Point upon which he condemned Latimer But you complain that the present Clergy of the Church of England are not agreed in their Defence of the Trinitarian Doctrine by reason that most of them maintain it upon Arminian Principles and you think it cannot well be defended but upon the Calvinian Hypothesis And it must indeed be granted that the Divines of this Age are not agreed either in explaining or maintaining this Doctrine which shews how wild a thing it was of you when there are such Differences amongst Learned Clergy-men to solicit the Parliament that your Lay-Sense should be by Law established especially when you stand almost single in your way of defending your Doctrine for you say there is but one Reverend Person who taketh that way 'T is a dangerous thing to pitch your Camp by your self with a small Party when a Numerous Army is near If Dr. Parker late Bp. of Oxford were living he would tell you that you and your Predestinarians are Blasphemers of God For I well remember that in one of his Prints he said that the Calvinistical Hypothesis represented God as an Omnipotent Devil Now tho the Doctor needed not have used such hard words to express his Sense of that Horrible Decree which some Men think to have been of God's making yet when a Man shall consider how contrary the Reprobation-System is to the best Idea we can form of God he will think it little less than blaspheming the Divine Goodness and if the Arminians of this Age had the same furious Zeal for the Glory of God which you have shown the blasphemous Calvinists might be in danger of following Bartholomew Legat to the Field of Honour and Mr. Gailhard could have no other Election but to choose whether like Haman he would hang under a Gallows of his own erecting or like Perillus would roar in his own Bull. Truly Sir it was never well with Christians since any one Party of them calling themselves the Church took upon 'em an Authority to impose their Interpretations of and Inferences from Scripture upon others nor can it ever be well among Protestants till they permit one another a free liberty to make Interpretations and Inferences for themselves If we deny this Authority to the Church of Rome and take it to our selves we love the Treason tho we hate the Traitor we plunder the Robber but we restore not the lost Goods to their proper Owner Every Man who is indued with Reason has thereby an original natural Right of using that Reason for the direction of his Soul as much as he has a right to use his own Eyes to direct his Feet Besides God gave his Word originally into the Hands of the People not the Priesthood to all Israel God spake from Mount Sinai and Christ spake his Law to all Persons who promiscuously followed him so that both the Word of God and the best Means of understanding it are originally and uncontroulably given to every Man and whoever shall under any Penalties endeavour to abridg Mankind of the use of these Means is an Enemy to the common Rights and Liberties of Human Nature Upon this Principle our Ancestors grounded their Reformation from Popery they would not be led aside by the Authority of the Church against their own Sense and Reason but by the use of their own Reason in the Interpretation of Holy Writ they saw the Roman Church not only to be obnoxious to Error but also actually erroneous and upon this Foot of Reason was it that they cast off the Authority of that Church which then called it self Catholick and Apostolick But how do you answer for setting one Party of Protestants who disclaim Infallibility to persecute their Brethren who interpret differently from them You alledg the Glory of God in your behalf But did God tell you it was for his Glory that your Interpretation should be the Standard of other Mens Faith or that 't is for his Glory that the Interpretation of this or that Doctor or Convocation must be imposed upon the Realm Have not all Doctors and all Convocations equal Power and are not Mankind of differing Minds and are they not all equally engaged to promote the Glory of God And what is the Consequence of all this Whilst every Party by Impositions and Persecutions are forcing their own Opinions upon others for the Glory of God there can never be Peace upon Earth nor good Will amongst Men. 'T would be a happy World Mr. Gailhard if you and every one else who cry down Human Reason would but seriously consider what your selves say upon that Subject viz. that our Understandings are darkened thro' natural Corruption whereupon we are all subject to Error and very prone to be misled by the Prejudices of our Education by Interest by evil Inclination by Example Passion Inadvertency by Pride or any other Immorality nay the very natural Constitution and Temperament of Mens Bodies dispose them to contrary Opinions as the Melancholy are apt to receive and retain differing Impressions from the Sanguine Methinks this one Consideration of the Infirmity our Intellectuals are subject to should restrain us from imposing our Opinions upon others But yet since Human Reason such as it is is the only Guide which God hath given us whereby to judg 1st Whether there be any such thing as a Revelation from God or not 2ly In what Books that Revelation is contained and 3ly What is the Sense contained in those Books Since our Reason I say is the only Guide in these momentous Matters every Man hath a natural Right to use it for his own Direction in any or all of these Points and herein no Man whatsoever hath any Right to impose his Opinion upon another tho common Humanity requireth every Man to use his Reason for the Instruction and Assistance of others What then shall we say touching the Authority of the Fathers and Antient Writers Truly if in their Writings we find a Spirit of Probity unbiassed with Passion Pride or
AN APOLOGY FOR THE PARLIAMENT Humbly Representing To Mr. JOHN GAILHARD SOME REASONS why they did not at his Request enact Sanguinary Laws against PROTESTANTS in their last Session In two Letters by different Hands LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCVII An Apology for the Parliament Mr. Gailhard SINCE your Zeal for the Glory of God was so fervent that in your Prefatory Epistle to the Honourable Houses of Parliament you could not forbear instructing them in their Duty of enacting new Sanguinary Laws against Protestants and since you were also pleased to assist them with the Precedent of Bartholomew Legat who was burnt in Smithfield A. D. 1611. for Socinianism I expected that the Honourable Houses would have returned you their Address of Thanks for the Honour you designed 'em especially since you are pleased to tell them that in this your Advice you had offered 'em a Field of Honour Smithfield has indeed been a Field of Honour to many who have suffered Martyrdom in it under the Character of Hereticks but what Honour the Parliament would gain by reviving the Writ upon which they were burnt I leave to their Consideration My Study shall be to pay you the Thanks which is due to you from all good English Freeholders for the pious Instructions you were pleased to bestow upon their Body Representative and to excuse that Honourable Assembly who seem to have neglected both you and your Instructions First I acknowledg that in an especial manner you have merited from the Honourable House of Commons and whole Nation that you were pleased so far to bridle your Zeal as to postpone the Glory of God to the Capitation Land-Tax Tunnage and Excises You say that you would not interrupt these Affairs and therefore you would not publish your Book till they were dispatched But if after this they should have sat till Midsummer to have qualified themselves for fighting your Battels in your Field of Honour 't is generally thought they might not have added to the Honour they have already obtained by the necessary Funds they have given the Reason is because those Funds were designed by them to preserve England from Spiritual Tyranny which your Project does actually introduce and therefore I most humbly beg that some small Portion of that sweet good Nature which overflows your Dedication and Preface may be spent in pardoning his Majesty for dismissing the Parliament from Westminster and preferring their Service in the Country before their further Attendance upon your gracious Motions In the next place I return you Thanks in behalf of your Brethren the Roman Catholicks who have always shewed the same burning Zeal with your self for the Glory of God that tho you frown a little upon them yet you do not join them who worship so many Idols in the same perilous Circumstances with the Unitarians who worship but one God It must be own'd to your free Grace also that the Jews come off with a chiding but are not design'd for a Burnt-Offering tho they blaspheme the Name of the Lord Jesus by whose Mediation alone the Unitarians expect to be recommended to the Mercy of God and I beg your Pardon that I make a small Excursion to congratulate the Turks who acknowledg but one Person to be God that they take care to encamp themselves at a convenient Distance from your Field of Honour Having thus with due Respect bespoke your gracious Favour 't is convenient to offer some Reasons towards giving you Satisfaction in the grand Point viz. why the Parliament at your Request did not in their last Session enact Sanguinary Laws against the Unitarians And truly Sir the first Reason came into my Thoughts with a Fear lest the Honourable Members should not have so much as read over your Book I have dipp'd into it here and there and by what I have staged over I think it an extraordinary large Treatise considering the Quantity of Matter contained in it so that he must be a Man of great Leisure and extraordinary Patience who will go through with it But if any worthy Member should have had the Application to have read and considered your Book he must thereby be convinced that there could be no need to make Penal Laws to suppress that Heresy since it can't be supposed that any Man should be so obstinate as to continue an Unitarian after that the Depth of your Learning the Height of your Fancy the Closeness of your Reasonings the Brightness of your Eloquence the Clearness of your Stile and the numerous Citations of Scripture-phrases have been so strenuously exerted for their Conviction I dare prophesy that he who reads your Book will be convinced of Mysteries viz. such things as are not intelligible to Men of Sense and Reason nay by the very Preface a Man may be convinced that you your self are no small Mystery who pretend to be a Protestant Persecutor And this very Mystery if well considered will suggest to you another Reason why this Parliament consisting of Protestant Members could not so well comply with your Desires as a House pack'd by K. James might have done and therefore Sir since things are as they are it had not been amiss for you to have considered the Difference between the Popish and Protestant Principle before you had addressed your late Dedication to the Parliament The Papists say that since the Word of God is so obscure and mysterious that great Controversies have arisen and are still increasing concerning the very fundamental Articles of our Faith 't is necessary there should be an Infallible Judg to determine finally all such doubtful Cases in whose Sentence all Christians are bound to acquiesce They assert the Pope in Council to be this Judg appointed by God and from thence conclude that they who refuse his infallible Sentence are obstinate Hereticks and deserve to be put to Death On the contrary the Protestants cannot find that God appointed any such Infallible Judg nor can they see any need of such a one because the Scriptures are plain enough so plain that any honest-minded Man of common Sense may understand all things there which are needful for him to his Soul's health Now Sir our Right Honourable and Honourable Houses of Parliament consisting of Protestants you could not easily suppose that they would vary so far from the Principles of the Reformation as to think that God had given us an obscure Rule of Faith or to think themselves the Infallible Interpreters of that Rule if it were obscure and hereupon 't was unlikely that they should impose their Sense of God's Word upon the Nation under those severe Penalties which you require and since you were not pleased to shew them any Judg more infallible than your self whose Sense they should enact methinks in modesty at least you might excuse the Parliament for permitting poor Protestants who are dutiful Subjects to our Rightful King William who are Lovers of their Country and live well with their Neighbours to interpret the Scriptures as well