not every where Free from Corruption or intire or clear Are uncorrupt sufficient clear intire In all things which our needfull Faith require If others in the same Glass better see 'T is for Themselves they look but not for me For MY Salvation must its Doom receive Not from what OTHERS but what I believe Must all Tradition then be set aside This to affirm were Ignorance or Pride Are there not many points some needfull sure To saving Faith that Scripture leaves obscure Which every Sect will wrest a several way For what one Sect Interprets all Sects may We hold and say we prove from Scripture plain That Christ is GOD the bold Socinian From the same Scripture urges he 's but MAN Now what Appeal can end th' important Suit Both parts talk loudly but the Rule is mute Shall I speak plain and in a Nation free Assume an honest Layman's Liberty I think according to my little Skill To my own Mother-Church submitting still That many have been sav'd and many may Who never heard this Question brought in play Th' unletter'd Christian who believes in gross Plods on to Heaven and ne'er is at a loss For the Streight-gate wou'd be made streighter yet Were none admitted there but men of Wit The few by Nature form'd with Learning fraught Born to instruct as others to be taught Must Study well the Sacred Page and see Which Doctrine this or that does best agree With the whole Tenour of the Work Divine And plainlyest points to Heaven 's reveal'd Design Which Exposition flows from genuine Sense And which is forc'd by Wit and Eloquence Not that Traditions parts are useless here When general old disinteress'd and clear That Ancient Fathers thus expound the Page Gives Truth the reverend Majesty of Age Confirms its force by biding every Test For best Authority's next Rules are best And still the nearer to the Spring we go More limpid more unsoyl'd the Waters flow Thus first Traditions were a proof alone Cou'd we be certain such they were so known But since some Flaws in long descent may be They make not Truth but Probability Even Arius and Pelagius durst provoke To what the Centuries preceding spoke Such difference is there in an oft-told Tale But Truth by its own Sinews will prevail Tradition written therefore more commends Authority than what from Voice descends And this as perfect as its kind can be Rouls down to us the Sacred History Which from the Vniversal Church receiv'd Is try'd and after for its self believ'd The partial Papists wou'd infer from hence Their Church in last resort shou'd Judge the Sense But first they wou'd assume with wondrous Art Themselves to be the whole who are but part Of that vast Frame the Church yet grant they were The handers down can they from thence infer A right t' interpret or wou'd they alone Who brought the Present claim it for their own The Book 's a Common Largess to Mankind Not more for them than every Man design'd The welcome News is in the Letter found The Carrier's not Commission'd to expound It speaks it Self and what it does contain In all things needfull to be known is plain In times o'ergrown with Rust and Ignorance A gainfull Trade their Clergy did advance When want of Learning kept the Laymen low And none but Priests were Authoriz'd to know When what small Knowledge was in them did dwell And he a God who cou'd but Reade or Spell Then Mother Church did mightily prevail She parcel'd out the Bible by retail But still expounded what She sold or gave To keep it in her Power to Damn and Save Scripture was scarce and as the Market went Poor Laymen took Salvation on Content As needy men take Money good or bad God's Word they had not but the Priests they had Yet whate'er false Conveyances they made The Lawyer still was certain to be paid In those dark times they learn'd their knack so well That by long use they grew Infallible At last a knowing Age began t' enquire If they the Book or That did them inspire And making narrower search they found thô late That what they thought the Priest's was Their Estate Taught by the Will produc'd the written Word How long they had been cheated on Record Then every man who saw the Title fair Claim'd a Child's part and put in for a Share Consulted Soberly his private good And sav'd himself as cheap as e'er he cou'd 'T is true my Friend and far be Flattery hence This good had full as bad a Consequence The Book thus put in every vulgar hand Which each presum'd he best cou'd understand The Common Rule was made the common Prey And at the mercy of the Rabble lay The tender Page with horney Fists was gaul'd And he was gifted most that loudest baul'd The Spirit gave the Doctoral Degree And every member of a Company Was of his Trade and of the Bible free Plain Truths enough for needfull use they found But men wou'd still be itching to expound Each was ambitious of th' obscurest place No measure ta'n from Knowledge all from GRACE Study and Pains were now no more their Care Texts were explain'd by Fasting and by Prayer This was the Fruit the private Spirit brought Occasion'd by great Zeal and little Thought While Crouds unlearn'd with rude Devotion warm About the Sacred Viands buz and swarm The Fly-blown Text creates a crawling Brood And turns to Maggots what was meant for Food A Thousand daily Sects rise up and dye A Thousand more the perish'd Race supply So all we make of Heavens discover'd Will Is not to have it or to use it ill The Danger 's much the same on several Shelves If others wreck us or we wreck our selves What then remains but waving each Extreme The Tides of Ignorance and Pride to stem Neither so rich a Treasure to forgo Nor proudly seek beyond our pow'r to know Faith is not built on disquisitions vain The things we must believe are few and plain But since men will believe more than they need And every man will make himself a Creed In doubtfull questions 't is the safest way To learn what unsuspected Ancients say For 't is not likely we shou'd higher Soar In search of Heav'n than all the Church before Nor can we be deceiv'd unless we see The Scripture and the Fathers disagree If after all they stand suspected still For no man's Faith depends upon his Will 'T is some Relief that points not clearly known Without much hazard may be let alone And after hearing what our Church can say If still our Reason runs another way That private Reason 't is more Just to curb Than by Disputes the publick Peace disturb For points obscure are of small use to learn But Common quiet is Mankind's concern Thus have I made my own Opinions clear Yet neither Praise expect nor Censure fear And this unpolish'd rugged Verse I chose As fittest for Discourse and nearest Prose For while from Sacred Truth I do not swerve Tom Sternhold 's or Tom Sha ll 's Rhimes will serve FINIS Opinions of the several Sects of Philosophers concerning the Summum Bonum Systeme of Deisme Of Reveal'd Religion Socrates Objection of the Deist The Objection answer'd Digression to the Translatour of Father Simon 's Critical History of the Old Testament Of the Infallibility of Tradition in General Objection in behalf of Tradition urg'd by Father Simon The Second Objection Answer to the Objection
RELIGIO LAICI OR A Laymans Faith A POEM Written by Mr. DRYDEN Ornari res ipsa negat contenta doceri LONDON Printed for Iacob Tonson at the Iudge's Head in Chancery-lane near Fleet-street 1682. THE PREFACE A Poem with so bold a Title and a Name prefix'd from which the handling of so serious a Subject wou'd not be expected may reasonably oblige the Author to say somewhat in defence both of himself and of his undertaking In the first place if it be objected to me that being a Layman I ought not to have concern'd my self with Speculations which belong to the Profession of Divinity I cou'd Answer that perhaps Laymen with equal advantages of Parts and Knowledge are not the most incompetent Judges of Sacred things But in the due sense of my own weakness and want of Learning I plead not this I pretend not to make my self a Judge of Faith in others but onely to make a Confession of my own I lay no unhallow'd hand upon the Ark but wait on it with the Reverence that becomes me at a distance In the next place I will ingenuously confess that the helps I have us'd in this small Treatise were many of them taken from the Works of our own Reverend Divines of the Church of England so that the Weapons with which I Combat Irreligion are already Consecrated though I suppose they may be taken down as lawfully as the Sword of Goliah was by David when they are to be employed for the common Cause against the Enemies of Piety I intend not by this to intitle them to any of my errours which yet I hope are only those of Charity to Mankind and such as my own Charity has caus'd me to commit that of others may more easily excuse Being naturally inclin'd to Scepticism in Philosophy I have no reason to impose my Opinions in a Subject which is above it But whatever they are I submit them with all reverence to my Mother Church accounting them no further mine than as they are Authoriz'd or at least uncondemn'd by her And indeed to secure my self on this side I have us'd the necessary Precaution of showing this Paper before it was Publish'd to a judicious and learned Friend a Man indefatigably zealous in the service of the Church and State and whose Writings have highly deserv'd of both He was pleas'd to approve the body of the Discourse and I hope he is more my Friend than to do it out of Complaisance 'T is true he had too good a tast to like it all and amongst some other faults recommended to my second view what I have written perhaps too boldly on St. Athanasius which he advised me wholy to omit I am sensible enough that I had done more prudently to have follow'd his opinion But then I could not have satisfied my self that I had done honestly not to have written what was my own It has always been my thought that Heathens who never did nor without Miracle cou'd hear of the name of Christ were yet in a possibility of Salvation Neither will it enter easily into my belief that before the coming of our Saviour the whole World excepting only the Iewish Nation shou'd lye under the inevitable necessity of everlasting Punishment for want of that Revelation which was confin'd to so small a spot of ground as that of Palaestine Among the Sons of Noah we read of one onely who was accurs'd and if a blessing in the ripeness of time was reserv'd for Iaphet of whose Progeny we are it seems unaccountable to me why so many Generations of the same Offspring as preceeded our Saviour in the Flesh shou'd be all involv'd in one common condemnation and yet that their Posterity shou'd be Intitled to the hopes of Salvation As if a Bill of Exclusion had passed only on the Fathers which debar'd not the Sons from their Succession Or that so many Ages had been deliver'd over to Hell and so many reserv'd for Heaven and that the Devil had the first choice and God the next Truly I am apt to think that the revealed Religion which was taught by Noah to all his Sons might continue for some Ages in the whole Posterity That afterwards it was included wholly in the Family of Sem is manifest but when the Progenies of Cham and Iaphet swarm'd into Colonies and those Colonies were subdivided into many others in process of time their Descendants lost by little and little the Primitive and Purer Rites of Divine Worship retaining onely the notion of one Deity to which succeeding Generations added others for Men took their Degrees in those Ages from Conquerours to Gods Revelation being thus Eclipsed to almost all Mankind the light of Nature as the next in Dignity was substituted and that is it which St. Paul concludes to be the Rule of the Heathens and by which they are hereafter to be judg'd If my supposition be true then the consequence which I have assum'd in my Poem may be also true namely that Deism or the Principles of Natural Worship are onely the faint remnants or dying flames of reveal'd Religion in the Posterity of Noah And that our Modern Philosophers nay and some of our Philosophisiing Divines have too much exalted the faculties of our Souls when they have maintain'd that by their force mankind has been able to find out that there is one Supream Agent or Intellectual Being which we call God that Praise and Prayer are his due Worship and the rest of those deducements which I am confident are the remote effects of Revelation and unatainable by our Discourse I mean as simply considerd and without the benefit of Divine Illumination So that we have not lifted up our selves to God by the weak Pinions of our Reason but he has been pleasd to descend to us and what Socrates said of him what Plato writ and the rest of the Heathen Philosophers of several Nations is all no more than the Twilight of Revelation after the Sun of it was set in the Race of Noah That there is some thing above us some Principle of motion our Reason can apprehend though it cannot discover what it is by its own Vertue And indeed 't is very improbable that we who by the strength of our faculties cannot enter into the knowledg of any Beeing not so much as of our own should be able to find out by them that Supream Nature which we cannot otherwise define than by saying it is Infinite as if Infinite were definable or Infinity a Subject for our narrow understanding They who wou'd prove Religion by Reason do but weaken the cause which they endeavour to support 't is to take away the Pillars from our Faith and to prop it onely with a twig 't is to design a Tower like that of Babel which if it were possible as it is not to reach Heaven would come to nothing by the confusion of the Workmen For every man is Building a several way impotently conceipted of his own Model and
which as yet are more easy for us to prevent than they would be for them to remedy How fatally this Cassandra has foretold we know too well by sad experience the Seeds were sown in the time of Queen Elizabeth the bloudy Harvest ripened in the Reign of King Charles the Martyr and because all the Sheaves could not be carried off without shedding some of the loose Grains another Crop is too like to follow nay I fear 't is unavoidable if the Conventiclers be permitted still to scatter A man may be suffer'd to quote an Adversary to our Religion when he speaks Truth and 't is the observation of Meimbourg in his History of Calvinism that where-ever that Discipline was planted and embrac'd Rebellion Civil War and Misery attended it And how indeed should it happen otherwise Reformation of Church and State has always been the ground of our Divisions in England While we were Papists our Holy Father rid us by pretending authority out of the Scriptures to depose Princes when we shook off his Authority the Sectaries furnish'd themselves with the same Weapons and out of the same Magazine the Bible So that the Scriptures which are in themselves the greatest security of Governours as commanding express obedience to them are now turn'd to their destruction and never since the Reformation has there wanted a Text of their interpreting to authorize a Rebel And 't is to be noted by the way that the Doctrines of King-killing and Deposing which have been taken up onely by the worst Party of the Papists the most frontless Flatterers of the Pope's Authority have been espous'd defended and are still maintain'd by the whole Body of Nonconformists and Republicans 'T is but dubbing themselves the People of God which 't is the interest of their Preachers to tell them they are and their own interest to believe and after that they cannot dip into the Bible but one Text or another will turn up for their purpose If they are under Persecution as they call it then that is a mark of their Election if they flourish then God works Miracles for their Deliverance and the Saints are to possess the Earth They may think themselves to be too roughly handled in this Paper but I who know best how far I could have gone on this Subject must be bold to tell them they are spar'd though at the same time I am not ignorant that they interpret the mildness of a Writer to them as they do the mercy of the Government in the one they think it Fear and conclude it Weakness in the other The best way for them to confute me is as I before advis'd the Papists to disclaim their Principles and renounce their Practices We shall all be glad to think them true Englishmen when they obey the King and true Protestants when they conform to the Church Discipline It remains that I acquaint the Reader that the Verses were written for an ingenious young Gentleman my Friend upon his Translation of The Critical History of the Old Testament compos'd by the learned Father Simon The Verses therefore are address'd to the Translatour of that Work and the style of them is what it ought to be Epistolary If any one be so lamentable a Critique as to require the Smoothness the Numbers and the Turn of Heroick Poetry in this Poem I must tell him that if he has not read Horace I have studied him and hope the style of his Epistles is not ill imitated here The Expressions of a Poem design'd purely for Instruction ought to be Plain and Natural and yet Majestick for here the Poet is presum'd to be a kind of Law-giver and those three qualities which I have nam'd are proper to the Legislative style The Florid Elevated and Figurative way is for the Passions for Love and Hatred Fear and Anger are begotten in the Soul by shewing their Objects out of their true proportion either greater than the Life or less but Instruction is to be given by shewing them what they naturally are A Man is to be cheated into Passion but to be reason'd into Truth TO Mr. Dryden On his POEM called RELIGIO LAICI GReat is the task and worthy such a Muse To doe Faith right yet Reason disabuse How chearfully the Soul does take its flight On Faith's strong wings guided by Reason's light But Reason does in vain her beams display Shewing to th' place whence first she came the way If Peter's Heirs must still hold fast the Key The house which many Mansions shou'd contain Form'd by the great wise Architect in vain Of Disproportion justly we accuse If the streight-gate still entrance must refuse The onely free enriching Port God made What shamefull Monopoly did invade One Factious Company ingross'd the Trade Thou to the distant Shore hast safely sail'd Where the best Pilots have so often fail'd Freely we now may buy the Pearl of price The happy Land abounds with fragrant Spice And nothing is forbidden there but Vice Thou best Columbus to the unknown World Mountains of Doubt that in thy way were hurld Thy generous Faith has bravely overcome And made Heaven truly our familiar home Let Crowds impossibilities receive Who cannot think ought not to disbelieve Let 'em pay Tithes and hud-wink'd go to Heaven But sure the Quaker cou'd not be forgiven Had not the Clerk who hates Lay-policy Found out to countervail the Injury Swearing a trade of which they are not free Too long has captiv'd Reason been enslav'd By Visions scar'd and airy Phantasms brav'd Listning t' each proud Enthusiastick Fool Pretending Conscience but designing Rule Whilst Law Form Interest Ignorance Design Did in the holy Cheat together joyn Like vain Astrologers gazing on the Skyes We fell and did not dare to trust our Eyes 'T is time at last to fix the trembling Soul And by thy Compass to point out the Pole All men agree in what is to be done And each Man's Heart his Table is of Stone Where he the God-writ Character may view Were it as needfull Faith had been so too Oh that our greatest fault were humble Doubt And that we were more Iust though less Devout What reverence shou'd we pay thy sacred Rhimes Who in these Factious too-believing Times Hast taught us to obey and to distrust Yet to our selves our King and God prove just Thou wantst not Praise from an ensuring Friend The Poor to Thee on double Interest lend So strong thy Reasons and so clear thy Sense They bring like Day their own bright Evidence Yet whilst mysterious Truths to light you bring And heavenly things in heavenly numbers sing The joyfull Younger Choir may clap the Wing To Mr. DRYDEN on Religio Laici 'T Is nobly done a Layman's Creed profest When all our Faith of late hung on a Priest His doubtfull words like Oracles receiv'd And when we could not understand believ'd Triumphant Faith now takes a nobler course T is gentle but resists intruding force Weak Reason may pretend an awfull
in the Page Or whether more abstractedly we look Or on the Writers or the written Book Whence but from Heav'n cou'd men unskill'd in Arts In several Ages born in several parts Weave such agreeing Truths or how or why Shou'd all conspire to cheat us with a Lye Vnask'd their Pains ungratefull their Advice Starving their Gain and Martyrdom their Price If on the Book it self we cast our view Concurrent Heathens prove the Story True The Doctrine Miracles which must convince For Heav'n in Them appeals to humane Sense And though they prove not they Confirm the Cause When what is Taught agrees with Natures Laws Then for the Style Majestick and Divine It speaks no less than God in every Line Commanding words whose Force is still the same As the first Fiat that produc'd our Frame All Faiths beside or did by Arms ascend Or Sense indulg'd has made Mankind their Friend This onely Doctrine does our Lusts oppose Unfed by Natures Soil in which it grows Cross to our Interests curbing Sense and Sin Oppress'd without and undermin'd within It thrives through pain it s own Tormentours tires And with a stubborn patience still aspires To what can Reason such Effects assign Transcending Nature but to Laws Divine Which in that Sacred Volume are contain'd Sufficient clear and for that use ordain'd But stay the Deist here will urge anew No Supernatural Worship can be True Because a general Law is that alone Which must to all and every where be known A Style so large as not this Book can claim Nor ought that bears reveal'd Religions Name 'T is said the sound of a Messiah's Birth Is gone through all the habitable Earth But still that Text must be confin'd alone To what was Then inhabited and known And what Provision cou'd from thence accrue To Indian Souls and Worlds discover'd New In other parts it helps that Ages past The Scriptures there were known and were imbrac'd Till Sin spread once again the Shades of Night What 's that to these who never saw the Light Of all Objections this indeed is chief To startle Reason stagger frail Belief We grant 't is true that Heav'n from humane Sense Has hid the secret paths of Providence But boundless Wisedom boundless Mercy may Find ev'n for those be-wildred Souls a way If from his Nature Foes may Pity claim Much more may Strangers who ne'er heard his Name And though no Name be for Salvation known But that of his Eternal Sons alone Who knows how far transcending Goodness can Extend the Merits of that Son to Man Who knows what Reasons may his Mercy lead Or Ignorance invincible may plead Not onely Charity bids hope the best But more the great Apostle has exprest That if the Gentiles whom no Law inspir'd By Nature did what was by Law requir'd They who the written Rule had never known Were to themselves both Rule and Law alone To Natures plain indictment they shall plead And by their Conscience be condemn'd or freed Most righteous Doom because a Rule reveal'd Is none to Those from whom it was conceal'd Then those who follow'd Reasons Dictates right Liv'd up and lifted high their Natural Light With Socrates may see their Maker's Face While Thousand Rubrick-Martyrs want a place Nor does it baulk my Charity to find Th' Egyptian Bishop of another mind For though his Creed Eternal Truth contains 'T is hard for Man to doom to endless pains All who believ'd not all his Zeal requir'd Unless he first cou'd prove he was inspir'd Then let us either think he meant to say This Faith where publish'd was the onely way Or else conclude that Arius to confute The good old Man too eager in dispute Flew high and as his Christian Fury rose Damn'd all for Hereticks who durst oppose Thus far my Charity this path has try'd A much unskilfull but well meaning guide Yet what they are ev'n these crude thoughts were bred By reading that which better thou hast read Thy Matchless Author's work which thou my Friend By well translating better dost commend Those youthfull hours which of thy Equals most In Toys have squander'd or in Vice have lost Those hours hast thou to Nobler use employ'd And the severe Delights of Truth enjoy'd Witness this weighty Book in which appears The crabbed Toil of many thoughtfull years Spent by thy Authour in the Sifting Care Of Rabbins old Sophisticated Ware From Gold Divine which he who well can sort May afterwards make Algebra a Sport A Treasure which if Country-Curates buy They Junius and Tremellius may defy Save pains in various readings and Translations And without Hebrew make most learn'd quotations A Work so full with various Learning fraught So nicely pondred yet so strongly wrought As Natures height and Arts last hand requir'd As much as Man cou'd compass uninspir'd Where we may see what Errours have been made Both in the Copiers and Translaters Trade How Iewish Popish Interests have prevail'd And where Infallibility has fail'd For some who have his secret meaning ghes'd Have found our Authour not too much a Priest For Fashion-sake he seems to have recourse To Pope and Councils and Traditions force But he that old Traditions cou'd subdue Cou'd not but find the weakness of the New If Scripture though deriv'd from heav'nly birth Has been but carelesly preserv'd on Earth If God's own People who of God before Knew what we know and had been promis'd more In fuller Terms of Heaven's assisting Care And who did neither Time nor Study spare To keep this Book untainted unperplext Let in gross Errours to corrupt the Text Omitted paragraphs embroyl'd the Sense With vain Traditions stopt the gaping Fence Which every common hand pull'd up with ease What Safety from such brushwood-helps as these If written words from time are not secur'd How can we think have oral Sounds endur'd Which thus transmitted if one Mouth has fail'd Immortal Lyes on Ages are intail'd And that some such have been is prov'd too plain If we consider Interest Church and Gain Oh but says one Tradition set aside Where can we hope for an unerring Guid For since th' original Scripture has been lost All Copies disagreeing maim'd the most Or Christian Faith can have no certain ground Or Truth in Church Tradition must be found Such an Omniscient Church we wish indeed 'T were worth Both Testaments and cast in the Creed But if this Mother be a Guid so sure As can all doubts resolve all truth secure Then her Infallibility as well Where Copies are corrupt or lame can tell Restore lost Canon with as little pains As truly explicate what still remains Which yet no Council dare pretend to doe Unless like Esdras they cou'd write it new Strange Confidence still to interpret true Yet not be sure that all they have explain'd Is in the blest Original contain'd More Safe and much more modest 't is to say God wou'd not leave Mankind without a way And that the Scriptures though