which yet is as morally certain as any thing can be Let then the simplest man in England provide himself of two New Testaments one published by the Church of England another by the Church of Rome as was that of Rheims Now he knows well what animosities be betwixt the Divines of these Churches and that they are engaged so hotly one against another that they agree in nothing but where the Evidence of truth especially in matters of Fact does bind them And yet he comparing these New Testaments will find that though the phrase the position of words and in some few places perhaps the sence varies but upon a survey of the whole he finds that they do plainly agree in all matters of moment So that from this he is perswaded that both have the same true Book which the Apostles did deliver to the Church and the Iews agreeing with us as to the Old Testament is the same Evidence to him that we have those very Books which were held Sacred by the Iews in our Saviour's time And thus by I. K's leave a man may be satisfied what be the true Books without being assured which is the true Church or the true Religion Being then assured about the Books and studying them in the method already set down he shall be certainly directed by God to find out every thing necessary to Salvation and this is far from setting up a private Spirit to lead us Enthusiastically but is an appeal to the Reason and ingenuity that is common to all men For let me ask I. K. how the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent are to be understood He himself says the meaning of those is plainly and certainly to be known yet every Reader must expound them to himself in that easie and clear sence which best agrees with the words Is this therefore to set up a private spirit to enterpret these Canons I know he will say and with good reason too that it is far from it and with the same warrant do I assert that the considering of Scripture according to the method proposed is not to interpret it by a private Spirit but by the clear conduct of our understandings directed by the divine Grace which is freely given to all that ask it If after all this it be replyed How is it then that there are such different Expositors and Expositions of Scripture the Answer is plain by sending back the Reader to what hath been said of the corruption of mens minds and as long as men live so ill as they do it is to no purpose to expect they shall think or understand aright Besides there be a great many things in the Scriptures which are not Articles of Faith which every man is not bound to know and conceive aright under the hazard of Damnation and about which there may be disputings and different Opinions without any hazard If any set up particular Opinions in matters justly controvertible and of less moment and impose these on all with severe Sanctions and if he have Authority to cast all out of the Church Society that do not agree with him or if he have not that Authority if he do separate from the Communion of the Church because they will not receive or hearken to his conceits he is a Schismatick for a dogmatizing and dictating spirit if strengthned with power doth always lead to persecution and if it want it to separation And thus I think enough is said for proving that the way to Salvation is not at all uncertain in our Church since it is no other but that new and living way which our Saviour did Consecrate through his flesh But in this we are strongly confirmed when we find the ancient Martyrs Fathers and Doctors of the Church going in the same Method and by it Converting the Nations enduring Martyrdome and giving glory to their most holy Faith and to its most holy Author whose Decrees when met in Councils and Doctrines delivered in their writings do so agree with Ours in all matters of Faith that we decline not to put the whole debates between us and them to this Tryal I. K. thinks we cannot know what Fathers or what Councils to receive but by first acknowledging a true Church which must tell what Fathers and Councils to receive But this being a matter of Fact we are to judge of it as of all matters of Fact that were transacted some Ages ago and by the evidence of Testimonies are to find out the truth concerning the Fathers and Councils and their Writings and Decrees We have good reason to decline the writers of the latter Ages since we plainly see that upon the overthrow of the Western Empire by the Goths and Vandals and other Northern Nations and of the Eastern Empire by the Saracens and other Mahometans Religion and Learning were quickly brought under sad and lasting decays which is confest by writers on all sides And what I. K. says That we may as well expect the whole Gospel in the first Chapter of S. Matthew as all Faith of the Church in the first four General Councils is very impertinently alledged Did we ask for all the definitions of the Church in the first Canon of Nice his comparison might well take place but it cannot be fitly used in our case who say we are the true Catholick Apostolick Christians because we in all things agree with the Churches of God as they were during their greatest purity both in the persecutions and after those for two Ages Certainly if we hold all that Faith they then held and if they were saved we may be so too and you cannot pass a severe sentence on us which will not likewise take hold of them I. K. cannot deny but they stated the Christian Faith in very formal Creeds and one of them expresly decreed That no new addition should be made to the Creed and so we who receive that Creed though at all this distance from them are really in Communion with them from which those have departed who have made such vast additions to the Creed And thus it appears we are in the same way which our Saviour first opened and in which that glorious cloud of witnesses followed him and are still in Communion with Rome as she was when her Faith was spoken of through the whole world and therefore we are in a safe way to Salvation But because Christians must live together in Unity and Charity and in order to that end must associate together in the Worship of God in mutual Councils and other necessary parts of Government and some External rites for maintaining the visible acknowledgment of the Faith therefore we have rules given in Scripture no less express for obeying the Civil powers in all their Commands that are not plainly contrary either to Natural or revealed Religion which is a clear and constant rule by which we may be satisfied if our minds be right prepared and qualified as was before set down And if by
A RATIONAL METHOD For proving the Truth of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION As it is Professed in the Church of England In Answer to A Rational Compendious Way to Convince without Dispute all persons whatsoever Dissenting from the true Religion By I. K. By Gilbert Burnet LONDON Printed for Richard Royston Bookseller to His most Excellent Majesty M DC LXXV To I. K. SIR ABout two or three months ago a Noble Lady gave me your Book with a Letter that addressed it to me wherein after some civilities I was desired to peruse the Book and made hope I should reap great advantages from it and indeed if I had not learned from the Inspired Preacher that there is nothing new under the Sun or had been easily catched to believe Novelties a Title and Preface that promised so much should have made me apprehend I had got sent me the Philosophers stone in Divinity and truly so short so sure so easie and so general a Method as you think you offer for curing and preventing all distempers about Religion deserved to be entertained with equal degrees of Joy and Astonishment What a happiness were it to Mankind after all the expence of Bloud all the toyl and sweat of Care all the Speculations and Labours of the Learned and the Industry and endeavours of Statesmen for resolving the doubts and difficulties about Religion to find a shorter and a safer way to get out of that trouble But as the high pretences and promises of the Spagiricks make sober people afraid to meddle with them and do oft bring disesteem and neglect on the Medicines because they are overvalued so I am afraid your Book shall have the same fate with clearer and unpossessed minds And I must confess my self strongly prejudiced against these hudling Methods so that I always apprehend some Legerdemain from them And the Title of your Book did very naturally lead me to this thought it being a form of Speech we in England call a Bull A Rational way to convince without any Dispute for a Rational way of Conviction is when upon a full hearing and considering all can be said on both sides of any debate the evidence of Reason determines our perswasion And to form an opinion after we have only considered the grounds of one side is as unequal and unjust as for a Judge to pass sentence when he has heard but one party Now Disputing is only the considering with an even ballance what all parties say and the suspending our Verdict till they have finished their Evidence It is therefore no Rational way but a blind and unreasonable one that bars Disputing nor can it be a Conviction but only a prepossession when we are led into any Opinion before all that can in reason be said hath been examined by us But I suppose by Dispute you meant the eager and hot contests of wrangling Disputants who espousing a party do with all the tricks and disingenuities of Sophistry and the petulant Incivilities of rude treatment manage debates as persons more concerned for glory and victory than for truth and rather than confess an escape and disclaim an error will with all the trifling arts of their embased Logick defend every thing which either they themselves have once said or that party they adhere to has maintained But as I passed from your Title through your Preface to your Book I must freely confess I did not find in it such fair and clear Reasoning as you promised and I saw you had a great deal of reason to avoid Disputing for nothing but a blind easie yielding to what you delivered could save your Book from being rejected And this seemed to me so obvious that I judged it needless to engage in any Answer to it and so laid it aside But a few days ago a worthy and learned friend of mine told me many wished some would be at the pains to Answer it and desired me to do it and when I told him how it was brought to my hands he thought I was under some obligation to send you the reasons that lay in my way and kept me from yielding to this new Method of Conviction I was the more easily perswaded to it that my present circumstances did leave me at a greater freedom of disposing of my time than I have enjoyed for some years The starched formality of Dedications is as much out of esteem with me as out of date in this freer age but it was natural to address this to your self though utterly unknown to me by any other Character than what your Book gives of you and so I am in no hazard of making personal reflections I shall first give you my sense of your Method in all the Six points you go through before I take any notice of what is in your Preface which I shall consider last of all and with the same breath shall offer a Rational way of managing all Disputes about Religion so that after a full hearing of what may be said we may arrive at a clear and well grounded Conviction in matters of Religion I hope you will consider what I go to lay before you with a mind calm and undisturbed and believe that in this I am acting the part of one who is sincerely Your Friend and Servant Gilbert Burnet IMPRIMATUR Guliel Wigan Feb. 27. 1674 5. THE CONTENTS CHap. I. It is considered if J. K. does prove convincingly that there is a God Page 1. Chap. II. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that there must be some true Religion p. 11. Chap. III. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that there must be some true Revealed Religion p. 17. Chap. IV. It is considered if J. K. hath proved convincingly the truth of the Christian Religion p. 23. Chap. V. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that the Roman Catholick Religion is true p. 33. Chap. VI. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that every thing the Roman Church teaches as an Article of Faith must be true p. 57. Chap. VII Of the supposed inconveniences J. K. imagines in the want of a true Church to judge Infallibly and of the right methods of finding truth p. 65. THE INTRODUCTION NOthing doth give both occasion and nourishment to Error and Mistake more than the being prevailed on by the heats of fancy without bringing them under the severer tryal of Reason nor do our Imaginative powers in any case more certainly impose upon us than when they present Notions to us which do at once surprise with their novelty and delight with their apparent usefulness and none are sooner catch'd with such a bait than men of Speculative heads accustomed to Disputes and to the little tricks of Logick for they being habituated to so many Axioms which pass among them for sacred Truths think if they can found a discourse on some received Maxim all is sure work and have not distinguished aright betwixt the Colours of Truth which Wit Eloquence and Sophistry can by a
propagated as it was it could not have been made out that it was true and if so what must have been the strong Arguments used for it before it was so propagated Either these were convincing or not if they were not convincing then it being propagated by weak and unconcluding Arguments we cannot be bound to submit to it or believe it if these Arguments were convincing we either know them or we know them not if we know them not how can we judge they were convincing if we know them then we may be as well convinced by them as those were to whom they were at first proposed The great Argument the Apostles offered was that our Blessed Saviour wrought many Miracles in the sight of the Iews and that he being dead and laid in the grave was raised from the dead and after a long stay with them on earth they saw him ascend with great glory to Heaven of all which they were witnesses Now these being matters of Fact so positively attested by so many eye-witnesses who were men of great probity that could not be cast on the pretence of their being hired or bribed there being no interest could lead them to give that testimony but only truth all other considerations deterring them from it there was good reason then and remains so still to believe this true whether the world had embraced it or not And I will ask I. K. what if the Gentiles had rejected their testimony as well as the Iews did yet if these sacred writings had been with a most Religious care conveyed down to us had we not been bound to believe the Gospel certainly we had for the Apostles were men who upon the strictest tryal of Law must be admitted as competent witnesses they were well informed of what they heard and saw for a tract of three or four years they were plain simple men who could not in reason be suspect of deep designs or contrivances they in the testimonies they gave do not only vouch private stories that were transacted in corners but publick matters seen and known of many hundreds they all agreed in their testimony so that the fumes of melancholy could not lead so many into such an agreement of mistakes Their testimonies if false might have been easily disproved the chief power being in the hands of their enemies who neither wanted power cunning nor malice And in fine the truth of their testimony appears in their constant adhering to it from which neither imprisonments whippings tortures no not death it self could divert them From all which it is as evident as is possible any matter of Fact can be that their testimony was true and this discourse must hold good whether the world had received and believed their report or not Which was the more fully confirmed by the miraculous operations of the Apostles in the name of Christ by which they did cast out Devils and cure all manner of diseases and to this they appeal in their Epistles and Acts which were published at that time wherein had the matter of Fact not been true they had been branded as bold and impudent Impostors We have also a Series of Books in all Ages citing the Writings wherein these Testimonies are contained by which we know they were written at that very time And the Apologists for the Christian Faith in their Apologies appeal to the wonders that were still wrought for confirmation of the Faith nor can we imagine that men of common sense not to say Modesty and Ingenuity would have appealed to proofs that were slender and false in matter of Fact Thus we see that great confirmation of our Saviour from his Miracles is made good by another way of proof than by the propagation of it which I do not deny doth very strongly make out the truth of all yet is rather a consequent confirmation of what hath been said than an antecedent argument for proving it So though it be far from my thoughts to weaken this way of confirming Christian Religion yet it is plain that an extraordinary propagation will not infer the truth of the Doctrine though it be allowed it was done by Miracles since we cannot be assured these Miracles are wrought by a good Spirit till we first consider the Doctrines they confirm whether they be good or not It doth also appear that the truth of these Miracles is made out abundantly to us abstracting from the way of propagating them But in end we must a little examine what this way of propagating them was and we shall find that notwithstanding all the calumnies and lesser persecutions of the Iews of the derision of the Philosophers of the prejudice carnal lusts and appetites laid in the way and above all of the violent oppositions given it by the Roman Emperors who spared no cruelty for a Succession of three Ages and ten Persecutions that hell or hellish men could devise for destroying it yet it prevailed and in a few years did spread to the astonishment of the world and all other Religions were not only overthrown by the many Converts were daily flocking in to the Christian Church but by the ruine of these very Religions Judaism fell to the ground by the subversion of their Temple and the total ruine and dispersion of their State begun by Vespasian and Titus and compleated by Trajan and Hadrian nor could their attempts though cherished by an apostate Emperour succeed for the rebuilding their Temple Heaven and Earth combining to break off the work Heathenism did also receive a mortal blow by the silencing the Oracles upon the beginnings of Christianity which were the great supports of that Religion with the vulgar And the exemplary lives the heavenly Doctrines the mutual Charity and the noble Constancy of the first Witnesses and Martyrs of the Christian Faith wrought not a little on all that beheld thâ—m even on such as were very partial and byassed against them And the Christian Religion being thus universally received as it is a very full demonstration that these Miracles were no forgeries but known and approved truths So also it confirms in us a belief that there was an extraordinary presence of God in these beginnings of Christianity assisting and animating those Converts of all Ages Sexes and Qualities to adhere to it under all the discouragements and sufferings they were to pass through whether occasioned by the irregular appetites of their own carnal lusts or by the outward oppositions they met with And thus far I have considered how the truth of Christian Religion can be made out against the opposition of Atheists Infidels or Deists Hitherto I have waited on I. K. in the survey of these Truths about which we are agreed and I hope upon a review of what we have both performed he will not deny but I have strengthened his Positions with the accession of many more and better Arguments than any he brought So that if he be in earnest zealous for these four great Truths he will rejoyce to
to these Notions discerning them more truly and following them more constantly so that as a man sees well when his eye does present objects to him in their due Colours and distances yet this proves no Deity in like manner a man is better or worse as he discerns and follows these common Notices more or less exactly Thus far I have considered this Argument and have found it so weak on all sides that no weight is to be laid on it at all But all this while I have been put to act a very unpleasant part when I did but seem to defend Atheism from any objection is brought against it but I know nothing that does more prejudice a good cause than when it is maintained by arguments palpably weak and unconcluding for it makes many overly considerers and more particularly those that are already byassed and partial imagine it has no more strength in it than what it receives from the Arguments by which it was proved since no conclusion as such can have more truth in it than was in the premises from which it was deduced If therefore the proving of a Deity be made good by an Argument so fallacious that it must needs appear such at first view one that is wickedly partial may from that be sortified in his accursed hopes that there is none because he finds that so much feared truth is so weakly asserted But that I do not leave the Atheists in a vain triumph or seem to weaken so good a Cause by blowing away any reasons brought for it without substituting other and better ones in their room I shall here say a little for the conviction of an Atheist First then all men are desired to consider there is no Argument that can so much as pretend to prove there is no God or that a supreme being infinitely perfect is impossible for all the Atheists offer at is only to weaken those Reasons from which the belief of a Deity is inferred so that still it is possible there may be a God And from this every man will see cause to retire his thoughts inwards to consider what danger he is in if there be a God and he continue to deny and despise him and if it be possible there be a God for ought he knows there may be one since he has no reason to be assured of the contrary If upon this he yield so far as seriously and with even ballances to weigh what shall be offered to him he is next desired to consider if he find not within himself the secret apprehensions of a Supreme invisible being if the fears of offending him the desire of his assistance the joy in the opinion of being acceptable to him do not often spring up in his mind and this even after all attempts to stifle and repress them Nor can this be only the effect of Education for every man finds by experience that all other things which he sucked from his breeding can by a little care and attention be so quite forsaken that no visage of the first impression shall remain Since therefore these thoughts stick closer there must be somewhat more than Education in the case But this will appear stronger if a man compare the thoughts and common sentiments of all Nations and Ages as far as either History or writings can lead us up with these stirring within his own breast where finding that all mankind have agreed in the belief of a Deity he must needs be convinced there is some proportion betwixt his Soul and these thoughts from which he is not to be shaken though he meet with some few in this or former Ages who have denied or doubted this truth for these can never be set up against such vast numbers as have agreed in this belief who have been always the most sober most serious and considering persons who have cultivated all Arts and Sciences and advanced the good of Mankind more than the whole Tribe of Libertines and Ruffians who having abandoned themselves to their sensual appetites and pleasures and neglected the improving their minds in any thing that is either Great or Good are not to be put in the ballance with the Religious What have they ever done to better Mankind On the contrary their Maxims dissolve all the Nerves of Government and all the duties we owe one another and they being buried in their brutal lusts have lost that clearness of discerning which men of more sober tempers have nor do they ever converse with their own minds but study to guard against serious Thoughts as effects of the Spleen and Melancholy and the dissoluteness of their Lives as it depraves their Understandings so it makes them partial to those Notions that may give them ease and sleep in their licentious practises And thus he that consults his own thoughts and the common verdict of all Mankind will be made acknowledge a Deity And if he open his eyes to look on the visible world this will furnish him with many Reasons to believe an invisible power that made it If we consider the Revolutions of the heavens the interchanges of day and night summer and winter the figure of the earth its division into Sea and Land by which all Nations communicate what they abound in to others the inequalities of Hills and Valleys the Lakes and Rivers that moisten the earth and give drink to Animâ—â—â— the many productâ—oâ—s of the Earth the great variety of Plants and Vegetables with their several uses besides the more inward riches of the Earth Mines and Minerals what man of common sense can ascribe all this to Fate or Chance But the Structure of Animals the Organs of Sense the Vessels of Concoctions the various Ferments and the skilfully disposed Channels for conveying nourishment to all the parts of the Body raises our wonder higher which is at its full height when we examine the parts of mans Body which amazed Galen and made him sing a Hymn to his Maker upon so astonishing a Meditation If the Brain and seat of Memory and Imagination be considered what a surprizing thing is it to find such a substance the Receptacle of so many various Impressions as make up all the words of every Language we speak the figures of all persons places and things we have seen or considered and that all these be so well disposed that we can draw them out when we please in so ready and natural an order and also that all words flow so easily through our Mouths Now this must either be the effect of Fate or Chance or of an intelligent wise Being Not of Fate for beside that they cannot explain what that Fate should be every thing that flows from a Natural Cause must always operate the 〈◊〉 way but the great diversities of mens Temâ—ers Apprehensions and Judgments the difference of their Faces Eyes way of Speaking Writing and Walking shew that they are not the effects of Fate Nor can so much Regularity and parts so useful and well
disposed have run so together by Chance which must needs be unequal and unconstant So that mans Formation must owe its Original to a wise Being and that this is not the wisdom of the Father and Mother every one knows therefore there must be some unseen wise Being that created the Universe and did not only at first set the several parts of it in those Channels wherein they still run but does continue to mould this Matter according to the designs of his Eternal mind All this receives a further Confirmation from the many sudden changes of the Course of Nature at the command of some extraordinary persons who have forced her out of her common Methods and Operations which is an evident demonstration there is somewhat Superior to Matter and Motion which can over-rule and govern it This having appeared often in the sight of many thousands of discerning and impartial witnesses who have both confessed and attested the truth of what they saw and heard we have no reason to doubt the matter of Fact and as little to question the being of a Deity who is Master of the world and can do in it and with it what he will Thus far have I considered upon what true and solid grounds the belief of a Deity must rest which are indeed such that we need not the help of any little piece of Sophistry to maintain them they require only a serious and thinking temper to examine and weigh things in a fair and Rational way without either the prejudices of Education or the partialities of lust and interest CHAP. II. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that there must be some true Religion THE next step I. K. makes is to prove that there must be a true Religion which he defines A Doctrine that teaches men in what manner God will be worshipped by them and in what matters he will be obeyed by them Now he proves this for if there be a true God we ought to worship him in what manner he will be worshiped by and obey him in what matters he will be obeyed by us as subjects and servants reverence and â—bey their Soveraigns and Masters Therefore if God be the best and greatest of all things we are his subjects and servants for certainly he is the supreme Governour of the Universe and this he thinks none who grant a true God can deny and this way of Worship must be assigned by God and men must know it This is the substance of what I. K. says on this head which is so extremely weak and ill proved that I am amazed he did not see it For he must remember he only pretended there was a Being best of all others Now though that were true it will not follow from that that I must Worship or Obey God much less that I am his subject and servant all that will follow being only that I ought to esteem him the best of all Beings but why Adore or Obey him and why am I his servant or subject Adoration and Obedience can only be exacted as acts either of Justice Gratitude or Interest If any have a right to my Worship or Obedience they are due to him in Justice or if he have put such Obligations on me that these are but a proportioned return and acknowledgment of them then they are due in Gratitude or if he be able to confer extraordinary favours or inflict most severe punishments then the avoiding his displeasure and the procuring his favour are necessary on the account of my own Interest and so I must study to please him by Worship and Obedience but nothing of all this will follow if it be only proved that there is a best of Beings which is all I. K. attempted And hence it was that though the Epicureans acknowledged such a Deity as he thinks he has proved yet they denying both Creation Providence and another State did throw off the care and thoughts of Religion as the effects of fear and superstition And I. K. defining Religion to be a Doctrine teaching us to worship and obey God so as he will have us do goes to prove there must be a Religion because if there be a God he must be Worshipped and Obeyed so as pleases him Now this being his definition of Religion and by consequence all one with it he proves that if there be a God there must be a Religion thus if there be a true God there must be a true Religion And how Sophistical a way of procedure this is common sense not to say Logick does make appear And thus he is again unhappy in this his second step But as in the former Section I judged it ne-necessary to substitute some better proofs of a Deity than he gave so I shall now offer â—ome stronger Arguments to prove there must be a Religion And first if God be the Creator of all things and the Author of our beings as was already proved then we are his subjects by that right of Creation and owe our Nature Reason and Life wholly to him Therefore as in justice we ought to acknowledge this by our thankful Praises and Adorations so we ought by the same justice to give our selves up to him and do and suffer what he will have us do and suffer And this is confirmed by those impressions of Awe and Reverence which as was before proved the greatest and best nay and often the worst part of Mankind feel on their hearts Which with the checks and pangs of Conscience for sins shews how Religion is natural to the Soul and proportioned to our faculties Again if God created the world and all things in it he must uphold preserve and govern his own workmanship which the regular course of Nature with the dayly productions of it do demonstrate And it is no less clear from the extraordinary and miraculous interruptions and changes which by his great power are given to the common course of Second causes Now if there be a supreme Providence that watcheth over all humane things and from whose care all the blessings oâ— this life flow upon us then we ought to make returns sutable to such favours and likewise implore the continuance of them Finally if there be a God that made and governs all things â—e must be both so good and so just as to protect and reward all who trust in him and serve him this being the natural result of justice and goodness and there must be some discrimination between those that worship and obey him and those that do not so Now this is not done in this life for often those who Fear and Love him are in great Miseries Pains and Troubles and live and die most uncomfortably whereas those who dishonour and disobey him are often in great honour and esteem and abound in all outward advantages nor is there any visible discrimination in this Life yet that being inseparable from the notion of justice and goodness it must certainly be done at some time
or other Since therefore it is not in this Life it must be in another therefore we must believe our Souls shall outlive this state When likewise we consider that Matter in all its subtilest refinings and nimblest motions gives no discoveries of Sense or Cogitation and yet we feel a Thinking being within us which we plainly perceive to be a Being different from Matter both in its actings and nature we conclude there is a principle in us that must not necessarily die at the dissolution of this life Which is confirmed from innumerable stories of the Apparitions of some Rational beings separated from Bodies which in all Ages and places of the world have abounded and are as certainly attested as ever any matter of Fact hath been Which shews that there are Beings distinct from Matter and that our Souls are such their subtle reasonings both Metaphysical and Mathematical do demonstrate Their surviving this Body is also gathered from their frequent ascent above material Figures and Phantasms in their Conceptions and Inferences which shews they do not so much depend on matter as not to outlive their union with it In fine The common apprehensions which all Thinking men in all Ages have owned and which appears in the greatest part of all both good and bad at their death shews the belief of this is among those common Notices of truth which are born with the Soul From all which I may fairly assume That there is another state in which our Souls surviving their union with our Bodies shall be rewarded or punished as they have deserved well or ill at the hands of the great Creator and Judge of all men And therefore if our own interests touch us or prevail upon us and the apprehensions of future rewards or punishments work on our fears or hopes we must carefully avoid all dishonouring disobeying or offending this God and with the same care we must study to acknowledge our beings are of him and for him and that all the blessings of this Life are the effects of his Bounty for which we must thank him and adoring his blessed Attributes and Perfections we must dedicate our whole Lives to his service that so we may still enjoy his favour here and in the next life receive the rewards of good and faithful servants And thus upon good and solid foundations I have built up this proposition That there must be some true Religion CHAP III. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that there must be some true Revealed Religion J. K. goes on to prove this Religion must be Revealed which he performs thus How can we know Gods will unless he Reveal it to us either immediately or mediately For natural Religion teaches only in general that we ought to Worship and Obey God but does not teach the particular manner or matters of this Worship and Obedience therefore there is a necessity of this Revelation Yea if God had left this to the Choice of every one yet at least that must be revealed In this Reasoning I. K. hath forgot a very necessary distinction of Revelation into that which is communicated naturally to the Soul and that which is superadded by some extraordinary manifestation or inspiration In the former sence it cannot be denyed but it is necessary there be a Revelation of Religion but that is not what I. K. drives at Now he must be very ignorant if he does not know that the greatest part of the Philosophers believed there were on the Souls of all men such inscriptions of Truth that if all should purifie their minds from the defilements Lust superinduced upon them they should then clearly discern every thing that the Deity enjoyned them and therefore they looked upon Inspiration as a degree of madness which was only incident to weaker minds whose imaginative powers were too hard for their reasons And indeed they knew so much of the juglings of their Oracles that no wonder they studied to detract from their Authority all they could Now I desire I. K. will review his discourse and see what strong or good reasons it offers for the conviction of those of this perswasion So that his Argument proving only that God must reveal how he will be Worshipped and Obeyed if it be replyed that it is done to all men by those common Notices of Truth that are born with their Souls he hath furnished us with nothing to prove a further Revelation necessary To make good this therefore against the Philosophers it is not to be denied but if mankind had continued in the purity wherein God did create our Natures their Reasons were strong but they themselves complained of a great depravation of their Natures which they found were much prevailed on by Senses and sensible objects by Education Custome Corporeal pleasure and the power of Fancy And for clearing of this they apprehended another Prior state wherein our Souls for some trespass had lost their wings and plumes and so were degraded into Bodies This shews they found some corruption on their Nature from which they studied to emerge and did indeed attempt most gloriously the recovering themselves to their first original This being then confessed that our minds are much darkned and that our bodies appetites and fancies are too strong for them it will thence very naturally follow that as our reasons cannot discover all things to us so that our way of apprehending of divine things may carry along with it much of a body and gross phantasms This was evidently demonstrated in that numberless variety of Opinions into which all Nations were divided about Religion a great mixture of bodily phantasms and gross pleasures appearing both in their opinions and practises about Religion Nor was this only the fate of the Rabble but both Tully and Varro have given us an account of the great diversity was among Philosophers about the very Notion and Nature of a Deity And if they differed so much in their thoughts of that primitive and first Truth into how many divisions may we imagine they must have run about the other Truths to be deduced from that Since therefore men did so grope after all the disputes and speculations of Philosophers in which there was no certainty nor had any of them such plenary Authority as to oblige others to submit to their decision thence I infer the necessity of some clear and certain way for satisfying all mankind in things of so great and universal concern The Speculations of Philosophers were neither certain nor such as they were evident to men of weaker understandings the only way therefore to avoid this was either to make such plain and glorious Manifestations of God's presence and pleasure as the Iews had on mount Sinai and in their most holy place or to authorize some men by divine Inspirations to reveal God's will to mankind Now there is no impossibility in the notion of an Inspiration For if we make known our thoughts to one another either by forming such a â—ound
or writing such Characters as shall convey into the ears or eyes of others Corporeal Impressions from which they may judge of our thoughts which is a great way about and much more unintelligible though we are very sure it is true then that a spirit shall communicate its thoughts to our understandings which it may either do by such outward impressions on our senses as bring the thoughts of other men to our knowledge or without these outward objects may make the same Impressions on our Brain And like to this are the impressions made on us in sleep in which we imagine we converse with the objects of sense Or finally without the means of any Corporeal phantasms a spirit especiaally the supreme and soveraign spirit may immediately convey to our understanding its pleasure as well as our understandings do receive hints from gross phantasms which is a great deal harder to conceive than this Thus the Atheist can propose nothing that will prove there can be no Inspiration but there is great necessity of guarding this both from the juglings of Impostors and the more innocent though no less hurtful deceits of our heated fancies which may obtrude their Notions on us as Divine especially in some in whom the Spleen or hysterical distempers may produce strange effects therefore this must be well proved and warranted before others are bound to acknowledge or submit to it nor must the great heats and divine Raptures of the inspired person ingage our belief We know how the Sibylls were said to be inspired and with what Bacchick fury many heathen Priests delivered some of their Impostures and it is dayly seen what strange appearances of inspiration are in hysterical persons Therefore it must be accompanied with such other extraordinary Characters as can neither be the forgeries of Juglers nor the vapours of the Spleen or Mother and these are Miracles or Prophecies which are certain indications of some extraordinary and supernatural presence with the inspired persons And thus far I have helped I. K. to prove the necessity of Revelation for the ascertaining mankind of the Worship and Obedience that God requires and have met with the great objections which Deists and other enemies to Revelation bring against it But I now follow him to his fourth proposition about the truth of the Christian Religion CHAP. IV. It is considered if J. K. hath proved convincingly the truth of the Christian Religion J. K. goes on in his Series of truths and his next attempt is to prove the truth of Christian Religion And indeed the Atheism that hath of late broke out in the world and in upon us hath engaged so many excellent pens of all the parties and divisions of Christendom to stand up in vindication of our most holy Faith with so much closeness of Reason that it may be justly a problem whether that pestiferous contagion hath not occasioned as much good to Christian Religion by the many admirable Treatises have been writ for it upon that account as it hath done hurt by its own venome But to see I. K. manage so glorious a Cause so poorly and so faintly after all that light which these Books offer does justly raise Indignation and it is plain he was afraid to bring out the strongest proofs for it lest it should appear there was much more to be said for the Verity of the Christian Religion than can be for the Roman but I. K. being resolved to prove there was no more to be said for the one than for the other and therefore would manage this Cause faintly that he might maintain the other more strongly and so it seems cares not with how slender Evidence â—e assert the truth of Christianity so that the truth of the Roman Religion be but as undisputed His great Argument for its truth is That it hath been miraculously propagated which could not have been without true and real Miracles and these are manifest proofs of that truth which they confirm Now since Christian Religion though it contains Mysteries far above the reach of humane reason and severities contrary to humane Inclinations yet has been propagated without the help of Arms or humane enticements by men of themselves unfit for so great a work and hath overcome other Religions which were both well established and preached liberty and pleasures Then this was either done with Miracles or without them if with them it is confessed there were Miracles if without them such a propagation must be confessed to be a Miracle This is the substance of what I. K. brings for the proof of the Christian Religion But this alone cannot satisfie a considering mind For it is acknowledged by all who believe any Religion that the power of evil spirits is very great and far above ours so that Miracles cannot determine my belief since there must go somewhat previous to that Therefore Moses told the people of Israel that though a Prophet by a Sign or wonder did amuse them and upon that perswaded them to go after other gods they should not hearken to that Prophet but put him to Death And S. Paul tells us that if an Angel from heaven should preach another Gospel he must be anathematized So that Miracles or other extraordinary apparitions do not prove a Prophet Therefore the first and great Argument for the proof of the Christian Religion is the purity of the Doctrine and the holiness of its precepts which are all so congruous to the common Impressions of nature and reason and this must prove as our Saviour himself taught us that his Miracles were true ones and not wrought by the Prince of Devils since his Doctrine is opposite and destructive of his Interest and Kingdom And our Saviour also asserts the truth of what he said most commonly from this Topick that he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him that he sought not himself nor his own honour but his Father's Again our Saviour asserts his authority from the Prophecies of Moses and the other inspired persons of that Dispensation whose predictions of the Messias did all agree to him and receive completion in him And from these our Saviour often silenced the Iews and this is to us still a strong Argument that these Books which the enemies and blasphemers of our Religion have still kept as sacred and had among them for some thousands of years do give such clear and evident Characters of our Saviour as their Messias as must needs convince every serious and sober enquirer These are the chief and great proofs of the authority of our Saviour by which we are assured that all the mighty works he did were by the presence and wonderful assistance of a Divine spirit And for the Miracles themselves I. K. would resolve all our certainty concerning them into a miraculous propagation of Christianity So that if there be no other certain way to prove them then if Christian Religion had not been so
see such a supplement to what he had so scantly proposed But I am afraid and perhaps not without reason that he knowing how weak his Arguments must needs be for the two positions that follow and yet designing to impose on the Reader all the Six as equally certain he would needs disguise the first Four and propose them so weakly guarded that the proofs of all the Six might be of a piece But I have hitherto helped I. K. henceforth I quit that part and go to enter in a down-right opposition to him in what remains CHAP V. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that the Roman Catholick Religion is true J. K. now comes to that which he drove at all along and proves it thus If Christian Religion be true then that Religion which has the same proofs that it hath at least any of them that are solid must needs be true Since then the miraculous propagation of Christianity is a common solid and evident proof of its truth therefore the Roman Catholick Religion must be true since it is solidly proved by the like propagation for though it contains very hard Mysteries in it above the reach of humane reason as Transubstantiation and some very hard Precepts and Counsells as Vows Fasts Confession prohibition for Priests to marry c. yet it hath been propagated over a great part of the world without the help of Arms or humane Enticements by strangers who have converted Nations from Paganism to embrace the Christian Faith as S. Austin the Monk did in England and Xaverius in the Indies and many others in other places which can be manifestly proved from History nor can any exception be made against it which the enemies of Christianity may not make against the same proâ—f brought for the Christian Religion And to use S. Austin's dilemma This propagation of Roman Catholick Religion was either with or without Miracles if with Miracles it must be true since confirmed by Miracles if without them then no Miracle is greater than this propagation By which it appears we have as good ground to be Roman Catholicks as we have to be Christians By this time I suppose it is clear enough why I. K. would bring no better proofs for the Truth of the Christian Religion and now he thinks he has gained his design but what I said in the former Section has undermined this Fabrick since it is made out that the miraculous propagation is neither the only nor the chief proof of Christianity but that before we believe even the Miracles of our Saviour to be of God two things were to be made out the one that his Doctrine was all holy and such as tended to the glory of God the other was that all he said and delivered agreed with the Prophecies had gone before So by the same rule of proceeding we must first see that all the parts of the Roman Religion are holy and such as tend to the glory of God and then that they 〈◊〉 as fully with both the Testaments as our Saviours Doctrine did with 〈◊〉 and the Prophets If this Method be taken I am afraid I. K. will find it a hard task to prove the holinâ—â—s of all the Roman Doctrines What a Sanctuary for all manner of Vice and Impiety is the 〈◊〉 power of Dispensing Pardoning and giving Indulgences for all sins upon such trifling accounts Witness the present year with all the favours and Indulgences to such as go to the thresholds of the Apostles What a patrociny to impenitence is their Opinion of a simple Attrition being sufficient for the Sacrament And the whole trade of their penances and absolutions looks like a design to quiet all mens Consciences let them lead as bad lives as they will Besides who can believe that to be a true Religion that has tolerated a great many Casuists who have found out distinctions to excuse men from all the duties they owe God and their Neighbour and have studied to satisfie men in the most impious and immoral practises A woman that entertains common and avowed Prostitutes will never be thought an honest woman though none could prove her self guilty of any base act So that Church that not only entertains but cherishes those who have studied to discharge mankind of all sense of Religion and Vertue can never pass for a pure Church Nor does the Doctrine of that Church tend wholly to the glory of God as our Saviours did for what greater dishonour can be done him than to Worship him in a way which himself has so often condemned and never since allowed by the representations of Pictures and Images And that instead of addressing their Adorations and Prayers to him by his Son have found out a great many other Mediators both Angels and Saints and the Blessed Virgin Surely this is highly to the dishonour of God when the Souls of people are turned off from their Faith and dependence on him and his blessed Son into a trusting to and calling on Creatures and when instead of that plain simple and rational Worship that is sutable to the Divine nature and pleasing to him the mimical pageantry of a Thousand little apish practises and an unknown Worship are brought into his Church If we likewise consider and measure the Roman Religion by the second great Topick by which our Saviour cleared himself which was his appealing to the Scriptures we will quickly find good reason to suspect them guilty there since they study nothing more than the suppressing and concealing the Scripture and by all means labour to prove it an incompetent rule to decide Controversies by And yet I am sure I. K. will give me no reason to prove the Scriptures an unproper rule for deciding Controversies and that we must submit to the verdict and decree of the Church that might not with more strength been made use of by the Iews against our Saviour And if I carry this consideration as far as it will go it must necessarily lead me to compare all the Doctrines of the Roman Religion with the Scriptures And as if our Saviours Doctrine had been contrary to the Law of Moses there had been no reason to have believed him for all his mighty deeds which in that case might justly have been imputed to evil spirits so now should an Angel from heaven teach any thing contrary to this Doctrine and Gospel he must be anathematized even though he wrought mighty wonders Therefore we are with the Bereans to examine all new Doctrines by their conformity to the Scriptures and till that appear we are not to look on any thing they do as miraculous And thus far I hope I have said enough to convince I. K. that though what he says of the miraculous propagation of the Roman Religion were true it does not from that follow that the Religion it self must be true But I go next to convince him how much he mistook himself in his account when he asserted that the Christian and the
persons of Eminence and Authority But this hath not been the method of the Roman Conversions which begun in a kind of Alliance with the Prince who being convinced of his advantage in the Change did upon that oblige his subjects to it not without severely punishing sometimes such as refused it so far were they from being persecuted for it If any one were by a fury or tumult killed that does not alter the case nor make it a persecution And thus it is apparent that for all the noise the Roman Church makes of their Conversions they have managed them in a method very different from the way of the primitive Christians How basely and barbarously it hath been carried on in the West Indies the Bishop of Guatimala did inform the world and the Bishop of Angelopolis did within these few years inform the Pope how wretchedly the Jesuits continue to manage it to this day And though we have little reason to believe the accounts given us from the Indies since we see those who publish them are guilty of such Impostures in things nearer us and easily discovered that we have no reason to credit them in things at so great a distance where the forgeries of their account cannot be found out yet even from these a great many of the observations made upon the methods of the Emissaries of the Roman Church may be proved But as for Austin the Monk I. K. cannot sure be so ignorant as to think we owe our Conversion to him for whatever truth may be in the story of Glastenbury it is undoubted we received the Faith at farthest in the second Century and that it did overrun our Island farther than the Roman Conquest Tertullian witnesses The Rites of our observing Easter do also prove we had not the Christian Faith by any sent from Rome so that long before the time of Avstin the Monk this Island was converted And that famed story of the Monks of Bangor as it proves what footing Christianity had then so it shews how proud and insolently cruel that pretended Apostle was And it is apparent he was a man of an Ambitious temper his great design on those of Bangor being to engage them to a subjection to the Pope and to comply with their Rites in the observation of Easter But if what is delivered by ancient Historians of his setting on the King of the Northumberlands to destroy these Monks be true he is to be looked on as an Emissary of Hell rather than an Apostle of Christ. Besides the King of Kent to whom he came was so favourable to the Christian Faith that as he had married a Christian Queen so he allowed the Christians a Church near Canterbury And so it is no wonder if a Prince so prepared was soon prevailed on But Austins first coming to him with all that pomp of Crosses carried before him has nothing primitive in it and the fabulous Legends of the Monks are little to be credited Thus far I have examined I. K's proofs for the truth of the Roman Religion and I doubt not upon a sober review of what hath been said he himself will acknowledge he must see for other and better Arguments before he can oblige any to believe the Roman Religion to be the true Catholick and Apostolical Religion CHAP VI. It is considered if J. K. proves convincingly that every thing the Roman Church teaches as an Article of Faith must be true J. K. advances to his last attempt which is the finishing of the whole contrivance to perswade the belief of every thing the Roman Church delivers as an Article of Faith for if that Religion be a true Religion then it is free from all fundamental errors and does erre against no fundamental point of Religion and if that be acknowledged then it does not erre against this point that God is not the Author of any error or corruption whatsoever that being unquestionably a fundamentâ—l point Now if the Roman Religion does not eâ—re against this it does not teach that God is the Author of any error or corruption and if it do not that then it teaches nothing as an Article of Faith which is either error or corruption for whatever it teaches as an Article of Faith is teaches as that which hath been delivered by God This then may be applied to every particular Article of Faith which the Roman Church teacheth for if that be either error or corruption it teaching God to be the Author of it makes him to be the Author of error or corruption which is to erre against a fundamental point and by consequence that Religion shall be no true Religion If by true Religion I. K. understands a Religion that has no mixture of error or corruption in it then it is needless to prove that if the Roman Religion be true it hath neither error or corruption in it for the proving it a true Religion must carry the other along with it But if by true Religion be only meant a Religion that holds all the fundamentals of Christianity so that Salvation may be had in its Communion then it is a most wretched Inference that it must be true in all itâ— definitions of Faith And to confute this I shall for once turn the Tables on I. K. and become an Advocate for the Roman Church to shew they may be still a true Church and a true Religion though they have a large mixture of errors and corruptions And this I do not so much out of love to them but from a general principle of charity to overthrow this unmerciful Opinion that damns all men as erring fundamentally for believing any error in a matter of Faith And let me first ask I. K. whether he takes the Church of Corinth to have had a true Religion when S. Paul wrote to it This sure he cannot deny if he read but S. Pauls first salutation and yet in that Church there were various parties some for Cephas some for Apollo some for Paul and some for Christ and great difference of opinion there was whether Moses Law did oblige or not Now these questions concerning Circumcision and the Law were matters of Faith and in all contradictory opinions one must be true another false those therefore that were of the false side must by I. K's doctrine be all irrecoverably lost as being in a fundamental error for each side believed his Opinion was of God But S. Paul taught another doctrine that whoso builds on the foundation Jesus Christ shall be saved though he build upon it wood hay and stubble And the distinction he there makes between those who build Gold Silver and precious stones and wood hay and stubble can only relate to sound and unsound Doctors the one building good and useful Superstructures upon the foundation the other teaching trifling Doctrines that will not bear the Tryal and yet that both may be saved is a plain demonstration against I. K. The same Apostle also tells us that neither Circumcision
nor uncircumcision availed any thing and that in the new Creature there was neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision but Christ was all in all and that one God did both justifie the Circumcision by Faith and the uncircumcision through Faith from all which it is evident that those of the Circumcision might be saved and by consequence that their Religion was a true Religion and yet that their doctrine of Circumcision was an error can be disputed by none who read the Epistles of S. Paul And it is no less clear that they held it an Article of Faith delivered to Abraham by God So here it is plain that S. Paul in one breath both condemns this Opinion as erroneous and yet allows Salvation to such as believed it With how many errors doth S. Iohn charge some of the seven Churches yet they were still the Churches of Christ. The Church in the second Century did generally believe the Millennium as a thing revealed by God which the Roman Church now calls an error yet I hope I. K. will not condemn that Church as holding a false Religion The African Churches held it necessary for Infants to receive the Eucharist from these words Except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man you have no life in you and this was approved by P. Innocent and was continued many Ages in the Roman Church as appears from the Ordo Romanus and yet that Church has declared that not to be necessary by which the Opinion the former Ages had of its necessity is declared an error But it were a strange thing from that to condemn these as holding a false Religion The Franciscans and Dominicans had hot contests about the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin and both pretended Divine authority and Revelations so that one of those must have held an error The Dominicans and Iansenists believe Predestination and Grace efficacious of it self this the Molinists deny both vouch Scriptures and the definitions of the Church The Canonists Courtiers of Rome and Iesuits have asserted the Popes Infallibility from Scripture and Councils the Sorbon hath always rejected this Now of all these different Opinions the one must be true and the other false since they stand in the terms of a contradiction and they have all vouched God and Scriptures for them therefore those who hold the false side of the contradiction according to I. K's reasoning must be of a false Religion which I believe when he considers more maturely he will find he mistook his measures in this And in fine his Argument will also hold as strong to prove that every Individual of a true Religion must be exempt from all errors in every Opinion whereof he takes God to be the Author For I. K's Argument will be as strong for every thing whereof God is believed the Author as for Articles of Faith So that every mistaken sense of Scripture will turn one to be of a false Religion since every mistaken exposition is an error and yet that being thought the meaning of the place God is believed the author of that meaning and by I. K's consequence of the error it self From all which I may I hope even by I. K's leave infer the necessary distinction between things that are believed to be errors and those that are believed to be Truths For the former to vouch God the Author of what we know to be an error and corruption is certainly so criminal that none of the true Religion can be guilty of it But there be many things which though errors yet any one may very innocently mistake for truths I do not say the mistake does quite excuse the error if the error be fundamental the mistake must be so too But if the error be in a lesser matter it is a lesser error and it will never be made out That if one apprehending an Opinion true embrace it as come from God and as an Article of Faith if he is mistaken in that he strikes at the divine veracity for among men who thinks that any wronged his veracity if another mistook his meaning and understood his words in a different sense from what he intended and expressed Certainly he who so mistakes after the true meaning is cleared cannot be understood to have fastned any reproach upon the Candor of him whose words he mistook all the blame being to be cast only on his want of right understanding This were indeed a hard case if all our mistakings of divine Revelations did infer a charging God with error or corruption But the thing is so clear that I am afraid I have spent too many words about it and this Argument of I. K's cannot but upon first reading appear to all that are accustomed to weigh and examine truth to be a piece of crude ill digested and ill palliated Sophistry Thus far have I followed I. K. through those six points he imagines he has demonstrated and have shewed how true the first four were but how little reason there was to account them such for any thing he said for their proof and how false the other two are And I suppose he will acknowledge that if what is already set down hold true and be founded on good reason I need not follow him through the rest of his Book it being only a direction to his gentle courteous Reader how to manage this method of arguing so as to convince all persons that dissent from the true Religion which he thinks is a Mathematical and sure way of proceeding and such as no man can decline or avoid and in end must be either convinced by it or be forced to confess himself no better than an Ass or a block which concludes him a mad man I will not follow this with a railery that is as obvious as severe but I love not to mix matters of sport with such serious purposes therefore I follow I. K. no more through the rest of his Book But come next to consider the great support of that cause which he manages both in his Preface and through the rest of his Book that there can be no certainty neither about the true books of Scripture the Decrees of Councils or writings of Fathers without there be a true Church and Religion agreed on which shall both declare to us what Books are true and what not and shall deliver their true meaning to us otherwise endless confusions must follow which plainly appears in the many divisions of the Protestants and the uncertainties they are in about all Controverted points From which the necessity of a true Church appears as much as in a well ordered State there is not only a necessity of clear and good Laws but of Judges to expound them CHAP. VII Of the supposed Inconveniencies J. K. imagines in the want of a true Church to Iudge Infallibly and of the right methods of finding Truth THere is nothing about which those of the Roman Church make more noise than the necessity of
and endless wranglings of the Schools in matters of Philosophy in which men being accustomed to that game of disputing and subtilising about nothing and going from those studies to Divinity and carrying that same temper and fiery edge along with them they made all that work about it which hath now so long divided the world They being also by a long practice habituated to many Maxims and Axioms which were laid down for rules not to be enquired into or denyed came really to believe those were true and to carry them along with them to all their Theological debates All which will appear very evident to any that compares their Philosophical and Theological works from which many of their strange inferences and positions did take their rise and I am afraid do still receive their nourishment Thus far I have discoursed of the several prejudices the powers of the natural man do lay in the way of our apprehending and judging aright of Divine truths and the common notions of the moral Philosophy will concur to teach all men that before their minds can be rightly qualified for the understanding any intellectual truth but most chiefly Divine truth we must abstract from all those figures of things which our senses present to us and rise above all grosser phantasms It is no less necessary that our thoughts be serene and free of passion that we may freely and at leisure consider what lies before us without the Byass of preconceived opinions or interests And it is equally rational with these that we have modest minds not vainly puffed up with an opinion of our own knowledge but tractable and docile such as will not stick after clear conviction to confess and retract an error and that we proceed in our reasonings closely and on sure grounds not on vain conjectures and maxims taken up meerly on trust but by a clear progress advance from one truth to another as the Series of them shall lead A man who is thus prepared must next consider all was said in the first four Sections with a great deal more to the same purpose That he be on good grounds perswaded there is a God that there is a true revealed Religion that the Christian Religion is the true Religion These things being laid down he is in the first place by earnest Prayers to beg God's direction to go along with him in all his enquiries which certainly will not be wanting if he bring with him a sincere well prepared mind not byassed nor prepossessed and of this we may be well assured both from the Divine goodness and veracity For as he hath promised that whoso seek shall find so it is a necessary consequent of infinite goodness to assist all that sincerely seek after life and happiness but if any come to this study without he be duly prepared he has himself to thank if he fall into errors and mistakes The next thing an exact searcher into Religion must labour in is once to observe the nature of Christianity and the great designs of it and in this he is not to follow the small game of some particular and obscure passages but to observe through the whole New Testament what was the great end of all our Saviour spoke and did and his disciples testified and wrote If once we comprehend this a right it will be a thread to carry us through particular disquisitions For as there be many natural truths of which we are well assured though Philosophy offers us some Arguments against them in the answering which we are not able to satisfie our Reasons so there may be some divine truths very certainly made out to us and yet there may be places of Scripture which seem so to contradict those truths that they cannot be well answered Again a serious Enquirer will see good reason to believe the Scriptures must be plain evident and clear since they were at first directed to men of very ordinary parts and of no profound understandings and learning therefore he may well conclude those strange Superstructures some have reared up for amusing the world can be none of the Articles of Faith necessary to be believed And as the first Converts were honest simple men so our Saviour and the Apostles spoke in a plain easie stile therefore all these forced Criticisms and Inferences by which some more ingenious than candid Writers would expound them in a sence favourable to their Opinions aâ—e not to be received since these do often represent the divine discourses rather like the little tricks of double-dealing and Sophistry for which an honest Tutor would severely chide his Pupil words are to be understood in their plain meaning and not as Logick or a nicety of Criticism may distort and throw them If then a man will in this method which no honest man can except against go to the search of the Scriptures with a mind prepared as hath been already said he cannot fail of finding out all that is necessary for his Salvation Nor is he to be doubtfully anxious concerning the true Books for none denies but the Churches care in all Ages hath been the great conveyance of this the many various Translations of all Ages and Languages nay and different Religions agreeing in all material points and the Citations out of those Books which we find in a Series of Authors who have lived in the several Ages since they were written agreeing likewise with the Books themselves together with many ancient Manuscripts which do yet remain of a great many Languages may abundantly satisfie even the most severe Inquirer that these be the very Books which the Apostles delivered and were universally received by all Christians The matter of Fact being thus cleared without any necessity of running to the authority of the Church all those scruples which I. K. with the rest of his Brethren would needs raise do vanish since they never distinguish exactly between a Witness and a Judge For the former nothing is required but honesty and good information and we have the agreeing suffrages of many witnesses that do all agree in their Testimony of these Books who though they differed very much in their Expositions of them yet concurred in their verdict about the Books and were checks on one another in the faithful preserving and transcribing them In this sence we do receive the Churches Testimony as the necessary means of conveying these Books to us But an Authority Sacred and Solemnly declared is required in a Judge and this no Church can so much as pretend to but from the Scriptures Therefore the Scriptures being received as Divine cannot depend on the sentence of the Church as a Judge since all its Jurisdiction is derived from Scripture which therefore must be acknowledged before it can be believed But because there be persons of a meaner Condition and not Educated so as to make all the inquiry which is necessary in so important a Business there is therefore a shorter method for such