the other Men when they are left to themselves without any Clergy at all are more likely not only to judge for themselves but to make a truer and a more impartial Judgment than when they are permitted to know the Sentiments of the Clergy but of one Sect who then may impose on them what ever out of Interest they think fit 5. One Reason why God hath so formed Mankind that each alone without the help of others cannot well subsist is to oblige them to mutual love and kindness and to contribute to one anothers happiness And they want each others assistance for things of the Mind as well as of the Body For a Man would be in a miserable state of darkness and Ignorance were it not for the Light that others afford him and therefore they are obliged to increase as much as they can each others Knowledge especially in Religion which they can no otherwise do than by communicating to one another what they think is the Truth and the Reason by which they endeavour to prove it To oblige Men to do this God has not only implanted in them a strong desire to find out Religious Truth but as great an inclination to teach others what they apprehend to be so and there is no Man who believes a Doctrine to be true but would be very glad to get it owned by others Whosoever therefore endeavours to hinder Men from communicating their Thoughts as they notoriously do that are for restraining the Press invade the natural Rights of Mankind and destroy the common Ties of Humanity If we must early and late according to the Wise Man's direction seek after Wisdom as after a hidden Treasure I cannot see how it will become the Wisdom of a-Nation to endeavour by a Law to hinder us from knowing more than the scanty Measure a Party-Licenser will afford us Not only the Light of Nature but the written Word Levit 19. 17. 1 Thess 5. 14. Heb. 3. 13. obliges every one Lay as well as Clergy to exhort warn rebuke and use all means possible to bring his mistaken Brother into the right way which he can no otherwise do than by first judging himself what is right and wrong and then by using Arguments to perswade him whom he judges in the wrong to desist from it And if as the Scripture supposeth no Man can neglect to do this without hating his Brother every one has a right to print his Sentiments as the best if not the only way to exhort rebuke reprove Myriads of Brethren at the same time In short in all Ages the greater Mens Zeal hath been towards God and the more inflamed their Love to their Neighbours the more they have thought it their Duty tho with the hazard of their Lives to communicate to others what they judged to be the Truth And all Sects how different so ever in all other things do agree in thinking themselves bound thereto as to the greatest Act of Charity and consequently there is no Sect that hinders others from publishing what they believe to be Truth but sins against the natural and revealed Law and breaks that golden Rule the Foundation of all Morality of doing as they would be done unto For tho they look upon it as impious and tyrannical for any to hinder them from imparting to others those Doctrines they judge to be true yet they themselves would hinder all others who have as much right to judge for themselves and are as much obliged to communicate to others what they judge to be a Religious Truth What can be more inhumane as well as ungrateful than to punish that Person who out of love to Truth and charity to the Souls of his Brethren bestows his Time perhaps to the detriment of his Health and Fortune in publishing what he judges to be for their eternal Good If this be a just Reward for such an Undertaking I cannot see how the Clergy can deserve such Riches and Honours for doing but the same thing that is for instructing others in that they judge to be true Nothing can be more unbecoming the Dignity of a rational Nature than to bar up the way to religious Knowledge and Wisdom which Men have no way to propagate but by offering one another Reasons and Arguments And there can be no Pretence to hinder Men from doing this by restraining the Press but what will as strongly forbid them doing it any other way In a word Men have the same right to communicate their Thoughts as to think themselves and where the one is denied the other is seldom used or to little purpose For Men as they are more or less hindred from communicating their Thoughts are more or less stupid and ignorant and their Religion more or less corrupted And this is not only true with relation to Mahometans and Pagans who suffer no Printing at all except the Chinese whose Knowledge above other Eastern Nations seems to be owing to that Art tho among them wonderfully rude and imperfect but with respect to Christians amongst whom one would think it almost impossible considering what Light and Knowledge the Gospel brought into the World that any should be so grosly ignorant and superstitious as the Papists are or that the Christian Religion should be so much depraved as it is amongst them and what is this owing to but the denying the People the Liberty of the Press and all other ways of freely debating matters of Religion And had it not been for this Invention whereby men had such an easy way of communicating their Thoughts nothing but a second Revelation could have freed them from that mass of Ignorance and Superstition the Christian World lay under and which was every day increasing and does still remain in a very high degree in those Countries that groan under Restraint as Portugal Spain Italy which last sutably to the Freedom once it enjoyed abounded with Men eminent in all Learning and Knowledge as well as Vertue and Bravery and that it is so much degenerated now the Climate and the make of their Bodies being still the same is owing to nothing but that Priest-craft which forbids all Freedom contrary to the practice of antient Rome where to think on what one had a mind to and to speak ones thoughts as freely as to think them was looked on as one of the chief Blessings of a Free Government It 's not only in Popish but in Protestant Countries too that according to the Restraint Men lay under Ignorance Superstition and Bigotry does more or less abound Denmark Sweden and several other Countries are undenyable Instances of this and it cannot be otherwise for there is little difference between having no Reason and not exercising it And it 's evident that the Clergy themselves are not only more knowing and reason much better but are much more sober careful and exemplary where Liberty of Debating is allowed than where denied From what has been urged I think I may safely conclude that Men
but has ever since gone back both in esteem and interest and at least if Men do not change their conduct will be quite lost For how can it be otherwise since that method Protestantism and Popery being so opposite that preserves the one must necessarily destroy the other The taking a contrary method not only hinder'd the further spreading of the Reformation but was the cause that where it did prevail it was no more perfect For tho the Reformers deserve just Condemnation for what they did yet being bred up in so much Ignorance and Superstition they could not remove those vast loads of Corruptions which had been so long a gathering But if those that succeeded them had taken the same liberty in examining theirs as they did their Predecessors Opinions it 's impossible but that time must have discover'd the Truth and made them agree at least in all matters of moment But instead of this they became as guilty of a blind Obedience as the Papists and it was a sufficient proof of any thing amongst the different Sects if Luther Calvin Church of England said so Nothing more common than that I submit all to Mother Church and such like Phrases which that Men should effectually do there were Penal Laws enacted to force them and no Printing or Preaching allow'd to those that durst see further than the first Reformers whose Eyes at the best were but half open tho they saw very well for those times of Darkness and in respect of the Papists who may justly be reckon'd to be quite blind the consequence of which was that the Differences between the several Sects were widened and they all run daily farther and farther into Uncharitableness Ignorance Superstition and Fanaticism 9. Whosoever observes with what Zeal our Divines condemn the Popish Clergy for not suffering their Laity to read Protestant Authors would hardly think it possible for them to be so disingenuous as to appoint some spiritual Dragons to watch the Press lest any thing should steal from thence that 's not for their turn Let us hear only for they all write after the same manner the learned Dr. Clegget who in his Persuasive to an ingenuous Trial p. 28. tells us They that have a good Cause will not fright Men from considering what their Adversaries say by denouncing Damnation against them nor forbid them to read their Books but rather encourage them so to do that they may see the difference between Truth and Error Reason and Sophistry with their own eyes This is the effect of a well grounded confidence in Truth and there 's this sign of a good Cause apparently discernable in the Application of the Clergy of this Church of England both to their Friends and Enemies they desire the one and the other to consider impartially what is said for us as well as against us And whatsoever Guides of a Party do otherwise they give just cause to those that follow them to examine their Doctrines so much the more carefully by how much they are unwilling to have them examined It 's a bad sign when Men are loth to have their Opinions seen in the day but love Darkness more than Light If the Church of England will own this to be a just Character of them they ought to be so far from endeavouring to obtain a Law to restrain the Press that they are obliged did they apprehend any such design to oppose it to their utmost and to encourage their Adversaries to print their Sentiments and the People to read them that they may see the difference between Truth and Error Reason and Sophistry Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy Dissenting and Comforming with their own eyes Taking a contrary method only affords a new Argument for the Liberty of the Press because they give their Followers a just Cause to examine their Doctrines so much the more carefully by how much more unwilling they are to have them examined It 's a bad sign c. In a word did the Protestant Guides act as such instead of frighting Men from considering what their Adversaries say by denouncing Damnation against them they would tell their Auditors the great sin of being biass'd by them in the choice of their Opinions and that the more important any Controversy is the more Reason there is for the Liberty of the Press that they may examine with all the diligence imaginable the Tenets of their Adversaries as well as of their Guides and that the more they heard the one Party the more they should read the other and that if they should fall into any Error by so doing they would not be accountable for it For tho there is not as the Papists vainly imagine such a Guide as would infallibly lead every Man into every Truth yet that every ones Reason as a Guide is infallible because God that designs that all Men if it be not their own fault should be for ever happy has given them no other Guide but their Reason to bring them to that Happiness and therefore as sure as God himself is infallible the following that Guide must bring them to that happy state God designed the following it should bring them to And on the contrary that God who is the Rewarder of those only that diligently seek him would condemn them as unprofitable Servants who instead of using their Talents to find out his Will did abandon themselves to the uncertain chance of Education and the Religion in fashion which varies with every Age and every Countrey As thus they ought to preach to the People so they should as little scruple to tell the Magistrate that by permitting an entire Liberty he did nothing but his Duty but by a Restraint of the Press he did not only shew himself guilty of a blind Obedience but did endeavour to make a whole Nation so and was to answer not only for all the Errors and other ill Consequences himself caused by a Restraint but likewise of abetting all other Magistrates that think themselves in the right in doing the like and that tho he should chance to be in the right himself yet he could not know how many he was the caufe of being all their Lives in the wrong who might be so only because not having liberty to publish the Reasons they had to embrace such Opinions they could not meet with any that could give them Satisfaction and in truth writing against any Opinion where Men have not the liberty to shew the Reasons why they hold it is but writing at random because Mens Reasons cannot be confuted till they are known Such Arguments as these a Protestant Clergy that 's true to their own Principles ought to use both to the Prince and People and not prevaricate with God and Man and talk backward and forward just as it serves their turns If Baal be God serve him if not serve the Lord. 10. I can see no reason why they that are for tying Men to that Interpretation of Scripture a Licenser shall approve
A LETTER TO A Member of Parliament Shewing that a RESTRAINT ON THE PRESS Is inconsistent with the Protestant Religion and dangerous to the Liberties of the Nation The Second Impression LONDON Printed by J. Darby and sold by A. B. at the Cross Keys and Bible in Cornhil 1700. A LETTER TO A Member of Parliament SIR ACcording to your Command I here present you with those Reasons that oblige me to oppose the Restraining the Press as inconsistent with the Protestant Religion and dangerous to the Liberties of the Nation Both which I undertake to shew And in order to prove the first I beg leave to premise First That which makes a Man to differ from a Brute wholly uncapable of forming any Notion of Religion is his Reason which is the only Light God has given him not only to discover that there is a Religion but to distinguish the true from the many false ones He therefore that employs his Reason to the best of his Ability to find out Religious Truths in order to practise it does all that God desires For God who will not command Impossibilities can require no more of him than that he impartially searches after and endeavours to discover Religious Truth by the use of that Reason which was given him for that end He that does this may have the satisfaction of doing his Duty as a rational Creature and may be sure tho he misses Truth he shall not miss the Reward that is due to him who obeys his Maker in following as well as he could and no more could be his Duty the only Guide God has given him to judge of Truth and Falshood On the contrary he that neglects to do this is disobedient to his Maker in misusing his rational Faculties and tho he should light on Truth the luckiness of the Accident will not excuse his Disobedience For God will judge us as we are accountable that is rational Creatures and consequently our reward from him whether we hit or miss of Truth will be in an exact proportion to the use we make of our Reason And if God has oblig'd us to use it as the only means to distinguish Truth from Falshood that alone must be the way to find the one and avoid the other Now the way that a Man's Reason does this is by examining those Proofs Arguments or Mediums that either himself or others have found out and by comparing them with his common and self-evident Notions by means of which he finds out the agreement or disagreement of any proposition with those Standards and Tests of Truth Tho this is the only way to discover Truth yet if a Man was left wholly to himself without any to informe his Judgment he would make but a very small Discovery in Religious or any other Truths Therefore it's Mens mutual Duty to inform each other in those Propositions they apprehend to be true and the Arguments by which they endeavour to prove them which cannot be done so well as by Printing them ten thousand Books after the Letters are once set being sooner Printed than one Transcribed By the Advantage of which Men tho at never so great distance may with a great deal of Ease and little Charge be exactly acquainted with each others Sentiments And it 's wholly owing to Printing that Knowledge is become not only much more diffusive but that a great deal of more useful Knowledge has been discovered in a short time since that Invention than in many Ages before And if it has not had as great effect in most places with respect to Religious as to other Knowledge it can only be because the Liberty of Printing as to the former has been more restrained for Men have the same way of judging of that as of all other Matters This being premised 't is clear that the Press ought not to be restrained 1. Because it tends to make Men blindly submit to the Religion they chance to be educated in For if 't is once suppos'd unlawful to publish any Arguments against that Religion it cannot be denied but that 't is as unlawful to read and examine those Arguments that being the sole Reason of forbidding the Printing them which necessarily supposeth they are to take their Religion on trust without any trial which is the greatest Fault that can be next to having no Religion at all For I cannot see any ground a Man has to hope to go to Heaven that will not be at the pains to examine what it is that God requires of him in order to his coming thither 2. Because it deprives Men of the most proper and best means to discover Truth by hindering them from seeing and examining the different Opinions and the Arguments alledg'd for them I can see no Reason why 't is more necessary for him that judges for others than 't is for him who judges for himself to see the Arguments on all sides this being the only evidence by which any Man is to judge The suppressing the Evidence in a Cause where Mens eternal Happiness is concerned is I take it much more criminal than in a Cause of a temporal Interest So that a Law to oblige the Judges to hear the Proofs but of one side is not as bad as to trust the Clergy of any one Sect with the Press who to be sure will suffer nothing to be printed but of their own side and who too in all probability will misrepresent their Adversaries and their Opinions more than a Pleader will the Party or Cause against which he is engaged And are not the People for instance amongst the Papists where the Press is effectually restrained as ignorant of what can be alledged against the Popish Doctrines as a Judge that has heard but one side can be of the Defence the other is to make 3. Because it hinders Truth from having any great influence on Mens Minds which is owing chiefly to Examination because the more rational That makes an Opinion appear the greater power it will have on the Affections which are not moved without some sensible connexion between the Cause and Effect for what does not convince the Understanding will have but little or no effect on the Will Which is one reason why Men are obliged to try all things because when they see the reasonableness of any Opinion it will oblige them to act according to it more heartily than when they take it on trust and nothing more endears Truth to us than that its discovery is the effect of our own Industry and Observation 4. Because it tends to make us hold the Truth should we chance to light on it guiltily for that as I have already proved will not be accepted if it be not the Effect of an impartial Examination which makes Error it self innocent for if any thing in that case be a fault it must be the Examination because That might have been prevented but the Opinion that 's caused by it could not That being a necessary Consequence of
and therefore put it in his power to hinder all others from being published can with any justice condemn the Popish Clergy for not licensing the Bible it self for the Laity to read it For if the Bible is to be translated into the vulgar Tongue to what end is it but that the People by reading it may judge what is their Duty in the most obscure and difficult places Ought they not then to see the different Translations and Explications If they are to be denied this lest they apprehend it in a Sense different from that of the Licenser and his Party the same Reason will restrain the People from promiscuously reading the Bible because they may and frequently do apprehend it in such a Sense as their Guides do not approve and if that be a Crime all the means that are necessary to hinder it must be a Duty and therefore if it cannot be prevented without hindring the Laity from reading the Bible it 's Crime to suffer them to read it 11. This Restraint gives a great handle to those that believe only Natural Religion to argue against the Christian for say they 't is no small Presumption that the Clergy themselves are conscious of the Falseness of their Religion because they dare not suffer it to undergo a fair Trial but do what they can to stifle all the Reasons that can be urged against it The Clergy say they are so learned and withal so numerous that amongst them they could not fail to expose and confound any thing that 's writ against them had they but Truth on their side which they know is next to the Almighty strong and therefore needs no licensing Tricks or Stratagems to make it victorious These are the mean Shifts that Error is forced to use against its Power These Men further add That if Christ and his Apostles obliged Men to try all things how can they that pretend to be his Successors did they believe the Scriptures hinder a fair Trial of any thing relating to Religion And can there be a fair Trial when all Parties have not the liberty to publish their Reasons that the People may compare and examine them by their common Notions those Tests and Standards of all Truths Has the Protestant Religion a fair Trial in Italy where nothing can be heard in its defence Thus 't is that some Men expose our Religion on the one hand to the Insults of Unbelievers and on the other of Papists which can never be avoided but by granting to all Sects an entire Liberty of the Press All other methods equally serve to promote Error as Truth and consequently can never be the way that God ordained to distinguish the one from the other 12. It may be objected That by such a latitude as this People may be seduced into false Religions or into Heresies and Schisms None can profess a Religion but either because upon examination he judges it to be true or that some by Interest makes him do so contrary to his Judgment or else because he takes it on trust without examining it As to the first If two Persons profess different Religions one the true the other a false one yet if they have been equally sincere in their examination they are equally in the way to Heaven because in following their Reason they both have done what God requires so two Men that equally act against their Judgment the one professing the Truth the other not are alike guilty so also are they who equally take their Religion on trust and such perverse holding of a Religion whether true or false is Heresy as the other is Hypocrisy and according as Men are more or less partial in examining they are more or less heretical So that 't is not what a Man professeth but how that justifies or condemns him before God Aud there would be few either Hereticks or Hypocrites were there not Bribes annexed to some and Awes to other religious Tenets for then Men would not be afraid to examine Those for fear of finding them false nor These lest they should be true nor to own or disown either according as they judge them true or false And an entire Liberty of the Press would by degrees establish religious Truth because that is supported by better plainer and more cogent Proofs than any false Opinions are which are either mischievous or burdensome or at the least useless whilst the other by its Excellency and Usefulness carries Evidence and Conviction with it As to Schisms they are caused by Mens imposing their own Interpretations instead of the express Word of God as necessary terms of Communion which makes Protestant Imposers not only Schismaticks but Hereticks because having laid down as a Fundamental of their Religion that every one is to interpret Scripture for himself they most obstinately and perversly not to say knowingly act against that Fundamental 13. The most material Objection against the Liberty of the Press is That without Licensers Atheism Profaneness and Immorality as well as Sedition and Treason may be published The Commonwealth has the same reason to punish Men for those as for these because they are all alike pernicious to humane Societies And 't is all the reason in the world that whoever asserts any such Notions whether in Discourse or from the Pulpit or Press should be severely punished But this can be no more a reason to appoint Licensers for the one than for the other nor would it hinder the printing things contrary to Law for none will be so mad as to desire an Imprimatur for them so that such Pamphlets whether there are or are not Licensers will come out only by stealth and 't is evident there were more of them printed when the Law for regulating the Press was in being than since To make the Laws against such things severer and to oblige either the Printer or Bookseller to set his Name to all Books whatever will take away all pretence for appointing Licensers and will be the most effectual way to prevent publishing such Books But before I leave this Head I cannot but remark that they are no way guilty of Prophaneness who out of Conscience to which Prophane and Atheistical Persons have no pretence worship God after a mistaken manner because all the honour Men are capable of giving an Almighty and Alknowing Being consist in the Intention of Design and therefore to punish those who out of a holy Intention and pious Design worship God aster that manner they judge acceptable to his Will as profane Persons or Blasphemers is the greatest Crime next to Blasphemy because 't is punishing Men for no other reason but for expressing their Zeal for the Honour of God which they can no otherwise do than by worshipping him as their Reason dictates which they must either do or not worship him at all or else but with a mock Worship And they that by force are made to break the ties of Conscience tho never so erroneous cannot be good