or rather extraordinary saying of Democritus That Truth lyes in the Bottom of a Deep Well I must confess I doe not well understand and so for fear of drowning shall let it pass as too deep and dangerous a Mystery for my shallow Reason to dive or look into Thus some Criticks of this Speculative Age first turn their Brains and then all things Topsie-turvy For if this Doctrine of Democritus be true we must no longer say Look up but down to Heaven and Pump or draw up Salvation as they do water in Buckets He needed not To have Enumerated the Various Sentiments of the Antient Philosophers and no warre ensuing Thence to infer a possibility for Christians of different Belief to live as to the Exteriour Harmoniously and Peaceably For doubtless the Several Sects among us if all the force they use to reduce others to their way be as it ought to be only perswasive not compulsive may as in other dissenting Countries move in our English Sphere without clashing as the Planets do in their Regularly-Irregular Motions If this be all he drives at there 's no Difference at all between him and me Whether the Reformation which he endeavours to vindicate were the occasion of so much Bloud Confusion and almost Desolation in all those Countries which admitted or rather were forc'd to it I shall not here dispute but 't is out of Controversie they actually happen'd which Dismal Effects I must confess enforce me to believe that God Almighty's Benediction for all their specious Reasonings and Religious Pretences never did or will goe with it He runs on for several Pages very wittily and Rethorically to prove That every Mans Particular Reason if well follow'd and there 's a Parenthesis will Infallibly carry him at last though perhaps through many Tedious and Troublesome Wandrings to his Eternal Happiness Well I am contented with this and say so too but withall must ask him a Question Why does not that man well follow his Reason who in all Doubts and Difficulties for certainly such things there are thinks nothing under Heaven more Rational than to submit to and acquiesce in the Interpretation Definitions and Decrees of General Councils If he says These all together may Erre as likely as he then I say this to my Reason sounds as unreasonably as if he should say One Man may be as strong as ten thousand and thus if his own Argument be good whether the Victory be on his or on my side he is equally defeated I grant a Christian though without any Fraction or Division for certainly there 's no Plurality in the Radical Unity may believe Various Articles by the same Act of Faith for it's Root or Fountain although it germinat's and spreads into several Branches or runs in various Rivulets is indivisibly one and the same for doubtless a Man's Faith may encrease without Variation but to say as this Author That a Man may be to day fully a Papist seven years hence a Protestant and then What-he-fancyes-next and that although be believes things directly Opposite evidently Contrary Pro and Con or forward and backward Yet if he be all the while Actuated and moved by the same Soul of Faith which he says is Conscience it is still the same Numerical Faith This I say is such a Preposterous piece of Jumbling Divinity that although he may please himself with the Fancy for that 's the very best of it I shall never believe the God of Order and Unity can Fancy or be Pleased with such a Deformed shapeless and Confus'd Variety He might as well have told me and I should as soon have believ'd him that a Man if he be all the while vivify'd or actuated by the same instruments of Life viz. Heart and Vitals though he be set just upon his Head he stands directly upon his Feet Tricks of Activity are commendable enough but certainly 't is desperate for a Mans Faith to leape the Sommerset And thus Unity or Sameness of Beliefe so often inculcated in Holy Scripture is quite thrown out of doors and Divine Faith reduc'd to a strong or rather a Weak and Wavering Fancy Wherefore allowing His Philosophical Discourse about Corporal Substances to be true for I grant in Sublunary Bodies there is yet without any Alteration or Change in the Form or Species as he pretends may be in Faith a perpetual Flux and that they must necessarily Trans-spire to make room for new Nourishment Yet I deny for the Reasons aforesaid That only such a Fixt Motion or Variable Identity as he speaks of is requisite to a Man's Faith Nor truly can I perceive any better or more solid Result from all his surprizing Arguments than this That so Men doe but believe 't is no great matter for the What or the Why. He will still have his own sole and singular Reason to Counterballance if not outweigh all Ecclesiastical Rule and Superiority as much as to say The best way to secure a Ship at Sea is to take away her Anchor and Rudder For what is it says he you will trust your Soul with in this Important Business Is it the Authority of Men These verily may lead you into Errour and 't is not impossible into the worst and greatest of all which is the Desertion of Christ himself Such a Possibility I utterly deny and for my Confidence and Warrant produce the sacred Writ where the Church is call'd The Ground and Pillar of Truth with the Divine Promise annext Against which the Gates of Hell shall never prevail Now if this Gentleman can shew such a Character given or Promise made to his solitary Reason I 'le submit and beg his Pardon if he cannot then he must excuse me for doubting his Reason did not take such Directions as it ought and might have done before it set forth nor consequently can he ascertain me that 't is purify'd from all Passion Interest and Sensuality Pride made the Greatest Angel a Divel and a Man 's own Reason too far trusted turns to Madness The Arian Heresie which he hints at Clouded but never Totally Eclipsed or Corrupted the Church which will ever remain immaculate and pure For the Westerne Parts felt little or nothing of that Spiritual Pestilence which in less than four Years she happily Dispersed and dissipated as the Sun by Degrees does Mist's and Vapours As to the Condemnation of Athanasius and whatsoever sinister or Anti-Christian Proceedings he chargeth the then Pope with If he would vouchsafe to peruse some of our Antient or Modern Controvertists who treat at large of the Sanctions of General Councils I presume he would clearly and evidently discover his Mis-information and that which he is willing to take for a certain Truth for Quod volumus facile credimus would prove a meer Calumny and Imposture But still from the wicked Errours of some of that Council he infers a possibility that all might unanimously have err'd so For says he This possibility of Errour even in so high
a Degree we shall find in the Nature and very Elements of a Council For if any one Member of it may be a Heathen or Atheist in Opinion as the Lives he says of many Popes and the Speeches of some declare that they themselves have been why not Two not Three not more not the Maijor Part that is The whole Council Though this I Confess be out of my Element yet I think the inconsequence of it may be Demonstrated by this Syllogism That which may happen to any one egge in the Parish may happen to all But it may happen to any one egge in the Parish to goe into a Man's Mouth at once therefore it may happen to all the Egges in the Parish to go into a man's mouth at once Now Who sees not the Aequivocation of his Logick which Distinguishes not between a Divisive and Collective sense Who those Persons were which he mentions with so much Veneration of such Excellent Abilities and worthy Spirits to examine by the Rules of their own Reason those Follies and dangerous Errours in Religion I know not but am certain those that Converted the Idolatrous Nations of the World to Christianity were of that very sort of Men who he is pleas'd to say are first taught to think and then to speak they know not what I mean the Sons of the Church of Rome so that he who charges these with Superstition and Idolatry because they beg the intercession of the Saints and use pious Representations his Reason indeed teaches him first to think and then to say he knows not what For would it not be wonderful Wisdom in any man to tell another that if he has a mind to preserve the memory of a very dear Friend he must by no means look upon his Picture for that would infallibly take his thoughts quite off from him but if he stares upon the bare Wall he will there certainly find a very lively and perfect Idea of him Qui vult decipi decipiatur Undoubtedly the Picture of our Blessed Saviour upon the Cross is so far from making us think of any Strange or False Gods that it gathers our vain and scatter'd thoughts together and makes us more Vigorously and Attentively think of Him to whom we address our Prayers What hurt or danger can there be in any thing which occasions one to think of our Saviour Christ as a Picture of his Passion very Effectually doth or what Idolatry when excited thereby to a Contemplation of our Saviours Crucifixion one Bowes towards not to the Picture Do Men worship or adore any Minister pronouncing the word JESVS because they doe or should Bow at that sacred Name Certainly no me-thinks the very Light of Nature should decide this Controversie without more adoe No Man bowes at those Five Letters I. E. S. U. S. but because Conjoyn'd they spell the Holy Name of JESVS So no Man Bowes at the Substance or Colours of a Picture of the Passion but because being dispos'd and shaddow'd by the Painter's Pencil they represent our Redeemer dying upon the Cross A Picture then is a Word to the Eye as a word is a Picture to the Ear and if it be not Idolatry to bow at the Name which is but a sound I shall never be convinc'd that 't is any to bow at the Picture of JESVS which is but a Shaddow unless it could be prov'd that all things are strictly forbidden which are not expresly commanded But to our Author Men ought he says to put their Confidence rather in the Traditions of the former than the Commands of the present Church This indeed wants nothing at all but proving but supposing it true what better means can he possibly propose to himself to know the Truth of former Traditions than the Sufferage of this present Church But he would have no man build his Belief upon the Authority of past or present Ages a strange Caution from a single person For says he If they look upon all the Consequences of that Opinion it seems then all our Fore-fathers were stupidly blind they are in much greater danger of being drawn from the Christian Faith than those who remit the Judgment of these things to their own Reason For God's sake why so That certainly now is the true Rule of Faith which was the Essential means of planting and conserving it first but Orall and Apostolical Tradition not written Books nor any Man's private Spirit or Reason was the Essential means of Planting and Conserving it at first therefore Orall and Apostolical Tradition not Written Books c. is still the true and certain Rule of Faith And Consequently this Author 's Human Reason much more likely to draw him from the Christian Faith than such a Rule I am glad his Reason hath at last compell'd him to Believe that Infallibility let him define it how he will must necessarily be annext to our Guide in Spiritual Matters And I should with all my Soul rejoyce to hear of any means That might restore the Greatest Part of Man kind as he says into a hopeful and comfortable Condition and that so many Millions might not Eternally perish But that Dreadful Sentence Extra Ecclesiam nulla est Salus turns my hope into fear and trembling for though ignorance perhaps may very much Extenuate or excuse yet if an Errour be Fundamental that ignorance though never so invincible cannot after it's Nature or quality nor acquit the Professor from all Guilt and Penalty for he that unawares drops into the Water if he be Overwhelm'd is as certainly drown'd as he that willfully plunges himself in over Head and Eares And I fear the reward of invincible Ignorance may be rather an Abatement of Punishment than a Fruition of Bliss Errours in Faith at least Fundamental I conceive to be of a more pernicious Consequence than at present a vitiou Life for no Rational Man I think questions but that 't is better for a Man to Loyter or Stumble nay to fall and hurt himself in a right Path than to walk Uprightly I mean with Moral Honesty in a wrong As there is more hopes certainly of the Salvation of a sinful Christian than a Religious Jew the former being still in the Road possibly to recover and persevere Penitently and Prosperously the latter being totally incapacitated through the Eccentrical Crookedness of his way to make a good or happy Period of his ill begun Progress There may be several wayes to the same Faith but certainly Not several Faiths as this Author imagines to the same GOD who is an Indivisible and Immutable Essence therefore Going-vigorously-forward signifies nothing unless we goe right He that wills the End must necessarily use the means So that this Author can never win me to his Opinion that all Men though never so Discrepant in their Faith following in all Particulars the Dictates of their own private Reason will infallibly in the end arrive at Security and Happiness till he hath proved that the Way which leads
Humour to cure which there is no Medicine more Effectual or Balsome more Soveraign than our Mutual and Cordiall Prayers for one another But to pursue our Author As for those Men says he who accuse us of Pride and Vanity for Attributing so much to our own Reason making Presumption and Self-Flattery the Fountain of this Opinion it is a Scandal so false and so Ridiculous that without much Humility I should disdain to answer it And truly in my Opinion I have not heard a louder sound of Pride than in that very Expression But letting this pass with his Subsequent soft Arguments for the Civility and Gentleness of his Religion which permits every man to have his full Swing or Career I am come to Master Hob's for whom though it is not my business nor design to be Advocate nor in the least to diminish this Author's merit who in some parts of his Discourse against him and elsewhere shewes great Fertility of Wit and Pregnancy of Rhethorick Yet I cannot but think Master Hobs's Arguments much more Conducing to Order and Uniformity than his Unreasonably-Rational or Chimaerical Method which slighting all Ecclesiastical Tribunals authoriseth every Particular Person in Spirituals to be his own Judge and Pastor and makes the Governours of the Church of CHRIST stand for meer Cyphers which is directly against the Institution Doctrine and Designe of CHRIST himself But that Humane Reason which exalts itself above this Divine Jurisdiction be it never so full of Flourishes and Astonishment is but a glorious Nothing He is very apt to mistake Concerning the Roman Church For although indeed her Publick Liturgie the Mass be Universally said in the Latine Tongue yet all Preaching and Catechizing is performed in the Language of each respective Country and all her Members without any restraint say their Prayers in their own Native Language I am not at all satisfy'd With his endeavouring to Distinguish between Right Reason and that which is falsty esteemed so For if in all matters of Faith and Difficulty every Man's Reason must be his Rule and every man's Rule must be his Reason without adhering or submitting to any other Superior Regulation or Judge or Captivating his Understanding as Scripture requires in Obsequium Fidei If this Rule I say can be thought Regular and safe then I think this Author needs not to despair of bringing men by Degrees to believe That nothing can be in so Rational or Credible which is not evidently so to whom 't is propos'd especially since he has already affirm'd which is pretty well towards it that nothing can be dangerously Erroneous that a man firmly believes But can any thing be more Illogical and distant from Reason Unless it be this which per Consequens follows Every Orthodox Divine is a Rational Man Ergo every Rational Man is an Orthodox Divine and ought not to be taught but to teach himself Contrary to which Matth. 28.19 20. our Blessed Saviour commanded his Disciples to goe Preach Teach and Baptize all Nations But I never read that they sent the Scriptures alone to the Unconverted that they might by the Rules of their own Reason examine and frame out the True Religion but withall went themselves or sent Expositors Without which I never heard of Turk or Jew that ever chang'd his Alcoran or Talmud for the Christian Bible which evidently demonstrates against this Author That Reason alone can be no Competent means or security either of becoming or remaining a good Christian All Men therefore are or should be instructed We are Taught and they were Ttaught the same who Teach us and their Masters had Teachers and those Teachers Masters till we come Gradually to the Supream the Original Guides of the Present Church which also receives the Traditions of the former and so orderly downward till we come to the Apostles and at last to our Ne plus ultra our Saviour CHRIST himself So that 't is no Contradiction but a certain Truth that there is no going to CHRIST but from CHRIST Ã JESV ad CHRISTVM That Humane Reason then which unlinckes it self from this Divine and Infallible Concatenation flyes giddily about and can no more naturally settle or fix than a Feather in the Wind and that a man who stubbornly steps aside from this Universal this General Track will not onely lose his Way but his Reason and Himself too But now to another Matter Henry the Eighth did certainly more than seem as this Author says to leave the Pope because he would not consent to his Libidinous Desires and assum'd therefore the Supremacy that he might give himself leave to Marry or Repudiate what Wives he fancy'd or dislik'd But although Abbeys Monasteries and Religious-Houses were thereupon demolished and the Profits and Revenues converted to Secular Uses I cannot think he got any great Advantage by the Bargain either to Body or Soul who dy'd with a Perdidimus Omnia in his Mouth and found by Wofull Experience That in the end ther 's nothing got by Reforming But to leave this Digression The Author desires those who would have his Vnderstanding captivated to convince him First by theirs that it ought to be so and not to think to enslave his Reason till they first overcome it which when they have done then they will lose what they contend for For by our Reason's being Guided Conquered and Enslaved Their's are become Guides Conquerours and Masters so that it will appear at last impossible for Human Reason to lose anything in one place without gaining as much in some other Thus he To which I answer in the first place If Scripture be Reason our Understandings ought to be captivated to the Obedience of Faith In the next I would not have him think us so unreasonable as to deprive men Totally of the Use of their Reason by no means but to check and keep it within it's proper Sphear and in this we abridge him of no Liberty which we allow our selves But Humane Reason must have a large Mixture of Divinity in it to be so Adorable as this Author seems to make it I grant 't is very pretious and prizable in being given though not Magisterially to rule to guide us to those that can Infallibly do it And thus I confess we are Rul'd by Reason though not in all things by our own for all the Difficulties and Obscurities of Scripture without the Churche's Light are no more Interpretable or Discoverable by Private Reason than our Eyes can see Objects without Day-Light or a Candle and yet neither our Reason nor our Eyes are given us in vain But he that in Spiritual Affairs which so neerly concern bis Soul Assigns no Visible no External rule or Standard to measure Reason by nor any General Touch-Stone to try True from False Adulterated from Currant Coyne That Man I say for all his pretended Light within fishes in the Dark with them that labour'd all Night and caught nothing or builds his Superstructure before he lays
the Foundation For 't is as Irrational as if a Man should say I can guesse so exactly of the Longitude Latitude Altitude and Profunditie of any thing by my Eye that no Demonstration by any Mathematical Instruments can or ever shall Controul or Convince me And truly what better has this Author said from the beginning to the Ending of his Treatise than this That Mens Reasons and Judgements as to the Regulation of their Faith are so very Cleer and Demonstrative that there is no certain way no possibility to know whether they be true or false right or wrong Turne it which way you will this is all you shall find in it which Unreasonable Reasoning verifyes the Old Proverb All is not Gold that Glisters And in Truth if each Man's Reason Promisculously must be Umpire in this Rational Strife men may Play at this Sport to Perpetuity and never win nor lose But certainly our Blessed Saviour has not left the Condition of Mankind in this endless Confusion but has miraculously Founded and Signaliz'd a Church to end all Controversyes if Men that talk so much of Reason would but rightly use it for that Reason which as to Spirituality does not take the Church for it's Rest can never aim or hit right but must necessarily fly at Randome and spend it else without Advantage If that Authority says he which we Obey prescribe Truth we have Good Fortune in our Obedience and meerly Good Fortune but if it draw us into Errours we have nothing to say for our Excuse because we have nothing to Alledge for our Obedience to that Authority It seems then that our Saviour's Commands are of no Validity and Hearken to and Obey the Church meer Fopperies but certain it is CHRIST our Lord has most expresly and Emphatically enjoyn'd this and therefore we may nay must without any If 's absolutely obey it and this questionless will be a very good and sufficient Plea for our Obedience at the Day of Judgement How those who slight it would excuse themselves were there to be any Pleading at that Grand-Assize cannot imagine but am certain if they come off well they will have Extraordinary good Fortune indeed His following Discourse Of Mens Blind-folding themselves as he blindly calls it in obeying Ecclesiasticall Superiours and that those who commit themselves to the Guidance of their own Vnderstanding are as safe on the Left Hand as on the Right but who can credit this That knowes one Hand from the other As secure of Happiness in their Errours very strange as others who are otherwise guilded even in the Truths which they happen to fall into is so extravagantly Frivolous and proofless that it carryes it 's own Confutation with it sic Transeat totum God says he Commands no more but to search and yet shall find whether the Truth or not Ipse Dixit the Reward of Searching And truly I have endeavour'd and narrowly search'd to find Reason in this But after all my Diligence can perceive no Reward of my Searching which makes me conclude That 't is much more Rational to believe that GOD gives Man not only a Will to search but Power to find and Vnderstanding to know the Truth when found or else his Commands were vain But what a Desperate long Leap doe's this Author leave between Searching and Heaven If it were as he imagines I doe not see why a man 's Heartily wishing himself there might not bring him or waft him thither without more adoe and Eternal Happinesse be given him as a reward of wishing But undoubtedly finding the Truth is the reward of Searching and Heaven the reward of finding the Truth which those who search where it is not shall find nothing but anxiety and in the end that they wretchedly cheated themselves and others with shippery Sophism's and Chimaera's c. As no men are sav'd but through Mercy so none unjustly Perish for Truth is missed not so much through Difficulty of Finding as Tepidity and Negligence in searching it I cannot possibly says the Author conceive it agreeable to the Goodness of the Divine Nature so to have hidden and involved and almost disguised the Truth from us if he had intended to have censured the missing of it with so heavy a Sentence as that of Eternal Ruine especially seeing there is but one true Way I thought All ways had been alike with him as to the end for one Hundred false ones and no certain Mark set upon the Entry of that One to Distinguish it from the Others To which I answer If GOD Almighty had left us a Way without any Means or Marks as he strangely imagines to find it out it would be great Cruelty indeed in him which is far enough from his Nature to punish Men Eternally for what is not in their Power possibly to avoyd But since 't is most evident that he hath left both sufficient means to find and Marks to know it by his Discourse upon this Point is in my Opinion only just so many Words to no purpose And since those Marks which are set upon the Entry of this Way are most clear and conspicuous to all Men that look not Obliquely upon them if after they are entred they meet with any thing that Reason may perhaps at first Flinch or Boggle at the Consideration of it's Inerrability takes away all doubt and bids them confidently persevere As in Visible Objects says he we Receive confidently and rest in the Report of the Sight c. So ought we as entirely and absolutely to resign our Belief to the Dictates of our own Understanding in things intelligible which are as Properly and Naturally the Objects thereof as things visible are of the Eye-Sight and we might as well say We will trust our Eyes in Green White and Black but not in Red or Yellow Collours as affirm That our Reason must Guide us in the Contemplation of Nature the Search of Arts the Government of Publick Societies and the Begulation of Mens Lives as far as the Bounds of Morality but that it is not at all to be Followed or Obey'd in Matters that concern Religion Here I must confess the Author has some Colour but I think not much Reason for what he says For if he thinks the Objects of Faith are as Naturally Intelligible by our Understanding as the Colours of the Rain-Bow are visible to our Eyes he makes no Distinction or Difference at all between the Faculties Operations or Effects of Nature and those of Grace which certainly is a Grand Mistake For although our own Reason or understanding tell us There is a God and He to be Worshipp'd and Obey'd by us yet they cannot by their own Light or inward Forces inform us In what manner that must be done by External Agents by some thing which is without us And what imaginably more probable than the Church of Christ which can shew a Lineal Succession from the same Christ and His Apostles a Perpetual Visibility Unity Universality
Conversion of Nations Fulfilling of Prophesies which baffles all Cavils and strikes all Objections dumb a Miraculous Propagation Now he who prefers the Dictates of his own Private and naked Reason and Understanding in matters that concern Religion before the Guidance of a Church thus Adorn'd thus Mark'd thus Signaliz'd deserves not nor truly has he either the one or the other Nothing certainly can be more contrary to Humane Reason than to think we ought to believe nothing above it For there are Truth 's Un-intelligible by the most Exalted and Sublimated Souls in Heaven viz. The Total and Perfect Quality of the Divine Essence which nothing Created nothing Inferiour to God himself can Comprehend The Saints and Angels enjoy Eternity without knowing what it is the most Towring Wisdom and Depurated Reason can no more reach or fathom that Inscrutable Infinity than Ten Millions of Oceans can be crowded into the smallest Cockle-Shell For it drowns or rather as a Bottomless Abysse swallows up all Philosophy and Learning 'T is the Philosophers-Stone in Divinity too hard to be Penetrated by the Knowledge of Men or Angels In fine We know that such a thing there is but never shall it 's full and perfect Definition it being no less than the Eternal Tri-Une God whose Deep brief Character of Himself was Sum qui Sum. Whence I inferr That Men are not endued with Understanding Presumptuously to stretch beyond it's Strength and Power or to use it as they themselves list But according to the Will and Pleasure of the Divine Donor who certainly gives Man Reason not absolutely but Conditionally that in Matters of Faith at least it should retribute and pay Homage to Him I mean be Regulated by His Beloved Spouse the Church For as that is no true Liberty which has no Limit so that is no true Reason which has no Restriction Besides if most Men are allowed and granted to have Reason certainly the Church do's not want it Vis unita fortior but has in it a more Ample Perfect and incorrigible manner because more immediately and perpetually accompanyed and Assisted by the Holy Ghost And this is true nay infallibly true if Scripture be not false How those Headless-Members the Acephalists would answer here I cannot tell but am certain that As that is not true Reason but Delusion which flowes not from the right Fountain So a Visible Congregation or Body of Men without a Visible Head or with more than one is equally Monstrous But those Spiritual Privateers who slight the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy or Convoy contemn the Doctrine of the Church and resolve to believe no more than their Understandings can Chew and their Reason Digest there being many things in Nature which pose Mortality as the Flux and Re-flux of the Sea the Effects of the Loud-Stone c. will live Infidels and dye Atheists Nor is this said To remove the Cognizance of Divine Truths out of the Court of Reason but to quell it's Pride and Arrogance and bring it to Submit and stoop by an Humble Faith to those Divine Truths for certainly a mans Reason may Rebell against his Faith as well as his Passion against Reason and this Limitation or Coaction does not at all deprive man of his Power nor abridge him of the Liberty and natural priviledge of Election or Choice Religion says he appears and what Christian dares deny it to be the Principal End of mans Creation and therefore as if Horses are made for Burthen they have a Natural ability given where-with to do it If Birds do fly they have Wings given them for that purpose because where an end is Natural the means are so too So if Religion be the End of Man as he is Partaker of a Rational Soul that Reasonable Soul hath some Power naturally placed in it for the excercise judgment and choice of Religion All this is Undeniably true But yet the Author may please to consider That the Horse may be over-loaded and the Bird fly too high and so certainly Reason may soar above it's Natural Pitch Meridian Altitude and Consequently into a Region where 't is a mere Stranger and cannot subsist without some stronger Principle than it 's own proper Strength to support it And so granting the Antecedent I deny the Consequence That because GOD gives man Reason as I have said to light or introduce him into the right Entrance of Religion therefore being once initiated he needs not to ask any more questions or be guided by others but let him follow his own Reason I might as well have said his Nose and he cannot possibly go astray Briefly In the Search or Choice of our Way Reason I grant must rule but that once found Obey For that private Spirit which is not first quickned or animated and then constantly Actuated by that of God's Church which was Authoriz'd and Sanctify'd by the Divine Breath of JESUS is a False Conception no true or lawful Issue of the Understanding but a Spurious or Abortive Embrion of the Brain a Falle Light a Deceitful Phantasm But the Author says If this Doctrine that is for every Man to believe ad libitum were Generally planted in the Minds of men both the Reality and Pretence of Fighting for Religion were utterly Cancell'd Truly so far I should like his Doctrine especially if he could warrant men that Intellectual or Religious Differences should never come to Blowes But Alas Experience makes me more than doubt 't is but an Airy or imaginary Notion For as I do not deny but that those who endeavour an Establishment of Unity and Uniformity in Faith and Religion may possibly occasion War So those I fear of contrary Principles can never long prevent it But I hope that GOD who rules the unruly Ocean will Thus far I do most willingly agree with him That I would have none who disturbe not the publick peace tranquility of the Government be persecuted upon a purely conscientious score For I think it a most uncharitable and unreasonable method because impossible to reduce mens Judgments 't is but one remove from convincing them with Beetles and Halters by taking away their Estates and Starving their Bodies But against those who are found any way machinating against our true and lawful Governours especially the Supream with all Severity and Rigour Currat Lex But yer let every man smart for his proper Fault and not a whole Community or Body of men be made the very Buttocks of the Nation to be kick lash'd and slander'd for the Crimes of Particulars For that certainly is as remote from Reason Equity and Justice as it would be To Pistol a man because his Nose stands awry or knock his Brains our because he Squints Or indeed because the Serpent seduced Eve and she Adam whose Original Guilt corrupted and deprav'd their whole Progeny By the very same Crooked Rule the Apostles themselves might be call'd Traytors because Judas betray'd his Lord and Master Nor can or shall I ever believe