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 an Infallible Judge and of the great and visible inconveniencies
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
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
shew us how their Religion as it is distinct from the commonly received truths of Christianity was so miraculously propagated and that in the points which we chiefly challenge as the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome with his being the Universal Bishop of the Church the forbidding the use of the Scripture to the Laicks and the Worship in an unknown tongue the use of Images in the Worship of God the Invocating of Saints and Angels the belief of Transubstantiation the Sacrifice of the Mass and the taking the Chalice from the people the belief of Purgatory the Treasure of the Church and Indulgences with a long c. I. K. knows well that many have given very particular and full Histories of the rise and progress of these abuses with which we charge the Roman Church and for which she having obstinately refused to reform them on the contrary binding them on the Consciences of all with new and heavier Anathema's we have separated our selves from her Communion That those are not in the Scripture it is plain enough and we will not decline a tryal upon all hazards by the verdict of the first four Ages It is true in the fifth Century the Incursion of the Goths and Vandals did very much change the face of things and bring on a black night of ignorance on the greater part of Christendom which made way for gross Superstition and the bold pretences of the Bishops of Rome And I. K. is very much out in his accounts that says the propagation of the Roman Religion was without Arms. Was not that dearest part of it the authority of the Popes the occasion of many long and bloody wars in Germany and Italy And for their conversion of Hereticks the third Decree of the Council of Lateran and the practises of the Inquisitions were the surest means of effectuating it And what humane enticements were wanting to draw men into their Religion The cherishing of such Kings as were firm to them and the making over to them the Rights of their Neighbouring Princes were pretty enticing baits Witness their getting Pipin into the Throne of France their inviting him and his Son to the Conquest of the Lombards with many other Instances And was there ever found out such an enticement for men of carnal tempers who yet retained some belief of Religion as the power of pardoning indulging and exchanging of penances So that this whole account of I. K's fails him when put to the issue of a severe tryal though it looked pretty smooth and fair to an overly considerer But in end I will add a few considerations of the methods of the first propagation of Christianity and from these it will appear how different those were from any thing the Roman Church can pretend to First the Propagators of Christianity went witnessing the truth of what was publickly seen and known without any other design of their own either to engross power or riches Now whether this be the method of the Roman Church I refer it even to their own Histories if their great care hath not always been to get Ambassadors sent to Rome with the offer of their obedience and great submissions of which nothing appears in the first conversion of the world to Christianity Secondly the first Converters of the world studied to draw Mankind to a great acknowledgement of the inestimable Blessings we received by Iesus Christ and to the making sutable returns by addressing our selves to the Father by him and living according to his Gospel Now the greatest care of most of the Apostles of the Roman Church was to propagare the worship of Creatures to give Patrons to whole Nations and teach them to build Churches to those and above all to the blessed Virgin of which no footsteps appear in the first Conversion to Christianity And instead of the strictness of a holy life and an humble charitable temper they have set up a vast multitude of little observances which may be received and yet the life of sin remain still strong and in vigour Thirdly the first Propagators of Christianity studied by all possible means to wean people from all kind of Idolatry and to make theâ— serve the living God and worship him in Spirit and in Truth Now how far the Roman Church hath declined from this is apparent and that they have studied rather to change than overthrow their Idolatry giving them little Pictures Medals and Agnus Dei's and Reliques for their worship Fourthly those that laboured first to convert the world to the Christian Religion studied to make all understand what they taught them gave them the Scriptures in their own tongue and forms of Worship which they understood and could well make use of But the Emissaries of Rome deny their Converts these helps and so would hood them into a blind receiving of all they shall propose to them and keep them still under their Authority and so teach them Prayers in a tongue they do not understand Fifthly those that first converted the world did by many Miracles wrought in the sight of all convince and convert them to the Faith and these Miracles were grave useful actions as the curing of diseases the casting out of devils the procuring them good seasons and other temporal blessings and all this was done in the name and to the honour of Jesus Christ. But the Roman Agents wanting these real Miracles have betaken themselves to the shameful forgeries of strange Visions and Apparitions and of ridiculous Miracles with so vast a superfetation of them that few even of their own Communion can read these Legends of their grand Apostles â—ithout a just disdain at such palpâ—â—â—â— impostures â—â—xthly the first propagation of Christianity was when there was no Secular power to support it or those who laboured in it so that they exposed themselves to all the dangers of hunger and cold of scorn and reproach being assured of no supply not assistance from men and yet God appeared so â—xtraordinarily with them that their success was plainly the work of Heaven But the Bishops of Rome becoming great Princes sent out Agents to make new Conquests well furnished and powerfully supported so that they went like Ambassadors from one Prince to another to treat an Alliance wherein there was little hazard and great hope of success by the advantageous terms were offered on both sides And therefore after Charles the great had conquered Germany and was become a terror to the Northern Kings the Bishops of Rome sent their Agents to labour in their Conversion which was an easie matter and had no difficulty in it And Seventhly the first Conversion of the world to Christianity was signally the finger of God since though it met with the greatest Opposition from the Secular powers and was persecuted every where and for many Ages yet it prevailed and though the first Converts were poor mechanical and simple persons yet great wisdom and constancy appeared in them to the amazement of the Philosophers and other
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
by a curious improving those hoped that their other faults should be more easily forgiven both by God and man Afterwards a great many notions were found out if not for a direct defence of those disorders yet for palliating them and allaying the grief for them A devotion to Saints was one great Engine the opinion of many sins being expiated in Purgatory together with the belief of the Popes power of Redeeming from it was an universal Medicine for all diseases of Conscience Then the dispensing with Vowes Covenants and most of all Duties was a great ease to the natural man There were also some new coined duties of Religion which did agree well with their passions such as fighting for Religion against Infidels Hereticks and others that were excommunicated by the Pope and a violent persecuting of all who in any point departed from the received Opinions And their Auricular Confessions easie Penances and ready Absolutions were sure and Infallible means to reconcile them to Religion after it was so debased as to meet them more than half way But when a great part of Europe was delivered from those more apparent Impostures the natural man did not for all that give over his practising upon Religion to frame it to his own taste and a fondness on some reformed Opinions with a Reverence for the Persons of the Teachers came to be set up by many as all they drave at But cunninger Arts were also found out and some sacred truths did insensibly become so abused as to be made the excuses of sins especially as they were stretched by the corruptions of men which were much encouraged by many unwary expressions of some hot Divines who in the eagerness of dispute had said many things that were not to be justified Hence it was that the Doctrine of Christs dying for sinners and being their Sacrifice by which the guilt of their sins was expiated and they reconciled to God was used by many for a security for men to sin as pleased them so they but trusted to Christ and because perfection was not attained in this life it was held unattainable and sin insuperable Nor could men be much afflicted for sin nor guard diligently against it who believed they were inevitably led and determined to it especially when that was thought done by God himself and fighting for Religion against the supream Authority was also by many made a great demonstration of their zeal for God and Religion and a surious bitter zeal against all who departed from their Opinions whether to the one hand or to the other was looked on as a great evidence of Grace and Love to God And it is plain in many persons Religion does not so much mortifie their passions and lusts as palliate and disguise them or at most change their object but not their nature Men of Cholerick dispositions placing all Religion in an eager violent yea and if need be a bloody maintaining all their Opinions about matters of Faith The melancholy men put it all in abstraction and recluseness valuing themselves much upon it and undervaluing others that were not so retired Others of a more sanguine Complexion finding either great excuses for all their levities and follies or if more serious turning all their thoughts to the dressing up some pretty Notion And thus men not forming their minds by the dictates and precepts of Religion but framing it according to their own tempers so as might best suit their inclinations did hold the truth in unrighteousness And thus again the natural man did adulterate the notions of Religion which are spiritually discerned But the last and greatest because both strongest and subtilest assault that Nature made upon Religion was by the misguidings of ill directed and ill managed Reason The former prejudices were more visible and could not be so well defended but this was managed with a deeper cunning And first the great value that the Masters and pretenders to Learning and Reason had of themselves made them scornfully reject all Instruction stiffly maintain all they had once asserted and despise every one that differed from them Hence it was that the Philosophers broke into so many divisions being as is apparent mightily swelled in self-conceit so that they scorned to yield to one another but employed all their wit and eloquence to justifie their own Notions how absurd soever Now this is the temper in the world the most incapable of instruction and this their pride they carried higher laughing at all Inspiration as a kind of madness which therefore they despised and thought that their Reason was able to penetrate into the deepest and secretest mysteries And as this occasioned a numberless variety of opinions so it made them despise the first preachings of Christianity in which as there was none of their Metaphysical canting so poor illiterate men delivering it they who valued themselves on their Learning and their noble generous tempers rejected it with scorn which was fed with the contempt they had for the first Converts who were either such as they called Barbarians or men of mean Education and Employments But after an Age or two many of those were by the prevailing progress of Christianity Converted to the Faith and did for some Ages very good service to it But diverse of their Successors retaining the old temper of the Philosophers the debates about Religion begun to be managed with an unyielding ambition and Anathema's were the common sanctions with which they imposed their Opinions And at length one of the Bishops assumed to himself and Successors the absolute authority of judging and deciding all Controversies which though the most unreasonable opinion in the world and that which destroys the free and right use of Reason yet was brought in on the highest pretences of Reason as the only mean to end all disputes And when a great many errors were visibly got into their Church and some rose who with all the evidence of Reason imaginable laid open these and pressed them to disown and reform them they continued in their stubborness multiplied their Anathema's and wreathed all their errors in one Chain as S. Iames had done the Law of God and imposed all without mercy And for doing this they brought their Janizaries whom they had educated in Nurseries at fencing cudgelling and the other discipline of Pen-slaughter and Ink-shed These Schoolmen who had been well trained to dispute about every thing and stubbornly to maintain every position how trifling or how false soever with all confidence and earnestness were brought to give Battel and they as Mercenaries who expected good preferments did fight it out most obstinately nothing was too disingenious for their confidence no Author was so spurious but they would vouch his testimony no place of Scripture sounded favourably to their Opinions but though it had been never so plain that it was to be understood in a different sence was brought as a certain proof no maxim of the Schools no old fustian distinction was
left out to maintain the Fight and as some after the greatest defeats have impudence enough to pretend a Victory so that art was not omitted by them but loud acclamations of Victory were made when all free discerners saw they were quite routed and the rudeness they had learned in their Cells was brought out with them for they managed their disputes with all the roughness of expression the most petulant insultings and the most barbarous railings Nor does this charge fall only on one side of Christendom though one Church be most notoriously guilty but the Disputants of all sides have for the greatest part managed their debates with that acrimony of stile those severe invectives and the catching up some escapes of inconsiderate Pens as if they were more concerned for Glory than for Truth Besides that every one swallows down an entire system of that party to which he hath offered up himself and all must be defended without that ingenuity which becomes inquirers into divine truth Nor do most men take their opinions from the sacred Oracles but from their Educations and the Catechisms and Confessions they have been accustomed to and being thus prepossessed go to the Scriptures to seek proofs for their opinions being resolved before-hand to defend them and to make the Scriptures serve their turns which if they will not do easily they will so stretch them upon the rack by their forced Criticisms or consequences as to make them confess any thing though never so plainly contrary to the clear meaning of the words And it is evident that men thus blown up with pride are resolved to justifie all they have ever said though to the cost of throwing off all candid and fair dealing saying things that no man of common sense would say if he were not strangely byassed And indeed we dayly see things brought for the proof of many opinions which are so visibly weak and unconcluding that it is scarce possible to think those believed them that said them but that being resolved to stand to what they once asserted some mist must be raised for keeping up their reputation and imposing on weaker and more credulous Disciples And thus it must continue as long as men are led by their pride to be stubborn in all their reasonings about Religion Another great abuse of Reason is a needless curiosity about things that either are of no great importance or are wrapped in mysterious darkness into which if men will penetrate their Conjectures and Discourses must turn to impertinent Cantings and Nonsense Thus the Philosophers disputing about the nature of the Deity and of the Soul do fall into unintelligible niceties and Cabalistical conceits of Numbers of which no account can be given but that they would seem to say somewhat where they could say nothing And this curious subtilising carried along another mischief with it that they rejected every thing of which they could not give a distinct account and therefore called S. Paul a babler when he told them of the Resurrection But when some of the Philosophers became Converts to Christianity both these effects of this curiosity did appear some studying to make out the high Mysteries of the Faith from their Metaphysicks and to reconcile them to the Platonical Notions in which any discerning Reader will see a great deal of needless and very ill proved and worse applyed curiosity This appearing both too curious and ill grounded to others was no small occasion of their rejecting those Mysteries or at least framing them so as to agree with their Conceptions of things and both seem to have had too laâ—gâ— a share of this oversearching humour and of not believing any thing but what was made out to their Reasons the one party pretending they did understand the Mysteries and the other denying them because they could not understand them What subtleties were used in explaining those incomprehensible doctrines any that hath conversed in those writings must needs know and how they were opposed with the like subtleties Whereas had all sides adored the divine Revelations without engaging into these discantings they had held the simplicity of the Gospel and acted more like true Christian Philosophers since it agrees with the strictest reason to acknowledge our faculties are limited and so not fit to comprehend the divine Nature nor the operations or the communications of that Supream being and therefore we must believe with all humility what himself hath been pleased to reveal to us concerning himself without either doubting the truth because we understand not what is so far above us or engaging into over curious searching into that which it appears from our limited understandings and the general terms of Revelation God intended should be still a Mystery to us But indeed the Schoolmen have thought it below the height of their â—ouring minds and great Learnings to stick at the explaining all Mysteries and as far as hard words and unconceivable niceties will go they have given us a very satisfying account of all Mysteries by which we know neither more nor less than we do without them Whether this may not have led many over curioâ—s enquirers into the contrary extream I shall not determine but this is plainly an abuse of Reason on both hands The humour of enquiring into all subtleties did quickly bring into the Church a superfetation of unconceivable Mysteries For every bold conceit that any who had so much authority as to be well followed took up was presently given out for a Mystery and then it was sacred and must not be touched and if any did offer to examine it he was scared with the bugbear of a Mystery So that Transubstantiation the treasure of the Church the way of the Popes Infallibility together with a thousand devised Mysteries in all the pieces of Divine Worship were cramm'd down the throats of all Christians and many being justly provoked by these pretended Mysteries and seeing the other great Mysteries made the engines of obtruding these on the world were thereupon by an unjustifiable and an immoderate use of the Counterpoise led to the other extream of denying all And with how great nicety of Argument have even the Reformed managed many high mysterious points as the derivation of Adam's sin the Order o the Divine decrees with the nature of the aids and assistances of Grace which have been canvassed with a very searching curiosity and as dark as these must be confessed to be yet they are delivered with as much dictating and imperious authority as if these Authors had been caught up to the third Heavens Many other niceties are also found out to exercise their curiosity yet if it rested there the hazard were not so great but these are all made Articles of Faith and all who are not satisfied about them are barred the Communion of the Church and so no wonder there be endless heats and debates The occasion of this curiosity and itch of disputing may be perhaps not unjustly derived from the contentions