fubfcribing: But even then I am made to do a needlefs Thing merely to gratifie his Humour; which in Religious Matters I fhall ever account Perfecution. Or I understand them differently; judging his Senfe to be wrong; in which Cafe, if I cannot be Orthodox without fubfcribing, I can't be Orthodox without being Infincere. And is this no Hardship, or too flight, now, to be call'd Perfecution? But 'tis true in Fact, that Creeds, Confeffions, and Articles, have been in every Age made the Engines of the moft acknowledg'd and bloody Perfecutions. It can neither be deny'd nor conceal'd, that they have been generally made to entangle Confciences, and contriv'd for fome Party-Purpofes; worded fo as to reach the Intentions of fhutting out and taking in; level'd againft the Perfons, Eftates, Properties, Lives, as well as the Reputation and Confciences of particular Men. And to ferve fuch Purposes, carried not always by the Reafon of Things, and Strength of Evidence, but often by a Majority against both. And Truth, Error, Orthodoxy, and Herefy, are but Words, ordinarily fpeaking, in this Cafe, made ufe of to wrap up thefe vile Defigns. And then certainly, tho' a Man be required to give a Reafon of his Faith, yet he need not thereby look upon himself as oblig'd to give any Account of it to every fuch Demander, who evidently asks it merely with a Defign to take fome Advantage against him.

Now, if this be the Defign of trying Orthodoxy, by Human, Fallible Tefts and Forms, I believe it will be eafily granted me, that this Notion of it must have the most unhappy Tendency to prevent and ftifle Truth. Tis the greateft Enemy, and the moft effectual Impe

diment to the making or publishing any new Discoveries, how important, demonftrable, or useful foever they be. 'Tis a noble Security againft growing Wifer, than those who went before us. With all the Advantages we have from their Labours, we muft take great care we go not one ftep further than they did not fo much as venture to alter or explain a Phrafe which they have adapted and confecrated; tho' perhaps it may have grown obfolete, and have much vary'd its Signification (as we fee Words will) fince they made use of it. Truth is never to be come at all at once: And there 'tis most likely in the greateft Measure, and with the cleareft Certainty to be found, where Men are encourag'd to make the freeft and moft impartial Search after it; and the most publick, unreftrain'd, and honeft Profeffions, when they think they have attain'd

it.

For these, and other Reasons like these, I can't but dislike the abus'd, narrow, and uncharitable Notion of Orthodoxy, which has too long fet Chriftians at variance one with another. I can't but difapprove of it, I fay, where-ever I fee it. 'Tis highly Arrogant in the Papifts: because, tho' the Church of Rome afferts, the is far from proving, her felf to be infallible; and therefore, tho' fhe is tolerably confiftent in calling her felf Orthodox, and all that differ from her Hereticks; yet she may be out: There may be great Miftakes in the Decrees and Catechifm of Trent. But ftill I can write against their impos'd Canons and Traditions with fome Temper, because they proceed fairly. They fay the Bible, without their Gloffes upon it, is not a fufficient and perfect Rule of Faith;

and

and that their Interpretations of it are as infallibly true as the Word of God it felf. Grant them these Principles on which they go, and then they argue juftly, that a Man muft believe all that their Church believes in order to denominate him Orthodox;

But that Men who separate from this Church on the foot of a private Judgment; that pre! tend to no Infallibility, and own the Bible to be a perfect, adequate Rule, that needs no Additions to eke it out, and make it a complete Directory; that Men that live and breath upon this Principle, and can juftify their own Conduct by nothing elfe; that they, while they are engaged in a pretended Defiance to this implicit Faith, fhou'd yet make their own Sentiments, and darling Opinions, the Standard of Truth and Or thodoxy, is both an Iniquity and a Folly not to be endured. I have often thought it looks a little oddly in our Church, in her Articles to affert the Scripture is the only Rule, and that Men muft judge for themselves, and then, at the fame time to claim an Authority to the Church in Matters of Faith: This does not look, I muft confefs, as tho' fhe were altogether fo confiftent with her felf, or fo great and generous an Encourager of Freedom of Thought, as I cou'd with.

But thofe that Diffent from her, tho' they go on the fame common Principles in their Recefs from Rome, yet have pretended to carry this their Notion of Liberty in Religious Matters fomewhat further than the National Church has thought neceffary. At leaft, I am fure, they have made a greater Noife about it. By their Talk, and their Writing, one wou'd be apt to

think that all other Chriftians befides themselves were either Tyrants or Slaves. They were almoft the only Perfons who never ufurp'd, or fubmitted to any Power of this kind. With them every degree of it has been represented as AntiChriftian. And really, by what I have observed of late among fome of their leading Men, I was ready to envy them. I was jealous they wou'd have exceeded us in afferting Liberty in Matters of Opinion, and in managing all Differences of this kind with Temper, Charity, and Forbearance. But if one fhould judge of them as a Body by an unregarded Piece from that Quarter, they are as warm and zealous for Orthodoxy, and can be as rude, as unmannerly, as unchriftian, in their contending for it, as their Neighbours. This difconcerted Body, crumbled into numberless Parties and Divifions, agreeing as little with one another, as with the Church; they forfooth, have a Teft of Truth and Error too: Tho' they plead for a Liberty of Diffenting from every body else, yet they wou'd fain, it seems, keep others from exercifing their own Judgments, in following the Dictates of their own Minds. If we may take this Author's Word, they generally think the Confeffion of the Affembly of Divines, and their Catechifms, fuch Forms of found Words as every Chriftian is oblig'd to hold faft; and to be lieve as well as his Bible, or elfe he is not Orthodox. I know the Diffenters too well, to think this is their Opinion as a Body. The doughty Author of this Performance, I take to be a Man of much the fame Make, and I hope of as incon

The Duty of holding faft the Form of found Words. Prinred for F. Clark.

fiderable

fiderable a Figure among them, as the Advocate for the Church of England's being the fole Encou rager of Free-Thinking is in the Church; whose Paper I confider'd in my laft.

But I am forry there fhould be among those ftrenuous Affertors of Religious as well as Civil Liberty, any one that should ftart up out of a Corner, thus pretending to a Dominion over the Faith and Confciences of other Men.

I wou'd hope the Set of Men He profeffes fuch a Veneration for, had too great a regard to the Principles of Chriftian Liberty, and too great a value for the Scriptures, to pretend to fet their own Compofures on a level with them; or to make them a Rule to try the Scriptures by. For thus I find them expreffing themselves, *The fupreme Judge by which all Controverfies of Religion are to be determin'd, and all Decrees of Councils, Opinions of antient Writers, Doctrines of Men, and private Spirits are to be examin'd; and in whofe Sentence we are to reft, can be no other than the holy Spirit fpeaking in the Scriptures. Agreeably to what they fay in the Anfwer to the fecond Question in their Catechifm. The Word of God which is contain'd in the Scriptures of the Old and New Teftament, is the ONLY Rule, &c. By which one wou'd be ready to conclude, that they wou'd be far from reckoning their own Confeffion as worthy of regard, and as neceffary to be believ'd and held faft, as the Form of Sound Words deliver'd by an Apoftle; Those that were Men of any Piety or Learning among them, wou'd certainly have abhor'd the thought

*Affemblies Confeffion, Art. 10.

C

of