Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

แ method to be the only proper one, "for the advantage of their caufe, "which had been the enemy and deftroyer of it: then, it was the autority of chriftians, which, by degrees, not only laid waste the "honor of christianity, but well 46 nigh extinguish'd it from amongst 66 men. It was autority, which brought in all that merciless heap “of useless and burchenfome foppe"ries; prayers in an unknown

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

tongue; prayers to multitudes of beings; and the whole load of "abfurdities and depravations of the 4. religion, under which the chriftian people were in captivity, till "they became grofs and weighty enough at laft, to break the props that fupported them. It was autority, which would have prevented "all reformation, where it is; and σε which has put a barrier against it, where-ever it is not. It was human autority in religion, which alone fet up itself against the begin

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

46

[ocr errors]

nings

3

nings of this Church of England "itlelf: and which alone now con"tefts with it the foundation upon "which it ftands. This autority

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

was at firft exercis'd in little by. thofe, who were fo far from pretending to fuch enormities, as it "afterwards arriv'd at, that they "would have detefted and abhorr'd

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

the thought of them. And to it "will be, for ever, and every where. "The calling in the Affiftance of mere autority, even against errors, or trifles in religious matters, at firft, will by infenfible degrees come to the the very fame iffue, that it has. "been ever hitherto feen to end in. "And how, indeed, can it be expected, that the fame thing, which "has in all ages, and in all coun"tries, been hurtful to truth and true religion, among men, should "in any age, or in any country, be

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

come a friend and guardian of "them; unless it can be fhewn that "the nature of mere autority, or the

na

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

.

Ix ii

nature of man, or both, are intirely alter'd from what they have "hitherto been. For it is not in religion, as it is in the civil concerns of human life. The end of human fociety is anfwer'd by out"ward behaviour, and actions; which therefore, ought to be restrain'd "and govern'd by civil autority. But "the end of religion, and of the chri"ftian religion, in particular, is deftroy'd, juft in proportion to the influence of great names; and to "the effect of worldly motives, and mere autority of men, feparated " from the arguments of reafon, and "the motives and maxims of the gospel itself."

[ocr errors]

THE

[ocr errors]

VI. That if thofe Proofs are valid, Chrifianity is invincibly efablish'd on its e true foundation.

id.

VII. That if thofe Proofs are invalid, then is Chriftianity falfe

31

VIII. That thofe Proofs are Typical or Allegorical Proofs

39

IX. The nature of Typical or Allegorical
Proofs, and Reasoning.

50

X. The nature of Allegorical Reasoning further fhewn by application of it to several -particular inftances cited from the Old and urg'd in the New Teftament

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

6i

XI. An Answer to an Objection, that, the Allegorical Reafonings of the Apoftles were not defign'd for abfolute proofs of Chriftianity, but for proofs AD HOMINEM, to the Jews, who were accustomed to that way of reafoning

[ocr errors]

79

PART

« ForrigeFortsæt »