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the act and habit of faith, and therefore cannot be enlarged by the church, any more than the act of the visive faculty can add visibility to the object. So that if we have found out what foundation Christ and his Apostles did lay, that is, what body and system of articles simply necessary they taught and required of us to believe, we need not, we cannot go any further for foundation, we cannot enlarge that system or collection.

Now then, although all that they said is true, and nothing of it to be doubted or disbelieved, yet as all that they said is neither written nor delivered, because all was not necessary, so we know that of those things which are written, some things are as far off from the foundation, as those things which were omitted, and therefore although now accidentally, they must be believed by all that know them, yet it is not necessary all should know them; and that all should know them in the same sense and interpretation, is neither probable nor obligatory; but therefore since these things are to be distinguished by some differences of necessary and not necessary, whether or no is not the declaration of Christ and his Apostles affixing salvation to the belief of some great comprehensive articles, and the act of the Apostles rendering them as explicit as they thought convenient, and consigning that creed made so explicit, as a tessera of a Christian, as a comprehension of the articles of his belief, as a sufficient disposition and an expression of the faith of a Catechumen in order to baptism; whether or no I say, all this be not sufficient

probation, that these only are of absolute necessity, that this is sufficient for mere belief in order to heaven, and that therefore whosoever believes these Articles heartily and explicitly, eos μével év dvr, as St John's expression is, "God dwelleth in him," I leave it to be considered and judged of from the premises. Only this, if the old doctors had been made judges in these questions, they would have passed their affirmative; for to instance in one for all, of this it was said by Tertullian, "This symbol is the one sufficient immoveable, unalterable and unchangeable rule of faith, that admits no increment or decrement; but if the integrity and unity of this be preserved, in all other things men may take a liberty of enlarging their knowledges and Prophesyings, according as they are assisted by the grace of God."

ON THE

AUTHORITY OF REASON

IN

SUBJECTS OF RELIGION.

FROM THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.

HERE then I consider, that although no man may be trusted to judge for all others, unless this person were infallible and authorized so to do, which no man nor no company of men is, yet every man may be trusted to judge for himself; I say every man that can judge at all, (as for others, they are to be saved as it pleaseth God,) but others that can judge at all must either choose their guides, who shall judge for them, (and then they oftentimes do the wisest, and always save themselves a labour, but then they choose too,) or if they be persons of greater understanding, then they are to choose for themselves in particular, what the others do in general, and by choosing their guide, and for this, any man may be better trusted for himself, than any man can be for another; for in this case his own interest is most concerned; and ability is not so

necessary as honesty, which certainly every man will best preserve in his own case, and to himself, (and if he does not, it is he that must smart for it,) and it is not required of us not to be in error, but that we endeavour to avoid it.

He that follows his guide so far as his reason goes along with him, or which is all one, he that follows his own reason, not guided only by natural arguments, but by divine revelation, and all other good means, hath great advantages over him that gives himself wholly to follow any human guide whatsoever, because he follows all their reasons and his own too; he follows them till reason leaves them, or till it seems so to him, which is all one to his particular, for by the confession of all sides, an erroneous conscience binds him, when a right guide does not bind him. But he that gives himself up wholly to a guide is oftentimes, I mean if he be a discerning person, forced to do violence to his own. understanding, and to lose all the benefit of his own discretion, that he may reconcile his reason to his guide. And of this we see infinite inconveniences in the church of Rome; for we find persons of great understanding, oftentimes so amused with the authority of their church, that it is pity to see them sweat in answering some objections, which they know not how to do, but yet believe they must, because the church hath said it. So that if they read, study, pray, search records, and use all the means of art and industry in the pursuit of truth, it is not with a resolution to follow that

which shall seem truth to them, but to confirm what before they did believe; and if any argument shall seem unanswerable against any article of their church, they are to take it for a temptation, not for an illumination, and they are to use it accordingly; which makes them make the devil to be the author of that, which God's Spirit hath assisted them to find in the use of lawful means and the search of truth. And when the devil of falsehood is like to be cast out by God's Spirit, they say that it is through Beelzebub; which was one of the worst things that ever the Pharisees said or did. And was it not a plain stifling of the just and reasonable demands made by the emperor, the kings of France and Spain, and by the ablest divines among them, which was used in the council of Trent, when they demanded the restitution of priests to their liberty of marriage, the use of the chalice, the service in the vulgar tongue, and these things not only in pursuance of truth, but for other great and good ends, even to take away an infinite scandal and a great schism? And yet when they themselves did profess it, and all the world knew these reasonable demands were denied merely upon a politic consideration, yet that these things should be framed into articles, and decrees of faith, and they forever after bound not only to desire the same things, but to think the contrary to be divine truths; never was reason made more a slave or more useless. Must not all the world say, either they must be great hypocrites, or do great violence to their understanding, when they not

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