The Folly, and Blafphemy of his Horeb Contract hath been clearly, and convincingly set forth in the REHEARSAL, and that being one of the Pillars of his Work, the Superftructure of his Book is utterly ruined with it. In his Introduction, which is as it were the Ground Work of the whole Book, he fuppofes there was an antecedent State of Nature, in which Men lived before Political Govern ment was erected, though this wild Notion hath been fo many times unanswerably confuted by the Writers against Hobbs, and of late by the REHEARSAL against Mr. Lock. There alfo he hath confounded the Laws, and Rights of Nature, mifcalling the latter by the Name of the former, though this Sophifm, which affects the whole Difcourse, hath been long fiuce excellently folved by the Bishop of Sarum, in his † Vindication of the Authority, Conftitution, and Laws of the Church and State of Scotland, where his Lordship diftinguishes like a Learned Cafuift,and Civilian between them; and there in a few Pages cited in the Margin, our Author may fee his whole Scheme, and all he hath erected upon it, overturned. What he hath faid there against annexing Preferments to Religion, or fettling Revenues upon the Clergy, or as he hath a Talent for invidious Expreffions, of tacking the Priests Preferments to fuch Opinions, is a downright Impeachment of the Divine Wisdom, who annexed fuch large Profits, and Revenues in Cities, Lands, Tithes, Offe emendet ftatutum. Si vero nos aliquis poenitentiæ fimulatione deluferit ; Deus qui non deridetur, & qui Cor hominis intuetur, de his quæ nos minus perfpeximus, judicet, & fervorum fententiam, Et quia nec Exomologefis illic fieri poteft; qui ex toto corde poenituerint, & rogaverint, in Ecclefiam interim debent fufcipi, & in ipfa domino refervari, qui ad Ecclefiam venturus de illis utique, quos in ea intus invenerit, judicabit. + P. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. * P. 17, 22, 23, 254 rings, and other Privileges upon the Jewish Priefthood; of which † Philo the Jew makes this Obfervation: That as to Revenues, the Law made the Priests equal in Honour, and Veneration to Kings, which commanded the People to bring their Tribute to them from all Quarters, but in a different manner, faith he, from that in which People pay Tribute to Kings, which they pay with Compulfion, and Complaints, hating the Gatherers of their Taxes, as publick Pefts, and finding Pretences not to pay them at the appointed times. But they never failed to pay the Priests Dues, with fuch Willingness, and Foy, without being asked, as if they rather were the Receivers, than Givers; Men, and Women at the fet anniversary times bringing their Tithes and Offerings with fuch good Prefages, Gratulations, and Alacrity, as cannot be expreffed. I wish he were as fit and worthy to read this Tract, as it is worthy to be read by him, and others; but no Reading, no Authority will make Impreffions upon Men, who envy Priests their Revenues, and write against them, because they would fhare in the facrilegious Spoil of them, and who have the Spite of Infernal Spirits against the Chriftian Priesthood, and Church. He faith, * hereafter he will fully prove, that in the first Ages they fubfifted by the Alms of the People, and were in all other matters wholly dependent on them in their choice, as well as their Alms. This and many other things we are to expect against the Clergy from this formidable Hereafter-Book. Well, che venga, let it come; I hope the Clergy are prepared for it; it will be morientis beftia ultimus Morfus, the last Hifs, I trust, of the old Serpent, and then he will have done his worst. The Chriftians of old were but One Society, One Sect, which had One Faith, One Baptifm for the Remission of Sins; One Lord Jefus through whom + De Sacerdotum Premiis, & honoribus. * P. 219. they they worshipped the One God; One visible Head, or Principle of Unity in every Church, under the invifible Bishop of their Souls, and High-Priest of their Profeffion, the fame Lord Jefus; One Catholick Communion in all places of the Earth; One Priesthood, and One Sacrifice of Memorial, the Bond of Unity and Peace in that one Communion. This, I hope, I have fhewed in the following Letters; but these Mens new Scheme of Religion, if we may believe their Speaker in his † Book of the Rights, is destructive of Chriftianity, as one Society, and one Sect: For all the Principles of Religion, that they are pleas'd to own is only the || Being of a God, and his Providence, which he faith whofoever denies, may not only be justly punished by the Magiftrate, but alfo by every one in the State of Nature, upon fuppofition of which Imaginary State nothing can be more abfurd. But then as to the Worship of God he faith, All men are free to worship him according to their Confciences, and after the manner they think moft agreeable to his Will, and to profefs fuch fpeculative matters, as they think true; that do another Man no Injury, because in these matters, Men are ftill in a State of Nature, fubject to God and their own Confciences, without any Sovereign to determine what they shall believe or profefs, and that the Magiftrate is bound to protect Men in the way they choose of worshipping God, as in other indifferent matters. So that Men; but why do I fay Men? for Chriftians, if they like it, are now free to worship God after the Patriarchal, Jewish, or Mahometan manner, or any other way which may be devised of worshipping of him, without Chrift as well as with him, altogether as well in a Synagogue, or Mosque, as in a Chriftian Church; nay, they may if they pleafe, worship God, and particularly adminifter the Eucharift after + P. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. || P. 12. * P. 14, 15. * the impure Gnoftical manner, which I am afham'd to mention, according to his wild Scheme, which is erected on many Abfurdities and Prefumptions, as that The Magiftrate hath no Power about indifferent things; that Men may form themselves into what Companies, Clubs, and Meetings they please, which the Magiftrate (he means the Supreme Magiftrate) as long as the Publick fuftains no Damage, cannot hinder without manifeft Injustice, and acting contrary to the end for which he is intrufted. Where he fuppofes what he fhould prove, that the People, and not the Magiftrate, is Judg of Publick Good, and Hurt, and that he is their Trustee. It alfo involves a manifest Contradiction; because, if Men, as to fpeculative Matters of Belief, are fill in a State of natural Freedom to believe and follow the Dictates of their own Confciences, then the Atheist, who cannot believe the Being and Providence of God, ought to be free as to his Confcience: For whether there is a God, and whether or no he minds Human Affairs, is a fpeculative Point, and by confequence, he that after impartial Examination cannot believe there is a God and Providence, but thinks that Belief falfe and fuperftitious, and that it is hurtful to Mankind to poffefs them with fuch flavish Fears, ought to have his natural Freedom, and not to be punished and perfecuted for his Belief. For were Epicurus, Democritus, Diagoras, Protagoras, Lucretius, Lucian or Vaninus alive, they would retort upon our Author, and tell him he was a Creed-maker, and that it was precarious to fay, that not believing an Invisible Power, and his concerning himself with Human Affairs, was injurious to Human Society; that on the contrary it was injurious to Men to have the Belief of fuch a fuperftitious Opinion impos'd upon them, because it made them their own Slaves, and tormented their Minds day and night with needless Terrors; and that whom the Rods, and Axes, and Goals, and Deportation, and Servitude, would not terrify from violating their Duties to the Publick, neither, as Experience fhew'd, wou'd the Fear of an Invisible Power restrain. They wou'd tell him in his own *Language, that the Magiftrate's Power could not reach their Confciences, nor could they inveft him with fuch a Power, against the Dictates of their own Understandings, which they had a natural Right to follow, and that he who wou'd teach Men fuch flavish Doctrines, much more he that wou'd impofe the Belief of them upon them, was † as great an Enemy to the whole Race of Mankind, as he that fent them to the Gallies, because the Slavery of the Mind was much greater, and more ignoble, and unworthy the Nature of Man, who is a free thinker, than that of the Body, and that they cou'd not authorize the Sovereign to extend his Power fo far. He cannot but know that there are great Numbers of Unbelievers among us, who can argue in this manner against him, better than I can for them, and who will tell him the Creed he wou'd impofe on them and all Mankind, is larger than he represents it to be; for he that believes the Being of a God, must believe that he is abfolute in Perfection, and the first Cause of all other Beings; and he who be ́lieves that God concerns himself in the Affairs of Mankind, muft alfo believe that he is to be worshipped, and that he will judge all Men after Death, because he lets wicked Men opprefs, and profper, and good Men be oppreffed, and perfecuted in this Life, and then impartially reward and punish them according to their Works. Here then follows the Creed, which he wou'd have all Men own, or be punished by every Man in a State of Nature, and by the Magiftrate |