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SECT. V.

But to difference myself nearer, and draw into a leffer circle: there is no church whofe every part fo fquares unto my confcience, whofe articles, cónftitutions, and cuftoms feem fo confonant unto reason, and as it were framed to my particular devotion, as this whereof I hold my belief, the church of England; to whofe faith I am a fworn fubject, and therefore, in a double obligation, fubfcribe unto her articles, and endeavour to observe her conftitutions: whatsoever is beyond, as points indifferent, I obferve according to the rules of my private reafon, or the humour and fashion of my devotion; neither believing this, because Luther affirmed it, or disapproving that, becaufe Calvin hath difavowed it. I condemn not all things in the council of Trent, nor approve all in the fynod of Dort: in brief, where the fcripture is fi

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lent, the church is my text; where that speaks, 'tis but my comment; where there is a joint filence of both, I borrow not the rules of my religion from Rome or Geneva, but the dictates of my own reafon. It is an unjust scandal of our adverfaries, and a grofs error in our felves, to compute the nativity of our religion from * Henry the eight, who, though he rejected the Pope, refus'd not the faith of Rome, and effected no more than what his own prede→ ceffors defired and affayed in ages past, and was conceived the ftate of † Venice would have attempted in our days. It is as uncharitable a point in us to fall upon thofe popular fcurrilities and opprobrious fcoffs of the Bishop of Rome, to whom, as a temporal Prince, we owe the duty of good language: I confefs there is caufe of paffion between us; by his fentence I ftand excommunicated, Heretick is the best language he af

fords

fords me; yet can no ear witness
I ever returned him the name of
Antichrift, Man of Sin, or Whore of
Babylon. It is the method of chari-
ty to fuffer without reaction: those
ufual fatyrs, and invectives of the
pulpit, may perchance produce a
good effect on the vulgar, whose
ears are opener to rhetorick then
logick; yet do they in no wife con-
firm the faith of wiser believers, who
know that a good caufe needs not
to be patronized by a passion, but
can fuftain it felf upon a temperate
difpute.

*

SECT. VI.

I could never divide myself from any man upon the difference of an opinion, or be angry with his judgment for not agreeing with me in that, from which perhaps within a few days I fhould diffent myself: I have no genius to difputes in religion, and have often thought it wisdom to decline them, efpecially + Seepte com been

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upon a disadvantage, or when the cause of truth might fuffer in the weakness of my patronage; where we defire to be informed, 'tis good to conteft with men above ourselves; but to confirm and establish our opinions, 'tis best to argue with judgments below our own; that the frequent fpoils and victories over their reafons may fettle in ourselves an esteem, and confirmed opinion of our own. * Every man is not a proper champion for truth, nor fit to take up the gantlet in the cause of verity: many from the ignorance of these maxims, and an inconfiderate zeal unto truth, have too rafhly charged the troops of error, and remain as trophies unto the enemies of truth: a man may be in as just poffeffion of truth as of a city, and yet be forced to furrender; 'tis therefore far better to en-' joy her with peace, then to hazard her on a battle: if therefore, there

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arife any doubts in my way, I do forget them, or at least defer them, till my better fettled judgment, and more manly reafon be able to refolve them; for I perceive every mans own reafon is his best Oedipus, and will, upon a reasonable truce, find a way to loose those bonds, wherewith the fubtilties of error have enchained our more flexible and tender judgments. In philofophy, where truth feems double-faced, there is no man more paradoxical then myself; but in divinity I love to keep the road, and though not in an implicit, yet in an humble faith, follow the great wheel of the church, by which I move, not referving any proper poles or motion from the epicycle of my own brain; by this means I leave no gap for herefies, fchifms, or errors, of which at present, I hope I shall not injure truth to fay, I have no taint

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