Their Guides and Governors lock up from them the Scripture, which is the Book of Knowledge: They teach them, that Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion: They banish Liberty, they brow-beat Reafon, they perfecute Trush. In confequence of all which, the deluded Votaries of the Romish Church are as ignorant as the Mahometans, as great Slaves, greater Idolaters, and greater Perfecutors; that is, in Barbarity they exceed the Turks, who in Barbarity exceed most others.

HERE, in England, why are we free, why Proteftants; but because we are guided by Reafon, and judge for ourselves? And none amongst us complain of the Liberty of the Prefs, or the Growth of Free-Thinking, but thofe who would found a Dominion upon Stupidity and Perfecution. Vile and woeful is that Cause, which must be fupported by Ignorance and Mifery! And yet there are thofe in Great Britain, who, though they wear a holy and venerable Livery, yet have the Boldness and Blafphemy to chriften that impious Caufe, the Caufe of God, and of his Church.

To conclude, Scripture, and Reafon, without which Scripture can have no Effect, are the only Tefts of every Falfhood and Imposture, and every Superftition. Suppofe, for Example,

a

a Reverend Doctor is touch'd with an odd Zeal for Bowing to the Eaft; he ought to convince my Reafon, that Bowing to the Eaft is injoined, in Scripture, before he injoins me to bow also. If he fay, that it is injoined by the Authority of the Church, he then must fatisfy my Reason, that the Scripture teaches the Church to teach her Members to make Bows. If he anfwer,. that neither does the Scripture teach to bow to the East, but that the Church thinks Bowing decent and edifying; he must then prove, by rational Evidence, that what every Church thinks de-cent is a Duty. If he reply, that this is only true of the one Orthodox Church; then he muft prove, that his Church is the fole Orthodox Church, according to the Rules of the Gofpel. And if the Doctor cannot do this to my Satiffaction, then there will be an End of his Argument for his Ecclefiaftical Bowings.

As we judge from Scripture, what is Orthodoxy; so we must judge from Reason, what is Scripture,

NUMBER XXXVI.

Wednesday, September 21. 1720.

Of the Peace of the Church.

T is a fhameful Infult upon our Un derstandings, that of fanctifying the: most wicked Purposes, and moft cruel Actions, with the most honest and innocent Names; and yet nothing is more frequently practifed. Thus the worthy Name of RULER fhall be prostituted and: pronounced aloud, to palliate, and even to justify, the Barbarities of a TYRANT; and that peace-able Word Obedience fhall be forced to fignify an unmanly and unnatural Patience of Servi tude. LAWS, which were intended to protect and encourage good Men, and to restrain and punish ill ones, are often perverted into deadly Inftruments in the Hands of Robbers and Ufurpers, against the Virtuous and the Harm

lefs;

lefs; and the Means of Preservation are turned into Engines of Destruction. The Lord's Anointed, a Phrafe which at firft fignified only a Man approved and chofen by God himself to be the Ruler of his People, has been fince: wrefted to mean an over-grown Plunderer, who chose himself to be a Destroyer of God's › People.

THESE are fome Inftances of the Abuse of Words in civil Life. In Religion, the Abusehas been, if poffible, ftill greater; of which I have given already many Proofs, and fhall con-tinue to give more in the Course of these Papers. I fhall at prefent confine myself to a Phrase, which is indeed a very good one, but which I bave never known applied to a good Purpose in my Time, nor at any Time before; I mean that of the Peace of the Church.

By the Peace of the Church, when it is taken in a rational and warrantable Senfe, I take to be meant no more than this, namely, That any Number of People, who have agreed among themselves upon Terms of religious Communion, shall quietly enjoy the facred Pri-vilege of meeting together to worship God; and whoever disturbs them, let his Title or Pretenfions be what they will, is a Breaker of the Peace of the Church. Or if any other Society

B 6

ciety greater than the former, and of longer Standing, think fit to be provoked at this religious Indulgence, and call it a Breach of the Peace of the Church, they bring home the Charge upon themselves, who, by breaking the Peace of the Church, mean only the not fubmitting to their own proud Spirit, which finds Peace only in the Exercife of fuccessful Tyranny. Or if the fmaller Society should ufurp Dominion over the Thoughts of its own Members, and demand of them a Belief contrary to the Light of their Minds, or a Behaviour contrary to the Dictates and Conviction of their Consciences; they justify the Claims of the greater Society over themselves, and leave themselves without Excufe for having left it.

A MAN, who leaves the Communion of any particular. Church, does no more break the Peace of that Church, than a Man, who leaves the Realm, breaks the Peace of the Realm; or than a Man breaks the Peace of a Family, who, whilft the reft dine upon Flesh, does himfelf dine feparately upon Fish. But he doe evidently break the Peace of the Church, who would by Violence keep any one in that Church; forafmuch as, by fo doing, he violates Confcience, which is the Seat and Centre of Re

ligion,