DISSENTERS. 
“teflimony ;”? but there is a manifeft difference be- 
een human teftimony as to aie of fa&; and human 
aint, as . matters of opinion, and pencils of truth. 
The Pounce may be, and often is, a ratio al ground o of belief ; 
the latter is believing upon no evidenc is a renunciation 
of reafon. The authority or tno of the — oie 
firft teachers of Chniftianity, was accompanied with div 
oe and this rendered it a fufficient foundation for 
rity 
ivine miffion ; 
of religious truth, or ground cf 
belief of it at all, and ee deferve no regard. Should 
n in 
; and that, therefore, it ibe be /afer 
to be plea ‘ ae a aa than by our own. ‘To 
this argument it is replied ; that a man’s own ante rftanding, 
be it more or lefs rao is the only faculty _—— God 
hath given him to diftinguifh truth from error ; and as every 
man is accountable for the ufe of his own caeeeianaing. not 
for that of other men’s ; confequently, his fafety confifts not 
t 
in giving tp his own to the diretion and controul of others, 
it in ufing it himfelf to the beft advantage. And fhould 
he, in the careful and confcientious ufe of it, err ; that error 
if he fol- 
and 
a crime ; whereas, 
of it; at leaft, a man mui never fei vies is contrary 
to his convictio o embrace or pro 
which he does not believe t to be true, in 
ecifions 
is fometimes prejudicial to 
on where it does not iffue in downr ight hypo 
as, on the one hand, by the exercife of our aca alee 
in fearching after truth, we are not only likely to arrive at 
it, but to improve in the love of it, in candour, docility, and 
opennefs to conviGtion ; and are difpofed to fubmit to its 
influence; fo, on the contrary, in proportion as we refign 
ourfelves to the condu& of human authority, truth lofes its 
charms, and its influence over us; and we become blind to 
its cleareft evidences, and brighteft charaGters, and are thus 
prepared to be led into the moft abfurd ma agree and 
vileft corruptions of religion, (See Heresy.) uld it be 
fai 
t that ever was or 
a Conftainople ; sey ae at Rome; 
prefbyteriani{m at Geneva, or in 
fame principle, ented to in oo 
would have precluded the reformation from popery 
would even have ftifled in its birth our hal; eee ite 
e 
By fuch reafoning diffenters have vindicated the right of 
4 
private judgment in the piowics of religion, and their devia- 
tion, with regard to articles of faith and forms of worthip, 
ich he has made them ayaa themfelves 
sempt from the charge of febi/in, (which ae in departing 
peaceably from the communion of the eftablifhed church. (See 
Cuurcu. f we _ at fay, after the conftitution 
of the church of Chrift, w ft look for it only in the Bi- 
ble; according to the maxim of the excellent Chillingworth 5 
‘* the bible only is the religion of proteftants ; but the con- 
ftitution of the church of Eng land is found in the ftatute- 
book, in the canons, and ,common-prayer book, and in the 
Ae of the Englifh law.” 
ering from one another, as well as from thea‘ticles of the 
€ ablithed church, ina weesnlene | of {peculative Sarg and alfo 
from eftablifhed forms and ceremonies, the nters allege 
aa wh 
ut of popi that in ee them 
— was had to the then weaknefs of the people, who 
once be entirely breught off ha the old ceremo+ 
“s and forms; and that there are feveral parts of our litur- 
gy, and ecclefiaflical conftitution, which many, even of our 
bifhops and clergy, have wifhed to fee altered; but they 
chiefly obje& to the impofition of rites and practices tbat are 
mutable and indifferent, and of doctrines, concerning: which 
the wifeft and beft men have difagreed, and may continue to 
difagree without injury or danger, as long as they preferve 
the un nity of the ave : the bond of peace and mutual for- 
bear: & to /ponfors in baptifm, confirmation, 
the oot of ae lick and dying, kneeling at the /acrament 
and th niftration of it as a telt, the preleribed and indif- 
seul ple ole “Of certain shed oe eae for burial of the 
dead, bowing at the name of Jefu pas dona to articles 
fubiittae se among the clergy, 
o je, and more particularly, to the impofition of articles of 
faith, and ceremonies of worfhip, which they conceive to 
be unauthorifed by the feripture, and inconfiftent with their 
notion of its fufficiency, and with the right of private judg- 
e 
Ast to the political principles and condu& of the diflen- 
ters, it will be fufficient, as they apprehend, to refer to 7 
truth of hiftory, impartially and candidly seinen sss 
° 
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fa’) 
fo] 
t=} 
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extreme, have produced the moft fatal effets, both at home 
and abroad; but this has been chiefly faid by perfons who 
have confounded their tbat e in their nature and ten- 
dency, with thofe, which, arried to an extreme by 
the anabaptifts in Cay and ce high-monarchy men 
in England, in the 17th century, produced 
a that in things pertaining to confcience, it is the 
the fubject to a& upon the principle of the apoftles and 
primitive elie that is, to ‘* obe God rather than 
man:”’ the o far from fetting up the fuppofed interefts 
of religion nik lawful magiftracy, or the peace e and goo i od 
order 
. 
