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If the Magiftrate in one Country has Au- SER M. thority to judge what the Subject shall profefs to believe, the rightful Magistrate in every Country must have the fame Authority; from whence it will evidently follow to be a moral Duty in Subjects of different Countries, to profefs their Belief of Doctrines quite contrary to each other, and that the Christians in Italy are as truly bound to believe and profefs the Doctrine of Transubftantiation, as the Chriftians of the Churches of England and Ireland are bound to believe and profess the contrary. If this be a Proteftant Doctrine, it will give the Church of Rome a more ftable Foundation to build her Superftitions and Idolatries upon, than has hitherto been allowed her by the reformed Churches.

If this Reasoning be juft, it will lead us into the true Meaning of that 20th Article of our Church, that the Church hath Authority in Controverfies of Faith. Which cannot import that the Sense which every established Church fhall put upon any Text of holy Scripture, must be the true Sense, and received and believed as fuch by all its Members; becaufe different Churches may, and do differ from one another; as for In

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SER M. ftance, in those Words, This is my Body, which the Romish Church interprets literally of the corporal Presence, we figuratively, of the spiritual Presence.

The genuine Sense therefore of that Article seems to be, that when our Church, after the matureft Deliberation, has ascertained the Meaning of any doubtful Paffage in the Bible for the fettling of any Doctrine in Difpute, the Doctrine fo authorized becomes the established Doctrine, and ought to be treated with the utmost Deference, and that none of its Members shall publickly preach and teach contrary thereto, fince it has the greatest human Sanction that can be given to it: but still as it is but human, it is liable to err, as the foregoing Article fhews, and therefore cannot in the Nature of the Thing, bind any Man's private Faith and Confcience, for with refpect to these, to his own Mafter he ftandeth or falleth. And the Sequel of the Article, which is worded with a cautious Latitude becoming all human Definitions in Matters of Faith, plainly fhews, that the Compilers intended after the Example of St. Paul, not to affume a 2 Cor. 1.24. Dominion over Men's Faith, but only to be Helpers of their Joy and spiritual Comfort.

And

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And our daily Obfervation fhews the great SER M. Wisdom of this; for it happens in our Church as in all others, that Men who fee Things in different Lights, do and must think variously upon doubtful Points, and cannot forbear to speak their Opinions in private, where there is no Inquifition to shut their Mouths.

All that an honeft Man can do, is with a fincere and teachable Mind to compare eftablished Doctrines with the holy Scriptures, and in the Conclufion to reft his Faith upon the latter, but with a becoming Modesty and Deference in cafe a Variance appears to his Judgment.

This Practice is warranted by the Commendation given to the Bereans, because they Aas 17.11. did not implicitly receive the Doctrines even of St. Paul himself, but fearched the Scriptures daily, to fee if thofe Things were fo; for which reafon they are ftiled more noble than thofe of Theffalonica.

If therefore Men may enquire and fearch, it is in order to determine their own private Judgment, or else the Enquiry will be ufe

lefs and vain.

And the Reafon of all this is moft evident from the Nature of the human Intel

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SER M. lect, which is entirely paffive in its Conceptions. For thinking confifts only in having the Ideas or Representations of Things in the Mind; reafoning confifts in comparing those Ideas with one another to find out their Agreement or Difagreement; and Judgment is the forming of Conclufions thereupon. A Man therefore cannot poffibly judge and reafon but upon the Ideas he finds in his Mind: and thefe being nothing but the Representations of Things, he must neceffarily fee them just as they at prefent appear to him, and not otherwife. The Mind therefore is as truly paffive in thinking, as the Eye is in feeing: All the Power that it has, is by an Act of the Will, to review and reconfider Things by trying to place them in other and better Lights, but when he has done all, his Mind muft fee them according to their Appearances.

Since therefore believing must be governed by Evidence, and Evidence in the Mind being only the Ideas or Representations of Things there, it plainly follows that no Man can think and believe what he pleases, and that no Authority whatever can alter his Opinions and Ideas, without giving him new Lights for his Conviction. Obftinacy

and

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and Perversenefs, which are Acts of the SER M. Will, may stand in the Way, and make him unwilling to look into his own Mind, or to look partially; but this is like shutting his Eyes against corporeal Objects, which will appear justly to him as foon as he is difpofed to open them.

The Result of all therefore is, that if it be against the Nature of the human Understanding to be forced into inward Belief, and if it be against Morality to force Men outwardly to profess what is contrary to their inward and real Belief, it will follow from hence, that Opinions purely religious cannot be the proper Objects of human Authority, unless they are found prejudicial to the Community; and that, except in this last Cafe, Men are not punishable for their Opinions, because they are Things out of their own Power after they are once fixed upon the best Enquiries they are capable of making, and of this laft they only are the proper Judges.

The Truth of this reafoning is confirmed by the Experience of all Ages. Men have ever been of different Opinions upon most Questions, and especially thofe of Religion, even where they have been fettled by exprefs