Phenix XXIX.

The Duke of Buckingham His Grace's Letter to the unknown Author of a Paper, entitled, A Short Answer to his Grace the Duke of Buckingham's Paper, concerning Religion, Toleration, and Liberty of ConScience,

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My Nameless, Angry, Harmless, Humble Servant;

Have twice read over, with a great deal of Patience, a Paper of yours, which you call an Answer to a Dif courfe of Mine; and, to my Confufion, muft own, that I am not able to comprehend what part of my Difcourfe it is you do answer; nor in all yours, what it is you mean. But in this you are even with me; for I perceive you do as little underftand any part of what I have written, tho I thought it had been in fo plain a Stile, that a Child of fix Years old might very well have done it. Yet I do not take ill from you this Art you have of misunderstanding plain things, fince you have done the fame in his Majefty's Promife to the Church of England. The true meaning of which (without this mifunderstanding Art of yours) wou'd eafily have appear'd to be,

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that he wou'd not fuffer any body to injure the Church of Eng land; but he did not promife, that he wou'd have the Church of England perfecute every Body else.

Having confefs'd that I cannot underftand your Writing, you ought not to be offended at me, if I cannot remember it neither. And yet there is one Paffage in it which I fhall never forget, because it does in a moft extraordinary manner delight me; it is this fhrewd convincing Argument of yours, which you fay, Had you been to treat with Atheists, you wou'd bave urg'd to them, That it is impoffible this World should be Eternal, because then it must alfo be Invisible. It is, I fwear, a refin'd, quaint kind of Notion; which (to do you Juftice) I do verily believe, is entirely your own: yet for all this I cannot be abfolutely convinc'd, that I am now the fame George Duke of Buckingham, which I was Forty Years ago. And to fhew you I am in earneft, I do here promise you, That if you will do for me a Favour lefs difficult, which is, to make me the fame George Duke of Buckingham I was but Twenty Years ago, I will (as poor a Man as I am) give you a Thousand Guineas for your Pains; and that is somewhat more, I am afraid, than you will ever get by your Writing.

You have done me the honour to call your felf my humble Servant; and therefore in Gratitude, I fhall offer you an Advice, which I am confident, upon fecond Thoughts, you will not find to be altogether unreasonable: That hereafter, before you take upon you to write French, you will be pleas'd to learn the Language; for the word Opinionatre, which you are fo infinitely charm'd with in your Paper, has the misfortune to be no French word: The true French Word, which I fuppofe you wou'd have us'd, is Opiniatretê; and yet I proteft, I do not see how (tho you had written it right) it wou'd have much more grac'd your Difcourfe, than if it had been exprefs'd in English. Stick therefore to your English Metaphors, at which you are admirable; and be always careful of not turning (according to your own Words) The Wine of Hopes into the Vinegar of Despair; and then you cannot fail of being fufficiently applauded by every Body, as you are by your grateful Friend,

Buckingham

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Phenir xxx.

A Treatise of Human Reason.

By Mat. Clifford, Efq; late Mafter of the Charter-house.

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EING refolv'd, according to the Duty of every pri vate Perfon, to make a Search into the Nature and Quality of my Religion; and according to my Intereft in human Society, to communicate the Effects of that Search to others, if I fhall believe it profitable for them: 1 am in the first place to confider of the choice of fome Guide, for fo long and fo dangerous a Journy, where I fhall fometimes meet with no Track or Path at all, and sometimes with fo many, and those so contrary in the appearance of their firft Entry, that the Variety will confound me more than the Want; especially there being fo many Mifts caft before me by the Errors and Deceits of others, that one had great need of a better Eyefight than is left us by the Fall of our firft Forefather. And this Confideration, after a long and ferious_Debate thereof, brings no other Guide to me but my own Reafon; which if it take fuch Directions as it ought and may do before it fets forth, and purfue thofe Directions with Care and Conftancy, tho it may poffibly lead me into Errors, yet will bring me at laft even thro them, to the propos'd end of my Journy, which is Happiness.

I am not ignorant of the many Enemys I must meet with in this Doctrine, but am fortify'd against them with the thought, that they who difpute moft against the Power and Privileges of human Reason, do it because their own Reason perfuades them to that Belief; and fo whether the Victory be o'mine,

Vol. II.

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or o'their fide, are equally defeated. They feek to terrify us with the example of many excellent Wits, who, they fay, by following this Ignis fatuus (for fo they call the only NorthStar which God has given us for the right fteering of our Courfe) have fallen into wild and ridiculous Opinions, and increas'd the Catalogue of Herefys to fo vaft a number. But truly these Men either follow'd not their own Reason, but made it follow their Will, or hoodwink'd it first by Intereft and Prejudices, and then bad it fhew them the way; or were wanting in thofe neceffary Diligences which are requir'd for fo doubtful and dangerous a Pallage: Or if without the Commiffion of any of thefe Faults, the Weakness of their Underftanding has deceiv'd them, the Error is neither hurtful to themselves, nor wou'd be to others, if this Doctrine of governing our felves from within, and not by Example, were eftablish'd. Whereas on the contrary fide, the fubmitting our Judgments to Authority, or any thing else whatsoever, gives Univerfality and Perpetuity to every Error.

They fall naturally from hence into the large common Place of the Frailty, Uncertainty, and Difproportion of our Un derftanding to divine and celeftial Notions, and are eloquent herein with much of Truth: For when we fay that every Man's Soul hath in it felf as much Light as is requifite for our Travel towards Heaven, we do not therefore affume, that it is as clear as thofe Spirits which are confefs'd to be all a Flame. And for the unaptnefs of it to receive the Impreffion of fpiritual Truths, tho the What and the How of religious Myfterys be out of Sight; yet that they are fuch, is fufficiently vifible efpecially if we ufe thofe helps which God has prepar'd for us to that purpose, and those our Reason will dictate to her felf that fhe is to ufe. The ordinary Saying of Democritus, That Truth lies in the bottom of a deep Well, is very applicable to this matter; that is, that we muft feek it in the Center and Heart of our felves, and not look up into Heaven firft and immediately for it; becaufe by this means we shall · fee Heaven in the bottom of the Well, tho we could not the Well in the top of Heaven.

But the chief and moft tragical Argument against us is, That the Allowance of this Liberty to particular Mens Dif courfes, would beget as many Religions as there are several Perfons, and confequently draw after it fuch Disorder and Confufion, as is inconfiftent not only with the Quiet, but the very Being of human Society. This is a weighty and grievous Accufation; and if our Reason be convinc'd of so harmful a Madness, it will be found neceffary to keep it chain'd and fetter'd, and as much in the dark as may be.. But I hope it

will acquit it felf. Who knows not that the Philofophy of the Antients feparated it self into fundry Partys; the Pythagoreans, the Peripateticks, the Stoicks, the Scepticks, the Academicks, (and these of three forts) the Epicureans, the Cynicks, with many others; and thefe differ'd not in flight and verbal Controverfys, but in the laft ends of human Actions, in the nature of Good and Evil, nay of God himself? Whether Man work'd freely, or were compel'd by an inevitable Neceffity? Whether the Soul were fubject to Corruption, or immaterial and immortal? Whether the World had a beginning, or had endur'd from all Eternity? Whether the Gods took upon them the Government of things below, or fat as idle themfelves in Heaven as their Images were here on Earth? With divers other Queftions of equal Confequence. These Opinions divided the Philofophers, and the Philofophers the People; nor were there fewer Sects in Athens, than are now in Amfterdam or London. And yet this variety of Opinion neither begat any Civil War in Greece, neither did the Peripateticks (when both by the ftrength of their Arguments and their Emperor, that Party was become the greateft) fet up any Inquifition, or High Commiffion or Committee against the reft but every Man enjoy'd his Opinion with more Safety and Freedom, than either his Goods or Wife. The fame likewife happen'd in the Religions of the Antients; for tho several Citys profefs'd the Worship of feveral Deitys, yet we read not of any War which hath sprung from that Diversity. The Poets have made the Gods enter into Factions and Quarrels for Commonwealths, but Commonwealths never did the fame for their Gods. This Quiet and Happiness, which (to the fhame and scandal of the Chriftian Name) was enjoy'd four thousand years among the Heathen, continu'd fo long and fo uninterrupted, because every Man, following the Rules of his own Judgment, allow'd that Liberty to others, which he found fo neceffary for himself. And even the Stoicks themfelves, who enflav'd the Will, durft never attempt this Violence to the Understanding.

From whence then shall we fay it proceeds, that fince the Reformation open'd a way to this Freedom of Conscience, fo much Blood and Confufion, and almoft Defolation, has follow'd in all thofe Countrys which admitted it? Germany, France, the Low-Countrys, and Scotland ave fufficient Witneffes of this; and I could with that miferable England had not been added to the number of these fad Examples. But certainly, fince this Liberty has been fo many Ages exercis'd, without drawing after it thofe Inconveniences which we now fo juftly complain of, they must be attributed either wholly to fome other Caufe,

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