A Discourse of Free-Thinking; Occasion'd by the Rise and Growth of a Sect Call'd Free-Thinkers

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1713 edition. Excerpt: ... wicked, the other thinks the Goodness of the End will sanctify the most wicked Means. In a word, they both thake a Cloke of Religion for Covetousness, Ambition and Cruelty; They will both lye, - murder, robs and rebel, for holy Church and Religion; and there never yet was any Holy League, Covenant, or Association, to begin or carry on Rebellion, under the holy Pre-, tence of Religion, wherein the Ringleaders were not Atheists or Enthusiasts: and of the two b is hard to tell which hath done most mischief in Any Kjngdom. But the Enthusiast makes the more taking and plausible Hypocrite of the two; he can sooner melt into Tears, and more naturally counterfeit the spiritual Man among the Piople, and transform himself with a better grace into an Angel of Light. qthly. IT is objected, That the Priests are set apart to think freely for the Laity, and are to be relfd on, as Lawyers, Physicians, &c. are in their several Facultys. To this 1 answer, i. THAT no Man is excluded from studying Law or Phv sick, because there are several of those Professions, nor from following his own Judgment when he is sick or in Law; nor is there any reason why a Man, who is not a Doctor in Phyfick or a Serjeant at Law, may not understand as much Law and Phyfick as either of them. In like manner, the setting Men apart for the Study of Divinity, does not exclude . . others others from the Study of Divinity, nor from following their Judgment about a Point in Divinity, nor from knowing as much Divinity as any Doctor in Divinity. And by consequence there is no necessity to rely on any Man's Judgment, either in Law, Phyfick, or Divinity. And this puts me in mind of a Passage in Mr. Le Clerc's; late Bibliotheque Choifie, Tom. 25. p. ijo. A Gentleman ask1 da Proprietor of..