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should say ' as well , that no man can be a good bishop , or pastor , or king , or magistrate , or father , that succeeds a bad one . For , if I may conform my will and actions to the commandments of
God , why may I not embrace his doctrine with my understanding , although my predecessors do not so ? You have above , in this chapter , defined faith , a fre ^ ,
infallible , obscure , supernatural assent to divine truths , because they are revealed by God , and sufficiently propounded : This definition is very phantastical ; but for
the present I will let it pass , and desire you to give me some piece or shadow of season , why 1 may not do all this without a perpetual succession of bishops and pastors , that have done so before me . You
may judge as uncharitably , and speak as maliciously of me , as your blind zeal to your superstu tion shall direct you ; but certainly
I know , ( and with all your so * phistry you cannot make me doubt of what I know ) that I do believe the gospel of Christ ( as it is delivered in the undoubted books of
canonical scripture ) as verily as that it is now day , that 1 see the light , that I am now writing , ' and I believe it upon this motive , because 1 conceive it sufficiently , abundantly , superabundantly proved to be divine revelation ;
and yet in this I do not depend upon any succession of men , that have always believed it without any mixture of error ; nay , I am fully persuaded , there hath been no such succession , and yet do
not find myself any way weakened in my faith by the want of it , but so fully assured of the truth of it , that not only though your devils at Lovvden do tricks
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against it , but though an angel from heaven should gainsay it , or any part of it , I persuade myself , that I should not be moved . This I say , and this I am sure is true * and if you will be so h yper-scep .
tical as to persuade me , that I am not sure , that I do believe all this , I desire you to tell me , how are you sure , that you believe the church of Rome ? For if a man may persuade himself he doth believe what he doth not be .
lieve , then may you think you believe the Church of Rome , and yet not believe it . But if no man can err concerning what he belreves , then you must give me
leave to assure myself , that I do believe , and consequently that any man may believe , the aforesaid truths upon the aforesaid motives , without any dependence upon any succession , that hath believed it
always . And as from your definition of faith , so from your definition of heresy , this fancy may be refuted For questionless , na man can be an heretick but he
that holds an heresy , and an heresy , you say , is a voluntary error ; therefore no man can be necessitated to be an heretick whether he will or no , by want of such a thing that is not in his
power to have ; but that there should have been a perpetual succession of believers in all points orthodox , is not a thing which is in our own power ; therefore our being , or not being hereticks ,
depends not on it . Besides , what is more certain , than that he may make a strait line , who hath a rule to make it by , though never man in the world had ^ made any
before ? And why then may not he that believes the scripture to be the word of God , and the rule
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748 Chillifigworth .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1814, page 748, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2447/page/20/
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