The Life of John Milton Volume 3 1643-1649: Narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of His TimeMasson, David
Religion
The Life of John Milton Volume 3 1643-1649: Narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of His Time
Masson, David
Milton, John, 1608-1674; Poets, English -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- Biography
SCEPTICS, OR QUESTIONISTS:--They were those who, according to Edwards,
"questioned everything in matters of religion, holding nothing positively
nor certainly, saving the doctrine of pretended liberty of conscience for
all, and liberty of prophesying." Many besides Wrighter had reached this
stage through their anti-Scripturism, and were free-thinkers of the cold
or merely rational order, distinct from the devout and enthusiastic
Seekers. [Footnote: _Gangræna_, Part I. p. 13.]
ATHEISTS:--Although Edwards charitably hints his fear that Mr. Wrighter
had at last sunk into this extreme category, it is remarkable that
neither he nor Paget ventures to reckon _Atheists_ among the
existing Sects. Probably, therefore, there was no body of persons to
whom, with any pretext of plausibility, the name could be applied. But we
are advised of individuals here and there whom their neighbours suspected
of Atheism; and, if Edwards is to be believed, there was alive a certain
John Boggis, an apprentice to an apothecary in London, who, though at
present only a young Anabaptist preacher, and disciple of Captain Hobson,
was to go within a year or two to such unheard-of lengths about Great
Yarmouth that even Wrighter must have disowned him. [Footnote: Ibid. Part
II. 133, 134; and Baillie's _Dissuasive_, Part II. 99.]
Such were the English Sects and Sectaries that had begun to be talked of
in 1644. Not that they were bounded off strictly from each other in
divisions according with their names. On the contrary, they shaded off
into each other; and there were mixtures and combinations of some of
them. Moreover, as the chief of them held by the Congregationalist
principle in some form, and hoped to flourish by taking advantage of that
principle, it was not unusual for Presbyterian writers to include these
along with the Congregationalists proper in the one lax designation of
Independents. At all events, the Sects hung on to the Independents
through that principle of Toleration or Liberty of Conscience which the
Independents had propounded, at first mildly, but with a tendency to less
and less of limitation. All the Sects, less or more, were TOLERATIONISTS;
the heresy of heresies in which they all agreed with each other, and with
the Independents, was LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE.
RESUMPTION OF PROCEEDINGS BY THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY: DENUNCIATION OF
PICKED SECTARIES AND HERETICS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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