The cure of church-divisions, or, Directions for weak Christians to keep them from being…

But saving the due respect to the honesty of such persons, ask them, How shall I know that you are in the right? If they say, I will not reason the case with you, but I know it to be the mind of God; Tell them, that God hath made you reasonable creatures, and will accept no unreasonable service of you; and you have but one Master of your Faith, even Christ: Therefore if they believe that themselves, which they can give you no reason to believe, they must be content to keep their belief to themselves, and not, for shame, persuade any other to it, without proof! If they say that God hath revealed it to them, Tell them, that he hath not revealed it to you, and therefore that's nothing to you, till they prove their divine revelation: If God reveal it to them but for themselves they must keep it to themselves. If he ⟨p. 167⟩reveal to them for others, he will enable them to make some proof of their revelations, that others may be sure that they sin not in believing them. If they say, that the Scripture is their ground, Tell them that the Scripture is already revealed to all; And if indeed what they speak be there, you are ready to believe it. But if they pervert the Scripture by false interpretation, or abuse it and misapply it, none of this is the work of the Spirit of God.

But saving the due respect to the honesty of such persons, ask them, How shall I know that you are in the right? If they say, I will not reason the case with you, but I know it to be the mind of God; Tell them, that God hath made you reasonable creatures, and will accept no unreasonable service of you; and you have but one Master of your Faith, even Christ: Therefore if they believe that themselves, which they can give you no reason to believe, they must be content to keep their belief to themselves, and not, for shame, perswade any other to it, without proof! If they say that God hath revealed it to them, Tell them, that he hath not revealed it to you, and therefore thats nothing to you, till they prove their divine revelation: If God reveal it to them but for themselves they must keep it to themselves. If he ⟨p. 167⟩reveal to them for others, he will enable them to make some proof of their revelations, that others may be sure that they sin not in believing them. If they say, that the Scripture is their ground, Tell them that the Scripture is already revealed to all; And if indeed what they speak be there, you are ready to believe it. But if they pervert the Spture by false interpretation, or abuse it and mapply it, none of this is the work of the Spirit of God.