We find such a theologian as Chillingworth
recognizing "the free right of the individual reason to interpret the
Bible."[5] To such men as Milton, Jeremy Taylor, and Locke the free spirit
was essential, even though they had not become rationalists in the modern
philosophical sense. They were slow to discard tradition, and they desired
to establish the validity of the Bible; but they would not accept any
authority until it had borne the test of as thorough an investigation as
they could give it. The methods of rationalism were not yet understood, but
the rational spirit had been accepted with a clear apprehension of its
significance.
[Sidenote: Toleration.]
Toleration had two classes of advocates in the seventeenth century,--on the
one hand, the minor and persecuted sects, and, on the other, such of the
great leaders of religious opinion as Milton and Locke. The first clear
assertion of the modern idea of toleration was made by the Anabaptists of
Holland, who in 1611 put into their Confession of Faith this declaration of
the freedom of religion from all state regulation: "The magistrate is not
to meddle with religion, or matters of conscience, nor compel men to this
or that form of religion, because Christ is King, and Lawgiver of the
church and conscience." When the Baptists appeared in England, they
advocated this principle as the one which ought to control in the relations
of church and state.
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