expressed himself as being as certain that the doctrine of eternal decrees
is not of God as he was sure that God is good and just. His ground for this
opinion was that it is repugnant to the convictions of justice and goodness
natural to men. He maintained that we shall be justified before God by
means of the reformation that is wrought in our own lives. We have an
intuition of what is right, and a natural capacity for living justly and
righteously. Experience and reason he made concomitant spiritual forces
with the Bible, and he held that revelation is but a republication of the
truths of natural religion. Tillotson was truly a broad churchman, who was
desirous of making the national church as comprehensive as possible; and he
was one who practised as well as preached toleration.

Not less liberal was Jeremy Taylor, who was numbered among the dissenters.
In the introduction to his Liberty of Prophesying he said, "So long as men
have such variety of principles, such several constitutions, educations,
tempers, and distempers, hopes, interests, and weaknesses, degrees of light
and degrees of understanding, it was impossible all should be of one mind."
Taylor justly said that in heaven there is room for all faiths. His Liberty
of Prophesying, Chillingworth's Religion of Protestants, and Milton's
Liberty of Unlicensed Printing are the great expressions of the spirit of
toleration in the seventeenth century. Each was broad, comprehensive, and
noble in its plea for religious freedom. It has been said of Taylor that
"he sets a higher value on a good life than on an orthodox creed. He
estimates every doctrine by its capacity to do men good."[9]

Another advocate of toleration was John Locke, whose chief influence was as
a rationalist in philosophy and religion. While accepting Christianity with
simple confidence, he subjected it to the careful scrutiny of reason. His
philosophy awakened the rationalistic spirit in all who accepted it, so
that many of his disciples went much farther than he did himself. While