Epistles, had specially commended search, examination, inquiry, proof.  The third was, that even those who most disputed the right were forced nevertheless to grant it in effect.  Whenever they make a proselyte they argue with him, they appeal to his reason, they bid him to use his judgment.  If it were urged that it could not be accordant to the Divine purpose to give full scope to a liberty which distracted unity and gave rise to so much controversy and confusion,—­we must judge, he replied, by what is, not by what we fancy ought to be.  We could be relieved from the responsibilities of judging for ourselves only by the existence of an infallible authority to which we could appeal.  This is not granted either in temporal or in spiritual matters.  Nor is it needed.  A degree of certainty sufficient for all our needs is attainable without it.  Even in Apostolic times, when it might be said to have existed, error and schism were not thereby prevented.  ’With charity and mutual forbearance, the Church may be peaceful and happy without absolute unity of opinion.’[232] Let it be enough that we have guides to instruct us in what is plain, and to guide us in more doubtful matters.  After all, ’there is as much to secure men from mistakes in matters of belief, as God hath afforded to keep men from sin in matters of practice.  He hath made no effectual and infallible provision that men shall not sin; and yet it would puzzle any man to give a good reason why God should take more care to secure men against errors in belief than against sin and wickedness in their lives.’[233]

Tillotson, however, did not omit to add four cautions as to the proper limits within which the right of private judgment should be exercised. (1) A private person must only judge for himself, not impose his judgment on others.  His only claim to that liberty is that it belongs to all. (2) The liberty thus possessed does not dispense with the necessity of guides and teachers in religion; nor (3) with due submission to authority.  ’What by public consent and authority is determined and established ought not to be gainsaid by private persons but upon very clear evidence of the falsehood or unlawfulness of it; nor is the peace and unity of the Church to be violated upon every scruple and frivolous pretence.’ (4) There are a great many who, from ignorance or insufficient capacity, are incompetent to judge of any controverted question.  ’Such persons ought not to engage in disputes of religion; but to beg God’s direction and to rely upon their teachers; and above all to live up to the plain dictates of natural light, and the clear commands of God’s word, and this will be their best security.’[234]