a human fallible assent That diuine illumination aboue the reach of the light of reason is not necessary that men may belieue as they ought to please and satisfy God That God is satisfied with any degree of light with the meere light of naturall Reason and with the weake and wauering Fayth which reason standing vpon probabilities can ground These be strange and dismall positions and such as ouerthrow Christianity as is euident by many reasons I will point at a few 3. First it is against holy Scripture Fayth sayth S. Paul is the substance of things to be hoped for the argument of things not appearing (g) Heb. M. v. 1. or as the translation receiued in England hath it the euidence or ground or confidence of things not seene All which signify a firme certaine and as I may say substantiall Fayth much different from whatsoeuer assent if it be only probable For as S. Bernard disputing against Abailardus who likewise taught that Fayth was but Opinion sayth touching this definition of S. Paul By the name of Substance we are determined to some certaine and setled thing Fayth is not Opinion but Certainty Audis (h) Epist. 190. sayth this Saint Substantiam Non licet tibi in fide putare vel disputare pro libitu non hac illacque vagari per inania opinionum per denia errorum Substantiae nomine aliquid tibi certum fixumque praefigitur Certis clauderis finibus certis limitibus coarctaris Non est enim fides aestimatio sed certitudo Doest thou heare the name of Substance It is not lawfull for thee in Fayth to thinke or to dispute at thy pleasure nor to wander hither and thither through the emptines of opinions or straying errour By the name of substance some certaine and setled thing is appointed thee Thou art shut vp within certaine bounds and confined within limits which are certaine For Fayth is not an opinion but a certainty This is also prooued by the words of the same Apostle (i) Gal. 1. v. 8. Although we or an Angell from Heauen euangelize to you beside that which we haue euangelized to you be he anathema and where he sayth (k) Heb. 6. v. 8. That by two things vnmooueable whereby it is impossible for God to lye we may haue a most strong comfort For how can it be most strong if it be groūded only vpon probabilities as this man sayth our Fayth and comfort is The falshood whereof is yet further declared by the same Apostle Ep. 1. ad Thessal cap. 2. v. 12. When you had receiued of vs the word of the hearing of God you receiued it not as the word of men but as it is indeed the word of God And S. Bernard Ep. 190. alleageth S. Paul to the same purpose in this manner Scio cui credidi certus sum clamat Apostolus 1. Tim. 1. tu mihi subsibilas Fides est aestimatio tu mihi ambiguum garris quo nihil est certius But this Truth being certainly belieued by all Christians it will be needlesse to alleadge more texts of Scripture in confirmation of it D. Potter in whose behalfe you stept forth doth euidently contradict your doctrine when he teacheth (l) Pag. 143. that the chiefe ground of Christian Fayth is diuine Reuelation and that nothing but this can erect an act of supernaturall Fayth which must be absolutely vndoubted and certaine and that without this Fayth is but opinion or persuasion or at the most an acquired human beliefe And Doctour Hooker whom you alleadge pag. 325. for your opinion in his Ecclesiasticall Policy pag. 117. writes most expressely in these words The greatest assurance generally with all men is that we haue by plaine aspect and intuitiue beholding c. Scripture with Christian men being receiued as the word of God that for which we haue probable yea that which we haue necessary reason for yea that which we see with our eyes is not thought so sure as that which the Scripture of God teacheth because we hold that his speach reuealeth there what himself seeth and therefore the strongest proofe of all and the most necessary assented vnto by vs which doe thus receiue the Scripture is the Scripture 4. If we haue recourse to reason grounded on principles which no Christian denyes this doctrine likewise cannot be tolerated For if a Christian be not certaine that his beliefe is true he may according to your owne confession doubt whether it be not false According to your owne confession I say seeing your selfe goe about to prooue (m) Pag. 326. n. 4. that Christian Fayth cannot be absolutly certaine because if it were so it would follow that any least doubting though resisted and inuoluntary would destroy it which manifestly declares that doubting can well consist with that sort of vncertaine Christian Fayth which you goe about to vent If once way be giuen for Christians to fall vpon doubting of their Fayth why may not they put themselues vpon an examination in good earnest and as doubting of the grounds thereof And if this kind of examination be lawfull who can discommend an alteration if they chance to find cause as it is very possible they may if their first assent was not infallible How then could S. Paul so absolutely say Although we Gal. 1.8 or an Angell from Heauen should euangelize to you beside that which we haue euangelized be he anathema 5. But let vs goe a step further This Assertion giues way to belieue that the contrary to Christian Fayth retaines some probability in regard that no high degree of probability can of it selfe wholy deuest the opposite part of all probability this being excluded by certainty alone Mistake me not as if I meant that the probability of one side were sufficient to bestow probability on the other This only I say that whosoeuer belieues any point only with probability hath in his vnderstanding no present disposition which of it selfe is repugnant to probability for the contrary side And if Christians must be of this disposition in their beliefe they can haue no setled or firme resolution neuer to imbrace the contrary of that which for the present is their beliefe which ought notwithstanding to be the resolution of euery true Christian belieuer 6. This is not all If we follow this doctrine this other vnchristian Consequence cannot be auoided That one may be saued though he belieue some sect contrary to Christian Religion as Iudaisme Turcisme Paganisme or Atheisme with as great or greater probability then he belieues the articles of Christian Fayth For proofe I need alleadg nothing beside what your selfe suggest In one place you tell vs that (n) Pag. 37. any fayth if it be but a graine of mustardseed if it worke by loue shall certainly auaile with God and be accepted of him In another (o) Pag. 327. you endeauour to prooue that a probable persuasion and hope of infinite and eternall happinesse prouided
answered but is indeed a meere toye and if it prooue any thing it prooues the Title of this Chapter to be true If sayth he (t) Pag. 326. this Doctrine of the absolute certainty of Christian Fayth were true then seeing not any the least doubting can consist with a most infallible certainty it will follow that euery least doubting in any matter of Fayth though resisted and inuoluntary is a damnable sinne absolutly destructiue so long as it lasts of all true and sauing Fayth Doth not this Sophisme tend also to prooue that if one be tempted with inuoluntary doubts against the Truths I spake of he must forfeit his certainty that there is a God or that Christian Fayth is certainly probable and so either incurre damnation without his owne fault which is impossible or attaine heauen without any certaine beliefe or knowledge that there is a God or that Christian Fayth is certainly probable 2. As for the argument it selfe it is of no moment It doth not distinguish betwixt the Habit of Fayth whereby Christians are permanently denominated Faithfull and which remaines euen when we are a sleepe and the Act or exercise thereof which may be hindred by many good employments as study or serious attention to any businesse without the least preiudice to the Habit of which we are depriued only by Voluntary errours or doubts against it not by those which are inuoluntary and resisted If this answere giue not satisfaction let him either afford a better against his owne obiection or else professe that he doth not certainly belieue there is a God or that he is not certaine that Christian Fayth and Religion is so much as probable And by the way me thinks he should reflect that if he thinke euery Act destroyes the cōtrary habit and in that respect no doubting may consist with the habit of infallible fayth then the Doctrine of Catholicke Diuines that euery voluntary Act of Heresy or Infidelity is destructiue of the habit of Fayth should not in reason and true consequence be tearmed by him (v) Pag. 368. a vaine and groundlesse fancy 3. An other argument to prooue the fallibility of Christian Fayth in effect is this (w) Pag. 326. We pray for the increase and strengthning of our Fayth Therefore our Fayth is not infallible You might as well argue We may pray for a high degree of happines in heauen Therefore euery Saint in heauen is not perfectly happy Do you not know that there may be intension of degrees euen in qualities which haue no mixture of the contrary No light includes darknes yet one light may be greater then another Thus the most imperfect acte of fayth is most certaine in the most perfect kind of certainty though not most certaine in the most perfect degree of certainty and we may well belieue that the least degree of Christian Fayth is incompatible with any deliberate and not resisted doubt or vncertainty and yet pray for the increase thereof If you deny this then tell me whether you may not pray for the increase of your beliefe of a God and his Attributes and for the strengthning of it against all temptations rising either from the suggestions of the enemy or from the weakenesse of mans vnderstanding in order to so high misteryes as also of your certainty that Christian Religion is probable in the higest degree of probability and when you haue granted that you may as I hope you will then you will haue answered your owne argument vnlesse you will acknowledge your selfe not to be certaine that there is a God or that Christian Religion is probable 4. A third reason wherby he endeauours to prooue that Christian Fayth is not absolutely certaine is this in substance That seeing as S. Iohn assures vs (x) Pag. 326. our Fayth is the victory which ouercomes the world if our Fayth be a certaine infallible knowledge our victory ouer the world must of necessity be perfect and it should be impossible for any true belieuer to commit any deliberate sinne How this doth follow I cannot perceiue no more then one can inferre that Christians cannot commit as grieuous sinnes as men that reiect Christianity because the beliefe of Christians is true and the beliefe of others is false The Angels in heauen and Adam in Paradise were indued with infallible Fayth yea and with Euidence in the opinion of diuers good Diuines and yet the Angels and Adam sinned deliberatly and damnably Fayth doth direct but not necessitate the will which still remayning free may choose good or euill If he will still maintayne the argument for good then he must be conuinced to say that he doth not with certainty belieue a God or that vertue is to be imbraced because he can doubtlesse commit deliberate sinnes against God and vertue 5. Not vnlike to this is another reason (y) Ibid. That Charity being the effect of Fayth if our Fayth were perfect Charity would be perfect so no man could possibly make any progresse in it Giue me leaue to speake to your selfe do you not see that by this reason if you belieue in God with certainty your loue of God must be perfect without possibility to make any progresse in it which because it is false it must follow by force of your Argument that you do not with certainty belieue a God But as for the reason in it selfe because it concernes more then your selfe I must tell you that it doth falsly suppose that Charity is both an immediate and necessary effect of Fayth without interuention of Freewill which may refuse to follow the direction of Fayth and either wholy cease to loue God or loue him now more now lesse And therefore no wonder if vpon a false supposall that follow which is also false 6. This is not a time to enter into long discourses how you confound certainty with perfection as if because Fayth is absolutely certaine but yet obscure it must be also absolutely perfect which is a great mistake for it wants the perfection of euidence hath a possibility annexed to it that it may be both resisted and reiected But it will not be vnpleasant notwithstanding nor vntimely to stand a while and see how excessiuely confident you are of the strength and force of the foresaid Arguments and the contentment which you take in them Thus you speake of them (z) Pag. 326. 327. These you see are strange and portentous consequences and yet the deduction of them is cleere and apparent which shewes this doctrine of yours you meane our doctrine of the infallibility of Christian Fayth which you would faine haue true that there might be some necessity of your Churches infallibility to be indeed plainly repugnant not only to Truth but euen to all Religion and piety and fit for nothing but to make men negligent of making any progresse in Fayth or Charity And therefore I must intreat and adiure you either to discouer vnto me which I take God to witnesse
affections not of our assent but of the obiect of it (w) Pag. 328. which were a strange kind of Philosophy as if we should say God in himselfe is obscure and euident because some vnderstand him with an obscure and others with a cleere or euident assent Thirdly his discourse pag. 69. n. 48. about the eye obiect and act of Seeing with the proportion which he would make betweene them and the obiect and act of Fayth which must fall vpon an heresy condemned in the Pelagians besides some mistakes in Philosophy Fourthly another subtilty about the essence of Habits and formall motiue to any Act c. whereof he speakes pag. 138. n. 24. and does after his manner mistake Then also it shal be shewed with how little reason he despises (x) Pag. 195. n. 11. the distinction of being obliged not to disbelieue and of not being obliged explicitly to belieue and with as litle declaimes bitterly pag. 391. n. 8. against the doctrine that some things are necessary because they are commaunded and others commaunded because they are necessary And finally the Reader must not be depriued at that time of the recreation he will receiue by a speciall subtilty indeed about a saying in Charity maintayned That the Creed was an abridgment (y) Pag. 227. n. 65. Many more of the like nature will be then brought to the touchstone and layd as flat as now perhaps to some partiall men they may haue seemed lofty and learned My purpose here is only to giue the Reader warning Chap. 9. that there be in the current of his discourse such shelues as by crossing the general receiued principles among Christians destroy Fayth and reciprocally by the ouerthrow of Fayth come at length to ouerwhelme Reason it selfe The eight Doctrine Opens a way to deny the B. Trinity and other high misteryes of Christian Fayth CHAP. IX 1. I Cannot omit notwithstanding here to shew that one of the Reasons which he brings to prooue that one may at the selfe same tyme yield assent to contradictories must be ranked amongst the rest of his Doctrins which do cleerly tend to the ouer throw of Christianity It is the third reason wherin he argues thus (z) Pag. 215. They which do captiuate their vnderstandings to the beliefe of those things which to their vnderstandings seeme irreconciliable contradictions may as well belieue reall contradictions for the difficulty of belieuing arises not from their being repugnāt but from their seeming to be so But you he speakes to vs Catholicks do captiuate your vnderstandings to the beliefe of those things which seeme to your vnderstandings irreconciliable contradictions Therefore it is as possible easy for you to belieue those that indeed are so Change but a word and insteed of Catholicks put Christians and the Conclusion will be Therefore it is as possible and easy for Christians to belieue contradictions that indeed are so as to belieue those which to their vnderstanding seeme so And seeing it is the common conceit of men that one cannot at the same time belieue contradictions and he himselfe acknowledges in the same place (a) Pag. 217. n. 47. that men should not do so and that to do so is both vnreasonable and very difficult what will follow but that to belieue the highest mysteryes of Christian Fayth is if not impossible at least very difficult and vnreasonable and a thing that men should not doe 2. Now that Christians belieue mysteries which to human reason seeme to imply contradiction he himselfe will not deny For though all the mysteryes of Christian Fayth be in themselues most sacred true yet to the weake eye of human reason some of them seeme to be against the Goodnesse of God as that Many are called and few elected it being in his power to haue elected and preuented with congruous efficacious Grace as well those many as these few And our vnderstāding is apt to be the more staggard with the depth of this mystery by considering that Christ our Lord dyed for the saluation of all and that euery thought word or worke of his was superabundantly sufficient for the Redemption of infinite millions of worlds Other points of Christian Fayth appeare contrary to Gods infinite Mercy and Iustice Such is our beliefe that for euery deadly sinne committed in a moment and perhaps in a matter seeming but a trifle as the eating of an apple he should inflict an eternity of torments if it be not repented Or that Infants can be iustly depriued of Beatitude in punishment of Originall sinne to which they neuer concurred by any Act properly theirs And it might haue been to good purpose if this man had declared himselfe directly in these two points seeing he was not without good ground directed to doe so 3. But I goe on with the difficulty of Christian verities For as the former may seeme harsh and rigorous so others may seeme as it were silly vnreasonable if Fayth be resolued as this man will haue it into human Reason Others beare a shew of repugnance to the most receiued Principles of Philosophy and Metaphysicke as the Mystery of the most Blessed Trinity Others in appearance derogate from the supreme respect we owe to God as the mystery of the Incarnation and Death of the sonne of God Where I cannot but obserue that this man speakes so irreligiously sometimes that it may giue iust occasion for men to enquire what he belieues concerning the Diuinity of our Sauiour Christ as when he sayth (b) Pref. n. 8. that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation may bring a great many others as well as himselfe to Auerroes his resolution Quandoquidem Christiani adorant quod comedunt sit anima mea cum Philosophis seeing Christians adore what they eate my soule be with the Philosophers Is this matter of eating our Sauiour such a pill to your vnderstanding that rather then disgest it you will turne Turke or Infidell If you belieued indeed that our Sauiour Christ is truly God you would not be scandalized that Christians adore Him who would and could be eaten no more then Him who stood in need of eating and whom the Iewes were able to wound and murder and might haue eaten euen in a Capharnaiticall sauage manner farre different from the manner we receiue him in the B. Sacrament if it had beene his will to permit it Perhaps for these reasons hauing subiected Fayth to Reason you wish with Auerroes a professed enemy of Christians My soule be with the Philosophers 4. He giues another suspicion of it in the passage following For hauing alleadged diuers seeming contradictions in our Doctrine concerning the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar he concludes (c) Pag. 216. 217. that if I that is the Author of Charity Maintayned cannot compose the repugnance and that after an intelligible manner then I must giue him leaue to belieue that either we do not belieue Transubstantiation or els that it is no contradiction that men