Affection pre-requisit to Faith derogates nothing from it's Certainty but is perfectly consistent with the Evidence of those Motives which are to generate it and that the Governours and Officers of the Church though proposing the most convincing reasons in the world for the Authority conveying down Faith to us can prevail nothing unless the Great Governour of the world and Giver of every good gift by his peculiar Power plant antecedently in their hearts this good disposition and prepare terram bonam that their endeavours may take effect and the Sowers Seed take root no more than Paul though miraculous could convert all that saw his Miracles or heard his Preaching but only such whose hearts God open'd as he did Lydia's It appears also by the same discourse how the Acts of Faith are free that is as depending on this pious disposition of the Will which sets the Understanding on work to consider the Motives and so produce them The whole Humane Action is free because the Will orders it though she do not produce it all or though freedom be not formally in the Body so the Act of Faith is free because it is order'd by the Will which is free though no freedom be found in the Understanding which is incapable of such a qualification but pure necessity of assenting when the Motives are seen to be Conclusive No need then is there upon any account of a pious disposition of the Will to peece out the defect of the Reasons why we believe and to oblige the Understanding to assent beyond the Motive that is assent to a degree beyond what it had reason to do An Impossibility in Humane Nature rightly and connaturally govern'd and I much fear no small disgrace to Christian Faith considering the obstinate bent of the Church's Adversaries to confound the Speculative Thoughts of Divines explaining Faith and its Grounds less carefully with their Sentiments issuing naturally from them as Christians nay with the Doctrin of the Catholick Church it self What can revincingly be reply'd to an Atheist objecting on this occasion that Christians make the Evidence of Faith's grounds stand need to be pecc'd out by Obscurity our Knowledg of them by Ignorance and the Rationality of them by Will without Reason that is Willfulness Wherefore I carnestly obtest and beseech even per viscera Christi all who shall read this Treatise and yet have Speculatively held and maintain'd this Opinion I here impugn for practically and as Christians they hold the contrary Conclusion seriously to weigh the Point once more and not to obstruct the Resolving Christian Faith into immoveable Principles or absolutely Certain Grounds by an Opinion onely sprung from the conceited difficulty in making out those Grounds to be Impossible to be False which yet themselves to a man profess and hold as they are Christians I humbly beg leave to propose to them these few Considerations First 'T is Certain Faith is no less Faith or an Assent upon Authority though that Authority be demonstrated to be Infallible but on the contrary that 't is both firmer and more rational even for that very regard Secondly 'T is Certain that the Generality of Christians hold their Faith to be True or Impossible to be False that is 't is True to us and withall perfectly Rational and consequently that its Grounds or Principles are so able to ascertain it that they place it beyond Possibility of Falshood Thirdly 'T is no less evident that an inclination or motion of the Will being of such a nature that it can have neither Truth nor Falshood in it can be no Rational Principle or Ground of our Assents or Acts of Faith that is apt to ascertain them or indeed apt to establish the Truth of any Tenet Fourthly That 't is most evident from my foregoing Discourse that an antecedent pious disposition of the Will is still requisite to Faith notwithstanding the perfect Conclusiveness of the Grounds on which 't is built and that all Acts of Faith depend on this quoad exercitium at least as the Schools speak which in the Judgment of many Divines is sufficient Fifthly That 't is the common Opinion of the solidest Divines that Faith consists with Evidence in the Attester Sixthly That Faith or a firm and immoveable Assent upon Authority is not thoroughly rational and by consequence partly faulty if the Motives be not alone able to convince an Understanding rightly dispos'd without the Will 's Assistance for what can be said for that degree of Assent which is beyond the Motive or Reason Is it not evident from the very Terms that 't is Irrational or without any Reason But the worst is that whereas all good Christians hold their Faith Impossible to be False or judge their Acts of Faith Immoveable Assents these Authors as Speculaters put all the Reasons for Faith to leave it still Possible to be False and make this pious Affection the onely thing which elevates it to Impossibility of Falshood which is vastly higher in point of Certainty as if a rational Creature not deviating totally from its nature but acting according to right Reason ought therefore to hold a Point Impossible to be False because it self has an Affection or as we say a great mind it should be so Seventhly This Assertion renders the Impossibility of Faith's Falshood not only unmaintainable as hath been now shown but also unperswadable to others for how shall I be able to give account to others that my Affection which works this Perswasion in me is rational and not apt to mislead me when as the very Position obliges me to profess the contrary and to grant that this Affection pushes forward my Understanding to assent beyond the reason it has that is as to this degree in my Assent which is no small one since it raises it from judging Faith possible to be false to judge it Impossible to be such without reason Or will not this Speculative Tenet seem to force this Inference that the Grounds of Faith as to its most intrinsecal consideration viz. the Impossibility of its Falshood is made by this Doctrin full as dark a hole as 't is to alledge the private Spirit Nor can the Reverence due to the Divine Authority suffice for such an Effect both because 't is Impossible God should will that Mankind for his sake should act irrationally as also because there is no poison in the world so pestilent as an Errour abetted by the most Sacred Patronage of God's Authority as the Histories of the Fanaticks in all ages and our home-bred experience testifies Whence that very Reverence to the Divine Authority obliges us to be so sure 't is engag'd for a Truth e're we admit it for such that we may securely though with an humble truth say with Richardus de Sancto Victore Domine si error est quod credimus à te decepti sumus so that there is indeed no greater injury and abuse to the Divine Name imaginable than to hazard the making it
to the other immediately foregoing induces all the Absurdities mentioned in my former Discourse and pins them upon the Deity as on their first Cause So horrible and Diabolical a Tenet is this of the Possible Falshood of Faith that it calumniates Heaven it self nor can any thing but an Invincible Ignorance in the Maintainers of it excuse them from highest Blasphemy from making the unenvious Fountain of all Goodness like our own narrow and crooked Selves Fifth Eviction § 1. LEt us hear next what the Science of Divinity both Speculative and Moral will award concerning the Point in Question § 2. The Wisdom of the Eternal Father having been pleas'd to take our Nature upon him and amongst his other Offices he perform'd towards Mankind that of a Master being manifestly one we cannot doubt but that he both would and could that is did accomplish what belong'd to that Office Again true Dâ—vinity assigning one main if not the chiefest Reason why the Second Person was made Man to be this that it being requisite God should come and converse with us visibly to cause in us Knowledg of his heavenly Doctrine or be our Master and Knowledg or Wisdom being appropriated to the Second Person it was therefore most fit that Person should be Incarnate it follows that the Office of a Master in our Saviour Christ springs peculiarly out of the nature of his Divine Personality and not of his Humanity precisely as does his Suffering and Dying for us c. Wherefore the Proper Agent of Instructing and Teaching Mankind being as such Infinitely Perfect 't is evidently consequent Christ perform'd the Office of a Master or wrought the effects proper to a Teacher as such with all imaginable Perfection § 3. It being then the proper Office or Effect of a Master or Teacher to make his Schollers know his Doctrin is True we cannot think but that this Divine or Infinitely-perfect Master made them absolutely or perfectly know the Truth of his Doctrine § 4. And because the end of this Teaching was not terminated in those few himself convers'd with nor in the Christians of the First Age but was principally intended for the Body of Mankind which was future in respect of them it follows that this Enlightning and Instructing now spoken of was to be equally extended to the following World of Christians they being all Sectators or Followers of his Doctrin that is his Scholars and He their Master Unless then he had taken order that succeeding Ages also should have perfect Assurance or know his Doctrine was absolutely True he would have set up a School and laid no means to preserve the far greater part and in a manner the whole Body of his Scholars or Christians from Ignorance and Errour § 5. All Christians then both the Primitive and their Successors had and will have means to Know absolutely Christian Doctrine is True This means we call the Rule of Faith Both the Rule of Faith then must be known to be veracious and Faith which is built on it to be absolutely Tâ—ue and by consequence to be absolutely Impossible to be False § 6. Besides Man being an Intellectual Creature 't is evident the true Perfection of his Nature consists in Knowing and this whether we consider him as a Speculater or as an Acter For if the thing may Possibly be False for any thing he knows then he is most evidently Ignorant whether it be False or no that is whether it be True or no which speaks Imperfection in his Nature as 't is a Capacity of Knowledg And if he be to Act about it 't is evidently a less Perfection and worse for mankind to go to work unassuredly than assuredly Faith then being Gods Ordinance and God doing what is best for Mankind it follows Faith is perfectly secure to him that is he must know it to be such and consequently 't is not subject to the Contingency of being False § 7. But leaving Man the Subject of Faith and reflecting upon Faith it self in us the first thing that offers it self to our Consideration is that it's Habit is a Virtue and consequently Rational Also that it's Act is an Assent upon Authority since then 't is demonstrated formerly that there can be in reason no Assent without Certain Grounds and that what is Certain is Impossible to be False it follows that the Grounds of Faith and consequently Faith it self is not possible to be False § 8. Next Faith is an Intellectual Virtue that is apt to perfect mans understanding as such that is 't is to him a Knowledg and so informs his mind with Truths The Nature of Faith then forces that Points of Faith must be Truths and so as is manifoldly demonstrated Faith it self is not possible to be False § 9. Again this Intellectual Virtue call'd Faith is also a Supernatural one and therefore as such proceeds from an Agent infinitely more perfect than any can be found in Nature therefore the immediate effect aim'd at by Faith that is the informing the Understanding would be perform'd with infinite advantage as far as concerns that Supernatural Agent 's or God's part and if it be not so exquisitely perform'd it must spring from some Incapacity in the Subject There being then in this Effect of informing the Understanding two Considerations viz. Evidence which is had either by Experience of our Senses of which Spiritual Natures the chief Objects of Faith are incapable or by intrinsecal Mediums that is Demonstration of those Spiritual things of which taking the Generality of mankind the Subject of Faith very few are capable And that other of Certainty attainable both by those Intrinsecal and also Extrinsecal Mediums or Authority which Authority by means of the Practicableness of it's Nature all are to a great degree able to understand it follows that here being no violence or unsuitableness to Humane Nature consider'd in it's Generality the â—upernatural Agent or Cause of Faith will effect here a greater Certainty than meer natural Impressions could produce that is all Extrinsecal Arguments being finally resolv'd into Intrinsecal ones the Best and Chief Nature in the world will be made use of and most strongly supported to make up the greatest Authority that is possible and so to establish this Certainty of Faith and it's Principles beyond that of any Humane Sciences But divers pieces of Humane Science nay the least particle of true Science is acknowledg'd impossible to be False Faith therefore à fortiori must be such also § 10. This Supernaturality of Faith by which word we mean Divine Faith convinces that it ought to exceed all other Faith 's according to the Notion of Faith in common that is it ought to partake whatever Perfection truly belongs to Faith or Belief as such in an especial manner and far above what is found in Humane Faiths in a word it ought to have as much in it as can elevate it under the Notion of Faith without wronging that Notion or Nature Faith then in common as distinguisht from Science and Opinion being an Assent upon Authority and Firmness being evidently a Perfection in an Assent Divine Faith ought
to have a far greater degree of firmness in it than any Humane Faith whatsoever Wherefore since Humane Faith can rise to that Degree of Stability that Mankind would think him mad that is a Renouncer of evident Reason who can think seriously it can be an Errour or possible to be False for example the Belief of this present Age concerning the Existence of France or K. Iames Divine Faith being Supernatural ought to be more firmly grounded and consequently more highly Impossible to be False § 11. Again we find that the more we are ascertain ' that a Convictive Authority is engag'd for the Truth of any thing the more strongly that Authority is apply'd to our Understanding and consequently more forcibly works its effects there or subducs it to Assent whence this Certitude is so far from being against the nature of Belief that 't is most manifest it strengthens and perfects it under that Notion Divine Faith then being Supernatural has a peculiar right to have such an Application of the Divine Authority to the understanding as may be truly Certain or Impossible to be False since by such an Application 't is most evident that not less but more Belief is given to the said Authority and the understanding becomes more humbled and subjected to it that is by such an Application how scientifically evident soever it be the Act of Faith is never the nearer being an Act of Science but is perfecter under the very Notion of an Act of Faith being still a steadier heartier and firmer Assent for the Authority's sake which is thus strongly and closely apply'd and a greater Reliance on it § 12. Moreover Faith being to work through Charity and to guide our actions as we are Christians and rational actions being so much more perfect by how much more knowingly they proceed from the Agent unless Faith were truly Certain that is Impossible to be false Christian action would fall short of the Perfection found in most ordinary Humane Actions of an inferiour and in comparison trifling concern and a Christian would go to work with less assuredness and steadiness than a Carpenter and Cobler and this not out of the Impediments of Original Sin which is Contingent and Extrinsecal to Faith or Religion but meerly out of a defect of Certainty in the Intrinsecals of Faith it self and it's Grounds which beyond all evasion affixes the Imperfection upon Christianity it self § 13. I may add that Arts and Sciences ev'n the most slight and inconsiderable ones and which are most lyable to Contingency in their Effects or the Actions springing from them have yet all of them Certainty in their Principles Religion then being the Art of carrying or guiding Souls to Bliss and the Points of Faith its Principles in virtue of which 't is to perform this Effect and the Ground of Faith the main and supream Principle whose Firmness is to establish the rest and so render them efficacious unless Faith it self and its Grounds were truly Certain the Principles of all Religion would be exceedingly more defective and inefficacious than those of any petty Mechanical Trade and indeed no Principles Sixth Eviction § 1. THe foregoing Considerations are more enforc'd by this that Faith is the Light which discovers to us our Last End and the Way to it that is which is to guide us in that to which all our other Concerns are subservient and all our Actions directed Unless therefore this Knowledg or Light of Faith be steady and firm all our whole Life as Christians would be feeble tott'ring and uneven as wanting Certainty of the First Practical Principles which are to ground our Christian Behaviour nay Certainty of the End we should aim at without which the whole Course of our Life must needs be staggering and inconstant and it self but a blind groping in the dark § 2. Moreover since all Mankind even the Heathens themselves had perfect Evidence and Certainty of the Practical Principles of Natural Morality which grounded their Moral seeming Virtues as is confest which Virtues yet for want of the Light of Faith teaching them to know their true last End and so perform the Acts of those Virtues for it's sake or order them to Heaven fell short of elevating them towards it and bringing them thither It follows that had there not been provision made that Points of Faith the Principles of Christian Morality should be as Certain as were the other things would have been perversly order'd that is greater care would have been taken to create those imperfect Dispositions of the Soul which alone were not able to secure one man from the State of Eternal Misery than for those Sublime Perfections call'd Christian Virtues which are the direct steps for man to arrive at Eternal Bliss and the Immediate means to attain the End he was created for the Sight of God § 3. Especially since this Last End and Chief Good of Mankind is not attainable by External Actions or Local Motions but Intellectually or by Interiour Acts of the Soul by which he is promoted forwards even to the very assecution of it that is by force of Knowledg or Truth exciting him to act and guiding him in those actions 'T is manifest the Points of Faith must be Truths and so as has been manifoldly prov'd above Impissible to be false § 4. Again Virtues spring connaturally from Truths and Vice from Falsehoods If Faith then be Possibly False the Practises springing thence are Possibly no Virtues but Vices and so they and consequently Faith whence they proceed possibly would not dispose but indispose us towards our last End which destroyes perfectly the Notion of Faith and Virtues too Faith therefore would be no Faith were it possible to be False § 5. You 'l object a Reason merely Probable or Morally-Certain is sufficient to make Us act for a Temporal Good much more then for an Eternal and Infinite one since the greater Goodness is in the Object the less is the hazard and consequently the more the Reasonableness to act for it I answer though if all other things corresponded the Objection would be Valid and the reason given for it speaking abstractedly be really Conclusive Yet in our present case there are so many things which make it Unparallel that no Shadow of Consequence can be made from the one to the other First for the reason lately given Viz. because our Last End being in it self Spiritual and most Perfect is not attainable but by Means of Best Spiritual Perfections or Virtues and the more knowingly these proceed from Us the better they are according to that saying None is cordially and solidly good who knows not why he ought to be good whence they cannot be Best in their kinde nor consequently Means fit to
for the establishment or propagation of Christianity that is how insufficient for the Body of the Faithful or the Church how unfit for the Ends and unable to produce the Effects true Faith or the Faith found in the Generality of the Faithful ought to do needs no declaration to manifest it since no person of ordinary capacity can without difficulty refrain from smiling at the ridiculous levity of such kind of Assenters INFERENCES From the foregoing Discourses concluding all Controversy 1. IT rests then evinc'd and demonstratively concluded with as great Firmness as First Principles made use of for Premisses and Immediate Consequences from those Principles can establish it that that most firm or Unchangeable Assent call'd Christian Faith laying an obligation on its Profâ—ssors to assert it with the greatest Seriousness Constancy and Pledges imaginable to be TRUE and its Object Points of Faith to be TRUTHS is not possible to be False to us that is to be an Erroneous Iudgment or a Mistake of our Understanding 2. 'T is with the same Certainty concluded that the Ground of Faith as to our Knowledge and so the Rule of Faith must be likewise Impossible to be False For since nothing can or ought in true Reason be stronger than the Ground it stands on if This be not Impossible to be False it can be no Rule of Faith because it would weaken Faith it self which is built on it into a Possibility of Falshood inconsistent with its nature 3. It follows with the same Clearness that if the Rule of Faith or the Immediate Means to convey the Knowledg of Christ's Doctrin to us be any Living Authority that Authority must be Infallible as to that Effect For if Fallible Faith which is built on it would still be Possible to be False As Likewise that if it be any Book both the Letter of that Book must be known to be Impossâ—ble to have been corrupted as to what concerns Faith built on it and withall the Sense known to be Impossible to be â—istaken For in case either of these all the Causes being put to preserve them such as we have said be truly judg'd or found to be Possible Faith which is to depend on them will still be left possible to be False 4. It follows immediately that those pretended Faithfull who have not Grounds of Faith thus qualify'd have no true Faith that is no Act of Belief but what notwithstanding all that they know or can know of it may possibly be False nor consequently are they to be accounted truly Faithfull as not having true Faith that is in our case an Assent built either on Infallible Living Authority or on unmistakeable Letter and Sense of a Book § 3. but Opinion onely 5. It follows with like Evidence that a Controvertist being one who is to assert Faith not by looking into the Mysteries of Faith and explaining them this being the Office of a School-Divine but into the Motives to it or Rule of Faith if he goes not about to bring Proofs which he judges and is ready to maintain nay which are of their own nature apt to shew Faith and its Rule Impossible to be False he does not the duty he ows to Faith nor behaves himself like a Controvertist but he betrays Faith by his Ineffectual and Probable managery of it making it seem a sleight Opinion or lightly grounded Credulity Especially if he professes that all Proofs which can be produc'd in this matter are Possible to be False For then 't is a plain and open Confession all his Endeavours are to no purpose because he is to shew Faith the Subject of his Discourse to be what in reality it is that is Impossible to be false Nay since Faith must be thus Certain he manifestly destroys Faith when he should defend and establish it by professing all its Proofs or Grounds possible to be false 6. It follows immediately that unless some other Medium can be found or way taken in that Skill or Science call'd Controversie which is able to show Faith Impossible to be false than what is laid down in Sure-footing which partly by our Adversaries confession of the Inability of theirs to reach Infallible Certainty partly out of the nature of the Thing as is seen Sure-footing Corol. 16 and 40. is evidently impossible nor was it ever yet attempted by any other Means except by looking into the nature of Tradition It follows I say that as it is Certain that Faith and its Grounds are Impossible to be false that is false to us or may be shown thus Impossible to be False So 't is by consequence Certain likewise that the main Doctrin there deliver'd will stand whatever particular miscarriages may have happen'd in the managing it which are to be judg'd of by the strength of my Reasons there given and the force of my Adversaries Objections 7. 'T is necessarily consequent from the foregoing Paragraphs that if I have discours'd right in this small Treatise of mine and have prov'd that Faith and consequently its Grounds must be Impossible to be False then Mr. Tillotson's Confession p. 118. to which M. Stillingfleet's Doctrin is consonant that It is Possible to be otherwise that is to be False that any Book is so antient as it pretends to be or that it was written by him whose name it bears or that this is the sense of such and such passages in it is a clear Conviction that neither is the Book-Rule he maintains the True Rule of Faith § 3. nor have he and his Friends True Faith § 4. and consequently there being no other Rule owned taking away Private Spirit but Tradition that Tradition is the onely-true-Rule of Faith § 6. and so the main of Sure-Footing stands yet firm and lastly 't is evinc'd that his own Book which opposes it opposes the onety-true because the onely-impossible-to-be-False Ground of Faith that is he is convinc't in that Supposition to go about to undermine all Christian Faith Whence the Title of his Probable-natur'd Book is manifested to be an improper Nick-name and the Book it self to merit no Reply 8. This last point is hence farther confirm'd because Mr T. and Mr. St. can claim no admittance into a dispute whether this or the other be the True Rule of Faith till they approve themselves to be Christians and show they hold there is such a thing as Faith or that it can bear the having any Rule at all since an Assent to a point seen and acknowledg'd Possible to to be False can never rise to be more than an Opinion nor can the Motive of assenting to what may possibly be False in true speech be call'd The Rule of Faith both because there is in that case no Faith Infer 1. and so it cannot be a Rule to what is not as also because what we see Possible to be False cannot with any propriety be cal'd a Rule to the Understanding directing it to Truth in regard for any thing it sees 't
none had the least actual doubt or suspicion of doubt of it else surely they would never have staid in them inform us sufficiently to what a changeable tottering and ruinous condition Christian Faith would be reduc'd by these Principles and Parallels No fewer than three Houses fell in the compass of a short time and none had the least suspicion of doubt beforehand of such an Event therefore may an Atheist say Down falls Christian Faith too whose Foundation was by this Doctrin but Parallel for strength to the other or if it fall not in so long time it has only something better luck not better grounds than had the three Houses As for the objected Unsuitableness of such a Certainty as I require 't is reply'd that nothing is more natural for the Generality of Mankind than to be led by Authority nothing more penetrable by those of all sorts than the Infallibleness and Veracity of exceedingly vast and grave Authorities relating matter of Fact as we experience in their beleef that there was a Q. Elizabeth and such like to comprehend and assent immovably to which costs them not the least over straining as the Obiecter imagins Which being so I make account that God both in his power and wisdom could in his Goodness would render the Authority of his Church the Ground and Pillar of Truth as evident to all her Children both as to its Inerrableness and Veracity as the other nay incomparably more it being in every regard so requisit Objection VI. If the Motives to Faith must be Impossible to be False to us they would necessarily conclude the Truth of Faith wherefore they would of themselves oblige the Understanding to assent and so there would need no precedent pious affection of the Will which yet both Councils Fathers and Catholick Divines with one consent require Nay more were not such a pious affection put Acts of Faith would not be Free Answer If Experience teaches us that even assent to Humane Sciences though Evident from Intrinsecal reasons Comprehensible by our Understanding and purely Speculative is not to be acquir'd without an affection to see Truth as is evident from the carriage of meer Scepticks who having entertain'd a conceit of it's hopelesness come thence to want Love or Affection for it and so never come to see it how Conclusive soever the reasons be Much more by far must some good affection be pre-requisit to assent to Divine and Supernatural Truths which are Obscure in themselves as depending upon Authority Incomprehensible to our natural reason and Practical that is obligingly-Efficacious to break out into Christian Action or Love of Heaven above all sublunary things as True Faith must be The First obstacle of the three mention'd has this difficulty that the beams of Truth which come directly from the things themselves are generally apt to strike our Understanding more naturally penetrate it more deeply and to stick in it more immovably than those which are reflected to us from the Knowledg of another such as are Points of Faith besides the new difficulty of seeing the Veracity of the Attester which how evident soever it be yet it puts the Understanding to double pains whereas Evidence had from the Thing is but a single labour and so less confounding and distracting the thought The Second Obstacle Incomprehensibleness is apt to stupify the Understanding and retard Assent nay even to deter it from considering them as Truths The Atheistical temper of the world which could not subsist were Metaphysicks duly advanc'd sufficiently informs us how difficult it is for men to apply and fix their thoughts upon those considerabilities in things and those natures which are abstracted from matter the reason whereof is because it being natural that our Fancy be in act while our Understanding is so and there being not Proper Phantasms the onely agreeable ones to material men who are not strong enough to guide their Judgments purely by Principles and Connexions of Terms which sute to such abstracted Conceptions but Metaphorical ones onely which the Understanding must in rigour deny to be right ones even while by necessity 't is forc't to make use of them Hence the life of a Christian as such being to serve God in Spirit and Truth and so the Objects and Principles of his new Life for the most part and principally Spiritual ones it comes to pass that for this very regard alone there will need a great love of Truth and Spiritual Goods to make the Understanding appliable to them or even admit a consideration of them I was told by a worthy Friend of mine that discoursing with an acute man but a great hater of Metaphysicks and mentioning a Spirit he in a disgust broke out into these words Let us talk of what we know By which expression 't is manifest that he mistook the Question An est for Quid est But what makes for my purpose is that the unknowableness of the Essence or nature of a Spirit to us in this State obstructed even his desire to consider whether there were any such thing or no consequently that there needs a contrary desire or affection to know Spiritual things to make us willing even to entertain a thought of their being much more to conceit it But incomparably more needful is such an Affection when to the Spirituality of those points there shall be added an Incomprehensibleness nay if onely those points be consider'd an Incredibleness when no Parallel can be found in Nature nor scarce any similitude weakly to shadow out the thing and it's possibility nay when some of those points directly thwart the course of natural Causes whence all our other Knowledges have their Stability Then I say if ever there is requisit an Affection for the Nobleness and Excellency of those high Spiritual Objects to make us willing to hearken to any Authority proposing them how evident soever the Motives be for the Credibleness of that Authority The third Obstacle follows taken from the End for which Faith is essentially ordain'd that is from what it essentially is viz. a mover of the Will to Virtue and Goodness or a Practical Principle Now nothing is more evident than this Truth that by-affections and contrary inclinations are apt to hinder the understanding from assenting or even attending candidly and calmly to these Reasons how clear soever they be which make against any beloved Interest whence there needs a contrary affection to these other to remove the mists those passions had rais'd and purge the Eye of the Mind that so it may become capable of discerning what it could not before though in it self most visible How much more not only requisite but even necessary must some pious affection be to permit the mind freely to embrace the doctrin of Christian Faith containing Principles which enjoyn a disregard and posthabition of all that is sweet to Flesh and Blood nay even of Livelihood and Life it self 'T is most manifest then that a Plous