to viz. to Assent to the Existence of a Deity and other Points of Faith as Certain Truths nay lay down their lâ—ves upon occasion to Attest they are such And what is it to Assent 'T is to say interiourly or judge verily that the thing is so And can a Motive or Reason possible to be False ever induce in true Reason such an Obligation or work rationally such an Effect How should it be Since in that case a man must on the one side judge the thing Impossible to be False because he is to assent to it as a Truth and yet must at the same tâ—me necessarily judge it Possible to be False because he sees the Motives he has offer'd him raise it no higher that is he must hold both sides of the Contradiction which is absolutely impossible Now true Evidence that the thing is so takes away all possibility of Falsehood and so obliges to Assent and if Dr. T. produces such proofs as make the point truly Evident an Atheist is unreasonable and obstinate if he do not Assent to it But if by those words Atheism is unreasonable because it requires more Evidence than the things are capable of he means that the Things afford no true Evidence at all and judges Atheists unreasonable for not assenting without true Evidence because the Things afford none he in effect tells them they must forfeit their Manhood ere they can be Christians than which nothing can more reflect on the Profession of Christianity or be more unworthy a Christian Divine to propose Let us â—ee how far Dr. T. is blameable in this Particular He discourses thus and since he so earnestly presses it we will take his words in order § 8. Aristotle says he hath long since observed how unreasonable 't is to expect the same kind of Proof for every thing which we have for same things Aristotle said very well For speaking of Proofs in common and at large those we have for Success in our Exteriour Actions on the Hopes of which we proceed to Act are for the most Part but Probable but this reaches not our present business about a Deity in order to which this Preamble is fram'd where Exteriour Acting will not serve the turn but an Interiour Act of Assenting to the Existence of such a Soveraign Being is necessarily requir'd The Question then is Whether Aristotle did or could with any reason say that a Rational Creature that is a Creature whose nature 't is to deduce Conclusions by Discourse from Premisses or build the certain Truth of Those upon the certain Truth of These could be oblig'd in true Reason or acting according to Right Nature to assent judge or conclude a Thing True without such Motives or Proofs which did conclude it True or that what concluded a Thing True did not also conclude it impossible to be otherwise or to be False 'T is granted then that in our Exteriour Operations exercised upon Particulars where Contingency rules we must rest contented with Probabilities of the Event and proceed to act upon them the necessity of acting obliging us for should all the world surcease from Action till they were assur'd of the good success of it all Commerce and Negotiation must be left off nay all the means of Living must be laid aside but then we are not bound to assent or judge absolutely that the thing will succeed well because we have no Certain Grounds or Conclusive Reasons for it but onely that 't is best to act though upon Uncertain Grounds of the Success for which assent also we have absolute Evidence from the Necessity of actâ—ng now spoken of Whereas on the other side where the whole business of our Christian Life which as such is spiritual is to worship God in Spirit and Truth or approach to him by ascending from Virtue to Virtue that is from Faith to Hope from Hope to Charity the Top of all Perfection the whole interiour Fabrick is built on a Firm Assent to the Truth of the Points which ground our Profession Wherefore if the Foundation for this Assent be not well laid all the Superstructures of Religion are ruinous Now Nature having fram'd things so and the Maxims of our Understanding giving it that those who guide themselves by perfect Reason that is the strongest and wisest Souls are unapt to assent but upon Evidence whereas the weaker sort as experience teaches us are apt to assent upon any silly Probability hence unless such men see Proofs absolutely concluding those points True they are unapt to be drawn to yield to them and embrace them as Certain Truths especially there being no necessity at all to assent as there was to act outwardly in regard Nature has furnish'd us with a Faculty of Suspending which nothing can subdue rationally in such men at least but True Evidence had from the Object working this clear sight in them either by it self or else by Effects or Causes necessarily connected with It. Other Evidences I know none It may be Dr. T. does Let us see § 8. Mathematical things says he being of an abstracted nature are onely capable of clear Demonstration But Conclusions in Natural Philosophy are to be proved by a sufficient Induction of Experiments Things of a Moral Nature by Moral Arguments and matters of Fact by Credible Testimony And though none of these be strict Demonstration yet have we an Vndoubted Assurance of them when they are proved by the best Arguments that the nature and quality of the thing will bear This Discourse deserves deep Consideration And first it would be askâ— why Metaphysicks are omitted here which of all others ought to have been mentioned and that in the first place since its proper Subject is those Notions which concern Being and to give Being or Create is the Proper Effect of Him who is Essential Being whence it seems the Properest Science that is to demonstrate a Deity in case Metaphysical things be demonstrable and that they are such Dr. T. himself cannot deny for if as he says here things are therefore demonstrable because they are of an abstracted nature the Object of Metaphysicks which is Being is far more abstracted from matter and so from Motion and its necessary Concomitant Vncertainty or Contingency than is Quantity the subject of Mathematicks for this primary Affection of Body is the Ground and Proper Cause of of all Variation and Unsteadiness since all natural Motion or Mutation arises from Divisibility Yet because all Science is taken from the Things as standing under our notion or Conception and not according as they exist in themselves where thousands of Considerabilities are confusedly jumbled into one Common Stock of Existence or one Thing also because we can abstract by our Consideration the notion or nature of Quantity nay consider the same Quantity meerly as affecting Body as it were steadily or extending it without considering the same Quantity as the Proper Cause or Source of Motion hence the Mathematicks have Title to be truly and
Reason against Raillery OR A Full Answer TO Dr. TILLOTSON's PREFACE Against J. S. With a farther EXAMINATION Of His Grounds of Religion The gravest Book that ever was written may be made ridiculous by applying the Sayings of it to a foolish purpose Dr. Tillot Serm. p. 121. Anno Dom. MDCLXXII Advertisement IT being the general Temper of Mankind to call any thing by an odious Name which themselves dislike and particularly the Humour of the Times to call every thing Popery which comes cross to their Interest I cannot expect my present Adversary whose Zeal as will appear by the perusal of this Treatise carries him much farther than his Reason should be exempt from a Failing so Epidemical and withal so Necessary for his Purpose For nothing more easily solves all Arguments or more readily Answers any Book with the Vulgar than this short Method Inure them to a hideous apprehension of Popery then call any Production by that Name and all farther Confute is needless With the Vulgar I say for I shall presume that whoever reads this Treatise will judge it Incredible Dr. T. should hereafter attempt to write to such as are truly Learned till he thinks fit to settle and pursue some Conclusive Method of Discoursing which I am sure he will not because his Cause will not bear it I am to expect then from the Disingenuity of my Opposers that this Piece will be branded for Popery thence the publishing it made an Insolence and to lay on more load strain'd to an Immodest Abuse of the late Merciful Indulgence I am forc'd therefore to stop the Reader at the very Entrance and to declare to him before-hand that in perusing this Treatise he shall find that the Points at present maintained by me are onely these That Christian Faith and the Tenet of a Deity are Absolutely Certain If this be Popery all the Sober and Well-meaning Protestants Presbyterians and almost all England nay all True Christians are Papists for not one of them who uses or discourses of the word FAITH but râ—tains in his natural thoughts unless bad Speculation have corrupted Nature this hearty conceit of it that 't is absolutely Impossible to be all a Ly for any thing any man living knows and abhor the contrary Tenet that is they are all on my side If then Dr. T. does not in discoursing here the Grounds of Faith sustain this contrary Tenet and so violate the Nature of Faith I have at present no quarrel with him but he a very grievous one with me for wronging him and I must acknowledge I owe him Satisfaction as publick as the Injury If he does all Protestants Presbyterians c. have the same Quarrel with him I have and so ought to joyn with me against him and he will owe Satisfaction to them all as well as to Catholicks for corrupting the Nature of Faith which we all acknowledge necessary to Salvation into Opinion and so quite enervating its force and influence towards bringing Souls to Heaven as will be shewn hereafter I could alledge to justifie my Writing at present the earnest and daring provocations of Dr. T. and his Friend publickly in their late Books also that this Treatise was near Printed ere His Majesties Gracious Declaration was Published But I shall make use of no other Justification but the nature of my Cause which is the Common Concern of all good Christians and can never be unseasonable to defend or be offensive to any who is heartily a Friend to Christianity to see it defended And if any Clamours be rais'd against me for so doing 't is abundantly satisfactory to me that the World before-hand understands how worthy the Cause is for the maintaining of which I suffer this reproach TO The Knowing Candid WITS of This Nation Especially Those who are an Ornament To the UNIVERSITIES And other Learned SOCIETIES GENTLEMEN I Know not to whom all Attempts to advance Truth in any kind can more properly belong than to You to whom Knowledge gives Ability to discern the profest study of Truth Candour and Sincerity to own what You discern and both together a perfect Qualification to be Iudges in Affairs of this Nature The Enemies to Learning are Ignorance and Passion and I take you to be as much above the later as the World will witness you are free from all suspicion of the former I have great reason to believe I am not mistaken in the judgment I make of You and that few Nations can produce an equal number of Men so Acute to discover the Truth so Wise to judge of it and speaking generally so Unbyass'd to acknowledge it This consideration gives me a high esteem for your Authority and that Esteem the Confidence to make choice of You for my Umpires The wise Iustice of this Nation has provided that all differences betwixt contending Parties be try'd by their Peers and though your dissenting from me in some particular Points might possibly cause Iealousie in one who was not well assured of his own Cause or your Integrity yet the Interests of Learning are common to us both and of the Right or Injury done to That you are the Best and peradventure Onely Iudges and for that Point I confidently appeal to You. Having made my Address give me leave in the next place to declare my Case I had observed with much grief the Swarms of new Sects not to mention the declining of many good Wits towards Atheism which pester our Country and looking into the Causes of such sad Effects it needed no great reach to discover that the Fancies of men being both by Nature and Circumstances fram'd to great variety it could not be expected but they should take their several Plies and sway mens Thoughts and Actions accordingly unless some Principle Evident in a manner to all should oblige the Judgment of the Wiser at least to adhere unanimously to the same Profession of Faith and satisfie by Motives within their own ken and even forestall by the way of Nature the irregular deviations to which weaker Fancies must of necessity be subject Nor could I nor indeed can any man think but that as GOD the Author of every perfect Gift settled Faith most firmly at first in the hearts of the Primitive Believers by Evident Miracles so he intended and ordered as far as was on His part that it should continue all along the same or that his Church should persevere in Unity of Faith and consequently that he settled such a Rule to convey the knowledge of it to us as was of a nature able to establish it and satisfie according to their several capacities both the Wise and the Unwise Whence necessarily follows that all division about Faith is to be refunded into the faulty unwariness of men who deflect from that Rule not into want of fore-sight in the All-wise Founder of the Church in leaving us such a Rule of Faith as should set us all on wrangling instead of keeping us at Unity These considerations
earnestly with me to surcease They alledged that unpassionate Examiners might easily discover by what had been done already how frivolous and insignificant the whole way was which my Adversary took and that another and more convictive Reply might possibly heighten the anger to fatal extremities That if I were less sensible of my own safety I should yet have regard to my Friends and all Catholicks that it was to be feared that an exception against a particular person might in that Iuncture be enhanc'd to a Crime of the Whole and the crossing the humour or interest of that implacable Party raise the storm of the Great Diana of the Ephesians and give the Gospel-Trumpeters occasion to sound out aloud Papa ad Portas To this was joyned for why should I be ashamed to acknowledge my Poverty into which that Persecution had driven me that I had written more then I was able to print In fine Authority and Reason and Necessity prevail'd with me and I forbore to finish what I had begun and to publish what I had finish'd But yet the desire I had to be instrumental in settling so important a Truth suggested to me a middle way which as I hoped would be incapable to be wrested into offence so I saw plainly would be much more beneficial to the world and to the Learned more satisfactory I had observ'd in the Sermon which Dr. T. call'd the Wisdom of being Religious a Concession which amounted to this that the very Tenet of a Deity might possibly be false I saw the same sence often imply'd in his Rule of Faith and p. 1â—8 plainly own'd I perceiv'd and knew all men of insight must needs perceive with me that as this was the onely material so 't was a full Answer to my Book and rendred the disquisition whether this or that be the Rule of Faith very superfluous if it might be maintained It had no Rule at all nor was capable of any For a Rule speaking of an Intellectual Rule as both of us do being a means to make us certainly know something to be a Truth He who says that thing may possibly be false or not be a Truth says it neither has nor can have any Rule I resolved therefore to write a Treatise in behalf of Christian Faith in common in which I endeavoured to demonstrate from all Heads I could invent that the Generality of Christians or those who rely on the common Motives left by God to the Church as I exprest my self in my Introduction the assent called Faith must be Impossible to be False or Erroneous And applying this to Dr. T. and his Adherents who as I shew'd from his own words granted his Assent built on that which he esteems his onely Rule of Faith possible to be false I concluded them beyond all possibility of evasion not to have true Faith nor be truly Faithful And this I conceive was to follow on my blow as I had promised it being unimaginable how the Controversie could be prest more home than to conclude my Adversary and his whole Cause from the very An Est of Faith the Subject of our Dispute nor how his whole Book which he calls the Rule of Faith can be more fundamentally overthrown than by shewing from his own words and the Nature of the Thing that his mis-called Faith has no Rule at all nor can have any I conceiv'd too that this was to make good the engagement into which I had enter'd to force them either to lay Principles which would bear the Test or let all the world see they had none For in case they did manifest their Faith Impossible to be False they must of necessity build it upon such Grounds as would sustain such a Building if they did not the World must needs judge by their silence that they had none and that they knew and confest they could not evidence themselves truly Faithful and right Christians I saw besides that this method permitted me to pursue a rational close way of Discourse without the continual interruption which the insisting upon my Adversaries mistakes must needs occasion which as it was more satisfactory to me and more creditable to my Cause so I judg'd it more beneficial to the intelligent Reader for a particular Answer must of necessity be made up for the greatest part of accusations where the Answerer thinks it his best play to mistake all along instead of direct confuting I cannot say I am in the right but I must say likewise that who says otherwise is in the wrong and that he either misunderstands or misrepresents and this either ignorantly or wilfully to show which is a task no more pleasant to the Reader than the Writer People being of opinion and I think they have great reason that the time and pains spent in such wranglings might with much more advantage be employ'd in convincing the Truth in question Lastly my aim was from the beginning to bring Controversies to a Conclusion in order to which I had proposed a Conclusive Method my Adversary neither accepted of mine nor proposed any other of his own as I had desired And I saw that by proceeding with him in his talking fashion the Point might come to be lost in a Wilderness of Unconnected Words Wherefore I judg'd it better to pursue my design more closely and by the bare stating the Nature of Christian Faith to reduce all Disputes to this short Period Either produce and vouch such Grounds for your Faith as are Impossible to be False or 't is evident you have none It seemed by the Event the way I took was not ill chosen Dr. T. being still able to boast his Book was not particularly answer'd and so uphold his Credit with those who look not deeply into Things seem'd by his silence well-appay'd and I heard of no more extraordinary Anger against me And for my part I was contented that superficial People should judge as their wit serv'd them it being abundant satisfaction to my Labours that Intelligent and Insighted Persons might perceive by them how matters stood and into how narrow a compass Controversie was reduced And of this I have ample experience from the most Iudicious of our Nation who unanimously assur'd me that it was impossible to carry things farther or bring Controversie to a shorter Method since now the whole Cause depended upon one single Proposition by the sole examination of which it was to be decided Thus stood the Controversie and thus for some years it rested For the future I intended when it might be seasonable to write onely such Grounds as I judged might be a solid Foundation for Union which as I have always look'd upon as the best of Works so I know 't is Impossible till order be first taken to secure the Absolute and Immoveable Certainty of Faith it self which I think is not otherwise to be done then by shewing how and which way it comes to be Certain In this Calm I heard several reports that the
two Doctors wondred at my silence which they interpreted weakness and despair of an Unmaintainable Cause and that I might not pretend want of means for my disability some of their Friends offered to get any thing printed which should concern either of them But I was not stirred till a Gentleman of Quality and Worth who for his friendship as I conceive to Dr. T. believ'd his Book truly unanswerable offer'd a Friend of mine to prevail with him to get Licence for me to print an Answer if I would or could make any So fair an invitation mov'd me to accept of it and I sollicited with as much earnestness as I could the performance But the Gentleman it seems mistook the Doctors Humour as much as his Book for his Credit prevail'd not All seem'd bush'd and quiet when Dr. St. publishes a private Paper writ two years and an half before with a Reply swell'd into a large Book intitled A Discourse concerning the Idolatry c. In the Preface to which and elsewhere he insults over my silence which he calls leaving my poor Demonstrations alone to defend themselves and with keen Ironies upbraids my pretence to Principles and Demonstration which in his language is but Canting Of all things in the world I should not have expected such an Objection from a Scholar For certainly whoever writes on a serious subject so as to confess he has not concluded what he maintains is an impudent Trifler and how to Conclude without Principles and Demonstration is a thing not known to any Logick which has hitherto appear'd in the World Dr. St. would deserve wonderfully of Learning and the World if he would please to teach us this admirable new Logick of Concluding without demonstrating and demonstrating without Principles for in the dull way of Learning hitherto in use 't is so far from shameful in a Scholar to own he has demonstrated what he pretends should be assented to that 't is unpardonably shameful to pretend another mans assent to that which he does not pretend and judge to have demonstrated I had not time to settle the thoughts which these and the like passages stirr'd up when I met with the Preface to Dr. T 's Sermons directed particularly to me and meant as far as I can guess for an Answer to two or three Books I must confess the bitter smartness I found there and the piquant upbraiding me with deserting the defence of Sure-footing though all men that car'd to consider any thing saw I had already writ two Books in defence of it stirred me sufficiently but I know not whether all this provoking Raillery would have prevail'd with me to Answer particularly if I had not thought they would not have urged me so pressingly if their Friends had not indeed desired I should write and that certainly I should not offend sober Men of what Perswasion soever by doing onely what themselves so prest Warier People have indeed suggested to me that the desires of Adversaries are suspicious and the more because of the Time they had both chosen since they could not but fore-see mine and others Answers would in likelihood come out about the time when the Parliament was designed to sit which might be look'd upon as a proper season to inflame the minds of such as were apt to believe them and stir up a new Persecution by making those Answers which themselves had so provokingly and peremptorily prest for an argument of the Insolency of Papists and the growth of Popery At least I see there can be no greater security for one in my circumstances than to mean uprightly and I hope every Body will see by my long silence I have used all the caution I can not to give just cause of offence and will acknowledge that 't is none to write vvhen I am pressingly and publickly solicited and this with no other design than to contribute if I can to the long desired happiness of bringing Disputes and Disagreements in Religion to a period If this be Insolence or Crime I think there is no honest man in this Nation or World who is innocent Once more then I take my Pen in hand with this promise to Dr. T. and his Friend that if it be not stopt again by their indirect proceedings as I have reason to judge the Printing of this has been already by the diligent Searching for it they shall have no reason to complain of any Arrears of mine But what needs any Apologizing at present to prevent a sinister character of my Writing The Point in hand now is neither the defending any Tenet of Protestant or Presbyterian on Dr. T's side nor the impugning them on mine The main business controverted between him and me at present is whether Faith be Absolutely-Certain or rather as he calls it onely Morally such In which Point I doubt not but to have all unprejudic'd conscientious men of both those Parties now nam'd on my side and against Him There is creeping into tho World insensibly and Scepticism is now hatching it a Sect more dangerous than any that has hitherto dissented from the Church in particular points They go as yet under the name of Christians because they profess many perhaps most Points of Christianity but yet if we may trust their own Expressions so as thence to frame a Iudgment of them have notwithstanding no Faith at all or no hearty firm immoveable Assent to those Points or any of them as Certain Truths but onely a dwindling Apprehension or at most a good lusty Hope that by the grace of GOD they are True or at least may be True Now these men on the one side owning no Infallible or Absolutely-Certain Authority so to preserve the Nature of Faith inviolate or defend it from the weakness of their Speculation that is to protect it from Possibility of being an Errour on the other side relying either on some Authority hic nunc Fallible that is which they see may perhaps be actually deceiv'd in all it proposes or else on their own Speculation and Wit whether exercis'd in arguing from things or in interpreting Scriptures Letter and withal being men of some parts and so seeing it impossible to make out that either those Reasons are Conclusive or Demonstrative or that their Interpretation of Scriptures Letter is not possibly a Mistake hence they are forc'd to confess in equivalent Terms all Christian Faith may possibly be a Ly though they express it warily and craftily because they see the nature of Faith in the conceit of the Generality who use that word and the whole Genius of Christianity is opposite to their Sentiments in that point Nature therefore standing against them necessitates them contrary perhaps to their intention taking them in other circumstances to pursue indirect ways and so at unawares though certainly not without some mixture of carelesness and precipitant passion to undermine the solid Foundation of Faith The means by which they work this mischief is First to laugh at Principles
this Tradition in the matter of Tradition or matter of Fact before our time is self-evident to all those who can need the knowledge of such things that is to all Mankind who use Common Reason that is self-evident Practically or by ordinary converse with the world See Sure f. Disc. 1. § 12. it being impossible to conceive that those words all Mankind who use Common Reason should mean Speculaters And it seems very consonant to Reason that if the Vulgar must rely on and use Attestation as 't is manifest they must they should since they are not Scholâ—ars know by a natural means that 't is to be rely'd on The fair Admonition which he speaks of for these two Faults of mine is found Rule of Faith p. 47. where I am soberly warn'd to take heed how I go about to demonstrate First and Self-evident Principles Which first is no fair return to a Scholar to fall to exhort him with Fatherly Admonitions not to hold his Conclusion I mean that which is suppos'd his Conclusion without speaking at all to his Premises Next 't is far from fair in another regard which I am loth to mention to pick out of those two Propositions now mentioned those two words First Principle and Self-evident so closely woven there with other words to make up that one notion call'd the Predicate in either of them by this means making the Readers apprehend that I made Tradition not first IN WAY OF AUTHORITY onely as I had exprest my self but one of those Principles which are the very first of all or as himself expresses it such as have nothing before them as also that I made Tradition or the Attestation of a visible matter of Fact by so great multitudes as nothing can be imaginable to have byass'd them as I had often exprest my meaning not self-known Practically but Speculatively that is of the self-same nature with the very First Principles of all such as are 'T is impossible the same thing should be and not be A whole is greater than a part and such-like Observe next I beseech you that all his confute is intirely built on his carriage here laid open for he attempts not to shew that Tradition is not that which Principles Grounds or which is all one Authenticates all other Authority or that 't is not self-known practically but all the Cry and Irony is spent upon my ridiculousness in proving First and self-evident Principles and this because they have nothing before them and need no evidencing How NOTHING before them Does not every Scholar who ever read or studied the Subordination of Sciences know very well that what is a First Principle to the Inferiour Science is a Conclusion to the Superiour Does not all Mankind know that Maxims of Reason are before Authority and that No Authority deserves Assent farther than Right Reason gives it to deserve Does not the meanest Speculater know that most of the employment of learned men is to make out speculatively by looking into Proper Causes what is naturally or practically known to the Vulgar An old Wife knows by practice that such an herb cures such a malady are Naturalists therefore forbid to make out according to the nature of Causes how or by what virtue it performs that effect The vulgar have a rude yet true knowledge of what is meant by Hot and Cold Moist and Dry Is it needless therefore for Philosophers to define them artificially and so gain a more express notion of their natures Is it needless for Picture-drawers to delineate with curiosity and exactness because some Country-fellow can draw a rude yet right resemblance of a face upon a wall with a piece of charcoal Or for learned men to polish their knowledge and make it accurate and distinct because the vulgar know the same thing bluntly confusedly and in gross Lastly Is Are needless because there is Nature Yet this is the very case The vulgar know practically that there was such a one as K. James yet 't is not needless for one who is treating of the nature of Authority to make out speculatively that their knowledge is rightly grounded on the nature of Mankind and how this assurance is wrought in them out of the practically-instill'd knowledge of that nature § 3. But what I most complain of because which I am loth to say it argues a perfect wilfulness of Insincerity is this that after I had in my Letter of Thanks p. 10. offered my Proof that First Principles were Identical Propositions and could be no other Also after that p. 24 25. I had shown that things practically self-evident may be demonstrated and produc'd divers instances as that the vulgar know the Diameter of the Square is a nearer way than to go by the two sides that things seen afar off are not so little as they seem which yet Mathematicians demonstrate and none apprehends them to do a needless action Dr. T. not so much as attempts to answer either my Instances or my Reasons but perfectly conceals them from his Reader and bears himself all along triumphantly as if I had produc'd none at all barely says over again his own raw sayings a little more merrily and there 's an end I beseech you Gentlemen would this be held a competent Answer in the University-Schools First to admonish the Defendant to relinquish his Conclusion instead of beating him from it by Reason then to combat the Conclusion instead of invalidating the Premises on which 't is built next to pick a word or two out of those Conclusions which taken alone alter their whole sence and then confute onely that new sence his designed alteration had given them and lastly when he was told of it his mistakes rectified Reasons and Instances brought to make good the true point to neglect them all say over again barely what he had said before break a jest or two upon a ridiculous point meerly invented by himself and then cry victory Certainly though such performances may serve a Prevaricator or a Terrae Filius yet some wiser kinde of return ought in reason to be expected from a Scholar and a sober man As for that point which he most confutes with laughter viz. That First Principles are Identical Propositions though something has been produc'd in my Letter of Thanks in the place cited and not yet answered and so no farther proof is due or needful yet because the clearing this point fundamentally conduces to settle the way to Science therefore for their sakes who are truly learned and aim at solid improvement of their minds by exact knowledge more than at pleasing their ears by pretty expressions I shall treat the point more accurately The stating the nature of First Principles must needs be Speculative therefore those Readers who pretend not to Science may please to pass over these two Discourses and go on to what follows though I shall endeavour as well as the matter will bear to deliver it so that a good natural Wit may in
a Conclusion of a Syllogism that is they can be concluded or admit of Proof Wherefore since 't is a contradiction to say that the Prime Verities can admit Proof their Terms must be farthest from having any Middle Term coming between them that is imaginable that is must be of the self-same notion and so they must be Identical Propositions The former of these Discourses was put down by me Letter of Thanks p. 10 11 12. which one would think it became a Logician to speak to But my Adversary is of another metal not the very same but near akin to aes sonans aut cymbalum tinniens He never meddles willingly with Premisses or Proofs but denies the Conclusion stoutly never acknowledging what was said in its behalf and tinkles a little Rhetorick against it which done who would think it immediately as with some Charm the Terms unconnect of themselves and miraculously fly asunder and though before it look'd like good honest Reason yet by his giving it a Disguise instead of a Confute 't is turn'd perfect Nonsence But to return to our Argument § 5. Logick tells us moreover that whatever accidental considerations may enhance Opposition 't is agreed by all that a Contradiction is formally and intrinsecally the greatest or First of Falshoods also that a Contradiction is An affirming and denying the same of the same according to all the same respects wherefore the very First Principles being the First of Truths ought to be diametrically opposite to Those that is an Affirming or denying the same of the same according to all the same respects which is impossible to be exprest but by an Identical Proposition § 6. Add that since Contradiction is Faulty and all Fault is a Privation of the opposite Good which it violates it follows that a Contradiction were innocent did it not violate some opposite Truth Since then the Light of Nature teaches every Reflecter that 't is impossible to assign any Truth Opposite to a Contradiction but an Identical Proposition it follows that First Truths or First Principles must be Identical Propositions § 7. To explain this better we shall find by reflexion that two Contradictory Propositions are comprisable into One equivalent to both whose Subject and Predicate contradict one another as Peter here and now runs Peter here and now runs not are necessarily equivalent to this What here and now runs here and now runs not So likewise Scripture's Letter is a Rule Scripture's Letter is not a Rule is equivalent to this Something which is a Rule is not a Rule and so of the rest By which 't is easie to discern how clear a Truth it is that Identical Propositions are the proper opposites to Contradictions or the Truths they directly and immediately violate and consequently First Principles Since 't is impossible mans wit rack'd to its utmost can invent any Opposite to What runs runs not but What runs runs or to What is a Rule is not a Rule but What is a Rule is a Rule Lastly The nature of Contradiction in common puts a thing to be and not be at once and consequently puts this Proposition What is not is to which the onely opposite Truth is What is is which is therefore the First Standard of all Truth and all other First Principles as A Rule is a Rule A Man a Man c. are but particulars subsuming under it and partaking in the most perfect manner of its clearest Light § 8. Farther 't is observable that the more remote the Terms of a Proposition are from Formal Identity the less evident they are and the more proof they require as also that they still grow nearer and nearer to evidence according to the degree of their approach toward the said Identity Wherefore since all Approach of distant things if pursu'd ends in a conjoyning and centering in the same 't is manifest that all distance in notion amongst Terms ends in their being the same in notion that is in an Identical Proposition as also that such Propositions are for the reason given the most evident that may be and so in both regards the very First Principles § 9. Farther All Propositions which are capable of proof or all Conclusions must have their Terms materially Identical that is what corresponds to both their notions must be found in the same Thing else they could not be True nor capable to be proved wherefore the Terms in First Principles must be formally such nay the most formally that is possible but nothing is or can be more formally Identical than to have the Predicate and Subject every way the same such therefore the very First Principles ought necessarily to be § 10. There is also in Logick a way of arguing by bringing one to an Absurdity or Contradiction And this is performed two manner of ways One by forcing the Defendant to contradict himself The other by obliging him to contradict the nature of the Subject in question The former of these is available as an Argument ad hominem but the latter attempt if brought to effect is a perfect Conquest And why but because it puts the Defendant to violate the nature of the Thing under debate that is to thwart this First Principle The same is the same with it self for example to make Quantity not to be Quantity a Rule not to be a Rule Faith not to be Faith as shall be shewn hereafter more clearly when we come to see the use of the First Principles in particular Instances § 11. Moreover if it be well examin'd 't will be found that all Efficiency and Passiveness that is all kind of Operation is nothing but the existence of such a Nature exerting or as it were imprinting it self upon the Subject in which it works its Effect For example when a Brass Seal makes an Impression upon soft Wax no account can be given of this Effect abstracting from Motion which is caus'd by a Nature superiour to Body but onely this that the Agent is of such a degree of Density or Hardness as if mov'd or apply'd to that matter is apt to alter the figure of its parts according to its own mould and the Patient of such a yielding nature in comparison of the other as to receive its Impression and yet not to that degree Rare as to lose it again by the Action of the common Causes in Nature till some more particular Agent comes to efface it 'T is manifest then that all Causality essentially depends on and is finally resolv'd into this Truth that Things are such as they are which is their being in part what they are All knowledge then of Cause and Effect and consequently all Demonstration is ultimately refunded that is primarily built on those Propositions which express Things being what they are that is into Identical Ones § 12. Lastly He who is Essential Wisdom and Truth it self has propos'd to us an Identical Proposition in those words I am what I am which is the First Increated Truth as
and adhering to them as such Since on the one side they are of a large extent as Principles use to be and on the other side he sees no Principle they are opposite to and so ought to take them for Truâ—hs When Dr. T. gives the World â—atâ—sfaction in this point I will follow his Nonsensical Admonition and renounce all Prâ—nciples as far as God and Nature will give me leave for in that case Nonsence would be the best Sence and Contradictions the perfectest Truths But till he does this he must remain in his despair of convincing me I cannot for my heart help it § 19. I shall adde one word more to the truly Learned Reader Our imperfect manner of knowing in rhis state obliges us to detail or as it were divide the Object we would know into many abstracted inadequate or partial Conceptions which we use to rank orderly in the ten Predicaments and then to compound those single Conceptions into Propositions and those into Discourses Whereas separated Substances when they know any Object neither compound nor divide at all but with one Intuitive View see the Whole to be as it is Wherefore there is nothing in all our knowledges that in the manner of it comes so near their way of operating as our Act of knowing Identical Propositions It divides as little as is possible for our state for it predicates the Whole of the Whole for which very reason it as little compounds again and did not our Condition here forcibly exact oâ— us to frame a Proposition or connect together inadequate notions by a Copula when we would express a Truth it would be a kind of Intuitive seeing the Thing as it is and so indeed after a sort it is but confused all Clearness here arising from a perfect distinguishing our notions yet it resembles not a little in its absolute Evidence immovable Firmness and its nearest approach possible to Simple Intuition Whence it hints to a Soul deâ—irous of Truth the glorious satisfaction it will enjoy when the Screen of our Body is taken away to have at one Prospect all the whole Creation and each single thing in it presented to her ravish'd Understanding and seen to be what they are with a far greater Evidence possest and held with an incomparably greater Firmness and penetrated by a transcendently more excellent and Simple manner of knowing than whâ—t we now experience here in those weak yet best resemblances our knowledges of the First Principles And indeed ' â—is but fitting that those supreme Knowledges which ground both our Definitions the Matter and all force of consequence the Form of our inferiour way of Knowledge by Reasoning should be nearest ally'd to the manner of Knowing proper to those Higher sort of Intellectual Creatures that so as the wisest order of the World requires the Supremum Infimi may touch or immediately confine upon that which is Infimum Supremi § 20. By this time I hope those Learned and Intelligent Persons to whom I address this Discourse will discern I had some Reason to hold Identical Propositions to be First Principles I beseech them to review all Dr. T. hath said against them either here or in any other place and when they have discover'd it all to be meer empty Drollery they will justly wonder at his Confidence that dare appear before Scholars in Print and think to carry it off with soppish Jests as if his Readers had onely Risibility in them and no Rationality Yet in reliance on these unfailing Grounds he ends with a Declaration to all the World That if there be no other Principles but such as these meaning Identical Propositions he neither has any Principles nor will have any An excellent Resolution and hard to keep Yet I 'll wager ten to one on his head that in despight of both Art and Nature he shall hold it as well as any man living and that when he comes to lay any Principles of his own the Terms shall be so far from Identical that all the Wit of man shall not make them hang together at all § 21. The Sum of thâ—s whole Discourse about Principles is this All Science à Priori is thus originiz'd The First Being is what He is that is Self-Existence is Self-Existence and so Essentially Unchangeable Wherefore the Essences of Things depending solely on the Relation they have to what is in in GOD that is to what is GOD are Unchangeable likewise or are establisht in their own Being that is fixt in their own particular and distinct Natures which we fitly express by Identical Propositions affirming them to be what they are Hence they become capable of having the determinate bounds of their natures described in certain Forms of Speech call'd Definitions which are nothing else but expressions of their Distinction from all other Things in the World The way to make these Definitions is two-fold One by collecting the natural Sayings of the Generality of Mankind about that thing as such and then observing in what notion those several Sayings of theirs do center the distinct Expression of which must needs be the Definition For they knowing through Practical Self-evidence the distinction of one Thing from another by a perpetual converse wâ—th them have the right notion or nature of the Thing in theâ—r Minds and those Sayings genuinely deliver'd are the Proper Effects of that Notion imprinted there by the teaching of Nature The otâ—er way is by sorting all our Notions under certain distinct Heads and then dividing the highest or most General Notion in such a Head by iâ—trinsecal differences till by descending they light on that difference which constitutes and joyn'd with the Genus which it divides defines that Nature The Definition had that is a diâ—â—inct Knowledge being gain'd of what 't is in which any nature agâ—ees with others and in what it differs from them Reason has more room to stir her self in or more matter to work upon in order to bring things to a further distinction and clearness And first by a due consideration and reflexion Practical Self-evidence still assisting for the Greatest Men of Art must nâ—t leave off being Children of Nature nay perhaps 't is their best Title the Proper Causes and Effects of such a nature begin to appear and thence Middle Terms for Demonstrative Syllogisms disclose themselves and Science begins to spread it self and advance Or if two Notions are to be shown connected which seem'd remote the Notions which directly compounded their Definitions are to be resolv'd farther and their resolution pursu'd till something appears in both of them which is formally Identical that is till some Identical Proposition comes to be engag'd For example if one would prove that Virtue is Laudable he will find that Laudable is deserving to be spoken well of and Practical Self-evidence as well as Reason telling us that our Speech being fram'd naturally to express our Thoughts that thing deserves to be spoken well of which deserves to be thought well
virtue of the plain Evidence of this one Paradox to overthrow the Certainty of Tradition nay the Certainty of all Natural Sciences to boot for these according to him are solely built upon Induction which depends on Sensations and These if we may trust him are all possible to be deceiv'd § 19. And is not Faith it self by these Grounds left in the same pickle It s Rule whether it be Tradition or Scriptures Letter evidently depends upon Humane Authority and this says he is all Fallible and what 's built on a Fallible Authority says Common Sence may possibly be an Errour or False therefore 't is most unavoidable from his Principles that all Faith may Possibly be False however the shame of owning so Unchristian and half-Atheistical a Tenet makes him very stifly and angrily deny the Conclusion but he shall never show why 't is not a most necessary and genuine Consequence from his Position of all Humane Authority being Fallible I expect that instead of a direct Answer to the force of my Argument he will tinkle a little Rhetorick against my Conclusion or start aside to a Logical Possibility that men may be deceiv'd and affirm that 't is not a Contradiction in Terms and so may be effected by the Divine Omnipotence But that 's not our point We are discoursing what will follow out of the ordinary Course of Causes the Conduct of which is the work of the Worlds all-wise Governour whence if those Portions of Nature or Mankind cannot be deceiv'd without Miracle and 't is most vnbeseeming GOD to do a Miracle which reaches in a manner a whole Species as that no Fire in the World should burn no Water wet especially if it be most absurd to conceive that GOD the Author of all Truth nay Essential Truth it self should do such a stupendious and never-yet-heard-of Miracle to lead Men into Errour as is our case 't is most manifestly consequent it cannot be effected at all that Mankind should be Fallible in Knowledges built on their constant Sensations § 20. It follows And though none of these be strict Demonstration yet have we an undoubted Assurance of them when they are prov'd by the best Arguments that the nature and quality of the Thing will bear To this we will speak when we come to examine his Firm Principle He proceeds None can demonstrate to me that there is such an Island in America as Jamaica yet upon the Testimony of credible Persons and Authors who have writ of it I am as free from all doubt concerning it as from doubting of the clearest Mathematical Demonstration True none can demonstrate there is either Jamaica or any such Place Yet I see not why they may not demonstrate the Knowledge of the Attesters from the Visibility of the Object and their Veracity from the Impossibility they should all conspire to act or say so without some appearing Good for their Object or intend to deceive in such a matter and so circumstanc'd when 't is evidently Impossible they should compass their intended end As for his affirming that he is as free from all doubt concerning it as he is from doubting of the clearest Mathematical Demonstration I answer that a man may 〈…〉 yet not hold the Thing True as shall presently be shown And if Dr. T. pleâ—se to look into his own Thoughts he shall find instill'd through the goodness of Nature by Practical Self-evidence more than a bare freedom from doubt viz. such a firm Assent Adherence to it as a Certain Truth that he would deem him a Madman or a Deserter of Humane Nature who could doubt of it and in a word as firm an Assent as to any Mathematical Demonstration which why he should according to Maxims of right Reason have unless he had a Demonstration of it or at least saw it by Practical Self-evidence impossible that Authority should hic nunc be deceiv'd or conspire to deceive and so held the Authority Infallible as to this point I expect his Logick should inform me § 21. We are now come to take a View of Dr. T's performances hitherto He hath omitted the proper Science for his purpose Metaphysicks I suppose because it sometimes uses those hard words Potentiality and Actuality which his delicate Ears cannot brook and has secluded Morality Physicks and the Knowledge we have of the Nature which grounds all Humane Authority and Christian Faith from being Sciences allowing it onely to the Mathematicks which would make one verily think the VVorld were perversly order'd and odly disproportion'd to the nature and good of Mankind for which we Christians agree it was created that greater Evidence and Certainty and consequently Power to act aright should be found in those things which are of far less import than in those which are of a Concern incomparably higher Yet it matters less some may think as long as we are not bound to assent to any of those Conclusions in those respectâ—ve Subjects the absolute Certainty of whâ—ch Dr. T's Discourse calls into question or rather denies whence iâ— we have in these and such as thesâ— knowledge enough to determine us to act Exteriourly it may seem to suffice But now when We come to FAITH where We are Oblig'd to Assent or to hold Fâ—rmly and verily judge the Thing True and where Exteriour Acting will not do the Work or carry a Soul to Bliss but Interiour Acts of a Firm Faith a Vigorous Hope built on that Faith and an Ardent and Over-powering Love of Unseen Gooâ—s springing out of both These are Absolutely Necessary to Fit Us for an Union with our Infinitely-Blissful Object and the Strength of all These is Fundamentally built on the SECURENEâ—S of the Ground of Faith In this Case I say a Rational Considerer wouâ—d think it very requiâ—â—â—e that the Reasons of so Hearty an Assâ—nt but especially for that most Fundamental Point of the Existence of a Deity it being of an infinitely-higher nature and import should be fâ—ll as Evident as the most Evident of those Inferiour Concerns and in comparison Trâ—fling Curiosities And not that the World should be manag'd on such a fashion as if Mankinâ— were onely made to study Mathematicks since absolute Evidence his best natural Perfection is according to Dr. T. onely found in These Whence we see that Mathematicians are infinitely beholding to him but Philosophers not at all and I fear Christians as little Now these two points are according to my way of discoursing for this very reason taken from the End and Use of Faith and the Obligation lying on us to hold and profess it True Self-evident Practically to the Generality of the Vulgar and demonstrable to the Learned Let us see what strong Grounds of such an immovably-firm Assent Dr. T. will afford the World for that first and most Fundamental Point of all Religion the Tenet of a Deity of which if we cannot be assur'd all else that belongs to Faith is not worth heeding DISCOURSE V. Dr. T's Firm
the small strength they have when they do their utmost is not earnestly and heartily engag'd neither in the Patronage of our Cause or in proving it probable there 's a GOD but onely incline favourably towards us rather than the other Besides those who are of moderate tempers use to be favourable to every Body and there is not in the whole World such sweet soft-natur'd melting pliable tender-hearted compassionate and indulgent things as these same Probabilities They are ever at hand to lend their weak help to any body that wants a good Argument and will fit any Cause in the World good or bad Yet for all their kind and gentle behaviour in obliging none to assent to them or say as they do as your rude Demonstrations use I have notwithstanding a kind of prejudice against them which is that they are False hearted and use to play Jack-a-both-sides most egregiously for scarce was there ever any Tenet in the world so absurd but when not one good Reason durst appear for it this tatling Gossip Dame Probability would for all that undertake it and let her have but her neat Chamber-maid Rhetorick to trick her up with Laces Spangles Curles Patches and other such pretty Baubles she will dare to incounter with any Truth in the World or maintain the most absurd Paradox imaginable as Dr. T. and his Friend well know else they would be out of heart ever to write more And this is the Reason I conceive why p. 22. he calls them FAIR saying If FAIR Probabilities of Reason concur with Testimony and no less than thrice in the same page he makes mention of FAIR Proofs He says not GOOD Proofs or CONCLVSIVE that the Thing is TRVE or that there 's a GOD no take heed of that this would quite take the business out of the hand of Probability which a Rhetorical Divine ought not to do for nothing suits with Rhetorick's humour so well as Probabiâ—ity does and Demonstration cares not one straw for her But he gives them their just due and calls them onely Fair Proofs and Fair Probabilities that is Pretty Plausible and Taking and if they were not so of themselves what is there which a little daubing with Rhetorical Varnish will not make FAIR But the Upshot oâ— Sum Total of his Proofs is the best sport if it were not most pernicious 't is this That these Fair Probabilities taken together and in their united force have a great deal of Conviction in them Which amounts to this plain Confession though couch'd in wary Terms that there is not one good Proof amongst them all yet many bad ones put together will make a good one I know indeed that a concurrence of many Likelihoods renders a thing more Probable and encourages us to Outward Action but to think that many Probabilities will reach that Indivisible Point in which Truth and consequently our Assent to any thing as a Truth is found is quite to mistake the nature of Truth and Assent too which consist in Is or Is not and since to convince rationally is to conclude the thing is I desire Dr. T's Logick to inform the World how since a Probable Proof is that which onely concludes the thing Probable and consequently many probable ones are terminated in rendring it MORE Probable how I say many Proofs onely Probable can conclude the thing to be MORE THAN PROBABLE that is to be CERTAINLY or convince the Understanding that 't is unless they happen to engage some Nature or other and consequentâ—y some Identical Proposition which Dr. T. neither pretends nor goes about to show but on the other side declares himself an utter Enemy to such Principles and consequently to such a way of Discourse § 12. In a word Dr. T's Positive Proofs of a Godhead are reducible to these two Heads Humane Testimony and Probabilities of Reason as appears by his own words Serm. p. 22 23. and Testimony which p. 22. he tells us is the Principal Argument in a thing of this nature he divides into Vniversal Tradition and Written History Now Written History is not therefore True because 't is writ but depends upon Living Authority or Tradition to authenticate it and how ridiculous he would make the Certainty of Tradition even that which is confessedly grounded on the Sensations of great multitudes which is vastly above this here spoken of is seen in hâ—s Rule of Faith and here again he tells us Pref. p. 16. All Humane Testimony is Fallible and so all built on it is possible to be False for this plain reason because all men are Fallible Wherefore according to his Grounds 't is concluded there may possibly be No GOD for any thing Humane Testimony says to the Point And 't is as evident from the very word that Probabilities of Reason though never such Fair ones conclude as little Lastly he tells us Serm. p 22. that Fair Probabilities of Reason concurring with Testimony this Argument has all the strength it can have and thus Dr. T. instead of proving there is a GOD has endeavour'd to make out very learnedly that it may be there 's no such Thing and that neither Reason nor Authority can evince the Truth of the Point § 13. I omit his abusing the word Testimony which is built on Sensations in alledging it to prove a Creation which neither was nor could be subject to the Senses of the first Mankind nor consequently could the persuasion of future Deliverers and Writers have for its Source Attestation or Testimony I omit also his negâ—ecting to make use of Testimony to prove Miracles GOD's proper Effect which are subject to Sense and which both Christians Jews and Heathens of all Nations and Times both unanimously have and the first Seers could properly attest I suppose his Confidence in his Rhetorick made him chuse the worser Arguments to show how prettily he could make them look or perhaps the Genius of Things lie so that the slightest Arguments most need and so best suit with Rhetorical Discoursers § 14. By this time I suppose Gentlemen there will appear just reason for that moderate and civil hint I gave Dr. T. in my Introduction to Faith Vindicated of the weakness of his Grounds in these words In which Sermon under the Title of the Wisdom of being Religious and a great many seeming shows and I heartily think very real Intentions of impugning Atheism by an ill-principled and in that circumstance imprudent and unnecessary Confession in equivalent Terms of the possible Falsehood of Faith nay even as to the Chiefest and most Fundamental Point the Tenet of a Deity Religioâ— receives a deep wound and Atheism an especial advantage as may perhaps be more particularly shown hereafter After which I give his Sermon all its due Commendations and then subjoyn Onely I could wish he had right Principles to ground his discourse without which he can never make a Controvertist but must needs undermine the solid Foundation of Christianity if he undertake to meddle with
whatever is good in those Acts of Faith is refunded into God the Author of every good Gift as its Original Cause what Defective into the Limitedness and Imperfection of Creatures § 5. This Tenet of Infallibility which unprejudic'd Nature teaches even the rudest in things subject to Sense and common Reason and Learned men in things provable by exact Art the Adversaries of true Certainty our Scepticks in Religion endeavour to render ridiculous and cast a mist about it by the most unreasonable pretence that ever was invented which is to affirm that a man cannot be Infallible in one thing but he must be so in all As if I could not infallibly know what 's done in my Chamber or practic'd openly amongst those I converse with but I must be likewise infallible in knowing what is done in the Moon And Dr. T. is one of these for Contradiction is as natural to him as 't is to a fish to swim who tells us here pag. 19. That Omniscience within a determinate Sphere is an Infinite within a finite Sphere as if it were very evident that to know All in such a matter is to know Infinit or all things in the World or so hard to comprehend that one may know all the money in ones Purse without knowing all the money that is extant or all the men in the room without knowing all Mankind I wish Dr. T. would shew us why knowing all in such a particular matter must needs argue an Infinit knowledg or why the knowing all things in a determinate Sphere which last words when he came to answer that is break his Jests our Prevaricator prudently omitted may not consist with an ignorance of many things out of that Sphere Must the word All in such a matter needs signifie Infinit or did the commonest Reason ever thus go wrack I suppose my Friends resolute hazard against Identical Propositions made him fall into this more than childish mistake For this plain Truth What 's all but in one matter onely is all but in one matter onely had preserv'd him from this Nonsense but he took this for his Ground to proceed upon that All in one matter onely 〈◊〉 All in every matter or which is more is Infinit and so still he continues most learnedly to lay Contradictions for his First Principles because their Interest and his are inseparably linkâ— against the Common Enemy Identical Propositions This I must confess is a very smart and ingâ—nious kind of reasoning and proper to Dr. T. unless perhaps his sworn Brother at hating First Principles and Papists put in for a share It appears by a certain Paper called Dr. Stillingfleet against Dr. Stillingfleet he is a strong pretender and will cry halfs But 't is time now to return to examine his Answer § 6. It is not necessary indeed to Truth that every one should demonstrate a thing so as to shew that the contrary necessarily involves â— Contradiction for the same thing may be known also through Practical Self-evidence to those who cannot demonstrate but yet the thing must be demonstrable else 't is not Knowable or Ascertainable For Demonstrable is a plain honest word what game soever Dr. T. and his Friend make at it and imports no more abstracting from subtle quirks but only Capable to be known or Intellectually seen by way of Proof whence a Learned man who goes about to prove any thing by strength of severe Reason ought either to demonstrate it or he falls short of his Dâ—â—y Once more I desire Dr. T. to take me right and to reflect that when I say The Thing is Demonstrable or pretend to demonstrate I do not take the word Demonstration with all those many subtleties and perquisits the Schools require I as little love niceties as any man living and can as easily dispense with them so the solid part be well provided for and the Truth of the Thing establisht which if it be not done I make account nothing is done in these cases in which Assent dying to attest things to be Truths are required I onely mean then by Demonstration such a Proof as is taken not from any Exrinsecal consideration as is Authority which grounds Belief but from the intrinsecal Nature of the Thing or Subject in Dispute and such a Proof as necessarily concludes the Thing to be which cannot be possibly done without engaging finally some Identical Proposition or that Things being what it is on which all is built Now this being evidently so and if it be not let Dr. T. shew the contrary I would ask our verbal Divine why he ought not to demonstrate that is prove by necessary concluding Argument both the Letter and Sence of Scripture if he would have men assent most firmly to Faith built according to him solely upon their Certainty Is it not his intent in his Discourses to Conclude what he speaks of How can he do this unless he shews the Conclusion necessarily follows Again does he not intend to conclude 't is a Truth that this is the Letter and Sence of Scripture He must do so or else he can never pretend that Faith built upon it is Truth And if he proves it Truâ— must he not at the same time prove it's Contradictory False And is any thing False but what says a Thing is so when indeed 't is not so or is not so when indeed 't is so which is a direct Contradiction Wherefore Dr. T. can never Conclude a thing to be True unless he brings a Proof necessarily engaging the Nature of the Thing that is unless according to my sence of the Word he both Demonstrates and also shews the contrary necessarily to involve a Contradiction Both these satisfactory Certainties my Grounds attribute to Scriptures Letter and Sence See Surâ—f pag. 116 117 in points appertaining to Faith and he here denies both pag. 10. whence is seen which of us two has more real Honour and Respect for Scripture He who makes neither its Letter or Sence to have any Grounds able to ascertain them that is as to our purpose makes them good for nothing or I who grant and prove both § 7. I suppose Dr. T will say again as he did in that point of a Deity that the nature of the Thing will not bear a Certainty of Scriptures Letter or Sence that so he may be true to his firm Principle and make all Faith alike uncertain I answer the more blame will fall to their share who take away the Certainty of that which is the first Principle in way of Authority or First Authority namely TRADITION which and onely which can Authenticate Books and the thing being of high Concern Practically carry down the same Doctrine and so easily preserve the Book significative of the same Sence Noâ— doubt I but 't is demonstrable that the Practice of England and the Concern of the thing joyn'd with the necessary Evidence of any Alteration in a matter daily so nicely Canvast and continually Us'd can and
will with Infallible Certainty bring down the Letter of Magna Charta the Statute Book and some Acts of Parliament the self-same from year to year at least in matters of high Consequence and by means of the Sense writ Traditionally in some mens heaâ—ts correct the Letter if Printers or Copiers should mistake If Dr. T. asks how I prove it I would tell him that the Nature of the Thing must make it Notorious if altered be cause great multitudes are conversant in it and it being esteemed of a kind of Sacred Nature weigh every tittle of it warily especially those passages that immediately touch some weighty Point whence should some whose Interest 't is to alter it go about such an Action it cannot appear a Good to the Generality whose Concerns are highly violated by that alteration to conceal and permit the Letter to remain Uncorrected and if it could not appear a Good to the Generality to consent to alter it nor become a Motive to the rest to attempt a seen Impossiblity neither one nor the other could will to alter it much less both conspire to do it and should they attempt it their will must either have no Object and then 't is a Power to nothing that is no Power or else act without an appearing Good and in both cases the Will would be no Will. This short hint will let the Reader see the Grounds I go upon 't is not now a proper place to pursue such Arguments close or press them home I wish I might see some return of the like nature from our two undemonstrating Adversaries who think it their best play to laugh at Principles and Demonstration because they know in their Consciences they are perfect Strangers to both § 8. Well but though Dr. T. denies any Infallible Certainty of the Ground of all Christian Faith let 's see at least what other Certainty he affords us And at the first sight any honest man might safely swear it must be if any a Fallible Certainty that is a very fair piece of Nonsense for 't is evident to all Mankind the Abhorrers of First Principles always excepted that if any Certainty be Infallible and there be any other besides this it must needs be a Fallible one since there can be no middle between Contradictaries So that Dr. T. is put to this hard choice either to bring such a Certainty for the Ground of all Christianity which is no Certainty or else such an one as is perfect Nonsense if it be named by its proper Name Lâ—t's see what choice he makes We are not sayes he Infallibly Certain that any Book c. But yet observe now the Opposit kind of Certainty delivered here pag. 9. We have a firm Assurance concerning these matters so as not to make the least doubt of them I marry this is a rare Certainty indeed We have not Infallible Certainty sayes Dr. T. of either Letter or Sense of Scripture but onely such an one as keeps us from making the least doubt of them Now since a very easie reflexion teaches us that we have no doubt of many things being True nay more have strong Hopes they are True and yet for all that hold them notwithstanding possible to be false 't is a strange Argument to prove he avows not the possible Falshood of Faith to alledge that he declared himself he had onely such an Assurance as not at all to doubt it For not to doubt a thing signifies no more but not to incline to think it False which a man may do and yet not at all hope 't is True seeing he who suspends indifferently from both sides and inclines to neither does not at all doubt a Thing or fear 't is False having no imaginable reason to ground the least degree of any such Fear more than he has to ground any Hope of its Truth Again those Speculators who attend not to Principles are oftentimes in a perplex'd case and through the Goodness of Nature hold a thing absolutely True while they attend to such motives as connaturally breed that perswasion which thing notwithstanding coming to make it out as Scholars and unable to perform it hereupon consider'd as Speculators they must hold possible to be False for any thing they know and this I conceive is Dr. T's condition Regarding the nature of Faith and the common Conceit of Christianity he cannot but see he must if he will be a Christian profess Faith impossible to be False and doublesly he will avow it such as long as he speaks Nature and avoids reflecting on his Speculative Thoughts but coming once to consider the points of Faith as standing under such proofs as his Unskilful Art affords him and conscious to himself as he needs must who sleights first Principles and all Methods to Knowledge that he hath never an Argument that is absolutely or truly Conclusive he is forc'd again taking in these unlucky circumstances to avow Faiths Ground and consequently its self to be Possible to be otherwise or False being willing to lay the blame on the Grounds of Faith and to say they cannot bear Absolutely-Conclusive Proofs rather than on the defectiveness of his own Skill and to represent them as unworthy to have the name of stable Grounds rather than he will lose a tittle of the Fame of being an able Divine Yet I will not say but the Christian in Dr. T. might overcome the Speculator at least ballance him in an equal suspence or beget in him a pretty good conceit of Faith's Impossibility to be False but then when he once reflects that this cannot be maintain'd without admitting Infallibility which is the word the abhominable Papists use nor made out without using First Principles or Identical Propositions which that malignant Man I. S. pretends to build on immediately the byass prevails and the Idea of Popery once stirred up which haunts his and his Friends fancy day and night in a thousand hideous shapes â— he runs in a fright so far from Impossibility of Falshood in Faith that he comes to a very easie Possibility of its being all a plain Imposture or Ly for any thing he absolutely knows since Grounds prevailing onely to make him not doubâ— of it can raise it no higher Moreover if this be a good Argument I declar'd my self so assur'd as not to make the least doubt of a thing therefore I could not avow it possible to be False it must be allow'd Argumentative to say I am so assured as not in the least to doubt of it therefore 't is not possible to be False Dull Universities that had not the wit to light all this while on Dr. T's Principles and way of arguing They ascertain all things at the first dash without more adoe I have a firm Assurance so as not to doubt of the Grounds of Christian Faith the Letter and Sense of Scripture therefore by this new Logick they are concluded Certain and Impossible to be False In opposition to which if you
tell him the firmness of a Rational Assent ought to be taken from Principles or the Object not from the Subject's firmly adhering to it and admonish him that this later sort of Firmness without the other signifies nothing but an Irrational Resolution to hold a thing right or wrong he cuts you off short and blames the Grounds of Christian Faith telling you the nature of the Things will bear no more At which if your Reason repines and begins to despair of satisfaction he tells you smartly that you contradict a First and Firm Principle that to have as much Assurance as the thing affords you is to be Certain of it Prodigious folly not to distinguish between these two most evident Notions I am fully perswaded and the Thing is certainly so And alledging our not doubting or strong adhesion to a thing for an competent Explication of that Certainty which ought to be the greatest in the whole world since more Sacred Concerns than any the world can shew are built upon it which adhesion also as Nature teaches us is very frequently an effect of Passion Common Experience manifesting it to be a fault annext to the very Nature of Man that his Uâ—derstanding is liable to be byast by his Will where his very Essence is not concern'd so as not to make the least doubt of may more oftentimes to hold firmly whatever habitual Prejudice Affection to Friends precipitate hast or fullen Ignorance has once addicted him to All I can imagine in Dr. T's behalf is this that he must alledge he conceives this Assurance or Firm Adhesion is a proper Effect of the Object working it in his Understanding and that therefore he could not have this firm Assurance or Adhesion to it unless the Thing were indeed such in it self This every Intelligent man sees is his only way to come off but this he neither has attempted to do nor ever shall be in the least able to compass till he retract his costly anger against First Principles his drollish Abuses against Demonstration his Accusing the things of Invisibleness instead of blaming his own bad Eyes and lastly his miscall'd Firm Principle which makes all built upon it no better than empty Contradiction Yet if he pleases to shew us that the Object doth rationally assure him the thing is so by affording such proofs as of their own nature are able to make us assent firmly to it as a Truth and not only incline us towards it as a Likelihood let him go to work Logically that being the proper Science in this case and shew us how and by what virtue any proof of his is able to effect this and I promise him faithfully to respect and treat him with a great deal of Honour though his performance comes off never so short But I foresee three Insuperable difficulties lie in his way first that he sees his Cause cannot bear it for which he still blames the Nature of the Thing Next that the deep Study or the most Learned Science of Elegant Expressions so totally possesses his Mind it will not let Logick have any part in his thought And lastly if it does yet he may hap to meet there with some unelegant Terms of Art which will quite fright him from his business and make him forswear the most evident Truths in the world § 9. But he hath only skirmish'd hitherto now â—he comes to close Dispute and will prove that take Faith how I will he does not in these words avow the possible falshood of Faith and that he may not fail to hit right on my meaning of the word Faith he divides the Text and gives us many Senses of that word those as ridiculous as he could imagine which would make the unexamining Reader judg verily that I were out of my Wits to take the word Faith in such absurd meanings and then hold it Impossible to be False This done he shews himself a most Victorious Conquerour and Confutes me powerfully from pag. 10. to pag. 13. At least would not Dr. T's best Friend so he were but any thing Ingenuous think he might safely swear that either he did not know what I meant by the word Faith when I say Faith is impossible to be False or else candidly acknowledg that he is strangely Insincere to counterfeit so many Imaginary Tenets and then one by one confute them Read them here from the middle of pag. 10. to pag. 12. and then reflect on my words found in my Introduction to Faith Vindicated pag. 17 which are these To ask then if Faith can possibly be False is to ask whether the Motives laid by Gods Providence for Mankind or his Church to embrace Christian Faith must be such as of their own Nature cannot fail to conclude those Points True and to affirm that Faith is not possible to be False is equivalently to assert that those Motives or the Rule of Faith must be thus absolutely Conclusive Firm and Immovable Hence is seen that I concern not my self in this Discourse with how perfectly or imperfectly divers Persons penetrate those Motives or how they satisfie or dissatisfie some particular Persons since I only speak of the Nature of those Motives in themselves and as laid in second Causes by Gods Providence to light Mankind in their way to Faith To which the dimness of Eye-sight neglect to look at all or looking the wrong way even in many particular men is Extrinsecal and Contingent Observe Gentlemen what exquisite Care I took to declare my meaning so perfectly that the common regard to Readers and his own Reputation might restrain Dr. T. from imposing wilfully a wrong sence to which habitual fault I knew he had otherwise most strong Inclinations Observe next that all his confute is wholly built on this known mistake Hence his objecting the weak Understandings of some Believers which is both forestal'd by the woâ—ds now cited declaring that I only speak of the Motives to light Mankind or the Church to Faith and what they are of their own Nature or in themselves not how perfectly or imperfectly others penetrate them besides I put this very Objection against my self Faith Vindicated p. 164. and answer it which he never acknowledging it was mine puts here as his own against me without taking the least notice of my Answer there given The last meaning he gives of the word Faith which is the Means and Motives to Faith is nearest to mine But because he leaves out the consideration of their being ordained by God for his Church as also of what they are in their own Nature or by virtue of the Object and speaks of them only as in the worst Subject viz. in weak Persons which penetrate them very little he misses wholly my Sense and so impugns me nor at all but skirmishes with his own shadow For what kind of consequence is this St. Austin says Some Persons are sav'd not by the quickness of their Vnderstandings but by the Simplicity of their Belief Therefore
right that is both sides of the Contradiction must be True if Dr. T's Faith be True built only on moral Certainty which would utterly destroy his enemies Identical Propositions I would gladly know at least why these two equally matcht Moral Certainties shall not make a drawn battel of it or how it shall be determin'd on whose side the Certain Truth stands I doubt it will be the hardest task that ever was for him to make it even morally Certain there is a Trinity for this cannot be done but by manifesting the Letter of Scripture bears no shadow of Reason on the Socinians side otherwise that seeming Reason may be a just cause for a Protestant to suspend perhaps doubt of it and so not be morally-Certain § 15. The meaning then of these word Moral Certainty being so Indeterminate that Dr. T. himself cannot tell what to make of it no wonder our Divines cannot agree about it If he says he understands it very well I desire to put it to the Trial by producing any one Proposition held by him to be but morally-Certain and shew us Logically Art being the Test of Nature how or by virtue of what it's Terms hang together or to make out according to his own notion of Moral Certainty that not one Prudent man in the world does or can be dissatisfi'd with it What I conceive is meant generally by Moral Certainty is a high Probability or some great Likelihood which being an insufficient Ground for Faith for we are to profess and dy for the Truth of our Faith and not for its Likelyhood onely â— judge the name of it ought not to be heard when we speak of the Certainty due to Faith and itâ— Grounds unless it be signifi'd at the same time that 't is us'd Catachrestically or abusively to mean Absolute Certainty § 16. I expect D. T. will instead of making out the nature of this Chimeâ—ical Certainty run to Instances for example that of our being morally certain of the Sun 's rising to morrow and such like But first I contend he is not Certain of this his own Instance If he be let him give his Grounds of Certainty for it and go about to prove or conclude the night before that it will I doubt much he will when he comes to try it find himself gravel'd and confess with me that 't is only highly Likely 'T is well he did not live in Joshuah's or Ezekiah's time and tell them the day before that Moses his Law was only as Certain as that the Sun would not stand still or go backwards the next day for if so I doubt much those who had heard and believ'd him would have taken a just scandal at their Faith seeing Points held equally Certain as it prove actually False Again what more Certainty has he now of the Suns rising again within 18 hours after his setting than they in those days were the day before that it would not go back or stand still and yet we see they were not Certain of it for we know they had been mistaken in it and that Judgment an Error By which we see that D. T's moral Certainty means such a Certainty w ch as appear'd by this Event was Vncertain or such a Certainty as was Certain peradventure Now this nonsence has no harm in it but that 't is opposite to an Identical Proposition What 's Certain is Certain which weighs not with Dr. T. who has renounc't all First Principles In a word our B. Saviour has beforehand prevented all such Instances by â—elling us that Heaven and Earth shall fail but his Words shall not fail Intimating that the whole Fabrick of the World much more some one great part of it is tottering and unstable in comparison of the unchangeable nature of Truth and such all good Christians are to profess their Faith and be ready to dy to attest it § 17. Having thus done more than Miracle and establisht MORAL CERTAINTY which were not its self were it not unestablisht â—e procceeds p. 18. to overthrow Infallibility alledging that the Vnderstanding cannot be absolutely secur'd from all possibility of mistake but either by the perfection of its own nature which he thinks all Mankind but Mr. S. have hitherto granted that it could not or by supernatural Assistance I desire he would not stretch my Tenet beyond the bounds my self give it I never said that Human Understandingâ— could not possibly be mistaken in any thing at all but only in Knowledges built on Sensations in Knowing the Truth of First Principles in Knowing while left to Nature till Speculation for which they are too weak put them into a puzzle by Practical Self-evidence confusedly and in common something belonging to some natures daily converst with and lastly some Learned men in diverse deductions of Evident Reason for example in diverse Propositions in Euclid But that which our Subject restrains it to being about the Infallible Conveyance down of Faith is the First of those viz. Infallibility of our Sensations for once putting this Tradition is an Infallible Rule Speaking then of this which is all my present purpose requires I am so far from being the only man who holds it that Dr. T. excepting Scepticks if perhaps he be not one of that Sect is I think the only man that ever deny'd it Are not both of us infallibly certain that we Eat Drink Write and Live or did any but a mad-man ever think seriously that sober Mankind abstracting from Disease in some particulars might possibly be deceiv'd in such Knowledges as these Are not our Senses contriv'd naturally as apt to convey Impressions from the Objects to the Knowing Power I speak not of the different degrees of perfection necessarily annext to each but as to the main so as to be sufficient for use and needful Speculation as any other Causes in Nature are to do their proper Effects Have they not also as little Contingency in them and that Contingency as easily discoverable by the Standard of circumstant Mankind with whom they converse as in Iâ—terical Persons and such like This being so I affirm that the Basis on which our Rule of Faith is built viz. Natural Knowledges is more secure than any part of Nature since naturally 't is Impossible Mankind can err in these and whereas we are not Certain but it may in some Conjuncture become God's Infinite Wisdom and Goodness to exert his Divine Omnipotence and alter the course of Nature even in considerable portions of it as in the Instances given of the Sun 's standing still and going back the Universal Deluge and such like yet in our case 't is Impossible beeausâ— the altering Nature's course in such as these were directly to create False Judgments or Errour in Mankind of which 't is Impossible Essential Wisdom Goodness and Truth should be the Immediate and peculiar Cause Naturally therefore it cannot happen nor yet Supernaturally For though taking the proportion between Gods Omnipotence singly considered and the
properly a Science for this Abstraction or manner of being in our mind frees the notion or nature thus abstracted that is the thing as thus conceiv'd by us from Vncertainty nay indeed fixes it in a kind of Immutability whereas were it consider'd as found in the World there would be no firm Ground at all for any Discourse For example perhaps by reason of the perpetual turmoil of things in Nature there is not to be found in the World any one Body either mathematically Straight Circular or Triangular yet because the nature of Body conceiv'd as in Rest bears it we can abstract from Motion and so consider quantitative Things according to what they can bear in themselves taken as not moving or in Rest therefore we can make such steady notions and when we have done discourse them and ground a long train of new Conclusions which we call a particular Science upon such a Nature thus conceiv'd § 9. And for that reason I would gladly know why Ethicks or Morality is not equally demonstrable as Mathematicks For we can equally abstract those Moral Notions of Virtues and Vices and consider them apart as we can do those Mathematical ones of Lines and Numbers I know 't is grown a common humour in the World taken up I know not how by course and continu'd none knows why to think otherwise But I must confess I never could discern any reason for it and shall be thankful to that man who can show me any that convinces In the mean time I give mine for the Affirmative which is this That the same reason holds for Ethicks as for Mathematicks since all the perquisits for Demonstration are found in the one as in the other To put it to the Test let 's consider what Euclid does when he demonstrates and by virtue of what We see he puts his Definitions and some common Maxims peculiar to that Subject and then by his Reason connecting the first Deductions with his Principles and the following Deductions with the foregoing onâ—â— weaves them into a Science And is it not evident that we can as well know what 's meant by those words which express Virtues and Vices and so as well define them as we can those other Also that the Common Maxims of Morality are as self-evident to Humane Nature as any First Principles in the World I admire then what should hinder Ethicks to be as perfect a Science as the clearest piece of Mathematicks since we can equally abstract the several notions handled in it from matter equally define them and consequently assisted by Common Maxims equally-evident with equal clearness discourse them which is all that is requir'd § 10. If it be said that particular Moral Actions are liable to Contingency 't is answer'd that this hinders not but the Speculative part of Morality is a true Science Even Mathematical Demonstrations when reduc'd to practice and put in matter are subject also to Contingency as we experience daily in Mechanicks and yet the Speculative part which abstracts from matter is never the less Scientifical § 11. The greatest difficulty is in that Cardinal Virtue call'd Prudence and I confess that because the exercise of this Virtue is surrounded with an incomprehensible number of Accidents and way-laid as it were with all the Ambushes and Stratagems of Fortune and consequently to make its Success Certain we must be put to fathom the natures of many several things nay more their Combinations or Joynt-actings with their several circumstances and especially of those things which are the Common Causes of the World as the influences of the Sun Moon and other Stars if they have any that is considerable and lastly of the Elements which 't is impossible for our short-sighted Knowledge to reach hence Prudence in its Execution or put in matter is liable to more Contingency by far than any piece of the Mathematicks where we have but one or two single notions or natures to grapple with and weild Yet notwithstanding all these difficulties I must still contest that the Maxims of Prudence upon which its Dictamens are chiefly grounded are self-evident practically and to the Learned Demonstrable viz. That we ought to sow and plant in their proper seasons that 't is best for Merchants to hazard though they be insecure of the Event and a thousand such-like § 12. I expect Dr. T. will object the fickle nature of the Will which renders all Contingent where this perpetually-changing Planet has any Influence But yet there 's a way for all that to fix this volatil Mercurial Power and make it act with a constancy as great as any other thing in Nature To conceive how this may be effected we are to consider that the Will too has a peculiar nature of its own which it can no more forgo than the most constant Piece found in Nature can do Its that is The Will can no more leave off being a Will than a Rule can not-be a Rule Faith not-be Faith or any other of those ridiculous Identical Propositions as Dr. T. calls them not be true Now the Will being a Power and Powers taking their several Natures from their Objects or as the Schools express it being specify'd by them and the Object of the Will as distinguish'd from the Understanding being Good and this propos'd to It by that Knowing Power that is Good at least appearing such if it can be made evident that such a thing can never appear a Good to the Subject thus circumstanc'd 't is demonstrable the Will cannot will it nay as evident as 't is that A Will is a Will § 13. To apply this to particulars In case there be a Trade or Profession of Merchants and it be evident to all the Followers of that sole Employment that Themselves Wives and Children must starve unless they venture to Sea the notventuring can never appear to them thus circumstanc'd that is addicted to that onely way of Livelihood as is suppos'd a Good and so 't is demonstrable that abstracting from Madness or Exorbitant Passion which is not our Case they can never will not-to-venture Or if a great multitude of men have embrac'd no Profession but that of the Law and as we 'll suppose have no other Livelihood but That so that it becomes evident it can never appear a Good to them not to take Fees 't is as Certain they will not refuse them as 't is that a Thing is it Self or that a Will is a Will because a Will is a Power whose Essence 't is to have such an Object as is appearingly Good § 14. To come closer to our purpose Suppose Innumerable multitudes of Fathers or Immediate Predecessors in any Age had an inclination to deceive their Children or immediate Successors in the World and consequently that the Immediate End they propos'd to themselves were to make them believe such Points of Faith were received by them from Forefathers which were indeed newly invented these men I say in case they must see