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
Gods holy disposition than they would have had had they kept awake that degree of Suspense in their minds which Right Reason the nature God had given them requir'd they should § 8. 'T is time now to apply this discourse to Dr. T's Performances It appears hence that one may have no reason to doubt of a thing and yet withall have no reason in the world to assent firmly to it as a most Certain Truth which onely is to his purpose And this may be done two ways either by perfectly suspending and inclining to neither side as we experience our Understanding now bears it self in order to the Stars being Even or Odd Or by strongly hoping or inclining to Assent the Thing is True as when we expect a Friend such a time at London who never us'd to break his word which expectation though one may have very great ground to hope will not deceive us yet it were a mad thing to assent to it as firmly as I do to my Faith or that there is a GOD. But what I most admire is that Dr. T. can think an Actual not doubting or seeing no just cause to doubt is a competent assurance of the Grounds for Christian Faith as he all over inculcates For not to repeat over again what hath been lately prov'd that a bare not doubting is not sufficient to make a man a Christianâ— 't is evident first that Turks Jews and Heathens the Generality at least are fully perswaded what they hold is â—rue and see no just cause to doubt it whence by this kind of arguing if it be sufficient for Christian Faith to have such Grounds as exclude Doubt in its Adherents Turcism Judaism and perhaps Paganism too may claim to be true Religions by the same Title and if the Certainty or Security of Christian Religion be no more but a freedom from doubt all those wicked Sects have good reason to be held Certain too and so both sides of the Contradiction may become Certain by which stratagem Dr. T. is as compleatly revenged of his Enemies Identical Propositions as his own heart could wish and rewards his dear Friends and faithful Abetters direct Contradictions very honourably advancing them to be First Principles and even as Certain as Faith it self Secondly Passion and Vice can breed in a man a full persuasion that an Errour is True and such an apprehension as shall take away all Actual Doubt nay the more Passion a man is in and the more obstinate he is in that passion the less still he doubts so that by Dr. T's Logick no man can tell whether Christianity be indeed Rationally-wise or passionately-foolish in caâ—e the Test of its Certainty or the Adequate Effect of its Grounds be not a steady Assent that 't is True that is if the Motives to embrace it be not Conclusive of the Truth of its Doctrine but oneâ—y Exclusive of Doubt Thirdly Ignorance and dull Rudeneâ—s is easily appay'd with any silly Reason and so a most excellent way to be void of Actual Doubt nay of all men in the world those who are perfectly ignorant see the least cause of doubting being least able to raise any wherefore if being free from seeing any just cause of doubt be the utmost Effect of Christian Grounds let all Christians be but grosly ignorant and they shall immediately without more ado become as Free from Actual Doubt as may be and by that means be the best Christians in the world and consequently Ignorance be fundamentally establish'd by Dr. T. the Mother of all True Devotion Fourthly Though out of a stupid carelesness men use to take many things for granted upon slight Grounds while 't is cheap to admit them and no danger accrues upon the owning them yet experience teaches us that when any great Inconvenience presses as the loss of Friends Livelihood or Life Reason our true Nature teaches men to study their careless thoughts over again by which means they begin now to Doubt of that which before they took for granted if they have not Certain Motives to establish them in the Truth of what they profess and to ascertain to them some equivalent Good at least to what they are in danger to forego In which case I fear it will yield small strength to a man put in such a strong Temptation to find upon review of his Grounds that they were onely able to make him let them pass for good ones while the Concern was remoter and less but that notwithstanding all these he sees they may perhaps be False and himself a great Fool for holding them True without Reasons convincing them to be so and consequently foolish perhaps wicked to boot for suffering so deeply to attest them If Dr. T. reply That such men dying for what they conceiv'd Truth meant well and consequently acted virtuously I must ask him how he knows that or can make them know it unless he propose Motives to conclude those Tenets True For as Errour is the Parent and Origin of all Vice so is Truth of all Virtue nor is Virtue any thing but a Disposition of the Will to follow Reason or Truth Whence if we cannot be abâ—olutely Certain any Tenet we follow is Truth we cannot be absolutely-Certain any Action is Virtuous and 't is not enough to make a man Virtuous to mean well in common or intend to do his Duty and be onely free from doubt all the while unless they have some substantial Truth to proceed upon which renders their meaning and particular Action Good as to the main by directing it to that which is mans true Happiness For 't is questionless that the Generality of the Heathens who worship'd Juno Venus Vulcan and the rest of that Rabble meant well in Common were free from actual doubt nay had Dr. T's Moral Certainty too that is had a firm and undoubted Assent upon such Grounds as would fully satisfie a Prudent man for many of them were men of great Natural Prudence and were actually satisfy'd with the Motives they had for Polytheism Lastly they had Dr. T's Firm Principle too on their side for they had as far as they could discern the Judgment of the whole World round about them that is as much as the nature of the thing could give them though it were for had there been indeed such Gods and Goddesses yet being in Heaven they could have no more light concerning them than by Authority of others relating also as doubtlesly they did many wonderful things conceived to be done by their means and on the other side they had all the Authority extant at that time for them and what doubts soever a few Speculative and Learned men rais'd concerning them yet the Generality who were unacquainted with their thoughts had no occasion to raise any at all These advantages I say the Heathens had parallel within a very little if not altogether to Dr. T's Grounds and Principles that is able to produce an equal Effect viz. Not-doubting Yet because
evidently that they renounce not Evidence and that the Scriptures Letter thus manag'd is not apt to ascertain them at all and so no Rule Yet he gives us one great Reason as he calls it why men do not agree in the Sense of Scripture as well as in the others because their Interests and Lusts and Passions are more concern'd So that according to Dr. T. a man who is to be guided by his Pastors and Teachers cannot be Certain of the Sense of Scripture nor consequently of Faith unless he can look into the hearts of men which is proper to God alone and discern who are Passionate prejudic'd Interessed and Lustful Again this Reason is found on either side to a great degree for were not those Axioms and Definitions so Evident that absurd men would incur the shame of Mankind to deny them there wants no temptation of Interest and passion to make Authors go about to control and contradict the Writings of others to gain themselves applause and credit But if this be one great Reason of disagreement in the Sense of Scripture I would gladly know what are the other great Reasons But of these we hear nothing and there is good Reason why for since his one great Reason is the ill-disposedness of the persons the other great Reason must be the defectiveness of the Thing that is the Inability of Scripture's Letter by reason of its Inevidence to private Understandings to make them agree in one Sense of it which manifestly makes it unfit to be a Rule of Faith § 20. To Conclude the Summe of Dr. T's Vindication of himself from making according to his Grounds Faith possible to be False amounts to this He produces words to disprove it which manifoldly confess it he endeavours all along to shew that Infallible Certainty cannot be had of either Scripture's Letter or Sense that is he grants that the whole world may be deceiv'd though all the Causes be put to secure them in the Ground of Faith or denies that absolutely speaking Faith is Certainly-True Again loath to speak out to that point candidly he shuffles about and puts upon his Adversary divers odd and ridiculous acceptions of the word Faith omitting the right one which was given to his hand Lastly being to give account what kind of Certainty he allow'd to Faith he gives such a Notion of it as signifies nothing and has all the Marks of Vncertainty imaginable taking his measure of Certainty which ought to proceed from the Object or Proof from the Subject's perswasion or adhesion to it which common Experience testifies may indifferently be found in Truths and Falshoods and Common sense confutes Nature telling every man that my Assent is not therefore Certain because I do not doubt it see not the least cause of doubt am fully perswaded and verily think so but because the Thing is seen indeed to be so or because the Proof is Conclusive Either then let him bring such Proofs and own and shew them to be such or he leaves his Cause in the lurch and his Credit which he is here defending unclear'd by yielding Faith possible to be absolutely False that is for any thing any man living knows actually such DISCOURSE VII In what manner Dr. T. replies to FAITH VINDICATED § 1. DR T. has no Fellow nor his way of Confute any parallel Not to provoke the peevishness of malice too far and yet follow home my blow more fully and yet withal to uphold the Efficacie of Faith grounded on the just Conceit of its Absolute Certainty I writ a a Book call'd Faith Vindicated in behalf of Christian Faith in Common shewing the absolute Certainty or Security from Error of that kind of Assent provided it be grounded on those Motives God had left to settle his Church and by it Mankind in Faith as I declared my self in my Introduction It pretended Demonstration from the beginning to the end and had not one drollish or unsober expression in it Take a Map of it in a few words I conceiv'd my self debtor both Sapientibus and Insipientibus and hence the Concern being common to all Christians amongst the rest to Speculative Divines I resolv'd to prove it by Arguments sutable to every Capacity To the more Intelligent to the end of the Third Eviction to the Middle or Prudential sort to the end of the Fifth· and to them of the lowest Capacity in the last every one being enabled by Tradition or Education to comprehend what the common Language and Practice of Christianity teaches them as to Speechees and Carriages appertaining to Faith I begun after I had put two Postulatum granted by all Christians with Logical Arguments which I pursu'd at large because as 't is a common Trick in Sophisters and half Logicians to abuse that Excellent Art to elude the clearest Evidendences so it became a more necessary Duty in me to prevent by the closest Proofs fetch 't from almost all Heads imaginable that belong'd to that skill any misusages of its Maxims to patronize Falshood This could be no other than very Speculative and accordingly I declar'd in my Introduction what my Reader was to expect in Discourses of that kind nor will any man indu'd with common Sense wonder that I should use Logical Expressions when I make Logical Discourses or Terms of Art when I speak to Scholars These things reflected on let us see now what a dextrous way our Learned Confuter takes to answer that whole Book for he manifests here an intention to give it no other and to overthrow so many Demonstrations § 2. His first way of Confute is to pick out a leaf or two of the most Speculative part of that Treatise only intended for Scholars and apply it to the Understandings of those who are onely Sermon-pitch to whom because such Discourses are unsutable and withal too hard for him to answer hence he very politickly both gratifies the Fancies of those Readers and avoids himself the difficult task of answering the pressing Reason in it by playing the Wit when 't was dangerous to act the Scholar and making use of his constant Friend at a dead lift Drollery in stead of relying on the Patronage of Reason which as he experiences so often betrays and exposes hss weakness He runs on therefore a whole leaf or two in this jovial Career ere he can recover himself till even his own Friends who are not aware of the necessity admire at his endless Raillery and true to his Method neglects wholly the Sense and excepts mightily against five or six hard words namely potentiality actuality actuation determinative supervene and subsume which it seems puzzle him exceedingly for he professes to think them Mystical He calls the Discourse jargon Foolish and Nonsense which two last words he is ever most free of when his Reason is most at a loss He likens it to the Coptick and Slavonian Language talks of Astrology Palmistry Chymistry and what not and with such kind of stuff confutes it
he can most easily seem to misunderstand so to divert the Discourse A Method so constantly observ'd in his Reply to Sure-footing where he made Witty Dexterity still supply the place of Pertinent Solidity that instead of Rule of Faith it ought more justly have been entitled Sure-footing Travesty 5. And since all Discourse is ineffectual which is not grounded on some Certain Truth and consequently not onely he who settles or builds but also he who aims to overthrow or the Objecter must ground his Discourse on some Certain Principle if he intends to convince the others Teneâ— of Falsehood that Dr. T. would therefore esteem it his Duty even when he objects to ground his Opposition upon some Firm Principle And since no pretended Principle can be Firm but by virtue of some First Principle and that Dr. T. has disclaim'd here Identical Propositions to be such 't is requisite that he either confute my Discourses produc'd in this Treatise proving First Principles to be of that nature and show some other way by which the Terms of those he assigns for such do better cohere or he is convinc'd to have none at all and so all he writes or discourses must be Groundless and Insignificant 6. Thus much in common for the Manner of his Writing As for his Matter I request he would not in the subject of this present Discourse about the Certainty of a Deity and Christian Faith hover with ambiguous Glosses between Certainty and Uncertainty that is between Is and Is not but speak out Categorically and plainly declare whether he holds those Points absolutely True that is whether they be absolutely True to us or whether any man in the world can with reason say he sees they are True or has any Reason or Argument to conclude them True If not then â—et him show how 't is avoidable but all the World must with Truth say Both these may be False for any thing they can discern than which nothing sounds more horrid and blasphemous to a Christian Ear. If he says there are such Reasons extant but he has them not then let him leave off attempting to settle those Tenets or writing on those Subjects since he confesses himself unqualify'd and unfurnish'd with means to manage them If he says there are such Proofs and that he has them let him produce them and stand by them and not blame the nature of Things for bearing no more and others for saying they have more and that the Things do bear more To express my self closer and more particularly Let him speak out ingenuously and candidly to these Queries Whether be holds that God's Church or any man in the World is furnish'd with better Grounds for the Tenet of a Deity or for Christian Faith or any stronger Reasons to prove these Points True than those in Joshua's and Hezekiah's time had or could have the day before that the Sun should not stand still or go back the next day than that Person who threw a Glass on the Ground which broke not had or could have that it would not break â—han the Inhabitants of divers Houses had that they would not suddenly fall which yet did so or lastly to use his own words than those Reasons are which satisfie Prudent Men in Humane Affairs in which notwithstanding they experience themselves often mistaken If he say he has let him produce them and heartily maintain them and endeavour to make them out and I shall hereafter express as much Honour for him as I have done here of Resentment and Dislike for advancing the contrary Position But if he profess he has no better or that the nature of the thing not bearing it there can no better be given then 't is unavoidable first that the most Sacred Tenets of a Deity 's Existence and all the Points of Christian Faith may be now actually False since Points which had Reasons for them of Equivalent strength did prove actually such Next that no man in the world is in true Speech Certain there is a God or that the least word of Christian Religion is True since 't is Nonsence to say any of those Persons in those former Instances of equivalent strength were or could be truly Certain of Points which prov'd actually False and in which themselves were mistaken In a word I would have him without disguise let the world know whether as there was Contingency in those Causes and so the imagin'd or hoped Effects in the former Instances miscarried and prov'd otherwise than was expected so there be not also Contingency in the Motives for those two most Sacred Tenets upon whose Certainty the Eternal Good of Mankind depends so as they may perhaps not conclude and so both those Tenets may perhaps be really and actually otherwise than we Christians now hold If he professes to embrace this wicked Tenet and his words are too express for it ever to be deny'd though upon second thoughts I hope they may be retracted he owes me an Answer to my Faith Vindicated which hitherto he has shuffled off without any at all and to my Reasons alledg'd in this Treatise for the same Point FAITH's ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY Now Gentlemen since nothing conduces more to Knowledge in any kind than that the Matter of the Dispute be unambiguously stated and clearly understood and that a solid Method be observ'd in the managing it I become a humble Petitioner to your Selves as you tender that Excellent Concern of Mankind and that most Sacred One of Christianity to use your best Interest with Dr. T. that he would please to yield to these Duties here exprest and I oblige my self inviolably to observe the same Carriage towards him which I here propose and press he would use towards me which if he refuse I declare I shall leave him to the Censure of all truly-Learned and Ingenuous Persons however he triumphs amongst Those who are great Admirers of Pretty Expressions resting assur'd that your selves will not onely hold me Unblameable but also highly Commendable for noâ— losing my precious time in reciprocating his trifling and insignificant Drollery Your True Honourer and Humble Servant J. S. FINIS AMENDMENTS PAge 1. line 21. read that both first p. 47. l. 3. self possible to p. 50. l. 20. solid p. 101. l. 6 7. possible all this may p. 115 l. 12 Judgment in which it is l. 25. can never p. 118. l. 26. resolute hatred p. 121. l. 23. did equivalently p. 124. l. 21. 28. Speculaters p. 127. l. 17. nay more p. 135. l. 7. to be p. 139. l. 18. greater degree p. 142. l. 2. is not true or not to dare p. 146. l. 14. Chimerical p 157. l. 16. Fourth Eviction l. 18. of the Sixth p. 162. l. 16. Sermons equally p. 163. l 27. Parallelepiped p. 166. l. 30. Predicate p. 176. l. ult all good p. 183. l. 28 sensible man may p. 184. l. 2. deduc'd there p. 186. l. 12. of discoursing the p. 199. l. 25. it is is not more p. 200. l. 16. of its own p. 212. l. 24. not the Rule dele express p. 218. DISCOURSE IX p. 219 l 13 14. Reason in it p 229. l. 28 29. the Authors mistaken in undervaluing it p. 234. l. 17. I do non stand p. 239. l. 5. apply'd l. 6. I had
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
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
to doubt I ask him how he will prove that it must needs exclude all reason of Actual Doubt from the Minds even of the wisest Christians unless he can prove those Grounds cannot possibly be doubted of with reason for otherwise if those men may possibly doubt with reason 't is ten to one they will do so actually at one time or other He ought then to say those Motives exclude all possible doubt or are undoubtable of their own nature and so take it out of the Subjects strength or weakness and put it upon the Objects But this he is loth to say dreading the Consequence which is this that he who affirms a Thing can never be possibly doubted of in true reason must affirm withal that he has Motives concluding it absolutely True that is absolutely Impossible to be False and if it depends on Authority Infallible Testimony for it which his superficial Reason fully resolved against First Principles or Identical Propositions can never reach It remains then that he must hold to Actual Not-doubting on the Subjects side that is he must say the Motives are onely such as preservâ— prudent persons from doubt and then he must either make out that Christians have more Natural Prudence than those in those other Sects Natural I say for all Motives Antecedent to Faith must be Objects of our Natural Parts or Endowments or else confess that he knows no difference between the Reasons for those other Sects and those for Christianity according to the Grounds deliver'd by him here Both exclude Actual Doubt in persons as far as appears to us equal in prudence as to other things neither of them exclude possible Rational Doubt each one had as much Evidence of their Deities they ador'd as they could have in their circumstances supposing those Deities were and no True or absolutely Conclusive Evidence appear'd on either side both had as good Proofs as the thing afforded supposing it were and such as excluded Doubting therefore according to Dr. T's Doctrine both had Certainty and all is parallel and so farewel Christianity Religion and First Principles too that is farewel Common Sence and all possibility of knowing any thing All Truth and Goodness must needs go to wrack when Principles naturally self-evident and establish'd by GOD himself the Founder of Nature are relinquish'd and others made up of meer Fancy and Air are taken up in their stead § 10. I know Dr. T. will sweat and fume and bestir all his knacks of Rhetorick to avoid these Consequences of his Doctrine I expect he will pelt me with Ironies and bitter Jeers cavil at unelegant words tell me what some Divines of ours say and perhaps mistake them all the while stoutly deny all my Conclusions instead of answering my discourse nay fall into another peevish fit of the Spleen and say I have no forehead for driving on his Principles to such Conclusions as he who was too busie at Words to mind or amend his Reasons never dream't of Therefore to defend my forehead it were not amiss to make use of some Phylacteries containing such expressions taken out of his First Sermon as best discover to us his thoughts as to the Certainty and Uncertainty of his Positive Proofs and the Point it self as prov'd by them I mean the Existence of a Deity or a Creation Such as are Serm. p. 19. A Being suppos'd of Infinite Goodness and Wisdom and Power is a very LIKELY Cause of these things What more LIKELY to make this Vast World c. What more LIKELY to communicate Being What more LIKELY to contrive this admirable Frame of the World This seems NO UNREASONABLE Account P. 21. The Controversie between Vs and this sort of Atheists comes to this Which is the MORE CREDIBLE OPINION That the World was never made c. or that there was from all Eternity such a Being as we conceive GOD to be Now COMPARING the PROBABILITIES of things that we may know ON WHICH SIDE THE ADVANTAGE LIES c. P. 22. The Question whether the World was created or not can onely be decided by TESTIMONY and PROBABILITIES of Reason Testimony is the PRINCIPAL Argument in a thing of this nature and if FAIR PROBABILITIES of Reason concur with it c. P. 29. The PROBABILITIES of REASON do all likewise FAVOUR the Beginning of the World P. 32. Another PROBABILITY is c. P. 34. These are the CHIEF PROBABILITIES on Our Side which being taken together and in their united sence have A GREAT DEAL of CONVICTION in them § 11. Upon these Words and Expressions of his I make these Reflexions 1. That as appears by his own stating the Point p. 21. he makes it amount to the same Question as indeed it does Whether there were a Creation or a First Being creating the World whom we call GOD so that all his Proofs are indifferently to be taken as aim'd to evince one as well as the other 2. That this being so he stands not heartily to any one Argument he brings as able to conclude the Truth of a Deity 's or Creator's Existence 3. That his words which are expressive of the Evidence of his Gâ—ounds and the Certainty of the Point viz. that there is a GOD manifest too plainly that he judges according to his Speculative Thoughts at least he has neither one nor the other For if it be but Likely though it be exceedingly such yet as common Experience teaches us it may notwithstanding be False If the account he gives of a Deity creating the World be onely no unreasonable one this signifies onely that it has some Reason or other for it and every man knows that seldom or never did two Wits discourse contrary Positions or Lawyers plead for contrary Causes or Preachers preach for contrary Opinions but there was some Reasons produc'd by them for either side and so for any thing he has said the Atheist may come to give no unreasonable account too that there is no Deity though it be something less reasonable than that for a Deity And if the Controversie between Atheists and us be onely this Whether is the MORE CREDIBLE OPINION then the other Opinion viz. that there was no Creation or is no GOD is yielded to be Credible too though not SO Credible as that there is Also if we ought to COMPARE the PROBABILITIES of things that we may know on which side the ADVANTAGE LIES 't is intimated to us and granted that 't is Probable there is no GOD though it be more Probable there is and while 't is but Probable though it be very much more yet it may very easily be False as every days experience teaches us in a thousand Instances wherein our selves were mistaken through the whole course of our lives which commonly happen'd when the far more probable side prov'd False else we had not inclin'd to think it true and by that means been mistaken Again if the PROBABILITIES of Reason do but FAVOUR our side 't is a sign that
more blasphemous against Essential Truth and Goodness Farther I declare 't is my Tenet that notwithstanding this failure in some particulars yet I hold that the Generality of the Faithful are so familiarly acquainted with the nature of Testifying Authority as to know grosly and confusedly by means of Practical Self-evidence that 't is a certain Rule to proceed upon and thence either discern themselves if they be very prudential or else are capable to be made discern who proceed upon that Rule who not Hence also I hold that Tradition or Testifying Authority is the best provision that could be made for all Mankind to receive Faith upon it being the most familiarly and most obviously knowable and penetrable by all sorts that can be imagin'd and far more than Languages Translations Transcriptions on which the Letter-Rule depends Lastly I hold that what is thus practically self-evident that is known in gross and confusedly by the Vulgar is demonstrable to the Learned who scan with exact Art the nature of those Causes which wrought constantly that certifying Effect in the Generality and find out according to what precisely they had that Certifying Virtue which found it will be the proper Medium to demonstrate the Certainty of that Authority by This is my true Tenet which my Prevaricating Adversary perpetually mistakes because he will do it and he therefore will do it because it must be done In mala causa as St. Austin sayes non possunt aliter § 12. He goes about to argue pag. 15. from the End of Faith and alledges that a freedome from seeing just cause of doubting the Authority and Sense of Scripture may make one believe or really assent to the Doctrine of it live accordingly and be saved By which I conceive he judges a Christians life consists in moving ones Legs Arms or Hands for 't is enough to stir us up to External Action that the motive be onely Probable but if a Christian's life be Spiritual consisting in interiour Acts of the Understanding and Will as a vigorous Hope and a fervent Love of unseen and unconceiveable Goods with other Virtues subservient to these and all these depend on Faith as their Basis and Faith depends for its Truth which gives it all its efficacie on the Rule of Faith I doubt it will scarce suffice to work these Effects heartily if Learned men speak out candidly and tell the Christians they are to govern that notwithstanding all they can discern they cannot see absolutely speaking that Christian Faith is a certain Truth but only a high likelihood a more Credible Opinion or a fair Probability It must therefore be beyond all these and so impossible to be false The main point then that Dr. T. ever misses in is this that he still omits to state what certainty is due to Christian Faith and its Grounds per se loquendo or according to its own Nature and the interiour Acts it must produce and the difficulties it must struggle through and overcome even in the Wisest and most Rational persons who are to be satisfied of its verity and so embrace it and considers it perpetually according to what per accidens that is not Essentially belongs to it but Accidentally may consist with it without utterly destroying its Nature that is he considers it not as found in those Subjects where it is in its true and perfect state or freed from all alloy of Irrationality but as in those where 't is found most defectively and imperfectly or as it most deviates from its right nature And this he is forc'd to do because he sees that should he treat of it as it ought to be or according to what it would be by virtue of the Motives laid by the Giver of every perfect Gift to bring mankind to Faith singly and solely consider'd without mingling the Imperfection of Creatures with his otherwise most powerful and wise Efficiency the Grounds of Christian Faith must be able to subdue to a hearty Assent the most Learned and wisest portions of Mankind which they could never do while they are seen by them to be Possible to be False § 13. He argues that Infallibility is not necessary to the Nature of Faith because this admits of Degrees that being the highest degree of Assent of none Besides Infallibility is an absolute Impossibility of being deceived and there are no degrees in absolute Impossibilities I answer that let a thousand Intellectual Creatures Angels or Men know and that Infallibly too the self-same-Object yet they all know it in different degrees of perfection not by means of knowing more in the Object for we will suppose it one single point but intensively or better on the Subjects side because of the different perfection of their understanding Power penetrating more clearly the self-same-Object To conceive this better let us reflect that the self-same thing may be corporally seen by several men and each infallibly know what it is by means of that sight yet because one of them has better Eyes than another one sees more clearly what 't is the other less Also the Blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven differ from one another in glory or in greater and lesser degrees of the blissful Vision that is one sees the Divine Essence better another not so well yet the Object being one Indivisible formality one cannot see more than another wherefore their great degree of Glory consists in this that one penetrates it better and as it were sinks it deeper in the knowing Power than another does which springs out of the several dispositions of the Subject or the antecedent Love of God which when 't is greater it more intimately and closely applies the Divine Object to the ferventlyâ—addicted Power Again on the Objects side there may be in some senses several degrees even of Absolute Impossibilities First because of the greater disproportion of the Object to the Power As put case it be Impossible that twenty men should lift such a weight 't is good sense to say if twenty men cannot lift it much less can two or if ten men cannot possibly resist the force of five hundred much less can they resist ten thousand of equal strength Next because one of the Impossibles depends upon another aâ— if be impossible the Conclusion should be False 't is more Impossible the Premisses should be so and yet more that the very First Principles should or thus 't is Impossible 2 and 3 should not make â— yet 't is more impossible God who is Self-existence should not be because in these the later Impossibility which depends on the formeâ— is onely Impossible by Consequence though still absolutely such that is were not at all Impossible if that which grounds it were not so Whence is seen that unless Dr. T. will say that all Created Understandings are of the self-same pitch of Excellence he must say that even supposing â—he self-same Object or Motive apt to assure Infallibly one may better penetrate it and so be more
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