overthrown or shown False by any Reasons brought against it both which equivalently imply Impossibility of Falshood Again 't is deny'd that Catholick Divines even as Speculaters hold Faith Possible to be False since they all to a man whatever they hold besides hold the Catholick Church Infallible and that we ought to receive our Faith from her Living Voice and Practice Now the Tenet of Infallibility in the Proposer necessarily draws after it the Tenet of Impossibility of Falshood in what is propos'd that is in Faith But because it may be said this is their Sentiment as Catholicks not as Schoolmen let the Angel of the Schools speak for the Schools themselves his Expressions are common and so reach all Scientia saith he Sum. Theol. 2â 2e q. 1â a. 50 ad 4m cum opinione simul esse non potest simpliciter de eodem quia de ratione scientiae est quòd id quod scitur ex â—stimetur Impossibile esse aliter se habere de ratione autem opinionis est quod id quod est opinatum existimetur possibile aliter se habere sed id quod fide tenâ—tur propter fidei certitudinem existimatur etiam Impossibile aliter se habere And again in the same Question ao 4o. ad 2o. Ea quae subsunt Fidei dupliciter considerari possunt uno modo in speciali sic non possunt esse simul visa credita alio modo in generali scilicet sub communi ratione credibilis et sic sunt VISA ab eo qui credit non enim crederet nisi VIDERET ea esse credenda vel propter EVIDENTIAM signorum vel propter aliquid hujusmodi It were easie for me to avail my self by these Testimonies to confirm the main of my Doctrine but what method will permit me and leads me to at present is only this to show that this Great Father of the Church and Doctour of all Schools declares the common Sentiment drawn out of the conceit of Faith's Certainty to be this that 't is Impossible that Points of Faith should be otherwise or false and that we must e're we believe have Evidence of the Grounds of our Belief which amounts to the same All then that can be objected from some of our Divines is this that they explicate their Tenet so as by consequence Faith is left possible to be false but what is this to the purpose since 't is one thing to hold a Tenet and another thing to make it out In the former they all agree in the later as is the Genius of Humane Understandings where our heavenly Teacher has not settled them they disagree with one another sometimes with themselves Nor can it bear any Objection nor breed scandal that the Ground of Faith should be more particularly and distinctly explicated now than formerly for since Controversie is a Skill why should it be admir'd nay why should it not be expected that it should receive Improvement that is better explain its proper object the Rule of Faith than formerly since we experience a progress in all other Arts and Sciences which are frequent in use as this has been of late dayes Objection IV. A great part of the First Eviction in case it proceed concerning Truth in us as it ought supposes the vulgar Skilful in Logick and to frame their Thoughts and Assents in the same manner as Artificial Discoursers do Answer It supposes no Skill or Art in the vulgar or Generality of Christians but onely declares artificially what naturally passes in rational Souls when they Assent upon Evidence And this it ought to do For the Art of Logick frames not it's Rules or Observations at randome but takes them from the Thing or it's Object as all other Skills do that is from what is found in rational Souls as rational or apt to discourse by observing the motions of which when it behaves it self rationally the Logicians set down Rules how to demean our Thoughts steadily and constantly according to right Reason So that the manner of working in Artificial discoursers in this onely differs from that of Natural ones that the one acts directly the other reflectingly For example a vulgar Soul when it assents interiourly a thing is or affirms has truly in it what a Logician call's a Proposition and that Proposition has truly in it what corresponds to the notions of Subject Copula and Predicate though he reflects not on it as does a Logician In the same manner when he gathers the Knowledg of some new Thing he has truly in that discourse of his what corresponds to Major Minor and Conclusion nay he has practically in him what necessitates the Consequence or that Maxim The same is the same with it self of whose Truth it being a Principle of our Understanding he cannot possibly be ignorant Though all this while he reflects not how or by virtue of what he acquires this Knowledg And hence Light is afforded us to understand in common how the vulgar come to have Practical Self-Evidence of divers Truths For the Maxims which even scientifical men have of the Objects of several Sciences being taken from the Things or the Objects of those Sciences and those Maxims being Common or General ones from the obvious or common Knowledg of those things which the vulgar who convers with them cannot chuse but have Again nature imbuing them with the Knowledg of that Principle on which the force of all Consequences is Grounded as also with the knowledg of all those we call Principia Intellectûs or Principles of our Understanding hence their rational nature is led directly by a natural course to see evidently and assent to divers Conclusions without any Reflexion or Speculation which rude but unerring draught of Knowledg is call'd by me in Sure Footing and elswhere Practical Self-evidence because 't is a natural Result of Practice or ordinary converse with those things An Instance would at once clear this and if rightly chosen be serviceable to the Readers of Sure Footing An unlearned person that cannot read a word believes fully there was such a man as K. Iames and that we may not mistake the Question we will put him to be one that has a handsom degree of conversation in the world We finde him assent to the Affirmative heartily But the point is how he is led into that Assent and whether rationally To ask him a reason why is bootless for this puts him to behave himself like a Reflecter on his own Thoughts which he is not whence we shall find him upon such a question at a puzzle to give the particular reason though as taught by Experience he will stand stiffly to it in common that he has a reason for it and a good one too To help him out then the way is to suggest the true reason to him for then he will easily acknowledg it finding it experimentally in himself which done deny the Goodness of it and you shall find he will as taught by nature
Affection pre-requisit to Faith derogates nothing from it's Certainty but is perfectly consistent with the Evidence of those Motives which are to generate it and that the Governours and Officers of the Church though proposing the most convincing reasons in the world for the Authority conveying down Faith to us can prevail nothing unless the Great Governour of the world and Giver of every good gift by his peculiar Power plant antecedently in their hearts this good disposition and prepare terram bonam that their endeavours may take effect and the Sowers Seed take root no more than Paul though miraculous could convert all that saw his Miracles or heard his Preaching but only such whose hearts God open'd as he did Lydia's It appears also by the same discourse how the Acts of Faith are free that is as depending on this pious disposition of the Will which sets the Understanding on work to consider the Motives and so produce them The whole Humane Action is free because the Will orders it though she do not produce it all or though freedom be not formally in the Body so the Act of Faith is free because it is order'd by the Will which is free though no freedom be found in the Understanding which is incapable of such a qualification but pure necessity of assenting when the Motives are seen to be Conclusive No need then is there upon any account of a pious disposition of the Will to peece out the defect of the Reasons why we believe and to oblige the Understanding to assent beyond the Motive that is assent to a degree beyond what it had reason to do An Impossibility in Humane Nature rightly and connaturally govern'd and I much fear no small disgrace to Christian Faith considering the obstinate bent of the Church's Adversaries to confound the Speculative Thoughts of Divines explaining Faith and its Grounds less carefully with their Sentiments issuing naturally from them as Christians nay with the Doctrin of the Catholick Church it self What can revincingly be reply'd to an Atheist objecting on this occasion that Christians make the Evidence of Faith's grounds stand need to be pecc'd out by Obscurity our Knowledg of them by Ignorance and the Rationality of them by Will without Reason that is Willfulness Wherefore I carnestly obtest and beseech even per viscera Christi all who shall read this Treatise and yet have Speculatively held and maintain'd this Opinion I here impugn for practically and as Christians they hold the contrary Conclusion seriously to weigh the Point once more and not to obstruct the Resolving Christian Faith into immoveable Principles or absolutely Certain Grounds by an Opinion onely sprung from the conceited difficulty in making out those Grounds to be Impossible to be False which yet themselves to a man profess and hold as they are Christians I humbly beg leave to propose to them these few Considerations First 'T is Certain Faith is no less Faith or an Assent upon Authority though that Authority be demonstrated to be Infallible but on the contrary that 't is both firmer and more rational even for that very regard Secondly 'T is Certain that the Generality of Christians hold their Faith to be True or Impossible to be False that is 't is True to us and withall perfectly Rational and consequently that its Grounds or Principles are so able to ascertain it that they place it beyond Possibility of Falshood Thirdly 'T is no less evident that an inclination or motion of the Will being of such a nature that it can have neither Truth nor Falshood in it can be no Rational Principle or Ground of our Assents or Acts of Faith that is apt to ascertain them or indeed apt to establish the Truth of any Tenet Fourthly That 't is most evident from my foregoing Discourse that an antecedent pious disposition of the Will is still requisite to Faith notwithstanding the perfect Conclusiveness of the Grounds on which 't is built and that all Acts of Faith depend on this quoad exercitium at least as the Schools speak which in the Judgment of many Divines is sufficient Fifthly That 't is the common Opinion of the solidest Divines that Faith consists with Evidence in the Attester Sixthly That Faith or a firm and immoveable Assent upon Authority is not thoroughly rational and by consequence partly faulty if the Motives be not alone able to convince an Understanding rightly dispos'd without the Will 's Assistance for what can be said for that degree of Assent which is beyond the Motive or Reason Is it not evident from the very Terms that 't is Irrational or without any Reason But the worst is that whereas all good Christians hold their Faith Impossible to be False or judge their Acts of Faith Immoveable Assents these Authors as Speculaters put all the Reasons for Faith to leave it still Possible to be False and make this pious Affection the onely thing which elevates it to Impossibility of Falshood which is vastly higher in point of Certainty as if a rational Creature not deviating totally from its nature but acting according to right Reason ought therefore to hold a Point Impossible to be False because it self has an Affection or as we say a great mind it should be so Seventhly This Assertion renders the Impossibility of Faith's Falshood not only unmaintainable as hath been now shown but also unperswadable to others for how shall I be able to give account to others that my Affection which works this Perswasion in me is rational and not apt to mislead me when as the very Position obliges me to profess the contrary and to grant that this Affection pushes forward my Understanding to assent beyond the reason it has that is as to this degree in my Assent which is no small one since it raises it from judging Faith possible to be false to judge it Impossible to be such without reason Or will not this Speculative Tenet seem to force this Inference that the Grounds of Faith as to its most intrinsecal consideration viz. the Impossibility of its Falshood is made by this Doctrin full as dark a hole as 't is to alledge the private Spirit Nor can the Reverence due to the Divine Authority suffice for such an Effect both because 't is Impossible God should will that Mankind for his sake should act irrationally as also because there is no poison in the world so pestilent as an Errour abetted by the most Sacred Patronage of God's Authority as the Histories of the Fanaticks in all ages and our home-bred experience testifies Whence that very Reverence to the Divine Authority obliges us to be so sure 't is engag'd for a Truth e're we admit it for such that we may securely though with an humble truth say with Richardus de Sancto Victore Domine si error est quod credimus à te decepti sumus so that there is indeed no greater injury and abuse to the Divine Name imaginable than to hazard the making it
FAITH VINDICATED FROM Possibility of Falshood OR The Immovable Firmness and Certainty of the Motives to Christian Faith Asserted Against that Tenet which denying Infallibility of Authority subverts Its Foundation and renders It Uncertain Desistes adversus alios dicere caeterùm ita pro Veritate loquêris ut ea quae dicuntur argui refellique non possint Dionys. Areopag Epist. 6. LOVAIN A. D. MDCLXVII Introduction THough nothing be more natural than that all who deny the Certainty of the Rule of Faith should deny also the Certainty of Faith it self since the Certainty of this later depends on the Certainty of the former and it is impossible the Conclusion should be held Certain unless the Premisses be held so too yet the conceit which the Generality of those who call themselv's Faithful or Christian have of their Faith and consequently the nature of that kind of Assent is such that nothing can sound more horridly and blasphemously to their ears than bluntly and without disguise to say That all their Faith may possibly be a Ly for any thing any man living absolutely knows For a certain goodness of Rational Nature has fixt this apprehension in them that since the World is made for the Salvation of Mankind it is unsuitable to the Wisdom and Goodness of Providence which has furnisht us with means of Certainty for our inferiour concerns that the Principles on which Eternity depends should fall short of that Certainty and consequently of strength and efficacy to move carry us on to a steady pursuit of that greatest and in comparison onely Interest Notwithstanding so unresistible is the force of this evident truth that whoever has deserted the Catholick Church and her Rule of Faith Tradition can have no absolute Certainty of Faith that is indeed no true Faith for that truly is Faith which the Generality of those who use the Word mean by it that the more intelligent amongst them conscious of the manifest weakness of their Grounds are necessitated in their Controversies when they should defend their Faith in plain terms to disgrace and betray it chusing rather candidly to confess it to be all a possible Falshood than to undertake that impossible performance to maintain that it is an Absolute Truth I cannot resemble this Natural Conceit of the perfect Certainty of Faith inbred as it were in the Generality of those who have had even a glimmering of Christianity to any thing so well as to the apprehension the former World had of a Godhead For as natural Instinct forc't those who had not light to know the True God to affix the Notion of a Deity to some false one as some eminent Heroe the Sun Thunder Fire nay there was nothing so ridiculous but they would make a God of it rather than forgoe the tenet of a Soveraign Power so deeply rooted in them by Nature so our modern Misbelievers rather than they will relinquish their Opinion that Faith and the means to know the way to Heaven is absolutely-Certain springing naturally from the conceit they have that God has a Providence for the Salvation of Mankind chuse to misplace the notion of the Certain means to know God's will or Rule of Faith in the most unlikely things imaginable as in a ridiculous whimsy of Fancy little better than a Dream nay sometimes in a dream it self or in the motion of some hypocondriacal vapour as do the Fanaticks others in other things seemingly wiser as in their opinions of some men they esteem Good and Learned in meerly their being educated thus by Parents who confess they have relinquish'd what themselves had been educated to in Interpretations of words by Grammatical skill which were writ long ago and in dogmatical points where every word is capable of equivocalness nay which is indeed as mad as the most extatick of them all to affirm that such words are so plain to every Reader that none can miss the right sense of them All which though plainly confuted by this Principle which Nature teaches the rudest that That can never be a way which many follow to their power and yet the greater part are misled joyn'd to their plain Experience that many followers of these wayes exceedingly differ yet so prevalent is the force of the other Truth that they will wink at this later to embrace that insomuch that none of those I except Seekers by what name soever they are call'd as not being pretenders to Faith but were they ask'd whether they be not as Certain of their Faith as that they live would readily and heartily answer affirmatively I mean those of every sort who follow meerly the Guidance of uncorrupted nature in this affair Notwithstanding as in the Pa gan World There were found many Witty men who out of Unacquaintance with the True Godhead and the Unworthyness of the False Gods then in vogue or out of a conceit of many misgovernments in the world speculated themselves out of their natural notions and went about to deny absolutely there was any God at all so it happens that amongst those who have deserted the Catholick Church there are found diverse men of speculative and searching brains who out of Unacquaintance with or at least their sleightly penetrating the nature of the Catholick Rule of Faith the Living Voice and Practice of the Church or TRADITION and withal seeing the Vanity and manifest Inability of their own pretended Rules to ascertain them absolutely their Faith is True joyn'd with the experienc't Disagreement in Faith amongst diverse Pretenders to it would speculate themselves out of their Natural Christianity and deny any Absolute Certainty at all of Faith or the way to Salvation contenting themselves with a Probability in the Grounds 't is built on miscall'd by them Moral Certainty confessedly consistent with a Possibility of Falshood Which kind of Grounds permits that perhaps all may chance to be shown to morrow a meer Illusion and a bold Lye and all the Christian World hitherto to have been possibly led by the nose by a False Impostùre nay to have held that Imposture Most Sacred and preferr'd the adhering to it before all the Goods Life or Nature could bestow How near this wicked Tenet approaches to Atheism appears hence that 't is next to the Denial of a God-head to deny that in proper speech we know Him or the Way to Him Yet this is the very Position of those who put a Possibility of Falshood in Faith since none can truly be said to know that to be true which he sees and acknowledges may not be true at the same time This Seed of Infidelity sown when the Rule of Faith was renounc'd first dar'd to appear publickly above Ground in the writings of Mr. Chillingworth and the L. Falkland and though had it been propos'd barefac't in another occasion it could have hop'd for no welcome Reception even amongst the Generality of the Protestants themselves who were made believe ever since their Breaking from the Church their Faith
will never the sooner discover her face nothing being to be found but what will still appear Possible to be False the Practical Conclusion naturally following hence will be this to fix there where it lights most advantageous to their temporal Interest in the same manner as men addict themselves to this or that Trade cry it up and maintain it stoutly to be Truth because 't is Creditable to the Profession though they judg all the while it may be a falshood and because they see their Faith can have no Certain or Firm Grounds undertake to make it good that Faith it self needs have none by the best assistances plausible Rhetorick seemingly-probable reasons weak or mis-us'd Testimonies and voluntary Cavils and Mistakes can lend them And in a word since they are not in circumstances to settle any thing to laugh heartily at those who go about it and to endeavour very politickly to pull down every thing which any Intelligent Reader will manifestly see by this establishing Treatise compar'd to their performances to have been the Effects of my Adversaries labours § 14. The Unnaturalness of this Tenet will perhaps be brought nearer home and so be better penetrated even by our Opposers themselves if we reflect how wickedly it would sound from the mouth of Preachers if after a Sermon exhorting and pressing the Faithful to the Love of Heaven or particularly to stand stedfast in their Faith they should in the close to prevent in their Auditors the misunderstanding some overstraining Expressions add an ingenuous caution That they should not for all that adhere to Faith as if it could not be False nor work for Heaven as if there were any absolute Certainty of the being of any such a Thing Is it not manifest this in our case honest-dealing Profession would enervate the force of all the Motives they had proposed and prest And if so is it not as evident that all the efficacy of Christian Preaching springs naturally from the Impossibility that Faith should be False For 't is not only the Unseasonableness of this Profession but the Impiousness of it which would so scandalize the Hearers and either avert them from the Preacher or make them cold in Virtue 'T is clear then that all the forceable Application of Christian Motives to the hearts of the Generality of the Faithful is grounded on the Impossibility of Faith's Falshood and that therefore he who holds the opposite Tenet and would be honest should either leave off Preaching for which this Tenet makes him unfit or else use much caution while he preaches least by implying the perfect Certainty of Faith while he practises Assentation to That he becomes Injurious to Truth and consequently to It too if it be True § 15. But to conclude it has bin no less the Practice of the Governours of the Church or Ecclesia docens to oblige the Faithfull to beleeve what they recommended to them as the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles Nay Mr. whitby in his late Treatise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 page 53 54. asserts the same of the Church of England as to their Creed or Fundamentals Which had Faith been held by the Governors and the Governed Possible to be False had signify'd just thus much as if the Governours should say You shall believe it though we know it may be false or You shall believe us telling you the Apostles taught it though both we and the Authority we trusted for it may be deceiv'd for any thing we know And as if the persons governed should answer We will believe you though we know you may be in the wrong and the Point it self false which is in effect the same as if they should profess they are resolv'd to believe them let it prove what it will right or wrong True or False So strange a Tyranny in the Imposers or Commanders and Slavery in the Believers or Obeyers as is impossible in either to consist with Humane Nature had not both of them the Obeyers at least been verily perswaded those Commanders had such Motives to propose as should have been able to oblige Assent without which all Command of an Interiour Act of the Soul is Nonsence and Folly Oh but will a witty Atheist say Humane Policy might have made the Governours conceal the Cheat by which means the ignorant govern'd were frighted into a belief of any thing Very likely indeed that amongst so many millions and of those many Saints by our Adversaries own Confession all should persist and be true Conspirators in so unnatural a Confederacy or that in so free an admission of all sorts of prudent people to any kind of knowledg as is practic'd in Christendom insomuch that there are found many thousands of the Governed equal in Parts and Learning to divers of the chief Governours and superiour to very many of them all should so camely permit themselves and the world to be abus'd in a Point no less important than their very Manhood 'T is then above Policy and Force and only atchievable by the Natural strength of the Motives to oblige such Multitudes and so qualify'd to Christian Faith and these Motives must have been Impossible to be False none else being able to subdue the Understandings of such a great portion of Mankind to hold their Proposals true or justifie all the Church-Governours in all Ages from a most unjust and most unnatural Tyranny Divers Principal Objections Answer'd TO mistake every passage voluntarily is so in fashion and so continually pursu'd as the best method to answer Discourses which proceed by the way of Principles that perhaps it were not imprudent to forestall such Blinds and prevent such mis-representers from raising their light and aiery dust by acting our selves if we can the part of an Opponent after a solider manner than we are to expect from those prevaricating Discoursers besides nothing more clears a Point than to manifest that such Objections which aim at the Root of it quite lose their force while levell'd against it I recommended this foregoing Discourse when I had finisht it to the perusal of divers of the most judicious and impartial Friends I could pick out courting their severest candour to acquaint me with its defects Their most pertinent and most fundamental Exceptions I present the Reader with which I have strengthen'd as well as I could and added divers of mine own protesting that did I know my self or knew where to learn of others more forcible and efficacious ones I should not have declin'd the proposing them nor have fear'd to oppose the Invincibleness of the Truth I here defend against the strongest Assaults of the most Ingenious most rational and most acute Discoursers Objection I. The word Truth is both in the Postulata and all over this Treatise taken in too Metaphysical a Rigour in which sense it may perhaps be deny'd that Faith is True or that the Generality of Christians do so esteem it Answer I take that word in the plain
none but onely an Affection or determination of a Thing both known by plain Nature whatever som Schoolmen speculate For these put meer Experience teaches us that that thing which is call'd Pillar is the same thing which is call'd Round or which is all one that in this Proposition The Pillar is round the two extream notions are indeed that is with a Conformity to the Thing identifi'd or that that Proposition is True But to return home to our purpose 'T is clear that Pillar and Roundness Existing by the same existence or in the same Thing are found in the thing after it's manner and in my Judgment or Soul as apt to judg after it 's that is judgingly But Truth hath nothing to do with either of these manners of Being as was discourst formerly in the parallel case of Notions but purely and adequately consists in the Unity or Community of Form which my Judgment has with the Thing by having which in her the Soul gains a Conformity to it In this Common Form consider'd as in the Thing consists it's Metaphysical Verity or it 's Being what it is and this Verity consider'd as apt to stamp or imprint it self on my Iudging Power is call'd Objective Truth as receiv'd in me and fashioning or conforming my said Power to the Thing as in it self and so making my Judgment True 't is call'd Formal Truth This declar'd I deny that I any where confound Objective Truth with Formal or what 's in the Thing with what 's in me as in me for that were to identifie those two most vastly and most evidently different States A Supineness too gross for any attentive Discourser to fall into I conceive then what the Objecter would alledge is that I confound those Truths spoken of with Truth to us or quoad nos as the Schools speak For though what 's Truth to us must needs be Truth in it self and in us in regard we cannot know that to be which is not yet what 's Truth in it self or Truth in us is not therefore Truth to us in regard one may upon probable nay improbable or even False Grounds light upon a right judgment in which case his mind as judging is conformable to the thing or True yet still that thing is not true to him in regard he hath no reason able to conclude it such or to make him see it to be true Truth then to us is the same with our Sight of it that is with Certainty or Determination of our Understanding by force of Intellectual Motives and this indeed I often seem to confound with Truth in the two former Acceptions but I therefore seem to do it because I am loath to transcribe and apply so often my Postulata and suppose my Judicious Reader bears them in mind Which if he pleases to understand as subjoyn'd to those Discourses it will follow that what is so in the thing it self or perhaps in us if it be so severely obligatory to be thus constantly profest and held so and consequently by my later Postulatum necessary to be known to be so all my mistaken proofs will be brought to conclude it True to us that is Certain You will say why is it not enough for God to provide that our Acts of Faith be indeed True in us since so they would perfect our Understandings by conforming them to the thing and guide us right but they must also be True to us or be known to be True I answer for two Reasons One because God's Government of Mankind would by this means be preternatural obliging him to hold profess and dye for professing the Truth of those Points which he knows not to be such The other Reason is because every Act of Faith as exercis'd would perpetually involve an Errour in case the Motives to those Assents were not conclusive of the Truth of those Points For however one may light by hap-hazard or through weakness on a Truth from an Inclusive Motive yet since 't is impossible a rational Creature should assent but upon some Motive good or bad hence every Assent practically implies 'T is true for this reason Wherefore if the Reason grounding such Assents be unapt to conclude the Truth of the thing that Judgment necessarily involves a Falshood or Errour however it be otherwise conformable to the thing abstractedly consider'd Truths then being bastard illegitimate and monstrous both the Intellectualness and Supernaturalness of that Virtue call'd Faith make it scorn to own such defective Prâ—ductions Objection III. The Meanings of Words are indeed to be taken from the Vulgar but the Truth of Propositions is to be taken onely from the Judgments of Learned Men though then that be indeed the meaning of the word Faith which the Generality of Christians mean by it yet the Truth of this Proposition Faith is possible to be False must be judg'd of by the Sentiments of the most Learned Divines the Generality at least the Best of which and Catholicks amongst the rest grant the Grounds of Faith as to our Knowledg and consequently Faith it self to be Possible to be False Answer That Maxim is to be understood of those Propositions which require some Speculation to infer them in which case also even the Unlearned are not bound to Assent upon the Authority of Learned men taken precisely as men of Skill because generally 't is Practically-self-evident to them that such Speculative men differ oft times in their Sentiments and they are unfurnisht of due means to discern which is in the right yet if they are to act in such affairs they are bound in Prudence to proceed upon the Judgments of that part which is generally reputed most and ablest and then their proceedure is laudable because they do the best secundum ultimum potentiae or that lies in the power Whence Learned men who have ability to judg of the Reasons those Speculaters give behave themselves imprudently and blameably if they even proceed to outward action meerly upon their Judgments without examining the Reasons they alleadge in case they have leasure and opportunity to do so But now the Maxim holds not all for those Propositions in which 't is either self-evident or evident to common and uncultivated Reason that the Predicate is to be connected with the Subject as 't is for example in this Man is a rational Creature or this which is palpably consequent from the former Man is capable of gaining Knowledg for in such as these the natural Sentiments of the Vulgar are full as Certain as those of Speculaters perhaps Certainer And with the same Evidence the Predicate Possible to be False must necessarily be seen to be connected with Faith by all those who esteem themselves oblig'd by Gods Command to profess and dye for the Truth of those Points they believe Besides they hold that Faith makes them know God and his Will that their Assent of Faith is to be Immoveable or adher'd to all their lives that is such as cannot be