3.6 and the rationalness of his deduction from thence though made by the joyning of a proposition of another Nature to it which they paid a respect to The Multitude were swayed in this case by the meer strength and weight of his argument and are therefore said to have been astonished at his Doctrine Mat. 22.33 They admired his Wonderful Wisdom and profound Sagacity nor were they influenced by any Authority they held him vested with Nor indeed is it any great evidence of a profound Wisedom or of his insight into the Scripture to argue from Media which have no further convincing efficacy or force but what they borrow from his authority that useth them In brief either the Text quoted by our Saviour was sufficient antecedently to Christs using of it and abstracting from his Authority to demonstrate the Resurrection or it was not If it was then it was not meerly from his Authority that they came under an Obligation to a belief of that conclusion If it was not than how comes Christ to lodg their unbelief in reference to the ResurrectioÌ„ upon their ignorance of the Scriptures Marc. 12.24 Mat. 22.31 For if they stood not under the obligation of that consequence but meerly because of his Authority then the best acquaintance imaginable with the sense and meaning of that place could have ministred them no relief in that point yea it had been utterly unlawful to have drawn any such inference from it 5. Exclude Scripture-Consequences and the Papists are not able to impugn one Tenet of the Protestants nor are they in Capacity to prove the first Article of the Roman Faith namely the pretended Infallibility of their Church While they wrest such Weapons out of our hands they at the same time disarm themselves And by endeavouring to disserve the Cause of the Reformed Churches they utterly undo their own For if our Reasonings of this kind be insignificant against them theirs are also insignificant against us and by the same art that they endeavour to blunt the edge of our Swords they are bound to throw away their own I shall discourse this no farther only shut it up with a saying of Justin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without Philosophy and right Reason there can be no knowledge nor science in the World § 12. The next thing that belongs to Reason in matters of Religion regards those Doctrines which besides the Foundation that they have in Revelation have also Evidence in the light of Nature And as I intimated before § 5. more is allowable to Reason in and about these than about those we are indebted only to the Scripture for the discovery of 'T is not enough that we enquire into the declaration of them as it lyes in the Bible and how they are there expressed c. but we are further to see what Media there are in the light of Nature by which they may be both discerned and confirmed Yet I shall here crave liberty to premise That where the Authority of the Scripture is owned our chief Topicks in all Theological debates ought to be fetcht from the sacred Records Thence we should both frame our Idea's of them and borrow as well the Arguments as the Colours and Ornaments by which we would commend them to the Minds and Consciences of Believers Especially a regard ought to be had to this in popular Discourses and Sermons As humane Authority ought to have very little place if any at all in the Pulpit so we ought not there to serve our selves too much from Maxims of Philosophie and principles of Reason As God hath impressed more of his Authority upon the Scriptures than upon any thing else that he hath made Himself and his Will known by so there is an Efficacy of the Spirit promised to attend the naked Preaching of the Word beyond what we can expect to accompany our Ratiocinations from principles of Reason As Faith prepares the spirits of men to a submission to what they hear immediately out of the Bible so there is something great and elevated which I know not how to express in Truths as nakedly delivered by the Holy Ghost which Argumentations from Natural Maximes doth for the most part obnubilate and darken The Majesty of God whose commands we deliver doth above all things most attract the respect of our Auditors nor do we at any time so effectually persuade as by the meer authority of him in whose Name we speak Yet I do not deny but that Rational proofs are of great use not only to such with whom Scripture-Testimonies signifie nothing but even to those who own and adore its Authority by shewing that as it is highly reasonable to believe whatsoever God hath said so the things themselves are agreeable to and have foundation in Reason and the two lights of Revelation and Nature do excellently harmonise This being premised among other Truths which besides their being plainly revealed in the Scripture have also evidence given to them in the Light of Nature the Immortality of the Soul and the certainty of Providence are especially remarkable 'T is True there are many other Doctrines of this quality viz. the Attributes of God the Creation of the World Moral Good and Evil c. All which as they are revealed in the sacred Scripture so they are demonstrable from undoubted principles of Reason But wavâ—ng these at present I shall only by way of essay and with all imaginable brevity consider what media there are in Nature by which the two former may be evinced and the serviceableness of Reason in the doing of it I shall begin with the Immortality of the Soul and the Unhappiness of the Age wherein we live doth render the inculcation of this Truth not only seasonable but necessary Men having degraded themselves into Beasts by practice they thence take the Measures of their Opinions and allow no difference betwixt themselves and the pâ—ttifullest Brute but that Matter in them is fallen into a more lucky texture and modification To justifie their sensualities they contend that they have nothing but their Animal inclinations to gratifie and indeed the soul of a Brute will very well serve all the Ends that some men propound to themselves Next the Belief of the Beeing of God the persuasion of the souls being Immortal is the hinge upon which all Religion turns 'T is this that leads us both to contemn the gratifications of the Flesh and to be solicitous about a happiness hereafter though it be with the undergoing of present inconveniences rather than here There is no one Truth hath a more powerful influence upon the whole course of our present life than a steddy and vigorous belief that the soul is immortal Now when we assert the Immortality of the Soul we do nâ—t intend that it is Immortal in such a sense as that by no cause it can be annihilated God alone is thus Immortal for as there are no principles of Corruption in his Nature so there is no forraign
a company of men owning the Authority of Jesus Christ as Lord and King and agreeing in the faith of such Doctrines as he hath made Salvation dependent upon As we do not outwardly hold the Head nor declare our subjection to Christ as our Law-giver and Ruler but by a belief of those things which he hath made the Essentials and Fundamentals of the Christian Religion so we have no Right of Matriculation into the Church Catholick-visible nor have we any Union with the Members of it but through a belief of these common radical principles These are what we commonly call Fundamental Articles which as I shall not take upon me to enumerate being neither necessary nor may be convenient so they are in themselves both few and plain Only as the Romanists are injurious to Christ and uncharitable to men in confining Christianity within the Circle of their own communion and making the Roman and Catholick Church Terms Equipollent so they are both unreasonable and ridiculous in making the Unity of the Universal Church to consist in the belief of all that they have thought fit to determine necessary to be believed For besides many other things pleadable against this Romish Foundation of the Unity of the Universal Christian Church and the Relative Politick Union of one member with the rest it renders the Unity of the Church and the Union of Christians one with another first impossible secondly absurd Impossible in that most Men can neither allow time nor have they sufficient acquired intellectual abilities either to know what the Roman Church hath defined necessary to be believed nor in what sence she hath proposed and determined them to be assented to Absurd 1 Because a man must believe contradictions before he can be a member of the Catholick Church or have any Union or Communion with Christians That is he must renounce Reason before he is capable of having Faith and devest himself of Man before he can espouse Christian. And the reason is plain because the Romish Church hath defined things to be believed that are repugnant one to another 2. Because what serves to matriculate a person into the Church of Christ and to give him the Relation of an Oneness with all Christians this year may not be sufficient to secure and continue his Union and Relation the next but that without alteration or change in his belief he may cease to be a Member of the Catholick Church For the Church may in that compass of time determine something necessary to be believed concerning which before she had not pronounced But to resume what I was upon as there is through our subjection to Christ by the belief of his Doctrine and obedience of his Laws a Political Union betwixt Christ and Christians so I see nothing to the contrary but that all Christians may in the virtue of their common Faith and Obedience be accounted united amongst themselves I shall not here discourse the reciprocal and mutual duties which we come under the obligation of by this Relation but as they are many and great so were they attended to a check would be given to that wrath and bitterness which is amongst Christians a stop put to that war and persecution which one wageth against another Neither shall I here discourse the Nature and Measures of a particular Church with the foundation and media which ground the Relation of one to another in it but shall only say this that though admission into an instituted particular Church presupposeth whatsoever was necessary to entitle us to a Membership in the Church-Catholick yet there are both diverse things required in order to the latter which were not so in reference to the former and diverse fresh duties emerge from this posterior Relation beyond what we were obliged to by the precedent Having briefly treated these things which ought not to be denyed and shewed my self as liberal to our Author as without trespassing upon my light I can I come now to discourse those things wherein our Author differs from the general sense of Christians and the common opinion of the Universal Church And the first conclusion which I propose in opposition to the Hypothesis that Mr. Sherlock hath erected is this That were the Union of particular Believers with Christ only a Political Relation yet it were immediate to the Person of Christ. Let our Relation to Christ which is styled by the name of Union be whatsoever our Author pleaseth to make it yet it is not the Church that we are primarily united to nor doth our Union terminate there nor is it meerly by means thereof that we are brought into a cohesion with the Lord Jesus This if justified overthrows Mr. Sherlocks two first Conclusions which indeed are but one in import though obtruded upon us for two For to say that those Metaphors which describe the Relation and Union betwixt Christ and Christians do primarily refer to the Christian Church and not to every Individual Christian which is Mr. Sherlock's first conclusion and to say that the Union of particular Christians to Christ is by means of their Union to the Christian Church which is his second Conclusion are in my opinion things coincident The same Metaphors which describe the Relation and Union of Christ with Christians do also display the Relation and Union of Christians with Christ if the Union betwixt Christ and Christians doth primarily refer to the Christian Church the Union of particular Christians with Christ can result from no other Medium nor bear upon any other foundation but the Union with the Christian Church I should not bestow remarks upon the ridiculous and impertinent Battologies of our Author nor sally out into reflections upon what meerly favours of dulness and hebetude but that it may not be amiss to inform the World how undeservedly Mr. Sherlock hath obtain'd the name of an accurate Writer and if it be possible to give check to his briskness in Descanting upon the Writings of others For he may remember what a reflection he hath cast upon Dr. Jacomb meerly for converting a Proposition and saying That the person of the Believer is United to the Person of Christ having before said though not so as to make it a different conclusion That the Person of Christ is United to the person of the Believer But to return to the proof of the Assertion which I have advanced in contradiction to Mr. Sherlocks Notion of our being United to Christ only by our Union and Fellowship with the Christian Church 1. If particular Christians be United to Christ only by virtue of a previous Relation to the Church I would then fain know of Mr. Sherlock how the whole Church comes to be united to the Lord Jesus For I suppose it will not be denyed but that there is a Relation of Oneness between Him and the Church and if any should be so perverse and of so unreasonable a humour as to question it there are Media enough
sensual Appetites clogg'd and hindred by the distemperature of indisposed Organs not to mention the prepossessions and anticipations of Infancy the prejudices of Education with the deceits and impositions we are liable to by the delusion of external Objects for such the World is filled with since disorder and confusion arrested it However Reason considered thus namely as denoting the rational Faculty though even corrupted by the Fall is First That which disposeth and adapteth us for converse with objects of Revelation As the Light of the Sun had been useless to us had we not enjoy'd an Organ suited to receive the impression of its Beams so all supernatural Revelation had been both impertinent and superfluous were we not endow'd with Faculties fitted to converse with it God in all his Transactions with us supposeth us Rational and he is a degree worse than an Enthusiast who affirm's that the way to be a Christian is first to be a Brute Revelation doth not cassate the use of our Intellectual Powers but supposeth them and by enriching them with discoveries which they could not by their own search have arrived at it perfects them and they plainly acquiesce that these are the things they sought for but could not find There neither is nor can be any thing in Divine Revelation that overthrow's the rational Faculty or crosseth it in its Regular and Due Exercise There is a Spirit in Man And the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding Job 32.8 For as Austin saith Possâ— recipere fidem est Naturae licet actu credere sit Gratiae De praedest Sanct. cap. 5. Both external Revelation and internal Illumination presuppose us to be Rational and through the want of a Faculty that is so Brutes are incapable both of the one and the other Secondly Reason taken for the intellectual Faculty or the Principle of Apprehension Judgment and Ratiocination is both the instrument whereby we certainly discern the grounds and motives of Faith and the vital Principle of the Act it self Faith is not only an Elicit act of our minds but besides there can be no act of Faith without a previous exercise of our Intellects about the things to be believed Faith being nothing but an unwavering assent to some Doctrine upon the account of a divine Testimony our Reason must be antecedently perswaded that the Testimony is Divine before it can assent to the Doctrine upon the Authority and Veracity of the Revealer Though in many things we can give no Reason for what is believed distinct from Divine Testimony yet we ought to be always able to give a Reason for the Authentickness and the Divinity of the Testimony For as Austin saith Quod intelligimus aliquid rationi debemus quod autem credimus auctoritati Lib. de utilit Credendi cap. XI The Authority of God in the Scripture is the formal reason of Assent to such and such Doctrines but it is by the means and exercise of our intellectual Faculties that we come to understand such a Declaration to proceed from God and that these things are the sense of such and such Propositions Thus the Understanding of Man is the Candle of the Lord resolving us in the Authentickness and Sense of Revelation though Faith be built upon the Credit only of the Revealer To this purpose is that of Maximus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Should I neglect the Scripture Whence should I have Knowledge Should I relinquish Reason How should I have Faith Secondly Reason is taken Metonymically for common Maxims or principles whose Truth is inviolable And these are 1. Such as be so connate to Sense and Reason that upon their bare Representation they are universally assented to These Principles are not borrowed from Reason as their first Spring and Original but having their Root in the nature of God and Essences of Things are only discerned by the Rational mind and Intellect I do not say that we are brought forth with a List and Scroll of Axioms 〈◊〉 Imprinted upon our Faculties 〈◊〉 that we are furnished with such Powers upon the first Exercise of which about such things without any Harangues of Discourse or previous Ratiocinations we cannot without doing Violence to our Rational Nature but pay them an Assent Those Truths whether Logical Moral Physical or Mathematical Whether General because of their Universal Influence upon all Disciplines or Particular from their being confined in their Use to some one Science are justly stiled Natural being Founded in the Nature of God the Essences of things and the intrinsecal Rectitude of the Rational Faculty These are the Foundations and Measures of all Science Knowledge and Discourse being in themselves certain and incontestable Nor is there any other proof to be Assigned of them besides their Consonancy to the Rational Faculty to which they are centrally co-united And forasmuch as all men paâ—take of the same Reasonable Nature the certainty of these Principles is Universal What is disconvenient to the Essential Nature of one Man being so to the Nature of another nor is it possible to dissent from them without doing Contempt to our Faculties Of this sort are these That a Thing cannot at the same time be and not be That every Effect supposeth it's cause and many such like Nor doth Theology borrow these from Philosophy but they are pre-supposed to both and Science as well as Faith builds upon them 2 dly There are others whose Truth and Certainty are not understood nor do they win our Assent upon their first and naked Representation but they are discovered by a Chain of Ratiocinations and their Verity established by a Harangue of Inductions These are stiled Acquired Principles being by an Industrious Exercise of the Discursive Faculty raised and superstructed upon the former Nor are they less True than the other though more Remote from the first View of our Understandings Whatsoever is rightly deduced from Unquestionable Premisses hath the same stamp of Truth upon it that the Principles have from which it is inferred Where there is a just Connexion between Conclusions and Principles the latter cannot be denied without questioning the former from which they are fetch 't The Deduction of these by regular Trayns of Argumentation is the work of a Philosopher and these being Systematically digested constitute Philosophy So far then as Philosophy includes only Conclusions duly inferred from Unquestionable Principles so far there is not only a Friendly Alliance between it and Divinity but a wonderful Subserviency in it to Faith Nor is any thing true in Philosophy that is not so in Theology For as Aristotle sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatsoever is true must be Consentaneous to all that is so lib. 1. Prior. Analyt cap. 32. And as he adds elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Truth is consentient to Truth lib. 1. Ethic. cap. 8. What our Souls in the Regular Exercise of Reason instruct us in is as much the Voyce of God to us as any Revelation he vouchsafeth us
in the Bible Nor can we Impeach the Genuine Issues of Reason without Reflection upon God who hath Endowed us with a Faculty necessarily swaying us to those Determinations The Connexion of one thing with another together with their mutual Dependencies ariseth not from the Arbitrarious Appointment and Designation of Men but is involved in the Essences of Beings and Results from the Habitudes which the Soveraign Author hath link't them in one to another Ipsa veritas Connexionum non instituta sed animadversa est ab hominibus notata ut eam possint vel discere vel docere Nam est in rerum ratione perpetua divinitus instituta August lib. 2. De Doctr. Christ. cap. 31. Might we not upon Proleptical Principles which are assented to as soon as the Terms are understood superstruct innumerable others There were no Room left for Meditation Study Ratiocination and Disputes All our Knowledge would be either Intelligence instead of Science or else we must in all things save a few Self-Evidents introduce and Establish Scepticism Were there no secondary Principles which when once deduced from self-evident Maxims we may with safety rely on we must either deny that there are any Habitudes Relations Dependencies or Oppositions betwixt one thing and an other or we must affirm the rational Faculty to be in it 's Natural Exercises universally Fallacious The indissoluble Connexion that is betwixt one thing and another transferrs the Denomination of Truth to the Acts of our Mind stiled Judgments and the Declarations of these Acts to others called Enunciations whensoever we Judge and Pronounce of things as they really are For as the Philosopher sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I readily grant that partly through the Weakness and Darkness which have arrested our Understandings partly through the Nature Quality Extent and Arduousness of Objects and our Inadequate Conceptions of them partly through Prepossessions Prejudices and the Bâ—as of Lusts and Passions that we are subject to partly through Supineness Sloth and Inadvertency we do often prevaricate in making Deductions and Inferences from self-evident and universal Maxims and thereupon establish Mistaken and Erroneous Consequences as Principles of Truth and Reason But then this is the Fault of Philosophers not of Philosophy or of Philosophy in the Concrete as Existing in this or that Person not in the Abstract as involving such a Mischief in it's Nature and Idea Our intellectual Faculties being vitiated tinctur'd with Lust enthralled by Predices darkned by Passions engaged by vain and corrupt Interests distorted by Pride and Self-Love and fastned to Earthly Images do often impose upon us and lead us to obtrude upon others absurd Axoms for Undoubted and Incontestable Principles of Reason It is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adulterate Reason which we charge for being Unfriendly to Religion And that it is not without Grounds shall be afterwards evinced For I doubt not but that I shall make it appear that the most malignant Heresies which have Infected the Church had their Foundation in Vulgar and received Axioms of Philosophy Whoever will trace the Errors which have Invaded Divinity to their Source must resolve them into absurd Maxims of Philosophy as their Chief Seminary Herein we intend not to offer any Disparagement to Reason but rather to pay it our Utmost respect by rescuing it from being accountable for every vain Imagination and false Consequence which are super-scribed with the Venerable Name of Principles of Reason § 4. Having setled the Notion of Reason we are next to fix the meaning of Religion And this is the more needfull in that men have always had the art of Baptizing their weaknesses fooleries yea blasphemies with the sacred name of Mysteries of Faith and afterwards defending them from the assaults of Reason by saying They are Mysteries against which Reason is not to be hearkned to By matters of Religion then we mean in general as well the Agenda as the Credenda of it What we are to perform as well as what we are to believe what relates to Obedience as well as what relates to Faith Now the rule measure and standard of both is the Revelation of God in the Scripture The Bible is now the only perfect Code and Register of natural Religion as well as the only Systeme of supernatural Those very Articles of Belief and Duties of obedience which were formerly Natural with respect to their manner of promulgation are now in the Declaration of them also Supernatural The Scripture is the only Canon of Faith and Rule of Practice So the Apostle stile 's it in more than one place Phil. 3.16 Nevertheless whereto we have already attained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us walk by the same Rule As if he had said what ever dissensions there be amongst us in lesser things let us orderly regulate our life and course for that is the import of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Canon of the Gospel And in the same sense Gal. 6.16 as many as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walk according to this Rule peace be on them c. The Apostle having to do with such as introduced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an other Gospel Gal. 1.6 7. for their conviction and plainer refutation he gives us a brief epitomy and summary both of the Law and Gospel and at last shuts up the whole debate with this that whoever walks according to this Canon or Rule peace shall be on him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies originally either a Reed made into an instrument wherewith they measured buildings or the limits and bounds of land or a small Line which Architects square out their work by that all the parts of it may bear a just symmetry proportion one to another and from this proper use of it it is Metaphorically transferred to signifie any kind of Rule Thus Aristotle useth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By that which is right we know both its self and that which is crooked for the Canon is the judg of both And thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Canon is a law that cannot err and an infallible measure Phavorin Or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies that which is over Scales commonly called the Tongue of the Balance which is the director whereby whatsoever is put into the Scales is tryed and hath its just weight adjudged So the Scholiast upon Aristophanes tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over the Scales which brings them to equality This Original signification of the word also hath given rise to its Metaphorical use of denoting any rule or measure by which either Doctrines or Practices are tried and adjusted And thus the Scripture is the true and only perfect rule of all matters of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the exact balance and Rule or Canon of all Truths The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rule of immutable and unshaken Truth Austin improveth this Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
them upon Divine Testimony But it ought further to enquire what Inducements and Media there are in the Light of Nature by which they may be also Known and Demonstrated And as this is to be allowed to Reason in all Matters of Religion which have Foundation in Natural Light so especially in and about such Principles of it as are necessarily pre-supposed to Faith of which kind are the Being of God and the Divinity of the Scripture Though all our Religion be in an eminent Manner built upon the Divinity of the Scriptures and some parts of it know no other Foundation but the Bible and accordingly among such as own that Book for the Word of God We need no other Bottome to Erect our Faith upon nor any other Measure to regulate our Debates and to determine our Controversies by yet when the Divinity of the Scripture it self is contended about it is neither a just nor a rational Way of Procedure barely to affirm that 't is Divine but we are to prove that it is so If we will not believe the Alchoran to proceed by Inspiration from God upon the Testimony of a Mahometan no more is it to be expected that a Mussulman should believe what we call the Bible to be God's Word upon the naked Testimony of a Christian. As upon the one hand we should betray Religion to every Infidel by pretending to build our Faith upon a Book whose sacred Authority we cannot justifie so upon the other hand we oblige our selves to the worst of Drudgeries in being resolved to believe what we can give no Reason for Besides we should not only by such a Method unavoidably expose our selves to the Dictates of every Enthusiast but with all Minister a just Plea to such as dislike Religion because of it's Unfriendliness to their Lusts for the renouncing of it Now our Belief of the Scripture supposeth the Existence of God and therefore our knowledge of his Being must precede our Faith of the Divine Authority of the Bible I readily grant that the Scriptures may be brought not only to such as own their Truth but even to Infidels as a proof of a Deity But then it must not be upon the Score of their naked Testimony but upon the account of their being of such a Frame Nature and Quality that they can proceed from no other Author And thus we Arrive by the Scripture at an Assurance of God's Existence as we do at the Knowledge of a Cause by it's Effect But so far as we assent to any thing upon the Credit of the Scriptures meer Testification we are necessitated to presuppose the Existence of God it being only upon the account of his Veracity in himself and that the Bible is a Divine Revelation that we do without the least guilt of vain Credulity because upon the highest Reason implicitely believe it In discoursing the Serviceableness of Reason in demonstrating the fore-mentioned Articles together with those other Doctrines that have their Foundation not only in Revelation but also in Natural Light and such common Principles which all men assent to I shall confine my self to wonderful Brevity and rather point at Arguments than pursue them And to begin with the Existence of God Were there no Supernatural Revelation in the World there is enough both within us and without us to Convince us of the Being of a Deity Hence though God hath wrought many Miracles to Convince Infidels and Mis-Believers yet he never wrought any to Convince Atheists Nor do the Pen-Men of Scripture attempt to prove it but take it for granted as being evidently manifest both by Sensible and Rational Demonstration I shall not here insist on the Cartesian Argument drawn from an Innate and Ingraft Idea of God For upon a most serious perusal of what is alledged by Cartes himself Claubergius De Bruin Doctor More and others in Vindication of it together with what is produced by Gassendus Ezekius Vogelsangius Derkennis Doctor Parker and others against it I look upon it as little better than a Sophism and to maintain an Article of such Import by a Medium either Weak or Fallacious is to betray the first Fundamental of Religion I know no Idea's formally Innate what we commonly call so are the Results of the Exercise of our Reason The Notion of God is not otherwise inbred then that the Soul is furnished with such a Natural Sagacity that upon the Exercise of her rational Powers she is Infallibly led to the Acknowledgment of a Deity And this is first effected by her looking inwardly upon her self and her own Acts and we are with Facility and by a short way of Argumentation conducted thence to the Existence of God For 1 st We perceive that the Faculty resident in us is not furnished with all perfections and therefore not Self-existent nor indebted to it self for those it hath otherwise it would have cloathed it self with the utmost perfections it can Imagine and by consequence finding it's own Exility and Imperfection it Naturally and with Ease arrives at a perswasion of deriving it's Original from some First Supreme and Free Agent who hath made it what it is and this can be nothing but God 2 dly We perceive that we have such a Faculty that apprehendeth judgeth reasoneth but what it is whence it is and how it performeth those things we know not And therefore there must be some Supreme Being who hath given us this Faculty and understands both the Nature of it and how it knoweth which we our selves do not 3 dly Our Natures are such that assoon as we come to have the use of our Intellectual Faculties we are forced to acknowledge some things Good and other things Evil. There is an Unalterable Congruity betwixt some Acts and our reasonable Souls and an Unchangeable Incongruity betwixt them and others Now this plainly sways to the belief of a God For all distinctions of Good and Evil relate to a Law under the Sanction of which we are and all Law supposeth a Superiour who hath Right to command us and there can be no Universal Independent Supreme but God 4 ly We find our selves possessed of a Faculty necessarily reflecting on it's own Acts and passing a Judgment upon it self in all it does Which is a further Conviction of the Existence of God for it implies a Supreme Judge to whom we are accountable 5 ly We find that we are furnished with Faculties of vast Appetite and Desires and that there is nothing in the World that can satisfie our Cravings and by consequence there must be some Supreme Good adequate and proportionate to the Longings of our Souls which can be nothing but God This is his Meaning who said of the Heathen that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the Light of Nature they nodded after a Summum Bonum It were to put a Slur upon Nature to suppose that she hath put those Propensions and Inclinations into us only to delude and abuse us 6 ly We find the
that can be possibly imagined of doing it with Security I readily acknowledge that the Articles and Precepts of Religion may in some Cases and Circumstances be safely preserved and securely conveyed down from Age to Age by Oral Tradition namely when the Things themselves to be preserved and reported are Few the Number of the Persons to be instructed in them Small the Age of those to whom the Successive Communication is given lengthened out for several Hundred years and Mankind in the mean while neither Slothful nor greatly Corrupted And accordingly God who doth all things by excellent Counsel and in his most extraordinary Works useth Natural Agents as far as their Capacities will serve did for some time take this Method not thinking it fit in the first Ages of the World to commit the Revelations He vouchsafed it to Writing But taking the Case as it now is namely that Mankind is vastly multiplied that our Lives are much shortned and contracted to what at first they were that the Doctrines Institutions and Duties which we are to be instructed in are numerous and many and that Carelessness and Debauchery have Arrested the World And I affirm that some other Means besides Oral Tradition are necessary for the safe Conveyance of Revelation from one Age to another For 1. The failure of Oral Tradition in the preserving either Things Humane or Divine argues that God having Mercifully condescended to give a Revelation of His Will to Man should pitch upon some more certain Method of conveying it to such as live in Places and Times remote from the first Delivery of it than Tradition is How many famous Institutes of Ethnick Legislators and Theories of Ancient Philosophers are lost through not being committed to Writing I will take it for granted at present that the World had a Beginning that Men were not self-Originated and that they were not Created Impure but that Sin by some accident or other made it's Entrance afterwards into the World I will likewise take it for granted that the First common Parents of Mankind whoever they were made their immediate Posterity acquainted with those important Things And yet doth not Experience tell us how insufficient Oral Tradition hath been to preserve them among the Gentile Nations The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of which those Philosophers who approach nearest the Truth alledge things to have been at first made are plainly borrowed from the Mosaical Records The Entrance of Sin by the means of certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insolent Daemons and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Serpent which some of them suggest is evidently stollen from the Sacred Writings or at least learned by Converse with the Jewish Nation to which the Oracles of God were committed But should we grant that all these and whatever else we meet with in the Heathen Writers of this kind were preserved by Tradition among themselves Yet their Accounts about these great Important Matters are so scanty inconsistent and ridiculous that we cannot be so Foolish as to believe them to be the just and full Reports which were Communicated by our First Parents to their Immediate Off-spring I shall only add that the Tradition of the One True God though most easie to have been preserved being not only short and plain but having Foundation and Evidence in the Light of Nature was nevertheless soon Corrupted and Defaced by the Worlds lapsing into Polytheism 2. In order to Traditions being a sufficient means of conveying down Revelation to Successive Ages we must suppose both a Care from time to time in all to learn it and that perfectly an equal Capacity in all to Understand and Remember it a regard in every one to instruct others without the least Variation in what themselves had learned for if either through Sloth difference of Abilities Entanglements by the World or Corruption of Manners there should be a Failure in any of these it is easie to be apprehended what would soon become of Revealed Doctrines were there nothing else to secure their Communication from one Generation to another besides Tradition Now he that will believe all Men to be of equal Capacity equal Fidelity equal Diligence c. not only contradicts the daily Experience which we have of Men in the World but withal affirms that to be impossible namely that there should be any Errour in Doctrines of Faith or Mistakes about Institutions of Worship c. which yet we find Actually to be 3. That cannot be a sufficient and certain Medium of conveying Revelation to Mankind by which the grossest and most palpable Falshoods under pretence of Being parts of Divine Revelation have been obtruded upon the World In proof of this I need only instance the Oral Law of the Jews and the unwritten Tradition of the Papists among which I may say with modesty there are some Doctrines to be met with so far from having been at any time revealed by God that 't is a wonder being so Trifling Absurd and repugnant to Principles of right Reason they should have ever have been invented by men 4 No man can be obliged to believe what arriv's with him in way of Tradition till he have some assurance that all mankind are agreed and of the same persuasion with his instructers unless he should take his teachers to be Infallible Now as the first of these is morally impossible at least for most persons in the World who neither have Time Ability nor opportunity of resolving themselves by converse with every Individual so the last is groundless and absurd and indeed constitutes all men Infallible neither capable of being imposed upon themselves nor imposing upon others What I have said against the conveying down Revelation with security by Oral Tradition makes equally against its conveyance in writing by men not divinely Inspired As words are the representation of Conceptions so writing is the Register of Words and if men may deceive in their vocal Reports they may do the like in the consignment of their Thoughts and Words to Script Besides we shall be first at a loss to know whether those that did not write of matters of Religion who were ever the major number were at an agreement with those that wrote Secondly is is not only difficult but impossible for persons of mean Parts secular Vocations c. to consult the Writings of all those that have written of matters of Religion and yet this is necessary ere we can make a judgment in this matter Thirdly we shall find our selves endlesly entangled when we find them contradicting one another And Fourthly to add no more we shall be still at a loss both whether in that they wrote they were not imposed upon by those of whom they received it and also whether they lived and dyed in the belief of all that which may be in their younger and unexperienced Years they threw into Paper or whether afterwards in some thing or other they
Consequence the thing inferred and the manner of Inferring it and as we reckon every Consequent rightly deduced from an Infallible Antecedent to be Infallible also though the Faculty by which it is deduced be in it's Nature Fallible and in it's Operation lyable to prevaricate and mistake So every Assent built upon infallible Inducements is an Infallible Assent though the Instruments by which the Assurance of the Existence of such Inducements arriveth with us may in their Nature be lyable to Errour Besides the Incertitude of the Subject or Mind doth not at all weaken the Certainty of the Object or the Certainty of it's Motives That God is is in it self certain and there are Indubitable Arguments by which his Being may be demonstrated though all the World should Hesitate either about his Existence or suspect a Fallacy in the Media of it's Probation The Incertitude of the Mind doth not arise from any Fallacy of the Media but from want of Evidence into and Cognition of them The principal Grounds of our Receiving the Bible for the Word of God are it 's Internal Motives or Arguments impressed upon it nor is the manner of it's Conveyance from Age to Age of so great Import in this Matter as some do imagine For should we have Light on it by chance or had it dropt out of the Clouds yet while it carries these Signatures upon it which it doth we might by the meer Exercise of our Rational Faculties without the Testimonials of any Man or Church have concluded that it could have proceeded from none but from God And should it be granted that the conveying down the Miracles and other External Evidences that are brought in Confirmation of the Divine Inspiration of the Bible is done by Humane and Fallible means yet it no ways follows that our Assent to the Scriptures being the Word of God though built upon those motives is Fallible For Tradition is not the Formal Ground of our belief in this case but only a means and Instrument of handing the Grounds of it to us Nor do I think but that it may be defended that as the External Motives upon which we receive the Scripture for the Word of God are in themselues Infallible that they are also infallible in their manner of conveyance to us For as it may be demonstrated that the first Reporters of these Evidences were infallibly inspired in the Reports they make and in the writing of the Records which they left behind them so it may be likewise demonstrated that the Providence of God hath watched over the preserving them down to us The exception made by a very learned Person that there are degrees of Certainty as to the Divinity of the Scripture whereas there cannot be degrees of infallibility May I think easily be taken off For if by Degrees of Infallibility he mean no more but that there are some who have their Faith established upon more Media than others have theirs There are thus degrees of Infallibility as well as there are degrees of Certainty And though Faith superstructed upon any infallible Medium be Essentially an an Infallible Faith yet that which is built upon a plurality of such Media may be stiled a faith intensively gradually more Infallible But if by Infallibility he mean the infallibility of the Mind then I must crave leave to say that it is not to the purpose For as in an Apodictical Syllogism there may be a certainty both in the Consequent and Consequence and yet our mind through either not discerning the necessary connexion between the Terms of the Antecedent or not seeing into the regular and orderly deduction of the Consequent from the Antecedent may remain uncertain So our Assent built upon unerrable Motives is an infallible Assent though the mind in the mean time through not discovering the Infallibility of those Motives may remain subject to doubts and fears And indeed the Schoolmen call the Certitude of the Act only by the Name of a Certainty of Infallibility whereas they stile the Certitude of the Mind by the name of a Certainty of Adhesion The Infallibility of the Act of Assent results from the Infallible Certainty of the motives which ground such assent but the firm Adhesion of the mind or that which we have called the Infallibility of the mind though it radically arise from the Nature and quality of the motives yet it doth withal that immediately connotate a perception of the motives themselves that they are Infallible and such as we may venture our Faith upon without either fear doubts or Jealousies And herein lies our first Duty about the Scriptures that our Faith answer their Credibility and that the Adhesion of our Minds to them be as firm as the Objects themselves are Immutable or the motives afforded us in their Confirmation are Infallible and sure § 10. Having declared the great serviceableness of Reason in demonstrating the Divinity of the Scripture we are next enquire into the use of it in our attainment to the sense and meaning of the Word God in vouchsafeing the World a supernatural Revelation supposeth us not only furnished with the sensitive Faculties of Seeing and Hearing but endowed with intellectual principles by which we may understand it judge of and assent to it Were we destitute of the latter Scripture were of no more significancy to us than to Brutes and were the former denyed us we were no more capable of being transacted with in this way than Stocks and Stones are Now the letter of the Bible without the genuine sense of it is not properly the Scripture nor will it availe us to any end or purpose more than the having a shell without a kernel Words are of no further use than as they are representations of conceptions Images of things Could we communicate our Conceptions to one another immediately or by any other signs and that with the same facility and certainty as we do by Words there would be no Occasion for Words nor any need of them As conceptions are the representation of things in the mind so words are the representation of these conceptions to others But forasmuch as we can have no perception of the thoughts of another though he should express them in Speech or writing unless we first know that such and such words are in the use of mankind appli'd to denote such and such things therefore all words as they are Manifestative signs of Conceptions so they are Suppositive signs of things And though they be first Indicative of Conceptions in the intention of the Speaker yet as to execution with respect to the hearer they are first Manifestative of things for unless we know what things such and such words are ordained to signifie they can be no interpreters of the thoughts of him that Speaks I know no greater disparagement that can be put upon the Bible nor affront that can be offered to the Author of it than to stile it a little Ink variously figured
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the equivalent or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sense or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of Consequence it may be truly said to be there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in effect And though some Conclusions lye more connected with the principles from which they are deduced than others yet they are both equally true providing the principles be so whence they are inferred Let the trains of Ratiocination be shorter or longer nothing can flow from Truth but Truth only there is more difficulty in the deduction and more liableness to mistake in the illation of the latter than the former And accordingly we desire no man to assent to the thing concluded till he have examined or at lest may and be satisfied that there is nothing false and sophistical in the Way and Manner of its deducement Though our understandings be in some cases subject to mistake yet there is no ground to suppose that they universally do so Though our Faculties be fallible in their Ratiocinations yet there are Connate Notions and Congenite Criteria by which we may discern when they deceive us and when not There are certain Rules which the universal Reason of mankind hath agree'd on as the Test and Standard to judge of legitimate deductions by and of those we have as infallible certainty as that it is day when the Sun is in the Meridian As we discern pure Mettal from embased by bringing it to the touchstone so we discern regular Consequences from Sophistical by incontested Maximes To argue agagainst the use of Reason in drawing Conclusions from undoubted Principles precludes the whole service of the Rational Faculty and lead's to the worst of Scepticism Whosoever impeacheth the fitness of our understandings to draw conclusions from evident Articles of Revelation doth equally endite them of ineptitude to deduce Inferences from first Maximes of Natural Light Scripture principles are as certain as any in Philosophy and they lye in the same Habitudes of congruity and incongruity to other things that first Principles of Science do therefore if we may not argue from those I see no reason why it should be thought lawful to argue from these Nor are we otherwise secure in any Ratiocinations of Philosophy no more than Theologie unless God had given us a Logick to instruct us in the Rules of Argumentation as he hath given us the Scripture to inform us in matters of Faith and Obedience In a word we must either implicitely resign our selves to the dictates of every one that accosteth us or we must as brutishly reject them unless there be both a Rule to which we may apply and by which we may try them some Certain Measures by which we may discern whether we have rightly commensurated and examined them in Order to discerning what of them is false and what is true Now though Reason be the instrument of deducing Conclusions from Principles of Faith yet it is not the foundation and ground on which we believe and assent to the Truths so deduced Nor doth Reason judg of the Verity of the Conclusion but only of the regularity of the deduction of it When an Architect applieth his line or square to a Building they only are the Rule by which he judgeth of the Symmetry of his Work but it is his eye that serveth him to discern how the Work agrees to the Rule 'T is one thing as Austin saith to know the truth of propositions and another to understand the rules of Connexion and Laws of Argumentation And as Camero says to determine of the goodness of a Conclusion or its regular illation from its premisses is the Work of Reason and that according to the Rules of Logick which is the same in Theologie as in Natural Phylosophy or in Mathematicks but to determine of the Truth of the Conclusion is the Work of Faith through the Testimony of the Word As a Demonstration in Geometrie doth not constitute that a Truth which was not one before but only evidenceth it to the Mind So we do not believe a Conclusion to be an Article of Faith upon the formal Reason of its deduction but upon the Authority of God in the Bible Argumentation serves only to show that God hath said it As Computation in Arithmetick doth not constitute the Total of the lesser Numbers but only collects and adjusts it so Ratiocination from Principles of Revelation doth not make a Conclusion to be the Word of God but only sheweth that it is so Nor is there any weight in that exception that in all Conclusions of this Nature one of the Premisses only is of Revelation the other being fetcht either from Reason Sence or Experience For as that act which we could not have exerted without the assistance and influence of a supernatural subjective Principle is rightly stiled a Supernatural act though it be Elicited by our Nutural Faculties So every Conclusion which we arrive at the knowledg of through the assistance and conduct of Revelation is rightly stiled a Conclusion of Faith and esteemed a part of Revelation though a proposition of another kind be assumed to help us in the deduction of it As a Child is Federally holy wheresoever one of the Parents is a Believer though the other remain in the mean time an Infidel so from the Conjunction of two Propositions whereof the one is of Faith there results a Conclusion of Faith though the other proposition be drawn only from principles of Reason or Evidence of Sense All men acknowledg that particulars are included in Universals and if the Universal be of Revelation the several particulars involved in it are Revealed also For as much then as there is not one Conclusion which we deduce from Principles of Faith that may not be inferred by some Syllogisme or other in the first Figure where the major Proposition is always Universal and the Conclusion is either contained in it as a Species or as a particular it naturally follows that the Major being of Divine Revelation and an Object of Faith the Conclusion must be esteemed revealed and admitted for an Object of Faith also While the subject of the Conclusion is included in the Middle Term which is the subject of the Major proposition and the Predicate of both is the same there is nothing more plain and evident than that if the Major proposition be of Revelation and to be believed with a Divine Faith the Conclusion is so likewise Yea were it so that the Minor proposition were only revealed in the Scripture yet while the Major which is fetcht from some incontested Maxime of Reason contains either the whole or a part of the Definition or the Correlate or the Essential property or the Contradictory or the Contrary of the Predicate of the Assumption which is from Scripture one of which it always doth the Conclusion must needs be reck'ned as a part of Scripture and submitted to in the same manner as we do to that which carries the
Agent that can deprive him of his Being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He only hath Immortality 1 Tim. 6.16 All things owing their Existence to him there is both a Power and a Right resident in him of depriving them should he judg it fit of their Beings Whatsoever is derived from his Power and Bounty he may take away at his pleasure Yet I reckon it absurd to think that he doth annihilate our Souls it being contrary to the Method which he observes in other parts of the Universe No substance yet ever perished Under all the Mutations that Matter undergoes by which this and that Individual body comes to be destroy'd there is not so much as one single Atome lost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No substantial Entity is totally destroyed saith the Philosopher Non perit in tanto quicquid mihi credite mundo Ovid. By the Immortality of the soul then we mean no more but that it includes no principles in its self by which it can be brought to decay And this it derives from it being Immaterial No spiritual substance is capable of that dissolution which a Body is lyable to and suffers For seeing Material subjects come to be corrupted only by a separation of their conjoyned parts The Soul being Immaterial and so void of parts is in danger of no such dissolution Now in discoursing the Immortality of the Soul I think fit in the beginning to discharge my self from an exception or two which though hugely insisted on by those who will have the soul to be meerly corporeal and consequently corruptible yet are in themselves absurd and irrational The first is this that there is no such thing in the World as an Incorporeal Being and that Existence is not to be affirmed of any thing but what is perceivable by sense and that we cannot have assurance that any thing is but what we have ocularly beheld To which I reply 1 That they miserably beg the question which they ought to prove They have not been able to assign any contradiction that lyes against an Incorpoâ—eal Being more than against a Corporeal 2. Their Objection doth equally militate against the Being of God as against the Immaterial Nature of the Soul For if God be at all he is Incorporeal a Corporeal God being pregnant with Contradictions 3. We are not to require more proof of any thing than it is capable of According to the diversity of Objects we are furnished with distinct faculties in order to the perception of them and there are different lights in which they are seen Who questions the being of Sounds Odours c. because they are not discerned by the same Organical Faculty that Colours are To require that an Immaterial should fall under the perception of sight is to demand that an Immaterial should be a Material There are Innumerable things whereof we have the most convincing Certainty and yet they were never the Objects of Sense No man ever saw a Thought and yet we are fully assured that we have Thoughts How many things do the Gentlemen that make this exception believe which yet they never saw 4 Though Incorporeal Beings be not Immediately perceived by sense yet through diverse of their operations which affect our Sensitive Organs we have a mediate assurance of their Existence by our very Senses The second exception is taken from the inexplicableness of Union betwixt a Material and an Immaterial There is no Cement say they by which the one can be knit to the other Incorporeals are of a penetrating Nature and consequently cannot take hold of Matter so as to make a Whole consisting of two constituent parts so vastly different To this I answer 1. That there is nothing more Unreasonable than wholly to question the Existence of things because we do not Understand the Modes according to which they Exist To discharge a Cause out of the precincts of Being because we cannot give a reason of all its particular effects ought to be justly reckon'd amongst the greatest of absurdities Whatsoever is prov'd by Reason we are firmly to believe it though there may be many things in the Theory of it that are wholly inconceivable While we have all imaginable assurance of the conjunction of the soul with the body and that the soul cannot be corporeal our Faith ought no ways to be weakned though we know not the Physical way of their coalition and how they come to be United 2. There is as much difficulty in apprehending the connexion of one part of Matter with another as in Understanding the Incorporation of the Soul with the Body and yet no man questions but that there are bodies in which the particles of matter are united I hope to make it appear Châ—pt 3d. that there is not any Hypothesis of Philosophy yet extant by which the Union of the parts of Matter in contâ—nuous Bodies can be solved and yet we are very well assured they are connected together A 3d. Exception is raiâ—ed from the Sympathy that is betwixt the Soul and the Body from which they would conclude an Identity of Nature between them To which I briefly return to these things 1. There are many cases in which our Souls are affected without the least impression either from bodily Objects without us or any previous excitation of the Spirituous Blood within us For not to mention the impression which the Soul receives from the consideration of things purely Spiritual and Divine which do no ways immediately affect the Body all the Influence imaginable which they have upon it proceeding primarily from the mind it self and its dominion over the Animal Spirits I shall only name Troubles of Conscience which arise only from Moral Causes and the exercise of our Reasons about what we have done I may add that there are many cases wherein the Soul and Body seem to have no Communion with one another and that not only in Ecstasies when the Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a manner for a season separated from the Body but even in other Hence men upon the borders of Grave when without strength vigor or pulse yet even then they have their thoughts more refined and their understandings more spritely than at other times And which is more strange are so little affrighted at death though they fully understand it that they lay down the Body with the same compoâ—edness and more delight than if they were only putting off their Cloaths Nor are they only persons tired with the miseries of the World that do so bâ—t such many times who have enjoyed all the delight that this earthly state can afford 2. We find our Souls frequently determining themselves in way of chusing and refusing contrary to the provocations of sense and the cravings of the bodily Appetite Though our Intellectual Faculties have a perception of sensual Delights yet they often chuse both that which is contrary to fleshly pleasures and which no Corporeal Faculty is able so much as once to apprehend
faileur in one of these both most of the Arguments against the Doctrine of the Trinity and for Communication of Omnipresence to the Humane Nature of Christ because it agrees to the Person of the son of God not to instance in more particulars may be easily avoided and answered 2 by shewing that if it be an universal and true Maxime of Reason that the Objection is grounded on how that there is not any thing in Revelation that doth contradict it There is an excellent Harmony betwixt Truth and Truth and though they be distinct and different yet they are not contrary and repugnant the one to the other They who reject Gospel Mysteries on supposition of a Repugnancy they lye in to Reason have not been able to this day to justifie their Charge 'T is true the more we adventure too neerly to look into them the more we find our selves dazled with their Fulgor but yet we find no thing in them that implye's a Contradiction to our Faculties or that is repugnant to the Nature and Attributes of God Nor is there any one Argument produced to this day in proof of the repugnancy of the Mysteries of the Trinity the Incarnation of the Son of God his satisfying Divine Justice in the Room and behalf of Sinners the Eternal Decrees c. Which hath not received an answer and the Authors of it been shamefully baffled § 14. Having unfolded the Interest and concernment of Reason in and about Religion it will be necessary ere we shut up this Discourse more particularly to state and fix the Bounds betwixt these two and to offer some Measures by which Reason may have allotted all that belongs to it and yet nothing in the mean time be detracted from Faith First then Reason is the Negative Measure in Matters of Religion Nothing contradictory to right Reason is to be admitted as a Mystery of Faith What Right Reason say's cannot be done we must not father it upon God to do If Reason be objected against any Scripture Testimony how plausible and subtile soever it seems yet Right Reason it cannot be but only deceives through an Unbrage and shew of it And if Scripture Authority be urged against an undoubted and evident Principle of Reason he that doth so presseth not the true meaning of the Scripture for that he doth not reach but only imposeth his own Sense and urgeth what himself phancieth to be there instead of what indeed is so saith Austin These two lights though different yet they do not destroy one another God is the Author of natural as well as Supernatural Light nor can he bely himself We have no greater Certainty than that of our Faculties for by that alone are we inabled to discern a Divine Revelation from Humane or Diabolical Delusions Should God reveal such Doctrines as contradict Natural Truths and Principles of Right Reason He would thereby eradicate what himself hath planted in our Souls The Law of Reason being the first declaration of the Will of God originally annexed to and communicated with our Natures 't is not to be imagined that by any after declaration he should thwart his first Besides all Revelation is to instruct us in a reasonable though supernatural way and therefore though in many things it may exceed our Reason fully to comprehend it yet in all things it must be consistent with our Reasons To admit Religion to contain any Dogm's Repugnant to Right Reason is at once to tempt Men to look upon all Revelation as a Romance or rather as the invention of distracted men withall to open a Door for filling the World with figments and lyes under the palliation of Divine Mysteries We cannot gratifie the Atheist and Infidel more than to tell them that the prime Articles of our Belief imply a contradiction to our Faculties In a word this Hypothesis were it received would make us renounce Man espouse Brute in matters of the chiefest greatest concernment for without debasing our selves into a lower species we cannot embrace any thing that is formally impossible Nothing but mens entertaining opinions which they cannot defend from being absurd and irrational could have sway'd them to reproach Reason in the manner they do but they do only decline the weapons they are sure to be wounded by When men have filled Religion with Opinions that are contrary to common Sense and Natural Light they are forced to introduce a suitable Faith namely such a one that commends it self from believing Doctrines repugnant to the evidence and principles of both And thus under a respect that is pleaded to be due to sacred Mysteries do the wildest fancies take Sanctuary And meerly out of fear of violating that regard which ought to be paid to Objects of Faith we must believe that to be true which the Universal Reason of Man-kind gives the lye to Thus the first Hereticks that troubled the Christian Church under pretence of teaching Mysteries overthrew common sense and did violence to the Universal Uniform and perpetual Light of Mankind Some of them having taught that all Creatures are naturally Evil Others of them having established two Soveraign Gods one Good and another Bad Others having affirmed the Soul to be a part of the Divine Substance not to mention a thousand falsities more all these they defended against the assaults of the Orthodox by pretending that they were Mysteries about which Reason was not to be hearkened to Thus do others to this day who being resolved to obtrude their fancies upon the World and being neither able to prove nor defend what they say they pretend the Spirit of God to be the Author of all their Theorem's Nor can I assign a better reason for the antipathy of the Turks to Philosophy than that it overthrows the follies and absurdities of their Religion This themselves confess by devoting Almansor to the vengeance of Heaven because he hath weakned the Faith of Mussul-men in the Alcoran through introducing Learning and Philosophy amongst them There is no Combating of the Valentinians Marcionites Eutychians and others but by shewing the repugnance of their Opinions to first principles of Reason We do not make Natural Light the positive Measure of things Divine do only allow it a Negative voyce We place it not in the Chair in Councels of Faith but do only permit it to keep the door and hinder the entring of Contradictions and Irrational Fancies disguised under the Name of Sacred Mysteries This I thought fit to propose in the first place and have the more largely insisted on it because of its serviceableness against the Corporal presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the ubiquity of Christs Body and divers other Articles both of the Romane and Lutheran Creeds What the Universal Reason of Man-kind tells us is finite commensurable and impenetrable c. they would have us believe it to be Infinite Immense and subject to penetration The great Article of the Roman Faith viz. Transubstantiation must needs be
rationally in surrendring themselves to the guidance of it The Article it self may be plainly revealed and yet not only the reason and mode of it lye altogether hid but the thing it self may over-power our Faculties and dazle them with its Majesty and Splendour 1. Reason is often non-plust and puzled about its own proper Objects and the phaenomena of Nature and shall we think it a competent judge of Objects it was never adapted for It is below many of the Works of God and therefore much more below Mysteries of Revelation See this Argument elegantly and strenuously handled by Bradwardine de causa Dei lib. 1. c. 1. Here are many things which we ought to admire but must never hope fully to understand Our work here is to believe not to enquire 2. If our minds will not submit to a Revelation until they see a reason of the proposition they do not believe or obey at all because they do not submit till they cannot chuse Faith bears not upon demonstration but upon the Authority and Veracity of the speaker and therefore to believe nothing but what we do comprehend is not to believe but to argue and is Science not Faith Ye that will believe in the Gospel what you please and what ye think fit ye will not believe you renounce the Gospel saith Austin to the Manichees for you believe your selves not it 3. To believe nothing but what we can fully comprehend is to remonstrate to the Wisdom and Power of God at least to challenge to our selves an Omniscience proportionable to the Divine Wisdom and Omnipotence 4. The Rule and Measure of Faith must be certain but no mans Reason universally is so because one Mans Reason rejects what anothers assents to Every man pretends to right Reason but who hath it is hard to tell If it be lawful for one man to reject a plain Revelation in one particular because he cannot comprehend it why may not a second do the same with reference to Revelation in another particular As the Socinians by making their Reason judge of what they are to believe will not admit many of the prime Articles of the Gospel so the Philosophers would make their Reason judge of what they should receive their Reason would not admit the Gospel at all 5. The certainty of Revelation is preferred to all other Evidence and we are commanded to subject our Reason to the Authority of God in the Scripture and by consequence Reason cannot be the positive Measure of Religion The Sacred Writers do every where remit us to the Scripture it self as the Rule of Faith and not at all to the Tribunal of Reason Herein are the Socinians justly impeachable for though sometimes they acknowledge Religion to be above Reason as we lately heard yet at other times they speak in a very indifferent Manner By Reason alone saith Smalcius can we define what is possible and what is impossible in matters of Faith See to the same purpose Ostorod Instit. cap. 6. Schlicting de Trinit advers Meisner p. 67. c. Hence that of Socinus that he would not believe Christ to have satisfied for our sins though he should read it not only once but often in the Scripture and that the Infallibility of the Revealer had not been enough to establish it supposing Christ to have said it and to have risen from the Dead to declare his own Veracity unless he had declared it by its Causes and effects and so shewn the possibility of it To which agrees a passage of Smalcius in reference to the Incarnation of the Son of God that he would not submit to it though he should meet with it not only often but in express Terms in the Bible I wish others did not say the same in effect But while they renounce Doctrines upon no other account but their incomprehensibleness or because we cannot fully fathom them they must give us leave to think whose principles they have drunk in and whose cause they plead Thus have I discoursed the whole Interest of Reason in Religion and as I know not that I have said any more in this Matter than what is generally maintained by all the sober Nonconformists so I hope I may say that the charge which some men have fastned upon us as if we wholly renounced Reason in all Concernments of Religion and that no Contradiction can astonish or stagger us and that this is the foundation and support of the Credit of the party especially amongst Vulgar Hearers is a false aspersion groundless calumny and an impudent Crimination And though I do not think that it savour's of over-much Modesty that a few young Theologues of the Church of England if indeed they be so should monopolize to themselves the name of Rational Divines yet for my own part I neither envy them the Title nor have any quarrel with them upon that account it being indeed their want of Reason that I find fault with And as it hath generally been the unhappiness of others who have too much boasted of and relyed upon Reason to fall into the most irrational sentiments so I do not see but that it is in a very great measure the misfortune of our New Rationalists As the Philosophers of old made Reason their only Rule and yet most of their Religious opinions whether in reference to Faith Worship or Moral Obedience were perfectly Irrational And as the Socinians pretend to pay more than an ordinary veneration to Reason and yet there are none in the world whose Tenets lye more cross to the Fundamental Maxims of it than some of theirs do For to give Religious Adoration to a meer Creature for such they allow Christ only to be to deny God the fore knowledge of future contingents to ascribe passions and affections to God in the manner they are incident to us are such Repugnancies to Reason that a man had need renounce that as well as Revelation ere he can admit them So I account it of easie proof that many of the Darling Notions about Original Sin Converting Grace the Nature of Regeneration and Justification it self c. of our pretended late Rational Divines are as well repugnant to Reason as they are to Scripture CHAP. II. Of the Import and Vse of Scripture-Metaphors SECT I. SOme men having espoused corrupt designs in reference to the Truths of the Gospel are in pursuance thereof led to Methods which may subserve and countenance their Undertakings For the End being fixed Means must be found out and adapted for the compassing of it Now among other little arts and contrivances supposed conducible to their Undertaking I find some late Writers improving their skill and industry especially in these two things First under pretence of banishing all wrangling brawling and vain talking they study to cashier and discharge all Disputes in and about Religion and 't is become their Interests upon two accounts so to do 1. That they may have the liberty to vent
of Discretion in an ordinary Authour to accommodate himself to the Capacities of all to whom he speaks or writes and not to oblige himself meerly to suit and please the Sons of Art how much more doth it become the Wisdom of God that seeing he designed the Scripture for the Universal Instruction of Mankind so to adapt and dispose the phraseology of it as that all might be edifyed by it Now in reference to the Vulgus who scarce understand any thing but in proportion to their senses and in dependence on Material Phantasms what Method can be more likely to affect their Minds with and raise them unto Spiritual things than to have them proposed under the Names and illustrated by the properties and operations of those things with whose Natures and Affections they are so well acquainted Much of every mans Knowledg begins at his Senses and Reason inoculates and superstructs upon them especially they of weaker Intellects need the relief of sensible Adumbrations in the conduct of their Minds to Spiritual and Heavenly things Accordingly therefore hath God disposed the Revelation of the Counsels of his Will in the Scripture yet with that provision and caution that by a very ordinary attendance and care we may see Spiritual things to be intended and designed and that our are not to be arrested by those sensible representations Hence we have not only a wonderful Variation gâ—ven to one and the same proposition and the same thing manifested and inculcated under different Forms of speech but besides in those very places where the Deep Things of God are most brought down to our senses there is enough either in the Nature of the Thing spoken of or in the scope of the Speaker or in the Context to assure us that there is only a Metaphor Similitude or Allegory in the expression For indeed there can be no Corporeal Images of Spiritual Things only by considering the properties and affections c. of things Material to which they are compared we are guided the better to understand and know their Spiritual Nature § 5. Having unfolded the Nature of Metaphors and enquired into the Reasons of the frequent usage of Metaphorical Terms in the Scripture we are next to state when an expression is to be accounted Metaphorical that so we may neither mistake proper expressions for Figurative nor substitute a Figure where there is none We have already intimated § 2. that 't is the humour of some in order to serving a design and ministring to an Hypothesis to transform the plainest Truths into Metaphors and thereby to pervert the Scripture from its true sense to a befriending their prepossessions prejudices Allow but men the liberty of supposing Metaphors where their lusts and forestallments influence them to such Imaginations there is not that Gospel-Truth whâ—ch may not be supplanted notwithstanding the plainest testimony given to it in the Bible If men may be permitted to forsake the Natural and Genuine sense of words where the Matter is capable of it they may notwithstanding their declaring themselves to believe the Gospel yet believe nothing at all of the Christian Faith Two things therefore are carefully to be attended to in the Interpretation of Scripture 1. That we impose not a proper sense where the words ought to be taken in a Tropical Figurative Metaphorick or Allegorick one Numerous Instances may be assigned how the Scripture hath been perverted from its true Intendment by the usurping words in a proper sense where a Metaphorical or Allegorick ought only to be allowed Thus the Anthropomorphites of old and some Socinians of late for all of them have not thought so contemptibly of the Deity by taking those texts which attribute Humane Members to God in a proper sense have fancied him to be Corporeal have ascribed a Material Humane shape to Him whereas the meaning of such places is only to affirm those perfections of God which such Members in us are the Instruments of Corporeity is repugnant to the Divine Nature inconsistent with the Common Notions of mankind concerning Him and contradictious to what the Scripture in other places reveales of his Essence and perfections so that the Attributing Bodily Members to him must be construed as so many Metaphors declaring only such Attributes and Operations to belong to Him as those Organs and Members in us denote and are the apparatus and instruments of Thus also the Jews writing the precepts of the Law on their Frontlets and Phylacteries took its rise from affixing a proper meaning to Exodus 13.16 Deut 6.8 whereas indeed the words are Metaphorical do only intimate that they were to have the Law in Continual remembrance Not but that I acknowledg locks or fringes fastned to the skirts of their Garments as a badg of that Subjection and Reverence they were to abide in towards God and his Law and that they were not to wander after false worship to have been enjoyned them but that the Ten Commandments or any thing else were to be written upon them I read not and do Apprehend that Custom to have derived its Original from the mistake already suggested In like manner their Imagining Isa 19.18 19 20. to be intended in a proper sense gave occasion to Onias's building a Temple resembling that of Hierusalem in Egypt at least was pleaded in justification of it Whereas the import of the place is only to declare the Gentiles admission into the Church and that they were to have a share in the Spiritual Blessings of the Gospel which the Prophet predicts and describes in Terms and Phrases adapted to the O. T. Oeconomy and dispensation I may here add that all the Jewish mistakes in reference to the Messiah as if he to be a Triumphant King subduing the Earth by the terrour of his Legions and to conferâ— on them all Terrene Pomp Magnificence c. did arise principally from obtruding a proper sense upon some of those Prophesies which relate to the Kingdom of the Messiah whereas in Truth their Phraseology is wholly Metaphorick God chusing by words which properly denote and import Things Terrene and Temporal to instruct us concerning the Spiritual Benefits that we should be made partakers of by and through the Messiah The imposing a proper sense upon words which Christ intended only in a Metaphorical gave rise to one of the Articles of Indictment which the Scribes and Pharisees preferred against him see Joh. 2.19 compared with Mark 14.58 T is true they withall altered his words for whereas Christ had only said Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up The false witnesses deposed that they heard him say I will destroy this Temple c. but yet their main prevarication and that without which the other alteration could have no wayes served their design was their construing his words in a proper sense as referring to the Temple at Jerusalem whereas he designed them only in a Metaphorical to denote his Body