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
had the Word of God for its Basis which they honestly understood to have the same Certainty as if God himself had spoke it yet being drest up by their plausible Rhetorick and advanc'd in a circumstance when they were confuting the Papists the middle sort of Protestant Readers at unawares let it pass as meritorious to their party and the wiser sort embrac'd it both as a real Truth and also as making best for the Interest of their Cause when they would oppugn us what disservice soever it did tot he Common Cause of Religionor Christianity For they were not at all sollicitous so strangely did faction transport them so they could in their conceit overthrow the Infallibility of the Catholick Church though they reduc'd all Faith into Incertainty and all the Grounds on which 't is built into a tottering Contingency It seem'd to threaten a Mischief considerable enough to Christianity that such a pernicious Tenet should be publickly own'd in Controversy to taint the wiser sort of Readers with Atheism in which it hath been too successful but it grew intolerable when it durst take the boldness to appear in Sermons pronounc'd in very Honourable Assemblies and afterwards publish'd in Print where under the Title of The Wisdom of being Religious and a great many seeming shows and I heartily think very real Intentions of impugning Atheism by an ill-principled and in that circumstance imprudent and unnecessary confession in equivalent Terms of the possible falshood of Faith nay even as to the chiefest and most Fundamental point the Tenet of a Deity Religion receives a deep wound and Atheism an especial Advantage as may perhaps more particularly be shown hereafter I envy not that Sermon and some other Productions of Mr. Tillotson their Authour their due commendations though he be my Adversary I acknowledge that in his clear Method or disposition of his matter and the cleanness of his style which fit him for an Excellency in Preaching he hath few Equals and that had he good Principles he would deliver them as intelligibly as any man I know onely I could wish he had right Principles to Ground his discourse without which he can never make a Controvertist but must needs undermine the solid Foundation of Christianity if he undertake to meddle with the Grounds of it even while he goes about to defend it What I am on this occasion chiefly to reflect on is my own obligation which is the boldness of owning and publishing the Incertainty of Christian Faith being come to the height to assert it's Absolute Firmness and Certainty in the best manner God shall enable me and his Providence seems to require it of me at present In regard 't is expected I should reply to Mr. Tillotson 's pretended Answer to Sure Footing whose first Principle in that Reply seems to be this that what he deems the Rule of Christian Faith and consequently that Faith it self is possible to be False for by virtue of this Position which he defends p. 118 and in diverse other places implies and builds on he more oppugns my discourse than by any other Thesis whatever The contrary to which if I evince then the Protestants own confession that they have no Absolutely-Certain Ground or Rule of Faith confutes them without more ado and concludes them to have relinquish'd its onely right because its onely truly certain Rule TRADITION Yet were it not my chief design to establish the Absolute Truth of Christian Faith in it self by all the Arguments I can imagin and not meerly to confute Protestant Controvertists I needed not take the pains thus to multiply Demonstrations or even alledg so much as one For since whatever they pretend seemingly to Antiquity or Authority of Fathers by their voluminous quotations yet they will finally and heartily stand to nothing in contests about Faith as Conclusive but their own Interpretations of Scripture Which being so weak a Ground that every dayes Experience shows it's Failings an ordinary Probability is abundantly enough to overthrow their Discourses whose very Principle is not onely Improbable but evidently a False one Whence the meanest Catholick writer cannot fail to have the advantage over their Best in a Prudential man's Esteem because he cannot possibly miss of a Medium more probable than is their main Ground I declare then that my Chief End in this Treatise is to settle Christian Faith or to demonstrate that it must be truly or Absolutely Certain and that my applying it now and then to my Opposers is onely a Secundary Intention and meerly Occasional Ere I fall close to my Proofs that Faith cannot possibly be False to avoid Equivocation in the words I declare that by the word Faith I am not sollicitous whether be meant our Act of Faith or the Points of Faith that is the Object of that Act but judg that distinction wholly Impertinent in this present discourse and the reason is because I cannot affirm a Point True or False but as it stands under Motives able to make me judge assent or beleeve 't is such or such which Motives if they be such as are able to convince that the Point cannot but be so then my Iudgment or Assent tothose Points thusconcluded that is my Act of Faith cannot but be True because it depends intirely on Grounds Impossible to be False viz. those Motives But if those Motives are not of such a nature as is absolutely Conclusive the thing is then both the Thing Object Point or Proposition of Faith as being onely Knowable by virtue of them may be otherwise and also my Act of Faith or Belief of those Points may be a wrong or erroneous Iudgment that is both of them may be False To ask then if Faith can possibly be False is to ask whether the Motives laid by God's Providence for Mankind or his Church to embrace Christian Faith must be such as of their own nature cannot fail to conclude those points True and to affirm that Faith is not possible to be False is equivalently to assert that those Motives or the Rule of Faith must be thus absolutely Conclusive Firm and Immovable Hence is seen that I concern not my self in this discourse with how perfectly or imperfectly diverse persons penetrate those motives or how they satisfy or dissatisfy some particular Persons since I onely speak of the Nature of those Motives in themselves and as laid in Second Causes by Gods Providence to light Mankind in their way to Faith to which the dimness of eye-sight neglect to look at all or looking the wrong way even in many particular men is Extrinsecal and Contingent Lastly to avoid Mistake and Confusion I declare that there being two sorts of Questions one concerning the Existence of a thing call'd An est viz. whether there be any Certainly-Conclusive Rule of Faith or no and the other about what is the Certain or truely-Conclusive Rule of Faith call'd Quid est I am not now discoursing about the later that was the work
attain that End Unless they proceed at least from True Knowledg which cannot be had by a mere Probability how high soever it be Whereas Material and Temporary Goods depend not on a constant course of Causes or Dispositions towards them knowable by us but very frequently if not equally on a Chanceable or Contingent cast of Things whence we use to say Fools have the best Fortune Hence the intending and directing part in such Actions depends on the Knowledg of some particulars but the Attainment is carry'd on by Material Means nay very frequently there is no knowledg at all requisit in any respect For Example He that by the death of a hundred Relations in a Plague-time should alone survive and so inherit their Estates would be really rich whither any interiour Act of his minde in the least contributed to it or not that is though he never desir'd aim'd at or even thought of it But if a Man in time of persecution and Martyrdom should say within himself I cannot believe there is a God or a Next World Yet I le venture to dye rather then deny them in hopes that if perhaps there be such a thing or state he will give me a far greater reward such a Man I dare affirm to be no nearer gaining Heaven by this Act no better principled than if he had never had any such Act at all in regard he wanted that First necessary disposition which St. Paul and Connaturality require Accedentem ad Deum oportet credere quia Deus est Heb. 11. v. 6. 6. Again Faith is intended for a Spiritual Armour to rebeat all the assaults and temptations of our three Ghostly Enemies Original Corruption in us the Vanity of the World about us and the Cruelty of the Devil and Wicked men over us Hence the Advice of the Apostle cui resistite fortes in Fide hence his recommending to us above all things to take Scutum Fidei hence the Contempt of all Worldly Honours Pleasures and Riches in Gods choice Saints and their suff'ring Persecution gladly for Conscience sake hence lastly their embracing and ev'n courting Torments and Death it self with such Alacrity and Constancy But alas how unactive had their Charity and Zeal been how dull their desire to forego all present Goods ev'n life too among the rest if this wicked Doctrine had been in their hearts that perhaps all was a lye which they profest suff'red and dy'd for And how coldly and timorously would they have look'd Death in the face having perfect Certainty on one side that they were about to lose all the known Goods they possest for others unknown and uncertain Well may a Natural sincerity preserve diverse persons who are out of the Church morally honest and innocent but we must not hope for any eminent Sanctity or Heroick Act of Virtue from any Professors of such a Faith if they follow their Teachers maintaining there are no stronger Motives for the Truth of Christianity to comfort and establish the Souls of the Faithful And 't is to be feared that though their highly-conceited Probability or Moral Certainty as they call it be enough to Exclude Actual Doubt while Men are in a state of Security and all things go well with them Yet it will scarce be able to preserve them from doubting Actually when they are upon the point of foregoing all the Goods they at present enjoy and are so highly concern'd to be Certain of the Existence of those Future ones they hope for in lieu of them § 7. Moreover we are perfectly Certain by manifest Experience of the Existence of Temporal Goods viz. Honours Pleasures Riches c. or that such things are in the world whereas unless Faith be truly Certain that is Impossible to be false the Generality of Mankind cannot be perfectly assur'd ev'n of the Existence of Heaven or those Future Goods for which they are to relinquish all present ones Wherefore the Existence of the thing being the first and main Basis of all Humane Action and the Ground of all the other Motives 't is clear there 's a manifest difference between acting for Heaven and for Temporal Goods ev'n in this respect whatever Parallel may be pretended in some other Considerations Besides all acting ev'n for Temporal Goods were unjustifyable unless those Goods be held Attainable and de facto we are perfectly certain that Honours Pleasures Riches c. not only exist but are of such a nature also as they may be attained to due means us'd since we experience multitudes of men have and do daily arrive at them But ev'n though Heav'n be held to be yet it cannot be held to be attainable unless the Proposals of Faith be Certain since neither have those who are to come to Faith seen nor experienc'd any man get Heav'n nor discours'd with any whom they know to have come thence and seen it So that I fear were the Objection concerning the Sufficiency of Probable Motives to make us act for Inferiour or Humane Goods distinctly clear'd it would be found not to mean that Probability of those Humane Good 's Existence or Attainableness suffices for example that there are Riches in common or that they may be gotten one way or other both which are presupposed to the Action as certainly known but it seems to mean only this that men ought to proceed to Action though there be but Moral Certainty or great Likelihood that those Goods are actually to be attain'd in this or that circumstance of Time or Place or by such or such means as by sending Ships to the Indies inventing Water-works Husbandry Souldiery and the like which assertion held within its bounds will break no squares seeing ev'n in the actual attainment of Heav'n by me or by this particular way or means when those means depend on material Circumstances there is found the same room for failure and contingency notwithstanding the Certainty of Heav'ns Existence and Attainableness in common secur'd to us perfectly by Faith For though Virtue practic'd is an Infallible Way to bring Souls to Bliss yet no man has Certainty that any Extrinsecal State he puts himself into or material means he uses will make him truly vertuous or finally get him the end he aims at but must content himself with Likelihoods or the seeming-betterness of his putting himself in that State or Circumstance or his using this or that means in the same manner as it happens when he acts for Temporary Goods and for the success leave it humbly in the hands of Divine Providence or miserentis Dei acknowledging with David that in manibus tuis Domine sortes meae and working out his Salvation with fear and trembling § 8. Besides to act Externally is in the power of the Will but to act Internally at least as is requisite for each Effect is not so For however the Will may set the Understanding to consider the Motive yet it must be the Truth of the Object 's Goodness
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
for the establishment or propagation of Christianity that is how insufficient for the Body of the Faithful or the Church how unfit for the Ends and unable to produce the Effects true Faith or the Faith found in the Generality of the Faithful ought to do needs no declaration to manifest it since no person of ordinary capacity can without difficulty refrain from smiling at the ridiculous levity of such kind of Assenters INFERENCES From the foregoing Discourses concluding all Controversy 1. IT rests then evinc'd and demonstratively concluded with as great Firmness as First Principles made use of for Premisses and Immediate Consequences from those Principles can establish it that that most firm or Unchangeable Assent call'd Christian Faith laying an obligation on its Profâ—ssors to assert it with the greatest Seriousness Constancy and Pledges imaginable to be TRUE and its Object Points of Faith to be TRUTHS is not possible to be False to us that is to be an Erroneous Iudgment or a Mistake of our Understanding 2. 'T is with the same Certainty concluded that the Ground of Faith as to our Knowledge and so the Rule of Faith must be likewise Impossible to be False For since nothing can or ought in true Reason be stronger than the Ground it stands on if This be not Impossible to be False it can be no Rule of Faith because it would weaken Faith it self which is built on it into a Possibility of Falshood inconsistent with its nature 3. It follows with the same Clearness that if the Rule of Faith or the Immediate Means to convey the Knowledg of Christ's Doctrin to us be any Living Authority that Authority must be Infallible as to that Effect For if Fallible Faith which is built on it would still be Possible to be False As Likewise that if it be any Book both the Letter of that Book must be known to be Impossâ—ble to have been corrupted as to what concerns Faith built on it and withall the Sense known to be Impossible to be â—istaken For in case either of these all the Causes being put to preserve them such as we have said be truly judg'd or found to be Possible Faith which is to depend on them will still be left possible to be False 4. It follows immediately that those pretended Faithfull who have not Grounds of Faith thus qualify'd have no true Faith that is no Act of Belief but what notwithstanding all that they know or can know of it may possibly be False nor consequently are they to be accounted truly Faithfull as not having true Faith that is in our case an Assent built either on Infallible Living Authority or on unmistakeable Letter and Sense of a Book § 3. but Opinion onely 5. It follows with like Evidence that a Controvertist being one who is to assert Faith not by looking into the Mysteries of Faith and explaining them this being the Office of a School-Divine but into the Motives to it or Rule of Faith if he goes not about to bring Proofs which he judges and is ready to maintain nay which are of their own nature apt to shew Faith and its Rule Impossible to be False he does not the duty he ows to Faith nor behaves himself like a Controvertist but he betrays Faith by his Ineffectual and Probable managery of it making it seem a sleight Opinion or lightly grounded Credulity Especially if he professes that all Proofs which can be produc'd in this matter are Possible to be False For then 't is a plain and open Confession all his Endeavours are to no purpose because he is to shew Faith the Subject of his Discourse to be what in reality it is that is Impossible to be false Nay since Faith must be thus Certain he manifestly destroys Faith when he should defend and establish it by professing all its Proofs or Grounds possible to be false 6. It follows immediately that unless some other Medium can be found or way taken in that Skill or Science call'd Controversie which is able to show Faith Impossible to be false than what is laid down in Sure-footing which partly by our Adversaries confession of the Inability of theirs to reach Infallible Certainty partly out of the nature of the Thing as is seen Sure-footing Corol. 16 and 40. is evidently impossible nor was it ever yet attempted by any other Means except by looking into the nature of Tradition It follows I say that as it is Certain that Faith and its Grounds are Impossible to be false that is false to us or may be shown thus Impossible to be False So 't is by consequence Certain likewise that the main Doctrin there deliver'd will stand whatever particular miscarriages may have happen'd in the managing it which are to be judg'd of by the strength of my Reasons there given and the force of my Adversaries Objections 7. 'T is necessarily consequent from the foregoing Paragraphs that if I have discours'd right in this small Treatise of mine and have prov'd that Faith and consequently its Grounds must be Impossible to be False then Mr. Tillotson's Confession p. 118. to which M. Stillingfleet's Doctrin is consonant that It is Possible to be otherwise that is to be False that any Book is so antient as it pretends to be or that it was written by him whose name it bears or that this is the sense of such and such passages in it is a clear Conviction that neither is the Book-Rule he maintains the True Rule of Faith § 3. nor have he and his Friends True Faith § 4. and consequently there being no other Rule owned taking away Private Spirit but Tradition that Tradition is the onely-true-Rule of Faith § 6. and so the main of Sure-Footing stands yet firm and lastly 't is evinc'd that his own Book which opposes it opposes the onety-true because the onely-impossible-to-be-False Ground of Faith that is he is convinc't in that Supposition to go about to undermine all Christian Faith Whence the Title of his Probable-natur'd Book is manifested to be an improper Nick-name and the Book it self to merit no Reply 8. This last point is hence farther confirm'd because Mr T. and Mr. St. can claim no admittance into a dispute whether this or the other be the True Rule of Faith till they approve themselves to be Christians and show they hold there is such a thing as Faith or that it can bear the having any Rule at all since an Assent to a point seen and acknowledg'd Possible to to be False can never rise to be more than an Opinion nor can the Motive of assenting to what may possibly be False in true speech be call'd The Rule of Faith both because there is in that case no Faith Infer 1. and so it cannot be a Rule to what is not as also because what we see Possible to be False cannot with any propriety be cal'd a Rule to the Understanding directing it to Truth in regard for any thing it sees 't
is a crooked path and a False Light leading it into Errour What therefore they are to do in the circumstances they have brought themselves into is to show that they destroy not the Truth of Faith that is the Nature of Faith it self and the Nature of the Way to that Truth or the Rule of Faith by putting them both possible to be False I saw they did and therefore was oblig'd to begin my discourse higher and to Settle the Existence of Faith by removing the possibâ—lâ—ty of it's Falshood that so it might be shown able to bear the having a Rule which while it was in the tottering and uncertain condition to which Mr. T. and Mr. St. had reduc't it that is in a Possibility of being all a Ly and indeed is an Actuality of being as to us not-Truth but at most a great Likelihood it was utterly incapable of Since therefore in the right method of discoursing An est ought to antecede Quid ests they have lost their right to be discours't with about the Quid est of the Rule of Faith or what is that Rule till they can justify themselves not to have destroy'd the very An est or Existence of Rule and Faith both with which Mr. T. is now challeng'd from his own words and Mr. St. from his abetting him and espousing his Patronage Both Nature therefore and Art excuse me from replying to Mr T. and Mr. St. where the just Laws of severe and rigorous Reason exactly obseru'd and so 't is onely a voluntary Courtesy not an obligatory duty to afford them or any other Writers thus Principled any Answer at all or to admit them to a dispute about this Point What is the Rule of Faith Lastly hence is inferr'd that a Conclusive Method or short way of ending all Controversies between the Catho lik Church and all her relinquishers is settled by this Doctrin For if right Faith must be Impossible to be False to us or to the Generality of Christians that is if the Motives to embrace Christianity must be thus firm then 't is Evident that that Party whose Writers renounce the having any such Motives in case those writers speak the sense of that Party is not rightly Christian or truly Faithfull but a distinct Sect from the body of right Christians or it being most unjust that the discourses of private Speculaters should be pinn'd upon the whole party if they write things deniable by that party in case any such Party should think fit to disclaim such Writers as private discoursers and their Tenet of Christian Faith's not being Absolutely Certain which they are at liberty to do and set some other writers to maintain the opposit Thesis it will quickly be seen whether they are able to bring Infallible Grounds of Faith I mean any Authority conveying Christ's Faith down to us infallibly which they must bring if they will prove Faith Impossible to be False distinct from what the Catholik Church holds to and which themselves renounc't when they forsook her Communion But that there are any such Grounds as these that is Grounds Inerrably bringing down the Knowledg of Christs Faith to us that is a Rule of Faith Impossible to be False to us I could never yet discern by the carriage writings or Discourse of any Party that dissented from the Catholick Church to be their Tenet If then it be a most Certain Truth that Faith must be Impossible to be false as I hope I have abundantly concluded 't is also most Certain that those who deny they have such a Faith do by that very denyal confess they have no True Faith nor are truly Faithfull nor of the True Catholick Church Postscript THus Reader thou seest I still endeavour candidly to put Controversy home as far as my discourse can carry it and that I have resum'd here all the scatter'd ends of voluminous disputes into one point By which means the sincere Protestant and all others out of the Church may see at a short view what they are to do If they look into their own breasts as they are Professors of Christianity they will find it writ there in Capitals That CHRISTIAN FAITH CANNOT BE AN ILLUSION ' OR FALSHOOD Also that Faith is to be held by them True and that they ought to suffer all Persecutions and Death it self for the professing it to be such This found and duly reflected on the next thing to be done is that they press their Learned men by whom they are led to shew them by such Grounds as their separation from the Catholick Church permits them to hold that is by their Grounds that Christian Faith is Impossible to be False If they can as hitherto they have told us they cannot then their Adherents may in reason hope well of their own condition till they see those attempts evidently shown invalid But if they profess still they cannot and that Faith needs no such Certainty then not onely the natural dictamen of Christianity in their own breasts ought to make them distrust the Principles of their Party found to be so destructive to Christian Faith but also I shall hope there are some Proofs in this foregoing Treatise which they will judg require an Answer I expect my Answerer will sow together many thin Rhetorical fig-leaves to cover the Deformity of that abominable Thesis that Faith may be False which to propose undisguiz'd were too openly shameful But I hope thou wilt be able to discern their sense through their Rhetorick and heedfully to mark with a stedfast Eye that in how quaint and elegant phrases soever they cloak their Tenet yet the genuin downright and natural sense of the position they go about to defend will still be this The mysteries of Christian Faith may all be so many Lies for any thing any man living absolutely knows and the whole Body of Christian Doctrine a Bundle of Falshoods I expect also many plausible Instances and pretended Parallels of the sufficiencie of inferiour degrees of Certitude for such and such particular ends But what thou art to consider is whether those Ends be Parallel or equal to that highest End and Concern of Christian Faith These things I expect but I expect not that so much as one Principle that will be found to deserve that name will ever be thought prudent to be produc't to justify a Tenet every way so Irrational and unprincipled or rather destroying the Certainty and consequently the Essence and Nature of the Best Body of Principles that either Nature or the Author of Nature and Grace himself ever instill'd into Mankind Lastly I beseech thee to obtain for me if thou canst that if any think fit to reply to this Treatise they would be perswaded to set aside all WITTY PREVARICATION and ELEGANT DROLLERY the two chief and in a manner onely Sticklers in the pretended Answer to Sure-Footing and beginning with First Principles to draw thence Immediate Consequences as I have constantly endeavour'd in this Discourse By
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 had the least actual doubt or suspicion of doubt of it else surely they would never have staid in them inform us sufficiently to what a changeable tottering and ruinous condition Christian Faith would be reduc'd by these Principles and Parallels No fewer than three Houses fell in the compass of a short time and none had the least suspicion of doubt beforehand of such an Event therefore may an Atheist say Down falls Christian Faith too whose Foundation was by this Doctrin but Parallel for strength to the other or if it fall not in so long time it has only something better luck not better grounds than had the three Houses As for the objected Unsuitableness of such a Certainty as I require 't is reply'd that nothing is more natural for the Generality of Mankind than to be led by Authority nothing more penetrable by those of all sorts than the Infallibleness and Veracity of exceedingly vast and grave Authorities relating matter of Fact as we experience in their beleef that there was a Q. Elizabeth and such like to comprehend and assent immovably to which costs them not the least over straining as the Obiecter imagins Which being so I make account that God both in his power and wisdom could in his Goodness would render the Authority of his Church the Ground and Pillar of Truth as evident to all her Children both as to its Inerrableness and Veracity as the other nay incomparably more it being in every regard so requisit Objection VI. If the Motives to Faith must be Impossible to be False to us they would necessarily conclude the Truth of Faith wherefore they would of themselves oblige the Understanding to assent and so there would need no precedent pious affection of the Will which yet both Councils Fathers and Catholick Divines with one consent require Nay more were not such a pious affection put Acts of Faith would not be Free Answer If Experience teaches us that even assent to Humane Sciences though Evident from Intrinsecal reasons Comprehensible by our Understanding and purely Speculative is not to be acquir'd without an affection to see Truth as is evident from the carriage of meer Scepticks who having entertain'd a conceit of it's hopelesness come thence to want Love or Affection for it and so never come to see it how Conclusive soever the reasons be Much more by far must some good affection be pre-requisit to assent to Divine and Supernatural Truths which are Obscure in themselves as depending upon Authority Incomprehensible to our natural reason and Practical that is obligingly-Efficacious to break out into Christian Action or Love of Heaven above all sublunary things as True Faith must be The First obstacle of the three mention'd has this difficulty that the beams of Truth which come directly from the things themselves are generally apt to strike our Understanding more naturally penetrate it more deeply and to stick in it more immovably than those which are reflected to us from the Knowledg of another such as are Points of Faith besides the new difficulty of seeing the Veracity of the Attester which how evident soever it be yet it puts the Understanding to double pains whereas Evidence had from the Thing is but a single labour and so less confounding and distracting the thought The Second Obstacle Incomprehensibleness is apt to stupify the Understanding and retard Assent nay even to deter it from considering them as Truths The Atheistical temper of the world which could not subsist were Metaphysicks duly advanc'd sufficiently informs us how difficult it is for men to apply and fix their thoughts upon those considerabilities in things and those natures which are abstracted from matter the reason whereof is because it being natural that our Fancy be in act while our Understanding is so and there being not Proper Phantasms the onely agreeable ones to material men who are not strong enough to guide their Judgments purely by Principles and Connexions of Terms which sute to such abstracted Conceptions but Metaphorical ones onely which the Understanding must in rigour deny to be right ones even while by necessity 't is forc't to make use of them Hence the life of a Christian as such being to serve God in Spirit and Truth and so the Objects and Principles of his new Life for the most part and principally Spiritual ones it comes to pass that for this very regard alone there will need a great love of Truth and Spiritual Goods to make the Understanding appliable to them or even admit a consideration of them I was told by a worthy Friend of mine that discoursing with an acute man but a great hater of Metaphysicks and mentioning a Spirit he in a disgust broke out into these words Let us talk of what we know By which expression 't is manifest that he mistook the Question An est for Quid est But what makes for my purpose is that the unknowableness of the Essence or nature of a Spirit to us in this State obstructed even his desire to consider whether there were any such thing or no consequently that there needs a contrary desire or affection to know Spiritual things to make us willing even to entertain a thought of their being much more to conceit it But incomparably more needful is such an Affection when to the Spirituality of those points there shall be added an Incomprehensibleness nay if onely those points be consider'd an Incredibleness when no Parallel can be found in Nature nor scarce any similitude weakly to shadow out the thing and it's possibility nay when some of those points directly thwart the course of natural Causes whence all our other Knowledges have their Stability Then I say if ever there is requisit an Affection for the Nobleness and Excellency of those high Spiritual Objects to make us willing to hearken to any Authority proposing them how evident soever the Motives be for the Credibleness of that Authority The third Obstacle follows taken from the End for which Faith is essentially ordain'd that is from what it essentially is viz. a mover of the Will to Virtue and Goodness or a Practical Principle Now nothing is more evident than this Truth that by-affections and contrary inclinations are apt to hinder the understanding from assenting or even attending candidly and calmly to these Reasons how clear soever they be which make against any beloved Interest whence there needs a contrary affection to these other to remove the mists those passions had rais'd and purge the Eye of the Mind that so it may become capable of discerning what it could not before though in it self most visible How much more not only requisite but even necessary must some pious affection be to permit the mind freely to embrace the doctrin of Christian Faith containing Principles which enjoyn a disregard and posthabition of all that is sweet to Flesh and Blood nay even of Livelihood and Life it self 'T is most manifest then that a Plous
their attempting or neglecting to do this and onely by that Test it will be seen whether my Evictions stand or fall whereas from flashy wit so little is gain'd that even what 's solid suffers disgrace by such a managery And I here very penitently beg pardon of my Readers that I have sometimes heretofore spent my precious time and less-fruitful labour which might have been better employd in pursuing that way of Folly For such my more deliberate Thoughts now discover it however the reputed profoundness but indeed real shallowness of my Adversaries made it at that season seem most convenient FINIS Corrections of the Press PAge 6. line 5. built upon p. 14. l. 13. the Ten et p. 25. l. 10. Acts. as p. 33. l 5. not be is p. 43. l. 9 is deniable p. 89. l 25. Objects on p. 112. l. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 121. l. 2. 't is neither Affirmation nor l. 9 usually p. 126. l. 26. Such Truths p. 128. l. 9. their power l. 18. at all p. 130. l. 25. of the Schools p. 134. l. 26. find p. 139. l. 18. being to l. 21. both at p. 149. Objection VIII p. 161. l. 13. parologysm l 21 nut at p. 164 l. 1. Objection IX l. 5. to have p. 171. l. 22. onely-true Postulata The Thesis demonstrated from the nature of Evidence From the nature of the Subject in Faith-Propositions From the nature of the Copula From the nature of the Predicatâ— in most of those Propositions From the nature of Distinction as apply'd to the Predicate From the impossibility of distinguishing the subjects of Faith-propositions From the nature of Truth consisting in an Indivisible From the nature of Connexion From the nature of Opinion The Origin and Natures of Suspence and Assent The Point evinc't from the natures of Suspence and Assent From the nature of Holding From the nature of Knowing From the nature of Certainty in many regards From the Impossibility that what may be false can have any Principles From the Identity of Certainty with Infallibility From the contrary opinion's unavoidably subjecting Faith to Chance and Contingency From the Incompossibility of Truth with Falsehood From the nature of Disputation and the Impossibility otherwise to evince the Truth of faith The main Thesis demonstrated from the want of Potentiality in the Subject From the otherwise necessity of putting a consistency of Truth with Falshood From the otherwise necessity of putting Contradictories to be true From the otherwise necessity of putting it possible the minde should be at once conformable and disconformable to the thing From the Impossibility of different Respects here so to avoid a Contradiction From the nature of the Soul From the necessity of putting the Soul at once determin'd and indetermin'd in order to the same Point From the Formal Natures of Tâ—uth and Falshood From the notion of Metaphysical Unity From the notion of Metaphysical Verity From the notion of Metaphysical Bonity or Goodness From the contrary Thesis being destructive to the Fiâ—st Principle in all Metaphysicks From the Impossibility of a sufficient Motive to judg a thing True with a Motive to judg it possible to be False From the nature of the First Cause or the Deity From the nature of the proper Agent in instructing Mankind From the nature of the Persons instructed From Faith's being a Virtue From Faith's being an Intellectu al Virtue From Faith's being a Supernatural Virtue From the firmness Supernatural Faith ought to hâ—vâ—â—bove Natural Another Proof from the same head From the requisiteness that Christian Action should proceed from the Acters in the perfectest manner That otherwise Christian Religion would be more defective in point of Principles than any other Art or Science From Faith's being the Knowledg of our last End and of the way to it From the Certainty the Heathens had of the Principles of their imperfect Morality From mans last End being only attainable by Intellectual means From Virtue 's being the connatural Effect of Truth and Vice of Falsehood From the otherwise Inability of Faiâ—h to resist overcome Temptations From the otherwise Uncertainty of the Existence of Spiritual Goods or the Attainableness of them in the next life From the otherwise preternaturaliâ—y in producing a due love of Heaven From the Incredibleness of the Mysteries nor superable by any Motive possible to be False From the otherwise greater plausibility of Objections against Faith From Faith's being a Knowledg of God of his Will From Faith's being plac'd beyond Contingencie From the manner in which Christians express themselves when they profess their Faith From this that otherwise it were lawful to lay a wager Christian Faith is a Ly. From the Carriage of the Martyrs if suppos'd Honest Prudent From the Blasphemousnes of the Equivalencies to this Proposition Faith is Possible to be False From the Practice of Learnedst Christians in captivating their understandings to Faith From the Duty incumbent on the maintainers of the impugn'd Tenet to remain Seekers all their lives From the inefficaciousness it brings to Christian Preaching and Exhortation From the Churches constant Practice of Obliging to Belief * Rule of Faith * Infer 4 * Infer 2.