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
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
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
to the other immediately foregoing induces all the Absurdities mentioned in my former Discourse and pins them upon the Deity as on their first Cause So horrible and Diabolical a Tenet is this of the Possible Falshood of Faith that it calumniates Heaven it self nor can any thing but an Invincible Ignorance in the Maintainers of it excuse them from highest Blasphemy from making the unenvious Fountain of all Goodness like our own narrow and crooked Selves Fifth Eviction § 1. LEt us hear next what the Science of Divinity both Speculative and Moral will award concerning the Point in Question § 2. The Wisdom of the Eternal Father having been pleas'd to take our Nature upon him and amongst his other Offices he perform'd towards Mankind that of a Master being manifestly one we cannot doubt but that he both would and could that is did accomplish what belong'd to that Office Again true Dâ—vinity assigning one main if not the chiefest Reason why the Second Person was made Man to be this that it being requisite God should come and converse with us visibly to cause in us Knowledg of his heavenly Doctrine or be our Master and Knowledg or Wisdom being appropriated to the Second Person it was therefore most fit that Person should be Incarnate it follows that the Office of a Master in our Saviour Christ springs peculiarly out of the nature of his Divine Personality and not of his Humanity precisely as does his Suffering and Dying for us c. Wherefore the Proper Agent of Instructing and Teaching Mankind being as such Infinitely Perfect 't is evidently consequent Christ perform'd the Office of a Master or wrought the effects proper to a Teacher as such with all imaginable Perfection § 3. It being then the proper Office or Effect of a Master or Teacher to make his Schollers know his Doctrin is True we cannot think but that this Divine or Infinitely-perfect Master made them absolutely or perfectly know the Truth of his Doctrine § 4. And because the end of this Teaching was not terminated in those few himself convers'd with nor in the Christians of the First Age but was principally intended for the Body of Mankind which was future in respect of them it follows that this Enlightning and Instructing now spoken of was to be equally extended to the following World of Christians they being all Sectators or Followers of his Doctrin that is his Scholars and He their Master Unless then he had taken order that succeeding Ages also should have perfect Assurance or know his Doctrine was absolutely True he would have set up a School and laid no means to preserve the far greater part and in a manner the whole Body of his Scholars or Christians from Ignorance and Errour § 5. All Christians then both the Primitive and their Successors had and will have means to Know absolutely Christian Doctrine is True This means we call the Rule of Faith Both the Rule of Faith then must be known to be veracious and Faith which is built on it to be absolutely Tâ—ue and by consequence to be absolutely Impossible to be False § 6. Besides Man being an Intellectual Creature 't is evident the true Perfection of his Nature consists in Knowing and this whether we consider him as a Speculater or as an Acter For if the thing may Possibly be False for any thing he knows then he is most evidently Ignorant whether it be False or no that is whether it be True or no which speaks Imperfection in his Nature as 't is a Capacity of Knowledg And if he be to Act about it 't is evidently a less Perfection and worse for mankind to go to work unassuredly than assuredly Faith then being Gods Ordinance and God doing what is best for Mankind it follows Faith is perfectly secure to him that is he must know it to be such and consequently 't is not subject to the Contingency of being False § 7. But leaving Man the Subject of Faith and reflecting upon Faith it self in us the first thing that offers it self to our Consideration is that it's Habit is a Virtue and consequently Rational Also that it's Act is an Assent upon Authority since then 't is demonstrated formerly that there can be in reason no Assent without Certain Grounds and that what is Certain is Impossible to be False it follows that the Grounds of Faith and consequently Faith it self is not possible to be False § 8. Next Faith is an Intellectual Virtue that is apt to perfect mans understanding as such that is 't is to him a Knowledg and so informs his mind with Truths The Nature of Faith then forces that Points of Faith must be Truths and so as is manifoldly demonstrated Faith it self is not possible to be False § 9. Again this Intellectual Virtue call'd Faith is also a Supernatural one and therefore as such proceeds from an Agent infinitely more perfect than any can be found in Nature therefore the immediate effect aim'd at by Faith that is the informing the Understanding would be perform'd with infinite advantage as far as concerns that Supernatural Agent 's or God's part and if it be not so exquisitely perform'd it must spring from some Incapacity in the Subject There being then in this Effect of informing the Understanding two Considerations viz. Evidence which is had either by Experience of our Senses of which Spiritual Natures the chief Objects of Faith are incapable or by intrinsecal Mediums that is Demonstration of those Spiritual things of which taking the Generality of mankind the Subject of Faith very few are capable And that other of Certainty attainable both by those Intrinsecal and also Extrinsecal Mediums or Authority which Authority by means of the Practicableness of it's Nature all are to a great degree able to understand it follows that here being no violence or unsuitableness to Humane Nature consider'd in it's Generality the â—upernatural Agent or Cause of Faith will effect here a greater Certainty than meer natural Impressions could produce that is all Extrinsecal Arguments being finally resolv'd into Intrinsecal ones the Best and Chief Nature in the world will be made use of and most strongly supported to make up the greatest Authority that is possible and so to establish this Certainty of Faith and it's Principles beyond that of any Humane Sciences But divers pieces of Humane Science nay the least particle of true Science is acknowledg'd impossible to be False Faith therefore à fortiori must be such also § 10. This Supernaturality of Faith by which word we mean Divine Faith convinces that it ought to exceed all other Faith 's according to the Notion of Faith in common that is it ought to partake whatever Perfection truly belongs to Faith or Belief as such in an especial manner and far above what is found in Humane Faiths in a word it ought to have as much in it as can elevate it under the Notion of Faith without
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