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knowledge_n natural_a reason_n revelation_n 1,320 5 9.7973 5 false
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A33780 An answer to the query of a deist concerning the necessity of faith. J. C. 1687 (1687) Wing C51; ESTC R24111 10,642 14

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That Salvation as it imports Remission of Sin and fruition of God is not due to Man nor attainable by him otherwise than by a Faith in one Mediator Christ Jesus and that therefore there actually is such a Mediator and such a Faith I shall now make a distinct Answer to diverse particular Objections implicitly included in your general Query And first it is Objected God has indu'd Man with Reason on account of which Man is said to be a rational Creature and therefore it is contradictory to his very Nature to give an Assent or Belief to the truth of any Proposition such as is every Article of Faith transcendant to his Reason for this would be for Man to devest himself of his Nature It is Answer'd If by the word Reason be meant that rational Power or Faculty in the Soul term'd the Understanding by which Man comprehends the truth or falsity of a thing It is indeed contradictory to Man's Nature to give an assent without such a faculty to any Proposition For this would be to understand without an understanding But if by the word Reason be meant a rational Evidence Cause or Motive of Credibility why a Man gives an assent to the truth of any Proposition It is not contradictory but most agreeable and consonant to Man's Nature to give an assent upon such rational Motives to any Proposition Secondly It is Objected When God Created Man he gave him a faculty of Reason whereby to arrive to the knowledge of his Creator by the footsteps of Nature and imprinted in his Soul a Law of Morality whereby to distinguish Good from Evil. Now it seems proposterous and destructive to the establish'd order and frame of Nature That God should institute a new Law and require from Man a belief of it and submission to it The truth of which nevertheless transcends the ability of human Reason traceing the footsteps of Nature to comprehend It is answer'd Man may arrive to the knowledg of a truth by two ways The one is by an intrinsick demonstration from Natural causes to their effects and this knowledge is term'd natural Science The other is by an extrinsick Manifestation or Revelation of a Proponent or Attestant and herein the assurance of such a knowledge of truth is proportion'd to the Credit and Authority of the Proponent And in short if God who is truth it self manifests and reveals a truth the knowledge and assurance of such a truth is superiour to all human or natural Science This knowledge is what we term Faith Nor is this knowledge of God and his Law arriving to Man by Revelation any wise proposterous or destructive to the knowledg we have of him and his Law drawn from the footsteps and impressions of Nature but rather a supply to the deficiency of such natural knowledg for God is immense and his ways inscrutable and none can by inferences and consequences drawn from the Principles of Nature comprehend the total either of what God is or what he may require of us Indeed seing the bounties and benefits conferr'd by God on his Creatures are the meer effects of his own free-will the very freedom and liberty of his Will in conferring or not conferring these bounties and benefits implies an impossibility of attaining to the knowledg of them before or otherwise then as he freely pleases to reveal and manifest them And as it is the height of Blasphemy to say God within the verge of Nature has done so much he cannot do more so is it the height of Arrogance after he hath reveal'd and manifested the effects of his Will above the verge of Nature to affirm he hath not done more Thirdly It is Objected That the rational dences and Motives of Credibility specify'd in the fifth Position tho' they afford a Moral certainty of the truths reveal'd by Christ yet not amounting to a scientifical Demonstration they seem disproportionable and insufficient to cause or produce that assurance of assent challeng'd by Faith It is Answer'd The specify'd Motives of Credibility are only the instrumental causes productive of Faith as tools in the hands of the Artificer But the effecient cause producing an assurance of Assent to Divine Revelations or matters of Faith is the veracity of God the Revealer into which veracity Faith as the effect into its adequat cause is finally resolv'd and terminated Fourthly It is Objected An exclusion of an Innocent from the Fruition of God his final end and happiness is a Punishment inflicted without a fault and a cruelty incompatible with Divine Justice It is Answer'd An Exclusion of Man however innocent and inculpable from the Fruition of God an happiness which neither by the right of Nature was due to him nor which by any merit of his he could ever deserve cannot be term'd or esteem'd a Punishment at all either for or without a fault much less a cruelty incompatible with Divine Justice for every Punishment is properly a subtraction of a benefit or happiness from a culpable or guilty person to which happiness the guilty person before his guilt had some just propriety and right and which right he justly forfeited by his guilt Now an Exclusion of Man from the Fruition of God is no such thing but only a pure Negation or Non-conferring of a free guift or benovolence to which Man however suppos'd innocent neither has nor ever could have any just propriety or right as hath been more at large already prov'd in the second Position wherfore God may without any pre-supposition of Fault on Man's part or imputation of cruelty and injustice on God's part exclude Man from the fruition of himself as a benefit or happiness to which Man has no imaginable just Title or Claim Nevertheless it may be granted that a Person Innocent and free from Sin if any such had been would not be liable to the horrid tortures torments and flames inflicted by the Judgment and Vengeance of God on willful and malicious Sinners for those alone are justly Condemned to the utmost Extremity of an unhappy and miserable Beeing who to Sin have abandoned God the sole Fountain of well-Beeing And in this sense it is most true that regarding the above named Torments and their Cause there is none punishable who is not culpable Fifthly it is objected to what purpose and with what appearance of Justice has God in so many Ages Created and fixed in the World so many Persons who yet he knew neither would nor could ever attain to their natural End and final Happiness Were it not better such Persons never had been It is answered over and above what hath been already sufficiently said and proved concerning this matter A Beeing even in a condemned Sinner is preferable to no Beeing as far as his Beeing is the work of his Creator for it is simply better to be something than nothing but the dismal Miseries and Torments attending the Sinner and annex'd to his Crime are no positive Beeing but a privation of well-Beeing The sole effect and product of Malice and Sin And as to the purpose or design God has in the Creation of Man whether Good or Evil It is for the Manifestation of his Soveraignity and Glory of his Attributes He bestows upon some Blessings Temporal and Eternal for the Manifestation of his Mercy He inflicts upon others Punishments Temporal and Eternal for the Manifestation of his Justice He grants to some the Fruition of himself a Benefit above what they deserve He excludes others from the same Fruition a Benefit they do not deserve Thus he is Good to all but unjust to none he extends or limits the effects of his mercy and goodness according to the measure of his own Will but still without injustice to any To illustrate this point God might if he would have Created thousands of Worlds besides this and in each World millions of Men but he has not done it must we then say This possible Mass of Worlds and Men may justly accuse God of Partiality and Injustice in giving to this single World an actual Beeing and leaving all the rest in the Abiss of their own Nothing Certainly No. And as God the Soveraign Lord hath amongst his Works on Earth made some irrational Creatures as Stones Plants Brutes without dignifying of them as he hath Man with the noble faculties of Will and Reason because it so pleased him yet without any injustice to the irrational Creatures themselves so the same Soveraign Lord hath amongst the number of Mankind in all Ages destin'd and elected some to the everlasting fruition of himself an happiness they could not justly demand And excluded others from the same fruition an happiness they could not justly require And this God the Just the Good Will because he Will and to conclude It is true God cannot Will but what is Just and Good but it is likewise true what he Will is therfore Just and Good because he Will for the Will of God is the Supream and Unaccountable Rule both of Justice and Goodness You add in the close of your Query That what you said of an Unbeliever may proportionably be adapted to an erroneous Believer and you are in the right for no Faith and a false Faith are equally Pernicious the reason is because Faith applicative of Christ's Merits to Man's Justification takes not its vertue and efficacy from the force or strength of Perswasion in the Believer but from the worth and value of the Misteries believ'd so that when Faith is not uniform and correlative to the integrity of its Object being all and every reveal'd Mistery each of which is influential to Justification such a Faith looseth its applicative Property and becomes abortive fruitless and delusory Thus I hope I have given you satisfaction to each particular Clause contain'd in your general Query Now I wish the effect may correspond to the good Intention herein of SIR Your well-meaning Friend and Servant J. C.
for Mans injustice done by Sin But alas worthless Man could as is said before make no such Satisfaction therfore God becoming Man and Dying for Man made Satisfaction in the utmost rigor of Justice for the Sin of Man Moreover the End and Happiness of Man as hath been often said is the Fruition of God an infinite Good but Man was destitute of proper Self Merit and means whereby to attain to this inestimable End as hath been likewise said and proved therfore God becoming Man merited and purchas'd for Man what before so infinitely transcended his Reach The second Evidence or Motive of Credibility is taken from the Stupendious Miracles done by Christ whilst on Earth to prove himself to be God and his Doctrine or Gospel Suprem and Divine Miracles infinitely above the compass of any created Strength or Industry and only Commensurate to a Divine Power As are raising the Dead to Life healing the Lame giving Sight to the Blind curing the Sick of naturally incurable Distempers and all these suddenly and by his sole Touch Word or Command As likewise are Casting out of Devils Asswaging Tempests Walking upon the Sea as upon Dry Land Feeding to Overplus Five Thousand Persons with Five Loaves of Bread c. As also are Manifestations of the Secret of Mens Hearts a Knowledg of all things both present and distant both past and to come Miracles done in the Presence some of Thousands some of Hundreds and all of a sufficient Number of Eye-Witnesses Miracles undeniable by his then extent most malicious Adversaries Miracles universally attested and the Memory of them perpetuated by the unanimous harmony of Persons and Records of all Ages These Miracles I say are superabundant Evidences and Motives of Credibility that Christ our Saviour is God and his Doctrine or Gospel Divine The Third rational evidence of motive or Credubility is taken from the wonderful Propagation of the Gospel of Christ None who judge by Reason or even common Sense can imagine That a few in number and those poor illeterate and despicable Persons as were all the Apostles and Disciples of Christ sent and Commission'd by him to Preach his Gospel delivering a Doctrine not only above the reach of natural Science or Knowledg but repugnant and destructive to the Maxims of the World and Blandishments of the Flesh should nevertheless contrary to all Temporal or Carnal Interest superiour to all Human difficulties and invincible to all Oppositions spread and dilate this Doctrin throughout the World and transmit it indelible to all future Ages None I say of common Reason or Sense can imagin such a Doctrine so deliver'd and propagated could have any other than God for the Author The fourth and last rational evidence or motive of Credibility is taken from the Purity Sanctity and Rectitude of manners contain'd in the Principles and relucent in the Practise of the true Christian Religion and remonstrating the same to be no less than Divine We find Man's contaminated Nature transported and hurry'd with a strange deluge and impetuosity to Vice and Sin to Pride and Self-conceit to Avarice to Lust to Intemperance to Rage to Fraud to Malice to Injustice and all kind of Immorality Which contamination of Nature receives no small addition from the Temptations and Allurements of the World It was therfore highly necessary there should be an Antidot to the Poison healing Remedies to the Distempers and a Medicinal Law to repress the Misdemeanors and rectify the Disorders of deprav'd Nature It was necessary I say there should be apply'd to our Pride and Self-conceit Humility and Submission to our Avarice Poverty of Spirit to our Lust Continency and Chastity to our Intemperance Fasting and Abstinence to our Rage and Passion Meekness and Patience to our Fraud Sincerity to our Malice Charity to our Injustice Righteousness and to the Temptation of the World a Contempt and Disregard of it in what it Alienates the Heart from God its Creator That thus Man from Vicious might become Vertuous his Soul adorn'd and perfected with Holiness of Life his corrupt Nature reclaim'd and himself led as it were by Manuduction to his last end These are the blessed fruits and effects springing from Gospel Dictates which if impartially consider'd give a Moral assurance they flow from a Divine Fountain and Original It may be Objected There are Multitudes of Persons believing and professing Christianity upon whose Lives and Manners these Gospel dictates work no such effects as are here mention'd It is answered there are indeed too too many Professiors of Christianity whose wicked Practises are little answerable to the Purity and Sanctity taught and known in the Gospel Dictates however this Wickedness of Manners proceeds not from any deficiency in the Dictates but from a delinquency in the Professors which Professors therfore may fitly be stiled as to point of Practise no Christians My last conclusive Position is There is necessary to Salvation as it imports Remission of Sin and Fruition of God a Faith in Christ as the indispensable Condition or means introductive and Applicative of his Merits and Mercies to Man To prove my position I argue thus Upon the Reception of a Benefit Gratis and by Benevolence bestowed on a Rational Creature the very Law of Nature dictates there is required and due an Owning or Acknowledgment to be made of the Benefit Yes and a Love to be render'd by the Receiver to the Benefactor But it is impossible such an Acknowledgment shou'd be made or Love render'd without a previous Knowledg of the Benefit received For no Man can either Acknowledg or Love he knows not what consequently seing the Remission of Sin and Fruition of God are as hath been proved in the first and second position Benefits purely Gratis and by Benevolence bestowed by God on Man there is indispensably required and due to God from Man a reciprocal and grateful Acknowledgment of and love for these precious Benefits But this Acknowledgement can never be made nor love render'd without a Knowledg of the Truths and Misteries including the Benefits And this Knowledg can never be attain'd by natural Science but only by Faith For Faith is defined to be a Knowledg of certain Truths or Mysteries diuinely reveal'd relating to Mans Salvation and assented to because so reveal'd tho' not demonstrable by deduction from natural Causes and Effects Thus then Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation Hence this main Article concerning the necessity of Faith hath been constantly Preached Divulged and received in all Ages and Places when or where soever the name of Christian hath gained admittance And all the Arguments and Motives of Credibility brought in the fifth Position to prove the Doctrine or Gospel of Christ to be True and Divine prove also this Article of the necessity of Faith to be True and Divine as being an Essential Part of the same Doctrin or Gospel Having thus given a distinct Proof to each particular Clause or matter contain'd in the general Assertion viz.