REMARKS UPON A TRACT INTITULED A TREATISE OF HUMANE REASON AND Upon Mr. Warren's late Defence of it By Sir George Blundell LONDON Printed for Jacob Tonson at the Judges Head in Chancery-Lane near Fleetstreet 1683. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER I Had no Intentions until lately to expose these REMARKS which were made in the year 76 for my privat Diversion to the Publick Censure of an Age so much distracted in Opinions but finding that the Approbation of this Treatise after some men's endeavours to refute it doth still remain in the minds of many upon whose Inclinations to Novelty it may be hoped that the Variety as well as force of Arguments may prevail to make a new Answer serviceable and seeing likewise the Enemies of the poor Protestant Religion encrease so much both in numbers and audacity as to attack it on every side by most graceless and inhumane attempts I thought it the Duty of an Orthodox tho' an unworthy Professor to put my Mite into the Corban to help to support it But if it shall be further objected that I have not well timed the publishing of these Remarks in regard the Author of the Treatise may possibly be dead to this I shall only answer That no Books in any Age have been priviledged from being Confuted or Suppressed after the death of their Authors if their Contents were offensive to our Laws or Religion REMARKS UPON A TREATISE OF HUMANE REASON To the Author of the Treatise SIR IN reading your Treatise I deal franckly with you I was much disappointed for I did expect a discourse of the Origen Nature and Conveyance of Humane Reason to all the Generations of Men and in order to this that you would have treated First Of its primitive Inspiration and Descent from God himself to Man at his Creation 2ly Of its Perspicacity and Extent in the state of Innocency 3ly Of its impaired Condition in Adam himself and the first Ages before many of those vices which so much weaken it now were practised in the world 4ly That you would by some new Ratiocinations have either confirmed that Opinion of the Conveyance of Humane Reason to all Adam's Posterity which is generally agreed on to be the best account or that you would have discovered some other more satisfactory to the Readers Since the most prevalent Opinion is That the Rational Soul doth not inherit this Degeneration etraduce or by descent but that it is a Spirit infused indued with greater purity and intelligence than can possibly be exerted in the humane Compositum as it is now stated from which some Scepticks take occasion to Cavil And lastly That for the benefit and amendment of men and the vindication of our best Faculty you would have made some acute and new Essay at least to remind us that the exercise of Humane Reason is so much obstructed and dulled by meer sloth in some and injured and depraved by passions and Vices in others that it seems to be fallen from the Glory and Splendor of the great Luminary in the Heavens to the small appearance of a Star in the Sky For such was the proportion which Rationality bore in the uncorrupted Nature of Man to that which is so much decayed and weakned not only by Adam's Fall but also by the faults and ill management of his degenerated Posterity ever since But in lieu of all this I find a peremptory Claim made and Pretensions to assert Humane Reason's Title not only to an Office of Inquisition but also to a Power Judicial in Divine Matters for in searching out it must likewise determine in its own Court as you style it which is the right Religion and upon this account that the Orthodox Christian who is or ought to be its Friend and Subject upon the best and truest foundation doth above all others deny it its due station and dominion but how valid this Title is and the consequent Accusation must be discovered by examining the ensuing Treatise In the first Page whereof you declare your inducement to make an inquiry into the nature and quality of your Religion to be the duty of your private Condition and that your interest in humane society was the Cause of your offering to the view of others the effects of that search which if beneficial to your self and others as upon the score of Charity we may suppose you believe by your publishing it is thanks and praise-worthy but if otherwise then upon a sight and acknowledgment of your mistake a true Repentance and all possible endeavours to prevent the spreading of your Errours is only pardonable In the 2d and 3d. Pages you have laid the foundation of all your opinion contained in the following Treatise if therefore upon examination this shall be found faulty your small Fabrick will with much more ease be totally demolished Here you acknowledge the History of Adam's Fall as it is stated in the Scriptures and the miserable Consequence of it upon him and his lapsed Posterity as to the great vitiating and blurring the eye-sight of our understandings that to use your own expression One had great need of a better eye-sight than is left us by the fall of our first Fore-father to guide us amongst many erroneous to the right way of Salvation I question not but this will be allowed you as Orthodox and if instead of your so anxious Debate and Consideration in the next place you had applyed your self to receive the directions and obey the Precepts contained in the rest of the Scripture according to the Principles of the Catholick Church they would have convinced you that Tradition Revelation Miracles and the Grace of the Holy Spirit which teacheth the right use of the rest are prepared by the Divine Providence as the best Pilots to steer your Reason in this dubious Voyage and would certainly have preserved you from so sudden a revolt from the Truth and so direct a Contradiction to your own Notion within four lines after by pitching upon your own Reason for that clear-sighted Guide which it self so much wanted before This is that irreparable flaw in your Foundation which causes the ruine of your whole Superstructure You have penned the next Clause darkly for a blind I suppose to the contradiction in the former If Reason takes such directions as it ought and may do before it sets forth If you mean those Directions which I mentioned before as indeed it may and ought then the subject of the Question is altogether lost for so Reason alone cannot be stated as the best Guide but if you mean such Directions as Natural Reason shall give it self then the same thing will both guide and be guided to the same end Now a Guide subject to such Incongruities as these cannot but bring you into Errors but not through them to happiness at last which in this Clause also you as incongruously as vainly assert In the next place you digress by bidding defiance to those many Enemies which you expect
side you know the doom of those who shall attempt to press it more open than they have set it but in them the Way is said to be streight and the Gate narrow and that few shall enter therein Is it not plain therefore that leaving the right and following your wrong and natural Guide you are brought into a streight between two excesses that to shun Austerity as you term it on the one side you are put upon that profane and wretched belief of an equal possibility for the Salvation of Turks Heathens and Jews with that of the Christians nay of Atheists themselves if there be any such now if you will believe the Scriptures the fool hath said in his heart there is no God And amongst the Heathen Philosophers not to mention single Instances the whole Sect of the Epicureans could be no less who whilest they could not track the Methods of Divine Power and Providence denyed the Deitie's Creation and his Government of the World After all therefore it seems much safer to suspend your belief concerning the Fate of those People who are out of the Pale of Christianity and leave them as you acknowledge some do in the hands of the Creator than to descant in the least on his extraordinary Disposals not revealed to our Understandings But above all how heretical and horrid is your Conceit about the possibility of the Salvation of Devils from the excessive kindness of the Judge which contradicts all Divine Declarations nor is there any colour on their part to plead either invincible Ignorance or the Merits of a Redeemer the two grand means even according to your own Doctrine for the obtaining of Pardon Thus you see to what extravagancies your Natural Reason is brought by a high Conceit and Partiality to its self under a pretence of Charity to the World As to your Discourse Page 33. That although Christ is the onely Source and Cause of Eternal Felicity yet you may very well believe that there are secret and wonderful ways by which God may be pleased to apply his Merits to Mankind besides those direct open and ordinary ones of Baptism and Confession let it suffice those ways are not revealed and therefore ought not to be pryed into by the Rules of Christianity Page 34. In defiance of the Churches Anathemaes you assert That all sorts of Christians shall be saved except their Lives disagree from their Doctrines which likewise is a Disobedience to their Reasons and this also you in effect have affirmed of men of the worst Religions for brevity sake Therefore I shall endeavour to answer them both together That it is obvious enough to those who have any insight into the vast differences in the profession of Christianity at large that many pass under the Title of Christians because they in general profess the Mission of the Messias yet hold many Tenents heretical and derogatory both to his Nature and Office and those Opinions as an additional mischief so much influence their Actions that they lead ill Lives suitable to the Errors of their Understandings And this also is most true of the strictest Professors of the worst Religions and it is observable that those sorts of men who after this manner oppose the Catholick Church and the Precepts of the Scriptures are such as pay too much Obedience to their Natural Reasons in Divine Matters the Instances are too frequent and obvious in all Ages to need particular Quotations Page 35. Your discovery and stating of Heresie is as insignificant as the rest of your Opinions for if any one shall stubbornly set up his own private Reason and Judgment against that of the Publick and shall upon that incompetent account broach Positions contrary to the Principles and Authority of the Catholick Church or Practice accordingly doubtless our Ecclesiastical Guides in these later Ages may pronounce the Censures of the Church against such persons according to the pattern of Primitive Governours who did as little as ours pretend to the Deities Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as you phrase it to have a perfect sight of the whole Contexture of mens thoughts and actions Lastly as to your feigned Law about Murder and its qualifying Circumstances to make the sentence Conditional I shall only answer that as a Comparison at best is no good argument of it self so neither can you deduce any from this for mens disobedience to the Church in matters of belief For the foundation of the Catholique Faith deduced from the Notions and Usage of Primitive times backed by the Scriptures is the highest accompt which the nature of the Subject is capable of therefore whoever it is proposed to may give their rational assent and is the best ground for an unqualified sentence upon all stubborn opposers Page 36. Thus much for Herisy as you say now for Schism but your way The remedy for that is the disease it self for Schism is defined to be a voluntary seperation from the Church upon a trivial account without any mention either of censure or connivance the first of which you say makes the other cures it but if this difinition be true then your individual Sects however allowed will be guilty of it after a most intolerable manner neither can your absolute Independency in affairs of Religion admit of any thing more than a civil Compliance in mens outward conversation but utterly ravels that continuity of Faith which is necessary to preserve that unity of the Church you your self mention nay should such a Licence be but admitted in Temporals in which Reasons Plea is much stronger to intitle it to an Independency than in matters of Religion it will utterly rase out all Society and Government in them as all order and communion in Spirituals You endeavour to reinforce this Argument for Independency in Religion from the great variety which God hath constituted in mans material parts their motions as if he may be delighted with no less variety not only in mans immaterial Parts but even in the most immaterial Actions of those Parts the Worship and Adoration of a Deity when the very nature of Truth and the Words of Holy Writ plainly informs us that it can be but one sutable to the unity of the object besides if a comparison altogether feigned by a wild supposition only without any demonstration betwixt beings of most dissimular natures may pass for an Argument what Proposition or Truth can be established among men Page 38. Of what weight or advantage to your Cause can you imagine your next Allegation can be that God without any distinction receives neither hurt nor advantage from the worship of man when this is a plain truth that his Essence indeed is not concerned at the operations of the Creature but his Glory is as it relates to the Creation and therefore for the magnifying of that here below he made man and instituted Divine Worship and hath expressed his delight in the uniformity of that devotion which himself hath
your own Guide For although we may possibly suppose by a Charity not much unlike that which you have for the Devils that you may be some sort of Christian by your Cheveril Commendation of Christianity at large yet such a loose Declaration is not distinctive enough to point out the true Religion from those that are erroneous in regard many who generally own with you the Mission of our Saviour hold Doctrines derogatory both to his Office and Nature In fine therefore I am apt to believe that your Readers will only agree with you in this Position against the rest of the Treatise That we have great need of a beter Eye-sight than is left us by the Fall of our first Forefather to direct us in this search I bid you adieu A Postscript or Appendix AFter the preceding Advertisement and Remarks had layn by me sometime wholly finished as they are there came to my hands in March last a Tract Intituled An Apologie for the Discourse of Humane Reason Written by Mat. Clifford Esq being a Reply to Plain Dealing which I never heard of until then In which the Apologizer declares That he writ this Defence at Mr. Clifford's request who died soon after If so then I suppose the first designed to publish the Treatise and the other the Apologie as their last Wills and Testaments In which they have bequeathed to the World a Confusion of Common Sence and of all Method and Rules of Vnanimity and Order Therefore after I had perused it I thought it more seasonable and requisite than ever before to publish these Remarks if they may haply contain in in them any thing advantageous to the Truth or the Vindication of our Religion which I ought to refer to the Censure of the unprejudiced Reader I shall not trouble either him or my self to run another Wild-Goose Chase after all the Particulars contained in this Apologie as I have done heretofore after those of the Treatise First In regard this Reply is directed to another man's Answer 2ly I hope that the Impartial Reader may find all Arguments material for the Defence of the Treatise anticipated in the Remarks therefore I shall but cursorily touch upon some very few Passages in this Reply which did not fall under my Province before Page 3. I humbly conceive that the Apologist is mistaken in which he affirms that his Author's Position amounts to no more than that every man must follow right Reason which is his direct way For his Author Page 2. declares That after a long and serious Debate about a Guide that Consideration brought no other to him besides his own Reason Now I hope he will not lift up his celebrated Author so high above the state of Humanity as to assert that he is endued with the Gift of right Reason or that by using such Care and Constancy only as is within the power of his own Reason he is able to follow or exert that which is so much above it Page 34. The Apologist uses this expression Mine own Reason that is my Conscience And Page 73. His words are these Every Humane Excellency resolves into Reason or shrouds under its Vmbrage Reason which as a light Divine governed the World before that Metaphorical word Conscience was known But how shall we understand or reconcile these two places for if he intends here that right Reason is his Conscience by which the Deity indeed did govern the World before Conscience was named and likewise ever since then all sober men will inform him that his Reason or his Conscience whether he fancies them to be one or distinct cannot be of the same state with that of the Deities so that this Notion must prove but a Phanatick Chimera of his own Brain But if on the other hand he means that lapsed Reason is his Conscience then how young soever the Name is Conscience it self is as old as that and Transgression witness the Fear and the Shame of our first Parents in Paradice To these two Contradictions we may add another in this Case Page 136. the sum of it is this without varying the sense Conscience is more subject to Errour than Reason and that Reason to speak humanely must be the elder if so then with full as good sense it may be said He speaks inhumanely who asserts they are the same But not to leave weak Capacities betrayed thus to Confusion the Offices of Reason and Conscience are generally different for by the first we examine and understand the nature and state of all Acts whatsoever that fall under the Cognizance of our rational Faculty and as to such as relate to Innocence and Guilt Conscience by a distinct and superadded reflection condemns or approves of their omission or performance Page 46. The first part of this Paragraph is touched on before in the Remarks the second Part is an Argument with two handles the sum of it is this If Luther had not followed his own Reason the Reformation in all humane probability had not been effected for either it was Reason which satisfied him then and his Followers ever since or they are all unreasonable your Conclusion is something too quick Therefore let us examine the force of this Argument by turning the Tables if you please by this Rule then If Luther was guided by Humane Reason in his departure from Rome and so to the right Religion and that ours is so you have not hitherto denied then those that stayed behind must be endued with little or none of it which no wise man with reverence to your parts will venture to affirm for the great worldly Policy and outward Prosperity of that Church in its station makes it evident enough that many of its Members did then and their Successors now do possess as great a share of Humane Reason as Luther himself which to stop all your Muces must necessarily have put them upon as strict an exertion of diligence and enquiry upon a natural account only as Luther's did him according to your own Principle that the Will irresistably follows the last dictates of the understanding I doubt here your Natural or Humane Reason is in such an extricable streight that it must be relieved by this Orthodox Solution viz. That Luther's Reason in this work did submit to the guidance of more sublime Aids which enlighten'd and fortified his Spirit against those Seducements and Corruptions which theirs did embrace Page 66. The Apologist pretends that he cannot apprehend what Ignorance can be wilful nor what is free Will the Will always following and being acted by the last dictate of the Vnderstanding To the first I shall answer him briefly That whoever is negligent to inform himself in any matter that it is his duty to know his Ignorance consequential to that negligence the Casuists from the nature of the Cause term vincible and voluntary but here it is observable that the Apologist proves a very treacherous Second by turning his Point upon his Principal who allows of