upon his Divinity which is therefore the very Foundation of the Christian Religion as M. Abbadie has by Variety of Demonstration proved it to be If then you would have that Divine Institution stand and if you would stand fast in it both which I am willing to suppose have a care how you remove its Mysteries Considering how Fundamental they are to the Building and how great a share of its Sacred Weight rests upon them But endeavour rather to remove your own Prejudices to Mortifie your Understandings to study Humility and to restrain the too free Sallies of your too curious and over venturous Reason by still and silent Reflections upon God's Infinite Greatness and your own almost as great Infirmities by which one Thought well pursued you will by the Grace of God come to a better Understanding of your selves than to reject any of his plain Revelations merely because you cannot Conceive them and so leaving Light and Vision to the other Life will be Content with other good Christians humbly to Believe and Adore in this 16. Gentlemen I beseech you seriously to Consider what with Christian Charity and all due Civil Respect I have here laid before you and if upon Consideration of it you find any weight in it to let it have its full Force and Effect upon you Which if you do I hope it may serve by the Blessing of God to whom for that end I humbly devote this Labour to Convince you or at least to put you upon such better Considerations of your own as May. For I pretend not here to have said all but to have left many things to the inlargement and improvement of your own Meditation Considering the impropriety of doing otherwise to Persons of your Parts and Learning which I pray God to Sanctifie and Increase to you Whereby you may perceive that I am not against your making use of your Reason No I would only have you reason rightly and that you may do so would have you by all Human Methods to improve and Cultivate your Reason as much as you can being well perswaded that as a half-view of things makes men Opiniative Disputatious and Dogmatical so a Clear and thorough Light makes them Humble and distrustful of themselves and that the more Cultivated and Improved any Man's Natural Reason is the easier it will be for him to Captivate it to the Obedience of Faith POST-SCRIPT SInce the Committing of these Papers to the Press I have had the pleasure to peruse Mr. Whiston's New Theory of the Earth for which extraordinary and truly great Performance I return him all due Thanks and am very glad to see so great a Master of Reason and Philosophy express so awful and reverential a regard to Religion in general and in particular to the Sacred Mysteries of it against which both Human Reason and Natural Philosophy have been of late so abusively and profanely imploy'd How far this Ingenious and Learned Author makes good his great undertaking or whether this or the Former Theorist be most likely to be in the right I shall not take upon me to examin I only make this Observation from both their wonderful Attempts that whether they are in the right or no as to their respective Accounts of things yet they have at least gone so far and offer'd so fairly towards a true Explanation of them as to Convince any Competent and indifferent Reader that the Mosaiek Records concerning the greater Phenomena of Creation and Providence are not really of so desperate a Nature as they were once presumed to be but are in themselves Capable of and may perhaps in time actually have if they have not already a true natural Solution As for Instance a Universal Flood without a Miracle or that the World should be wholly Drown'd in a Natural way or according to the Laws of Motion already settled and by a Train of Causes already laid in Nature has been hitherto thought an Incomprehensible and accordingly an Impossible thing But now if these two Mighty Genius's who have undertaken to give a Natural Account of this stupendous Revolution have neither of them pitch'd upon the very precise way and Manner whereby it was brought to pass yet I think it cannot be denied but that they have said enough between them to Convince that the thing was naturally Possible and that a true Natural Account may be given of it though they should be supposed not to have hit directly upon that which is so That is I mean they have represented it at least as a Conceivable thing whether they themselves have had the good fortune to Conceive of it exactly as it was or no. Upon which it is very Natural and no less pertinent to the Concern in hand to make this further Reflexion that we should not be Overhasty to pronounce any thing even of a Physical much less of a Religious Nature to be Impossible only because it appears to us to be Incomprehensible For besides that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is as this whole Discourse shews no certain Argument of its Impossibility and that what appears incomprehensible to our Understandings may at the same time be well Comprehended by those of Angels not to say of wiser Men perhaps that which appears to us at present to be above all Comprehension may in process of time and upon further Reflexion and Experience so brighten and clear up to our Minds as to be Comprehended or at least to be thought of a Comprehensible and Possible Nature even by our more improved selves For the Incomprehensibility of a thing as such being no Absolute Affection or Intrinsic Denomination of the thing it self from its own Nature but only such as affects it from without and in relation to the present Capacity of our Understandings there needs no alteration in the Nature of the thing to make that Comprehensible which was before incomprehensible a Change in our Understandings is sufficient upon whose greater improvement alone an incomprehensible may become a Comprehensible Object So that besides the Nullity of the Consequence from the Incomprehensibility of a thing to its Impossibility even the Principle it self from which that Consequence is pretended to be drawn may be remov'd by the present Comprehension of what pass'd before with us for an incomprehensible Proposition Upon both which Considerations we are admonish'd to be very Cautious how we Conclude any thing in Nature much more in Scripture to be impossible because to us incomprehensible And 't is the very use Mr. Whiston himself makes of the latter of them in the Conclusion of his excellent Work from which I think it worth while to transcribe a Passage both for the Advantage of the present Argument and the greater Conviction of the Reader to whom as well as to my self it must be no little Satisfaction to see the Sentiments of so great an Author concur with mine The Measure of our present knowledge says he ought not to be esteem'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
AN ACCOUNT OF Reason Faith In RELATION to the MYSTERIES OF CHRISTIANITY By JOHN NORRIS M. A. Rector of Bemerton near Sarum Holding Faith and a good Conscience which some having put away Concerning Faith have made Ship-wrack 1 Tim. 1. 19. LONDON Printed for S. Manship at the Ship near the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1697. To the Right Honourable Henry Lord of Colerane My Lord YOur Lordships Learning and Knowledge in Matters of Religion and Sincerity in the Belief and Profession of its Sacred Articles are both so well known that I cannot be supposed to Present this Book to your Lordship with a Design to instruct you in the Former or to Settle and Confirm you in the Latter There are indeed but too many in the World to whom it may be necessary upon those Accounts but all that I intend in reference to your Lordship by it is only to express my Reverence and Respect for your great Worth and Goodness and my grateful Acknowledgments for that particular Share and Interest I have had in your Favours Which give me further Occasion to hope that you will be as kind to the Book aâ— you have been to the Author and that as you were pleas'd to incourage the Undertaking so you will now favour the Performance which with all deference and Submission is humbly presented to your Lordship by My Lord Your Lordships most Obliged and very humble Servant J. Norris THE PREFACE COntroversies of Religion and particularly this have been managed of late with that Intemperance of Passion and Indecency of Language after such a Rude Bear-Garden way so much more like Duelling or Prizing than Disputing that the more good Natured and better Bred part of the World are grown almost Sick of them and Prejudic'd against them not being able to see Men Cut and Slash and draw Blood from one another after such an inhuman manner only to vent their own Spleen and make diversion for the Savage and brutalized Rabble without some troublesom resentments of Pity and Displacency And truly 't is hard for a Man to read some certain things of this Character without being disturb'd and growing out of humour upon 't and being even out of Conceit with Mankind such an Idea do they raise of the Malignity of Human Nature and so do they ruffle anâ— Chagrine the Mind of the Reader From which impressions he will hardly recover himself till he meets with some Book or other of a Contrary Spirit whereof the Bishop of London-Derry's Excellent Discourse of the Inventions of Men in the Worship of God is a very eminent Instance which may serve to recompose the One and give him a better Opinion of the Other I have endeavour'd in the Management of the present Argument to use such Christian Temper and Moderation as becomes the Search of Truth and may argue a Mind Concern'd only for the finding it For of all the ill-sorted things in Nature I think it the most improper and disagreeable to reason in a Passion especially when 't is in defence of that Religion which neither needs at nor allows it And therefore laying aside all Anger and Disaffection which even for the advantage of well reasoning ought to be laid aside I have set my Self to observe the Laws of Decency as well as those of good Discourse to Consider things as they really are in their own Natures to represent them as I find them with all Calmness and Sedateness to regard nothing but the pure Merits of the Cause and to treat that Party of Men I write against with that Candour and Respect as may the better dispose them to lend Attention to my Arguments Considering it as one of the Principal Rules of the Art of Perswasion to gain upon the Affections of Men in order to the Conviction of their Iudgments And I do not know that I am guilty of any incivility towards the Men I deal with unless it be that of Contradicting them Wherein as they are even with me so I hope they will not be less so in the other part but will treat me with the like return of Civility and good Temper in Case they shall think fit to make any The Occasion of this undertaking was a Certain late Book call'd Christianity Not Mysterious one of the most Bold daring and irreverent pieces of Defiance to the Mysteries of the Christian Religion that even this Licentious Age has produced and which has been supposed to have done great Battery and Execution upon them and to be indeed a very shrewd and notable Performance even by people of competent Sense and Learning not excluding the Author himself who to shew his good Opinion both of his Cause and of his Management of it has since publish'd a Second Edition of his Book with inlargements and with his Name To which I thought once to have return'd a direct and Formal Answer by way of Solution of his Objections till upon further Consideration I judg'd it better to give an Absolute Account of the Positive Side of the Question and after having laid such grounds in it as might be made use of for the Confutation of his Book to make a short Application of them in a few Strictures upon it at the End of Mine But after I had laid those Grounds in the Absolute part I found the Application of them was so easie to the Author's Objections that they might as well be made by my Reader who might with such readiness out of the Principles here establish'd form an Answer to all that deserves one in that Book that I thought there was no need of inlarging the Bulk of mine upon that account Which accordingly tho' I do not call by the Name of an Answer to Christianity Not Mysterious I cannot but reckon to have all the Substance though not the Formality of a Reply to that Treatise it being much the same thing in effect either to unlock a door for a Man or to put into his hands a Key that will I write neither for Favour nor for Preferment but only to serve the Cause of Christianity for so I call that of its Mysteries and the interest of that Church which is so great a Friend to it and Maintainer of it according to its purest and most Primitive State of Apostolical and Evangelic Perfection Of whose Communion 't is my Happiness to be a Member my Glory to be a Priest and that I had better Abilities to do her Service my highest Ambition However such as they are I humbly devote and imploy them to that purpose as I do this and all other my Labours I hope what I have written may do some Service to the Cause whose Defence it Undertakes and if it does I shall not much regard the resentments of any Designing or not so well affected Persons Great or Little whose displeasure it may provoke tho' I have taken all due Care not to give any body any reasonable Offence And so I Commit the following Papers to the attentive
Perusal of the Candid and Considerate Reader and to the Blessing of God THE CONTENTS Chapter I. OF Reason Page 18. Chapter II. Of Faith p. 53. Chapter III. The Distinction of things Contrary to Reason and above Reason Consider'd p. 100. Chapter IV. That Human Reason is not the Measure of Truth p. 137. Chapter V. That therefore a things being Incomprehensible by Reason is of it self no Concluding Argument of its not being true p. 230. Chapter VI. That if the Incomprehensibility of a thing were an Argument of its not being True Human Reason would then be the Measure of Truth p. 243. Chapter VII That therefore the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no just Objection against the Belief of it With an Account of the Cartesian Maxim that we are to Assent only to what is Clear and Evident p. 251. Chapter VIII Wherein is shewn what is the true Vse of Reason in Believing p. 282. Chapter IX An Application of the foregoing Considerations to the Mysteries of Christianity p. 294. Chapter X. The Conclusion of the Whole with an Address to the Socinians p. 307. Post-script p. 339. The Introduction 1. AMong the various Conjectures Men of a Prophetic Spirit have fall'n into Concerning the last events we have had this Opinion not long since advanc'd for one that as God formerly by rejecting the Iews made way for the Gentiles so in the latter days he will in like manner by rejecting the Gentiles make way for the Iews to enter into the Christian Church That the state of Christianity being become intirely Corrupt and all over Anti-christianiz'd the First of those Viols of the Divine Wrath that are to exterminate the Wicked and usher in the Terrours of the Great Day shall fall upon the Christian World that Christendom shall be utterly dissolv'd broken in pieces and destroy'd and that the Iews shall be replaced and reâ—establish'd upon its Ruins And to render it Worthy of so Sore a Calamity that the generality of its Professors shall not only greatly depart from the Primitive Power of the Evangelic Spirit by Apostatizing from the Purity and Perfection of both Christian Faith and Life which we have already seen come to pass but shall even lay down their Holy Profession renounce their very Faith and Religion and turn Infidels Upon the latter part of which Opinion those Words of our Saviour seem to cast a very suspicious Aspect VVhen the Son of Man cometh shall be find Faith upon the Earth As upon the Former do also those words of St. Paul Thou wilt say then The Branches were broken off that I might be graffed in VVell because of unbelief they were broken off and thou standest by Faith Be not high-minded but fear For if God spared not the Natural Branches take heed lest he also spare not thee Behold therefore the Goodness and Severity of God On them which fell Severity but towards thee Goodness if thou continue in his Goodness Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off that is as a dead wither'd and unfruitful Branch as were the Iews for the same Reason before and as our Saviour tells us every unfruitful Branch shall be 2. And truly if one were to judge of these Mens Opinion by the present face and state of things one would be inclined to think it true and that they had the right Key of Prophecy in their hands For sure by all Signs and Appearances the Course of the World seems to drive this way and if there be such a Fatal Revolution to come no doubt but that we are with large steps hastening to it For how are the Vitals of Religion continually struck at the Foundations of it unsettled and undermined its venerable Articles disputed and ridiculed and by what a slender thread does Christianity hang The great Complaint for a long while has been of the Decay of Christian Piety and the Universal Corruption of Manners But now our Religion is corrupted as well as our Manners and we every day make shipwrack of our Faith as well as of a good Conscience So that we have now fill'd our measure and are every way ripe for Destruction Some deny all Reveal'd Religion and consequently the Christian others allowing the Divinity of the Religion deny that of its Author together with the Doctrines of the Trinity Incarnation and Satisfaction others again owning his Divinity deny the necessity of Believing it others again granting that and the other Points deny the necessity of his Satisfaction which is not only resolv'd into mere Prudential Reasons as formerly instead of being grounded upon the Essential Order and Iustice of God but is brought down so low of late as to be made an Accommodation and Condescension to and a gracious Compliance with the common Weaknesses and Prejudices of Mankind Thus is the Christian Religion so mangled and dismember'd by some and so odly and insidiously represented by others that between them both the general Faith of the thing is indanger'd and a ready way prepared to Scepticism and Infidelity 3. Not that I think it ought to be any just matter of Scandal to any considering Christians or Prejudice to their Holy Religion to see so many Corruptions of it and Apostacies and Revoltings from it since this is no more than what the Holy Spirit of God has often forewarn'd us shall come to pass in the latter days wherein we are expresly told that perillous times shall come and that Men shall resist the Truth be proud and high-minded of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the Faith And moreover that they shall privily bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them This therefore I say ought in reason to be no matter of scandal to any Christians And so neither ought the poor humble suffering condition of Jesus Christ to have been any to the Iews since this also was plainly foretold of the Messias and made a notable part of his Character And yet we find that the Cross of Christ was a stumbling-block to the Iews and so no doubt are the present sufferings I may say Crucifixion of his Religion to many Christians the generality of which measure the certainty of their Faith by the firmness and constancy of its Professors and are apt more to stagger and take offence at the untoward appearance of any Event than to be confirm'd in their belief from its agreement with Antient Prophecies 4. In the mean time what do those without think of us Particularly the Heathens among whom no doubt there are some that neither want Intelligence nor Curiosity to acquaint themselves with the present state of Christendom What a confirmation must it be to these Men in their Infidelity to see Christians grow weary of their own Religion and willing to part with those great and weighty Articles of it for which the holy Martyrs shed their Blood and which could not be extorted from them by all the might and power of their cruel Emperours Can it
Human Nature in general as â—tis Natural for every man to have more and more the wiser he grows and the further he advances in Knowledge which when all 's done provided you take a good Dose of it is the best Cure of Pride and Vanity 18. And as he had thus slender an Opinion both of Human Reason and his Own so he appears to have had also at the same such an high-raised and elevated Sense of the immense Grandeur of God and of the Magnificence of his Works and how inscrutable the Profundities of both are to such Finite and Contracted Minds as ours as can scarce any where be parallel'd Two Characters certainly of Spirit that are none of the aptest to dispose a Man to Socinianism But not to dwell any longer upon Rational Presumptions there is a certain plain and deciding place in the Writings of this Great Man which one would think had escaped the Eyes of some that is enough forever to silence the Calumny of his being even in the least Socinianiz'd and to shame those that have so little Conscience or Judgment as to stain his Memory with it For who can suspect him in the least infected with that Head-seizing Disease which is now become so Popular and Epidemic when he shall hear him still Purging and Apologizing for himself in these Vindicatory words Credenda esse Omnia quae a Deo revelata sunt quamvis Captum Nostrum Excedant And again Ita si soriè nobis Deus de seipso vel aliis aliquid revelet quod Naturales ingenii Nostri vires excedat qualia jam sunt Mysteria Incarnationis Trinitatis non recasabimus illa Credere quamvis non Clare intelligamus Nec ullo modo mirabimur multa esse tum in immensâ ejus Naturâ tum etiam in râ— bus ab â—o Creatis quae Captum Nostrum excedant Now how glad should I be to see all the Socinians in Christendom Subscribe to this Form of Words and is it not strange then that he whose Originally they are should be suspected of Socinianism and that his Philosophy too should be thought to lead to it But the Truth is the Cartesian Philosophy leads just as much to Socinianism as Philosophy in general does to Atheism and I will venture to say and be bound to make it good that as no good Philosopher can be an Atheisâ— so no good Cartesian can be a Socinian CHAP. VIII Wherein is shewn what is the true Use of Reason in Believing 1. REason being the great Character and Principle of Man that makes him like to the Angels above him and distinguishes him from the Beasts that are below him and which therefore only are below him for want of the Rational Power being many of them in regard of their Bodily Endowments upon a level with him and some beyond him 't is but Just and Natural it should appear in all that he does and preâ—ide and govern in all his Actions For as the Conduct of the Infinitely Wise and All-knowing God does always carry in it the Characters of his Essential and Consubstantial Reason even of him who is the Wisdom of the Father the true intelligible Light so should also the Conduct of Man express in Proportion the Signatures of his Reason and though he cannot act by such exact and unerring Measures as his Glorious Maker nor yet with all that Perfection of Wisdom that even some Created Intelligences express yet at least he should act like Himself and not by doing any thing absurd or unaccountable deny his Reasonable Nature 2. This has serv'd for a Principle to some Scholastic and Moral Writers whereon to build a very high and as some think very Severe Conclusion viz. that there is no individual Action of Man purely indifferent Which I suppose may be true enough of those Actions of his which are properly Humane I mean that are done deliberately with fore-thought and Consideration every one of which must as far as I can see be either good or Bad according to the Circumstances wherewith they are Cloath'd however specifically Consider'd in relation to their Objects only and as abstracted from those Circumstances some of them may be Indifferent And certainly we cannot suppose any Action of a more Neutral and adiaphorous Nature than an unprofitable Word and yet of such He that is to be our Judge tells us we shall render an Account in the Day of Judgment Which plainly shews that there is no such thing as Indifferency in the Actions of Man as Individually and Concretely Consider'd but that all of them are either good or bad according as the Principle Manner End and other Circumstances are that attend the doing of them And that because Man being a Rational Creature the Order of Reason is due at least to all his deliberate Actions which accordingly ought to carry the Characters of a Rational Nature in them the want of which will be enough to render any of them evil and imperfect 3. But then if Reason ought to preâ—ide and direct in all the deliberate Actions of Man much more ought it in things of the greatest Moment and Consequence wherein his Interest and Welfare is more nearly Concern'd and which accordingly require his greatest Consideration and the use of the best Light that he has And because there cannot be a thing of greater Consequence and Concernment to him than Religion upon which both his Present and his Future his Temporal and his Eternal Happiness does intirely depend hence it follows that the Principal Use he ought to make of his Rational Faculty is in Religion that here if any where he ought to Think Consider Advise Deliberate Reason and Argue Consult both his own Light and that of others neglect no advantage that may be had from Nature or Art from Books or Men from the Living or the Dead but imploy all possible Means for his direction and Information and not be as the Horse and Mule which have no Vnderstanding For 't was for this great End and Purpose that his Reason was given him and this is the best Use he can make of it As for the Study of Nature that turns to too little an Account and as for the Affairs of Civil Life they in themselves and without relation to another World are too little and inconsiderable for us to suppose that our Reason was given us for the Management of them Religion only bears proportion to so Noble a Faculty is most worthy of its Application and can also best reward the due Exercise and Use of it and accordingly 't is upon Religion that it will be best bestow'd 4. Nor is there any thing in Religion that may justly fear to be brought before the Bar of Human Reason or to undergo the Test of its severest Discussion The Heathen Religion indeed Might for which Cause those that drew its Picture cast a Shade upon a great part of it and would not Venture to expose it to Common View And the too
much Heathenized Religion of some Christians may also very deservedly retire behind the Curtain and decline coming to the Light for fear the Absurdities and Monstrous Inconsistencies of it should be laid open But certainly there is not any thing neither Doctrine nor Precept in that true Religion that is reveal'd by God in Evangelical Christianity that need fly the Light of Reason or refuse to be tried by it Christian Religion is all over a Reasonable Service and the Author of it is too reasonable a Master to impose any other or to require as his Vicar does that Men should follow him blindfold and pull out their eyes to become his Disciples No he that Miraculously gave Sight to so many has no need of nor pleasure in the Blind nor has his Divine Religion any occasion for such Judges or Professors For it is the Religion of the Eternal and uncreated Wisdom the Divine Word the true Light of the World and the Universal Reason of all Spirits and 't is impossible that he should reveal any thing that Contradicts the Measures of sound Discourse or the immutable Laws of Truth as indeed it is that any Divine Revelation should be truly Opposite to Right Reason hower it may sometimes be Above it or that any thing should be Theologically true which is Philosophically False as some with great profoundness are pleas'd to distinguish For the Light of Reason is as truly from God as the Light of Revelation is and therefore though the latter of these Lights may exceed and out-shine the former it can never be Contrary to it God as the Soveraign Truth cannot reveal any thing against Reason and as the Soveraign Goodness he cannot require us to believe any such thing Nay to descend some degrees below this he cannot require us to believe not only what is against Reason but even what is without it For to believe any thing without Reason is an unreasonable Act and 't is impossible that God should ever require an unreasonable act especially from a Reasonable Creature 5. We therefore not only acknowledge the use of Reason in Religion but also that 't is in Religion that 't is chiefly to be used so far are we from denying the Use of it there And it is a little unfairly done of our Adversaries so much to insinuate the Contrary as they do For I cannot take it for less than such an Insinuation when they are arguing with us against the Belief of the Christian Mysteries to run out as they usually do into Harangues and Flourishes whereof by the way I know none more guilty than the Author of Christianity not Mysterious about the Reasonableness of the Christian Religion and the Rational Nature of Faith what a Reasonable Act the One is and what a Reasonable Service the Other is c. as if we were against the Use of Reason in Religion or were for a Blind Groundless and Unaccountable Faith or if because we hold the Belief of things above Reason therefore we are for having no Reason for our Belief This I say is an unfair Insinuation and such as argues some want either of Judgment or Sincerity I don't know which in those that suggest it For they seem plainly by running so much upon this Vein to imply as if it were part of the Question between us whether there be any Use of Reason in Religion or whether Faith is to be Founded upon Reason or No. But Now this is no part of the Controversie that lies between us we acknowledge the Use of Reason in Religion as well as they and are as little for a Senseless and Irrational Faith as they can be This therefore being Common to us both is no part of the Question and they do ill to insinuate that it is by so many Popular Declamatory Strains upon the Reasonableness of Religion and in particular of Faith whereas they do or should know that the thing in Question between us is not whether there be any Use of Reason to be made in Believing but only what it is or wherein the true Use of it does Consist 6. Now this we may determine in a few words having already laid the grounds of it For since the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Concluding Argument against the Truth of it nor Consequently against the Belief of it as is shewn in the three foregoing Chapters it is plain that the proper Office and Business of a Believers Reason is to Examin and Inquire Not whether the thing proposed be Comprehensible or not but only whether it be Reveal'd by God or No since if it be the Incomprehensibleness of it will be no Objection against it That therefore ought to be no part of its Questistion or Deliberation because indeed it is not to the purpose to Consider whether such a thing be when if it were it would be no just Objection The only Considerable thing then here is whether such a Proposition be indeed from God and has him for its Author or no. And here Reason is to clear her Eyes put the Matter in the best Light call in all the Assistance that may be had both from the Heart and the Head and determine of the thing with all the Judgement and all the Sincerity that she can But as to the Comprehensibility or Incomprehensibility of the Article this is quite besides the Question and ought therefore to be no part of her scruting or debate since if it were never so much above her Comprehension it would be never the less proper Object for her Belief 7. The Sum is the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Argument against the Belief of it therefore in the believing of a thing the proper work of my Reason is not to Consider whether it be incomprehensible But when a thing is proposed to me as from God all that my Reason has to do in this Case is Seriously Soberly Diligently Impartially and I add Humbly to Examine whether it comes with the true Credentials of his Authority and has him for its real Author or no. This is all that Reason has to do in this Matter and when she has done this she is to rise from the Seat of Judgement and resign it to Faith which either gives or refuses her Assent Not as the thing proposed is Comprehensible or not Comprehensible but as 't is either Revealâ—d or not Reveal'd CHAP. IX An Application of the foregoing Considerations to the Mysteries of Christianity 1. HAving thus raised the Shell of our Building to its due â—itch we have now only to Roof it by making a Short Application of the Principles laid down and setâ—led in the Former Chapters to the Mysteries of the Christian Religion against the Truth and Belief of which it plainly appears from the Preceding Considerations that there lies now no Reasonable Objection For if Human Reason be not the Measure of Truth and if therefore the Incomprehensibility of a â—hing to Human Reason be no Argument of its 〈◊〉 being True
nor Consequently against its being Believ'd and if the only Use and Imployment of Reason in Believing be to Consider not the Internal Evidence of the thing whether the Article be Comprehensible or no but whether it be truly reveal'd by God I say if these things are so as we have abundantly prov'd them to be then from these Premises the Clear and undeniable Consequence is that the Incomprehensibility of the Christian Mysteries is no just reason why they should not be Believ'd and so thaâ— we may Believe them though we should suppose them what yet some deny to be Incomprehensible 2. Nay so far is the Incomprehensible Sublimity of these Mysteries from being a sufficient Objection against the Belief of them that Accidentally and indirectly it may be improved into a Considerable Argument for them and such as may serve to recommend them to our Faith inasmuch as it is a very strong Presumption that they are of no Human Origin but have God for their Authour it being reasonable to suppose that what does so very much transcend the Capacity of Man to Comprehend does no less exceed his Ability to invent And accordingly the Incomprehensibility of our Mysteries for which some will have them to be false is made use of by a very Rational Authour as an Argument of their Truth And it may be worth while to let the Reader see how he Manages it in relation to One of the Most Sublime of them The more Obscure are our Mysteries Strange Paradox the more Credible they now appear to me Yes I find even in the Obscurity of our Mysteries receiv'd as they are by so many different Nations an invincible Proof of their Truth How for instance shall we accord the Vnity with the Trinity the Society of three different Persons in the perfect Simplicity of the Divine Nature This without doubt is Incomprehensiblâ— but not Incredible It is indeed above us but let us Consider a little and we shall believe it at least if we wâ—ll be of the same Religion with the Apostles For supposing they had not known this ineffable Mystery or that they had not taught it to their Successours I maintain that it is not Possible that a Sentiment so extraordinary should find in the Minds of Men such an Vniversal Belief as is given to it in the whole Church and among so many different Nations The More this Adorable Mystery appears Monstrous suffer the Expression of the Enemies of our Faith the More it Shocks Human Reason the More the Imagination Mutinies against it the more Obscure Incomprehensibâ—â— and Impenetrable it is the less Credible is it that it should Naturally insiâ—â—ate it self into the Minds and 〈◊〉 of all Christians of so many and so distant Countries Never do the same Errours spread universally especially such sort of Errours which so strangely offend the Imagination which have nothing sensible in them and which seem to Contradict the most Simple and Common Notions If Iesus â—hrist did not Watch over his Church the Number of the 〈…〉 would quickly exceed that of 〈◊〉 â—â—â—hodox Christians For 〈…〉 in the Sentimen◠〈…〉 that does not 〈…〉 the Mind And 〈…〉 that 〈…〉 to our Vnderstandings may establish themselves in time But that a Truth so Sublime so far removed from Sense so Cross to Human Reason so Contrary in short to all Nature as is this great Mystery of our Faith that a Truth I say of this Character should spread it self Vniversally and Triumph over all Nations where the Apostles had Preach'd the Gospel supposing that these First Preachers of our Faith had neither known any thing nor â—aid any thing of this Mystery this Certainly is what cannot be Conceiv'd by any one that has never so little knowledge of Human Nature That there should be Heretics that should oppose a Doctrine so Sublime is nothing strange nor am I surprized at it On the Contrary I should be very much if never any body had opposed it This Truth wanted but little of being quite oppress'd 'T is very possible For 't will be always reckon'd a Commendable Vndertaking to attaque that which seems to Clash with Reason But that at length the Mystery of the Trinity should prevail and should establish it self Vniversally wherever the Religion of Iesus Christ was receiv'd without its being known and taught by the Apostles without an Authority and a Force Divine there needs methinks but an Ordinary Measure of good Sense to acknowledge that nothing in the World is less Probable For it is not in the least likely that a Doctrine so Divine so above Reason so remov'd from whatever may strike the Imagination and the Senses should Naturally Come into the Thought of Man 3. You see here how this Excellent Person strikes Light out of Darkness by improving even the Incomprehensibility of the Christian Mysteries into an Argument for the Truth and Credibility of them and so turning the Artillery of our Adversaries against themselves This indeed is a bold Atchievement anâ— as Fortunate a one too for I think there is a great deal of Force and Weight in his Reasoning But I need not push the Matter so far nor follow so home into the Enemies Camp as to plant their own Cannon against them 'T is sufficient to the design of the present undertaking and as much as I am led to by the Principles before Establish'd to Conclude that the Incomprehensibility of the Christian Mysteries is no Argument against them This therefore I insist upon and if my Reason mightily deceive me not dare ingage finally to stand to For if as it has been shewn the Incomprehensibility of a thing in general be no Conclusive Argument against either the Truth or the Credibility of it then since Negative Propositions do separate the Attribut from the Subject according to all the Extent which the Subject has in the Proposition what Consequence can be more Clear than that the Incomprehensibility of our Mysteries is no Argument against the Belief of them I Conclude therefore that it is None and that they ought never the less to be believ'd for their being Incomprehensible supposing them otherwise sufficiently Reveal'd 4. Whether they are so or no is besides my Undertaking at present to examin nor need I ingage my Pen in this Question since the Affirmative side of it is so Obvious to every Eye that can but read the Bible and has been withal so abundantly and convincingly made good by those abler hands which have gone into the Detail of the Controversie and undertaken the particular defence of the Christian Mysteries This part of the Argument therefore being so well discharged already I shall Concern my self no further with it than only in Consequence and Pursuance of the Former Principles to bestow upon it this one single Necessary Remarque viz. That as the Incomprehensibility of the Christian Mysteries is no just Objection against the Belief of them supposing them otherwise sufficiently Reveal'd so neither is it a just Objection
Consideration viz. That therefore the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Argument against the Belief of it neither where also I Consider that seemingly Opposite Maxim of Des Cartes that we are to Assent to nothing but what is Clear and Evident and reconcile it to the other Position Whence my next step was to state the true use of Reason in Believing which I shew'd to Consist not in examining the Credibility of the Object but in taking account of the Certainty of the Revelation which when once resolv'd of we are no longer to Dispute but Believe In fine I have made an Application of these Considerations to the Mysteries of the Christian Faith by shewing that they are never the less to be Believ'd for being Mysteries supposingâ— them otherwise sufficiently Reveal'd against which also I have shewn their Incomprehensibility to be no Objection So that every way the Great Argument against the Mysteries of the Christian Faith taken from the Incomprehensibility of them vanishes and sinks into nothing In all which I think I have effectually overthrown the General and Fundamental Ground of Socinianism and truely in great Measure that of Deism too whose best Argument against Reveal'd Religion in general is because the Christian upon all Accounts the most preferable of those that pretend to be Reveal'd Contains so many things in it which transcend the Comprehension of Human Understanding But whether this Best Argument be really a good one or no the whole Procedure of this Discourse may sufficiently shew and whoever knows how to distinguish Sophistry from good Reasoning may easily judge 2. And now you Gentlemen for whose sakes I have been at the pains to write this Treatise give me leave in a few words to Address my self a little more particularly to you and to Expostulate with you Whether it be the good opinion you have of your Cause or the present Opportunity you have to appear in the behalf of it that invites you so freely to Come abroad as you have done of late you have certainly to give your Courage its due taken a very rational and Polite Age for it and I hope the Wise Conduct of Providence may turn this juncture to the Advantage of the Truth and that the Light to which you have adventur'd to expose your Novel Opinions may serve to make you see their Absurdities if you do not too Obstinately shut your Eyes against it Some of you are Considerable Masters of Reason otherwise truly I should not think it worth while to argue with you and you all profess great Devotion to it I wish you do not make it an Idol and to be very Zealous and Affectionate Disciples of it Reason is the great Measure by which you pretend to go and the Judge to whom in all things you appeal Now I accept of your Measure and do not refuse to be tried in the Court of your own Chusing Accordingly you see I have dealt with you all along upon the Ground of Logic and in a Rational way being very Confident that Reason alone will discover to you your undue Elevations of it and the Errours you have been misled into by that Occasion if you do but Consult even this Oracle of yours as you ought and make a right use of its Sacred Light 3. But I am afraid you do not Instead of imploying your Reason in the first place to examin the Certainty of the Revelation whether such a thing be truly Reveal'd and if so to believe it notwithstanding its being incomprehensible your Method is to begin with the Quality of the Object to Consider whether it be Comprehensible or no and accordingly to proceed in your Belief or Disbelief of its being Reveal'd 'T is true indeed you are not so gross as to argue thus this is Comprehensible therefore 't is Reveal'd But you cannot deny but that you argue thus this is Incomprehensible therefore 't is not Reveal'd proceeding upon this general Principle that though whatever is Comprehensible is not therefore presently Reveal'd yet whatever is Reveal'd must be Comprehensible But now judge you whether this be not to make your Reason the Rule and Measure of Divine Revelation that is that God can reveal nothing to you but what you can Comprehend or that you are able to Comprehend all that God can possibly Reveal for otherwise how is your not being able to Comprehend any thing an Argument of its not being Revealâ—d I say Consider whether this be not to set up your Reason as the Rule of Revelation and Consider again whether this does not resolve either into a very low Opinion you have of God and his Infinite Perfections or an extravagantly high one you have of your selves and your own Rational indowments 4. And yet as if this were not Presumption enough do you not also make your Reason the Rule of Faith as well as of Revelation To be the Rule of Faith is a very Great thing and yet so far 't is plain that you make your Reason the Rule of Faith that you will allow nothing to be believ'd but whose Bottom you can Sound by that Line this being an avow'd Principle with you that you are to believe nothing but what you can Comprehend But hold a little before your Reason can be the Measure of Faith must it not be the Measure of Truth And I pray Consider seriously and tell me truly do you verily think in your Consciences that your Reason is the Measure of Truth Do you think your Rational Faculties proportion'd to every intelligible Object and that you are able to Comprehend all the things that are and that there is nothing in the whole extent of Science too high too difficult or too abstruse for you no one part of this vast Intellectual Sea but what you can wade through If you say yes besides the Blasphemous Presumptions and Luciferian Arrogance of the Assertion and how little it falls on this side of Similis ero Altissimo which banish'd the vain-glorious Angel from the Court of Heaven because nothing less would Content his Aspiring Ambition than to be as God there though by the way there is more Sense and Congruity of Reason in pretending to be a God in Heaven than to be a God upon Earth I say besides this I would put it to your more sober thought to Consider whether it be not every whit as great an Extremity in the way of Rational Speculation to Dogmatize so far as to pretend to Comprehend every thing as to say with the Sceptics and Pyrrhonians that we know nothing The latter of which however in regard of its Moral Consequences may be more innocently and safely affirm'd than the Former since in that we only humbly degrade our selves and are Content to sink down into the Level of Brutes whereas in this we aspire to what is infinitely above us and advance our selves into the Seat of God And you know an Excess of Self-dejection is of the two the more tolerable Extreme But if
you say that your Reason is not the Measure of Truth as upon this and the other Considerations there lies a Necessity upon you to Confess how then I pray comes it to be the Measure of your Faith and how come you to lay down this for a Maxim that you will believe Nothing but what you can Comprehend Why if your Reason be not the Measure of Truth and you your selves Care not and I believe are asham'd in terms to say that it is then do you not evidently discern that there is no Consequence from the Incomprehensibility of a thing to the incredibility of it and that you have no reason to deny your Belief to a thing as true merely upon the account of its incomprehensibility And do you not then plainly see that your great Maxim falls to the ground that you are to believe nothing but what you can Comprehend But if yet notwithstanding this you will still adhere to your beloved Maxim and resolve to believe Nothing but what you can adjust and clear up to your Reason then I pray Consider whether this will not necessarily lead you back to that Absurd and withal Odious and Invidious Principle and which therefore you your selves care not to own viz. That your Reason is the Measure of Truth 5. But why do you not care to own it Do you not see at the first cast of your Eye that you are unavoidably driven upon it by your profess'd Maxim Or if you do not think fit to own it as indeed it is a good handsom Morsel to swallow why do you not then renounce that Maxim of yours which is the immediate Consequence of it and necessarily resolves into it Why will you whose Pretensions are so high to Reason act so directly against the Laws of it as to own that implicitly and by Consequence which neither your Head nor your Heart will serve you to acknowledge in broad and express Terms Be a little more Consistent with your own Sentiments at least if not with Truth and be not your selves a Mystery while you pretend not to believe any If you do not care to own the Principle then deny the Consequence or if you will not let go the Consequence then stand by and own the Principle Either speak out boldly and roundly that your Reason is the Measure of Truth or if you think that too gross a defiance to Sense Experience Religion and Reason too to be professedly maintain'd then be so ingenuous to us and so Consistent with your selves as to renounce your Maxim of Believing Nothing but what you can Comprehend since you cannot hold it but with that Absurd Principle And which is therefore a Certain Argument that you ought not to hold it 6. And are you sure that you always do I mean so as to act by it that you hold it in Hypothesi as well as in Thesi Do you never assent to any thing but what you can Comprehend Are there not many things in the Sciences which you find a pressing Necessity to Subscribe to though at the same time you cannot conceive their Modus or account for their Possibility But you 'l say perhaps these are things of a Physical and Philosophical Consideration and such as have no relation to Religion True they are so but then besides that this visibly betrays the weakness of your ground since if the incomprehensibility of a thing were a good Argument against assenting to the Truth of it it would be so throughout in the things of Nature as well as in the things of Religion I would here further demand of you why you are so particularly shy of admitting incomprehensible things in Religion why is it there only that you seem so stiffly and zealously to adhere to your Maxim of Believing nothing but what you can Comprehend Since there are so many inconceivable things or if you please Mysteries in the Works of Nature and of Providence why not in Religion Nay where should one expect to find Mysteries if not there where all the things that are Reveal'd are Reveal'd by God himself and many of them concerning Himself and his own Infinite Perfections And what deference do we pay to God more than Man if either we suppose that he cannot reveal Truths to us which we cannot Comprehend or if we will not believe them if he does Nay may it not be rather said that we do not pay him so much since we think it adviseable to receive many things from our Tutours and Masters upon their Authority only though we do not Comprehend them our selves and justifie our doing so by that well known and in many Cases very reasonable Maxim Discentem oportet Credere But as there is no Authority like the Divine so if that Motto become any School 't is that of Christ. 7. Now 't is in this School that you profess to be Scholars and why then will you be such Opiniative and uncompliant Disciples as to refuse to receive the Sublime Lectures read to you by your Divine and Infallible Master merely because they are too high for you and you cannot Conceive them when at the same time any one of your that is not a Mathematician pardon the Supposition would I doubt not take it upon the word of him that is so that the Diameter of a Square is incommensurable to the Side though he did not know how to demonstrate or so much as Conceive it himself Since then you would express such implicit regard to the Authority of a fallible though Learned Man shall not the Divine weigh infinitely heavier with you and since you would not stick to assent to things above your Conception in Human and Natural Sciences why are you so violently set against Mysteries in Religion whereof God is not only the Authour but in great Measure the Object too 8. You know very well that in the great Problem of the Divisibility of Quantity there are Incomprehensibilities on both sides it being inconceivable that Quantity should and it being also inconceivable that it should not be divided infinitely And yet you know again that as being parts of a Contradiction one of them must necessarily be true Possibly you may not be able with the utmost Certainty and without all hesitation to determine which that is but however you know in the general that One of them indeterminately must be true which by the way is enough to Convince you that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Argument against the truth of it and you must also further grant that God whose Understanding is infinite does precisely and determinately know which of them is so Now suppose God should Reveal this and make it an Article of Faith 'T is not indeed likely that he will it being so much beneath the Majesty and besides the End and Intention of Revelation whose great Design is the direction of our Life and Manners and not the improvement of our Speculation But suppose I say he should would you not believe it
do you think of your Principle Is it not a goodly one and richly worth all the Passion and Zeal you have express'd for it You know very well that M. Abbadie in his Excellent Treatise of the Divinity of Christ has shewn you that upon one of your grounds viz. the denial of that Article the Mahumetan Religion is preferable to the Christian and indeed that you are Obliged by it to renounce Christianity and turn Mahumetans This truly was a home-thrust But yet you see the Consequence of your general Principle reaches further as leading your not only out of Christianity but out of all Religion whether Natural or Reveal'd even beyond Deism even into Atheism it self If it does not actually lead you thither the fault is not in the Principle whose Connexion with that Consequence is natural enough but 't is because you are not so Consistent with your selves as to follow it And indeed 't is a great Happiness that you do not since if you were here better Logicians you would be worse Men though it would be a much greater if for the danger of being more Consistent with it you would be perswaded to lay it down 13. And that you may be so be pleased further to Consider that though this Principle of yours does not eventually carry you as far as Atheism because perhaps the Horridness of the Conclusion may be a Counterweight against the Force of the Premises though you see it Naturally tends that way yet there is very great danger of its leading you Effectually into Deism that not being not accounted now-a-days such a very frightful thing For as long as you hold that what is above Human Reason is not to be Believ'd and upon that Account reject the Christian Mysteries because they are above Reason you lie at the Mercy of that Argument that shall prove to you that these Mysteries are indeed Reveal'd and that the Genuin and Natural Sense of the Sacred Text declares for them For if you once come to be convinc'd of that you will then be Obliged in Consequence of your Principle to renounce that Religion which reveals such incredible things that is the Christian which will be a shrew'd indeed an invincible Temptation to you to throw up all Reveal'd Religion and so to turn perfect Deists And I pray God it may not have that Effect upon you 14. But as to the parting with Christianity that you will be further tempted to do upon another account For when you have by your Principle stript it or I may say rather unbowell'd it of its great and adorable Mysteries it will appear such a poor lank slender thing to you that you will hardly think it Considerable enough to be reveal'd as a New and more perfect Institution by God or to be receiv'd as such by thinking and Considering Men. For what will such find so considerable in Christianity especially as a new Institution what so visibly peculiar and assuredly distinguishing what that may infallibly set it above an Humane Institution if it be once robb'd of its Mysteries They may indeed think it a good plain piece of Morals and such as exceeds any other of a known Humane Composure but how are they sure but that the Invention of Man may be able to rise so high as to Compose such a System as this if you set aside its Mysteries Which therefore I cannot but look upon of all the things that are intrinsic to it for I do not here Consider Miracles as the greatest Characters of its Divinity And some perhaps would be apt to think them such as without which it would hardly be thought worthy of reception especially as a New Institution even with the help of Miracles which Men are always ready and not without reason to suspect when the Matters for whose sake they are wrought bear not sufficient Proportion to them Which they would also perhaps be inclined to think to be the present Case For what would they say is there in the Christian Religion that deserves so great ado what that should ingage an Omnipotent Arm to introduce it into the World by such mighty Signs and Wonders if there be indeed nothing Wonderful in it that is if you take away its Mysteries What cannot a good System of Morality especially if only a Second and a little more Correct Edition of a Former be Communicated to the World without Alarming Heaven and Earth and giving disturbance to the Course of Nature And if Christianity be no More what Proportion say they will it bear to its Miraculous Introduction And what will it be found to have so very Considerable as either to deserve or justifie such an Apparatus It must indeed be allow'd by all to be a good wholsom Institution for the Direction of Manners but what is there so very Great and Admirable in it what that either deserves or answers to so many Types and Figures and Prophetical Predictions what that so Copiously sets forth the Manifold Wisdom of God and the Glory of his Attributes and the Nothingness of the Creature and where are those Deep things of God that Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor have enter'd into the Heart of Man a place which the Apostle applies out of the Prophet Isaiah to the Revelations of the Gospel where I say are those profound things which the Spirit of God only that Searches all things could reveal and which even now they are Reveal'd the Angels desire to look into You 'l hardly find any thing of so rais'd a Character in Christianity if you devest it of its Mysteries which therefore may justly be reckon'd as the Main Pillars of it without which it will have much ado to support it self So that in short Christianity Not Mysterious how fond soever a Certain Author is of such a Religion will make but a very little Figure in Proportion to its Pomp and External Splendor and indeed will almost dwindle down into Nothing 15. It may indeed even without the Mysteries make a shift to subsist as a mere System of Precepts and Rule of Life though even thus Consider'd it will be greatly impair'd and suffer much disadvantage as wanting those Convincing Demonstrations of God's hatred of Sin and of his Love towards Mankind and withal those indearing and perswasive Arguments for their returns of Love Gratitude and Obedience towards him which can only be deriv'd from the Redemption of the World by the Death and Satisfaction of its Divine Undertaker but as a Covenant of Grace establish'd betwixt God and his Offending and Estranged Creature it cannot possibly stand but must fall to the ground So that though the Moral or Legal part as I may call it of Christianity may at a hard rate Continue after the downfall of its Mysteries yet its Federal part and all that is properly Gospel in it must needs be involv'd in the Ruin and Fall with them that being all built upon the Satisfaction of Christ as that again