not one word to answer but only says that I contradict this my self in my Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity where I assert That suppose the natural Construction of the Words of Scripture import such a Sense as is contrary to some evident Principle of Reason I won't believe it Of this more presently but what is this to the purpose Is there no difference between what Reason can't conceive comprehend approve and what the Reason of all Mankind contradicts No difference between believing what we do not see what we have no natural notion or conception of what is not evident to natural Reason and believing in contradiction to sense and such natural Notions and natural Evidence as all Mankind agree in But he is very much troubled according to his Principle of believing Scripture no farther than Natural Reason and Philosophy approves how to distinguish between believing Plato and Tully and believing a Revelation He says They look upon Plato and Tully as great Men but Fallible p. 15. and therefore may take the liberty to dissent from them and believe them no farther than Reason approves Very right but will he believe the Scripture any farther than Reason can conceive comprehend approve Have a care of that But they will do as well if Reason will not approve of such Scripture Doctrines as it can't conceive and comprehend they will Expound and Torture Scripture till it submits to Reason For it is more congruous to think that an Inspired Writer uses a Figurative or it may be a Catachrestical very Catachrestical Expression or Phrase than that he delivers flat contradictions or downright impossibilities That is to say they must by all means believe or pretend to believe the Scripture but then they must never own any thing to be in Scripture which their Reason calls a flat contradiction or downright impossibility which is the very same thing for the reason why they will not allow that the Scripture contains any thing which their Reason does not approve is because they must believe the Scripture but must not believe it beyond their own Reason and Comprehension and the only difference they make between Plato and Tully and the Scripture is That they can safely reject their Authority when they please but must be at the trouble of Expounding away whatever they do not approve in the Scripture This is what I told them in the Vindication and as Impious as this Author thinks it I will venture to Transcribe that whole Paragraph But I have not done with our Author thus but must give him a little more about Expounding Scripture according to Reason For I affirm that Natural Reason is not the Rule and Measure of Expounding Scripture no more than it is of Expounding any other Writing The true and only way to interpret any Writing even the Scriptures themselves is to examine the use and propriety of Words and Phrases the Connexion Scope and Design of the Text its allusion to Ancient Customs and Usages or Disputes c. For there is no other good reason to be given for any Exposition but that the words signify so and the circumstances of the place and apparent Scope of the Writer requires it But our Author as many others do seems to confound the Reasons of believing any Doctrine with the Rules of Expounding a Writing We must believe nothing that contradicts the plain and express Dictate of Natural Reason which all Mankind agree in whatever pretence of Revelation there be for it Well say they then you must Expound Scripture so as to make it agree with the necessary Principles and Dictates of Reason No say I that does not follow I must Expound Scripture according to the use and significations of the Words and must not force my own Sense on it if it will not bear it But suppose then that the Natural Construction of the words import such a sense as is contrary to some evident Principle of Reason Then I wont believe it How Not believe Scripture No no. I will believe no pretended Revelation which contradicts the plain Dictates of Reason which all Mankind agree in and were I persuaded that those Books which we call the Holy Scriptures did so I wou'd not believe them and this is a fairer and honester way than to force them to speak what they never intended and what every impartial man who reads them must think was never intended that we may believe them To put our own Sense on Scripture without respect to the use of words and to the Reason and Scope of the Text is not to believe Scripture but to teach it to speak our Language is not to submit to the Authority of Scripture but to make Scripture submit to our Reason even in such matters as are confessedly above Reason as the Infinite Nature and Essence of God is Though I am never so well assured of the Divine Authority of any Book yet I must Expound it as I do other Writings for when God vouchsafes to speak to us in our own Language we must understand his words just as we do when they are spoke by men Indeed when I am sure that it is an Inspired Writing I lay it down for a Principle That it contains nothing absurd and contradictions or repugnant to the received Principles of Natural Reason but this does not give me Authority to Expound the words of Scripture to any other sense than what they will naturally bear to reconcile them with such Notions as I call reason for if one man has this liberty another may take it and the Scripture will be tuned to every man's private Conceit and therefore in case the plain sense of Scripture contradicts those Notions I have of things if it be possible to be true I submit to the Authority of Scripture if it seems to include a Contradiction and Impossibility if that Contradiction be not plain and notorious and in such matters as I am sure I perfectly understand there I submit again and conclude it is no Contradiction though I cannot comprehend how it is if I can by no means reconcile it I will confess I do not understand it and will not pretend to give any sense of it much less to give such a sense of it as the words will not bear His Fourth Charge is that I say Difficulty of conceiving a thing nay the absolute unconceivableness of it must not hinder our assent to what is contained in Revelation because we do not disbelieve what is made known to us by Sense or by Reason notwithstanding any difficulty or inconceivableness adhering to such things These are neither my Words nor my Argument My Argument is this That since as I had shewn in matters of pure Revelation which can be known no other way Revelation must stand in the place of Sense and Reason we must allow no Objections against revealed Mysteries but what we will allow to be good Objections against Sense and Reason Now no man questions the truth of
be not a good Objection against the Truth of any thing how comes a Contradiction to much more Fallible Reason to be so unanswerable an Objection And then we may much more safely believe a Trinity in Unity notwithstanding all their pretended Contradictions to Reason than we can believe Transubstantiation in Contradiction to Sense But in his Third Answer he seems to be in good earnest and I shall consider it as such and it is this Transubstantiation is contradicted by Sense saith his Lordship in an Object of Sense therefore 't is a false Mystery This is as much as to say That a Faculty or Power judging of its proper Object always judges truly and must determine our Belief He must say this or his Reasoning is nothing I ask now of what Faculty or Power is Almighty God the Object He will Answer God is the Object not of Sense which discerns him not but of Reason which discovers and sees this most Glorious Being Therefore Reason by his Lordship 's own Argument judges infallibly concerning God and must determine our Belief about him We must hearken to Reason when it finds Contradictions in what men affirm concerning God Now notwithstanding his vain Brags and his Triumphant Challenge to the Bishop a very little Skill will Answer this Argument For 1. The Bishop need not say because it is not true That every Faculty and Power judges as certainly of its proper Object as Sense does and then his Argument is quite lost For if Sense judges more certainly than Reason then a manifest Contradiction to Sense is a more unanswerable Objection than any appearing and pretended Contradictions to Reason I believe this Author is the first man who ever thus universally equalled the Evidence of Reason to that of Sense or that ever affirmed that Reason could judge infallibly of God And if Reason may be mistaken which I shall take for granted especially in the Infinite and Incomprehensible Nature of God some appearing Contradictions or what some men will call Contradictions are not a sufficient reason to reject a Revelation and to disbelieve what God tells us of Himself and his own Nature 2 dly Whatever certainty we allow to our Faculties in judging of their proper Objects we must extend it no farther than to what belongs to the judgment of that Faculty The same thing may be the Object of different Faculties as it is of our different Senses but every Faculty and every Sense judges of nothing in any Object but only what belongs to it self All the Objects of Sense are the Objects of Reason too but Sense judges of nothing but what belongs to Sense and Reason of what belongs to Reason and Reason can judge no farther of any Object than it is knowable by Reason and not only the Divine but even Created Nature has such Secrets and Mysteries as are not knowable by Reason and therefore it is manifest Ignorance or Sophistry to conclude from God's being the Object of Reason therefore Reason judges infallibly concerning God For not to Dispute about the Infallible Judgment of Reason God is the Object of Reason because Reason can know something concerning God but God can be the Object of Reason no farther than he is knowable by Reason and therefore if there be any thing which Natural Reason cannot know of God as I hope this Author himself will own with respect to such matters God is not the Object of Reason and Reason cannot judge at all much less judge infallibly concerning God But as Sense leaves room for Reason in the same Object so Reason leaves room for Faith But must we not hearken to Reason when it finds Contradictions in what men affirm concerning God Yes most certainly as far as God is the Object of Reason and knowable by Reason but no farther for in such matters as Reason cannot judge of at all it cannot judge of Contradictions Sense and Reason can judge of Contradictions only for themselves or as far as their judgment reaches but may appear Contradictions themselves to each other As for instance Reason assures us that Man consists of Soul and Body which are closely united to each other and yet the Union of Spirit and Matter is no better than contradiction to the judgment of Sense for Sense knows no Union but by Contact nor any Contact but between Bodies which have extended and solid Parts that can touch each other so that an Union without Contact is one contradiction to the judgment of Sense and a Contact without extended solid parts which a Spirit has not is another and yet Reason does not matter these Contradictions to the judgment of Sense because Sense is not the Judge of such things And it is the same Case between Reason and Faith which receives its information from a Divine Revelation concerning such Matters as are not knowable by Natural Reason should Reason contradict Faith in such Matters as Reason is no Judge of this is no more an Objection against the Superior Evidence and Authority of Faith than the Judgment of Sense is against the Evidence of Reason such Contradictions are not in the nature of things but are owing to our ignorance of Nature and presumption in judging of what we cannot understand The Example he gives of such a contradiction to Reason is a Trinity of Persons every one of which is perfect God and yet all of them but One God but for my life I cannot see this plain Contradiction That Three Persons each of which has all the Perfections of Divinity and is perfect God should be so essentially united in the sâ—me One Eternal and Infinite Nature as to be but One God This is not a Contradiction in terminis it is not Three Persons and but One Person or Three Gods and but One God but Three Divine Persons and One God If the Unity of the Godhead consisted in the Unity of a Person I grant it would be a flat Contradiction to say Three Persons and One God which would be equivalent to Three Gods and One God but if the Unity of the Godhead consists in the Unity of Nature that there is but One Eternal and Infinite Nature which is the One God and this Unity and Identity of Nature be perfectly and entirely preserved in Three Divine Persons it is so far from a Contradiction to say That Three Persons are One God that it would be a Contradiction to say That Three Divine Persons who have the same One Identical Nature should be more than One God for that is to say That One Divine Nature which can be but One God is Three Gods Now this is all that Natural Reason tells us of the Unity of the Godhead That there is and can be but One Eternal Infinite Nature which is but One God this we expresly teach and therefore do not contradict Reason but then Scripture tells us That there are Three Father Son and Holy Ghost to whom the Name and Attributes of God and therefore this One Infinite
and what this is immediately follows Which none of the princes of this world knew for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory which can refer only to the Dispensation of Grace by Jesus Christ. This Nature could not teach us as it is written Eye hath not sâ—en neither ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him v. 9. That is such things as neither Sense nor Natural Reason could inform us of But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God for what man knoweth the things of a man but the Spirit of a man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we may know those things which are freely given us of God Which proves that these are properly the things of the Spirit which could never be known but by the Revelation of the Spirit For they are the deep things of God his Secret Counsels and Purposes for the Redemption of Mankind the free Results of his own Wisdom and Goodness the things which are freely given us of God and therefore can be known and can be revealed only by the Spirit and these are the things of the Spirit which the natural Man the vain Pretender to Reason and Philosophy receiveth not Now can any man desire a plainer Proof than this how incompetent a Judge meer natural Reason is of the Mysteries of Faith of the whole Oeconomy of Gospel-Grace For what the natural Man does not receive that meer natural Reason does not receive for the only Reason why the natural Man does not receive it is because natural Reason does not receive it and what is foolishness to the natural Man is foolishness to natural Reason and what the natural Man cannot know because they are spiritually discerned that natural Reason cannot discern Now can there be a plainer Proof than this if we believe St. Paul that there are such Doctrines contained in the Gospel as natural Reason does not receive or approve but rejects with scorn For it is not said That the natural Man cannot by the mere Light of Nature find out or discover these things of the Spirit that he had asserted before but these words give a reason of the Infidelity of the Wise Men the Scribes the Disputers of this World who rejected the Faith when it was preached to them by the Apostles that the natural Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not receive or approve the Faith and not only so but rejects it as foolishness as absurd contradictious impossible unworthy of a Man of Reason and Philosophy Like the Philosoâ—hers of the Epicureans and the Stoicks who encountred St. Paul when he preached at Athens and some said What will this babler say other some He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods because he preached unto them Jesus and the resâ—rrection 17. Acts 18. If then there be such Doctrines as these in the Gospel-Revelation it is certain it can be no Oâ—jection against any Article of the Christian Faith that meer natural Reason does not receive approve comprehend it but accounts it absurd ridiculous foolish for thus the things of the Spirit of God were to the natural Man in St. Paul's days and thus they will always be Nay if the things of the Spirit of God are so far above the comprehension of Human Reason then such Doctrines as meer natural Reason does not receive have this Mark and Character of Divinity if they are contained in the Gospel-Revelation Nay let me add farther That those Doctrines which have been always owned and defended with the warmest Zeal by the Catholick Church and opposed and rejected with as great scorn and contempt by Pagans Infidels and Hereticks as a contradiction to the Reason of Mankind and the Philosophy of Nature are most likely to be the true Christian Faith for this proves that the Christian Church always believed them to be Gospel-Doctrines and Infidels and Hereticks rejected them as incomprehensible and inconceiveable and absurd to Human Reason and such the Doctrine of the Trinity and Incarnation and Cross of Christ have always been to such natural Men. Nay farther If there be such Doctrines in the Gospel-Revelation which meer Natural Reason receiveth not but accounts foolishness then it is certain that is not the true Christian Faith which contains none of these Mysteries none of this hidden Wisdom none of these deep things of God Let the Socinian then tell us What things there are in their Faith which the Natural Man receiveth not which are above the comprehension of meer Natural Reason They glory that they have no such incomprehensible Mysteries in their Faith that they have a reasonable Faith that they have stript Christian Religion of Riddles and Mysteries and fitted it to the level and comprehension of Human Reason but this very thing wherein they glory is a demonstration against them that Socinianism is not the true Christian Faith for that contains such Doctrines as the Natural Man and meer Natural Reason receiveth not They commonly laugh at that distinction between things contrary to Reason and above Reason which Human Reason is no judge of We assert That a Divine Revelation can never contradict true Reason for a Divine Revelation must be true and true Reason is true and Truth cannot contradict Truth But we assert that there are many things in the Christian Faith which are above Reason which Reason is not a competent judge of and which Natural Men may call contradictions if every thing must pass for a contradiction to Reason which meer Natural Reason does not receive approve allow But after all they must find something above Natural Reason if they will believe like Christians for such things there are in the Christian Faith and then let them distinguish as they can between contrary to Reason and above it But I must take notice of one thing more in these words the reason why the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God and cannot know them viz. because they are spiritually discerned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are to be known and judged of only by Spiritual Arguments and Methods and therefore the Natural Man who rejects all means of Knowledge but Natural Reason can never know them The Truth and Certainty of our Faith must be learnt not from the Evidence of Natural Reason and Philosophy which was the Evidence the Philosophers expected The Greeks seek after Wisdom 1 Cor. 1.22 But â—t Paul tells us That Christ sent him to preach the Gospel not with Wisdom of words lest the Cross of Christ should be made of none effect v. 17. c 2.4 5. And my Speech and my Preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power I did not confirm my Doctrine by Natural Reasons and Arguments but by the Evidence of Miracles wrought by the Power of the Holy Spirit That your Faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God And the true Interpretation and admirable Wisdom of these Divine Mysteries must be spiritually discerned also Which things also we speak not in the words which man's Wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual There is a spiritual Language belongs to spiritual Things and we must learn the true Sense and Interpretation of the Faith not from Natural Ideas or the Words and Notions of Philosophy that is in the Socinian Language by Expounding Scripture by Natural Reason but by studying the Language of Scripture and the meaning of the Holy Ghost in it especially by comparing the Old and the New Testament together Spiritual things with Spiritual This is a way of Learning which Natural Men despise and therefore cannot know the things of the Spirit of God which must be spiritually discerned All this I think abundantly proves that there are such Mysteries in the Christian Faith as meer Natural Reason cannot discover cannot prove cannot receive and comprehend cannot interpret which shews what reason we have to distinguish betwen matters of pure Faith and Philosophy and what danger there is of corrupting the Faith by Philosophy And now I think I may conclude for I suppose no body will expect that I should defend my self against his ridiculous Charge That I am a Socinian which had he believed I should have found better treatment from him But I shall leave him to rave by himself and look upon all these Hurricanes of Fury and Vengeance as a good sign that they feel themselves mortally Wounded THE END The Distinction between Real and Nominal Trinitarians examined c. Considerations on the Explications of the Doctrine of the Trinity p. 21 22. Vindicatition p. 150.