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
should attack your Doctrine having as you boast Coup't up their Front and Reer in the Ambuscade of this Dilemma That those who dispute most against the Power and Priviledges of Humane Reason do it because their own reason perswades them to that belief and so whether the Victory be on mine or on their side are equally defeated Yeur Argument is parallel to this He that is sick and from a true sence of his Disease acknowledgeth his weakness by that very acknowledment makes it manifest that he is well and he that is in the like Condition but is so insensible of his Distemper that he conceits he is in health is well also whereas the indisposition of both remains but the last labours under the most desperate Symptoms your own Case see now your Victory or rather your plain Defeat either way Neither in my weak opinion is your Answer to the Accusation which you quote against the Wits more convincing than your Victory was triumphant for if lapsed Reason in its most accurate state as it is possessed by the Wits may be made a slave to the wills interests or the prejudices of men or be apt to be wanting in any part of its necessary duty for so hazardous a passage all which you acknowledge in your fourth page then it cannot appear to judicious and considering men to be a Guide solely to be relyed on in this grand Affair nor can even the weakest Understandings be so absolutely unbyassed as to render their Errors unblameable as you have stated this Case for every Sciolist knows that your advancing the humane Faculty into an Office too high for it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which intails a just condemnation upon all such Errors as are consequential to that But if such fatal mistakes be the meed of the Wits what Confusion shall we have when all sorts of people whether men women c. for you exempt none shall be allowed the priviledge to govern themselves from within without the least regard had either to Example or Authority or any thing else whatsoever especially since deplorable Experience manifests that neither the Penalties of humane nor of divine Laws nor the immediate Judgments of Gods own hand can restrain some even of all degrees of men from perpetrating the greatest crimes and falling into the most barbarous Practices as well as Opinions is it not plain before you in this Case that more of God's glory and regiment will be found among the Fowls of the Air and Beasts of the Desart than among those who shall practise your abominable doctrine For even among such Animals some footsteps appear both of Authority and Example nor can they commit either blasphemy or idolatry the two inevitable as well as uncontrollable products of your detestable opinions while you phantastically pretend to prevent I know not what universality and perpetuity of Error by broaching Myriads every day so long as the minds of the Rabble shall continue injudicious and wavering In the 5th page you seem to be sensible that you have too magisterially and rashly asserted Humane Reason's absolute ability to judge of Spiritual Truths by acknowledging that the what and the how of religious Mysteries are out of its sight and that it must make use of those helps which God hath prepared for us to that purpose to make them visible as such This is the true sense of your Clause to which all Catholicks will agree for it cannot be denied but if the Mysteries of Religion are delivered down to us upon a supernatural account but that our natural Capacity and Reason will need proportionable helps to enable it to apprehend them how plain is it therefore that from a high Conceit of your parts you designed to impose phantastical Phrases for new Notions upon weak understandings For a Close to this Paragraph you are reduced to trifle with one of Democritus his Allegories as if we shall find truth in our hearts as we see Heaven in a Well and this you assert is very applicable to your matter If so then according to your Metaphorical Doctrine your Disciples must not only leave searching the Scriptures for the true Religion and paying their Adoration to the Deity for Eternal Happiness but on the contrary they must look down into natural Reason to find out the first and consequently worship themselves to obtain the second These Principles indeed are entirely new and suitable to the wretched Conceits of the forlorn Votaries in the Covent of Bethlehem In the sixth Page you have quoted so tragical an Objection as you call it that notwithstanding your endeavours in 8 subsequent pages to give it an answer in my mean opinion you come very much short of it viz. To allow this liberty would beget as many Religions as there are several persons and consequently draw after it such disorder and confusion as is inconsistent not only with the Quiet but the very Being of Humane Society Now the truth of this Objection is so evident to all who have either seriously considered the unsteady and vexatious condition of lapsed Humanity or have read the past or do at all observe the present state of affairs in the World that they need not expect any other Arguments to evince that difference of Opinions especially in Religion hath ever had ill effects in dividing of Affections although not to the same degree in all Ages and Places but yet according to the circumstances of times and opportunities the temper of private persons as well as that of publick Government the Animosities which did arise from thence proved more or less mischievous to Humane Society Neither did those differing Sects of Philosophers you quote so peaceably agree if you will trust History as not to envy scandalize nay murther one another which possibly might have occasioned publick Commotions had they not been prevented by the juncture of Affairs in those times and prudence of Governors which preserves London and Amsterdam in Peace at this day notwithstanding the aptness of those Cities as well as all others infested with Sects to break out into Tumults not to quote late instances But however this instance as it is stated by your self of several Opinions dividing Philosophers and the Philosophers their Disciples doth not amount to so wild and independent Frenzy as to give every single person how mean soever in degree or incompetent for parts leave to become an uncontrollable Pope in Religion or constitute himself an individual Church and in effect to practice what Morals he lists so much the Consequences of Faith by governi g himself from within not having any regard either to Example or Authority the grand ligaments of Order or any thing else which Position not only defaces the Forms and Superstructures of all Government both Ecclesiastical and Civil but rases out all remains and foundations of Humane Society therefore no History can make mention of so licentious a practice in the world what ever page the 9th you wrongfully affirm of
numerically the same through all the successions of his natural Constitution although he hath the same Appellation But when we see the body of a man left uninformed and lifeless by the departure of his Soul from that time we declare the being of that Compositum and peculiar denomination to be determined and cease and if we could perceive the departed Soul according to Pythagoras his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undertake the Information of another body we should as readily pronounce that to be a new Compositum or another person this is the case of your Disciples Conscience which you call the Soul of his Faith in its transmigration from the System or Body of the Protestant Faith to that of the Papists which from its dissonant Articles and Essentials to those of our Church hath been ever distinguished by a different Appellation so that these two neither in Name nor Essence are the same Faith and consequently if one is true the other is false therefore I shall leave your Disciple to be informed by your self after what manner with both these Faiths he shall behold his Saviour and thus you may observe how easie it is for you to mistake an equal Sincerity of Conscience for an Identity of Faith in your Allegorical Arguments From Page 20 to Page 26. you employ your confident Guide to assert its own Sufficiency by recriminating ours as not totally exempt from mistakes as well as its self but of the validity of that sort of arguing I shall leave the Reader to judge and proceed to the Merits of the Cause Thus much then we acknowledge that we do not think our selves obliged to believe the Pastors of Holy Church upon the bare account of Humanity to be absolutely infallible neither do we attribute to them so high Illuminations and Gifts as the first planting of the Gospel did require and Christ's Conversation afforded his Apostles who likewise was not altogether exempt from mistakes but yet we rely upon the Spirit of Truth which our Saviour promised to send to the Apostles and their Successors after his Ascension to preserve them from teaching such Errors as are inconsistent with the Divine Oeconomy in Affairs of Religion and the harmony of the Scriptures And this in one of your lucid Intervals Page 24. you in effect affirm in these very syllables And I verily believe if God had not stirred up some persons of excellent Abilities and worthy Spirits for such surely they were though not exempt from humane weakness to examine by the Rules of their own Reasons those Follies and dangerous Errors in Religion which c. Now in my poor Opinion it will neither blemish your style nor injure your Notion to Pen it plainly thus If God had not by the assistance of his Grace stirred up c. For that is the means according to the Promise of our Saviour and the Tenor of the Scripture by which God stirs up and enables the Minds of men to all religious Performances whether private or publick I choose to answer your Recrimination after this manner rather than to rake into Antiquity by reviving the exceptions to the Constitutions of those Counsels you quote in this Paragraph and therefore shall say no more to this Point but that our Saviour's not promising the same measure of his Spirit to every private man as to his Apostles and their Successors states the right Guides of Holy Church above the scandal of your Comparison Page 25 26. You again tell us that we are in much more danger of being drawn from the Christian Faith by building our Belief wholly upon the Authority of past or present Ages then to remit the Judgment of those things to our own Reasons in this Assertion the term wholly altogether excludes a Rational Satisfaction on the Believers part and therefore doth not assault the Protestant Principles for which only I am concerned You reinforce this Argument against the Authority of the Church with another absurd Allegation much of the same Class with the former that the Christian was neither the most ancient nor universal Religion in the world As to the last I doubt not but you will agree with us that immense Dominions or vast numbers of Votaries are not the inseparable Characteristicks of the true Religion for the greatest part of the World was inslaved to Idolatry and Gentilism as you observed in the time of the Law as well as of the Gospel and you who own the Scriptures must acknowledge with us that the first was dictated by God the Father and the other by his Son the Supream Testimony for the truth of both 2ly As to the Antiquity of the Christian Faith you cannot but know that the Contents of the Scriptures and the Consent of learned men assert the foundation of the Gospel to be laid in the Eternal Decree of a Messias before the Creation of the World and that the first notice of it here below was immediately after the Fall of our first Parents when God promised a great Redeemer for the Relief of man who should vanquish and be avenged of the subtilty of the Serpent and after this the Substance of the Christian Principles were existent in the Primitive Integrity of Abel and his Successors until the time of Abraham to whom it was revealed that the Messias should descend from his own Loins and afterward more particularly to Jacob of what Tribe he should be born After this manner the Christian Faith was preserved and conveyed down to the Penning of the Scriptures and then the Types and Predictions under the Law were the Harbingers of its manifestation in the Incarnation Doctrine and Miracles of our Saviour until he sealed it with his Passion Upon this account you may very well conclude as you do although against your foregoing Allegation in the same Page that there is more and greater reason to be found for the Belief of a Christian than for any other whatsoever In your 27 28 Pages I find such a medley of vile Contradictions as never before was vented by man for here in your Allegorical Style you take it for granted that there may be a thousand right Religions or ways of true Worship although you have acknowledged the truth of the Scriptures which admit but of one And secondly That your infallible Guide by wandring up and down in this multiplicity of Paths will by a long troublesom and tedious Voyage bring you to happiness at last Now for the applying this Allegory you should have made a new Demonstration That there are so many right ways to Eternal Salvation otherwise if you will measure your Metaphor by the Rules of Holy Writ it is a thousand to one but your Guide will deceive you As to the Contents of your 29 30 31 32 Page I acknowledge that it is not only an Act of Charity but the absolute duty of Christians to allow the Gate of Heaven to be as broad as the Scriptures have stated it And on the other