Christian World 1. As to begin with Revelation in general The Books of Moses are the most Ancient and that considered the best attested History in the World the whole Nation of the Jews whose History he writes pay the greatest veneration to him and if we believe the Matters of Fact which he relates he was certainly an Inspired Man who could neither deceive nor be deceived And it is impossible to have greater Evidence for the Truth and Authenticalness of any Writings at such a distance of time than we have for the Writings of the New Testament and indeed the Infidels of our Age have very little to say purely against the Credibility of the History and then one would think that all their other Objections should come too late unless they will justify Pharaoh in disbelieving Moses and the Scribes and Pharisees in disbelieving our Saviour after all the Miracles they did For if they will disbelieve Moses and Christ though they have nothing material to object against the Truth of these Histories nothing which they would allow to be good Objections against any other History they must by the same reason have disbelieved them though they had seen them do all those great Works which are reported of them in such Credible Histories But whatever the Authority of these Books are they think they may securely reject them if they contain any thing which contradicts their Reason and Philosophy and they find a great many such things to quarrel with They think Moses's History of the Creation very unphilosophical That the Story of Eve and the Serpent is an incredible Fiction That the Universal Deluge is absolutely impossible and irreconcileable with the Principles of Philosophy and it does not become Philosophers to have recourse to Miracles That what we call Miracles are not the effects of a Divine Power but may be resolved into Natural Causes That Inspiration and Prophesy is nothing but Natural Enthusiasm and all the Pretences to Revelation a Cheat and Imposture That Nature teaches us all that we need to know That there is no other certain knowledge but this That we are not bound to believe any thing which our own Reason cannot grasp and comprehend and therefore Revelation is perfectly useless and God himself cannot oblige us to believe any thing which does not agree with the Reason of our own Minds and the Philosophy of Nature Those who understand the Mystery of Modern Infidelity know that these and such like are the wise Reasons for which they reject and ridicule all Revealed Religion and endeavour to rob and spoil men of one of the greatest Blessings in the World A Divine Revelation So that Infidelity is resolved into these vain Pretences to Philosophy that Men will understand how to make destroy and govern the World better than God 2. As these men oppose Reason and Philosophy to Revelation so others either deny the fundamental Articles of Christianity for the sake of some Philosophical Difficulties or corrupt the Doctrines of Christianity by a mixture of Philosophy The Gospel of our Saviour is the plainest Revelation of the Will of God that ever was made to the World all its Doctrines are easily understood without Art and Subtilty and yet there is not a more nice intricate perplext thing in the World than what some men have made the Christian Faith All the Subtil Disputes of Philosophy are brought into the Church and Plato and Aristotle are become as great Apostles as St. Peter or St. Paul As to give some few Instances of it for time will not permit me to discourse it at large What are the Arian Socinian Pelagian Controversies but meer Philosophical Disputes with which these Hereticks corrupted the Catholick Faith There is nothing more plain and express in Scripture than the Faith of Father Son and Holy Ghost or the Doctrine of the Trinity in Vnity and that great Art and Subtilty which has been used and to so little purpose to pervert those Texts of Scripture wherein this Doctrine is contained is an evident proof That this is the plain natural obvious sense of those Texts since it requires so much Art and Criticism to put any other sense on them and that will not do neither till men are resolved rather to make any thing of Scripture than to find a real Trinity there If then this Faith be so plainly contained in Scripture what makes all this dispute about it What makes those who profess to believe the Scripture so obstinate against this Faith Truly that which makes some men Infidels makes others Hereticks that is a vain pretence to Philosophy The first Philosophical Dispute is about the Divine Unity We all own with the Scripture that there is but One God but we say further as the Scripture teaches us That there are Three Father Son and Holy Ghost each of which is true and perfect God This they say is a Contradiction and if it be so there is an end of this Faith for both parts of a Contradiction can't be true But to be Three and One upon different accounts and in different senses is no Contradiction for thus Three may be One and One Three and this is all the Scripture teaches or that we profess to believe whatever the Mystery of this Distinction and Unity be But this will not satisfy these Philosophical Wits unless they can comprehend how Father Son and Holy Ghost are really and distinctly Three and essentially One the manner of which the Scripture gives no account of and therefore this is no Dispute in Faith but only in Philosophy Another Objection concerns the Divine Generation how God can beget a Son of his own Substance which the Arians thought inferred a division of the Divine Substance And a Third Objection concerns an Eternal Generation how it is possible that the Father should beget an Eternal Son that the Son should be begotten without any beginning of Being and that the Father should not be at least some few moments before the Son and consequently the Son not Eternal Now we all grant that we can give no Philosophical account of this no more than we can of the simple Divine Essence or of Eternity it self but we may believe that God has an Eternal Son as we do that there is an Eternal God without knowing how any thing is Eternal These are Disputes in Philosophy and such as none but vain men will dispute about as being acknowledged above our Comprehension and therefore no reasonable Objection against our Faith This as for the Doctrine of the Incarnation nothing can be plainer in Scripture than that the Son of God was made man That the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us That God was manifest in the flesh And all the disputes about this Article are purely Philosophical Some men reject it because they cannot understand how God and Man can be united in one Person Others confound the Divine and Human Nature as Eutyches did or divide the Persons as Nestorius did both
which indeed destroy the Article of the Incarnation for the Word is not made Flesh unless the same Person who is God is Man too and continues perfect God and perfect Man after this Union But all these disputes concern the Philosophy of the Union of the Divine and Human Nature in Christ and if we would separate between Faith and Philosophy such disputes might soon be ended Thus most of the difficulties in the Pelagian and Quinquarticular Controversy are ultimately resolved into mere Philosophical disputes about Fate and Prescience Liberty and Necessity and God's concourse with Creatures or the Powers of Nature and Grace And would time permit it were easy to shew this in most of the Controversies of Religion That it is not what God has revealed and what he requires us to believe but such Nice Philosophical Questions as men raise about these matters which occasion all these disputes It has often been proposed as a means of Union to silence all disputes To confine our selves to Scripture-Words and Expressions without determining the signification of them But this would make only an Agreement in Words not a Consent in Opinions nor could it secure the Peace of the Church while all men knew that under the same form of Words they had very different and contrary Meanings which would still make them as much Hereticks to each other as if their Words did as expresly contradict each other as their Faith But would men reduce all their disputes to Scripture and make that the only Rule of their Faith without intermixing any Philosophical disputes with it this would be an infallible means of Union for it is only this vain pretence to Philosophy which raises all these disputes and then tempts men to pervert the Scriptures to justify their Philosophy In all these cases we are concerned to enquire what the true sense of the Article is for this the Scripture teaches and so far our Faith is concerned and these are not only justifiable but necessary disputes if the true Faith be necessary And such were the disputes of the Catholick Fathers with the Sabellian Arian and Photinian Hereticks Whether Father Son and Holy Ghost were only Three Names or Three Appearances and Manifestations of the same One single Person or any other Three but Three True Proper Coeternal and Coequal Persons Or whether He who is in Scripture called the Son of God be a Creature though the most Excellent Creature or a Son and God by Nature truly begotten of his Father's Substance Or whether Christ be God Incarnate or a meer Man And their ancient Creeds pretended to no more than to teach what the Catholick Faith was not to expound the Philosophy of the Trinity and Incarnation And thus far we must explain the Faith as to know and to let others know what it is we believe and if to assert the ancient Catholick Faith against old and new Heresies should be called New Explications we cannot help it for we must explain what the Scripture teaches about these Articles and how the Catholick Church always understood them But that which we are to beware of is Not to mix Philosophy with our Faith nor to admit of any mere Philosophical Objections against the Faith nor to attempt any Explications of these Mysteries beyond what the Scriptures and the Faith and Practice of the Catholick Church will justify Indeed the Importunity of Hereticks did very often engage the Catholick Fathers in Philosophical disputes but this they did not to explain the Christian Mysteries by Philosophy but only to shew that as incomprehensible as these Mysteries are the Philosophy of Hereticks and their Objections against these Articles were very absurd And such disputes as these may sometimes be absolutely necessary and of great use to shame these vain Pretences to Philosophy while we do not put the Trial of our Faith upon this Issue Secondly Let us now consider what great reason we have to reject all the vain Pretences to Reason and Philosophy when opposed to a Divine Revelation For that is all the Apostle intends in this Caution not to discourage the use of Reason or the study of Philosophy which are great Improvements and a delightful Entertainment of Human Minds and with a wise and prudent Conduct may be very serviceable to Religion too but we must not set up any Conclusions in Philosophy against the Christian Faith nor corrupt the Faith with a mixture of Philosophy nor reject any revealed Truths for want of Natural Ideas to conceive them by To shorten this Discourse as much as I can I shall at present only shew you what reason we have to believe those Doctrines which are thought the most mysterious and inconceivable notwithstanding any Objections from Natural Reason and Philosophy against them And the account of this must be resolved into the Nature Use and Authority of Revelation that Revelation as to such matters as are knowable only by Revelation must serve instead of Sense Natural Ideas and Natural Reason that is That we must believe things which we do not see things which we have no Natural Notion or Conception of things which are not evident to Natural Reason for without this there is little use of Faith no Authority of pure Revelation It is true the general Corruption of Mankind made it very necessary for God to revive the Laws of Nature and to reinforce the observation of them by his own Authority and Command but the proper work of Revelation is to discover such things to us as Nature cannot teach of which we have no Natural Notion nor any Natural Evidence At least thus it may be if God knows more than Natural Reason teaches or can comprehend and thinks it fit to reveal such Supernatural Truths to us when he sees it useful for Mankind Now if God ever does reveal such things to us if we believe upon God's Authority which is the strict Notion of a Divine Faith we must believe without any Natural Evidence merely because God has revealed it and then we must believe such things as are not evident to Sense and Reason and then it can be no Objection against Revelation nor against the belief of any such supernatural Truths that we have no Natural Notion nor Natural evidence of them that they are what we cannot conceive and comprehend To believe no farther than natural Reason can conceive and comprehend is to reject the Divine Authority of Revelation and to destroy the distinction between Reason and Faith He who will believe no farther than natural Reason approves believes his Reason not the Revelation and is in truth a Natural Philosopher not a Believer He believes the Scriptures as he would believe Plato and Tully not as inspired Writings but as agreeable to Reason and the result of wise and deep Thoughts and this puts an end to all the disputes about Faith and Revelation at once For what use is there of Faith What matter whether the Scriptures be divinely Inspired or not when we
of things must be made the measure and standard of true and false we must deny our Senses and Reason as well as our Faith and if we do and must believe our Sense and Reason beyond our Comprehension Why must we believe nothing that is Revealed any farther than we can conceive and comprehend the Nature and Reasons of it The Sum is this Humane Knowledge whatever the means of knowing be whether Sense or Reason or Revelation does not reach to the Philosophical Causes and Natures of things but only to their Being and Natural Vertues and Powers and as a Wise man who knows the measure of his Understanding expects no more from Sense and Reason than to know what things there are in the World and what they are as far as they fall under the notice of Sense and Natural Reason so we must expect no more from Revelation than the knowledge of such things as Sense and Natural Reason cannot discover But we must no more expect the Philosophy of Supernatural Truths from Revelation than we do the Mysteries of Nature from Sense and Reason Now since Human Knowledge is not a knowledge of the Mysterious Natures of things but only to know what things there are and what they are there can be no cantradiction between Sense and Reason and Revelation unless one denies what the other affirms not that one teaches more than the other teaches or that one cannot comprehend what the other teaches Reason teaches more than Sense teaches or can comprehend and Revelation teaches more than either Sense or Natural Reason teaches or can comprehend but this is no contradiction but only a subordination between these different kinds and degrees of Knowledge but as for Unconceivableness and Incomprehensibility that is no argument against any thing for Sense and Natural Reason can no more comprehend their own Objects than they do what is revealed And it is manifest perverseness to make that an objection against Revelation which we will not allow to be an objection against Sense and Reason This is sufficient as to the reason of the thing but as far as it is possible to remove mens Prejudices also against believing Mysteries I shall briefly answer two very popular Objections 1. It is thought very unnatural that when God has made us reasonable Creatures and therefore made Natural Reason to us the measure of Truth and Falshood he should require us to believe without Reason as we must do if he reveals such things to us as we know not and cannot possibly know the reasons of If we must believe with our Understanding how can we believe things which we cannot understand This were a reasonable Objection were it true for we cannot believe what we have no knowledge nor understanding of for Faith is Knowledge though not Natural Knowledge But do we not understand what it is we believe Do we not know what we mean when we say We believe in Father Son and Holy Ghost Nay do not our Adversaries understand what we mean by it How then come they to charge us with believing Contradictions and Impossibilities For if they know not what we believe they cannot know whether we believe Contradictions or not And if we do understand what it is we believe then we do not believe without understanding which is absolutely impossible if we know what it is we believe And we know also why we believe Our Faith is founded in Sense and Reason and resolved into the Authority of God which is the highest and most infallible Reason The Miracles which Christ and his Apostles wrought were evident to Sense and owned by Reason to be the effects of a Divine Power and the Answer the Blind man gave to the Pharisees when Christ had opened his Eyes speaks the true sense of Nature Hâ—rein is a marvellous thing that ye know not from whence he is and yet he hath opened mine eyes Now we know that God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind If this man were not of God he could do nothing 9. John 30 31 32 33. And all Mankind own that the most absolute Faith is due to God and to those who speak from God and this as I take it is to believe with Reason But still we believe such things whose Natures we do not understand and cannot account for by Natural Reason and this is to believe without Reason We believe that God the Father hath an Eternal Son and an Eternal Spirit and that Father Son and Holy Ghost are but One Eternal God but this is what Natural Reason cannot comprehend nor give us any notion or conception of how God can have an Eternal Son and an Eternal Spirit really distinct from himself and yet with himself One Eternal and Infinite God Reason can give no account of the Eternal Generation of the Son nor of the Eternal Procession of the Holy Spirit and is not this to believe without Reason which a reasonable Creature ought not to do and which we ought not to think that God who made us reasonable Creatures expects from us And this I grant would be a material Objection were Reason the Judge of the Nature and Philosophy of things and did Reason require us to believe nothing but what we understand and comprehend But then we must no more believe Sense and Reason than Revelation for we do not comprehend the Nature of any one thing in the World how evident soever it is to Sense and Reason that there are such things Nature is as great a Mystery as Revelation and it is no greater affront to our Understandings no more against reason for God to reveal such things to us as our Reason cannot comprehend than it is to make a whole World which Reason cannot comprehend When we make it an Objection against any thing That it is without Reason or as we apprehend against Reason and contrary to Reason we must first consider whether it be the proper Object of Reason otherwise it is no Objection as it is no objection against Sounds that we cannot see them nor against Colours that we cannot hear them because Sounds are not the Objects of Sight nor Colours of Hearing Now no man pretends that the pure Natures and Essences of things or their Essential Reasons Properties Unions Operations are the Objects of Humane Reason for no man living knows any thing about them And yet this is all the Incomprehensibility men have to complain of in the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Incarnation That they cannot comprehend how God can beget an Eternal Son nor how Three Divine Persons should be so united as to be essentially One God nor how the Divine and Humane Nature can be united into One Person God-man All which concern the Essence and Essential Properties Operations Unions Relations of the Deity which a modest man
might allow to be incomprehensible if God be infinite though he could comprehend the Natures Essences and Essential Reasons and Properties of Created Beings but when all Created Nature is such a Mystery to us that we know not the pure Nature and Essence of any one thing in the World is it an affront to our Reason that we cannot comprehend the Divine Nature Such Matters as these are neither without Reason nor against Reason nor contrary to Reason because Reason has nothing to do with them and can take no cognizance of them They belong not to Reason but to that Infinite Mind which comprehends it Self and the Ideas of all possible Beings A perfect comprehensive Knowledge of Nature belongs only to the Maker of all things for it is not only to know what things are but how to make them which would be a vain Curiosity and useless Knowledge to those who have not a Making and Creating Power This is to know things à priori with an Intuitive Ideal Knowledge which is infinitely more superior to Reason than Reason is to Sense And it is the affection of this Intuitive making Knowledge which makes some men Atheists and others Hereticks 2dly Another great Objection against such a Revelation as contains matters which Natural Reason cannot comprehend is To what purpose such a Revelation serves What Merit there can be in believing such Doctrines And of what good use such a Faith can be to us Now I confess I cannot think it meritorious merely to believe things which are incomprehensible or that God any more intended to puzzle our Faith with revealed Mysteries than to puzzle our Reason in making a Mysterious World Whether we receive our information from Sense or Natural Reason or Revelation it is certain we must believe Mysteries if we believe any thing for all things have something mysterious and incomprehensible in their natures what natural Reason cannot account for and what God never intended we should understand for God never intended to teach us how to make the World nor how every Creature was made and therefore we cannot and are not concerned to know the internal frame and constitution of Nature But though neither Natural nor Revealed Knowledge extends to the Reasons and Causes of Nature and of essential Properties and Operations yet both natural and revealed Knowledge is of as much use to us as if we did perfectly understand all the secret and incomprehensible Mysteries of the nature of God or of the natures of Creatures Both natural and revealed Knowledge are alike upon this account That they only acquaint us what things are and what ends they serve and then we know what use to make of them without understanding the secret Mysteries of Nature Is this World or any thing in it the less useful to us because we cannot conceive how God created all things of nothing Or because we do not understand the nature of Matter nor how the several parts of Matter came by their different Virtues and Qualities Is Corn or Fruit or Herbs the less nourishing or refreshing because we know not how they grow Does it require any Philosophy to know how to eat and drink and sleep Will not our Food nourish us unless we understand how it is concocted and turned into Chyle and Blood and Spirits Nay is it of no use to know that God is an Eternal Omnipotent Omniscient Omnipresent Being unless we can conceive how any Being can be Eternal without a Cause and without a Beginning Or can comprehend how he can do and know all things and be present in all places at once without Extension and without Parts We may make all the use that can be made of this world and of every thing in it without understanding the essential Reasons and Causes or internal Nature of any thing and we must do so if we will make any use of it and we know God to all the ends and purposes for which Creatures ought to know God though his Nature be incomprehensible And thus it is in matters of pure Revelation such as the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Incarnation how unaccountable soever the Mystery of a Trinity in Unity the Eternal Generation and the Incarnation of the Son of God be yet it is the most useful Knowledge in the world Though we know not how the Eternal Father begat an Eternal Son of his own Substance nor how this Eternal Son in time became Man yet it is the most desirable knowledge in the world to sinners to know That God has an Eternal Son and that he so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son for the redemption of mankind that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life and that this Eternal Son of God became Man lived a poor necessitous laborious Life and died an accursed Death for the Salvation of Sinners and to know That the Holy Spirit which proceeds from Father and Son dwells in the Christian Church and quickens and animates the whole Body of Christ. If this be true as we must suppose in this Argument all Mankind must confess that this is a very useful Knowledge and never the less useful because a Trinity in Unity and the Eternal Generation and the Incarnation of the Son of God are great and inconceivable Mysteries Could we give a Rational and Philosophical Account of the Eternal Generation and of the Incarnation we should know more than we now do but Faith makes it as useful to all the purposes of Religion as the most perfect intuitive Knowledge could do This is a sufficient Answer to that Objection against the Usefulness of such Mysteries as have something incomprehensible and unconceivable in their Natures Which is an equal Objection against all created Nature which is but one great Mystery and yet the World is a very useful World and we know in some good degree what use to make of it And the Knowledge of those Gospel Mysteries which are the Subject of our present dispute are manifestly of infinite use to us if the certain knowledge of the Pardon of Sin and eternal Life by the Obedience and Sufferings and Death and Intercession of the Son of God Incarnate be of any use and therefore it became the Wisdom and Goodness of God to reveal these Mysteries of Salvation to us Especially if we add to this That the lapsed state of Human Nature makes supernatural Knowledge necessary Natural Knowledge we grant was sufficient for a state of Nature though no man would have had reason to complain had God in a state of Innocence by a more familiar intercourse with Man or by the frequent Conversation of Angels improved his Knowledge beyond the mere attainments of his Natural Faculties and it is not improbable but this might have been I am sure there is an impatient thirst after knowledge in human Nature and such a great curiosity for secret and hidden Mysteries that it looks very unnatural for Men to complain that God Reveals more to them than Nature teaches But yet I say Natural Knowledge must be allowed sufficient to all the ends of Human Life while man continued Innocent for that is the Original state of human Nature as all men must grant who believe that Man was made by God But when man sinned he forfeited the Favour of God and a natural Immortality and whether he should be restored or not and by what means he should be restored depended wholly on the Sovereign Will and Pleasure of God And therefore the Light of Nature though it could direct an Innocent Man how to Please and Worship God and to preserve himself Immortal it could not teach Sinners how to make atonement for Sin nor give them any certain hopes that God would forgive Sins and bestow immortal Life on them which makes it necessary that the Religion of a sinner be a Revealed Religion And if God in infinite Goodness is not only pleased to restore sinners to Grace and Favour but to advance them to a supernatural state of Perfection and Happiness both of Soul and Body in the next World this must be done by supernatural Means and therefore requires a supernatural Knowledge for the Light of Nature can neither raise us above Nature nor discover supernatural Truths to us and this makes it necessary to know and believe such things as we have no natural Notion or Idea of Such things as neither eye hath seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive If Nature can't save us it can't discover to us the way of Salvation neither and if we must be saved by a supernatural Grace and Power it must be supernaturally Revealed and what is Supernatural is the Object of Faith not of natural Knowledge This seems to me to give a plain account Why God thinks fit to Reveal such Mysteries to us as Nature cannot teach and as we have no natural Notion of Because our lapsed state has made such supernatural Revelations necessary to the recovery of Mankind and when we are fallen below the relief of Nature and of natural Knowledge we ought to be very thankful to our Good God for supernatural Knowledge and supernatural Means of Salvation To God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Three Persons One Eternal God be Honour Glory and Power now and for ever Amen FINIS