Revelation which I own to be the rule of my Faith is for it I say my Reason is against it Revelation and Reason cannot be contrary to one another This would be a greater contradiction than the first God cannot give me Reason in my Creation to be my guide and unravel at the same time those very Principles which he has made a part of my constitution Tertullian de poenit c. 1. says truly and Elegantly Res Dei Ratio Reason is the business and work of God It is by it that he has made us like him after his own Image And can it be so much as thought that that Divine and essentially Rational Being will contradict himself defeat his own work and reveal that which is contrary to the first impressions of Nature You take a wrong way to convince me You say God has reveal'd it and therefore it can be no contradiction You must first prove that there is no contradiction in the thing it self before you can satisfy me that he has reveal'd it Orthod God then must go out of his own ways and his Thoughts are to be accommodated to yours or else cannot be receiv'd You will prescribe Laws to the Divine Majesty It must be made to bow to your weak conceptions and the all wise Creator must stoop to a poor ignorant Creature Pray is this Reason or obstinacy You would fain struggle with a Principle of that mighty clearness and solidity that it commands an assent from all Men and is really the true and last resolution of all this great Controversy If God has reveal'd it you may cry out contradiction to the end of the World There will still be none and you will only shew your weakness Prove that it is not reveal'd and then and not before the business is done shew that your Reason has that character of Authority and Infalliblity which the Scripture has and then talk of contradictions Had you ever known any part of the Mystery if first it had not been Reveal'd How then can you find out contradictions in that which does so much transcend all your conceptions of which you know so little and which does not lie within the reach of our little Argumentations but rests wholly on the Basis of the Divine Authority I beg of you to tell me whether God cannot propose to us any thing to believe which is above Reason And whether what is above our Reason can be said to be contrary to it In resolving these two Questions you answer your Self The Trinity in Vnity is a discovery made by God which is above our Reason and therefore cannot be contrary to it The contradiction cannot come from the declaration of God For God cannot contradict himself The All-wise God cannot utter a contradictory Proposition It is not seated in the thing it self for there is no such thing as contradiction to be imagin'd in the Divine Nature It comes therefore only from our weak Apprehensions And how we can place a contradiction in an object infinitely above all the power and reach of our Reason be your self judge Socin This is the common Subterfuge of your Writers And this they are so pleas'd with that they have made it a general Answer Let them enjoy it to all intents and purposes But I deny that God can oblige us to believe what is above Reason This appears to me an Imposition unworthy of the thoughts which we have of God To be plain Whatsoever is above my Reason is incomprehensible to me That which is incomprehensible is nothing to me I cannot believe what I cannot understand Orthod 'T is because you cannot understand that you must believe Faith is to over-rule your Reason The way to understand is to believe as Isaias expresses it ch 7.9 according to the Septuagint Faith is so far from being destructive of Reason that of the contrary side it improves and perfects it Socin I wish I could be satisfy'd of the truth of this Orthod If the nature of Faith and Reason were truly establish'd I am apt to think that a very great part of our disputes would be at an end Socin Pray let us endeavour at it with Candor and Sincerity It is late now but you must promise me the honour of your Company at a small Dinner to morrow and after Dinner we shall talk fully to this Orthod I hate afternoon studies and afternoon disputes The Body then oppresses the Mind Nor are the Spirits capable of that intense application which the clearing a difficulty requires I give all the forenoon to my thoughts the middle part of the Day to my self and the Evening to my Friends At that time I will wait on you Perhaps I may bring a Friend along with me Socin If he is your Friend he will have neither Pedantry in his looks nor harshness in his manners Do not fail Orthod I will not The Third DIALOGUE Orthod YOU see I am come according to my Promise Socin Not altogether for you gave me some hopes that you would bring a Friend along with you Orthod I design'd it But he had made an appointment which could not be dispens'd with Besides he being wholly in my sentiments it would have look'd as if I had intended to over-match you and oppose two to one Socin I should not have been afraid of that For I think that the defender of Reason has a mighty advantage All Mankind is of his side It is their Freehold and if they part with it to believe impossibilities they make a very foolish exchange Orthod Christianity proposes no impossibilities and is so far from being an Enemy to Reason that it is the most Rational System in the World Things which actually exist cannot be said to be impossible Whatsoever it proposes is of that kind and though a great part of it transcends our comprehensions yet we ought not to deny it but submit to it with an humble reverence Expecting a blessed Life wherein we shall know what we now believe and clear perceptions lucid and glorious thoughts shall make a part of that blessed state which God has promis'd Socin I am perswaded that there will be such a state and that those magnificent promises which God has made us will be fully perform'd We shall know then infinitely more than we do now And if at this time the finding out any Truth so sensibly affects us how much more will it do so when the glory of God shall be reveal'd in us and Truth shall not appear in scatter'd and divided beams or by intervals but as it is in its ineffable Spring But for all that I cannot be sensible that I must enslave my Reason and un-Man my self in running after incomprehensible objects of which I can neither give nor receive any tolerable account Orthod You are so offended at things incomprehensible Pray are you the happy Man who finds nothing of that nature in the World Is it always day with you Do you never feel the cold and darkness
above our Reason That we ought to rely upon the Divine Revelation and not pretend to give an account of things Incomprehensible This you have thought to be an evasion of all your pretended contradictions you have derided it and call'd it a Trinity of the Mob of ignorant and lazy Doctors Whereas if you weigh the Principles laid before you it will appear very firm and solid For to state contradictions in an object Reveal'd when that object is above all our Perceptions when all that we know is that it is and that too because it is Reveal'd but are altogether ignorant what it is Reason then soars above its nature and what you call contradictions are only the stumblings of Reason which striving to climb up an inaccessible rock is shamefully flung on its back and overthrown Socin But then you make Faith the obscurest thing in the World and what advantage is it to us if our darkness is remov'd by a greater even a darkness that may be felt If what you say is true I know little by the help of Reason and much less by that of Revelation Orthod I make Faith what God has made it The things which he proposes exist and are certain He is pleas'd to cast a veil over them and we ought not to presume to take it off It is he that has made us and not we our selves and in vain we strive to start out of the limits to which he has confin'd us Nor is the homage and submission of our understandings consistent with clear Perceptions of things It would no more be Faith but Knowledge We should not be in via as the Fathers speak in the way which leads to Heaven which is a state of obscurity labour humility and the fear of God But in Patria in Heaven it self a place of intuition tranquility glory and perfect love But let me tell you that Faith has that mighty advantage that if it is not the clearest evidence it is at least the greatest certainty in the World All our assurance in other things is humane The very Principles of Geometry are no more But Faith has a Divine Foundation and that is the Authority of God St. Chrysostom was so perswaded of the truth of this that Homil 21. in Epist ad Heb. he did not doubt to affirm that he had no Faith who believ'd not more firmly the things reveal'd than those which are daily the object of sense You know the Famous saying of St. Ambrose de sacram l. 1. cap. 5. Tolle argumenta ubi Fides quaeritur Away with all your Reasons where Faith is the question Socin If you get amongst the Fathers we shall have a Sea of Authorities which you know we have no very great esteem for I wish you would lay them all aside But if you will not what think you of Lactantius who Instit l. 2. cap. 7. speaks thus Oportet in ea re maxime c. Every Man is oblig'd particularly in that wherein his own being is concern'd to trust to himself and it is much better to endeavour with the best judgment and sense that we can to find out the truth than to suffer our selves to be deceiv'd by other People's errors as if we were wholly Strangers to Reason God having given all Men such a share of Wisdom as to be able to search into those things which are unknown to us and to examine those that are not The same Principle Minutius Foelix makes use of against Caecilius And this is the very Argument of Theodoret in his first Discourse de curand graec affect It may be said of Lactantius his assertion that nothing can be truer and better It does justice to God who is the Author and Giver of every good and perfect gift and to Man by owning his great and distinguishing Privilege You have spoke of Faith very well and accurately But for all that do you know what it is to blaspheme Reason It is to wound Mankind in the most sensible part and to put us out of a capacity of ever acting like Men. Reason is a light which comes down from the Father of lights As the natural light discovers it self and all other objects so Reason the light of the Soul discovers its native excellency and is the tryal of all other things It s eagerness in the pursuit of Truth is a proof that it is made for it and capable of it It looks much like Priest-craft to desire me to shut my Eyes and trust my self to another guide whilst I can see my way as perfectly as any other I had once a great respect for St. Austin but I have lost it since I read a passage of his wherein he strangely abuses humane nature It is lib. 2. c. 15. de serm dom in monte Hominis anima rationalis lumine veritatis vel tenuiter pro sui capacitate illustratur ut verum aliquid in ratiacinando sentiat The rational Soul of Man receives as â—â—ding to its capacity small illustrations and glances of light that by Reasoning it may feel something of Truth Thus the Doctors of the Church run down Reason and perceive not that they run down Mankind at the same time Orthod You are in the right to lay the Fathers aside for they are all against you I should be glad to be rid of a witness who I am sure will swear home against me The Author of Christianity not Mysterious has invalidated their evidence to some purpose He will not allow above five or six to have been Men of sence and to shew how contemptible they are he flatters himself that some ages hence he will be look'd on as a Father I hope he is no Prophet and does not see so much extravagance in the succeeding times Lactantius every way an admirable Author argues against Idolatry He says very well that no Religion is to be taken upon trust and that in so great a concern every one ought to judge for himself Idolatry is so unreasonable a thing that whosoever admits it must be a stranger to Reason God having given every Man such a measure of Wisdom as to reject that which is so openly bad and look for somewhat better But he never pretended that amongst Christians who so unanimously submit to the Revelation which God has made of himself in the Holy Scriptures Man was to dispute against God and Reason to struggle with Faith Read the first Chapter of the first and the greatest part of the third Book and you will see that from the contradictions of Philosophers he proves Reason to be insufficient to find out the truth and that it is only to be met with in that Religion where it is divinely Reveal'd Minutius Foelix argues after the same manner Caecilius pleaded a Tradition of Idolatry in which he thought himself secure Minutius answers that he ought to appeal to his own Reason which will evidently shew him the folly and impiety of Polytheism And all that Theodoret insists on is that the
unlearned part of the World is as capable of this as the learned Nay much more For besides the plainness of the Revelation their perceptions in what they understand are more direct and not clogg'd with subtilties as ours are They have I am afraid a more sincere respect for the Divine Revelation than we Take an honest Country-Man and ask him who is he that is blessed over all for ever He will answer immediately GOD. Shew him in the Scripture that this is said of Christ He will immediately conclude that Christ is GOD. Object to him that if Christ is God and the Father God then there are two Gods He will immediately reply No They are but one For God is but ONE You may puzle him with your Ratiocinations He may be at a stand and hear you cry till you are hoarse that two cannot be one and that he does his Reason an injury He will tell you that it is so indeed when he takes an account of his sheep and horses but in what concerns his Religion his Bible in his Reason It says so and he believes it The Learned will not wrangle to the end of the World except by the Learned you mean only the Socinians I am sure and you cannot but be so too that for many Ages and now in this very Age the Learned of all Societies agree in this And though the Socinians are infinitely fond of their objections against our Mysteries yet I despair not to see them come over to the Faith They are Rational and at one time or other will be equitable Men. But now let us see the Province of Reason when it is satisfy'd that such or such a truth is reveal'd Socin I know what you are going to say and it is this That Reason having once satisfy'd it self of the certainty of the Revelation it has no more to do but its duty is to submit to what God has reveal'd Let a proposition contain never such a gross or palpable contradiction it must be swallow'd contentedly But in good truth can this be done If this is Faith and believing who can believe Orthod God can reveal neither contradiction nor error There is a great difference between understanding the truth of a proposition and the Nature of the thing propos'd God was manifest in the Flesh and the Word was made Flesh are propositions so vastly plain that no other sence can be made of them but this God has appear'd in our Nature There is no error no contradiction in this In a word we understand it But the Nature of the thing propos'd is so unknown to us and so much above us that it is rash and bold for us to inquire into it or imagine error or contradiction in it I say then that the Truth once propos'd we ought to acquiesce in it That Reason is to be silent and give no way to further inquiries Socin But can Reason be silent when you impose on me the belief of that of which I have no kind of Notion Orthod If by Notion you mean an insight into the thing Reveal'd you are unjust We have discours'd already that the Nature of Faith is to be obscure or else it is no Faith This can be no difficulty at all It is enough for us that we understand that God has propos'd such a thing though we understand not at all the thing propos'd I cannot apprehend how God assumes our Nature and is manifest in the Flesh But I apprehend that God tells it me in clear and express terms and therefore I believe and think not my poor ignorant Brain a competent Judge of God's Veracity Socin But pray hold a little Will you be satisfy'd of the deficiency of your method if I shew you that after you have attain'd the certainty of the Revelation you must believe propositions which are inconsistent with and destroy one another You believe God to be one and yet Father Son and Holy Spirit to be every one God Does not the first proposition destroy the second and the second the first How can he be one and three three and one Orthod This is still begging of the question God can propose nothing Contradictory or Inconsistent I confess I cannot understand how this is but it is reveal'd therefore certainly true and on that account I believe it Socin You believe that Christ is God and Man Infinite and Finite Immortal and Mortal The Supreme most High God and yet suffering and Dying He is God and he is sent He is God and yet prays to God He is God over all and yet subject to him who put all things under him If this is not inconsistent I do not know what inconsistency is Orthod If Plato Aristotle or any of the Sons of Men should tell me this I would speak as you do But God is true and he says all this I adore the Divine Oeconomy though I understand it not To be God and Man is no Contradiction The Scripture represents Christ as God blessed over all for ever It represents him also as a Man Nothing can be more express than the declarations of his Divinity Nothing more clear than those of his Humanity Which part of the Revelation shall Reason overthrow Convinc'd by the proofs of his Humanity you will say that he is no God Another convinc'd by the proofs of his Divinity will deny that he is a Man Thus Reason more inconsistent with it self than you fansie Revelation to be will reject every part and destroy the whole Socin No. Reason will reconcile all and by an easy explication will make him an inferior or a deputed God and also the greatest of Men. Orthod A Socinian Explication But the misery is that our Texts are not capable of any God Blessed over all for ever The word was with God The word was God and twenty more such places admit of no explication A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief in the Form of a Servant humbling himself to the Death of the Cross becoming Sin for us and dying for Sinners contradicts all your explications Away with this obstinacy which really debases Reason Take the Revelation as a Rational Man as it lies in all its parts as it comes from God who in the fullness of time has sent his Eternal Son to assume our Nature and become a Sacrifice for us Socin But you can never perswade me that Reason has not as much right to examine the truth of the thing propos'd as the proposition it self and to reject it if it is not agreeable to its Principles Orthod But you can never prove that Reason is capable of examining that which is above Reason and such are things reveal'd Their truth indeed depend from the conformity which they have with the Supreme Reason which is God But in respect to us their Truth consists not in their agreeableness to yours or my Reason But wholly in the Authority of the Revelation They are true because they are reveal'd Socin But is not my
call'd by the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by the Apostle 1 Cor. 2.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the demonstration of the Spirit to distinguish it from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the demonstration of Power which consists in miraculous operations And therefore that Record is truly divine in which God has left such splendid and lasting monuments of his Holy Spirit But if a Book may truly be call'd Divine which transcends all Books whatsoever that Collection which we have of the Sacred Writings justly deserves that name For besides that it can be made to appear that all the Theology all the Philosophy all the Rites all the Laws all the Manners and Customs all the Heroes of the Heathens are deriv'd from thence and that this Truth is not unperceiveable though oppress'd and eclips'd with the interposition of innumerable Fables and Lyes pray what Book can compare with this for Antiquity for certainty in the discovery of the Creation of the World the formation of all things the History of the first Ages but above all for that vast number of Precepts of Morality of excellent rules of Piety and Holiness by which Man is acquainted with his duty to God and to his fellow Creatures and has the promise of an Eternal State as a Reward of his Obedience What Man ever spoke or could ever speak in the Stile of the Sacred Writings It is every where Inimitable and does not surprise by a numerous train of pompous expressions but by a natural and inward Majesty which no mortal Oratory can personate It speaks to the Heart as well as to the Ears and converts as well as instructs us God has shew'd himself no where better than in his Word In his operations he acts but in this he speaks like God Whosoever reads attentively the Holy Scriptures must needs upon the whole conclude that it is a Work which infinitely exceeds the most refin'd Reason the most intense Capacity and the vastest Industry of Man I will say no more only let me beg of you to lay this all together and then tell me whether I am an Enemy to Reason and whether it has receiv'd any injury from me Socin Your way of speaking shews the Excellency of Reason and you make an admirable use of it against it self You leave me but one thing to desire and that is that I could be so far satisfy'd with what you have said as to assent to it But it is not in my power Nor think I my self overcome though I cannot answer your Arguments For when all is done my Reason must be the Judge and it will not suffer me to believe your Mysteries I know that you will tell me that this is obstinacy and that at this rate no Man will ever be convinc'd of his errors but will make this his last refuge that he cannot indeed contradict the truth offer'd but that his Reason will not suffer him to submit I grant all this But still as long as I act sincerely in it I may be pity'd but I cannot be blam'd Orthod You have often told me of your sincerity in this matter But I am afraid you have not the true notion of it Socin I understand by it a serious mind willing to know the truth and taking all the ways that it can to attain it I have study'd my own heart and if I can pretend to any knowledge of my self I think that I am in that very disposition Orthod There is a great deal more in it than all this comes to Self-love will turn it self into a thousand shapes and represent us to our selves quite otherwise than really we are Information indeed is the way to Truth But other qualifications must be suppos'd without which it is not attainable Bare arguing will never do The Soul must be purify'd of those lusts which are so many clouds interposing between us and the Truth I shall never believe a Man sincere in this till a substantial Piety with an uniform humble and mortify'd Life has made way to Divine Illuminations I take the grand obstacle to Faith not so much to consist in what we call Reason as in the indisposition of the heart which resists the impressions of the Grace and Spirit of God Sincerity in our obedience to CHRIST's holy precepts is the Touch-stone of that other which we pretend to One may practise Religion though he understands it not but it can never be understood except it be seriously practis'd As long as we live a life of sense and neglect the duties of Religion we shall ever wrangle with the points propos'd to our belief Oblige me in not separating two things so wholly depending on one another Socin I perfectly agree with you in this But I believe that God is merciful and that there is an allowance for invincible errors Orthod I believe so too But the error which you have espous'd is certainly a damnable error and is not Invincible He who never had a revelation of the Gospel and lives up to the light of nature will no doubt find that the mercies of God are not so consin'd as some Zealots have made them But you have had it and that too attested with the blood of Martyrs and the voice of the Catholick Church which at this very time from all the parts of the World exclaims against and condemns you How guilty is that confidence which under the pretence of contradictions and poor Criticisms dares refuse an assent to God speaking in his Holy Scriptures and to his Church declaring her sence of those matters in all her decrees Your errour indeed is invincible not because you cannot but because you will not be overcome Socin But who is a better judge than my self whether I can or no Orthod All this is trifling with God and your self Every Man will give the same Answer and by this defend not only the most pernicious errours but even the most sinful habits However take the great help which God has provided in this case and that is Prayer Be never wanting in your publick and private Adorations of God to pour your Heart before him with humility and fervency that he would open your Eyes and remove from you blindness and hardness of Heart Alass my Friend the night of your Life and mine is far spent The day is at hand Few steps more and we launch into Eternity Have pity on your own Soul and hasten to secure your self Socin I cannot however but express my acknowledgment for your good and serious advice I promise you that I will consider of it in earnest But it grows late and I fear we have no more time than what will serve to take another turn in this fine Garden and then draw home Orthod Besure to be as good as your word Socin I will Orthod Then I am almost confident that you will have done Socinianizing FINIS
and National Synods We have her Mind in her publick Confessions of Faith She is so far from espousing any sort of explication that she ever thought that that great Mystery could not be explain'd The Church suffers Men to write concerning these matters St. Austin has given several considerable reasons for it in his Books on this very Subject and in that de utilit credend The opposing of Heresy the improvement of Piety the study of the Holy Scriptures of which this makes so considerable a part are the principal But to think that the Church will stand by all the Opinions of private Writers and own their errours and mistakes is a prodigious inadvertency What Church in the World can be safe if made to answer for all the Authors of her Communion What becomes then of the objection It is all overthrown in this one word The Church has nothing to do with those explications which the Socinians fansie they have so much expos'd And as for the explications themselves I believe that if the Judicious Hooker and the Learned Cudworth were alive you durst not so much as name them The rest are Men of great abilities who can arm in their defence no better Pens than their own Socin But do you put Bishops and eminent Bishops too in the rank of private Persons Who can best speak the sence of the Church but those who are call'd by the Fathers the Husbands of their Churches the Keepers of the Canons and the Successors of the Apostles Some seem to be Tritheists and others seem to be Sabellians Orthod Truly you have us'd the Bishops in your Writings as if they had been no more than private Persons the reflections on their Lordships having been so sharp and so many His Grace the late Arch-Bishop whom by your own confession you ought to have reverenc'd was not free from your aspersions My Lord of Glocester has had his share In the latest answer to my Lord of Sarum you forget the large Encomiums given him before The Bishop of Worcester for whom the Learned World has so just a value met in the answer to his late Book with the same way of Entertainment But laying all this aside and answering your meaning A Bishop with all the respect due to the Sacred Dignity is still a private Doctor Nor can the Church be favourable to his explications if they are contrary to her Doctrine But what of all this Our Bishops are all Orthodox Socin I do not know what you mean by Orthodox There is no Orthodoxy but Truth They who teach Three Gods cannot be Orthodox and this is done by the Real Trinitarians The Socinians believe and adore but one and this is done by the Nominals The greatest part of the Church goes I confess that way and therefore it is Orthodox because Socinian In short we may talk till Doom's day and never be the Wiser The question at last must be this are you a Real or a Nominal Trinitarian If a Real then we shall never be reconcil'd If a Nominal then we are certainly agreed Orthod What I have said already seems to me to be satisfactory But since you are not contented with it let us examine the several parts of your distinction What is the meaning of Real Trinitarians But let me beg of you to answer plainly and directly Socin I will answer in the very words of the Author of the Discourse concerning them He says pag. 7. The Realists are denominated from their believing Three distinct Divine Spirits or Minds who are so many Real subsisting Persons Again p. 19. They are every day Challeng'd and impeach'd of Tritheism And again p. 25. Themselves do sometimes almost openly and explicitely own and profess their Tritheism Their doctrine of the Trinity manifestly implies Three Gods Orthod What is the meaning of Nominal Trinitarians Socin They are they who maintain a Trinity which Consists only in the several Names Offices Relations and Modes of Existence of the Divine Nature This was first taught by Noëtus and Sabellius embrac'd afterwards by the assertors of the Homoousios and receiv'd by the Schools and Divinity Chairs ever since This is the substance of what he says of the Nominals in the first part of the Discourse Orthod And this you make the Foundation of that difference which you imagine to be in the Church and has of late fill'd up all your Prints Socin Yes indeed and with a great deal of Reason You are all afraid of the distinction It is of your side so notorious a giving up of the Cause that we have parted with all our Old Arguments and retrench'd our selves there as in a place from whence we cannot be driven Orthod Then pray set your heart at rest and suffer your selves to be forc'd from it For I presume positively to averr that there is no such thing in nature as these Trinitarians of your own making You pretended already to a God of your own making You wish'd for a Scripture of your own making To make a Trinity too is a little too hard I say then and pray forgive the sharpness of the words that all this is a mistake a slander and a calumny upon the Church Socin How much must you abate of your assurance when I shew you in several late Writings that the Three Persons of the Trinity are Three distinct Infinite Minds Spirits and Substances I appeal to your self whether this is not manifest Tritheism For what is God but an Infinite Mind Spirit or Substance Orthod I have told you already and tell you again that such expressions are wholly unknown to the Church and therefore cannot with any candor be fastn'd upon it Oblige me so far as to shew me a Church in the World this day or formerly which uses them or else be pleas'd to own that you are guilty of a great deal of disingenuity But though such a denial is sufficient because it is of a thing which you cannot and dare not undertake to prove yet it will be much clearer if you give your self the trouble to consider that such a notion in the Christian Church is impossible and has not the least ground or appearance of truth You are acquainted with the Sacred Writings of the New Testament and no doubt have inform'd your self of the Confessions of Faith of the Ancient Councils the assertions of the generality of the Fathers the doctrine of the Schoolmen the sense of the Greek and Latin Church even since the fatal separation and in the division of so many Kingdoms from the last in these two Ages you know perfectly all the Articles which the Famous Societies of Protestants have declar'd to be the points of their belief This suppos'd I lay before you these plain and easy but Substantial Observations First That the Church of God has always asserted the Vnity of the Divine Nature as the Foundation of all Religion It has been its great and distinguishing Character You will tell me that the Philosophers did so
pardonable Origen and other Ante-Nicenes make out the Unity of God in a Ternary of Persons though they did not believe the Equality Says the Author of the Answer to Dr. Bull pag. 22. unjust in this to Origen and the rest I have some Remarks on that Answer which I design to make publick What the Author has said concerning the Epistle of St. Barnabas and those of the Holy Martyr Ignatius is far from invalidating their Authority We must have more than suspicions and bare denials to illegitimate a Book They are certainly works of great Antiquity and acknowledg'd to be such by the succeeding Ages But what must we say of a Person of his great erudition who pretending to answer a Book full of all the Testimonies which those early times could afford quarrels only with two or three Authors against whom he says nothing substantial and is wholly silent to Justin Martyr St. Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus Tatianus Miltiades Melito Dionysius of Alexandria Tertullian Lactantius c. Is it enough to confute the Ante-Nicene Fathers to say as this Author pag. 7. That all their Glory is wholly due to the vanity of Modern Learned Men who quote these Books not because they value them but because being ancient monuments known to few and understood by fewer he seems to be a great Learned Man who can drop sentences out of these antique Books But this is mild and obliging if compar'd with pag. 63. Where this Author having said that Trinitarianism is not so much a Religion as the Law of the Byzantine or Constantinopolitan Emperours stiles the then Doctors of the Church THE PARASITES OF THESE TIMES whom now in regard of their antiquity we call Fathers You are not insensible how this might be taken up and expos'd If Hosius Spiridio Paphnutius If the Gregories the Basils the Cyrils the Theodorets the Chrysostoms the Hieroms the Hilaries the Ambroses the Austins were the Parasites of their times where shall we find any Vertue Piety or Learning in this World But I am willing to over-look those excesses and tell you that it is a folly to wrangle with this or that passage sometimes to inveigh against Platonicism and sometimes to complain that those Writings are lost which might have inform'd us better To be plain we have enough left and from what remains of the times before the Council of Nice it appears that the Vnity of God and the belief of a Trinity of Persons in that one God Father Son and Holy Spirit was the belief of the Christian Church The Arrians indeed might challenge some of the then Fathers who spoke more obscurely and were easier Misinterpreted But Socinianism has not the least pretence to any He must have forfeited all modesty who asserts it Socin But what have you to say to the Apostolical Creed Is it not an evidence beyond all other evidences Orthod Of what Socin Of the Vnity of the Great God Orthod And so are all our Creeds from the first to the last Socin But it is an Evidence against your Trinity Orthod Against that Trinity which you have falsly imputed to us and that is A Trinity of Gods But not against a Trinity of Persons in one God What is the first assertion of that Creed I believe in One God For you affirm that it was anciently thus read Ans to Doctor Bull pag. 16. What is the second but an Explication of the first This One God is the Father Almighty His only begotten Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit Three Persons in One God Socin This is so dragg'd in so strain'd so unnatural that to any unprejudic'd Person it will visibly appear not to be the Doctrine design'd to be taught in the Creed Orthod I am apt to think that I can substantially prove that it is I believe the Creed to be truly Apostolical notwithstanding what some learned Men have said against it Not because it was made by the Apostles themselves though nothing appears to the contrary but by reason of its great Antiquity Now when you and I dispute about the sence and design of that Creed we have but one way to take and that is First to see what the Scripture teaches concerning its Articles which indeed are no more than an Epitome or Collection of the Principal Truths deliver'd by Christ and his Apostles Secondly To examine the Doctrine of the Fathers who liv'd before the Church thought it fit and necessary to make a larger Explanation of the Faith Thirdly To satisfy our selves of the sence which the immediately following Councils gave to that Creed in their Decrees All this is Highly reasonable For if the Scripture which has taught so expresly God to be one has also expresly taught the Father to be God the Son God and the Holy Spirit God then it is plain that the sence of the Creed is such and no other The Authority of that Creed or of any Creed whatever is from the Scripture It cannot therefore be contrary to it and that excellent Rule must be brought to that Primitive Rule from whence it is deriv'd And alas has not this been prov'd to you so often and so fully that after a World of wrangling you have been driven from your new and unnatural Criticisms and forc'd to shelter your selves under the weak defence of your Philosophical disceptations But if this Creed has no other sence but that which you put upon it The Father only God The Son only Man and the Holy Spirit only an Energy or Operation How come the Fathers of that time so openly to contradict it I will not do again what has been so excellently done by the Learned Dr. Bull who has oblig'd the Christian Church with two Books which indeed you may speak or discourse against but can never substantially Answer Has he not undeniably prov'd out of their Writings that those Fathers believ'd the two Natures in Jesus Christ The Divine and the Human That they have asserted his Pre-existence and if his Pre-existence then his Eternity and if his Eternity then his Consubstantiality with the Father If the second part of the Creed is to be understood of Christ only Man How comes Irenaeus lib. 1. advers Haeres c. 2. in delivering the Belief of the Catholick Church or as he speaks of the Church all the World over to call him Our Lord Our God Our Saviour Our King to whom every Knee ought to bow c. How comes Tertullian who has deliver'd this very rule of Faith to talk as we do of the Blessed Trinity designedly and positively against Praxeas and say that he is warranted by the Apostle to speak of Christ as of him who is God blessed over all for ever If he believ'd the Holy Spirit to be only an Energy How comes he to stile him Tertium Numen Deitatis tertium Nomen Majestatis The Third Person of the Deity The Third Name of Majesty and Power Certainly Novatianus was acquainted with this Creed and yet Lib. de Trin.
Christus exploratus sine Spiritu Sancto Cui Spiritus accommodatus sine Fidei Sacramento Who has been able to attain the Truth without God Who has known God without Christ Who has known Christ without the Holy Spirit Who has known the Holy Spirit but by the sacred way of Faith Gregory the Great Hom. 26. in Evang. assures that Fides non habet meritum cui Humana Ratio praebet experimentum That Faith is of no value which is grounded upon the inquiries of humane Reason St. Austin has treated this very argument in abundance of places with the utmost accuracy The Greek are perfectly agreed in this with the Latin Fathers It is the Divinity of Origen of Theodoret of St. Chrysostom I will go further with you and say that this is the sence of the generality of Divines which has made that great Schoolman Aquinas lay this as a Principle in that part of his Works which is much the best of all his Writings and that 2 a. 2 da. qu. 2. art 4. Ratio Humana in rebus Humanis est multum deficiens cujus signum est quia Philosophi de rebus Humanis naturali investigatione perscrutantes in multis erraverunt sibi ipsis contraria senserunt Vt ergo esset indubitata certa cognitio apud homines de Deo oportuit quod Divina eis per modum Fidei traderentur quasi à Deo dicta qui mentiri non potest Humane Reason is much deficient even in Humane things of which this is a proof that the Philosophers in that search about them which they made by natural inquiries have mightily err'd and contradicted themselves And therefore to the end that Men's Knowledge concerning God might be certain and undoubted it was necessary that Divine Matters should be deliver'd to them by way of Faith as spoken by God who cannot lye Socin Then we are no more Men but Stocks and Stones Our obedience to God is no more choice but necessity If Reason has nothing to do in matters of Faith Men cease to be reasonable as soon as they Commence Christians We are all oblig'd to you for divesting us of that by which we are like God At this rate any extravagance will be call'd a Mystery any little Priest will obtrude and defend it and under the specious name of Faith overcome the clearest demonstrations of Reason Once more this is Priest-Craft with a vengeance Pray tell me what I must do with my Reason hereafter and into what sort of Creature it shall transmigrate since a Christian is no more capable of it Orthod This is all heat and madness I am for Reason as much as your self But I would have it kept within its due bounds It is of great use in Religion and I am not out of hopes to make you sensible of it Socin When the Sea gives over ebbing and flowing and not before You have prov'd that in matters of Faith Reason is to be silent and now you tell me that it is of great use How can this be reconcil'd Orthod We have spoken too long to enter now on a new discourse Let us put it off till I have the happiness to see you In the mean time let me beg a double favour of you First to consider impartially what has been said between us Secondly that in case you will not be perswaded the difference of our Sentiments should not in the least alter our Friendship Socin I should be too great a sufferer my self in denying any part of this I was ready to ask it but you prevented me When shall we meet again Orthod To Morrow if you will in My Lord Bishop's fine Garden There is no Body now there We shall not only be free but also enjoy for some hours the prettiest Solitude I know about the Town Socin Done The Fourth DIALOGUE Orthod I hope I have not tir'd your Patience How long have I made you stay here Socin A very little time and that without any trouble for this is really a very curious Place Nature and Art have combin'd to make it fine How large and firm are those Walks What a plenty of excellent Fruit adorns these Walls How proud is this Parterre of an infinite variety of Native and Foreign Flowers But let us hasten to the end where a small River calmly and silently runs and stately Trees on both sides will scarce suffer the Sun to view the Water Orthod In such places as this was Philosophy born There speculative Men secure from the noise and vices of Towns gave themselves to Contemplation Their manners were innocent and their way of living plain and unaffected They ador'd the Author of all these things and spent their time in serious and profitable inquiries But these Men of thoughts grew fond of imparting their secrets and brought Philosophy into Towns There it became proud vain and full of Talk It must come back again or else it will never be what it was in that Blessed Age. But let us draw to that small Building at the end of this Walk Socin We are going to it It is a place consecrated to Solitude There is written without in large Characters NO PASSIONS CAN COME IN HERE And within NEVER LESS ALONE THAN WHEN ALONE There we shall sit down and you will discharge your Promise of giving Reason satisfaction for your violent Invectives against it Orthod I never injur'd Reason It would be an unsuccessful attempt All that I have endeavour'd to do is to keep it within its due bounds In our Disputes as well as in all other things we are apt to run into extreams Our Thoughts of Reason are either too great or too mean We give it too much or too little And this comes from want of using our selves to think soberly Thus some believe themselves to be all Eyes and obstinately run on with Notions of which they never had patience enough to consider every part and which when examin'd are not what they appear'd to be at first I have observ'd that most of us are more taken with probability than Truth What is fine smooth and easy steals away our assent which a further and closer inquiry would oblige us to deny Your Books are all of that sort You have espous'd a Principle that Reason ought to be the Judge in Religious matters This carries along with it a great deal of Probability and insinuates it self the more easily because it flatters our Pride But when this comes to be throughly examin'd the obiections against it are so many that all that can be said of it is this that it is only an Opinion which indeed appears probable but is certainly false Socin Pray sit down and acquit your self Shew the consistency of Reason with Faith and its great use in Religion Or else I must accuse you of Non-performance Orthod We cannot treat this with any Candor except you acknowledge First that as Reason has its Beauties and Excellencies it has also its Deformities and Weaknesses It is
a light which God has given us to know him and our selves But that light suffers frequent Eclipses It shines dim and is often put out We are not wise all the hours of the day Sometimes our thoughts rise as the Sea when it overflows the neighbouring Shoars and sometimes again they sink into a small and contemptible Channel We own and disown admit and reject are pleas'd this minute with a conclusion and the next lay it aside look upon those things as Errors which we formerly embrac'd as Truths and take those for Truths which we once rejected as Errors Secondly You must grant me that Reason is not the same in all Men I mean as to its vigor and efficacy In some a happy Nature with the addition of a careful Education Reading Conversation and Experience makes it quick and active It is admirable to see how some Men will like lightning run through a mass of propositions and understand a thing as soon as it is offer'd But in others it is heavy and dull oppress'd by the matter in which it is inclos'd almost sunk and as the Physicians say of Blood incapable of circulating through the abundance of viscous humours by which it is detain'd The far greater part of Mankind is of this sort Of the common Saylors Souldiers Labourers Women it may be said that the Body is truly the gaol of the Soul from which it seldom breaks out to exert any acts answerable to the dignity of its nature Thirdly I beg also that you would not deny that though there is so visible a difference in the exercise of Reason and some Men do almost as far exceed others as these exceed irrational Creatures yet there is some universal Principle fitted to every one's capacity and in which all Mankind agree Such is the search after Happiness The grossest and most illiterate of the Sons of ADAM are as much convinc'd of this as your self whose erudition is certainly great This is not learned from Books or taken up upon the credit of Authors but is an invincible inclination which every one finds in his own Heart Socin I grant all this but your compliment to me Orthod All this granted I proceed and presume to be positive that Reason can never shew to Man the way to Happiness For though it concludes very well from the Works of Creation that there is a God who is the Author and giver of that happiness and that the service of God is the way to obtain it yet what we ought to believe of that God how he is willing to be serv'd and which way we can appease his anger and secure his favour to us is altogether above the reach of Reason Rom. 11.13 His ways are past finding out The Doctrine of a Covenant of Grace of a Redeemer in whom we are pardon'd and accepted and who by the Sacrifice of himself should reconcile us to God are Mysterious depths to which Reason the most clear sighted Reason has not the least access It was necessary then that Authority should supply that want and God reveal what it was impossible Man should acquaint himself with Revelation is that which informs our understandings cures our ignorance rectifies our mistakes and by a short and infallible way leads us to happiness This the Philosophers aim'd at by the strength of Natural Reason but very unsuccessfully You know what Socrates and Plato what the School of Epicurus what Zeno and the Porticus said to it Their Systems were vain foolish flat and unpracticable This important discovery was to be the work of him who had the words of Eternal Life And the wisest and best Definition that ever was given of it is Joh. 17.3 And this is Life Eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent I call this a short and an infallible way It is infallible because propos'd by him who can neither deceive nor be deceiv'd It is short because it cuts off all the Ambages and uncertainties which Reason is intangl'd in and rests upon a rock and that is the Authority of God You make Faith so difficult a thing and exclaim loud when we endeavour to bring you over to it But for my part when I take a view of those Principles which Mankind rely upon I find it much easier to believe than to reason Can I be safer than when God himself is my Guide Shall I find more truth any where than in what God proposes Or are the Mazes or Labyrinths of humane Argumentations easier to run through than the Asseverations of Scriptures This has made St. Austin to say de Trin. l. 14. c. 1. that many of the Faithful have Faith in a very high degree though they have little or no Learning Socin That is it is easier to swallow any thing than to inquire whether it is true or no Orthod No For if you Consider this Principle of the Authority of the Divine Revelation you will find that it prevents all sorts of mistakes and makes us give over reasoning and disputing not because we design to avoid the labour and trouble of it but because we are satisfy'd that here lies the Truth and that it is impossible to find it any where else That whatsoever God is pleas'd to reveal is true is a proposition to which all Mortals in any capacity whatever give a most ready assent There is none of us but what has in some measure or other Notions of God agreeable to that Divine Being In some they are more ripe and refin'd than in others in Christians most of all But all agree that as he is Wise and Holy so he is True and that what he delivers to us has an indelible Character of Truth This has not only been taught by us but by the Heathens themselves Homer and Hesiod have acknowledg'd it Euripides owns in Helen v. 1164. seq that he has found nothing certain amongst Men but this that the words of the Gods are true And I think it is Porphyrius a Man of mighty prejudice against Christianity who comparing the ways of the Greeks and of the Jews towards the attainment of the Truth says that the latter who sought after it by Faith that is by the means of a Divine Revelation were much more in the right than the former who made use only of Reason to attain it This once admitted which indeed cannot be deny'd I hope to let you see that I am not unjust to Reason You will give me leave to consider it before in and after the admitting of the Revelation Socin Consider it which way you will Orthod Faith then pre-supposes Reason They must be Rational Creatures whom it is infus'd into and without the one we are not capable of the other Though the Almighty has an absolute power over us yet he is pleas'd not to force our assent but proposes the Faith and perswades us to it It comes by hearing says St. Paul Rom. 10.17 that is it is
Reason Seeing must not be restrain'd to sense but extended to whatsoever God proposes Doctrines as well as Matters of Fact rely upon the Divine Authority But let us see how CHRIST the Light of the World has done in the delivery of his Heavenly Doctrine Has he courted our Minds to an assent by explaining the Nature of the Mysteries which he offers Or after the manner of the then Philosophers by disputing and endeavouring to remove the prejudices of Reason Not at all but first he establishes his own Authority and then commands our belief This grand point once settled He tells us Mark 16.16 He that believes shall be sav'd he that believes not shall be damn'd Once more CHRIST gives the Jews no liberty of examining his doctrine or as you Gentlemen of the Socinian perswasion are us'd to do to admit or reject it as you think it agreeable or disagreeable to your Reason He proves what he is by two undeniable Principles The First is the Prophecies accomplish'd in him Act. 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness The Second is the Miracles which he does Joh. 10.37 38. If I do not the works of my Father believe me not but if I do though you believe not me believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him And before v. 25. the works that I do in my Father's name they bear witness of me He had reveal'd to them a great Mystery viz. his Unity with the Father an Unity of Nature and Essence v. 30. I and my Father are one The Reason of the Jews stumbles at this and even to that degree that they take up stones to stone him He uses no other Arguments but will have them to obey and submit and this upon the account of the greatest and most convincing demonstration that can be even the miraculous works of God To deal sincerely can any thing be objected against this Socin Yes truly You know that we deny this to be an Unity of Nature and appeal to v. 36. But not to insist on this which we have often objected and you pretend to have as often answer'd and not start from the main question I say that he proves nothing who proves too much You strain the point too high You not only debase but totally extinguish Reason You leave it bare naked destitute and like the Idols Psam 115.5 Which have Eyes and see not Mouths and speak not Have a care of v. 8. They that make them are like unto them Is it to be imagin'd that we can renounce Reason The will indeed is free and may embrace and reject But the Mind is not capable of choice It must necessarily assent or dissent It can never be brought to believe a contradiction For my part I openly declare that against what part soever of my self I practise self denial it shall never be against my Reason Orthod How often have we said and how often must we say it again That nothing in Religion is contrary to the Principles of true Reason That what you call Contradictions are not real because God can reveal no contradiction and that Reason over-rules all its reluctancies by that most Rational Principle that we owe our assent to what God has reveal'd This is not then to renounce your Reason but only its irregularities and excesses to divest it of its pride and folly and bring it to all the purity and strength of which it is capable on this side the grave But how can one hear without horror that you will not practise self denial against your Reason that is you are resolv'd not to be a Christian For he that is so must as we have said already bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ There is a poverty of Spirit to which CHRIST has annex'd a blessing The living contentedly under the hard circumstances of want and a willingness to part with our riches to become poor for CHRIST's sake is but one part of it The other consists in robbing the mind of oppositions of science falsly so call'd which puffs us up and through the vain additions of Philosophy gives us a high opinion of our selves The various notions which we have of things are the riches of our mind which we must be ready to part with when ever CHRIST commands it Learning without Piety looks upon this as an injury to Reason unwilling to stoop and be overcome But Piety with Learning puts the Servant of God in that humble frame of submission to what he reveals Socin This is perfect Enthusiasm and Fanaticism all over This the Priest perswades the people to that he may command their Faith That point gain'd he will quickly dispose of the rest Orthod If this is Enthusiasm and Fanaticism then all the World but the Socinians have been Enthusiasts and Fanaticks The first Men of the World liv'd altogether by Faith The Apostle gives the same Character to the Patriarchs and Prophets Whatsoever they did was the Work of Faith Reason then was in subjection to it But when Man substracted himself from the Service of God and suffer'd himself to be guided by his own notions then Reason grew proud shook off the easy yoak and gave birth to the opinions of Philosophers whom Tertullian calls elegantly Haereticorum Patriarchas the Patriarchs of Hereticks Some of the wise Heathens themselves were not insensible how many errors this pretence of Reason threw them into Tully lib. 3. de nat Deor. makes Cotta to speak smartly to this purpose against Balbus the Stoick I omit Socrates and Plato Philostratus de vit Apollon lib. 5. c. 14. asserts that Philosophy is good to lead us into the Knowledge of Natural but not at all of Divine Truths And Jamblichus is positive that Man by the strength of Reason cannot understand Sacred and Religious matters To increase the number of those Enthusiasts I dare to say that this has been the Unanimous sence of the Fathers Hence that saying of St. Austin Epist 3. so highly Reverenc'd by the succeeding Ages Tota Ratio facti est potentia facientis All the Reason which we can give of any thing that is done is his power who does it And the great Arch-Bishop of Milan in Epist ad Rom. Magni meriti est apud Deum qui contra scientiam suam Deo credidit non dubitans posse illum utpote Deum quod secundum mundi rationem fieri non possit He is very dear to God who believes God against all the Principles of his Reason not doubting but that he can as God do that which cannot be done according to the Course and Reason of the World You stare at this as very strange and unaccountable But yet this is the Language of the Masters of the Church Thus spoke these Primitive Bishops and if we have any Zeal for Primitive Truths and Primitive Manners we ought to speak so too Nay this Notion is so Universal that of all them who
ever profess'd a Reveal'd Religion none but the Socinians have oppos'd it The very Jews themselves were not without it The Author of the ancient Book Cosri par 4. c. 27. says that Abraham came first to the knowledge of God by Reason but that after God had Reveal'd himself to him he gave over all his Arguments to stick to the Revelation And that the old Rabbins understood the 12. of Genesis v. 1. Get thee out of thy Country and Gen. 15.5 And he brought him forth abroad in an Allegorical sence as if God by these Words had commanded him to go from himself his humane way of apprehensions his weak ratiocinations and leave himself wholly to his conduct I confess the Allegory is more pious than solid It has a tincture of Rabbinism all over But still it is home to the point which I was to prove that the Jews in this had the same notion with the Christians that when Reason is satisfy'd that the Almighty speaks it ought to submit and stifle all its pretended contradictions Socin If the Ancient Jews were so much for believing how come the Modern to be so incredulous They are as mighty sticklers as we for the Unity of the Great God They deny CHRIST to be God Yet to them were committed the Oracles of God How comes it then that they are not affected with that Revelation of a Trinity which you pretend to be so plain and express Orthod It will carry us too far out of our subject to lay down the Causes of their Incredulity But yet it must be said that in their disputes with us they have been more sincere than you as to the main point on which this Controversy turns For they have not pretended to Reason about this or build their denial upon imaginary Contradictions the weak efforts of a Reason at a stand but they have rejected all the new Dispensation and disown'd CHRIST to be the MESSIAS In a word they have disputed the Revelation A Topick which you cannot pretend to because you admit the Sacred Writings of the New Testament I shall say no more to this but dispatch the third consideration and see the use of Reason after Faith is admitted and put your patience to a new trial Socin You command my attention Orthod I say then that Reason thus resign'd ceases not to act The noble Faculty has still a large Field to exercise it self in For though it supposes the Axiomata the first Principles of Christianity the Divine Mysteries to be so certain as not to be capable of the least doubt but to be admitted with the most humble adoration and sincere and firm assent that can be yet there are some Universal and some Particular dependent inferior Truths which it has the liberty to consider There are things which we know by Faith alone others by Reason alone and others by Faith and Reason together Of the first sort are the Mysteries of the Holy Trinity Incarnation Resurrection c. It is of these that St. Ambrose de vocat Gent. says excellently Magna est fortitudo consensionis cui ad sequendum veritatem Auctoritas sufficit etiam latente ratione That assent has a great force which though we cannot see the Reason of things yet makes us to embrace the Truth on the bare account of Authority A doctrine so known so reverenc'd in the Primitive Church that St. Austin is so far from pretending that we can dispute about them that when the Philosophers would argue against them who had embrac'd Christianity he makes them answer thus Serm. 189. de temp Accepto Baptismo hoc dicimus Fidelis factus sum Credo quod Nescio Having receiv'd Baptism we say this I am become a Christian I believe what I cannot understand In this Reason has nothing to do I am altogether determin'd by Faith It is from thence that the School-men have laid this as a Principle in their barbarous way of speaking that Habitus Fidei non est discursious sed animus unico actu fertur in objectum materiale propter formale Which in plain English is this that Faith depends not from Reason and Discourse but that the Soul of Man by the same act embraces the truth propos'd a secondary sort of an object upon the account of the first which is God revealing it to us Of the second sort is whatsoever is not of Faith but only serves to illustrate and confirm to defend and propagate it All our Arguments are the product of Reason There is a Divine Oeconomy and Coherence in the Sacred Writings which it perceives and from which it draws inferences An Analogy of Faith which by the concord and relation of the several parts make up the whole body of Divinity It is a judicious observation of St. Austin de Trin. lib. 14. c. 1. that as there are things which can never be understood except they are believ'd so there are things which can never be believ'd except they are understood And such are Prophecies of which it is said 2 Pet. 1.19 We have also a more sure word of Prophecy whereunto you do well that you take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day Star arise in your Hearts A Prophecy cannot be believ'd except Reason has made way to Faith by being convinc'd of its accomplishment Thus CHRIST argu'd Luk. 24.44 These are the words which I spoke to you whilst I was with you that all things must be fulfill'd which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me For though Prophecy has the Sanction of the Divine Authority and is to be assented unto even as to its future accomplishment because none of the Words of God can fall to the ground yet when you tell me that it is accomplish'd it is altogether the work of my Reason to examine whether it is so or no God by his Prophets and indeed by the two first Dispensations that of Nature and that of the Law has promis'd that a MESSIAS should come for the Redemption of Mankind The Prophecies concerning him are many and express Some describe his Nature others his Person Some his miraculous Works others his Heavenly Doctrine Some the time and place of his coming others his Life Death Resurrection Ascension c. All this is true and Antecedently commands our belief because God has spoke it But whether this or that Person is the MESSIAS must depend from an examination in whom all these things are fullfill'd Whether in this or that Man And this is certainly the Work of Reason The same must be said of Miracles There is not a more forcible Argument that the Author of Nature has Reveal'd a Doctrine than when he alters or suspends its ordinary course to confirm it But still I have a Liberty to try whether the Spirits are of God Whether it is a real Miracle and not an Illusion Whether the Matter of Fact is true Thus Act.