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
both Men of Learning and I suppose method too without which Learning is of no use and becomes only a large heap of rich Materials without beauty or strength because without order or disposition Socin All that I could perceive of both sides was very little reason or Argument But a World of heat and clamor Perpetual reflections either on the Church or the Socinians rude expressions and an insufferable shifting and running from one thing to another Orthod Truly this is the misery of disputes which for want of good and sincere management become a fatigue and a labour not to be overcome Books come as much short of it as Conversation The Writers and the Readers are equally unfortunate in this the one not giving that which they promise and the other being disappointed of that which they look for and that is Information Socin For this very reason I have almost vow'd to dispute no more I will hate the very Name of Controversy and no Book of that Nature shall find Room in my Library Time may be spent much better than in endeavoring to understand an Author who does not understand himself An infinite Stock of Patience is necessary to bear with a dull flat and insipid Writer Nor was I ever made to be a Witness to all their heats and follies who load their Adversary with ill Language because he is not of their Opinion Orthod I am not of your mind That which is good cannot cease to be such because it is abus'd Inquiry after Truth is the Noblest endeavour as well as the most Natural inclination of Mankind And disputing is the way which leads to it It is by comparing Argument with Argument and Reason with Reason that at last it does appear In the State of Weakness that we are in Thinking and Reflection are the only helps we have and it is from striking the steal and the flint together that the blessed fire breaks out which improv'd removes our darkness We have very few Self-Evident Principles and from them we do not always draw true and exact consequences The Mine must be open'd and digg'd with a great deal of Labour till we come to the precious Ore But once found it yields an inestimable treasure In a word it is by the opposition and difference of Men in their opinions that we come to examine reflect inquire and at last find out the Truth Socin I grant all this But when disputing is so wholly perverted as to become a sanctuary to Error When two contending Parties are so obstinate as not to yield the least Point and it is no more whether what I say is true but what I say must be true When Books are fill'd up and grow to large volumes and yet nothing to the purpose When all degenerates into heat and passion I think it time to have done keep my sense of things to my self and meddle no more with disputes Orthod What you say is too true We have a large experience that several have Writ of subjects which they never understood and others have pretended to answer objections which they have wholly mistaken Like those Translators Who have assassinated several Authors and disfigur'd many admirable and Original Pieces for want of understanding both the Language out of which they translated and their own which they translated into It is also evident that Divine Matters have been treated with very little piety As if God was not to be consulted when Man presumes to speak of him and the heart as well as the mind was not to guide the hand of the Writer But yet for all this there are Books of this kind which cannot be sufficiently admir'd so clear they are and yet so concise so eloquent and yet so grave so Candid and yet so home that it is hard to say whether they are more commended by the present Age or shall be more admir'd by posterity Socin Pray where are those Phoenix's to be found For they are so rare that they really deserve that name Orthod Not so very rare neither What Curious Writings did the Reign of Charles the Second produce in Defence of the Unity and Peace of the Church How was Popery treated in that of James the Second With what solidity and clearness did our Divines argue with the Emissaries of Rome never starting from the state of the question or the main stress of the difficulty propos'd And in this of William the Third when the Socinian Controversy which had slept some years began to awake again and to promise it self some increase from the looseness of Men's principles and from some other unhappy Circumstances unknown but to very few How did the Church rowse up and with what Zeal what Learning what success did they oppose the growing Heresy Socin I own that some good Books have been written against the Nonconformists and many excellent ones against the Church of Rome But for your success against Socinianism it is indeed much to be admir'd Is it not notorious that all your Writings have not brought one over to a Recantation and that though the Sect does not thrive much in the Country where Conversation is more rare yet it visibly gets ground in the Town There is scarce a Wit but what is a Socinian If Socinianism is a rank Poison I can assure you that the young Gentlemen swallow it with greediness One whisper'd me not long since that it is got even amongst some eminent Lawyers Many of your Clergy themselves are not free from the aspersion Socinianism is publickly disown'd and hated but privately much made of and caress'd I am afraid if your Universities were search'd it would be found that the sinful Weed grows there too Orthod What you say is that which we now exclaim'd against and that is Reflecting But when all is done the trick is stale and not like to take There never was yet so despicable a Sect in the World but what was willing to insinuate that their numbers were far greater than what really they appear'd A piece of Vanity laugh'd at every where by Men of Sence But in this the Socinians are unhappy For they are a Sect and no Sect a Body and no Body Some particular Persons have been Intoxicated with reading Socinus Crellius c. They have corrected and improv'd many of their Notions These they have put into several short and truly Elegant Writings and having had the happiness to be answer'd by Men every way Great it gave a general curiosity to read what these Authors had said which should arm so many famous Pens against them This has perswaded them into a belief that they have a croud of followers And as formerly the Arrians in the disputes against Arrianism so in these against Socinianism they fansie that the whole World is become Socinian But I will presume to say that it is nothing but fancy Men do not so easily part with the Faith in which they were baptiz'd and in which the hope of their Eternal Salvation consists
and the Revelation so express what I imagine to be contradiction is only the weakness of my Reason which must not stand against the Authority of God Suffer me to retort the Argument upon you I propose the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity and produce the Divine Revelation for it You cry out Contradiction Impossibility Incomprehensibility I say all this in the case of Creation You justly over-rule it by the Authority of the Revelation why must I be deny'd the same privilege and conclude that as I admit the one so you ought to admit the other Socin But then what signifies Reason if it ought not to be judge in Religious Matters And what Oppression must it lie under if it is over-rul'd by every thing which the Church will call Mystery Orthod The Church calls nothing Mystery but what is really such Some sublime important Truth which has an influence on Religion and a perfect coherence with it Of which we see some part the rest remaining abstruse and Reason being at a stand in its several inquiries about it Thus 1 Tim. 3.16 And without Controversy great is the Mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the Flesh What is propos'd to us is very plain God assuming our Nature and being made Man This is a strong engagement to all the duties of Religion And yet which way soever you take it it is still a great Mystery Reason is infinitely puzzl'd and has innumerable questions ready to offer which it can never be satisfy'd in because God has reveal'd so much and no more It s duty is to submit and make to the veracity of God a sacrifice of its curiosity The same may be said of the Resurrection from the Dead which St. Paul calls 1 Cor. 15.51 a Mystery He shews clearly the certainty and advantage of a glorious coming to Life again Yet it is still a Mystery Take away the Divine Revelation and Reason humane Reason will charge the doctrine of the Resurrection with contradiction nonsence impossibility The same pretended objections will lie against the Mystery of the Holy Trinity only with this difference that you are contented in the other points to bring your Reason to the obedience of Faith but in this you will be refractary It is strange to see Men's odd ways of manageing Reason In the study of Natural things when they can go no farther then they enlarge upon the weakness of Reason the misery of our Nature the shortness of our sight and the inability of our faculties They a knowledge that God has hid abundance of objects from our eyes But in the search after Mysteries then Reason is strong it soars as high and can look on the Sun as stedfastly as the Eagle Nothing ought to be Mysterious Faith must not be our guide It is no more the light of the Soul but usurpation and tyranny Socin You have a perpetual inclination to misrepresent us We affirm and we have affirm'd it a thousand times that we ought to be guided by Faith But Faith must be rational It is says St. Paul Rom. 12.1 our Reasonable service If it is not such it is neither worthy of God who requires it nor of Man who pays that debt to him I ought not to believe at random or give my assent to every thing which even the Scripture proposes But I must examine how it is consistent with the principles of that Reason which he has given me Thus far I must believe and no further Reason first and last is to be the judge Orthod Pray let us avoid those perpetual Equivocations Faith and Reason are always consistent I do not speak of Reason as it is in us but as it is in it self with that admirable coherence of Principles flowing from one another and concentring in God who is its Author Had we Reason in that state and to that degree such I believe was that of innocent ADAM I should be reconcil'd to all your noise of Contradictions But Reason as it is in us is obscure apt to be intangl'd in the smallest thread and uncertain where and how to fix it self But let it be consider'd either of these ways the consistency of Faith and Reason must be always understood in subordination of the latter to the former What a monstrous attempt is this to determine Faith by Reason and not Reason by Faith Socin What a pleasant distinction is this of Reason consider'd in it self or as it is in us Of ADAM's Reason and ours As if ADAM was not such another Man as I am and Reason consider'd in it self could be different from what it is in me and all Mankind Orthod Yes indeed Innocent ADAM just come out of the hands of his Maker and taught immediately by that Infinite Spirit who had given him his being did Reason better than you or I. His perceptions were clearer His apprehensions quicker His abilities greater Passion and Prejudice had not found the way to his Soul Wine and Lust had not inflam'd him Ambition and the Thirst of Gold had not deprav'd him In a word he was little Inferiour to the Angels themselves both in Purity and Knowledge And why may not Reason be consider'd in it self in that Divine Relation which it has to the Supream Truth calm and free in its propositions sincere and true in its inferences without a desire of appearing what it is not from what it is when clog'd with the impressions of a sinful Body captivated by a corrupted Will led into a thousand silly errours ever seeking and never finding a place to rest in These are the sad effects of the first Transgression Man was made upright at the beginning but they sought out many inventions says one to whom the Scripture gives the character of the most Knowing of Men. I tell you that in this crazy Age of the World and in the great decay of Christianity what we call Reason are only the miserable relicks of it Socin You know by whom it is deny'd that ADAM's Transgression had any other influence on his Posterity than to shew them an ill example For my part I believe that the World is the same as ever it was and that if ADAM had not sinn'd we had still been subject to the same Infirmities Your Doctrine of Original Sin is as Mysterious as the rest Orthod It is so far from being Mysterious that nothing discovers it self with greater clearness All the Pride of Man cannot hide it Our own unhappy experience contradicts our pretended demonstrations against it and in this our Heart evidently opposes our Mind But we have lost the main question let us return to it I say then that you give Reason too great a Scope and that in our present state it ought not to determine Faith but be determin'd by it Socin But still we talk of Faith and Reason and have not yet agreed what they are Pray tell me what is Reason But tell it me plainly Let us have no Cartesianism no Metaphysical Abstractions no Notions
simplicity of our Holy Faith wants not solid and rational arguments by which it is confirm'd Such I take to be the Authority of the Revelation which in strength and clearness is superiour to any Argument whatsoever But laying all this aside When you have done all you can and writ never so fine a Panegyrick on Reason the strength of it cannot be better judg'd of than by its use You will be asham'd of ever pleading for Reason when you consider how the great Masters of it have been distracted And you will say with Jesus Christ Matt. 6.23 If therefore the Light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness The first Men of the World though so near their beginning and the impressions of Reason so much the stronger because nearest to their spring yet generally run into Idolatry and Violence You know how few they were who call'd upon the Name of the Lord. The Church was confin'd to the Family of Noah The fury of the Flood was an eminent instance of a Reason which had so far wandred from its Principles that it was past recalling and was fit for nothing but destruction When the World after that was so far replenish'd as to afford great Monarchies and numerous Nations you see Reason as insufficient as before and Men as obstinately bent to depart from their Creator I will not run through their several Idolatries The Aegyptians so famous for their Learning who thought themselves and were look'd upon by others as highly Rational Men did debase Reason to that degree as to make Gods of their very Roots and Plants A happy People says pleasantly Juvenal who see their Deities grow in their Gardens But you will say they were unthinking People who had not consider'd the matter or inquir'd into the Nature of Reason But what must you think of the Ingrossers of Learning and Reputation I mean the Greeks Men who valu'd themselves upon being inquisitive treated all the parts of Philosophy and fill'd the World with Sects and Systems Good God! The Dogmaticks thought Reason so clear as to be certain of every thing and to doubt of nothing An extravagance of which they had a confutation in themselves These Socrates the wise Socrates takes up and is so far from taking Reason to be clear that he professes that if any thing was certain it was this That he knew nothing to be certain This Assertion Arcesilas and Pyrrho cannot be reconcil'd with carry the doubt yet further and find no certainty in that very Proposition but make Hesitation and Fluctuation the Principles of their Doctrine They are not more lucky in their search about Happiness Providence the Being of God and the Original of the World There is a strange confusion in their Opinions and an incredible weakness in their Arguments They have verify'd the saying of Solomon Eccles 3.11 Mundum tradâ—â—â—t disputationi eorum God has made the World the subject of their disputes Or as our Translation reads it He has set the World in their Heart so that no Man can find out the Work that God made from the beginning to the end And Eccles 8.17 Though a Man labour to seek it out yet he shall not find it yea further though a Wise Man think to know it yet he shall not be able to find it This is the Reason which you cry up so much and these are your Rational Men. Socin All this is a Satyr upon Reason and nothing else Yet it cannot detract from its dignity And it is a consequence ill drawn That because some Men have Reason'd ill therefore we cannot Reason well Several People have had but one Eye therefore we have not two The Aegyptians and Greeks have been delirious therefore we must be so too They did conclude at random in those days because they wanted all the means of Erudition which we have and therefore we must talk at the same rate though a long experience innumerable Books and accurate Methods in all Arts and Sciences have wonderfully resin'd our Notions With you the dawning of the Day gives more light than the full Noon and the Morning is wiser than the Evening of our Lives Pray let us lay aside these common places and come to a closer way of reasoning Is there such a thing as Reason or is there not If there is not then we are like the Beasts that perish uncapable of either Reward or Punishment because uncapable of Good and Evil. But if there is then it must be given us for some end and it must be fitted for the attainment of that for which it is given You have granted in your Definition of Reason that it is a Faculty of the Soul by which we endeavour to find out the Truth Is Truth then attainable or is it not If it is not then your Definition is worth nothing If it is then Reason is not only the instrument by which we find it but also the judge of that Truth which we find Not that I pretend that Truth is not greater than our Reason and that Reason penetrates the whole extent of the Truth which it contemplates But I maintain that as the object falls under the scrutiny of Reason it must judge of it and what it affirms or denies concerning it is true I know that Men have not the same strength of Apprehension That which seems a demonstration to me will be justly call'd an impertinence by another But I say that it is the touchstone of all that is propos'd to us and that nothing can be laid before us as Truth in which we are concern'd but Reason must inquire into and judge of it Orthod But what is all this but what has been said a thousand times and what you have offer'd to me already Does this resolve at all the difficulty propos'd It were easy to me to shew you that the Reason of this age is not better than that of the Greeks and the Romans That 't is not to Books or Experiments but to Religion that you owe the improvement of your Reason and that the best Christians ever made the best Philosophers But granting all that you can pretend from that which you call close Reasoning what is it to the purpose Admitting that you conclude right in all those things which are within the reach of Reason which is not only disputable but even false is it not altogether Deficient in what is above it Foolish and rash assertion that because Reason knows some things therefore it must know all things And that because it can grapple with natural therefore it may with super-natural Objects These three things Men are guided by SENSE REASON FAITH We believe first our Senses We see hear smell taste touch from these we receive the first impressions But because they are fallible imposing and like to make us draw false consequences Reason comes to help us It rectifies the mistakes of sense The larger operations of the Soul embrace Principles of a greater extent and with an
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
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
Reason a part of that Supreme Reason Truth is but one either in the Creator or in the Creature Revelation cannot make that true which appears to me unreasonable Orthod You will never be weary of urging the same things over and over again Whatsoever God reveals is true But you say it does not square with my apprehensions Nay it contradicts them Therefore it is not true What a strange way of Reasoning is this Truth in God is truth in Man Granted But is it in the same extent or degree Do we know as much as God A spark will pretend to be as Luminous as the Body of the Sun I see as through a glass darkly and I will judge of him who inhabits a fulness of light which no Mortal can come near unto Job 10.4 He must have Eyes of Flesh and see as a Man sees or else I will not believe what he says This is monstrous and not worth insisting upon Let us therefore proceed Reason then being satisfy'd in the truth of the Revelation cannot act like it self except it receives with the humblest and firmest submission what God has reveal'd and as St. Paul expresses it 2 Cor. 10.5 casts down imaginations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 REASONINGS and every high thing that exalts it self against the Knowledge of God And brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ It is a great part of a Christian's duty to correct the extravagances of Reason For it is stubborn restless and impatient of Government It must be cast down and chain'd up as one which if let alone will be outrageously mad It will never want pretences to rise against its Soveraign and in them it will obstinately persist This is the ground of those frequent exhortations in Scripture to mistrust Men's inquiries and give glory to the veracity of God Rom. 3.4 Let God be true but every Man a lyar Rom. 4.20 Abraham is commended for not following the insinuations of Reason but giving himself wholly to the conduct of Faith He stagger'd not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving Glory to God St. Paul would have us Rom. 11.20 to stand by Faith the Principles of Reason being too weak but this standing unmoveable Rom. 16.26 He tells us plainly and forcibly that Faith requires the obedience of our minds According to the revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the commandment of the Everlasting God made known to all Nations for the obedience of Faith Socin But I must interrupt you and tell you plainly and forcibly that what colour soever the places which you have cited to prove Faith above Reason this has none at all You have found Mystery and Obedience of Faith together and it has deceiv'd you Read page 7. of that Print of ours call'd an impartial account of the word Mystery The Author tells you that whatsoever is revealed is no more a Mystery Orthod I wish it were not out of our way to give you some remarks on this same Print of yours A perpetual Equivocation runs through the whole Work and a willful misunderstanding of the words Knowing Delivering Revealing Making Manifest which imply indeed a discovery but not at all an explication of the Truth reveal'd Never did I see a greater unsincerity in any Writing This very particular Text he has confin'd to the Vocation of the Gentiles which extends to all Christian Mysteries which are indeed Reveal'd as to their existence the quod sint as Divines speak but not the quid sint what they are in themselves He has not given one single instance of a Mystery made known but after the Revelation is still a Mystery The Creation Resurrection Incarnation Trinity though clearly reveal'd are still Mysteries The very Attributes of God though not only made manifest in the Scriptures but also in a great measure obvious to Reason as Eternity Immensity c. are still Mysterious and Incomprehensible Let me beg of you then not to interrupt me with objections of that nature which really make against you But suffer me to go on in shewing you how God in his word has establish'd the dominion of Faith over Reason and the submission and obedience of Reason to Faith Socin I will not on condition that you cite no Texts capable of being contested Orthod I have not yet and will not for the future What can be plainer than 2 Cor. 5.7 We walk by Faith not by sight We trust not to our little Reasonings which we are so weak as to call sight and demonstration but rely upon a higher nobler and more infallible Principle Faith in God 1 Cor. 2.4 5. St. Paul declares that his preaching has not been drawn from Mens Arguments or adorn'd with a vain ostentation of Eloquence But in demonstration of the Spirit and power of God that is by the Writings of the Prophets inspir'd by the Holy Spirit by the voice of the Spirit it self by the Miracles of CHRIST and his Apostles as Origen expresses it l. 5. contr Cels That your Faith should not stand in the Wisdom of Men but of God That your Faith should not rest upon Men's Arguments but the Authority of God Colos 1.23 He would have the Colossians to crush and suppress the suggestions of Reason and sence and continue in the Faith settled and grounded and not be mov'd away from the hope of the Gospel The same is urg'd 1 Pet. 1.7 8. and indeed in very many other places which it would be too tedious to cite But what has the Saviour of the World said himself in the case Joh. 20.29 Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believ'd Socin Here I must interrupt you This relates to the particular Fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ It does not infer at all the belief of a doctrine contrary to my Reason You offer no violence to the mind when upon a solid Testimony I am perswaded that such a thing or Person is or has been I never was at Rome But I believe as firmly as the Romans themselves that there is such a place I never was bless'd with the sight of my Saviour or acquainted with the Glory of his Resurrection yet I believe as firmly as any one that he was in the World and rose from the dead But what is all this to your Doctrines Orthod Be not so injurious to a Noble Passage which though occasion'd by a particular matter of Fact the Resurrection of Jesus Christ yet is a General maxim and of a vast influence on Religion It holds not only as to the Resurrection but also as to all Reveal'd Truths Blessed are those who believe what they have not seen with the Eyes of the Body and they also are Blessed who believe what they cannot see with the Eyes of the Mind Happy in both that they come to God with an absolute resignation of their
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