to banish all considerable doubting And now I conclude First Whatever is True is objectively certain and Infallibly true so far as that no man in Believing it true is therein deceived or mistaken All Truth is Certain Infallible Truth in it self Secondly Few Truths in the world are so Evident as that a blinded prejudiced indisposed person may not be ignorant of them or erre about them Thirdly All Truths in the Scripture have not equal evidence that they are the word of God though all that is known to be the word of God if equally so known have equal evidence in the formal reason of saith that they are true Fourthly All known Truth is infallibly known that is He that knoweth it is not deceived nor can possibly be deceived by taking it to be true so that as Infallibility signifieth not being deceived all true knowledge is subjectively infallible and certain that is its true Fifthly No man can know that Infallibly which is not objectively certain that which is not True cannot be known to be true The strongest and most confident belief of a falshood is a false belief and more than fallible or uncertain Sixthly All Gods word being equally true and infallible the belief of it is also equally true and infallible But being not All equally intelligible evident to be his word and necessary the understanding and belief of every part is not equally easie strong past doubting or necessary Seventhly There is a superficial belief of Divine Revelations even the Gospel which a natural man may have by extrinsick means And there is a more clear apprehension which a Commoner sort of Grace may produce But that Belief which is so clear and powerful as truly to sanctifie and save the soul must be the effect of the special operation of the Holy Ghost who yet hath a course of appointed means in which we must receive it Eighthly The reason of this necessity of the Spirits operation of faith and then by saith is not because the Gospel wanteth due Ascertaining Evidence or an aptitude to convince and sanctifie a soul For it s highly Rational though mysterious and Good But because by corruption and pravity the mind of man is so undisposed to know believe and love truths of such a nature as that there is need of a special Internal higher Operator to set home the work as the hand of a man setteth the seal upon the wax and to do that by it which the bare word alone with the excellentest preacher cannot do Ninethly Yet is no wicked Infidel excuseable that saith If I cannot believe it I will not believe it Because First It is his pravity which is his disability Secondly He is more able for a common superficial belief than for a special effectual belief Thirdly And if he did by the help of that common belief do what he might and God appointeth him in the use of means to obtain a special Faith through grace he should find that God hath commanded no man to labour and seek after grace in vain and if any man have not that grace and power which is of necessity to his faith and salvation it is long of himself who useth not his commoner power and grace as he might use them And so much to prevent misunderstanding Now my Reasons why I take every History Chronology Genealogy in Scripture as certainly true and every other word which is spoken by a true Prophet and Apostle as by the Spirit and not disowned by the Scripture it self but especially such as you accuse in the Gospel are these First A Priore Because it seemeth to me that the writing of the whole Books of the New Testament by them was done in the discharge of the Commission given them by Christ And he promised his Apostles his Spirit for the performance of all their Commissioned office work This writing is part of the preaching which Christ sent them for And no doubt but the Spirit did cause them to write all the substantial part And therefore we have reason to think that the smallest parts are from the same Author and that he assisted them in the least as well as in the greatest Yea the very accidents may have a perfection in their place though less perfect in themselves Though all the Evangelists use not the same Method or Order nor repeat Christs sayings in the same terms yet in respect to the whole frame it may be best that there should be that diversity of words and order to preserve and declare the same sense and things And even their plain and less accurate stile and method may be best as fittest to its use and end Secondly A Posteriore There is no Caviller that yet hath proved any falshood or contradiction in any passages of the Scripture Though the clearing of some of them require more than vulgar knowledge Thirdly Saving the controversies about the few questioned Books and some few sentences and words the Church which received the Scriptures as Gods word did receive the whole as his word and as certainly true in every part Fourthly Because that Spirit of Miracles in the Apostles and that Spirit of Holiness in us which attesteth the Christian Religion doth receive it and attest it as found in the sacred Scripture though not as there alone And it putteth no exception against any part of the sacred record Therefore while it particularly attesteth the chief parts it inferreth an attestation to the smallest for that word or line which is not strictly a part but an accident of the Christian Religion is yet a part of the Bible which containeth it Fifthly And though all the reasons which I have given prove that the Truth of the Christian Religion may be certainly proved though we could not prove every by expression in the Scripture to be true and though we deny not but the Pen-men manifested their humane imperfections in stile and method yet if each passage were not True it would be so great a temptation to the weak and make it so difficult to know in some points what is true in comparison of what it would be if all be true that we have no reason to imagine this difficulty to our selves while its unproved And having said this I am here in order to answer your objections which yet you should not have expected from me whilst so great a number of books are already written which have done it And why should you bid me write that again which is written already unless you had confuted what is written If you understand Latine you may find a multitude of such seeming contradictions reconciled in Sharpius Magrius Althamer Cumeranus but most fully in abundance of Commentators If you understood not Latine you may read enough in Dr. Hammond and many other Annotaters and Commentaries Mr. Cradock's Harmony c. And you may have enough that understand Latine to translate you the solutions as out of Spanhemii Dub Evangel Grotius Jansenius Chemnitius and such others And
ye for I know that ye seek Jesus which was Crucified he is not here for he is risen as he said Come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly and tell his Disciples that he is risen from the dead and behold he goeth before you into Galilee there shall you see him so I have told you And they departed quickly from the Sepulcher with fear and great joy and did run to bring his Disciples word and as they went to tell his Disciples behold Jesus met them see Mat. 28. 1 5 6 7 8 9. v. Whether I say was this which is written in St. Matthews Gospel that I have here Transcribed said to the Women and that the Women returned from the Sepulcher to tell the Disciples before that Mary Mâ—gdalen said to him that she supposed to be the Gardiner If thou hast born him hence tell me where thou hast laid him and I will take him away John 20. 15. or whether there be any error of Transcribers Translators or Printers in those Texts if not how may I understand them to be true reports Sir I shall trouble you with no more but these few places which I have proposed in three Questions or Particulars although there are several other Texts that I do not understand how they may be reconciled but if you shall by strength of Argument Grounded upon sound Reason make appear that it was nothing but Ignorance hath made me to think that those Testimonies agree not but are contrary one to the other and that they may be so understood as that no such thing will appear in them then I shall be ready and will with you conclude and say so too and for the future suppose that other places of those books which are received for Scripture as seem to be contrary to one another may be Reconciled though I do not understand how But on the contrary if you do not endeavour by such sound and plain Arguments to make it appear that these Texts here Transcribed by me may be understood so as that no contradiction is in them I must think that it was nothing but Ignorance that made you say that which you have said in answer to that and some other objections Therefore I humbly and earnestly pray and beseech you both in defence of your own writings as also in defence of those Books in which you say you think that no one error or contradiction in any matter can be proved to make it appear in truth and plainness If you judge I have erred from the truth I hope you will endeavour to to convert me from the error of my way if any such be which if you shall do no doubt but it will be a good work see James 5. ult Sir It is your advice that in such kind of Scruples the doubtful should apply himself for satisfaction to some Minister therefore do I write to you and if you shall not give me a gentle and plain Answer I shall be discouraged to make my Scruples known to any other therefore in expectation of your plain Answer I Remain Your Loving Friend in the Bond of Peace SIR TWo sorts of persons use to trouble me and others with their Objections against the Christian Religion First Some Papists who profess to believe it but in designe do act the part of Infidels that they may loose men from all Religion in hope to bring them over to theirs when they have taken them off all other For he that can make another man believe that he was hitherto totally misled is likest to become the Master of his Faith For men are apt to think that none can so easily and certainly shew them the truth as he that hath shewed them their error And when men once think that according to the Grounds of the Reformed Churches they can have no certainty of Faith they will the easilier be brought to the way of those men who promise them that certainty which they make them believe that others want Secondly The other sort are Infidels who of late are grown numerous and audacious and look so big and speak so lowd as to acquaint us that it is not they that are silenced in their speaking place nor driven five miles from every City and Corporation Which sort you are of I know not I read your name and that you are a Sojourner but finding that you write not as a tender Doubter who desireth to be concealed but as a Confident gain-sayer of the Christian Verity and not knowing how safely to send a Letter to the place where you say you sojourn I have thought that it will be most pleasing to you to come to you by the same way as the book did which you except against which was written upon the provocation of a paper Scattered among the Schollars of Oxford when the Oxford Oath and Act were made in the time of the great Plague as by one that was unsatisfied in the Grounds of Christianity but I strongly suspected was written by a Papist it was made so suitable to their designs In two things you have not dealt righteously and ingeniously with me 1. In that you have not answered the Grounded Proofs of the Christian Verity which I have laid down but nibble at the Answer to some Objections which is not the way of a Lover of the truth 2. In that you take no notice of or make no answer to the second part of my answer to that same objection about supposed Contradictions in the Scriptures where I shewed you at large that if that which you object were granted it would not overthrow the certainty of the Christian Faith Both those should have been done by an impartial man The method which the nature of the Cause requireth me now to use in my answer to you shall be in the manifesting these following Propositions Prop. 1. That if it could not by us be proved that every word of the Scripture is true nor the pen men infallible or indefectible in every particle yet might we have a certainty of the Christian Religion Prop. 2. That yet all that is in the Scriptures as the word of God is certainly true and no error or contradiction can be proved in it but what is in some Copies by the fault of Printers Transcribers or Translators Prop. 3. That he that first proveth the Truth of the Christian Faith by solid evidence may and ought to be certain of that truth though he be not able to solve all soeming contradictions in the Scripture or answer all objections which occurre Prop. 4. The true method of one that would arrive at certainty and not deceive himself and others is to lay first the fundamental proofs and examine them till he is thereby confirmed and afterwards to try the by-objections as he is able And not to begin first at the answering of such by-objected difficulties and judging of all the cause thereby Of these I shall now speak in order And whereas you bespeak Plainess and
I answer First whether we suppose that they first told them of the words of the Angels that were without the Sepulchre before Peter went and after of the Angels within the Sepulchre which might be the same Angels but not the same apparition or whether you only suppose Luke as in Christs Doctrine so in these by-matters of fact to intend only to deliver the matter and not to tell just the time and order There is no untruth nor contradiction in either supposition III. Your third question is fully answered in the answer of the Former According to the first Harmony or supposition Matthew onely mentioneth one of the Apparitions of the Angels and one of Maries goings to the Disciples And so this written in Matthew was partly before Maries seeing Christ viz. The Angels first appearance and partly after viz. her going the second time upon the second appearance of the Angels to tell them According to the second Harmony Maries speech to Christ was after the Angels 〈…〉 And now consider 〈◊〉 you deal reasonably with Christ and with your own soul upon such poor cavils as these to argue against the Christian Faith and plead for Apostasie when the Gospel hath all the Divine attestations and evidences which I have opened in my Treatise and you are not able to confute them which leadeth me to my Third Proposition Prop. 3. He that first preveth the Truth of the Christian Faith by solid evidence may and ought to be certain of that Truth though he be not able to salve all seeming contradictions in the Scriptures or answer all objections which occur Yea certain of EVERY PARTICLE thereof This I prove by these following Arguments Arg. 1. From the consent of all mankind who are forced thus to conclude in all arts and sciences There being none of them so plain and sure but somewhat may be said against them which few if any man can answer And incommodum non solvit argumentum must be their reply Arg. 2. From the nature of objects and the imperfection of mans knowledg If we could be sure of nothing till we can answer all objections against it we must come to Zanchez his Nihil Scitur Nothing in all the world can be sure Can no man be sure that there is any such thing as Motion till he can answer the Objections that would first prove no Vacuity and then no Penetrability and then an impossibility till a Cession begin at the extremity of natural beings and continue unto the supposed mobile Shall we say that a wheel cannot possibly turn round because no one part first giveth place to the other to succeed it Will you be able to answer all the difficulties tossed in the Schools or but those mentioned in Mr. Glanvils Scepsis Scientifica before you will be sure of any thing of those matters where these difficulties are found He that can answer all objections First Is supposed not onely to know but to know the matter in some perfection And can none know certainly but those who be they that know in such perfection 2dly Yea they are supposed to know all other matters which may any way relate to the matter in hand And shall no man know any thing certainly till he knoweth all things For instance First What if the Question be whether there be a God the Creator of all Cannot I be sure of this till I can answer Aristotles Objections of the worlds Eternity and all the rest which every Atheist will alleadge 2dly What if the Question be whether God be most wise Cannot I be sure of it by the notorious effects of his wisdome till I can answer him that saith He that maketh fools and permitteth so much madness and confusion in the world leaveth mankind in so great ignorance is not perfectly wise Thirdly What if the Question be Whether God be perfectly good Cannot I be sure of it till I can answer all their Objections who say perfect goodness would make all things perfectly good and would not let the world he in so much wickedness nor so many tormenting Diseases to afflict us nor the innocent Horse and Oxe to be laboured tired tormented and killed by us at our pleasure c. Fourthly What if the Question were Whether God be Almighty Cannot I know it till I can answer them who say that He that cannot make an infinite world is not infinite in power He that hath a will which men can violate he that indureth all the sin in the world which he hateth and the ruine and misery of so many millions whom he loveth is not Almighty Fifthly What if the Questions Whether man be a rational Creature whether he have any free will whether bruits have reason whether plants and stones have sense Can I know none of these till I can answer all the Objections of the Somatists against the Soul and all the Objections of Hobs against free will and all the Objections of Chambre for the reason of beasts and all that Campanella hath said de sensu rerum In a Word What shall we know in the world if we can know nothing till we can solve all difficulties and Objections Therefore I adde Prop. 4. The true method of one that would arrive at certainty and not deceive himself and others is to begin at the bottom and discern things in their neerest intrinsecal and most certain evidences and afterwards to try the by-objections as he is able And not to pore first upon the objected difficulties and judge of all the cause by those The plain truth and case of Christians is that if God had not done more for them by giving them his Spirit by the Gospel and experience of its truth in the effects than their Teachers have done by a right instructing them in the evidences of Faith or than the Reason of the most doth in a clear discerning of those evidences in the thing or word it self it were no wonder if Apostates were more numerous than they are when so many build on the sand and are strangers to the true foundation and will never see the evidences of the Christian Verity in it self no wonder if poor Objejections shake them that never understood the nature and Reasons of their own Religion If the Tree grow all in top which exposeth it to the winds and little in the roots which must hold it fast no wonder if it be overthrown When men never knew the great clear evidences of the Christian Religion but take it up by Custome Education and on the Credit only of the time and place in which they live no wonder if every seeming weakness error or contradiction in Scripture make them doubt First Look to all Learning Arts and Sciences Do not learners that would know begin at the Elements and Foundation Do we not begin in Grammar with our Letters Syllables Words and chief rules And in all Arts and Sciences with the Elements and Principles Secondly And Reason telleth us that the points that are
therefore where Revelation was not few were wise or virtuous And the Philosophers themselves were all to pieces among themselves and their disagreements and doubtfulness tended to the gulfe of utter Scepticisme Now as nothing is more necessary than Religion as you well profess so Religion consisteth very little in the sensible apprehension of of present existences but in the knowledge of things absent or insensible things past and especially things to come the Happiness to be attained and the misery to be escaped Now if all the Poor unlearned Men and Women in the World must have known all these things only by natural discourse how little Religion would have been in the World when the Philosophers knew so little themselves And though your learning and understanding made the immortality of the Soul so clear to you and the rewards and punishments of another life as that you number it with the common notices yet were not the old Philosophers themselves so commonly agreed on it as they should have been much less all the common People And if you say that now almost all the world believeth it I answer it is Gods great mercy that it is so But consider whether it be not more by the way of believing than of naturall instinct or knowledge For all the Christians and all the Mahometans who believe the words of Moses and Christ also take it by the way of believing And so do most of the Heathens The Japonians have their Amida and Zaca The Chinenses the Indians the Siamenses the Peguans c. have all their Prophets And the very Savages of all the West-Indies or America have their Idols Oracles or Wizards whom they far more depend on than their natural discourse about things Invisible Past or Future So that really if Commonuess go with you for a proof that any point is of natural instinct and certainty as a Notitia Communis this will be one of the chiefest of them that Religion consisting in the notice of and due respect to things absent invisible past and future is to be maintained in the world by divine Revelation and Faith and not by the immediate evidence of things nor by meer discursive Collections from things so evident So that Mans weakness with the quality of the Objects maketh Revelation so necessary that without it the vulgar who are the main body of the World would have next to no Religion And on the contrary how easie and pleasant and satisfactory is it for all these poor People yea to the most learned to have these mysterious truths brought by Revelation to their hands Now through Gods mercy all our common People Women and Children Servants and day-Labourers may know more with ease than ever Democritus Epicurus Antisthenes Zeno yea Socrates Plato or Aristotle could reach by all their studies to the last More I say of Religious necessary knowledge Tenthly And this being so necessary and so great a mercy to mankind I wonder that you put it not among your common notices that God being perfect in love and wisdom and having made man purposely to be Religious here and happy hereafter will certainly provide for his Religion and Happiness so necessary and so excellent a means as Revelation is God being the Father and Lover of light and of Souls and the Devil being the Prince and Friend of darkness Consider whether you may not strongly infer from the very nature of God and the nature and necessity of man and the other communications of Gods mercies to the world that he will certainly give them this great mercy also Eleventhly It is certain that God hath ways of communicating light to mans understanding immediately and not only by extrinsick sensible objects The Father of Spirits who communicateth so much to the corporeal world is not further from Souls nor more out of love with them But if there be any difference may rather be thought to hold a neerer more immediate communion with them than with Bodies and to be himself to the mind what the Sun is to the Eye and more Twelfthly It is certain that God can give the standers by that have no Revelation immediately themselves a fully satisfactory attestation or proof of the truth of another mans Revelations He that denyeth this maketh God to be impotent Thirteenthly It is certain that the Attestation which I described in the Reasons of Christian Religion was such supposing that such were given viz. In the Antecedent Testimony of fulfilled Prophesie the Constitutive Testimony of Gods Spirit apparent in the effects on Christ person and on his Gospel And the Concomitant Testimony of all his Miracles and Resurrection and Ascension And the subsequent Testimony of the Spirit on the Apostles their Miracles and doctrine and on the souls of all serious Christians to the worlds end These are things set all together First Which none but God could do Secondly And which God would not do to deceive the world Thirdly Yea which God would not permit to be done to deceive them in so high a matter Because he is the Omnipotent Omniscient Gracious Governour of the world And if these Testimonies were not of God it were impossible to know any Testimony to be of God And seeing wâ—â—â— have no surer it would be mans Duty to Believe and Obey and be Ruled by a Lie And if it be our Duty to Believe God to be so defective either in Power Wisdome or Goodnesse Holinesse Truth Justice or Mercy as to rule the World and the best of the World in the greatest matters by lying and deceit as if he wanted better means What Wit can devise any remedy against such deceit as shall be so attested as aforesaid Or if deceit can be perceived how can it be mans Duty to Believe it seeing mans Intellect is naturally made for Truth and abhorreth falshood And how can it be Good to Obey Deceit and Lyes And when the Devil is the Father of Lies what blasphemy is it to charge them on God By this it will be apparent that the Question must be in the upshot whether there be a God or no God and so whether there be any thing or nothing Fourteenthly There is some Moral Historical Evidence of the truth of things past which is as certain and much more satisfactory than the Natural Evidence of Conclusions raised by a long series of argumentation Yea some which is truly a Natural Evidence though it depend on the credit of free Agents The proof and reasons I have given in the Treat First The Will though free is Quaedam Natura and hath its Natural propensity to known good as the understanding also is and hath its Natural propensity to Truth And the understanding is not free of it self but acteth per modum Naturae Secondly There are some of the acts of the Will it self which are so free as yet to be necessary As to will Good sub ratione boni to will our own Felicity and nill our own misery to will Life and
Gentleness in the Answer I shall grant you the first as far as in such hast and brevity I am able And the second as far as the nature of the cause will bear But if you account all Christians deceived fools you must not expect to be called wise nor that I should flatter you and tell you that Apostasie is a state of safety For I that believe Heb. 6. and 10. must think that this were not Gentleness but Cruelty and worse than to kill you for fear of displeasing you Prop. 1. If it could not by us be proved that every word of the Scriptures is true nor the Pen men infallible or indefectible in every particle yet might we have a certainty of the Christian Religion The reason is Because every particle in the Scripture is not an essential part of the Christian Religion no nor any Integral part if you take the Christian Religion strictly for the Doctrine of necessary Belief Desire and Practice And that part which is indeed the essence yea or Integrity of Christianity may be certainly proved and believed without our being able to prove the certainty or truth of all the rest which is in the Scriptures The Holy Scriptures contain all our Religion and somewhat more that is the Accidents and appurtenances of it As the body of a man besides the parts Essential and Integral hath its Accidents such as are the Hair and the Colour and some Humours which are for Beauty and other uses though not Parts So far are the Papists from being in the right who think that the Christian Religion is not all but part contained in the Scriptures that there is more than all that is necessary to salvation even the appurtenances which have an aptitude to the adorning and promoting of the rest To know who was the Father of every person mentioned in the Bibles Genealogies to know what age each person was of whose age is there mentioned to know the name of every person and every Town to know how far each City was from another whose distances are there expressed with a multitude of such like Historical Genealogical Chronological Topographical Physical incidental passages is but an appurtenance and not strictly a part Essential or Integral of the Christian Faith of Holiness or Religion Yet remember that we maintain as certain that they are all Lyars who accuse God of Lying And that whatever some ignorantly talk to the contrary God cannot lie See the excellent Amesius his Disputation of this Question An falsum subesse potest fidei divinae after his Medulla Theologiae which book with his Cases of Conscience and Alstedius his Encyclopaediae may after the Scriptures and Concordance make a good Divine and be a better Library than the Fathers of the fourth Council Carth. were acquainted with He that thinketh God can lie destroyeth the Objectum Formale fidei divinae and therefore can have no Faith If God could lie in one thing we should never be sure that he revealeth the truth unless by sense it self and after-experience All Faith goeth upon such a Syllogism as this Whatsoever God saith is true But this God saith Ergo it is true So that whosoever believeth every word in the Scripture to be Gods word must believe it all to be true or he can believe none of it at all But yet it is possible for a man to believe one part of the Bible to be Gods Word and not another part which needeth no proof Because that many of the ancient Churches for a certain time doubted of yea received not the Epistle of James Peter 2d the Heb. Apocal. c. and yet were truly of the Christian Religion First We deny not but that there are many false and wicked sayings historically recited in the Scripture as the saying of Cain Pharaoh Gehezi the false Prophets the Devil of Job to Christ c. but the Scripture is nevertheless true For it is true that all these untruths were spoken Secondly The Disciples of Christ were not absolutely and in all things infallible as all Christians do Confess They were not as perfect in Knowledge as now they are in Heaven Either Paul or Barnab as was mistaken about the fitness of Mark to go with them Thirdly There was a greater assistance of the Spirit promised them when two or three of them were assembled in Christs name than when they proceeded singly Mat. 18. 18. But there can be nothing above perfect infallibiâ—ity and impeccability to them all Fourthly We confess that Christs Disciples were not indefectible or sinless As their understandings so their wills and lives had still some imperfections Marke Paul and Silas did not all perfectly do their duties in the case they differed about Peter did amiss in avoiding the Gentile Christians when Paul blamed him openly Gal. 2. And Barnabas and others did not do well in being drawn away to the same â—issâ—â—â—lation When Paul saith of Timothy I have no man like minded â—nd of others They all seek their own He took not all Christians that had the Spirit to be perfect If any man had not the Spirit of Christ he was none of his Rom. 8. 9. And the very wrangling deâ—â—â—â—â—ng Galathians had received the spirit Gal. 3. 1 2 3. And so had the wrangling Corinthians Christ in them 2 Cor 8. 5. Fifthly We confess that he who is either infallible or defectible lyable to error or sia is of himself capable of being deceived and of deceiving others If he were Infallible in respect of the Knowledg of all the Truth yet while he can sin of himself considered he can be heedless careless rash partial and for by respects speak too little or too much It is the Devils last method to undo by overdoing and so to destroy the authority of the Apostles by over magnifying them therefore we will not use his methods nor deny any of this Sixthly Moreover we confess that it is possible for a good Christian to doubt whether those that were but Evangelists as Marke and Luke had the same promise of the Spirits infallible assistance with the Apostles seeing we find not that promise so expresly any where made to them And thereupon he may possibly think that some errors may consist with their measure of the Spirit as it did with many Christians who had the same Spirit Seventhly And we do not believe that the extraordinary operations of the Spirit were alwaies equally in the Apostles themselves we suppose the Prophets could not alwaies Prophesie nor those that spake with tongues use that gift at their own pleasure nor yet those that did miracles healed the sick or raised the dead But that the Spirit wrought as in various sorts and measures in several persons 1 Cor. 12. so also at various times and in various measures in the same person Whereupon it is possible for a good Christian to doubt whether every word in Scripture was written then when the writer had the gift of infallibility and indefectibility
enter Sixthly In that constant Communion of all the Churches in their solemn Assemblies and setting apart the Lords day to that use where in their worshiping of God they expressed and excercised their Religion Seventhly In the constant preaching of the Gospel by the Pastors Eightly In the constant Celebration of the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood wherein the summe of the Gospel was recited and expressed And the custome was also to repeat the profession of their Belief Ninethly The frequent disputations of the Christian Pastors for their Religion against all Heathens Infidels and Heroticks Tenthly The writings of the said Pastors Apologies Doctrinal Historical Commentaries Devotional Eleventhly The Confession and Sufferings of the Martyrs Twelfthly The Decrees Canons and Epistles of Councils or Assemblies of the Christian Pastors Thirteenthly And after these the Decrees and Laws of Christian Princes in all which we have no need of any peculiar Tradition of the Church of Rome Fourteenthly Yea we may adde the Confessions of Adversaries who tell us part of the Christians Religion as Pliny Celsus Julian c. All these waies set together told men what Christianity was Fifteenthly But the fullest and surest discovery of it was by the holy Scripture of it self which was constantly read in the Assemblies of the Christians In all this I have but told you by how many waies and means materially the Gospel Doctrine was made known Now the great Question is Whether by all these means we might come to a certainty of the truth of the Christian Faith in case we could not prove every word or particle of Scripture to be Gods word and so to be true They that deny it say That he that can mistake or be deceived in one thing may be so in another and we cannot take his word as certain who sometimes speaketh falsly for we can never be sure that he speaketh the truth But I affirm the thing questioned and shall shew the mistake of this reason of the Adversaries First It must be remembred that we ascribe Infallibility Primitive and Absolute to God and no other Therefore we are certain that so much is true as is Gods word Secondly We are Certain that all that is the word of God which he hath set his seal or attestation to which I have largely opened in the Book which you oppose All that which hath the Antecedent and Constitutive and Concomitant and subsequent Attestation of God there opened we are certain is of God Thirdly We are Certain that the Person of Christ and his own Doctrine had all this fourfold Divine Testimony And therefore that Christ and his Doctrine are of God and true And consequently that Christ was the Son of God the Redeemer of the world the Head of the Church and whatever he affirmeth himself to be Fourthly We are certain that the Apostles as Preachers of this Gospel and performers of the Commission Delivered them by Christ had the same attestation in kind as Christ himself had They had the same SPIRIT Though the antecedent testimony by Prophesie was not so full of them as it was of Christ yet the Gospel which they preached and left in writing First Hath in it still visibly to the eye of every truly discerning person the Image of Gods Power Wisdome and Goodness Secondly The same Gospel as preached and delivered by them had the Concomitant Testimony of abundant certain Miracles Prophesies and holy works Thirdly The same Gospel maketh that impression on the souls of true receivers which is the Image of Gods power wisdome and goodness and so proveth it to be of God The concurrence of these three is a full and certain proof Now if there be any doubtfulness in any of this it must be First Either what it is that these Attestations prove Secondly Or whether they are really Divine Attestations Thirdly Or whether Divine Attestations are a certain proof of Truth To begin at the last First If Divine Testimony be not a certain proof of Truth then there is no possible proof in the world For there is no Veracity in any Creature but derivative from God And then it must be either because a Lie is as perfect and Good as Truth which humanity reason and all the world contradicteth and humane society abhorreth there being no savages so barbarous as to think so or because God is imperfect either in wisdome to know what is True and sit or in Goodness to choose it or in Power to use it That is that God is not God or that there is no God and consequently no Being for an Imperfect God an unwise an ill an impotent Being is no God And verily all our Controversies with the Infidel and the Impious and the Persecuter must finally come to this Whethen there be a God II. And that these were really Divine Attestations I have fully proved in the Treatise First They are Divine Effects and the Divine Vestigia or Image Secondly And such as none can do but God None else can give that full Antecedent Testimony of Prophesie None else could have done what Christ did in his Life Death Resurrection and Ascension None could heal all Diseases work all Miracles raise the Dead with a word None else could do what the Apostles did in Tongues and Miracles and wonderous gifts and these wrought by so many before so many for so long a time No other Doctrine could it self bear Gods Image of Power Wisdome and Goodness so exactly nor make such an Impresse of the same Image on the souls of men Nay though this same Doctrine by the Spirit of God be adopted to such an effect yet would it not do it for want of Powerfull application if God by the same Spirit did not set it home so that the sanctification and renovation of souls is a Divine Attestation of this sacred Gospel And besides all the past Testimonies of Christs and his Apostles Miracles here is a double Testimony from God still vouchsafed to all true Believers to the end of the world The one is Gods Image on the holy Scriptures The other is The same Image by this Scripture and the Spirit that indited it printed on all true Christians souls Divine Power Wisdome and Goodness hath imprinted it self first upon the sacred word or doctrine and by that produceth unimitably holy Life Light and Love in holy souls True Christians know this They feel it They profess it They have this Spirit in them illuminating their minds sanctifying their wills and quickening them to vital operation and execution And this is Christs Advocate and Witness still dwelling in all his members I speak not of an immediate verbal or impulsive revelation in us but of a Holy indwelling nature principle operation conforming the soul to God and proving us to bear his Image This is Christs Witness in us that He is Christ indeed and True And this is Our Witness that we are the Children of God And it is our Inherent earnest and pledge first fruits
such conclusions That all Systems Physical and Moral have their great Essential or principal parts and their smaller Integrals and their Accidents which are no proper parts And the Great and Principal parts are few plain discernable and necessary to the being or the greatest Ends The Integrals are numerous small hardly discernable and necessary only to Perfection The Accidents are some of them yet of a lower nature lesse necessary nnd less discernable At the master trunks its easie to know which is a vein and which an Artery and which a Nerve and what is their number But when you go to their extremities they will appear innumerable small and scarce discernable I can know many grand trunks or boughs a tree hath when I cannot know the number of the thousands of sprigs at the extreamities nor just where the woody nature ceaseth and the leaves or frutex doth begin So I can easily know in the frame of Grace that Faith Hâ—â—â— and Love are the fruits of the Spirit and so is every true part of Holiness But to know of every particular thought whether it be the fruit of the Spirit and a real part of holiness or not is not so easie Even so in our present case we can easily prove that all that is Gods word and uttered and sealed by his Spirit is true But to come to a full certainty of every book whether it be truly Canonical and every Copy that varieth in some readings from others or of every Genealogical Chronological Topographical or Historical word every phrase location order of sentences citation of the Prophets whether it were certainly all done by the Infallible inspiration of the Holy Ghost is a thing that requireth more knowledg than every true Christian hath as not having the same clearness and notoriety of Evidence as the Gospel or substance of Christianity hath No 〈◊〉 that all Gods word is True Truth is equally Truth it having not a magis minus but all Truth is not equally notorious or evident â—â—â—â— 2. Yet all that is in the Scriptures expressed as Gods word is certainly true And no error or contradiction is in it but what is in some Copies by the failing of Preservers Transcribers Printer or Translators The Reasons why I have premised the former Propositions is First For your own sake Secondly For the sake of many Infidels that now have the same mis-apprehensions Thirdly And for the sake of many thousand weak dark and tempted Christians That you may not think that you may renounce Christianity if you could prove a Contradiction or mistake in the Scriptures there being greater certainty of our Religion than of every single word in the Bible And that every Christian may not think that he must needs doubt as much of Christianity it self and of all the Gosâ—â—â—â— as he doth whether such a Text 〈…〉 word or have any contradiction to another And that he can have no more certainty of the Gospel than he hath of Jorams son or whether Matthew did rightly apply the Prophesie that Christ should be called a Nazarene Mat. 2. 23. or the name of Jeremy Mat. 27. 9. or whether Jude be Canonical and the Epistle to Laodicea and Clemens Rom. ad Cor. not Canonical or whether Henochs prophesie cited by Jude be Divine with many such like We need not spread the sails so wide to the temptations of Satan as if we must let go all if we doubt of the divine authority of any one word But yet that indeed every word is Divine and sure which is delivered as Gods word I now assert My meaning in that limitation is this There are some passages as I said spoken only historically and contain the Narration of some words of the Devil as to Job Christ and as most think to Saul at Endor c. and some words of wicked men and some words of weak and common persons And all these are not mentioned as the words of God As the words of Job's Friends which God reproved The words of the old Prophet that lyed in the name of the Lord to the young Prophet to his destruction The words of Jonas I do well to be angry and the words of Christs Enemies Perfecutors c. Yea the mention of the Old Prophet remembreth me that all words spoken as in Gods name and that by a pretended yea by a real Prophet are not therefore the words of God Micheah onely may say true while Zidkiah and all the rest of Ahabs Prophets may lie as in the name of the Lord. Balaam and the aforesaid old Prophet and many such may say true when Gods Spirit doth inspire them and yet lie at another time in Gods name And what Paul meaneth by his not the Lord but I I leave to consideration Whether in 1 Cor. 14. all those that he correcteth for a disorderly using even the Miraculous gifts of tongues and prophesying c. had their Timeing and ordering of their gifts from the same Spirit that gave them the gifts you may judge And some Protestant expositors have doubted whether James and the rest were guided by the Spirit when they perswaded Paul to go into the Temple to shew the Jews that he observed their Law Though I think that Counsel was of the Spirit because Paul concurred in obeying it But one instance I more doubt of my self which is when Christ and his Apostles do oft use the Septuagint in their Citations out of the old Testament whether it be alwaies their meaning to justific each translation and particle of sense as the word of God and rightly done or onely to use that as tolerable and containing the main truth intended which was then in use among the Jews and therefore understood by them and so best as suited to the auditors And so whether every citation of numbers or Genealogies from the Septuagint intended an approbation of it in the very points in which it differeth from the Hebrew Copies such plain exceptions being promised I assert that All that is said in the Bible as by the spirit of God by men that had the promise of his Spirit and especially by the Apostles is certain Truth and hath no Contradiction in its parts Before I give you my Reasons I think it meet to remove all ambiguity of the words Infallible or Certain that I may be rightly understood First The consent of all sober Divines and Philosophers teacheth us to diftinguith between objective and subjective certainty that is The certain Truth of the Thing and the Certainty of our own apprehension of it Secondly The word certain when applyed to the Apprehension sometime signifieth an infallible apprehension and sometime a clear and strong apprehension excluding both deceit and doubts and by some abusively to a strong Apprehension which excludeth Doubts but not Deceits Thirdly In the object Infallibility sometime signifieth nothing but Verity which whoever believeth is not deceived And sometimes it signifieth also such clear evidence as is in its kind sufficient
whereas you tell me that I invite men to go to some Minister for satisfaction I do so But if I had invited all men in England to seek to me you may imagine how many of them I must fail though they should never so much resolve to be Infidels and to perish unless I satisfie them But you greatly encourage me to a particular answer by promising me that you will trouble me with no more but these few places and that if I clear these from your imputation of contradiction you will conclude as I do and suppose the other places reconcileable First Your first Case is of Mat. 1. 8 9. Joram begat Ozias c. Answ Here are two difficulties to be resolved First whether Joram begat Ozias called also Azarias Secondly why Matthew leaveth out Ahazariah Joas and Amaziah And for the first is it not strange that you should number this with contradictions Are we not all called the Children of Adam and Abraham called the Father of all the Jews Is there not a mediate as well as an immediate Generation and Progeny Is not causa causae causa cavsati Did not your Great Grandfather beget you in causa while he begat him who begat him who begat you immediately What more common among the Hebrews than to call Posterity the Children of their Ancestors Even Christ is called The son of David And use is the master and expositor of words And you were born too late to teach either God or the World in what sense to use words so many hundred years ago This Language was well understood by them that used the like And Secondly For the next question you must understand the scope of an Author and his undertaking if you will understand his words Matthews designe was not to name every person in all these periods of time from whom Christ descended But first to shew for Memory sake how the line of Christs Progenitors may be mentioned by three fourteens in three several periods of time one from Abraham to David and one from David to the Captivity and one from thence to Christ Therein commemorating as many as God was pleased hereby to make memorate to their honour and to shew the truth of the descent of Christ from Abraham and David Secondly And God is not bound to give us a reason why he omitteth any of their names But this probability is obvious that seeing Matthew would for memory keep himself to the number of fourteen none were fitter to be left out than the Posterity of Athalia and so of Ahab and Jezebel which God hath fortold should be blotted out or abolished 1 King 21. 21 22. And therefore he that would have the names of the wicked to rot would not here honour them with a place among the Progenitors of Christ And yet the second Commandment limiting Gods visiting the sins of the Fathers on the Children to the third and fourth Generation it is no wonder that the omission doth extend no further And so suitable is Gods word to his providence that these three men were all cut off by the sword whose memory is here cut off by Matthew II. As to your second pretended contradiction First Remember that it was none of the purpose of any of the Evangelists to say all that could be said even of the sayings and doings of Christ himself much less of any others And therefore if that be said in one which is not said in another it is no wonder And you must remember what Doctor Hammond hath noted of Luke that Luk. 1. professing that he received his knowledg from others though directed by the holy Ghost he delivered the things themselves with less respect to the time and order when every thing was said and done than the other did observe it being not his design to tell the time and order of each These things premised set them all together and you will find that First Mary Magdalen Johanna Maria Jacobi and Sallome having bought spices and going to anoint the body of Jesus said who will roll away the stone for us And when they came they found the stone rolled away by an Angel that sate upon it Secondly That Angel with another speaks to the women saying Fear not I know you seek Jesus that was Crucified why seek ye the living among the dead he is not here he is risen as he said Come see the place where the Lord was laid c. Thirdly Then the Women run and tell the Disciples They have taken away the Lord and we know not where they have laid him Fourthly Peter and John run to the Sepulchre and saw the clothes and returned Fifthly Mary Magdalen being come back stood weeping at the door of the Sepulchre and looking in she saw two Angels one at the head another at the feet of the place where Jesus lay who say Woman why weepest thou she said They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him Sixthly Having said this she looked behind her and saw Jesus not knowing him who said Woman why weepest thou whom seekest thou she thinking him to be the Gardiner answered If thou hast taken him away tell me where thou hast laid him c. Jesus said to her touch me not for I am not yet ascended c. But go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend to c. Seventhly Mary runs and tells this to the Disciples that she had seen the Lord and what he said to her But they believed her not Eighthly Either at the same time before Mary was gone or perhaps after she had overgone them to tell the Disciples Jesus met the rest of the women and said to them All hail and they laid hold upon his feet and worshipped him And Jesus said to them fear not go tell my brethren that that they go into Galilee and there they shall see me Take all the Evangelists and tell me First Whether here be any more than All set together say Secondly Whether in all this there be any Contradiction But if you should take Dr. Hammonds shorter Supposition First That Mary and the women came to the Sepulchre and find that before they came the stone was rolled away by an Angel who had affrighted the Keepers Secondly They go in and miss the body Thirdly Mary runs and tells Peter and John Fourthly They run and satisfie themselves and return to the rest Fifthly The women staying at the Sepulchre see the Angels first one on the stone and on the right side of the Monument and then two one at the head and another at the feet of it Sixthly The Angels speak all that the Evangelists mention and Mary to them Seventhly She turneth back and seeth Jesus who speaketh to her and to the rest what is recorded Eighthly Then she goeth and telleth all to the Disciples If this order be supposed what contradiction is here Where you say in Luke the women told the Disciples of the Angels first hefore Peter went
was not existent till 4000 years after having any proper casuality to change Gods mind or will The sum of the Christian Doctrine about the Interposition and Redemption by the Son for man upon his fall is but this As if God should say I will not destroy or damn sinful man remedilesly according to the strict termes of the Law of Innocency which he hath broken but will give him a remedying Covenant of Grace because I will in the fulness of Time provide better for the glorifying of my Truth and Holiness wisdome and goodness justice and mercy than the remediless destruction of mankind would do even by the Incarnation doctrine sacrifice merits c. of the eternal word So that this grand work of God is the cause of his subordinate works but not the cause of any real but only relative or denominative mutation in himself This all sound Christians are agreed in And can this offend you Secondly And for the termes of communication of Grace to man it is either First The New Covenant as a Gift of pardon and life Secondly Or the conditions which it requireth of man First The former you neither do find fault with nor can do That God should give the world a Recovering and pardoning Law Secondly The second is all that is here liable to your exception And what do you think amiss in that First Not that Repentance is one of the Conditions of further Grace for that you plead for Secondly Not that Fides in Deum misericordem Faith in Gods revealed meâ—cy as pardoning sin is required of man for that also you plead for But you would have his goodness and mercy to be a sufficient satisfaction to his Justice Answ First I hope you will not exclude his wisdome because you abhorre Atheism as folly Secondly And I hope you will distinguish between the prime satisfying Cause and the satisfying means These plainly differ The prime satisfying Cause is Gods wisdome contriving and determining of the fittest way to communicate his love and spirit But the prime satisfying means is Jesus Christ who was to do that which was fittest to attain the foresaid ends But that which you will accept against is that the Belief in Christs future incarnation was made then necessary to salvation Answ First See that you feign not the Christian Doctrine to say more of this than indeed it doth which I have opened to you before I told you how narrow the Apostles own faith was before Christs Resurrection We know that â—â— the believing Jews knew not so much as they nor so much as the Prophets and more illuminated men And we know that the rest of the world had not so full a revelation as the Jews But we know that all that had the notice of his promise were to believe the truth thereof And those that had not the word of promise made known to them had the possession of many such mercies as that promise gave and as intimated much of the same grace which the promise did Thefore none could be bound to lessthan to believe that God of his mercy would pardon sin and save penitent Believers by such a means of securing the honour of his holiness truth and justice as his infinite wisdome should provide This much you cannot deny And that the promise of the Victorious seed though it seem too obscure to bind men to so distinct a faith as ours is was by Tradition told to Adams posterity and that they had a General belief of such an expiation for some time seemeth intimated in the early and almost universal use of sacrificing of which I shall speak more anon Hitherto then I have vindicated the Christian Doctrine of mans salvation for the first 4000 years Secondly And is there any thing since which should make it more offensive to you First As to the Person of Christ I have said enough in my Treatise the Reason of Christian Religion Verily I think it far harder to confute those that feign all the world to be animated by God as the universal Soul and to conceive how God who is most intimate to all things in whom we live and move and are should not be as neerly united to all things as Christians believe him to be to the humane nature of Christ though undoubtedly it is not so than that he should have that neer union with his humane nature Secondly And as to Christs work I have so largely shewed you the necessity the reasonableness and the harmonical congruities that I will not repeat them In a word The New Testament is the Doctrine of the eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wisdome or word of God Incarnate to communicate the Divine Spirit and love to man to be a sacrifice for sin the Conqueror of Satan Death and Sin the Head over All things to the Church the Author of Redemption the grand Administrator of the new Covenant the Reconciler and Restorer of man to God the Teacher Ruler and High Preist of the Church in order to this our Restoration and Salvation Thirdly But if it be the Time of his coming that doth offend you I have answered that and further adde First What is there in foolish man that should encourage him to dream that he better knoweth the fittest season for Gods works than God himself Secondly Man was not all the while before without the Benefits of this dedesigned and undertaken Redemption He was still under a Covenant of Grace Thirdly Consider well that God did not intend to give mankind that had so heinously sinned by preferferring the Devils word before his a present and a perfect pardon but onely to give a new Law and Covenant which should be a conditional gift of pardon to be obteined in full perfection in time and by degrees we had made our selves voluntarily the Slaves of Satan And God would not deliver us all at once We had forfeited the heavenly assistance of the holy spirit and God would not give it us all at once Mans time of healing the wounds of his own sin is the time of this life and the perfect cure will not be done till our entrance into the perfect world And as it is with Individual men so it is with the world of all mankind Grace mitateth nature and doth all by degrees darker Revelations were meeter for the Infancy of the world and clearer at noon day and riper knowledge fitter for its maturity And when Satan by Divine permission had plai'd his part and seemed to triumph over the sinful world it was time for Christ to come by Power Wisdom and Goodness meanly cloathed to cast down his Temples and Altars to subsidue his Kingdoms and to triumph over the Triumpher Fourthly But if it be the present conditions of the new Covenant since Christs Resurrection that offendeth you viz that the world is required to believe in him I have answered that and now adde First Remember what I said before that no mans condition is made worse by Christ than
hath Gods Seal and Witness and can be from none but God These and many more which I have recited in my Treat are naturally known Verities As you very well confess all the ten Commandements to be going a little further than I see my self while you make one day in seven as separated to Gods worship to be such of which ellewhere I have delivered my mind how far it is a natural or supernatural notice III Quest Whether the Notitiae Communes are the only certainties in Religion Answ No Can you possibly deny all certainty of Discourse and Conclusions Ex vero nil nisi verum sequitur will you condemn the Judge as condemning a Malefactor upon uncertainty when he thus argueth All wilful Murderers must be put to death This is certain in the Law This man is a wilful Murderer proved certainly by confession evidence and witness Therefore this man must be put to death so I argue what ever doctrine is attested by a multitude of certain uncontrouled Miracles and by the divine Impress on it self and the divine Image wrought by it on all that truly receive it is attested by God himself and is certainly true But the Doctrine of Christianity was so attested Ergo it is attested by God himself and true The major is a Notitia Communis or naturally known truth The minor was known by sense it self to the first Witnesses and that was as natural a notice as any man is capable of and as sure whatever the Papists say against it for transubstantiation nothing can be sure if all sound Mens senses with their just objects and conditions are not sure in their Perceptions And how sure the distant Believers are I have largely opened in the Treatise Therefore the Conclusion must be sure Object But say the misinformed unbelievers that which all mankind believeth or knoweth hath its evidence in nature it self but beliefs of pretended Revelations Oracles and Visions are as various as Countries almost and therefore uncertain Answ First To the last part first I answer in your converse with men you will think him unnatural unsociable mad that will either believe all things or believe nothing There is credible truth and there is incredible falshood And will you beleive that either God saith all that every Lyar Fathereth on him or else that he never revealeth his will to mankind any otherwise than by his common works When God hath made a Revelation of his Will to the World the Devils usual way of hindring the beleif of it is by imitation and by putting such names and colours on falshood by false Prophets as God doth on the truth Shall we therefore conclude that either all or none is the word of God Or that God saith not true unless the Devil say true also Secondly And will you mark the gross error of such Reasoners about the Notitiae Communes First It is certain that no actual Knowledge conceptive or intellectual Verity is born in man Infants know not these Common Notions at all As the Eye is not born with the actual Species of all things afterward seen but only with a seeing power and disposition so these are called common Notions because mans intellect is so able and disposed to know them as that they will be known easily upon the first due evidence or notification of the Object and therefore almost all men know them Secondly It is certain that this knowing faculty in man as this noble Lord saith requireth its proper conditions for its true apprehension of the Object Now some mens understandings have the help of these conditions far more than others have he nameth to you the conditions himself Thirdly It is certain that the understanding performs not all its apprehensions at once or at first but by degrees and in time as the Objects are duly presented As an Infant seeth not the first day all that ever he must see nor a Schollar learneth not the first day all that he must learn Fourthly It is certain that the latter apprehensions are as sure if not more clear then the first As he that lived twenty years at home and afterward travelleth to London doth as certainly then see London as before he did his Fathers house so a Schollar doth afterward as certainly understand Horace Virgil or Homer as at first he understood his Primmer Fifthly It is certain that as particular notices are multiplied quod actus in time by use and information so the knowing disposition of the faculty is increased And the notice of a thousand truths doth so advance the understanding and befreind other truths not yet received that such a man can know more afterward in a day than an ignorant man can learn in a year Sixthly By all which it is a most evident thing that to make common Notions to be the only certainties is a weakness below a rational man And it is to make the intellect of an Infant to be the standard or measure of all certain intellectual verities and to make the Schollar even before he goeth to School as wise as to certainties as his Master and to make a new born Child to have seen as many Objects as Drake or de Noort or Sandys or Ludovics Romanus in all his travels In a word the Notitiae Communes being the very lowest degree of knowledge are thus equalled with the wisdom of the greatest Philosopher or Divine or Judge Was this learned Lord when he wrote this Book sure of nothing but these common Notions iâ— Religion Seventhly To which I might add that even in mens natural capacities there is a wonderful difference As Ideots know little so Dullards not much And must the wisest go no higher than these Eighthly And will Lawyers Statesmen Physicians Philosophers make this consent of all mankind the test of all their certainties If not why should we do so in our search after the greatest Verities which are most worthy of all the study of our Lives Nothing visible is so analogous to mans soul as fire The nature of which is to be ever of an active illuminative and calefactive faculty but doth exetcise it in such various degrees as the fuel doth occasion There is fire in a flint or steel yea in all things But is it the best way to know what fire is and can do by judging of it onely as it is in a stone No but take your steel and strike the flint and adde the combustible fuel and that which is in a stone can set a City on fire And nil agit quod agere non potest whatever act is produced proveth an antecedent power So if you would judge what mans soul is and can do and what truth is in the Intellect it is not in fools but in the wise that you must discern it And by this those may see their errour who are tempted to think that mans soul is but highly sensitive and imaginative or not made for heavenly and holy employments because so many ignorant and wicked people
are otherwise disposed whereas the Power and so the Nature of mans soul is certainly gathered from what the wisest do attain Because nothing can act beyond its Power And if the attainments and acts of some mens souls do prove such a Power in them all souls of men are of the same species and therefore the rest might attain it if they had the same objects evidences excitations and improvements I think all this is plain truth Ninethly And if by believing you will heartily give up your souls to Christ and his Spirit you will find that there is yet a more excellent addition of knowledg and certainty to be obtained than by all other means could be procured At least as to the Intension and clearness of the Act if not as to the extension of it to more objects IV. Quest Whether the aforesaid Common notices do make up all the Religion of the Catholick Church And whether the Catholick Church be all the world believing these common truths Answ The question is either de nomine ecclesiae or de re As to the name the word is not used in Gods word for any but the Society of Believers as separated from the unbelieving and ungodly world As for men themselves every one may use this and other words in what sence he please But how aptly you may judge Quoad rem I have told you before how far all the world are capable of salvation if that be the question And I adde The Kingdome of God is a word of a larger sense but the Church of God properly so called is Narrower being Caetus evocatus The Kingdom of God signifieth First All that de jure are obliged to subjection and obedience And so all mankind on earth are of his Kingdome even Rebels Secondly Or it signifieth all that consent to subjection and obedience and profess it And these are First Such as profess subjection to God under some lame defective false conception as one that alloweth them to worship Idols under him or to live in wickedness or one that Governeth not the world by a Law or will not make a Retribution hereafter or as one that will pardon and save men onely for their superstition or without a Saviour And thus allmost all Heathens and Infidels are of Gods Consenting Kingdome Secundum quid Eatenus so far as this cometh to and no more Secondly Or such as profess subjection and love to God as truly described And as reconciled to man and saving them by Christ our Mediator And these are quoad actum First But oral or unsound not Cordial Professors And such are Hypocritical Christians who are simpliciter of the visible Church Secondly Or sincere Consenters who are simpliciter of the essential mystical Church of the Regenerate Now when we thus open the Case as to the Thing there remaineth besides the controversie de nomine no more than how far Heathens are under a Covenant of Grace and how far they are capable of salvation of which I have said enough before V. Quest Whether all Revelation for Religion must be but Notitiarum Communium Symbolum A Creed containing these common notices or truths as is asserted p. 221. Answ I have said enough against this before First What need God send a Prophet or an Angel to tell the world that which they all knew certainly before Secondly Full existence assureth us as I have proved in the Treat that mankind hath need of more Thirdly More tendeth to perfect mans understanding and consequently his will and life This is undeniable And mans perfection is his felicity and end And therefore more than those common notices is needful to his end Fourthly Else as is said you will reduce all the world to the measure of that part which is the lowest the unwisest and the worst You would not in wealth or health be equalled with the basest poorest or the sickest nor yet in wit and knowledg of other matters with the most foolish And why then in the knowledg love and practice of Holiness VI. Quest Whether as some others say all supernatural Revelations be to be tryed by the common notions known by nature Answ First It is supposed that all that pretend to Prophesie and Revelation are not to be believed And therefore that we must try the Spirits whether they be of God and that all tryal of things unknown must be made by some foreacknowledged principles if it be a conclusion that must be known Secondly It must therefore next be understood whether the Truth of the Gospel be to be known as a simple term or a self evident proposition or as a true conclusion First The first kind of knowledge onely apprehendeth the words and sense but not the Verity It is the Truth of the Doctrine that we enquire of Secondly Many Divines assert the second way and say it is Principium indemonstrabile Like est vel non est Doubtless this is not true as to the Natural Evidence of the proposition principle or doctrine But I think that in the very hearing or reading Gods spirit often so concurreth as that the will it self shall be touched with an internal gust or savour of the goodness contained in the doctrine and at the same time the understanding with an internal irradiation which breedeth such a sudden apprehension of the Verity of it as nature giveth men of natural principles And I am perswaded that this increased by more experience and Love and inward gusts doth hold most Christians faster to Christ than naked reasoning could do And were it not for this unlearned ignorant persons were still in danger of Apostasie by every subtile Caviller that assaulteth them And I believe that all true Christians have this kind of internal knowledge from a suitableness of the Truth and Goodness of the Gospel to their now quickned illuminated sanctified souls Thirdly But yet I believe that this is not All the knowledge of the truth of the Gospel which we have There is a common Belief of its truth by other means which most usually goeth before this Generative spiritual reception and belief usually they that are converted to holiness by the Gospel are such as had some Belief of it before and not such as took it to be false to that moment And after Conversion it is to be known as a certain demonstrable Conclusion And so the faith of wise and settled Christians is most rational And they are thus made capable to defend it against Temptations and adversaries and to preach it rightly to unbelievers Thirdly The premises from which this conclusion is proved The Gospel is true are both of them truths of infallible evidence viz. Whatsoever doctrine is attested by so many and such miracles extrinsecally by the self-evidencing impress of Divine Power Wisdome and goodness intrinsecally and by the effecting the like Impression in holy Life Light and Love on the souls of all sincere receivers is certainly true being attested by the spirit of God But such is the
doctrine of the Gospel Ergo it is true as attested by the spirit of God I said before the first is a natural Verity The second proposition is partly of sense and partly of internal and partly external experience as is largely manifested Now as to the Question First No doubt but our Natural faculties must be used in trying supernatural Truth Secondly No doubt he that disputeth with or preacheth to an unbeliever so as to prove what he delivereth to be true must deal with him upon some common principles which both parties are agreed in or else there is no room for proof or for dispute Thirdly But some persons are so ignorant of those certain principles which infer the truth of Gospel revelation that they have need first to be convinced of them which must be done by inferring them from the first truths or some principles which they do confess Fourthly And as a man would convince others by the same method and arguing he must convince himself and try the truth which he is in doubt of Fifthly But if any should mean First That nothing is true in the Gospel but these common principles of nature Secondly Or that nothing else can be proved true Thirdly Or that it would prove any pretended prophesie vision or revelation true so be it they do not contradict the common truths All these are palpable untruths VII Quest Whether these common Verities inferre not the truth of Christianity Answ This is sufficiently answered in the last Perhaps the few Verities mentioned by the Author are not enough to prove Christianity by But that it hath true evidence in sense and reason is manifested heretofore And I believe that he that will by just argumentation follow on the Christian cause with an unbeliever if he can hold him to the point from rambling and suppose him capable of Historical evidence may drive him to yield or to deny common principles yea to deny that God is God and that man is man and consequently that there is any being But the evasion will be by denying notorious matter of fact which therefore must be proved by its proper evidence IX Quest Whether they are necessary conditions of the certain knowledge of a divine Revelation First That it be made immediately to my self Secondly And that I feel a divine afflatus in the Reception as is said Page Answ No A Revelation made to others may be certainly notified to me else if an Angel from Heaven should appear to all men in the Town and Country save one or if all save one saw a thousand miracles to confirm a Revelation yet that one could not be sure of it But I have by abundance of arguments in a peculiar disputation in a Treatise called the unreasonableness of unbelief long ago fully proved the negative And again in my Reas of the Christian Relig. therefore I will not weary the Reader with repetions X. Quest Whether any concurrence of moral evidence at least such as Gospel Revelation hath do truly amount to natural or certain evidence De Rev. Verisim Answ. This Question too I have plainly decided in the Reas of Christian Relig. I now add First The name of moral evidence is here taken by those that use it for that which dependeth on the credit of a voluntary Agent as such And the name of natural evidence signifieth that which dependeth on the nature of the Object in it self considered But I somewhat doubt whether all that use the distinction do commonly understand the difference or what they say Secondly Note that the All or effect of a voluntary Agent hath nevertheless a natural Evidence when it is done or existent If I voluntarily speak or write or go my Action is naturally evident to those that see and hear it as present sensitive Witnesses of it If I freely build a House it is nevertheless naturally Evident when it is built Al things existent in the universe were made by God as a free Agent and yet are nevertheless naturally evident Thirdly Every thing that is when it is if corporeal is naturally Evident to those that have their faculties in those conditions that are necessary and have the object in its necessary magnitude cognation detection site distance medium and abode Fourthly The judgement that is made upon sense it self faileth as this noble Author hath well opened when either the Object the Evidence the Sense or the Intellect want their necessary conditions or qualifications else not Fifthly The Fountain of all Freedome and Morality is the Will of God And yet the moral Evidence of truth which is in Gods word when known to be his word is as sure as any natural Evidence of the thing There being the surest natural evidence ab effect is at least that there is a God most perfect that cannot lie Sixthly The Essences of all things are but imperfectly evident to us The existences of corporeal things that are present and duly qualified are fully evident The existence of things absent beyond the reach of sense is evident only to the discursive intellect not by the immediate natural evidence of the things themselves but by a borrowed evidence from Causes or Signes Discourse improving the Fundamental common truths for the knowing of the rest by proving a certain connexion between them The Praterition of things and the Futurition are both like the distant existence unknown to sense and the immediate apprehension of the intellect And therefore must both be known also by collection as conclusions in discourse or not at all Seventhly Man was not born to know only things present in their existence by sense but also to know things absent things as past and things as future And herein he chiesly differeth from a Bruit Eighthly Though the understanding is most confident of things sensible present yet about things absent past and future it oft doubteth more and is less satisfied in its own conclusions from natural principles than from moral Because sometimes the natural Principles themselves though not the first yet the second or third may be so obscure as to leave the mind unsatisfied Secondly And the connexion among many particulars may be obscure and doubtful Thirdly And in the long Series of collection or arguing the understanding suspecteth its own fallibility so that when Conclusions are far fetcht though from natural Principles the mind may be still in doubt about them And on the contrary when in the way of Revelation the grounds are clear and the understanding hath fewer Collections to make and a shorter journey to go it may be far better satisfied of the truth Ninthly Man 's own necessity is the reason why God doth give us supernatural Revelation and call us to know by the way of Believing For First Most men are naturally dull Secondly Few have leisure by Learning to improve their intellects Thirdly And fewer have leisure disposition to exercise them by long searches argumentation upon every thing that they should know Fourthly And