attain that End Unless they proceed at least from True Knowledg which cannot be had by a mere Probability how high soever it be Whereas Material and Temporary Goods depend not on a constant course of Causes or Dispositions towards them knowable by us but very frequently if not equally on a Chanceable or Contingent cast of Things whence we use to say Fools have the best Fortune Hence the intending and directing part in such Actions depends on the Knowledg of some particulars but the Attainment is carry'd on by Material Means nay very frequently there is no knowledg at all requisit in any respect For Example He that by the death of a hundred Relations in a Plague-time should alone survive and so inherit their Estates would be really rich whither any interiour Act of his minde in the least contributed to it or not that is though he never desir'd aim'd at or even thought of it But if a Man in time of persecution and Martyrdom should say within himself I cannot believe there is a God or a Next World Yet I le venture to dye rather then deny them in hopes that if perhaps there be such a thing or state he will give me a far greater reward such a Man I dare affirm to be no nearer gaining Heaven by this Act no better principled than if he had never had any such Act at all in regard he wanted that First necessary disposition which St. Paul and Connaturality require Accedentem ad Deum oportet credere quia Deus est Heb. 11. v. 6. 6. Again Faith is intended for a Spiritual Armour to rebeat all the assaults and temptations of our three Ghostly Enemies Original Corruption in us the Vanity of the World about us and the Cruelty of the Devil and Wicked men over us Hence the Advice of the Apostle cui resistite fortes in Fide hence his recommending to us above all things to take Scutum Fidei hence the Contempt of all Worldly Honours Pleasures and Riches in Gods choice Saints and their suff'ring Persecution gladly for Conscience sake hence lastly their embracing and ev'n courting Torments and Death it self with such Alacrity and Constancy But alas how unactive had their Charity and Zeal been how dull their desire to forego all present Goods ev'n life too among the rest if this wicked Doctrine had been in their hearts that perhaps all was a lye which they profest suff'red and dy'd for And how coldly and timorously would they have look'd Death in the face having perfect Certainty on one side that they were about to lose all the known Goods they possest for others unknown and uncertain Well may a Natural sincerity preserve diverse persons who are out of the Church morally honest and innocent but we must not hope for any eminent Sanctity or Heroick Act of Virtue from any Professors of such a Faith if they follow their Teachers maintaining there are no stronger Motives for the Truth of Christianity to comfort and establish the Souls of the Faithful And 't is to be feared that though their highly-conceited Probability or Moral Certainty as they call it be enough to Exclude Actual Doubt while Men are in a state of Security and all things go well with them Yet it will scarce be able to preserve them from doubting Actually when they are upon the point of foregoing all the Goods they at present enjoy and are so highly concern'd to be Certain of the Existence of those Future ones they hope for in lieu of them § 7. Moreover we are perfectly Certain by manifest Experience of the Existence of Temporal Goods viz. Honours Pleasures Riches c. or that such things are in the world whereas unless Faith be truly Certain that is Impossible to be false the Generality of Mankind cannot be perfectly assur'd ev'n of the Existence of Heaven or those Future Goods for which they are to relinquish all present ones Wherefore the Existence of the thing being the first and main Basis of all Humane Action and the Ground of all the other Motives 't is clear there 's a manifest difference between acting for Heaven and for Temporal Goods ev'n in this respect whatever Parallel may be pretended in some other Considerations Besides all acting ev'n for Temporal Goods were unjustifyable unless those Goods be held Attainable and de facto we are perfectly certain that Honours Pleasures Riches c. not only exist but are of such a nature also as they may be attained to due means us'd since we experience multitudes of men have and do daily arrive at them But ev'n though Heav'n be held to be yet it cannot be held to be attainable unless the Proposals of Faith be Certain since neither have those who are to come to Faith seen nor experienc'd any man get Heav'n nor discours'd with any whom they know to have come thence and seen it So that I fear were the Objection concerning the Sufficiency of Probable Motives to make us act for Inferiour or Humane Goods distinctly clear'd it would be found not to mean that Probability of those Humane Good 's Existence or Attainableness suffices for example that there are Riches in common or that they may be gotten one way or other both which are presupposed to the Action as certainly known but it seems to mean only this that men ought to proceed to Action though there be but Moral Certainty or great Likelihood that those Goods are actually to be attain'd in this or that circumstance of Time or Place or by such or such means as by sending Ships to the Indies inventing Water-works Husbandry Souldiery and the like which assertion held within its bounds will break no squares seeing ev'n in the actual attainment of Heav'n by me or by this particular way or means when those means depend on material Circumstances there is found the same room for failure and contingency notwithstanding the Certainty of Heav'ns Existence and Attainableness in common secur'd to us perfectly by Faith For though Virtue practic'd is an Infallible Way to bring Souls to Bliss yet no man has Certainty that any Extrinsecal State he puts himself into or material means he uses will make him truly vertuous or finally get him the end he aims at but must content himself with Likelihoods or the seeming-betterness of his putting himself in that State or Circumstance or his using this or that means in the same manner as it happens when he acts for Temporary Goods and for the success leave it humbly in the hands of Divine Providence or miserentis Dei acknowledging with David that in manibus tuis Domine sortes meae and working out his Salvation with fear and trembling § 8. Besides to act Externally is in the power of the Will but to act Internally at least as is requisite for each Effect is not so For however the Will may set the Understanding to consider the Motive yet it must be the Truth of the Object 's Goodness
none had the least actual doubt or suspicion of doubt of it else surely they would never have staid in them inform us sufficiently to what a changeable tottering and ruinous condition Christian Faith would be reduc'd by these Principles and Parallels No fewer than three Houses fell in the compass of a short time and none had the least suspicion of doubt beforehand of such an Event therefore may an Atheist say Down falls Christian Faith too whose Foundation was by this Doctrin but Parallel for strength to the other or if it fall not in so long time it has only something better luck not better grounds than had the three Houses As for the objected Unsuitableness of such a Certainty as I require 't is reply'd that nothing is more natural for the Generality of Mankind than to be led by Authority nothing more penetrable by those of all sorts than the Infallibleness and Veracity of exceedingly vast and grave Authorities relating matter of Fact as we experience in their beleef that there was a Q. Elizabeth and such like to comprehend and assent immovably to which costs them not the least over straining as the Obiecter imagins Which being so I make account that God both in his power and wisdom could in his Goodness would render the Authority of his Church the Ground and Pillar of Truth as evident to all her Children both as to its Inerrableness and Veracity as the other nay incomparably more it being in every regard so requisit Objection VI. If the Motives to Faith must be Impossible to be False to us they would necessarily conclude the Truth of Faith wherefore they would of themselves oblige the Understanding to assent and so there would need no precedent pious affection of the Will which yet both Councils Fathers and Catholick Divines with one consent require Nay more were not such a pious affection put Acts of Faith would not be Free Answer If Experience teaches us that even assent to Humane Sciences though Evident from Intrinsecal reasons Comprehensible by our Understanding and purely Speculative is not to be acquir'd without an affection to see Truth as is evident from the carriage of meer Scepticks who having entertain'd a conceit of it's hopelesness come thence to want Love or Affection for it and so never come to see it how Conclusive soever the reasons be Much more by far must some good affection be pre-requisit to assent to Divine and Supernatural Truths which are Obscure in themselves as depending upon Authority Incomprehensible to our natural reason and Practical that is obligingly-Efficacious to break out into Christian Action or Love of Heaven above all sublunary things as True Faith must be The First obstacle of the three mention'd has this difficulty that the beams of Truth which come directly from the things themselves are generally apt to strike our Understanding more naturally penetrate it more deeply and to stick in it more immovably than those which are reflected to us from the Knowledg of another such as are Points of Faith besides the new difficulty of seeing the Veracity of the Attester which how evident soever it be yet it puts the Understanding to double pains whereas Evidence had from the Thing is but a single labour and so less confounding and distracting the thought The Second Obstacle Incomprehensibleness is apt to stupify the Understanding and retard Assent nay even to deter it from considering them as Truths The Atheistical temper of the world which could not subsist were Metaphysicks duly advanc'd sufficiently informs us how difficult it is for men to apply and fix their thoughts upon those considerabilities in things and those natures which are abstracted from matter the reason whereof is because it being natural that our Fancy be in act while our Understanding is so and there being not Proper Phantasms the onely agreeable ones to material men who are not strong enough to guide their Judgments purely by Principles and Connexions of Terms which sute to such abstracted Conceptions but Metaphorical ones onely which the Understanding must in rigour deny to be right ones even while by necessity 't is forc't to make use of them Hence the life of a Christian as such being to serve God in Spirit and Truth and so the Objects and Principles of his new Life for the most part and principally Spiritual ones it comes to pass that for this very regard alone there will need a great love of Truth and Spiritual Goods to make the Understanding appliable to them or even admit a consideration of them I was told by a worthy Friend of mine that discoursing with an acute man but a great hater of Metaphysicks and mentioning a Spirit he in a disgust broke out into these words Let us talk of what we know By which expression 't is manifest that he mistook the Question An est for Quid est But what makes for my purpose is that the unknowableness of the Essence or nature of a Spirit to us in this State obstructed even his desire to consider whether there were any such thing or no consequently that there needs a contrary desire or affection to know Spiritual things to make us willing even to entertain a thought of their being much more to conceit it But incomparably more needful is such an Affection when to the Spirituality of those points there shall be added an Incomprehensibleness nay if onely those points be consider'd an Incredibleness when no Parallel can be found in Nature nor scarce any similitude weakly to shadow out the thing and it's possibility nay when some of those points directly thwart the course of natural Causes whence all our other Knowledges have their Stability Then I say if ever there is requisit an Affection for the Nobleness and Excellency of those high Spiritual Objects to make us willing to hearken to any Authority proposing them how evident soever the Motives be for the Credibleness of that Authority The third Obstacle follows taken from the End for which Faith is essentially ordain'd that is from what it essentially is viz. a mover of the Will to Virtue and Goodness or a Practical Principle Now nothing is more evident than this Truth that by-affections and contrary inclinations are apt to hinder the understanding from assenting or even attending candidly and calmly to these Reasons how clear soever they be which make against any beloved Interest whence there needs a contrary affection to these other to remove the mists those passions had rais'd and purge the Eye of the Mind that so it may become capable of discerning what it could not before though in it self most visible How much more not only requisite but even necessary must some pious affection be to permit the mind freely to embrace the doctrin of Christian Faith containing Principles which enjoyn a disregard and posthabition of all that is sweet to Flesh and Blood nay even of Livelihood and Life it self 'T is most manifest then that a Plous
is a crooked path and a False Light leading it into Errour What therefore they are to do in the circumstances they have brought themselves into is to show that they destroy not the Truth of Faith that is the Nature of Faith it self and the Nature of the Way to that Truth or the Rule of Faith by putting them both possible to be False I saw they did and therefore was oblig'd to begin my discourse higher and to Settle the Existence of Faith by removing the possibâ—lâ—ty of it's Falshood that so it might be shown able to bear the having a Rule which while it was in the tottering and uncertain condition to which Mr. T. and Mr. St. had reduc't it that is in a Possibility of being all a Ly and indeed is an Actuality of being as to us not-Truth but at most a great Likelihood it was utterly incapable of Since therefore in the right method of discoursing An est ought to antecede Quid ests they have lost their right to be discours't with about the Quid est of the Rule of Faith or what is that Rule till they can justify themselves not to have destroy'd the very An est or Existence of Rule and Faith both with which Mr. T. is now challeng'd from his own words and Mr. St. from his abetting him and espousing his Patronage Both Nature therefore and Art excuse me from replying to Mr T. and Mr. St. where the just Laws of severe and rigorous Reason exactly obseru'd and so 't is onely a voluntary Courtesy not an obligatory duty to afford them or any other Writers thus Principled any Answer at all or to admit them to a dispute about this Point What is the Rule of Faith Lastly hence is inferr'd that a Conclusive Method or short way of ending all Controversies between the Catho lik Church and all her relinquishers is settled by this Doctrin For if right Faith must be Impossible to be False to us or to the Generality of Christians that is if the Motives to embrace Christianity must be thus firm then 't is Evident that that Party whose Writers renounce the having any such Motives in case those writers speak the sense of that Party is not rightly Christian or truly Faithfull but a distinct Sect from the body of right Christians or it being most unjust that the discourses of private Speculaters should be pinn'd upon the whole party if they write things deniable by that party in case any such Party should think fit to disclaim such Writers as private discoursers and their Tenet of Christian Faith's not being Absolutely Certain which they are at liberty to do and set some other writers to maintain the opposit Thesis it will quickly be seen whether they are able to bring Infallible Grounds of Faith I mean any Authority conveying Christ's Faith down to us infallibly which they must bring if they will prove Faith Impossible to be False distinct from what the Catholik Church holds to and which themselves renounc't when they forsook her Communion But that there are any such Grounds as these that is Grounds Inerrably bringing down the Knowledg of Christs Faith to us that is a Rule of Faith Impossible to be False to us I could never yet discern by the carriage writings or Discourse of any Party that dissented from the Catholick Church to be their Tenet If then it be a most Certain Truth that Faith must be Impossible to be false as I hope I have abundantly concluded 't is also most Certain that those who deny they have such a Faith do by that very denyal confess they have no True Faith nor are truly Faithfull nor of the True Catholick Church Postscript THus Reader thou seest I still endeavour candidly to put Controversy home as far as my discourse can carry it and that I have resum'd here all the scatter'd ends of voluminous disputes into one point By which means the sincere Protestant and all others out of the Church may see at a short view what they are to do If they look into their own breasts as they are Professors of Christianity they will find it writ there in Capitals That CHRISTIAN FAITH CANNOT BE AN ILLUSION ' OR FALSHOOD Also that Faith is to be held by them True and that they ought to suffer all Persecutions and Death it self for the professing it to be such This found and duly reflected on the next thing to be done is that they press their Learned men by whom they are led to shew them by such Grounds as their separation from the Catholick Church permits them to hold that is by their Grounds that Christian Faith is Impossible to be False If they can as hitherto they have told us they cannot then their Adherents may in reason hope well of their own condition till they see those attempts evidently shown invalid But if they profess still they cannot and that Faith needs no such Certainty then not onely the natural dictamen of Christianity in their own breasts ought to make them distrust the Principles of their Party found to be so destructive to Christian Faith but also I shall hope there are some Proofs in this foregoing Treatise which they will judg require an Answer I expect my Answerer will sow together many thin Rhetorical fig-leaves to cover the Deformity of that abominable Thesis that Faith may be False which to propose undisguiz'd were too openly shameful But I hope thou wilt be able to discern their sense through their Rhetorick and heedfully to mark with a stedfast Eye that in how quaint and elegant phrases soever they cloak their Tenet yet the genuin downright and natural sense of the position they go about to defend will still be this The mysteries of Christian Faith may all be so many Lies for any thing any man living absolutely knows and the whole Body of Christian Doctrine a Bundle of Falshoods I expect also many plausible Instances and pretended Parallels of the sufficiencie of inferiour degrees of Certitude for such and such particular ends But what thou art to consider is whether those Ends be Parallel or equal to that highest End and Concern of Christian Faith These things I expect but I expect not that so much as one Principle that will be found to deserve that name will ever be thought prudent to be produc't to justify a Tenet every way so Irrational and unprincipled or rather destroying the Certainty and consequently the Essence and Nature of the Best Body of Principles that either Nature or the Author of Nature and Grace himself ever instill'd into Mankind Lastly I beseech thee to obtain for me if thou canst that if any think fit to reply to this Treatise they would be perswaded to set aside all WITTY PREVARICATION and ELEGANT DROLLERY the two chief and in a manner onely Sticklers in the pretended Answer to Sure-Footing and beginning with First Principles to draw thence Immediate Consequences as I have constantly endeavour'd in this Discourse By
upon him with this pressing demand I but are you certain of it may not you be mistaken Which clearly intimates that that Disposition call'd Certainty is beyond all Inclinations Motions or indeterminate Tendencies of the Understanding making it verily think 't is true which speaks the next remove as it were from a certain Assent and consequently that 't is an absolute determination and fixure of the Soul that 't is true As also that Certainty elevates the Soul beyond hazard of mistake Again many times when one is smartly questioned if he be Certain of a thing not daring upon better reflexion pretend to Certainty he replies warily in a moderate word which diminishes and falls short of the other that he is Morally certain of it which evidences that the Notion of Certainty is in point of fixing or determining the Understanding beyond that counterfeit Certainty call'd Moral Certainty Wherefore since all Moral Certainty as they call it how great soever though it be penetrated perfectly according as 't is in its own Nature is seen to consist with a Possibility to be otherwise True Certainty which exceeds it must needs include an Impossibility to be otherwise Faith then is not in true speech Certain unless it be Impossible to be False § 10. Again let an Overweener after his mistake becomes Visible be challeng'd with it we find that in common speech we use these or the like words You said or thought You were Certain of it but You see You are mistaken Is it not Evident that the word Certain excludes a possibility of being otherwise since his being Certain of it formerly is deny'd purely upon this score because he was mistaken which shews that the true notion of Certain is inconsistent with mistake that is that Certainty implyes Unmistakableness or which is all one Inerrability hîc nunc in the present affair Whereas had the notion of Certainty admitted a Possibility not to be as he judg'd he had not been so mistaken in judging that Certain which by actually happening not to be was shewn afterwards Possible not to be To think to evade by alledging that it was not meant his mistake consisted in judging that Certain or Impossible not to be which was Possible not to be but in judging that would be which afterwards hap'd not to be is meerly Childishness and Folly amongst Men who hold that things are carry'd on by the course of Cause and Effect and that things therefore happen because a Cause puts them or not happen because no Cause puts them To judg then a thing would not be is the same amongst Intelligent Men as to judg there would be no Cause to make it be and if there would be none such 't is most evident it could not be or was Impossible to be in this order of the world Such answers are fit for men who are led more by Sounds than Sense and who think a different word will gain them an Escape though that word signifies the same thing as the former 11. The same will appear from the Absurdity which palpably discovers it self in any Expression that modifies the true Notion of Certain with a Contingency as if one should say 't is Certain per adventure or 't is fallibly Certain The Nonsence of which shews that the true Notion of Certainty implies an Oppositness to all Contingency or an Impossibility to be otherwise You 'l ask what then must be said of the Phrase Moral Certainty where Certainty seems to admit an allay of Contingency I answer 't is evident even hence and from all my former Discourse that the word Certainty is there us'd Catachrestically or abusively for some great Likelihood and its Epithet means such a degree of it as is found generally in humane exteriour actions which depend on Free-will and are contingent as being Particulars and speaks not proper Certainty as 't is meant to signifie that perfect Intellectual Determination whose Principles and Causes being high Truths are unalterable Whence Moral Certainty how high soever it be exalted and triumph in an empty name is in reality Uncertainty and the highest degree of Moral Certainty is the lowest degree of Uncertainty truly so call'd that is of that which expresses an Intellectual Indetermination § 12. Thus much from the use of the word which when it falls naturally and unaffectedly from the tongue of the Speakers is a proper Effect of the Notion or meaning in their Souls that is of the Signification of that word whence 't is an apt Medium to demonstrate that Notion its proper Cause à posteriori § 13. From this Discourse follows first that since speaking of the present and the same in proportion holds of other differences of time 't is the same to say The thing is certain as to say the thing is and to say the thing is speaks Indivisibility the Notion of Certainty too consists in an Indivisible By which is not meant that one Certainty may not be greater than another both from a greater Perfection in the Subject and a greater certifying Power in the Object but that Certainty in the way of being generated in the Soul is either there all at once or not at all in the same sort as there is no middle between is and is not or half-beings of them which are the formal Expressers of Certainty Whence again appears that what we abusively call Moral Certainty is indeed none at all because it reaches not that Indivisible or Determinative Point in which True Certainty consists § 14. Secondly since true Certainty is caus'd in us by seeing the thing is and this cannot be seen but by virtue of Principles especially that chief one A thing is the same with it self which Principles being Truths cannot possibly be False it follows both that what is Certain cannot possibly be False and that what can possibly be False subsists upon no Principles Whence all Moral Certainty as they call it as also all high Probabilities which confessedly may possibly be false are convinc'd to subsist upon no Principles and they who acknowledg they have but Moral Certainty and high Probabilities for their Faith or Opinion confess they have no Principles which in true Language deserve that name to ground them but at best certain likely Topical Mediums that oft prove true or hold for the most part which may serve for a talking kind of Discourse or Exteriour Action but are flat things and useless when Truth is to be concluded § 15. Thirdly it follows that true Certainty of any thing is the self-same with Infallibility or Inerrability as to the same thing For Certainty is not had till it be seen that that First Principle A thing is the same with it self is engag'd for the identification of the two Notions which make up the Proposition we are Certain of that is for the Truth of that Proposition Wherefore since we can have Infallible Assurance of the Truth of that First Principle as also of this that nothing