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
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
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
natural and proper sense in which all mankind takes it for what in reality and indeed is so which I affirm to be sufficient for my purpose or to ground all those Arguments which I bring thence to evince the Impossibility of Faith's Falshood But I fear the Objecter confounds the First operation of our understanding with the Second that is our simple Apprehension or Meaning of the word Truth or True with the Propositions or Judgments made concerning it For not only weak people judg many things True which stand under no Certain Grounds but even solid men when the Concern of the Point is sleight and no circumstance awakes them into a heedfulness and as it were engages their Honesty to speak rigorous Truth oftentimes carelesly and unconcernedly admit Things for Truths which are far short of having Grounds elevating them to an Impossibility of Falshood and indeed are far from being judg'd Truths even by themselves while they seem to admit them for such nay more though they sometimes use them as Truths when the weight is not much whether they be so or no as when in a Rhetorical Discourse or even in a solid one for Illustration sake we make use of the Story of the Phoenix or such like or when in ordinary conversation we relate many passages abetted by no certain Authority but taken upon the account of rumour perhaps invented by witty humour the Truth of which it were in those circumstances Imprudent and Impertinent to discountenance but to let them go with a kind of Transeat or a valeant quantum valere possunt Yet in both cases what the solid man out of unconcernedness passes and what the vulgar man out of weakness judges as a Truth both the one passes the other judges to be in reality and indeed so whence both of them have the genuine simple Apprehension or meaning of the word Truth and the same all other men have however the one misapplies it the other permits it to be misapply'd in Propositions Nor will any distinction of Truths morally speaking probably Truths c. serve the turn for Truth as was said speaks the Conformity of the Judging Power to the Thing that is a Real disposition of the mind which therefore either is or is not in the same manner as the Wall is either white or not white not admitting for it's difference probably or not-probably any more than Being does But as it is impossible but the Wall if it be not white must necessarily be not-white or have some other disposition in it which is not-whiteness so 't is impossible but the minde if not Conformable to the Thing or True must be Un-conformable or not-True meaning not-True negatively not privatively so as to signify False and consequently in stead of that Conformity it must have some other Disposition in it whatever that Disposition be Objection II. In some places of this foregoing Treatise Objective Truth is confounded with that disposition of the understanding or Conformity of it to the Thing call'd Formal Truth or Truth in us Answer The clearing this requires the making an exacter discovery into the nature of Truth To do which we will begin our explication with noting that our understanding hath two Operations omitting the third Discourse as not pertinent to our present purpose viz. Simple Apprehension and Iudgment The result or Effect of the first is call'd a Notion Concerning which Philosophers discourse thus that when I apprehend what is meant by the word Man or have that Notion in me Mans nature is both in the Thing and in my Conception for 't is impossiole my Conception being an imminent Act I should conceive what is not in my Conception or that my Act of conceiving should be intrinsecally determin'd to be this but by what is intrinsecal or in it What is meant then by the word Man has two states one in the thing as existent out of me the other in the thing as existent in me as the self-same figure is in the Seal and the Wax Yet neither of these different States enters into the Notion I have of Man but meerly what is common to the Thing under either State which is what answers to the definition for both Man taken as in himself is a rational Creature and also what I conceive or mean by the word Man is rational Creature though the words rational Creature express neither the being in my Minde nor out of it but abstract from either By this means my Mind concieving Man gains an Unity of form with the Thing out of it or a Conformity to it which Disposition wants nothing to be call'd Truth but that 't is incapable of grounding Affirmation or Negation the bare meaning of the word Man neither implying is nor is not Whence Truth and Falshood are usuall said to be incompetent to the first Operation of our Understanding We will make way to the Second Operation of our Understanding by another Instance of the first Imagin then there is propos'd to my Eye a Round Pillar which it affects and by it my Brain and so my Understanding it cannot fail to beget there a simple Apprehension and consequently a Notion of what is directly imprinted which is that Thing with as many of its qualifications as were apt to be convey'd in by means of that sense confusedly blended together as also by my Experience that it affects or is affecting me of it's Existence Moreover as Occasion or indeed Nature guides me I may have distinct or abstracted notions of Pillar Roundness and Existence nay more of Pillar and Roundness as exercising or actually having the same existence or which is all one of what is meant by this Proposition the Pillar is round that is of what corresponds to those three distinct notions put now in a frame of a Proposition and so immediately apt to express Truth or Falshood and yet not proceed to behave my self affirmingly or denyingly or judg any thing concerning them but meerly to conceive what is meant by those words Way being thus orderly made towards the Second Operation of the Understanding by disposing the separate notions in a fitting posture by the First nature seems to require It should supervene and so the Understanding sets it self to judg whether those Extream or distant notions exhibited by the First in the posture of Connexion be indeed connected or no the standard or measure of which is to be taken from the Thing Now in self-evident Propositions and First Principles the Understanding guides it self by that imbred or nature-taught Principium Intellectûs The same is the same with it's self In deduc't Propositions by the same Principle fundamentally or originally and immediately by this Those notions which are the same with a Third are the same with one another But in our present Instance Experience alone suffices to inform the understanding supposing the obvious knowledg of what Pillar and Roundness are and that a Pillar is a Thing whereas Roundness without Pillar is