Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A26596
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A moral discourse of the power of interest by David Abercromby ...
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Abercromby, David, d. 1701 or 2.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing A83; ESTC R6325
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62,955
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218
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great encouragements they meet with from the Papists For if a Protestant be not well vers'd in his own principle and able to confute the Popish Errours a not extraordinary Preferment a Sum of Money the Favour of a Prince either hop'd for or enjoyed will prove convincing Arguments to him of the Truth of Popery and of the falshood of the Protestant Doctrine The Popish Priests in King James's Reign observing how impossible 't was to make the people believe the being of an Infallible Visible Judge of Controversies in the Church since no such thing is countenanc'd either by the Scriptures or by General Councils as likewise that they could not work them into the belief of the strange Mystery of Transubstantiation destroying the very Foundation of all Humane Certitude the Testimony of our Sences and consequently the Fundamental Proofs of Christ's Passion Death Resurrection Ascension yea and of his being real Flesh and Blood if the constant Testimony of Seeing Feeling Touching Tasting deceive us as the Papists tell us they do in the Consecrated Bread and Wine The Priests I say having learned by Experience how blunt their Arguments were against understanding Protestants betook themselves to the only method they could hope success from viz. to the proposing of great Rewards from King James upon the first occasion and from both King and Pope by the Mediation of his Nuncio then residing in London in case they had to do with Church-men And 't was generally observ'd that such as went that way to work were more successful than those who undertook to argue the case with their Adversaries because their Arguments being generally meer Sophisms laid always open the Weakness of the Arguer as well as of the Argument But many more yeilded to the stronger Reasons from Interest Worldly Grandeur and such other advantages as the Churchmen of Rome are us'd to propose to hook men into the bosome of their Church And indeed I often wonder how it comes to pass that they make so few voluntary Converts since they propose so great advantages to such as come over to them upon what account soever But on the other hand if I knew not by my own Experience the almost irresistible impression of Divine Grace and the great force of the discovered Truth I should far more wonder that a Roman Catholick could ever resolve to turn Protestant because new Converts are generally either coldly receiv'd by Protestants or seemingly mistrusted by such as having nothing but the out-side of the Christian Religion are disposed to think others as great Hypocrites as they know themselves to be So that if an understanding and learned Roman Catholick turn from Popery to Protestancy his Conversion to be sure is sincere because he is not allured to our side by any Temporal Advantages to be expected from us who commonly take so little notice of new Converts that we let them often want Necessaries if they cannot do for themselves But if a knowing Protestant surrenders himself to the weak Popish Arguments I question not in the least but that he has some considerable Interest in prospect For why should we think that a man would pull out his Eyes lay aside the use of his Reason submit to an implicite Faith and turn a Fool for just nothing ARTICLE XXIII 1. The mean and irregular Conduct of some Persons of Quality 2. The Design of their Intimacy with some Men. 3. The Ingratitude of Tradesmen To say no more of this matter though a great deal more might be said of it let us consider in this place another kind of Irregularity occasion'd in some Nations and particularly in this very Kingdom we live in by the influence of Riches and Money upon some mens minds who by reason of the great Fortunes they are born to should have the less value for what they possess so much of or at least should not behave themselves so meanly as to make their Equals and familiar Companions such as have no other thing to recommend themselves to the World but what they have got by very injust and shameful means as Dicing Carding Cheating Swearing to say nothing worse if worse can be said Do they not give us just grounds to think they keep such Men Company in hopes of getting from them the ill gain'd Penny by the same methods it was at first got For what other end can they propose to themselves in courting them in a manner at the rate they usually do They cannot sure be in love with their Ingenuity unless we reckon Swearing Cursing Damning Sinking c. pieces of real Wit They can pretend no kindness to them neither upon the account of their civil and obliging behaviour since there is no rudeness but such men are commonly guilty of nor upon the account of their Noble Extraction because having generally sprung out of the lowest Tribe of Mankind without either Friend or Allie better than themselves They buoy themselves up into the world by an inexhausted stock of Impudence which they should rather be undervalued than esteem'd for They must then be fond of conversing with such Men so often and so familiarly upon some other accounts as either because they are able to pay largely their share in pulick Entertainments to the lessening of the charges of the Company or in order to bring them back to their first low condition again by gaining from them what they before had sharp'd from others and when this is done his Lordship knows no more his Old Friend and inseparable Companion in Gaming Feasting Drinking c. whom a little before he was wont to salute kiss and hug in every corner as his Bosome-Friend and Equal but now the case being altered he becomes on a sudden like most men upon such occasions not much fond of the Company they can get no more by The Lawyers Physicians and generally all Tradesmen behave themselves much after the same manner for their own ends all attending courting and omitting no kind of respect towards such as they hope to draw in to be their Customers Yea the proudest Dealer knows how to bow cringe and flatter if by this smooth way so contrary to his unhewed Temper he hopes to hook you into an unreasonable price for his Goods glorying at the same time and boasting of his Wit or rather Wickedness to make perhaps an Hundred Pound at the Years end of every Fool 's Penny For some silly Tradesmen take sometimes the liberty to lend this Character to such as thinking them honest men trust to their Words or pay them small Sums without taking their Receipts wherein they are not so much in the wrong as one would imagine at first for considering their daily knavish and deceitful proceedings with honest and well-meaning men 't is the height of Folly to deal with them but upon a supposition of their being all what some of 'em really are down right Knaves whatever may be their pretences to and reiterated Protestations of Honesty Sincerity and fair
will not scruple to do me an ill one upon occasion because in their Opinion they cannot help the doing of it for whether they keep or break the Commandments of God this is never ascrib'd by them to choice but always to their irresistible Fate ARTICLE XXXII 1. The Impression of the foregoing Arguments upon Mens Vnderstandings 2. The Liberty of Adam and of his Posterity 3. The Benefit of the pretended Want of Free Will Some are so puzzl'd by the foregoing Arguments that they are forc'd to allow us a true liberty of doing good and evil and to confess upon all occasions That Man is and always was a Free Agent yet the Chief Freedom they seem to aim at is that of committing what Crime they please without the least Check of a Wounded Conscience since at the same time they maintain all our Actions to be Necessary because forsooth they are Voluntary as if a Horse for instance in the more probable Opinion of his not being a meer piece of Mechanism were a Free Agent upon this account That he goes on with all imaginable inclination to eat up the Hay or Oats in his view Such men ground this dangerous Opinion upon this false Supposition That we have lost the Liberty that Adam enjoyed and consequently that we have no Freedom at all to do good or evil to obey or not obey Which Mistake may easily be redress'd if we consider that Adam's Liberty consisted in this That he had the Power to do good and evil to obey or not obey with a greater Propensity of his Will if I may so say towards the good than towards the evil whereas we through his fault are born with a greater inclination to evil than good because of our Original and Hereditary Corruption But withal 't is certain that we are free in the foresaid manner to allow Teaching Preaching Advising Commanding to be of some use or other to Mankind or for some end or other For let men pretend what they please a real Necessity is inconsistent with the usefulness either of Counsel or Command as likewise with the Justice of him who punisheth me for what I could not avoid as for instance Is it reasonable that I should be punish'd for committing a Fornication that I could not resist And how could I resist the Temptation if I commit the Crime through an unavoidable Necessity as the Predestinarian Tribe teacheth us admitting this self-evident Contradiction That whatever is done voluntarily is done freely and yet necessarily at the same time Whereas the real Freedom upon which depends all the Morality or Immorality of our Actions is that and no other which excludes all Necessity To be short our present Condition notwithstanding the Fall of Adam is still this that We can freely do good or evil whereas the Elect in Heaven can do no evil and the Reprobates in Hell can do no good the former being upon that account most happy and the latter most unhappy while We are between both in a meer Capacity of being either by the good or bad use of our Free Will But since 't is so evident that we are free Agents or real Actors upon the Stage of this World and not meer Machines how comes it to pass that many and those too of good Reputation in the World for their good Life and Behaviour are of a contrary Opinion To this I answer That whatever other Rational Account those Gentlemen may give of themselves as to this Particular I shall venture to say That they are chiefly press'd to embrace this Doctrine by a Principle of Interest because how averse soever we may suppose them to be from Sin yet I question much if they scruple the committing of it when they consider themselves destitute of all Freedom of Indifferency and as necessary Agents unable to suspend their own Actions upon a full Concourse of all the required Conditions For a man of Sense must needs think himself guiltless in case he commits Robbery Fornication or Adultery if he once is perswaded that he was I do not say forc'd because we know the Sinner to be always willing but necessitated to commit such Crimes as the Enemies of Free Will do usually teach he is Wherein they give either too little scope to their Reason or too great scope to their Conscience by thus ridding themselves at once of all its troublesome Checks ARTICLE XXXIII 1. The Return of New Converts to Rome again 2. And why 3. The Power of Interest The foremention'd Doctrine against Free Will if believ'd may soon clear the Scruples of some late Converts to the Church of Rome who after they had liv'd a while among us went back to Aegypt again but they being generally of another Opinion must of necessity be misled by some other Principle And this sure can neither be the Weakness of the Protestant Arguments nor the Strength of the Popish ones which they cannot but know to be groundless and insufficient as being built upon Two false Suppositions viz. of the Universality and Infallibility of the Church of Rome The hardships then I fancy they suffer among us are sometimes so pinching that 't is not much to be wonder'd at if some of them resolve to turn Papists again rather than starve 'T is true we should chuse Death rather than conform to an Idolatrous Worship but as we are not sensible of our own strength so long as we live in Plenty 't is easie for a man in the actual possession of Two or Three Thousand Pounds of Yearly Revenue to pronounce such grave Christian Sentences while he is not afraid to be ever put to the Tryal which perhaps would discover his Weakness as well as that of some Romish Converts Nothing was so stout as St. Peter before he was tryed and till then he thought he could easily lay down his Life for his Saviour whom yet he very Cowardly denied at the first Challenge of a Servant-Maid Nothing I am confident is so real as the Conversion of most of them that come over to us from the Church of Rome because nothing can be so obvious as the Errours of that Church But yet Humane Frailty is so great that considering on the one hand our hardness to New Converts and on the other hand the fair Offers of their former Brethren either our Covetousness throws them into Despair or the Temporal Advantages proposed to 'em by the Church of Rome prevail with them to chuse rather to live Hypocrites among their Old Friends the Papists than starve in the Profession of the Truth among Protestants Thus an inconsiderable Temporal Interest makes sometimes a stronger impression upon mens minds than the very Eternal Welfare of their Souls ARTICLE XXXIV 1. That most Men act contrary to their Profess'd Principles 2. The best Popish Argument 3. If it be lawful to use Violence in order to force Men to consider of our Reasons in matters of Religion 'T is always upon some such account that most men not to