REMARKS UPON A TRACT INTITULED A TREATISE OF HUMANE REASON AND Upon Mr. Warren's late Defence of it By Sir George Blundell LONDON Printed for Jacob Tonson at the Judges Head in Chancery-Lane near Fleetstreet 1683. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER I Had no Intentions until lately to expose these REMARKS which were made in the year 76 for my privat Diversion to the Publick Censure of an Age so much distracted in Opinions but finding that the Approbation of this Treatise after some men's endeavours to refute it doth still remain in the minds of many upon whose Inclinations to Novelty it may be hoped that the Variety as well as force of Arguments may prevail to make a new Answer serviceable and seeing likewise the Enemies of the poor Protestant Religion encrease so much both in numbers and audacity as to attack it on every side by most graceless and inhumane attempts I thought it the Duty of an Orthodox tho' an unworthy Professor to put my Mite into the Corban to help to support it But if it shall be further objected that I have not well timed the publishing of these Remarks in regard the Author of the Treatise may possibly be dead to this I shall only answer That no Books in any Age have been priviledged from being Confuted or Suppressed after the death of their Authors if their Contents were offensive to our Laws or Religion REMARKS UPON A TREATISE OF HUMANE REASON To the Author of the Treatise SIR IN reading your Treatise I deal franckly with you I was much disappointed for I did expect a discourse of the Origen Nature and Conveyance of Humane Reason to all the Generations of Men and in order to this that you would have treated First Of its primitive Inspiration and Descent from God himself to Man at his Creation 2ly Of its Perspicacity and Extent in the state of Innocency 3ly Of its impaired Condition in Adam himself and the first Ages before many of those vices which so much weaken it now were practised in the world 4ly That you would by some new Ratiocinations have either confirmed that Opinion of the Conveyance of Humane Reason to all Adam's Posterity which is generally agreed on to be the best account or that you would have discovered some other more satisfactory to the Readers Since the most prevalent Opinion is That the Rational Soul doth not inherit this Degeneration etraduce or by descent but that it is a Spirit infused indued with greater purity and intelligence than can possibly be exerted in the humane Compositum as it is now stated from which some Scepticks take occasion to Cavil And lastly That for the benefit and amendment of men and the vindication of our best Faculty you would have made some acute and new Essay at least to remind us that the exercise of Humane Reason is so much obstructed and dulled by meer sloth in some and injured and depraved by passions and Vices in others that it seems to be fallen from the Glory and Splendor of the great Luminary in the Heavens to the small appearance of a Star in the Sky For such was the proportion which Rationality bore in the uncorrupted Nature of Man to that which is so much decayed and weakned not only by Adam's Fall but also by the faults and ill management of his degenerated Posterity ever since But in lieu of all this I find a peremptory Claim made and Pretensions to assert Humane Reason's Title not only to an Office of Inquisition but also to a Power Judicial in Divine Matters for in searching out it must likewise determine in its own Court as you style it which is the right Religion and upon this account that the Orthodox Christian who is or ought to be its Friend and Subject upon the best and truest foundation doth above all others deny it its due station and dominion but how valid this Title is and the consequent Accusation must be discovered by examining the ensuing Treatise In the first Page whereof you declare your inducement to make an inquiry into the nature and quality of your Religion to be the duty of your private Condition and that your interest in humane society was the Cause of your offering to the view of others the effects of that search which if beneficial to your self and others as upon the score of Charity we may suppose you believe by your publishing it is thanks and praise-worthy but if otherwise then upon a sight and acknowledgment of your mistake a true Repentance and all possible endeavours to prevent the spreading of your Errours is only pardonable In the 2d and 3d. Pages you have laid the foundation of all your opinion contained in the following Treatise if therefore upon examination this shall be found faulty your small Fabrick will with much more ease be totally demolished Here you acknowledge the History of Adam's Fall as it is stated in the Scriptures and the miserable Consequence of it upon him and his lapsed Posterity as to the great vitiating and blurring the eye-sight of our understandings that to use your own expression One had great need of a better eye-sight than is left us by the fall of our first Fore-father to guide us amongst many erroneous to the right way of Salvation I question not but this will be allowed you as Orthodox and if instead of your so anxious Debate and Consideration in the next place you had applyed your self to receive the directions and obey the Precepts contained in the rest of the Scripture according to the Principles of the Catholick Church they would have convinced you that Tradition Revelation Miracles and the Grace of the Holy Spirit which teacheth the right use of the rest are prepared by the Divine Providence as the best Pilots to steer your Reason in this dubious Voyage and would certainly have preserved you from so sudden a revolt from the Truth and so direct a Contradiction to your own Notion within four lines after by pitching upon your own Reason for that clear-sighted Guide which it self so much wanted before This is that irreparable flaw in your Foundation which causes the ruine of your whole Superstructure You have penned the next Clause darkly for a blind I suppose to the contradiction in the former If Reason takes such directions as it ought and may do before it sets forth If you mean those Directions which I mentioned before as indeed it may and ought then the subject of the Question is altogether lost for so Reason alone cannot be stated as the best Guide but if you mean such Directions as Natural Reason shall give it self then the same thing will both guide and be guided to the same end Now a Guide subject to such Incongruities as these cannot but bring you into Errors but not through them to happiness at last which in this Clause also you as incongruously as vainly assert In the next place you digress by bidding defiance to those many Enemies which you expect
commanded as agreeable to Truth and most conducible to his Honour and to the bond of Peace among men I hope this may convince any one who acknowledges Divine Revelation As to your subsequent Objection concerning the uncertainty in the interpretation of Scripture the Catholique Church declares that the Essentials of Faith and all things of necessary obedience are set down positively and plainly enough in the Scriptures for the understanding of all such who diligently observe them and make a right use of those aides which God hath prepared for that end Consistent with this also is our Divines asserting a literal and typical sence from a simple and a compound signification of the same Text This latter is applicable to the Types and Sacraments in the Old Testament which as they were of present use in the Worship of the Jews so it cannot be denyed but that they had a prospect and a reference to the coming of our Saviour And the same Text also may contain in it an Analogical Sence in relation to another and all this according to the intent of the Spirit of Unity that penned them which the same Divines will tell you hath ever been accounted the best medium to comprehend and preserve the harmony of Holy Writ Your next is such an Argument as was never heard of before I say that the Commands of God concerning Religion are equally obeyed and fulfilled by all the various kinds of obedience which the Consciences of men conceive themselves bound to pay unto them how erroneous or senceless soever for so your Assertion ought to be understood as if nonsence and error were as agreeable to his Divine Will and Pleasure as what is Right and the Truth Thus while your natural Guide bids defiance to all Authority of others it sets up its own and most stupidly out-faces God's own Declarations In the next place you would deduce from the Suns melting the Wax and hardning the Mud that Faith is properly one though according to the divers receptions of it it produceth not only divers but contrary effects That is that the same Faith may be the Cause of Godliness and Profaneness Piety and Irreligion of the true Worship and Idolatry the owning of one God and Polutheism and Atheism for all these lie couched under that futilous Sophism of contrary effects and your suitable similitude of a hard and soft temper but I hope I shall not need to Advertise any Reader that these inconsistent Notions are the effects of your new Humane Reason Page 40 41 42 43. you Phantastically accumulate inveighing Similitudes against too austere and uncharitable censuring of Members infirm or weak in matters of Faith but as they are altogether unapplicable to the Methods and Tenents of our Church as hath been made evident so neither are they in the least available for the defence of your Doctrine which by an extream on the other hand much more mischievous and destructive to all Order in Religion doth not admit of any Censures at all Page 44 45. How ever others as you guess with probability enough may accuse you of Pride and Vanity for attributing so much to your own reason yet I will not pretend to have so clear a sight into the whole Contexture of your Thoughts and Actions as to judge whether it was Pride and Vanity or humility and Charity most scandalously mistaken which induced you first to embrace and then to publish this Doctrine so absolutely new to the World but I hope I may without any tyrannical Assumption let you know that in my apprehension wise men will hardly be perswaded to allow that for a good natured or peaceable opinion which encourageth every one stubbornly and inhumanely to undertake to govern himself from within in opposition to all Authority and Example especially since the Creator hath instituted Subordination and Order for the prime and original Cement not only of all Societies Celestial and Terrestrial but also of the Fabrick of the material World As for your so often reiterated Accusation of such who claim an Infallibility for their Party by saying That who ever is not of my opinion is in the wrong and whoever is in the wrong is to perish eternally for his Error It cannot be at all applyed to the practice of the Protestant Church for which I am only concerned for that steers a rational and moderate Course betwixt the two Extreams of their Opinion and yours as hath been manifested before But let me remind you also that your Doctrine might more reasonably deserve the Encomium you give it in this Paragraph for allowing its Disciples to lay down an Opinion when Cause shall appear for so doing if it did also advise them to renounce the Guide that brought them into it which is all the reason in the World Page 46 47. As to your Quarrel with Mr. Hobbs I am not concerned to maintain his Opinions or to reconcile them with yours yet in my weak apprehension you will find it a Task too hard for your Natural Reason to make good that Position by which you design his Defeat That men ought not to think those Worships dishonourable to God that are not practised by themselves For whoever shall hold this Assertion must either want sincerity and deceive their own Souls by practising one sort of Worship and approving of others or else they must believe that all sorts of Worship are right which are practised among men or that the Deity equally approves of both the right and the wrong all which is not only contradictory to Divine Revelation but also repugnant to the Fundamentals and Systems of all the Religions in the World and consequently your Doctrine by broaching an universal Dissention amongst all mortal Votaries would introduce a variety in Divine Worship more unaccountably ridiculous than any that ever was heard of in this or former Ages however you abuse them In the next place you alledge That if ignorant or malicious Physicians in this violent Fever did not apply new Heats instead of Julips they might by Writing Disputing Preaching and Living Charitably which is all the former reduce the World in a short time to its ancient healthful and natural temper But what Coherence or Alliance hath the natural temper of the World with its ancient and healthful state in Religion Therefore to make better sense of this Clause we will rectifie it thus That we allow Writing Preaching Disputing and living Charitably to be the chief outward means as well to Confute Errors in Notion as to reclaim evil Doers and so reduce the Christian World to the Primitive Integrity of Life and Purity of Doctrine But let me remind you though that the Exercise and Effects of these Performances chiefly depend upon Example and Authority both which your Doctrine most irrationally disavows neither can we possibly agree with you that this ancient and healthful Temper of the World was a general Idolatry among the Sons of men which within six Lines after you
affirm was the onely Religion for 4000 years O men O manners so barbarous Contradictions was never yet published by any one who was Master of common sense or had the least insight into the Accounts of prophane or sacred Story Page 50 to follow your abrupt tautological and prevaricating Periods you say you ought not to abstain from the Christian Worship among Pagans for fear lest their Mockery and Contempt should on a sudden you know not how Convert it into sin and blasphemy but all sober Christians will tell you that if you perform the true Christian Worship amongst Infidels with such Prudence and Decency as its own Nature and Principles and the Circumstances both of the time and place do require and they shall causlessly deride and blaspheme it the sin lies at their own doors and your endeavouring to promote the Honour of our Saviour by confessing him before men shall be rewarded with his Confessing you before his Father that is in Heaven Thus this Text as well as many more in the Scripture makes it plainly appear that the spreading or advancing of the outward Honour of God doth very much consist in the Opinion of others notwithstanding some Miscreants by their folly and prophaneness may abuse those things which most of all deserve to be approved and admired Page 51 52. You cannot with any pretence of Reason infer from your next instance of the difference betwixt the Capacity of men who judge thoughts according to outward appearances and actions and that of the Deity wholly an exertion of his Omniscience without any mediate and extrinsick means perfectly knows the Hearts of all Men that outward Worship is of so little concernment to the Honour of God that men may perform it by any Rituals or Ceremonies whatsoever or to use your own words they would find no more hurt from the use of different Ceremonies without any limitation than of different Tongues in the same City Now the purport of this inference is so immodest and impious that I dare not quote particular instances to quash and confute it but advise you to recollect your self from these Generals First that the chief end of Divine Worship here below is the magnifying Gods Honour in the Rational world for which purpose he hath distinguished mans Duty from Crimes Piety from Vice Prayers and Allelujahs from Cursing and Blasphemy and words and gestures of which External Worship consists are Characterized accordingly as outward evidences of both Whoever therefore shall dare to use Blasphemous or obscene Speeches or Actions in the Worship of the Deity which will undoubtedly come to pass when the Rabble are let loose to Natural Reason for their guide as the Abominations of the Gentiles have sufficiently manifested must certainly become Anathema to him and a much worse Barbarian to Christian Congregations than he that speaks in an unknown Tongue which you so justly Condemn as a Phantastical Usage in the Religion of the Papists Secondly I cannot but admire that Gods own Prescription of a Ceremonial Law in the Theocracy of the Jews as well as the general Usage of Primitive Christians doth not above all things Convince you that a consent in outward decency is both harmonious and necessary in Divine Worship Page 53. I had almost forgot one of your Metaphorical Instances As words are the Images of our thoughts so our thoughts are of the things themselves as well may differing thoughts truly represent the Worship of one God and his Son Jesus Christ as differing words can represent the same thoughts Not to create a Prolixity by a strict Examination of all the plain defects in this Comparison let it suffice to remind you that if mens practices in Adoration shall be agreeable to their several and unaccountable apprehensions and belief of a Deity which you require in your Disciples then the Worships of one God for they cannot be the same will be as different and inglorious as the injudicious and unbridled fancies of all the sorts of men can possibly invent and how suitable such a Confusion of Worships can be to the Nature and Purity of the only true God I leave the Reader to judge In the next place If the Expositions of learned men or the plain words of the Text are to be credited your taking humane Reason for a Guide in matters too high for it is the same Errour with that of the Greeks which St. Paul bids so high a defyance to in the beginning of his first Epistle to the Corinthians where upon the account of Grace supernaturally infused into his inward parts by the Divine Spirit enabling him to apprehend and believe the mystery of Christs Incarnation and Passion altogether hid from the best and clearest humane Reason as you well acknowledge page 57. he Condemns the Natural Moral and Political knowledge of the Philosophers Orators and Princes among them and seems upon that account to call it the Wisdom of the Princes of the World which plainly evinces that he intended this accusation against humane Wisdom in its truest State as it was different from the Spiritual knowledge of the Gospel declaring to them that the things which are not that is of no value amongst them viz. the Doctrine of the Gospel should confound the thing that are that is most highly esteemed by them which was humane Reason in its vigour as it was possessed by those persons great and learned in their generations as their Writings make manifest even to this day Page 58. Against the common Principles of Christianity you assert that for the discovery of Divine Truths Grace did not alter the Eye-sight of Humane Reason but only draw the object nearer to it Now the falsehood of this Opinion will in some measure appear First by examining your assertion upon a natural account in which experience informs you that the nearer those Objects approach whose appearances are too intense for the reception of the Organ the more they dazle and confound instead of being discerned as they are by the unqualified Optick the exact state of your Humane Reason in this Case according to the best Christian Principles But 2ly A more apt and genuine Confutation of your Error may be drawn from your own subsequent Instance of the new state of things which shall be revealed at the second Coming of our Saviour when our mortal Capacity shall receive such a qualification and change as shall enable it to behold and stand before that Grand Appearance And in Analogy to this as his Omnipotence then will make a preparative Change for the supporting of our Nature at that most high and amazing Tribunal so he administers his Grace now for the illuminating of our Minds to apprehend and embrace his Spiritual manifestation Page 59. Notwithstanding your great pretence to a peaceable allowance of every man's Opinion in matters of Religion you cannot forbear Carping at and assuming to Correct the Translation of the Bible but altogether without Cause for whoever Consults the Text will
side you know the doom of those who shall attempt to press it more open than they have set it but in them the Way is said to be streight and the Gate narrow and that few shall enter therein Is it not plain therefore that leaving the right and following your wrong and natural Guide you are brought into a streight between two excesses that to shun Austerity as you term it on the one side you are put upon that profane and wretched belief of an equal possibility for the Salvation of Turks Heathens and Jews with that of the Christians nay of Atheists themselves if there be any such now if you will believe the Scriptures the fool hath said in his heart there is no God And amongst the Heathen Philosophers not to mention single Instances the whole Sect of the Epicureans could be no less who whilest they could not track the Methods of Divine Power and Providence denyed the Deitie's Creation and his Government of the World After all therefore it seems much safer to suspend your belief concerning the Fate of those People who are out of the Pale of Christianity and leave them as you acknowledge some do in the hands of the Creator than to descant in the least on his extraordinary Disposals not revealed to our Understandings But above all how heretical and horrid is your Conceit about the possibility of the Salvation of Devils from the excessive kindness of the Judge which contradicts all Divine Declarations nor is there any colour on their part to plead either invincible Ignorance or the Merits of a Redeemer the two grand means even according to your own Doctrine for the obtaining of Pardon Thus you see to what extravagancies your Natural Reason is brought by a high Conceit and Partiality to its self under a pretence of Charity to the World As to your Discourse Page 33. That although Christ is the onely Source and Cause of Eternal Felicity yet you may very well believe that there are secret and wonderful ways by which God may be pleased to apply his Merits to Mankind besides those direct open and ordinary ones of Baptism and Confession let it suffice those ways are not revealed and therefore ought not to be pryed into by the Rules of Christianity Page 34. In defiance of the Churches Anathemaes you assert That all sorts of Christians shall be saved except their Lives disagree from their Doctrines which likewise is a Disobedience to their Reasons and this also you in effect have affirmed of men of the worst Religions for brevity sake Therefore I shall endeavour to answer them both together That it is obvious enough to those who have any insight into the vast differences in the profession of Christianity at large that many pass under the Title of Christians because they in general profess the Mission of the Messias yet hold many Tenents heretical and derogatory both to his Nature and Office and those Opinions as an additional mischief so much influence their Actions that they lead ill Lives suitable to the Errors of their Understandings And this also is most true of the strictest Professors of the worst Religions and it is observable that those sorts of men who after this manner oppose the Catholick Church and the Precepts of the Scriptures are such as pay too much Obedience to their Natural Reasons in Divine Matters the Instances are too frequent and obvious in all Ages to need particular Quotations Page 35. Your discovery and stating of Heresie is as insignificant as the rest of your Opinions for if any one shall stubbornly set up his own private Reason and Judgment against that of the Publick and shall upon that incompetent account broach Positions contrary to the Principles and Authority of the Catholick Church or Practice accordingly doubtless our Ecclesiastical Guides in these later Ages may pronounce the Censures of the Church against such persons according to the pattern of Primitive Governours who did as little as ours pretend to the Deities Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as you phrase it to have a perfect sight of the whole Contexture of mens thoughts and actions Lastly as to your feigned Law about Murder and its qualifying Circumstances to make the sentence Conditional I shall only answer that as a Comparison at best is no good argument of it self so neither can you deduce any from this for mens disobedience to the Church in matters of belief For the foundation of the Catholique Faith deduced from the Notions and Usage of Primitive times backed by the Scriptures is the highest accompt which the nature of the Subject is capable of therefore whoever it is proposed to may give their rational assent and is the best ground for an unqualified sentence upon all stubborn opposers Page 36. Thus much for Herisy as you say now for Schism but your way The remedy for that is the disease it self for Schism is defined to be a voluntary seperation from the Church upon a trivial account without any mention either of censure or connivance the first of which you say makes the other cures it but if this difinition be true then your individual Sects however allowed will be guilty of it after a most intolerable manner neither can your absolute Independency in affairs of Religion admit of any thing more than a civil Compliance in mens outward conversation but utterly ravels that continuity of Faith which is necessary to preserve that unity of the Church you your self mention nay should such a Licence be but admitted in Temporals in which Reasons Plea is much stronger to intitle it to an Independency than in matters of Religion it will utterly rase out all Society and Government in them as all order and communion in Spirituals You endeavour to reinforce this Argument for Independency in Religion from the great variety which God hath constituted in mans material parts their motions as if he may be delighted with no less variety not only in mans immaterial Parts but even in the most immaterial Actions of those Parts the Worship and Adoration of a Deity when the very nature of Truth and the Words of Holy Writ plainly informs us that it can be but one sutable to the unity of the object besides if a comparison altogether feigned by a wild supposition only without any demonstration betwixt beings of most dissimular natures may pass for an Argument what Proposition or Truth can be established among men Page 38. Of what weight or advantage to your Cause can you imagine your next Allegation can be that God without any distinction receives neither hurt nor advantage from the worship of man when this is a plain truth that his Essence indeed is not concerned at the operations of the Creature but his Glory is as it relates to the Creation and therefore for the magnifying of that here below he made man and instituted Divine Worship and hath expressed his delight in the uniformity of that devotion which himself hath