Christians to believe concerning this Point III. What ill Consequences can attend such a Faith First then I am to Enquire What it is that perplexes and obscures our Faith in the Holy Trinity For before I enter upon a distinct and particular Consideration of the Doctrine it self 't is necessary to point out some of the Principal Causes which have occasioned so many False Absurd and Ineffectual Expositions of it And they are these four The Prejudice and Bigottry of Men indiscreetly Pious The Vanity and Design of such as value themselves upon inventing New Notions or laughing at the Old ones The not discerning or considering the Bounds and Limits of our Knowledge And lastly An imprudent Choice of improper ways of Expression The two first of these have a general Influence upon all Religious Controversies but are more especially concerned in this For there 's never more room for Superstitious and Rigorous Impositions nor fairer Advantages for Cavilling and drawing absurd Consequences than where a Mystery is the Subject of Debate There are some who are apt to be concerned and cry out as if the very Foundations of all Religion were overturning when any particular Scheme or Notion they are fond of is called in Question On the other side I have no small Reason to believe there are several who strike at Christianity it self under the Pretence of bringing down the value of Mysteries And indeed if we consider the general Temper of Mankind 't is no wonder that there 's more Superstition and Infidelity in the World than True Religion For believing every thing and believing nothing a sudden Veneration or Contempt of whatsoever is proposed to us equally gratifie the lazy Inclinations of the Soul which loves an easie undisturbed course of Thoughts and is very difficultly brought to endure the Labour of Attention and Enquiry Nay of those who seem to have conquer'd this Trouble there are few who lay themselves out in a free and impartial search of Truth but are wholly employed in the pursuit of some Notion they have before-hand taken up and are resolved to maintain They are already determined what to believe and only seek out Arguments to Justifie or Recommend their Opinions to others How far these general Reflections are applicable to the present Case has been hinted already in the beginning of this Discourse where 't is very discernible from the Ways and Methods made use of for settling the Doctrine of the Trinity that Prejudice and Vanity a false Zeal and an ill-grounded Contempt have had a large share in the Management of this Controversie Another Reason why our Endeavours of Expounding this Point have been vain and unsuccessful is the want of discerning or considering the Bounds and Limits of our Knowledge from whence it comes to pass that oftentimes we strive to soar above our pitch and imagine we understand some things better than really we do But especially Men of abstracted Thinking are very apt to deceive themselves with false Idea's and are firmly perswaded they conceive things distinctly which they have but a confused Notion of As for instance It has been delivered down as the constant Faith of a long Succession of Eminent Philosophers that the whole Substance Nature and Essence of the Soul is wholly and entirely in all the Body considered together and wholly and entirely in every single Particle of it And this is a Notion which at first view has a great appearance of truth and clearness and is such as the Understanding readily closes with But if we would strictly and distinctly Examine our selves what we mean by those Terms I believe we should be able to give but a very obscure Account of our Opinion and at last be forced to confess we understand no more than this by them That the Soul is the Principle of all the Operations performed in the Body But so it sometimes happens that we are transported too far in our Enquiries after hidden Truths till we are lost in Speculation and vainly think to Fathom the depths of Knowledge and Wisdom without considering the shortness of our time Whereas we ought rather to examine and find out the Bounds of our Thoughts know the just extent and compass of our Understanding and then rest satisfied with what we are Capable of without desiring to know more than we can or pretending to know more than we do But further the Doctrine of the Trinity has suffered very much by the Discourses made about it upon another Account And that is that some of the Authors of such Discourses have imprudently made choice of improper ways of Expression Either perplexing plain Revelation too much with Philosophical Terms and Niceties or exposing the Faith to contempt by homely indecent Similies and disproportionate Comparisons Now to keep clear of all those Rocks I have discovered others to have split upon I have endeavoured what I could to deliver my self from Prejudice and confusion of Terms and to speak Justly and Intelligibly And not being yet prepossest in favour of any particular Explication the better to preserve my freedom of Examining the Subject in hand I have purposely forborn to search the Fathers Schoolmen or Fratres Poloni or read over any later Treatises concerning this Controversie while I was composing the present Essay resolving to consult nothing but Scripture and my own Natural Sentiments and draw all my Reflections from thence taking only such which easily and without constraint offered themselves 2. And thus having cleared the way and removed every thing which I thought might obstruct or misguide my Enquiries I come in the second place to consider the Doctrine it self and Faithfully and Impartially to Examine what is sufficient for Christians to believe concerning the Trinity or which is all one in this case what is necessary to be believed For certainly he believes enough and cannot in reason be taxed for a narrow defective Faith who believes as much as is required of him For the better proceeding in which Enquiry I shall lay down this as an evident Truth which every Man will grant me that nothing is necessary to be believed but 1. what 's possible to be believed and 2. what 's plainly revealed But here I would be understood as to the last part of the Assertion only of such matters which are known to us no other way than by Revelation For in several other cases I confess we may be obliged to believe meerly upon Humane Testimony Nay even Revelation it self as it is a matter of Fact claims our Assent upon no higher a ground But further I shall take this for granted too in a Protestant Country that Scripture is the only Standard of all Necessary Revealed Truths Neither in the present Instance is there any room for a Traditionary Faith For besides that all the Fathers and Ancient Writers ground their Expositions of the Trinity wholly upon Scripture I cannot conceive that the Subject is capable of a plainer Revelation as I shall endeavour to shew more
only as a Tryal and Exercise of our Faith and the more implicit that is the fuller do we express our trust and relyance upon God Nay farther There are those who do not scruple to say the more Contradictions the better the greater the Struggle and Opposition of Reason the greater is the Triumph and Merit of our Faith But there 's no likelihood of suppressing any of our Doubts or Disputes in Religion this way For besides the Natural Propension of the Soul to the search of Truth and the strong and impatient desire we have to know as much as ever we can of what immediately concerns us 't is generally and very justly look'd upon both as the Priviledge and Duty of Man to Enquire and Examine before he believes or judges and never give up his assent to any thing but upon Good and Rational Grounds And therefore 't would be a very hard thing to perswade the World to stifle and restrain so many Powerful Motives of Action But should they be farther prevailed upon to go directly contrary to their Reason 't would be much more difficult to Conquer the uneasiness of the Reluctance And indeed 't is well the difficulties of subduing the Understanding are too great to be master'd For a slight Reflection will serve to convince us that the necessary Consequences of a blind Resignation of Judgment would be far more Fatal to Christianity than all our present Divisions What Blasphemies and Contradictions may and have been imposed upon mens belief under the Venerable Name of Mysteries And how easie are Villainous Practices derived from an absurd Faith This is matter of common Observation and has brought a just Scandal upon a large Party of Christians and given occasion to Men of light undistinguishing Capacities to deny and scoff at the Saving Truths of the Gospel because they were accompanyed with a ridiculous mixture of Errors No doubt therefore we may and ought carefully to Examine the Faith and Principles we design for the Rule of our Lives and endeavour to understand all our Religion so far as to be able to Justifie it both to our Selves and Unbelievers We ought indeed to proceed with all the Caution and Humility imaginable and take a just Estimate of our Task and Abilities But to deny us the Liberty either of using or obeying our Reason is a suspicious as well as an unjust Restraint 2. There are others who call the Doctrine of the Trinity an Incomprehensible Mystery and yet are at a great deal of pains to bring it down to a Level with Humane Understanding and are all very earnest to have their own particular Explications acknowledged as necessary Articles of Faith But the number and disagreement of the Expositors plainly discover the vanity of such Pretences This has proved so unsuccessful a way that instead of uniting the different Judgments of Christians in one Point it has broke the Controversie into a Thousand more For Zeal and Opposition raising up a great many Assertors of the Common Belief and every one looking out for some new Terms and Modes of Speech which should be fuller and more expressive than those in Question the Differences and Disputes were by consequence proportionably multiplyed For the Terms and Forms of Speech made use of being capable of several sences and each of them attended with other Accessory Idea's Mistakes must necessarily arise and divers new Thoughts be suggested to such whose Heads were employed upon the same Subject And thus it came to pass that Defences and Vindications of the Orthodox Faith produced more Heresies Wherefore in all such Matters as these which are too big to be grasp'd we had better sit down contented with what we have firm hold of than tire our selves with vain Endeavours to take in more 'T would certainly be the truest and the safest way strictly to confine our selves to Scripture Expressions and never speak of Supernatural Things but in the Language of Revelation which being the proper Standard of all other words that shall be used on these Occasions 't is in vain to shift the Measure when there 's never another to be found which can or ought to reach farther It may however sometimes be necessary to change this Method and introduce New Terms to secure the True Faith against the False Interpretations of such as pervert Scripture For if Hereticks will make use of New Expressions to contradict the received Doctrine we must have New Terms to express the same Truth in in Opposition to their Heresie And in this case the Church may very reasonably require her Members to shew their steady continuance in the Ancient Faith by the use of such Terms as plainly infer their denyal of any later erroneous Inventions set up against it 3. There are a Third sort of Men in the World who pretend That there is no Mystery proposed to us as an Object of Faith and in order to make this of the Trinity appear to be none they bring a Cloud over the whole Bible and with strange forc'd Criticisms and Allegories give the very plainest Texts such an unusual Mysterious turn as neither the Language will bear nor is any ways consistent with the Design or Character of the Holy Writers But this is a very odd preposterous Method of Explaining Scripture by darkening a great part of it to illustrate the rest and as ridiculous a Project of healing Divisions as pulling down a whole side of standing Wall to mend a Breach And after all the Socinian Hypothesis seems to me to have more of Mystery and Contradiction to Natural Reason in it than what is objected to the Catholick Doctrine I am not for clogging the Faith nor multiplying Mysteries yet we ought not presently to deny what we do not understand but soberly and impartially consider how much we are able to Comprehend and how far we are obliged to Believe what we do not The Method therefore I design to observe in the following Discourse shall be different from any of those now mentioned I shall not go about to press Men to a Blind Veneration or Presumptuous Belief of any thing without Examination or in Defiance to Reason I shall not offer to impose any New Arbitrary Explications of my own upon other mens Consciences but confine my self wholly to the usual warranted Forms of Expression I will not wrest and strain Scripture to help out a Private Notion nor do any thing to betray the Just Rights and Priviledges of our Common Reason but carefully endeavour to distinguish How far the Doctrine of the Trinity is a Mystery and how far a Mystery may become an Object of Faith From whence I hope to make it appear that nothing hard or unreasonable is required of us by our Church for the belief of this Article In order to which I shall rank all my Reflections upon this Subject under these Three Heads of Enquiry I. What it is that perplexes and obscures our Faith in the Trinity II. What is sufficient for
fully in the following Discourse We are therefore in the first place to consider how far 't is possible to believe a Trinity and next to examine what the Scripture requires us to believe in this matter Now there are two Conditions requisite to make it possible for us to believe a thing 1. That we know the Terms of what we are to assent to 2. That it imply no contradiction to our former Knowledge such Knowledge I mean which is accompanied with Certainty and Evidence First then we can believe a thing no further than we understand the Terms in which it is proposed to us For Faith concerns only the truth and falshood of Propositions and the Terms of which a Proposition consists must be first understood before we can pronounce any thing concerning the Truth or Falshood of it which is nothing else but the agreement or disagreement of its Terms or the Idea's expressed by them If I have no Knowledge at all of the meaning of the terms used in a Proposition I cannot exercise any Act of my Understanding about it I cannot say I believe or disbelieve any thing my Soul is perfectly in the same state it was before without receiving any new Determination If I have but a general confused Notion of the Terms I can give only a general confused Assent to the Proposition So my Faith will always bear the same Proportion to my Knowledge of the Subject-matter to be believed To make this plainer by an Instance suppose I am required to believe that A. is equal to B. If I don't know either what A. or B. stands for or have no Notion of Equality I believe nothing more than I did before this was proposed to me I am not capable of any new determinate Act of Faith All that I can believe in this case can amount to no more than this That Something has some respect to something else that the Matter I am required to believe is affirmed by a Person of great Knowledge and Integrity who ought to be credited in what he says and therefore the Proposition here laid down is probably true in that sense the Author means And what am I the wiser for all this What addition is there made to my Faith or Knowledge by such a Proposition But farther suppose I know that A. and B. stand for two Lines and that by Equal Lines is meant Lines of the same length such Knowledge can produce only a general confused belief that there is some certain Line imaginable just of the same length with some other Line But if by A. and B. are meant two right Lines which are the sides of a given Triangle and I take a Mathematician's Word for it without demonstration that they are equal or of the same length this is a particular distinct Act of Faith by which I am satisfied of the Truth of something which I did not believe or know before From whence it follows that Terms and simple Idea's must be clearly and distinctly understood first before we can believe any thing particular of the respects and relations they bear to one another which is the only proper Object of Faith Another Condition necessary to render a thing capable of being believed is that it implies no Contradiction to our former Knowledge I cannot conceive how 't is possible to give our assent to any thing that contradicts the plain Dictates of our Reason and those evident Principles from whence we derive all our other Knowledge As for Example I do not see how any Authority of Revelation can overthrow the Truth of this Proposition That the Whole is bigger than any of its Parts For First I cannot more clearly and distinctly perceive any external Impressions made upon my Soul nor be more certain that such Impressions proceed from God than I can perceive and be assured that the Idea's I have of Whole and part bear this relation to one another Secondly The nature and constitution of things makes it impossible that this Proposition should be false for such and such Things or Notions being supposed such and such Habitudes and Respects must necessarily result from them So long therefore as I have the same Idea's of whole and part and the same Faculties of Perception I shall always perceive the same relation betwixt them And if my Idea's of whole and part were changed or a new Texture and Frame of Soul given me I should indeed perceive different relations betwixt these new Idea's but this would by no means destroy the Truth of my former Conceptions 't would still be certain according to the Idea's I had before of whole and part that the whole was bigger than any of its parts Which Idea's will always unalterably have the same relation to one another But Thirdly Was it possible this Proposition could be false considering only the nature of the things themselves the Nature of God furnishes us with other Arguments of the Truth and Certainty of it And 1st It is not consistent with the Justice Wisdom or Goodness of God to require us to believe that which according to the Frame and Make he has given us 't is impossible for us to believe For however some Men have advanced this absurd Paradox that God can make Contradictions true I am very certain that upon an impartial Trial of their Faculties they would find 't were perfectly out of their power to believe explicitly and in the common Sense of the Terms that a Part can be bigger than the Whole it is a Part of But 2dly Admitting it possible for us to be deceived in such Propositions which have a constant uniform and universal appearance of Truth and Evidence this would destroy all manner of Certainty and Knowledge and leave us wholly in Darkness Ignorance and Despair or which is more Injurious to the Divine Goodness to imagine under an absolute necessity of being deceived For 't is not only impossible for me to believe that such a Proposition as this That the VVhole is bigger than any of its Parts is false but I cannot deny my positive express assent to it as true The Light and Evidence in this Case is so clear and strong that I am not at Liberty so much as to suspend my Judgment 3dly 'T is Blasphemy to think that God can contradict himself and therefore right Reason being the Voice of God as well as Revelation they can never be directly contrary to one another Now to apply all this to the present Case suppose I am required to believe That One and the same God is Three different Persons I only suppose it here because I have not yet proved how far and in what sense we are obliged to believe a Trinity If this I say be the Proposition I am required to give my assent to 't is plain by what has been proved before that I can believe it no farther than the Terms of which it is made up are known and understood and the Idea's signified by them consistent In