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3.330 without Exception? And do's the fame Reafon now tell you again, that there are many Things, which must be taken upon pure Revelation! Or do you call this Trusting to your private Judgment! You may as well fay, that a blind Man trufts to his own Eyes, when he follows his Guide. On the Contrary I call it Subjecting our private Judgment to the Revelation of God. I call it, as St Paul do's, captivating our Reafon and Understanding unto the Obedience of Faith. In a Word, I call it fubmitting in all matters of Faith to the Decifions of the Church. Because whatever I take rely upon Revelation, I take upon the Authority of the Church declaring fuch and fuch Mysteries to be Truths divinely reveal d. For the Church is then properly my Guide, and the Revelation of God is the Motive, upon which my Faith is built and my Reason acts no other Part than that of an entire Submission. So that the true and only Ufe we are here to make of our Reason is in this one Act of Judging, that it is most reasonable, that Men should fubmit to that Authority, which Chrift himself has eftablish'd. And upon this Head Faith is always rational, tho Reason can never discover, nor understand, nor explain the Myfteries propofed.

» G. My Lord, it would be as much against Reafon to deny thefe, as to deny there is any Coun» try in the World, or Star in the Firmament, which I had not feen. pag. 47.

L. Very right, Sr; pray go on. For with a little Practice you'l learn to fpeak. Truth.

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» G. And it would be much more unreasonable »to think there is nothing in the Nature of the infinite, which I did not comprehend; or because » that cannot be exprefs'd but in Words adapted to our Understanding, therefore to meafure his Nature by ours. And because Peter, James,

and

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John are three Men, therefore to think, Father, Son, c and Holy Ghoft must be three Gods, pag. 47. «

L. This, Sr, would be Denying the first Article of our Creed, and making Reafon dictate Blasphemy to us. Therefore we must take Care not to trust to it in every Thing without Exception.

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G. But when I lay three Perfons with Relation to a the Divine Trinity, there comes not fuch a Thought « in my Head as three Perfons of Men. But because « perfonal Actions are attributed to each of the Divine « three, therefore we call them Perfons. Which « Words the Scripture applies to God. Heb. 1. v. 3. « But it is only ad captum as the Schools fpeak. That is, condefcending to our Capacity, as when « God is faid to repent, to grieve, &c. it is not that « we should think it really fo; for that would be « contradictory to the Nature of God. But it con- « veys a Notion to us that we should act as if it « really were fo, that God were angry and grieved at our Sins, and would repent of the Bleffings he « has given or promised to us, if we take not Heed « to walk in the Ways, he has fet before us. p. 48. « L. Sr, tho you have exprefs'd yourself fomewhat odly, I am willing to put the beft Conftruction upon your Words, not doubting but you believe the incomprehenfible Mystery of the bleffed Trinity as we do which Deifts and Socinians deny: becaufe, fay they, it is a Contradiction to the firft Principle of Reafon; and they will have nothing to do with Revelation, but think themselves eafier without it.

G. They will not find it fo, when they confi- « der, that they are in no lefs Difficulties upon fol- « lowing their own Reason only. For Example. They « allow a first Caufe and Creator of all Things, be- « cause Nothing can make itself. And that firft Caufe « muft have a neceffary Being, and confequently from

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» all Eternity: And that Eternity is a Duration with"out Succeffion or Time, or having any Beginning ; wherein all is prefent without either paft, or to come.

This the Deift is forced to confefs upon the Con"viction of his Reafon. But he will not pretend to » have fo much as any Idea or Conception of what this Eternity is, or can be: Nor can he imagine a »Duration without Beginning, in which there is nothing past, nor any Thing to come. Nor can he exprefs this any otherwife than in Words of Time, which we must own are not at all proper, nor ap» plicable to it. The Word Beginning is inconfiftent with Eternity, and to fay before the Beginning is » a Contradiction. Here then the Deift is loft, and » must have. Recourfe to the fame Excufe, which he ridicules in Revelation. viz. that we cannot speak "properly of God, nor in other Words than belong to Men: And that therefore thefe Words → are not to be taken ftrictly, nor argued upon, nor Confequences drawn from them. For that would involve us in numberless Contradictions. And there is not an Objection, which the Deift or Socinian makes against the Doctrine of the Holy Tri"nity, the Incarnation, &c. but are of this Sort by Arguing from the Nature of Man to the Nature " of God, from the Perfons of the one to the Perfons » of the other, &c. which thefe Men of Reason think highly unreasonable in their own Cafe, as »to argue from Time to Eternity. pag. 49.

L. This, Sr, makes it plain to a Demonftration that they, who will needs truft to their own private Judgment in every Thing without Exception, muft unavoidably involve themselves in a Labyrinth of Errors' and Abfurdities, from which they can never extricate themselves. And it follows from it that in all Points of reveal'd Religion the fafeft, nay the only

rational Course we can take is to fubmit our private Fudgment to that Authority, which Christ himself has eftablish'd upon Earth; viz. his holy Church, which St Paul calls the Pillar and Ground of Truth.

As for Inftance, how can you convince any Man of the Inspiration of Scriptures but from the Authority of the Church? For if you will not build your Belief of it upon that Authority, I fee not what other Authority you can alledge for it.

G. Nor I neither. For I put it upon no Autho- « rity. It is Evidence, and not Authority, upon which « my Belief of Scriptures is founded. pag. 5o. «

§. 34.

Of the Infpiration of Scriptures. And whether our Be lief of it be founded upon Evidence excluding Authority.

G.

ADVERTISEMENT.

His Lordship's Answer in the Gentleman's Cafe ftated to what he faid laft, is fo remarkable a Piece of Nonfenfe, that the Gentleman himself gives him a civil Reprimand for it ; and go's on thus.

Authority and Evidence are two Things. If ce

I believe a Thing for your telling me fo « without any other Reason, then I believe it purely upon your Authority. But if a Man I never faw ce before makes a Thing very Evident to me, and « convinces my Reafon; I believe not then upon « his Authority: for he has none with me, but upon the Evidence he gives me. And what that Evi- ce dence is upon which we believe the holy Scriptures «

.34 is fet forth in a little Book, I had the Honour to prefent your Lordship, entitled the Truth of Chrif tianity demonftrated, &c, which was wrote to convince Deifts, who believe no Church, nor Church Authority. And if you have no other Evidence but the Authority of your Church to prove the Truth of Scriptures, I fee not how you will convince a Dei, who denies both.

» But if I tell him that I believe the Scriptures, and the Facts therein related upon the fame and much stronger Evidence than I have for Believing that there was fuch a Man as Alexander or » Cafar, that there is fuch a Town as Rome or Conftantinople, tho I was never there, yet I believe it not upon the Authority, far lefs the Infallibility of any Man or Number of Men, that tell me fo, » but from the Nature of the Evidence, which makes » it impoffible for Mankind to concert fuch a lie, or to carry it on without being detected: And if the Truth of Christianity, that is, of the Scriptures, » can be demonftrated, as plainly, as these other > Facts (which I think is done in the Book I mention'd) then a Deift must either be convinced of a confounded.

Now if you will let your Church come in as a Part of the Evidence of Christianity, she will not be refufed fo far as her Share go's. But upon her Authority, and upon her's alone, the Truth of Scriptures and Christianity will be a Jeft to the Deifts, » fince her Authority can be proved no otherwise than by Scriptures, and then back again the Scriptures by her Authority, pag. 50. 51.

L. Sr, this is repeating the old thread- bare Objection concerning the Circle, whereof enough has already been faid. But as to what you fay concer ning your Christianity demonftrated I have read it with