¢5 0 Of the Faith or Terfn'a/on Vol. 1I. viour taught, did refolveit felfinto this, Whether he was the MN,ejias, and Pent by God to teach thofe things ; which had they been fully fatisfied of, they could have made nodoubt of any thing that he taught. And here it will be proper to enquire,what is thehigheft degreeofaffurance which wecan have concerninga Divine Revelationmade to another, that it is fuch; whether it bean infallible affurance, or onlyan undoubted certainty. The difference between them is this; An infallibleaffurance is fuch as excludes all poffibility of Error and mil- take ; an Undoubted Certainty doth not exclude all poffability of Miftake, but only all juft and teafonable caufe why a prudent and confiderate man thould doubt. And the reafon why I make this Enquiry, is in order to be fatisfied of a clear And firmway for the Refolution of our Faithagainft the Papifts, who fay it is impofftble for us to give any fatisfafetory account of our Faith, becaufe we do fi- nally refolve it into fallible grounds, and Confequently our Faith muft be fallible, and Confequently cannot be Divine, becaufeall Divine Faith is infallible : for, fay they, when we enquire why you believe the Doétrines of Chrittian Religion ; You fey, Upon Divine Authority, or the Revelation of God in Scripture. This is granted ro be an infallible ground, if we can be infallibly affur'd that the Scrip- tures are a Divine Revelation; therefore they enquire in the fecond Place; Why do you believe the Scriptures to be a Divine Revelation ? We fay, becaufe the Perlons who deliver'd the Doétrines contain'd in them, had the greaten attctta- tion from cod, that they were imploy'd by him, to reveal and make known his Mind; and this atteftation was Miracles. But then they ask, What affurance have you that fuch Miracles were wrought ? Have you an infallible aflurance, or not ? If not,. then it cannot be a futficient ground for a Divine Faith, which is always infallible. In oppofition therefore to them, I fhall not now at- tempt to fhew the infufficiency of their way of refolving Faith ; but vindicate Ours as fufficient, by layingdown and proving, if I can, there Propofirions. I. That Infallibility is not Effential to Divine Faith, and neceffarily included in eheNotionof it ; which I prove thus. Divine Faith admits of Degrees, as I have 1hewed before:but there can be no Degree of Infallibility. Infallibility is an Impfli- bility of beingdeceived; but there areno Degrees of Impoffìbility; one.Thing is not more impoffìble thananother ; but all Things that are impoffible, are equally fo. 2. That the Affurance which we have of the Miracles wrought for the Con- firmation ofthe Gofpel, is not infallible Affurance. I lbew'd before that there are three Ways whereby we may be allured of Matter of Faâ, fuch as the Wor- king of Miracles is. Firfi, By our own Senfes. Secondly, By the Report of credible Witnefs. 7h1, dly, By credible Hiflory. But none of thefe Ways give us infallible Agri- ranee. That it is pofl'tbleour Senfes may deceive us, I think no body will deny ; and if fo, then the Teflimonyof Witnefi'es, and the Report of Hinory, which de- pends originally upon Senfes, may deceive us. I do not know a fourth Way whereby we may be affured of Matter of Faét. 3. That an undoubted Affurance of a Divine Revelation, that it is fuch, is as much as in reafon can be expe&ed. I deny not but that a Divine Revelation is an infallible Ground of Faith ; becaufe whatever God fays is infallibly true, and a Faith built upon a Divine Revelation would be infallible, if we could be infalli- bly allured that it is a Divine Revelation ; but that we cannot be without another Divine Revelation to affure us infallibly that this is one, and that other would re- quire a third, and fo without end, which being abfurd and unreafonable, it re- mains that an infallible Aflùrance of a Divine Revelation is impofüble; and con fequently, that we can haveno more than an undoubted Affurance; and this is as much as in reafon we can expect to have; for 'cis unreafonable to expeét that we fhould have any greater Affurance that fuch a Revelation is from God, than we have that there is a God ; becaufe that there is a God, is the firft and molt fundamental Principle of Religion, and it is unreafonable to expe& greater aflu rance of any thing in Religion, than we have of that which is the firft Principle of it. And indeed it is impoffible 5 for no Man can be infallibly affured, that a Revela-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=