fincere of the Arian perfuafion. They are heretics, but do not know that they are fo. In short, they are beretics in our judgment, not fo in their own; for they efteem themselves fuch good Catholics, that they even throw upon us the infamous charge of berefy. Such therefore as they are to us, we are to them. We know affuredly that they are injurious to the divine generation of the Son of God, in making him inferior to the Father. They, on the other hand, think us injurious to the Father, in believing them both equal. How they fhall be punished at the day of judgment for this their error, &c. no one can know except the Judge.

It may be proper to take Mr. K.'s argument, and

Mr. C.'s anfwer into re-confideration. "Herefies,

fays the former, would arise after the Apostles' “time, and after the writing of Scriptures: these "cannot be discovered, condemned, and avoided, "unless the Church be infallible; therefore there "must be a Church infallible." The fubstance of Mr. C.'s reply is, that "without any need of an “infallible guide," the great truths of the Gospel are difcoverable, and confequently herefies avoidable, by all fuch as "believe Scripture to be the “rule of faith :" and that with respect to those "obfcure places of Scripture," which Mr. K. tells us" contain matters of faith," we have nothing to do but "believe that the fense of them, whatsoever it "is, which was intended by God, is true," without being folicitous to avoid mistakes concerning them.

By

Α' Ν ΝΟΤΑΤΙΟ N S. 283

By this answer 'tis certain this celebrated disputant feems to lay his own faith rather open to fufpicion. For does he not admit what he might, and in fact ought to have contefted? Take them in the grofs, the "places of Scripture which contain matters of faith," are not by any means obfcure, but altogether plain and intelligible. I fpeak concerning the faith of the Church. What the sense of

cr

thefe places is, according to the established laws of interpretation, and according to the belief of the Christians of the firft ages, is a queftion, to the determination of which we furely need not have recourse to infallibility. Though therefore, with respect to paffages really ambiguous, or obscure, it will be a fafe and excellent rule, " to believe that "the fense of them, whatsoever it is, which was "intended by God, is true," yet it will be unfair, unreasonable, and unfafe to apply this rule to places which are no otherwife ambiguous, or obfcure, than as they "contain matters of faith;" especially when we remember how frequently, and how earnestly we are required to strive for the faith, to contend for the faith, and to examine and prove our own felves whether we be in the faith. Truth is not lefs truth because it is held in a Church that pretends not to be infallible. God only knows the bearts of the children of men: but at the fame time it will be no breach of charity to intimate, that every man fhould be fully perfuaded in his own mind,

that

that if he errs, his error is an error, not of his will, but of his understanding.

CHILLINGWORTH, part 1. c. 2. p. 90. TAYLOR'S Difc. on the Lib. of Propbefying, Sect. 2. p. 23, 42. POTTER'S Anf. to Char. Miftaken. Sect. 4. p. 119. WATERLAND'S Import. of the Doc. of the Trinity. p. 167. SALV. de Guber. 1. 5.

Page 14.(d) of infanity.] I cannot bring myself to recall these words by the high respect which on many accounts is due to the names of certain perfons, eminent for their ability, and fome of them for their piety too, who have advanced notions not a whit lefs eccentric or extravagant than these. The late worthy Bishop of Cloyne, who denied, or at least doubted the existence of matter, is not without his numerous admirers. In fact, he feems to have confounded all, though he has convinced none. But whatever purpose was intended to be ferved by fuch a doctrine, furely its real confequences must be detrimental to the caufe of Christianity. If all about us is mere mockery and illufion, the very foundations of all evidence, all faith, and all practice are undermined; nor will it be poffible to determine which pofition moft contradicts my fenfes, or offers moft violence to my conceptions, that which avers the non-existence of matter, or that which maintains the tranfubftantiation of it in the holy Sacrament. The followers of Mr. Habbes will be apt to laugh this notion to fcorn,

under

under a perfuafion that they deny, or doubt the existence of Spirit, and confequently of God, with a much better grace. It may be observed, with regard to both extremes, that there is no fuch thing as demonstrating beyond a poffibility of doubt, or contradiction. For, to use the words of an author

66

of the last century, "it is poffible that mathematical " evidence itself may be but a conftant undiscovera"ble delufion, which our nature is neceffarily and perpetually obnoxious unto, and that either fatally or fortuitoufly there has been in the "world time out of mind fuch a being as we call "Man, whofe effential property it is to be then "moft of all mistaken when he conceives a thing "maft evidently true." There is no fhutting the door against scepticism. We meet with doubters and difputers of all ages and nations. Marcus Antoninus makes mention of one Monimus, a Cynic philofopher, who averred that all is fancy, and that there. is abfolutely no fuch thing as a criterion of truth. Pyrrho, though not the firft fceptic, was famous enough to give an appellation to fcepticism. But notwithstanding all this, a man of fenfe and of common prudence will liften to rational evidence, and yield affent to moral certainty. He will foon be convinced upon enquiry, that both body and spirit exist, and that mind is neither matter nor motion that if chance, or nature, if you please,

made the world, it is that which preferves it too;

and

and may diffolve it; and, after its diffolution, may restore it to its original state, or reduce it to one infinitely worse than the present. This fure is at beft but uncomfortable philofophy. Not that I would hereby infinuate immorality to be neceffarily connected with infidelity. Plato diftinguished long ago between the "ranting" and fober atheist; and observed, that a man whose fentiments are impious may be virtuous from conftitution. Accordingly he very justly refolves atheism into not barely depravity of manners, but fometimes into an affectation of fingular wifdom.* One fource of atheifm in his opinion is, Αμαθια μαλα χαλεπη δοκεσα είναι μέγις» φρονή as, which is almost literally tranflated in the following words of the Apoftle, profeffing themselves to be wife, they became fools.

Dr. Cudworth feems unwarily to give fome advantage to the atheift, where he says, that "when "we affirm that God is incomprehenfible, we only "mean, that our imperfect minds cannot have "fuch a conception of his nature as doth perfectly "mafter, conquer, and fubdue that vaft object "under it, &c." The cafe is, we comprehend by our reason that God is, though not what he is, in refpect of his effence in the abftract. But that he is self-existent from all eternity, that he is a Spirit, that he is the Creator and Governor of the Univerfe, that he is all-perfect, are certain truths,

See Letters on Infidelity. p. 35.

notwithstanding