OF FAITH AND REASON, AND THEIR DISTINCT PROVINCES.
1. Necessary to know their boundaries.
It has been above shown, 1. That we are of necessity ignorant, and want
knowledge of all sorts, where we want ideas. 2. That we are ignorant,
and want rational knowledge, where we want proofs. 3. That we want
certain knowledge and certainty, as far as we want clear and determined
specific ideas. 4. That we want probability to direct our assent in
matters where we have neither knowledge of our own nor testimony of
other men to bottom our reason upon. From these things thus premised, I
think we may come to lay down THE MEASURES AND BOUNDARIES BETWEEN FAITH
AND REASON: the want whereof may possibly have been the cause, if not of
great disorders, yet at least of great disputes, and perhaps mistakes
in the world. For till it be resolved how far we are to be guided by
reason, and how far by faith, we shall in vain dispute, and endeavour to
convince one another in matters of religion.
2. Faith and Reason, what, as contradistingushed.
I find every sect, as far as reason will help them, make use of it
gladly: and where it fails them, they cry out, It is matter of faith,
and above reason. And I do not see how they can argue with any one,
or ever convince a gainsayer who makes use of the same plea, without
setting down strict boundaries between faith and reason; which ought to
be the first point established in all questions where faith has anything
to do.
REASON, therefore, here, as contradistinguished to FAITH, I take to be
the discovery of the certainty or probability of such propositions or
truths, which the mind arrives at by deduction made from such ideas,
which it has got by the use of its natural faculties; viz. by sensation
or reflection.
FAITH, on the other side, is the assent to any proposition, not thus
made out by the deductions of reason, but upon the credit of
the proposer, as coming from God, in some extraordinary way of
communication. This way of discovering truths to men, we call
REVELATION.
3. First, No new simple Idea can be conveyed by traditional Revelation.
FIRST, Then I say, that NO MAN INSPIRED BY GOD CAN BY ANY REVELATION
COMMUNICATE TO OTHERS ANY NEW SIMPLE IDEAS WHICH THEY HAD NOT BEFORE
FROM SENSATION OR REFLECTION. For, whatsoever impressions he himself may
have from the immediate hand of God, this revelation, if it be of new
simple ideas, cannot be conveyed to another, either by words or any
other signs. Because words, by their immediate operation on us, cause no
other ideas but of their natural sounds: and it is by the custom of
using them for signs, that they excite and revive in our minds latent
ideas; but yet only such ideas as were there before. For words, seen or
heard, recal to our thoughts those ideas only which to us they have been
wont to be signs of, but cannot introduce any perfectly new, and
formerly unknown simple ideas. The same holds in all other signs; which
cannot signify to us things of which we have before never had any idea
at all.
Thus whatever things were discovered to St. Paul, when he was rapt up
into the third heaven; whatever new ideas his mind there received, all
the description he can make to others of that place, is only this, That
there are such things, 'as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath
it entered into the heart of man to conceive.' And supposing God should
discover to any one, supernaturally, a species of creatures inhabiting,
for example, Jupiter or Saturn, (for that it is possible there may be
such, nobody can deny,) which had six senses; and imprint on his mind
the ideas conveyed to theirs by that sixth sense: he could no more, by
words, produce in the minds of other men those ideas imprinted by that
sixth sense, than one of us could convey the idea of any colour, by the
sound of words, into a man who, having the other four senses perfect,
had always totally wanted the fifth, of seeing. For our simple ideas,
then, which are the foundation, and sole matter of all our notions and
knowledge, we must depend wholly on our reason, I mean our natural
faculties; and can by no means receive them, or any of them, from
traditional revelation. I say, TRADITIONAL REVELATION, in distinction to
ORIGINAL REVELATION. By the one, I mean that first impression which is
made immediately by God on the mind of any man, to which we cannot set
any bounds; and by the other, those impressions delivered over to others
in words, and the ordinary ways of conveying our conceptions one to
another.
4. Secondly, Traditional Revelation may make us know Propositions
knowable also by Reason, but not with the same Certainty that Reason
doth.
SECONDLY, I say that THE SAME TRUTHS MAY BE DISCOVERED, AND CONVEYED
DOWN FROM REVELATION, WHICH ARE DISCERNABLE TO US BY REASON, AND BY
THOSE IDEAS WE NATURALLY MAY HAVE. So God might, by revelation, discover
the truth of any proposition in Euclid; as well as men, by the natural
use of their faculties, come to make the discovery themselves. In all
things of this kind there is little need or use of revelation, God
having furnished us with natural and surer means to arrive at the
knowledge of them. For whatsoever truth we come to the clear discovery
of, from the knowledge and contemplation of our own ideas, will always
be certainer to us than those which are conveyed to us by TRADITIONAL
REVELATION. For the knowledge we have that this revelation came at first
from God, can never be so sure as the knowledge we have from the clear
and distinct perception of the agreement or disagreement of our own
ideas: v.g. if it were revealed some ages since, that the three angles
of a triangle were equal to two right ones, I might assent to the truth
of that proposition, upon the credit of the tradition, that it was
revealed: but that would never amount to so great a certainty as the
knowledge of it, upon the comparing and measuring my own ideas of two
right angles, and the three angles of a triangle. The like holds in
matter of fact knowable by our senses; v.g. the history of the deluge is
conveyed to us by writings which had their original from revelation: and
yet nobody, I think, will say he has as certain and clear a knowledge of
the flood as Noah, that saw it; or that he himself would have had, had
he then been alive and seen it. For he has no greater an assurance than
that of his senses, that it is writ in the book supposed writ by Moses
inspired: but he has not so great an assurance that Moses wrote that
book as if he had seen Moses write it. So that the assurance of its
being a revelation is less still than the assurance of his senses.
5. Even Original Revelation cannot be admitted against the clear Evidence
of Reason.
In propositions, then, whose certainty is built upon the clear
perception of the agreement or disagreement of our ideas, attained
either by immediate intuition, as in self-evident propositions, or
by evident deductions of reason in demonstrations we need not the
assistance of revelation, as necessary to gain our assent, and introduce
them into our minds. Because the natural ways of knowledge could settle
them there, or had done it already; which is the greatest assurance we
can possibly have of anything, unless where God immediately reveals it
to us: and there too our assurance can be no greater than our knowledge
is, that it IS a revelation from God. But yet nothing, I think, can,
under that title, shake or overrule plain knowledge; or rationally
prevail with any man to admit it for true, in a direct contradiction to
the clear evidence of his own understanding. For, since no evidence of
our faculties, by which we receive such revelations, can exceed, if
equal, the certainty of our intuitive knowledge, we can never receive
for a truth anything that is directly contrary to our clear and distinct
knowledge; v.g. the ideas of one body and one place do so clearly agree,
and the mind has so evident a perception of their agreement, that we can
never assent to a proposition that affirms the same body to be in two
distant places at once, however it should pretend to the authority of
a divine revelation: since the evidence, first, that we deceive not
ourselves, in ascribing it to God; secondly, that we understand it
right; can never be so great as the evidence of our own intuitive
knowledge, whereby we discern it impossible for the same body to be in
two places at once. And therefore NO PROPOSITION CAN BE RECEIVED FOR
DIVINE REVELATION, OR OBTAIN THE ASSENT DUE TO ALL SUCH, IF IT BE
CONTRADICTORY TO OUR CLEAR INTUITIVE KNOWLEDGE. Because this would be to
subvert the principles and foundations of all knowledge, evidence, and
assent whatsoever: and there would be left no difference between truth
and falsehood, no measures of credible and incredible in the world, if
doubtful propositions shall take place before self-evident; and what
we certainly know give way to what we may possibly be mistaken in. In
propositions therefore contrary to the clear perception of the agreement
or disagreement of any of our ideas, it will be in vain to urge them as
matters of faith. They cannot move our assent under that or any other
title whatsoever. For faith can never convince us of anything that
contradicts our knowledge. Because, though faith be founded on the
testimony of God (who cannot lie) revealing any proposition to us:
yet we cannot have an assurance of the truth of its being a divine
revelation greater than our own knowledge. Since the whole strength of
the certainty depends upon our knowledge that God revealed it; which,
in this case, where the proposition supposed revealed contradicts our
knowledge or reason, will always have this objection hanging to it, viz.
that we cannot tell how to conceive that to come from God, the bountiful
Author of our being, which, if received for true, must overturn all the
principles and foundations of knowledge he has given us; render all
our faculties useless; wholly destroy the most excellent part of his
workmanship, our understandings; and put a man in a condition wherein he
will have less light, less conduct than the beast that perisheth. For
if the mind of man can never have a clearer (and perhaps not so clear)
evidence of anything to be a divine revelation, as it has of the
principles of its own reason, it can never have a ground to quit the
clear evidence of its reason, to give a place to a proposition, whose
revelation has not a greater evidence than those principles have.
6. Traditional Revelation much less.
Thus far a man has use of reason, and ought to hearken to it, even in
immediate and original revelation, where it is supposed to be made to
himself. But to all those who pretend not to immediate revelation, but
are required to pay obedience, and to receive the truths revealed to
others, which, by the tradition of writings, or word of mouth, are
conveyed down to them, reason has a great deal more to do, and is that
only which can induce us to receive them. For matter of faith being only
divine revelation, and nothing else, faith, as we use the word, (called
commonly DIVINE FAITH), has to do with no propositions, but those which
are supposed to be divinely revealed. So that I do not see how those who
make revelation alone the sole object of faith can say, That it is a
matter of faith, and not of reason, to believe that such or such
a proposition, to be found in such or such a book, is of divine
inspiration; unless it be revealed that that proposition, or all in that
book, was communicated by divine inspiration. Without such a revelation,
the believing, or not believing, that proposition, or book, to be of
divine authority, can never be matter of faith, but matter of reason;
and such as I must come to an assent to only by the use of my reason,
which can never require or enable me to believe that which is contrary
to itself: it being impossible for reason ever to procure any assent to
that which to itself appears unreasonable.
In all things, therefore, where we have clear evidence from our ideas,
and those principles of knowledge I have above mentioned, reason is the
proper judge; and revelation, though it may, in consenting with it,
confirm its dictates, yet cannot in such cases invalidate its decrees:
nor can we be obliged, where we have the clear and evident sentence of
reason, to quit it for the contrary opinion, under a pretence that it is
matter of faith: which can have no authority against the plain and clear
dictates of reason.
7. Thirdly, things above Reason are, when revealed, the proper matter of
faith.
But, THIRDLY, There being many things wherein we have very imperfect
notions, or none at all; and other things, of whose past, present, or
future existence, by the natural use of our faculties, we can have no
knowledge at all; these, as being beyond the discovery of our natural
faculties, and ABOVE REASON, are, when revealed, THE PROPER MATTER OF
FAITH. Thus, that part of the angels rebelled against God, and thereby
lost their first happy state: and that the dead shall rise, and live
again: these and the like, being beyond the discovery of reason, are
purely matters of faith, with which reason has directly nothing to do.
8. Or not contrary to Reason, if revealed, are Matter of Faith; and must
carry it against probable conjectures of Reason.
But since God, in giving us the light of reason, has not thereby tied
up his own hands from affording us, when he thinks fit, the light of
revelation in any of those matters wherein our natural faculties are
able to give a probable determination; REVELATION, where God has been
pleased to give it, MUST CARRY IT AGAINST THE PROBABLE CONJECTURES OF
REASON. Because the mind not being certain of the truth of that it does
not evidently know, but only yielding to the probability that appears
in it, is bound to give up its assent to such a testimony which, it is
satisfied, comes from one who cannot err, and will not deceive. But
yet, it still belongs to reason to judge of the truth of its being
a revelation, and of the signification of the words wherein it is
delivered. Indeed, if anything shall be thought revelation which is
contrary to the plain principles of reason, and the evident knowledge
the mind has of its own clear and distinct ideas; there reason must be
hearkened to, as to a matter within its province. Since a man can never
have so certain a knowledge, that a proposition which contradicts
the clear principles and evidence of his own knowledge was divinely
revealed, or that he understands the words rightly wherein it is
delivered, as he has that the contrary is true, and so is bound to
consider and judge of it as a matter of reason, and not swallow it,
without examination, as a matter of faith.
9. Revelation in Matters where Reason cannot judge, or but probably,
ought to be hearkened to.
First, Whatever proposition is revealed, of whose truth our mind, by its
natural faculties and notions, cannot judge, that is purely matter of
faith, and above reason.
Secondly, All propositions whereof the mind, by the use of its natural
faculties, can come to determine and judge, from naturally acquired
ideas, are matter of reason; with this difference still, that, in those
concerning which it has but an uncertain evidence, and so is persuaded
of their truth only upon probable grounds, which still admit a
possibility of the contrary to be true, without doing violence to the
certain evidence of its own knowledge, and overturning the principles of
all reason; in such probable propositions, I say, an evident revelation
ought to determine our assent, even against probability. For where the
principles of reason have not evidenced a proposition to be certainly
true or false, there clear revelation, as another principle of truth and
ground of assent, may determine; and so it may be matter of faith, and
be also above reason. Because reason, in that particular matter, being
able to reach no higher than probability, faith gave the determination
where reason came short; and revelation discovered on which side the
truth lay.
10. In Matters where Reason can afford certain Knowledge, that is to be
hearkened to.
Thus far the dominion of faith reaches, and that without any violence or
hindrance to reason; which is not injured or disturbed, but assisted and
improved by new discoveries of truth, coming from the eternal fountain
of all knowledge. Whatever God hath revealed is certainly true: no doubt
can be made of it. This is the proper object of faith: but whether it be
a DIVINE revelation or no, reason must judge; which can never permit the
mind to reject a greater evidence to embrace what is less evident,
nor allow it to entertain probability in opposition to knowledge and
certainty. There can be no evidence that any traditional revelation is
of divine original, in the words we receive it, and in the sense we
understand it, so clear and so certain as that of the principles of
reason: and therefore NOTHING THAT IS CONTRARY TO, AND INCONSISTENT
WITH, THE CLEAR AND SELF-EVIDENT DICTATES OF REASON, HAS A RIGHT TO BE
URGED OR ASSENTED TO AS A MATTER OF FAITH, WHEREIN REASON HATH NOTHING
TO DO. Whatsoever is divine revelation, ought to overrule all our
opinions, prejudices, and interest, and hath a right to be received with
full assent. Such a submission as this, of our reason to faith, takes
not away the landmarks of knowledge: this shakes not the foundations
of reason, but leaves us that use of our faculties for which they were
given us.
11. If the Boundaries be not set between Faith and Reason, no Enthusiasm
or Extravagancy in Religion can be contradicted.
If the provinces of faith and reason are not kept distinct by these
boundaries, there will, in matters of religion, be no room for reason at
all; and those extravagant opinions and ceremonies that are to be found
in the several religions of the world will not deserve to be blamed.
For, to this crying up of faith in OPPOSITION to reason, we may, I
think, in good measure ascribe those absurdities that fill almost all
the religions which possess and divide mankind. For men having been
principled with an opinion, that they must not consult reason in the
things of religion, however apparently contradictory to common sense and
the very principles of all their knowledge, have let loose their fancies
and natural superstition; and have been by them led into so strange
opinions, and extravagant practices in religion, that a considerate man
cannot but stand amazed, at their follies, and judge them so far from
being acceptable to the great and wise God, that he cannot avoid
thinking them ridiculous and offensive to a sober good man. So that,
in effect, religion, which should most distinguish us from beasts,
and ought most peculiarly to elevate us, as rational creatures, above
brutes, is that wherein men often appear most irrational, and more
senseless than beasts themselves. CREDO, QUIA IMPOSSIBILE EST: I
believe, because it is impossible, might, in a good man, pass for a
sally of zeal; but would prove a very ill rule for men to choose their
opinions or religion by.