A26931:166
Full and easy satisfaction which is the true and safe religion in a conference…Full and easie satisfaction which is the true and safe religion in a conference…
Full and easy satisfaction which is the true and safe religion in a conference between D. a doubter, P. a papist, and R. a reformed Catholic Christian : in four parts ... / by Richard Baxter.Full and easie satisfaction which is the true and safe religion in a conference between D. a doubter, P. a papist, and R. a reformed Catholick Christian : in four parts ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Nev. Simmons, 1674
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The fifth Principle: That the Knowledge of things fully sensible hath more quieting, satisfying Evidence, than our Belief of supernatural Revelations alone, as made to us by a Prophet or Apostle: And that where all the sound senses of all men living do agree about their near and proper sensible object, there is the most satisfying Evidence of all.
R. I suppose that we are all agreed also in this principle.
P. As you word it we are: For our Divines distinguish of Evidence and Certainty: and are so far from saying that Faith hath more Evidence than Sense and Knowledge, that it is ordinary with them to say, that this is the difference between Faith and Knowledge, and that faith hath not Evidence: but yet it hath no less certainty.
R. Some men use words first to sport themselves out of their understandings, and then to use others ⟨p. 44⟩to the same game. Evidence is nothing but the Perceptibility or Cognoscibility of a thing: by which we call it Knowable; which is the Immediate necessary qualification of an Object of Knowledge. Certainty is either Objective, which is nothing but this same Cognoscibility or Evidence as in a satisfying degree: Or it is Subjective or Active, which is nothing but the Infallible or True, and quieting satisfactory knowledge of a Truth. Where the Certainty of Object and Act concur: For no man can be certain of a lye or untruth: For to be Certain, is to be certain that it is True: Those therefore would befool the world, who would persuade men, that a clear and confident perception of an untruth, or confident error, is Certainty. There may be Objective Truth and Certainty of the Matter, where there is not in us an Active or Subjective Certain Knowledge of it: But there can be no Active Certainty of an Objective Uncertainty, or certain Knowledge of a lye. Now if you mean that faith hath Objective Certainty without Evidence of Certainty, or Ascertaining Evidence, that is, but to say and unsay: It hath Certainty and no Certainty: For this Certainty and Evidence is all one. But if you mean that Faith hath an Active Subjective Certainty without an Objective Certainty in the Matter, you speak an impossibility and contradiction: as if you said, [I clearly see a thing invisible or without light.]