INTRODUCTION TO ASGILL'S DEFENCE UPON HIS EXPULSION FROM THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
EDIT. 1712.
P. 28.
For as every faith, or credit, that a man hath attained to, is the
result of some knowledge or other; so that whoever hath attained that
knowledge, hath that faith, (for whatever a man knows, he cannot but
believe:)
So this 'all faith' being the result of all knowledge,'tis easy to
conceive that whoever had once attained to all that knowledge, nothing
could be difficult to him.
This whole discussion on faith is one of the very few instances, in which Asgill has got out of his depth. According to all usage of words, science and faith are incompatible in relation to the same object; while, according to Asgill, faith is merely the power which science confers on the will. Asgill says,—What we know, we must believe. I retort,—What we only believe, we do not know. The 'minor' here is excluded by, not included in, the 'major'. Minors by difference of quantity are included in their majors; but minors by difference of quality are excluded by them, or superseded. Apply this to belief and science, or certain knowledge. On the confusion of the second, that is, minors by difference of quality, with the first, or minors by difference of quantity, rests Asgill's erroneous exposition of faith.