Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	apostle_n	law_n	nature_n	2,266	5	6.2593	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96858	Gnōston tou Theou, k[a]i gnōston tou Christou, or, That which may be knovvn of God by the book of nature; and the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ by the Book of Scripture. Delivered at St Mary's in Oxford, by Edward Wood M.A. late proctor of the University and fellow of Merton Coll. Oxon. Published since his death by his brother A.W. M.A.	Wood, Edward, 1626 or 7-1655.; Wood, Anthony à, 1632-1695.	1656 (1656)	Wing W3387; Thomason E1648_1; ESTC R204118	76,854	234

extinguished in us as plainely appeares by the text yet so far was it dulled that we cannot by the remainders thereof either read the will of God or from it derive any comfort unto our selves For as by a dull and obscure taper we may perhaps view a body in grosse whereas we cannot through the weaknesse of the light scan each particular part of it why so here by this light of nature we may apprehend indeed God his worship in generall but we can never thereby dive more particularly into his will or those his attributes of grace pardoning mercy love unto us in Christ and the like which none can fully understād without faith in Christ in whom alone are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge Col. 2. vers 3. Wel then to draw to an head by comparing these our two estates together you may easily conceive what is meant by this naturall light or light of nature for it is nothing else but those common ordinary notions and conceits remaining in the minds and consciences of men concerning God and naturall goodnesse in the first verse it is called the truth because of those plaine convictions it hath upon the consciences of naturall men and therefore they that resist this light and walk not according unto its dictates are said to hold the truth in unrighteousnesse that is unjustly to stifle and keep under those apprehensions of God and goodnesse from appearing in their Lives or Actions And in the second of this Epistle and the thirteenth it is called the Law written in their hearts from the command awfull power it hath over the hearts of men in which it is engraven as with the point of a diamond and therefore Iamblicus an eminent Author calls it an inbred and immoveable notion Wee stile this light of nature common ordinary notions and conceipts common they are because they are congeniall and imbred in all men and ordinary because though all men naturally have some slight and catching conceipts at God yet they neither know aright who or what kind of God this is and therefore you may read Act. 17. vers 23. of an Altar amongst the Athenians inscribed Vnto the unknowne God and Christ said the Samaritans worshipped they knew not what Joh. 4. 22. Secondly we say that these notions remaine in the minds and consciences of men for first in the minds reside those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those speculative prime and fundamentall truths namely that there is a God that all effects have dependance upon some cause and the like And secondly because in the consciences of men reside those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those practicall and morall principles by which we conclude within our selves that since there is a God he is to be worshipped that we ought to do unto others as we would have them doe unto us that we ought to deale justly with all men and the like From whence it is that the Apostle saith of the Gentiles that they do by nature the things contained in the Law even the Gentiles have a naturall Law imprinted in their hearts by which they are carried unto those Common generall duties which concerne God and their neighbour which will further be cleered unto you if you consider with me the second point namely that this light of nature is in all men or rather thus that there are some Common notions of God and goodnesse imprinted in the hearts of all men even of the Gentiles There is no man so over dawbed with sin and filthynesse so benighted and overclouded with wretched ignorance but hath oftentimes the flashes and immediate representations of the Deity darting in upon him and there is noe man of soe debauched and loose a life so benummed and frozen affections but hath ever and anon the secret whips and girds of a conscience to restraine him together also with naturall Impressions of goodnesse to thaw and melt him into more ingenuity Now then that this light of nature First as it relates unto God is in all may appeare both by scripture and by reason as for scripture were there no other my text would be sufficient proof that that which may be known of God is manifest in them that is in the Gentiles and so consequently in all That which may be knowne of God whereby is implyed that there are some things concerning God above the pitch and kenne of this naturall light the mysteries indeed of the Trinity of the Incarnation of Christ and the like are Riddles unto nature neither can they ever be reacht unto by humane disquisition Yet it still remaineth certaine that that which may be knowne of God namely his being his omnipotence and the like is manifest in them In the 17. of the Acts vers 26 27 28. you may have another proofe for the Apostle there in his Sermon unto the Athenian Heathens shewing that God was not so far from them but that he might even Palpando inveniri as Beza translates it be groped after and easily found out By that little naturall light that was in them they might tracke the foot-steps of Divinity and haply find out in whom they lived moved and had their being And so in the Acts chap. 14. vers 17. 't is said that God left not himselfe without witnesse There is within us an inbred light as a domesticke Chaplaine continually to teach us and without us rain from heaven and fruitfull seasons as so many visible witnesses to take away ignorance and all excuse from us wherefore that of the Psalmist The foole hath said in his heart Psal 14. 1. must not be understood as if a wicked man for he is the foole here could quite obliterate and put out the light of nature and Knowledge of God in him for Atheisme can never find a perfect and continuall assent in the heart of man but onely that he so workes and lives without the feare of God as if he were fully perswaded that there were no God at all The reasons then to prove that the Knowledge of God is in all men Naturally may be many I shall name only two or three and let passe the common consent of all Nations Nulla gens tam barbara est saith Tully there is no nation so barbarous and destitute of Common reason as not to acknowledge a God to let passe also the Naturall discourses and ultimate resolutions of the minds of men into some Supreame cause and first Mover of all things 1. First the testimonies of the Heathens themselves do sufficiently evidence the truth 't is Pauls way of arguing with the Athenians as certaine also of your owne Poets have said we are also his Ofspring Acts 17. 28. He infers their knowledge of God and the truth of his worship from their owne mouthes and so may we also Plato calls a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a creature naturally religious and a worshiper of God yea himselfe hath written so Divinely and Reverently of God that many of the

Antients have gone about to prove him a Christian though Bernard truly and wittily saith whilst many would faine make Plato a Christian they prove themselves heathens It would be as endlesse as it is needlesse to produce here the severall testimonies which Heathen Authors do every where give to this truth some amongst them sealing it with their blood others every where professing it in their writings and however there have been some few amongst them who have denyed this truth yet I am perswaded their tongues went not along with their hearts T was more their desire that there should be no God then their opinion that there was none As guilty prisoners wish the death of their Judge onely because they conceive him to be the instrument of their condemnation in like manner these and such like men being conscious to themselves of their owne desperate wickednesse desire the not being of him whose Justice they well know must needes take notice of and severely punish their offences For secondly the Testimonies of their Consciences will easily declare that they have such a light and knowledge of God within them There is no man so great so absolute and independent from the command and beck of others but is sometimes awed and controled by a Power within his owne brest and those secret checks and lashes of Conscience upon the commission of some notorious offence must needes make the stoutest sinner confesse a power above him which he feares and a God unto whom he is accountable for all his Offences Hence the Apostle shewing the workes of the Law to be written in the Hearts of the Gentiles amplifies it further and addes this as a kind of a reason their consciences also bearing them witnesse and their thoughts in the meane while accusing or else excusing one another Rom. 2. vers 15. Thirdly the very multiplicity of the Heathenish Gods may as I suppose plainly shew that they had this indelible principle written in their hearts for though some of them had as many Gods as they had Onyons and Leekes in their gardens and though the Worship they ascribed unto these their Deities was as various as the severall nations and opinions of men were yet these their various Worships and Opinions of a God did plainely denote that a God it was whom they sought and hunted after for though they erred in particulars yet they all agreed in this Generall that a God there was As the water of the same fountaine may bee diversely spread into severall streames and eddyes yet all these severall streames eddyes fall into one sea so likewise though this principle of nature may flow and be divided into various opinions concerning God yet these various opinions doe all meete and concenter in this Generall notion and conceite of a God And therefore the Apostle saith that the Athenians did generally worship the true God under the false maske and Inscription they gave unto him of the Vnknowne God as you may see Acts 17. vers 23. But secondly this Light of Nature as it relates unto Naturall goodnesse is in all men Naturall goodnesse I say for as for that legall goodnesse which supposeth the righteousnesse of worke t is impossible for any sonne of Adam to have for by the deeds of the Law there shall be no flesh justified in his sight Rom. 3. 20. And as for that Evangelicall goodnesse which supposeth the righteousnesse of faith no unbeliever can pertake of it for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10. 17. It remaines then that the Gentiles onely had and still have the remainders of Naturall goodnesse alone left in them now that they had this will better appeare by distinguishing of Naturall goodnesse which is either civill or morrall civill goodnesse I shall define to be that inbred propension in all men to maintaine societies and naturall life This certainly was and at this day is in the Heathens themselves from whence else have proceeded those excellent positive Lawes and Constitutions of Solon Draco and others by which as by so many sinewes and ligaments Common-wealths hath bin joyned and compacted together From whence those noble inventions and sciences of Physick Mathematick Astronomy and the like without which mans life would be neither comfortable not delightfull From whence those inferiour Mechanicall arts by which rude and undigested things are curiously modified and prepared for the use of man From whence are these I say and many of the like nature but from that inbred Naturall Life of Goodnesse in man guiding and directing him unto the common Publique good of humane society Hence we read of Jaball and Juball and Tuball-Cain Gen. 4. cunning artificers and curious inventors which yet notwithstanding were all meer naturall men of the cursed race and without the Covenant Church of God The second sort of naturall goodnesse may be called morall it consists as I conceive in a mans obedience unto the dictates of reason in embracing vertue voiding vice That the Gentiles were thus morally good those admirable examples of their Justice Fortitude Temperance and other the like vertues do sufficiently declare Some of them being so exactly rigorous in administring of Justice that they have not spared their owne sons offending some againe devoting themselves and exposing their owne throats to the sword for the good of their country Others so Abstemious and Temperate that in the greatest feasts of their Princes they have not so much as touched any wine Others so Chast that they have not admitted into their sight any object that might provoke them unto lust It were easie here to make a particular induction through all the Commandements of the second Table and prove unto you as aswell by instances of Scripture as from prophane authors how that the Gentiles by their exact outward conformity unto reason evidently shewed the worke of the Law to be written in their hearts But examples of this kind are infinite and not onely examples but precepts also for what excellent rules do they every where prescribe for the steering and directing a man in the paths of Vertue What grave and sage precepts eschewing of evill embracing of good We must indeed confesse that these grave precepts these excellent rules however in generall knowne and prescribed were yet notwithstanding when they came particularly to be applyed oftentimes little used or made good by the practise of their owne Authors such was that over-ruling power of Passion in the strictest Professors that some of them have lived in the common practice of those vices which their judgements otherwise have disallowed as we may read concerning Aristotle then whom no one hath more commended chastity and yet so little did he observe his own rules that he would faine make a Goddesse of his impure strumpet and so Canonize his owne lusts Who writ more divinely concerning the contempt of the world then Seneca and yet who a greater worldling who more covetous then himselfe as both

togeither their letters read God in a monstrous prodigious manner and become vaine in their imaginations and their foolish hearts were darkened Rom. 1. As men that read in an old moth-eaten broken manuscript may easily mistake the originall meaning so methinks the Gentiles having nothing to study God in but the dull and darke print of the Creatures presently fell into grosse mistakes and multitudes of errors concerning him for they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto coruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things Rom. 1. v. 23. but now Christ is so cleer a representation of his Father that if we know him aright we cannot mistake God at all He and his Father are one so that you may comprehend and know him as it were for he that seeth him seeth the Father and he that cometh to him cometh to the Father as in St John 't is every where exprest 2. This knowledge of Christ discovers our selves also unto our selves the knowledge of our selves is one of the best and most divine knowledge that is Ecaelo descendit the heathen could say now we cannot know Christ aright but we must know our selves also know in what a miserable and wretched estate we are without him how vile and loathsome we are in our own natures how base and worthlesse our best performances how ugly and deformed our persons and our services are in the eyes of God As when the beames of the Sunne come into a roome they discover all the dust and filthinesse in the roome so when Christ beames in upon the soule the filthinesse and corruption of our hearts and lives doe straight way appeare we then see what a horrid thing sinne is that put so blessed a Saviour to so cruell a death we see what a cursed slavery we are all in by nature to the law to sinne to Satan till the Son doth make us free before we know Christ the Divell doth cast a mist before our eyes so hood-winks our soules that we cannot see where we are what we are or whither we are going till he takes the veile from off our eyes and then by our present light we know what it was to be in darkenesse Through Grace we know what sinne is how to debase our selves and advance Christ First Is it so that the knowledge of Vse Christ is the most excellent knowledge more to be desired then gold yea then most fine gold more pretious then Rubies is it the glory of a Christian to be more perfect in this to teach this to learne this then it should reprove all those who make not this the main end scope of their studies and endeavours As 1. Such carnall dispensers of the Word that use rather to speak in enticing words of mans wisedome then in demonstration of the Spirit and power and that dresse their discourses in the Apish foolish conceptions of mans wit neglecting in the meane while the sacred Word which alone is able to make both themselves and their Auditours wise unto Salvation such in the language of S. Paul doe make the Crosse of Christ of none effect 1 Cor. 1. 17. whilst they labour to possesse men with the love of their affected streines more then with the naked and simple truth of the Gospell and therefore the good Apostle professeth that he did determine to know nothing amongst the Corinthians save Jesus Christ and him crucifyed He could have flaunted as well as the best of those seducers and have trimmed his speeches with as much elegancy as any but saith he away with such trash to the herd of mankind that had rather feed upon such husks then the bread of life let others vaunt as they please and you expect what you will from me yet this is my resolution not to know any thing saving Jesus Christ and therefore exceedingly to be blamed are all they that contrary to his Word preach to the eare and not unto the heart seek rather to gratify the sensuall corrupt affections of men then to implant in them the saving knowledge of Christ O beloved we are to deale with the soules of men to rescue them from Hell and to pluck them out of the paws of the Divell by whom they are led captive We meet againe too too often with poor ignorant wretches to instruct who scarce know whether there be any Christ any Holy Ghost more-over we are not to deale with flesh and blood but with principalityes and powers the lusts of men they are to be blasted and beaten down by us the consciences of men to be wrought upon and satisfied sins to be convicted the righteousnesse of Christ to be pressed the Crosse of Christ which is foolishnesse to the world to be preached this is our labour this our worke what need we then to daube with untempered morter and to mixe humane inventions with sacred truths why is that zealous thirst after applause and to set up our selves more then our Saviour why is it then men desire oftentimes more to display their own reading then the knowledge of Christ and him crucifyed not as if there were no use of humane learning in the mystery of the Word Paul himselfe made use of a Poet to convince the Athenians Act. 17. nor doe we speake this to countenance those that doe the worke of the Lord negligently and bring the lame saplesse undigested notions to this sacrifice doubtlesse God that requires the whole man requires the braine as well as the heart in this service and he gives us talents not to lay up in a napkin but to bring themforth as occasion shall require for his Glory and the Churches good we all know by sad experience into what disorders and inconveniences the contempt of secular learning hath brought many giddy soules of this Nation and how prostituted and disregarded the carelesse management and wanton itch of preaching hath made the office of the ministry O that God would be pleased to convince all of us especially the forward youth of this University of the tremendous burthen that lyes upon the shoulders of a Minister Opus Angelis formidandum but to return I say we do not hereby discountenance learning or learned and painfull preaching especially in due place and time but only we ought to take heed that Hagar doe not justle out Sarah that the handmaid secular learning doe not take place in our affections above the free woman the knowledge of Christ that our Sermons savour not more of learning then of grace and that our designe be not to get more admirers of our parts then Disciples of Christ 2. This would reprove all those in generall that are more in love with humane knowledge then that the knowledge of Christ are more taken with an Aristotle a Plato perhaps a Romance or play-booke then a Prophet or an Apostle suffering in the mean while poor illiterate men to rise up and carry away Heaven from them whilst they

his goodnesse to us that in the middest of judgements he remembred mercy and though by reason of sinne he might have deprived us of the very foot-steps and reliques of Naturall Goodnesse yet hath it pleased him still to lend us so much light as may be a witnesse unto himselfe and a Pole-star as it were to direct us in the paths of Goodnesse and Civility Admirable hath beene the effects which even this light hath produced from meere naturall men those rationall discourses and deep searchings into the bowels of nature those sublime and raised speculations in things Philosophicall those rare examples of Temperance Sobriety and Justice and what not amongst the very Heathens those curious inventions of Arts and Sciences their civill deportment and exact conformity unto the lawes and constitutions of their Superiours What are all these I say and many of the like nature but products and rayes of this Light But now as water the further it is from the fountaine the lesse pure and wholsome is it so that strength of Reason in the Heathen Philosophers by how much the more it wanders from God the Authour of it by so much the more deadly and poysonous was it unto them God did manifest unto the Gentiles many usefull and excellent things but saith the Apostle they glorified him not as God neither were thankfull but became vaine in their Imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned Marke the evill fruits of unthankfulnesse they did not acknowledge the Author of these gifts in them and what followed they became Vaine in their reasonings or disputations when God did once leave them unto their owne braines whereunto they ascribed all their learning What silly simple conclusions did they frame concerning him some even of their wisest denying his Providence others againe thinking forsooth that the management of the world would be too great a labour for One God devided the burden betweene Multitudes of them Jupiter Pluto Neptune and I know not whom of their owne stamp and making so strangely was their reasons infatuated that though they professed themselves to be wise yet they became fooles and changed the glory of the incorruptible God c. Wherefore it mightily concernes every one of us in speciall whom God hath advanced above the rude and ignorant multitude to ascribe all our parts and learning unto God as the Author of every good and perfect gift who as he can instill the greatest Knowledge into the dullest piece of earth so can he infatuate and destroy the wisdome of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent Let not then the wise man glory in his wisedome Alas without Gods blessing 't will prove unto him as one saith but as the pretious stone in a toad's head rather a disease then an ornament and as he said falsly of Paul we may say truly of many men that much learning hath made them mad for there may be a kind of rationall madnesse a man may cum ratione insanire and that when being unthankfull unto God for what he hath he makes his learning the fuell of his pride and so by his reason argueth himselfe into hell Remember the miserable end of Herod a wise and eloquent man without doubt for such did the plaudit of the people after his oration proclaime him to be and yet he was eaten up of wormes Why because saith the Text he gave not God the glory We are apt to ascribe all our wit and learning unto our owne reasons and inventions but take heed God resisteth the proud he can by one blast of his displeasure enfeeble and weaken the powers of the soule besott and infatuate the strongest judgement befoole and benumme the quickest wit he can send an Apoplexy upon thee to take away thy Memory as Pliny somewhere reports of Messala Corvinus that after a sicknesse he forgot his owne name he can lay asleep our understanding in a Lethargie yea he can in the middest of our pride and unthankfulnesse dissolve into nothing by a sudden death all our arts and learning and then where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world 3. The consideration of that knowledge of God and those morall vertues in the very Gentiles should shame and reprove many amongst us who even amidst the glorious Light of the Holy Gospell do fall farre short of them There are many men even in the Christian world who out of a certain proud curiosity and damnable Scepticisme will call into question the very being of God and thinke they are then more learned when they contradict the unanimous consent and current of all men and there are others againe who out of an affected kind of Atheisme and that they might better practise their impieties do endeavour to suppresse and smother all thoughts arising in them of God Providence Resurrection Heaven and Hell The former of these you may terme the Speculative the latter the Practicall Atheist then whom saith Picus Mirandula there is no greater monster in the world The Scepticisme or rather Atheisme of the one their owne consciences in this world may undeceive the flames of Hell in the next will more fully resolve the desperate wickednesse of the other if unrepented of must expect by so much the severer censure of Gods wrath by how much the light they sin against is the greater For tell mee thou wretch whosoever thou art what Hell what flames shall be prepared for thee when an Ethnick Cato shall come and plead before that dreadfull Tribunall his equity and justice and thou a Christian Magistrate shall be arraigued for thy partiality and wrong dealing when a Plato shall present before God his studiousnesse and temperance and thou a Christian Scholar shalt be condemned for thy Idlenesse and drunkennesse when a Stoick shall stand before the throne with his precisenesse and strict living and thou a Protestant shalt shake in the apprehensions of thy former loosenesse and irregular walkings What shall I say when a poore Heathen who had nothing but the dimme snuffe of naturall light to direct him shall be pronounced more righteous thē thou who hast lived many yeares together under the bright beames and sunshine of the Gospell of Jesus Christ Be afraid then and confounded ye sinners in Zion you that dare so audaciously to commit those sinnes under the glorious aspect of the Gospell which those who had but the faint glimpses of the Deity would have startled at Be ashamed that any man should have occasion to cry out O Holy Socrates Holy Plato and O Devilish Christian O wicked Protestant Our engagements are now greater to serve God and our accounts will therefore be more heavy if we disobey him the times of former ignorance God winked at but now the axe is laid to the root of the tree Every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewen downe and cast into the fire 4. Fourthly and lastly the consideration of the Insufficiency of

this Light of nature to save the Gentiles should teach us First everlastingly to admire and adore the unfathomable judgments of God unto these Gentiles of old who suffered them to walke in their own wayes without any glimpses or knowledge of a Saviour that we might tremble at his deep stupendious dispensations towards these poore sinners and for ever extoll his mercies towards us in reserving us unto such glorious times as these of the Gospell are wherein the Mysteries of Christ are not so much as mussled up in Types and Figures as among the Jewes much lesse wholly wrapt up in darknesse and kept totally undiscovered as they were from the Gentiles but every where gloriously displaid and unfolded before our eyes And secondly it may teach us that neither Learning nor Morall Honesty can simply in themselves conduce any thing unto salvation for both these the Gentiles had in a very eminent manner and yet for ought we know they may be now frying in the slames of Hell First then not learning could a man with Solomon dive into the nature of all things even from the tallest Cedar to the lowest shrub could he speake in as many Languages as ever the severall builders of Babell did or did all the naturall wisdome of men and Angels concenter and meet in him yet by all these he is no nearer salvation then a begger or an Actour drest in Royall apparell is unto a throne Surgunt indocti c. t' is a common but true saying Illiterate ignorant men doe oftentimes rise up and carry away the Crowne of glory whilest we with all our learning sinke deeper into destruction Doubtlesse if Naturall Abilities could availe any thing unto salvation those infernall damned spirits had long since reobtained their Heavenly stations who yet notwithstanding all their primitive created wisdome or their now experimentall acquired knowledge are by reason of their sinne bound in chaines of eternall darknesse and are there still reserved unto the judgment of the great day I doe not come here to declaime against Humane Learning Friends I suppose it will find many even in this our age Enemies I am sure it hath none but the ignorant yet this we may safely say that without Grace t' is but enmity against God so far namely from attaining Heaven that it rather makes a man an instrument and weapon of Hell and Marshals sin as I may so speake in battle array against God For unlesse it be duely tempered and corrected with Grace there is I know not what secret poyson and malignity in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle expresseth it 1 Cor. 8. 1. to inflate and puffe men up to Avocate and take off the mind from heavenly meditations to bewitch and ensnare the heart with the name of applause credit of the world to throw the braine into strange contrivances and excessive cares and turmoyles how to preserve our reputation how to rise and grow great in the world how to promote Faction and Interest how finally to please men rather then God Whereas on the other side there may be no greater promoter of Gods Glory then a Sanctified Schollar for as in a Picture though the dark obscure Colours do adde no reall worth unto the more Orientall and bright ones yet they serve to commend set them forth in like manner though the supernaturall gifts graces of God may perhaps be nothing bettered by Humane Learning yet concurring in the same person they mutually adde lustre Ornament to one another Who a more meeke and pious man then Moses and yet he was Learned in all the Learning of the Egyptians Who more Zealous and fervent in the cause of God then Paul and yet he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel The summe of all is this Naturall Abilities sublimated and refined by Grace may much advance Gods Glory and our owne salvation but without faith and in themselves they cannot bring us one step forward in our way to Heaven nor set us above the pitch of Heathens Gentiles meere Naturall men And as Learning and Naturall Abilities cannot so neither can Morall Honesty or civill life lead us in themselves unto heaven A civill carriage a mild and humble behaviour temperance in dyet abstinence from outward grosse acts of Vice are things very commendable in themselves as tending much to the advancement of Humane Society to the removing of scandals amongst Brethren and to the avoiding of temporall judgments but then these and other the like vertues if they may be so termed a Cato a Scipio a meere Gentile may have and yet be in a damnable Estate Though a picture be never so exquisitely and curiously drawne yet it is still but a picture without life sense or motion and so though a man come never so neare a Saint in outward appearance yet he is but a man dead in sinne and without the life of Christ There may be in some men Politick and Secular Ends to bias them in outward goodnesse there may be in others Carnall Feare to restraine them from evill there may be also a kind of conformity to the Present fashion of Religion which may put a man upon a morose behaviour upon superficiall and outward acts of piety but then are not all these their Righteousnesses think you as filthy ragges when as they neither proceed from a right principle the spirit of life nor are performed in a right manner neither in sincerity nor true obedience nor directed unto a good end the Glory of God and edification of their neighbours So then from hence we may learne that neither the Heathen nor any else can attaine unto Heaven by all their Learning Vertues Morall Honesty or Goodnesse whatsoever ROM I. 20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world c. THus much shall suffice to be spoken concerning the light of Nature from this verse we shall shew you the knowledge we have of God from the Creatures Where you have 1. First the object knowne and that either generally set downe the invisible things of him or more particularly explained even his eternall power and Godhead Those invisible things of God are his eternall power and Godhead 2. Secondly here is the time when these invisible things began to be knowne from the creation of the world 3. Thirdly because all knowledge is originally founded in the Senses here is the outward instrument the sight are clearly seene and the inward instrument whereby we attaine this knowledge the understanding being understood And because no object in se much lesse invisible things can be seen without some medium to conveigh it unto the organ you have here 4. Fourthly the Species as I may so speake or meanes by which we come to see these invisible things the Creatures are clearly seene and understood by the things that are made 5. Fiftly and lastly here is the end why God did thus manifest this knowledge unto them viz. that they should be without