where and in what measure he pleaseth so that holy men partakers of the same Spirit in several degrees may err and mistake in some things and dissent one from another in matters that are not fundamental And thus we have given you some Rules to prevent mistakes touching the inward testimony and revelation of the Spirit of God It will not be amiss now to reflect a little yet without any rankor or bitterness against the persons of men upon their opinion that derogate from the Spirit of God and divine revelation and set up Reason as a Judge in matters of Religion and so resolve their Faith finally into Reason CHAP. XV. Briefly shewing when Reason is rightly used and when abused to the prejudice of the Spirits Testimony in the Scripture NO discreet rational man will deny the use of Reason in judging matters Civil and Religious in the sence formerly declared and proved If you will shew your self a man and not a beast a judicious understanding Christian and not a Child in knowledge and judgment then you must make use of your Reason in examining those matters that are propounded to you whether Civil or Religious but yet if you admit Reason to be the only Rule or Standard to measure the Mysteries of Faith by and to judge of and comprehend the most divine supernatural Doctrines and Truths of Christ then you ascribe too much to Reason and too little to the Spirit of God and Faith Eye hath not seen nor ear heard saith the Apostle neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him And as none know the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.9 11. The rational Creature is a competent Judge of things meerly rational but the spiritual man only in whom the Spirit of God dwelleth can rightly and spiritually discern and judge of things that are meerly spiritual and supernatural and therefore we must take heed that we confound not the Spirit and Faith of the Gospel with our natural Reason nor prejudice the divine Authority of the Scriptures by ascribing too much to Reason as we ought not to take from Reason that which is due to her in reference to divine matters First Then we acknowledge that Reason is the eye of mans Soul or that Organ which lets into his Soul that divine light and testimony of God which begets Faith and upon which Faith doth rest it self and into which it is finally resolved Reason is not the object on which our Faith resteth but that faculty which being sanctified takes in the light of Faith which leads us to Christ and the things that are heavenly and supernatural The judgment and determination of the Word of God inspired by the Spirit of God is that wherein we finally rest as the rule of our Faith and the light of divine Understanding and Reason sanctified is that whereby a Christian judgeth of spiritual things God in his Word speaks to reasonable Creatures not to brute beasts who by way of discourse weighing what goes before and what follows the Text and comparing Scripture with Scripture do come to a right understanding of the will and mind of God therefore we are commanded as men that have reason in us to search the Scriptures to try the Spirits and to judge what the Apostles say These are acts of Reason and Judgment by the help whereof we are enabled to give a sober rational account of our own Faith and to convince the Adversaries and gain-sayers If you be to deal with an Adversary that hates the Christian Religion how can you think to perswade him to Christianity unless you shew him a reason as indeed the Christian Religion is the wisest and most rational Religion If you say your Church is the true Church you must give a reason for it or else no discreet man will believe you seeing many pretend to the true Church that do not belong to it If you urge a Scripture for your opinion sober men will rationally judge whether it be agreeable to your sence and interpretation or not and accordingly will embrace or reject your opinion It concerns every man as he tenders the peace and salvation of his own soul to be certain of the truth of his Religion And seeing there are so many opinions and such variety of perswasions in the world touching matters of Religion we ought to consider which perswasion hath the best and surest grounds for it that we may with peace and safety venture our souls upon it Now this we cannot well do unless we make use of our Reason in comparing one thing with another that we may embrace the truth and reject error Secondly Though there are mysteries of Faith which Reason cannot comprehend yea in their proper nature they are contrary to the dictates of natural Reason Ex nihilo nihil fit saith Reason and Ex nihilo omnia fiunt saith Faith The dead cannot return again to life saith Reason Thy dead bones shall live again and this mortality shall put on immortality saith Faith yet the rational Soul of man being overpower'd and acted by a higher principle even by the Spirit of God sees the greatest reason in the world to believe these and all other divine supernatural mysteries and truths because the Scripture revealeth them to be of God and from God Is it not meet and reasonable and well becoming us that are rational Creatures to believe the God of Truth speaking to us in his Word though what he speaks seem never so unreasonable never so contrary to flesh and blood Yet Reason will tell us this That all that God speaks for from this pure Fountain can proceed nothing but pure streams is true and good divine and heavenly whatever our corruption saith to the contrary So then our Faith must be resolved into the divine truth and authority of Gods Word and our Reason captivated and subjected unto this higher principle to believe what we find revealed in the Scriptures because it is revealed and comes from the God of truth that cannot lye Thirdly As I have reason to believe all that God speaks in general as being the God of truth so I have reason also to believe in particular that the doctrine of Scripture is Gods revealed Mind and Will Nor is it sufficient to a well-grounded Faith for a man to say he believes all that God reveals to be true but he must also believe that the mysteries contained in the holy Scriptures are the things which God hath revealed for his salvation 'T is true according to the Judgment of our Divines that Faith may rightly be said to be a firm assent without evidence of many things in themselves which we do believe but yet the medium by force whereof we are drawn to believe must be evident unto us As now if I be asked by an enemy
of the Christian Religion Why I believe the Incarnation Death and Resurrection of Christ I answer Because Gods Word testifieth of them as things most certain and true If he ask me further How know you that God hath revealed these things I answer By infallible signs and testimonies from Heaven beyond all humane power as hath been shewed Chap. 12. of this Treatise by which mans reason may be convinced that those writings are of God and so I can prove that a Christian hath more reason for his Religion then any other whether Jew or Turk or Heathen Fourthly Though in these respects that have been mentioned our Reason may be of very good use in reference to spiritual and divine things yet we must not make our Reason the rule and measure of our Faith in matters that are beyond our Reason As for example there is a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead as the Scripture assures us Matth. 28.19 1 John 5.7 Shall I now reject this great Mystery because it corresponds not with the dictates of my Reason and Understanding and say with those self-will'd Socinians that because it is impossible to Reason that three should be one God therefore I will not believe this great Truth But only interpret it thus that these three agree in one and are one by consent of minds and wills for so a thousand men may be one And again If because I cannot conceive or comprehend by my Reason how Christ and his Father can be one in substance and essence therefore I will find out another interpretation which may agree with my Reason though it be contrary to the mind of God in the Scriptures and to the Articles of the Christian Faith Truly this is to set Reason in the Chair or Throne above the Spirit of God in the Scriptures and so the sacred Scripture or Divine testimony shall vail Bonnet to our Sense and Reason and not we to the Authority of God in his Word Now this is the practice of curious proud Wits who will not believe any thing be it never so sublime and mysterious unless forsooth it be made evident to their shallow understandings Hence it is that they consult with the dictates of Reason about the chiefest Articles of Faith and accordingly expound them or rather pervert them denying and rejecting the Person and Offices of Christ the Doctrine of satisfaction and propitiation by Christ the Resurrection of the same Individual body the absolute Decrees of God and other Mysteries of the like nature and so at length God leaving them to their own vain reasonings and the wicked imaginations of their own hearts they become meer Atheists Indeed every Christian as hath been said ought to give a Reason of the Faith and Hope that is in him but we must put a difference between giving a reason of our believing and a reason of the thing believed I believe the Doctrine of the Trinity That Christ is consubstantial and coessential with the Father that he was incarnate and born of a Virgin that Jacob was loved and Esau rejected before they had done either good or evil and the reason and ground of my belief is because the same is written in the infallible Word of God But now to demonstrate and evidence these high Truths and Mysteries to humane Reason from the nature of things or otherwise to disbelieve them this is a course destructive to the Christian Faith and Religion There are some things that are evident in themselves as the Principles of Geometry that every whole and entire thing is bigger then a part of it and the like But then there are other things that are not evident in themselves but are revealed and made known to us both that they are and what they are by a forreign medium without the compass of the things themselves Of this sort are all those things which we are perswaded of by the report of others and this is that certainty of knowledge which we have of things that are believed the truth of which in themselves appeareth not to us nor is seen of us And in this respect Faith is truly said to be an assent without evidence upon the credit of the Revealer In these things our Reason reacheth but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that such things are the Truth of God but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is hid from us we cannot shew a reason how such things should be Thus to tye our Faith to Reason and form our belief by the dictates of reason so as to refuse to believe any thing without evidence from the nature of the thing it self demonstrated and made known to our Reason argues much pride and self-confidence setting up our Reason above the Will of God * Against subjecting the Scripture to Reason revealed and arraigning the sacred Scriptures at the Bar of our Reason Now this is not to be admitted but to be rejected by all Christians and that upon these Grounds and Considerations First Because our Reason and Understandings are but weak and shallow in the knowledge of the Mysteries of Nature and we are much more ignorant and blind in the mysteries of Grace and in things that are divine and supernatural John 1.5 1 Cor. 1.19 20. 1 Cor. 2.11.14 1 Cor. 13.12 When the world by all its wisdom and reason knew not God in Christ It pleased God saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 1.21 by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe Yea not only in the men of the world but in the most eminent Saints there is still much blindness in their understandings and much perverseness in their wills and in the reasonings of their hearts against the Truths of God Now these vain and carnal and foolish reasonings of ours should be regulated and corrected by the Word of God Mans Reason should not presume to regulate the Word but the Word of God should regulate and correct mans Reason The Word is the rule and not our Reason for that which is to be regulated cannot be the rule to regulate Secondly To bring Scripture to the Bar of our Reason and so make Reason the Judge in divine mysteries is exceeding preposterous for this were to subordinate and make subject that which is much superiour to that which is far inferiour that which is perfect and without error to that which is imperfect and erroneous Now certainly that which is weak and corrupt is not fit to judge that which is holy and perfect nor is that which is subject to errors and mistakes as mans Reason is fit to regulate and judge the Word of God which is all light and all truth and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3.16 17. As John the Baptist said to Christ (n) Mr. Lyford on Heb. 5.13 14. cap. 1. pag. 28. I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me that am
be born like a wild Asses Colt In the Hebrew there is an elegant Paranomosia Vain man or as the word may be rendered hollow or empty man though he be foolish and ignorant would seem to be wise and rational if he knew how Doubtless God will curse and blast that profane wit and knowledge which despiseth the simplicity of Christs Gospel and will not captivate it self to the obedience of Faith Fourthly When the reasonings or rational argumentations of men are unseasonably and excessively used in divine things the nature of the matter not requiring it then are such reasonings dangerous Hence some of the Fathers are justly censured and the Schoolmen much more for mixing and adulterating the Truths of the Gospel with the Reasons of Philosophers which are no better then Paralogisms and Impostures if mixed with and added to the pure Word of God and the great and glorious Mysteries of Christ Fifthly Then do men abuse their humane Reason and Knowledge when they use needless subtilties quirks and quidditties in debating the great Truths of the Gospel which should rather be humbly believed admired and adored then subtilly disputed Even amongst the Heathens themselves and in all Religions they have had some sacred Mysteries and Secrets that were to be adored and not curiously pried into and disputed by the subtil reasonings of men and whoever did profanely dispute thereof were severely punished Sixthly and Lastly Mans Reason is abused and perverted and proves to be of dangerous consequence when it is made not only an Instrument but a Judge in matters of Faith some there are that seem to depress Reason too much but on the other side the Socinians exalt it too high for they make it not only an Instrument but a Judge and thereupon reject and contemn the greatest mysteries of the Christian Religion because they cannot fathom and comprehend them by their Reason 'T is true there are some that say Religio est summa ratio and there are great learned Men that have endeavoured to prove the truth of the Christian Religion by the Light of Reason and certainly if we can by Reason prove that there is any Religion at all we may by the same reason prove the truth and excellency of the Christian Religion as I have shewed in this Treatise but yet mans Reason is but a weak glimmering uncertain thing in comparison of Faith Ratio recta est ratio lumine Spiritus sancti directa Nor must we confound the Instrument and the Judge Holy Truths Scripture Truths and Mysteries they are divine and supernatural though hammered out and improved by Reason As the Smith that takes Golden plate and beats it into what shape he pleaseth his Hammer doth not make it to be Gold for so it was before but only Gold of such a shape so Reason doth not make a Truth divine or add any thing to the divine authority of it but only holds it forth and declares it in such a way or method It is with Faith and Reason saith a Learned man as with the mould that is at the root of a barren fruitless tree take the mould out and throw in dung or other compost and then put the mould in again and it will much help the tree which hindered it before thus lay aside Reason at first and receive the Truth of God by Faith and afterward improve Faith by Reason and so it will be of excellent use to a Christian Divine Truths are not founded on Reason but on the Authority of God in the Scriptures yet Reason may help to bear them up as you see the Elm or Wall bear up the Vine but the Elm or Wall doth not bring forth the fruit only the Vine doth that As long therefore as the Light of Nature and Reason is not the Rule but ruled and squared by the Word of God as it ought to be there is no danger but when mans Reason is made the Rule and divine Mysteries are vassaliz'd and subjected thereunto this must needs be preposterous and dangerous and therefore to be abhorr'd and avoided by all sober Christians whose Faith should not stand in humane Wisdom and Reason but in the Demonstration and Power of the Spirit of God FINIS Books sold by Thomas Passenger at the three Bibles on London-Bridge A French and English Dictionary composed by Mr. Randolph Cotgrave Folio A Mirror or Looking-glass for Saints and Sinners shewing the justice of God on the one and his mercy towards the other Set forth in some thousand of examples by Sam. 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A SEASONABLE DISCOURSE OF THE Right Vse and Abuse OF REASON In MATTERS of RELIGION By PHILOLOGUS Ratio recta est Ratio lumine Spiritus Sancti directa LONDON Printed for Thomas Passinger at the Three Bibles on London-Bridge 1676. To the Right Honorable AND Virtuous LADY the Lady MARCHIONESS OF WORCESTER MADAM 'T IS truly observed That Worldly Greatness without Virtue and Goodness is nothing else but the vigour of Vice having both mind and means to be uncontrollably vicious But Nobility joyned with Virtue renders the person truly Honorable the true stamp of Nobility and Honour being upon the minds of men who are not so much to be valued by the grandeur of their outward Estates or Titles as by their inward Goodness Virtue and seriousness in Religion is commendable in all persons and at all times but more especially in persons of Your rank and quality at this time and in this Nation wherein alas Atheism Scepticism Drollery and all manner of Prophaneness aboundeth amongst those that would be thought to excel all others in Wit and Courage and Gallantry and who should give a far better Example to their Inferiors This Atheism and Irreligion which now aboundeth hath been partly occasioned by the uncharitable unchristian heats and animosities of men of contrary Opinions and Sentiments in matters of Religion together with those great Scandals which we can never sufficiently lament that have been given by some Professors of the Gospel in these Nations Hence men of proud spirits and corrupt principles have taken occasion to doubt and question all kind of Religion and to look on it only as a Political device and invention which doth no further oblige than the Humane Laws of several Countries do authorize it But though these common Scandals have been the occasion yet the true ground at the bottom of such mens prejudice and scepticism is the strictness and purity of the Christian Religion which of all Religions is the most holy and spiritual and which they find lays too great a restraint upon their exorbitant Lusts and carnal Passions To be good in bad times to be virtuous and pious in an Age wherein Vice and Wickedness is so generally countenanced and practised This Madam adds a great lustre to your Goodness and Virtue And indeed your greatest Interest and Happiness which I doubt not but you are sensible of consists in being truly serious and religious this is the whole Duty of Man to fear God and keep His Commandments Eccles 12.13 The serious practice of Religion is that which every considerate person after all his other disquisitions will find to be his chief Interest and that which doth deserve his utmost care and diligence This is the whole of Man or as the Septuagint reads it this is all this indeed should be the great Design of Man as being most profitable and advantageous to him Go on Madam in the strength of the grace of God and add Virtue to Virtue that your last days and last works may be your best days and best works and that you may practically confute the Atheists of our times who walk and talk and live and die as if there were no God in the World no certainty no seriousness in Religion These persons are under a Judicial Blindness desperately rebelling not only against the Light of Gospel-revelation but against that Light of Reason which is in them God has given them Reason and Understanding Eyes that they might see Hearts that they might understand but they wilfully shut their Eyes against that Light of Reason and so by the just Judgment of God it is taken from them and they given up to blindness of mind and hardness of heart and to the greatest Spiritual Plagues and Judgments 'T is to be admired seeing there are such convincing Reasons and Demonstrations even from the Light of Nature against Atheism and Infidelity that there should be any such Creatures upon the face of the Earth as these Atheists and Scepticks when certainly there are none such in Hell for the Devils themselves believe and tremble so that in this respect they are worse than the Devils And though they pretend to be the Wits of the Times yet for my part I am of opinion with the Noble Mirandula That there is no Atheist in the World that is in his wits the rational Souls of such Monsters being sunk down into meer sensuality and brutishness Plutarch that grave Moralist Lib. de Superstit stiles Irreligion a kind of stupor whereby men are as it were deprived of their senses And that it is an exceeding improper thing to ascribe true Reason to those who do not acknowledge and adore the Deity And Cicero that wise Philosopher and Orator De Nat. Deor. lib. 2. saith he can hardly think that man to be in his right mind who is destitute of Religion And again why should any one stile such an one a Man who by what he sees in the World is not convinced of a Deity and a Providence and of the Adoration which he owes to that Deity And the Satyrist * Juv. Sat. 15. speaking of Religion and the sense of divine things saith Separat hoc nos A grege multorum atque ideo venerabile soli Sortiti ingenium Divinorumque capaces 'T is this which doth distinguish us from brute Creatures that we have Souls capable of divine impressions So that such persons have no just pretence to Reason who renounce Religion or turn it into meer Scepticism But however some men for a little time may offer violence to their Reason and Conscience whilst they prosper in this World yet when they are once alarm'd by a violent Sickness or some other great affliction which at one time or other they shall be expos'd unto then will the sense of a Deity and of Eternal Wrath and Punishment seize upon them with so much the greater force and power which they shall never be able to shake off Hi sunt qui trepidant ad omnia fulgura pallent We may truly say of the Atheists of our times as Plato doth of Tyrants If any person could but see thorowly into their Souls he should find them all their lives full of fear guilt and torments Pectus inuste deformant maculae vitiisque inolevit Imago Doth now saith an excellent Author the conquest of Passions forgiving of Injuries doing good self-denial humility patience under crosses which are the real expressions of Piety speak nothing more noble and generous than a luxurious malicious proud and impatient Spirit Is there nothing more becoming and agreeable to the Soul of Man in exemplary Piety and a holy well-ordered conversation than in the lightness and vanity not to say rudeness and debauchery of those whom the World accounts the greatest Gallants Is there nothing more graceful and pleasing in the sweetness candor and ingenuity of a truly Christian temper and disposition than in the revengeful implacable Spirit of such whose honour is fed by the blood of
make our Peace Hereupon some Courtiers being sent to divert Sir Francis Ah said he while we laugh all things are serious round about us God is serious when He preserveth us and hath patience towards us Christ is serious when He dieth for us the Holy Ghost is serious when He striveth with us the Holy Scripture is serious when it is read before us Sacraments are serious when they are administred unto us the whole Creation is serious in serving God and us They are serious in Heaven and Hell and shall a man that hath one foot in his Grave jest and laugh Sir Philip Sidney his Son-in-Law that brave accomplish'd Knight whom Queen Elizabeth call'd her Philip and the Prince of Aurange his Master whose Death was lamented in Verse by the then Kings of France and Scotland and by the two famous Universities of Oxford and Cambridge repented at his death of writing his Pembrokes Arcadia and would have committed it to the flames himself to prevent the kindling of unlawful heats in the youthful Readers of it leaving this farewel amongst his Friends Above all things govern your Wills and Affections by the Will and Word of God In me behold the end of this World and all its vanities Sir John Mason Privy Counsellor to several Princes upon his death-bed spake thus to some of his Friends I have seen five Princes and been Privy Counsellor to four of them I have observed the most remarkable Occurrences in Forein parts and been present at most transactions for thirty years together And I have learned this after so many years Experience That Seriousness is the greatest Wisdom Temperance the best Physick a good Conscience is the best Estate and were I to live again I would change the Court for a Cloister my Privy Counsellors Employment for an Hermit 's Retirement and the whole Life I lived in the Palace for one Hours Enjoyment of God in the Chappel all things else forsake me besides my God and my Duty The Lord Henry Howard that Learned Earl of Northampton being troubled with Atheistical thoughts and suggestions put them all off with this Consideration viz. If I could give any account how my self or any thing else had a being without God how there came so uniform and so constant a consent of Mankind of all ages tempers and educations otherwise differing so much in their apprehensions about the being of God the Immortality of the Soul and Religion I could then be an Atheist And when it was urged that Religion was a State-policy to keep men in awe he replied That could not be true for the greatest Politicians have sooner or later felt the power of Religion in the grievous lashes of their Consciences and the dreadfulness of their apprehensions about that state wherein they must live for ever Cardinal Richlieu that great Politician after he had governed the Affairs of Europe many years together confessed to Peter du Moulin a Learned Minister of the Reformed Church in France That being forced upon many irregularities in his life time by that which they call Reason of State he could not tell how to satsifie his conscience for several things and therefore had many Temptations to doubt and disbelieve a God another World and the Immortality of the Soul and by that distrust to relieve his aking Heart but in vain for so strong said he were the apprehensions of God in his Soul so clear the impressions of a Deity upon the frame of the World so unanimous the consent of Mankind so powerful the convictions of his Conscience that he could not but taste the power of the World to come and so live as one that must die and so die as one that must live for ever And being asked one day why he was so sad he answered Monsieur Monsieur the Soul is a serious thing it must be either sad here for a moment or be sad for ever Cardinal Mazarine his Successor who had for several years managed the Crown of France and the greatest Affairs of Christendom discoursing one day with a Sorbon Doctor concerning the Souls Immortality and Mans Eternal estate he wept repeating that Emperours saying O my poor Soul whither wilt thou go and immediately calling for his Confessor he vowed ten Hours of the Day for Devotion seven for Rest four for Repasts and but three for Business saying one day to the Queen Mother Madam your favours have undone me and were I to live again I would be a Capuchin rather than a Courtier Salmasius that great Scholar whom the Learned men of his time never mention without some title of praise and commendation left this World with these words in his mouth Oh I have lost a world of time that most precious thing in the World whereof had I but one year longer to live it should be spent in David 's Psalms and Paul 's Epistles Oh Sirs speaking to his Friends that were about him Mind the World less and God more all the Learning in the World without Piety and the true fear of God is nothing worth The fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil that is understanding The Learned Grotius after many Publick Embassies and Imployments managed and performed by him at home and abroad and after his many elaborate Writings in Divinity and other Sciences having taken an exact Survey of the Hebrew Greek and Latin Learning concluded his life with this Protestation That he would give all his Learning and Honour for the plain Integrity and harmless Innocency of Jean Vrick who was a devout poor man that spent eight Hours of his time in Prayer eight in Labour and but eight in Sleep and other necessaries And complaining to one that admired his astonishing Labours and Industry he uttered these words Ah vitam perdidi operosè nihil agendo And to another Friend that desired him according to his great Wisdom and Learning to shew him briefly what he should do he gave him only this direction Be serious Persons of great Estate and Dignity in this World must expect nevertheless to meet with great crosses and disappointments of which doubtless your Honour hath had and will have more and more experience in this vale of tears Now as the Sacred Scriptures do abundantly furnish us with grounds and motives of Patience and submission to the Will and Providence of God in every condition and under every dispensation so there are divers Heathen Moralists who have from the Light of Reason and moral Prudence propounded many excellent Arguments and Considerations to perswade us thereunto Especially Epictetus who though lame and old sickly and deformed poor and under servitude being a Slave to Epaphroditus one of the Roman Courtiers yet was he an excellent Philosopher and a man of a most noble and generous spirit some of whose excellent Sayings to this purpose I shall here recite This wise Moralist speaking of the unreasonableness of murmuring at any cross Events whatsoever hath this passage Dissertat lib. 3.
Society is also endowed with a power to maintain it self in Peace and Purity which cannot be without some way or other to decide Controversies and remove Scandals Now this is agreeable to the light of Nature and Reason when such differences arise in the Society either that the lesser number should acquiesce in the determination of the greater for Pars major jus habet universitatis The greater part hath the power of the whole or else which indeed is founded upon the Law of Nature there must be a subordination of powers in Congregations and a right of Appeal granted to an injured person from the lower and subordinate Power to the higher and superiour And in order to a redress of wrongs and ending Controversies our Reason will tell us that Appeals must not be infinite but there must be some Power or other from whence there shall be no appeal And truly it is against the natural reason and right of every man for any particular Society under what denomination soever so to ingross all Ecclesiastical power into their own hands that no liberty of appeals for redress can be made from them This is to usurp upon and invade the Civil and Religious Rights of Christians for it leaves men under a causeless Censure without any Authorative vindication of them from it And it is not much better in this Case and more agreeable to Reason to have matters in controversie either as to Doctrine or Practice judiciously debated and determined in a grave pious Assembly or Synod than by two or three men who perhaps by their parts or Popular interest without any sufficient ground from Scripture and Reason can easily sway those Societies or Congregations that are of their particular Opinion and so be it right or wrong the supposed Offendor must be determined by it Shall it be thought rational and fit that every particular Society though consisting but of a few persons shall have power over its own members to determine Controversies arising between them But yet if one or many of these particular Societies shall erre and go astray there shall be no Authorative power left for deciding what shall be done in this Case Surely if Christ who is the wise Governor of His Church hath made sufficient provision for the Cases of particular persons he hath also made sufficient provision in a rational way for the Cases of particular Societies Thus we have briefly shewed what use may be made of the Light of Reason both in Civil and Ecclesiastical Societies we shall now briefly declare how it may be proved by Reason That there is a God or supreme Being That the Soul of Man is Immortal That the Christian Religion is the only true Religion and That the Scriptures are the Word of God which Points you may find proved at large by Reason in the Learned Books of Lessius Morney Grotius and Sir Charles Woseley a Gentleman so well qualified and employed that I could heartily wish that our English Gentry would Imitate him CHAP. IX The light of Reason proves that there is a God THere is no Nation so Barbarous saith the Heathen Orator (h) Cicero de Natura Deorum no people so savage in whom there resteth not this perswasion That there is a God Even those Nations which in other respects seem very little to differ from bruit Beasts yet keep up and maintain a kind of Religion and Worship and have some sense of the Eternal Godhead impress'd upon their Hearts Yea Idolatry it self is a substantial proof of this perswasion for how willingly doth Man abase himself to honour other Creatures above himself when he will rather worship a Block or a Stone than to have no God at all Hence it appears that this imprinted perswasion of the Godhead is of great force and impossible to be quite oblitegated and razed out of the mind of Man To come to the knowledge of an Eternal Deity there are two ways namely by Faith and by Reason Faith indeed is the much better and nearer way for our Reason is much weakned and depraved and God Himself who is the supreme Being is infinitely above our Reason No man can make a perfect demonstration by his Reason in natural things he cannot fully demonstrate that his Father is his Father or that he is his Son so that in these and the like things there is a necessity of some faith or belief If a man tell you that he hath seen such or such a place he can make no demonstrative reason of it for the circumstances are not capable of demonstration In this Case there must be belief and much more in Religious and Divine matters Howbeit the Light of Reason so far as it reacheth for it is but an inferiour derivative Light like the light of the Moon and Stars will prove unto us that there is a God or supreme Being The Creatures afford Arguments and our Reason gathers by the force of those Arguments that there is a God First It may be clearly proved and made evident to our reason by the Frame of this great Universe even those things which the Eye seeth and the Ear heareth Rom. 1.20 Suppose a man forty years old who had never seen the beauty of this World before should now behold it would not the sight thereof make him wonder and inquire after the maker and contriver of it and force him to conclude that Man being not able to perform such a great and glorious work it must needs be effected by one that is infinitely wiser and better and more able than Man And who should that be but God Himself Who can cause such a consent and agreement amongst the Creatures so different and contrary one to another hot and cold moist and dry but this wise and sovereign Commander As in a Musical Instrument on which are twenty dissonant strings whence comes the Harmony but from some excellent skilful Musician that had the tuning of it Whence comes the fitting and composing of one thing to another but from this wise God As we say he is an Artist that fits the Wheels of a Watch one to another and 't is the skill of a Joyner or Smith which makes curious Tools and Works one fitted to another the sheath to the knife and the scabberd to the sword Whence comes the dependance of the Creatures one upon another and their mutual help and assistance one of another but from God! Beasts nourish Men the Grass nourisheth them and the Influence or Dew of Heaven maketh the Grass to grow and all from God Hos 2.21 These things can no more come to pass by accident than a multitude of Letters cast together by chance can without the Art of man make a Poem or History and therefore they direct us even by the light of reason to a supreme Providence Secondly It is proved by the Original of all things whence is this Original but of God As for Man he must needs be made by God for the Father that
Creatures we may rationally conclude that there is a supreme Power and Governour thereof which is God What shall I say further on this subject if enough were not already said methinks this should convince and satisfie the Reason of any man living if he have but a spark of Reason left in him that all Nations generally in every Age time and place of the World have acknowledged that there is a God The Heathens themselves could not endure them that denied a supreme divine Power for this cause they put to death that great Philosopher Socrates and others as supposing them guilty of this horrid Crime The Nations that have no true knowledge of God do at this day adore Stocks Stones brute Beasts and the basest creatures rather than they will have no Deity no Religion at all They are zealous and forward in the Worship of their Idols which shews that though they acknowledge not the true God yet they understand by the Light of Nature and Reason that there is a Supreme Being to whom divine Worship is due And as for such as have even studied and endeavour'd to gratifie the Devil to the utmost by becoming meer Atheists they could never so blot this fundamental Truth and Principle out of their Consciences but that the Majesty of God hath affrighted them and been a terrour to them So then the universality of this perswasion in all places proveth that there is an Eternal Deity in as much as there is no History that sheweth the Manners and and Customs of any People or Countrey but it likewise sheweth their Religion yea all both new and antient Commonwealths had always something or other which they Worshipped and called in their Language GOD But as touching Atheism we can easily shew and would take the pains to shew it but that it is already done in the Writings of others the very time and place and persons when and where and by whom it was first forged which is a sufficient Argument against it such an Argument as may for ever silence the Atheists of our times which are as so many wild Beasts fit to be destroyed 'T is true there are some wicked wretches that do desperately harden their own Hearts and drown themselves over Head and Ears in sensual Delights and Pleasures but yet if God put His Bridle into their Mouths which he will do at one time or other those sparks and notions which God hath implanted in every man's Soul shall break forth and appear and the darkness shall not always obscure the light In these three Cases especially this Principle will shew it self even in those Atheistical spirits that have endeavoured to suppress and extinguish it First When they are surrounded and compassed about with difficulties and dangers and must needs fall into the hands of their Enemies unless they be preserved by a Divine power then though they were never so wicked and Atheistical before yet now as the Tragoedian observes they will fall down on their Knees and pray to a Deity they will cry peccavi and confess there is a God indeed There was a Controversie betwixt the Stoicks and Peripateticks the Stoicks held that Man had no Passions in him but the Peripateticks were of a contrary opinion Now it fell out upon a time that when a Stoick and a Peripatetick were sailing together in one Ship there arose upon a sudden a great Tempest the Stoick began to look pale and the Peripatetick observing it argues thus against him Thou look'st pale Stoick and therefore thou art not without Passions he could not free himself of fear when he was in danger to be cast away So although the Atheist in his jollity amongst his Companions belch forth sometimes that there is no God yet in his distress he is enforced to grant a Deity Secondly This Principle will manifest it self even in Atheists when they are opprest with Sickness and bodily distempers as there was an Atheist call'd Diogenes who being much afflicted with the pain of the Strangury detested his former Opinion And Thirdly When Old age comes upon them they grow more wise and sober So we read of one Cephalus in Plato who said to Socrates that whilst he was a young man he never thought that there was any Styx but now in his old age he came to doubt and question What if there be one This indeed may confute all Atheists as a manifest unanswerable Argument proving that there is a God because the greatest Atheists that denied him in their lives have acknowledged and approved him in their deaths Pherecydes an Assyrian being merrily disposed at a Banquet amongst his Friends bragg'd how long he had lived and had never done Sacrifice to any God but his end was miserable for he was devoured of Lice Diagoras for his damnable Opinion was the cause of the destruction of the whole Countrey Meles in revenge of his Atheism Lucian that scoffing Atheist going to Supper abroad and having left his Dogs fast bound as he went when he returned home having railed against God and His Word his Dogs broke loose fell upon him and tore him in pieces Machiavel rotted in the Prison at Florence as the Italians write Appian scoffing at Religion and chiefly at Circumcision had an Ulcer in the same part of his Body as Josephus reporteth Julian the Apostata being pierced in the Bowels with an Arrow from Heaven pull'd out the Arrow and receiving the Blood that came out of the wound cast it into the air saying Vicisti Galilaee and so died raging Many others besides these might be mentioned who though they acted like Atheists in their lives yet justified God in their deaths CHAP. X. The Immortality of the Soul of Man proved by Reason AS it hath been already demonstrated by the Light of Reason that there is an Eternal God or Supreme Being so it may be evinc'd by Reason that Man's Soul is Immortal and indeed the one of these depends upon and bears witness to the other The spiritualness and immortality of the Soul of Man and that it may and doth subsist without the Body is clearly held forth in the Sacred Scriptures Gen. 2.7 Eccles 12.7 Matth. 10.28 Luke 16.22 23. and 23.43 Rom. 8.10 11. 2 Cor. 5.6 7 8. Phil. 1.21 23. Heb 12.23 Rev. 6.9 10 11. into which the Faith of a Christian must be finally resolved But besides this Divine Testimony we have also the Testimony of the Light of Reason First then Let us consider that the Soul of Man when it understands any thing it abstracts from that which it understands all quantity quality place and time changing it into a more Immaterial and Intelligible nature As the Stomach when it receives meat changeth the outward accidents of the nourishment into its own nature whereby it becomes Flesh and Blood so the Soul when it conceives any thing separates it from the gross matter and conceives it universally in the Mind or Understanding If a Man looks on a Horse he sees him of
the Flesh and forforsaking the good of this World which a man would not do if he had not the hope of Immortality in which he findeth the recompence of his losses yea this very perswasion of the Souls Immortality made some Heathens willingly suffer death for the safety of their Countrey If our last End were only in this Life then all that we do should be for this last End to aim at it to procure it and never to cross it Doubtless it were great folly and madness in men to undergo so many hard things as they do if they had not a perswasion in their Hearts of this Immortality and if their hope were only in this Life of all men they should be most miserable But they are perswaded that the Soul is Immortal and they find that this World wherein they now converse is too steril and empty to fill the vastness and limit the desires thereof It must be the possession of an immortal infinite immutable good that must satisfie their Understandings and Wills both which faculties aim at the chiefest and highest object The Vnderstanding is carried ad summam Causam to the first of Truths and the Will ad summum Bonum to the last of Ends And therefore He only which is the First and the Last can satisfie the vast desires of the Soul Sixthly Upon this ground the Soul must needs be Immortal because God is just A man may as well say that there is no God at all as to say that God is unjust Now then God being the just Judge of all it behoves him to punish the Wicked and to reward the Just but if God did not this in another life he should never do it for in this life the Wicked flourish and the Just are oppressed Therefore as God is just there remains another Life after this wherein the Souls of the Just shall be rewarded and the Souls of the Wicked shall be punished If the Soul were Mortal forasmuch as in this World wicked men prosper in their Wickdeness and good men as to their outward being perish in a way of Righteousness how should the Justice of God who is the Supreme Being and whose ways are ways of Righteousness be vindicated Seventhly It may satisfie the Reason of any man that the Soul is Immortal since there is an universal consent and agreement of all Nations of the Earth in one or other kind of Religion and the Worship of some Deity which is raised out of this hope That that God whom they worship will reward their Piety if not here yet in another Life Nulla gens adeò extra leges est projecta ut non aliquos Deos credat saith Seneca Hence proceeded those Fictions of the Poets touching the Elysian Fields or places of Happiness for men of honest and well ordered lives and places of Torment for the wicked and irreligious It must needs be a visible Character of a a Deity imprinted in the Soul an irresistible principle in Man's nature that must constrain it unto those sundry Religious Ceremonies observed among all Nations wherein even in places of Idolatry some were so irksom and repugnant to Nature and others so void of Reason as that nothing but a firm and deep perswasion of a Divine Judgement and of their own Immortality could ever have imposed them upon their Consciences And besides this consent of men unto Religion in general we find it also unto this one part thereof namely the Immortality of the Soul All the wisest and best reputed Philosophers for Learning and Honesty and even Barbarians Infidels and savage people have discern'd it by the glimmerings of the Light of Reason CHAP. XI The verity and excellency of the Christian Religion evinc'd by Reason THe Light of Reason is of excellent use to convince Heathens and Infidels of the truth of the Christian Religion there being no Religion at this day professed throughout the World that hath so much reason in it and for it as the Christian Religion hath if we consider the way of cleansing and expiating Sin by Christ the dignity and excellency of the Person of the Mediator the exactness of Divine Justice which requires Satisfaction the Rewards and Punishment prescribed and appointed by the Christian Religion the excellent Doctrine and Instructions thereof the Exemplary Life of Christ and His Apostles How many things in our Religion are witnessed to and approved in the Writings of the most Rational and Learned Heathens and how the greatest Enemies of the Christian Religion as Julian Porphyry and others were once Christians and came to renounce the same meerly through Pride and Discontent If these and other things relating to our Religion be but duly weighed it will appear even to the Eye of Reason that there is much Truth and Excellency therein and that other Religions are but fictitious and vain having no rational Consistence in them But we will handle this matter more particularly though with as much Brevity as possibly we can First The Antiquity of the Christian Religion proveth it to be the true Religion Prima sunt vera verum est prius That is most true which is most antient Seeing the true Religion is the way whereby Man must come to God and have Communion with him and is copula relationis between God and Man it must needs be as Antient as Man is As for the Writings of most of the Heathens unless it be those that are forged and suppositious they are but of yesterday in comparison of Moses the Law-giver under God to the Jews even Orpheus the first Heathen Poet was eight hundred years after Moses as Strabo Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus testifie The most Antient Records of the Heathens began in Solon's time which was in the time of Esdras the Romans had their Religion from the Graecians and the Graecians from Caecrop an Egyptian and the Carthaginians had theirs from Cadmus a Phoenician Now these two Countries Egypt and Phoenicia with the Mediterranean Sea do compass about Judaea and therefore any man that 's rational may easily perceive that all their Religion came from the Jews This is sufficiently demonstrated by several Writers of ours and particularly by Mr. Gale in his late Books so that it would be superfluous for me to enlarge upon this subject When the Wise men of Greece ask'd their Gods whence the knowledge of Arts and Sciences should come they received this Answer Solus utique Chaldaeus sapiens and Orpheus their antient Poet tells us that when God was angry He destroyed the World committed the Truth uni Chaldaeo And Plato in his Epimenides referreth all uni Barbaro If it be demanded who this Chaldean this Barbarian should be the Egyptians call him Theut which signifieth a Stranger meaning Abraham for so Origen against Celsus and Josephus against Appian say plainly that when the Heathen Nations used to Conjure they would make use of Abraham's Name saying Per Deum Abraham Well then if the Jewish Religion be Ancient ours
must needs be so too for ours is the same with theirs Evangelically considered their Types Sacrifices Prophecies and Ordinances referring to Christ who is the very substance of the Christian Religion The Mosaical Law of the Old Testament what is it else but Evangelium reconditum a veiled Gospel And the Gospel in the New Testament what is it but Lex Revelata the Law of the Old Testament revealed And thus it appears that the Christian Religion is the most Ancient Secondly If we look at the means and way of Atonement and Propitiation held forth in the Christian Religion it must needs appear to be the most Wise and Reasonable of any Religion The Eternal God or Supreme Being as He is full of Love and Mercy so He is Just and Righteous His Justice is infinite as Himself is He will so shew Mercy as that He will appear to be infinitely Just toward the the Offendor and therefore in Reason there must be some way or means of Satisfaction and Atonement found out or else God and Man being separarated by Sin could not be reunited The wiser sort among the Heathens were convinc'd by the Light of Reason That Man being alienated from God and not able of himself to come to God in regard of his darkness and ignorance there is a necessity of some way or means of cleansing and atonement Hence came the multitude of their Sacrifices and Oblations especially when any great Plague or Judgment was upon them But now that Christ the Son of God who is equal with God should be this way or means by giving up himself a Sacrifice for Sin of this they were wholly ignorant Is it so that the Justice of God offended by Sin is infinite Then it is but reasonable that this infinite Justice should have infinite reparation and satisfaction which neither Angels nor Men being but finite Creatures can give to the infinite God And therefore unless the Mediator or Days-man that takes up the difference between God and man be himself the infinite God as well as man such an infinite Satisfaction cannot be given This way or means being contrived and found out only by the wise infinite God and clearly held forth in the Christian Religion and in no other Religion besides it must needs be even by the Light of Reason the best and safest and truest Religion as that which vindicates the Honour of the great God and gives true peace and security to man Thirdly The Glorious Miracles wrought by Christ may convince any man's reason of the Truth of the Christian Religion Not only Josephus and other Jews besides him but also divers Heathen Authors and some of Christ's greatest Adversaries do acknowledge His Miracles Julian the Apostata as great an Enemy as he was confess'd that Jesus cured the Blind and the Lame and delivered some from Devils that were possessed in Bethsaida and Bethany Pilate himself in a Letter of his to the Emperor Tiberius witnesseth That Jesus gave sight to the Blind cleansed the Lepers healed them that were diseased delivered them that were possessed from Devils over-ruled the Waters raised the Dead and rose again Himself from the dead after three days Hereupon Tertullian bids the Senate and People of Rome read their own Commentaries and search their Records where they shall find the Miracles of Jesus which if they had not been sufficiently known to be true and real Tertullian himself in this Case might have been easily convicted of lying and forgery These Miracles of Christ were wrought not in one or two places but in many not in a corner but in the open view of the World and were attended with such Majesty and Power that there are thousands that will rather die on a Rack than deny or gainsay the same Jesus wrought great Miracles saith Josephus and although He was Crucified and put to death yet His Disciples forsook him not but did cleave unto him And as He Himself wrought many Miracles when he was upon Earth so His Disciples after He was gone from them by His power and virtue did likwise effect such Miracles as fill'd the World with the fame of them and were a special means to convert whole Kingdoms to Christ If any be so absurd and impudent as to deny the Miracles of Christ then I would ask of them whether it be not a great and strange Miracle That so many Nations and in them so many Wise and Learned men should follow and adore a poor contemptible man without Miracles and should be willing to die for Him even for Him that died a cursed ignominious Death upon the Cross If His Miracles were not great and far surmounting the Nature and capacity of a meer Man if they were not divine and supernatural can any sober man imagin that so many thousands would be so far convinc'd and perswaded by them as to die joyfully and triumphantly for the Name and Honour of this Jesus Is it a Miracle to work upon a man by touching him and much more without touching him and most of all without seeing him Then what a Miracle is it to work powerfully in the Hearts of whole Nations a far off without once seeing them and to touch them without coming at them and to convert and draw them to Himself without touching them with His Hand Yea but say some very absurdly and irrationally Christ and His Apostles wrought Miracles by the help of Magick Let such vain men resolve us if ever they knew or heard of a Magician that wrought such Miracles and came with such power and efficacy upon the Hearts of all sorts of men after his death as Jesus did And as for His Apostles what gain or advantage could they get by exercising this Magick No considerate man will attempt any great matter but for some end or other Now what Profit what Preferment what Honour in this World got they by it Nay did it not procure them much Hatred Danger Imprisonment Torments and at last Death it self Magicians usually hide themselves and conceal their Art when they are pursued for it But did the Apostles do so What a strange kind of Magick is this that will needs be known and exercised even in despite of the rage of Rulers and People yea of Death it self Doubtless 't is very remarkable that as in Moses time God so ordered in His wise Providence that there should be many great Magicians in Egypt that He might make His own Power the more evident So in the times of Christ and His Apostles there was great store of them in Judaea Rome and other places that a difference might be put between the Illusions of Satan and the miraculous Works of God Pliny reports that there were never more Magicians in the World than in the Reign of Nero which was the time of spreading the Gospel by Christ's Apostles neither was the vanity of that Art as he saith ever more apparently known than at that time If therefore this Art of Magick did never
other persecuting Emperours devised most exquisite Torments to be inflicted on the poor Christians and put thousands of them to a cruel death and yet for all this Christianity prevailed and the Kingdom of Christ was enlarged Which is an undoubted Proof and Demonstration even to the Eye of Reason of the Truth and Excellency of the Christian Religion and that the Kingdom of Christ is most divine and powerful and not worldly weak and carnal That this Jesus who was born in the little Countrey of Judaea subdued by the Romans of poor Parents in a sorry Village destitute of Friends and of all Worldly helps and advantages should give Law to and Conquer the World by His Gospel or the Word of His Kingdom is not this wonderful And would ye know what He promiseth His Subjects and Followers Why instead of great matters that they might expect in this Life He tells them plainly what great Afflictions and Tribulations they must endure for His sake if they will follow Him and be His Disciples indeed they must expect to be persecuted reproached scourged imprisoned and put to death Whereas other Kings and Monarchs promise great Dignities and Preferments in the World to their followers this King on the contrary by the Doctrine of the Cross drew the Nations to Him other Monarchs Conquer by killing their Enemies this King Conquered by dying for His Enemies the death other Monarchs is the decay and ruine of their Kingdoms and Conquests but the death of Jesus hath established and enlarged His Kingdom and is the life and happiness of His Subjects Who seeth not therefore by the Light of Reason a humane weakness in the greatness of Worldly Empires and a divine power in the weakness of Christ's Kingdom When He died and was buried His Kingdom seem'd to die and to be buried with Him a few poor despised Followers He had and these were at their wits end when their Lord and Master was Crucified and laid in the Grave Well but at length they open their mouths and boldly teach men to believe on Jesus who was Crucified and Buried but is now Risen again and to suffer for His sake And if they be forbidden they will rather die than not Preach and own this Crucified Jesus hereupon they are accused and brought before Magistrates where they own their Crime as their Adversaries term'd it and are not asham'd of it and is not this admirable Other Malefactors are tormented to make them confess their fault and these are tormented to make them conceal it those hold their peace to save their lives these die for speaking and yet by this strange way and means Christ that was crucified spreads His Kingdom and fills the whole World with it Out of weakness he brings forth strength and out of death he brings forth life And who can thus draw one contrary out of another Who can thus overcome by yielding who can thus trample upon and triumph over his Enemies by dying but Jesus in whom the power of the Eternal God was and whose Kingdom is not of this World but Divine and Heavenly Whilst He lived upon Earth He was despised and rejected but after His death He is worshipped as God even to this day and His true Followers will rather die a thousand deaths than deny His Eternal Godhead and Kingdom And may not this one Consideration if there were no more touching the Kingdom of Christ wherein it far excels the Kingdoms of this World serve to convince any sober rational man of the verity and efficacy of the Christian Religion Sixthly What strange Conversions and Changes have been wrought by the Gospel of Christ in the Hearts and Lives of some of the most eminent and famous men for Learning and Parts How were they wrought upon and converted by the plain Preaching of weak simple men Even by the foolishness of Preaching as the World counts it that so the divine power and excellency of this Jesus and of the Christian Religion might the more appear Paul befor his Conversion was counted a wise and learned man and was in great reputation so that Porphyry the famous Philosopher saith of him that it was great pity such a man should be a Christian yet when Paul had received the greatest Authority and raged most against the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ he was wonderfully converted and turned quite another way and was glad to tread many a weary step and to endure many great difficulties for the Gospels sake Origen also a man of great Learning and knowledge in Philosophy and the Arts being converted by a divine power to the Christian Religion was content to be a poor Catechist in Alexandria and was every day in danger of death when he might have been with his fellow Plotinus in great Authority and Favour had it not been for his Christian profession Surely it must needs be some Divine and Heavenly power that did thus prevail upon these men and upon many other Wise and Learned men that might be mentioned Never was there such wonderful Conversions in any Religion as in this never such sound Repentance and Reformation never such true Justice Fortitude and Constancy in Affliction even to Death and Martyrdom as in this so that it was commonly said of the Christians Soli Christiani mortis contemptores Seventhly 'T is an Argument of the Truth and Excellency of the Christian Religion That it hath been so much opposed and persecuted from time to time by the rage and cruelty of the Devil and wicked men As it was commonly said of that Monster Nero a Persecutor of Christians That it must needs be a good and excellent thing which so wicked a man hated The more wicked and ungodly men are the more they hate that which is Divine and which most resembles the Holy God Now no Religion or Profession in the World hath been so desperately hated and persecuted by wicked ungodly wretches as the Christian Religion and yet the more it has been opposed and trampled upon by them the more it has prevailed and flourished even in despight of their rage and malice What a miserable end did befal Herod and other great Persecutors of this Religion Many of which did vindicate Christ and His Truth at and by their death when the Hand of God was heavy upon them though they had raged against Him in their life time and done whatever they could to root out His Kingdom and People Nay Satan himself the greatest Persecutor of all hath witnessed for the Christian Religion against himself All the Art Magick which he invented could never Conjure or call up Christ Plotinus and Apollonius and other great Magicians that rais'd up the Image of Jupiter and other Heathen Gods though they assayed with all their skill and power to bring up the Image of Christ yet could they never effect it for Christ is not subject to their power being infinitely above them 'T is well known to the Heathens that at the Birth and Death of
this Jesus their Idol-Gods fell down and their Oracles at Delphos Dodon and other places were stricken dumb Insomuch as Porphyrie himself confesseth and bewaileth that since the time that Jesus was Worshipped they have had no benefit at all by any of their Gods The Voice that was heard in the Air in the Reign of Tiberius Caesar about the time of Christ's death commanding the Master of the Ship to cry aloud that the Great God Pan is dead upon which followed great screechings and lamentations in the Air we find mentioned in divers credible Authors Lactantius tells us that when the Heathens offered Sacrifice to their Gods the very presence of a Christian would dash and spoil their Mysteries and thereupon came that speech which we read in Lucian If there be any Christian here let him depart hence This Jesus hath made such work amongst the Idol-Gods that Augustine cries out Where are your Gods where are your Prophets where are your Oracles where are your Sacrifices are they not ceased If Christ the Ark of God comes in place Dagon the great Idol must needs fall down Now the Christian Religion hath three great Enemies in the World Heathens Jews and Mahumetans against whose Religion or rather Superstition we will speak a few words to shew the unreasonableness and absurdity thereof And First * I. Reasons against the Heathenish Idolatry touching the Heathen Gods we have this to say against them in a way of Reason which may be much more enlarged That they must needs be vain and even ridiculous since by the confession of their own Learned Writers these Gods or rather Devils did command Images to be erected to them and told the fashion that they were of And is not this absurd and unbecoming the Majesty of a Deity seeing the true and infinite God who dwells in the Light inaccessible cannot be resembled by any Shape What did these Dunghil-Gods of theirs chiefly command and forbid but outward corporeal things Whereas the true God is a Holy Glorious Spirit who commands the Spirits of men and chiefly requires spiritual Worship and Obedience These Gods of theirs were not of Vniversal use nor were they good for all things One forsooth was good for Medicine and another for Wisdom and another for War whereas the true God is an Universal perfect Good The Religion of these Heathen Gods consisted only in offering Frankincense and Spices and outward Oblations which could never cleanse the Soul of man from its spots and defilements And therefore when Cyril told Julian the Apostata that Sin defileth the Soul and that outward and bodily things could never wash away the inward filthiness and corruption of the Spirit this made Julian stagger for he could not tell how to answer it What shall we say further Are not the Parents Birth and Manners of these goodly Deities particularly set down by their own Poets and Philosophers and by divers of the Ancient Fathers and our own Modern Writers and is it not ridiculous for any man to believe that these were true Gods Nay truly they were not only Men whom the Heathens Worshipped but wicked men the worst and vilest of men given up to Whoredom and Drunkenness and Cruelty and all manner of vice and wickedness Yea they were Devils and wicked Spirits that appeared in the likeness of Men and commanded themselves to be worshipped So absurd and irrational were some of these poor Heathens that they did not only worship wicked Men and Devils but even Beasts also an Ox a Dog a Crocodile yea Onions and Garlick O monstrous folly and madness How did the Devil bewitch them What horrid cruelty did he exercise upon them commanding them to sacrifice Men and Women to him when he was grievously offended with them as he doth at this day in some Heathenish Countries But when he was more mild and gentle then forsooth he must have Stage-Plays Musick Dancing and the like Pastimes to make him merry Behold here the Vanity and Brutishness of the Heathenish Idolatry Secondly As for the Jews * II. Against the Jewish Religion they are most unreasonable in their Enmity against Christ and the Christian Religion The truth of the Old Testament is acknowledged by them as well as by us though they do not rightly and spiritually understand it by reason of the veil which is upon their Hearts to this day So blind and so deluded they are as to hold that the true Messias is yet to come that Jesus is not the Messias and that when the Messias first comes he shall be great in the World and have a Princely Court and Attendants at Jerusalem and that he shall subdue all the Enemies of the Jews Now truly these are but vain dreams and fancies of theirs and quite contrary to Scripture and Reason In Jacob's Prophesie concerning the Messias Gen. 49.10 we read that the Scepter was not to depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his Feet till Shiloh come by which Shiloh is meant the true Messias But the Scepter was then newly departed when Jesus came and therefore He is the true Shiloh or Messias The Scepter as is well known was in Judah till the Captivity and after the Captivity it continued till Aristobulus and Hircanus who contending for it were both of them dispossessed of it and Herod an Idumaean and a stranger was invested with the Royal Dignity and then came Christ as was long before prophesied after whose coming the Jews were dispersed and scattered throughout the Earth so that now there is no distinct Tribe of Judah but they are all mingled one with another the Roman Emperors still labouring to root out the Jews and especially the Tribe of Judah which made them to confound their Genealogies That the seventy Weeks referring to the coming of the true Messias Dan. 9.24 are long since determined he that runs may read it and yet the Messias not come if we will believe the obstinate Jews In their Talmud we read that the Disciples of Hillel whom they highly esteem perceiving the first seven Weeks in Daniel to fall out so justly they looked for the coming of the Messias in those days being long before the full time because they had read in the Prophecy of Isaiah that the Lord would shorten those days And immediately before the Incarnation of our Saviour we find that there was a general expectation of the coming of the Messias amongst the Jews as appears by their continual sending to John Baptist to know whether he himself was the Messias or they must expect another And about this time also which may be a further proof that the Messias is already come there were more false Christs and deceivers such as Judas Theudas Gaulonites Barcosba as the Scriptures and Josephus with other Writers bear witness than was ever before or since How came it to pass that the glory of the second Temple Hag. 2.10 was greater than the glory of the first Was it not by the coming and
subtilty of Antiochus Nero Dioclesian Julian the Apostate and other cruel and subtil Persecutors and notwithstanding that Egyptian darkness of Popery Error and Ignorance which overspread the World for some hundred years since Christ and his Apostles during which time these sacred Writings were laid aside and contemned and blind Ignorance extolled as the Mother of Devotion Fifthly The very Stile of the Scripture argues the divine Authority thereof By the Stile we do not understand the external superficies of words and phrases but the whole order contexture and frame thereof which fitly agreeth to the dignity of the speaker and the nature of the Argument treated of and is excellently and wisely tempered according to the capacity and condition of them for whose sake it was written Indeed every Prophet and Apostle almost had a peculiar Stile God making use of their several faculties and abilities Isaiah is Eloquent and sweet David affectionate Solomon Accurate Jeremiah vehement and more rough and so it may be said of the several Apostles and Evangelists that their Stile is somewhat different but all of them divine and Heavenly The Majesty and excellency of the Stile appears in that Majestick Title and dignity which the Author of the Holy Scriptures doth justly challenge to himself the which imports Independency of nature and essence Supereminency of power and soveraignty and excellency both of properties and works and is further displayed in the manner of teaching which is used in the Holy Scriptures commanding promising and threatning things above sense and reason In this Book there are hidden Mysteries divine and supernatural Truths such as exceed all humane capacity revealed unfolded without Argumentation or Rhetorical motives of perswasion and we are required to understand and beleive them relying only upon the Truth and credit of the Revealer God the great and absolute Soveraign requires in his word such and such things to be done such and such duties to be performed by the Sons of men with great strictness and severity and yet brings no argument to perswade or confirm the equity of these commands but only the will of the Commander which though it becomes not man to do yet it well becomes the Majesty of God In this Book also promises are made of good things to come whereof there is no humane probability nor reason given to assure us of the performance thereof but I the Lord have spoken it and I will do it In the manner of threatning also the like majesty and Soveraign Authority may be observed throughout the Scriptures which you shall not meet with in meer humane writings God commands and threatens without respect of persons be they what they will be 't is all one to him he prescribes his Laws to all men Magistrates and Rulers Schollers and Soldiers to whole Kingdoms and States commanding and requiring what is distastful to their fleshly nature and interest and forbidding what they approve and commend promising them not Earthly Honours and Riches but Life Eternal if they be obedient to the Gospel and threatning them not with Rack or Gibbet but with eternal Death and Torments if they disobey Neither let any man be offended with the low and humble manner of speech used in holy Scripture for it was penned for the use and benefit of the unlearned as well as the learned for those of weak parts as well as for those of strong parts and abilities And though the phrase or manner of speech be plain yet the matter is high and excellent profound and unutterable Plainness and perspicuity doth best become the truth A Pearl needs no painting True beauty needs not a whorish dress to set it forth nor needs the truth of God to be supported or underpropt with forraign aids for it is of it self sufficient to uphold and sustain it self It becomes not the Majesty of a Prince to play the Orator this would be more pedantick in him then in a person more inferior Though the Scripture seems to be plain in word and phrase yet it is great in power No writings of men be they never so well set forth with Wit Learning and Ornaments of Rhetorick can so enlighten the mind move the will pierce the heart and stir up the affections as the word of God doth Nor do the Scriptures want Eloquence if the matter be well weighed no other writing can equalize them The Song of Moses the beginning of the Prophesie of Isaiah and other portions of Scripture in variety and force of divine Eloquence do far exceed and transcendall other Authors Greek or Latine that are extant though never so excellently indited and penned yet it may be easily discerned that the one was written by a Divine the other by a humane Spirit Sixthly the wonderful powerful effects of this doctrine more then any other do clearly demonstrate even to an eye of reason the divine Authority thereof for it inlighteneth the understanding discovereth clearly the evil of sin and the vanity of the Creature converteth the Soul convinceth the gainsayer terrifieth the Conscience of a sinner quickeneth and reviveth the wounded Spirit manifesteth the thoughts of the heart man casteth down strong holds and the power of Satan and remains invincible notwithstanding all the opposition of men and devils for though the nature thereof be contrary to the will and wisdome of the flesh and world yet still it hath prevailed and overcome The enemies that have opposed this doctrine were many and mighty and subtil the Devil the Roman Emperor the learned Philosophers the zealous Jews and the common people being stirred up by them have with incredible fury and falshood and vigilancy endeavoured the utter abolition of it but could never do it This doctrine conquers where it comes either it converts or destroys its Adversaries And what manner of persons are they whom God chuseth as his Heralds and Embassadors to publish this doctrine are they great and many are they learned and wise are they potent and mighty in the world No no they are in number but few in outward appearance simple rude poor and weak despised of men things that are not in the judgment of men by these God hath confounded things that are and through their preaching the Cross of Christ hath subdued many Nations to himself in a little time a great part of this habitable world was converted and brought to the obedience of faith so that Paul filled all places from Jerusalem to Illyricum with the sound of the Gospel Nor is it to be forgotten that the Jews though wasted with many and great Slaughters and though they had and still have a desperate Enmity against Christ and the Christian Religion yet the Scriptures of the old Testament have alwayes remain'd safe and entire in their custodie even when the Hebrew language did lye almost unknown and had perished altogether had not God provided for the true Religion by the care of those Jews so that will they nill they they shall be instrumental
or inflict eternal death and condemnation by the word of his power but the eternal God Ninthly The end of the Scriptures is divine namely the Glory of God and the Salvation of man not so much Corporal and Temporal as Spiritual and Eternal The Doctrines precepts promises prohibitions narrations threatnings punishments and rewards thereof are all referred finally and ultimately to the praise and glory of God the supreme being and chiefest good which shews plainly that they are divine and from above And to speak truth and reason what is more equal and just then that all things should return thither from whence they had their first rise and Original for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom everlasting glory is due from all Creatures Rom. 11.36 The Scripture plainly points out to man what true blessedness is wherein it consists and where and how it is to be had and enjoyed namely in the everlasting vision and fruition of God in Heaven which men may attain unto by the true knowledge of Christ in whom God is reconciled and well pleased And this is a firm and clear demonstration of the divine Authority and excellencie of the Scriptures for what is more agreeable to the wisdome bounty mercy goodness and power of God then to restore man fallen and to make him partaker of eternal bliss and happiness and who can shew to man how he may be restored and admitted into the favour of God having offended his glorious majesty who can direct and lead him in the way to true bliss and happiness but God who is wisdome and goodness it self and who hath effectually done it in and by his Son the essential Word and by the Scriptures which are the written word of God These Arguments and demonstrations whether they be severally or joyntly considered by us do as strongly prove and evince that the Christian Religion is the only true Religion and that the Scriptures are the word of God as any reason can prove that there was is and ought to be any true Religion or Rule to walk by in matters that concern Religion and the worship of the Deity and therefore may serve to convince and satisfie the reason of any sober man touching the divine Authority of the Religion and Laws of Christ CHAP. XIII Of the Use of Reason in the interpretation of Scripture and judging of Controversies EVery Christian should so far improve his Reason as not to be impos'd upon in matters of faith by the meer dictates of men be they Princes be they Popes be they Councels be they never so learned or pious he ought not in aliorum sententias pedibus potius quam cordibus ire Reason and Judgment in these matters should go before and make way for his practice As there are some that vainly magnifie and lift up the Reason of man above the Spirit of God in judging of the Authority and mind of God in the Scriptures so there are others and more especially that Bestial Antichristian Kingdome of the Papacy that would transform reasonable men and Christians into sensitive and irrational Creatures by the deceit and Legerdemain of a Popish Implicit credulity which commands men to put out their Lamps to pluck out their eyes and in a manner to renounce their Senses Reason and understandings and so to follow their leaders blindfold wheresoever they go And I could wish there were not too much of this Implicit faith and blind devotion amongst Protestants yea and amongst some that seem more forward and zealous then others at least for a party The Ranting Romanists tells us with noise and clamour enough of a visible supreme Tribunal and an infallible head of the Church here upon Earth who is to regulate all persons and determine all controversies though never so much against the rules of Scripture and Reason others of them more prudent and moderate resolve the final Judgment of Controversies into the determination of a general Council and all of them generally make the Authority of the Scriptures to depend wholly upon the judgment of their Church Hence was that impudent saying of Bayly the Jesuite that without the Authority of the Church he would believe St. Mathew no more then Titus Livius a Heathen Author And Stapleton is so much for a blind Implicit obedience in contempt of Reason that he tells us plainly the people are so subjected to the Sentences of their Pastors that if their Pastors err in any thing the people may and ought to err in obedience to them And again as the Jews were to believe Christ saith he so are we simply and in every thing to believe the Church of Rome whether it teacheth Truth or Error O monstrous Is not this a base Tyranny a Brutish unreasonable act of theirs when they go about to make us believe that to be white which we know to be black that to be true which we know to be false there are some indeed amongst them more rational and sober who would not have private Christians put out their eyes but make use of their Reason and Judgment in reading the Scriptures and judging of Controversies The examination and trial of Doctrines concerning faith saith Gerson belongeth not only to the Pope and Councils but to every Christian also that is grounded in the knowledge of the Scripture because every Christian is a fit Judge of that which he knoweth And the saying of Panormitan another of their Doctors is well known that one faithful man though he be but a private man is more to be believed then the Pope or a whole Council if he have better Reason and Scripture Authority on his side Chrisostome in answer to this Objection that there are so many and so great dissentions amongst Christians that we know not of what opinion to be of nor whom to believe hath these remarkable words Tell me hast thou any Reason or Judgment for it is not the part of a man barely to receive whatsoever he heareth but if thou diligently mark the meaning thou mayst throughly know that which is good when thou Buyest a Garment though thou hast no skill in weaving yet thou sayest not I cannot buy it they deceive me but thou dost what thou canst to come to the true knowledge of it say not then I am no Scholler and will be no Judge I can condemn no opinion for this is but a shift and a cavil and therefore let us not use it for these things are easie to them that endeavour after true knowledge Hath not every Christian a reasonable Soul an understanding faculty which God hath endued him with that thereby he might search and try and discern the things that differ To what end hath God set up this light in mans Soul if he must not use it in searching the Scriptures and trying Doctrines but must give way to Sloth and Ignorance Is not this to transform man into a Beast and is it not Brutish ness and folly in him thus to
lay aside his Reason and understanding and to be wholly concluded by humane Authority and the names of men in matters of faith As in other points the Church of Rome which is made up of lyes and contradictions would impose upon us as if we had neither Sense nor Reason in us so more especially in the point of Transubstantiation and the corporal carnal presence of Christ in the Sacrament which is against Sense against Reason and against Faith First It is against Sense now of all demonstrations amongst men whereby we prove things of this kind nothing is more firm then that which is taken from Sense 'T is an undoubted truth in Divinity that in all matters of Sense Sense is a compleat Judge understanding it of objects proper and peculiar to Sense otherwise we say the Eye is not able to judge of Sounds nor the Ear of Colours Thus Christ when he would prove that he had a true and real Body he sends his Disciples to their Senses a Spirit hath not flesh and blood as you see me have Reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my Side In turning water into wine Sense might easily judge of the change you would think it a strange and incredible thing if Christ should have come to to the Master of the Feast requiring him to believe it was wine though he saw and tasted nothing but water or if God should have said thus to Moses well thou seest nothing but a Rod yet thou must believe notwithstanding that it is changed and is really a Serpent so in this case of the Sacrament when all the Senses tell us it is Bread which we see and touch and taste why should any man be so foolish and vain as to say with the Papists that the Bread ceaseth to be truly Bread and is Transubstantiated into the very Body of Christ Again Secondly As this Doctrine is against Sense so it is against Reason namely that Christ should be in Heaven and have but one Body and yet at the same have Ten Thousand Bodies on Earth that his Body should be a true Body as ours is and yet without Circumscription and other inseparable properties of a true Body that the substance of Bread should be abolished so as it shall remain no longer Bread and yet we find the very quantity taste whiteness substance and nourishing vertue of Bread If you ask them after all this whether it doth nourish the Body or no they will tell you with impudence enough if they be true to their own principles that it doth not nourish quite contrary to Reason and experience This monstruous opinion of theirs is so irrational and absurd that the most learned amongst them are puzled and not satisfied therewith but leave it as a miracle I have taken some pains saith a learned judicious man in his late Sermon against Popery to consider other Religions that have been in the world and I must freely declare that I never yet in any of them met with any Article or Proposition imposed upon the belief of men half so unreasonable and hard to be believed as this point of Transubstantiation is Thirdly As it is against Sense and Reason so it is against Faith which though it be beyond Sense or Reason yet it is not contrary thereunto Sense and Reason are Gods works as well as Grace and Faith Now one work of God doth not destroy another for if so this would argue imperfection in the workman faith feeds on Christ spiritually in the Sacrament being the evidence of things not seen now if Christ be corporally present in the Sacrament what need the receiver feed on him spiritually by faith as being absent what need he do this in rememberance of him till he come let us in this and other things shew our selves men and not Beasts let us make a right use of our Senses and of that Reason which God hath bestowed upon us 'T is we that believe and act in matters of Religion whoever requires the same of us these are our Acts if therefore we will shew our selves to be men endued with Reason and understanding we must examine what is propounded and offered to us that so we may assent or dissent upon judicious grounds we are men and should do things as men we are Christians and should do things as Christians Blind faith and blind obedience should be utterly Banished out of Christian Assemblies nor should we pin our faith upon any man or company of men be they never so Godly and learned for this were to wrong God and to set man in his Throne and attribute that to man which is proper to God alone Hereby also we exceedingly prejudice and wrong our own Souls and are in danger of Apostacie when we adhere to an opinion or way of which we are not rationally and knowingly perswaded that it is the way of God what is this else but to comply with a way or party out of faction and partiality not out of Judgment and Conscience which therefore cannot have any true Consistence or constancy in it They rather bring their feet then their hearts into a way of Religion that adhere to it without due tryal and examination Herein we should use our own eyes and judgments and not wholly trust to others Herein we should diligently exercise our own Reason if we will judiciously and profitably receive the truths of God not that we should judge of the highest Gospel mysteries according to natural corrupt Reason but yet we should make use of our own understandings and judgments being enlightned by the Spirit and word of God in comparing one thing with another that so our faith and knowledge may not be fluctuating and uncertain but steady and stable It will perhaps be objected that if every man may judge in matters of Religion according to his Reason then so many men so many minds which will breed endless confusion every man pretends to Reason and one man thinks his Reason to be as good or better than another mans and so according to this opinion there shall be no order no settlement in the Church I confess there is much danger on this hand especially where people are running headlong into confusion and will not submit to Ecclesiastical order and government yet this should not make men throw away their Reason and believe with an Implicite faith only as the Church believes In things of this nature there is a twofold judgment a judgment in foro externo or publico and a judgment in foro interno or privato The former of these is an Authoritative judgment belonging to Christian Synods and Counsels duly and lawfully assembled where the Christian Magistrate presides such Counsels debating and determining matters in difference either as to doctrine or practice have been of excellent use from time to time in the Church of God But besides this there is belonging to every Christian a judgment of discretion or discerning a rational self directive judgment in the
Court of his own Conscience and in reference to his own faith and practice he should so examine and judge of the things that relate thereunto as to be fully perswaded in his own mind Rom. 14.5 He should so prove all things as to hold fast that which is good 1 Thes 5.21 Thus Christ in his infinite wisdome goodness and faithfulness hath given two sorts of judgment to his Church and people One publick belonging to an Assembly of Godly Pastors and Elders for of that which the Prophets teach let the Prophets judge and the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets The other is a more private personal judgment which concerns all the faithful who are to judge of what is taught and to try the Spirits in both these judgments we should remember that Christ hath committed nothing to the Church but the ministry of giving judgment for as touching the Soveraignty of Judgment and Authority it belongs only to him Councels may expound and declare the doctrine of the Scriptures but they have no power from Christ to make any new Doctrines or Articles of faith And every Christian ought in a rational way to judge of their determinations according to the word of God and not yeild blind obedience thereunto for this were to unchristian yea to unman himself Of this opinion are all the Protestant Churches in general and particularly the Church of England (k.) See Rogers on 39. Articles P. 103. who maintains that every sound member of the Church hath Authority from Christ to judge in controversies of faith and so to imbrace truth and avoid error The Church as a faithful witness should give Testimony of the Doctrine of Christ but ought not to judge the word nor to judge otherwise then Gods word judgeth General Councels consisting of men that are not infallible may err The things therefore that are ordained by general Councels do so far bind as they are Consonant to the word of God and no further for we are not to ground our faith upon them but only upon the Authority of Gods word Now that such a rational judgment or a judgment in foro interno as hath been asserted belongs to every Christian so as he may and ought to make use of his Reason in judging of the Doctrines of Religion and of Ecclesiastical Laws and determinations is thus proved and demonstrated First From those plain Texts of Scripture Take heed that no man deceive you Mat. 24.4 Prove all things and hold that which is good 1 Thes 5.21 Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God 1 Joh. 4.1 He that is Spiritual judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man 1 Cor. 2.15 Which Texts together with many other that might be alledged do not only concern publick Ministers but also private Christians yea chiefly them as being most in danger to be seduced Secondly This hath been also the approved practice of the faithful thus to search the Scriptures and try the Spirits and exercise their Spiritual Senses that they might discern things that differ Heb. 5.14 The Bereans are counted more noble then others because they searched the Scriptures and tryed Pauls Doctrine by the Scriptures though he spake from an infallible Spirit Acts 17.11 The Church at Ephesus is commended for trying them that said they were Apostles and were not and finding them lyers and deceivers after tryal Rev. 2.2 And Christ tells us that his true Sheep will follow him for they know his voice but a stranger they will not follow but will flee from him Joh. 10.4 5. Now this they could not do unless they did exercise a rational judgment in matters of faith Thirdly Every Christian is to give an account of his faith and practice to God yea he should be alwayes ready to give an Answer to every man that asketh him a Reason of the hope which is in him 1 Pet. 3.15 But how can he do this rationally and understandingly without tryal and examination If he be found to embrace whatever his superiors shall impose upon him truly then the blind implicite faith of the Collier will serve well enough Is this according to the Scripture which tells us that we cannot truly believe unless we have knowledge That every man should be perswaded in his own mind concerning the things which he doth believe and practice and that whatsoever is not of faith is sin Fourthly How shall a Christian cleanse his heart and wayes but by taking heed thereto according to the word of God Psal 119.9 How shall he walk as a Child of light unless the word be a Lamp to his feet and a light to his paths Psal 119.105 How can he walk wisely and Circumspectly as he ought to do understanding what the will of God is as the Apostle speaks Ephes 5.17 if we do not allow him a judgment of discretion and discerning in matters of this nature that so he may try Spirits and Doctrines Fifthly were it the duty of a private Christian to receive all Doctrines that are proposed to him by his Superiors without tryal and examination then could not he be justly charged with sin and guilt who receiveth error in stead of truth from those that are above him in dignity and Authority but we find that this will not excuse him If the Blind lead the Blind both shall fall into the pit Luk. 6.39 and we are to fly from Strangers and not hearken to the words of those Prophets that speak the visions of their own hearts and not out of the mouth of the Lord Jer. 23.16 We must not believe every Spirit but beware of false Prophets and Seducers which no Christian can avoid upon good grounds unless he pass a rational judgment upon them and their Doctrines Why was Ephraim oppressed and broken in judgment but because he willingly walked after the Commandment of his Ruler and Governor corrupting the worship of God and did not impartially examine and judge of the same by the rule of Gods word Hos 5.11 Sixthly God hath furnished a Christian with abilities for this end with Reason as man he hath a reflexive faculty which Beasts have not he hath a rational understanding Soul which is the Candle of the Lord that enableth him to compare one thing with another and to deduce genuine inferences and conclusions from such premises as are laid down and propounded And then further God hath not only given his people the light of humane Reason and understanding as rational men but hath also infus'd into them a principle of divine light and knowledge as Christians to search and try the Doctrines of Religion whether they be true or false God hath given them a Spiritual unction or understanding as the Apostle speaks 1 John 2.27 Chap. 5.20 that they may know him who is truth it self and they need not that any man teach them but as this anointing teacheth them which is truth and is no lye If any man
are proved by the Scriptures but as for the Scriptures they prove and evidence themselves sufficiently to the judgment of every true Christian by their own light manifesting their divine Original They are primum visibile not like colour that cannot be seen till light make it apparent but like light it self which maketh all other things manifest and it self too by its own proper quality Now then if a true believer should be ask'd why he believes the Articles of the Christian Religion he may truly answer thus because they are revealed in the holy Scriptures If it be further demanded how he can assure himself that the Scriptures are the word of God he may answer that he knows it by the Scriptures themselves the Spirit of God enlightning his understanding to see those lively characters of divine truth which are imprinted upon those sacred Volumes If yet it be further demanded how he knows whether that is the right meaning of such or such a place of Scripture he may likewise truly say that he knows it by the Scriptures which being diligently examined and compared together do plainly discover to the humble teachable Soul their own true sense and meaning in the things which concern everlasting Salvation And thus the faith of a Christian is finally and ultimately resolved into the infallible word of God or a divine Testimony and into nothing less As for the Authority and Testimony of the Church and the judgments and writings of the Godly learned they are good helps to make us see the Truth but no causes why we believe it this we do for its own sake not for their sayings or determinations which if they do not accord with the Scriptures we ought not to assent thereunto Though we should give due Reverence to the Assemblies of Godly judicious men and thoroughly examine and weigh with humility and self-denyal the grounds of our dissent from them yet the bare Authority of men though never so eminent for learning and piety should not command our assent to any Article of Religion that shall be proposed to us For our faith should not stand in the wisdome of men as the Apostle speaks but in the power of God and the Testimony and demonstration of his Spirit 1 Cor. 2.4 5. The first and chiefest ground whereon is built the certainty of faith's assent is the infallible truth and Authority of divine Revelation because God hath said it we are to believe it and assent to it for whatsoever God saith is true now this is a principle of Nature and Reason which is deeply ingraven into the heart and Conscience of every Rational man that God himself is so infinitely wise that he can be ignorant of nothing nor can any Creature circumvent and over-reach him and withal he is so infinitely good holy and just that no lye or untruth can proceed from him wisdome it self cannot be deceived truth it self cannot deceive and God is both And therefore wheresoever any Revelation is certainly known or believed to be of God there the reasonable Creature doth fully assent to the truth of things revealed But now the great question will be how we know infallibly that God is the Author of the Scriptures and that what we find written therein is of divine inspiration the very Oracles of God Here lyes the great yea the irreconcileable difference between the Church of Rome and us for whereas we maintain according to the truth that the Scriptures are known to be of God by themselves and by their own light and power they hold that we cannot be certain of their divine Authority but by the Testimony of the Church which as they say doth infalliby propose unto us what is to be believed and what is not to be believed And so by this means our faith shall be resolved either into nothing at all for they differ exceedingly about the Church representative and the supreme Judge of controversies here on Earth or at the furthest it shall be resolved but only into humane Authority and so shall be but a humane faith That Circle which they falsly charge upon us (m.) Mr. W. Pemble nature and properties of grace and faith P. 210 211. they themselves are guilty of and can never be dis-intangled therefrom by their Principles For ask a Romanist why do you believe that the Pope cannot err he will tell you because the Scripture saith so thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and I have prayed that thy faith may not fail and the like Texts of Scripture But how know you that this is the infallible word of God and that your interpretation is the right sence and meaning of these places To this he answers because the Pope and the Councel of Trent say so or as some of them hold because the Pope only saith so or as others of them because a general Councel saith so If we further urge him yea but how know you infallibly that the Pope and Councel do not err in saying so he will answer you because the Scripture affirms they cannot err for thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church c. And thus they run round in a Circle (n.) The Popish Circle described and are so intangled that the wisest and most learned of them know not how to deliver themselves Indeed they accuse us with open mouth as if we were intangled in a Circle running round from the Scriptures to the Spirit and again from the Spirit to the Scriptures as thus how know you the Scriptures to be the word of God by the Spirit revealing the same to my heart and Conscience but how know you this Revelation of the Spirit to be true By the Scriptures which testifie that the secret of the Lord is revealed to them that fear him But then further how know you this and the like places of Scripture to be the word of God we know it by the Spirit which reveals to us the things that are freely given us of God And thus they pretend that they have caught us in a Circle but they greatly mistake us though we do not mistake their Doctrine we teach indeed that we know the Scriptures infallibly to be the word of God by the Spirit of God inwardly revealing and testifying the truth of them to our Consciences But what kind of Revelation or Testimony is this It is not any inward suggestion or immediate inspiration different from those Revelations of Divine truth that are in the Scriptures themselves as if the Spirit of God did by a second private immediate Revelation assure me of the truth of those former Revelations contained in the Scriptures we have no warrant for this in an ordinary way but the Spirit of God reveals and testifies to our Consciences the divine Authority and truth of the Scriptures by removing those impediments that hindred as namely our ignorance and unbelief and by bestowing upon us those graces that make us capable of
this Divine knowledge and assurance illuminating our understanding renewing our wills and sanctifying our hearts and affections In which sence the Spirit of God in the Scripture is to us a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation opening the eyes of our understandings that we may see by a spiritual light the excellency of those divine Mysteries that are in the Word of God Ephes 1.17 18. Now this Doctrine of ours is no such Circle as the Papists pretend it to be but a plain and strait way for a sober Christian to walk in Thus How know you that the Scriptures are Gods Word We answer By the Scriptures themselves by that wonderful light and excellency of truth and holiness that shineth in them here we would rest and go no further But yet if we be asked How we come to see this light We answer It is by the only work of the Spirit of God giving us eyes to see and hearts to embrace and love the light If we be further urged for some are thus importunate But how know you that you do indeed perceive such a heavenly light as you speak of Or how can you make it appear to others that you are not deceived Now truly this is but a vain question it being an absurd thing to demand a reason of sense which is as if one should ask him that gazeth on the Sun How know you that you see the light Why he is certain that he sees it and knows that he is not deceived though he cannot convince a blind man of it and if in case he that is blind requires him that sees to prove unto him by sound argument that he beholds such an object he demands an impossible thing of him unless he could give him eyes to see it Some of the most learned Papists after all their disputing and wrangling are driven at last to acknowledge this inward illumination and testimony of the Spirit of God Stapleton himself even in that Book where he defends the Authority of the Church saith That the godly are brought to faith by the voice of the Church but being once brought and enlightened with the light of divine Inspiration then they believe no more for the Churches voice but because of the heavenly light And again in the last Book that ever he wrote against learned Whitaker he tells us plainly That the inward perswasion of the holy Ghost is so necessary and effectual for the believing of every object of faith that without it neither can any thing by any man be believed though the Church testified with it a thousand times and by it alone any matter may be believed though the Church held her peace or were never heard Hereby it appears that we may be infallibly assured of the divine Authority of the Scriptures though the Authority and testimony of the Church be not so regarded by us as the Papists would have it But yet when we have to do with Infidels and Atheists that scoff at this divine light and inward testimony of the Spirit we have more Reason on our side as hath been shewed at large to convince them and to prove that the Christian Religion is the true Religion and that the Scriptures do contain the Word and Laws of the most high God then any other Religion nay then all other Religions in the world As for the inward testimony of the Spirit witnessing the divine authority of the Scripture and how it is to be considered take these following Rules * Rules concerning the Spirits testimony for preventing mistakes First That the Spirit of God doth assuredly perswade the Conscience of a Christian that the Scriptures are the Word of God not by an immediate Vision or Revelation under which pretence Satan transforming himself into an Angel of light hath deluded and ensnared many poor souls but by enlightening the eyes of our understanding to behold the light writing the Law in our hearts and inward parts as God hath promised in the new Covenant sealing up the Promises to our souls and causing us experimentally to feel the powerful effects thereof Secondly This divine supernatural perswasion wrought in Believers by the Spirit of God is more certain and more satisfactory then can be proved by our weak imperfect Reason or expressed in words for things doubtful may be proved but as for things that are in themselves most clear and certain we say they need no rational proof or demonstration as the shining of the Sun which discovers it self by its own light needs not be confirmed by any rational Arguments to him that hath his eyes open to see the light thereof Thirdly It is such a testimony and demonstration of the divine Authority of the Scriptures as is certain and manifest to him that hath the Spirit for it makes it self evident where it comes but this is private and particular not publick and common testifying only to him who is endued therewith but not convincing others nor confirming doctrines to them In this case men must have recourse to the visible standing Rule to the written Law and Testimony if any man speak not according to this let him pretend never so much to the inward testimony and revelation of the Spirit it is because the light and truth of God is not in him Fourthly This testimony of the Spirit therefore is not to be severed from the Word which is the Instrument of the holy Ghost and his publick authentick testimony Nor is it injurious to the Spirit of God to be tried by the Word seeing there is a mutual relation and correspondence between the truth of the party witnessing and the truth of the thing witnessed And this holy Spirit the Author of the Scriptures is every where like unto and doth every where agree with himself as it is in a pair of Indentures there is no difference at all between them but the very same things that are mentioned in the one are also mentioned in the other so it is between the Spirit revealing and the truths of God revealed in the Scriptures Fifthly The testimony of the Spirit doth not teach or assure all and every one of the letters syllables and words of the Scriptures which are only as a vessel to carry and convey the heavenly light unto us but it doth seal in our hearts the saving truth contained in those sacred Writings into what language soever they be translated Hence it is that the Apostle tells the Corinthians that they are the Epistle of Christ written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in Tables of stone but in the fleshly Tables of the heart 2 Cor. 3.3 Sixthly and lastly The Spirit of God doth not lead them in whom he dwelleth and witnesseth absolutely and at once into every truth of God so as utterly to dispel all ignorance and darkness out of the soul but he leadeth them into all truth necessary to salvation and by degrees John 16.12 13. Being a free voluntary Agent he worketh when and
far thy inferiour So may our Reason say to the blessed Word of God I am far inferiour to thee and have need to be regulated and reformed by thee and comest thou to me No no it is my greatest honour to submit my self to thee and thy Divine Authority Thirdly Upon this ground also mans Reason is denyed to be the Rule and Judge in matters of Faith because one man cannot prove infallibly to another man that his Reason is the right Reason in such a case He pretends Reason so do I A third man comes and pretends to as much Reason as either of us and experience shews that divers men yea good men have different Reasons and different apprehensions in many points of Religion Nor can a man be certain that this or that is the true meaning of a Text if he have nothing to assure him thereof but the appearance and probability of his own Reason for others that differ from him think they have and may really have as much or more Reason on their side then he Indeed if we compare our own Reason with the Reason and Authority of other men which have decreed thus and thus then must we give the preheminence to our own Reason when a clearer evidence is propounded and presented to our Reason for every one is to judge for himself with a judgment of discretion and discerning as hath been formerly proved and 't is unreasonable and absurd for a man to assent to a lesser evidence when a clearer evidence is propounded to him 'T is true there are not many that are well able to judge for themselves in the Controversies of Religion and therefore God hath provided spiritual Guides and Shepherds to go before them and help them but yet Christians must not resign up their wits and senses to follow them where-ever they go if they would lead us blindfold we should not put out our eyes to follow them but should rationally and impartially weigh and consider the grounds of their doctrine and practice Doth such a godly learned man tell you that this is firm ground you may go safe upon it And do you see it to be so by the eye of your Reason enlightened by the Spirit of God Then you may follow him as a man of judgment and understanding and not like a beast that is led he knows not whither and herein you have the advantage of his Reason and of your own too CHAP. XVI Of the difference between the meer rational and spiritual men and their knowledge and acts about spiritual things THe light of Reason should be made use of and improved by every Christian in searching the Scriptures and trying Spirits and Doctrines yet so as we must not confound the principles knowledge and operations of the natural man or meer rational man with the principles knowledge and operations of the spiritual man There is a twofold knowledge of spiritual things a natural or rational knowledge and a spiritual and supernatural knowledge The former is but Historical as when a man reads of such a Country in a History or sees it only in a Map at a great distance but was never there himself to take a full view of it and report the things that are there of his own certain knowledge The latter kind of knowledge is intuitive or a knowledge of spiritual vision beholding the things themselves in the light of Gods Spirit distinctly and at hand No Creature or created thing can go beyond its sphere or comprehend that which is beyond its capacity The vegetative creature cannot reach so far as the sensitive nor the sensitive so far as the rational nor can the meer rational creature comprehend that which the spiritual man doth Such as are alive to God and have spiritual union and conjunction with Christ the second Adam the quickening Spirit live and act from a higher principle and in another kind then meer natural or rational men do The soul of the natural man acts his body and the more he improves the light of reason the more rational and considerate he is in his actings and operations But the soul of the spiritual man is under the power of Gods Spirit and the glorious operations thereof and as far as Gods Spirit is above the spirit of man so far is the life of Grace or the life of the spiritual man above that of Nature 'T is true saith Luther (o) Luth. Com. on Gal. cap. 2. v. 20. that I live in the flesh but this life whatever it is I esteem as no life for indeed it is no true life but a shadow of life under that which another liveth that is to say Christ who is my true spiritual life which life thou seest not but only hearest and I feel as thou hearest the wind but knowest not from whence it comes or whither it goes even so thou seest me speaking eating walking sleeping and doing other things as other men do and yet thou seest not my true life This spiritual life which far transcends the meer natural or rational life must be discerned spiritually the spiritual man hath a white stone in which his name is written which none can read but himself He is the Son of God an Heir of Heaven therefore the world knows him not even as we know not the Sons of Princes were they amongst us who dwell in Countreys far remote from us but his life which now is hid with Christ in God shall fully appear when Christ appears in glory Col. 3.3 4. First Then the spiritual man hath Christ formed in him by the holy Ghost Christ is in him the hope of glory and he lives the life of Christ which a meer rational man doth not there is a spiritual supernatural principle or ability planted in him which still remains and abides and which differs much from natural habits for these are partly and sometimes wholly acquired by use and frequent practise whereas this spiritual principle is not gotten or acquired but infused nor can it be utterly lost as natural habits may but abides for ever John 14.16 Sometimes 't is called the Seed of God which shall grow up to perfection 1 John 3.9 Sometimes a Fountain yielding continual supplies of Grace John 4.14 sometimes from the Author from whom it is derived 't is called the life of Christ 2 Cor. 4.10 11. and sometimes the new birth or being regenerated and born again John 3.5 7. Doubtless it is a most powerful spiritual principle which raiseth and elevateth the soul far above natural strength and reason Those Creatures that have no higher principles and faculties then sense use them sensually but as for man who enjoyes the fame faculties under the command of a reasonable Soul he useth them rationally but when he is new born and becomes a spiritual man those faculties of the understanding will and affections which when they had no other command but Reason had no more but rational operations being now governed and acted by the Spirit of
to the Senate and if being there it should be required of him to give his advice he would speak freely that which his Conscience commanded him Being further threatened by the Emperor that if he spake his mind so freely he should dye for it Did I ever tell you said he to the Emperor that I was immortal Do you what you will and I will do what I ought to do It is in your power unjustly to put me to death and in me to dye constantly The noble Lacedemonians being threatened with hard and cruel usage if they did not presently yield themselves and their Country to King Phillip who came against them with a great power one in the name of the rest answered thus What hard dealing can they suffer that fear not to dye And being told that King Phillip would break and hinder all their designs What say they will he likewise hinder us from dying And after this when Antipater cruelly threatened them what he would do unto them if they did not comply with his demands answered If thou threaten us with any thing that is worse then death death shall be welcome to us These were men guided and acted only by the light of Reason and moral Vertues which raised them above the threatnings of their greatest enemies and the fear of death And should not Christianity the best and most excellent Religion as hath been sufficiently proved in this Treatise much more ennoble our spirits and raise our hearts above all slavish fears If we be Christians and Believers we may then argue and reason spiritually from Faith in the Word and Blood of Christ which the most moral Heathens could never attain unto against the slavish fear of death in this manner Two Arguments from Scripture against the fear of death First Did not our blessed Saviour dye and rise again for this end to deliver us not only from the cursed effects of death and from the Devil as the Executioner thereof but also from the fear of death that thereby he might cure us of this fear and raise us above it Heb. 2.14 15. Yea and this was long since foretold and prophesied that Christians applying the victory of Christ over death should be so far from fearing death that they should tread upon this Enemy and insult over him Isai 25.8 Hos 13.14 compared with 1 Cor. 15.54 55. Secondly Hath not God wrought us for the self-same thing that we being made new creatures by the gracious operation of the holy Ghost might aspire unto glory and immortality which we cannot fully enjoy till we dye for we must be absent from the body that we may be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.5 8. Thirdly 'T is a condition which our Lord and Master puts us into when he first admits us to be his Disciples That we must deny our own lives for his sake and not only be content to take up the Cross in other respects but our lives should not be dear to us when he calls for them Luke 14.26 We pray that Gods Kingdom may come namely the Kingdom of Glory as well as that of Grace and by death we must enter into this Glory We are born again saith the Apostle to a lively hope of this glorious Inheritance 1 Pet. 1.3 4. Now if we be afraid of the time and means of our translation thither how then do we hope for it after a lively manner Fourthly Have we not the examples of the godly before us even a Cloud of Witnesses who have desired to dye and were above the fear of death Gen. 49.18 Phil. 1.21 23. Luke 2.29 Psal 14.7 2 Cor. 5.2 7. Yea the whole Church of Christ and general Assembly of the Saints love his appearing and earnestly desire that he would come quickly 2 Tim. 4.8 Rev. 22.17 20. How unbecoming is it for a Christian to fear death with a slavish fear For hereby he dishonours God and disgraceth his Religion as if it did not afford sufficient incouragements and supports against this fear Some Heathens as we have heard that had not the true knowledge of Christ have dyed couragiously and undauntedly And shall a Christian whose life is hid with Christ in God and who is risen with Christ and sits together with him in heavenly places be affraid to dye 'T is the property of wicked men to dye unwillingly their death is compell'd and not voluntary And shall ours be so too Shall we be afraid of a shadow we that are passed from death to life and shall live for ever because Christ ever lives The seperation of the Soul from God is death indeed but the seperation of the Soul from the Body to a ttue Believer is but the shadow of death If we be in love with life why do we not effect that life which is eternal and desire to be dissolved that we may be possessed of it Fifthly Shall we in this case be worse then Children or mad Men neither of which fear death Shall not Reason and Religion prevail more with us then Ignorance and Madness with them Do we that are the peculiar People of God rather desire to remain in Egypt or in the doleful irksome Wilderness for this World is no better then to enter into Canaan yea into the heavenly Canaan where we shall be at perfect rest Is not death ordinary and common amongst Christians Do not some of our Friends and Neighbours dye dayly Adam had more reason to fear death then we for he never saw man dye an ordinary death before him but for us to be afraid to dye who see thousands dye before us is the more intollerable The whole Creation groans waiting for the liberty of the Sons of God and earnestly longing for this change Rom. 8.21 22. And shall we be worse then the brute Beasts and other Creatures and afraid of that Porter that opens the door to our own everlasting happiness Hath not this Enemy which seems terrible to us been often foyl'd and vanquished Hath he not been beaten by Christ and thousands of his Saints And shall it be terrible to us to encounter a vanquished disarm'd Enemy whose strength and power is destroyed 'T is in vain if we think to shun that which cannot be avoided for it is appointed unto all men once to dye death is the way of all flesh and there is no discharge from this War What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Heb. 9.27 Psal 89.48 Eccles 8.8 And therefore we must resolve couragiously to meet and encounter this Enemy for we cannot avoid him if we go not to him he will come to us so that we shall be unavoidably ingaged in this conflict sooner or later Sixthly Why should a Christian fear or be troubled considering what a gain and advantage death will be to him For it puts a period to all those tempests and storms those boysterous temptations passions and afflictions with which his life was continually tossed and incumbred and brings him to a
the Galatians hath many notable sayings touching Faith and Reason In this case of believing the Gospel saith he we must silence Reason which is an enemy to Faith which also in temptations of sin and death leaneth not to the righteousness of Faith for thereof it is utterly ignorant but to her own righteousness Now as soon as the Law and Reason joyn together Faith loseth her Virginity for nothing fighteth more strongly against Faith then the Law and Reason The Gospel leadeth us beyond and above the light of the Law and Reason into the deep secrets of Faith where the Law and Reason have nothing to do Again If ye will believe Reason Reason will tell you that such things as God hath promised are impossible foolish weak absurd things What more absurd foolish and impossible then that Abraham should have a Son in his old age of the barren and dead Body of Sarah But now Faith killeth Reason and slayeth that Beast which the whole World and all Creatures cannot kill Thus Abraham killed it by Faith in the Word of God which promised him a Son To this word Reason yielded not straitway but fought against Faith in him judging it to be an absurd impossible thing but Faith wrestled with Reason and at length got the victory Abraham killed and sacrificed Reason that most pestilent enemy of God and so must all the godly do There are many things in Scripture that are quite cross and contrary to the apprehensions of corrupt Reason and 't is the great work of the Spirit of God to subdue and captivate our Reason to the authority of the Word of God and the obedience of Faith The weapons of our warfare saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 10.4 5. are mighty through God for the pulling down of strong holds casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ Those strong holds that stand out against the Gospel are especially two namely the greatness and power of worldly Princes and Rulers and also the reasonings and argumentations of the learned Orators and Philosophers both these must be subdued and captivated to the obedience of Faith Men must be led away like Captives saith Judicious Calvin on the Text from their own Reason and Will The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reasonings is very emphatical Quo vocabulo (z) Estius in 2 Cor. 10.4 5. significantur non qualescunque cogitationes sed quae fiunt ratiocinando disceptando dum adhibito judicio rationis animus examinat aliquid de eo pronuntiat sit ne verum an falsum bonum an malum Here we may see plainly that our Reason must be conquered and captivated to the obedience of the Gospel or else there can be no true Faith Indeed Reason and Faith may well walk together provided that Reason give Faith the upper-hand We must not say they are the words of a noble Writer who makes great use of Reason to prove the truth of the Christian Religion (a) Morney de veritat Christi Religio That because Reason doth not comprehend this or that point of Religion therefore we we should not believe it for this were a measuring of Faith by Reason whereas we ought to believe the Mysteries of God that are beyond our Reason To believe on God through Christ what is it else but to submit our reason and understanding to God And thus our Reason must be a servant to Faith and must stoop to the power of Faith Faith must not be abased and stoop to the measure of Reason Now when and wherein humane Reason and Knowledge is perverted and abused and so comes to be prejudicial and dangerous shall be here briefly represented in a ew particulars and so we will shut up this discourse of the right use and abuse of Reason * How and wherein humane Reason is abused and perverted First It is then dangerous and destructive to the divine Purity of the Christian Religion when the Opinions and Sentiments of some Learned Philosophers and Rationalists that are contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel are imposed upon us as true as namely the Worlds Eternity the Stoical Fate Purgatory after this life the denial of the Resurrection of the Body worshipping of Angels and the like having a shew of Reason Wisdom and Humility Col. 2 18 23. Secondly When those Principles of Nature and Philosophy which are true in an ordinary way are perverted and abused to the rejecting of those Gospel-truths that are above Nature These Maxims and Positions of Philosophers That of nothing nothing can be made That of privation to a habit there is no regression That a Virgin cannot conceive though they are naturally and Physically true yet in Divinity and Christianity they ought not to be admitted God created the World of nothing our blessed Saviour without the help of Man was born of a Virgin as the Scripture assures us God calleth the things that are not as if they were Rom. 4.17 These bodies of ours after they are resolved into dust shall be raised up again and made like to the glorious Body of Christ according to the working of God whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3.21 Here Faith in Gods Omnipotency must be exercised and Reason must give way to Faith Indeed mans Reason as now it stands is so far from taking the just measure of Faith which transcendeth natural Strength and Reason that it cannot so much as take the just and full measure of Nature nor of the least of Gods Creatures in regard of that ignorance and darkness that is in every one of us and therefore it is a great error to believe no further then Reason can measure and comprehend For what a great way doth the truth of spiritual and divine things extend beyond our Reason And even Reason it self will lead us to this Point namely That we should believe beyond Reason I mean those things which no meer natural understanding or capacity can reach or attain to and that when these things are revealed by God to men which Reason could never have comprehended no not even when it was at the best the same Reason which could never have found them out makes us to allow of them it being reasonable and fit for us to believe whatsoever God hath revealed to be true And herein Reason teacheth us that which she her self neither knew nor believed namely by leading us to the most infallible Teacher whom we ought to hear and believe Thirdly It is then dangerous when a Christian boasts of his humane Reason and Knowledge and is elated and puffed up therewith undervaluing and slighting all others as if their Reason and Knowledge were not comparable to his and so it becomes a vain windy thing Knowledge saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 8.1 puffeth up but love edifieth Vain man would be wise as it is in Job 11.12 though he