Secondly to take off that vain and frivolous cavil that assurance is a Principle of Libertinisme and that if men be once assur'd of their salvation they may then do what they list And first for the grounds that make them deny Assurance And though I might here shew at large that all Popery the Quintessence of it is extracted out of guesses and conjectures their whole Religion is but a bundle of uncertainties a rude heap of contingencies built upon the thoughts of others upon the intentions of a Priest yet I shall let that passe now and give you these foure considerations that prevaile with them to deny Assurance 1. They lay too much stresse upon good works Now Assurance is too goodly a structure to be built upon such a foundation They part stakes between grace and merit and so leave the soul in a tottering condition There is so much pride bound up in the Spirits of men as that they are loth to depend upon another for their happinesse they would have an innate and domestick happinesse within themselves But alas self-bottomings are weak and uncertain and they that build upon their own good meanings and their good wishes and good resolutions upon their good endeavours and goodworks when they have done all they have built but the house of the Spider These that spin salvation out of their own bowels their hope 't is but as a Spiders web And there are many that neither thus spin nor toile and yet I say unto you that a Pharisee in all his glory is not cloth'd like one of these If men do but enquire and look a little to the ebbings and flowings of their own spirits to the waxing and waining of their own performances surely they will presently acknowledge that they can't fetch a Plerophory out of these Believe it the soul can't anchor upon a wave or upon its own fluctuating motions So that 't is a piece of ingenuity in them to tell men that whilest they build upon the sand they can have no great security that their house will last long they may safely say of the Spider that it can have no certainty that its house shall stand Whilest they lean upon a reed wee 'l allow them to question whether it won't break or no nay if they please they may very well question whether it won't pierce them thorough They can be sure of nothing unlesse they be sure of ruine Assurance cannot be founded in a bubble in a creature for the very essence of a creature is doubtful and wavering it must be built upon an immutable Entity upon the free love of God in Christ upon his royal word and oath the sure expressions of his minde and love upon the witnesse of the Holy Ghost the seal of God himself Here the soul may rest and lean and quiet it self for with God there is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning The creature is all shadow and vanity 't is filia noctis like Jonah's gourd man may sit under its shadow for a while but it soon decayes and dies All its certainty is in dependance upon its God A creature if like a single drop left to it self it spends and wastes it self presently but if like a drop in the fountain and Ocean of Being it has abundance of security No safety to the soul but in the armes of a Christ in the embraces of a Saviour No rest to a Dove-like spirit but in the Ark of the Govenant and there 's the pot of hidden Mannah You know that dying Bellarmine was faine to acknowledge that the nearest way to Assurance was only to rest upon the free grace of God in Christ And they that cry down duties so much if they would mean no more then this that men must not trust in them nor make Christs of them nor Saviours of them as they use to express it wee 'l easily grant them this if they 'l be content with it 2. They take away that clasping and closing power of faith it self by which it should sweetly and strongly embrace its own object They would have the soul embrace clouds and dwell in generals they resolve all the sweetnesse and preciousnesse of the Gospel either into this Universal Whosoever believes shall be saved or else which is all one into this Conditional If thou beleevest thou shalt be saved Now this is so farre from assurance as that the Devils themselves do thus believe and yet tremble The thirsty soul may know that there is a fountaine but it must not presume to know that ever it shall taste of it The wounded soul with them may take notice that there is balme in Gilead but it must only give a guesse that it shall be heal'd They won't allow the soul to break the shell of a Promise so as to come to the kernell They silence Faith when it would speak in its own Idiom My Lord and my God O what miserable comforters are these How can they ever speak one word upon the wheels one seasonable word to a wearie soul when as all they can reach to by their own acknowledgement is to leave the soul hovering betwixt heaven and hell And as they say in matter of Reproof Generalia non pungunt so 't is as true in matter of Comfort Generalia non mulcent Yet to see how abundantly unreasonable these men are for in the matter of their Church there they require a particular appropriating faith a Monopolizing faith that the Church of Rome is the only true visible Church and this is no presumption with them Thus they can embrace a dull Errour and let go a precious Truth But the true Church of Christ as 't is it self built upon a Rock so every Member of the Church has the same security And the soul with a Spouse-like affection do's not only conjecture who is her Well-beloved but is in his very armes and breaks out into that expression of love and union I am my well-beloved's and my well-beloved is mine But how strangely do's their conjectural certainty take away the sweetness of such Relations Christians with them must only conjecture that they are the Sons of God the Spouse must only guesse at her beloved husband the sheep must hope that this is the Shepherds voice O how do they emasculate and enervate Religion how do they dispirit it and cut the very sinews of the power of godlinesse But all you that would finde rest to your souls must know that you can never apply a Christ too much that you can never appropriate a Saviour enough that whole happinesse is in union with him 3. They deny perseverance and so long may very well deny Assurance And yet the Arminians have an Art of reconciling Assurance and Non-perseverance They allow men a little brief Assurance for one moment a breve fulgur a little corruscation of joy that only shews it self that it may vanish and disappear The summe of their meaning amounts to thus much For that moment that thou
it may appear by this work so they were fully known and the losse of them sufficiently bewailed by those among whom he lived and conversed and yet I must say of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as it is hard for men to be under affliction but they are liable to censures Luke 13. 2 4. so it fared with him who was looked upon by some as one whose eyes were lofty and whose eye-lids lifted up who bare himself too high upon a conceit of his parts although they that knew him intimately are most willing to be his compurgatours in this particular Thus prone are we to think the staffe under the water crooked though we know it to be straight However turne thine eyes inward and censure not thine own fault so severely in others Cast not the first stone except thou finde thy self without this fault dare not to search too curiously into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God But rather learn that lesson of the Apostles in that elegant Paranomasy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. v. 3. Thus not willing longer to detain thee from the perusall of this Discourse I commend both thee and it to the blessing of God and rest Thine to serve thee in any spirituall work or labour of love RICH. CULVERWEL From my study at Grundisburgh in the County of Suffolk August 18. 1652. A DISCOURSE Of the LIGHT of NATURE PROVERES 20. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mens hominis lucerna Domini The understanding of a man is the Candle of the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septuag 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aqu. Symm Theod. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sic alii CHAP. I. The Porch or Introduction T Is a work that requires our choycest thoughts the exactest discussion that can be a thing very material and desirable to give unto Reason the things that are Reasons and unto Faith the things that are Faiths to give Faith her full scope and latitude and to give Reason also her just bounds and limits this is the first-born but the other has the blessing And yet there is not such a vast hiatus neither such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 between them as some would imagine there is no such implacable antipathy no such irreconcileable jarring between them as some do fancy to themselves they may very well salute one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 osculo Pacis Reason and Faith may kisse each other There is a twin-light springing from both and they both spring from the same fountain of light and they both sweetly conspire in the same end the glory of that being from which they shine the welfare happines of that being upon which they shine So that to blaspheme Reason 't is to reproach heaven it self and to dishonour the God of Reason to question the beauty of his Image and by a strange ingratitude to slight this great and Royal gift of our Creator For 't is he that set up these two great Luminaries in every heavenly soul the Sun to rule the day and the Moon to rule the night and though there be some kinde of creatures that will bark at this lesser light and others so severely critical as that they make mountains of those spots and freckles which they see in her face yet others know how to be thankful for her weaker beams and will follow the least light of Gods setting up though it be but the Candle of the Lord. But some are so strangely prejudic'd against Reason and that upon sufficient reason too as they think which yet involves a flat contradiction as that they look upon it not as the Candle of the Lord but as on some blazing Comet that portends present ruine to the Church and to the soul and carries a fatal and venemous influence along with it And because the unruly head of Socinus and his followers by their meer pretences to Reason have made shipwrack of Faith and have been very injurious to the Gospel therefore these weak and staggering apprehensions are afraid of understanding any thing and think that the very name of Reason especially in a Pulpit in matters of Religion must needs have at least a thousand heresies coucht in it If you do but offer to make a Syllogisme they 'l strait way cry it down for carnal reasoning What would these men have Would they be banisht from their own essences Would they forfeit and renounce their understandings Or have they any to forfeit or disclaime would they put out this Candle of the Lord intellectuals of his own lighting or have they any to put out would they creep into some lower species and go a grazing with Nebuchadnezar among the beasts of the field or are they not there already Or if they themselves can be willing to be so shamefully degraded do they think that all others too are bound to follow their example Oh what hard thoughts have these of Religion do they look upon it only as on a bird of prey that comes to peck out the eyes of men Is this all the nobility that it gives that men by vertue of it must be beheaded presently do's it chop off the intellectuals at one blow Le ts hear awhile what are the offences of Reason are they so hainous and capital what has it done what lawes has it violated whose commands has it broken what did it ever do against the crown and dignity of heaven or against the peace and tranquillity of men Why are a weak and perverse generation so angry and displeased with it Is it because this daughter of the morning is fallen from her primitive glory from her original vigour and perfection Far be it from me to extenuate that great and fatal overthrow which the sons of men had in their first and original apostasie from their God that under which the whole Creation sigh's and groanes but this we are sure it did not annihilate the soul it did not destroy the essence the powers and faculties nor the operations of the soul though it did defile them and disorder them and every way indispose them Well then because the eye of Reason is weakened and vitiated will they therefore pluck it out immediately and must Leah be hated upon no other account but because she is blear-ey'd The whole head is wounded and akes and is there no other way but to cut it off The Candle of the Lord do's not shine so clearly as it was wont must it therfore be extinguisht presently is it not better to enjoy the faint and languishing light of this Candle of the Lord rather then to be in palpable and disconsolate darknesse There are indeed but a few seminal sparks left in the ashes and must there be whole floods of water cast on them to quench them 'T is but an old imperfect Manuscript with some broken periods some letters worn out must they therefore with an unmerciful indignation rend it and tear it asunder 'T is granted that the picture has lost its glosse and
have done by a happy and extemporary contingency Operam oleum perdidi This is the misery of those implicit believers amongst the Papists and 't is well if not among some Protestants too that do in aliorum sententias pedibus potiùs quà m cordibus ire dancing in a circular kinde of faith they believing as the Church believes and the Church believing as they believe c. and this is with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole perfection of a Roman Catholique Yet let none be so foolish or wicked as to think that this strikes at any thing that is truly or really a matter of faith when as it doth only detect the wretched vanity and deceit of a Popish and implicit credulity which commands men to put out their Lamps to pluck out their eyes and yet to follow thelr leadets though they rush upon the mouth of hell and destruction whereas 't is better to be an Argus in obedience then a Cyclops a monstrum horrendum c. An eye open is more acceptable to God then an eye shut Why do they not as well command men to renounce their sense as to disclaim their understandings Were it not as easie a tyranny to make you to believe that to be white which you see to be black as to command you to believe that to be true which you know to be false Neither are they at all wanting in experiments of both for Transubstantiation that heap and croud of contradictions doth very compendiously put out the eyes of sense and reason both at once yet that prodigious Error was established in the Lateran Councel under Innocent the third which as some contend was a general and Oecumenical Councel And if the Pope whom they make equivalent to all Councels nay transcendent if he in Cathedra shall think fit to determine that the right hand is the left they must all immediately believe him under pain of damnation So that first principles common notions with the products and improvement of them must needs be lookt upon as of bad consequence of pernicious influence at Rome what to say that two and two makes four the totum's majus parte especially if the Church shall determine against it O dangerous point of Socinianisme O unpardonable Heresie of the first magnitude Rebellion against the Catholique Church a proud justling against the Chair of infallibility Away with them to the Inquisition presently deliver them up to the Secular powers bring fire and fagot immediately Bonners learned demonstrations and the bloody discipline of the scarlet and purple Whore No wonder that she puts out the Candle and loves darknesse rather then light seeing her deeds are evil She holds a Cup in her hand and won't let the world sip and taste and see how they like it but they must swallow down the whole Philtrum and potion without any delay at all Thus you may see the weak reeds that Babylon leans upon which now are breaking and piercing her thorow But Religion fram'd according to the Gospel did alwayes scorn and refuse such carnal supports as these are That truth that must look the Sun in the face for ever can you think that it will fear a Candle must it stand in the presence of God and will it not endure the tryal of men Or can you imagine that the Spouse of Christ can be so unmerciful as to pull out her childrens eyes though she may very well restrain their tongues sometimes and their pens if they be too immodest and unruly I shall need to say no more then this that true Religion never was nor will be nor need be shy of sound Reason which is thus farre Lumen dirigens as that 't is oblig'd by the will and command of God himself not to entertain any false religion nor any thing under pretence of Religion that is formally and irreconciliably against Reason Reason being above humane testimony and tradition and being only subordinate to God himself and those Revelations that come from God now 't is expresse blasphemy to say that either God or the Word of God did ever or ever will oppose Right Reason CHAP. XVI The light of Reason is calme and peaceable 'T Is Lumen tranquillnm amicum 't is a Candle not a Comet it is a quiet and peaceable light And though this Candle of the Lord may be too hot for some yet the Lamp 't is only maintain'd with soft and peaceable Oile There is no jarring in pure intellectuals if men were tun'd and regulated by Reason more there would be more Concord and Harmony in the world As man himself is a sociable creature so his Reason also is a sociable Light This Candle would shine more clearly and equally if the windes of passions were not injurious to it 'T were a commendable piece of Stoicisme if men could alwayes hush and still those waves that dash and beat against Reason if they could scatter all those clouds that soil and discolour the face and brightnesse of it would there be such fractions and commotions in the State such Schismes and Ruptures in the Church such hot and fiery persecutions of some trifling opinions If the soft and sober voice of Reason were more attended to Reason would make some differencies kisse and be friends 't would sheath up many a sword 't would quench many a flame 't would binde up many a wound This Candle of the Lord 't would scatter many a dark suspition many a sullen jealousie Men may fall out in the dark sometimes they cannot tell for what if the Candle of the Lord were but amongst them they wonld chide one another for nothing then but their former breaches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it calmes and composes a soul whereas passion as the grand Stoick Zeno paints it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An abounding and over-boyling impetus a preternatural agitation of soul animi commotio aversa à recta ratione contra naturam as the Orator stiles it The soul 't is tost with passion but it anchors upon Reason This gentlenesse and quietnesse of Reason doth never commend it self more then in its agreeing and complying with faith in not opposing those high and transcendent mysteries that are above its own reach and capacity nay it had alwayes so much humility and modesty waiting and attending upon it that it would alwayes submit and subordinate it self to all such divine revelations as were above its own sphere Though it could not grasp them though it could not pierce into them yet it ever resolv'd with all gratitude to admire them to bow its head and to adore them One light does not oppose another Lumen fidei Lumen rationis may shine both together though with farre different brightnesse the Candle of the Lord 't is not impatient of a superiour light 't would both ferre parem priorem The light of the Sun that indeed is Lumen Monarchicum a supreme and sovereign light that with its golden Scepter rules all created
who only hear of them will not at all attend to them So that only the seal of the Spirit can make a firme impression upon the soul who writes his own word upon the soul with a conquering and triumphant Sun-beam that is impatient either of cloud or shadow Be open therefore ye everlasting doors and stand wide open ye intellectual gates that the spirit of grace and glory with the goodly train of his revealed truths may enter in There 's foundation for all this in a principle of nature for we must still put you in minde of the concord that is betwixt Faith and Reason Now this is the voice of Reason that God can and that none but God can assure you of his own mind for if he should reveal his minde by a creature there will still be some tremblings and waverings in the soul unlesse he does withal satisfie a soul that such a creature does communicate his minde truly and really as it is so that ultimately the certainty is resolv'd into the voice of God and not into the courtesie of a creature This holy Spirit of God creates in the soul a grace answerable to these transcendent objects you cannot but know the name of it 't is called Faith Super-naturalis forma fidet as Mirandula the younger stiles it which closes and complies with every word that drops from the voice or pen of a Deity and which facilitates the soul to assent to revealed truths So as that with a heavenly inclination with a delightful propension it moves to them as to a centre Reason cannot more delight in a common notion or a demonstration then Faith does in revealed truth As the Unity of a Godhead is demonstrable and clear to the eye of Reason so the Trinity of persons that is three glorious relations in one God is as certain to an eye of Faith 'T is as certain to this eye of Faith that Christ is truly God as it was visible to an eye both of Sense and Reason that he is truly man Faith spies out the resurrection of the body as Reason sees the immortality of the soul I know there are some Authors of great worth and learning that endeavour to maintain this Opinion that revealed truths though they could not be found by reason yet when they are once revealed that Reason can then evince them and demonstrate them But I much rather â—ncline to the determinations of Aquinas and multitudes of others that are of the same judgement that humane Reason when it has stretcht it self to the uttermost is not at all proportion'd to them but at the best can give only some faint illustrations some weak adumbrations of them They were never against Reason they were alwayes above Reason 'T will be employment enough and 't will be a noble employment too for Reason to redeeme and vindicate them from those thornes and difficulties with which some subtle ones have vext them and encompast them 'T will be honour enough for Reason to shew that Faith does not oppose Reason and this it may shew it must shew this for else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are within the inclosure of the Church will never rest satisfied nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pagans Mahumetans Jewes will ever be convinc'd God indeed may work upon them by immediate revelation but man can only prevaile upon them by Reason yet 't is not to be expected nor is it required that every weak and new-born Christian that gives reall assent and cordial entertainment to these mysterial truths should be able to deliver them from those seeming contradictions which some cunning adversaries may cast upon them There are some things demonstrable which to many seeme impossible how much more easily may there be some matters of faith which every one cannot free from all difficulties 'T is sufficient therefore for such that they so farre forth understand them as to be sure that they are not against Reason and that principally upon this account because they are sure God has revealed them And others that are of more advanced and elevated intellectuals may give such explications of them as may disentangle them from all repugnancy though they cannot display them in their full glory Nor must the multitude or strength and wit of opposers fright men out of their Faith and Religion Though the major part of the world do disesteeme and look upon them as meer contradictions yet this being the censure of moâ—â— unequal and incompetent judges is not at all prejudicial to their worth and excellency for to most of the world they were never revealed so much as in an external manner and to all others that refuse and reject them they were never powerfully revealed by the irradiations of the Holy Ghost So that one affirmative here is to be preferred before a whole heap of negatives the judgement of one wise enlighten'd experienc'd spiritualiz'd Christian is more to be attended to then the votes and suffrages of a thousand gainsayers because this is undeniable that God may give to one that Eye that Light that discerning power which he does deny to many others 'T is therefore a piece of excessive vanity and arrogancy in Socinus to limit and measure all Reason by his own Nor does this put any uncertainty in Reason but only a diversity in the improvings of it one Lamp differs from another in glory and withal it laies down an higher and nobler principle then Reason is for in things meerly natural every rational being is there a competent Judge in those things that are within the Sphere compasse of Reason the Reason of all men does agree and conspire so as that which implies an expresse and palpable contradiction cannot be own'd by any but in things above Nature and Reason a paucity here is a better argument then a plurality because Providence uses to opèn his Cabinets only for his Jewels God manifests these mysterious secrets only to a few friends his Spirit whispers to a few shines upon a few so that if any tell us that Evangelical mysteries imply a contradiction because they cannot apprehend them it is no more then for a blinde man confidently to determine that it involves a contradiction to say there is a Sun because he cannot see it Why should you not as well think that a greater part of the world lies in Error as that it lies in wickednesse is it not defective in the choisest intellectuals as well as in the noblest practicals Or can any perswade himself that a most eminent and refined part of mankinde and that which is very considerable a Virgin-company which kept it self untoucht from the pollutions of Antichrist upon mature deliberation for long continuance upon many debatings examinings discussings constantprayers unto God for the discovery of his minde should all this while embrace meere contradictions for the highest points of their Religion or can any conceive that these Evangelical Mysteries were invented and contriv'd and maintain'd by men Could the
Head of a creature invent them could the arme of a creature uphold them have they not a Divine super-scription upon them have they not an heavenly original or can you imagine that Providence would have so blest and prosper'd a contradiction as alwayes to pluck it out of the pawes of devouring adversaries when the whole Christian world was ready to be swallowed up with Arrianisme dare any to say that God then prepar'd an Arke only for the preserving of a contradiction Providence does not use to countenance contradictions so as to let them ride in triumph over Truth The most that any opposer can say if he will speak truth is no more then this that they seeme to him to imply a contradiction which may very easily be so if he want an higher principle of faith suitable and answerable to these matters of faith both of them the principle and object I mean being supernatural neither of them contranatural for there is a double modesty in Reason very remarkable As it does not multa asserere so it does not multa negare as it takes very few things for certain so it concludes very few for impossible Nay Reason though she will not put out her eye for that 's unnatural yet she will close her eye sometimes that faith may aime the better and that 's commendable And Faith makes Reason abundant compensation for this for as a learned Author of our own and a great Patron both of Faith and Reason does notably expresse it Faith is a supply of Reason in things intelligible as the imagination is of light in things visible The imagination with her witty and laborious pensil drawes and represents the shapes proportions and distances of persons and places taking them only by the help of some imperfect description and 't is faine to stay here till it be better satisfied with the very sight of the things themselves Thus Faith takes things upon an heavenly representation and description upon a word upon a promise it sees a heavenly Canaan in the Map before an intellectual eye can behold it in a way of cleere and open vision for men are not here capable of a present Heaven and happinesse of a compleat aud beatifical vision and therefore they are not capable of such mysteries in their full splendor and brightnesse for they would make it if they were thus unfolded but they now flourish only in the latices as Christ himself the Head of these Mysteries they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they put a veile upon their face out of pure favour and indulgence to an intellectual eye lest it should be too much overcome with their glory the veiles of the Law were veiles of obscurity but the veiles of the Gospel are only to allay the brightnesse of it 'T is honour enough for a Christian if he can but touch the hem of Evangelical Mysteries for he will never see a full Commentary upon the Gospel till he can behold the naked face of his God Yet the knowledge which he hath of him here imperfecta cognitio rerum nobilissimarum 't is most pleasant and delicious 'T is better to know a little of God and Christ then to see all the creatures in their full beauty and perfection The gleanings of spirituals is better then the vintage of naturals and morals The least spangle of happinesse is better then a globe of temporals This sets a glosse and lustre upon Christian Religion and highly commends the purity and perfection of it above all other whatsoever in that it hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ tries all his followers by his own Sun-beams Whereas the dull and creeping religion of Mahomet has nothing at all above Nature and Reason though it may have many things against both no need of Faith there there are no Mysteries in his Alcoran unlesse of deceit and iniquity Nothing at all nisi quod de facili à quolibet mediocriter sapiente naturali ingenio cognosci potest as that solid Author very well observes And therefore that stupid imposter did not seale his words with any miracles for there was not one supernatural truth to be sealed nor could he have sealed it if it had been there but only he prosecutes it with a sword Mahomets Loadstone does not draw men but his sword that conquers them he draws his sword he bids them deliver up their souls and tells them that upon this condition he will spare their lives Signa illa quae tyrannis latronibus non desunt as he speaks notably But the very principles of Christian Religion are attractive and magnetical they enamour and command they overpower the understanding and make it glad to look upon such mysterious truths as are reflected in a glasse because it is unable to behold them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This speaks the great preeminence of Mount Sion above Mount Sina In the Law you have the Candle of the Lord shining in the Gospel you have the day-spring from on high the Sun arising Nature and Reason triumph in the Law Grace and Faith flower out in the Gospel By vertue of this wise and free dispensation weak ones chiefly receive the Gospel for they are as well able to believe as any other nay they are apter to believe then others If it had gone only by the advancement of intellectuals by the heightenings and clarifyings of Reason who then would have been saved but the grandees of the world the Scribes the Pharisees the Philosophers the Disputers but God has fram'd a way that confounds those heads of the world and drops happinesse into the mouths of babes There are some understandings that neither spin nor toile and yet Solomon in all his wisdome and glory was not clothed like one of these for this way of Faith 't is a more brief compendious way Longum iter per Rationem breve per Fidem Very few understandings much lesse all can demonstrate all that is demonstrable but if men have a power of believing they may presently assent to all that 's true and certain That which Reason would have been sweating for this many a yeer Faith sups up the quintessence of in a moment All men in the world have not equal abilities opportunities advantages of improving their Reason even in things natural and moral so that Reason it self tels us that these are in some measure necessitated to believ others How many are there that can't measure the just magnitude of a Star yet if they will believe an Astronomer they may know it presently and if they be sure that this Mathematician hath skill enough and will speak nothing but truth they cannot then have the least shadow of Reason to dis-believe him 'T is thus in spirituals such is the weaknesse of humane understanding pro hoc statu as that they are necessitated to believing here yet such is its happinesse that it hath one to instruct it who can neither deceive nor be deceived God hath chosen this way of Faith